Jul 312014
 

a pair of black ear budsHugo Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal’s OF NOBLE FAMILY, STAGECRAFT, and GHOST TALKERS #1, to Steve Feldberg at Audible, in a three-book deal, by Jennifer Jackson.

World Fantasy Award winning and bestselling author Robert McCammon’s THE BORDER, about the teen-aged boy who may be the key to saving our way of life after Earth is caught on the border of a vicious and long-standing war between two alien civilizations, to Steve Feldberg at Audible, by Cameron McClure.

Sci-fi humorist Robert Sheckley’s mix of backlist novels, including favorites like CROMPTON DIVIDED and THE 10TH VICTIM, to Steve Feldberg at Audible, in a six-book deal, by Cameron McClure.

Jul 282014
 

Cover for Maplecroft by Cherie Priest. A woman's whose blond hair is in a proper Victorian updo has her back to us as she stands between two forebodingly lit marble columns. She is wearing a fancy blue Victorian dress. In her left hand, held slightly behind her, she holds a bloody ax.Publishers Weekly: Lizbeth “Lizzie” Andrew Borden wields her axe against Lovecraftian entities in this terrifying and powerful series launch by fan favorite Priest (the Clockwork Century series). Two years after Lizzie infamously slew her mother and stepfather, she and her consumptive, scholarly older sister, Emma, remain in their hometown of Fall River, Mass., in an isolated and modified home called Maplecroft. Lizzie spends countless hours in her basement laboratory, trying to understand what transformed the Bordens into horrifying creatures, while protecting and caring for Emma and conducting a love affair with actress Nance O’Neil. Then Emma, who poses as “Dr. E.A. Jackson” to contribute to the men-only world of science, sends a biological sample to colleague Phillip Zollicoffer at Miskatonic University, with terrible consequences. Readers will be intrigued by the weird monsters and 19th-century science, but the story is really carried by the characters’ emotional dynamics, especially those between the Borden sisters.

Jul 222014
 

lake-lastplanetoheavenPublishers Weekly: The prolific Lake’s death in 2014, after a long, harrowing, and very public battle with cancer, gives extra weight to these 32 epitaphs. Lake’s command of language is strong and sincere, and his stories of everyday heartaches, filled with secret fears and self-delusion, whisk readers from inner geographies of mind to limitless gulfs of space. Lake’s characters emotionally embody the doomed heroism of Nordic gods sneering at grim fates, finding bittersweet redemption in dark byways of human ignorance. Reality is shattered when an alien controls a hardened mercenary’s dreams in the darkly romantic “Last Plane to Heaven: A Love Story.” Cynical humor greets oblivion in “The Speed of Time.” In surprisingly intelligent space opera (“Permanent Fatal Errors”) and a visit to the City Imperishable (“Promises”), revelations eschew oversentimentality for moral complexity. “Such Bright and Risen Madness in Our Names” injects pathos into the Cthulhu mythos, questioning identity and raising hackles. Malevolent faeries face metaphysical annihilation in a dying young woman’s cancer cells in “Her Fingers Like Whips, Her Eyes Like Razors.” And in “The Cancer Catechism,” Lake discovers faith in the inevitability of death. As he states, “In the end, words are all that survive us”; his fans and friends may find some comfort in the hope that his words will live on forever.

Jul 222014
 

bear-one-eyedjackThe One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King: personifications of the city of Las Vegas—its history, mystery, mystical power, and heart…

When the Suicide King vanishes—possibly killed—in the middle of a magic-rights turf war started by the avatars of Los Angeles, a notorious fictional assassin, and the mutilated ghost of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel—his partner, the One-Eyed Jack, must seek the aid of a bizarre band of legendary and undead allies: the ghosts of Doc Holliday and John Henry the steel-driving man; the echoes of several imaginary super spies, decades displaced in time; and a vampire named Tribute, who bears a strikingresemblance to a certain long-lost icon of popular music.

All stories are true, but some stories are truer than others.

Jul 182014
 

Cover for Martha Wells' Stories of the Raksura volume 1: The Falling World and the Tale of Indigo and Cloud. A humanoid creature with reptilian scales and large feathered/leather wings soars in the foreground, with a flying sailing ship in the background.Publishers Weekly: Two novellas and two short stories expand the setting of Wells’s dreamlike fantasy novels. In “The Falling World,” a vanished envoy triggers a diplomatic crisis between two courts, and investigation reveals a long-forgotten tragedy. “The Tale of Indigo and Cloud” sets two queens against each other, with an unhappy consort as the prize. Familiar characters appear in “The Forest Boy,” a prequel to The Cloud Roads that examines a brief encounter between Moon and forest dwellers, and “Adaptation,” in which Chime deals with an unwanted transformation and its disquieting implications. Wells is adept at suggesting a long, complex history for her world with economy, and, while her protagonists may not be human as we understand it, they are definitely people, sympathetic figures constrained but not defeated by their environments. Longtime fans and new readers alike will enjoy Wells’s deft touch with characterization and the fantastic.

Jul 152014
 

Cover for Herb of Grace by Adina Senft. A young, white, blond, Amish woman kneels in the foreground, holding a watering can and tending to her herb garden. The background is a pleasant Amish farm.Romantic Times: Senft is a talented author and her research on various herbs is a welcome surprise to readers. The story incorporates facts about herbs, what each of them can be used for and what will happen if used incorrectly. This sweet romance has a believable storyline with a lot of heart.

Amish widow Sarah Yoder knows her herbs, but she’s hesitant to work with the local Amish. Instead, she wants to concentrate on her two sons, whom she fears will soon leave the nest and leave her all alone. Henry Byler is back in Willow Creek only because he’s inherited the family farm. He left the Amish a long time ago. Should he stay in town and try to make a living with his pottery, or sell the property and go back to the world he’s been living in? Sarah and Henry share a common bond and help each other get over their fears, but will it be enough for them to see the true path God has planned for them?

Jul 092014
 

Cover for Skin Game by Jim Butcher. Our hero stands in the middle, in his classic black trenchcoat and black cowboy hat, all action stance as he shoots a gun to the left, his wizard's staff in his right hand. The background is a bank vault, burning money floating around, the whole scene awash in a fiery light.Jim Butcher’s SKIN GAME continues to hit the bestseller lists!

In its 5th week on the New York Times Hardcover Bestseller List, SKIN GAME comes in at #18,  moving to the extended list.

SKIN GAME is on the USA Today Bestseller List for a 5th week as well, this time at #128.

On the Publishers Weekly Hardcover Bestseller List for a 4th week, SKIN GAME is now at #17.

Jun 302014
 

A picture of Earth from space.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.

Jun 302014
 

a pair of black ear budsOn 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.