Edward Willett's Blog, page 2
May 9, 2024
FUNDED! Kickstarter for Shapers of Worlds Volume V succeeds
This year’s Kickstarter to fund Shapers of Worlds Volume V, the fifth in the series of anthologies featuring science fiction and fantasy by authors who were guests on my Aurora Award-winning podcast, The Worldshapers, succeeded, reaching 118% of the $12,000 goal–$14.266.
That means this year’s anthology, featuring stories by Brad C. Anderson, Edo van Belkom, J. G. Gardner, Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, Chadwick Ginther, Evan Graham, M.C.A. Hogarth, Mallory Kuhn, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Kevin Moore, Robin Stevens Payes, James Peet, Omari Richards, Lawrence M. Schoen, Alex Shvartsman, Alan Smale, Richard Sparks, P. L. Stuart, Brad R. Torgersen, Hayden Trenholm, Brian Trent, Eli K.P. William, Edward Willett, and Natalie Wright, will go ahead!
One again this year, the anthology will be illustrated by Calgary artist Wendi Nordell (whose black and white drawings illustrated Shapers of Worlds Volume IV).
Watch for more information later in the year!
April 13, 2024
Cold Feet: A Seven-Sentence Short Story
Well, I did it again: led the Seven-Sentence Short Story workshop (created by science fiction and fantasy author James van Pelt) at a writing conference, this time, Wordbridge in Lethbridge, Alberta.
Here’s the story I wrote this morning. I had not the slightest idea what I would write until I began it, so this is very much an example of “pantsing,” as opposed to “plotting.” (Oddly enough, shortly after I’m writing this, I’ll be taking part in a panel on that very topic.)
The illustration above was AI-generated, by Microsoft Bing’s CoPilot. The prompt was along the lines of, “Create a 1950s science fiction-style upright rocketship with an open cargo hatch and a ramp leading down to a blackened concrete surface, with a futuristic city in the background and robots in front.” Something like that!
Are you seated comfortably? Let’s begin.
Introduce what the main character wants and the first action he/she takes to accomplish that goal.
Parador stood at the gate of the spaceport and stared at the towering spire of the starship Antilles Redux, the only ship in port and his only hope, and dashed onto the blackened duracrete of the landing field for the enticingly open hatchway that, he hoped, would gain him access to the ship and freedom from the Governor’s trackerbots, even then click-clacking their way down the alley along which he had just fled.
The results of the action the character takes in sentence #1 has to make the situation worse. The character should be further from the goal now.
He had barely made it a dozen metres before he tripped over something—he didn’t know what—and thudded hard to the pavement, knocking his breath from his body, leaving him stunned and unable to move for an agonizing moment during which the click-clacking of the trackerbots drew alarmingly nearer.
Based on the new situation, the character takes a second action to accomplish the goal.
Something rolled him over; something lifted him to his feet; something lifted him off his feet; and as, at last, he drew new breath, he realized he was in the arms of a cargobot and that the thing that had tripped him had been one of its attendant dog-like runabouts, which normally scurried around scanning crate labels, and with what little voice he could muster, he shouted, “Cargobot, take me to the starship!”, in the hope that like all good bots, it was programmed to obey any human command that did not involve criminal activity or violence against another human being.
The result of the second action the character takes, from sentence #3, is to make the situation worse. The character should be even further from the goal now.
And so it was, but it was also clearly programmed to consider the starship off-limits to unauthorized personnel because instead of carrying him toward the inviting opening that led inside—and onto the sovereign territory of Carstair’s Folly, the planet, he knew, from which the ship had originated, where the trackerbots could not follow—it turned at right angles and headed across the landing field toward the portmaster’s office, a glass-topped tower a good half a kilometre away, the trackerbots now so close they would have been nipping at the cargobot’s heels had they any way to nip and had it any heels to be nipped.
Based on the new situation, the character takes a third and final action to accomplish the goal.
That clearly was no good, so Parador twisted around in the cargobot’s outstretched upper arms, reached for the almost comically small sphere that served as its head and sensing device, gave it the special twist that he had learned, in his years as a port worker, would unplug and detach it, and then, with all his strength, threw it toward the starship, in the hope its programming for self-preservation would override every other command and cause the cargobot to turn and run after its bouncing, rolling brain.
