Cora Buhlert's Blog, page 67

Steampunk in East Frisia: Steamfest Papenburg 2019

Papenburg is an East Frisian town of about 38000 people near the Dutch border, which is probably best known these days as the home of the Meyer Werft , where many of the giant cruise ships carrying tourists across the world’s oceans are built here, complicated by the fact that Papenburg is located about 40 kilometres inland along the rather narrow river Ems, which makes getting the newly built cruise liners to the North Sea something of a challenge. If you’ve ever been on a cruise in the past twenty years or so, chances are pretty good that the cruise ship was built in Papenburg.

Steampunk is not exactly something you would associate with Papenburg, even though the steamship MV Liemba a.k.a. Graf Goetzen, which starred in The African Queen as the German gunboat Königin Luise, was built here in 1913. Therefore, I was very surprised to learn that Papenburg not only has an active Steampunk community, but also hosts Steamfest, a Steampunk festival which took place for the second time in 2019. And since Papenburg is only about 114 kilometres away, I of course decided to pay Steamfest a visit.

Steamfest took place on the grounds of Gut Altenkamp, an 18th century manor house with a historical garden a little outside the town. The venue is absolutely perfect for the purpose, because it feels almost as if you’d somehow stumbled into the mansion of an eccentric inventor.

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The Gut Altenkamp mansion, built in 1728 by architect Peter Pictorius.

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The entrance of Gut Altenkamp with the crests of the von Velen and Ascheberg zu Botzlar families.

The aristocratic owners of Gut Altenkamp have long been washed away by the tides of history. These days, the mansion is owned by the city of Papenburg and serves as an art gallery and venue for cultural events. It’s still an imposing building, even if most of the original decorations and furnishing are gone, so here are some photos of the mansion’s interior:

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The former kitchen of Gut Altenkamp with its vaulted brick ceilings.

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One room in the mansion still has its original 18th century murals of Rococo people pretending to be shepherd (it was a thing back then) and enjoying the simple life

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Gut Altenkamp also has beautiful chandeliers like this Venetian glass chandelier.

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Another beautiful chandelier, this one made from brass. Because this room was better lit, you can also get a good look at the stucco decorated ceiling.

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The altar triptych as well as the statues are from the house chapel of Gut Altenkamp, but after WWI they were relocated to a small public chapel next to a war memorial just outside the gates.

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And here is the war memorial just outside Gut Altenkamp with the chapel in the background.

A few stalls and exhibits were inside the mansion, but most of Steamfest took place outside in the extensive park of Gut Altenkamp with its 200 year old yew hedges.

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A look across Steamfest Papenburg viewed from a second story window of the Gut Altenkamp mansion.

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The sign above this gate says “Step inside” and welcomes you to Steamfest

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A look across the grounds of Steamfest.

All in all, there were more than 3000 people at Steamfest, which is a lot for a town of 38000 people in a sparsely populated rural border region. A lot of the visitors were mundanes, often families with children, but I also saw a whole group of bikers from a local motorcycle club. There also was a sizeable number of people in Steampunk outfits, including a fellow dressed up as the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. There was also a surprising number of pirates, which isn’t that surprising, considering that East Frisia has a proud history of piracy and was home and refuge of the legendary pirate Klaus Störtebeker. I also saw an amazing Jack Sparrow cosplayer who looked just like the real thing. Many of both visitors and exhibitors came from the nearby Netherlands, which has a big Steampunk scene. As for myself, I did dress up a bit with a long skirt, a Belle Epoque style blouse and Steampunk jewellery, which makes me a fair weather Steampunker, I guess.

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Vintage bicycles and motorbikes steampunked up.

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A replica of the Time Machine from George Pal’s eponymous 1960 movie, which is definitely proto-Steampunk, as well as a Steampunk mini-car.

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This vehicle looks as if it has escaped from a Frank R. Paul cover for a 1920s edition of Amazing Stories.

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A Steampunk R2D2 on display at Steamfest

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A wood-carved Yoda observes Steamfest.

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Wood carvings on display at Steamfest. In the background, the carver just puts the finishing touches to Groot.

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A fire and water fountain on display at Steamfest Papenburg

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We have found the dark secret of Gut Altenkamp. Who may this poor soul have been? An inconvenient wife, a spurned rival, an unfortunate chamber maid… The chalkboard next to the skeleton reads, “Do not disturb the excavation site! Fine: 1 crate of beer”, by the way.

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The mad woman in the attic of Gut Altenkamp has been let out to enjoy the festivities.

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A selection of exhibits, including a Lovecraftian horror bursting forth from a vintage radio.

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We have found Donovan’s brain and it is now wired to a computer answering trivia questions. I’m not sure whether the candies on the right are for the inventor and the brain.

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Donovan’s brain even has a girlfriend (the brain in a jar from “Totalled”, maybe?) nicknamed Frau Professor.

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This is not a custom-built Steampunk device, but a vintage TELEX machine. Still in working order, too.

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The classic Volkswagen Beetle is Dieselpunk rather than Steampunk anyway and this overgrown rusty carcass of a Beetle looks positively post-apocalyptic.

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Again Dieselpunk rather than Steampunk, the volunteer fire brigade of Aschendorf presented some of its vintage vehicles.

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More vintage vehicles courtesy of the Volunteer Fire Brigade Aschendorf

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The Nautilus One-Man Band from the Netherlands performs at Steamfest. There were also two or three other bands performing on the main stage in the evenings.

Part of the grounds had been turned into a mini fun fair with various vintage rides, much to the enjoyment of the younger visitors.

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This very small vintage Ferris wheel was clearly the favourite of the many children at Steamfest.

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A vintage carousel at Steamfest.

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A vintagte swing boat ride at Steamfest

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A Dad and his daughter try the Test Your Strength machine at Steamfest.

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Steam and coal can be used for more than just powering machinery, as this spit roasted whole pig at Steamfest proves.

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This pirate ship at Steamfest is a stall selling drinks, including some delicious Belgian cherry lambik.

All in all, Steamfest in Papenburg was a highly enjoyable event in a beautiful venue. I went with a friend who’s not a Steampunker and he’s now a fan as well. According to a paywalled article from the local paper, Steamfest will take place again next year and I’ll certainly be there.

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A no longer quite so new Thurvok story available: The Night Court

Before we get back to photos, con reports and genre commentary, here is a not quite new release announcement. Because I just realised that I never officially announced the latest Thurvok story, which came out just before I left for WorldCon.

Like most of the previous Thurvok stories, The Night Court was written during the July Short Story Challenge, where the aim is to write a story per day during the month of July. And in fact, The Night Court is the first 2019 July Short Story Challenge stories to be published.

Like many July short story challenge stories, The Night Court was inspired by fantasy art. The initial inspiration was this piece by Nele Diel. So I started writing the first scene, where Meldom walks through the city by night, only to be attacked and taken. However, I had no idea what would happened next. And so looked through my folder of inspirational images again and came upon this piece by Joseph Vargo. This image of a dungeon, complete with unfortunate prisoners and a grim looking inquisitioner, sparked an idea. What if whoever had captured Meldom was not a kidnapper, bandit or old enemy, but the law or what passes for it? Especially since the law has plenty of reasons to be after Meldom, given his past. And so the Night Court was born.

The titular Night Court is loosely based upon the Vehmic courts of medieval Germany or rather the legends surrounding said courts. Now I had long planned to write a story about someone innocently accused by a Vehmic Court someday, though I had intended it to be a historical along the lines of The Kiss of the Executioner’s Blade or Hangman’s Wages (and indeed, I may still write that story someday).

The roots for that particular idea go back to being made to read Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s historical drama Götz von Berlichingen in high school. Nowadays, the play Götz von Berlichingen is mainly famous for one rather rude line, which regularly causes giggles in high school classes. Otherwise, Götz von Berlichingen is yet another classic German play about a man (the titular Götz) who is so determined to defend his principles (usually something about liberty and autonomy) that he doesn’t care who gets hurt by his obstinate behaviour. There were a lot of plays like that, all dating from the late 18th century and all written by a group of male authors who all knew each other, which we were made to read in high school. And the teachers inevitably expected us to side with the obstinate jerk protagonist and were always very surprised when we didn’t. “Nope, Wilhelm Tell having weird hang-ups about greeting a hat does not give him the right to endanger his kid, no matter how good an archer he is. Just greet the damn hat, no matter how silly the whole thing is.” – “Nope, Odoardo Galotti being pissed off at the aristocracy in general and this one Prince in particular does not give him the right to honour-kill his daughter. What the hell is wrong with that guy?”

Götz von Berlichingen at least offers plenty of excitement, as Götz’s obstinate behaviour comes back to bite him in the arse and the bishop he pissed off sends an army of killers after him. It also has more female characters than usual. Two of them are the loyal wife/girlfriend/sister type who only exists to support our hero in being obstinate, but the third, Adelheid von Walldorf, a Milady de Winter prototype, who seduces and poison men on behalf of the main antagonist, is much more interesting. And in the final act, there is a scene of a Vehmic Court with masked judges who sentence Adelheid to death for her crimes and then dispatch an executioner to kill her. This short scene is a complete non sequitur, it just pops up in the middle of a bunch of scenes of various male characters of the play dying, while maintaining their principles. Nor does Goethe ever follow up on the scene again. Does the executioner ever catch up with Adelheid? Goethe doesn’t tell us. Much to the frustration of my high school German teacher, I was not at all satisfied with that and kept asking what had happened to Adelheid, whether she’d been killed or escaped, and what was the matter with that spooky court with masked judges anyway, cause that story was obviously a lot more interesting than Götz and his principles.

That one scene with the Vehmic Court stuck in my head, as did the vague idea that someone should write that much more exciting story that Goethe failed to tell. And that someone might just as well be me. In the end, the Vehmic Court idea languished with all the other half-baked ideas for historical adventure stories somewhere at the edge of my consciousness. But while I was writing The Night Court, I thought, “What if Meldom hasn’t been captured by an official court after all, but by his world’s equivalent of a Vehmic Court?” The rest of the story largely told itself.

Now the Thurvok stories are credited to Richard Blakemore, hardworking pulp writer by day and masked crimefighter by night, who is the hero of my Silencer series. And though I wasn’t aware of it when I was writing the story, there are certain parallels between The Night Court and the Silencer story Countdown to Death, because in both stories, the protagonist finds himself accused, convicted and almost executed. And though both the Silencer and Meldom may be guilty of many other things (and compared to the pulp vigilantes from the actual 1930s, the Silencer is remarkably restrained and only rarely kills someone), they are innocent of this particular crime. So did Richard Blakemore’s experience in Countdown to Death influence his sword and sorcery story The Night Court, via me who was actually typing the story? Or do I simply keep returning to certain tropes and themes.

Whenever you have a court – even one of such dubious legality as the Night Court – you of course also have courtroom scenes. And so I have half-jokingly referred to The Night Court as a sword and sorcery courtroom drama, which it absolutely is.

So prepare to accompany Meldom, Thurvok, Sharenna and Lysha, as they face…

The Night Court

[image error]The city of Vanadur suffers under the thumb of the Night Court, whose bailiffs snatch random people off the streets and whose masked judges know only one verdict: guilty.

Meldom, thief, cutpurse and occasional assassin, is one of those who are snatched off the streets and put on trial by the Night Court. The accusation: murder. But while Meldom may have done many questionable things in the past, he knows that he did not commit this particular murder.

However, the Night Court is not inclined to believe him and so it’s up to Thurvok, Sharenna and Lysha to save him from the gallows.

This is a short story of 7100 words or 25 print pages in the Thurvok sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.

More information.

Length: 7100 words

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Playster, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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WorldCon 77 in Dublin, Part 2: The Hugos

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The contents of the Hugo finalist/accepter packet given out at WorldCon 77. The certificates as well as one finalist pin have since been mailed to Gideon and Janice Marcus of Galactic Journey. The second pin remains with me and now lives on my favourite jacket together with a poppy and a badger pin.

In my last post, I talked about my general experiences at WorldCon 77 in Dublin, Ireland. Now here comes the long awaited Hugo commentary, even though everybody knows by now who the winners are and discussion has largely died down. Though this year’s Hugo commentary is a little different than usual, because this time around I was not only watching the Hugos via livestream – no, I was directly in the auditorium a few metres from the stage, since I was the designated accepter for best fanzine finalist Galactic Journey.

