Darn' Tootin' Evil: The Write Thing

The Write Thing is right about A Book of Tongues:

"In a line: Darn’ tootin’ evil, blasphemin’, Bible-quotin’, hex-slingin’ gay bandits wreak destruction across pantheons, life, death."

Read the review here.

Get your own hex-slingin' gay bandit.

Nominating for the Auroras?

Chadwick Ginther of McNally Robinson has selected A Book of Tongues as one of the works he is most excited about for nomination for the Aurora Awards. Click here to read the full article.

Want to support Gemma Files' awesome book?  If you're a Canadian citizen you can help by nominating her work in the Best Novel category.

Nominating a work is free!  Find out how you can nominate here.

PS: Lists of eligible works are available (and can be added to) on the wiki site Canadian SF Works Database. We've got plenty of other great books up as well including Bob Boyczuk's Nexus: Ascension and Douglas Smith' Chimerascope so give it a look!

CZP in the Wild

In a B&N bookstore at Union Square....



...our own little spot of paradise. And horror and such. Woohoo!

Cashtown Reviewed at Barnes & Noble!

"Reading this novel by Tony Burgess was very much like my bookstore conversations with customers who may not have been completely sane – and after finishing People Live Still in Cashtown Corners, you won’t know whether to applaud Burgess’ impressively large literary cohones or arrange to have him committed to the nearest mental health facility..."

Read the rest of the review.

Get your own copy of People Live Still in Cashtown Corners!

2010: Year in Review (and 2011: Year in Preview)

We know these Year-In-Review things can be tedious, but looking back over 2010 we had to pause to think about how far we have come in a year.

What Happened in 2010?

New Faces

When we started 2010, it was just Sandra, Brett, Erik and Matt. During 2010, we welcomed onboard Helen, Laura, Clare, Sam, Gemma, Colleen, Halli, Barry, Corey, Kari, Chris and Kim. We now have an honest to gosh editorial, marketing and technical teams.

Cities of Night Photo Contest

In March, we launched a contest to promote Philip Nutman's short story collection Cities of Night, where people could post night-time urban photos to our Facebook or Flickr pages for a chance to win a custom-written story based on their photo, with the photo and story printed on postcards.

The winner was Ania Bibulowicz's "Dark Passenger," photographed in Queens, New York.

We received 77 entries, some love from Fangoria and even had the contest mentioned in a book of 45 innovative contests.

Bankruptcy and Resurgence

Do you believe that? Really? What have you been smoking?

Sandra & Brett World Horror Convention Guests of Honor

In July, we learned that CZP co-publishers Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi had been named as Editor Guests of Honor at the 2011 World Horror Convention to take place in Austin, Texas.

Fresh Blood Contest

We wrapped up the Fresh Blood Contest with the limited edition hardcover publication of Aaron Dries's House of Sighs. House made it through multiple rounds of judging by editors and voting by fans to win the contest.

People Live Still in Cashtown Corners Trailer + YouTube

Working together after adapting Pontypool Changes Everything for the big screen, writer Tony Burgess and director Bruce McDonald shot a trailer for Tony's new book People Live Still in Cashtown Corners, which we used to official launch our YouTube channel.

The trailer has received over 1,500 views and was mentioned by Rue Morgue and The National Post.

SpecFic Colloquium

We sponsored the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium in October, 2010. Gathering some big names in Canadian speculative fiction, authors lectured on diverse topics with readers and Q&A in the evening.

Brett Edited Tesseracts Fourteen

Beginning with a submission process in 2009, Brett co-edited Tesseracts Fourteen with Robert Colombo, which was released by EDGE Publishing in 2010. Though not a CZP book, it features a number of CZP writers (Tony Burgess, Brent Hayward, Claude Lalumière, David Nickle) and staff (Sandra Kasturi, Matt Moore), making it as close to the first CZP anthology as you can get (for the present, at least). In his Afterword, Brett says, "I would have gladly published this collected volume under the CZP imprint."

Pontypool Screening

Speaking of Bruce and Tony, we did a special screening of Pontypool at the Toronto Underground Cinema, featuring a Q&A with Tony and actors Stephen McHattie and Lisa Houle.

More than that, we published an author-signed, limited edition hardcover of Pontypool Changes Everything, which is the first time the book has appeared in hardcover. Our thanks to ECW (which owns the rights) for letting us do that.

First Globe and Mail Reviews

2010 saw us break into the Globe and Mail reviews section with Sarah Court (Craig Davidson) and People Live Still in Cashtown Corners (Tony Burgess).

Thirteen Days of CZP-mas

Starting December 13 (fittingly enough), we kicked-off the Thirteen Days of CZP-mas, where each day we gave out discounts, free stuff, and other curios.

So What's to Come in 2011?

SpecFic Colloquium 2

We're still in the early planning stages, but we will be putting on a second SpecFic Colloquium. Keep watching the site for details.

Imaginarium

In partnership with Tightrope Books, we'll be publishing Imaginarium 2011: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing in May 2011. A reprint anthology, it will be the first collection of purely Canadian speculative fiction and poetry.

