Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Erik Mohr featured in Quill and Quire


For their July/August 2011 issue, Quill and Quire takes a look at our cover designer, Erik Mohr. Here he shows us the design process for the cover to Caitlin Sweet's upcoming The Pattern Scars, and the difficulty in conveying the book's rich imagery in a single image.

Click here to read the feature.

Click here to go to our page on The Pattern Scars.

CHIMERASCOPE nominated for a Sunburst Award!


We are pleased to announce that Douglas Smith's collection Chimerascope has made the shortlist for the Sunburst Awards. These awards are presented annually to recognize Canadian writers of speculative fiction.
The jury says: "This collection contains a beautifully diverse selection of short tales that runs the full spectrum of the speculative genres. The tales are well-crafted, easily digestible; several of the stories are incredibly moving and stick with the reader long after. The wide range of stylistic approaches works well together."
Good luck, Douglas!

Click here to see the shortlist.

Click here to learn more about Chimerascope.

ChiZine now available on Nook!

ChiZine Publications is proud to announce that our entire back catalogue is now available for purchase in the NOOK Book eBook format. This format is compatible with any Nook brand eReaders or apps and is available exclusively on Barnes and Noble. Our books are less than $8 each in this format - more affordable than the dead-tree versions, for sure!

Click here to access our catalogue on Barnesandnoble.com !

A Rope of Thorns review in Library Journal


Library Journal writes: "Filled with antiheroes, sacrificial victims, and supernatural beings, Files’s latest is not for the squeamish but should delight fans of gothic Western fantasy and Central American myths."

Read the review! (scroll down, it's the fourth review on the page)

Learn more about A Rope of Thorns!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Short but sweet Nexus: Ascension review!!


The Science Fiction Book Club writes: "A bravura debut by Robert Boyczuk, Nexus: Ascension is destined to be compared to Poul Anderson’s The Day After Doomsday."

Read the review!
If you're a SFBC member, you can also buy the hardcover here for just $12.99!


Or click here to find out more about Nexus: Ascension and buy it directly from us.

Eutopia gets "two thumbs up for originality"


"Nickle gets two thumbs up for originality, as I’m fairly certain there isn’t another story like this—you might find yourself turning the pages of Eutopia just so you can see how he pulls all these diverse plot threads together. . . . This is certainly a book to try if you like The Twilight Zone or somewhat twisted/strange stories."
—Hardkover

Read the review here.
Order a copy of Eutopia today!

An excellent review of A Rope of Thorns


Gemma Files' A ROPE OF THORNS has recieved an absolutely glowing review on The (Hopeful) Librarian:

"Okay, this is another one of those books I love so much I don’t know if I can be coherent about, but I will try. . . ."
—Jen Moore

Click to read the review!

Click to buy A Rope of Thorns!

Katja a "boner-worthy romp"


Now this is a pull quote that draws your attention! Thomas McAuley has reviewed Katja From the Punk Band, calling it "a boner-worthy romp that follows an assortment of characters who each own their own, unique piece of this dark world."

Read the review!
Check out Katja From the Punk Band!

Napier's Bones gets press in Planet S


Saskatoon-based Planet S magazine is shining the spotlight on Derryl Murphy and his latest, NAPIER'S BONES. Murphy talks about his writing style:
“It is a bit of a peripatetic work. There’s a journey that they go under, they go from place to place. But I didn’t want [readers] to get sucked into the sight-seeing aspect of the journey — what I wanted instead was for this to be balls-to-the-wall from the beginning to the end: let’s not stop, please don’t take a breath.”

Read the interview here.
Buy Napier's Bones here.

Monstrous Affections in New York Review of SF


The New York Review of Science Fiction has reviewed and recommended David Nickle's MONSTROUS AFFECTIONS in its June 2011 issue.

"Being about couples and families and what goes wrong, exaggerated and extrapolated into dripping, smelly, bloody, and often very funny situations, [the stories] get under the reader’s skin and twitch."- Ursula Pflug

Click here to buy Monstrous Affections!

Friday, June 17, 2011

ChiZine Publications at Toronto Small Press Book Fair

This Sunday, SPoT (Small Press of Toronto) will be holding their Spring Book Fair. There will be great offering from many of the city's small presses, including the requisite slice of dark and sublime speculative lit from ChiZine Publications.

The event runs from 11 AM - 5 PM, Sunday June 19th, at the University of Toronto's Hart House (7 Hart House Circle). Hope to see you there!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Interview with Erik Mohr

Horror blog Blood and Vegetables has interviewed Erik Mohr, the artists responsible for all of ChiZine's book covers. He offers insights into his creative process, design fads, and the challenges of designing an image that captures the feel of an entire book.