The third action either accomplishes the character’s goal, fails to accomplish the goal, or there is an unusual but oddly satisfying different result of the last action.
Much to his relief, it worked, and the cargobot skidded, turned, and dashed after its head, so suddenly the trackerbots also skidded, toppled, and crashed together with the sound of a dining room’s worth of cutlery cascading down a stone staircase—a sound Parador was familiar with, since it had spelled the end of his shortlived career working with a high-end catering company, and Parador seized his moment, leaped from the cargobot’s arms as it slowed and bent to retrieve its brain, dashed the remaining twenty metres to the loading ramp, and ran up into the welcoming confines of the Antilles Redux’s cargo hold just ahead of the recovered trackerbots.
The denouement. This sentence wraps up the story. It could tell the reader how the character felt about the results, or provide a moral, or tell how the character’s life continued on.
Or not so welcoming: because inside the cargo hold, he found, not only the expected collection of crates and barrels, but none other than Governor Carlsbad von Henneberg himself, whose trackerbots he had been fleeing, and at his side, his daughter, Aliana von Henneberg, whom he had also been fleeing, and at his other side, the captain of the Antilles Redux—someone who, Parador knew all too well, was licensed to perform marriages, as all ship’s captains were; and so, as his brief dreams of escape crashed to the deck plates all around him, he took a deep breath, summoned a smile, and said, “Sorry I’m late—I hope you didn’t think I was getting cold feet.”
January 28, 2024
Available now: Shapers of Worlds Volume IV
Shapers of Worlds Volume IV, the fourth anthology featuring authors who were guests on my podcast, The Worldshapers, is now available everywhere, including directly from Shadowpaw Press.
Here’s a handy universal URL with links to multiple sources.
When it launched on January 23, it was, for a while, the #1 release on Amazon in Science Fiction Anthologies.
In conjunction with the launch, I was interviewed by Shauna Powers on Saskatchewan Weekend on CBC Radio. I thought it was a great interview, and it turned out really well.
The anthology received an excellent review from Tangent Online. “One of the most overall enjoyable anthologies I have had the pleasure of reading . . . I think that the editor says it best in his introduction: this collection is like a grand feast, made of many varied splendid ingredients, and you are quite sure to leave happy and satisfied when you are done. There is, I think, a little bit of something for everyone . . .” Read the whole review.
In addition, ten stories from the anthology have made Tangent Online‘s annual Recommended Reading List for short fiction, with two, Sarah A. Hoyt’s “Done With Mirrors” and my own “The Canceller” receiving the top ranking of three stars. Also recommended: “Presumed Alien” by David Boop; “Soldier of Fortune” by Edward M. Lerner, “The End of the Sagittarius Arc” by Jean-Louis Trudel, “BWDOC” by James Van Pelt, “Souvenirs” by Gail Z. Martin, and “Nineteenth Century Vase” by David Liss (each with one star); and “There’s Something Under the Bed” by Garon Whited and “Monster in the Second Reel” by Richard Paolinelli, each with two stars.
Just as a reminder, here’s the blurb:
The fourth in a series of powerhouse anthologies featuring some of today’s top authors of science fiction and fantasy
From the farthest reaches of our galaxy to the cozy-yet-mysterious spaces under beds and behind sofa cushions, from mystical realms of fantasy to the here-and-now and the very near future, the nineteen authors in this fourth collection of science fiction and fantasy by authors featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers offer readers a kaleidoscope of fantastical adventures in the company of unforgettable characters.
The editor of tyrannical bestselling author thinks she’s finally escaped their hellish relationship when the author dies . . . but she couldn’t be more wrong. A retired ghost-hunter’s life takes an unexpected turn when an immensely valuable magical vase from the nineteenth-century vase is brought to her attention. At the end of a millennia-long journey to the edge of the galaxy, a man who has lived a hundred lifetimes is reunited with his first true love in the midst of a battle for survival. Scarecrows that appear overnight on a lonely man’s lawn prove to be far more than the teenagers’ prank he thinks them to be. A man travels back in time to confront the attacker who destroyed his life, only to make a horrifying discovery. The Monster Under the Bed finally meets his match . . .