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Brandon O’Brien of FIYAH at the Hugo rehearsal

In order to prevent unfortunate mishaps during the Hugo ceremony such as Dana International stumbling and dropping the Eurovision trophy at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest, there was a rehearsal a few hours before the ceremony, where the finalists and accepters were told how to go on stage, how to hold the Hugo trophy (“Like a baby”), where to stand and where the timer for the 90 second acceptance speech time limit would be. Dublin’s Hugo Awards (of which I don’t seem to have a photo) were beautiful, but also very heavy, 4.5 kilograms. Because the rehearsal was running late, I had a nice chat about dystopias that make no sense with Greg Hullender and Eric Wong of fellow best fanzine finalist Rocket Stack Rank and the accepter for best graphic story finalist (and eventual winner) Monstress, whose name I have forgotten.

This rehearsal was also the closest I ever got to a Hugo Award and the stage, because – as you probably know by now – Galactic Journey did not win, though we finished in a good fourth place. Meanwhile, the well deserved winner of the 2019 Hugo for Best fanzine was Lady Business. This also meant that I never got to use the acceptance speech I had prepared in cooperation with our editor Gideon Marcus. I do like to think it wouldn’t have been the worst speech of the night.

After the Hugo rehearsal, I headed back to the hotel to wash my hair and get ready for the ceremony. During the rehearsal, I asked one of the volunteers if there’d be someone on hand to help with make-up, etc… (something I’ve never been very good at, since I hardly ever wear make-up) as in San José last year, and was told “Nope, sorry, you’ll have to do it yourself.” Of course, I later learned that there was someone helping with make-up and hair after all, though I suspect the volunteer did not know that. As it was, my plus one Jo Van had to help to fasten my tiara in the lobby of the CCD.

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Me and my plus one Jo Van at the Hugo reception. This is the only photo I have of myself at the Hugos. I like to think we look pretty good.

Before the Hugo ceremony proper, there was the Hugo reception with nibbles and drinks for Hugo finalists, accepters, presenters and other important genre folks. There were a lot of people at the reception – 200 to 250 at least. I ended up sitting at the same table as best novella finalists and eventual winner Martha Wells, chatted with this year’s Lodestar finalist Holly Black and last year’s Lodestar finalist Sarah Rees Brennan, several of the Journey Planet people as well as fan guest of honour Bill Burns, admired best novel finalist Catherynne M. Valente’s gown, helped out the accepter (sorry, I’ve forgotten the name) for Charles Payseur and Quick Sip Reviews who’d forgotten the photography schedule and met fan artist finalist Spring Schoenhuth who had created the rocketship necklace I was wearing at the ceremony (which I’d purchased the day before at the art show). The reception was also where the official photos of the finalists and accepters were taken, though those photos haven’t yet surfaced anywhere.

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At the Hugo reception at WorldCon 77

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At the Hugo reception.

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At the bar at the Hugo reception.

You can see more of my Hugo reception photos at File 770, where the posters also identify several of the people in the photos whom I don’t know.

After the reception, it was time to head up to the auditorium for the ceremony. Because Team Journey Planet wanted to sit together and we didn’t want to climb over George R.R. Martin or ask him to get up, we ended up sitting on two free seats next to a seat with a sign “Reserved for presenter”. A bit later a volunteer showed up and asked us to make sure that the seat remained free, because it was needed for one of the presenters. And who was that presenter? None other than Dr. Jeanette Epps, NASA astronaut and WorldCon 77 guest of honour. So yes, I got to sit next to and chat with a real bonafide astronaut, which was definitely the highlight of the evening for me (sorry, Hugos). Sitting on the other side of us was Tor.com editor Lee Harris BTW.

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The auditorium at the CCD just before the Hugo ceremony.

So let’s get to the Hugos itself. These past few years, I have usually watched the ceremony via livestream, so I knew what to expect. But watching it live in the auditorium, only a few metres away from the stage, was something different entirely. For starters, while it’s perfectly fine to yell or squee at a computer screen, the range of expression in the auditorium is limited to clapping and the occasional cheer, especially since we were sitting directly where all the Hugo winners had to walk past.

Sitting so close to the stage, we also got a front-row view of this year’s Hugo ceremony’s big screw-up, namely the close captioning via automatic speech recognition, which could not cope with anything that was not pre-planned and turned “dogmatists” into “dog magicians” and “1984, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones” into “1984, Bored of the Rings and Cream of Thrones”, much to the confusion of Ada Palmer, who presented the Campbell Award and had no idea why people were laughing. I saw after the ceremony and told her, “Sorry, we were not laughing at you, but at the mess the speech recognition system made of your words.” The speech recognition system made a couple of more unintentionally hilarious mistakes and then completely gave up, when best fan arist winner Mia Sereno a.k.a. Likhain started saying something in Tagalog. And yes, it’s a shame that people in Ireland, which is after all officially a bilingual country, did not take into account that languages other than English might be spoken on the Hugo stage.

Other issues during the ceremony included that the presenters had problems pronouncing the names of some of the finalists and accidentally skipped over one finalist in the best graphic story category. Now mispronounced names are an exceptionally common problem that happens everywhere from the Oscars via the annual 9/11 memorial (where German businessman Heinrich Ackermann, who was aboard one of the doomed planes, has his name mispronounced every single year) to school roll calls, which doesn’t make it any less annoying. Not that I have never mispronounced names myself – Spring Schoenhuth was quite amused when I pronounced her surname the German way – but I do try to make an effort, especially in settings like the Hugo ceremony. For example, the acceptance speech which I never got to hold would have credited all the contributors to Galactic Journey and I made sure to ask beforehand how to pronounce the names I wasn’t sure of.

Traditionally, the Campbell Award for best new writer (and I will continue to call it by its old name here, because that’s how the award was called at the time. From next year on, I will use the new name) is presented first and this year’s winner was Jeannette Ng. I have to admit that I did not expect Jeannette Ng to win, since last year she finished behind other finalists who were still eligible this year and unlike some other finalists, she didn’t have any new work out since her debut novel Under the Pendulum Sun except for a single short story in a small press anthology. However, Jeannette Ng lives in the UK, her novel was published by a UK publisher and shortlisted for a couple of UK awards. And with WorldCon in Dublin, there were a lot British and Irish fans, which may have contributed to Jeannette Ng’s win.

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Jeannette Ng steps up to the podium after having just won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Jeannette Ng also promptly caused the most controversial moment of the evening, when she denounced John W. Campbell as a fascist in her acceptance speech who formed the genre in his image (“white, male, sterile”) and would have tried to keep writers like her out, before she went on to express her support for the protesters in Hongkong. That speech has caused quite a stir and eventually led to both Campbell Awards in existence, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (which Jeannette Ng won) and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel to be renamed. The Campbell Award for Best New Writer will henceforth be known as Astounding Award; the new name of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award has not been announced yet. File 770 reports about the controversy here.

Now I have absolutely no issue with changing the name of the Campbell Award, because 48 years after his death, John W. Campbell is much less relevant than he once was and his relevance to the genre had already massively declined by the time of his death (try reading a 1960s or early 1970s issue of Analog some time). And it’s no secret that Campbell had highly problematic views with regard to race, genre, LGBTQ people, science and pretty much everything else, which became even more problematic over time and that he was widely viewed as a reactionary crank by the time he died. Though John W. Campbell was also a more complex person than the caricature version of him as a far right crank who was into pseudoscience and wrote barely readable editorials for Analog which inevitably were on the wrong side of whatever issue he decided to tackle that month. In fact, in my series of posts about the Retro Hugo finalists and the so-called Golden Age in general (and since), I’ve quite frequently come across stories which were published by Campbell in Astounding or Unknown and yet do not match the stereotype of Campbellian science fiction at all. The impact of John W. Campbell on the genre and whether he still matters today or not deserves its own post and I may well write it eventually. But in short, it was probably time for a change and besides, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer is a great name for the award, which still ties back to the magazine Campbell edited (though I grumble a bit at the omission of Unknown), but without the baggage of the man himself.

Nonetheless, I was quite surprised at the impact Jeannette Ng’s speech had, especially since John W. Campbell has been criticised for years, including by other Campbell Award winners, and in fact, the definitive work about Campbell and his writers – Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee – was a Hugo finalist in the best related work category this year and lost in what must be one of the great injustices of Hugo history. However, I strongly suspect that quite a few Hugo voters never got around to reading Astounding and don’t much care for the history of the genre in general, so the fact that Campbell was a problematic person was new to them. Coincidentally, Alec Nevala-Lee also argued that it might be time to change the name of the Campbell Award almost a year ago.

Furthermore, the version of that is circulating online is not what she actually said. And the actual speech delivered (which you can see in a video here) had more swearing, several major errors and also seemed to overrun the ninety second limit. And while there was cheering in the auditorium, when she called John W. Campbell a fascist, down where I was sitting the mood was mostly polite clapping and quiet cringing and a few whispers of “Well, she’s not wrong, but…” I guess this is one of those examples where actually being present at an event is very different from experiencing it secondhand.

The various fan awards were announced next. Mia Sereno a.k.a. Likhain won a highly deserved Hugo for best fan artist. Foz Meadows won Best Fanwriter, a highly deserved win for a writer who has been short- and longlisted several times already. Our Opinions Are Correct by Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz won Best Fancast right out of the gate, but then it is a very good podcast. When Best Fancast was called, I put away my phone and beaded evening bag, grabbed my prepared acceptance speech and prepared to get up, should it be necessary. And then Lady Business were announced as the winner for best fanzine and I could relax and fully enjoy the rest of the night. And for the record, I’m happy for Lady Business to win, since they are a great site, even though I was obviously rooting for Galactic Journey.

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Lady Business wins the Hugo for Best Fanzine

Uncanny won the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine for the fourth year running. Much as I like Uncanny, I wouldn’t mind if someone else won in this category once in a while. The two editor awards went to Navah Wolfe and the late Gardner Dozois (accepted by his son) respectively, both highly deserved. Monstress won best graphic story for the third year in a row. Charles Vess became the evening’s only double winner, when he won both the Hugo for Best Professional Artist and the one-off special Hugo for Best Art Book for the illustrated edition of Ursula K. le Guin’s Tales of Earthsea. Again, both awards are highly deserved, though announcing them right after another was not a great idea, because Charles Vess hadn’t even made it back to his seat when he had to go on stage again.

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Charles Vess just won the Hugo for Best Art Book.

The execrable The Good Place won Best Dramatic Presentation Short – again. I still fail to see what so many Hugo voters see in this dreadful show and indeed, this is one of two Hugo winners this year that I absolutely disagree with (though my first choice only won in two categories). Even some people who like The Good Place feel that it shouldn’t have won two years in a row. The consolation is that the show will end after season 4, so they have two more years at most. And while no one was present to accept the award on behalf of The Good Place, since the show is shooting at the moment, they did send over a nice thank you video featuring two of the actors, which was a nice touch.

Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form, which surprised the hell out of me. Not because it’s not a good movie – it is – but because I and pretty much everybody else expected Black Panther to win. The award was accepted on behalf of the film team by two very nice young ladies from Sony UK, who were genuinely enthusiastic.

And now we come to the other 2019 Hugo Award winner that I sorely disagree with, namely Archive of Our Own winning in the Best Related Work category. Now I’ve stated before that I believe that AO3, to use the abbreviation the archive’s users prefer, was misclassified in the Best Related Work category, which has traditionally been for non-fiction works related to the genre, though it has been watered down in recent years and occasionally included finalists which I feel were misclassified. AO3 is not even the first misclassified finalist to win in this category – the podcast Writing Excuses won a couple of years ago. Nor was it the only misclassified Best Related Work finalist this year – The Hobbit documentary, while certainly a worthy work, would have fit better in Dramatic Presentation and the Mexicanx Initiative, while a wonderful project, was definitely an edge case.

However, AO3’s win is problematic, due to the irritating behaviour of a noisy minority of its users (displayed in this thread on the AO3 site and in the comments to this and this File 770 post). In short, a few AO3 users have taken to calling themselves Hugo winners (and called themselves Hugo finalists before that) and at least two even tried to make related merchandise, which is a violation of trademark rights and a huge no-no. And when it was pointed out to them that the Hugo winner was the Archive itself and its infrastructure, not the individual users, that noisy minority doubled down and engaged in some truly pretzelly logic why they were winners after all. I think my favourite is “We’re a collective”, which makes AO3 sound like the Borg, which I suspect was not the intention. Furthermore, the explanations by various AO3 users why they believed every AO3 user was a winner also confirm that the Archive was completely misclassified in the Best Related Work category.

