Rick Klaw

About Rick Klaw

http://www.tachyonpublications.com

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February 14, 2023

An amazing debut novella, THE BRUISING OF QILWA by Naseem Jamnia snares a shortlist inclusion for the 2023 IAFA Crawford Award

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Samuel R. Delany Fellowship recipient Naseem Jamnia’s debut novella THE BRUISING OF QILWA continues to collect accolades with a 2023 IAFA Crawford Award shortlist mention, Gary K. Wolfe at Locus discussing the book in his The Year in Review 2022, and review from The Reading Rebel. Also, Nalini Haynes on the Dark Matter Zine podcast interviews Jamnia.

Cover for THE BRUISING OF QILWA by Naseem Jamnia — Cover by Elizabeth Story

The winner of the 2023 Crawford Award, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first book of fantasy published the prior year, is Simon Jimenez for his novel The Spear Cuts Through Water (Del Rey). Jimenez had previously published a well-received science fiction novel, The Vanished Birds (2020), but The Spear Cuts Through Water is his first fantasy book, making it eligible for the award.

The awards committee also named a shortlist including Maya Deane, Wrath Goddess Sing (William Morrow), Naseem Jamnia, THE BRUISING OF QILWA (Tachyon), Alex Jennings, The Ballad of Perilous Graves (Redhook), and Jacob Kerr, The Green Man of Eshwood Hall (Serpent’s Tail)
2023 IAFA Crawford Award

Naseem Jamnia’s distinctively titled The Bruising of Qilwa, which also is one of the two most interesting first novels I read this year (see below for the other), with its nonbinary healer as protagonist, its powerfully-developed themes of colonialism, marginalization, and oppression, and its systems of blood magic worked out with such consistency that they begin to look like actual hematology.
Gary K. Wolfe

I love books with magic and I thought the magic system in this book was well thought out and easy to understand. I love that this book talked about immigration, affordable healthcare, and prejudice. This book handled these subjects very well. The writing is so beautiful and lyrical. I love that this world is queer normative and am hoping for more books written in this world. I highly recommend this gem of a book.

Rating: 5 stars
The Reading Rebel

This is a Dark Matter Zine podcast and I’m your host Nalini Haynes. Today I’m talking to author Naseem Jamnia about their book the Bruising of Qilwa. My review for this book is here.
Dark Matter Zine

February 12, 2023

Happy birthday to the exceptional Terry Bisson

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Activist, editor, and writer Terry Bisson is the award-winning author of over 40 novels, numerous short stories, comic book adventures, and screenplays. His best known novels include Wyrldmaker (1981), Talking Man (1986), Fire On the Mountain (1988), Voyage To the Red Planet (1990), The Hole In the Hole, Pirates of the Universe (1996), Saint Leibowitz And The Wild Horse Woman (1997 with Walter M. Miller, Jr.), The Pickup Artist (2001), NUMBERS DON’T LIE (2001), and Any Day Now (2012). Bisson produced several movie novelizations including Virtuosity (1995), Johnny Mnemonic (1996), The Fifth Element (1997), and Galaxy Quest (1990).

Outside of comic book stories for series such as Creepy, Eerie, and the short-lived Web Of Horror (which he also edited), Bisson published no short fiction until 1990. These works headlined by “Bears Discover Fire” (made into an acclaimed short film and winner of the SF Chronicle, Asimov’s Reader, Locus, Hugo, Sturgeon, and Nebula awards), “Press Ann,” “They’re Made Out of Meat” (made into an acclaimed short film that won the Grand Prize at the Seattle Science Fiction Museum‘s 2006 Film Festival), “The Shadow Knows,” “Dead Man’s Curve,” “Necronauts,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” and “macs” (winner of the Locus, Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, and Nebula awards) cemented Bisson’s reputation as a master storyteller. Many of these acclaimed stories were collected in Bears Discover Fire And Other Stories (1993), In The Upper Room and Other Likely Stories (2000), GREETINGS AND OTHER STORIES (2005), Cuando los osos descubrieron el fuego (2007 Spain), The Left Left Behind plus… (2009), Billy’s Book (2009 also as Billy’s Picture Book [2020 with illustrations by Rudy Rucker] and Billy’s Book: True Crime for Kids [2020 with illustrations by Rudy Rucker]), Tva Baby And Other Stories (2011), and They’re Made Out of Meat and 5 other All-Talk Tales (2019).

