Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Interview at Open Book Toronto



Open Book Toronto talks to John Robert Colombo and Brett Alexander Savory (co-publisher of CZP) about Tesseracts 14, which they co-edited. Many CZP authors and staff were involved in this book, including: Sandra Kasturi, Erik Mohr, Matt Moore, Tony Burgess, Brent Hayward, Claude Lalumière and David Nickle.

Here's a taste:

Open Book:
Tell us about the Tesseracts series.

John Robert Colombo:
Everyone in the country should know that the long-established series of anthologies called Tesseracts 1, Tesseracts 2, etc., is an ongoing series of collections of current fantastic literature, largely contributed by new writers. It offers its readers what Ezra Pound called “an active anthology,” one that presents new, unusual and untried material, often of a provocative nature. It is not a reprint anthology. Tesseracts 14, which I have had the pleasure (and pain) of co-editing with Brett Alexander Savory, offers more than an unusual amount of pleasure (and pain)!

Brett Alexander Savory:
BAS: Me, a pain?? Come on now!

Read the rest of the interview here.

The First Rule of Canadian Speculative Fiction is We Don’t Talk About Canadian Speculative Fiction

TORONTO, ON (October 25, 2010) – On October 23, 2010, Toronto hosted the first SpecFic Colloquium bringing authors, editors and readers together to explore the state of speculative fiction – horror, science fiction, fantasy – in Canada.

“The first rule of Canadian speculative fiction is we don’t talk about Canadian speculative fiction,” says co-organizer Helen Marshall. “We tend to get subsumed into the American market, and the purpose of this event was to get Canadians talking about who we are and where we are going.” The day-long event, sponsored by ChiZine Publications, included notable authors such as Peter Watts, Karl Schroeder, Michael Rowe, and Kelley Armstrong.

A range of topics were discussed including urban fantasy, cognitive science, and the spread of Canadian science fiction, but the overriding emphasis was on building a sense of community. Julie Czerneda, author of In the Company of Others, urged writers to promote one another and share market information. Michael Rowe and Gemma Files, on the other hand, discussed the politics of marginalized groups within the broader literary community in their joint panel "Queering the Genre." The overwhelming consensus at end of the day was that Canadian speculative fiction offers more than an extra 'u' and the occasional hockey reference.

The success of the event depended on its unique format: a series of forty-five minute talks by major authors in an intimate environment. According to Montreal writer and journalist Claude Lalumiere, the academic-inspired structure allowed for “an effervescent environment for exchanging and playing with ideas.” Co-organizers Sandra Kasturi and Helen Marshall have already begun to plan for 2011.

For videos and transcripts of the lectures, visit our website. For further information about the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium, please contact Helen Marshall by email or by phone at 416-550-4133.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Coverage of Tony Burgess' Book Trailer



This trailer is spreading like wildfire.

Both the National Post and the Quill & Quire have written about the Bruce MacDonald-directed book trailer for Tony Burgess' People Live Still in Cashtown Corners.

The National Post calls it "dramatic stuff" and "present[s] an interesting blueprint for publishers to get filmmakers involved in their titles."

ChiZine Issue #46 Reviewed


This doesn't happen too often, but ChiZine, the online magazine, was reviewed by Tangent. So check it out!

Or, see more of Chizine here.

Sarah Court at Rover Arts



"The tone of the extract above is a fair sample of the tone of the book as a whole: a spiral downward, the sense of inevitable degeneration. Paradoxically, though, the book’s energetic, the writing filled with a weird caffeine buzz, wired and compelling."

Read the rest of the review here.

Get your own copy.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Book Trailer Directed by Bruce MacDonald Launched for People Live Still in Cashtown Corners

TORONTO, Ontario (October 19, 2010) – A trailer for People Live Still in Cashtown Corners (Tony Burgess) is now available on ChiZine Publications’ website and in high definition on its YouTube channel.

