collection

August 28, 2014

THE VERY BEST OF W. P. KINSELLA is about life and the human condition, often with a bit of the “fantastic” thrown in

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized baseball, canada, collection, cree, elizabeth story, first nation, indians, Marty Halpern, More Red Ink, native americans, shoeless joe, short stories, The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella, Thomas Canty, w. p. kinsella

On his always interesting More Red Ink blog, copy editor Marty Halpern discusses his latest project, The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella.

That scanning project is short story collection The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella, forthcoming in 2015 from Tachyon Publications.

And the project is indeed huge: approximately 138,000 words of fiction, all of which has to be scanned, then cleaned up and formatted, and finally copy edited.

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There are a few other baseball stories in this collection, but you don’t need to know anything about baseball to enjoy these tales: baseball merely serves as a backdrop to these stories, which are about life and the human condition, often with a bit of the “fantastic” thrown in. My favorite story in the collection is “K Mart” – but don’t let the title fool you: it’s the story of lost childhood love, nostalgia, and survival, all amidst the backdrop of a neighborhood dirt-lot baseball game, a game that seemed endless (to the children playing it), but only lasted throughout the summer months.

W. P. Kinsella is also well-known for his “First Nation” stories about the indigenous Cree on the Hobbema Reserve near Edmonton, Canada. These stories reflect the Cree’s destitute and disadvantaged culture, yet add an element of humor by exploring the convoluted situations (and shenanigans) they get into trying to survive in a world dominated by white people. But even with the element of humor, there is a sadness to all of these stories. What is especially delightful about these stories is that Kinsella’s characters – Silas (the narrator), Frank Fencepost, Mad Etta, Bedelia Coyote, Sadie One-wound, and Rufus Firstrider, to name just a few – appear in all the stories. By the time you finish reading this collection, you’ll certainly consider them acquaintances, if not friends.

Read the rest of Halpern’s insightful commentary at More Red Ink.

For information about The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Thomas Canty.

Design by Elizabeth Story.

August 26, 2014

WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD is a great collection to pick up (Especially if you like underwater creatures!)

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized backwards story, bonnie lynn wagner, collection, fantasy, mermaid, patricia a mckillip, review, Thomas Canty, wonders of the invisible world

Thomas Canty’s lush cover to Patricia A. McKillip’s Wonders of the Invisible World hooked Bonnie Lynn Wagner at Backwards Story.

But even if I HADN’T heard of McKillip before, I would have grabbed it anyway because THERE IS A MERMAID ON THE COVER.

I love the artsy feel of a McKillip cover…and a mermaid!? INSTANT BUY.

I haven’t read every single story in the collection so far (I’m savoring them and reading them little by little), but I did read two tales involving underwater creatures so far!

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Whether you’re new to McKillip and looking for a way in, or an old fan ready for a new treat, WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD is a great collection to pick up (Especially if you like underwater creatures!)

Read the rest of Wagner’s review at Backwards Story.

For more info on Wonders of the Invisible World, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Thomas Canty

August 18, 2014

Congratulations to Ellen Datlow and Julie Dillon on their Hugo Awards

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized anthology, Awards, collection, darkness, Ellen Datlow, hauntings, Hugo Awards, julie dillon, kate elliot, lovecraft's monsters, short stories, the cutting room, the very best of kate elliott

Congratulations to editor Ellen Datlow and artist Julie Dillon on their 2014 Hugo Awards.

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And a hearty congrats to all of this year’s winners!

For more on The Very Best of Kate Elliot, visit the Tachyon page.

The Very Best of Kate Elliot cover by Julie Dillon

For more on Tachyon titles edited by Ellen Datlow, visit the Tachyon page.

July 22, 2014

THE VERY BEST OF TAD WILLIAMS demonstrates that he is a jack of all trades – and their master as well

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized collection, elizabeth story, fantasy, horror, ian hunter, interzone, Kerem Beyit, review, science fiction, short stories, Tad Williams, the very best of tad williams

For the July (253) issue of Interzone, Ian Hunter lauds The Very Best of Tad Williams.

[H]ere we have shorter offerings – sixteen stories and a hundred-and-twenty page screenplay called Sunshine. Only one story – ‘Omnitron, What Ho!’ – is original to this collection with the others first appearing in anthologies edited by the likes of Chris Golden, Jack Dann,
Gardener Dozois, Peter S. Beagle, George R.R. Martin, and even
David Copperfield.

The very first tale gets us into a light-hearted groove as ‘The Old Scale Game’ tells the story of a knight and dragon who are getting a bit old in the tooth and fang and come up with a scheme that benefits them both, much to the envy of other mythical creatures who are being hunted
to extinction. Similar scaly shenanigans are evident in ‘A Stark and Wormy Knight’ where an exasperated dragon mum has to recount the bedtime story of how Grand-Greatpap (there is some wonderfully intentional misuse of language throughout this story) managed to overcome the dogged Sir Libogan the Undeflectable.

