Oct 262023
 

Publishers Weekly: Drawing heavily from Trinidadian folklore, Palumbo packs her debut collection of 12 uncanny shorts with love, longing, and death. A recurring motif is a woman mourning a life with a lover that she has to leave, as in “The Pull of the Herd,” in which the shape-shifting protagonist has left her herd of doe to live as a human with her mate, but is called back to the wilderness by her doeskin. In “Apolepisi: A De-scaling,” the mermaid protagonist’s lover transforms from mermaid to human. At times these repeating plots can feel a bit redundant, though the stories are beautifully told. The collection really solidifies in its latter half, in which the tales move from Canadian settings to the Caribbean and draw a deeper influence from local legends. The standout closer, “Douen,” is a harrowing yet touching account of a dead child who just wants her mother to see her again, written entirely in dialect (“Mama wipe she own tears and stop crying den. But she smile was spoil”). Palumbo proves masterful at taking material from folklore and making it personal, letting those things that are meant to terrify speak for themselves. Readers are sure to be impressed.

Oct 242023
 

Tor.com: Brilliant wonderful amazing fantasy novel, and the second fantasy novel I have read this year (or ever) featuring UBI. The experience of reading The Saint of Bright Doors is a little like having a mild fever—it’s the atmosphere of the book and the way it makes you feel. Everything is slightly too big and too bright, and details keep piling up and slipping out of control, and it’s all stirred together with a dash of Kafka—but in a good way. This is a dense, powerful book with interesting metaphysics and worldbuilding, and very real characters. When I think about it I find myself slipping back into it.

There’s a lot here, and it’s coming from a lot of directions to flow together into a perfectly crafted whole. But when I think about trying to describe it—look, this book contains a support group for people who were almost Chosen Ones, and there are enough of them in the city to help each other recover. And the city—it’s complex and layered like a real place, and this isn’t our world but it has both email and magic. I recommend reading the first chapter, because if you like it, you’ll like all of it. Absolutely worth your time. I expect to see this on awards ballots next year. I very much look forward to reading it again now I know the shape of it and where it was going, because I really couldn’t tell. Stunning. I am still a little stunned by it myself.

Oct 182023
 

THE DEAD TAKE THE A TRAIN by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey makes the Barnes and Noble’s Best Books of 2023 list!

Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority.

Julie is desperate for a quick fix to break the dead-end grind and save her friend. But her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts Sarah – and the entire world – directly in the path of annihilation.

The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Cassandra Khaw’s cosmic horror and Richard Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly.

Oct 032023
 

Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority.

Julie is desperate for a quick fix to break the dead-end grind and save her friend. But her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts Sarah – and the entire world – directly in the path of annihilation.

The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Cassandra Khaw’s cosmic horror and Richard Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly.

Sep 302023
 

a pair of black ear budsAudio rights to Caye Marsh’s novella PEACE IN THE SKY, a mother with amnesia must transport her daughter across a dangerous post-apocalyptic land, while learning her past is not what she thinks it is, to Kim Budnick at Tantor Media, by Katie Shea Boutillier (world English).

Audio rights to William C. Tracy’s FRUITS OF THE GODS, in a land where four seasonal fruits give magic, two sisters find a box with a seed for a fifth seed, and hope to bring harmony to their world, to Kim Budnick at Tantor Media, by Katie Shea Boutillier (world English).

Audio rights to Robin C.M. Duncan’s THE RIGEL REDEMPTION, the third book in Quirk and Moth’s adventure, to Kim Budnick at Tantor Media, by Katie Shea Boutillier (world English).

Audio rights to Cassandra Khaw’s Bram Stoker Award-winning BREAKABLE THINGS, to Kim Budnick at Tantor Media, by Michael Curry.

Audio rights to Alex Bledsoe’s GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT AND OTHER STORIES OF SHARP WIT, CUNNING WOMEN, AND WILD MAGIC, an original collection of short stories about witches, big game hunters, dinosaurs, faery folk, and zombies, to Stefan Rudnicki at Skyboat Media, by Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Sep 202023
 

Locus:  Stepping into The Salt Grows Heavy is like stepping into someone else’s fever dream. This strange, dark, violent, lyrical novella contains some of Khaw’s most brilliant, elegant, haunt­ing writing: ‘‘For all that humanity professes to delighting in its own sophistication, it longs for simplicity, for when the world can be deboned into binaries: darkness and light, death and life, hunter and hunted.’’ The use of language is im­maculate, but that doesn’t detract from the great pacing. The prose is lyrical and flows like water from a broken vase, but that doesn’t diminish the impact of the gore, murders, and scenes of surgery and self-mutilation. The taiga’s cold is brutal, and the small village is a bare-bones place where life seems to barely hold on, but the wealth of details Khaw injected into the narrative rivals that of any 400-page novel. In short, this is a novella that feels much larger than its word count and shows a very talented storyteller at the height of their powers.

Sep 062023
 

Congratulations to DMLA author, Kate Heartfield, for her 2023 Aurora Awards win!

BEST NOVEL

  • The Embroidered Book, Kate Heartfield, HarperVoyager

Also, huge shoutout to Premee Mohamed and C.L. Polk for their nominations!  Premee Mohamed was nominated for best novel with her work, The Void Ascendant, and C.L. Polk for best novelette with Even Though I Knew the End.

Aug 072023
 

A huge congratulations to all our DMLA authors who were named as finalists in this years World Fantasy Awards!

Best Novella
  • Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
Best Short Fiction
  • “The Devil Don’t Come with Horns”, Eugen Bacon (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
  • “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge”, Tananarive Due (Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology)
  • “Douen”, Suzan Palumbo (The Dark 3/22)
  • “The Morning House”, Kate Heartfield (PodCastle 7/22)
Best Collection
  • Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)

Special Award – Non-Professional

  • E. Catherine Tobler, for editing “The Deadlands”
Aug 042023
 

Nebula, Aurora, and World Fantasy award-winning author Premee Mohamed’s ONE MESSAGE REMAINS, a novella about one man’s mission to recover the remains and souls of enemy soldiers after the latest round of a seemingly neverending war, to E. Catherine Tobler at Psychopomp by Michael Curry.

Jul 312023
 

a pair of black ear budsLJ Andrews’s SONG OF SORROWS AND FATE, book nine in The Broken Kingdom series, to Kate Runde at Podium Audio, by Katie Shea Boutillier (world English).

LJ Andrews’s THE EVER KING, to Kate Runde at Podium Audio, in a three-book deal, by Katie Shea Boutillier (world English).

Emily Childs’s THE FASTBALL, book four in The Vegas Kings series, to Kate Runde at Podium Audio, by Katie Shea Boutillier (world English).

Audio rights to Premee Mohamed’s Nebula Award-winning NO ONE WILL COME BACK FOR US, to Jen Albert at ECW Press, by Michael Curry.