A Diary in the Age of Water by Nina Munteanu

In June 2020, SF Canada member Nina Munteanu released her fourteenth book, cli-fi eco-novel A Diary in the Age of Water (Inanna Publications).

A Diary in the Age of Water follows the climate-induced journey of Earth and humanity through four generations of women, each with a unique relationship to water.

Centuries from now, in a dying boreal forest in what used to be northern Canada, Kyo, a young acolyte called to service in the Exodus, yearns for Earth’s past—the Age of Water, before the “Water Twins” destroyed humanity. Looking for answers and plagued by vivid dreams of this holocaust, Kyo discovers the diary of Lynna, a limnologist from a time just prior to the destruction. The diary spans a 20-year period in the mid-20th century and describes a planet in the grip of severe water scarcity. Lynna, in her work for a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water, witnesses and records the disturbing events that will soon lead to humanity’s demise.

A Diary in the Age of Water received a silver award from Literary Titan for a book that “expertly delivers complex characters, intricate worlds, and thought provoking themes. The ease with which the story is told is a reflection of the author’s talent in exercising fluent, powerful, and appropriate language.”–Literary Titan

“Evoking Ursula LeGuin’s unflinching humane and moral authority, Nina Munteanu takes us into the lives of four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. In a diary that entwines acute scientific observation with poignant personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Particularly harrowing are the neighbourhood water betrayals, along with Lynna’s deliberately dehydrated appearance meant to deflect attention from her own clandestine water collection.”—LYNN HUTCHINSON LEE, multimedia artist, author, and playwright

 

“Lyrical and dystopian, ‘A Diary in the Age of Water’ is as much an ode to water as it is a cautionary tale about the dire implications of climate change.”—FOREWORD CLARION 5-STAR REVIEW

 

“In poetic prose with sober factual basis, Munteanu transmutes a harrowing dystopia into a transcendentalist origin myth. An original cautionary tale that combines a family drama with an environmental treatise.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS

 

“An exceptional and thought-provoking dystopian fiction.”—LITERARY TITAN

 

’A Diary’ is a brilliant story…Munteanu writes with fresh, stimulating style.”
—CRAIG H. BOWLSBY, author of The Knights of Winter

 

“The story like water itself fills you, moves you, hypnotizes you, and eventually, totally engulfs you.”—GOODREADS REVIEW

 

“Thoroughly researched and cleverly executed, A Diary in the Age of Water is a must-read, especially for those who are longing for nature, and touch, while fearing both.”

—CARAMOYNES, Amazon Review

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and award-winning novelist and short story writer. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Nina has coached writers to publication for several decades using her Alien Guidebook Series writing guides.  Nina’s non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada.

Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books, short stories and essays. For more about Nina’s coaching and writing workshops, visit www.ninamunteanu.me. You can also find Nina on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In.

A Diary in the Age of Water can be purchased through Amazon,Chapters-Indigo,Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Inanna Publications.

 

Orthicon by David Perlmutter

SF Canada member David Perlmutter has just released his debut novel, Orthicon. The story draws on David’s many years of studying animation and cartoons.

This sci-fi/fantasy world is based on the idea of cartoon characters being real living people. Orthicon’s plot follows their exile from Earth into space, carried out by the US government. We see the creation, rise, and fall of the Cartoon Character Colony of Orthicon (CCCO) located on the planet of the same name.

“This is Orthicon,” he said. “A sub-orbital lunar projectile located approximately twenty-five million lightyears from Earth. The U.S. government discovered it during the Apollo missions in the 1970s, but we had to keep it a secret from the rest of the world, lest Russia found out about it, for obvious reasons. We have spent approximately thirty years terraforming…”

This was a new term to me, so I asked what it meant.

“Haven’t you read any science fiction?”

“I have never been much of a reader, sir,” I said.

“Well, all you need to know is that it means to make an alien planet look and feel as much like Earth as possible, and therefore, allow Earth people to settle and colonize the planet’s territory!”

These cartoon characters, creatures of ink and paint, may have been created by human minds, but they are remarkably lucid and intelligent. Are they threats to their human creators? Or simply discarded commodities?

David Perlmutter is a freelance writer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. His published works include the non-fiction books America ‘Toons In: A History Of Television Animation (McFarland and Co.) and The Encyclopedia Of American Animated Television Shows (Rowman and Littlefield); as well as a number of speculative fiction collections and novellas, including Orthicon (September 2020). His short stories can be read on Curious Fictions and Medium, and his essays on Vocal.

Connect with David on Twitter or Facebook.

Order your copy of Orthicon via Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and Draft2Digital.

