the last tsar’s dragons

February 14, 2023

Tachyon well represented at Boskone 60

Rick Klaw blog, Events adam stemple, boskone, boston, burn, falling in love with hominids, James Patrick Kelly, Jane Yolen, michael swanwick, nalo hopkinson, Naseem Jamnia, not so much said the cat, the bruising of qilwa, the last tsar's dragons, the scarlet circus

Guest of Honor Nalo Hopkinson, Naseem Jamnia [Virtual], James Patrick Kelly, Adam Stemple, Michael Swanwick, and Jane Yolen will all be attending Boskone 60, February 17-19 in Boston, MA.

Cover art by Chuma Hill
Design by Elizabeth Story

Cover for THE BRUISING OF QILWA by Naseem Jamnia — Cover art by Chuma Hill
Design by Elizabeth Story

Brought to you by the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA), Boskone is an annual science fiction convention, the oldest in New England. NESFA is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation and both NESFA and Boskone are run and put on entirely by fan volunteers.
What isBoskone?

Boskone offers a massive selection of readings and panels. To find any of these authors, check out the entire schedule.

February 11, 2023

Happy birthday to the iconic grandmaster Jane Yolen

Rick Klaw birthday, blog arch of bone, birthday, elefantastic, how to dinosaurs learn to be kind?, how to fracture a fairy tale, Jane Yolen, mrs. noah's doves, the emerald circus, the last tsar's dragons, the midnight circus, the scarlet circus

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).

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 11, 2022

Happy birthday to the iconic grandmaster Jane Yolen

Rick Klaw birthday, blog arch of bone, birthday, how do dinosaurs say goodbye, how to fracture a fairy tale, Jane Yolen, kaddish, the emerald circus, the last tsar's dragons, the midnight circus, when nana dances

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), and THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS (2019 with Adam Stemple).

The prolific Yolen continues to produce acclaimed, award winning work at a prodigious pace. In 2021 alone, she published 8 books: The Last Robot, her 400th book Bear Outside, Rum Pum Pum, Kaddish: Before the Holocaust and After, Eeny Up Above, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodbye, When Nana Dances with Maddison Stemple-Piatt), and ARCH OF BONE.

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 11, 2021

Happy birthday to the iconic grandmaster Jane Yolen

Rick Klaw birthday, blog adam stemple, arch of bone, bear outside, birthday, how to fracture a fairy tale, Jane Yolen, the emerald circus, the last robot, the last tsar's dragons, the midnight circus

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 four hundred books (and counting). Her impressive and acclaimed output includes children’s fiction, poetry, short stories, graphic novels, nonfiction, fantasy, and science fiction.

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), and THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS (2019 with Adam Stemple).

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).

The prolific Yolen continues to produce acclaimed, award winning work at a prodigious pace. In 2020 alone she published 8 books: Emily Writes, Miriam at the River, On Eagle Cove, THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS, I am the Storm, Interrupting Cow, Interrupting Cow and the Chicken Crossing the Road, and Plymouth Rocks. Her first book for 2021, The Last Robot launched today on Yolen’s 82nd birthday, and her 400th book Bear Outside comes out in March. Yolen’s new Tachyon Publications book the middle grade novel ARCH OF BONE premieres in November 2021.

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 2, 2021

Tachyon well represented at Boskone 58

Rick Klaw blog, Events adam stemple, alastair reynolds, boskone, Carrie Vaughn, content: selected essays on technology creativity copyright and the future of technology and the future of the future, cory doctorow, driftwood, Ellen Datlow, James Patrick Kelly, Jane Yolen, julie dillon, kitty's mix tape, marie brennan, michael swanwick, nesfa, nightmares: a new decade of modern horror, not so much said the cat, slow bullets, the last tsar's dragons, the very best of kate elliott

Marie Brennan, Ellen Datlow, Julie Dillon, Cory Doctorow, James Patrick Kelly, Alastair Reynolds, Adam Stemple, Michael Swanwick, Carrie Vaughn, and Jane Yolen will all be attending the virtual online convention Boskone 58, February 12-14.

Brought to you by the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA), Boskone is an annual science fiction convention, the oldest in New England. NESFA is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation and both NESFA and Boskone are run and put on entirely by fan volunteers.
What is Boskone?

Guest of Honor: Joe Abercrombie
Official Artist: Julie Dillon
Special Guest: Sheree Renée Thomas
Musical Guest: Marc Gunn
NESFA Press Guest: Ursula Vernon
Hal Clement Science Speaker: Mike Brotherton
Hal Clement Science Speaker: Christian Ready

Boskone offers a massive selection of readings and panels. To find any of these authors, check out the entire schedule.