Shapers of Worlds Volume IV has new stories by David Boop, Michaelbrent Collings, Roy M. Griffis, Sarah A. Hoyt, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Noah Lemelson, Edward M. Lerner, David Liss, Gail Z. Martin, Joshua Palmatier, Richard Paolinelli, Jean-Louis Trudel, James van Pelt, Garon Whited, and Edward Willett, plus previously published stories by James Kennedy, Mark Leslie, R.S. Mellette, and Lavie Tidhar. Each story features an illustration by Wendi Nordell.
Travel into the past, the present, and the future in stories set in our world, in deep space, in worlds scattered across the multiverse, and in worlds that exist only in the imagination, all shaped by an outstanding collection of authors, many of them bestsellers and award-winners.
An unforgettable journey awaits. All you have to do is turn the page . . .
I’ve already started working on the Kickstarter for Shapers of Worlds Volume V!
December 31, 2023
New books from Shadowpaw Press
My publishing company, Shadowpaw Press, has three great titles coming out in the first two months of 2024, all of them science fiction or fantasy.
The first two, The Good Soldier by Nir Yaniv and Shapers of Worlds Volume IV, release on January 23, with The Headmasters by Mark Morton releasing two weeks later, on January 6.
Read more below, and pre-order now from your favorite online bookstore (Amazon links below) or directly from Shadowpaw Press.
The Good SoldierBy Nir Yaniv
The Imperial Navy has long been at war. It is a well-oiled machine, a mighty galactic power in which nothing can go wrong.
Enter Pre-Private Joseph Fux, self-proclaimed Idiot, Second Class.
When Fux arrives on board the light frigate UPS Spitz, things immediately begin to go wrong. It’s not Fux’s fault. It never is. Accidents just happen when he’s around, despite the best intentions.
And as the always-cheerful Fux bungles his way through one job after another, he throws the whole ship and its orderly crew into chaos. No one is left unscathed: not the responsible and lonely Lt. Lipton, grieving for his lost love; not the mercilessly logical Doctor Nightingale, who may or may not be Lipton’s current romantic interest; not the overzealous Ensign Berseker, or the pompous political officer, Commander Kapust. Not even the hidden, monstrous Captain.
Knowingly or not, Fux is an agent of resistance, his blind stupidity the only sane response to the insanity of war. Something’s gotta give, and the tiny spanner-in-the-works that is Fux threatens at last to destroy the entire machinery of the Galactic Empire . . .
Knowingly or not, Fux is an agent of resistance, his blind stupidity the only sane response to the insanity of war. Something’s gotta give, and the tiny spanner-in-the-works that is Fux threatens at last to destroy the entire machinery of the Galactic Empire . . .
“In this amiable satire of the gung-ho heroics of military sci-fi, Yaniv (coauthor of The Tel Aviv Dossier) sets a seeming simpleton against an immense empire, and the contest is hardly fair . . . (A)n amusing alternative to the usual run of martial marvels and battle-tested warriors. Military SF fans will enjoy this gentle roasting.” – Publishers Weekly
“Drawing on a tradition of anti-war fiction and his own military experience, Nir Yaniv meshes together classical American gung-ho SF with the delightful absurdism of European literature to create an unforgettable far-future fable for our times. Think M.A.S.H. in space, and you’ll come closest to capturing the spirit of The Good Soldier, but you’ll have to enmesh yourself in the (mis)adventures of Idiot-First-Class Fux and company of the good ship Spitz to find out for yourself. This is one explosive novel you do not want to miss!” – Lavie Tidhar, award-winning author of Central Station and Neom
“A madcap dystopian satire that shoulders its way into the ranks of Bill the Galactic Hero and Catch-22, then stands sloppily at attention as it smirks in the face of an apoplectic political officer.” – Alex Shvartsman, Award-Winning Author of The Middling Affliction and Eridani’s Crown
“I really enjoyed this: a rattling, SFnal updating of The Good Soldier Švejk via Starship Troopers (as it might be: Švejkship Troopers): funny, pointed, readable, a subversive depiction of the futility of war and a satire on the perennial logic of the military mind and the structures of the army. Fux is a wonderful anti-hero: a buffoon and an idiot (‘second class’) but also an everyman. Highly recommended.” – Adam Roberts, award-winning author of Jack Glass
Shapers of Worlds Volume IVEdited by Edward Willett
The fourth in a series of powerhouse anthologies featuring some of today’s top authors of science fiction and fantasy
From the farthest reaches of our galaxy to the cozy-yet-mysterious spaces under beds and behind sofa cushions, from mystical realms of fantasy to the here-and-now and the very near future, the nineteen authors in this fourth collection of science fiction and fantasy by authors featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapersoffer readers a kaleidoscope of fantastical adventures in the company of unforgettable characters.
