Author: Holly Schofield

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The Night Girl by James Bow

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SF Canada member James Bow’s latest novel, The Night Girl, is a New Adult urban fantasy.

Perpetua Collins works for a real troll.

Well, technically a goblin, and it’s not as bad as it sounds. As the administrative assistant, she provides a “human” face for an employment agency specializing in placements for goblins and trolls. It’s probably the most unusual job she could find in Toronto, but she’s grateful for it, having come to the city with $500 in her pocket and no support. Without it, she’d have no choice but to go back to the boring small town and overbearing mother she worked so hard to leave.

But as Perpetua settles into her new job, disturbing questions arise. And no, they’re not about the fact that goblins and trolls exist. She’s fine with that part. The agency has no visible means of support. How does her boss manage to keep his “clients” out of the public eye? They’ve been part of the city far longer than anyone thinks, and are growing restless under the burden of forced invisibility and financial poverty. What will happen if the veil drops, and humans see?

James Bow was born and grew up in Toronto. He now lives in Kitchener-Waterloo with his wife Erin and his daughters, Vivian and Eleanor. He is the author of three books of YA fantasy (The Unwritten Girl, Fathom Five, and The Young City) and the Prix Aurora Award-winning YA SF novel, Icarus Down. He enjoys coming back to his hometown to ride transit and explore its underground city. Find out more about James’ publications on his blog.

Pick up a copy of The Night Girl from Amazon or your local independent bookstore.

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The Group of Seven Reimagined

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SF Canada members Nina Munteaneau and Robert Runte’s latest works appear in The Group of Seven Reimagined (Karen Schauber, ed.)

Founded in 1920, the Group of Seven has captured the imagination and hearts of Canadians for a century, helping to shape our national identity with their stunning landscape paintings representing every region of the country. In honour of the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Group’s formation, The Group of Seven Reimagined takes a fresh look at twenty-one paintings from the Group’s vast oeuvre, extracting narrative from landscape and uniting Canada’s most beloved works of art with some of its most distinguished names in contemporary literary fiction.

While some of the stories in this book are grounded in the painted image, they all launch from the artwork into broader metaphysical or even spiritual questions. Words, the writer’s paint, are artfully chosen and applied, not one wasted. The stories all compel the reader to dive beneath their surface and linger long after the reading is complete.

—Ottawa Review of Books

Robert Runté, Ph.D., is Senior Editor at EssentialEdits.ca, responsible for academic coaching (theses and dissertations) and structural editing of speculative fiction. Previously, he spent over twenty years as a professor at the University of Lethbridge, and a decade as Senior Editor at Five Rivers Publishing, for whom he acquired and edited over 30 books. During his academic career, he co-edited Tesseracts 5 (with Yves Meynard) and an education textbook, Thinking About Teaching; authored fifteen book chapters, fourteen journal articles, seven encyclopedia entries, three government papers, one curriculum resource, over seventy conference papers, and ten open source guides. Robert has three Aurora Awards for his literary criticism and promotion of Canadian SF and was shortlisted for the 2017 Aurora for Short Fiction. His short fiction has been published in Exile Literary Quarterly, Pulp Literature, On Spec Magazine, Imaginarium, Strangers Among Us, Prairie Starport, Tesseracts, Playground of Lost Toys, Alberta Unbound, and other venues. He has also written, edited, or published 149 issues of various zines.

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist and novelist. Her novels include: Collision with Paradise; The Cypol; Angel of Chaos; Darwin’s Paradox; The Splintered Universe Trilogy; and The Last Summoner. In addition to eight novels, she has authored award winning short stories, articles and non-fiction books, which were reprinted and translated into several languages throughout the world. Her short work has appeared in Beautiful BC Magazine, Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, Chiaroscuro,
Hadrosaur Tales, Pacific Yachting, Strange Horizons, and Nowa Fantastyka, among others. Recognition for her work includes the Midwest Book Review Reader’s Choice Award, finalist for Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award, the SLF Fountain Award, and The Delta Optimist Reviewers Choice Award. Nina’s latest non-fiction book, Water Is… —a scientific study and personal journey as limnologist, mother, teacher and environmentalist—was picked by Margaret Atwood in the NY Times as her #1 choice in the 2016 ‘The Year in Reading’.

Pick up a copy of The Group of Seven Reimagined today.

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The 2019 Aurora Award winners and Hall of Fame inductees!

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Numerous SF Canada members were nominated in this year’s Auroras, including several winners! The Aurora Awards are Canada’s National Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards. The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) is a federally-registered society whose role is to give out the Aurora Awards annually. The Auroras are nominated by and voted on by CSFFA members from across Canada.

