Sable Aradia's Blog, page 28
January 18, 2019
First Gunsmoke & Dragonfire Book Trailer Drop!
Howdy, friends! As promised, the first Gunsmoke & Dragonfire book trailer dropped today! Check it out! Keep watching this space; Kickstarter coming soon! And don’t forget; you’ve only got a few days left to take advantage of our special January pre-order price. If you prefer paper books, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered there too, but that won’t be available until release date, March 15.
January 17, 2019
Weird Western and Me – Ricardo Victoria
Ricardo’s story “No-Sell” will be in Gunsmoke & Dragonfire, releasing March 15, available for pre-order now at a special January-only price! This is what he had to say about it.
Gotta admit, it’s been a lifelong goal of mine to be described as a “mastermind” … I can die happy now …
Read the full article at Ricardo Victoria’s blog.
January 14, 2019
Wyrd West Chronicles: Kindle Countdown Sale!
To celebrate the release of Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West and Gunsmoke & Dragonfire, I’m having a big Kindle Countdown sale starting tomorrow! You can get the whole Wyrd West Chronicles serial for as low as $4!
Showdown: FREE
Vice & Virtue: FREE
The Vigil: 99 cents to $2.99
Way of the Gun: 99 cents to $2.99
The Reaping: 99 cents to $2.99
The Widow’s Gambit: 99 cents to $2.99
The earlier you act, the less you will pay! Sale starts tomorrow at midnight PST and ends 11:59 pm January 19!
Wyrd West Chronicles #7, The Teeth of Winter, is only available in Gunsmoke & Dragonfire: A Fantasy Western Anthology, which is available at a special preorder price of only 99 cents for the month of January ONLY. Get it here!
January 11, 2019
Book Trailer Drop: The Teeth of Winter
Here’s the new book trailer for The Teeth of Winter (Wyrd West Chronicles #7)! Only available in Gunsmoke & Dragonfire: A Fantasy Western Anthology. Special pre-order price of 99 cents for the month of January ONLY!
January 7, 2019
Gunsmoke & Dragonfire: Pre-Order Available!
[image error]Gunsmoke & Dragonfire: A Fantasy Western Anthology is now available for pre-order on Kindle! For January Only we are offering a special pre-order price of only 99 cents! The price will continue to go up in increments until it reaches full price upon release.
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…
Laurence Raphael Brothers – A barkeep hopes for a chance at revenge against a band of outlaws, but the help he receives may not be natural…
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…
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.
Book Review: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Read for the 12 in 12 Reading Challenge.
This novel won the 1997 Locus Award and was nominated for the 1997 Nebula and World Fantasy Awards.
I’ve been meaning to read these for some time because I’m a fan of the series, and in the Long Night between Season 7 and Season 8, it seemed like a good way to get some of the joy I was missing. It was difficult to start because at first, the TV show follows its pattern almost exactly. But by about halfway through the book, there are enough differences that it’s well worth the time, even if you have watched every episode; although, amazingly, nothing contradicts the story being told on the small screen, either. And besides, the writing is just excellent, and there’s a special joy to watching genre fiction done so well.
I don’t think I’ll give anything away about the plot at all, because you already know everything you need to know to determine whether or not you want to read the book, and anything else would wreck things for you. But I will say that the special beauty of A Song of Ice and Fire is that characters never behave like you would expect from the classic tropes. I would like to emphasize, however, that Martin does not simply spit on and ignore the tropes; he’s a fan of classic epic fantasy, and that comes through clearly in his writing. Instead, he considers them as they apply to the real world, with real people making emotional decisions, as people do.
– What is the proper path of honour for a knight in the midst of real chaos and war?
– How would princesses really feel about being given away like prizes to the heroes of the hour? And what happens after they’ve lived together for twenty years?
– What do people really think of the trickster-hero?
– What would really happen to a girl who wanted to grow up to be a knight?
– What would really happen to a knight who was forced to choose between what was good, and what was honourable?
The only other work I can possibly compare to this in scope and scale, aside from the obvious, is Dune. It’s an equal contender for a great saga of power and the human costs of power. It’s space opera in a fantasy setting. There’s a reason Martin is being called “The American Tolkien.” Check it out for yourself.
January 3, 2019
Astronaut on ISS Captures Spacecraft Launch Footage
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has captured the launch of the Russian Progress MS-10 cargo spacecraft. He filmed the craft leaving the Earth’s atmosphere while on board the International Space Station. Posting on Twitter he wrote: “This is real. How a spaceship leaves our planet, seen from ISS.”