The editor of tyrannical bestselling author thinks she’s finally escaped their hellish relationship when the author dies . . . but she couldn’t be more wrong. A retired ghost-hunter’s life takes an unexpected turn when an immensely valuable magical vase from the nineteenth-century vase is brought to her attention. At the end of a millennia-long journey to the edge of the galaxy, a man who has lived a hundred lifetimes is reunited with his first true love in the midst of a battle for survival. Scarecrows that appear overnight on a lonely man’s lawn prove to be far more than the teenagers’ prank he thinks them to be. A man travels back in time to confront the attacker who destroyed his life, only to make a horrifying discovery. The Monster Under the Bed finally meets his match . . .
Shapers of Worlds Volume IV has new stories by David Boop, Michaelbrent Collings, Roy M. Griffis, Sarah A. Hoyt, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Noah Lemelson, Edward M. Lerner, David Liss, Gail Z. Martin, Joshua Palmatier, Richard Paolinelli, Jean-Louis Trudel, James van Pelt, Garon Whited, and Edward Willett, plus previously published stories by James Kennedy, Mark Leslie, R.S. Mellette, and Lavie Tidhar. Each story features an illustration by Wendi Nordell.
Travel into the past, the present, and the future in stories set in our world, in deep space, in worlds scattered across the multiverse, and in worlds that exist only in the imagination, all shaped by an outstanding collection of authors, many of them bestsellers and award-winners.
An unforgettable journey awaits. All you have to do is turn the page . . .
“One of the most overall enjoyable anthologies I have had the pleasure of reading . . . I think that the editor says it best in his introduction: this collection is like a grand feast, made of many varied splendid ingredients, and you are quite sure to leave happy and satisfied when you are done . . . Overall, I highly recommend this fourth volume of Shapers of Worlds.” – Tangent Online
The HeadmastersBy Mark Morton
How do you learn from the past if there isn’t one?
Sixty years ago, something awful happened. Something that killed everyone except the people at Blue Ring. Something that caused the Headmasters to appear. But Maple doesn’t know what is was. Because talking about the past is forbidden.
Everyone at Blue Ring has a Headmaster. They sink their sinewy coils into your skull and control you, using your body for backbreaking toil and your mind communicate with each other.
When someone dies, their Headmaster transfers to someone new. But so do the dead person’s memories, and if one of those memories surfaces in the new host’s mind, their brain breaks. That’s why talking about the past is forbidden.
Maple hates this world where the past can’t exist and the future promises only more suffering. And she hates the Headmasters for making it that way. But she doesn’t know how to fight them – until memories start to surface in her mind from someone who long ago came close to defeating the Headmasters.
But whose memories are they? Why aren’t they harming her? And how can she use them to defeat the Headmasters? Maple has to find the answers herself, unable to tell anyone what she’s experiencing or planning—not even Thorn, the young man she’s falling in love with.
Thorn, who has some forbidden secrets of his own . . .
“Mark Morton’s The Headmasters is a brilliant science-fiction debut from one of Canada’s best-loved nonfiction writers. This compelling YA novel is a spot-on updating of Robert A. Heinlein’s classic The Puppet Masters for the new millennium, with intricate world-building, a great science-fiction puzzle, and — ironic for a novel about suppressed memories — a main character you’ll never forget. I loved it.” — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of The Downloaded
August 26, 2023
The Dragon Toy of the Seven: A Seven-Sentence Short Story
Here’s another seven-sentence short story! I ran the workshop again at Ganbatte, an anime convention in Saskatoon. It went well, and here’s the one I created, again with the instructions, created by noted SF short-story writer James van Pelt.
