Edward Willett's Blog, page 14

Coming soon from Shadowpaw Press: One Lucky Devil

The next book from my new publishing company, Shadowpaw Press, through which I previously published my short-story collection Paths to the Stars, will be something quite different.

One Lucky Devil: The First World War Memoirs of Sampson J. Goodfellow is the edited memoir of my grandfather-in-law, in whose former house I now live (having married his granddaughter, Margaret Anne Hodge, P.Eng. Sam wrote his memoirs late in life, probably in the early 1970s (he died in 1979). I posted them online here, unedited, about ten years ago, but with this being the centennial of the signing of the Armistice that ended the First World War, it seemed an opportune time to put them into book form, properly edited, with some accompanying photos (there aren’t a lot from Sam himself, but there are quite a few that illustrate places and events).

Release date is November 1! You can already pre-order the Kindle version here, and the print version is in the final stages. I hope you’ll check it out when it’s available!

Here’s the back cover copy:

Born in Scotland, Sampson J. Goodfellow emigrated to Toronto as a child. Like many young Canadian men, he returned to Europe to serve his new country in the First World War, first as a truck driver, then as a navigator on  Handley Page bombers.

Over a span of just six years, Sam witnessed Canada’s deadliest-ever tornado, sparred with world-champion lightweight boxers, survived seasickness and submarines, came under artillery fire at Vimy Ridge, was bombed by German aircraft while unloading shells at an ammunition dump at Passchendaele, joined the Royal Flying Corps, was top of his class in observer school, became a navigator, faced a court-martial for allegedly shooting up the King’s horse-breeding stables, survived being shot down by anti-aircraft fire, was captured at bayonet point and interrogated, became a prisoner of war in Germany…and, in the midst of all that, got engaged.

When Sam was listed as missing, the family of his fiancée went to a fortuneteller for news of his fate. “You couldn’t kill that devil,” she told them. “He is alive and trying to escape.” She was right.

With a sharp eye, a keen mind, a strong body, and an acerbic tongue, Sam survived, as one RAF officer put it when he returned to England after the Armistice, “enough to be dead several times.”

“You have been through hell,” a military doctor told him, “and you have been very lucky as a soldier and airman.”

Sampson J. Goodfellow really was “one lucky devil.” This is his story, in his own words.

Two more great reviews for Paths to the Stars

Paths to the Stars, my collection of short stories, continues to get good reviews!

Writing at The Future Fire, Lisa Timpf says:

“Willett’s short story collection has much to offer. Between the pages of  Paths to the Stars , readers will find both inner and outer journeys. Some of the characters find what they are hoping for, and are pleased by it. Others get what they thought they were looking for, but realize it’s not at all what they expected. We get to experience alien cultures and strange worlds, and witness strange happenings in our own world. For a speculative fiction collection, that hits a lot of bases.”

Over at Long and Short Reviews, reviewer Astilbe concludes:

“Paths to the Stars: Twenty-Two Fantastical Tales of Imagination  was a creative collection that I’d highly recommend to anyone who appreciates the occasionally humorous side of this genre.”

Remember, you can buy an autographed copy directly from me.

You can also buy it from the sources linked below (among others):

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

Cave Beneath the Sea audiobook released

Cave Beneath the Sea, Book 4 in my Shards of Excalibur young-adult fantasy series, published in print by Coteau Books, is now available in audiobook format through Audible.

Elizabeth Klett once again narrates, as she has for the previous three books in the series, and once again does a fabulous job.

About the book:

The fourth shard of Excalibur might come with a price Ariane doesn’t want to pay: her mother.  

Seeking to recover the shards of King Arthur’s sword Excalibur before Rex Major (the ancient sorcerer Merlin in a modern-day guise), Ariane and Wally have traveled around the world, and their quest is not yet over. Ariane’s magical powers as heir to the Lady of the Lake, combined with Wally’s clever thinking, have enabled them to hang on to two of the three shards they’ve located so far – but Rex Major still has one shard of his own and will stop at nothing to claim all the pieces for himself and use its power to rule Earth and invade the magical realm of Faerie. 

And now Major has his eyes on a big prize: Ariane’s mother, who went missing after she refused the power of the Lady of the Lake.  

