It’s time for the latest installment of my episode by episode reviews of WandaVision, Marvel’s new sitcom parody/Dickian faux reality paranoia. Previous installments (well, just two) may be found here. Also, may I remind you that Disney is still not paying Alan Dean Foster and others.
Warning: Spoilers and pretty significant ones at that behind the cut! Continue reading
It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.
So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie and small press authors (as well as the occasional Big 5 book) newly published this month, though some December books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.
Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. This month, we have epic fantasy, urban fantasy, historical fantasy, gaslamp fantasy, sword and sorcery, paranormal mysteries, supernatural thrillers, technothrillers, science fiction thrillers, space opera, military science fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, horror, LitRPG, speculative poetry, vampires, demons, goblins, muses, goddesses, haunted houses, mechas, first contact, interstellar wars, superheroes, dread worms, dark gods, barbarian kings, crime-busting witches, crime-busting ghosts, murderous artificial intelligences, death retired and much more.
Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.
As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.
And now on to the books without further ado:
Speculate: A Collection by Microlit by Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq:
From what began as a dialog between two adventurous writers curious about the shape-shifter called a prose poem comes a stunning collection that is a disruption of language-a provocation. Speculate is a hybrid of speculative poetry and flash fiction, thrumming in a pulse of jouissance and intensity that chases the impossible.
One might describe some pieces as complex, relentless, but above all, speculating or crossing borders in the fantastic playground of language. We invite you to leap onto the stage of your own imaginings, plunge into what Henry James called the house of fiction.
This is how we envision ours:
A single detached house tossed out of Speculate settles across your dreams. Skin, paper-thin, desiccated and scripted like a collage, covers the absence of doors, thresholds, verandas, stairways and footpaths. But there are windows and louvers that look out to rain-licked grasslands. This is a house unsealed, with the sky art and earth art washed or rolled into each other on adjacent floors and walls. The roof, unlettered, is made of two sliding suns of creamed panels, foundation-like. Round the back is a rope ladder that will win you over. Up, up you go. Enter with care as you would any fiction that blurs the boundaries of genre, mode or form, that goes beyond the written and borrows from the unwritten. Together we can interweave art with language and watch it shape itself anew in an endless process of spontaneity and play because we can be here and there and away, all at once.
-Dominique Hecq and Eugen Bacon
The Plains of Shadow by Richard Blakemore and Cora Buhlert:
Long before Kurval became King of Azakoria, he was a guard captain in service to the tyrannical King Talgat of the land Temirzhan beyond the sea.
One day, Talgat orders Kurval to escort the condemned witch Aelisia to the Plains of Shadow and behead her, so her blood may feed the dark gods who dwell there.
However, Kurval does not want to execute the sentence, once he learns that Aelisia is innocent of the crimes of which she has been accused.
But if he lets Aelisia go free, Kurval will not only have to face the wrath of Talgat but also the fury of the dark gods who dwell upon the Plains of Shadow.
This is a novelette of 9800 words or approx. 33 print pages in the Kurval sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.
Worm Fodder by Richard Blakemore and Cora Buhlert:
After a hunt, King Kurval of Azakoria and his entourage make camp at the village of Ogwall. However, something is not right in the village. All men of fighting age are away at a mysterious ritual and the remaining villagers are clearly afraid of something.
Kurval investigates and learns that the mysterious ritual in the woods involves sacrificing the young Celisa to the dread worm Thibunoth.
Kurval is furious, for he outlawed human sacrifice in the kingdom of Azakoria. And so he sets out to save Celisa, deal with the monster and punish those who would violate the ban on human sacrifice.
This is a novelette of 9600 words or approx. 32 print pages in the Kurval sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.
Blind Date with a Supervillain by H.L. Burke:
Juggling life as a superhero with college and a social life is hard, but Shawn Park, AKA Surge, feels he’s killing it. Things look even brighter when he makes a connection with the sweet but shy new barista at his favorite coffee shop. Maybe a guy really can have it all … but appearances can be deceiving.
Apparition just wants her supervillain father to be proud of her, and she’ll do anything to accomplish that: even disguise herself as mild-mannered coffee shop employee Nikki to get close to the superhero he’s stalking. However, between his charming smile and kind words, she finds herself hopelessly drawn tp the good natured Shawn.
As the chemistry between Shawn and Nikki sizzles, the tension between Surge and Apparition grows. If he finds out the truth, they could be headed for something far more explosive than the average breakup.
Wherever Seeds May Fall by Peter Cawdron:
The Prince of Darkness is coming. Comet Anduru skimmed the clouds of Saturn. Rather than being drawn into the gas giant, it skipped back out into space. With the comet heading for Jupiter, speculation is mounting it’s an alien spacecraft making its way to Earth. Lieutenant Colonel Nolan Landis and Dr. Kath McKenzie are caught between an angry public and an anxious President as they grapple with the scientific, social, and political implications of First Contact.
FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore the concept of humanity’s first interaction with extraterrestrial life. Like BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE, the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters, allowing these books to be read in any order. Technically, they’re all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.
The Brass Queen by Elizabeth Chatsworth:
She knows a liar when she sees one.
He knows a fraud when he meets one.
In a steam-powered world, Miss Constance Haltwhistle is the last in a line of blue-blooded rogues. Selling firearms under her alias, the “Brass Queen,” she has kept her baronial estate’s coffers full. But when US spy J. F. Trusdale saves her from assassins, she’s pulled into a search for a scientist with an invisibility serum. As royal foes create an invisible army to start a global war, Constance and Trusdale must learn to trust each other. If they don’t, the world as they know it will disappear before their eyes.
If you like the Parasol Protectorate or the Invisible Library series, you’ll love this gaslamp fantasy—a rambunctious romantic romp that will have you both laughing out loud and wishing you owned all of Miss Haltwhistle’s armaments.
The Fury of Angels by Julian M. Coleman:
It’s the late 1800s, and Sara’s mother is a witch. It’s the 21st century, and Sammy is trapped in prep school hell. The identical besties are doomed to immortality. It’s their lethal rage that makes them efficient killers.
Scions of Humanity by M.D. Cooper:
The Orion War is over and new peace is spreading…
It will take centuries for the legacy of the prior conflict to fade away, conflicts spurred on by diasporas and resource restrictions that will ripple through the Perseus, Orion, and Sagittarius arms of the galaxy.
Yet in the wake of those final battles comes a reprieve, a new peace maintained by the knowledge that total war is too devastating to even contemplate, that the weapons employed–should they come into common use–would lay waste to the galaxy.
Admiral Tanis Richards, the former Field Marshal, wishes nothing more than to retire to her lakehouse and stare out over the rippling waters for a year or two, but knows she cannot. For the greatest enemy that humanity and free AIs have ever faced waits for her at the galactic core. Epsilon, a powerful AI, his nodes filling an entire world, is has his mind bent on remaking the universe, and organic life is not in the blueprint.
Though they yearn to enjoy the fruits of their labors, Tanis and her allies must prepare for one final battle against the scions of the human race. They must prepare to fight The Ascension War.
The Cemetery Ghost by Amy Cross:
As she explores a snowy cemetery, Elizabeth Shaw is shocked to come across a strange little boy. Although he remembers his name, Patrick has no idea where he comes from, and a moment later he vanishes into thin air.
Meanwhile, a mysterious man moves into the nearby rectory. Determined to recover a dangerous book, Jerome Shand starts by torturing the spirits of a family who died many years ago. When that approach fails, however, Shand realizes that he only has one option left. He needs to find the last remaining ghost of the Munce family, a young boy named Patrick who disappeared after he and his family were murdered seventy years earlier…
Soon, Elizabeth and Patrick discover that leaving the past behind isn’t as easy as they’d hoped. Dark forces are waiting in the shadows of the rectory, and an evil force is desperate to break free. Can Patrick stop Shand, or will the ancient Lochdale Book finally spill its evil secrets into the world?
Dawn Breaker by Pippa DaCosta:
With Rafe missing, demons claiming half the night station, and the vampire queen closing in, Lynher and Kensey are left with nowhere to hide. Backed into a corner, they must fight.
But can two human orphans harness the magic of the night station to stand against the vampire queen?
California Demon by Debra Dunbar:
In New Hell, only the monsters survive.
Eden Alvaro is a licensed Vulture, picking through the aftermath of violence in demon-plagued LA, and fencing her finds to help support her family. But when a crooked cop reports her for a salvage she didn’t take, all hell breaks loose.
Stripped of her license, Eden finds herself with a price on her head. When the mercenaries hunting her raid her home, brutalize her family and abduct one of her sisters, Eden turns to the enigmatic Bishop—a man with a reputation for violence who, for the right price, can find just about anything or anyone.
With time running out to find her sister before she’s sold into slavery, Eden is determined to get her back—even if she has to slaughter her way through a gang affiliated with the traffickers and face down one of the powerful demons in control of the city.
She’ll need every bit of her burgeoning magical powers to bring her sister back alive—and she’ll need to put herself in debt to Bishop. But when it comes to her family, no price is too high for Eden to pay.
A lost manuscript. A woman determined to find it. A man who finds her irresistible.