The 60-second trailer was officially unveiled at the ChiZine Publications (CZP) launch party for its six Fall 2010 titles held on Friday, October 22 in Toronto, Ontario. Shot in a single afternoon at Tony Burgess’s Stayner, Ontario house, the trailer was directed by noted Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald (Pontypool, The Collector, Hard Core Logo, The Tracey Fragments.)



Burgess and McDonald collaborated before in bringing Burgess’s novel Pontypool Changes Everything to the screen as the 2008 film Pontypool. (McDonald confirmed on the day of the trailer shooting that Pontypools 2 and 3 are currently in development.) After the success of Pontypool, Savory looked to McDonald to bring to life what Burgess envisioned for the Cashtown trailer.

“I saw what Bruce had done on Pontypool and I wanted in,” Savory remarks, who was on hand for the filming. “Book trailers are a new phenomenon and everyone is experimenting with how to do them—from self-published authors to big publishing houses. Rather than try to talk about the plot or show the cover with a voice-over, Bruce and Tony nailed the feel of book. And having such a cinematic vision really takes it up a notch. Tony and Bruce have done something new that will build up excitement for the book, and raise the bar for book trailers. It’s bloody, it’s intriguing, and as always, Tony gave us a lot to work with.”

What’s more, Savory commented on how supportive the Canadian creative community is. “Watch the trailer and keep in mind: the director, author, actors, crew and publisher are all Canadian. I think for this to happen in Hollywood or with big names, it would take months of contracts and negotiations. That we could produce something as gorgeous as this speaks to the power of the creative industry in Canada.”

People Live Still in Cashtown Corners is a fictional retelling of a real murder case, told from the point of view of the culprit whose heinous acts make him feel more human than he’s ever felt. The photo inserts featuring real crime scene photos add an eerie depth to the novella.

In addition to People Live Still in Cashtown Corners, Tony Burgess is the author of The Hellmouths of Bewdley, Pontypool Changes Everything, Caesarea, and Fiction for Lovers.

Film Credits

Director: Bruce McDonald
Writer: Tony Burgess
Cinematographer: Michael LeBlanc
Editor: Mina Sewell Mancuso
Music Courtesy of Harmonia Mundi

Tony Burgess as Bob Clark
Charlie Baker as Charlie Baker
Jayde Barlow as Patricia Lerner
Amber as Helen Lerner
Ed Gataveckas as Jeffrey Lerner


Contact
Brett Alexander Savory, Publisher
ChiZine Publications
brett@chizinepub.com

About ChiZine Publications
ChiZine Publications (CZP) is an independent publisher of weird, subtle, surreal and disturbing dark fiction. It is the book-length, print version outgrowth of ChiZine, an online professional market in operation since 1997 focused on the same type of story material. All of CZP’s publications are hand-picked by co-Publishers and Bram Stoker Award-winners Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi.

People Live Still in Cashtown Corners and In the Mean Time Now Available



TORONTO, Ontario (October 19, 2010) – People Live Still in Cashtown Corners by Tony Burgess and In the Mean Time by Paul Tremblay are now available in trade paperback and eBook formats from ChiZine Publications (CZP) and online retailers.

The final two of CZP’s fall 2010 titles, this novella and short story collection punctuate the season with both their haunting themes and ChiZine’s innovative marketing strategies.

People Live Still in Cashtown Corners is a fictional retelling of a real murder case, told from the point of view of the culprit whose heinous acts makes him feel more human than he’s ever felt. The photo inserts featuring real crime scene photos add an eerie depth to the novella. In addition, Bruce MacDonald, who worked with Burgess on adapting Burgess’ Pontypool Changes Everything into a film, has shot a trailer

Following People Live Still in Cashtown Corners is In the Mean Time, Paul Tremblay’s latest collection of short fiction. Though many of the selections take a quieter spin on the apocalypse and run rampant with paranoia with such stories as “The Balloons of Annotte” and “Blog at the End of the World”, Tremblay is still very interested in connecting with his audience. Not only does he blog actively about his work, CZP will also be releasing free podcasts of the stories to help promote their release. One story will be put out per week at a total of six stories with such readers as Sarah Langan, Michael Cisco, Stephen Graham Jones, John Langan, Mur Lafferty, and Paul Tremblay himself.