Daughter of Earth & Fire, The Fledgling by Sandra A Hunter

SF Canada member Sandra A Hunter recently released Book 1 in her new Dragon Heir series. Daughter of Earth & Fire, The Fledgling is an urban fantasy novel.

Daughter of Earth & Fire follows protagonist Jayda along with a group of human/dragon shifters who work as flight instructors. They are swept up in a hidden climate war with the future of our planet at stake.

A genetic marker, carried in Jayda’s bloodline for two millennia, catches the attention of the ruling Black Dragons, who in their human guise, operate a flight school at North Fraser Airport. The Dragons learn, however, that Jayda is beloved of the Earth Mother Elemental, and She too has plans for the young woman…

 

Suddenly thrust into the Dragons’ world, Jayda learns that a realm of magic underlies everything she’d previously taken for reality—especially the ancient and ongoing war against the Naga Serpents, a war that must be conducted without humankind’s awareness…

“This book is a great beginning to a new series. The characters and storyline are well developed and easily draw the reader into the story’s world. A fun read that will leave you wanting more of the characters and the stories that are waiting to be told.” – Amazon reviewer

Sandra A Hunter has always lived at the edges of ocean and forest in the Pacific Northwest, so it came naturally to have a sentient forest as a major character in her Elanraigh series (YA/Adult High Fantasy) beginning with The Guardian Forest (published 2019) and its sequel A Scourge of Shadows (coming 2020).

She won the Dante Rossetti Award in 2014 for Elanraigh: The Vow. Sandra’s short story “And the Coyotes Sang” won Spinetingler’s Dark Fiction Writing Competition. Sandra has been published by Caliburn Press, On Spec, Gaslight, Lynx, and Women & Recovery.

Learn more about Sandra and explore her other titles at sandraahunter.com.

Order your copy of Daughter of Earth & Fire, The Fledgling via Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

 

When Words Collide Online & FREE for 2020

 

This year’s When Words Collide (WWC) convention for readers and writers has gone online in response to Covid-19 health and safety protocols.

Although we’re sad that WWC won’t be happening in person, we’re excited to share that this popular Canadian literary event is FREE to attend! And there is still so much happening. WWC kicks off at noon MDT tomorrow, Friday August 14, 2020.

Be sure to check out the group book launch at 2pm on Friday. Nine authors are launching new titles, most of whom are SF Canada members, including Paula Johanson. Saturday August 15, Susan Forest has a book launch as well.

Tune in at 5pm Saturday for the announcement of Aurora Award winners. And don’t miss the shared author table with a whopping 146 books!

Visit whenwordscollide.org for the event schedule and presenter bios. The WWC site will also have links to each panel or presentation via streamed video services.

Edward Willett releases new collection of short stories

Edward Willett‘s new short-story collection, Paths to the Stars: Twenty-Two Fantastical Tales of Imagination, has just been released by Shadowpaw Press. Willett says, “The stories in it span my writing career–the oldest is one I wrote at age 19 (or possibly 18, I’m not sure) at Harding University; the newest just came out earlier this year.  They’re roughly fifty-fifty young adult and adult stories.”

The 320-page book is available in print and all popular ebook formats from most online (and some brick-and-mortar) bookstores, including:

Shadowpaw Press| Amazon.com| Amazon.ca| Chapters/Indigo| Barnes & Noble

Autographed copies are available directly from Willett through his new online shop.

Here’s the official description:

From Edward Willett, Aurora Award-winning author of Marseguro, The Cityborn, and Worldshaper (DAW Books), among many others, comes twenty-two tales of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, drawn from a long career of telling fantastic tales.

A young musician dreams of playing his songs among the stars…A Broadway performer on the lam is forced to direct aliens in The Sound of Music…Strange vegetables with dangerous properties crop up in small-town Saskatchewan…A man with a dark secret gets his comeuppance on a windy night on the prairie…An elderly caretaker on the Moon preserves the memory of the millions who died on Earth’s darkest day…A woman and a bat-like alien must overcome their own prejudices to prevent an interstellar war…

From the far future and the farthest reaches of space to the Canadian prairie, from our world to worlds that have never existed to world’s that might some day, rich realms of imagination and the fascinating characters and creatures that populate them await within these stories, some previously published, some seeing print for the first time.

Time to go exploring…

A review…

“From exploding fruits and vegetables to a shrine on the moon, dedicated to the memory of a devastated Earth, these stories will not disappoint. If you’re a Fantasy and Science Fiction fan like I am, you’re sure to enjoy this rollercoaster of stories every bit as much as I did. I can sum my thoughts up in two words: ‘READ THEM!'” –Lorne McMillan, Author of Isaac’s Blood