In NYC, freelance consultant Jack Ellis – still grieving after the death of his beloved grandmother – finally starts to put his life back together. But his attempts to leave the past behind unravel when he meets Lisa, a storybook-beautiful woman who claims she came for a manuscript that Jack’s grandmother promised her. A manuscript Jack has never heard of.
Allured by her beauty and drawn to her impetuous personality, Jack joins Lisa in a search that takes them on an unexpected journey, casting the people he thought he knew in a whole new light.
There’s no doubt Lisa is a disruptive force, yet Jack cannot disentangle himself from her quirky and potentially dangerous intrusion. Lisa is all charm when it suits her, but can Jack accept her mysterious mental powers and embrace a woman who believes she is actually a muse from Mount Olympus?
A reclusive mountain race. A paradise under siege. A problem magic cannot solve.
When the Jotnar’s mountain paradise is attacked by a seemingly all-powerful enemy, the race of giants must break their age-old rule and seek help from outsiders. They turn to the mage’s university to understand the threat.
Apprentice Wizard Idun Wintermoon and blade-for-hire Liss Forlatt travel to the wintery mountain stronghold to aid the giantfolk. But to defeat a foe who turns the magic of his victims against them, they’ll need to tap into strengths they didn’t know they had.
To defeat a magic siphoning wizard, sometimes you need a magic-challenged sellsword.
The Dark Lord Bert 2 by Chris Fox:
How Does a 1 Hit Point Dark Lord Save the Real World?
Kit and her friends are gamers, but not the ordinary kind. It seems that Track Jick was right, and that people who play roleplaying games really are wizards and witches. Kit’s game master uses a magical die to transport them to an alternate world where they can really become their characters, and forget all about the real world.
Unfortunately, during a power scuffle the d20 gets knocked into the game world. If they can’t get it out then the game world will explode, and everything in it will die. Worse, to Kit’s mind, their parents will be disbarred, and they’ll never be able to play again.
Enter one tiny goblin with just a single hit point, but a heart large enough to save a fake world…if he can reach the d20 before the Dark Lord White 2.0. Along the way Bert will meet his fellow dark lords, and finally learn magic. Plus Boberton gets very large indeed.
King Arthur in outer space?
Endless warfare has ravaged Earth, and billions are desperate to escape. One of them is Taylan Ellis.
Driven from her home in the West Britannic Isles by an invasion and severed from her children, Taylan enlists with the Britannic Alliance, hoping she can help regain her homeland and find her kids.
But decades of internal conflict and terrestrial and space warfare have left the BA on the edge of collapse.
Then its battleship, the Valiant, picks up a distress signal. The rescuers break into a sealed chamber and find the apparently mummified remains of an Iron Age chieftain. Disappointed, they’re about to leave when they discover the ‘mummy’ has a pulse.
Taylan suspects she knows who the mystery man is and what he’s capable of. If she’s right, can she convince her superiors and save the BA, her country, and her children?
The Valiant is book one in J.J. Green’s new space fantasy series, Star Legend.
Ghostly Wedding by Lily Harper Hart:
Harper Harlow and Jared Monroe fell in love fast and hard. Finally, their big day is here.
They just need to solve a murder before they exchange their vows and take the next step to happily ever after.
Peter Humphrey, an insurance salesman from a neighboring town, appeared to be minding his own business when a woman came out of nowhere and struck him down while he was crossing the street. Harper witnessed the accident and vows to solve the murder before it’s time to leave on her honeymoon.
It might take more work than she realizes, though.
Peter was a normal guy, a father who doted on his daughter and was friendly with his ex-wife, and yet somehow he had a secret. His ghost points Harper toward Montgomery Manor, toward a woman who suffered her own tragedy almost two decades before.
On paper, Peter’s murder and the Montgomery tragedy shouldn’t be connected … and yet they are. It’s up to Jared and Harper to figure out how if they want to enjoy their wedding and what comes after … and they’re both determined to do it.
Some things are meant to be. Harper and Jared believe their union is one of those things.
Prepare yourselves, because this is one wedding you’ll never forget.
Alyx: An AI’s Guide to Love and Murder by Brent A. Harris:
Home is where the heart is. It’s where you go to feel safe with your loved ones.
But what if your home wanted you dead?
Tech-loving teen Christine makes fast friends with her home’s AI, Alyx. But when a real-world romance threatens their bond, Alyx turns from friend to foe.
So Beckons the Abyss by Joel Jenkins:
The Cataclysm changed the face of the world, swallowing up modern cities and gleaming skyscrapers while vomiting up the ruins of ancient civilizations.Many governments and institutions collapsed, while others survived by reinventing themselves or reforming from the ashes of the old societies.During this time, a new sport of cutthroat cross-country vehicular racing developed and became an international sensation. The racers are worldwide celebrities, but dark and mystical forces are at work to control and use them.
On the Street Where Death Lives by Cate Lawley:
Skeletons in the closet
The living have them, but what about ghosts? Geoff’s about to find out! He’s convinced his ghostly neighbor Ginny was murdered. When he starts digging for answers, he unearths more than facts.
Join Geoff, his favorite bobcat Clarence, Sylvie and a gang of supernatural misfits as they investigate murders, both past and present!
Cooking for Cannibals by Rich Leder:
Fountain of youth? More like murderous medication!
Carrie Kromer pushes the boundaries of science, not her social life. The brilliant behavioral gerontologist’s idea of a good time is hanging out with her beloved lab rats and taking care of her elderly mother and the other eccentric old folks at the nursing home. So no one is more surprised than Carrie when she steals the lab’s top-secret, experimental medicine for aging in reverse.
Two-time ex-con Johnny Fairfax dreams of culinary greatness. But when his corrupt parole officer tries to drag him from the nursing home kitchen, the suddenly young-again residents spring to his defense and murder the guy—and then request Johnny cook them an evidence-devouring dinner to satisfy their insatiable side-effect appetite.
As their unexpected mutual attraction gets hot, Carrie and Johnny find themselves caught up with the authorities who arrive to investigate the killing. But even more dangerous than the man-eating not-so-senior citizens could be the arrival of death-dealing pharmaceutical hitmen.
Can Carrie and Johnny find true love in all this bloody madness?
Cooking for Cannibals is a dark comic thriller with a heaping helping of romance. If you like fast-paced plots, unconventional characters, and humor that crosses the line, then you’ll have a feast with Rich Leder’s wild ride.
Buy Cooking for Cannibals and dig in to a side-splitting serving today!
Long, Hot, Witchy Summer by Amanda M. Lee:
Life couldn’t be going much better for Hadley Hunter. She’s living the dream on Moonstone Bay with her boyfriend Galen Blackwood, plotting her next move as a witch for hire, and basically basking in happiness.
That all changes when a summer afternoon on the beach turns into a nightmare, an odd creature from the depths of the ocean surfacing and attacking Hadley on the beach. Her friend Lilac, a demon with a few issues, fights it off but it escapes … and becomes a problem for an island that bases its entire economy on tourism.
The all-powerful DDA isn’t happy. Lilac’s hair refuses to stop glowing red. Booker is struggling to help all his friends. Essentially, things turn messy quickly.
On top of that, Hadley’s father drops in out of nowhere and demands she return home. He’s not happy with what he hears about the island and decides it’s too dangerous for her to say. Hadley, of course, has other ideas and is determined to bring her father around to her way of thinking.
Between monsters popping up out of nowhere and her father’s inability to stop freaking out, Hadley has her hands full. The monsters keep popping up in the oddest places, and always their attention is on Hadley.
Monsters are nothing new for Hadley but the ones attacking now seem to be different. It’s up to Moonstone Bay’s newest witch and her motley crew of paranormal colleagues to solve a mystery and save the day. Again.
They just have to survive to do it.
Family Solstice by Kate Maruyama:
The Massey family loves their house. It’s been in the family for generations, and the land on which it sits has been with them even longer. In the summer everyone comes through to visit and the house is alive with family friends, barbecues and lobster boils. But come fall, the mood shifts as all of the kids start training for their turn in the basement.
Shea, the youngest Massey is training extra hard. She’s thirteen and that means this is her year to battle on Solstice. Her older siblings won’t tell her exactly what’s in the basement, you don’t know until you’re fighting it. She’s excited finally to be in the know.
She does know that whatever happens in the basement every December 21 makes it possible for the Masseys to spend the rest of the year enjoying their home and all that it brings. It is her family duty.
But something about this year is different. Mama’s extra quiet this fall, and the house is breathing early.
Maruyama explores the dangers of tradition, inheritance, and the sins of the father in this horror novella.
Disposable Heroes by Gregory Mattix:
Boomer is a pretty simple guy for an alien hybrid. He runs on booze, caffeine, and junk food. He works as a bullet-resistant tank for a crew of street-running mercenaries. If someone needs hurting or something needs blowing up, he’s the guy to do it. It might not be the most glam life in Arutairu Megacity, but it’s his, and he’s rather attached to it.
When Boomer’s team takes on a shady job with the promise of a stellar payday, the proverbial excrement quickly meets the fan, and hit squads come after him and his crew. Normally, a few amateur goons with guns would just make for good target practice, but he suddenly finds himself unable to protect his friends. His rapidly expanding list of problems soon includes double-crosses, femme fatales, a hybrid assassin wielding alien weaponry, and an army of mercs gunning for him and his rapidly dwindling crew. As if that mess wasn’t enough to deal with, he fears he might be losing his sanity as he blunders into the middle of a conspiracy so vast it will shake the foundations of the entire city.