See the video on BBC’s website.
December 31, 2018
Cities of Dust, Planes of Light
[image error]I’m proud to announce that one of my stories, The World’s More Full of Weeping, will be published in “Cities of Dust, Planes of Light,” a science fantasy anthology from Air and Nothingness Press! Preorders are now available, and shipping/publication date will be January 31st. I’m honoured to be included among this amazing cast of authors!
Join authors Samantha L. Barrett, Sarah Daly, Jamie Lackey, Diane Morrison, and Cat Rambo as they take you to ambitious, evocative worlds of science, fantasy, and imagination.
Stories include:
Lot 814: A Series of Letters – Dated Before the Lunar Defection, Recently Discovered Amongst the Possessions of the Late Princess Alicia III by Jamie Lackey
This Is Not Mars by Sarah Daly
A Hand Extended by Cat Rambo
The Outposts by Samantha L. Barrett
The World’s More Full of Weeping by Diane Morrison
This lovely book will be printed in trade paperback edition only. Air & Nothingness is also printing a series of postcards, celebrating each of our stories in limited edition with the book, for an additional $4 (only 25 copies available.) Really, you should follow the link and take a look at them. They’re beautiful!
CONTRIBUTORS
Samantha L. Barrett writes both literary and genre fiction. Her stories have appeared in 365 Tomorrows, GeekSmash.com, and The Chaffey Review, and been anthologized in Voices from the Attic and 10/ten. Samantha received her BA from the University of Pittsburgh and her MFA from Carlow University, where she is now an instructor for the Madwomen in the Attic fiction workshops. Samantha also enjoys writing scripts for murder mystery dinner parties and making her friends dress up in silly costumes.
Sarah Daly, co-founder of indie horror outfit Hex Studios, has collaborated with director Lawrie Brewster on some of the most original horror/fantasy films in recent years such as Lord of Tears (2013), The Unkindness of Ravens (2016), The Black Gloves (2017) and Automata(2018). With influences including M.R. James, Daphne Du Maurier and Walter Tevis, Daly studied Media Arts at Dublin Institute of Technology which revealed her passion for scriptwriting. She moved to Scotland in 2010, where she established boutique horror production company Hex Media, later Hex Studios, with Brewster. Her passion for horror, science fiction and fantasy has driven her to create original stories and brave new worlds in a variety of forms, from songwriting to poetry, screenplays and short stories.
Jamie Lackey lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and their cat. She has had over 140 short stories published in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex Magazine, and Escape Pod. Her debut novel, Left-Hand Gods, is available from Hadley Rille Books, and she has two short story collections available from Air and Nothingness Press: The Blood of Four Gods and A Metal Box Floating Between Stars. In addition to writing, she spends her time reading, playing tabletop RPGs, baking, and hiking. You can find her online at www.jamielackey.com.
Diane Morrison is an emerging hybrid neo-pro author best known for her Wyrd West Chronicles and Toy Soldier Saga stories. One of her stories recently appeared in Third Flatiron’s Terra! Tara! Terror! to good critical reviews, and another recently received an Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future competition. Her work has also been in several magazines, anthologies, and book bundles. Her first novel-length book, Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West, was published in September. She is also the manager of the SFWA official YouTube channel. She lives in Vernon, BC, Canada, with her partners and three-legged furbaby.
A pre-Internet product of the American Midwest, Cat Rambo continues to be pleased at living in a world where we can listen to the sound of the wind on Mars. Her 200+ fiction publications include two novels and stories in Asimov’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Clarkesworld Magazine. She is the founder of online writing school, The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers (academy.catrambo.com) and is the current President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Chelsea Lang is known for her emotive ink illustrations that combine expressive brushwork with the human form. Heavily influenced by contemporary illustrators such as Vanessa Lemen and David Downton, her work shows a particular interest in finding portraits and personality from abstract mark making. Chelsea is known primarily for her portrait work, and is dedicated to creating art by a woman, for women, without the male gaze. You can find her online at www.chelsealang.com.
Air and Nothingness is a small press that prints quality books of translated works, poetry and short fiction of literary value. They also print a limited number of copies, so please make sure to get yours soon!
December 29, 2018
The Many Faces of Western: Foreward from Gunsmoke & Dragonfire
This excerpt is a sneak peak at the foreward for Gunsmoke & Dragonfire: A Fantasy Western Anthology (publication scheduled March 2019). This excerpt has been set for this blog post only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.