Now as you know, I attended the Hugo ceremony this year as the designated accepter for the Best Fanzine finalist Galactic Journey. However, the fact that I contributed to a Hugo-nominated fanzine (which I’m very proud of) does not make me personally a Hugo finalist. The finalist was Galactic Journey. And if we’d won, all contributors would have been credited in the acceptance speech, but I personally wouldn’t have been a Hugo winner, and the shiny trophy would have been mailed to our editor Gideon Marcus. Nor am I personally a Nobel Peace Prize winner, though I am a citizen of the EU, nor Time Person of the Year and I’m not Pope either nor have I won several football championships. As it is, I didn’t even attach the Hugo finalist ribbon, which came in the Hugo finalist/accepter packet, to my badge, because I wasn’t the finalist and I wasn’t sure what the etiquette in such cases is. And you know what? Being a contributor to a Hugo-nominated project is awesome and a reason to celebrate. But claiming that you’re a finalist/winner, when you’re not, is not cool and doubling down, when asked to knock it off, is even less cool.

Not that I suspect anybody will listen, since the noisy minority of AO3 users has spent 16 pages of comments at File 770 not listening and recently some of them have escalated to insults and threats. I also suspect that they have no idea how pissed off many WorldCon members are at them right now. Even directly after the ceremony, there was a lot of grumbling about AO3’s Hugo win among pretty much everybody who wasn’t a member of that particular community. And no, it’s not because WorldCon members secretly hate fanfiction (some likely do, but most – including me – have a neutral to positive view of fanfiction) nor is it an old guard versus new young upstarts conflict, as some people are trying to paint this and pretty much any other conflict related to the 2019 Hugo Awards, because people of all ages are unhappy with AO3, just as people of all ages post at AO3. It’s because the bad behaviour of a small minority is about to squander what good will AO3 had garnered.

So let’s get on to more pleasant things and talk about the winners in the fiction categories. The new Lodestar Award for Best YA novel went to Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. In retrospect, this win shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, since Children of Blood and Bone got a lot of buzz and was hugely popular. But I honestly had no idea who would win in this category. The almost as new Best Series Hugo went to Becky Chambers for her Wayfarers series. It’s a lovely series and I’m happy it won, though I cannot help feeling a bit sorry for Yoon Ha Lee who never got to take home a Hugo for the Machineries of Empire trilogy/Hexarchate series in spite of several nominations (for all three novels, the series and one novelette), largely due to being up against the juggernaut of N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth series with the first two books.

Alix E. Harrow won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies”. It’s a highly deserved win for a lovely story and coincidentally also one of only three categories where my first choice won. The Hugo Award for Best Novelette went to Zen Cho for “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again”. This is not a win I expected, but then the novelette category was extremely difficult to call this year, because all stories were very close together in quality and either of them would have been a most worthy winner.

Martha Wells won her second Best Novella Hugo in a row for Artificial Condition and gave what was probably my favourite acceptance speech of the evening, when she accepted the award on behalf of Murderbot and the Arsehole Research Transport. Coincidentally, the other two eligible Murderbot novellas both had enough votes to make the ballot, though Martha Wells withdrew them. And while we’re on the subject of Murderbot, someone should introduce them to AO3. Since I strongly suspect that Murderbot would love it.

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Mary Robinette Kowal wins the Hugo Award for Best Novel, presented by Dr. Jeanette Epps.

The Hugo for Best Novel, finally, went to Mary Robinette Kowal for The Calculating Stars. This wasn’t exactly a surprise, since the novel was hugely popular, though I didn’t particularly care for it. But then, the majority of Hugo voters rarely share my tastes in the novel category, since the last time my first choice won was in 2014.

There are some complaints from the usual suspects that the Hugo winners in the fiction categories were all women for the third year in a row, which is apparently a sign of the impending apocalypse and the expulsion of men, particularly straight white men, from the genre. Instead of responding to these complaints again, I’ll just direct you to this blogpost from 2016, which addresses the relevant points. Also, if there is a novel or story by a male writer you feel should have been on the ballot and wasn’t, check out the longlist for the respective category and you’ll very likely find it there.

After the ceremony was over, the winners had to stay for the official photographs, while everybody else stormed the bathrooms, since it was a long ceremony. And since Galactic Journey was now a Hugo loser that meant that as their representative I could go to the Hugo Losers Party that George R.R. Martin created in 1976 and revived in 2015. This year’s Hugo Losers Party took place at the Guinness Storehouse, a former brewery turned museum cum events space.

The Guinness Storehouse is a fascinating building, which was designed by the famous Scottish engineer Sir William Arrol who designed the Tower Bridge in London, the Forth Bridge in Scotland and the Harland & Wolff gantry crane which was used to build the Titanic and Olympic. And because I’m weird and take photos of the architecture, while at the coolest party in town, here are some photos of the Guinness Storehouse interior.

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A look at Sir William Arrol’s steel girder construction at the Guinness Storehouse.

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A look down the atrium at the Guinness Storehouse.

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A tank, pipes and valves at the Guinness Storehouse. The steampunky vibes of the place certainly made it a fitting venue for a science fictional party.

The Guinness Storehouse was quite a bit away from the CCD, though there was supposed to be a shuttle service. However, when we exited the CCD, there was no bus in sight. It was also quite chilly that night and since I was wearing an evening gown, I was shivering. We stood around on the steps of the CCD and chatted for a few minutes and because it was cold, we decided not to wait for the bus, but split a taxi between three people.

We arrived at the Guinness Storehouse a little after eleven. Someone checked my invitation at the entrance and checked my name off a list, then we went in. I had my photo taken (though those photos haven’t yet surfaced anywhere either), was given a Hugo Loser ribbon and a nice gift courtesy of CoNZealand, the 2020 WorldCon. There was music – a weird mix of SFF related songs, oldies and traditional Irish songs – and there were free drinks and various foods – shrimp cocktail with Marie Rose sauce, sausage rolls, salads, Irish stew, little dessert tarts, etc…

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At the Hugo Losers Party around half past eleven.

When we arrived, the party wasn’t particularly busy yet, so we found a seat, got food and drinks and settled down to peruse the Hugo results in the official WorldCon 77 newsletter and – as soon as they were available – the full voting and nomination data. This was also when I learned that I had made the Hugo longlist in the Best Fanwriter category again. Many thanks to the 33 people who nominated me.

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What do you do at the coolest party in town? Check out the Hugo voting and nomination statistics, of course.

Around midnight, our host George R.R. Martin took the stage to talk a bit about the history of the Hugo Losers Party and to present this year’s Alfie Awards to two worthy, but overlooked editors. At the end of his speech, George R.R. Martin also said that the venue had reached its maximum capacity and that apparently a few people were still waiting outside to get in, but that no one should feel compelled to leave because of that.

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George R.R. Martin on stage at the Hugo Losers Party.

At around this time, I checked Twitter and was greeted by several disappointed and outright angry tweets by various people who hadn’t been able to get into the Hugo Losers Party, which was the first indication I got that the problem was bigger than just a few people not being able to get in. Though I did see some of the people who’d tweeted about not being able to get in at the party later on, so they did get in after all.

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The Hugo Losers Party has spilled out onto the mezzanine of the Guinness Storehouse.

By now, there are two versions of what happened at the Hugo Losers Party. One version, elaborated in this statement at File 770 by George R.R. Martin himself, is that the whole thing was a regrettable mess-up, because the organisers of the party underestimated the number of Hugo finalists and losers as well as the fact that the attendance limit for the venue was firm and not flexible due to strict Irish fire safety laws (which are a result of this terrible 1981 fire which happened not ten kilometres from the Guinness Storehouse and claimed the lives of 48 young people), which left a number of people with invitations, including several Hugo losers, unable to get in. The other version is that George R.R. Martin wanted to party with his friends from the “old guard” of science fiction and deliberately snubbed this year’s Hugo losers, particularly the relative nobodies from the fan categories, who were left standing outside in the cold.

Speaking as someone who actually was at the party, my observations suggest that the problems with the Hugo Losers Party were a (preventable) mess-up and not a deliberate snub. Why was the mess-up preventable? Because the Hugo finalists have been known for months, so it shouldn’t be difficult to calculate how many finalists and accepters there will be. Is it frustrating to be left standing outside the hottest party in town, even though you have an invitation? Of course, it is and it should not have happened. However, mess-ups and mistakes happen and not everything is attributable to malice.

As for some of the claims I’ve seen online, invitations were checked at the entrance and people weren’t allowed to take more than the allotted plus one with them. In my experience, it was a matter of pure dumb luck whether you arrived early enough to get in or had to wait outside. If we’d waited for the bus rather than take a taxi, we’d likely have been among those waiting outside. Were fan category finalists and newer finalists snubbed in favour of some mythical “old guard”? Again, not in my experience. For starters, I am a relative nobody who was an accepter for a finalist in a fan category and I got in, even though at least one person on Twitter implied that I shouldn’t have been let in, because I was “just” an accepter. At the party, I also talked to representatives of three other fanzine finalists, one fancast and saw one fanwriter and one fanartist finalist. I also saw a couple of other newer and first time finalists at the party. And since I’m not a regular con goer, there are a lot of people I simply don’t recognise.

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This must be the “old guard partying” that we’ve heard so much about.

Regarding claims that there were a lot of people at the party who weren’t current year finalists, for starters, George R.R. Martin himself has said that the Hugo Losers Party is for everybody who has ever lost a Hugo and not just for current year finalists, which I for one didn’t know. And this could really have been communicated better. Were there people at the party (and at the Hugo reception for that matter) who were not current year finalists? Yes. But a lot of these people were accepters for someone else or plus ones or part of the organisational staff. Without actually asking them, there is no way of knowing if this big name author or that well known editor wasn’t an accepter or plus one for someone. Of all the people I talked to at the party, there were only two who were neither finalists nor accepters nor plus ones. One was Nicholas Whyte, the 2019 Hugo administrator. And if anybody has a right to go to that party, it’s him. The other person was a writer with whom I’d been on a panel earlier. So when we bumped into each other at the party, we chatted and I asked them if they were an accepter or a plus one, whereupon the writer told me that they’d received an invitation to the party. And for the record, this writer isn’t a member of some mythical “old guard” of science fiction and actually writes in a different genre.

One thing that I find troubling is that certain people try to turn every conflict loosely associated with WorldCon 77 into a battle between the entrenches “old guard of fandom” and beleaguered young and coming people whom the old guard is trying to keep out. This “young versus old” conflict is evoked everywhere, in the debate about the Campbell/Astounding Award, in the debate about the nomination and win of AO3 and in the debate about the problems at the Hugo Losers Party. And do you know what? It’s bullshit. There is no old versus young conflict, no matter how hard some people try to stir it up.

In my post about WorldCon 75, I wrote that the thing I enjoyed most about WorldCon was how inclusive it was and how everybody, whether a world famous author or a first time member, whether a baby at its mother’s breast or someone in their eighties and nineties who had attended some of the earliest WorldCons, was part of the community. Again this is just my experience, but I talked to a lot of people at WorldCon ranging in age from children and teenagers to older longtime fans. Almost all of those interactions were pleasant and I met a lot of lovely people. And the few interactions that were not pleasant, the handful of people who made it clear that they believed I didn’t belong were not the so-called “old guard” – in fact, the few big name fans and industry professionals I talked to were all perfectly pleasant, even though I am pretty much a nobody – but younger, newer folks who’ve come up in the past few years. Such as a writer whose book I’d promoted at the Speculative Fiction Showcase and who subsequently told me that I didn’t belong at the Hugo Losers Party. Or the folks who when I politely corrected some statements about the Hugo Losers Party accused me of a lack of solidarity and of cozying up to the big names, even though I’m pretty sure George R.R. Martin has zero idea who I am. Or the folks who call everybody who has an issue with AO3’s nomination or criticises the behaviour of some of their users an old white cishet dude who should just die off.

WorldCon 77 and the Hugos were a great experience, but this artificial “old versus young” conflict has soured some of it for me. We’re all fans, damn it.

Comments are off. If you want to complain, go elsewhere.

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WorldCon 77 in Dublin, Part 1: The Good…

Yes, I know that my WorldCon and TitanCon report as well as detailed Huog commentary has been much delayed, but then I’ve been ill, first with a cold acquired at WorldCon and then with a stomach bug acquired from a dodgy poke bowl at Amsterdam airport. However, here is the long awaited WorldCon 77 report, complete with photos.