“It’s all about getting closer to the readers,” says CZP Co-Publisher Sandra Kasturi. “We always love to have some kind of free content to go with the book, such as PDF samples and now the podcasts, so that everyone can get an equal taste of what the books have to offer. We’re lucky we can experiment and branch out like this, especially in the age of smart phones and free WiFi hyper-available. In this way, we can get a better idea of reader response and what they want to see more of.”

Both books will be available in trade paperback editions as well as DRM-free eBooks in Kindle, ePub, and PDF formats. As always, CZP is offering a 30% discount off the cover price for all trade paperbacks purchased directly from them. Links on where to order both books can be found on their site at http://www.chizinepub.com.

Contact
Brett Alexander Savory, Publisher
ChiZine Publications
brett@chizinepub.com

About ChiZine Publications
ChiZine Publications (CZP) is an independent publisher of weird, subtle, surreal and disturbing dark fiction. It is the book-length, print version outgrowth of ChiZine, an online professional market in operation since 1997 focused on the same type of story material. All of CZP’s publications are hand-picked by co-Publishers and Bram Stoker Award-winners Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi.

Guest post at Mulholland Books



Simon Logan, author of Katja and the Punk Band, writes a review of Mulholland Drive for Mulholland Books.

Read it here!

Quiet Moments: Big Threats



Here's a taste of what All Things Horror had to say about In the Mean Time:

"Each story is unique and even though we know Tremblay is the writer, every voice seems fresh, distinct, and realistic. There is never a moment where a theme or character feels like a retread of the others. Tremblay knows how real people think and speak, and that the most important things sometimes lurk hidden in their messages. With his collection, Tremblay is providing us the keys to unlocking those secrets even though we run the risk of exposing ourselves."


Read the rest of the review here.

Get your own copy.

Friday, October 22, 2010

ChiZine Publications' Surreal, Subtle, and Disturbing WFC Party

Everyone come to Hyatt Regency Hotel (Suite to by Announced) in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, October 29 at 8:00pm to our CZP Fall Book Launch at World Fantasy!

ChiZine Publications' co-publishers Brett Savory and Sandra Kasturi -- along with authors Bob Boyczuk and Paul Tremblay -- will treat you to a dazzling night of books and booze.

We'll be launching:

Nexus: Ascension by Robert Boyczuk
People Live Still in Cashtown Corners by Tony Burgess
Sarah Court by Craig Davidson
In the Mean Time by Paul Tremblay (illustrations by Mara Sternberg)
The Hair Wreath & Other Stories by Halli Villegas (HC frontispiece by Daniele Serra)
Major Karnage by Gord Zajac (HC illustrations by Maxwell Atoms)

Please RSVP on the Facebook Event Page!

Review of Hair Wreath on Backlisted



"Villegas exhibits terrific attention to the detailed actions of her characters, never once employing forceful or abrasive tactics to drive her intentions. Instead, the collected stories in The Hair Wreath form a cohesive treatise on memory—what it means to listen to it, to ignore it, to let it take control and stand in the way of one’s life—and the sometimes distressing, sometimes disturbing, embodiments thereof."

Read the rest of the review here!

More about Hair Wreath here!

"The Book Took on a Life of Its Own"



"The dialogue matches the prose—sparse and to the point. There’s little wasted space in the book’s 300+ pages. Only a couple of years old, CZP’s output is greatly increasing in quality. Their books have always had an edge and a style to them that few other publishers would even attempt, and the slightly smaller digest size of Sarah Court immediately makes it stand out as something that feels tight and substantial."

Read the rest of the review from Backlisted!

Or, get your own copy of Sarah Court!

