Sacramento Book Review needs reviewers

The debut issue of the Sacramento Book Review just came out (which you can pick up for free in the Sacramento area, or download as a PDF). In this era of papers eliminating their review sections entirely, it’s nice to see a new upstart publication like this one making a go of it. In the first issue, I note that there’s a call for reviewers. Though it is unpaid, it looks to be a good venue to build up a clip portfolio, if you’re just starting out, and the reviews would be good showcase reviews for landing a gig at PW or Kirkus and the like, due to the brevity and style. They reviewed quite a lot of SF/fantasy in the first issue, so readers of this blog should feel right at home.

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The Living Dead on the verge of bestsellerdom?

Night Shade Books editor-in-chief Jeremy Lassen sez:

So, I just found out that the Night Shade title THE LIVING DEAD made the NY Times best seller REPORTING "In Contention" list.

It doesn’t mean the book made the list (regular or extended), but what it probably means that it shifted enough copies at the distributors and wholesalers that it was one of the top books in its category (Trade Paperback adult fiction), and is thus considered "In Contention" and retailers are asked to enter the number of copies sold. Without this prompting, a book only gets counted if it is a "write in" title, and books that are write ins almost never make the list.

A Rough estimate shows that just under 100 books get pre-listed in this category each week.

I’ll find out on Tuesday if we made the extended list. But still. It’s kind of cool. For the last couple years, one of our company goals has been to crack the NY Times Extended list. This is a nice first step.

Oh, and if you were planning on buying The Living Dead, or get copies for people as a gift, if you were to all run out and buy it this week, That might help us for next week. If everybody who reads this message buys 2 copies, and posts this message to their blog, we’ll be on! 

Yeah, so holy crap.

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LibraryThing users love Wastelands

Over on LibraryThing, a user gave Wastelands a really great review: “Without question this was one the best books of the last 5 years. … [Adams] has put together one of the best anthologies in the genre that I have seen. Although I was initially a bit cautious, once I began reading I found it nearly impossible to put down.”

Someone else started his review "When reading the back cover of this book, it looks terrible, like classic bad sci-fi" but gave the book 5/5 stars and said some very nice things about it. Kind of surprising that someone would thing the back cover makes it sound terrible and would then go on to not only read it but love it. (He seems to have read it because of the contributor list.)

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Download Shimmer: The Pirate Issue for Free!

Shimmer publisher Beth Wodzinski sez:

Avast, ye scurvey sea-dogs! It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day again. In honor of this most glorious holiday, Shimmer is making the electronic edition of the Pirate Issue freely available, for September 19th only.

Won’t you help us spread the word? Free pirate booty, there for the taking!

http://www.shimmerzine.com/ for all the details.
 

So go plunder! Booty free for the taking!

Loyal readers of this blog may recall that Shimmer: The Pirate Issue was my first time working as Editor on a project (rather than assistant editor). I had a lot of fun putting that issue together, and I think it turned out really well. If you haven’t read it yet, here’s your chance to find out for yourself!

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Steampunk + Cryptozoology = Dr. Roundbottom

Have you been reading the musings of the great philosopher and scientist Dr. Julius T. Roundbottom? I profiled his visionary work for SCI FI Wire today.

Here’s the short version. The website Clockpunk.com publishes new fiction every week, but it’s not just a regular ezine–instead, the site combines web design, photography, and writing all into one creative endeavor. It’s purportedly the journal of a "Dr. Roundbottom" who takes "photonic captures" of strange and unusual creatures and then writes up notes about his adventures. It combines a steampunk aesthetic with an adventurous cryptozoology sensibility.

What it really is, is a one-man show, created, photographed, and designed by SF author Jeremiah Tolbert. He takes real photos then photoshops them to look exotic and strange, thus transforming an ordinary toad into a spear-wielding boggart. The site also has some "choose your own adventure" aspect to it, because readers can post comments in response to the Doctor’s posts, and he will write back in character.

Go check out my interview with Jeremiah over at SCI FI Wire and be sure to check out Roundbottom’s site, clockpunk.com.

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Zombie Interview: Catherine Cheek

Tell us a bit about your story, "She’s Taking Her Tits to the Grave." What’s it about?

A trophy wife comes back from the dead and searches for the man who raised her.

What’s was the genesis of the story–what was the inspiration for it, or what prompted you to write it?

The idea for this story actually came from the theme of the World Fantasy Con for 2007 which was “ghosts and revenants.”  I didn’t know what a revenant was, so I wikied it and found that it was a person who came back from the dead and caused great trouble for the living.  It’s that last part that intrigued me. What kind of trouble could they cause? 

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