Sunday, May 22, 2011

Another Eutopia review!

Tzer Island writes, "Nickle's writing style is at least a step above the ordinary. His prose is efficient; Nickle uses a few carefully selected words to set scenes that some writers would have wasted pages developing, a skill that allows the story to develop at a brisk pace. The mood and atmosphere are perfect for a tale of the supernatural."

Read the full review here.
Buy EUTOPIA here.

Eutopia: "Seriously Creepy"


"This novel is seriously creepy. Do not read it on your own, at night, with the bedroom window open. I ended up jumpy and paranoid and then had to sleep with the window closed even though it was muggy and uncomfortable."
—Curiosity Killed the Bookworm

Read the review!
Order a copy of Eutopia!

Review & in-depth interview with Tom Piccirilli!

Reviewer Keith Rawson writes: "

If you’ve never read Piccirilli before—yes, you’ve been missing out on one of the strongest talents in the business—I would strongly suggest you make Every Shallow Cut your first foray into his extensive catalog."

He also has a lengthy interview up with Tom Piccirilli, talking about EVERY SHALLOW CUT, his future projects, and e-publishing, among other things.

Keith Rawson: What's been your proudest moment as a novelist and what's been your most difficult?

Tom Piccirilli: I've been in this game over 20 years, and it's never been easy. Writing is a gut-wrenching process and publishing can be even worse. My proudest moment is the fact that I'm still alive after being kicked in the head by every boot in the biz imaginable.


Read the review here!

Read the interview here!

Buy a copy of Every Shallow Cut!

Door review at Backlisted


"The takeaway from the mythology these loosely connected tales provide is that salvation will not come with ease. It must be fought for, and an understanding between one’s desired self and a past or present more closely tethered to reality must be earned through confrontation."
—Andrew Wilmot, Backlisted

Read the review!
Order a copy of The Door to Lost Pages here!

SF Signal shines the spotlight on David Nickle!
























SF Signal has chosen to highlight David Nickle, author of MONSTROUS AFFECTIONS and EUTOPIA, in their New Author Spotlight series. The link features a short video trailer for Eutopia.

Check out the spotlight here!
And check out our pages for Monstrous Affections and Eutopia.

Monday, May 16, 2011

A great review of Door to Lost Pages!


K. W. Ramsey at The Left Hand of Dorkness heaps the praise onto Claude Lalumière's THE DOOR TO LOST PAGES.
"This is the kind of book you read when you want something different, something that will challenge your mind... It's what genre fiction can be when it takes itself seriously and doesn't hold to the idea that just because it's genre that it is somehow lesser than 'literature'."

Read the review here.
Buy Lost Pages here.

ESC review at The Mighty Blowhole


Review blog The Mighty Blowhole writes, "This is a fast-moving, crisply-written novella and the most-compulsively-readable work I’ve seen from Piccirilli."

Click here to read the review - and scroll down, as the ESC review is the fourth in that post.
Click here to buy Every Shallow Cut.

Friday, May 13, 2011

And another Lost Pages review!


Or rather, two. Jonathan McCalmont has written two separate reviews for Claude Lalumière's latest. On Ruthless Culture, he writes a capsule review that sums up Door to Lost Pages as "All in all, an excellent little book." While on Strange Horizons, he gets much more in-depth, writing that "the book defies not only easy categorization but also any sort of top-down attempt at interpretation."

The capsule review can be found here.
The in-depth review is here.
And our page on Lost Pages is here.

Excellent review of The Choir Boats


The Ranting Dragon has given an in-depth - and quite favourable - review to Daniel A. Rabuzzi's THE CHOIR BOATS.
"In my opinion, The Choir Boats is the most underrated young adult title of 2009,... If you’re seeking an engrossing and entirely unique world to sweep you off your feet, look no further."

Click here to read the whole review.
Click here to buy a copy of THE CHOIR BOATS.

New Door to Lost Pages review


This review comes to us from the blog In One Eye, Out the Other. Susan Tunis writes: "...if I can’t ever find the door to Lost Pages myself, at the very least I hope to find more of these stories."

Click to read the whole review.
Click here to order a copy of THE DOOR TO LOST PAGES.

Cory Doctorow reviews Napier's Bones!


BoingBoing founder Cory Doctorow has given a great review to Derryl Murphy's NAPIER'S BONES, calling it "as fun and intense an adventure novel as you could hope to find." How exciting!

Read the review here!
Buy Napier's Bones here!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Another ESC review!


This review comes to us from "The Book Babe": "I will definitely be picking up more of Piccirilli's work. I can only hope that they live up to my now very-high expectations."

Read the full review here.

Check out EVERY SHALLOW CUT here.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Great review of Filaria!

Adam Shaftoe at The Pages of Reviews writes: "With its rich environments and characters who ooze empathy, Filaria is as thoughtful as it is emotionally satisfying."

Read the entire review here.

Click here to check out Filaria.

Books in Brief review of ESC


It's a short one, but it's a sweet one: The Record gives a mini-review to Every Shallow Cut in its Books in Brief section.
"This is a tightly crafted novella that nicely captures the gloomy paranoia of the 'mancession,'..." -Alex Good
Click to read the review.