ChiZine Publications Releasing the CZP/Leisure Books/Rue Morgue Fresh Blood Contest Winner

TORONTO, Ontario (October 20, 2010) - ChiZine Publications, in partnership with Leisure Books and Rue Morgue, will be releasing the winner of the Fresh Blood Contest, House of Sighs by Aaron Dries in limited edition hardcover.

This book will mark CZP’s first foray into contest publishing, a move which co-publisher Brett Alexander Savory hopes will foster a closer relationship with fellow publishers as well as readers.

“We’re excited to find new talent and take part in a contest with some great names in the horror genre,” says Savory. “In addition to myself, CZP co-publisher Sandra Kasturi, and Tightrope publisher Halli Villegas, we had some great author-guest judges: Jeff Strand, John Everson, Nate Kenyon, and Bryan Smith. Everyone contributed to the excitement of picking the winner, and being able to get together with Rue Morgue and Leisure really spoke to the rapport of the dark fiction community.”

Though the publication of House of Sighs does not follow the usual submission-publication model, co-publisher Sandra Kasturi sees it as a means of getting CZP’s readership involved. “Although we were judging the final choices for the contest, House of Sighs was ultimately chosen by public vote,” Kasturi notes. “The initial batch of titles were chosen by Leisure, and a top 10 list generated by CZP and Leisure from there, posted online for the public to read from and vote for the best. It kind of turned into a literary Survivor when it came down to the top 5, with titles being voted off each month until the winner remained. I think this was a really interesting way for our readers to get involved with the publication process, which is a rare thing! We’re really excited to see the audience reaction.”

CZP will be releasing the hardcover of House of Sighs on February 15, 2011 in limited edition format, with each copy numbered and signed by the author and cover artist, Erik Mohr. Pre-orders are available at Horror Mall for a limited time!


Contact
Brett Alexander Savory, Publisher
ChiZine Publications
brett@chizinepub.com

About ChiZine Publications
ChiZine Publications (CZP) is an independent publisher of weird, subtle, surreal and disturbing dark fiction. It is the book-length, print outgrowth of ChiZine, an online professional market in operation since 1997 focused on the same type of story material. All of CZP's publications are hand-picked by Co-Publishers and Bram Stoker Award-winners Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Book Notes: In the Mean Time


Paul Tremblay makes a playlist to go along with every short story appearing in In the Mean Time over at Large Hearted Boy.

A sample:

"The Teacher"

Track: "Mad World," Michael Andrews and Gary Jules (Tears for Fears cover)

The book opens with its biggest gut punch. A history teacher begins his unorthodox senior course with clips from an ominous surveillance video from a day care center, causing a student's home life to deteriorate along with the lessons. This story was a finalist for the 2007 Bram Stoker Award.

Read the rest here!

Find out more about In the Mean time at CZP.

A Strong Debut Collection: Review of Hair Wreath



Rover Arts Reviews Hair Wreath and Other Stories!

"Small details carry emotional weight, fixing themselves in memory...Villegas’ strength seems to be in the creation of these resonant moments, and in her ability to use them to illuminate a whole story. There’s an enviable impersonality to the stories even as they present strong emotional material, a detachment that works to draw the reader in."

Click here to read the rest of the review!

More information on the book here!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Interview with Paul Tremblay



Paul Tremblay speaks with Hell Notes about writing, In the Mean Time, and the future of publishing!

You know you want to read this!

More information about In the Mean Time is here.

CZP Lowers Ebook Price on Chimerascope


TORONTO, Ontario (October 7, 2010) – In a joint effort to learn more about how readers purchase eBooks, CZP has agreed to a suggested experiment by Douglas Smith, author of Chimerascope, to lower the price of the Kindle versions of his short story collection from $5.99 to $2.99.

Though this drop in price is significant, it is meant first and foremost to benefit the readers. “The price of eBooks, unless you’re a Stephen King or Stephanie Myer, is pretty elastic,” says Smith. “The sweet spot for book-length eBooks seems to be around $2.99. So I’m hoping that with a lower price, I’ll gain more readers. The worst that can happen is I don’t make as much in royalties, but even in that case, I’ll still get my stories in front of more readers, which is always the ultimate goal.”