What’s a dumb grunt like him to do? Get some bigger guns and fight back, of course. And make some bastards rue the days they were born.
Rick is destined to become a legend.
But he doesn’t realize that yet. Right now, Rick is a young guy with a secret that will get him into trouble. He inherited forbidden magic from his mother, who disappeared before she could teach him how to use it.
When his father is murdered and Rick is stalked by a deadly bounty hunter, he gets his ass out of town. Searching for a way to use his secret powers, he finds himself in a tough new city where a bunch of thieves become his mentors.
Soon, he’s at the bottom of the ranks of a sect of magic users. Fueled by his wish to grow stronger, he finds ways to exploit his new powers. Tested to his breaking point by his new teachers, he gains abilities that he never knew existed.
With a desire for greatness and magic of infinite potential, so begins Rick’s rise to legend.
Null Identity by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant:
From the bestselling authors of Invasion and Yesterday’s Gone comes Null Identity, a new stand-alone novel written in the world of The Tomorrow Gene. This is a disturbing philosophical exploration of what can happen when our scientific advancement outpaces our ethics.
Cassandra Knight is trying hard to believe that she is safe and sane. Living with an adoring billionaire in his luxurious secluded mansion, she should have everything she needs to recover from the mental breakdown that drove her to attempt suicide.
And yet, she is haunted by vividly recurring nightmares of the moment she tried to take her life and the persistent feeling that something just isn’t right.
What happened on that hazy night when she hit rock bottom, and why does it seem like everything and everyone around her are conspiring to keep her from remembering?
Null Identity is a compelling mix of Ex Machina meets The Invisible Man in the story of one woman’s struggle to unearth the truth and understand her own past.
Grave Mistake by Christine Pope:
When you pull up stakes, make sure you don’t get stabbed in the back.
Self-taught in the arcane arts, hedgewitch Selena Marx is comfortable doing divination for West Los Angeles’ anxiety-ridden housewives, lawyers, and aspiring actresses. Her biggest challenge? Avoiding Lucien Dumond, leader of the Greater Los Angeles Necromancers’ Guild, who views her as fresh meat to add to his harem of slavishly devoted groupies.
Selena’s not interested in the slimy, celebrity-schmoozing sorcerer, but nobody turns Lucien down without consequences. When he threatens to fit her with magical cement shoes and drop her off the Santa Monica Pier, Selena’s Tarot cards point her to Globe, Arizona, for a new home, a new shop, and a cursed pet cat.
Just as she’s settling in and meeting the locals — including Calvin Standingbear, hunky chief of the San Ramon Apache tribal police — Lucien tracks her down…and promptly disappears. When his body turns up on tribal lands, it’s up to Calvin to investigate. Starting with Selena.
And when one of Lucien’s acolytes is killed, traces of dark magic and cryptic warnings from the spirits send Selena and Calvin in a race against time — before a too-close-for-comfort evil cuts her own life short.
At the Gates and Other Stories by Patrick Samphire:
A ghost searches for revenge in ancient Egypt. A boy unearths the bones of a dragon. A girl risks awakening a dark god to save her dog…
He reached out a hand and touched Grace’s cheek. The touch made her shiver. “You can’t save everyone, Grace.”
“I don’t want to,” Grace whispered. “Just her.”
At the Gates and Other Stories is a collection of sixteen fantasy short stories.
Luck Be a Lady by Chris H. Stevenson:
Mason Hart has just lost his job, fiancé, and car in less than 48-hours. A short time later he accosts a cop and ends up in jail. He finally lands in a hospital as the result of a jailhouse brawl. He’s helpless to quell this downhill slide into calamity. Since he believes all is lost at this point, suicide seems the only alternative left…
Until the figure of Felicity Fortune, the Roman Goddess of Luck, interrupts Mason’s suicidal plans in the nick of time. It seems Felicity Fortune was hampered by the bird flu and few other appointments, so she must apologize for her tardy appearance. She tells Mason that he’s ripe for a cosmic alignment, and that his 15-minutes of fame and wealth are finally at hand. He is allotted six chances via the roll of the golden dice for his deserved share of the “Great Cornucopia.”
Beshaba, the Maid of Misfortune, has ear-marked Mason at the exact same time, to heap upon him the bad luck part of the equation. She is the evil incarnate daughter of Felicity, and now covets Mason for her own devious alignment. Everything that Beshaba represents is in stark contrast to her mother. It is a deliberate ploy to spite the good works of her mother, thus laying down a challenge of cosmic power.
Their simultaneous claim to Mason forces the two Goddesses into a mythological cat fight in hell. When this push and shove reaches a fevered pitch, even the destiny of mankind in called into question. Mason must find the solution and tear away the veil of darkness that could upset the divine balance between good and evil. What he doesn’t know is that the final key to the solution is himself.
Peace forged on the edge of civilization
Lies forged in the heart of mankind
A legend rises to the final challenge
Exile to the Syntactic Cluster has been good for Kira Demirci and her friends. Once elite pilots of the Apollo System Defense Force, they now own the most powerful mercenary warship in the entire star cluster. Working with the carrier-for-hire Conviction and her Captain John Estanza, they have helped the King of Redward usher in a new era of hope for the entire Cluster.
That hope is nearly shattered when Estanza’s old enemies in the Equilibrium Institute strike directly at Redward’s king. Revenge and money bring the mercenaries into an allied fleet—one intended to neutralize the last threats to the peace.
But the Institute’s plans for the Syntactic Cluster are intricate and deep. Even as the mercenaries and their employers move against the enemies they see, shadows gather in the Cluster, bearing whispers of a forgotten name: Cobra Squadron.
Death has seeped into The Garden, black and oily.
A sickness is spreading through The Garden threatening to destroy everything that neuro-cognitive genius Brenna Patrick has built at NeuralTech. World domination will have to wait, at least for now.
Adversaries will become allies. New enemies will upset the balance of power. People will die.
In an epic struggle for control of a system that can topple governments, turn peasants into rulers, and make even the darkest, most sadistic miscreant into a god, only the resilient will survive.
NECROGARDEN is a roller-coaster ride of a thriller, one that will have readers pondering the nature of memory, and of reality, long after they’ve read the last page.
Metal Warrior: Hard As Steel by James David Victor:
The only way to save Earth may be to take the fight outside of the solar system.
A military sci-fi adventure from Amazon All-Star author James David Victor
Dane and the mech fighters of the Mechanized Infantry Division have taken the fight to all enemies, alien and human alike. When they discover a portal to other solar systems, they have the means to end the invasion or take the fight across the galaxy. If they can defeat the overwhelming forces defending it. In the end, nothing less than humanity’s place in the galaxy is on the line.
Metal Warrior: Hard as Steel is the fourth book in the Mech Fighter series. If you like fast-paced space adventures with engaging characters and exciting battles, you will definitely want to see how the Metal Warriors save mankind, or if they can.
Download Metal Warrior: Hard as Steel and continue this epic space adventure today!
The Wind in My Heart by Douglas Wynne:
Miles Landry is trying to put violence behind him when he takes up work as a private detective focused on humdrum adultery cases. But when a Tibetan monk hires him to find a missing person, things get weird fast.
Charged with tracking down the reincarnation of a man possessed by a demonic guardian from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Miles is plunged into a world of fortune-tellers, gangsters, and tantric rituals. The year is 1991 and a series of grisly murders has rocked New York City in the run up to a visit from the Dalai Lama.
The police attribute the killings to Chinatown gang warfare. Miles–skeptical of the supernatural–is inclined to agree. But what if the monster he’s hunting is more than a myth?
Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.
Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.
So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of crime fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some December books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.
Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have cozy mysteries, historical mysteries, Jazz Age mysteries, paranormal mysteries, hardboiled mysteries, police procedurals, crime thrillers, medical thrillers, science fiction thrillers, technothrillers, police officers, amateur sleuths, private investigators, doctors, missing persons, cold cases, crime-busting witches, crime-busting socialites, crime-busting maids, crime-busting teachers, crime-busting ghosts, murderous AIs, murder and mayhem in Palm Beach, Florida, Galveston, Texas, New York City, Brighton, London, Sicily and much more.
Don’t forget that Indie Crime Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Indie Crime Scene, a group blog which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things crime fiction several times per week.
As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.
And now on to the books without further ado:
An Unfortunate Demise by Blythe Baker:
Death stalks the guests at a seaside resort…
While staying at Brighton with the formidable old Mrs. Montford, Anna Fairweather witnesses a drowning. Suspecting the “accident” is something more sinister, Anna begins a search for the truth – and the killer.
Does a belligerent brother-in-law carry an old grudge? Is the victim’s grieving husband a little too quick to move on? With an entire hotel full of suspects, Anna must uncover the secrets, and the motives, the hotel guests and employees are desperate to hide. But with the clock ticking, will Anna get to the bottom of the mystery – or find herself at the bottom of the ocean?
Murder in the Evening by Blythe Baker:
Death comes to dine…
When an elegant dinner party with friends ends in the sudden death of a beautiful young socialite, Alice Beckingham finds herself a witness to murder. Intrigued by a cryptic note in which the victim predicts her own demise, Alice enlists the aid of the cunning but slippery Sherborne Sharp to investigate.