The illustration above is AI-generated by Bing.
Introduce what the main character wants and the first action he/she takes to accomplish that goal.
As the flames devoured the base of the wooden guard tower where Stanlix had been stationed when the deep roar of the horn warning of an impending dragon attack sounded, he saw at once he had only one course of action: leap from the platform onto the broad back of the dragon even then swooshing by below his feet, and so he did, without even time to pray to the Seven Lords and Ladies before the scaly form was between his legs and he was hanging on for dear life.
The results of the action the character takes in sentence #1 has to make the situation worse. The character should be further from the goal now.
That only lasted an instant: the dragon, feeling the unexpected weight on his back, shot straight up toward the thundercloud that had shadowed the guard camp even before the attack, and Stanlix, as lightning flashed and flickered, suddenly found himself sliding back toward the long, writhing tail of the beast—and then plunging from it toward the unforgiving ground now three hundred feet below, his scream of terror drowned out by a crack of thunder.
Based on the new situation, the character takes a second action to accomplish the goal.
At least the distance was enough to allow him time to say the prayer to the Seven he had been denied before, and whether it was because he had tithed at the Temple just that morning, or because he had prayed fervently for forgiveness after his last excursion into the town to sample the delights of the notorious Street of Cupidity, or just because the Seven were feeling in a playful mood, his death-plunge was arrested some fifty feet before its expected bone-shattering conclusion by a giant, glowing hand that materialized out of nowhere.
The result of the second action the character takes, from sentence #3, is to make the situation worse. The character should be even further from the goal now.
Stanlix’s momentary feeling of immense relief immediately changed back to one of mind-numbing terror as the glowing hand tossed him high into the air again, even higher than he had been when he fell from the dragon, while a booming voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once and presumably made the ground shake (although Stanlix was in no position to feel anything that was happening to the ground), thundered, even louder than the actual thunder, “Here, boy, fetch!”
Based on the new situation, the character takes a third and final action to accomplish the goal.
As the dragon wheeled and dove back toward Stanlix, claws outstretched, trailing smoke and fire while lightning bolts leaped from cloud to cloud behind him, Stanlix did the only thing he could think of: pull his sword from his belt and hold it outstretched, pointed at the hurtling monster, in the moment of calm when his upward momentum and the downward force of gravity balanced perfectly and for an instant, just for an instant, it felt as if he were floating.
The third action either accomplishes the character’s goal, fails to accomplish the goal, or there is an unusual but oddly satisfying different result of the last action.
Perhaps it was the glitter of the blade that distracted the beast for an instant, a flash of reflected lightning that blinded it long enough to throw it off course, or perhaps (and in retrospect—a thing Stanlix was very grateful to live long enough to enjoy—he thought this the most likely reason) one of the Seven took pity on him after his or her sibling’s decision to use him as a dragon-toy—the dragon missed: not by much, but just by enough—just enough for Stanlix’s blade to lay its vulnerable belly open from stem to stern, and send it tumbling, squalling and trailing steaming blood and guts and smoke and flame, to the same splattering, bone-crunching impact Stanlix had fully expected to be his fate just seconds before.
The denouement. This sentence wraps up the story. It could tell the reader how the character felt about the results, or provide a moral, or tell how the character’s life continued on.
And, in truth, he expected that to be his fate even then, but the Seven clearly had other plans for him, and the giant, glowing hand appeared again, plucked him from the air, and set him gently down beside the gory remains of the dragon he had slain, which is where the Guard Commander found him some time later, on his knees and offering very loud praise (and very silent, private curses), to the Seven whose capricious actions and inordinate love of dragons had both threatened and saved his life on what, when he’d gotten up that morning, Stanlix had fully expected to be another boring day of guard duty; and it was said, after that day, that no matter how much the other guards complained of the tedium of their jobs, Stanlix did not join in, having discovered that for a military man, boredom and survival were intimately linked, and you can’t have one without the other.
