World Fantasy Award winning and bestselling author Robert McCammon’s THE BORDER, a novel reminiscent of SWAN SONG and STINGER, set two years after Earth was caught in the middle of a vicious and long-standing war between two alien civilizations and hideously altered, about a teenage boy who may be the key to preserving humanity, to Bill Schafer at Subterranean Press, at auction, for publication in Spring 2015, by Cameron McClure.
Congratulations to Robert Jackson Bennett on American Elsewhere winning the Shirley Jackson Award!
Some places are too good to be true. Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map. In that town, there are quiet streets lined with pretty houses, houses that conceal the strangest things. After a couple years of hard traveling, ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother’s home in Wink, New Mexico. And the closer Mona gets to her mother’s past, the more she understands that the people of Wink are very, very different …
Michael Fletcher’s BEYOND REDEMPTION, a fantasy set in a world where belief defines reality and delusions are the often the strongest beliefs, focusing on a powerful sociopath looking to create a new God and a group of deranged thieves intent on using this new deity for their own purposes, to David Pomerico at Harper Voyager, in his first buy for the imprint, by Cameron McClure.
Elisha, a barber-surgeon from the poorest streets of benighted fourteenth-century London, has come a long way from home. He was always skilled at his work—but skill alone could not protect him, on the day that disaster left his family ruined and Elisha himself wrongly accused of murder. With no way out, Elisha accepted the offer of Lucius, a haughty physician, to avoid a trial by serving under Lucius as a battle surgeon of the king’s army at the front lines of an unjust war. Continue reading »
We live in a world that’s very different from the one in which Emily Post came of age. Many of us who are nice (but who also sometimes say “f*ck”) are frequently at a loss for guidelines about how to be a good person who deals effectively with the increasing onslaught of rudeness we all encounter.
To lead us out of the miasma of modern mannerlessness, science-based and bitingly funny syndicated advice columnist Amy Alkon rips the doily off the manners genre and gives us a new set of rules for our twenty-first century lives.
With wit, style, and a dash of snark, Alkon explains that we now live in societies too big for our brains, lacking the constraints on bad behavior that we had in the small bands we evolved in. Alkon shows us how we can reimpose those constraints, how we can avoid being one of the rude, and how to stand up to those who are.
Russian rights to Karl Schroeder’s LOCKSTEP, to AST, by Alexander Korzhenevski in association with Cameron McClure.
Dutch rights to Anne Bishop’s first two novels in the Others series, WRITTEN IN RED and MURDER OF CROWS, to De Fontein by Moa-Lisa Björk at the Lennart Sane Agency in association with Jennifer Jackson.
French rights to Nnedi Okorafor’s KABU KABU, the short story collection, to Patrick Dechesne at Les Editions de l’Instant, by Pierre Corman at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Cameron McClure.
Romanian rights to Jim Butcher’s STORM FRONT, FOOL MOON, GRAVE PERIL and SUMMER KNIGHT, the first four books in the Dresden Files series, to Hipgnosis Vision SRL, by Nada Cipranic at Prava I Prevodi, in association with Jennifer Jackson.
On behalf of Prime Books, audio rights for Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter by Richard Parks, Heart of Iron by Ekaterina Sedia, the Ware Tetralogy by Rudy Rucker and 12 additional titles to Steve Feldberg at Audible by Jennifer Jackson.
Jon McGoran’s DRIFT, DEADOUT, and DRYLINE, first three books in the Doyle Carrick series, to Steve Feldberg at Audible, in a three-book deal, by Cameron McClure on behalf of Stacia Decker.
Audio rights to Edgar and Shirley Jackson Award winning author Robert Jackson Bennett’s CITY OF BLADES, the sequel to CITY OF STAIRS, to Brian Sweany at Recorded Books, in a two book deal, by Cameron McClure.
Wall Street Journal: Ms. Alkon delivers sound advice on navigating social-networking sites (she calls them “giant parasites targeting your personal information like tapeworms waiting for a move-in special on your large intestine.”), on observing email etiquette and on texting at the dinner table: “If you’re going to invite somebody to dinner and ignore them, at least have the decency to get married first and build up years of bitterness and resentment.”
Publishers Weekly: Bennett (American Elsewhere) ventures into secondary-world fantasy in this action-packed, occasionally numinous, noir-like novel, which combines metaphysical and geopolitical observations. The city of Bulikov, once the sacred seat of a brutal, miracle-fueled empire, now stagnates under the administration of its former colony Saypur, which has become a technology-driven superpower. Exiled operative Ashara Komayd is the privileged great-granddaughter of the last Kaj of Saypur, the man who killed the Divinities, thereby both literally and politically destabilizing an entire continent. While investigating the politically inflammatory murder of a Saypuri professor who was studying Bulikov’s censored history, she finds disquieting evidence that some Divinities—and their legacy—may yet survive. Bennett largely sidesteps questions of colonialism and cultural appropriation in his tightly paced mystery, but supporting characters like Ashara’s indestructible aide, Sigrud, and conflicted ex-lover Vohannes Votrov flesh out the otherwise narrowly focused setting. The open ending promises a sequel.
L.A. Times: Out this week from St. Martin’s Griffin, the book breezy and funny, with the sort of joking modernity you’d suspect of an advice columnist who, when asked whether it’s OK to pet on the first date, first responds, “Your dog, or your girlfriend?” – only to quip, “I’m a fan of sex on the first date, actually.” Miss Manners, she ain’t.
She is, though, endlessly engaging.
Read more about Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck at the L.A. Times.