Bisson’s non-fiction articles and reviews have appeared in The Nation, Monthly Review, Glamour, Sf Age, Automotive News, New York Newsday, Writer’s Digest, Common Ground, Covert Action Information Bulletin, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Whole Earth Catalog, and others. Among his numerous book length nonfiction are Nat Turner: Slave Revolt Leader (1988), Car Talk With Click And Clack, The Tappet Brothers (1991 with Tom and Ray Magliozzi), A Green River Girlhood (1992 with his aunt Elizabeth Ballantine Johnson), and On A Move: The Story Of Mumia Abu-Jamal (2001).

While a student at Grinnell College (Iowa) in 1961, Bisson was involved with student protesters who supported President Kennedy’s proposed test-ban treaty and “peace race.” While protesting in Washingto, Bisson along with 13 other classmates, dubbed the Grinnell 14 by the press, met with Kennedy’s National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy. They were the first such group to meet with anyone from the Kennedy White House. This event is seen as the impetus for the student peace movement.

Among all these other accomplishments, Bisson is the editor of the Outspoken Authors Series for PM Press which features such SF icons as Nalo Hopkinson, Nisi Shawl, Michael Moorcock, Ursula K. LeGuin, Rudy Rucker, Cory Doctorow, and Kim Stanley Robinson. In conjunction with Tachyon Publications, he hosts the monthly SF in SF reading series in San Francisco.

All of at Tachyon wish the sensational Terry a happy birthday. Keep on keeping on.

February 11, 2023

Happy birthday to the iconic grandmaster Jane Yolen

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Hailed as both the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century, Jane Yolen, with her first publication, the non-fiction book about women pirates Pirates In Petticoats (1963), embarked on amazing career of over four hundred books (and counting). Her impressive and acclaimed output includes children’s fiction, poetry, short stories, graphic novels, nonfiction, fantasy, and science fiction.

Among her many honors are the Christopher Medal (The Seeing Stick [1977], How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? [2000]), Nebula (“Sister Emily’s Lightship” [1998], Lost Girls [1999]), World Fantasy (Favorite Folktales From Around The World [1987], THE EMERALD CIRCUS [2018]), Mythopoeic (Cards Of Grief [1985], Briar Rose [1993], The Young Merlin Trilogy [1998, Passager, Hobby, and Merlin]), Golden Kite (The Girl Who Cried Flowers & Other Tales [1974]), and National Jewish Book Award (The Devil’s Arithmetic [1989]). Yolen received the World Fantasy Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Rhysling Science Fiction Poetry Grand Master Award, the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, Edward E, Smith Memorial Award (Skylark), Jeremiah Ludington Memorial Award, Regina Medal Catholic Children’s Books Life Award, Anne V. Zarrow Award, and Sydney Taylor Book Award Body-of-Work Winner. She has honorary doctorates from Smith College, University of Massachusetts (Amherst), Bay Path College, Sister of Our Lady of the Elms College, Westfield State College, and Keene State College.

Cover for The Scarlet Circus, a collection of love stories by Jane Yolen — Cover by Elizabeth Story

