Liminal People giveaway

Thu 30 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ayize Jama-Everett, Free books| Posted by: Gavin

Git git git over to Goodreads and git yourself a copy of this science fiction thrill-ill-iller! We’re publishing it in December but we have 20 copies for going-to-be-happy readers to enjoy long before that cold cold month comes along.

---

Independents Week: July 1–7

Wed 29 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., bookshops, keep it indie| Posted by: Gavin

Celebrate Independents Week with independent businesses across the country—and around the world as the movement grows. Shopping at local independent businesses pays wages to people in your area—who can then afford to buy books: maybe even yours!

Check out the American Independent Business Alliance for more information. In celebration of Independents Week, visit your local bookshop—remember most books are still bought at brick and mortar bookshops. Even chosing to buy one or two more books per year locally will make a difference to the viability of your local bookstore.

We all shape our towns by choosing which stores to shop at: we hope you will choose your local indie bookshop!

If you don’t have a great local indie, then here are a few suggestions from our ever-expanding list of favorites (use indiebound.org to find more near you):

Starting in Massachusetts (since that’s where we are) in Boston there’s the Brookline Booksmith, Harvard Bookstore, Porter Square Books, the Brookline Village Children’s Bookshop. Farther out there’s Back Pages in Waltham and Storybook Cove in Hanover. In Western Mass., we like Broadside Books (Northampton), Odyssey Books (South Hadley), Amherst Books (Amherst), as well as the utterly unique Bookmill in Montague (converted from an old mill, and gorgeous).

Down south of us in New York City there are fantastic general and specialty bookshops including St. Mark’s Bookshop, McNally Jackson, Shakespeare & Co., Hue-Man Books & Cafe, and (especially irresistible with its cupcake cafe!) Books of Wonder, as well as the Drama Book Shop, Asia Store, Idlewild, and Kitchen Arts and Letters—and don’t miss Word and Greenlight in Brooklyn. Upstate we recommend the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza and the Spotty Dog in Hudson—dear to our hearts as they also serve beer.
Since we’ve already run out of space on this page before we left the northeast (and what about RiverRun in Portsmouth, NH, or all those lovely shops in Vermont?) we obviously can’t list every bookshop we’ve enjoyed visiting here (even those above are heavily edited) so please add your favorite bookshops in the comments.

And if you’re in D.C. don’t miss Politics & Prose. Or Quail Ridge in Raleigh, N.C., Skylight in L.A., Powell’s (or Murder by the Book or Reading Frenzy) in the other Portland . . . you get the idea Keep it indie this week, and every week!

Originally published in A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2011.

---

New audio books

Wed 29 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Just in: Karen Lord’s Redemption in Indigo.

Coming soon: Julia Holmes’s Meeks, Holly Black’s The Poison Eaters and Other Stories.

Coming down the pike: Laurie J. Marks’s Elemental Logic series plus three more books. All of which means soon you will be able to take a Virgin Galactic ride into space and listen to Small Beer books all the way!

---

2011 Catalog & more

Mon 27 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Joan Aiken| Posted by: Gavin

We have a new catalog! It’s up on Scribd already and at some point there may even be a print edition. Don’t know if it will be color glorious color thoughout, so you have to look there to see all the lovely lovely bookcovers we have this year. The cover is Kathleen Jennings’s picture from the cover of The Child Garden. The back cover art is a secret. Well, until you look at it. More secrets inside. Mostly on page 28. Completists can see or download all our catalogs here.

Nice: Patrick Ness won the U.K.’s Carnegie medal for Monsters of Men (the third Chaos Walking book).

What’s coming up? Joan Aiken stories! “Spur of the Moment” in Eleven Eleven. “Hair” in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. “Reading in Bed” on Tor.com.

Karen Joy Fowler’s collection is on the (quite!) long Frank O’Connor Award longlist.

If we had been faster on the draw, this story by Christine Sneed would have been in the next LCRW—which approacheth completion! Honest, guv. Christine didn’t simultaneously submit it, rather she sent us a nice postcard withdrawing her story after we’d had it for too long. Shame on me! I am trying to read faster, but the eyes, they can’t do it. In the meantime, I recommend this story of “Fortune“:

His plan was small but ambitious. He began by designing business cards on his computer, using purple ink on white paper and Clip-art pictures of Merlin’s hat, a crystal ball, and a spray of stars that arced upward from his name.

We were luckier with other stories! We’re already buying for next spring. Of note, since I was adding some new titles to Weightless Books: 12.6% (or 1/8, near as just about) of subscribers to LCRW now subscribe to the ebook edition. Hmm! But we like print, so until it’s the other way around, I think we’ll keep with the paper edition.

