Category: Member News

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Good Intentions by Ira Nayman

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SF Canada member and past President Ira Nayman’s new novel is Good Intentions: The Multiverse Refugees Trilogy: First Pie in the Face. It is the sixth book in the Transdimensional Authority/Multiverse series published by Elsewhen Press.

At the end of You Can’t Kill the Multiverse (But You Can Mess With its Head), Doctor Alhambra, the chief scientist of the Transdimensional Authority, set up an alarm to warn him if a universe is succumbing to the universe-killing machine that is at the heart of the story. But how would the Transdimensional Authority respond if that alarm went off?

In Good Intentions, we find out. In the process we not only meet the most unusual refugees in fiction (probably), learn what Noomi Rapier’s brother does (and with whom), revisit Dingle Dell, and finally discover what happened to chapter seventeen of The Multiverse is a Nice Place to Visit But I Wouldn’t Want to Live There.

In his past lives, Ira Nayman was, among other things: a cave painter whose art was not appreciated in his lifetime; several nameless peasants who died before their 20th birthday during the Dark Ages; a toenail fungus specialist in the court of Louis XIV; and Alan Turing’s scullery maid.

In his current incarnation, Ira is the creator of Les Pages aux Folles, a Web site of political and social satire. Three collections of Alternate Reality News Service (ARNS) stories (Alternate Reality Ain’t What It Used To Be, What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys and Luna for the Lunies!) which originally appeared on the website have been self-published in print. Two new volumes of ARNS stories – The Street Finds Its Own Uses for Market Lateralization and The Alternate Reality News Service’s Guide To Sex, Love and Robots were published in 2013. Ira has produced the pilot for a radio series based on stories from the first two ARNS books; “The Weight of Information, Episode One” can be heard on YouTube.

Ira has also written a series of stories that take place in a universe where matter at all levels of organization has become conscious. They feature Antonio Van der Whall, object psychologist. “A Really Useful Engine” has been published in Even Birds Are Chained To The Sky and Other Tales: The Fine Line Short Story Collection and “Escalation is Academic” has appeared in the anthology UnCONventional. “If the Mountain Won’t Come to Mohammed” can be found in Here Be Monsters. “Thinking is the Worst Way to Travel” has been accepted into Explorers: Beyond the Horizon.

In another life (but still within this incarnation) Ira has a Masters degree in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research which was conducted entirely online. He also has a PhD in Communications from McGill University. Ira taught New Media part-time at Ryerson University for five years. He is a winner of the 2010 Jonathan Swift Satire Writing Contest.

Find Good Intentions at Amazon, and find Ira’s satirical writings and comedic doodles at http://www.lespagesauxfolles.ca/

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Bursts of Fire by Susan Forest

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Susan Forest’s novel, Bursts of Fire, (Laksa Media Groups) will launch at When Words Collide in August.

Bursts of Fire begins an epic political fantasy of revenge, addictions, and redemption for three magiel sisters in an empire where magic has become suspect and where love and loyalty—for one’s lover, one’s family, one’s country—are tested.

A Publishers Lunch Buzz Books 2019 Selection, Bursts of Fire has won praise from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist:

Forest depicts strong female characters, with varying motivations and personalities adding plenty of action in daring raids, battles with war machines, and magical time walking, though equal attention is given to exploring relationships between the sisters and their allies. This exciting new series will have fantasy fans eagerly awaiting the next installment.—Library Journal

The book is an action-adventure epic fantasy, but it deals with the issue of addictions, and it is the publisher’s hope that the topic will help to generate discussion to remove stigma, and possibly lead to positive action in support of this important issue.

Susan Forest grew up in a family of mountaineers and skiers, and she loves adventure. She also loves the big ideas found in SF/F, and finds fast-paced adventure stories a great place to explore how individuals grapple with complex moral decisions. Susan is also an award-winning fiction editor, has published over 25 short stories (four, including her current “For a Rich Man to Enter,” nominated for Canada’s Prix Aurora Award), and has appeared at many international writing conventions. She loves travel and has been known to dictate novels from the back of her husband’s motorcycle.

Bursts of Fire is available from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Apple | Kobo | Overdrive.

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Robots vs. Fairies wins Shirley Jackson Award!

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Robots vs. Fairies, edited by SF Canada member Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, has won this year’s Shirley Jackson Award for best anthology!

The Shirley Jackson Awards annually recognize outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic. They are voted upon by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics, and academics. The awards are given for the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories:  Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection, and Edited Anthology. The awards were presented July 14, 2019 at Readercon.

As well, the anthology is a World Fantasy Award finalist! The awards will be presented at World Fantasy Con 2019 in Los Angeles October 31-November 3.

Robots vs. Fairies is a unique anthology of all-new stories that challenges authors to throw down the gauntlet in an epic genre battle and demands an answer to the age-old question: Who is more awesome—robots or fairies?

Dominik Parisien is also the co-editor, with Navah Wolfe, of The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, which won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. He also co-edited Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction with Elsa Sjunneson-Henry. Dominik’s fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Quill & Quire, The Fiddlehead, Exile: The Literary Quarterly, as well as other magazines and anthologies. He is a disabled, bisexual, French Canadian. He lives in Toronto.