More Big Name Authors

2011 will see the publication of Tim Pratt's Briarpatch and Mike Carey's (along his wife, Linda, and daughter, Louise) The Steel Seraglio.

The Hexslinger Series Continues

Gemma Files's Hexslinger Series continues with A Rope of Thorns, the second in the trilogy. The third and (what is now) final book, A Tree of Bones, will be released in 2012.

World Horror Convention 2011

We will be out in force at the World Horror Convention this May in Austin, Texas. A number of our staff and authors are planning on attending and we will post more details as we get closer.

Thanks to You

Lastly, in 2010 we got to meet—in person and online—some of the most enthusiastic, passionate, thoughtful, and demanding (and we mean that in a good way) dark fiction fans ever. Thanks to all of you who bought our books, spread the word, contributed to contests and said, "hi."

You guys rock.

All CZP eBooks Now Available on GoodReads

TORONTO, Ontario (January 12, 2011) – ChiZine Publications (CZP) has made the eBook versions of their titles available for purchase on GoodReads, the US-based online book-sharing community, which allows users to accrue personal libraries as well as post reviews on over 78 million books.

With their author roster growing quickly with writers from the US and Europe/UK, CZP Co-Publisher Brett Alexander Savory thought this was just the next natural step. “We’ve been getting a lot of attention with our Spring books in terms of US stores, and we thought this new means of making ourselves available was a good move in the wake of that.” Savory also noted that this would be an excellent opportunity to garner more user reviews, as the GoodReads community has a major focus on comment and response when it comes to building personal libraries and lists.

But this decision not only reflects CZP’s attempts to reach beyond Canada, but its support of the eBook format. “Though we pride ourselves on limited-edition hardcovers and high quality trade paperbacks, we’re embracing eBooks,” says CZP co-publisher Sandra Kasturi.

All of CZP’s eBooks can be found, purchased and downloaded in ePub format via GoodReads by clicking on the “read eBook” option to access the preview, purchase being available from there. (ChiZine Publications’ titles can be accessed from their GoodReads group.) Though GoodReads only supports the ePub format, other formats are available for purchase via the ChiZine website at http://www.chizinepub.com.

Contact

Brett Alexander Savory, Co-Publisher
ChiZine Publications
malito: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.

One More Chance to Purchase Hardcovers!

People who missed the two month window to pre-order the below titles now have a chance chance to own a CZP limited edition hardback! We're auctioning off some of our backlist hardbacks so hurry before they're gone!

HAIR WREATH AND OTHER STORIES by Halli Villegas

KATJA FROM THE PUNK BAND by Simon Logan

MAJOR KARNAGE by Gord Zajac

IN THE MEAN TIME by Paul Tremblay

NEXUS: ASCENSION by Robert Boyczuk

PEOPLE LIVE STILL IN CASHTOWN CORNERS by Tony Burgess

PONTYPOOL CHANGES EVERYTHING by Tony Burgess

SARAH COURT by Craig Davidson

Click here for a list of ALL CZP HARDBACKS AVAILABLE for auction

CZP Closed to Submissions

As of January 8, 2011, we are not accepting unsolicited submissions. We will re-open to submissions on July 1, 2011.

Due to an overwhelming volume of submissions, ChiZine Publications is currently closed to unsolicited submissions through June 30, 2011, in order to catch up with our enormous backlog.

NOTE: If you submitted a manuscript to us between March 1, 2010 and November 24, 2010, and you did not receive a confirmation e-mail or a formal response, please query or resend your manuscript, as it may have been lost in our e-mail server crash of late November. We apologize for the delay and the inconvenience.

We will re-open to unsolicited submissions on July 1, 2011.

In the meantime, if you are a Canadian writer (resident, citizen or expatriate) with short fiction or poetry published during 2010, please consider submitting it by January 31, 2011 to Imaginarium 2011: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing.

A Rare Treat: Napier's Bones Review

Backlisted has this to say about the soon-to-be released NAPIER's BONES:

"With Napier’s Bones, Derryl Murphy has given readers a new toy box to play in, one with a set of rules so widely accepted and understood that, regardless of the fantastical nature of the narrative and characters, our feet remain firmly on the ground. That, and an ending that screams out for a sequel of mathematically mind-numbing complexity, it is a surprising and all too rare treat."

Read the rest of the review here.

Copies are available for pre-order here!

New Books Available for Pre-order!

Show some love for two new CZP books, available for pre-order at the Horror Mall!

A ROPE OF THORNS, by Gemma Files (Book Two of the Hexslinger Series)



THE FECUND'S MELANCHOLY DAUGHTER by Brent Hayward



You know you want 'em!

2 CZP Books on Keene's Top 10 List

Thief of Broken Toys and Sarah Court both made Brian Keene's 2010 Top 10 Books List!

Click here to see why Keene thinks Thief is "not an easy book, but a good book" and why Craig Davidson is one of his favourite authors.

Or, pick up a copy of Thief of Broken Toys and Sarah Court for yourself!