After my problems getting to Dublin, chronicled in this post, Amsterdam Schiphol airport decided to give me a very Irish farewell, complete with a rainbow over the airfield.

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A rainbow over Amsterdam Schiphol airport.

In Dublin, I was staying at the Gibson Hotel, a very modern, very nice, music-themed hotel, cause it’s “Gibson” as in the legendary guitar manufacturer. The music theme of the Gibson manifested itself in the decor, both in the form of a huge Bono mural in the atrium and a vintage Volkswagen Beetle (well, not quite as vintage as the one my parents had in the 1970s – this is newer Mexico Beetle) turned flower-pot in the lobby. With so much rock paraphernalia, a few SFF fans (and it seemed to me as if most guests at the Gibson were WorldCon members, though there were a handful of very confused looking businessman types, too) certainly fit right in.

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The lobby of the Gibson Hotel with illuminated escalators and a vintage Volkswagen Beetle doubling as a flower pot.

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The Bono mural at the Gibson Hotel

The Gibson Hotel also happened to be right next door to one of the two sites where WorldCon 77 took place, namely the Point Square, a recently completed and still largely empty shopping and entertainment complex (the only tennants were a Starbucks, a Freshii deli and an Odeon multiplex cinema), where some panels and signings as well as the entire arts and crafts portion of the con took place.

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The Gibson Hotel and Point Square

The first WorldCon related thing I did in Dublin was picking up my badge as well as my programme participant packet and the Hugo accepter packet for Galactic Journey. I also informed the nice people at registration that my Mom wouldn’t be able to attend due to being in hospital in Amsterdam and that we wanted to donate her membership, as we’d discussed beforehand. Because WorldCon 77 had closed down membership sales two weeks before the convention started, memberships were in high demand and I hope that some fan somewhere got to have great time at WorldCon with my Mom’s membership.

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My WorldCon 77 badge with ribbons and buttons, including the coveted “File 770 – That Wrecthed Hive of Scum and Villainy” button I got from Daniel Dern.

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The contents of the Hugo finalist/accepter packet given out at WorldCon 77. The certificates as well as one finalist pin have since been mailed to Gideon and Janice Marcus of Galactic Journey. The second pin remains with me and now lives on my favourite jacket together with a poppy and a badger pin.

Regarding the “File 770 – That Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy” there is also this somewhat blurry photo Daniel Dern took of both of us, when he gave me the button:

On Wednesday, the day before WorldCon officially started, I helped with move in and set-up at Point Square. This involved carrying boxes, assembling shelves for the staff lounge and crafting area, taping down table cloths and helping to set up the Raksura Colony Tree model. This was my first time volunteering at a WorldCon and it was a great experience. Not only do you get to help to make a great project like WorldCon happen, no, you also get to meet a lot of lovely people while volunteering. Especially if you’re new to WorldCon and don’t know anybody yet, I recommend volunteering as a way to meet people and make friends. What is more, I also got a handful of groats (which I used to buy a very pretty necklace in the dealers room) and a cool t-shirt.

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The Point Square Warehouse during set-up. The tables and chairs in front belong to the crafting area and in the back you can see where the art show will be.

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The Raksura Colony Tree model before any contributions have been added.

Now some people complain that WorldCon 77 was split between two locations approximately 800 metres or one tram stop apart, but in my view it was the right decision to rent extra space at the Point, both to alleviate the overcrowding problem (which was bad enough already) and because it meant that Dublin had a great art and crafting space, particularly compared to Helsinki, which sqashed the art show into a dark corner of the dealers room and fan space. The only problem was that the Warehouse area, where the art show and craft displays were, had no air conditioning, because it was literally an empty warehouse where appliances were still being installed on Wednesday, while we were setting up. The Odeon, where some panels took place, theoretically had air conditioning, but practically it often wasn’t working. It also seems as if quite a few people decided not to attend panels at the Odeon, because the one panel I had at the Odeon (on international comics) was more than half empty, while panels at the CCD were always full.

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A Lego display of a plant monster attacking a city. In the background, you can see part of the art show.

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A Lego castle with an army gathering outside the gates on display at WorldCon 77.

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The rebel base on Hoth recreated in Logo, on display at WorldCon 77.

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The interior of the rebel base on Hoth, recreated in Lego.

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A recreation of the Bayeux tapestry with bonus TARDIS at WorldCon 77. Created by Janet Clark.

I wound up spending quite a bit of time at Point Square, partly because it was right next door to where I was staying and partly because I was involved in the Raksura Colony Tree project. I also did one of the speedcrafting workshops in the crafting area and of course took a stroll through the art show, where I purchased a beautiful rocketship necklace by best fan artist Hugo finalist Spring Schoenhuth.

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Hard at work crafting the Raksura Colony Tree

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More folks hard at work crafting the Raksura Colony Tree

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The finished Raksura Colony Tree model

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A closer look at the Rakura Colony Tree model

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The Raksura Colony Tree with some of the many crafters who contributed to the project.

You can find some more of my Raksura Colony Tree photos at File 770, where they will find a bigger audience than it my little blog. You can also find plenty of photos, including some taken by the official convention photographers, at the Raksura Colony Tree blog. There also are some photos of Martha Wells, author of the Books of Raksura, which were the inspiration for the project, posing with the tree. Sadly, I was never there when Martha Wells dropped by the Raksura Colony Tree model, though I did get to meet her at the Hugo reception.

However, the main part of WorldCon 77 took place at the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD). The CCD, which opened its doors in 2010, is a spectacular building, designed by Pritzger Prize winning architect Eamon Kevin Roche.

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The CCD by day

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The CCD by night

The CCD is a very science fictional building. A very young (approx. five or six years old) fan liked it to a toppled tower and he is not wrong. The curved glass front, which you can see in the photos above, stretches along the entire front of the building and creates an open space above the lobby crisscrossed by escalators, which are the main way of getting to the five upper floors.

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A look at the lobby of the CCD from the first floor mezzanine.

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View down at the lobby of the CCD from the second floor.

The view from the escalators and upper floors were amazing and provided a great look at the river Liffey and the Dublin docklands and particularly the Samuel Beckett Bridge (and how awesome is it that Dublin names its bridges after writers?), which was designed by another star architect, Santiago Calatrava.

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A look at the river Liffey and the Samuel Beckett Bridge from an upper floor of the CCD

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Spencer Dock and the Samuel Beckett Bridge with bonus Irish flag, as seen from the first floor mezzanine of the CCD.

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A look at the Samuel Beckett Bridge by day from the first floor mezzanine of the CCD.

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A look at the Samuel Beckett Bridge by night from the first floor mezzanine of the CCD.

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And just for fun, a ground level view of the Samuel Beckett Bridge by night.

Like many spectacular buildings, the CCD isn’t particularly practical. The curved glass front is stunning, but it also causes the interior to heat up, which can be a huge problem in August, and the air conditioning couldn’t always compensate. The escalators quickly became a bottleneck, especially when many people were leaving panels and going to the next one at the same time. They are not great for people who have issues with heights either. And the huge glass front and the escalators reduced floor space, which became a problem both when queueing for a panel and when just looking for a space to sit down for a while. Add to that that fire safety laws are very strict in Ireland, likely due to the devastating Stardust discoteque fire of 1981, which claimed the lives of 48 young people. As a result, queueing was one of the defining features of WorldCon 77, just as in Helsinki two years before.

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Fans queueing for panels in the CCD at WorldCon 77.

In the past few days, there have been complaints, usually from US-based fans and professionals, about how horrible the crowd and queuing problems at WorldCon 77 were. Of course, everybody has their own view of events, but the most recent European WorldCons have been bigger than the most recent US WorldCons and I feel that queues for certain high in demand events are not unreasonable. Besides, the con com made sure that disabled folks and people with access issues had somewhere to sit down, while queueing. Besides, it seems to me as if a WorldCon exerts unusual pressure on convention facilities, because for most other events you either need the big function spaces or the smaller meeting rooms but not both at the same time. Furthermore, people at e.g. a medical congress are unlikely to queue for a talk about kidney stones, but WorldCon attendants will queue for a panel featuring a beloved author or an astronaut or other celebrities.

Also, as I’ve said at File 770, while all WorldCons have their share of issues and problems, it seems to me as if problems at European WorldCons, both actual problems (queues, not enough space to sit down) and imagined problems (“Oh my God, they expect us to use public transportation!”) receive more scrutiny than problems at US WorldCons. And the impression this gives to European fans, whether intended or not, is, “Your capital cities with beautiful convention centres built by Pritzger-Prize winning architects are not good enough for us, but e.g. a smallish US city without an international airport and with a wildfire problem (which to be fair isn’t their fault) like Spokane gets a free pass in spite of many problems.”

Queuing was not a problem at the CCD, when you actually were on a panel and the green room on the top floor of the CCD was IMO much nicer than the one in Helsinki. You could have coffee (the fancy kind from a machine), a selection of softdrinks and even alcohol, if you felt like it. There were also pastries and nibbles, though they ran out quickly.

I was on three panels and a crafting workshop at WorldCon 77 plus another panel at TitanCon in Belfast the weekend after. All my panels in Dublin as well as the workshop went well and we got some good discussion going. The TitanCon panel also went well, though we had some issues with the microphones in the panel room not working. There were also two panelists added at the last minute, which I at least didn’t learn about until in the green room fifteen minutes before the panel was due to start (and I was the moderator). In spite of this, I think we did well.

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The panelists of the international television panel posing in the green room in Dublin. From left to right: Cora Buhlert, Harun Siljak, Claudia Fusco, Lionel Davoust and J. Sharpe.

My first panel in Dublin was the international television panel where we sang the praises of arte and discussed that while Stranger Things was set in some kind of fantasy version of the 1980s, Dark showed the 1980s as at least I had experienced them. I also won over some new viewers for Raumpatrouille Orion.

My second panel was the speedcrafting workshop where I introduced several participants including a very talented young fan named Izzy to the basics of crochet. My third panel in Dublin was the SFF romance panel, which I moderated as well. This was my second time moderating a WorldCon panel and I think it went really well, but then I had great panelists in Darlene Marshall, Jeffe Kennedy and D.A. Lascelles. Several audience members later told me how much they enjoyed the panel, so I think it was a success. My final panel was the international comics panel at the Point, which sadly was half empty. A pity because I learned a lot of interesting stuff e.g. about African comics, which were not on my radar at all.

Apart from panels and crafting, I also took a stroll through the dealers’ room, which was much bigger than Helsinki’s and had a lot more stalls selling books in English – to my joy and the doom of my wallet. There were also a lot of fan tables for various upcoming WorldCon and EuroCon bids. Even the Royal Manticorean Navy had sent two representatives (and a teddy bear) to sign up new recruits (Daniel Dern got a pic of them). I suspect the poor folks didn’t have much success, considering how notoriously difficult Baen Books, publisher of the Honor Harrington series, are to find in Europe. Though the wonderful Dublin bookstore Hodges Figgis, which is not only mentioned in Ulysses by James Joyce (in the context of picking up women in bookstores – some things never change) but also had a table at WorldCon 77, does carry some Baen Books.

Marty McFly and Doc Brown dropped by as well and parked their DeLorean in the middle of the dealers’ room. But then time travellers can park wherever they want. The actual DeLorean car, though a very American brand (it took me years to realise that DeLorean was a real car manufacturer and not just something invented or Back to the Future), was built in Ireland, by the way, so this one had come home.

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Marty McFly and Doc Brown parked their DeLorean in the dealers room at WorldCon 77, while taking a stroll through the con.

Furthermore, as mentioned in a previous post, I was interviewed for the German podcast Steamtinkerers Klönschnack. The interview is now online and you can listen to it here.

Of course, I also attended the two File 770 meet-ups at WorldCon 77. I forogt to take photos at the meet-ups, but you can see me in Eric Wong’s photos of the Thursday meet-up as well as in the photo below taken by Chris M. Barkley:

One aspect of the WorldCon experience I missed in Helsinki two years ago was parties. The reason was largely that I was with my Mom who prefers sit-down dinners in nice restaurants to drinks and nibbles in crowded convention centre function rooms. However, since I was on my own this time around, I decided to check out the parties and tagged along when some people from the File 770 meet-up headed to the Memphis in 2023 bid party.