Click here to buy ESC!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Briarpatch and The Pattern Scars now available for preorder!



We've got two hot new books now available for preorder exclusively at Horror Mall! THE PATTERN SCARS by Caitlin Sweet and BRIARPATCH by Tim Pratt are the newest members of the ChiZine library. As with PICKING UP THE GHOST and ISLES OF THE FORSAKEN, these two are being issued in a signed, limited edition hardcover run of only 150 each. Don't miss your chance to own these exquisite books!

Click here to order Briarpatch.
Click here to order The Pattern Scars.

ChiZine cracks the bestseller list at Horror Mall



Two of our soon-to-be-released books have shown up in the top ten preorder bestsellers at Horror Mall. Tone Milazzo's PICKING UP THE GHOST checks in at number 6, with ISLES OF THE FORSAKEN by Carolyn Ives Gilman at number 8. Impressive! These results are for the limited edition copies, so act fast if you want to own these deluxe editions!
Both limited editions are signed by the authors and feature extra content not found in the standard edition. Picking Up the Ghost features five flash fiction prequels to the novel, plus two deleted scenes; while Isles of the Forsaken gives you an exclusive map and a preview of its upcoming sequel. Only 150 of each limited edition will be sold!

Order Isles of the Forsaken here!
Order Picking Up the Ghost here!

"David Nickle vs. Joe" or "A Pair of Stone-Honed Machetes"

David Nickle (Monstrous Affections, Eutopia) shared this favourite, although disturbing, memory from World Horror Con:
My favourite convention memory?

Happened when Joe finally caught up with me, late Sunday, to settle things once and for all.

The rest of you'd fled for Toronto by then – there was no one left but a handful of straggling frat boys and sorority girls... the night shift at the Doubletree. Claude Lalumiere was somewhere, missing a train on account of flooding somewhere north, but he doesn't figure in this memory.

For that, there was just me. And Joe. Both of us looking for trouble, in our way. Both of us finding it, over $3.75 Shiner Bocks and a pair of stone-honed machetes.

I probably shouldn't have said what I said noon-time Saturday at the ChiZine table, loud as I did. I'll wear that. But Joe should've known better too. Hell. You don't do something like that – not without expecting consequences.

So when Joe swaggered into the bar, hauling the fresh-oiled machetes swaddled in Doubletree bath towels ... I wasn't going to back down, and he damn well knew it.

It got real quiet – the only sound was the soft "whoas" from the kid in the Abercrombie and Fitch polo shirt sprawled on the sofa by the fireplace and Barack Obama mumbling something on the flatscreen.

Joe set the bundle of blades on the bar, slid one out, stepped back and pointed with his chin at the other, like he does.

I didn't need more invite than that. I set my glass down, walked close enough he might've slashed my belly if he'd a mind, then took hold of the second blade.

Now, at this point security might've intervened. But as I was checking out early Monday, the night clerk told me it was on account of good behaviour. The assembled authors at the World Horror Convention – and particularly the ChiZine contingent – were so good-graced and kindly in disposition, that the hotel staff all just thought we were horsing around and figured they'd let it play out.

So it went a lot longer than it should've. Joe was good with a machete. He'd had plenty of practise working that place of his, and he could swing true and strong enough to split a mahogany credenza right down the middle. But I'll tell you – never under-estimate a middle-aged Toronto boy who got out of phys-ed by faking asthma attacks. I gave as good as I got.

We crossed blades in the lobby, and for awhile it seemed like I had the advantage. Joe couldn't seem to hold ground, and soon we were outside, steel flashing sparks up the courtyard so blue and sharp they lit the clouds. We fought around the palm trees, up and down some stairs... and finally, on the edge of the jacuzzi, I figured I had Joe for sure. But no. "I was left handed all along," he sneered – and just like that, the sonofabitch turned it around.

I damn near fell in that jacuzzi, ducking a swipe that was surely aimed at decapitation. Joe cackled like a swamp witch, and swung some more, and soon as I got my bearings – I'm ashamed to admit, but I cut and ran.

Made it up the stairs and into the third floor elevator lobby, and bought myself some time slamming the door shut on old Joe's machete arm. Didn't do anything about the machete – Joe has a grip of iron – but he surely did holler. When the elevator door opened, I let him go and got inside. Would've gotten away, but couple of the sorority girls were in there debriefing on the weekend debauch, and they were too polite to let the door close before Joe got in.

We took respite between floors Three and Six, while the girls made conversation asking us if we liked Texas and how we came to write horror stories, and we both answered best we could.

At Six, the girls got out, and Joe and I didn't have the heart to start up until the doors closed and the elevator was on its way back down.

I'll tell you something now: machete fighting's a different game in the close confines of a hotel elevator than it is across a wide courtyard under a Texas sky. A game with even fewer rules than there is room. A game where truly, it's easier to punch and kick and pull on a fellow's hair than it is to swing a machete around.

So that's how it went, for six floors down to the lobby. End of it all, Joe was on his way to developing a first-class Texas shiner, and his lip was bleeding from where I'd elbowed it. I was doubled-over from a well-aimed punch to the gut and a for-good-measure boot to the unmentionables.