Many of Yolen’s shorter works have been collected in numerous works including The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales (1974), The Hundredth Dove and Other Tales (1977), Dream Weaver (1979), The Whitethorn Wood and Other Magicks (1984), Storyteller (1992), Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast (1997), Sister Emily’s Lightship and Other Stories (2000), Once Upon A Time (She Said) (2005), The Last Selchie Child (2012), THE EMERALD CIRCUS (2017), HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE (2018), and THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS (2020). Several volumes of her poetry exist including The Three Bears Rhyme Book (1987), The Originals: Animals that Time Forgot (1998), Least Things: Poems about Small Natures (2003), Before the Vote After (2017), On Gull Beach (2018),and Fly with Me: A Celebration of Birds Through Pictures, Poems, and Stories (2018, with Heidi E.Y. Stemple, Adam Stemple, and Jason Stemple). Her many other acclaimed works include Pit Dragon Chronicles (Dragon’s Blood [1982], Heart’s Blood [1984], A Sending of Dragons [1987], Dragon’s Heart [2009]), Owl Moon (1987), The Great Books of Alta (Sister Light, Sister Dark [1988], White Jenna [1989], The One-Armed Queen [1998]), The Stuart Quartet (all with Robert J. Harris Queen’s Own Fool [2000], Girl in a Cage [2001], Prince Across the Water [2004], The Rogues [2007]), Ekaterinoslav: A Family’s Passage to America (2012), Finding Baba Yaga (2018), Mapping the Bones (2018), THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS (2019 with Adam Stemple), Kaddish: Before the Holocaust and After (2021), and ARCH OF BONE (2021).

Her editorial endeavors include the anthologies Zoo 2000 (1973), Favorite Folktales from Around the World (1986), Werewolves: A Collection of Original Stories (1988 with Martin H. Greenberg), Things That Go Bump in the Night (1989 with Greenberg), 2041: Twelve Short Stories About the Future by Top Science Fiction Writers (1991), Vampires(1991 with Greenberg), Xanadu (Vol 1 1993, Vol 2 1994, Vol 3 1995), The Haunted House: A Collection of Original Stories (1995 with Greenberg), Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around The World (1998 with Kathleen Ragan), Gray Heroes: Elder Tales from Around the World (1999), and Mightier Than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys (2003).

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale — Cover by Elizabeth Story

The prolific Yolen continues to produce acclaimed, award winning work at a prodigious pace. In 2022 alone, she published 7 books: Black Dog Poems (with Peter Tacy), Mrs. Noah’s Doves, Elefantastic, Big Bold Beautiful Me (with Maddison Stemple-Piatt), Giant Island, Yuck You Suck! Poems about Animals That Sip, Slurp, Suck (with Heidi Stemple), and Love Birds. The Valentine’s Day release of her new collection THE SCARLET CIRCUS is, after January’s How Do Dinosaurs Learn To Be Kind? (with Mark Teague), her second 2023 publication already.

Because she apparently never sleeps, Yolen is also a teacher of writing and a book reviewer. She splits her time between Western Massachusetts and St. Andrew, Scotland.

All of us at Tachyon, wish the incredible Jane a happy birthday. May your mythic journeys never end.

February 9, 2023

THE SCARLET CIRCUS by Jane Yolen preview: “Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn”

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In celebration of the release of Jane Yolen’s THE SCARLET CIRCUS, Tachyon presents glimpses from the book that is “endlessly imaginative [with] superbly crafted tales that stir the heart.” (Kirkus)

Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn

by
Jane Yolen

In my country poets sing the praises of wine and gift its color to the water along the shores of Hellas, and I can think of no finer hymn. But in this land they believe their prophet forbade them strong drink. They are a sober race who reward themselves in heaven even as they deny themselves on earth. It is a system of which I do not approve, but then I am a Greek by birth and a heathen by inclination, despite mymaster’s long importuning. It is only by chance that I have not yet lost an eye, an ear, or a hand to my master’s unforgiving code. He finds me amusing, but it has been seven years since I have had a drink.

I stared at the bottle. If I had any luck at all, the bottle had fallen from a foreign ship and its contents would still be potable. But then, if I had any luck at all, I would not be a slave in Arabia, a Greek sailor washed up on these shores, the same as the bottle at my feet. My father, who was a cynic like his father before him, left me with a cynic’s name—Antithias—a wry heart, and an acid tongue, none proper legacies for a slave.

But as blind Homer wrote, “Few sons are like their father; many are worse.” I guessed that the wine, if drinkable, would come from an inferior year. And with that thought, I bent to pick it up.