The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association also hosts the CSFFA Hall of Fame. It was created to honour people who have made a large contribution to Science Fiction and Fantasy in Canada. This year, three very deserving people were inducted into the Hall of Fame: Tanya Huff, Eileen Kernaghan (SFC member), and Richard Graeme Cameron (SFC member). SF Canada congratulates them!

Aurora Award winners were announced during an awards ceremony held at Can-Con 2019, October 19, 2019, in Ottawa ON. SF Canada members’ names are in bold below.

Best Novel
WINNER: Armed in Her Fashion, Kate Heartfield (ChiZine)
One of Us, Craig DiLouie (Orbit)
They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded, James Alan Gardner (Tor)
Graveyard Mind, Chadwick Ginther (ChiZine)
The Quantum Magician, Derek Künsken (Solaris)
Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)

Best YA Novel
WINNER: Cross Fire, Fonda Lee (Scholastic)
Children of the Bloodlands, S.M. Beiko (ECW)
Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks, ‘Nathan Burgoine (Bold Strokes)
The Sign of Faust, Éric Desmarais (Renaissance)
Finding Atlantis, JM Dover (Evil Alter Ego)
Timefall, Alison Lohans (Five Rivers)
The Emerald Cloth, Clare C. Marshall (Faery Ink)
Legacy of Light, Sarah Raughley (Simon Pulse)

Best Short Fiction
WINNER: Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)
“A Hold Full of Truffles”, Julie E. Czerneda (Tales from Plexis)
“For A Rich Man to Enter”, Susan Forest (IGMS 4/18)
Alice Payne Arrives, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)
“Critical Mass”, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm (Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders)

Best Graphic Novel
WINNER: It Never Rains, Kari Maaren (http://itneverrainscomic.com/)
Krampus Is My Boyfriend!, S.M. Beiko (https://www.smbeiko.com/)
Woman World, Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn and Quarterly)
Crash and Burn, Finn Lucullan & Kate Larking (Astres)
FUTILITY: Orange Planet Horror, Rick Overwater & Cam Hayden (Coffin Hop)

Best Related Work
WINNER: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, Dominik Parisien & Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, eds. (Uncanny)
By the Light of Camelot, J.R. Campbell & Shannon Allen, eds. (EDGE)
Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes, J.R. Campbell & Charles Prepolec, eds. (EDGE)
Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders, Susan Forest & Lucas K. Law, eds. (Laksa)
We Shall Be Monsters, Derek Newman-Stille, ed. (Renaissance)

Best Poem/Song
WINNER: “Ursula Le Guin in the Underworld”, Sarah Tolmie (On Spec #107)
“Echos”, Shannon Allen (By the Light of Camelot)
“Osiris”, Leah Bobet (Uncanny 11-12/18)
“How My Life Will End”, Vanessa Cardui (Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders)
“Trips to Impossible Cities”, Sandra Kasturi (Amazing Stories Winter 2018)

Best Artist
WINNER: Samantha M. Beiko, covers for Laksa Media
Lily Author, cover art for Polar Borealis #8
James F. Beveridge, cover art for Tyche Books
Roger Czerneda, cover for Tales from Plexis
Dan O’Driscoll, covers for Bundoran Press
Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk, cartoons for Amazing Stories

Best Visual Presentation
WINNER: Deadpool 2
Bao
Murdoch Mysteries, 2018 episodes
Travelers, Season 3
Wynonna Earp, Season 3

Best Fan Writing and Publications
WINNER: “She Wrote It But…Revisiting Joanna Russ’ How to Suppress Women’s Writing 35 Years Later“, Krista D. Ball (reddit.com/r/fantasy)
“Travelling TARDIS“, Jen Desmarais (JenEric Designs)
“Mars vs. Titan“, Ron S. Friedman (Quora)
“Constructing the Future“, Derek Newman-Stille (Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction)
“Adios Cowboy“, Adam Shaftoe (www.adamshaftoe.com)
Books and Tea, Christina Vasilevski

Best Fan Organizational
WINNER: Derek Künsken & Marie Bilodeau, co-chairs, Can*Con
Sandra Kasturi, chair Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Toronto
Randy McCharles, chair, When Words Collide
Matt Moore, Marie Bilodeau & Nicole Lavigne, co-chairs, Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Ottawa
Sandra Wickham, chair, Creative Ink Festival

Best Fan Related Work
WINNER: The Worldshapers, Edward Willett
Business BFFs, S.M. Beiko & Clare C. Marshall
ChiSeries Toronto, Kari Maaren
Just Joshing, Joshua Pantalleresco
Speculating Canada, Derek Newman-Stille

Congratulations to everyone!

For more information, see the Aurora Awards website.

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The Mythic Dream released!

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An all-new anthology of eighteen classic myth retellings, The Mythic Dream, has just been released and is edited by SF Canada member Dominik Parisien.