Back to the new issue: we have a cover from Kathleen Jennings, who we love.

Go get it: Small Beer Press 2011 Catalog

---

Inaugural Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award

Mon 20 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Awards, Edward Gauvin, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud| Posted by: Gavin

We’re immensely honored to pass on the news that the inaugural Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award for long-form work has gone to A Life on Paper: Stories by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin. The awards were presented at the 2011 Eurocon in Stockholm (winners and honorable mentions below).

The full announcement on the awards—and the wonderful and generous jury comments—is here, along with statements from the winners. We’re honored and humbled and would like to thank the the jury and the award administrators—what a job, trying to corral all those books from publishers all over the world to a similarly scattered jury!

A Life on Paper is a great book and our publishing it is all down to the translator, Edward Gauvin: thanks Edward!

Long Form Winner

A Life on Paper: Stories, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin (Small Beer Press). Original publication in French (1976­-2005).

Long Form Honorable Mention

The Golden Age, Michal Ajvaz, translated by Andrew Oakland (Dalkey Archive Press). Original publication in Czech as Zlatý V?k (2001).

Short Form Winner

“Elegy for a Young Elk”, Hannu Rajaniemi, translated by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean Online, Spring 2010). Original publication in Finnish (Portti, 2007).

Short Form Honorable Mention

“Wagtail”, Marketta Niemelä, translated by Liisa Rantalaiho (Usva International 2010, ed. Anne Leinonen). Original publication in Finnish as “Västäräkki” (Usva (The Mist), 2008).

---

Not all media is mediocre

Fri 17 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., audio books, Karen Lord, Pop, YouTube| Posted by: Gavin

We recently watched the last episode of the British TV series Downtown Abbey which was a hit earlier this year. It was a fun soap, but the last episode was such a big soft pudding that my strong recc. (for those with the stomach to watch Edwardian-era upper class goings-on) drops to: Meh, maybe, but go walk the dog instead of watching the last episode. Blech. Wikipedia says there’s another season being made. Wonder if it too will be full of people holding themselves stiffly away from one another, doing the right thing, and jolly well getting what they deserved. Especially as this season ended with the Great War being declared. Hmm.

On the other end of the spectrum I was searching on YouTube for sign language videos (I am learning a tiny bit of sign language, but sooo slowly!) and found this Pearl Jam concert video of “Given to Fly” filmed in St. Louis in 2000, where, apparently to Eddie Vedder’s surprise, there was a sign language interpreter signing the songs. I am a casual fan of theirs (never seen them live) and can’t really say if this is a good rendition of the song (musically or ASL-ly) but every time I watch it I’m moved to tears. Silly me. Even Vedder’s silly dancing with her at the end isn’t enough to break it. Whoever set that up, I love the idea. Anyone who ever wants to sign any reading or panel of ours: you’re on. Video pasted in below.

Guess what showed up at the office? (Not me, sorry!) The absolutely new and shiny Recorded Books audiobook edition of Karen Lord’s Redemption in Indigo. Heartily recommended!

You can hear Karen herself here: Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe have a nice thing going with their weekly podcast. A couple of weeks ago they talked with Karen Lord and even though Skype dropped the call a few times it was still lovely to hear them talking about Redemption in Indigo and much more.

---

Patricia Anthony?

Tue 7 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Does anyone have current contact info for Patricia Anthony?

---

Catching up a little

Mon 6 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

with orders and shipping having not managed to get into the last week due to it being sunny outside and spending all my time in a beer garden a small cough which managed to throw a wrench in many plans! Sorry about that.

What do we have in the office?

Geoff Ryman’s The Child Garden!

Which comes with a new introduction by Wendy Pearson and a lovely new cover by Kathleen Jennings. The Child Garden was supposed to come out after Paradise Tales but logistics has held that book up so much that now it comes out in July. So, in the meantime: damn, what a book! If you haven’t read it you can start reading it right now here. It’s a weird, great, heartbreaking book. Can’t wait for the 3D movie. I mean, come on, why not? Polar bears playing piano. Who doesn’t want to see that?

What else do we have in the office? A surprise copy of The Night Circus by Erica Morgenstern—sent by the author after she saw my oh-so-sad post last week! Wow, don’t know if anyone’s done that before: thanks Erica!

Also in the office: a contract from an author! But, I’m not going to say anything about it until I confirm that they get my signed copy back in the mail.

One piece of good news from the last week is that we’ve sold about half the run of the limited edition of Hal Duncan’s A-Z of the Fantastic City. Maybe we should always do limitedssss? Also: thank you everyone who wrote or posted about it. You really are lovely people, aren’t you? We kind of needed a wee boost like that and it was wunnerful, you have our thanks.