The glass was a cloudy green, like the sea after a violent storm. Like the storm that had wrecked my ship and cast me onto a slaver’s shore. There were darker flecks along the bottom, a sediment that surely foretold an undrinkable wine. I let the bottle warm between my palms.

Since the glass was too dark to let me see more, I waited past my first desire and was well into my second, letting itrise up in me like the heat of passion. The body has its own memories, though I must be frank: passion, like wine, was simply a fragrance remembered. Slaves are not lent the services of concubines, nor was one my age and race useful for breeding. It had only been by feigning impotence that I had kept that part of my anatomy intact—another of my master’s unforgiving laws. Even in the dark of night, alone on my pallet, I forwent the pleasures of the hand, for there were spies everywhere in his house and the eunuchs were a notably gossipy lot. Little but a slave’s tongue lauding morality stood between gossip and scandal, stood between me and the knife. Besides, the women of Arabia tempted me little. They were like the bottle in my hand—beautiful and empty. A wind blowing across the mouth of each could make them sing, but the tunes were worth little. I liked my women like my wine—full-bodied and tanged with history, bringing a man into poetry. So I had put my passion into work these past seven years, slave’s work though it was. Blind Homer had it right, as usual: “Labor conquers all things.” Even old lusts for women and wine.

Philosophy did not conquer movement, however, and my hand found the cork of the bottle before I could stay it. With one swift movement I had plucked the stopper out. A thin strand of smoke rose into the air. A very bad year indeed, I thought, as the cork crumbled in my hand.

Up and up and up the smoky rope ascended and I, bottle in hand, could not move, such was my disappointment. Even my father’s cynicism and his father’s before him had not prepared me for such a sudden loss of all hope. My mind, a moment before full of anticipation and philosophy, was now in blackest despair. I found myself without will, reliving in my mind the moment of my capture and the first bleak days of my enslavement.

That is why it was several minutes before I realized that the smoke had begun to assume a recognizable shape above the bottle’s gaping mouth: long, sensuous legs glimpsed through diaphanous trousers; a waist my hands could easily span; breasts beneath a short

February 8, 2023

THE SCARLET CIRCUS by Jane Yolen preview: “Sans Soleil”

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In celebration of the release of Jane Yolen’s THE SCARLET CIRCUS, Tachyon presents glimpses from the book that “is a charming bouquet of love stories from a heady array of fantastical viewpoints.” (Susan Palwick, author of All Worlds Are Real and Flying in Place)

Sans Soleil

by
Jane Yolen

There once was a prince called Sans Soleil, which is to say, Sunless. It had been prophesied at his birth that he would grow so handsome, his beauty would outshine the sun. That he might not be killed by the jealous star, he had to be kept in the dark, for it was said that he would die if ever a shaft of sunlight fell upon his brow.

So the very night he was born, his father, the king, had him carried away to a castle that was carved out of rock. And in that candlelit cave-castle, the young prince grew and flourished without ever seeing the sun.

Now, by the time Sans Soleil was twenty years old, the story of his strange beauty and of the evil prediction had been told at every hearth and hall in the kingdom. And every maiden of marrying age had heard his tragic tale.

But one in particular, Viga, the daughter of a duke, did not believe what she heard.

“Surely,” she said, tossing her raven-black hair from her face, “surely the king has hidden his son from the light because he is too monstrous to behold.”

Her father shook his head. “Nay,” he replied. “I have been to this cave-castle and have seen this prince. He is handsomer than the sun.”

But still Viga did not believe what her father told her. “The sun cannot harm anyone,” she said. ‘‘There is no sense in what you say.” And she took herself to the king dressed in her finest gown of silver and gold.

“Sire,” she said, “at court you have been taken in by lies. The sun is not harmful. It nourishes. It causes all things to grow. It will not kill the prince.”

The king was touched by the girl’s sincerity. He was moved by her beauty. He was awed by her strength of purpose, for it is no little thing to contradict a king. Still, he shook his head and said, “It was prophesied at his birth that he would die if ever a shaft of sunlight struck his brow.”