Co-publisher Brett Alexander Savory has pledged CZP’s full support. “EBooks are new, but we strongly believe they will become a major market. Writers and publishers are trying to find a model that works—print plus eBooks simultaneously, eBook only, print books first then eBooks months later. We think we’ve figured that out, but are still thinking about price. With this move, we're looking to see how the Kindle editions from Amazon perform against other eBook formats available from other e-tailers. Both Doug and we want a price that’s fair to readers and encourages them to take a chance on an author they might not know, but still generate enough revenue for the author and publisher to make it sustainable.”

Chimerascope is available in trade paperback and DRM-free eBook in Kindle, ePub, and PDF formats. All formats can be ordered from CZP’s site at http://www.chizinepub.com.

Contact
Brett Alexander Savory, Publisher
ChiZine Publications
brett@chizinepub.com

About ChiZine Publications
ChiZine Publications (CZP) is an independent publisher of weird, subtle, surreal and disturbing dark fiction. It is the book-length, print version outgrowth of ChiZine, an online professional market in operation since 1997 focused on the same type of story material. All of CZP’s publications are hand-picked by co-Publishers and Bram Stoker Award-winners Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi.

Hair Wreath in Broken Pencil


From Broken Pencil, about to be released in print:

"What I like about Villegas's prose is how unassuming it is and how you have to read a whole story in order to appreciate the overall eeriness. ....This situationalism is lasting and effective.....Overall this collection is a modern twist on urban ghost stories, weaving the idea of dark spiritual encounters with modern lifestyles always
getting in the way. A perfect read for a quiet night alone, in the seemingly tranquility of the city."


-Tim Green, Broken Pencil issue 49 (October 2010)

Get your copy of Hair Wreath today!

Objects of Worship Review!



"Claude is a regular mythomaniac. He takes not only mythologies of the past, but the pop cultures of recent decades, and weaves them into something new, wonderful, dazzling."

Check out the great review from Ernest Hogan's blog, Mondo Ernesto of Objects of Worship!

Or, if you already know how awesome this book and you or the person you're sitting next to doesn't have a copy yet, maybe you should get one. Seriously.

Sarah Court Reviewed in the Quill & Quire!


A starred review in the Quill and Quire, the feather in our hats for this week. Here's what they had to say:

"Davidson refuses to hold the reader’s hand through any of the often heartbreaking consequences, making Sarah Court, for all its emphasis on the physical and the grotesque, a book of devastating emotional power."

"There are supernatural elements to Sarah Court, and while they are genuinely terrifying in their strangeness, they remain peripheral. What’s truly horrific is the mundane..."

Read more here!

Get this book right now! (You know you want to!)

Machine Gun Pacing: Chasing the Dragon



Here's what King of the Nerds has to say about Nicholas Kaufmann's Chasing the Dragon:

"It reads fast but its brevity and machine gun pacing belie the surprising depth of the world that Kaufmann manages to evoke."

"Chasing the Dragon is a taught, superbly written tale falling somewhere in the middle of urban fantasy and horror that manages to defy most if not all of the conventions familiar to those genres."

Click here to read the rest of the review!

Or, buy this book here!

Take the Plunge into Cashtown!


As Chris Hallock at All Things Horror puts it, "[o]nce you take the plunge into Tony Burgess' "Cashtown Corners", you may never come back up."

"With his prose, Burgess has the ability to create highly philosophical passages pertaining to such everyday occurance as waiting for an intersection light to change, carrying on small talk with a neighbor, or even just deciding what TV channel to watch. These passages give astounding weight and depth to moments that would normally have someone fidgeting in their chair. Instead, Burgess channels those moments into one of self-reflection that dares to dive into the darkest of human emotions."

Click here for the rest of the review.