"You need to have a cover that piques the readers interest, gets them asking questions and ultimately opening the book. It’s advertising and my job is selling the story. If I can get a reader excited enough to open the book, then I have done my job.”

Read the interview here.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Fecund reviewed in the Globe and Mail!


"By turns surreal, macabre and stunningly violent, The Fecund’s Melancholy Daughter is dreamlike in its strangeness and complexity. Like a dream, it is difficult to define and difficult to shake. The imagery lingers like archetypes dredged up from the sleeping mind." - Mark D. Dunn, The Globe and Mail

Click here to read the review.

Click here to order The Fecund's Melancholy Daughter.

Interview with Brent Hayward






















Sci Fi Fan Letter
has posted an interview with Brent Hayward, discussing his novels, The Fecund's Melancholy Daughter and Filaria.

"> What’s the best/worst thing about writing?
The best thing about writing is holding a published book, or seeing a potential cover for the first time. Getting a good review or feedback from someone far away who likes your writing is pretty great too. The worst thing is running into snobbery. A lot of writers seem to believe that what we are all doing is more important than what other people end up doing. I can't abide by that."

Read it right here.

Order a copy of Filaria or Fecund!

In Conversation with Tony Burgess





Canadian Bookshelf has launched a new interview feature, In Conversation With. For its inaugural post, hostess Julie Wilson interviews Tony Burgess, author of Pontypool Changes Everything and People Live Still in Cashtown Corners.

"TB: The gore and violence, well, it's like this. The gore and violence isn't in and of itself meaningful. It's native to my imagination for small reasons. It is a neutral medium. Any story I tell is told in it. Sometimes it crosses over to change the story and sometimes it's something the story has known and adapted to for a very long time. It's as if you committed your life to writing people who yell all the time. The shock and tedium of it push at lives in a meaningless and extreme way. The commitment is important."

Read the interview!

Check out or pages for Pontypool and Cashtown Corners!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Another pair of great ESC reviews!


It seems Tom Piccirilli just can't stop getting good press!
The Hipster Book Club writes, "While he may not become a tween girl favorite, Piccirilli’s ability to relate the maddening but human experiences of unfulfilled hope or fear of failure through an evocative and exhilarating story makes Every Shallow Cut a standout. The story will resonate long after the short time it takes to read."

Read the review here.

And the Milwaukee Public Library's blog posts, "If you are looking for light, summer beach reading, skip this book and find something else. If you are looking for 175 pages of a brilliant character study of a man being stripped of everything he loves, except his dog (thank goodness!), then I strongly recommend this downer of a book."

Read the review.

And buy a copy of Every Shallow Cut here.

Videos from our World's Biggest Bookstore Event!




On Saturday June 5th, ChiZine participated in the World's Biggest Speculative Fiction event at World's Biggest Bookstore. The event featured readings from Gemma Files, David Nickle, and Brent Hayward. The post-reading discussion was led by our co-publisher, Sandra Kasturi, and the blog Sci-Fi Fan Letter has uploaded some video of that discussion!

Click here to go to the blog.

Direct video links (Vimeo):
"Why do you write horror?"
"What does a short story allow you to do that a novel doesn't?"

Booklife talks to Tom Piccirilli


Tom Piccirilli has been featured in a round-table interview at Booklife, along with Peter Brandvold and Sherry Monahan. They discuss the day-to-day life of being a full-time writer and the unique stresses of the job.

Click here to read the interview!
Buy Tom's latest, Every Shallow Cut, here!

Q&A with EUTOPIA's David Nickle


Curiosity Killed the Bookworm, a blog that previously reviewed Eutopia, now sits down with author David Nickle to discuss the book and his career.

"You know, I don't want to scare readers -- I want to worry them, give them the creeps, help them explore the sense that the world might not be as easily comprehensible as would allow them to continue feeling safe.... I really wanted to show people the strange places that lived in my imagination: my own twisted Middle Earth."

Read the interview here!
Order Eutopia here!

Q&A with EUTOPIA

Fecund shout-out at Locus!


Locus Magazine's website gives a capsule review to The Fecund's Melancholy Daughter in its New and Notable section: "[Brent Hayward's] second novel combines elegant writing with moral ambiguity and an impressive array of grotesque characters."

Read it here.
Learn more about Fecund here.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Enter, Night and Bearded Woman now available for preorder!



We have two new novels available for preorder exclusively on Horror Mall: ENTER, NIGHT by Michael Rowe and BEARDED WOMEN by Teresa Milbrodt. These are the last ChiZine works for 2011.
As before, these two will be available in a limited edition signed hardcover. Each limited edition will be limited to 150 copies, and they will be available until July 31, 2011. Get yours today!

Order Bearded Women here.
Order Enter, Night here.