Most of us are used to the concept of a science fiction western by now. However, as a writer who works in the blended genre, I find that fantasy western is a harder sell. But I think it’s a natural fit.
The truth is that the Wild West, as visualized in the North American consciousness, is a myth. And like all myths, it has a certain universal human appeal; at least, if it’s done well. Fantasy also deals primarily in myth. Many of the themes common to both milieus are older than remembered time.
In curating these stories, I decided that there would have to be more than a thin veneer of cowboys grafted on to a speculative fiction story. In addition to its fantastic elements, each story would have to be a western at heart. The question then becomes: what, exactly, is a western?
Westerns focus on the myths of settling the wild frontier, although they share much with the Knight Errant tales of Europe, the ronin stories of Japan, and sometimes, trickster-heroes of a variety of cultural myths from around the world. Stories center around survival in a hostile and alien environment, whether they tell of pioneering, running away from something, bringing elements of the civilization left behind to the wilderness, or fighting for the land’s possession. Outlaws flee justice, and sheriffs or vigilantes dispense it. Settlers and native folk compete, often violently, for space or resources. Above all, codes of honour are personal, because the only law is the law of the gun. In these stories, the landscape itself often becomes a character, lending its favour to the protagonist, or dispensing its wrath; or often, both.
Author and screenwriter Frank Gruber identified seven main plots of westerns:
the Union Pacific story – establishing modern technology or forms of transportation, such as a telegraph, railroad or wagon train;
the Ranch story – a ranch defends itself against rustlers, rich landowners, or the environment;
the Empire story – a rags-to-riches story about establishing a financial empire (or trying to);
the Revenge story;
the Cavalry and Indian story – “taming” the wilderness for settlers, or fighting back against them;
the Outlaw story;
the Marshal story.
In all of these plots, clear divisions of good and evil are often subjective or non-existent. For example, it might be the Outlaw who is the moral character and the Marshal who is immoral; or the one who dispenses justice now may have been a cold-blooded killer in their youth. While I prefer not to emphasize the problematic elements of these tales (for instance, I do not find genocide heroic,) I think you’ll find that all of the stories I’ve selected fall into at least one of these patterns.
There are several recognized subcategories of western, mostly defined by change of location or time period, a blending of cultures, or a mix of other genres or genre elements. One example is the Weird Western, which is when westerns meet supernatural elements, most often in the form of horror. Space Westerns are stories of wagon trains to the stars – space, after all, is the “Final Frontier.” Apocalyptic Westerns explore western plots and characters in a post-apocalyptic setting, with a collapsed central authority, that serves as a new hostile environment to survive or “tame.” Cattlepunk stories are western-steampunk stories. This anthology has a selection of all of the above, and a few things that defy these labels besides.
Like a western, my motives for putting this anthology together are morally ambiguous. I wanted to draw attention to this unique blend of genres because I write in it. However, I recognized that I could not be alone in this. So, I also hoped to draw attention to other writers who share my interest, because they’re fun and interesting and I think they deserve recognition!
In these pages, you’ll find an international cast of traditionally published and indie writers, established and emerging writers, and one or two who are brand new. You’ll find that often, standard tropes and stereotypes are challenged, subverted, or upended entirely. You’ll find stories that take place in the past, present, and future, from the familiar American West and Mexico, to a post-apocalyptic Canada, to the drought-plagued plains of Mars, to other dimensions and other worlds weird and wonderful. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
Diane Morrison
December 6, 2018
December 24, 2018
The Insect Apocalypse is Here
By Brooke Jarvis
Sune Boye Riis was on a bike ride with his youngest son, enjoying the sun slanting over the fields and woodlands near their home north of Copenhagen, when it suddenly occurred to him that something about the experience was amiss. Specifically, something was missing.
It was summer. He was out in the country, moving fast. But strangely, he wasn’t eating any bugs.
For a moment, Riis was transported to his childhood on the Danish island of Lolland, in the Baltic Sea. Back then, summer bike rides meant closing his mouth to cruise through thick clouds of insects, but inevitably he swallowed some anyway. When his parents took him driving, he remembered, the car’s windshield was frequently so smeared with insect carcasses that you almost couldn’t see through it. But all that seemed distant now. He couldn’t recall the last time he needed to wash bugs from his windshield; he even wondered, vaguely, whether car manufacturers had invented some fancy new coating to keep off insects. But this absence, he now realized with some alarm, seemed to be all around him. Where had all those insects gone? And when? And why hadn’t he noticed?
Read the full article in the New York Times.