"Well," I said, "I got a taxi coming for the airport in just an hour."

Joe whistled and spat. "Man, that's early," he said.

"Don't I know it. No rest for the wicked."

"All right then."

"All right then."

And that was that. Joe got out first, and held the door while I hobbled into the lobby. We left some things behind in that elevator: a pair of stone-honed machetes notched in battle, part of a left incisor, a healthy spray of blood and spittle and a good handful of Joe's hair. Didn't matter, though. We took what was most dear to us: that being, memories of the best damn convention the town of Austin has ever seen and ever likely will.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Laura Marshall Remembers WHC2011

CZP's Marketing Manager Laura Marshall has this to say about World Horror Con 2011:
As with many of the other posts I find it hard to describe my World Horror experience.  I've never been to a horror convention before, but they are the nicest people out there.  Being a marketing guru and not a writer myself it was great how nice and welcoming people were.  I met a lot of great folks and had a fantastic time hanging out with the ChiZine crew and the British contingent (including Chris Roberts although he's American).  I'm sure after the experience I had this year I'll be going again next year!

Some of my favourite memories from the weekend:
  • Working the CZP table in the dealers’ room.  I always love trying to convince people to buy our books!
  • The look on Ian Rogers face when he was told about his book deal (and the plotting behind the big reveal)
  • Coming up with the rules and gestures for Margarita, Lion, Man
  • Plotting world domination with Nick Kaufmann
  • Running into everyone again at the Austin airport...it's like the convention never ended!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Brent Hayward's Memories of World Horror Convention 2011

Brent Hayward (FilariaThe Fecund's Melancholy Daughter) shared these thoughts about the World Horror Convention this past weekend in Austin, TX:
WHC was a blast from beginning to end, though I was only in Austin for two days. I met a lot of people, some whose name I had previously known, others, not so much. Everyone was great. There was a regular flow of beer and good food. The furthest I strayed from the hotel was to Thundercloud Subs, just across a few dozen lanes of highway. (I have been to Austin before, so remaining in the vicinity of the very nice Doubletree Hotel wasn’t ever frustrating, despite the knowledge that, all the while, a very cool and special city lay not too far away.) Highlights from the con are difficult to pick out, but I will list a few: laughing about ass goblins; the CZP kegger launch, with hot dogs and pretty colours on the margarita machine as it churned; the EDGE launch, with readings about dead strippers; the drunken frat boy—a little person—who chatted with me as he took the glasses from atop my head while I waited for the shuttle; my peaceful room, overlooking the courtyard....
Thanks, Brent. If anyone out there has memories they'd like to share, send 'em our way!

"Moore" Memories from World Horror Con, 2011

Our Marketing Director Matt Moore shares his thoughts:
My experience at World Horror Con was killer.

Living in Ottawa, I don't get to spend as much time with the Toronto contingent of ChiZine Publications as I'd like. So hanging out with Brett, Sandra, the Marshall sisters and the authors is always something I look forward to. Plus, I got to meet Nick Kaufmann and Paul Tremblay, who are super guys.

What surprised me was that even though Brett and Sandra were Guests of Honour, it seemed everyone knew about CZP. It's one thing at a convention in Toronto for us to have large turnout at a party, but for an event in Texas, it was both humbling and exhilarating. One thing that stands out was being in an elevator, a woman saw me carrying a couple of our books and said (with an unmistakeable southern accent) "I love ChiZine Publications. They do great stuff." That did it for me.

I met a lot of great people and saw a lot of great presses in the fight to make it. It's good to know CZP is one of those small presses making a difference and putting out work people love. As a bonus, I get to work with staff and authors I count as good friends and can make me nearly spit my lunch all over Sandra while explaining the rules of Man-Lion-Martini... because a lion can't handle its liquor.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Memories from World Horror Convention, 2011

In the coming days, we hope to post some memories from CZP staff, authors and friends about their experience during the World Horror Convention 2011 in Austin, Texas.

First up, our Managing Editor Helen Marshall:

My favourite memory was the look on Ian Rogers' face after we announced that we would be doing his first collection—particularly after Michael Rowe and I had to drag him out of the bar to come to our launch with an astounding lack of subtlety and he still managed to pull a disappearing act. It was fantastic to spend time with the British contingent—the incredibly talented Vincent Chong, Lou Morgan, Gary McMahon and Rio Youers (who is ours, but still counts)—and to meet up with the CZP folk from afar—Nicholas Kaufmann, Paul Tremblay, and Colleen Anderson. The talent was staggering; the margaritas were cheap; the friends were many.

CZP author Nicholas Kaufmann (Chasing the Dragon) chimes in

The whole convention was a wonderful time with friends old and new, but one of my favorite memories is riding to the airport on Sunday afternoon with Artist Guest of Honor Vincent Chong, Special Guest Del Howison, and authors David Wellington and Livia Llewellyn...in a rented hearse! I felt like such a rock star. Of course, this being Austin, no one batted an eyelash at us.
We'll be posting more as we get them!

In the meantime, if you have any memories you'd like to share, leave a comment.