Thanks to Wally, Ariane knows her mother is alive – and that Rex Major is trying to find her. If he succeeds, Ariane fears she’ll have no choice but to surrender the two shards she and Wally possess, because she’ll do anything – and give up everything – to have her mother back with her again. 

Ariane and Wally race to the Caribbean as they try to find Ariane’s mother and the fourth shard of Excalibur before Major does. As they struggle to stop Major, Ariane and Wally face desperate danger…and must make the most difficult decisions of their lives.

Some reviews:

“Edward Willett has created as exciting a read as the earlier books in the series, continuing to develop his characters and their relationships while the action-filled plot carries the reader to intriguing national and international locales…. It’s hard for me to decide which is the stronger foundation for the story, the characters or the plot, as both are substantial and intricate.” ( CanLit for Little Canadians)

“ Cave Beneath the Sea  will appeal to young readers in search of adventure as well as adults who enjoy another version of the timeless story of King Arthur…. Recommended.” ( CM Magazine)

And here are links to the audiobooks of the first three in the series:

Song of the Sword Twist of the Blade Lake in the Clouds

Five-star review for Paths to the Stars

Paths to the Stars, Published by Shadowpaw Press
Buy an autographed copy directly from me!
Shadowpaw Press | Amazon.com
Amazon.ca | Chapters/Indigo | Barnes & Noble

Just came across a great five-star review on Goodreads of Paths of the Stars, penned (pixelled?) by Toby Welch. Some excerpts:

“In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve read Willett’s work before. I’ve enjoyed every novel of his that I’ve consumed and hoped that his latest work would reach the same high bar. It didn’t – it hurdled right over that bar and left it hanging…”

“It’s a requirement of mine for science fiction works to push the boundaries of imagination. And Willett didn’t disappoint…

“Willett’s powerful writing style shines in this story collection. He has mastered the art of showing and not telling, a skill not enough writers can claim to have these days…

“Lovers of sci-fi will find Paths to the Stars hard to put down…this book hits all the checkmarks for what I feel are the hallmarks of a science fiction work: imaginative, fantastical, and mind-bending. If this work was a meal instead of a book, it would deserve a Michelin star.”

Pretty nice, huh? Read the whole thing!

Worldshaper now available!

It’s September 18, release day for my latest novel from DAW Books, Worldshaper. You can buy it any number of ways:

Amazon U.S. | Amazon Canada | Indigo | Barnes & Noble | Penguin Random House |Indiebound | Powell’s

You can also, of course buy an autographed copy from my online bookstore.

Worldshaper starts off a new series called Worldshapers. The artwork is by Juliana Kolesova, who happens to also be from Canada–she works out of Toronto.

Good reviews so far:

“This rollicking secondary-world contemporary fantasy opens with a bang…(the characters) grapple with the ethics of changing the world, the question of what makes people ‘real’ when the worldshapers can change everything about them with nothing more than a thought, and the need to save the universe. Willett…meticulously includes small details that make the constantly changing scenery feel solid and real…This novel sets up a fascinating, fluctuating universe with plenty of room for growth for the main characters, and readers will eagerly join their journey.” –  Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Willett’s series starter is fun, quirky, and highly enjoyable, nicely laying the groundwork for future volumes.” – Booklist

“There is so much to love about this book. Like the fact it references Tolkien at least three times, if not more. Or perhaps the fact it referenced  Doctor Who . Or maybe the fact that it’s got a sarcastic wiseass smartmouthed main female character who actually stops to think ‘what-if’ every once and a while. Or perhaps there’s the fact that there are so many interesting ideas in this book that it’ll make your world spin….Edward Willett is fast becoming my favorite author.” – Ria P., NetGalley reviewer

And here’s the book blurb:

From an Aurora Award-winning author comes the first book in a new portal fantasy series in which one woman’s powers open the way to a labyrinth of new dimensions.

For Shawna Keys, the world is almost perfect. She’s just opened a pottery studio in a beautiful city. She’s in love with a wonderful man. She has good friends.