Madeleine L’Engle once said, “When we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe.” The Mythic Dream gathers together eighteen stories that reclaim the myths that shaped our collective past, and use them to explore our present and future. From Hades and Persephone to Kali, from Loki to Inanna, this anthology explores retellings of myths across cultures and civilizations.

Featuring award-winning and critically acclaimed writers such as Seanan McGuire, Naomi Novik, Rebecca Roanhorse, JY Yang, Alyssa Wong, Indrapramit Das, Carlos Hernandez, Sarah Gailey, Ann Leckie, John Chu, Urusla Vernon, Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen Graham Jones, Arkady Martine, Amal El-Mohtar, Jeffrey Ford, and more, The Mythic Dream is sure to become a new classic.

This eclectic, often subversive collection will appeal to fairy tale fans who want something new and different.

– Publishers Weekly

 

The Mythic Dream is a triumph of an anthology
– Tor.com

Dominik Parisien is also the co-editor, with Navah Wolfe, of the Shirley Jackson Award-winning Robots vs. Fairies and of The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, which also won the Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. As well, Dominink co-edited, with Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Uncanny Magazine’s Hugo-winning special issue, Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction Special Issue. Dominik’s fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Quill & Quire, The Fiddlehead, Exile: The Literary Quarterly, as well as other magazines and anthologies. He is a disabled, bisexual, French Canadian. He lives in Toronto.

The Mythic Dream is available from various retailers through Saga Press.

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Shades Within Us wins the Alberta Book Publishing Award!

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Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders, co-edited by SF Canada members Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law and published by Laksa Media, has won the Alberta Book Publishing Award in the speculative fiction category. This award is for the most outstanding work of the Alberta book publishing industry as adjudicated by experts and publishing professionals from across Canada.

Shades Within Us is the fourth anthology in Laksa’s “social causes” series and is nominated for this year’s Aurora Award. Others in this series are the Aurora-winning Strangers Among Us, the Aurora-winning The Sum of Us, and Where the Stars Rise.

Susan Forest grew up in a family of mountaineers and skiers, and she loves adventure. She also loves the big ideas found in SF/F, and finds fast-paced adventure stories a great place to explore how individuals grapple with complex moral decisions. Her latest novel is the recently-released Bursts of Fire. Susan is also an award-winning fiction editor, has published over 25 short stories (four, including her current “For a Rich Man to Enter,” nominated for Canada’s Prix Aurora Award), and has appeared at many international writing conventions. She loves travel and has been known to dictate novels from the back of her husband’s motorcycle.

Lucas K. Law is a Malaysian-born freelance editor and published author who divides his time and heart between Calgary and Qualicum Beach. With Susan Forest, he co-edited Strangers Among Us, The Sum of Us, and Shades Within Us. Lucas is the co-editor of Where the Stars Rise with Derwin Mak. He has been a jury member for a number of fiction competitions including Nebula, RITA and Golden Heart Awards. When he isn’t editing, writing, or reading, he is a corporate and non-profit organization consultant in business planning and development.

Purchase Shades Within Us today!

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New Release by Matthew Hughes!

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SF Canada member Matthew Hughes‘s latest novel, What the Wind Brings, is a sweeping slipstream historical epic, with magical realism woven through alternate history.

Out of the fires of Caribbean revolution, shipwrecked onto the shores and jungles of Ecuador, a slave, a captive, and a shaman fight Inquisition-era Spain for freedom. In times like these, when power spends blood like pennies, what chance do these disparate underdogs have to create an independent nation?

Chance, no. Intelligence, daring, tactics, and magic, yes.

Matthew does an excellent job portraying the ambiguity and complexity of numerous ordinary individuals competing for prestige in a society where affront to reputation is taken very seriously indeed. As a result the political and social mores of the Nigua are every bit as convincing and real as the portrayal of the Spanish. No mean feat.

…the plot is neither straightforward or predictable. Matthew springs quite a few surprises…

…I was totally immersed in the book from beginning to end…I recommend this book. It’s a treat.

— Clubhouse review in Amazing Stories by R. Graeme Cameron

 

Matthew writes both fantasy (under Matthew Hughes) and suspense fiction (under Matt Hughes). He’s won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award, and has been shortlisted for the Aurora, Nebula, Philip K. Dick, Endeavour, A.E. Van Vogt, and Derringer Awards. Matthew has made his living as a writer all of his adult life, as a journalist in newspapers, a staff speechwriter to the Canadian Ministers of Justice and Environment, and a freelance corporate and political speechwriter in British Columbia. He now writes fiction full-time. Find him at https://www.matthewhughes.org/.

What the Wind Brings will be available from Pulp Literature in October. Preorder today!