“Old wives and young babes believe such tales. They should not frighten you, sire. They do not frighten me,” Viga replied. ·

‘‘They do not frighten you because you are not the one who would die,” said the king, and at these words all the courtiers smiled and nodded their heads and murmured to one another. “Still, I will give the matter more thought.”

Viga gave a low curtsy. And as she rose, she said quietly, so that only the king could hear it, “It does seem strange that sun and son do sound the same.” Then she smiled brightly and departed.

February 8, 2023

Booksellers, librarians, bloggers, and reviewers get FLIGHT & ANCHOR, Nicole Kornher-Stace’s new adventure set in the world of her popular novel FIREBREAK “Wonderful” —Max Gladstone, author of Last Exit

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Review copies of Nicole Kornher-Stace’s deviously creative romp FLIGHT & ANCHOR are now available via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY.

Kornher-Stace masterfully weaves a deviously creative romp that is somehow both nail-bitingly suspenseful and tenderly cozy, as if the authors of How to Win the Time War had decided to set The Boxcar Children in Snow Crash’s tongue-in-cheek hyper-capitalist dystopia.
Maria Dong, author of Liar, Dreamer, Thief

FLIGHT & ANCHOR

by
Nicole Kornher-Stace

ISBN: Trade paperback: 978-1-61696-392-7; Digital: 978-1-61696-393-4

Published: June 2023

Available Format(s): Trade paperback and digital formats

From the world of the breakout novel Firebreak, an exciting new adventure of corporate corruption, dangerous flight, and uncertain loyalty. After a daring escape from a prison lab, two young, modified soldiers arrive in a freezing-cold city where they have no resources. With time running out, a sinister handler pitting the two operatives against each other will be the biggest threat to their mutual survival.

Cyborg Boxcar Children vs. the nanomachines, only make it a character study in possibility, heartache, sacrifice, and friendship. Wonderful.
—Max Gladstone, author of Last Exit

Young SecOps operatives 06 and 22 were about to be sent out for their first military engagement. Just a few years earlier, they were child refugees of a corporate civil war; Stellaxis modified them into supersoldiers. But 06 and 22 have escaped their prison barracks and entered a city they can barely remember. In the dead of winter, they sleep in an abandoned shipping container and scavenge for resources.

The Director of the Stellaxis supersoldier program knows that 06 and 22 are gone, where they are, and that she has no easy way of retrieving them. The Director also knows that if she sends anyone after them, there will be a bloodbath—or at least a great deal of bad press. But all operatives’ days are numbered. 06 and 22 must make a terrible choice: their freedom or each other.

Nicole Kornher-Stace’s FLIGHT & ANCHOR pulls you along with the speed of a dystopian freight train. Taking the weaponized childhoods of kids like Ender and blending in a touch of Hanna-style rebellion against the mother organization, Kornher-Stace draws you into a story not only of survival but of calculated surrender to drive the best possible outcome. FLIGHT & ANCHOR gives us kids who, despite their superpowers and their upbringing’s best efforts, are still believably constrained by their inexperience. Kornher-Stage continues to be an author to watch, and this latest work is a solid addition.
Kimberly Unger, author of Nucleation

February 7, 2023

Tachyon tidbits featuring Lavie Tidhar, David Liss, Joe R. Lansdale, and Jacob Weisman & David Sandner

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The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web

Lavie Tidahe author photo — Lavie Tidhar

**Andrew Wheeler on his The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. praises Lavie Tidhar’s NEOM.**

This is a smart, open-hearted, short SF novel deeply steeped in the history of the robot and mechanical man in SF, and that has plenty of its own changes to ring on those ideas, set, as I said, in a deep, complex, interesting universe of its own.

Neom by Lavie Tidhar — Cover by Elizabeth Story

**The LAPL Blog interviews Tidhar.**

What was your inspiration for Neom?

