Sable Aradia's Blog, page 24
April 18, 2019
Where I’ll Be This Summer
Howdy friends! I’m looking ahead to the summer event season. I’ll be out and about in Western Canada. Here’s the events I’m looking at. If it’s italicized, that means I’ve been confirmed by the organizers and I will for sure be there.
June 8th & 9th: The Penti-Con (Penticton, BC) – I’ll be presenting a panel discussion on Publishing Your Fan Fiction, which will detail how you can turn your fan fiction project into your own, perfectly-publishable universe. J.I. Rogers will be sharing my vendor table and we’ll be selling books.
August 9th to 11th: When Words Collide Festival for Writers & Readers (Calgary, AB) – Three Gunsmoke & Dragonfire authors – myself, Ron S. Friedman, and Claire Ryan – will be there! We’ll be hosting a book social for GnD. Ron and I will be hosting a Weird West genre panel, and I’m joining Claire on a panel about medieval and fantasy combat.
August 24th & 25th: Kelowna Comic Con (Kelowna, BC) – J.I. Rogers and I will be selling books and art at this one as well.
October 11th to 13th: VCON (Sci-fi/Fantasy Convention) (Vancouver, BC) – I’ve been meaning to do this one for years. I’m looking to sell my books and present a panel or two. I’m in the preliminary application stage on this one, but I am dead serious about going.
I’m also looking to do some book signings for the release of Gunsmoke & Dragonfire and the Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West hardcover around the Okanagan Valley & Interior BC, possibly Vancouver as well. Keep watching this space for more information on that!
April 17, 2019
Alan & Jeremy vs. Science Fiction: CL Moore’s “Shambleau” with Cat Rambo & Diane Morrison
I was so pleased to appear on an episode of Alan & Jeremy vs. Science Fiction with the awesome World Fantasy award-winner and multiple-award nominee Cat Rambo! Alan & Jeremy select a story, usually a classic in the field or something generating a lot of current buzz, and they invite a sci-fi author to read the story, then come on as a guest so they can discuss it.
We had the opportunity to read the awesome C.L. Moore’s classic story “Shambleau,” which was new to me. We had a great time and I think you would enjoy checking it out!
Or just check out the podcast in general, because if you’re a science fiction nerd, it’s like a rare and delectable wine. Nobody else I know of is doing this kind of serious (but fun, and obviously inspired by love) treatment of genre fiction and I think it’s desperately needed.
Find the episode here: https://alanandjeremyvssf.libsyn.com/episode-20-cl-moores-shambleau-with-cat-rambo-diane-morrison. Or, I posted a link to a YouTube reading of the story by the author! Or you can probably find them on your favourite podcast player.
March 26, 2019
Direct Ordering for Print Titles at Aradia Publishing
I’m so pleased to announce that direct ordering for print titles from Aradia Publishing is now available on our website!
Right now we’re offering a 10% retail pre-order discount on trade paperbacks of Gunsmoke & Dragonfire, which will run until release date, March 31. Pre-order discounts will also be available for the hardcover editions of Gunsmoke & Dragonfire and Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West (coming soon!)
Thanks to our new distribution arrangement with Ingram, a problem that has long been an albatross around my neck has been solved. Namely, we can ship immediately to anywhere in the world, without me having to order a box of books up to Canada first, to then be shipped out again from here.
What this means is that I’m able to offer better discounts and maintain a more competitive price on the books I produce. And because Ingram has operations in…
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March 23, 2019
Merlin, Tamer of Dragons
Merlin the wizard (c. 1400). Image: Vintage News
Everyone knows the story of Merlin, the wizard genius behind Arthur’s reign. As the Vintage News reports, a chance discovery by historians at the University of Bristol added a new angle to the old tale: dragons.
The historians found a set of important 13th-century manuscripts hidden inside a younger book. The manuscript fragments contain extracts from a previously unknown version of the Vulgate Cycle, a set of Old French texts that tell the story of King Arthur.
The seven handwritten fragments of parchment tell a familiar story from the Vulgate Cycle, but with a number of key differences that may shed new light on the history of the Arthurian legend.
The Vulgate Cycle
King Arthur. Image: Vintage News
The story of King Arthur and his wizard Merlin was a popular medieval romance, most notably written down as Le Morte d’Arthur by
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March 20, 2019
Vernon: Steam Punk Capital of the World
A post from Harold Rhenisch from a few years ago, discovered when I typed “steampunk okanagan” into Google. But Vernon is the town I live in, and I was amused.
Steam punk is a branch of writing and art (especially jewelry and sculpture, romantic novels and visual poetry) that recombines materials from the age of steam and iron, and sets them in the contemporary world of petroleum and electrons. Here’s what www.steampunk.com has to say about all that:
Take place in the Victorian era but include advanced machines based on 19th century technology (e.g. The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling);
Include the supernatural as well (e.g. The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger);
Include the supernatural and forego the technology (e.g. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, one of the works that inspired the term ‘steampunk’);
Include the advanced machines, but take place later than the Victorian period, thereby assuming that the predomination by electricity and petroleum never happens (e.g. The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling); or
Take place in an another world altogether, but featuring Victorian-like…
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March 16, 2019
Gunsmoke & Dragonfire is Getting Attention
We’re pleased to announce that Gunsmoke & Dragonfire is getting attention in the SFF community media!
Respected SFF website io9 included us in their list of books to watch out for in March.
We made the list on Fantastic Fiction, a respected website where booksellers go to research the books their clientele are interested in.
And Storycast Rob read , one of the stories we feature in Gunsmoke & Dragonfire, on his podcast yesterday.