Robots vs. Fairies is available in ebook and print versions through Saga Press.

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“Venus and the Milky Way” by Rhea Rose

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SF Canada member Rhea Rose’s latest short story, “Venus and The Milky Way”, is now out in Triangulation’s Dark Skies anthology. Who is holding the stars hostage? Don’t we all have the right to star-filled nights? Do you miss our Milky Way Galaxy arcing overhead? Explore answers in these creative tales of human (and alien) reaction to the yin-yang of darkness and light. Journey with us into darkness, for only there can we see the light. Don’t we all have the right?

Rhea Rose has published many speculative fiction and poetry pieces: Evolve, Tesseracts, 1,2,6,9,10,17, Transversions, On Spec, Talebones, Northwest Passages, Masked Mosaic, and Dead North. She has received honorable mentions in the Year’s Best anthologies and was reprinted in Christmas Forever (edited by David Hartwell) and twice made the preliminaries for the Nebula Award. She edited poetry for Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing and for many years hosted the Vancouver Science Fiction and Fantasy (V-Con) writers’ workshops. She is a teacher of creative writing and a graduate of CW ‘84. Her recent works include: Second Contact, Clockwork Canada, Art Song Lab and three Indie novels, The Final Catch: A Tarot Sorceress series. Twice an Aurora nominee, Rhea has a MFA in creative writing.

Find her at www.rheaerose.weebly.com and find Dark Skies here.

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News from Colleen Anderson

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SF Canada member Colleen Anderson has had several bits of good news lately.

She has been selected as Guest of Honour at The Creative Ink Festival speculative fiction convention in Burnaby, BC in March, 2020. The Creative Ink Festival is a three-day event full of inspiring panels, presentations and workshops. Designed to be inclusive for all levels of writing, the festival is a chance for writers to have the opportunity to chat with industry insiders in a relaxed and supportive environment. Readers have the chance to meet their favourite authors and find out about the authorial process.

Colleen also had two new publications, with twinned stories appearing recently in Thrilling Words Spectulative Fiction Publishing. “Nautilus” is free to read on the Thrilling Words website. “Heartstrings”, a second story in the same setting, is available to supporting members.

Colleen is a three-time Aurora Award finalist and was longlisted for the Stoker Award in fiction. She placed in the Balticon, Rannu, Wax and Crucible poetry competitions and has performed her work before audiences in the US, UK and Canada. Colleen has been a poetry and fiction online editor, slush editor for Chizine, and also co-edited Canadian anthologies Playground of Lost Toys (Aurora nominated) and Tesseracts 17, and her solo anthology Alice Unbound: Beyond Wonderland, was published in 2018. A Body of Work was recently published by Black Shuck Books, UK. Some of her work is in nEvermore!, Beauty of Death, Shoreline of Infinity, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, OnSpec, Polu Texni, The Future Fire, and Cemetery Dance.

Colleen has a BFA in Creative Writing and has received grants from the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for writing. The Horror Writers Association granted her a partial scholarship to attend Stokercon in 2019. She is working on several collections of poetry, a couple of novels, and marketing more anthology ideas. Once in a while she still does freelance copyediting, and used to copyedit for New York publishers and companies. Her blog about writing and life can be found at www.colleenanderson.wordpress.com, and she sometimes invites guest authors to write about their works as well.

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“Bootleg Jesus” by Tonya Liburd

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SF Canada member Tonya Liburd has a new short story out at Diabolical Plots, the popular submissions tool and online magazine. “Bootleg Jesus” is a story about religion, family, and magic. Mara lives in an isolated village where magic isn’t supposed to manifest in people. A place that’s supposed to be safe from the god-like beings who manifest particularly potent gifts. For Mara’s friend Sydney, though, it’s not at all a safe place, and for all the children it’s somewhere they are not really free.

This is an interesting coming-of-age story, exploring those age-old ideas of what it means to grow up and find you don’t match the expectations of those around you.                     – Tangent Online

 

Liburd’s opening line pulls you into a compelling fantasy tale that is both gritty and tense, set in a world where magic flows just beneath the surface of everyday life.                   – Barnes and Noble

 

It’s often difficult and complex, but it’s also very much worth spending some time with. A great read!                    – Quick Sip Reviews

 

Tonya Liburd shares a birthday with Simeon Daniel and Ray Bradbury, which may tell you a little something about her. She is a 2017 and 2018 Rhysling nominee, and has been longlisted in the 2015 Carter V. Cooper(Vanderbilt)/Exile Short Fiction Competition. Her fiction is used in Nisi Shawl’s workshops as an example of ‘code switching’, and in Tananarive Due’s course at UCLA. She is the Senior Editor of Abyss & Apex magazine. You can find her blogging at http://Spiderlilly.com, on Twitter at @somesillywowzer, or on Patreon at www.Patreon.com/TonyaLiburd.

Read “Bootleg Jesus” for free at Diabolical Plots.