Paula Guran's Blog, page 9

Magic City: Recent Spells edited by Paula Guran

ISBN-13: 978-1607014270

480 pages | $16.95 | May 2014

(Preorder now: Amazon or BN.com)

Bright lights, big city… magic spells, witchcraft, wizardry, fairies, devilry, and more. Urban living, at least in fantasy fiction, is full of both magical wonder and dark enchantment. Street kids may have supernatural beings to protect them or have such powers themselves. Brujeria may be part of your way of life. Crimes can be caused (and solved) with occult arts and even a losing sports team’s “curse” can be lifted with wizardry. And be careful of what cab you call—it might take you on a journey beyond belief! Some of the best stories of urban enchantment from the last few years gathered in one volume full of hex appeal and arcane arts.

Contents (authors in alphabetical order):

“Paranormal Romance,” Christopher Barzak

“The Slaughtered Lamb,” Elizabeth Bear

“The Land of Heart’s Desire,” Holly Black

“Seeing Eye,” Patricia Briggs

“De la Tierra,” Emma Bull

“Curses,” Jim Butcher

“Dog Boys,” Charles de Lint

“Snake Charmer,” Amanda Downum

“Street Wizard,” Simon R. Green

“-30-,” Caitlín R. Kiernan

“Stone Man,” Nancy Kress

“Pearlywhite” Mark Laidlaw & John Shirley

“In the Stacks,” Scott Lynch

“Spellcaster 2.0,” Jonathan Maberry

“Kabu Kabu,” Nnedi Okorafor

“Stray Magic,” Diana Peterfreund

“The Woman Who Walked with Dogs,” Mary Rosenblum”

“Wallamelon,” Nisi Shawl

“Grand Central Park,” Delia Sherman

“Words,” Angela Slatter

“Alchemy,” Lucy Sussex

“A Voice Like a Hole,” Catherynne M. Valente

“The Arcane Art of Misdirection,” Carrie Vaughn

“Thief of Precious Things,” A.C. Wise

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2014 edited by Paula Guran

No matter your expectations, the dark is full of the unknown: grim futures, distorted pasts, invasions of the uncanny, paranormal fancies, weird dreams, unnerving nightmares, baffling enigmas, revelatory excursions, desperate adventures, spectral journeys, mundane terrors and supernatural visions. You may stumble into obsession or find redemption. Often disturbing, occasionally delightful, let The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror be your annual guide through the mysteries and wonders of dark fiction.

Contents (in alphabetical order by author’s last name):

“Postcards from Abroad,” Peter Atkins (Rolling Darkness Revue 2013, Earthling Publications)
“The Creature Recants,” Dale Bailey (Clarkesworld, Issue 85, October 2013)
“The Good Husband,” Nathan Ballingrud (North American Lake Monsters, Small Beer Press)
“Termination Dust,” Laird Barron (Tales of Jack the Ripper, ed. Ross Lockhart, Word Horde)
“The Ghost Makers,” Elizabeth Bear (Fearsome Journeys, ed. Jonathan Strahan, Solaris)
“The Marginals,” Steve Duffy (The Moment of Panic, PSPublishing)
“A Collapse of Horses,” Brian Evenson (The American Reader, Feb/Mar 2013)
“A Lunar Labyrinth,” Neil Gaiman (Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe, eds. J. E. Mooney & Bill Fawcett, Tor)
“Pride,” Glen Hirshberg (Rolling Darkness Revue 2013, Earthling Publications)
“Let My Smile Be Your Umbrella,” Brian Hodge (Psycho-Mania!, ed. Stephen Jones, Robinson)
“The Soul in the Bell Jar,” K. J. Kabza (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2013)
“The Prayer of Ninety Cats,” Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Online, Spring 2013)
“Dark Gardens,” Greg Kurzawa (Interzone # 248)
“A Little of the Night,” Tanith Lee (Clockwork Phoenix 4, ed. Mike Allen, Mythic Delirium)
“The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning,” Joe R. Lansdale (Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe’s First Detective, ed. Paul Kane & Charles Prepole, Titan)
“Iseul’s Lexicon,” Yoon Ha Lee (Conservation of Shadows, Prime Books)
“The Plague” Ken Liu (Nature, 16 May 2013)
“The Slipway Gray,” Helen Marshall (Chilling Tales 2, ed. Michael Kelly, Edge Publications)
“To Die for Moonlight,” Sarah Monette (Apex Magazine, Issue #50)
“Event Horizon,” Sunny Moraine (Strange Horizons, 21 Oct 2013)
“The Legend of Troop 13,” Kit Reed (Asimov’s Science Fiction, Jan 2013 / The Story Until Now: A Great Big Book of Stories, Wesleyan)
“Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell,” Brandon Sanderson (Dangerous Women, eds. George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, Tor)
“Phosphorous,” Veronica Schanoes, (Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy, eds. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, Tor)
“Blue Amber,” David J. Schow (Impossible Monsters, ed. Kasey Lansdale, Subterranean Press)
“Rag and Bone,” Priya Sharma (Tor.com, 10 April 2013)
“Our Lady of Ruins”, Sarah Singleton (The Dark 2, Dec 2013)
“Cuckoo,” Angela Slatter (A Killer Among Demons, ed. Craig Bezant, Dark Prints Press)
“Wheatfield with Crows,” Steve Rasnic Tem (Dark World: Ghost Stories, ed. Timothy Parker Russell, Tartarus Press)
“Moonstruck,” Karin Tidbeck (Shadows and Tall Trees, Vol. 5, ed. Mike Kelly, Undertow)
“The Dream Detective,” Lisa Tuttle (Lightspeed, Mar 2013)
“Fishwife,” Carrie Vaughn (Nightmare, Jun 2013
“Air, Water and the Grove,” Kaaron Warren (The Lowest Heaven, eds Anne C. Perry & Jared Shurin, Jurassic London)

