Category: Member News

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Tina Beier’s Rising Action Publishing Co. publishes Perils of Sea and Sky!

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SF Canada member Tina Beier has been busy. Her publishing house, Rising Action Publishing Collective, a dedicated independent publisher committed to supporting diverse authors and stories, is soon releasing Norwegian writer Lilian Horn’s Perils of Sea and Sky!

In the early 1700s, the discovery of anti-gravity technology led to the development of the aeroship trade. But there is one area into which no sky captain dares to venture, and that is the Grey Veil: an inhospitable fog threatening the lives and sanity of all who enter. With the Veil under a strict travel-ban, most level-headed pilots circumvent this treacherous place. Captain Rosanne Drackenheart, on the other hand, makes a pretty penny conducting her smuggling operation through the very edge of the mysterious fog.

When she is blackmailed into searching for a lost warship, she is forced to venture into the untraversed bowels of the Veil. Rosanne must protect her crew from mystical creatures, defend against pirates gunning for her ship, and save herself from the creature known as the Forest Devil.

Featuring Scandinavian myths and steampunk elements, Perils of Sea and Sky is a thrilling high fantasy adventure.

“A rollicking adventure with innovative technology and characters you’d trust with your life—or your imagination!” —Shelley Adina, bestselling author of the Magnificent Devices steampunk series

“[Perils of Sea and Sky] is a riveting story that will keep readers glued to their seats until its satisfying conclusion.”  —BookList advanced review  
Releasing on Sept 20, 2022, you can order Perils of Sea and Sky at Rising Action!
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Nothing Without Us Too now available!

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SF member Cait Gordon is excited about her latest editing project. The Nothing Without Us Too anthology is officially released in ebook and paperback! This multi-genre collection contains stories by SFC members Bernadette Gabay Dyer and Holly Schofield along with 25 other tales. It follows the theme of Nothing Without Us (a 2020 Prix Aurora Award finalist), featuring more stories by authors who are disabled, d/Deaf or hard-of-hearing, Blind or visually impaired, neurodivergent, Spoonie, and/or who manage mental illness. The lived experiences of their protagonists are found across many demographics—such as race, culture, financial status, religion, gender, age, and/or sexual orientation. Cait and co-editor Talia Johnson want to present these stories because diversity is reality, and it belongs in literary and genre fiction.

So, whether you’re being welcomed to Sensory Hell by hotel staff, witnessing a stare-down between a convenience store worker and an arrogant vampire, or unsure if your social media account is magic, these tales can teleport you elsewhere yet resonate deep within.

Nothing Without Us Too is available from Renaissance Press and through https://49thshelf.com/Books/N/Nothing-Without-Us-Too

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Debut novel from Leo Valiquette

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New SF Canada member Leo Valiquette published his first novel, Bane of All Things, through American small press Inkshares last December.

He describes it as a “gritty” adult epic fantasy that is sometimes dark without being grimdark. There are flavours of McClellan’s Powder Mage series, Howard’s Solomon Kane and Dumas’s musketeers, garnished with Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone. The novel was featured in a July issue of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper as part of its Summer Reading Series.

In the Four Kingdoms, the Holy Clerisy preaches that the gods are dead, and prayer is the path to Hell. Anyone who defies doctrine is punished for heresy. But blind faith can damn a soul as surely as betrayal.
Ryn Ruscroft, once sworn to serve as the Clerisy’s loyal soldier, finds himself torn between conscience and duty one bitter winter’s night. Those slain include his best friend, felled by his own hand.
Josalind Aumbrae has been tormented all her life by the Voices and their visions—an affliction that could have her facing a witch’s pyre. If only she could understand what they want.
Banished to Dragon’s Claw Abbey at the edge of the world, Ryn and Josalind discover a place built on more than penance and forgetting. What they find at the Claw will turn them into fugitives hunted by hellspawn, heretics, and Ryn’s former commander.
But more sinister forces have awoken—ancient things eager to settle old scores and find pawns among the outcast. When they cry for vengeance, the Living Sword must have a hand to wield it. A mortal it can reshape into the Earth Breaker, the Soul Taker, the Bane of All Things.

Find Bane of All Things at Inkshares, and find Leo at his website.

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Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings now out!

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Under Fortunate Stars by SF Canada member Ren Hutchings is out now from Solaris: a sci-fi debut pitched for fans of Becky Chambers, Alex White and K.B. Wagers. Under Fortunate Stars is a space opera about accidental time travel and the perils of actually meeting your historical heroes.

Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s freighter the Jonah breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue—until they encounter the research vessel Gallion, which claims to be from 152 years in the future.

The Gallion‘s chief engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the tale of the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with the Felen. When the Gallion rescues a run-down junk freighter, Ozakka is shocked to recognize the Five’s legendary ship—and the Five’s famed leader, Eldric Leesongronski, among the crew.

But nothing else about Leesongronski and his crewmates seems to match up with the historical record. With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake.

You can get your copy of Under Fortunate Stars in hardcover, ebook or audiobook format here  and check out the book playlist here  — including an original music single inspired by the book: “The Flight of the Jonah” by Canadian folk-rock band The Burning Hell!

“An engaging space saga with time-travel twists, and a compelling look at how past and future are created not only by those who live it but those who record it.” – Library Journal (Starred Review)

You can find Ren online at renhutchings.com, and on social media as @voidcricket.

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Polar Borealis #22 now out!

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The 22nd issue of SF Canada member R. Graeme Cameron’s speculative fiction magazine, Polar Borealis, is now available for free download!

It contains work by several SF Canada members!:

  • “What Awaits”, a poem by Lisa Timpf
  • “Pillar”, a poem by Melanie Marttila
  • Schrödinger’s Cats, a short story by Wayne Cusack
  • “October Birds”, a poem by Neile Graham
  • The Watersprite, a short story by Nina Munteanu

Download the issue today!:
https://polarborealis.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/POLAR-BOREALIS-22-July-2022.pdf

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Cover reveal of Weekends Can Be Murder by Arlene Marks!

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SF Canada member Arlene Marks will have a novel out in November! Weekends Can Be Murder is a paranormal mystery set in a Victorian-era summer home built on an island in Georgian Bay.

When murder mystery theatre becomes too real for comfort…

Firefighter Larry Holmes needs some time away. Out of other options, he agrees to take his cousin’s place at a crime fiction convention. Larry doesn’t like mystery novels, but he can enjoy the host resort’s amenities and stay out of the way. That plan goes out the window, however, when he arrives at the venue with the convention’s organizer, Selena Watt, and the close-knit Crime Club decides that with Holmes and Watt present, the game must be afoot.

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.

Preorder Weekends Can be Murder today!