Alice has more than one killer to contend with, however, as her family continues to be plagued by unanswered questions surrounding an older unsolved mystery.
Working together, the lady detective and her jewel thief partner set out to trap a killer. But will the looming shadows of the past leave Alice blind to the dangers of the present?
Dark Waters Inn Mysteries Box Set by Bekah Bancroft and Jaxon Reed:
In 1900 a massive hurricane wiped out Galveston, killing thousands and leveling the island.
One building survived, the Dark Waters Inn. The proprietress made a deal with the angel who watches over Texas . . .
Over the years the island rebuilt. But Dark Waters remains untouched, haunted by a ghost whose successive granddaughters continue running the inn. Macey Davenport shows up late for her grandmother’s funeral and suddenly finds herself the new owner of a very special place.
Cord Dupree is a lonely highway patrol officer in West Texas. One night, he pulls over a werewolf . . .
Suddenly Cord finds himself promoted, handed a silver badge tied to the ghost of an old Texas Ranger. His job now is to serve as the living half of a paranormal law enforcement team stretching back to the 1800s.
When Cord and his partner become guests at the Dark Waters Inn, old ghosts are reunited and romantic sparks fly in the land of the living. But a secret organization keeps tabs on the paranormal in Texas. When guests start showing up dead in Galveston, it will take Cord, Macey, their ghosts and Bogey the dog to figure out whodunit and do something about it.
Grab all five books in the complete Dark Waters Inn series with this box set:
A Bite for Dinner
Paws for Lunch
A Breakfast Tail
A Nosey Brunch
Snacks for Packs
Murder at Midnight by Beth Byers:
January 1927
New Year’s has arrived and Vi has resolutions. Her friends have faced something they never expected, and they’re all a little fragile. Determined to help her family, Vi brings them all together.
No one is even startled when they come across a body. But maybe, for once, something good can come from such an event. Maybe, they’ll find their peace along with a killer.
Sisters Margo and Marcia Fleming have always enjoyed investigating cold cases.
Tracking down elusive suspects while giving victims some peace of mind. They get the job done, no matter what’s at stake. Whether local police departments want their help or not.
They will stop at nothing to get to the truth.
For their latest case, a distraught mother requests their help to investigate the unsolved murder of her fourteen-year-old daughter, found naked and tortured on the bank of a river. With the whole town claiming that she was loved by everyone and never caused any trouble, Margo and Marcia will have to work hard to solve a murder that, by all appearances, looks like any other small-town murder. But appearances can be deceiving, as they have learned, and the killer may be far closer than anyone has expected before.
Can Margo and Marcia solve the case before they run out of time?
Figs and a Cadaver by Fiona Grace:
A VILLA IN SICILY: FIGS AND A CADAVER is book #2 in a charming new cozy mystery series by bestselling author Fiona Grace, author of Murder in the Manor, a #1 Bestseller with over 100 five-star reviews (and a free download)!
Audrey Smart, 34, has made a major life change, walking away from her life as a vet (and from a string of failed romance) and moving to Sicily to buy a $1 home—and embark on a mandatory renovation she knows nothing about.
Audrey is busy working to open the town’s new shelter, while also renovating her own problematic home—and dating again. With the help of friends, she begins taking in sick strays. But not everyone in town is grateful for her services, and she soon makes unexpected enemies.
When Audrey gets a tip about an injured dog near the coast and goes to find him—she finds the dead body of a powerful local instead.
Can Audrey, now a suspect, solve the crime and clear her name?
Or will her Sicilian dream fall apart?
Ghostly Wedding by Lily Harper Hart:
Harper Harlow and Jared Monroe fell in love fast and hard. Finally, their big day is here.
They just need to solve a murder before they exchange their vows and take the next step to happily ever after.
Peter Humphrey, an insurance salesman from a neighboring town, appeared to be minding his own business when a woman came out of nowhere and struck him down while he was crossing the street. Harper witnessed the accident and vows to solve the murder before it’s time to leave on her honeymoon.
It might take more work than she realizes, though.
Peter was a normal guy, a father who doted on his daughter and was friendly with his ex-wife, and yet somehow he had a secret. His ghost points Harper toward Montgomery Manor, toward a woman who suffered her own tragedy almost two decades before.
On paper, Peter’s murder and the Montgomery tragedy shouldn’t be connected … and yet they are. It’s up to Jared and Harper to figure out how if they want to enjoy their wedding and what comes after … and they’re both determined to do it.
Some things are meant to be. Harper and Jared believe their union is one of those things.
Prepare yourselves, because this is one wedding you’ll never forget.
Alyx: An AI’s Guide to Love and Murder by Brent A. Harris:
Home is where the heart is. It’s where you go to feel safe with your loved ones.
But what if your home wanted you dead?
Tech-loving teen Christine makes fast friends with her home’s AI, Alyx. But when a real-world romance threatens their bond, Alyx turns from friend to foe.
On the Street Where Death Lives by Cate Lawley:
Skeletons in the closet
The living have them, but what about ghosts? Geoff’s about to find out! He’s convinced his ghostly neighbor Ginny was murdered. When he starts digging for answers, he unearths more than facts.
Join Geoff, his favorite bobcat Clarence, Sylvie and a gang of supernatural misfits as they investigate murders, both past and present!
Cooking for Cannibals by Rich Leder:
Fountain of youth? More like murderous medication!
Carrie Kromer pushes the boundaries of science, not her social life. The brilliant behavioral gerontologist’s idea of a good time is hanging out with her beloved lab rats and taking care of her elderly mother and the other eccentric old folks at the nursing home. So no one is more surprised than Carrie when she steals the lab’s top-secret, experimental medicine for aging in reverse.
Two-time ex-con Johnny Fairfax dreams of culinary greatness. But when his corrupt parole officer tries to drag him from the nursing home kitchen, the suddenly young-again residents spring to his defense and murder the guy—and then request Johnny cook them an evidence-devouring dinner to satisfy their insatiable side-effect appetite.
As their unexpected mutual attraction gets hot, Carrie and Johnny find themselves caught up with the authorities who arrive to investigate the killing. But even more dangerous than the man-eating not-so-senior citizens could be the arrival of death-dealing pharmaceutical hitmen.
Can Carrie and Johnny find true love in all this bloody madness?
Cooking for Cannibals is a dark comic thriller with a heaping helping of romance. If you like fast-paced plots, unconventional characters, and humor that crosses the line, then you’ll have a feast with Rich Leder’s wild ride.
Buy Cooking for Cannibals and dig in to a side-splitting serving today!
Long, Hot, Witchy Summer by Amanda M. Lee:
Life couldn’t be going much better for Hadley Hunter. She’s living the dream on Moonstone Bay with her boyfriend Galen Blackwood, plotting her next move as a witch for hire, and basically basking in happiness.
That all changes when a summer afternoon on the beach turns into a nightmare, an odd creature from the depths of the ocean surfacing and attacking Hadley on the beach. Her friend Lilac, a demon with a few issues, fights it off but it escapes … and becomes a problem for an island that bases its entire economy on tourism.
The all-powerful DDA isn’t happy. Lilac’s hair refuses to stop glowing red. Booker is struggling to help all his friends. Essentially, things turn messy quickly.
On top of that, Hadley’s father drops in out of nowhere and demands she return home. He’s not happy with what he hears about the island and decides it’s too dangerous for her to say. Hadley, of course, has other ideas and is determined to bring her father around to her way of thinking.
Between monsters popping up out of nowhere and her father’s inability to stop freaking out, Hadley has her hands full. The monsters keep popping up in the oddest places, and always their attention is on Hadley.
Monsters are nothing new for Hadley but the ones attacking now seem to be different. It’s up to Moonstone Bay’s newest witch and her motley crew of paranormal colleagues to solve a mystery and save the day. Again.
They just have to survive to do it.
Factor-7 presents a terrifying scenario that’s ripped from the headlines. You think it could never happen. Factor-7 will make you think twice!
The life of Dr. Sam Hawkins, the head trauma surgeon at Galveston’s St. Peter’s Memorial Hospital, is changed forever by the cryptic words of his dying friend, Dr. Bill Roberts, and a string of murders and blatant cover-ups that follow his demise. Sam reluctantly teams up with Dr. Rainee Arienzo, an Italian infectious disease specialist, and together they uncover the terrifying truth about Factor-7, a bio-weapon with a 98% mortality rate.
Dr. Roberts’s journal tips them off that a clandestine plot for using the virus is about to be unleashed by a secret society, the Keepers Collegium. The Collegium, an international group of rogue intelligence agents, ex-military, and government officials, has a demonic plan to use the pathogen to destroy anyone who threatens their twisted ideology.
Sam and Rainee can’t trust anyone. Danger and deceit are around every corner as they travel the world. They soon realize that public exposure of the evil plot would be as dangerous to the world’s security as the bio-weapon itself. The fallout could lead to World War III. Therefore, they must not only shut down the plans of the Collegium, but also keep the top-secret information from ever being revealed. But as they work to stop the plot, Sam and Rainee are kidnapped by the largest Mexican drug cartel. The kingpin, who financed much of the Collegium’s plot, wants Dr. Roberts’s journal because it lists the names of the major players in the Collegium who had double-crossed him. He plans to carry out his special revenge. And he also has his own plans for Sam and Rainee. In order to survive, Sam and Rainee have no choice…they must play with one of two devils or be burned by both.