But one shattering moment of violence changes everything. Mysterious attackers kill her best friend. They’re about to kill Shawna. She can’t believe it’s happening–and just like that, it isn’t. It hasn’t. No one else remembers the attack, or her friend. To everyone else, Shawna’s friend never existed…

Everyone, that is, except the mysterious stranger who shows up in Shawna’s shop. He claims her world has been perfect because she Shaped it to be perfect; that it is only one of uncounted Shaped worlds in a great Labyrinth; and that all those worlds are under threat from the Adversary who has now invaded hers. She cannot save her world, he says, but she might be able to save others–if she will follow him from world to world, learning their secrets and carrying them to Ygrair, the mysterious Lady at the Labyrinth’s heart.

Frightened and hounded, Shawna sets off on a desperate journey, uncertain whom she can trust, how to use her newfound power, and what awaits her in the myriad worlds beyond her own.

Interested in more? You can read the first two chapters of Worldshaper online.

Worldshaper press release

Here’s the press release I just wrote for Worldshaper , releasing September 18:

What if the creators of fictional worlds could actually live in them?

That, in a nutshell, is the premise of Worldshaper, the latest book by Aurora Award-winning Canadian science fiction and fantasy author Edward Willett, and the first book in his new series, Worldshapers, published by DAW Books.

Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, calls Worldshaper, releasing September 18, a “rollicking secondary-world contemporary fantasy” that “sets up a fascinating, fluctuating universe with plenty of room for growth for the main characters,” and adds, “Readers will eagerly join their journey.”

Booklistsays Worldshaper is “fun, quirky, and highly enjoyable, nicely laying the groundwork for future volumes.”

Worldshaperis the story of Shawna Keys, living what seems an idyllic life as the book begins: she’s just opened her pottery studio in a small Montana city, she has a boyfriend and a best friend, she’s looking forward to the rest of her life—and then, suddenly, everything changes. Terrorists attack the coffee shop where she’s gone with her friend Aesha, killing Aesha and many others. The leader of the masked attackers touches her, calls her by name—and then points a gun at her head. She’s about to die, but she refused to believe it’s happening…and just like that, it isn’t. The attackers are gone and the coffee shop is intact—but Aesha and everyone else who was killed has vanished. In fact, no one else even remembers they existed!

A stranger, Karl Yatsar, shows up and explains to Shawna that the world she thinks is the onlyworld is, in fact, a construct: a world she Shaped to be the way it is. Not only that, there is an entire Labyrinth of Shaped worlds, and all are in danger from the Adversary who has invaded her world and will, inevitably, steal it away from her. Karl tells her she cannot save her own world, but has the power to save all these other worlds, by travelling through them, absorbing the knowledge of how each has been Shaped from the Shapers living within each one, and transporting that knowledge to Ygrair, the woman at the centre of the Labyrinth, and the one who, though Shawna inexplicably doesn’t remember it, gave her this world to Shape in the first place.

In Worldshaper, Karl and Shawna flee through a world changing around them, sometimes at Shawna’s behest, sometimes at the Adversary’s, to escape through a Portal into the next world. The series will take Shawna from world to world, each unique—steampunk worlds, worlds plagued by vampires and werewolves, film noir worlds, epic fantasy worlds—as she tries to save as many as she can from the Adversary. Along the way, Shawna will face many challenges, physical, spiritual, and ethical, as she comes to grips with her power, and the responsibility of creators for the worlds they create.

Worldshapers, the series, is essentially, a metaphor for readers travelling into fictional worlds of books and encountering the authors of those books. In conjunction with that, Willet has also launched a podcast, The Worldshapers (www.theworldshapers.com), in which he talks to his fellow science fiction and fantasy authors about how they shape their fictional worlds. Each episode focuses on a specific book or books chosen by the featured author. Willett talks with the author about how he or she became interested in the fantastic and began writing it, and then in detail about the creating of that particular book or books, from inspiration through first draft through revisions through editing, and finishes with some philosophical discussion of why that author writes.

Edward Willett is the award-winning author of more than sixty books of science fiction, fantasy, and non-fiction for readers of all ages. Besides Worldshaper, other recent novels include the stand-alone science fiction novel The Cityborn(DAW Books), the five-book Shards of Excalibur YA fantasy series for Coteau Books, the Masks of Aygrima fantasy trilogy (written as E.C. Blake for DAW), and the Peregrine Rising science fiction duology for Bundoran Press. In 2002 Willett won the Regina Book Award for best book by a Regina author at the Saskatchewan Book Awards, and in 2009 won the Aurora Award (honoring the best in Canadian science fiction and fantasy) for Best Long-Form Work in English for Marseguro.  He has been shortlisted for Saskatchewan Book Awards and Aurora Awards multiple times. His nonfiction runs the gamut from local history to science books for children and adults to biographies of people as diverse as Jimi Hendrix and the Ayatollah Khomeini. In addition to writing, he’s a professional actor and singer, who has performed in numerous plays, musicals, and operas. He lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with his wife, Margaret Anne Hodges, P.Eng., their teenaged daughter, Alice, and their black Siberian cat, Shadowpaw.