Want to read Cashtown? Get your copy here.

In the Mean Time--Reviewed!



"Considering the quality of Tremblay’s short fiction, a collection like In The Mean Time is long overdue", according to Charles Tan's Bibliophile Stalker blog.

"When it comes to adult fiction, one prevalent school of thought is to trust the reader, that authors shouldn’t explain everything in exposition, and that endings shouldn’t be didactic...The strength and uniqueness of Paul Tremblay’s fiction is that he successfully pulls off this writing recommendation."

Read the rest of the review here!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Guy with the Dragon Tattoo!



This is cool!

A fan of Nicholas Kaufmann's Chasing the Dragon tattooed the cover image on his arm.

Check it out!

More House of Sighs!

More creepy trailers for Aaron Dries' House of Sighs, now available in limited edition hardcover.





Pre-order House of Sighs Today

You can now pre-order the special hardcover edition of House of Sighs from the Horror Mall!

Aaron Dries was the winner of the Rue Morgue Fresh Blood Contest, as voted by you!

Here's his trailer:



Pre-order your copy here.

New Review of Book of Tongues


"A Book of Tongues captures the dirt and grit of the period in every scene, with cracking dialogue and description."

"Truly a remarkable, bloody and visceral read. Volume Two, A Rope of Thorns, can't come quickly enough."

That's what McNally Robinson is saying about Gemma Files' Book of Tongues!

Click here to read the entire awesome review.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

An Introduction to Urban Fantasy

by Kelley Armstrong

“An Introduction to Urban Fantasy” is a primer for the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium, Saturday, 23 October 2010, at the Hart House and has been written in support of the Sunburst Awards. To register for the Colloquium, visit here.  Spaces are limited!


 I’m ambivalent about the label “urban fantasy.”  It’s a term that’s been applied to a branch of fantasy for decades, but in recent years has been co-opted to describe a very specific subtype.  Old-school readers take offense at paranormal authors using it.  The new audience for paranormal fantasy is confused if authors don’t use it.  So I’m flexible.  Or indecisive.

When I sold Bitten in 1999, there was no genre label for this type of work—supernatural beings starring as the lead characters in a thriller plot.  Laurell K. Hamilton was several books into her Anita Blake series, but she hadn’t made it onto my radar yet, nor the radar of most in the industry, who still used Anne Rice as the measure for comparison.  By 2001, when Bitten came out, Jim Butcher’s first Dresden Files and Charlaine Harris’s first Southern Vampire novel had also just been published.  All these books had a suspense/mystery main plot, and were set in a world peopled by supernatural beings—vampires, werewolves, spell-casters and the like.

My publishers and I initially referred to my novels as supernatural thrillers.  Over the next few years, as more of these series were launched, they began being to be labeled “paranormal suspense.”

Many of these early series had a strong romantic subplot that seemed to appeal to romance readers, so not surprisingly, a sister sub-genre was born: paranormal romance.  What’s the difference?  Plot focus.  If you can remove the romance and still have a story, it’s paranormal suspense.  If you can’t, it’s paranormal romance.  The industry doesn’t always agree, to the chagrin of paranormal suspense authors who find their books mislabeled, and have to deal with furious romance readers.

As paranormal romance grew in popularity, there was a move to more firmly establish paranormal suspense as a separate genre.  And so the term “urban fantasy” was born.   Or so you’d think, to hear some folks explain it.  The truth, as fantasy enthusiasts know, is that urban fantasy has been used to describe the works of authors like Emma Bull and Charles de Lint for years.  So it was co-opted.  Or stolen, depending on your view.

Today, urban fantasy is an established marketing category.  We used to say it required contemporary setting…until historical urban fantasy hit the scene.  Some will say the “urban” part means it must be set primarily in a city, but that’s also not true—most of mine have rural or small town settings, as do many others.