Three ChiZine books crack the top ten at Horror Mall!

Horror Mall's preorder bestseller list for May 2011 features three ChiZine works within the top ten! The Pattern Scars is #6, followed by Briarpatch at #8 and Picking Up the Ghost at #9.

We've sold out of limited editions for Picking Up the Ghost, but you still have one month to preorder The Pattern Scars or Briarpatch. There are only 150 of each of these signed hardcover edition books, so order yours quickly!

Pattern Scars on Horror Mall
Briarpatch on Horror Mall

Alex Good reviews The Fecund's Melancholy Daughter


Alex Good at GoodReports.net has reviewed Brent Hayward's newest novel, The Fecund's Melancholy Daughter.
"Hayward's imagination is itself a kind of Fecund, spinning tall tales and spewing forth all manner of furniture."

Click here to read the review.
Click here for more info on The Fecund's Melancholy Daughter.

Every Shallow Cut mini-review!


"If you’re a writer, this is one of the truest books you’ll ever read. . . . EVERY SHALLOW CUT is one of those rare books that’s so good it hurts."
—James Reasoner, Rough Edges

Read the review here.
Buy Every Shallow Cut here.

Eutopia gets a four-star review


Book blog I <3 Reading has given 4 out of 5 stars to David Nickle's EUTOPIA. They write, ""The writing style is bold, straight-forward and highly addictive. The storyline is well-thought-through, innovating, refreshing and at its core, deeply terrifying."

Read the full review here!
Learn more about Eutopia here!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Doctor Who and the Curse of the Fatal Preemption

The Chiaroscuro's Managing Fiction Editor Gord Zajac has a bone to pick the SPACE channel:

So, as everyone now knows, Canada's SPACE channel didn't bother to tell anyone that Doctor Who was being preempted this week due to BBC America not wanting to air Doctor Who on Memorial Day weekend in the US.

This made me madder than it should have. It absolutely ruined my weekend, as I practically live for Doctor Who each Saturday. I was fuming. I was furious. And I don't mean regular furious. I mean like, "HULK SMASH" furious. To which my wife said, "It's just a TV show, Gord. Get over it."

She was right. I did need to get over it. But it's not just a TV show. Not to me. Doctor Who has been an influential part of my life since the '70s, back when Venetian judo was all the rage and reversing the polarity of the neutron flow was cool. It's had a big impact on my life over the years, and on the way I write.

You can see Doctor Who's influence all over my first book, Major Karnage. Where Doctor Who had sonic screwdrivers, time lords, and maniacal pepperpots screaming "EXTERMINATE!" I had explosive Sanity Patches, goober-wielding Dabneycops, and insane combat veterans screaming "DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT THE WAR!" All with the same gleeful madcap pacing and whiplash-inducing plot twists.

While I was writing Major Karnage, my favourite way to describe the book to people was, "It's like an episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor never shows up. Which is why it takes the characters a whole book to figure out what's going on rather than a single television episode." That description only ever worked with Doctor Who fans, who were not as prevalent as I would have liked at the time.

But now, Doctor Who is one of the top-rated shows in Canada. (At least it was until last Saturday.) There's a whole new world of Doctor Who fans out there. And I'm sure a lot of you were as disappointed as I was on Saturday night. (The least SPACE could have done was tell us ahead of time that Doctor Who was being postponed for a week. That was totally uncool, SPACE. Way to fail at the Webby-Two-Point-Oh thing.)

So I've been consoling myself since Saturday by remembering that I have my own wacky universe of megalomaniacal aliens and quirky characters that I could revel in. And I'm going to channel that negative energy into a new short story I'm working on: "Major Karnage and the Sharkmen of Atlantis." (It will be a long time coming because I write slowly, but I can tell you that it will involve Sharkmen, Atlantis, and an insane combat veteran screaming about something or other.) This had done much to quell my inner Hulk and return me to my meek Banner-esque existence. My wife is now somewhat mollified.

Then I found myself wondering if there was a way that, instead of spreading more negativity about this online, maybe I could find a way to make something positive out of this that I could spread to others.

So I talked to my publishers, Brett and Sandra at ChiZine Publications, and they've agreed to offer free shipping (within Canada and the U.S.) on all Major Karnage paperback orders until June 15th. You can have a look at me reading from the book, as well as from "A Major Karnage Kristmas." (That's right: MK even has its own Christmas special!)




I know it doesn't begin to make up for missing out on this week's Doctor Who, but it's the least I could do to try and make something positive out of all this. And while it's not quite the thrilling conclusion you were hoping for on Saturday, Major Karnage just might take the edge off while you wait for next Saturday's "The Almost People."

In conclusion, thanks for reading this far and for indulging an old Doctor Who fanboy.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to see a man about a shark.

Gord