The Bear Cavalry by D. G. Valdron

SF Canada member D.G. Valdron has been busy lately!:

The Bear Cavalry has just been released. This quirky, inventive alternate history is written in the style of a fun, funky, pop culture television documentary. Robin Prufrock travels the world, telling the story of how the Vikings in Iceland domesticated bears for meat and as draft animals, and how the Scandinavian Bear Cavalry eventually evolved to become the most fearsome fighting unit in the Medieval world. Along the way are entertaining detours into biology, evolutionary history, the Viking era, Medieval monarchs behaving badly, and the role of Bears in movies, art and culture in this world.

Find The Bear Cavalry here.

As well, Giant Monsters Sing Sad Songs: A Story Collection is now available. Enjoy nine scary stories of Melancholy Horror:

  • Fossils: A poet follows a giant monster through the streets of abandoned Tokyo.
  • Flirtin’ Out Back With the Sasquatch Kid: A teenage girl encounters the last bigfoot.
  • Skin: A necromancer’s attack shows a woman discovers that her life is only skin deep.
  • Love, Live and the Necronomicon: The true history of the mad Arab and his era is revealed, along with Lovecraft’s dark connection.
  • Regrets Child: A nurse to a dying woman meets her hungry ghost.
  • Anomalous Phenomena: The title says it all.
  • The Dead Quarter: After the Apocalypse, the living and the undead share a disintegrating world.
  • Tell Me: A hunter finds a child vampire.
  • Killing Hot: A young man with a secret crosses the country, seeking revenge for his sister.

D.G. Valdron is a reclusive writer originally from New Brunswick, currently living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over the years, he has published in print and online a variety of short stories of speculative fiction, and articles on obscure pop culture topics. Like many writers, his previous occupations have included mechanic, carpenter, schoolteacher, journalist and ditch-digger. He is currently an aboriginal rights lawyer. He loves B-movies and tries to be nice to people.

SFC New Board of Directors

Following the completion of its recent Annual General Meeting, SF Canada is pleased to announce its Board of Directors for the coming year. They are: Arinn Dembo (British Columbia), President; Matthew Bin (Ontario), Vice-President; Jane Glatt (Ontario), Secretary-Treasurer; Joe Mahoney (Ontario) and Paula Johansen (British Columbia), Directors-at-Large.

We wish the new Board well in their service to the organization and look forward to the leadership and guidance they will bring to their roles.

Immortal Redemption by Alana Delacroix

SF Canada member Alana Delacroix recently released Immortal Redemption, the first novel in the Immortal Protectors series.

Cal Olin is a grudging member of the Immorti. A resurrected Aztec warrior, he knows he has much to atone for but doesn’t believe waiting for an enemy who hasn’t appeared in hundreds of years is the best way to do it. He’d prefer to spend his time in his CEO role with Civica, an organization dedicated to righting wrongs.

However, when Cal sees the unconscious body of a woman near a magical portal, he knows the long period of peace has come to an end. He’s shocked to discover the woman is Dr. Iliana Rogers, Civica’s second-in-command. The beautiful, argumentative thorn in his side has managed to open the gate and set off a chain reaction that could end the world. Is she an agent of evil or an unknowing pawn? He has to find out.

Alana Delacroix is a paranormal romance writer based in Toronto, Canada with her family and two cats. She is an introvert’s introvert who loves true crime, war, and horror podcasts and is very paranoid. Find her on her website, Instagram, and Twitter.

Find Immortal Redemption at Apple | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Google Play

The Night Girl by James Bow

SF Canada member James Bow’s latest novel, The Night Girl, is a New Adult urban fantasy.

Perpetua Collins works for a real troll.

Well, technically a goblin, and it’s not as bad as it sounds. As the administrative assistant, she provides a “human” face for an employment agency specializing in placements for goblins and trolls. It’s probably the most unusual job she could find in Toronto, but she’s grateful for it, having come to the city with $500 in her pocket and no support. Without it, she’d have no choice but to go back to the boring small town and overbearing mother she worked so hard to leave.

But as Perpetua settles into her new job, disturbing questions arise. And no, they’re not about the fact that goblins and trolls exist. She’s fine with that part. The agency has no visible means of support. How does her boss manage to keep his “clients” out of the public eye? They’ve been part of the city far longer than anyone thinks, and are growing restless under the burden of forced invisibility and financial poverty. What will happen if the veil drops, and humans see?

