Last day to pre-order The Apex Book of World SF

Today is the last day to pre-order this wonderful book at a discounted price of $16.00. Tomorrow, the book will retail for $18.95.

In addition, you can get copies of The Apex Book of World SF and HebrewPunk for $26.00 (a $32.90 value). Get an overload of Lavie Tidhar. Feed your need to read!

Order by clicking the image below.

The Apex Book of World SF

More signing news–Fran Friel & Nate Kenyon

Just got this in from the wonderful Fran Friel, author of Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales.

It’s going to be a gorgeous Halloween in New England, so peek at some of the Fall glory on your way to the Borders Books Spooktacular!

This Saturday, I have the pleasure to be signing with some marvelous authors from the New England Horror Writers Association. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll stop by for some Halloween goodies and a chat (and if it suits your fancy and your budget, a book or two for some juicy Halloween reading). We’re going to have a blast, so please stop by and join us!

BORDERS BOOKS – SHREWSBURY
476 Boston Turnpike (Route 9 West)
Shrewsbury, MA 01545
508-845-8665

NEHW writers joining me:

JEFFREY THOMAS

NATE KENYON

SCOTT GOUDSWARD

JOHN GROVER

PATRICK RAHALL

CARRIE POPP

ROBERT HESKE (event host extraordinaire)

by Jason Sizemore

Harlan County Horrors editor Mari Adkins and book publisher Jason Sizemore will be signing tomorrow at The Moonbow Coffee House in downtown Corbin, KY from 12pm-2pm.

http://www.themoonbowcoffeehouse.org/

Mari and I hope to see you there tomorrow!

Harlan County Horrors pre-release photos

by Jason Sizemore

We had a blast this past Saturday at the Harlan County Horrors pre-release signing held at Morris Book Shop in Lexington, KY.

I wish I’d gotten more photos but here are five nice ones I’d like to share.

Mari Adkins reading from her essay about why she chose to make an anthology about Harlan, KY.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apexdigest/4056298803/

Robby Sparks reading from his story.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apexdigest/4056295001/

Geoffrey Girard reading from his story.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apexdigest/4056290571/

Girard, Maurice Broaddus, Mari Adkins, and TL Trevaskis signing books.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apexdigest/4056285999/

Debbie Kuhn signing with quill and bat’s blood.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apexdigest/4056989482/

Ana, one half of the crafty duo who run The Book Smugglers review, has put up her Halloween Week review of Gene O’Neill’s TASTE OF TENDERLOIN. While Ana herself states that she’s “not a horror fan”, she has great things to say about TENDERLOIN:

“The anthology is quite diverse in its offering with stories that range from the fantastic to the hauntingly realistic but all of them have something in common: the ugly, brutal life in the streets of the district. They are much less frightening than I expected them to be as instead of gritty horror, we are confronted by characters steeped in and suffering the consequences of poverty, crime, homelessness, addiction – which may not be scary but certainly is horrific. The description of their environs is quite vivid, as the characters walk the streets of the ‘Loin, brushing shoulders with petty criminals, prostitutes, drug addicts, war veterans.”

Read the whole review here!

The grand experiment

by Jason Sizemore

Most people reading this blog are probably familiar with Cory Doctorow’s grand experiment that he somehow tricked Publishers Weekly into sponsoring over a twelve month span. If anything else, click through the link to read the article as it’s fairly interesting. In essence, he wants to prove that fans, friends, and free are all he needs for an author to “not lose money.”

I find the whole conceit to be ridiculous. For one, he’s cheating, receiving freebies from voice actors, editors, graphic designers, artists, etc. Secondly, he ignores his own fame, not just within the genre but within pop culture and tech circles. How many authors can offer to write a story for $10,000 and have somebody actually pony up the money? It helps to know multi-millionaire CEOs.

Freebies aren’t bad. It is good to know friends who will help you out. It is good to be a friend who will help others. But, specifically, inside the boundaries of his experiment, it’s flat out cheating.

