Author: Krista Ball

SF Canada member Lisa Timpf had a busy August in terms of publications! Here’s a sample of where you can find her latest work:

Article: “Harnessing the Power of Rejections,” Funds for Writers, Volume 23, Issue 33, August 25, 2023.

Review: The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, edited by Shannon Allen and JR Campbell, published in The Fifth Dimension, August 2023, Hiraeth Publishing. (The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, honored at the Auroras, is a collection of noir speculative detective stories. Recommended).

Short Fictional Humor: “The Art of Music Surfing,” Rhapsody of the Spheres, a Third Flatiron anthology, August 21, 2023.

Short fiction: “A Subtle Form of Combat,” published in Yay! They’re Here! Edited by Helen Davis and Elizabeth Davis, Dead Fish Books, August 2023. (Aliens discover Earth–and Hockey!)

Also, this poem appeared in July but may be of interest to some; accessible for free at The Future Fire: 

Mycelial,” The Future Fire, Issue 2023.66, July 2023, http://futurefire.net/2023.66/fiction/mycelial.html

SF Canada member Michèle Laframboise has won one of four Trillium Book Awards, for her YA novel Le secret de Paloma. 

Trapped on a planet where the air pressure drops drastically after the sun goes down, a human colony somehow survives behind an airtight curtain.

Could her friend’s death have something to do with the orbit of Troll, an evil comet whose tail bombards the planet with meteorites? What Alouette discovers will change the colony forever…

Both oppressive and uplifting, Le secret de Paloma raises the issues of responsibility, secrets too heavy to share, friendship, and forgiveness within a society in survival mode.

You can see Michèle accepting the award here.

More about the Trillium Book Awards here.

Michèle Laframboise lives in Mississauga, in Southwestern Ontario, where she divides her time between drawing, writing, and her family. With a scientific background, she has established herself as a science fiction author, concocting, with pen or brush, captivating stories set in mysterious worlds. To date, she has published around 20 novels and comic book albums as well as numerous short stories, which have earned her several distinctions and literary prizes.

Link to publisher’s website [French only]: https://editionsdavid.com/livres/fiche-livre/?titre=le-secret-de-paloma&ISBN=9782895977827

SF Canada member Guy Immega is excited to announce his new novel, Super-Earth Mother. 

“Super-Earth Mother: The AI that Engineered a Brave New World” is a captivating saga of humanity’s endeavor to survive and thrive in an alien world.

It starts with the unexpected death of lunar magnate Walcott, and the ascension of Mother-9, an artificial intelligence, who seizes control of Walcott’s mining operation and orchestrates humanity’s most audacious endeavor, and Walcott’s dream – sending a colony ship to Lalande 21185.

After a devastating gamma ray burst wipes out life on Earth, Mother-9’s mission turns from Walcott’s visionary dream to humanity’s last hope.

As the ship reaches Lalande 21185, also known as Valencia, the narrative shifts to the new world. From the Mothership in orbit, two lifeboats descend, touching down in Valencia’s Great Ocean. Mother-9 triggers the activation of its artificial womb, birthing genetically modified humans. Raised by nannybots, these children eventually inhabit the island continent of Terra Firma.

But life on Valencia is no Eden; it’s a constant struggle for sustenance against predators and alien elements.
“Super-Earth Mother” is a refreshing departure from conventional colonization novels, a journey into the heart of artificial intelligence, humanity, and the uncharted realms of life beyond our home planet.

Amazon

About the Author:

Author Guy Immega is a retired aerospace engineer and entrepreneur, bringing his expertise and imagination to the novel’s scientific concepts and futuristic technology. He has also published several short stories from Super-Earth Mother in acclaimed anthologies, showcasing his talent as a writer in the science fiction genre.

Congratulations to SF Canada member Melissa Yi for winning the 2023 Derringer for Best Short Short Story!  Her short story “My Two-Legs” appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: September/October 2022. 

You can see the entire winner’s list here.

Melissa Yi is an emergency physician and award-winning writer. In her latest crime novel, WHITE LIGHTNING, Dr. Hope Sze’s romantic getaway at a Windsor Prohibition hotel morphs into a ghost-ridden historical crime scene with potential links to Al Capone. Previous Hope Sze thrillers were recommended by The Globe and Mail, CBC Books, and The Next Chapter as one of the best Canadian suspense novels. Yi was shortlisted for the Derringer Award for the world’s best short mystery fiction. Under the name Melissa Yuan-Innes, she also writes medical humour and has won speculative fiction awards. http://www.melissayuaninnes.com/

This year’s Aurora Award ballot has just been announced. Several SF Canada members are nominated as finalists (their names are in bold below).

The Aurora Awards are nominated by members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.  The top five nominated works were selected.  Additional works were included where there was a tie for fifth place.  An online awards ceremony will be held on August 19th, 2023, at 5pm EDT, with hosts Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson. Details at www.csffa.ca

Congratulations to all nominees!