James Bow was born and grew up in Toronto. He now lives in Kitchener-Waterloo with his wife Erin and his daughters, Vivian and Eleanor. He is the author of three books of YA fantasy (The Unwritten Girl, Fathom Five, and The Young City) and the Prix Aurora Award-winning YA SF novel, Icarus Down. He enjoys coming back to his hometown to ride transit and explore its underground city. Find out more about James’ publications on his blog.

Pick up a copy of The Night Girl from Amazon or your local independent bookstore.

The Group of Seven Reimagined

SF Canada members Nina Munteaneau and Robert Runte’s latest works appear in The Group of Seven Reimagined (Karen Schauber, ed.)

Founded in 1920, the Group of Seven has captured the imagination and hearts of Canadians for a century, helping to shape our national identity with their stunning landscape paintings representing every region of the country. In honour of the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Group’s formation, The Group of Seven Reimagined takes a fresh look at twenty-one paintings from the Group’s vast oeuvre, extracting narrative from landscape and uniting Canada’s most beloved works of art with some of its most distinguished names in contemporary literary fiction.

While some of the stories in this book are grounded in the painted image, they all launch from the artwork into broader metaphysical or even spiritual questions. Words, the writer’s paint, are artfully chosen and applied, not one wasted. The stories all compel the reader to dive beneath their surface and linger long after the reading is complete.

—Ottawa Review of Books

Robert Runté, Ph.D., is Senior Editor at EssentialEdits.ca, responsible for academic coaching (theses and dissertations) and structural editing of speculative fiction. Previously, he spent over twenty years as a professor at the University of Lethbridge, and a decade as Senior Editor at Five Rivers Publishing, for whom he acquired and edited over 30 books. During his academic career, he co-edited Tesseracts 5 (with Yves Meynard) and an education textbook, Thinking About Teaching; authored fifteen book chapters, fourteen journal articles, seven encyclopedia entries, three government papers, one curriculum resource, over seventy conference papers, and ten open source guides. Robert has three Aurora Awards for his literary criticism and promotion of Canadian SF and was shortlisted for the 2017 Aurora for Short Fiction. His short fiction has been published in Exile Literary Quarterly, Pulp Literature, On Spec Magazine, Imaginarium, Strangers Among Us, Prairie Starport, Tesseracts, Playground of Lost Toys, Alberta Unbound, and other venues. He has also written, edited, or published 149 issues of various zines.

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist and novelist. Her novels include: Collision with Paradise; The Cypol; Angel of Chaos; Darwin’s Paradox; The Splintered Universe Trilogy; and The Last Summoner. In addition to eight novels, she has authored award winning short stories, articles and non-fiction books, which were reprinted and translated into several languages throughout the world. Her short work has appeared in Beautiful BC Magazine, Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, Chiaroscuro,
Hadrosaur Tales, Pacific Yachting, Strange Horizons, and Nowa Fantastyka, among others. Recognition for her work includes the Midwest Book Review Reader’s Choice Award, finalist for Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award, the SLF Fountain Award, and The Delta Optimist Reviewers Choice Award. Nina’s latest non-fiction book, Water Is… —a scientific study and personal journey as limnologist, mother, teacher and environmentalist—was picked by Margaret Atwood in the NY Times as her #1 choice in the 2016 ‘The Year in Reading’.

Pick up a copy of The Group of Seven Reimagined today.

The 2019 Aurora Award winners and Hall of Fame inductees!

Numerous SF Canada members were nominated in this year’s Auroras, including several winners! The Aurora Awards are Canada’s National Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards. The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) is a federally-registered society whose role is to give out the Aurora Awards annually. The Auroras are nominated by and voted on by CSFFA members from across Canada.

The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association also hosts the CSFFA Hall of Fame. It was created to honour people who have made a large contribution to Science Fiction and Fantasy in Canada. This year, three very deserving people were inducted into the Hall of Fame: Tanya Huff, Eileen Kernaghan (SFC member), and Richard Graeme Cameron (SFC member). SF Canada congratulates them!

Aurora Award winners were announced during an awards ceremony held at Can-Con 2019, October 19, 2019, in Ottawa ON. SF Canada members’ names are in bold below.