Now if you’ve been following the list of upcoming WorldCon bids, you’ll probably think, “Memphis? Since when is Memphis bidding?” Well, it turns out that the Memphis bid for 2023 was announced during WorldCon 77 two days before the bid party I attended. Memphis is bidding against Nice in France and Chengdu in China.

There were four parties going on at the same time in adjacent rooms: In addition to the Memphis in 2023 party, there was the CoNZealand party, the Chicago in 2022 party and the Glasgow in 2024 party. I drifted from room to room, enjoyed various types of food and drinks, though I stuck to water, because most of the alcoholic drinks on offer involved whisky, which is so not my thing. I had a lot of fun, met a bunch of people from the Nice WorldCon bid who were checking out the competition and also ran into the assembled German SMOFdom (yes, there is such a thing) as well as Alex Weidemann, a reporter of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which is very genre-friendly for a quality newspaper.

Alex Weidemann’s article is now online, though like much of the interesting arts and culture content of the FAZ, it is behind a paywall.

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At the Memphis 2023 bid party: Bid chair Kate Secor is being interviewed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

And then there was the biggest event at WorldCon 77, the Hugo ceremony. But that’s a story for another post…

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First Monday Free Fiction: The Bleak Heath

Welcome to a somewhat belated September edition of First Monday Free Fiction. To recap, inspired by Kristine Kathryn Rusch who posts a free short story every week on her blog, I’ll post a free story on every first Monday of the month. It will remain free to read on this blog for one month, then I’ll take it down and post another story.

[image error]This month’s free story is The Bleak Heath, a novelette in my Thurvok sword and sorcery series. As for why this particular story, I like to pick stories which are somehow related to the season. And at the moment, the Lüneburg Heath nature park is in bloom, an event I sadly missed due to being away for WorldCon and EuroCon. However, last year I wrote a story inspired by my annual hiking trip to the Lüneburg Heath, a story I eventually published as The Bleak Heath.

The Thurvok series is unique among my fiction, since it is credited to Richard Blakemore, the 1930s pulp writer protagonist of my Silencer series. In one story, Richard outs himself as a Weird Tales reader and sword and sorcery fan. He also muses that he would like to take a stab at writing something like that one day. This throwaway scene got me thinking, “What if Richard actually did write a sword and sorcery series in the 1930s?”

Fast forward a couple of  years, when I found myself writing a couple of old school sword and sorcery stories for the annual July short story challenge and thought, “What if this is Richard Blakemore’s lost sword and sorcery series?” And so the decision was born to pass off the Thurvok stories as a forgotten sword and sorcery series from the 1930s with myself as the editor who rediscovered them.

So prepared to accompany Thurvok the sellsword and his companions Meldom, thief, cutpurse and occasionaly assassin, the sorceress Sharenna and Lysha, Meldom’s childhood sweetheart whom our heroes only just saved from the gallows, as they brave the dangers of…

The Bleak Heath

East of the city of Greyvault, there was a plain that stretched all the way to the Desolate Peaks. Few things grew here and even fewer people lived here, for the soil was poor and white as ash.

One of the few things that did grow on this plain was the hardy heather plant and so the entire plain was blanketed with patches of heather, crisscrossed by paths of white sand and dotted with juniper bushes and stunted birch trees and rocks that looked as if they had been randomly deposited here by a giant’s hand.

For a few weeks in late summer, when the heather was in bloom, the entire plain shimmered purple. The rest of the year it was brown and bleak. And so the people of Greyvault called it the Bleak Heath and did not go there, unless it was absolutely necessary. For the good people of Greyvault believed that the heath was cursed and haunted by ghosts and monsters born of sorcery and black magic.

But nonetheless, some travellers did cross the Bleak Heath, out of necessity or desperation. Four such travellers, two men and two women, were marching across the heath on foot, their forms outlined sharply against the slate grey sky.

One of the men was tall and muscular, with black hair and bronzed skin that was rarely found so far up north, where the winters were long and the sun was weak. He was clad all in leather, a great sword hanging on his hip. This was Thurvok, the sellsword.

The second man was shorter and more slightly built, lithe and wiry rather than muscular. His skin was pale, his hair dark and his eyes as grey as the skies above the heath. He was clad all in black, the only relief a silver amulet glittering at his neck and a silver dagger gleaming at his waist. This was Meldom, thief, cutpurse and occasional assassin, though he had recently sworn off killing except when absolutely necessary.

One of the women was tall, almost as tall as Thurvok. Her statuesque form was swathed in a moss green cloak. Strands of long hair the colour of flame fell from underneath the hood of her cloak. This was Sharenna, the sorceress.

The second woman was slight and clad in a gown of plain white linen of the sort worn by penitents and prisoners condemned to die on the scaffold. Her bare feet were wrapped only in rags, that offered scant protection against the prickly heather plants that sprouted from the path here and there. The harsh wind blew her long dark hair into her face and made her shiver in her thin gown. This was Lysha, daughter of a merchant from Greyvault and Meldom’s childhood sweetheart whom the other three had recently saved from the gallows.

Lysha did not complain about the cold and the harsh wind. In fact, she barely spoke at all. Nonetheless, Meldom noticed that she freezing and so he took off his own cloak and wrapped it around Lysha.

Lysha flashed him a grateful smile. “Thank you. But won’t you be cold?”

Meldom shook his head. “No, it’s fine,” he lied through his chattering teeth, “I’m used to it.”

As they continued on their way across the Bleak Heath, Sharenna moved closer to Meldom.

“Maybe we should stop and make camp for the night,” she said, keeping her voice low, so none of the others would hear, “Your girl is in a bad condition and you are not much better off.”

Meldom had his teeth clenched, so they wouldn’t chatter in the cold. But nonetheless, he shook his head. “No, we have to go on. It’s not safe here.”

“But why?” Sharenna wanted to know, “There’s no sign of any pursuit. And besides, I think that after the chaos we caused, the Rhagur rulers of Greyvault have bigger problems than us to worry about.”

Thurvok, slowed down his mighty strides, allowing the others to catch up.

“Such as the fact that their current governor was strangled by the murdered corpse of their previous governor,” he said with a grin, for the sight of a murderer getting his just comeuppance at the hands of his victim was a source of rare amusement to him, “And this time, the Rhagur can’t even blame the people of Greyvault, for it’s all too clear what really happened.”

“The Bleak Heath still isn’t safe”, Meldom insisted, “Or why do you think most travellers approach Greyvault via the Forest of the Hanged? Hint, it’s not because the route is so scenic and the smell of rotting corpses so intoxicating. It’s because awful as the Forest of the Hanged is, the Bleak Heath is worse.”

Thurvok looked around, scanning for hidden dangers, but all he saw were purplish blooming heather, jutting juniper bushes and scattered rocks.

“Doesn’t look very dangerous to me,” he remarked.

“But trust me, it is,” Meldom insisted, “There are… things here. Men turning to stone, rocks coming to life, creatures emerging from the night’s mists to snatch unwary travellers until not a trace is left…”

Thurvok emitted a roaring laugh. Sharenna shot him a warning glance, but Thurvok ignored her.

“Oh, come on. You know I don’t believe in that sort of thing.”

“Normally, I don’t believe in that sort of thing either,” Meldom replied, more than a little testy, “But this is different. I grew up in Greyvault. I’ve heard the stories all my life, stories about travellers gone missing on the heath, never to be seen again…”

“Stories, sure,” Thurvok countered, “Doesn’t mean they’re true.”

Before they could come to blows, Sharenna intervened. “Could we maybe just agree that whether the stories are true or not, this is no place to be abroad by night?”

She nodded at the sky, which was turning from pink to violet to deep indigo.

“So I’d suggest we find shelter and make camp.” She turned to Meldom. “Is there a village around here or an inn or a cave or some other place where we could rest?”

Meldom shook his head. “There’s nothing. Just heath and rocks. And the rocks are cursed.”

“Maybe we should find shelter among a cluster of rocks or behind a particularly large one then,” Sharenna suggested.

“Didn’t you listen to me?” Meldom snapped, “The rocks are cursed. Some say that they used to be men who tried to cross the heath and were turned to stone for their troubles.”

“You don’t believe in that, do you?” Thurvok asked, his eyes wide with incredulity.

“I don’t know what to believe, all right? All I know is that people have been vanishing and rocks randomly appearing on the Bleak Heath since before I was born.”

“Whether the rocks are cursed or not, we need to find shelter for the night,” Sharenna said, ever the peacemaker, “And personally, I think that even cursed rocks are safer than sleeping out in the open and risk freezing to death.”

Thurvok was about to agree to her plan, because it made sense. But before he could, he was interrupted by Lysha, who had trudged onwards, while the other three were arguing.

“Look,” she exclaimed and pointed into the distance, where the unrelenting bleakness of the heath was interrupted by a light on the horizon.

Thurvok turned to Meldom. “I thought you said no one lived here.”

Meldom nodded. “I did. Because no one does.”

“Well, where does that light come from then?”

***

This story was available for free on this blog for one month only, but you can still read it in The Bleak Heath. And if you click on the First Monday Free Fiction tag, you can read this month’s free story.

 

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The 2019 Dragon Awards successfully manage to evade full respectability for another year

You’ll have to wait a bit longer for my WorldCon and Hugos post-mortem, because DragonCon, a big convention in Atlanta, Georgia, that is a curious mix between massive media con, inclusive cosplay con and conservative con for wargamers and military SF fans, took place this weekend. DragonCon is also the home of the Dragon Awards, whose development I’ve been chronicling since the beginning. So I feel duty-bound to report about this year’s Dragon Award winners, too.

But let’s start with the other fiction award given out tonight at Dragon Con, namely the 2019 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction. The winner was “When We Were Starless”, a lovely novelette by fellow German Simone Heller, which was also a Hugo finalist this year. A highly deserved win.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Dragon Awards proper. To recap, the Dragon Awards have had a short but rather eventful history. Supposedly conceived as an award to reward the sort of widely popular works that are often overlooked by other SFF awards, they became basically consolation prizes for Sad and Rabid Puppy affiliated authors during their first year, struggled with withdrawals by big name finalists during their second year and were invaded by popular self-published authors and Kindle Unlimited content mills during their third year. Compared to previous years, the announcement of the finalists for the fourth year of the Dragon Award seemed to point at increased mainstream respectability. There were lots of big names books and authors among the finalists, which suggested that the Dragon Awards would maybe finally do what they had set out to do, namely reward broadly popular mainstream works. Credit for this largely goes to the Red Panda Fraction, a group of Atlanta area fans and DragonCon attendees, who created a handy eligibility spreadsheet to make nominating easier.

However, compared to the finalists, the actual winners this year seem like a step backwards. So let’s take a look at the individual categories:

A Star-Wheeled Sky by Brad Torgersen wins best science fiction novel in what must be one of the most baffling Dragon Awards wins since the first year. Why baffling? Because if the Dragon Awards are supposed to honour popular, you’d expect the most popular books to win. However, according to admittedly flawed criteria like Amazon, Goodreads and LibraryThing ranks and ratings, A Star-Wheeled Sky is at the lower end of the popularity scale among the finalists in this category, as Contrarius explains in the comments to this post on Camestros Felapton’s blog. Meanwhile, the most popular finalist in this category by a wide margin is Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey, followed by Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers, which was also my choice. Of course, Brad Torgersen has been actively promoting the Dragon Awards and asks his fans to vote. And while Torgersen is mainly associated with the Sad Puppy disaster of 2015 in wider fandom these days, he is popular with the Baen and Analog crowd and Baen is traditionally strongly represented at DragonCon, plus A Star-Wheeled Sky is a Baen book. However, Tiamat’s Wrath has the advantage of being connected to the hugely popular The Expanse TV series and DragonCon is a multi-media con. Though Brad Torgersen has finally won an award, which should make him happy, while Becky Chambers got to take home a Hugo this year and Daniel Abrahama and Ty Franck are crying all the way to the bank.

The winner in the best fantasy novel category is another Baen book and another name that will be familiar from the Sad Puppy fiasco, namely House of Assassins by Larry Correia. Nonetheless, this is a less surprising win than Torgersen’s, because Larry Correia does have a big and very engaged fanbase and is also very active in promoting the Dragon Awards, though he supposedly asked his fans not to nominate him this year. That said, I’m sure he’ll be devastated at his third Dragon Award win in this category in four years. My own vote was for The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, BTW.