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The good humour isn’t maintained in all of the stories though. In ‘Not With A Whimper, Either’ online chat room banter turns into something more sinister that just might spell the end of the world, and in ‘The
Stranger’s Hands’ two foreigners are discovered in the forest – one of them has the power to make dreams come true, but possibly not exactly in a way the wisher intended, and such power inevitably attracts the attention of the greatest wizards in the land.

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We are in Stephen King territory here with the dual timescale and the
close-knit group, but surely that can’t be a bad thing? What is bad are the events that unfold in ‘The Storm Door’; it reads like an old pulp hero tale smashing right up against a very modern horror
trope given a very original spin.

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Throughout this collection Williams ably demonstrates that he is a jack of all trades – and their master as well. Damn him.

Read the rest of Hunter’s review in the latest issue of Interzone.

For more information on The Very Best of Tad Williams, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Kerem Beyit.

Design by Elizabeth Story

July 15, 2014

Legendary raconteur W. P. Kinsella joins the 2015 Tachyon lineup

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized baseball, collection, elizabeth story, field of dreams, first nation, j. d. salinger, roberto clemente, shoeless joe, short stories, The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella, Thomas Canty, w. p. kinsella

W. P. Kinsella, the author of Shoeless Joe (basis for the famed film Field of Dreams), joins the 2015 Tachyon lineup with The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella.

One of the finest storytellers in baseball’s history, Kinsella is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer whose satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors, including a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, the Order of British Columbia, and three honorary doctorates.

This retrospective collection, including four stories that were previously uncollected, represents Kinsella’s finest work. In addition to many of his baseball tales are his notorious First Nation narratives of indigenous Canadians, and a literary homage to J. D. Salinger. Alongside the “real” story of the 1951 Giants and the afterlife of Roberto Clemente, are the legends of a pirated radio station and a hockey game rigged by tribal magic.

Eclectic, dark, and comedic by turns, The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella is a living tribute to a legendary raconteur.

Cover art by Thomas Canty.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story.

July 10, 2014

The haunting WE NEVER TALK ABOUT MY BROTHER is appealing to both genre readers and mainstream literature lovers

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized collection, franklin township library, megan porzio, nj, peter s beagle, review, short stories, somerset, staff pick, we never talk about my brother

Megan Porzio selected Peter Beagle’s We Never Talk About My Brother as the staff pick of the week for the Franklin Township (Somerset, NJ) Public Library.

Modern parables of love, death, and transformation are peppered with melancholy in this extraordinary collection of contemporary fantasy. Each short story cultivates a whimsical sense of imagination and reveals a mature, darker voice than previously experienced from this legendary author.

In one tale the Angel of Death enjoys newfound celebrity while moonlighting as an anchorman on the network news, while in another the shortsighted ruler of a gentle realm betrays himself in dreaming of a “manageable war.” Further storylines include an American librarian who discovers that, much to his surprise and sadness, he is the last living Frenchman, and rivals in a supernatural battle who decide to forgo pistols at dawn, choosing instead to duel with dramatic recitations of terrible poetry.

Featuring several previously unpublished stories alongside a bevy of recently released works, this haunting compilation is appealing to both genre readers and mainstream literature lovers.

For more information about We Never Talk About My Brother, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Ann Monn.

June 18, 2014

THE VERY BEST OF KATE ELLIOT is varied and finely crafted

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized collection, elizabeth story, fantasy, julie dillon, kate elliott, Marty Halpern, More Red Ink, short stories, the very best of kate elliott

On his More Red Ink blog, editor Marty Halpern writes about his current assignment, The Very Best of Kate Elliott.

The beauty of any “best of” collection is that it allows the reader to experience the full expanse of the author’s writing and story telling. And, if the collection is indeed worth its (literal) weight, then the book will hopefully have some small treasure, a story unfamiliar to the reader, even if the reader is one of the author’s biggest fans. That was true of The Very Best of Tad Williams (see my November 13, 2013 blog post); and it holds true on my most recent project, The Very Best of Kate Elliott, both from Tachyon Publications.

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Regardless of the source of these stories, they are all as varied, and finely crafted, as the anthologies in which they originally appeared. My favorite story would have to be “A Simple Act of Kindness,” which originally appeared in The Shimmering Door, edited by Katharine Kerr (HarperPrism, 1996). The story of Daniella, a young girl who, in some ways, feels safer out in a storm at night – even a night and a storm such as this – searching for lost sheep, than at home with her family (not the least of which is “her cousin Robert, who had been pestering her for months now, ever since her first bleeding came on her”).

