Happy Friday all! Here's five things worth your attention from the world of Fantasy
1) I often wish we paid more attention to editors, so here's a twitter thread from an editor who may need some help. Tor have let go of three of their editors and one of them, Diana M. Pho, posted this twitter thread on the subject. Have a look, maybe find a new book, maybe contact them for editing, and at the very least, give a retweet or a like. It's a hard time and this community should stand together. Personally I'm most intrigued by The Risen Kingdoms series but there's 4 or 5 books there I'll bear in mind, and I haven't even looked at the list of Diana Gill and Melissa Frain yet.
2) From sad news to happier news. There's been a flurry of book birthdays and announcements on twitter, most of which I can't even remember now, but one that stuck in the mind was Devin Madson's We Lie With Death, the sequel to the recently released We Ride The Storm. It stuck because I'm jealous of such a perfect series naming formula and also because I've been hearing tons about We Ride The Storm. I'd been hearing a huge amounts of it when it was indie, and then just as much now it's gone trad. I think I've got an indie version on kindle and it's going to get a go sooner or later. And speaking of indie hits, it was no surprise to hear that The Sword of Kaigen won SPFBO because again the levels of chatter about it has been big trad pub worthy for a while now. Big congrats to M.L. Yang and all the other finalists. I keep saying I should pay attention to SPFBO, maybe this is the year I will.
3) On to blogs and there's a couple of interesting ones I want to share this week. The first is this mini-history of D&D on Roll To Save. Some I knew, a fair bit I didn't, and it was good to find out more about such a big influence on fantasy as we know it. If Roll to Save reads this, I think a history of D&D related fiction might be a pretty cool follow up read. The second is Stephen Palmer's profile on Steven Mithen, Professor of Archaeology at Reading University. It's a fascinating look at an academic working in a field I've barely even heard of, but that has huge implications for how we understand our species.
4) Short story time, and this one at Metaphorosis Magazine is beautifully written. Jonathan Louis Duckworth's Figlia della Neve tells the tale of a man who hunts a myth with hope and good intentions, and the happiness and sorrow that comes from it. Quite short and very worth a read.
5) Finally, I've decided to take part in Wyrd & Wonder, a month long celebration of our genre. It's a very obvious decision for a man who's already blogging daily about fantasy, but I'm particularly happy to do it at this time; when we need to look at our lives differently, when we sometimes need a mistake, and at this time of year when the seasons change the blooming possibilities of spring start to become infused with the glory of summer. There'll be a lot of blogging, so check out the #WyrdandWonder tag on Twitter if you're looking for more blogs to read - and I will be talking about the best ones I see each week every Friday going forwards. And since this is obviously not my W&W blog post of the day, that does mean today will be a double blog day.
No comments:
Post a Comment