Best Novel
WINNER: Armed in Her Fashion, Kate Heartfield (ChiZine)
One of Us, Craig DiLouie (Orbit)
They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded, James Alan Gardner (Tor)
Graveyard Mind, Chadwick Ginther (ChiZine)
The Quantum Magician, Derek Künsken (Solaris)
Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)

Best YA Novel
WINNER: Cross Fire, Fonda Lee (Scholastic)
Children of the Bloodlands, S.M. Beiko (ECW)
Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks, ‘Nathan Burgoine (Bold Strokes)
The Sign of Faust, Éric Desmarais (Renaissance)
Finding Atlantis, JM Dover (Evil Alter Ego)
Timefall, Alison Lohans (Five Rivers)
The Emerald Cloth, Clare C. Marshall (Faery Ink)
Legacy of Light, Sarah Raughley (Simon Pulse)

Best Short Fiction
WINNER: Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)
“A Hold Full of Truffles”, Julie E. Czerneda (Tales from Plexis)
“For A Rich Man to Enter”, Susan Forest (IGMS 4/18)
Alice Payne Arrives, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)
“Critical Mass”, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm (Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders)

Best Graphic Novel
WINNER: It Never Rains, Kari Maaren (http://itneverrainscomic.com/)
Krampus Is My Boyfriend!, S.M. Beiko (https://www.smbeiko.com/)
Woman World, Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn and Quarterly)
Crash and Burn, Finn Lucullan & Kate Larking (Astres)
FUTILITY: Orange Planet Horror, Rick Overwater & Cam Hayden (Coffin Hop)

Best Related Work
WINNER: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, Dominik Parisien & Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, eds. (Uncanny)
By the Light of Camelot, J.R. Campbell & Shannon Allen, eds. (EDGE)
Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes, J.R. Campbell & Charles Prepolec, eds. (EDGE)
Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders, Susan Forest & Lucas K. Law, eds. (Laksa)
We Shall Be Monsters, Derek Newman-Stille, ed. (Renaissance)

Best Poem/Song
WINNER: “Ursula Le Guin in the Underworld”, Sarah Tolmie (On Spec #107)
“Echos”, Shannon Allen (By the Light of Camelot)
“Osiris”, Leah Bobet (Uncanny 11-12/18)
“How My Life Will End”, Vanessa Cardui (Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders)
“Trips to Impossible Cities”, Sandra Kasturi (Amazing Stories Winter 2018)

Best Artist
WINNER: Samantha M. Beiko, covers for Laksa Media
Lily Author, cover art for Polar Borealis #8
James F. Beveridge, cover art for Tyche Books
Roger Czerneda, cover for Tales from Plexis
Dan O’Driscoll, covers for Bundoran Press
Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk, cartoons for Amazing Stories

Best Visual Presentation
WINNER: Deadpool 2
Bao
Murdoch Mysteries, 2018 episodes
Travelers, Season 3
Wynonna Earp, Season 3

Best Fan Writing and Publications
WINNER: “She Wrote It But…Revisiting Joanna Russ’ How to Suppress Women’s Writing 35 Years Later“, Krista D. Ball (reddit.com/r/fantasy)
“Travelling TARDIS“, Jen Desmarais (JenEric Designs)
“Mars vs. Titan“, Ron S. Friedman (Quora)
“Constructing the Future“, Derek Newman-Stille (Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction)
“Adios Cowboy“, Adam Shaftoe (www.adamshaftoe.com)
Books and Tea, Christina Vasilevski

Best Fan Organizational
WINNER: Derek Künsken & Marie Bilodeau, co-chairs, Can*Con
Sandra Kasturi, chair Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Toronto
Randy McCharles, chair, When Words Collide
Matt Moore, Marie Bilodeau & Nicole Lavigne, co-chairs, Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Ottawa
Sandra Wickham, chair, Creative Ink Festival

Best Fan Related Work
WINNER: The Worldshapers, Edward Willett
Business BFFs, S.M. Beiko & Clare C. Marshall
ChiSeries Toronto, Kari Maaren
Just Joshing, Joshua Pantalleresco
Speculating Canada, Derek Newman-Stille

Congratulations to everyone!

For more information, see the Aurora Awards website.