Public Presence & Perception

Editors, even nowadays, seldom have much of a public presence. Magazine editors and anthologists are somewhat better known than novel editors, and can more regularly be found on panels at genre conventions and the like.

Yet, here we are with websites and blogs and social media “presence”… more and more. As far as I know, Ellen Datlow was the first short form editor to have her own website… but then again she also was fiction editor for the first major professional print magazine, OMNI, to go online. Unless it was Jonathan Strahan, who went online in 1999, but more as a critic/reviewer at the time than an editor. (Although he had edited two Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy volumes.) And, yeah, before I was any sort of editor, what was then “DarkEcho’s Horror Web” went live (at http://w3.gwis.com/~prlg) in mid-December of 1995. (I think I was thrilled to find links to maybe fifty horror authors at the time.)

But among current relatively well-known short form SF/F editors you still will find no websites for folks like Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction‘s Gordon Van Gelder, or the grandmaster of anthologists (and other editing) Gardner Dozois.

[Quick! No checking encyclopedias or even Amazon... Name the the editor of first "year's best" science fiction series. Hint: The Best Science Fiction Stories, published in 1949. Quick! What was and who edited the The first notable paperback anthology (1943)?]

But those who edit even the most famous novelists? Quick! Name Neil Gaiman’s editor! No cheating/googling (agents and avid readers of Publishers Marketplace should not play the game). Hint: She also edits Tim Powers, Neal Stephenson, Terry Pratchett, and, before their deaths, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov…and I don’t know who else you might immediately recognize. How about George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series editor? Who acquired Jim Butcher’s first Dresden books? You won’t even find Wikipedia articles on them.

And even if you know some editorial names, few people really know what editors (of different varieties) do. Writers write… not an easy task, even though the public seems to think writing is not only easy, but consistently lucrative.

(I’ll pause while you writers pick yourselves up after rolling-on-the-floor laughter.)

Anyway, there’s at least some conception of writing. But editing?

I’ll leave it as a mystery for now… but I will supply the answers to the questions I inserted above:

Editor(s) of first “year’s best” science fiction series: Everett F. Bleiler T.E. Dikty and E.F.
First notable paperback anthology? The Pocket Book of Science-Fiction, edited by Donald A Wollheim
Editor, Gaiman, etc.: Jennifer Brehl
Editor, GRRM: Ann Groell
Editor, first Dresden books: Jennifer Heddle

Día de Muertos/Day of the Dead In the News

Wall Street Journal: No Bones About It: Day of the Dead Is Finding New Life: Popularity Rises of a Mexican Holiday Honoring the Departed
USAToday: Day of the Dead celebrations alive and well
LA Times: In Latin America, Day of the Dead is a time for celebrating life
Washington Post: Elegant ‘Skeleton Lady’ spreads her allure as Mexico marks Day of the Dead
SFGate: Day of the Dead is about the magic of remembrance
Forbes: Day Of The Dead Brings Life To Eastern European Cemeteries
Seattle Times: The ‘Day of the Dead’ comes alive in Peru
SF Examiner: Growing San Francisco Day of the Dead celebration has some worried, others excited