So I think I have good reason for being ambivalent about the label.  There’s no good definition and for every “rule” given for inclusion, I can name a handful of urban fantasy authors who break it.  But as a marketing category, it seems useful enough.  So when I give my talk at Hart House on October 23, I’ll call it urban fantasy, and discuss the genre in more detail.


***


Kelley Armstrong  has been telling stories since before she could write.  Her earliest written efforts were disastrous.  If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay.  All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed.  Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon.  She's the author of the "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Sloan Man Facebook Profile Contest!


















Sloan Man Facebook Profile Contest!

Change your profile picture to the Sloan Man face for a chance to win a library of CZP's Fall 2010 books!

1. Choose from the variety of Sloan Man pictures we have on our Facebook page, blog, or website.
2. Change your profile to the Sloan Man!
3. Befriend ChiZine Publications on Facebook and show us your new scary face by posting something on our wall!
4. Contest ends October 25th, 2010, at 12 noon.
5. All participants will be entered into a draw to win a library of ChiZine's Fall 2010 books.

BONUS ENTRY #1:

Post this on the Colloquium Facebook event page: "I want to take the Sloan Man home with me"

BONUS ENTRY #2:

Email czpcontest@gmail.com or Facebook Direct Message the answer to this question: What is the name of the Sloan Man?

Also, come to our Fall 2010 Launch party!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Teaser Photos from Cashtown Book Trailer!

Photos copyright Tony Burgess, and are also viewable on Facebook.













The trailer will be ready in a few weeks, so stay tuned!

Book Launch for Bedtime Story



Come one, come all!

Random House and ChiZine Publications are hosting the launch for Robert Wiersema's new book, Bedtime Story (published by Random House).

ChiZine Publications will be there selling copies of World More Full of Weeping, so everyone come out to get copies of two wonderful books by one awesome author!

Monday, October 4, 2010

WOWIO Features Sarah Court



Wowio has chosen Sarah Court as one of their featured books in their latest newsletter! Scroll down to see it, it's the first one on the left.

Check it here!

Short Review of Cashtown



Here's a short review of People Live Still in Cashtown Corners, by Justine Lewkowicz.

She will also be interviewing Tony Burgess for a new video webcast show she's starting in November, so stay tuned!

Click here for the review.

Click here for more on Cashtown.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

New Issue of ChiZine!

A new issue of ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words is now available.

Issue #46 contains fiction by Brenta Blevins, Nadia Bulkin & Dave Chua and poetry by Arlene Ang, Bethany Powell & Steve Vernon.

Check it out!

The Torontoist interviews Paul Tremblay



It's CZP week at The Torontoist. This time they're talking to Paul Tremblay about his collection of short stories, In The Mean Time.

Click here to read the interview!

Click here to read more about In the Mean Time.

What is Canadian Speculative Fiction and Why Should We Care?

by Helen Marshall

“What is Canadian Speculative Fiction and Why Should We Care?” is a primer for the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium, Saturday, 23 October 2010, at the Hart House and has been written in support of the Sunburst Awards. To register for the Colloquium, visit here.  Spaces are limited!


I've been in the midst of helping out with any number of projects that aim to support Canadian speculative fiction -- that is, broadly speaking, the major genres of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Many writers have claimed that publishing, as an industry, is going through something of a crisis with the introduction of eBooks, the decline of independent (and chain!) bookstores, the possibilities of self-publishing. I don't want to debate the excitement or fear that accompany those changes. We all know we're moving towards a new landscape -- what that landscape looks like, no one is quite sure about yet.

But how is that landscape Canadian? Is there anything to be said for a Canadian aesthetics of genre writing?

I think there is.

Canadian horror writing, for example, a branch of speculative fiction and a particular passion of mine, has begun to move in strange and provocative new directions, becoming something altogether different from its American counterpart and wholly itself. In a recent blog comment, Rose Fox of Publishers Weekly praised the ingenuity of Canadian authors: “Horror is profoundly cultural. Over a couple of decades of reading a great many books, I've developed something of an immunity to American and British horror. I still can't really describe what exactly [Canadian horror authors] do differently, but it is different.”

