Category: books

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Sarah Tolmie’s The Little Animals

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SF Canada member Sarah Tolmie has recently released a new novel, The Little Animals.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, a quiet linen draper in Delft, has discovered a new world: the world of the little animals, or animalcules, that he sees through his simple microscopes. These tiny creatures are everywhere, even inside us. But who will believe him? Not his wife, not his neighbours, not his fellow merchants—only his friend Reinier De Graaf, a medical doctor. Then he meets an itinerant goose girl at the market who lives surrounded by tiny, invisible voices. Are these the animalcules also? Leeuwenhoek and the girl form a curious alliance, and gradually the lives of the little animals infiltrate everything around them: Leeuwenhoek’s cloth business, the art of his friend Johannes Vermeer, the nascent sex trade, and people’s religious certainties. But Leeuwenhoek also needs to cement his reputation as a natural philosopher, and for that he needs the Royal Society of London—a daunting challenge, indeed, for a Dutch draper who can’t communicate in Latin.

Publishers Weekly’s starred review says:

Tolmie intricately weaves together the best of historical and weird fiction in this delicate tale of science and miracles…Tolmie balances careful characterization with rich historical detail, subtle humor, and energetic prose. Her central characters are suffused with color, and her prose captures the joys and uncertainties of life-changing discoveries. This delightful novel is not to be missed.

The Little Animals is available in trade paperback and ebook from
•Aqueduct Press and its partner bookstores and distributors
•amazon.com/amazon.ca
•Barnes & Noble

And Sarah has more exciting news! She was recently one of seven finalists for Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize, one of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards. Sarah’s The Art of Dying, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, was praised by the jury as a “multifaceted meditation on mortality beneath its deceptively simple lyric surface.” The author herself was singled out as an “irreverent feminist” in the tradition of Dorothy Parker and Stevie Smith. “The Art of Dying” is available through McGill-Queen’s University Press , Indigo, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

And even more news! Sarah’s poem, “Ursula Le Guin in the Underworld” (On Spec issue 107 vol 28.4) is nominated for the Aurora Award in the Best Poem/Song category. Find out how to vote here.

Sarah is an Associate Professor in the English Department of the University of Waterloo. She received her PhD at Cambridge. Her work with virtual reality and dance explores links between movement and proprioception the body’s sense of itself and its limits in space and narrative and poetic structures and pathways.

Find more of Sarah’s poetry and fiction at her website.

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Magpie’s Ladder by Richard A. Kirk

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SF Canada member Richard A. Kirk’s latest book, Magpie’s Ladder, comprises stories that came to him while he was working on his visual art. Recently released by PS Publishing, a UK-based specialist publisher producing high quality, collectable but affordable signed limited editions within the field of science fiction, fantasy and horror. This illustrated book is Richard’s first collection of short stories.

A researcher’s curiosity draws her to the dream realm of the Darkling Lands.

Condemned by his own crime, an engrosser plumbs the labyrinthine depths of his firm’s building to find that he is not alone.

A giant searches for his missing brother.

A young woman opens a sealed house atop a crumbling bridge.

A young academic moves into the house of a dead professor and finds himself trapped in a dark fairy-tale.

These are five stories of yearning, curiosity, and darkness. They explore the fragile and dangerous correspondence between people and monsters.

Richard is an author, illustrator and visual artist. His fiction includes the short fantasy novel, The Lost Machine (Radiolaria Studios, 2010), and Necessary Monsters (Arche Press, Resurrection House, 2o17). He says, “Books have always been central to my life. Thinking about my literary inspiration and literary heroes lead me to authors like K. J. Bishop, Michael Moorcock, Mervyn Peake, Borges, John Banville, Brian Catling and John Crowley. These writers illuminate with their prose, but never fear the dark, qualities I’ll always aspire to with my own work.”

Find Magpie’s Ladder at PS Publishing and find more of Richard’s work on his blog.

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The War Beneath by Timothy S. Johnston

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SF Canada member Timothy S. Johnston fourth novel, The War Beneath, a science fiction thriller set in an undersea world, was recently published by ChiZine Publications.

Living and working underwater can be a dangerous thing. First the bulkheads sweat, then there’s a trickle of water . . .