The Dragon Award for best young adult novel goes to Bloodwitch by Susan Dennard. No real surprise here, it’s a popular novel by a popular author. And indeed, the YA category is where the Dragon Awards come closest to doing what they set out to do, namely rewarding highly popular works. My own vote was for Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand, BTW.

The winner in the best military SFF category is Uncompormising Honor, the latest Honor Harrington tome by David Weber. Again, this is not a huge surprise, because both David Weber and the Honor Harrington series are extremely popular, though apparently quite a few fans were disappointed with Uncompromising Honor. David Weber is also a frequent guest at Dragon Con and has won in this category three times to date. However, Uncompromising Honor likely also profited from the fact that the other finalists in this category were several indie published books which – while popular – may not be all that well known outside the Kindle Unlimited eco-system. And while the other traditionally published finalist in this category, The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley, is a great book (and was my personal pick), it’s also very much not what habitual readers of military science fiction are looking for and in fact, many military SF fans actively hate this book. For example, here is a review which claims that Kameron Hurley hates the military science fiction genre and is out to destroy it.

The winner in the best media tie-in category is Thrawn: Alliances, a Star Wars novel by Timothy Zahn. This is one win that’s not at all surprising, because the Thrawn character is hugely popular among Star Wars fans, particularly old school Star Wars fans, though personally I never saw the appeal, not even back when I read Heir to the Empire, when it first came out. Of the characters Timothy Zahn added to the Star Wars canon, I’ve always liked Mara Jade a lot, but never much cared about Thrawn. Still, lots of Star Wars fans obviously disagree. My own vote was for The Way to the Stars, a Star Trek Discovery novel by Una McCormack BTW.

The Dragon Award for best horror novel goes to Little Darlings by Melanie Golding. It’s a very popular novel, though more psychological thriller than horror novel. But considering that the readership for psychological thrillers is a lot bigger than the horror readership, I’m not surprised that it won. My own vote was for We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix BTW.

The winner in the best alternate history category, finally, is Black Chamber by S.M. Stirling. Now Stirling obviously is popular with the Dragon Awards crowd, since he has had several nominations in various categories so far. Nonetheless, I’m surprised that he managed to beat what is by far the most popular book on the ballot, which also won the Hugo and Nebula Award for best novel, namely The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. Of course, the war gamer contingent is strong at DragonCon and Black Chamber is very likely more to their taste than The Calculating Stars. Or maybe The Calculating Stars had too many girl cooties. Meanwhile, what was probably the most mainstream finalist on the whole Dragon Award ballot, Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, lost out as well, so the Dragons have successfully fended off the Booker Prize crowd. Now I have to admit that I was secetly rooting for Machines Like Me, even though I voted for Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar, if only because Ian McEwan’s reaction to DragonCon and the Dragon Awards would have been so worth it.

The film and TV categories offer no real surprises. Avengers: Endgame wins best film – after all, it is officially the highest grossing movie of all time – and the hyper-popular (and lovely) Good Omens wins best TV series. My own votes were for Captain Marvel and Star Trek Discovery respectively.

The comic and graphic novel categories offer no real surprises either. The hyper-popular Saga wins best comic book with its latest tear-jerking arc. Coincidentally, Saga was also my pick in this category. X-Men: Grand Design – Second Genesis by Ed Piskor wins best graphic novel, which again isn’t very surprising, for even though the X-Men are no longer as popular as during their heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, they’re still one of Marvel’s bigger guns. My own vote was for On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden.

I never vote in the gaming categories in the Dragon Awards, because I’m not much of a gamer. This year’s winners are Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a Pokemon Go type augmented reality game, which likely also profited from the continuing popularity of Harry Potter, Red Dead Redemption 2, a western themed PC/console game so popular that even I have heard of it, the board game Betrayal: Legacy and the Call of Cthulhu: Masks of Nyarlathotep Slipcase Set role-playing game. None of these winners strike me in any way as unexpected or unusual.

In general, it’s notable that while indie published authors or author collectives can get Dragon Award nominations, they don’t win. For example, Chris Kennedy’s publishing outfit had four finalists on the ballot this year and also made a strong showing in 2017 and 2018, but so far they haven’t won. Ditto for other indie authors. Meanwhile, Baen continues to do well at the Dragons. This year, all of the three Baen books on the ballot won in their respective categories, but then Baen is very active in DragonCon’s literature track and apparently, they do have a sizeable fanbase at DragonCon. It’s also notable that in two categories, best fantasy novel and best military SFF novel, the same author (Larry Correia and David Weber respectively) won three out of four years. Yes, I know that both Weber and Correia have big fanbases at DragonCon, but a bit more diversity would be nice.

As with the nominations, the Dragon Award winners continue to be heavily male dominated. Of seven winners in the novel categories, only two are women. If you include the non-novel categories, you get another female winner with Fiona Staples in best comic book. The winners are also overwhelmingly white, though Larry Correia identifies as Latino as fas as I know. Besides, as Camestros Felapton points out in his post here, to date all ten winners in the two headline categories, best science fiction novel and best fantasy novel, have been men. Somehow, I doubt that those who wring their hands that the winners in the fiction categories at the Hugos and Nebulas were all women in the past three years, will be at all bothered by this.

According to the Dragon Awards’ official rules and regulations, the administrators have the right to pick winners and finalists without taking the will of the voters into account, though there is no evidence either way that they are exercising that right. And indeed, we have nothing in the way of voting and nomination data for the Dragon Awards, which makes the results difficult to analyze.

But once again – and I know I say this every year – the Dragon Awards have to decide what they want to be. Do they want to be the award for broadly popular SFF that they set out to be? Do they want to be an award for conservative leaning SFF? Do they want to be the best Baen book award? Do they want to be the best indie published SFF book award? None of these options are necessarily bad, though it would help if Dragon Con were to settle on one of them. This year, however, the finalists pointed at option A, while the winners seem to point at options B and C.

On the other hand, the odd inconsistency of the Dragon Awards may also be linked to the inconsistent nature of DragonCon itself. Cause from what I’ve heard – I’ve never been there myself – DragonCon is a huge multi-media convention, which has a big contingent of young, diverse and overwhelmingly left-leaning media fans and cosplayer, but also a conservative leaning literature track catering to older military SFF fans and wargamers. In many ways, the Dragon Award results reflect this split.

So after an encouraging step forward in the 2019 nominations, coupled with a step back in the actual winners, the question is where will the Dragon Awards go in 2020?

Comments are closed. Awards posts inevitably bring out the trolls.

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Two Plugs: A New Anthology and a Podcast Appearance

Yes, my WorldCon, TitanCon and Hugo write-up is coming, but it may take a bit more time, because in addition to the cold I caught at WorldCon, I also picked up a stomach bug from a dodgy poke bowl at Amsterdam airport, which took me out of commission for a couple of days. So Hugo and WorldCon post-mortems will have to wait for now.

Besides, I have two other announcements to make. For starters, an anthology to which I contributed came out yesterday. The anthology in question is Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958 – 1963), edited by Gideon Marcus of Galactic Journey with a foreword by Dr. Laura Brodian Freas Beraha. Now I’m obviously not a forgotten woman writer from the Silver Age of science fiction. However, I provided the introduction to one of the fourteen stories in the anthology, “Of All Possible Worlds” by Rosel George Brown.

Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958 – 1963):

Fourteeen uncut Silver Age science fiction stories by women
Fourteen introductions providing historical, biographical, and literary context
One foreword by Dr. Laura Brodian Freas Beraha
One introductory essay by Gideon Marcus

From the team that produces the Hugo-nominated Galactic Journey:

The Silver Age of Science Fiction saw a wealth of compelling speculative tales — and women authors wrote some of the best of the best. Yet the stories of this era, especially those by women, have been largely unreprinted, unrepresented, and unremembered.

Until Now.

Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963) features fourteen selections of the best science fiction of the Silver Age by the unsung women authors of yesteryear, introduced by today’s rising stars:

Unhuman Sacrifice (1958) by Katherine MacLean, introduced by Natalie Devitt

Wish Upon a Star (1958) by Judith Merril, introduced by Erica Frank

A Matter of Proportion (1959) by Anne Walker, introduced by Erica Friedman

The White Pony (1960) by Jane Rice, introduced by T.D. Cloud

Step IV (1960) by Rosel George Brown, introduced by Andi Dukleth

Of All Possible Worlds (1961) by Rosel George Brown, introduced by Cora Buhlert

Satisfaction Guaranteed (1961) by Joy Leache, introduced by A.J. Howells

The Deer Park (1962) by Maria Russell, introduced by Claire Weaver

To Lift a Ship (1962) by Kit Reed, introduced by Gideon Marcus

The Putnam Tradition (1963) by Sonya Hess Dorman, introduced by Lorelei Marcus

The Pleiades (1963) by Otis Kidwell Burger, introduced by Gwyn Conaway

No Trading Voyage (1963) by Doris Pitkin Buck, introduced by Marie Vibbert

Cornie on the Walls (1963) by Sydney van Scyoc, introduced by Rosemary Benton

Unwillingly to School (1958) by Pauline Ashwell, introduced by Janice Marcus

“Female authors wrote stories about coming of age…cautionary tales…stories set beyond our universe…You’ll find these themes and more in this anthology. I hope that as you read their stories you don’t try to ‘feminine’ versus ‘masculine’ elements. What you are about to read is really good science fiction, plain and simple.” -from the foreword by Dr. Laura Brodian Freas Beraha

Rediscovery is a great anthology, which proves that there was and is life far beyond the confines of Campbellian science fiction. If you’re at all interested in the history of science fiction and how we got to where we are now, you should absolutely read it. You don’t just have to take my word for it either. James Davis Nicoll pretty much agrees in his review.

Get your copy at Amazon or the Journey Press website.

***

To get back to WorldCon 77, one of the best things about WorldCons and other cons is that you inevitably run into a lot of interesting people. And one of the people I met at WorldCon 77 was Mirco from the German podcast Steamtinkerer’s Klönschnack. And so I wound up getting interviewed for the podcast.

The episode is now online and you can listen to it here. Mirco also shares his impressions of WorldCon 77 in this blogpost. Only in German, alas.

As promised, my own WorldCon 77 and Hugo post-mortem is coming, though I’ll probably take a break for the Dragon Award winners, who will be announced tonight, first.

 

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Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for August 2019

It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some July books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. This month, we have epic fantasy, urban fantasy, YA fantasy, sword and sorcery, paranormal romance, paranormal mystery, science fiction romance, science fiction mystery, space opera, military science fiction, feminist science fiction, vintage science fiction, humorous science fiction, dystopian fiction, Steampunk, gaslamp fantasy, time travel, witches, mermaids, shapeshifters, pirates, space marines, crime-busting witches, grim reapers, arranged marriages, time travelling taxmen, cyborg gladiators, sword and sorcery courtroom dramas, rediscoverey women authors of the Silver Age and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Buy and Spell by Stacey Alabaster:

Sometimes you just need to solve a mystery because you’re the main suspect

Ruby Swift is settling into her life as a private investigator while protecting her secret magical life. When her new, unwanted neighbor turns up dead, she must find the real killer to clear her own name. Can Ruby come up with a spell to buy her way out of trouble?

Buy and Spell is part of the Private Eye Witch Cozy Mystery series. If you like fun paranormal mysteries, you will love Ruby Swift and her magical adventures.

Get Buy and Spell and start solving your next supernatural mystery today!

Claiming T-Mo by Eugen Bacon:

In this lush interplanetary tale, Novic is an immortal Sayneth priest who flouts the conventions of a matriarchal society by choosing a name for his child. This act initiates chaos that splits the boy in two, unleashing a Jekyll-and-Hyde child upon the universe. Named T-Mo by his mother and Odysseus by his father, the story spans the boy’s lifetime — from his early years with his mother Silhouette on planet Grovea to his travels to Earth where he meets and marries Salem, and together they bear a hybrid named Myra. The story unfolds through the eyes of these three distinctive women: Silhouette, Salem and Myra. As they confront their fears and navigate the treacherous paths to love and accept T-Mo/Odysseus and themselves, the darkness in Odysseus urges them to unbearable choices that threaten their very existence.

The Night Court by Richard Blakemore and Cora Buhlert:

The city of Vanadur suffers under the thumb of the Night Court, whose bailiffs snatch random people off the streets and whose masked judges know only one verdict: guilty.

