Posts in the "Member News" Category

• What are your favorite Night Shade authors up to?

  Member News

  Apologies for not chiming in sooner here. I think we’d all hoped to have some news to share by now regarding the acquisition of Night Shade Books’ assets by Skyhorse Publishing and Start Media. That hasn’t wrapped up yet, but things seem to be progressing.

  In the meantime, your favorite Night Shade Books authors haven’t been sitting around idly! For example:

  Richard Lee Byers is currently scripting the sixth graphic novel in the Basil and Moebius series and waiting for his cover artist to work her magic on The Imposter #2: The Blood Machine, the second volume in his post-apocalyptic superhero ebook series, and The Plague Knight and other stories, a collection of his heroic fantasy stories. Richard plans on being a program participant at Oasis 26 in Orlando, Fla., over Memorial Day weekend, so if you’re heading out there, go say hello!

  Betsy Dornbusch is currently working on Emissary, the sequel to her novel Exile, which is due out next year…in theory, at least. In the meantime, she has a story coming out in the anthology Manifesto:UF later this year, and is busy editing the e-zine Electric Spec. Plus, she’s managed to find time to write a space opera series and another book because, as she puts it, she’s apparently insane.

  Teresa Frohock‘s short story, “Naked the Night Sings,” has been accepted for Tim Marquitz’s Manifesto: UF anthology.

  Gini Koch just released her latest book, Alien in the House, the seventh in her Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series. She’ll be at Phoenix ComicCon on May 23-26 and Arizona Dreamin’ from May 31-June 2. If you’re going to either, be sure to find her!

  Ross Lockhart is busy putting the finishing touches on Tales of Jack the Ripper, an anthology due out August 31 from Word Horde. He also has a handful of short stories accepted in various venues, including the Current 93-themed anthology Mighty in Sorrow.

  Michael J. Martinez has begun serializing a novella, The Gravity of the Affair, on his website. The story is set in the historical fantasy setting of his debut novel, The Daedalus Incident, and follows the first command of a young Horatio Nelson among the moons of Jupiter. Meanwhile, The Daedalus Incident awaits a new publication date, which is now expected in July or August should all go well with the acquisition deal. There have also been a couple of great reviews. Mike will be attending Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose later this week, and is planning to attend WorldCon in San Antonio in late August, so feel free to stop and say hi if you see him.

  J.M. McDermott is wrapping up work on the third book of the Dogsland trilogy, coming in late autumn from Word Horde.

  Courtney Schafer is working hard on the third and final novel of her Shattered Sigil trilogy, The Labyrinth of Flame. The release date is uncertain at this point, but she hopes to finish the book this year. In the mean time, you can keep with her online on her blog, on Twitter, and at the BookSworn author collective. You can also find her at WorldCon in San Antonio, MileHiCon in Denver, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold conference.

  E.J. Swift has stories in two upcoming anthologies. The first is a reprint of a story first published in the January-February 2012 issue of Interzone magazine, titled “The Complex,” which will be included in The Best British Fantasy 2013 from Salt Publishing, due out this month. The second is a story in a brand new collection from Jurassic London title Pandemonium: The Lowest Heaven, due in June. Each story in the latter anthology is inspired by a celestial body in the Solar System, and will be published in partnership with the Royal Observatory. Her contribution is titled “Saga’s Children,” and is inspired by the dwarf planet Ceres. The gorgeous cover art is by artist Joey Hi-Fi. And if that’s not enough, she’s continuing to work on The Osiris Project trilogy, with book two, Cataveiro, scheduled for U.K. publication in September.

  Carol Wolf‘s latest book, Coyote Run, co-authored with Eric Elliott, will be published May 29 by FastForeward.

  Hopefully we’ll have some acquisition news soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out these and other Night Shade authors on their blogs, Facebook, Twitter, carrier pigeon, whatever. We’d like to thank everyone for all the support and good wishes we’ve received while all this has been going on. If you want to support Night Shade’s authors further, please go ahead and buy or pre-order more of our stuff!

  Read More...

• Reviews

  Balance

  

  First up: EXILE IS RELEASED! It’s in book stores and available from

  wherever you like to order online.  And since this is about reviews,

  if you read it, I’d love it if you left me one around the

  internet somewhere.

  

  Whew! On to the topic at hand. Reviews.

  Disclaimer 1: I don’t write reviews. Amazon won’t let me since I’m an author, after all that sock puppet nonsense,  plus I’m too busy writing other stuff.

  Disclaimer 2: I hardly ever read reviews for books I want, either. I’ve given it up.

  Disclaimer 3:  I hate my reactions to reviews.