. . . and then in an instant you’re gone. The only thing left is a bloody pulp in the dark water and crushed bone fragments on the seafloor.

And you can’t bolt to the surface in an emergency. . . . The bends will get you.

But that’s not the worst. When you’re living underwater and also working as a spy for your city, that’s when things get really dangerous.

Truman McClusky has been out of the intelligence business for years, working the kelp farms and helping his city Trieste flourish on the shallow continental shelf just off the coast of Florida. Until his former partner shows up, that is, steals a piece of valuable new technology and makes a mad dash into the Atlantic. Before he knows it, Mac ends up back in the game, chasing the spy to not only recapture the tech, but to kill his former friend.

But when he learns the grim truth behind the theft, it sends his stable life into turmoil and plunges him into an even deadlier mission: evade the submarines of hostile foreign powers, escape assassins, and forge through the world’s oceans at breakneck pace on a daring quest to survive, with more lethal secrets than he thought possible in his pocket.

The future of the city depends on McClusky . . . if he can make it back home.

The War Beneath is available in various formats at Timothy’s website.

Timothy S. Johnston is a lifelong fan of thrillers and science fiction thrillers in both print and film. His greatest desire is to contribute to the genre which has given him so much over the past four decades. He wishes he could personally thank every novelist, screenwriter, filmmaker, director and actor who has ever inspired him to tell great stories. He has been an educator for twenty years and a writer for thirty. He lives on planet Earth, but he dreams of the stars. Visit www.timothysjohnston.com to register for news alerts, read his blog and reviews, and learn more about his current and upcoming thrillers. Timothy is the author of futuristic murder mystery/thrillers THE FURNACE, THE FREEZER, and THE VOID. Follow Timothy on Facebook @TSJAuthor and Twitter @TSJ_Author.

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David Perlmutter in Shoreline of Infinity anthology

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SF Canada member David Perlmutter’s story, “The Brat and the Burly Qs”, was recently selected for the “best of” anthology from Shoreline of Infinity: The Chosen from the First Age. After only 3 years in existence Shoreline of Infinity Science Fiction Magazine won the British Fantasy Society Award 2018 for best magazine/periodical. To celebrate this occasion, they published a selection of stories from Issues 1-10 as worthy ambassadors for the magazine. Together these stories represent the character of the magazine – welcoming, challenging, enthralling, and a touch mischievous.

David Perlmutter is a freelance writer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is the author of America Toons In: A History of Television Animation, The Singular Adventures Of Jefferson Ball, The Pups, Certain Private Conversations and Other Stories (Aurora Publishing), Honey and Salt, and more. David was recently showcased on Aurelia Leo’s Speculative Fiction Friday.  Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

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Appropriately Aggressive: Essays About Books, Corgis, and Feminism

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SF Canada member Krista D. Ball has recently published her 20th book, an eclectic collection of essays about science fiction and fantasy publishing, social media rants about sexism, and a generous sprinkle of stories, favourite things, and writing advice. “If one more rando tells me that women have to be raped in fantasy because that’s how it was back then, I am going to cut someone. With a spoon.”

With titles like “Strong Female Characters vs. Varied Female Characters”, “Self Publishing is not a Meritocracy”, and “There’s room for All of Us at Fantasy Inn”, these enlightening and entertaining essays represent, in Krista’s own words, “copious bottles of Chablis, a shocking amount of poutine, and many supportive furry animal hugs.”

Inhale this fascinating series of essays at Amazon Canada and Amazon U.S.

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Poetry by Dominik Parisien

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SF Canada member Dominik Parisien’s latest publication is a poetry chapbook. We, Old Young Ones was just published by Frog Hollow Press. The chapbook is part of their Dis/Ability series and explores disability, linguistics of pain, family, and intergenerational dynamics. It includes poems published in Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Augur, and Goblin Fruit, and traditional literary journals.

The artwork is by UK artist Immy Smith and is part of a project using Morse Code as a drawing method to illustrate the everyday ableist language disabled people face.

Dominik Parisien is the co-editor, with Navah Wolfe, of Robots vs Fairies, and The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, which won the Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. He also co-edited Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction with Elsa Sjunneson-Henry. 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 table of contents and the opening poem of We, Old Young Ones can be read as a .pdf here and the chapbook is available for purchase here.