Cover: Seeds of Change
Here’s the cover of my forthcoming anthology Seeds of Change. It’s a bit different from the mock-up I originally saw, but still pretty hot.
Tag: Anthologies
Anthology: Seeds of Change
Here’s the cover copy and the full table of contents of my forthcoming original SF anthology for Prime Books, Seeds of Change.
Imagine the moment when the present ends, and the future begins–when the world we knew is no more and a brave new world is thrust upon us. Gathering stories by nine of today’s most incisive minds, Seeds of Change confronts the pivotal issues facing our society today: racism, global warming, peak oil, technological advancement, and political revolution. Many serve as a call to action. How will you change with the future?
These nine stories sow seeds of change across familiar and foreign territory, from our own backyards to the Niger Delta to worlds not yet discovered. Pepper, the mysterious mercenary from Tobias S. Buckell’s Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin, works as an agent for change—if the price is right—in “Resistance.” Ken MacLeod envisions the end-game in the Middle East in “A Dance Called Armageddon.” New writer Blake Charlton imagines a revolutionary advance in cancer research in “Endosymbiont.” Award-winning author Jay Lake tackles technological change and the forces that will stop at nothing to prevent it in “The Future by Degrees.” Other stories by K.D. Wentworth, Jeremiah Tolbert, Mark Budz, Ted Kosmatka, and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu range from the darkly satirical to the exotic. All explore the notion that change will come.
Will you be ready?
Table of Contents:
- Introduction by John Joseph Adams
- N-Words by Ted Kosmatka
- The Future by Degrees by Jay Lake
- Drinking Problem by K. D. Wentworth
- Endosymbiont by Blake Charlton
- A Dance Called Armageddon by Ken MacLeod
- Arties Aren’t Stupid by Jeremiah Tolbert
- Faceless in Gethsemane by Mark Budz
- Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
- Resistance by Tobias S. Buckell
The cover features a very nice blurb provided by Robert J. Sawyer, which says “A first-rate anthology of provocative stories.” Which was redacted down from:
“Isaac Asimov said science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the responses of human beings to changes in science and technology. His definition put humans in a reactive role, and essentially had science and technology changing on their own. But we can also be proactive, actively making the future what we want — or what we dread. A first-rate anthology of provocative and disturbing stories gathered by the always reliable John Joseph Adams.” — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of HOMINIDS
Now available! Visit the website at www.seedsanthology.com.
Eclipse Two Open Reading Period
Jonathan Strahan currently has an open reading period for his anthology series Eclipse:
I am currently reading for Eclipse Two, the second volume in the original science fiction and fantasy anthology series that I am editing for San Francisco-based publisher Night Shade Books. Eclipse is a series of anthologies in the vein of Orbit, Universe and New Dimensions, updated for the 21st century. It’s new and it’s proudly genre. It has no theme, and there’s no such thing as an Eclipse ‘type’ of story. Instead writers are encouraged to take any and all of the colors of the genre palette – be they steampunk, cyberpunk, new space opera, old space opera, fairy tale, ghost story, hard SF, or whatever – and use them as they will to create something unique and wonderful. That said, I am particularly looking for strong science fiction stories for Volume Two. Each volume of Eclipse features more than a dozen new stories by some of the best and brightest writers working in the field today. For example, Eclipse 1, which was published in October 2007, features Peter S. Beagle, Jack Dann & Paul Brandon, Terry Dowling, Andy Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Eileen Gunn, Gwyneth Jones, Ellen Klages, Margo Lanagan, Maureen F. McHugh, Garth Nix, Lucius Shepard, Bruce Sterling, and Ysabeau S. Wilce.
Visit Jonathan’s website to learn how to submit a story.
The Pirate Issue Now On Sale!
Shimmer Magazine: The Pirate Issue, which was guest-edited by me, is now officially on sale!
In addition to all the bloodthirsty pirate action you would expect to find in an issue labeled "The Pirate Issue," the issue also features a story–"Captain Blood’s B00ty"–in which magic is real but every spell has been copyrighted by an RIAA-like organization. In the story, there is a pirate website that lets you download stuff anyway (like The Pirate Bay, but for magic). You can read the entire story online for free here.