Factor-7 is a bucking bronco ride of bio-weaponry, secrets, terror, betrayal, infidelity, raw human emotions and redeeming love. It’s a gripping suspense thriller that will keep the reader up all night turning the pages.
Null Identity by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant:
From the bestselling authors of Invasion and Yesterday’s Gone comes Null Identity, a new stand-alone novel written in the world of The Tomorrow Gene. This is a disturbing philosophical exploration of what can happen when our scientific advancement outpaces our ethics.
Cassandra Knight is trying hard to believe that she is safe and sane. Living with an adoring billionaire in his luxurious secluded mansion, she should have everything she needs to recover from the mental breakdown that drove her to attempt suicide.
And yet, she is haunted by vividly recurring nightmares of the moment she tried to take her life and the persistent feeling that something just isn’t right.
What happened on that hazy night when she hit rock bottom, and why does it seem like everything and everyone around her are conspiring to keep her from remembering?
Null Identity is a compelling mix of Ex Machina meets The Invisible Man in the story of one woman’s struggle to unearth the truth and understand her own past.
Grave Mistake by Christine Pope:
When you pull up stakes, make sure you don’t get stabbed in the back.
Self-taught in the arcane arts, hedgewitch Selena Marx is comfortable doing divination for West Los Angeles’ anxiety-ridden housewives, lawyers, and aspiring actresses. Her biggest challenge? Avoiding Lucien Dumond, leader of the Greater Los Angeles Necromancers’ Guild, who views her as fresh meat to add to his harem of slavishly devoted groupies.
Selena’s not interested in the slimy, celebrity-schmoozing sorcerer, but nobody turns Lucien down without consequences. When he threatens to fit her with magical cement shoes and drop her off the Santa Monica Pier, Selena’s Tarot cards point her to Globe, Arizona, for a new home, a new shop, and a cursed pet cat.
Just as she’s settling in and meeting the locals — including Calvin Standingbear, hunky chief of the San Ramon Apache tribal police — Lucien tracks her down…and promptly disappears. When his body turns up on tribal lands, it’s up to Calvin to investigate. Starting with Selena.
And when one of Lucien’s acolytes is killed, traces of dark magic and cryptic warnings from the spirits send Selena and Calvin in a race against time — before a too-close-for-comfort evil cuts her own life short.
A Murder of Principal by Saralyn Richard:
When a maverick principal comes in with a student-centered agenda, there’s no more business as usual at Lincoln High School. And killing the principal is just the beginning…
When someone sets fire to Lincoln High and kills the new principal, chaos threatens to overtake the urban school. Assistant Principal Sally Pearce, originally hired to help the deceased principal revamp the culture, vows to carry on the mission. In so doing, she locks horns with fellow assistant principal, Wally Welburton, and gets caught up in gang threats, racial tensions, grievances, sexual harassment complaints, and murder.
Sally never dreamed she’d be faced with solving a mystery and returning the school to order. The odds are against her—a woman in a man’s job, a minority in a tough position. Her strong moral compass and commitment to students bolster her as she meets challenge after challenge. When a second murder happens on campus, Sally realizes she’s trapped in a cycle of violence that must be stopped—now.
Palm Beach Taboo by Tom Turner
There’s a dangerous cult in Palm Beach.
All about philanthropy and altruism, they say. All about sex and money, Crawford and Ott say.
Then there’s a brutal stabbing…make that sex and money and MURDER!
Suspects? Well, there’s a billionaire heiress, an ex-movie star, a former member of Skull and Bones, a Blackwater psychopath…and the bizarre thing, they’re members of the Mensa society!
She Told a Lie by P.D. Workman:
A missing girl.
Her confused family and friends don’t know what to think about her disappearance.
The police will only put so many resources into the search for a missing teen. They don’t have time and money to spend on runaways and voluntaries. But that doesn’t mean no one cares.
Zachary Goldman is on the case, and he is determined to find out what happened to Madison Miller and to bring her home safely.
If she’s still alive, he’s going to find her.
No matter what danger he might face personally.
The Wind in My Heart by Douglas Wynne:
Miles Landry is trying to put violence behind him when he takes up work as a private detective focused on humdrum adultery cases. But when a Tibetan monk hires him to find a missing person, things get weird fast.
Charged with tracking down the reincarnation of a man possessed by a demonic guardian from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Miles is plunged into a world of fortune-tellers, gangsters, and tantric rituals. The year is 1991 and a series of grisly murders has rocked New York City in the run up to a visit from the Dalai Lama.
The police attribute the killings to Chinatown gang warfare. Miles–skeptical of the supernatural–is inclined to agree. But what if the monster he’s hunting is more than a myth?
Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.
It’s time for the next entry in my Fanzine Spotlight project. For more about the Fanzine Spotlight project, go here. You can also check out the other great fanzines featured by clicking here.
Not every worthy project that deserves more exposure is a fanzine. And even though this series focusses on fanzines, I have decided to feature some non-fanzines that deserve a boost as well. So today’s featured not-a-fanzine is the Space Cowboy Books Presents: Simultaneous Times podcast, which for Hugo-purposes counts as a semiprozine, since it’s a paying fiction market.
But whatever category it fits in, it’s a great podcast and I’m not just saying that, because they produced a lovely audio version of one of my stories, “Patient X-5”, last year.
So I’m happy to welcome Jean-Paul Garnier of Space Cowboy Books, a great SFF specialty bookstore in Joshua Tree, California, as well as producer and narrator of the Simultaneous Times podcast.
Tell us about your site or zine.
Space Cowboy Books Presents: Simultaneous Times is actually three different projects that operate under the same name. It started, and continues, as a science fiction anthology podcast (semiprozine) with cast readings and original soundtracks. Then I started our fancast – Simultaneous Times Supplementary Log, which features interviews with the authors and composers of the podcast. Lastly, we also produce a monthly print fanzine newsletter that features interviews with authors and editors, small press new releases, artist spotlights, articles, speculative poetry and more. We have also released an anthology of stories from the podcast called Simultaneous Times Vol.1, with Vol.2 scheduled to be released in spring of 2021.
Who are the people behind your site or zine?
Zara Kand is the co-founder of Space Cowboy Books, she also does all of our visual art, proof-reading and a lot of voice acting. Our music department for the podcasts is: RedBlueBlackSilver, Phog Machine, and Field Collapse. And I (Jean-Paul L. Garnier) serve as the editor of the newsletter, producer of the podcast and voice actor, and anything else that might need to get done. And of course our work would be nothing without all of the wonderful authors that contribute their work and take the time to be interviewed. We are also ever grateful to our audience.
Why did you decide to start your site or zine?
I started the podcasts because I grew up listening to radio dramas, such as X Minus One, and always wanted to produce one of my own. I have a background in audio production and am friends with some amazing composers, so when I re-listened to one of my favorite programs Mind Webs, I said to myself, I’ve got to make a show like this.
The Simultaneous Times Newsletter started when the pandemic lockdowns started. Usually I’m at my bookstore six days a week, and since we specialize in science fiction, most of my conversations center around the genre. Immediately I began to miss the conversations and my customers, so I started the newsletter as a way to stay connected with science fiction fans. Since then it has just grown. But we still give free subscriptions. I thought people would prefer to get a letter in the mail over receiving an email.
What format do you use for your site or zine (blog, e-mail newsletter, PDF zine, paper zine) and why did you choose this format?
Several members of my team, including myself, have a background in radio. When we all started talking about starting a podcast we decided that we wanted to produce the program the way that radio shows were produced in the past. Really take the radio arts approach instead of going with modern trends in podcasting. Since then we’ve even teamed up with the radio station KZZH 96.7 in Northern California, so our program did end up on the air.
The Newsletter is print because I wanted to put something physical in people’s hands, especially during this time of not being able to see each other. That being said, I have started to put the back issues on our website, so the archive is available to everyone.
The fanzine category at the Hugos is one of the oldest, but also the category which consistently gets the lowest number of votes and nominations. So why do you think fanzines and sites are important?
I believe that they are important because they are a gateway into the genre, and one that is not provided by the industry itself. Because it comes from the fans it is trustworthy in ways that commercial interest cannot be. Fanzines tend to be unpaid passion projects, and because of this tend to be run by people who really care and want the genre to stay healthy and to move forward in interesting ways. Also, because there usually isn’t a commercial factor behind the fanzine they can take risks, do things their own way, and move faster than the traditional publishing world. Most of us live for science fiction, for me it is largely that I want to give back to a field that has brought me so much enjoyment over the years.
In the past twenty years, fanzines have increasingly moved online. What do you think the future of fanzines looks like?
I think that because most things have moved online people will eventually get tired of the format and react against it by trying new things, and or doing things the way we used to. We’ve often seen this with nostalgia over which mediums we use to listen to music. Ultimately the content is more important than the medium, but I do worry over the temporary and fragile nature of the internet, one coronal mass ejection and it all gets wiped away. I also think we will see more hybrid formats and mixed media. That being said, any way people can connect and share their passions is a good thing, and we will continue to try and connect with each other regardless of the medium.