Looks like next Sunday’s Franciscan Hospital for Children’s 5K walk/run has already raised $90,000! We can’t take part this year but encourage anyone who can. Or, just send them some money! What else were you going to today? Pick up yet another Apple toy?

---

The Child Garden

Mon 6 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Books, Geoff Ryman| Posted by: Gavin

June 7, 2011 · trade paper/ebook · 9781931520287 · New Introduction by Wendy Pearson.
2nd printing: May 2021

John W. Campbell & Arthur C. Clarke Award Winner

Following The King’s Last Song, The Child Garden is the second Geoff Ryman title in our list—and it’s by far the furthest out there. Are you ready for polar bear families in London—who have their own black sheep: after all, what can a polar bear mining family do with a daughter who wants to write operas? And what is London to do with a woman who, resistant to the viruses, might be able to provided the cure for the cure for cancer?

In a future, tropical London, humans photosynthesize, organics have replaced electronics, viruses educate people, and very few live past forty. Milena is resistant to the viruses and unable to be Read. She has Bad Grammar. She’s alone until she meets Rolfa, a huge, hirsute Genetically Engineered Polar Woman, and Milena realizes she might, just might, be able to find a place for herself after all.

If you’ve been missing reading about polar bears since finishing Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books, this is the novel for you. The Child Garden is one of the original biopunk novels: it’s over the top baroque . . . it’s a masterpiece.

Praise for The Child Garden:

“An exuberant celebration of excess set in a resource-poor but defiantly energetic 21st century.”—The New York Times

“I fell in love with this book when Jeff VanderMeer gave it to me for my birthday when we were both at Clarion in 1992. I’ve thought about it more or less constantly ever since.”
—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing

“Undoubtedly a classic and one of the best novels ever written within the genre.”
—SF Site

“A richly absorbing tale—with a marvelous premise expertly carried out.”—Kirkus Reviews

“One of the most imaginative accounts of futuristic bioengineering since Greg Bear’s Blood Music.”—Locus

“A heady novel bursting with speculation.”—Library Journal

“Excellent . . . Dark and witty and full of love, closely observed, and sprinkled with astonishing ideas. Science fiction of a very high order.”—Greg Bear

Praise for Geoff Ryman’s books:

“Ryman—best known as a fantasy writer but one who proved his power as an author of nuanced, rich historical fiction in the unsung novel Was—has not so much created as revealed a world in which the promise of redemption takes seed even in horror.”
—Boston Globe

“The novel conveys not merely a story, but the light and darkness, despair and hope, tradition and Westernization that is Cambodia itself…. While peaceful William, war-consumed Map, and Cambodia-loving Luc could easily be flat, typecast characters, Ryman steers clear of such simplifications. Their interwoven histories are at times noble and at times horrifying, laced with profound emotions and punctuated with atrocities…. The King’s Last Song leaves one questioning preconceptions of good and evil, and conflicted between hope for and discouragement with the human race.”
—Rain Taxi

“An unforgettably vivid portrait of Cambodian culture past and present.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Ryman’s knack for depicting characters; his ability to tell multiple, interrelated stories; and his knowledge of Cambodian history create a rich narrative that looks at Cambodia’s “killing fields” both recent and ancient and Buddhist belief with its desire for transcendence. Recommended for all literary fiction collections.”
—Library Journal

“Inordinately readable . . . extraordinary in its detail, color and brutality.”
—The Independent

“Sweeping and beautiful. . . . The complex story tears the veil from a hidden world.”
—The Sunday Times

About the Author

Geoff Ryman is the author of the novels The King’s Last Song, Air (a Clarke and Tiptree Award winner), and The Unconquered Country (a World Fantasy Award winner), and the collection Paradise Tales. Canadian by birth, he has lived in Cambodia and Brazil and now teaches creative writing at the University of Manchester in England.

---

Go see Ted in Portland on Monday & Tuesday

Sat 4 Jun 2011 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Joan Aiken, Ted Chiang| Posted by: Gavin

@ Beaverton Powell’s, Portland, OR
Mon, June 6, 7pm – 8pm

Where	Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, OR 97005 map

Where	5736 N.E. 33rd Ave. Portland, OR 97211 map

(Keep up with all our authors here.)

Locus reviews The Monkey’s Wedding and recommends you read it.

Added 2 new books to Scribd—and half a dozen other ebook sites(!)—so now you can directly preview these two books. The Child Garden is shipping out soon (pre-orders will go out this coming week) and The Fires Beneath the Sea has been delayed until July (sorry!):

The Fires Beneath the Sea by Lydia Millet

and

---