Harper Voyager Books

Back from Worldcon

I'm back from Worldcon, and trying to scramble out from the pile of paper (and the post-con brainfog).

Others have more succinctly covered the Hugo, etc. results, so Congratulations to David Hartwell, who edits our YEAR'S BEST anthologies, and finally broke his Susan Lucci-esque nomination run!Also congratulations to John Picacio, who won the Chesley Award for Artistic Achievement! Not to mention Donato Giancola and all of the other winners and nominees for all of their works.

The Eos panel was a big success--more than 100 people attended, which was fabulous--and our party went extremely well.  I got to meet upcoming author Vicki Pettersson for the first time, chat with Eos authors Alma Alexander, Martha Wells (who saw Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl at Redondo Beach--very cool), Elaine Isaak, upcoming anthology editors Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, and more.

For more detailed Worldcon blogs, there's Locus Online, Emerald City, Andrew Wheeler, and more.

Plus, as many people have noted, Pluto is no longer a planet. ?!  (I go away for one Worldcon, and...)

Speaking of Worldcon, Lois McMaster Bujold will be the Guest of Honor for Worldcon 2008, in Denver. Congratulations Lois!

More tk shortly...

-- Diana

TO KEEP YOU UP ALL NIGHT

I’m a big horror fan – I love being scared. But after all these years of scary movies and books I’m afraid it’s gotten tough to actually scare me. I think that internal part of me was brutally killed somewhere in the mid to late 90s.

That is until this week when I read THE KEEPER by debut novelist Sarah Langan.

People this one is the real deal. Is has it all: 

- A small town harboring deadly secrets

- A former-beauty-now-gone-mad stalking the streets and haunting the town folks’ dreams

- A recently closed paper mill

- A week of non-stop rain

- An incredible jacket you can’t help but pick up

And on top of it all – knock out writing. Langan’s prose (and yes, she is writing beautifully crafted sentences that warrant the “P” word) mixes King and Koontz with, dare I say, Chabon and Cunningham. Her writing is both stunning and scary. Not an easy combination.

Sarah Langan is definitely a writer who’s career is about to take off. Read THE KEEPER. Let me know what you think.

--KC

On My Nightstand: LITTLE, BIG

So I'm finally reading Little, Big, which has been on my "To Read" list for probably about as long as I've been working with Jennifer (John's editor), due to 1) all the incredible praise it's received ("Few works of contemporary American fiction can match John Crowley's Little, Big." -- Michael Dirda, Washington Post; "One of the most intelligent, far-reaching novels of the last quarter-century" -- Toronto Star;  "World-class fantasy, resting alongside Lord of the Rings and Watership Down the only American work among the three modern examples of the genre at its literary best." -- Chicago Tribune; etc etc almost ad nauseum) and 2) the fact that I sent it to one of my very oldest friends, Nell, whose taste in literature I trust immediately and implicitly, and she raved and raved and raved.  And now I'm reading it, and, turns out Michael Dirda and the Toronto Star and the Chicago Tribune and Nell all knew what they were talking about, because it's just the most wonderful, complex, evocative, lovely book.

For anyone who hasn't read it, we're reissuing it in October, in this very classy Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition (see above), though of course it will be available until then in its current incarnation (which I'm not going to go get a jpeg of, but looks very similar to the upcoming HPMC edition).  And for all those Crowley fans out there, in case you weren't aware, John has his own blog: http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/.

-- Kate

TO READ (IN A GROUP) OR NOT TO READ (IN A GROUP)

Are you in a Reading Group? I’ve never been – but I love hearing what books different groups are reading. September seems to be the month for A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ. The classic novel has been chosen by both BookPeople in Austin and Borderlands in San Francisco. Interested in discussing this book with your Reading Group? Click here for our Reading Group Guide. Leave us a message about your Group’s current and favorite picks.

--KC

SNEAK PEAKS AND A CONTEST

So, I promised sneak excerpts of upcoming books. And we'll have a lot of them.

Starting Right Now.

Go to www.eosbooks.com and click the link for our Eos Reader, which contains excerpts from and info on our upcoming books from now through April 2007 (PDF format).  That's sneak peaks at new works by Robin Hobb, Lois McMaster Bujold, Karen Traviss, Raymond E. Feist, and many many more. 

And tell all of your friends--because if you sign up for our online newsletter, Inside Eos, you'll be entered for the chance to win an Ipod shuffle or one of five sets of the Eos Library--every sf/f book Eos/Morrow/Avon/Harpercollins publishes for all of 2007. That's right--titles from Neil Gaiman, Christopher Moore, Kim Harrison, Lois McMaster Bujold, Sara Douglass and more.  (If you're already subscribed to the newsletter, don't worry: you're already entered to win.)  The contest ends 11/1/2006, so sign up now!

To enter, click here.

If you prefer hardcopy, there will be excerpts at Worldcon and World Fantasy, among other things.