His main website is www.edwardwillett.com, and he can be found on Twitter @ewillett and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/edward.willett.

The Worldshaperspodcast can be found at www.theworldshapers.com, and on Twitter @TWorlshapers.

For more information, contact:

Edward Willett

ewillett@sasktel.net

306.536.5421

New five-star review for Lake in the Clouds audiobook

The audiobook version of Lake in the Clouds, narrated by the amazing Elizabeth Klett, has a great new review from an Audible listener:

“For me, this story was a very satisfying follow-on to book 2 in the series. Wally plays a much larger part in this one, something which I very much welcomed. His internal struggles as he tries to balance his worry for Ariane against his growing suspicions about Rex Major’s real plans for her and himself really helped to flesh out this character for me. It made the race to find the next shard that much more interesting.

“After the frustration of all the conflict between him and Ariane in the previous book, I was relieved to see this book make the shift towards understanding … even if it takes nearly the whole adventure to get them there. I also really enjoyed the way Mr. Willett uses humor – mostly at Wally’s expense – in getting the two teens back to working together again.

“Ms. Klett’s narration is, as usual, superb. I cannot overstate how well she handles the voices of all the characters; at no point is there any confusion as to who is speaking, and both male and female characters are voiced equally well.

“Travel to another great far-away destination, outsmarting the villain, unexpected character revelations, and a couple of really good plot twists all contribute to making the 6 plus hours of this story just fly by. I can’t wait to hear what happens next!”

The first two books in the series, Song of the Sword and Twist of the Blade, are also available as audiobooks…and remember, your first audiobook is free if you’re joining Audible for the first time!

The audiobook versions of the last two books in the series, Cave Beneath the Sea and Door into Faerie, will be coming soon!

Worldshaper copies arrive!

I have actual physical copies of Worldshaper, my ninth novel from DAW Books, looking sharp in trade paperback, as you can see (it will come out in trade paperback and ebook to start with, then mass-market paperback probably just before Book 2 in the series, a year from now.

Not officially on sale until September 18, but I have permission to sell it early at SaskExpo, September 15 and 16, so if you make it to that convention in Saskatoon, find my booth in Artists’ Alley, and you could be one of the first in the world to own an autographed copy!

My DragonCon schedule

I’m attending DragonCon in Atlanta this year for the first time ever, as an attending professional. The con runs August 30 to September 3. Here’s my schedule, should you be there, too, and want to look me up (please do)!

Title: YA in SPAAAAAACE
Time: Fri 01:00 pm Location: A707 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: Outer space is so hot right now (yes, we know it’s actually really cold). Our panelists discuss YA books about space travel, distant planets, life in space…& where they might be headed next!

Title: Juvenilia
Time: Sat 08:30 pm Location: A707 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: Everyone starts somewhere. Come hear today’s authors share writing from their past! Maybe it’s a middle school short story or 15-year-old Harry Potter fanfic…you’ll have to come to find out!

Title: Reading Session: Edward Willett
Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: Vinings – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

Title: Autograph Session:
Time: Sun 05:30 pm Location: International Hall South 4-5 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

I’m looking forward to it!

Twist of the Blade audiobook called “fast-paced, entertaining”

Cathi Shaw, who previously listened to and enjoyed the Song of the Swordaudiobook, has posted her review the audiobook version of Twist of the Blade, narrated, like Song of the Sword, by Elizabeth Klett:

“I’ve said before that the second book in a YA series is often the make or break book. Following up a strong debut novel in a series is difficult and many authors struggle with it. But Edward Willett comes through with Twist of the Blade . This was a fast paced, entertaining second book in this series, which also incorporated character development and a depth to the story that was missing in Book 1…I can’t wait to see what is in store for our young characters  in Book 3.”

Read the whole thing.