You can also still read "The Sweet Realm" by Jill Snider Lum, which was released early in celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day.
UPDATE: I also wanted to point out that The Pirate Issue will be available at World Fantasy, should anyone want to pick up a copy there.
World Fantasy Convention Schedule
I’ll be attending the World Fantasy Convention at the beginning of next month. I’m not on any panels, but I hope to see some of you at Shimmer’s Pirate Party, which is scheduled for Friday night. When I have other details, I’ll post them here.
I also hope some of you will attend one of the readings I’ve setup for my editorial projects. Both are on Saturday in Suite 556 (5th floor of THE SARATOGA HOTEL):
- 1:00 PM – Shimmer: The Pirate Issue
Featuring readings from: Rajan Khanna, Justine Graykin, J. Kathleen Cheney, Jill Snider Lum, and Marissa K. Lingen - 3:00 PM – Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Featuring readings from: Carol Emshwiller, John Langan, and Elizabeth Bear
A Little Help, Dear Readers
Dear Blog readers,
I have a favor to ask. It’s a shameless publicity favor, but still, it should be easy enough to do. Here’s what I would like:
Please go to Amazon.com and view my Post-Apocalyptic Fiction listmania lists. On the right hand side of each list, you’ll find a box containing the text:
List Stats
Last updated: 8/27/07
Read: 352 times 
Please vote "Yes" that you found the list helpful. (Unless you think it sucks or something.)
Basically, I just want to make my listmania lists as relevant as possible on Amazon, so that when people view or search for other post-apocalyptic material, my listmania lists might come up, and thus might draw some additional attention to Wastelands.
That’s all, thanks!
Galleys!
Look what arrived today:
Ain’t they purty?
Update: If you’re unfamiliar with galleys (a/k/a advance reader copies or advance uncorrected proofs), check out my longer post at the Wastelands site, which explains how they work in some detail.
And I don’t even have the excuse of being undead…
I’m still banging my head against the desk as a result of something very stupid I did earlier today. I was working on assembling my preliminary table of contents for the zombie anthology and inadvertently lost a bunch of data.
I’ve got a spreadsheet setup in Excel, which listed title, author, original publication, and word count. I wanted to add another column for year of publication, so I could see the range of the age of the stories on my shortlist. In doing so, I attempted to move a column as I added the new one…and somehow deleted the word count column…and didn’t notice until like an hour later, at which point it was way too late to undo that mistake.
ARGH! (Note that’s the cry of anguish, not the piratesque Arrr!) Of all the columns of data to lose, that’s absolutely the worst one. Any of the others would have been super easy to fix (except maybe for title), but word count…gah. That’s one of the most time-consuming sort of administrative activities associated with putting together a reprint anthology. I am not looking forward to starting over from scratch. And all indications are that there’s no way to recover that data from some autosaved file hidden on my hard drive somewhere.
Wastelands Online
Today, I’m officially launching the online home of Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Visit the site at johnjosephadams.com/wastelands.
If you browse around the site, you’ll find plenty of information about the anthology, the stories, and the contributors.
The ABOUT page provides an overview of the anthology.
The CONTENTS page showcases the anthology’s table of contents. It also serves as a portal to information about each of the stories. There, on each story’s page, you can read the introductory header note for each story. In some cases, you can read excerpts of the stories; in other cases, you can read the entire story online.
The AUTHORS page provides even more information about the authors…in their own words. I conducted brief interviews with several of the contributors to gather some background information about their stories. While I was at it, I also jotted down their thoughts about the appeal of post-apocalyptic fiction, and asked them to name their favorite stories in the sub-genre.
The PUBLICITY page will point the way to reviews and interviews, and any news about public appearances related to the anthology.
The other two pages are self-explanatory: CONTACT provides contact information should you wish to learn more about the anthology; SHOP, meanwhile, points you toward some of the places you can buy Wastelands.
Wastelands is due to be published by Night Shade Books in January 2008. Until then, take a look around.
Wastelands on Amazon.com
Speaking of Wastelands, you can now pre-order the book via Amazon.com. Using the Amazon Connect feature, I’ve posted the table of contents and the introduction to the book on the book’s ordering page. Go check it out!