August 6, 2023
The Cat of Enlightenment: A Seven-Sentence Short Story
Another When Words Collide, another Seven-Sentence Short Story workshop, as I once again led a group of writers through this plotting exercise devised by noted science fiction short-story writer James Van Pelt. As always, I created a story myself. I usually call this a plotting exercise, but since I was also on a panel called Pantsers vs. Plotters, I’ve realized it’s also a pantsing exercise, since I don’t have a clue where it’s going when I write the first sentence.
Enjoy! (Or, possibly, not.)
THE CAT OF ENLIGHTENMENT
1. Introduce what the main character wants and the first action he/she takes to accomplish that goal.
Ankyra leaped from the airship as the captain swung it close to the balcony of the Seventh Tower where the Cat of Enlightenment was said to dwell, his feet thudding to the marble with inches to spare, his sword whipping from its sheath even before he landed.
2. The results of the action the character takes in sentence #1 has to make the situation worse. The character should be further from the goal now.
He should have waited to draw his blade after he had landed; the action of swinging it free of its sheath caused him to overbalance and stagger backward, the sword flying from his hand and skittering off the balcony’s edge as he desperately grabbed the curtains in the balcony’s open window to stop himself from following it into oblivion.
3. Based on the new situation, the character takes a second action to accomplish the goal.
Having rendered himself unarmed, he chose to rip the curtains down, intending to throw them over the Cat of Enlightenment should it indeed be in the room beyond the window, hoping to entangle the felicitous feline in their green velvet folds and pin its prognosticating paws to the smooth silvery stone.
4. The result of the second action the character takes, from sentence #3, is to make the situation worse. The character should be even further from the goal now.
Instead, the curtain landed at the feet of the Cat’s seven-foot-tall Guardian, a magically animated steel statue armed with a massive adamantine battle axe—a magically animated steel statue that the wizard who had divined the Cat’s current location had assured him had been permanently deactivated by the last person who had tried to capture the Cat, although, unfortunately, the action of deactivating it had been his last; indeed, the bones scattered across the floor at the statue’s feet belonged to that unfortunate predecessor of Ankyra’s.
5. Based on the new situation, the character takes a third and final action to accomplish the goal.
Ankyra ducked beneath the statue’s mighty swing, the wind of the battle-axe’s passage ruffling his hair, and hit it low and hard, sending it crashing backward so hard the marble floor cracked beneath its weight, revealing the Cat itself, neatly folded into bread-loaf shape on a blue velvet cushion at the centre of the circular room, its golden eyes regarding Ankyra solemnly from a face as black as the King’s heart.
6. The third action either accomplishes the character’s goal, fails to accomplish the goal, or there is an unusual but oddly satisfying different result of the last action.
“I’ve been expecting you,” said the Cat, whose voice was warm and welcoming and vibrated with an almost subliminal purr, “and since you have found me and overcome my Guardian, it is my pleasure to grant you what you wish: enlightenment, the answer to the question you asked the wizard who sent you here, to wit, ‘What is the purpose of life?’”
7. The denouement. This sentence wraps up the story. It could tell the reader how the character felt about the results, or provide a moral, or tell how the character’s life continued on.
Ankyra’s rush of triumph was short-lived, for suddenly, he was seized with dizzying disorientation and found himself no longer looking through his own eyes but through strange eyes that made everything around him sharp and colourless as steel—as the steel that now comprised his arms and legs and every other part of him, for now, he rose from the floor in the body of the Guardian, the adamantine axe clutched in his hand, and looked down on the lifeless body he had inhabited until a moment before, and took his position to battle the next person who dared approach the Cat of Enlightenment, while behind him, the Cat purred, and intoned, “Serve the Cat, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
May 25, 2023
Soulworm, my debut novel, now available again in a new edition
Soulworm, my first published novel (originally released by Royal Fireworks Press in 1997), is now available in a brand-new, lightly revised edition from Shadowpaw Press Reprise.
You can purchase it at one of these links or directly from Shadowpaw Press.
Soulworm was shortlisted for Best First Book at the Saskatchewan Book Awards the year it came out.
I wrote the book while I still lived in Weyburn, and that’s where it’s set: Weyburn, Saskatchewan, in 1984, the year I became news editor of the Weyburn Review. People familiar with Weyburn will note that I took some liberties, moving the hospital up onto Signal Hill to the location where the Signal Hill Arts Centre is today. There was a hospital up there at one point, but it was moved a long time ago. But, poetic license!