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Lastly, I hope you are as knocked out by Julie Dillon’s cover art as I am. In a one-pager entitled “About the Cover Art” in the book, Kate Elliott states that Dillon’s art illustrates a passage from Cold Steel (Book 3 in the author’s Spiritwalker Trilogy).

Read the rest of Halpern’s post at More Red Ink.

For more info on The Very Best of Kate Elliott, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Julie Dillon. Design by Elizabeth Story.

June 12, 2014

SLEIGHT OF HAND is a beautiful collection of Peter S. Beagle stories

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized collection, peter s beagle, review, short stories, sleight of hand, stuck in a story

In anticipation of meeting Peter S. Beagle, Stuck in a Story reviewed the author’s 2011 short story collection Sleight of Hand.

Sleight Of Hand was a beautiful collection of short stories that really made me think, feel, and inspired me to write. I think that’s what marks a book as great, if it inspires you to write something just as great.

Check out the rest of the review, which includes coverage of several of stories, at Stuck in a Story.

For more on Sleight of Hand, visit the Tachyon page.

June 5, 2014

THE VERY BEST OF TAD WILLIAMS showcases the work of this engaging author

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized collection, elizabeth story, fantasy, horror, january magazine, Kerem Beyit, review, science fiction, short stories, Tad Williams, the very best of tad williams

January Magazine lavishes praise upon The Very Best of Tad Williams.

The Very Best of Tad Williams (Tachyon) showcases the work of this engaging author. Most of the stories collected here have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Bound together in this way, though, they create a sort of living retrospective of the author’s work. Obviously, Williams’ many fans will eat this up. However, those who have been thinking about reading some of his work but have been hesitating will find this book a great indoctrination, especially since many of his novels are massive in both size and scope. Beginning with a more bite-sized stories may well appeal to those wary of making the huge time investment into most of Williams’ novels.

For more information on The Very Best of Tad Williams, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Kerem Beyit.

Design by Elizabeth Story.

June 2, 2014

Double your reading pleasure with Bookgasm reviews of Tad Williams and Joe R. Lansdale

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized Alan Cranis, bookgasm, cold in july, collection, crime, elizabeth story, fantasy, horror, jim mickle, joe lansdale, Joe R. Lansdale, Kerem Beyit, movie tie-in, mystery, review, science fiction, short stories, Tad Williams, texas noir, the very best of tad williams

Bookgasm’s Alan Cranis pulls double duty with reviews of two recent Tachyon titles.

On The Very Best of Tad Williams:

For newcomers to his short fiction, the most pleasant revelation will be the different types of stories Williams has written over the years. In “The Old Scale Game,” a fairly recent work, an aging knight confronts an equally aging dragon and the two traditional adversaries enter into a mutual partnership. This contemporary spin on a familiar setting allows Williams to express a sly warning to those who see the fantasy field as nothing more than a cash cow.

Contrast this with “Not With A Whimper” where a group of readers debate online the merits of fantasy versus science fiction until their exchange is interrupted by power surges. The source of the surges, the debaters discover, is an artificial intelligence struggling with its new-found consciousness and powers. Williams presents the entire story in a near cyber-punk style of coded posted messages.

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Of the far too many authors cramming the fantasy field with seemingly endless series, only a few are genuinely worthy of our time. THE VERY BEST OF TAD WILLIAMS proves that he is among this select company, and may also cause some to drastically re-evaluate the talents of this prolific and popular author, and discover his other equally satisfying works.

For the rest of the Cranis review, which includes coverage of several of the other stories in the collection, visit Bookgasm.

And then on Cold in July:

One of the benefits of COLD IN JULY being made into an independent movie (adapted by screenwriter/actor Nick Damici and directed by Jim Mickle) is this new, movie tie-in edition from Tachyon, Joe R. Landsdale’s publisher. So now this early work from one of America’s finest storytellers – first published in 1989 and nearly impossible to find since – is once again available. That’s wonderful news not only for the legion of Lansdale fans but also for those who love a finely told crime story.

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This new edition is further enhanced by an original forward by director Jim Mickle, and a new afterword by Lansdale himself. Mickle recalls what first attracted him to the novel and the many false-starts his adaptation suffered along the way to completion. Lansdale reveals the events that planed the seed of the story in his unconscious, and how it seemed to flow full-borne from his mind to his typewriter when he finally devoted himself to the story.

Lansdale also comments how happy he is to see a new edition of this novel back in print after so long a time. That’s true for us readers as well.

Regardless if you plan to see the movie or not, now’s your chance to fill that gap in your Lansdale collection — or finally get one started.

For the rest of the Cranis review, visit Bookgasm.

For more information on The Very Best of Tad Williams, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Kerem Beyit.

Design by Elizabeth Story.

For more info on Cold in July, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

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