The four fan categories of the Hugos (best fanzine, fan writer, fan artist and fancast) tend to get less attention than the fiction and dramatic presentation categories. Are there any awesome fanzines, fancasts, fan writers and fan artists you’d like to recommend?
Oh yes! There are so many great ones I don’t know if I can list them all here. But here’s a short list:
I currently write for https://warpspeedodyssey.com/ which is a relatively new Canadian SF blog run by Steven Morrissette
As I’m sure your readers know http://indiespecfic.blogspot.com/ is a wonderful resource!
http://galacticjourney.org/ is always putting out great content!
And here’s a few others that I have found useful:
https://www.aphelion-webzine.com/
https://www.aphelion-webzine.com/
Where can people find you?
Simultaneous Times Podcast (semiprozine): https://spacecowboybooks.podomatic.com/
Simultaneous Times Supplementary Log (fancast): https://spacecowboybooks.bandcamp.com/album/simultaneous-times-supplementary-log-interviews-with-the-authors-and-musicians
Simultaneous Times Newsletter (fanzine): https://spacecowboybooks.blogspot.com/p/simultaneous-times-newsletter.html
Space Cowboy Books online store: https://bookshop.org/shop/spacecowboybooks%20
Twitter: https://twitter.com/space_books
IG: https://www.instagram.com/spacecowboybooks/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyQwqKhUuhW_s9lDtXnKmsA
Thanks, Jean-Paul, for stopping by and answering my questions.
Do check out Simultaneous Times, cause it’s a great podcast. And should you ever find yourself in Joshua Tree, California, visit Space Cowboy Books in person or check out their online store from anywhere in the world.
***
Do you have a Hugo eligible fanzine or site and want it featured? Contact me or leave a comment.
It’s time for the next entry in my Fanzine Spotlight project. For more about the Fanzine Spotlight project, go here. You can also check out the other great fanzines featured by clicking here.
Today’s featured fanzine is Warp Speed Odyssey, a science fiction review and interview blog.
And now I’d like to welcome Steven Morrissette of Warp Speed Odyssey.
Tell us about your site or zine.
Warp Speed Odyssey is a sci-fi blog that I have started about a year ago to write some book and movie reviews. Soon enough I started meeting some authors that wanted to get involved and some also sent me their books to be reviewed. Rapidly the blog took off and now we have conducted some interviews with authors, reviewed books, and featured many guests that presented their novels.
Who are the people behind your site or zine?
I started by myself slowly but then I met Jean-Paul Garnier from Space Cowboy Books who was of tremendous help and also became the first contributing author, reviewing some books and conducting some interviews for Warp Speed Odyssey. Furthermore, Robin Rose Graves who is a friend of Jean-Paul became the second contributing author submitting book reviews and interviews as well. And Finally, there is my sister Jessica who started translating some of the articles into french.
Why did you decide to start your site or zine?
Initially, I started Warp Speed Odyssey to practice my writing skills by writing about different sci-fi themes and reviews. But soon enough the orientation of the website shifted to become a place where authors could promote their work and get interviewed about their writing journey.
What format do you use for your site or zine (blog, e-mail newsletter, PDF zine, paper zine) and why did you choose this format?
Warp Speed Odyssey is in a blog format. I chose the blog format because it is similar to a magazine but it is online and the cost is relatively low, permitting me to offer free services to authors.
The fanzine category at the Hugos is one of the oldest, but also the category which consistently gets the lowest number of votes and nominations. So why do you think fanzines and sites are important?
I think that fanzines are important because they are a good place for indie authors to promote their books and get them reviewed as well.
In the past twenty years, fanzines have increasingly moved online. What do you think the future of fanzines looks like?
The future of fanzine will probably focus on online platforms because it’s less expansive and easier to reach the audience via social media. But there will always remain those true paper lover readers like me that will buy their physical copy.
The four fan categories of the Hugos (best fanzine, fan writer, fan artist, and fancast) tend to get less attention than the fiction and dramatic presentation categories. Are there any awesome fanzines, fancasts, fan writers, and fan artists you’d like to recommend?
I would like to recommend Nathan Warner a Star Trek fan artist and writer.
http://www.blabberdock.com/home.html
Where can people find you?
You can contact me on the contact page of warpspeedodyssey.com or @OdysseyWarp on Twitter.
Thanks, Steven, for stopping by and answering my questions.
Do check out Warp Speed Odyssey, cause it’s a great blog.
***
Do you have a Hugo eligible fanzine or site and want it featured? Contact me or leave a comment.
It’s time for the next entry in my Fanzine Spotlight project. For more about the Fanzine Spotlight project, go here. You can also check out the other great fanzines featured by clicking here.
Today’s featured fanzine is Runalong the Shelves, an SFF book blog from the UK.
And now I’d like to welcome Womble of Runalong the Shelves.
Tell us about your site or zine.
Runalong The Shelves is now in its fourth year and is very much a book blog with a big focus on reviewing science fiction and fantasy but also interested in horror and the occasional thriller. You may find me interviewing authors on recent works; answering the odd book tag and taking part in a small annual blogger jury award named Subjective Chaos Kind of Award which is a lot of fun debating books with different bloggers. I try to be diverse both in the types of books I review but also increasingly promoting the diverse voices creating them which I think is a wonderful move for our genre (and way overdue)
We joke on twitter about Book Tempting but I really really like trying to find a book for the right reader. Knowing someone enjoyed a recommendation is one the best things ever!
Who are the people behind your site or zine?
Its’s just me! Forty something British human who for complex reasons these days is better known as Womble on the internet
Why did you decide to start your site or zine?
I’ve loved reading for a long time and in the old days of forums would often see me in the Books section talking and recommending books. Another forum member Dave Probert invited me to their own website GeekPlanetOnline to join a panel of reviewers and when that went on indefinite hiatus I thought it may be time to start my own and have a bit more choice on what types of stories I could review as well.
What format do you use for your site or zine (blog, e-mail newsletter, PDF zine, paper zine) and why did you choose this format?
I went with blog – I’m most familiar with reading these as I’ve grown up and I like the way the format can change. I can add new features when I wish and these days quite easy to update not just on PCs but also phones and tablets. I also think they’re an easy way to cross the borders plus work well with social media sharing.
The fanzine category at the Hugos is one of the oldest, but also the category which consistently gets the lowest number of votes and nominations. So why do you think fanzines and sites are important?
Fifty years ago you probably could read all the SF books and short stories published in a year if you had a decent amount of time. Now that number is in the thousands each year and I think blogs help collate what is out there for readers in ways algorithms just cannot. You can find specialist blogs in your favourite sub genre be it horror or crime or 1930’s crime tales. We help show a spotlight on books and sometimes they may not be the ones with the largest marketing budgets. If you find a blogger who you know has similar tastes to yours its a useful way to find new stories that you may not see in your local bookshop’s main pages. The indie publishing system is now very established and contains some excellent material that’s easy to miss if you say just went to your local Waterstones or Barnes & Noble. Blogging can give those stories plus the wider self published market a little nudge to readers
In the past twenty years, fanzines have increasingly moved online. What do you think the future of fanzines looks like?
The format will change with the technology. Youtube and podcasts are increasingly easier and more affordable for people to use and I’m sure somewhere someone is creating an unusual TikTok. I do wonder if more collaborative efforts are the way forward as well – taking the strain off individual bloggers but also allowing a wider ethos of what a site/zine is looking for/shouting about. Possibly more like Geek Syndicate that are truly multi-media genre sites working in blog, podcast and youtube.
I also am finding increasingly more contact with authors from all over the world not just the US/UK centric ones we know and love. Over the next decade I think this could make reading experiences even more universal!
The four fan categories of the Hugos (best fanzine, fan writer, fan artist and fancast) tend to get less attention than the fiction and dramatic presentation categories. Are there any awesome fanzines, fancasts, fan writers and fan artists you’d like to recommend?
Apart from yourself!
Alasdair Stuart is one of my go to writers and their insights are brilliant. Blog wise I recommend The MiddleShelf, There’s Always Room for One More, Journey Planet, Skiffy & Fanty, Nerds of a Feather, Geek Syndicate and on Booktube Claire Rousseau, Kitty G and Kalanadi
Where can people find you?
Apart from the blog you usually can find me in twitter as @runalongwomble and on Sundays I have a thread where we all talk about what we are currently reading which is a lot of fun. Please join in.
Thanks, Womble, for stopping by and answering my questions.
Do check out Runalong the Shelves, cause it’s a great blog and also follow Womble on Twitter, so he can match you up with books you’ll love.
***
Do you have a Hugo eligible fanzine or site and want it featured? Contact me or leave a comment.
Okay, so it looks as if I am doing episode by episode reviews of WandaVision, Marvel’s new sitcom parody/Dickian faux reality paranoia. Previous installments (well, just one) may be found here. Also, may I remind you that Disney is still not paying Alan Dean Foster and others.
But before I get to the review, I also want to point out that I have another article up at Galactic Journey. This one is a double review of the 1965 Edgar Wallace movie The Sinister Monk and the 1966 sword and planet (though that term wasn’t in use yet) novel The Sword of Lankor by Howard L. Cory a.k.a. Jack Owen and Julie Ann Jardine.
Warning: Spoilers behind the cut! Continue reading
It’s time for the next entry in my Fanzine Spotlight project. For more about the Fanzine Spotlight project, go here. You can also check out the other great fanzines featured by clicking here.
