Fonda Lee's Blog, page 9

Exo is an Oregon Book Award Finalist

I’m honored to once again be in the running for the Oregon Book Awards. Exo has been named a finalist the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature, alongside books by Laini Taylor, Paula Stokes, Kelly Garrett, and Kenn Amdahl. The full list of finalists can be found here. The awards ceremony takes place on April 30th.

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2017 Award-Eligible Works and a Look Ahead

2017 turned out to be a bumper crop year for me with three works published.

Novel (adult, fantasy): Jade City (Orbit, Nov 2017). Gangster family saga that Liz Bourke at Tor.com described as “The Legend of Korra with Gangs of New York and a generous helping of Hong Kong action cinema” and NPR recommended as one the Best Books of 2017 calling it, “an instantly absorbing tale of blood, honor, family and magic, spiced with unexpectedly tender character beats.”

Novel (young adult, science fiction): Exo (Scholastic, Jan 2017). Aptly described by VOYA as, “not the usual aliens-conquering-Earth plotline,” Exo is the story of Donovan Reyes, a human enhanced with alien biotechnology who is also the son of a collaborationist political leader on Earth a hundred years after alien conquest. School Library Journal says, “This action-packed novel asks readers to consider alien technology, what it means to be human or nonhuman, and the gray areas in war, where neither side is completely good or evil.”

Novelette: “Old Souls” in Where the Stars Rise Anthology (Laksa Media, Oct 2017). Booklist calls this collection, “essential for anyone interested in the diverse and engaging possibilities of fantasy and science fiction.” My story was summed up well on SFBluestocking as, “an acerbically intelligent story involving reincarnation and an ancient grudge.” I’m making this work available on my website at this link for a short time.

(For those readers who are considering works for awards: I’m a dual Canadian-American citizen, so am eligible for the Aurora in addition to the Nebula, Hugo, Norton, etc.)

So many compelling works of science fiction and fantasy came out this year that it would take you until 2025 to read them all. A good starting point is the Nebula Suggested Reading List. Here’s a round-up of 2017 award eligibility posts by SFWA president Cat Rambo.

Looking forward, I’m expecting 2018 to be a little quieter on the publication front but wildly busy in terms of writing and events. I have one book scheduled for publication: Cross Fire, the sequel to Exo, which comes out at the end of May (and which you can already pre-order!). I assure you that as pear-shaped as things were for Donovan Reyes and the human race in general when Exo closed…they get worse in Cross Fire. 

The trade paperback edition of Jade City will hit the shelves in June and it will contain bonus material including an author interview and an excerpt from Jade War, the second book in the Green Bone Saga. I’ll be at a number of events including Emerald City Comic Con, the Tucson Festival of Books, and WorldCon 76 in San Jose. Most importantly, I’ll be putting my head down and working on setting down the next part of the Kaul family’s story.

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Jade City Launch Roundup

Jade City is officially out in the world and I couldn’t be happier to share this book with readers. Here’s a roundup of recent online coverage and guest posts related to the launch:

EXCERPTS

Chapters 1-4 on the Orbit website 
Chapter 6 on The Book Smugglers
Chapter 7 on Pornokitsch

REVIEWS

Library Journal (starred review, Pick of the Month) 
Publisher’s Weekly
Book Page 
Kirkus 
Tor.com 
Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy  
Expresso Coco
Blue Book Balloon
The Eloquent Page

GUEST POSTS & INTERVIEWS

Jade City: A MSWL Success Story
The Big Idea on John Scalzi’s Whatever
Jade City: An Anti-NaNoWriMo Case Study
Epic Fantasy: Let’s Get With the (Non-Medieval) Times
There’s More to Worldbuilding Than Making Magic
East Meets West: A Film-going Novelist Celebrates the Blending of Cultural Influences
My Favorite Bit on Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog
Author Interview at The Illustrated Page 
Top 10 Fantasy Crime Novels

VIDEOS

Authors In Orbit: Fonda Lee Introduces Jade City 
30 Second Challenge with Fonda Lee

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Exo Named A White Pine Award nominee

Exo is a finalist for the White Pine Award and will be part of Canada’s largest recreational reading program for high school students, which culminates with the Forest of Trees Reading Festival in May. Thank you to the Ontario Library Association for this honor.

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YA Scavenger Hunt

Today through Sunday, Oct 8, I’m participating in the YA Scavenger Hunt, in which readers get access to exclusive material from authors and have the chance to win a lot of books. I’m on the Gold Team. To jump into the hunt, click here.

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Cross Fire Cover Reveal

Cross Fire, the sequel to Exo, has a cover! Scholastic’s designer Phil Falco knocked it out of the park once again. I love what he’s done here and think it’s going to look fantastic on the shelf next to Exo.

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Where the Stars Rise Giveaway

I have a particular fondness for my story in Where the Stars Rise, an anthology of Asian science fiction and fantasy releasing from Canadian publisher Laksa Media on Oct 8.

“Old Souls” was the piece that got me into the Viable Paradise Writer’s Workshop a few years ago, and after being critiqued by the likes of Scott Lynch, Steven Gould, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, it went through a gauntlet of revision and submission and found a home in this wonderful collection that Booklist describes as, “essential for anyone interested in the diverse and engaging possibilities of fantasy and science fiction.”

So, do you want djinns in futuristic Istanbul, rockets in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, drunken ghosts, monsters, and steampunk? Stories by Joyce Chng, S.B. Divya, Karin Lowachee, E.C. Myers, Amanda Sun, and many more? Ahead of its October 8 launch, I’m giving away a copy (North America only). I’ll draw a name on Sept 22. Click here to learn about how the book benefits Kids Help Phone, or buy it now.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Jade City Cover Reveal & ARC Giveaway

The cover of Jade City was revealed today on Book Riot! Check out the official reveal.

The art department of my publisher, Orbit, couldn’t have created a more bold and dramatic cover and I’m thrilled with it. The finished book is going to have a title that glows like lit jade, and the tagline is so perfect it gives me shivers.

And that’s not all. I’m now in possession of Advance Reading Copies of Jade City and I’m giving three of them away right now. Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below. Open internationally until May 23. You can also add Jade City to your Goodreads list or pre-order it on Amazon. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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YA Scavenger Hunt – April 4-9

I’m part of the GOLD TEAM in this year’s YA Scavenger Hunt. To take part in the event featuring dozens of YA books and authors and loads of prizes, jump in here.

 

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Jade City book deal announcement

I can’t overstate how thrilled I am to make this announcement. My next book (and adult debut), Jade City, sold to Orbit books in a three-book deal. The first novel will come out November 7. That’s right, this November. The news is out in Publisher’s Weekly today, calling it, accurately, “a Godfather-esque saga of intergenerational blood feuds, vicious politics, magic, and kung fu.”

I love this book. It’s the most ambitious thing I’ve ever written. I’m incredibly invested in and excited by it and can’t wait to share it with readers.

 

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