It was really, I think, our second lockdown over here, in the middle of winter, and I was supposed to be writing this big historical epic, Maror, which is out now in the UK…But I just couldn’t concentrate. And I had this image that came into my mind, of a robot holding a flower. I didn’t know anything else about it, so I wrote what I thought was a small story about the robot, and then realised I had no idea what it was doing, so wrote more to find out, and eventually realised I was writing a novel! The city I explored earlier in a short story, “Neom,” that is more or less the first chapter here, and the whole idea of the Ghost Coast and the Green Caravanserai came from a visit to the Sinai quite a long time ago, when the whole coastal area seemed half-built and abandoned. And I woke up for the sunrise as it emerged from behind the Saudi mountains on the other side of the Red Sea, and I thought, you know, I’d love to go there. So I did, even if it’s in the far future of my own imagination.

**Kate Sherrod on Kate of Mind enjoys THE PECULIARITIES by David Liss.**

I would read many more volumes of stuff set in this world, whether the hero be Thomas, Esther, Ruby (a wolf-girl who helps them quite a bit) or even some brand new characters. Like the aforementioned Tim Powers, Liss has created a truly original and intriguing magical system and thus a world with room for many more cool adventures. Crossing my fingers for more of this!

Things Get Ugly, cover by John Coulthart — Design by John Coulthart

**On his feuilleton journal, book designer John Coulhart discusses THINGS GET UGLY: THE BEST CRIMES STORIES OF JOE R. LANSDALE.**

The stories may be described as crime but quite a few of them are dark enough to be included in horror collections. Things do, indeed, get ugly. The intersection between crime and horror fiction isn’t exactly new, the two genres have been entangled since The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and the boundaries remain permeable to this day. The most well-known piece in the new collection is Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, a story that was filmed for TV by Don Coscarelli for the Masters of Horror series, and which also opened the first season in 2005. Coscarelli’s adaptation is even nastier than its source but not everything in the collection is unrelentingly grim. Lansdale has a flair for black comedy which is to the fore in another story, Driving to Geromino’s Grave, in which two Depression-era children have to bring home the rotting body of their deceased uncle. This may not be everybody’s idea of an amusing read but the witty dialogue made me laugh.

**David Sandner and Jacob Weisman talk about Hellhounds for My Favorite Bit.**

Jacob:

Hellhounds is part of a larger collaborative project between David Sandner and myself. The larger story cycle follows the adventures of two brothers, Kenny – also known as The Prophet — and his older brother Lamond.

There’s two of us involved with this story, and while David may have a favorite bit all his own, I suspect we share the same favorite, and that is the character of Lamond that we discovered while writing this story.

February 7, 2023

THE SCARLET CIRCUS by Jane Yolen preview: “Unicorn Tapestry”

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In celebration of the release of Jane Yolen’s THE SCARLET CIRCUS, Tachyon presents glimpses from the book “is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence.” (Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series)

Unicorn Tapestry

by
Jane Yolen

Princess Marian was a middle child and middle—she often complained—in everything else. Her older sister, Mildred, was beautiful and about to be married to the Emperor Karlmage. Her younger sister, Margaret, was striking and about to be wed to a neighboring king, Hal. But Marian, middling pretty and middling smart and middling in all her talents, was about to be married to no one. There were simply no eligible royals left in the world.

“Or at least in the world as we know it,” said her mother. She was never willing to make a completely definitive statement. She sighed and gazed fondly into Marian’s eyes (not blue like Mildred’s or green like Margaret’s but a sort of middling muddy brown). “They are all either married, engaged, enchanted, or strayed. I am sorry, Em. There’s always the convent, you know.”

The tears that filled Marian’s eyes were the same middling muddy color, until they slid down onto her cheeks, where they became ordinary tears. Marian wiped them away quickly. Princesses are not supposed to cry, at least not where they can be seen. She wasn’t sad about the not-marrying part. It had always been her contention that marriage is not necessarily the only thing a princess can do. But she didn’t want to be shut away in a convent, not when she didn’t have the proper strong beliefs.