We’d like to thank all of these excellent websites for mentioning us, and in particular, Rob Edwards for reading from our book! You can also catch his reading of from Gunsmoke & Dragonfire .
Once again, you can get Gunsmoke & Dragonfire for your Kindle here. Keep an eye on this space for wide and print release information.
March 15, 2019
Gunsmoke & Dragonfire Releases TODAY!
From the drought-plagued plains of Mars, to a post-apocalyptic Canada, to the familiar American West and Mexico, to other dimensions and other worlds weird and wonderful, an international cast of bestselling, award-winning, established, and emerging authors brings you 25 strange western tales:
Robert Lee Beers – A hardboiled P.I. and his partner must find their way back to the present from 1906 San Francisco before the Big One hits, dodging gunslingers and the risk of changing history, with only a drunken misanthropic wizard to help them…
James Blakey – A sheriff must question a colourful cast of characters to discover who has stolen a unicorn rancher’s herd…
Zach Chapman – A card-cheating Spellslinger must duel a mysterious Green Gunslinger to his damnation or salvation…
Sara Codair – Two Martian sheriffs must stop a gang of outlaws from stealing a settlement’s precious water, if they can keep their marriage together long enough to do it…
Eric S. Fomley – A marshal comes to town seeking an outlaw, but neither he nor the outlaw are the ordinary kind…
Milo James Fowler – Heroic Coyote Cal, the witch Donna Jamieson, and his faithful sidekick Big Yap, must stop a monster from ravaging the livestock and people of a town in the western desert…
Ron S. Friedman – A WWI pilot shot down over the Amazon must survive Germans, crazy scientists, the jungle and dinosaurs…
Carrie Gessner – An elven veteran is called back to face her demons when a little girl is snatched to serve the army that destroyed her…
Paul Alex Gray – The heir to the Bourbon Throne must earn coin in America to overthrow the French Republic and reclaim his birthright, so he builds a fantastic contraption to aid him…
Jude-Marie Green – Sorceress Jane Smith knows her partner Donna Quick is quite mad, but she follows her anyway…
Brent A. Harris – Marshal Bass Reeves has been asked for help by a desperate frontier settlement beleaguered by a dragon…
Ethan Hedman – A wandering gunfighter inherits an enchanted weapon, but it’s broken…
Joachim Heijndermans – Two outlaws hole up in a quiet town full of terrified townsfolk, but all is not as it seems…
Russell Hemmell – Two investigators must discover why an entire colony in the Kuiper Belt has disappeared, leaving nothing but an anachronistic western frontier town in its place…
Liam Hogan – A young outlaw is hunted by an implacable mechanical foe…
G. Scott Huggins – A blacksmith with ghostly allies receives an unusual, and dangerous, client…
Sean Jones – The last Norse descendant in North America, who swears vengeance on the Comanche for killing his wife and village, is given supernatural aid by the Navajo…
Mackenzie Kincaid – Junior died helping Pa maintain the fence against the Somethings, so now 12-year-old Jane must take his place…
R. Daniel Lester – An old tap-dancing celebrity defaults on the payments for his magical shoes, and a repo agent has come to collect…
Diane Morrison – Two young elven Gunslingers must stop a cannibal spirit before it, or the blizzard it brings, kills everyone they know…
Diana L. Paxson – A painter journeys to the Rockies to paint landscapes, and stumbles upon an ancient mystery…
Claire Ryan – Rollo is going to get her giant slug herd in to market, come hell or high water, monster or no monster…
Ricardo Victoria – An ex-spellslinger has taken up a career as a travelling salesbeing of a newfangled weapon called a “rifle”…
Stanley B. Webb – A U.S. Marshal must stop a notorious outlaw who may or may not be a dragon…
We invite you to explore these stories in the grand pulp fiction tradition: from weird westerns, to sci-fi and space westerns, to post-apocalyptic westerns, alternate history, time travel, and cattlepunk.
Featuring a classic Solomon Kane story by Robert E. Howard.
Here’s the final book trailer, as promised:
See the whole book trailer playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn6A-p_oxGI&list=PLG8fsSKs4HmeEV_OL1qY80YPNyBUm57T8
PRINT VERSIONS & EPUBS: Wide distribution and the print versions will be available March 31. Stay tuned for details!
March 14, 2019
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March 11, 2019
Book Review: The Chains that Bind by Sarah Buhrman
The Chains That Bind by Sarah Buhrman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve long been a fan of the Runespells series, which I’m sure everyone knows by now. I happened to get in on the ground floor just after the first volume, Too Wyrd, came out.
This one is the best yet!
I sat down to read this last night after I finished some editing, sometime around 1 a.m. I was thinking I would bang off a chapter or two and then get some sleep. Before I knew it, it was four o’clock in the morning and the book was done. A real page turner!
Read more at Between the Shadows.
March 8, 2019
Book Trailer Drop: Gunsmoke & Dragonfire #8!
Happy Saturday! I was so deep in editing the final proof yesterday that I almost forgot it was Book Trailer Drop day! It’s the last book trailer drop before Release Day, March 15, and there’s one book trailer left, to be released on the day! This one concentrates on some of the most “western” of our fantasy western stories: Inheritance by Ethan Hedman, A Different Kind of Law by Eric S. Fomley, and El Diablo de Paseo Grande by Milo James Fowler.
For a day or two more, you can get the book on Kindle for somewhat less than the full price: only $4.99! Pre-order Gunsmoke & Dragonfire here.
Watch the full list of book trailers so far HERE.
Check out the playlist of all the Kickstarter videos, including book trailers and author interviews, HERE.
