Category: Member News

SF Canada member, Susan Forest, will launch her novel, Flights of Marigold, (Laksa Media Groups) this August at When Words Collide.

The novel tells the story of Meg and Janat Falkyn, fugitive daughters of an imperial magiel, who escape to the edge of the world to restore their people’s access to their Gods—by recapturing a fabled prayer stone. But to accomplish the theft, whom can they trust? The ambitious High King’s sister thirsts for power. A calculating regent enriches himself with a steam-driven textile monopoly. A charming swindler sets up an elaborate scheme. And unraveling secrets hidden in castles, alleyways, and brothels threaten to expose everything. With rebels stalking the sisters, and the High King’s armies on the march, Meg’s time is up.

Flights of Marigold is a Publishers Lunch Buzz Books 2020 Selection.

“Forest skillfully uses her fantasy setting to spin a tale of addiction and familial loyalty…sure to satisfy readers who are invested in the Falconer sisters’ story lines.” –Publishers’ Weekly

The book is an action-adventure epic fantasy, but it deals with the issue of addictions, and it is the publisher’s hope that the topic will help to generate discussion to remove stigma, and possibly lead to positive action in support of this important issue.

The launch, on August 15, 2020, is an online event scheduled for 2:00 PM Mountain Daylight Time, and is open to everyone.

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. Susan is also an award-winning fiction editor, has published over 25 short stories (four were finalists 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.

Flights of Marigold is available for pre-order at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Indiebound, Rakuten/Kobo, iBooks, and Overdrive.

SF Canada member Paula Johanson’s latest release is the story collection, Small Rain and Other Nightmares.

In stories of near futures uncomfortably like our own, Paula brings elements of magic realism and eco-gothic fiction to focus on home and heart. The title story, “Small Rain”, was an Aurora finalist. Whether walking from the big city to beyond Hope, or from a secret house in the hills to what’s left of town, the characters in these stories are in transition from coping with the past and fears for the future.

“Quiet little nightmares that sneak up on you when you’re not looking. Paula Johanson is a master of the bucolic apocalypse.”
– Peter Watts, author of Blindsight

 

“Reads like a spec fic Raymond Carver. Paula Johanson crafts small gems of stories that suggest to the reader much larger worlds.”
-Ira Nayman, editor, Amazing Stories

Paula Johanson is a graduate of the University of Victoria; she has worked as a security guard, a short order cook, a teacher, newspaper writer, and more. As well as editing books and teaching materials, she has run an organic-method small farm with her spouse, raised gifted twins, and cleaned university dormitories. In addition to novels and stories, she is the author of forty-two books written for educational publishers, among them The Paleolithic Revolution and Women Writers from the series Defying Convention: Women Who Changed The World. Learn more at paulajohanson.blogspot.com

Find Small Rain and Other Nightmares here.

SF Canada member Ursula Pflug‘s latest collection, Seeds and Other Stories, is now available from Inanna Publications.

In these stories seers and vagabonds, addicts and gardeners succeed and sometimes fail at creating new kinds of community against apocalyptic backdrops. They build gardens in the ruins, transport seeds and songs from one world to another and from dreams to waking life. Where do you plant a seed someone gave you in a dream? How do you build a world more free of trauma when it’s all you’ve ever known? Sometimes the seed you wake up holding in your hand is the seed of a new world.

“Pflug’s excellent third story collection (after Harvesting the Moon) showcases her mature, rich, and immersive storytelling. The stories reflect Pflug’s characters’ resilience in the face of 27 disparate apocalypses, united by motifs of seeds and gardening and a striking juxtaposition of hyperrealism with delicate fantasy.”

—Publisher’s Weekly starred review

An award winning short fiction writer, Ursula has published over seventy-five short stories in professional genre and literary publications in Canada, the United States and the UK, in print and online. From 1979 till the present her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies including Now Magazine, Quarry, Tesseracts, Leviathan, The Nine Muses, Strange Horizons, Fantasy, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Nemonymous, Back Brain Recluse, Transversions, The Antigonish Review, Write, Bamboo Ridge, The Best of Strange Horizons, Prairie Fire and many others.

Get your copy of Seeds and Other Stories today!

SF Canada member Krista D. Ball has a short story in the recently-released Swashbuckling Cats: Nine Lives on the Seven Seas anthology. Published by Tyche Books (Tyche’s acquisitions editor is SF Canada member Margaret Curelas), the anthology features thirteen “tails” of adventure-loving cats, puns, and fun.

If you think cats and water don’t mix, think again.

Plunge into worlds of piratical cats: some selfish, some mischievous, all fond of hitting the catnip stash. From ships on the deep blue sea, to ships flying through the depths of space, and even visiting from beyond the veil, these cats are determined and on a mission.

One Reddit reviewer said “The Perfect Kibble” is “…a light-hearted and humorous read that made me chuckle…”

Krista D. Ball combines her love of the fantastical, an obsession with Jane Austen, and a history degree from Mount Allison University to bring both writers and muslin lovers a new and unique reference guide. Krista was born and raised in Newfoundland, where she learned how to use a chainsaw, chop wood, and make raspberry jam. She lives in Alberta these days. Somehow, she’s picked up an engineer, two kids, six cats, and a very understanding corgi off ebay. Her credit card has been since taken away. You can find her causing trouble at http://kristadball.com

Get your copy of Swashbuckling Cats from Tyche Books today!