Marian left her mother’s chamber and trudged slowly down the winding stone stair. She went out a little dark side door, the one that was hidden by a large tapestry. Only Marian and her sisters knew about the door. They had discovered it one day playing catch-as-who-can. The door opened onto a wild part of the vast palace gardens, near an untended lily pool.

Marian was so upset, she picked up a smooth white stone and threw it across the pond. It skipped three times before it sank. “If only stones could grant wishes,” she said aloud.

“As-you-will,” sang out an undistinguished brown bird on the cherry bough. For such a mud-colored bird, it had quite a lovely voice, clear yet tremulous. “As-you-will.” Or at least that is what Marian thought the bird sang.

“What I will,” Marian answered back, “is to be kept out of the convent. And I wish that I had something—anything—that distinguishes me. That makes me magical. Or special. Marriage is not necessary.” She paused. “Though it could be nice.”

Then she turned and walked away, feeling a fool for having made a wish upon an ordinary white skipping stone that had sunk with scarcely a ripple, and for having talked back to a totally uninteresting and ordinary bird. Maybe, she thought fiercely to herself, maybe I do need to be shut away, and not necessarily in a convent, either.

She made an angry tour around all the gardens, which took several hours. By then most of her anger had dissipated, so she slipped back past the ivy and through the hidden door.

February 7, 2023

Happy birthday to the extraordinary PEN/Faulkner Award-winning Karen Joy Fowler

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Shortly after the publication of a handful of short stories in 1985, Karen Joy Fowler emerged as one of the most acclaimed authors of her generation. She has won numerous awards including PEN/Faulkner (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves [2014]), World Fantasy for Best Collection (Black Glass [1999] and What I Didn’t See and Other Stories [2011]), World Fantasy for Best Short Fiction (”Pelican Bar” [2010]), Shirley Jackson for Best Short Fiction (”Pelican Bar”), Nebula for Best Short Story (“What I Didn’t See” [2004] and “Always” [2008]), and Astounding (formerly John W. Campbell) Award for Best New Writer (1987). Fowler received the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2020.

She has seven novels to her credit: Sarah Canary (1991), The Sweetheart Season (1996), Sister Noon (2001), The Jane Austen Book Club (2004), Wit’s End (2008), We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013), and Booth (2022). Fowler’s numerous short stories have been collected in Artificial Things (1985), Peripheral Vision (1990), Black Glass (1998), What I Didn’t See and Other Stories (2010), The Science of Herself plus … (2013), and Comme ce monde est joli [French] (2021).

In 1991, Fowler, alongside Pat Murphy, founded the James Tiptree, Jr. Award (now Otherwise Award), a science fiction/fantasy literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that “expands or explores our understanding of gender.” Fowler and Murphy joined Debbie Notkin and Jeffrey D. Smith to edit three volumes of THE JAMES TIPTREE AWARD ANTHOLOGY (2005-2007). She also edited MOTA 3: Courage (2003), 80!: Memories and Reflections on Ursula Le Guin (with Notkin, 2010), and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016.

All of us at Tachyon wish the amazing Karen a happy birthday. May you always see the world a bit different than the rest of us!

February 7, 2023

Win a copy of the beloved Grandmaster Jane Yolen’s THE SCARLET CIRCUS “Eclectic, powerful, beautiful, and passionate” — Brandon Sanderson

Rick Klaw Uncategorized

With the help of the fine folks at GOODREADS, we’re giving away Jane Yolen’s collection of endlessly imaginative, superbly crafted tales, THE SCARLET CIRCUS. Comes with a special introduction by Brandon Sanderson.

All these years, and Jane Yolen still reduces me to helpless, gibbering admiration. I’ll read anything with her name on it, even if it’s just a damn grocery list!
Peter S. Beagle, author of In Calabria

Yolen enthusiasts will be rapt, and new fans will be won. Endlessly imaginative, superbly crafted tales that stir the heart.
Kirkus

The Scarlet Circus, the fourth volume in Yolen’s award-winning short fiction series brings you passionate treasures and unexpected transformations. This bewitching assemblage, with an original introduction from Brandon Sanderson, is an ideal read for anyone who appreciates witty, compelling, and classic romantic fantasy.

