Lou Anders's Blog, page 43

2011 Chesley Award Finalists

[image error] [image error] ASFA, the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, have announced the 2011 Chesley Award Finalists. I'm thrilled to be nominated for a fourth time in the category of Best Art Director (I won in 2009), and equally happy to see two Pyr cover illustrations make the list. Congratulations to Todd Lockwood for his nomination for the cover for Tom LLoyd's The Ragged Man and to Stephan Martiniere for his nomination for the cover illustration for Ian McDonald's Ares Express . Both are in the category of Best Paperback. And congratulations to all the nominees. Please follow the link above and check out all the amazing work.

Signing in the Waldenbooks by Parnell Hall

Thanks to Mike Resnick for turning me onto this brilliant bit of musical honesty and self promotion:



And here's one of Parnell Hall's books.

Beware the Giant Fire Breathing Robot

I'm a guest today on episode 80 of the Giant Fire Breathing Robot podcast. They say, "Andrew and Ashley pick the brain of Lou Anders, the steady hand at the wheel of Pyr, an imprint of Prometheus Books. We'd make the easy "what's a book joke" here, but this interview is so full of great info and kick-ass book recommendations that we'll just let the audio speak for itself. Lou gives tips for people who want to do his job, and he gives some great info for people who fancy themselves the next Tolkien."

You can listen at the link above, or download from iTunes. 

I'm not going to BEA but...

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Pyr will be represented at Book Expo America in the Prometheus Books booth, #4566.

Book Expo America is a trade only event that delivers the largest gathering of booksellers, librarians, retailers, and industry professionals anywhere in North America. It takes place at the Javits Center in New York City.

In the BEA autographing area, Clay and Susan Griffith, co-authors of the Vampire Empire trilogy, will be signing copies of book one, The Greyfriar , as well as giving away bookmarks for book two, The Rift Walker, which will be published in September. BEA attendees, get your signed copy at Table #25 on Tuesday, May 24, 10:30 - 11:30 am EST.

The Pyr Fall-Winter 2011-2012 catalog will be available at booth #4566, as will publisher staff in marketing, publicity, ebooks, and sales. Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders will NOT be at BEA this year, but please do say hello to the rest of us! If you're a book reviewer or blogger interested in Pyr and are attending BEA, feel free to email publicity@prometheusbooks.com and let us know you'll be stopping by.

Conan The Musical

Just putting this here so I can always find it:

Bach

2011 Locus Award Finalists

[image error] [image error] The 2011 Locus Award Finalists have been announced and it's with great pleasure that I discovered that Ian McDonald's The Dervish House (which I edited for Pyr) is up in the category of Best Novel as well as Swords & Dark Magic , (which I co-edited with Jonathan Strahan for Eos) in the category of Best Anthology. And from that anthology, Joe Abercrombie's "The Fool Jobs" is in the category of Best Novelette.

Masked and Anonymous

[image error] Lubbock Online has posted a review of my superhero prose anthology, Masked . They write:

"Verdict: Thumbs up. Any sort of anthology like this is going to have some good stories and some not-so-good stories, and I'm glad to say that most of these fall on the good side of the equation. Far and away, my favorite stories were the ones by Gail Simone, Bill Willingham, and Paul Cornell, but the majority of the stories in this book are just plain great. ....Not a perfect anthology, but certainly one of the better ones of this type I've seen. if you're a superhero fan, this is definitely something you'll want to pick up."

My Reading from the PKD Award

Ian McDonald's Hugo-nominated The Dervish House optioned by Warp Films.

[image error] Ian McDonald's BSFA-winning, Hugo nominated novel, The Dervish House, has been optioned by Warp Film. The Zeno Agency reported the film option yesterday. From their blog:

Zeno Agency is delighted to announce that film and television rights to Ian McDonald's award winning novel THE DERVISH HOUSE have been optioned by Warp Films. The deal was negotiated by Zeno's John Richard Parker who says, 'As with all Ian's books THE DERVISH HOUSE is very much cinematic as well being  an imaginative tour de force. I have always believed it has the qualities that  make it eminently suitable for film and I am sure that with Warp's enthusiasm for the project and their fantastic track record, all the ingredients are in place to put together something very special indeed.'

Warp Films have had notable successes recently with SUBMARINE and FOUR LIONS and Executive Producer Peter Carlton says 'We're delighted to have the chance to adapt THE DERVISH HOUSE for the screen, set in that most iconic of cities, crossroads of east and west, past and future, Istanbul. It starts with an explosion on a tram and ends in a race to stop a terrorist plot, but in the meantime Ian somehow weaves together speculative share trading, nanotechnology and Islamic microcalligraphy, to name but a few strands in this visual feast that has a narrative sweep and ambition all too rare in contemporary fiction.'