Author: Holly Schofield

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Forgotten Lore anthology now out!

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Two SF Canada members have contributed stories to the Forgotten Lore anthology, published by Poise and Pen Publishing! The anthology came about through a group of writers on Discord and is priced as inexpensively as possible–the ebook is free, and all proceeds from the print version go to the Fauna Foundation, an animal sanctuary.

Forbidden magic, half-remembered Gods, the secrets to immortality, final outposts, bloody vengeance and fantastical creatures all abound in these stories. The story by M.L.D. Curelas, President of SF Canada, is “Nickel-Plated Demon”, a hard-boiled urban fantasy. SF Canada member Krista D. Ball has also contributed one of her speculative fiction works.

Forgotten Lore is available through Kobo, Nook, and BookFunnel, and Amazon. Pick up a print copy today and help support this worthy foundation which provides permanent protection for chimpanzees, monkeys and neglected, abused farm and domestic animals from the use and abuse our culture previously inflicted upon them as tools for medical research and education, objects of private ownership, sources of food, and forced entertainment.

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The Antunite Chronicles trilogy by Terry Birdgenaw wins Firebird Book Awards!

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SF Canada member Terry Birdgenaw never intended to write fiction, but COVID-19 stay-at-home orders created a perfect storm of motivation and opportunity. He enjoyed writing fiction so much that he created a trilogy, and the trilogy is now award winning!

 Antuna’s Story, Firebird’s first place winner for New Fiction, follows the lives of Earth insects transported through a wormhole to a far-off planet called Poo-ponic. Young Antuna encouraged the settlers to work together, but hexs later, conflicts resumed. Despite her convictions, Antuna could not save herself or her diverse friends from the devastation of war. Yet her legacy of Antunite insectism endured.

 The Rise and Fall of Antocracy, Firebird winner for Young Adult Fiction, is an Animal Farm-like story that tracks the insects’ evolution to cyborg insects, the growth and decline of a fledgling democracy, and the destruction of life on the planet caused by a long-ignored climate crisis. It also follows the utopian society created by a group of cyborg insects that escape to Poo-ponic’s moon, Bilaluna, before the planet’s  fragile atmosphere collapses.

The rulers in Firebird’s winner for Dystopian Fiction, Antunites Unite, create an Orwellian society that uses histrionics, bionics, and socionics to subjugate its citizens. An allegorical dystopian tale like 1984, it’s a brave new world out of this world, where freedom-loving spies from the nearby moon, Bilaluna, infiltrate the colony and start a revolution.

Although Birdgenaw riddles the novels with details about insect behavior, he is not an entomologist. Yet his Ph.D. studies in neuroscience and psychology allow him to understand human behavior and what makes autocrats tick. Insect and human behavior are quite similar, as both work together to enhance survival and fight those seen as different. Humans have the same core motivations as their tiny neighbors underfoot.

Find the trilogy here, and find Terry at TerryBirdgenaw.WordPress.com

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Lost Souls by Noah Chinn now out!

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SF Canada member Noah Chinn recently released his first SF novel, expanding beyond his fantasy and mystery oeuvre!

Lost Souls is a fun adventure/comedy involving a cranky pilot, a snarky ship computer, and a stowaway with a memory like swiss cheese.

Maurice “Moss” Foote used to be somebody. Then nobody. Then somebody again, for a while. Now he’s back to square one, using his last hundred credits to try and get back his old ship and start over. Again.

Hel doesn’t have a last name. Or maybe she does. She was born a slave. Or maybe she wasn’t. It’s all rather confusing to her, just like the strange compulsion that has her trying to build… something out of spare ship parts in the junkyard she calls home.

When she sees an opportunity to escape on board a rebuilt transport, she takes it, not realizing what she’s getting herself into. All she knows is the answers she’s looking for are on board that ship. Or maybe they’re inside her head.

Roy “Hellno” Herzog left the Silver Legion in favour of becoming a pirate, only they didn’t like his attitude any more than the Legion did. Now he’s got a lead on a prize so big it could set him up for life, if he can stomach working with other people.

All he’s got to do is track down one runaway slave.

Find Lost Souls here and find Noah Chinn at noahchinnbooks.com.

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Music now available to accompany Ren Hutchings’ Under Fortunate Stars!

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SF Canada member Ren Hutching has collaborated with singer-songwriter Mathias Kom and his genre-shifting folk-rock band, The Burning Hell to have the song “The Flight of the Jonah” come into being!  It’s a folk song referenced and sung by crew members on the science vessel Gallion during the events of Under Fortunate Stars, Ren’s recent released debut novel.

Find out more about the amazing song on Ren’s blog post about it and learn more about Ren at  renhutchings.com!

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New series by Arlene Marks!

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Brain Lag has just announced the release date of The Earthborn, the first novel of SF Canada member Arlene Marks’ new series about the space alien immigrant experience on Earth! Cover art and the preordering period will be available in January, with publication scheduled for May 2023, according to the press release.

“This is the “Alien Vampires in the Toronto Film Industry” novel you were waiting for!” – James Alan Gardner, author of They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded

“THE EARTHBORN moves fast, but not so fast that the humor ever departs, nor the very vivid characters ever grow thin. And the wildly ridiculous feels so darned real. And dangerous. This is a delightful romp, masterfully told by a veteran storyteller who should be on everyone’s reading shelf.” – Ed Greenwood, bestselling and award-winning creator of The Forgotten Realms

Arlene is the creator of the ongoing Sic Transit Terra space opera series, among other current and upcoming novels. Her short fiction has appeared in various publications, including H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, Polar Borealis, and Daily Science Fiction, and has most recently been gathered into a collection titled Imaginary Friends (May 2022, Brain Lag). Her website is thewritersnest.ca.

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Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People is now out!

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SFC member Andrea D. Lobel is co-editor of the SFF anthology, Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People, along with Mark Shainblum. The book, from Ben Yehuda Press, was released December 12, 2022!

In Other Covenants, you’ll meet Israeli astronauts trying to save a doomed space shuttle, a Jewish community’s faith challenged by the unstoppable return of their own undead, a Jewish science fiction writer in a world of Zeppelins and magic, an adult Anne Frank, an entire genre of Jewish martial arts movies, a Nazi dystopia where Judaism refuses to die, and many more.

SFC member Allan Weiss’ story, “A Tartan of Many Colors”, joins 30 other stories and poems in this hefty 150,000-word anthology which also includes work by Robert Silverberg, Harry Turtledove, Lavie Tidhar, Bogi Takács, and Canadians Eric Choi, Claude Lalumiere, and Seymour Mayne.

Andrea D. Lobel is an ordained rabbi with a Ph.D. in Religion. She teaches Religion and Humanities at Carleton University and serves as a Jewish Studies teacher and rabbinic mentor at Darshan Yeshiva. In addition to her academic teaching and research, she is an award-winning writer and editor. Her research and publications are focused on the history of religion, science, and magic, with an emphasis on astronomy, space exploration, and artificial intelligence in religion. She also researches scientific and mathematical knowledge transmission between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. You can find her at andrealobel.com

Allan Weiss was born in Montreal and lives in Toronto, where he teaches English and Humanities at York University. He has published dozens of short stories, both mainstream and genre, in various periodicals and anthologies, including Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, Windsor Review, On Spec, Tesseracts 4, 7, and 9, and the fantasy collection Making the Rounds (Edge 2016). Find him at allanweiss.com

You can find Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People at Ben Yehuda Press. Get a copy today!