  I like them too much when they’re good. I pretty much  lurve my stuff. I want everybody else to lurve it too!

  Bad reviews of my stuff messes with my writing mojo. I wish it weren’t so, but writers are mostly neurotic. I’m sure I’m hardly alone in that. I am lucky because I haven’t had a lot of bad reviews; but then I haven’t had a lot of reviews at all yet. But I pretty much  lurve my stuff. I want everybody else to lurve it too!

  Stellar reviews of other people’s stuff makes me jealous. Oh so green, and not the urpy shade. Here I am in the back row:  Like me! Like me! Pleeeease like me!

  Hey, that’s my friend you’re talking about. The SF/F community is itsy bitsy. I know a lot of writers.  Most of them are really good, hardworking people. Many of them I count among my friends. So I get the same visceral, unhappy reaction when I read a bad review of a friend’s work as I would if someone badmouthed them.

  The following peeves have more to do with reviews in general, and really they’re a collection of why I no longer read reviews of others’ work. Downloading free samples is sufficient for me.

  Reviews attacking the writer. Like I said before (it bears repeating), there is a person behind every book. I hate when people flip off folks on the internet highway and drive off.

  Posting under an alias. When I first started on the internet late last century, anonymous was all the rage. But no longer. Be you. Be proud. Be nice. Even when you don’t like something you don’t have to be a jerk about it.

  The vendetta review. There’s just something disturbing about taking the time and trouble to run around to several sites posting the same negative review.

  Reviewing books you haven’t finished. This might be considered fair among reviewers, but I think if you’re going to the trouble to talk about a book, you should go to the trouble of reading the whole thing. Not all reviews claim to have not finished the book and sometimes it’s clear the reviewer didn’t.

  Mentioning other books by other authors. Stay on topic.

  Criticizing authors for things not under their control. Obviously this applies to traditionally published writers. Here’s a list of things the publisher generally controls, not the author:

  • Cover
  • Format – including font size, number of pages, chapter and scene break glyphs
  • Copy-editing
  • Release dates
  • Cost — wholesale is determined by the publisher and distributor, retail is determined by the retailer.
  • How long a book remains on shelves is generally up to the retailer, and readers.

  Spoilers. Even with an alert, spoilers annoy the hell out of me. I think it’s fine to talk about plot in general terms but leave the details to the people who want to still read the book. I think it comes off as kind of nasty, actually, because it’s like “here, I’ll tell you the whole story so you don’t have to buy it!”

  Attacking politics, religion, or character based on what you read in a novel. It’s fiction, people.  You can’t judge what a writer likes according to their fiction, and it’s not fair to judge a plot point in a novel based on your own prejudices or dislikes. At least, people should know when personal prejudice/likes/dislikes are affecting their judgment of books.

  Disliking or Liking something to ride the coattails of the work or writer. There are plenty of hipster reviewers out there: the folks who hate what everyone else loves. Ditto sycophants, especially with famous writers.

  Clicking stars without stating your case in so many words. I admit, I’ve been guilty of this in the past. But I’ve quit since I realize that this really is of no help to readers who do like to read reviews.

  Any others I should have included? Like I said, reviews aren’t really my forte. But like them or not, they are a part of the literary landscape and have been for a long time. Other readers and writers rely on them, too, so it’s important to be thoughtful about them.

  Read More...

• TERMINAL ISLAND book trailer: “Welcome to Shady Isle!”

  Member News

  Hey all–check out the disturbing new book trailer for the latest book by Walter Greatshell, TERMINAL ISLAND.  Creeeeeepy:

  Read More...

• TERMINAL ISLAND now on Audible.com!

  Member News

  Cool–Terminal Island is my first novel to get the audiobook treatment…and they did a fantastic job!  Beautiful work by voice actor John Morgan–I’m humbled.  Check out the free sample:

  www.audible.com/pd/ref=mp_ja_3_14?asin=B00AI1C5E0

  Read More...

• Library Journal reviews Terminal Island!

  Member News

  Hey, my first-ever review from Library Journal!  Check it out:

  http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/11/books/genre-fiction/xpress-reviews-fiction-first-look-at-new-books-november-30-2012/

  Read More...

• Greetings and Salutations

  Introductions

  Hello Readers! I’m Ross E. Lockhart, Night Shade Books’ managing editor and the editor of The Book of Cthulhu and its forthcoming follow-up, The Book of Cthulhu II. I’ll be chiming in on Thursdays to talk about whatever topics the group is discussing, and attempting to steer those conversations to one or more of my three favorite topics: dogs, books, and beer. You can find me on the web in a few places, including TheBookOfCthulhu.com (where we’ve got glow-in-the dark T-shirts) and weekly Thirsty Thursday beer reviews at Bizarro Central. And, because I know you’ve got questions, I’m also going to attempting to answer any general questions you may have in the comments section.