-- Diana

All About Lois!

We're thrilled to be publishing Lois McMaster Bujold's next novel, The Sharing Knife: Beguilement this October.  As you may or may not know, Lois is taking a break from her "Five Gods" series (The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt) to bring us an entirely new world -- beset with an ancient and malevolent presence that a race of mages struggles against in a generations-long war.  Beguilement is only the first part of this richly detailed romantic-fantasy saga; we'll be publishing The Sharing Knife: Legacy next June.

We've been getting some terrific praise for Beguilement:  Scifidimensions.com calls it "[A]tale of romance and spirit set in a world freshly hatched from [Bujold's] imagination . . . [The Sharing Knife: Beguilement] is peopled with Bujold’s typical high-relief characters, and has a fast-paced plot and lush back story.  There is pure enchantment here in the adventures of Fawn Bluefield, ingénue farm girl with a spine of steel, and Dag Redwing Hickory, an aging, world-wise, but emotionally cauterized mage patroller."  For the full review, check it out here.

And, while you're browsing, Strange Horizons also reviewed Beguilement here, and you can read interviews with Lois here and here, where she talks about her work in general, The Sharing Knife more specifically, and, among other things, her legions of Russian fans! 

Stay tuned for more reviews as they come in, and for an early excerpt of The Sharing Knife: Beguilement!

-- Kate

Happy Birthday Ray!!

Today is Ray Bradbury's birthday!  Happy Birthday Ray!!

Put your birthday wishes in our comments, and we'll forward them along.

Ray will be autographing Sunday afternoon at Worldcon, at 2:00pm.

And, the long-awaited sequel to his beloved DANDELION WINE will be out in October.  FAREWELL SUMMER just received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which notes: "Bradbury evokes the rhythms of a long-gone America with short, swift chapters that build to a lyrical meditation on aging and death ... Bradbury's mature but fresh return to his beloved early writing conveys a depth of feeling."

-- Kate

WORLDCON

The World Science Fiction convention is rapidly approaching (Yay! Oh wait, I haven't finished any of the prep. Eek!), and Jack Womack and I will be in Anaheim for the festivities.    We'll mostly be in the bar, meeting authors--etc., but I will also be doing a panel on upcoming Eos books.

Upcoming Eos Fall '06 and Winter '07 Books

Friday, August 25  at  1:00pm

If you're coming to Worldcon, do come to the panel. We'll have authors to meet, pretty covers to see, info on upcoming books (including sneak peaks at the cover of the new Christopher Moore, among others), giveaways, chocolate, etc. Plus the chance to win a signed hardcover of ANANSI BOYS by Neil Gaiman. 

(I'm also looking at a bonus prize if you mention hearing this from the blog, but haven't decided what yet. I've got this neat old scroll that says you can summon the Elder Gods, or at least some bloke named Chulthu or something, but... <g>). 

In any case, do feel free to say hi.

-- Diana

Publishing Insider loves Dune

Oops!  I thought I posted this a week ago. Mea culpa!  (Of course, I'm also in denial that Worldcon is only a couple of days away... *cough*)

Carl Lennertz, Publishing insider guru, has posted about his favorite book, and it's SF! (Woo hoo!) 

I love DUNE as well--I've read it so many times my copy fell apart, in fact.  (But then I tried the next two, and just couldn't get into them at all.  That happened with the books following THE THREE MUSKETEERS as well. Hmm).

If you're curious about publishing in general, definitely check out Carl's blog.  Publishing Insider has been running in one form or other for over 20 years, so he's more than in the know.  Need more reasons?  Carl also has one of the first edition hardcovers of DUNE--how neat is that?

-- Diana

Useful Advice for New Authors

There is a lot of useful advice for aspiring authors in teh internets recently, so while I do have some suggestions/ideas, I'm also running ragged, so am cheating and linking for now. (Pithy statements once Worldcon is over, hopefully.)

Swordsmith at The Daily Kos has a great article on advice for writers.

Miss Snark and other agents (Jennifer Jackson, Rachel Vater, Kristin Nelson, et al.) also have tons of useful info (plus the snarkitude at Miss Snark is fabulous...).

Victoria Strauss and A. C. Crispin's Writers Beware is a gold mine, as is Preditors and Editors. 

Teresa Nielsen Hayden's classic Slushkiller post is classic for all the right reasons. 

There's also useful stuff at a number of author blogs--poke around John Scalzi's Whatever for his list of links, and the list of blogs at Making Light, just for starters. 

I know I am missing numerous useful ones, so any slight is unintentional.  I'm often quite amazed at the useful info you can find online, to be honest, even with the necessary buckets of salt and searching for needles--not to mention plain old common sense and fact-checking--required.  For example, while writing this blog I discovered an oldie-but-a-goodie: Alan Shepard played golf on the moon. (With a six-iron, natch.).

Roxorz.

*laugh*

-- Diana