Here’s the blurb:
She was never meant to be sent into the strange parallel world known as Earth . . . but now, trapped inside the mind of a teenager like herself, she must find a way to save it from destruction.
For years, Liothel has waited in vain for her powers to manifest themselves, so that she can become a full-blown Warder, defender of the realm of Mykia from the mind-controlling spirit-creatures known as soulworms. But when a soulworm escapes from the Warden’s citadel through a magical portal into the parallel world of Earth, it is her spirit that, entirely by accident, is sent in pursuit.
She finds herself, a helpless, unsuspected observer, in the mind of Maribeth, a teenaged girl in the small Canadian prairie city of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, in 1986—and discovers the soulworm has possessed Maribeth’s best friend, Christine.
Somehow, she must find a way to save Earth from the plague of death and destruction the soulworm and its offspring will release if allowed to spread across the unprotected planet. Only she knows the danger—and only she can stop it.
A couple of reviews:
“A wonderfully entertaining, imaginative, and well-crafted book for young adults . . . This book is well-paced and controlled and never becomes moralistic . . . A great read! Highly recommended.” – Saskatchewan Book Award Judges
“This is a complicated bit of writing. The characters are involved in a variety of strong relationships which help create the drama . . . the writing is fast-paced and readers will be amazed at just how wild Weyburn gets.”- Jocolyn Caton, The Regina Sun
April 19, 2023
SHAPERS OF WORLDS VOLUME IV fully funded: new supplementary Crowdfundr campaign for illustrations now running!
Crowdfundr https://www.crowdfundr.com/shapersofworlds4 banner for Shapers of Worlds Volume IVThe Kickstarter campaign for Shapers of Worlds Volume IV for the fourth annual anthology featuring some of the top writers of science fiction and fantasy working today, all of whom were guests on my Aurora Award-winning podcast, The Worldshapers, succeeded, topping out at $15,504 (the goal was $12,000). That means the book is a go!
Shapers of Worlds Volume IV will feature new fiction from David Boop, Michaelbrent Collings, Roy M. Griffis, Sarah A. Hoyt, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Noah Lemelson, Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Edward M. Lerner, David Liss, Gail Z. Martin, Joshua Palmatier, Richard Paolinelli, Jean-Louis Trudel, James van Pelt, Garon Whited, and Edward Willett, plus reprints by James Kennedy, R.S. Mellette, and Lavie Tidhar. Among those authors are several international bestsellers, as well as winners and nominees for every major science fiction and fantasy literary award.
While the goal was reached, the campaign fell a bit short of the $17,000 stretch goal to have the anthology illustrated, with a new black-and-white drawing for each story from Calgary, Alberta artist Wendi Nordell, who has illustrated numerous books for regional publishers including Edward Willett’s science-fiction and fantasy poetry collection, I Tumble Through the Diamond Dust.
The anthology WILL be illustrated, but to what degree depends on the success of a secondary supplemental crowdsourcing campaign running through the end of May, over on Crowdfundr.
This campaign has fewer but more focused backers’ rewards, and unlike a Kickstarter campaign, it’s not all-or-nothing: every dollar raised will go toward ensuring more full-page illustrations for the anthology.
Check out the campaign and donate here!
Thank you for your support!
December 23, 2022
New omnibus ebook edition of The Shards of Excalibur series
For the first time, you can now buy the entire Shards of Excalibur series in a single omnibus ebook! Just released by Shadowpaw Press, this includes the latest editions of the books, and costs only half as much as buying all five ebooks separately! Available on Amazon (and soon everywhere else) or directly from Shadowpaw Press. As well, the new Shadowpaw Press print editions of the five books in...
November 12, 2022
Now available: my 12th novel for DAW Books, The Tangled Stars
The Tangled Stars, my far-future humorous space opera from DAW Books, is now available everywhere in ebook and audiobook (narrated by Wayne Mitchell). For an introduction to the main characters, check out “Thibauld’s Tale” in Shapers of Worlds Volume II, the second of the anthologies I’ve Kickstarted featuring authors who were guest on my podcast, The Worldshapers . . . and me! Here’s the official...