The last several years have shown a revitalized interest in publishing darker fiction. Psychological horror dominated the short stories of the influential anthology Tesseracts, published by Calgary-based Edge Science Fiction and FantasyChiZine Publications too has demonstrated that horror (in Canada at least) is moving away from the splatter-and-gore stories of the eighties into a distinctly literary arena, giving us strong characters and themes that underpin provocative and unsettling narratives.

Things are moving here in Canada. There's a kind of excitement in the changes we are seeing, and it's generating some fantastic new literature.



And here comes the plug.  The Sunburst Award for the Fantastic, Canada's only jury award for genre writing, has been a long-valued institution. Unfortunately, the Sunburst Awards have run into a hiccup.  They do not have enough operating capital to keep going as they currently stand. This sad news comes at a particularly critical juncture in the award's life--the operating committee is in the process of getting the Sunburst organization registered as a non-profit, and getting it "national arts organization" status.  As part of a fundraising drive to shepherd the Sunburst through this change of status and structure, we’d like to ask fans, writers, editors, and publishers from the speculative fiction community to help raise awareness of this vital institution...

How to Participate

We're looking for short (30 second to 2 minutes) videos that say what you think about Canadian speculative fiction. These should be interview-style videos in the vein of Speaker's Corner and can be recorded as simply as with a web camera. Prior interviews or footage can be submitted provided that you have permission to do so.  We will host these individually on a YouTube channel (sunburstaward), but will also edit them in order to create a series of short videos to promote awareness of the fundraising campaign. A longer video will be shown at the opening remarks to the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium.

Not savvy with a camera? Send us a high res image of yourself and either a short paragraph in text or a recorded audio track.

Not Canadian? Never fear. If you have something you want to say about Canadian speculative fiction then we want to hear it.

 To participate, send your name, contact information, submission and a short release statement giving us permission to use the video/image to sunburstvideo@gmail.com by October 15, 2010.

Possible Topics:
-favourite Canadian authors and/or stories
-the relationship between Canadian writing and the rest of the world
-publishing speculative fiction in Canada
-the state of Canadian fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc
-how does Canada inspire your work?
-favourite Canadian settings to use in your writing

Of course, these topics are intended to be a jumping off point. Feel free to think outside of the box. And, above all, show your enthusiasm!

To donate directly, visit http://www.sunburstaward.org/
content/please-lend-your-support-sunburst-awards.


***

Helen Marshall spends the majority of her time pursuing a Ph. D. in Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto where she gets to travel across England to examine fourteenth-century manuscripts. Of course, her fascination with the making and writing of books extends well into the present. Her poetry has been published in ChiZine, NFG and the Ontarion Arts Supplement. "Mist and Shadows," published originally in Star*Line, appeared in The 2006 Rhysling Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Poetry of 2005." "The Gypsy" and "Crossroads and Gateways" both received honourable mentions in the 2009 Rannu Fund Contest, while four other poems were short-listed. She also works as an editor and slush reader for ChiZine Publications.

Friday, October 1, 2010

CZP Fall Book Launch!



Come one, come all to CZP's Fall 2010 Book Launch on Friday, October 22nd @ 7pm.

Where, you ask?

152 Augusta Ave (at Dundas West)
Toronto, ON


We'll be launching:

Nexus: Ascension by Robert Boyczuk
People Live Still in Cashtown Corners by Tony Burgess
Sarah Court by Craig Davidson
In the Mean Time by Paul Tremblay (illustrations by Mara Sternberg)
The Hair Wreath & Other Stories by Halli Villegas (HC frontispiece by Daniele Serra)
Major Karnage by Gord Zajac (HC illustrations by Maxwell Atoms)

Hors d'oeuvres, Kindle Raffle, prizes, readings, and don't forget to try the special "ChiZinetini," courtesy of the Augusta House staff!

Be there! Tell us you're coming on the Facebook Event Page.