Best Novel

All the Seas of the World, Guy Gavriel Kay, Penguin Canada
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Del Rey
The Embroidered Book, Kate Heartfield, HarperVoyager
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
The Void Ascendant, Premee Mohamed, Solaris Books

Best Young Adult Novel

Black Hole Radio – Ka’Azula, Ann Birdgenaw, DartFrog Books
Ghostlight, Kenneth Oppel, Puffin Canada
The Hollow Boys: The Dream Rider Saga, Book 1, Douglas Smith, Spiral Path Books
Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove, Rati Mehrotra, Wednesday Books
Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, Xiran Jay Zhao, Margaret K. McElderry Books

Best Novelette/Novella

Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk, Tordotcom
High Times in the Low Parliament, Kelly Robson, TordotCom
The Jade Setter of Janloon, Fonda Lee, Subterranean Press
“A Sky and a Heaven”, Eric Choi, Just Like Being There, Springer Nature
The Tiger Came to the Mountains, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Amazon Original Stories

Best Short Story

“Big Trouble in Droidtown”, Hayden Trenholm, The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, Tyche Books
“Broken Vow: The Adventures of Flick Gibson, Intergalactic Videographer”, Peter G. Reynolds, On Spec Magazine, Issue 120
“Douen”, Suzan Palumbo, The Dark, Issue 82
“The Five Rules of Supernova Surfing, or A For Real Solution to the Fermi Paradox, Bro”, Geoffrey W. Cole, Clarkesworld, Issue 184
“Green Witch”, Elizabeth Whitton, Prairie Witch, Prairie Soul Press
“A New Brave World”, Eric Choi, Brave New Worlds, Zombies Need Brains
“Schrödinger’s Cats”, Wayne Cusack, Polar Borealis Magazine, Issue #22
“We Are the Thing That Lives on the Moon”, Gillian Secord, Fireside Magazine, Issue 101, March

Best Graphic Novel/Comic

Birds of Maine, Michael deForge, Drawn and Quarterly
Cupcake War Machine, Marika Kapogeorgakis, webcomic
Goblins, Ellipsis Hana Stephens, webcomic
It Never Rains, Kari Maaren, webcomic
Mistress of the Winds, Michèle Laframboise, Echofictions
Questionable Content, Jeph Jacques, webcomic
Wychwood, Ally Rom Colthoff, webcomic

Best Poem/Song

“After the Apocalypse”, Colleen Anderson, NewMyths, Vol 16, issue 61
“Ghost Stories”, James Grotkowski, Polar Starlight Magazine, Issue 6
“In Stock Images of the Future, Everything is White”, Terese Mason Pierre, Uncanny Magazine, Issue Forty-Six
“Poltergeist”, Rhonda Parrish, Star*Line, Vol 45, Issue 2
“Rapunzel in the Desert”, Melissa Yuan-Innes, On Spec Magazine, Issue 122
“a sinkhole invites a street to consider its future”, Dominik Parisien, Uncanny Magazine, Issue Forty-Four
“Three Herons”, Geoffrey W. Cole, Polar Starlight Magazine, Issue 5
“The Wolf of Your Passions”, Lynne Sargent, Augur Magazine, Issue 5.2

Best Related Work

The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, edited by Shannon Allen and JR Campbell, Tyche Books
Nothing Without Us Too, edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson, Renaissance
On Spec Magazine, Issues 119, 120, and 121, managing editor Diane Walton, The Copper Pig Writers’ Society
Prairie Witch, edited by Stacey Kondla, Prairie Soul Press
Strange Wars: Speculative Fiction of Coalitions in Conflict, edited by Don Miasek, TDotSpec

Best Cover Art/Interior Illustration

Arboreality, cover art, Rachel Yu Lobbenberg, Stelliform Press
The Astronaut Always Rings Twice, cover art, Kayla Kowalyk, Tyche Books
Birthday of the Unicorn, cover art, Marco Marin, TdotSpec
Weird Fishes, cover art, Julia Louise Pereira, Stelliform Press
The World We Left Behind, Swati Chavda, On Spec Magazine, Issue 119

Best Fan Writing and Publication

JenEric Movie Reviews, Éric Desmarais, JenEric Designs
Polar Borealis Magazine, Issues: 21, 22, and 23, edited by R. Graeme Cameron
Polar Starlight Magazine, Issues: 5, 6, and 7, edited by Rhea E. Rose
The Travelling TARDIS, Jennifer Desmarais, JenEric Designs
Young People Read Old SFF, edited by James Davis Nicoll, online

Best Fan Related Work

Augurcon, Terese Mason Pierre and Kerry C. Byrne, co-directors, Toria Liao, operations director, online
Can*Con, Marie Bilodeau and Derek Künsken, co-chairs, Ottawa
ephemera Reading Series, KT Bryski and Jen R. Albert, co-chairs, online
When Words Collide, Randy McCharles, chair, online
The Worldshapers Podcast, Edward Willett, online