  

  Ross E. Lockhart

  But let me get a big question out of the way first. What does an editor do? An editor is there to make sure that nothing stands between the reader and their enjoyment of the book. Lots of different jobs come under the heading of “editor,” and any given book is handled by a number of specialists, each of whom have the title of “editor.”

  The first editor a book encounters is the acquiring editor, that’s the person who identifies the manuscript as something special that readers will want to read and enjoy, the person who buys the book from the author and their agent. Next, the manuscript needs to be edited. Sometimes the acquiring editor does this, but just as often, the manuscript is handed off to an editor who combs through it in multiple readings, looking for issues with flow and continuity, clunky language, plot holes, and the like. This editor then writes an editorial letter for the author, explaining to the author how to deal with and correct those issues. The author rewrites, corrects, and adjusts, then sends the manuscript back to the editor, who then either asks for more rewrites, or sends the book along to layout.

  Once we have a book in layout (we use Adobe InDesign for this), we then send a PDF and hardcopy along to a copyeditor. Some publishers do this a little bit differently, copyediting the manuscript before layout, but at Night Shade, we find a post-layout copyedit best for identifying errors, including glitches that may have occurred in the layout process. Copyeditors, in my opinion, are the real heroes of the publishing industry. Many a novel has been saved, and many an embarrassment averted due to the vigilant eyes of a copyeditor.

  After copyediting, we send PDF scans of the hardcopy proofs back to the author for vetting. In this step, the author becomes their own editor, as it’s their last chance to make changes before we send the book to print. The author opines on the copyeditor’s suggestions, responding to queries with adjustments or rewrites, or saying STET (“Let it stand”) if a correction or query is to be ignored. Then, another editor goes into the Adobe InDesign files and makes the author’s corrections, being very, very careful not to introduce new errors in the process. Sometimes, this is easy. A flipped quote here, a dropped word there, an en-dash that should be an em-dash. Other times, corrections can be complicated affairs, as the correcting editor scrambles to insert new sentences or move paragraphs in making the author’s final adjustments.

  And that’s just how the process works with novels. With anthologies, like The Book of Cthulhu II, it’s not just one author, but many.  And while the stories are shorter, coordinating approvals from a score of authors can require the stars to align just right. But that’s a story for another post…

  Read More...

• ENORMITY begets mega-Cthulhu!

  Member News

  Nice mention of W.G. Marshall’s ENORMITY on Mockman.com, the blog of manga artist and expert Jason Thompson, author of King of RPGs and Manga: The Complete Guide. Thompson is also an expert in all things Cthulhu, and was inspired by ENORMITY to draw this excellent Lovecraftian monstrosity:

  http://mockman.com/2012/06/11/lovecraft-sketch-mwf/

  Read More...

• ENORMITY author to attend BEA on Thursday

  Member News

  Anyone attending Book Expo America at New York’s Jacob Javitz Center this Thursday, June 7, is invited to meet ENORMITY author Walter Greatshell, aka W.G. Marshall, who will be the featured author at the SFWA table from 11am-noon, and will have copies of his XOMBIES series of novels, his thriller MAD SKILLS, and his latest masterwork ENORMITY. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet the legend – and maybe even join him for lunch!

  Read More...

• Member and Alumni News

  Member News

  Stina Leicht: Stina was announced as a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award! Congratulations Stina!!! Jeff VanderMeer talks Hugos at Shelfari.
  Mazarkis Williams: SF Signal reviews The Emperor’s Knife. Stina took part in Fantasy Cafe’s Women in SF and F Month.
  Jeff Salyards: Check out Jeff’s Goodreads giveaway. Jeff guest posted at The Qwillery.
  Carol Wolf: My Bookish Ways interviews Carol Wolf.
  Paul Tobin: Publishers Weekly give Prepare to Die! a starred review!

  Read More...

• Member and Alumni News

  Member News

  Stina Leicht: Check out Stina’s fabulous Big Idea post and awesome guest post at  The Skiffy and Fanty Show. And Blue Skies from Pain is reviewed here.

  Bradley P. Beaulieu: Win a copy of the Straits of Galahesh at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. Read a fantastic review of The Winds of Khalakovo at Far Beyond Reality.

  Nathan Long: Read Part 2 of his interview with Black Gate.

  David Constantine: Fantasy Book Critic reviews The Pillars of Hercules and interviews David.

  Read More...