But why read the personal opinions of a rather unknown small press publisher. Allow Michael Stackpole to give scientific reasons why Doctorow’s experiment is a farce.

Deep down in our tiny, beating hearts, we’ve always known there was something dark and frightening about coal. From the black smog pumped out of smoke stacks, to the grit on your fingers when you pull it out of your Christmas stocking, coal and everything associated with it rubs a black smudge of foreboding across our souls. Now the folks who know better than anyone how dark coal country really is have compiled an array of (supposedly) fictional terrors centered on the region, and Fictionwise–knowing the peril of holding on to such things–has the eBook collection of these sinister tales on sale!

Right now, you can get the eBook of HARLAN COUNTY HORRORS, edited by APEX’s own Mari Adkins, for a fraction of its usual price at Fictionwise! HCH contains tales from Alethea Kontis, Debbie Kuhn, Earl Dean, Geoffrey Girard, Jason Sizemore, Jeremy C. Shipp, Maurice Broaddus, Robby Sparks, Ronald Kelly, Stephanie Lenz, Steven Shrewsbury, and TL Trevaskis.

Get your eBook copy now and take advantage of this great offer from Fictionwise!

by Jason Sizemore

Rock musician and all-around happy hell raiser Amanda Palmer makes an interesting point about how artists (though she’s specifically talking about musicians, I think her argument can be made to include writers and artists) shouldn’t be so ashamed to openly ask for financial support from their fans.

It is a fine line, one I’ve tip-toed a few times (as have others: http://www.mauricebroaddus.com/2009/07/will-edit-for-food . Amanda points out that with so much free content out there in the wild, you occasionally have to pipe up and say “Hey, you do know I have to buy food, clothes, and housing…if you like my work, you mind sparing a coin for me?”

She makes an entertaining and thought-provoking claim regardless of your own personal opinions (or distaste?) of the starving artist concept.

Here’s a link to Amanda’s post: http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/200582690/why-i-am-not-afraid-to-take-your-money-by-amanda

Midwest Book Review has posted a pithy review of Nate Kenyon’s PRIME! Read the review that is as fast-paced as the novella here!

And check out Nate Kenyon’s website!

More about PRIME:

“Nate Kenyon has already proven himself a hell of a writer, but PRIME puts him on a whole new level. PRIME is sexy, two-fisted Future Noir that riffs off of present day questions of techno-ethics and still manages an emotional finale. Bravo!”
—Christopher Golden, Bram Stoker Award winning author of BaltimoreThe Myth Hunters, and Wildwood Road

“Nate Kenyon really messes with your alphas in this one: a futuristic thriller with shocks, startling insights into the human mind, and surprising twists, it’s also deeply relevant to what’s happening in the world today.”
—Tim Lebbon, Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award-winning author of DuskDawn, and The Island

Ann Wilkes has posted her in-depth interview with THE EDGE OF PROPINQUITY editor (and Apex’s own!) Jennifer Brozek! Read all about Jennifer’s upcoming projects, her current project, and the complexities of anthology editing!

AW: How has editing helped your writing and vise verse?

JB: Editing out the same mistakes over and over again has taught me to not make the same mistakes in my own writing. Reading stories I know I will have to edit later has taught me to use “active voice” much more often than “passive voice.” At the same time, writing has helped my editing by allowing me to recognize my past mistakes that much quicker in someone else’s work.

I really believe that doing more than one job in the writing industry improves all of a professional’s skills. Writing improves editing and slush reading. Editing improves writing and slush reading and slush reading does amazing things for writing and will give an editor an idea of how much work is involved in editing/copy editing a story.”

Read the whole interview here!

And check out Jennifer’s website here!

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And author Sara Harvey (THE CONVENT OF THE PURE) will make an auditory appearance on Blog Talk Radio on Sunday, November 8th at 9 AM! Sara will be talking with Missa Dixon, and the show sounds great!

Author, Professor, and Fashionesta of the con world Sara Harvey will be here to discuss her book and how to dress for the holidays.”

Check out the show here, and tune in on Sunday, November 8th!