Meldom, thief, cutpurse and occasional assassin, is one of those who are snatched off the streets and put on trial by the Night Court. The accusation: murder. But while Meldom may have done many questionable things in the past, he knows that he did not commit this particular murder.

However, the Night Court is not inclined to believe him and so it’s up to Thurvok, Sharenna and Lysha to save him from the gallows.

This is a short story of 7100 words or 25 print pages in the Thurvok sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.

Knight Protector by Lindsay Buroker:

An arranged marriage she can’t escape.

A sexy bodyguard who will protect her at all cost.

A forbidden love she can’t give in to…

As one of the sultan’s fourteen daughters, and a successful businesswoman who puts money in the family’s coffers, Princess Nalini thought she would escape an arranged marriage.

She thought wrong.

Her father insists that an alliance with the savage and ambitious Star Kingdom is the only way to avoid a war at home, and for some reason, Prince Jorg—a man she’s never met—wants to marry her.

As if that weren’t bad enough, her father believes the betrothal may make her a target and is assigning her a bodyguard, the victor of one of his odious gladiator matches. She doesn’t want some brutish stranger intruding on her privacy.

But her new protector—Tristan—is not the brute she expected. He has a quick wit, a sexy smile, and even sexier things under the smile.

Unfortunately, Nalini can’t let herself fall in love with Tristan, not when she’s soon to be betrothed to another man. As her father’s daughter, it’s her duty to help her people by cementing this alliance. No matter how much she wishes otherwise…

~

As Tristan grew up on the streets, his father a convict and his mother a drug addict, all he ever wanted was to become one of the Star Kingdom’s elite knights, something that very few commoners ever achieve. After Tristan labors for years as a squire, the king is ready to appoint him a knight… if he accomplishes one simple task. He must infiltrate the sultan’s palace, gain the trust of Princess Nalini, and make sure she doesn’t run away from her marriage with Prince Jorg.

There’s just one problem.

Nalini isn’t the spoiled rich brat he expected—she spends her days working as hard as he does—and he soon develops feelings for her. With her betrothal looming, and the career he’s worked his whole life for at stake, Tristan can’t let himself act on those feelings.

But can he stand back while a man who doesn’t deserve her claims her for his wife?

Mermaid’s Wish by Stacy Claflin:

Every other princess prepares to rule her kingdom after her father’s death. Me? I have to get ready to rule all underwater kingdoms—after killing my father.

I already fulfilled the prophecy once. Kind of. I have no interest in killing again.

But no one asked what I want.

It’s this stupid Queen Sirena prophecy. My father—my real, biological father—is obsessed. And he’s the king, so he gets what he wants. Namely me, embracing a destiny I fear.

As I come to terms with my new reality, I find myself alone, cut off from my best friend and boyfriend and unable to convince my parents this is all a terrible idea.

My father, the king, wants me to kill him. He’s set plans in motion to make it happen.

I’m too weak to refuse. And hopefully too strong to succeed.

Peavley Manor (Or, Introducing Macalley) by Robert Dahlen:

Alice Peavley was a sales clerk in a book shop, until her rich uncle left her his estate in his will. She moves to the manor, meets her new tenants and neighbors, and adjusts to life in the eccentric town of Darbyfield with the help of her valet, a sardonic gnome named Macalley. Alice gets mixed up in misadventures involving a concert gone askew, a chaotic baking competition, and a mischievous squatter, but there is a more sinister plot afoot to steal her land and her fortune. Can Alice get to the bottom of the conspiracy and save Peavley Manor? Find out in this comedy of manners, mayhem and magic!

Gullible’s Travels and Taxing Rabble by Rachel Ford:

A shadowy interdimensional organization. A special assignment. A bizarre alternate universe.

When a recruitment agent from the Interdimensional Bureau of Temporal Investigations knocked on his door, there was no way Alfred Favero, Senior Analyst with the Internal Revenue Service, could just walk away. How could a man of law and conscience turn down the chance to stop crime across dimensions and times?

Now, he’s in bizarre alternate dimension, where suspicion is fact and fact is suspect. To succeed, he must question everything he thinks he knows about this new world – and even the mission itself.

Otherwise, Alfred Favero might have taken his last trip through time.

The Robin Hood of Couches by Aaron Frale:

Reese investigates corporate fraud and discovers some joker has been giving away free couches to the needy, because when a person can no longer afford the subscription service fees, all their furniture disappears. The bearer of sofas ends up in a ditch when blunt force trauma snuffs out the poor’s best chance of not living in an empty room their whole life. Reese rolls up his sleeves. Time to get to work.

 

 

Defender by Anna Hackett:

Rescued from alien slavers, the only place she feels safe is in the brawny arms of a big, gruff cyborg.

Astrophysicist Dr. Jayna Lennox’s life imploded the day her ship was attacked by aliens. Through months of captivity, she’s survived by shutting down and not feeling. Then she’s freed by the House of Rone cyborgs and finds herself in the arms of huge, tough Mace. Struggling to heal, Mace is the only thing that makes her feel safe. The only person who makes her feel like she isn’t broken. But there are more of her crew members imprisoned in Carthago’s desert, and Jayna will have to delve into her darkest memories to help save them.

Born to fight and bred for rage, Mace barely survived his gang-ridden homeworld. Thanks to Imperator Magnus Rone, he’s found a place at the House of Rone. Unlike the other cyborgs, he feels, but only anger and annoyance. When a small, wounded human woman works her way under his skin, Mace finds himself feeling things he’s never felt before…along with a powerful need to keep her safe.

Jayna vows to help find her fellow humans, even if it means revisiting her nightmares and being part of a dangerous mission into the desert. But as the passion between her and Mace explodes, she finds herself with two battles on her hands: the battle to free the humans from their captors, and the war to win Mace’s scarred heart.

Dark Magic by B.R. Kingsolver:

One Master survived the inferno that destroyed the Order of the Illuminati. He may know that I survived, but does he suspect that I betrayed the Order?

Rudolf Heine has sent Hunters flooding into Westport, wreaking carnage on vampires, shifters, and mages. Normal humans are taking notice, and the shadow world teeters on the verge of being revealed.

The Hunters also may be hunting me. Do I stay and fight for my new life and my friends, or run again?

Freaky Reapers by Amanda M. Lee:

Poet Parker put the past behind her. At least she thought she did.

Life on the streets wasn’t what she had in mind for her forever and she jumped at the chance to join Mystic Caravan Circus when an invitation was extended. She didn’t look back.

That was ten years ago, and now Poet is going back to the exact area she used to haunt … and she’s nervous.

The friends she left behind are scattered. Some are dead. Some have moved on to other things. Some turned out to be something else entirely. Others simply disappeared into the wind.

Unfortunately for Parker, forgetting isn’t easy … especially when a group of banshees start infringing on Mystic Caravan’s territory and the creatures seemingly have ties to the people Poet left behind.

Between the reapers also working the case – a crazy family called the Grimlocks who can’t stay out of trouble – and the guilt weighing Poet down given the way she fled, she has her hands full.

Someone is controlling the banshees, stealing girls from the streets and creating a merry band of monsters. It’s up to Poet to find out who and protect two street girls who remind her of herself.

Poet doesn’t want to look back but she has no choice … what she finds might be more evil than she ever imagined.

Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958 – 1963), edited by Gideon Marcus, foreword by Dr. Laura Brodian Freas Beraha

Fourteeen uncut Silver Age science fiction stories by women
Fourteen introductions providing historical, biographical, and literary context
One foreword by Dr. Laura Brodian Freas Beraha
One introductory essay by Gideon Marcus

From the team that produces the Hugo-nominated Galactic Journey:

The Silver Age of Science Fiction saw a wealth of compelling speculative tales — and women authors wrote some of the best of the best. Yet the stories of this era, especially those by women, have been largely unreprinted, unrepresented, and unremembered.

Until Now.

Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963) features fourteen selections of the best science fiction of the Silver Age by the unsung women authors of yesteryear, introduced by today’s rising stars:

Unhuman Sacrifice (1958) by Katherine MacLean, introduced by Natalie Devitt

Wish Upon a Star (1958) by Judith Merril, introduced by Erica Frank

A Matter of Proportion (1959) by Anne Walker, introduced by Erica Friedman

The White Pony (1960) by Jane Rice, introduced by T.D. Cloud

Step IV (1960) by Rosel George Brown, introduced by Andi Dukleth

Of All Possible Worlds (1961) by Rosel George Brown, introduced by Cora Buhlert

Satisfaction Guaranteed (1961) by Joy Leache, introduced by A.J. Howells

The Deer Park (1962) by Maria Russell, introduced by Claire Weaver

To Lift a Ship (1962) by Kit Reed, introduced by Gideon Marcus

The Putnam Tradition (1963) by Sonya Hess Dorman, introduced by Lorelei Marcus

The Pleiades (1963) by Otis Kidwell Burger, introduced by Gwyn Conaway

No Trading Voyage (1963) by Doris Pitkin Buck, introduced by Marie Vibbert

Cornie on the Walls (1963) by Sydney van Scyoc, introduced by Rosemary Benton

Unwillingly to School (1958) by Pauline Ashwell, introduced by Janice Marcus

“Female authors wrote stories about coming of age…cautionary tales…stories set beyond our universe…You’ll find these themes and more in this anthology. I hope that as you read their stories you don’t try to ‘feminine’ versus ‘masculine’ elements. What you are about to read is really good science fiction, plain and simple.” -from the foreword by Dr. Laura Brodian Freas Beraha

Wrecked Intel by Mandy M. Roth:

Operative: Cody Livingston (Shark-Shifter)

Wereshark and former Immortal Op Cody Livingston has spent decades keeping his head down and staying off the grid. Ever since he volunteered to be part of a test group when the government attempted to create super soldiers, he’s been in a fight for his life and those of the men he sees as brothers—fellow Outcasts. You see, his own government turned against him when the DNA manipulation attempts didn’t go as planned.

Now Cody spends his days trying to right the wrongs left in the wake of the experiments and protecting any innocents caught in the crossfire. This is easier said than done when he’s had to escape the clutches of a madman hell-bent on possessing Cody’s healing gifts and longevity. As old foes resurface, the stakes get even higher when Cody realizes he not only has a mate but that she’s in the crosshairs of the enemy as well.

Origins of the Tainted Bloodline by Rosie Scott:

Alastor Cerberius is a troubled man.

After over a century enslaved in the oppressive underground, he and his best friend, Koby Bacia, escape their chains. They emerge onto the surface: a new world full of the unknown, freedom, and discovery. Desperate to leave his tragic past behind, Alastor changes his name to Calder and delves into the dangerous blood science of shapeshifting. With the new ability to transform into a lethal lizard at will, Calder finally has power after a lifetime of captivity.

Calder and Koby answer the ocean’s call with dreams of smuggling illegal goods as mercenary sailors. This is easier said than done, for the seas are full of horrors of their own, and each time Calder transforms into the beast, it further scars his damaged psyche. Worst of all, a botched business deal puts them at odds with a criminal ring of pirates that are determined to remain the greatest threat on the seas.

The Screening Routine by SMA:

[Tell me the secret you keep from yourself.]

It knows your joy.

It knows your fear.

It knows your desire.

After decades of war, a battered Earth begged the Routine—our most powerful artificial intelligence—to take control of the solar system and unite humanity.

Now, forbidden lovers must help the AI solve the mystery of a rising threat:

Itself.

A SCIFI ADVENTURE BEGINS

Weeks away from graduating into blissful civilian anonymity, Owen discovers that his fate has been hijacked by the Routine. Trapped within the Screening Complex, training school for the Routine’s chosen leaders, Owen is determined to resist the influence of his all-seeing artificial taskmaster.

…If only he could stop dreaming of the man with dark eyes.

Who is that stranger, and why has his presence stirred a new hunger in Owen—one more desperate than he’d ever imagined? Questions lurk around every corner, but there’s one truth Owen will never forget:

The Routine is lying to us all.

Join the discovery as Owen pursues the mysteries of the Routine—and learns the endless bounds of love and his own desire.

Exile by Glynn Stewart:

A dying world, shattered by a broken machine

A desperate flight, their only hope for refuge

A robotic race, ally and destroyer alike

The Republic of Exilium has grown in strength and confidence at the far end of the galaxy from the rest of mankind, sending out scout ships to survey the worlds around them as they try to learn more about the mysterious Construction Matrix AIs.