Today’s featured fanzine is the Hugo Book Club Blog, which just missed the Hugo ballot last year.
So I’m thrilled to welcome Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk of the Hugo Book Club Blog.
Tell us about your site or zine.
The Hugo Book Club Blog is an Edmonton-based amateur publication that tries to offer a positive contribution to discussion of Hugo Awards, Hugo Award nominations, and other related science fiction and fantasy topics.
Although it started out as a private project with an intended audience of a small group of friends, we’ve enjoyed the feedback we’ve heard from a wide variety of members of the SFF fandom community.
Who are the people behind your site or zine?
The blog is maintained by Olav Rokne and Amanda Wakaruk, with contributions from members of the book club including Brian Gooyers, Marshall Boyd, Christy Foley, Kateryna Barnes, Dan Calder, Earl Prusak and Kennith Stasiuk. The Twitter account is mostly Olav.
Blog posts often are based on a first draft that is written collaboratively by Amanda and Olav. These drafts are then circulated to members of the group for feedback and edits. Some posts are drafted by other members of the group, but there is always an effort to build consensus before posting. When the group has strong disagreements about a book, it is our tradition that the person who enjoyed the book most writes the first draft.
Why did you decide to start your site or zine?
Approximately six years ago, a small group of us started up a book club to read all the Hugo-shortlisted novels on the ballot that year, prior to the voting deadline.
(Interestingly, the first book we read as a book club was Markos Kloos’ Lines of Departure, which was pulled from the ballot.)
The group still meets between the Hugo voting cycle to discuss SFF novels that we think might end up on the subsequent year’s ballot, or what might deserve nominations. This month, we’re discussing Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi.
The blog was originally intended for book club members, as a way to share ideas, and a place to post the schedule of book club meetings.
What format do you use for your site or zine (blog, e-mail newsletter, PDF zine, paper zine) and why did you choose this format?
We currently have the blog on a Blogger site “Hugoclub.blogspot.ca.” It was chosen because it was a simple, content-first platform. But we’re starting to outgrow it and have been tentatively looking at more versatile content-management tools.
(A recent revision to the look of the site was prompted by complaints that the old version presented legibility issues.)
The fanzine category at the Hugos is one of the oldest, but also the category which consistently gets the lowest number of votes and nominations. So why do you think fanzines and sites are important?
Because the Hugo Awards are a largely democratic institution, the quality of the awards depends on the participation of an informed and engaged voter base.
Fan sites, fan writing, and fancasts are essential to the democratic nature of these awards, in the same way that journalism that includes informed and engaged political discourse are essential to democracy writ large.
But taken from another angle, if you go back and read fanzines that were published decades ago (which are archived at the remarkable site Fanac.org), you can see how people built a community using mimeographs, letraset, and postage.
It’s a community filled with quirky traditions, but one of those traditions going back a very long way is an ethos of welcoming the square pegs that haven’t found their place in a world full of round holes.
Online content distribution has made it easier to deliver community-building content than it was in the days of physical fanzines, but the premise and the motivations remain the same. Fanzines and fan writing remain an integral part of SFF fandom as a movement.
In the past twenty years, fanzines have increasingly moved online. What do you think the future of fanzines looks like?
Our book club includes librarians and former journalists, and even we are surprised by some of the changes in publishing technology. Who knows what will happen next? Perhaps blockchain-mediated identity verification will drive a new revolution in trustworthy news sources, and we’ll end up singing kumbaya in a unified and peaceful version of fandom. Perhaps the next generation of fans will be dealing with ink-and-paper fanzines delivered by a Kevin-Costner-on-horseback-based mail system. Or perhaps the singularity will happen and every fanzine that could ever exist will be beamed straight into your neuro-cortex.
In the short term, the proliferation of online fanzines and blogging has created a golden age for fan writing, but by bringing people together, it has also created new opportunities for ostracization, cliques, and social fractures in the community. This is a global village, but villages are places of petty rivalries, rumourmongers, and internecine conflicts.
What we’d foresee is a further balkanization of fandom. Which isn’t all bad; it will mean you’re more easily able to find the genre fiction, community, and the types of discussion you are interested in, but it’s also probable that there will be accelerating animosity and strife.
In older fanzines, you see many of the same lines of conflict you see today in the science fiction community. For example in 1946, conservative fan Ben Singer and leftist Chan Davis butted heads over several of the same issues that drove some of the more recent turmoil in fandom between right and left. When these conversations took place over months, using paper fanzines as the forums, it forced the interlocutors to think a bit longer before they sent anything.
The speed of modern technology accelerates the cycle of rhetorical combat, and because modern technology is more democratic it also platforms more radical voices. This all leads to a higher level of divisiveness. Sadly, barring any changes to technology this trend seems likely to continue.
The four fan categories of the Hugos (best fanzine, fan writer, fan artist and fancast) tend to get less attention than the fiction and dramatic presentation categories. Do you have any recommendations for any of the fan categories?
One of our favourite annual traditions with the blog is that each year, we highlight a fan writer who has never appeared on the Hugo ballot that we believe deserves to be recognized. Earlier this year, we posted a profile on Adri Joy, who’s one of the key people at the fanzine Nerds Of A Feather, and has tackled some issues of social justice with nuance and insight. So she’d probably have to be our first recommendation for people to nominate in the fan categories.
In previous years, we’ve profiled Alasdair Stuart and Paul Weimer, both of whom continue to publish excellent critical essays and genre musings.
Someone who doesn’t get the attention he deserves is James W. Harris, who blogs at classicsofsciencefiction.com. He’s been building a database of “Best Science Fiction” lists, and correlating and comparing how often various titles appear, and it’s a pretty interesting project. His blog does focus on a lot of older stories, but he’s not dismissive of the current trends, or of the new crop of younger authors.
In terms of fancasts, Hugo Girl is a relatively new podcast that’s doing excellent work examining Hugo-winning novels from a feminist perspective. The hosts are funny, quippy, and they do their homework. It’s a very good listen.
We’d also recommend the podcast Métis In Space, which focuses on an Indigenous perspective to science fiction and fantasy writ large. They don’t update very often, but they’ve got a lot of great insights when they do put out an episode.
For fan artist, both Andy Everson (K’ómoks) and Aaron Paquette (Cree, Métis) bridging their respective heritages and cultural knowledges with their love for Star Wars is a big hit with us. Another person whose science fiction and fantasy fan art that we enjoy is Edinburgh-based tattoo artist Courtenay Dickson whose work varies from Pokémon, Miyazaki films, Star Wars, Mars Attacks, Animal Crossing and more.
Where can people find you?
The best place to find us is on Twitter at @Hugo_Book_Club. And of course, the blog itself! http://hugoclub.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Olav and Amanda, for stopping by and answering my questions.
Do check out the Hugo Book Club Blog, cause it’s a great site.
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Do you have a Hugo eligible fanzine or site and want it featured? Contact me or leave a comment.
It’s the first new release announcement of 2021. This one is for two new novelettes in my Kurval sword and sorcery series.
To recap, during the 2020 July short story challenge, I had an idea for a sword and sorcery story that would not fit into my established Thurvok sword and sorcery series, so I created a new character named Kurval, barbarian usurper turned King of Azakoria. Kurval was initially intended to be a one-off character. However, I like him and he allows me to tell stories that just don’t fit Thurvok and his friends, so it was obvious that he would show up again.
Indeed, the first of the two new Kurval stories was initially supposed to be Thurvok’s origin stories (for while Thurvok’s companions Meldom, Sharenna and Lysha have origin stories, Thurvok himself doesn’t have one yet). However, there was just one problem. The tale of the young captain of the royal guard of a lecherous king who is ordered to execute a young woman, victim of said king’s lechery, and doesn’t want to do it was simply too grim for Thurvok who is a more lighthearted character. And so I thought, “Why don’t I make it Kurval’s origin story instead? After all, we know that he wasn’t born a king.”
The other spark of inspiration for what would eventually become The Plains of Shadow was a piece of fantasy art, namely this image of a warrior confronting a smoke monster by Nele Diehl. At that moment, something clicked and the story largely wrote itself after that.
So prepare to accompany Kurval, as he confronts the dark gods and meets his destiny upon the…
The Plains of Shadow
Long before Kurval became King of Azakoria, he was a guard captain in service to the tyrannical King Talgat of the land Temirzhan beyond the sea.
One day, Talgat orders Kurval to escort the condemned witch Aelisia to the Plains of Shadow and behead her, so her blood may feed the dark gods who dwell there.
However, Kurval does not want to execute the sentence, once he learns that Aelisia is innocent of the crimes of which she has been accused.
But if he lets Aelisia go free, Kurval will not only have to face the wrath of Talgat, but also the fury of the dark gods who dwell upon the Plains of Shadow.
This is a novelette of 9800 words or approx. 33 print pages in the Kurval sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.
More information.
Length: 9800 words
List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP
Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, Vivlio, 24symbols and XinXii.
Whereas The Plains of Shadow is a prequel, Worm Fodder, the second new Kurval story, is set after King’s Justice. Several characters from King’s Justice reappear such as Kurval’s vizier and chief councillor Izgomir and the young Count Ragur Falgune. Ragur’s bride, now wife Nelaira does not appear in person, though she is mentioned. And Ragur and Nelaira have good news.