THE SCARLET CIRCUS is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence. Jane Yolen has a true storyteller’s voice—a voice that makes the writing disappear so that only the stories remain.
Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series

A rakish fairy meets the real Juliet behind Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. A jewelry artist travels to the past to meet a successful silver-smith. The addled crew of a ship at sea discovers a mysterious merman. More than one ignored princess finds her match in the most unlikely men.

From ecstasy to tragedy, with love blossoming shyly, love at first sight, and even love borne of practical necessity—beloved fantasist Jane Yolen’s newest collection celebrates romance in all its glory.

THE SCARLET CIRCUS is a magnificent and beautiful anthology from a master storyteller! Jane Yolen’s stories and poems reach directly into your heart and fill you with the loveliest kind of magic. I absolutely adored it!
Sarah Beth Durst, award-winning author of The Queens of Renthia series

Introduction by Brandon Sanderson
“A Little Bit of Loving” by Jane Yolen
Sans Soleil
Dusty Loves
Unicorn Tapestry
A Ghost of an Affair
Dark Seed, Dark Stone
Dragonfield
The Sword and the Stone
The Sea Man
Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn
Peter in Wonderland
The Erotic in Faerie: The Footnotes

For this whimsical collection, World Fantasy Award winner Yolen (The Midnight Circus) brings together 11 fantastical shorts centered on romantic love. Yolen’s trademark fairy tale styling is on display throughout, with vivid, pithy prose animating each quirky flight of fancy.
Publishers Weekly

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Rick Klaw

About Rick Klaw

Posts by Rick Klaw:

In celebration of the release of Jane Yolen’s THE SCARLET CIRCUS, Tachyon presents glimpses from the book that is “endlessly imaginative [with] superbly crafted tales that stir the heart.” (Kirkus)

Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn

byJane Yolen

In celebration of the release of Jane Yolen’s THE SCARLET CIRCUS, Tachyon presents glimpses from the book that “is a charming bouquet of love stories from a heady array of fantastical viewpoints.” (Susan Palwick, author of All Worlds Are Real and Flying in Place)

Sans Soleil

byJane Yolen

Review copies of Nicole Kornher-Stace’s deviously creative romp FLIGHT & ANCHOR are now available via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY.

by Nicole Kornher-Stace

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web

Andrew Wheeler on his The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. praises Lavie Tidhar’s NEOM.

The LAPL Blog interviews Tidhar.

Kate Sherrod on Kate of Mind enjoys THE PECULIARITIES by David Liss.

On his feuilleton journal, book designer John Coulhart discusses THINGS GET UGLY: THE BEST CRIMES STORIES OF JOE R. LANSDALE.

David Sandner and Jacob Weisman talk about Hellhounds for My Favorite Bit.

In celebration of the release of Jane Yolen’s THE SCARLET CIRCUS, Tachyon presents glimpses from the book “is a magical collection of love stories, where love is often an act of courage and intelligence.” (Anne Bishop, New York Times bestselling author of the Black Jewels series)

Unicorn Tapestry

byJane Yolen

With the help of the fine folks at GOODREADS, we’re giving away Jane Yolen’s collection of endlessly imaginative, superbly crafted tales, THE SCARLET CIRCUS. Comes with a special introduction by Brandon Sanderson.

Table of Contents

by
Jane Yolen

by
Jane Yolen

by
Nicole Kornher-Stace

**Andrew Wheeler on his The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. praises Lavie Tidhar’s NEOM.**

**The LAPL Blog interviews Tidhar.**

**Kate Sherrod on Kate of Mind enjoys THE PECULIARITIES by David Liss.**

**On his feuilleton journal, book designer John Coulhart discusses THINGS GET UGLY: THE BEST CRIMES STORIES OF JOE R. LANSDALE.**

**David Sandner and Jacob Weisman talk about Hellhounds for My Favorite Bit.**

by
Jane Yolen