Finding one of the genocidal rogues of that mysterious “race” in the process of destroying an inhabited world, Captain Octavio Catalan takes his ship into a desperate battle. He is victorious—but he is too late. The world of the strange aliens he has encountered is doomed.

The distant Republic can barely help, but the honor of their leaders will not permit them to stand idly by. Ships and crews are set into motion to commence a desperate evacuation of their newfound friends, and debts with the strange Matrices are called in.

One branch of Matrices destroyed the planet. Another may well save it—but the AIs have their own agenda and the price they ask may be beyond the Republic and its new allies…

Conquest of Earth by James David Victor:

When all else fails, blow up a bunch of stuff and hope for the best.

Solomon and the Outcast Marines have been pushed to the brink, but are still standing strong. When the Ru’ut plot is fully revealed, they must go on one last desperate mission to save humanity. If humanity has any hope, they must stop the invading aliens from conquering Earth. Can Solomon overcome his past, and his genetics, and save his friends and all of humankind?

Conquest of Earth is the ninth book in the Outcast Marines series. If you like science fiction with “heroes” who are anything but, the Outcast Marines will suck you into their battle to save humanity, from itself and the rest of the galaxy.

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Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for August 2019

Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some July books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have cozy mysteries, small town mysteries, animal mysteries, historical mysteries, jazz age mysteries, paranormal mysteries, crime thrillers, legal thrillers, action thrillers, spy thrillers, police procedurals, private investigators, amateur sleuths, lawyers, FBI agents, missing persons, serial killers, spies, terrorists, cold cases, crime-busting witches, crime-busting realtors, modern day pirates, murders in small towns and big cities, aboard cruise ships and in country inns, in Louisiana, Southern California, London, Hawaii, Maine, Miami and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Crime Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Indie Crime Scene, a group blog which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things crime fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Buy and Spell by Stacey Alabaster:

Sometimes you just need to solve a mystery because you’re the main suspect

Ruby Swift is settling into her life as a private investigator while protecting her secret magical life. When her new, unwanted neighbor turns up dead, she must find the real killer to clear her own name. Can Ruby come up with a spell to buy her way out of trouble?

Buy and Spell is part of the Private Eye Witch Cozy Mystery series. If you like fun paranormal mysteries, you will love Ruby Swift and her magical adventures.

Get Buy and Spell and start solving your next supernatural mystery today!

Alex Mercer Thrillers Boxset by Stacy Claflin:

Read the first three Alex Mercer thrillers in this convenient bundle…

GIRL IN TROUBLE

He gave up his daughter years ago, but now he’ll risk his life to save hers.

Alex Mercer is no stranger to kidnappings. The emotional scars still run deep from his sister’s disappearance years earlier. His daughter Ariana remains safe long after her adoption, and he cherishes the few times a year he gets to see her. The joy is palpable when he takes her on their first one-on-one outing. At least until he pauses to answer a text and Ariana disappears…

Wracked with guilt and determined to find answers, Alex teams up with an unlikely ally at the police department. As the clues reveal a pattern of missing girls, the kidnapping case becomes a race against time to save Ariana. What cost is Alex willing to pay to keep his daughter alive?

Girl in Trouble is the first book in a series of thrilling stand-alone novels spun off from the USA Today bestselling Gone Trilogy. If you like heart-pounding suspense, page-turning action, and characters you’ll never forget, then you’ll love Stacy Claflin’s engrossing new series.

TURN BACK TIME

A dangerous cult disbanded years ago. Now they’re back, and they want revenge.

Alex Mercer spends his spare time operating a blog for missing children—a pastime inspired by his daughter’s recent disappearance. Another relative goes missing. As he follows up on leads coming into his site, the police department is inundated with a rash of missing persons cases. The incidents seem unrelated until evidence ties the cases to a dilapidated apartment building known for its unsavory clientele. Suspicion falls on a disbanded cult. The same cult Alex’s own relatives had managed to escape from and bring down a decade earlier.

The cult leaders, recently released or escaped from prison, reassemble their members and mandate a new mission to capture and kill all those responsible for the breakdown of their community. After another loved one disappears, Alex is ready to rescue the missing people from certain death. But will he get there in time?

LITTLE LIES

He’s dedicated his life to saving missing persons, but will it be enough to save himself?

Alex Mercer traded in his troubled past to protect the powerless. His blog for tracking down missing persons got his foot in the door at the police academy. But on his first day of training, a heroic act drops him into the hands of the captors he once hunted.

Zoey planned to tell Alex how she felt the night he disappeared. As she and Alex’s family discover the bloody signs of his fate, past regrets and dark secrets begin to come to light. It’s enough to tear Alex’s loved ones apart.

Without hope of rescue, Alex must rely on his cunning to escape captivity. In his line of work, he knows all too well that each passing hour could kill his chances of survival…

Haunting in the Hallway by Kathi Daley:

A heartwarming cozy mystery series about losing everything, taking a chance, and starting again.

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys a huge old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn’t seem to convince to leave, and a new family she’d never be able to live without.

In book 5 in the series, the new bank president, who happens to be the son of the man who founded the community bank, is found dead and buried in his own grave. The man was not popular in the small community after making a lot of changes with his fathers passing and the list of possible suspects who might want him dead is extensive.

Meanwhile, it is October and the inn is hosting Halloween themed events. The haunted weekends are just for fun but when guests report hearing noises in the hallway, Abby wonders if the inn might actually be haunted for real.

La Jolla Law by John Ellsworth:

A California beach town, a murder at a Presidential reception, a detective who finds herself in hot water for sexual harassment…

Add to the mix a gifted boy band traveling cross-country and a tech billionaire who functions on cocaine with a plastic wife who refuses to return home from Paris where her lover does hair for Vogue. Now you have the opening chapters of La Jolla Law, the new series featuring attorney Thaddeus Murfee.

The Maseratis pull over when the President of the United States comes to town to kickoff his reelection campaign. Unfortunately, he has chosen the home of the tech billionaire to spend the night. Suddenly, that night erupts with police streaming through the doors. There, on the golden shoreline, a true American tragedy hits CNN at daybreak. Thaddeus is called into the rock-and-roll world of the beach dwellers when a gifted loner is accused of the crime.

Thaddeus arrives in Southern California thinking he’s already seen everything in his fifteen years of law practice.

La Jolla Law will show him just how wrong he is.

Sleeping Beauties by Skylar Finn:

The sleepy town of Barksdale, Louisiana isn’t known for much: except for its unusually high rate of disappearances.

When the daughter of a prominent businessman and a wealthy debutante vanishes, Reese Lindley returns to her hometown to cover the case for her podcast. Confronted by the past and her estranged family, Reese learns that the quiet town has more secrets to hide than she ever could have imagined.

 

Raging Seas by Lily Harper Hart:

For years, Rowan Gray has been searching for answers. She’s finally going to get them.

The group of people haunting her, the society that ripped her family apart, are due to arrive on The Bounding Storm … and nobody believes their goals are altruistic. That’s only proven true when death visits The Bounding Storm in their wake, leaving a mountain of questions and not enough answers.

Who are these people?

What do they want?

Quinn Davenport, head of security and Rowan’s boyfriend, is determined to figure out their plan, fight the effort, and eradicate the shadow that’s hanging over the future he plans on sharing with Rowan. They’re going to stand and fight together, no matter the outcome. To carry out the mission, they’re going to need a little help.

Rowan’s father and uncle board the ship in an undercover capacity, so it’s all hands on deck for the final ride. Before it’s over, Rowan will know the truth … and come face to face with an enemy she didn’t see coming.

This is the end, but it could lead to a new beginning.

Mid-Century Modern Murder by CeeCee James:

Stella’s mid-century modern listing was on track to be her easiest commission ever… until the buyers asked about the rumors of a girl who drowned nearby.

As part of her due diligence, Stella starts searching for answers and finds a cold case that makes no sense. A teenage girl who was a State swim team champion… drowned. Something about the case keeps tugging at the edges of her memory but Stella can’t quite put her finger on it.

Meanwhile, Stella’s quest to find out exactly what happened with her mother is finally gaining some traction. She’s close to getting the whole story; she can feel it. But the more determined she is to find out the truth, the more her family members warn her that she won’t like the answers.

As the decades-old drowning case becomes clearer, Stella is shocked to find her own history entwined with that of the dead girl. With each new revelation about her mother, she starts to wonder if her family is right but she just can’t stop herself until she knows every secret.

Agent Recruit by Ethan Jones:

What price would you pay to learn the truth?

Russian FSB Agent Max Thorne is recovering from a daring assignment in the United States, which led to shocking discoveries about his mysterious past. As he begins the search to put together the missing pieces, Max learns that the elusive truth is buried deep under decades of secrecy, betrayal, and deception involving the CIA and KGB.

Barely able to stay one step ahead of powerful forces set on protecting those secrets at all costs, Max is determined to do the right thing. But what price will Max have to pay to learn the bittersweet truth, and can he protect the ones he loves?

Join Max as he faces the darkness that is the secret service the only way he knows how … head on.

Freaky Reapers by Amanda M. Lee:

Poet Parker put the past behind her. At least she thought she did.

Life on the streets wasn’t what she had in mind for her forever and she jumped at the chance to join Mystic Caravan Circus when an invitation was extended. She didn’t look back.

That was ten years ago, and now Poet is going back to the exact area she used to haunt … and she’s nervous.

The friends she left behind are scattered. Some are dead. Some have moved on to other things. Some turned out to be something else entirely. Others simply disappeared into the wind.

Unfortunately for Parker, forgetting isn’t easy … especially when a group of banshees start infringing on Mystic Caravan’s territory and the creatures seemingly have ties to the people Poet left behind.

Between the reapers also working the case – a crazy family called the Grimlocks who can’t stay out of trouble – and the guilt weighing Poet down given the way she fled, she has her hands full.

Someone is controlling the banshees, stealing girls from the streets and creating a merry band of monsters. It’s up to Poet to find out who and protect two street girls who remind her of herself.

Poet doesn’t want to look back but she has no choice … what she finds might be more evil than she ever imagined.

Razor Rocks by Toby Neal:

Paradise is plundered by pirates.

Someone is attacking and robbing luxury yachts as they sail the Hawaiian Islands leaving their passengers missing and presumed dead. Sergeant Lei Texeira, with her typical leap first look later style, dives into a case with the Coast Guard to find answers that lie as deep as Davy Jones’ locker.

He’s taking back what was stolen.

The Pirate King has a hidden agenda that’s bigger than the pillage of luxury yachts, and he’ll stop at nothing to reign on the sea.

If She Fled by Blake Pierce:

When another 50 year old woman is found dead in her home in a wealthy suburb—the second such victim in just two months—the FBI is stumped. They must turn to their most brilliant mind—retired FBI agent Kate Wise, 55—to come back to the line of duty and solve it.

What do these two empty nesters have in common? Were they targeted?

How long until this serial killer strikes again?

And is Kate, though past her prime, still able to solve cases that no one else can?

Never Ever by Willow Rose:

Ex-agent Eva Rae Thomas is on the run. The past month she has done things she never knew she was capable of while hunting for her kidnapped daughter.

Eva Rae has risked everything,

-her career,

-her newfound love,

-her freedom.

She’s looking for the man they call the Iron Fist. The trail has led her to Miami.

Meanwhile, Miami is under attack. Hundreds of passengers in the Metrorail are exposed to a deathly nerve gas on a peaceful Monday morning. When Eva Rae Thomas sees her daughter on the surveillance footage from the attack, she knows it is no coincidence. But by the time she uncovers the chilling truth of how it is all connected, it might be too late.

Murder on Eaton Square by Lee Strauss:

Murder’s Bad Karma. . .

Life couldn’t be better on Eaton Square Gardens where the most prestigious families lived, until one of their own dies and it’s murder.

Ginger and Basil are on the case, but it’s not a simple glass of bubbly fizz. The more the clues present themselves, the trickier the puzzle gets, and Ginger feels she’s on a wild goose chase.

But as someone close to the victim so aptly quips, “One shouldn’t commit murder. It’s bad karma.”

Reaping what one sows is hardly a great cup of tea.

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Brief WorldCon and TitanCon Update

I’m still in Ireland, though now in the Northern part at TitanCon, the 2019 EuroCon in Belfast.

My hotal WiFi is pretty bad, plus I caught a virus that was going around at WorldCon. So if you’re waiting for my 2019 Hugo analysis, you’ll have to wait a bit longer.

But in the meantime, if you check out my Twitter, you can see all the photos I’m posting there.

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