In Worm Fodder, Kurval finds himself in a situation – slay a monster and rescue the damsel-in-distress about to be sacrificed to said monster – that Thurvok and his friends repeatedly dealt with as well, most notably in most notably in The Cave of the Dragon and The Temple of the Snake God.
However, with Kurval the basic plot plays out quite differently, because Kurval can do more than just slay the monster and rescue the girl. For as King of Azakoria, Kurval also uses his authority to outlaw human sacrifice and quite literally lay down the law to those who’d sacrifice a young woman to a worm monster.
So accompany Kurval as he is about to become…
Worm Fodder
After a hunt, King Kurval of Azakoria and his entourage make camp at the village of Ogwall. However, something is not right in the village. All men of fighting age are away at a mysterious ritual and the remaining villagers are clearly afraid of something.
Kurval investigates and learns that the mysterious ritual in the woods involves sacrificing the young Celisa to the dread worm Thibunoth.
Kurval is furious, for he outlawed human sacrifice in the kingdom of Azakoria. And so he sets out to save Celisa, deal with the monster and punish those who would violate the ban on human sacrifice.
This is a novelette of 9600 words or approx. 32 print pages in the Kurval sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.
More information.
Length: 9600 words
List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP
Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, Vivlio, 24symbols and XinXii.
I have ideas for more Kurval stories, so you’ll see him again. As for the dark gods from the Plains of Shadow – well, they’ve tasted Kurval’s blood and they’re nothing, if not persistent, so they’ll eventually turn up again as well.
It’s time for the next entry in my Fanzine Spotlight project. For more about the Fanzine Spotlight project, go here. You can also check out the other great fanzines featured by clicking here.
Today’s featured fanzine is the four-time Hugo finalist for Best Fanzine nerds of a feather, flock together.
And now I’d like to welcome The G., Vance K., Joe Sherry and Adri Joy of nerds of a feather, flock together.
Tell us about your site or zine.
Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together is a review and commentary site that covers a broad array of fandom areas and topics. Although we focus mainly on SFF books, we also cover short fiction, comics, video games, TV, and contemporary SFF, horror, and cult movies.
In addition to reviews and interviews, we have recurring series, such as “6 Books with…,” in which authors share six books that are and have been meaningful to them, “New Books Spotlight,” where we highlight upcoming releases we’re excited about, and “Thursday Morning Superhero,” which looks at new and upcoming comics and comic-adjacent topics/adaptations, etc. We’ve also had the opportunity to provide our contributors a platform to publish thoughtful deep-dives into specific topic areas or works, such as ecospeculation, the superhero zeitgeist, horror, and the evergreen, ever-expanding Star Wars universe.
For the past several years, we’ve also tackled a larger, themed topic area. In 2020, we launched Nerds on Tour — a look at fiction, movies, and other content from outside the traditional United States-Canada-Western Europe focus area. Past projects include Feminist Futures, The Hugo Initiative, Dystopian Visions, and Cyberpunk Revisited.
We launched in 2012, and have had a not-inconsiderable cast of contributors in that time. Different writers cover different topic areas and interests, so types of coverage may wax or wane, but what brings us all together is a love and passion for all things nerdy, and respect for each other’s viewpoints and contributions.
Who are the people behind your site or zine?
The site’s founder The G started the site in 2012 with co-editor Vance K, and we’ve added co-editors Joe Sherry and Adri Joy in the last few years. In addition to the editors, who also contribute content, our current team of writers includes Aidan Moher, Andrea Johnson, Chloe N. Clark, Dean E. S. Richard, Mikey, Paul Weimer, Phoebe, Sean Dowie, Shana DuBois, and Spacefaring Kitten.
Why did you decide to start your site or zine?
At the time, I was reading a lot of SF/F and – being an opinionated person – felt the need to blast those opinions out into the ether. But I also didn’t think running a blog on my own sounded like as much fun as running one with other people. So I asked Vance if he wanted to start one with me (it didn’t take him long to say yes). After that we gradually added more people – some we knew personally, and others we met online. — The G, founder
G and I were next door neighbors in Los Angeles for about three years — both transplants from places with robust and storied BBQ traditions. There was a lot of grilling in our shared courtyard as a result, and over the course of many beers and cooked meats, we talked a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. After we’d both moved to new spots, he got the idea for a blog, and I think the night he reached out about it, I had just watched a deeply odd French psychological horror movie, and I was like, “I know just what to write about.” — Vance K
What format do you use for your site or zine (blog, e-mail newsletter, PDF zine, paper zine) and why did you choose this format?
It’s a blog. In the long-long ago of 2012, blogs were all the rage. And it seems like it’s still an effective medium for collaboration, shared access across our entire team, and as a way to get daily content out. We have added a newsletter, which Adri (sporadically) manages.
The fanzine category at the Hugos is one of the oldest, but also the category which consistently gets the lowest number of votes and nominations. So why do you think fanzines and sites are important?
These types of platforms — going way, way back to mimeographed zines and including things that became iconic publications like Famous Monsters of Filmland or Locus — have always been about fans being able to share things that they love, and that speak to them, and to find others like them. Beyond our team of writers and contributors, each of us involved in Nerds of a Feather have expanded our relationships online and met new people — other fans, other creators — that we never would have found without it.
Even though the form of fanzines have changed over the decades, the core purpose has remained consistent: this is a space for fans to talk to each other about science fiction and fantasy, a space where fans can shape the conversation of the genre.
Plus, it’s really nice to have a platform where smart, passionate people can share thoughtful, in-depth looks at media that you love and respond to, and shine a new light on it.
In the past twenty years, fanzines have increasingly moved online. What do you think the future of fanzines looks like?
Nerds of a Feather has always been a website and over the past few years we’ve been proud to share our community with other sites full of thoughtful, engaging analysis like Lady Business, The Book Smugglers, SF Bluestocking, Galactic Journey and Quick Sip Reviews, as well as awesome print fanzines like Journey Planet and Banana Wings. For many people – including some of our editors – the online community is the main way we engage with fandom and fan topics, and although social media has changed the blogging landscape significantly since the heyday of Livejournal and the like, it feels like there will always be a space for curated long form fan writing, and online fanzines are the natural fit to fill that gap.
That said, there’s no reason that the ease of creating and sharing digital content should mean an end to print fanzines. In fact, it’s interesting to see the ways in which online fan cultures are returning to physical products in other areas, like the popularity of zines which collect fanart and fanfiction for specific ships or topics, which are crowdfunded and volunteer-created and then shipped to fans all over the world. While that’s a different type of fanwork to the Hugo fanzine category, it’s clear that online and physical media are going to keep shaping each other when it comes to fan engagement, and fanzines are a big part of that.
The four fan categories of the Hugos (best fanzine, fan writer, fan artist and fancast) tend to get less attention than the fiction and dramatic presentation categories. Do you have any recommendations for any of the fan categories?
Adri: As well as the zines mentioned above, I always like to shout out The Quiet Pond, run by CW (https://thequietpond.com/), which is fanzine eligible. It’s a SFF and YA blog which runs lots of interesting news and reviews, and what makes it unique are the graphics and story snippets which are all about the animal residents of the Pond, including an axolotl called Xiaolong, Cuddle the otter, Sprout the sparrow and lots of others.
Fan writers I’ve been particularly impressed by this year – at least, the ones who don’t write for Nerds of a Feather – include Stitch of Stitch’s Media Mix (https://stitchmediamix.com/), who has done fantastic work on the intersection of fandom and race, and Jeannette Ng’s pieces on Medium (https://medium.com/@nettlefish), especially the ones diving into the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe, and her takes on the complexities of cultural appropriation and authenticity and how they affect writers of colour.
Also, I’m a huge fan of Booktube, which saw its first nominee in Fancast with Claire Rousseau last year, and I think there’s loads being developed in that community which deserves wider recognition. A few of my other favourite channels are Noria Reads/Chronicles of Noria (https://www.youtube.com/user/sitenoebulu), Kalanadi (https://www.youtube.com/user/kalanadi), My Name is Marines (https://www.youtube.com/c/mynameismarines) and Onyx Pages (https://www.youtube.com/c/ONYXPages) – but there’s tons out there to discover. On the podcast front, I think The Fantasy Inn (https://thefantasyinn.com/category/podcast/) had some great content last year (as well as being a cool fanzine too!) and I’m always a fan of Skiffy and Fanty (https://skiffyandfanty.com/).
Joe: Adri mentioned a number of really great ones, but anyone interested in the history of science fiction and fantasy, and in the Hugo Awards in particular, should really check out both Hugo, Girl and Hugos There – two podcasts reading through each of the Hugo Award winners for Best Novel.
Where can people find you?
Nerds of a Feather can be found at www.nerds-feather.com. Each of us are also on twitter. Links to the twitter accounts for each of our writers can be found on the sidebar at Nerds of a Feather, but if you want quick links to the editorial twitter handles we can be found right here:
Thank you, Adri, Joe, Vance and the G., for stopping by and answering my questions.
Do check out nerds of a feather, flock together, cause it’s a great site. Also check out their 2021 eligibility post.
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Do you have a Hugo eligible fanzine or site and want it featured? Contact me or leave a comment.
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