November 13, 2020

Celebrate Tachyon’s 25th anniversary with award-winning musician and author Adam Stemple

Rick Klaw blog 25th anniversary, adam stemple, the last tsar's dragons 0

“Tachyon is the best, most supportive, most involved publisher I’ve ever worked with. I was kept in the loop for every step in the process—editing, promotion, cover design—everything! Working with Tachyon has been one of the most rewarding publishing experiences of my life”-
–Adam Stemple

October 30, 2020

Tachyon tidbits featuring Daniel Pinkwater, Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, Jill Roberts, David G. Hartwell, Jacob Weisman, Cory Doctorow, and Joe R. Lansdale

Rick Klaw blog adam stemple, adventures of a dwergish girl, budapest, cory doctorow, daniel pinkwater, David G. Hartwell, hungary, jacob weisman, Jane Yolen, jill roberts, Joe R. Lansdale, Publishers Weekly, r/fantasy, reddit, review, Sándor Bródy Library, tachyon publications channel, the drive-in, the last tsar's dragons, the new york times, the sword & sorcery anthology, tina jordan, tor.com, youtube 0

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

Publishers Weekly praises Daniel Pinkwater’s ADVENTURES OF A DWERGISH GIRL.

The comically absurd ending is an enjoyable wrap-up to this fast-paced, unexpected adventure that combines history, folklore, and nonsensical fun.

Cover by Aaron Renier
Design by Elizabeth Story

The Sándor Bródy Library (Budapest, Hungary) includes THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple among the October e-book recommendations.

On the Tachyon Publications Channel, meet Tachyon Managing Editor Jill Roberts.

At REDDIT r/Fantasy in the conversation Looking for Sword and Sorcery Short Story Anthology recommendations, snowlock27 suggests THE SWORD & SORCERY ANTHOLOGY.

THE SWORD & SORCERY ANTHOLOGY, edited by David G Hartwell and Jacob Weisman. Has the classics by Robert E Howard, Michael Moorcock, and CL Moore, as well as newer writers, like Caitlyn Kiernan, George RR Martin, and Gene Wolfe.

Cover by Jean-Sebastien Rossbach
Design by Elizabeth Story

For TOR.COM, Cory Doctorow pens Beyond Cyberpunk: The Intersection of Technology and Science Fiction.

People with established careers are terrible sources of advice on how to break into their chosen field. When I was a baby writer, I attended numerous panels about getting established, where writers a generation or two older than me explained how to charm John W Campbell into buying a story for Astounding Stories. This was not useful advice. Not only had Campbell died six days before I was born, but he was also a fascist.

I have two careers, one in tech and the other in SF, a peanut-butter-and-chocolate combo that’s got a long history in the field, and I am often asked how to break into both fields. I know an awful lot about how to sell a story to Gardner Dozois, who stopped editing Asimov’s sixteen years ago and died two years ago, but I know nothing about pitching contemporary SF editors.

Likewise: I know an awful lot about breaking into the tech industry circa 1990: first, be born in 1971. Next, be raised in a house with a succession of primitive computers and modems. Enter the field in the midst of a massive investment bubble that creates jobs faster than they can be filled, when credentials are irrelevant.

Another advantage we had in the 1990s tech industry: cyberpunk. Cyberpunk, a literary genre that ruled sf for about two decades, was primarily written by people who knew very little about the inner workings of computers, and who were often barely able to use them.

In THE NEW YORK TIMES, Tina Jordan’s Texas selection in “50 States, 50 Scares” comes unsurprisingly from Joe R. Lansdale.

Ah, October — crisp nights, apple-picking, leaf-peeping, Halloween. To celebrate the spookiest season, we’ve made a list of the scariest novel set in every state.

[…]

Texas

Joe R. Lansdale, “The Drive-In”

A crowded drive-in movie marathon turns into a B-movie horror-fest all its own, splattering the patrons in a blood-and-gore nightmare.

July 14, 2020

Jane Yolen’s spellbinding, dark MIDNIGHT CIRCUS is a gift to fairy tale lovers

Rick Klaw blog adam stemple, asimov's science fiction, coode street podcast, how to fracture a fairy tale, Jane Yolen, kirkus, paul di filippo, Publishers Weekly, quirky cat's fat stacks, review, the emerald circus, the last tsar's dragons, the midnight circus 0

Though not coming out until October, Jane Yolen’s collection THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS is starting to garner attention. It is currently available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller or direct from Tachyon and for reviewers via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY praises the book.

Nebula Award winner Yolen follows HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE with another, slightly more sinister collection of delightfully dark fairy tales … [Y]olen’s many fans will be thrilled to find her largely true to form. This collection is a gift for fairy tale lovers.

As does KIRKUS.

Yolen often uses the language and imagery of fairy tales to weave her original, spellbinding stories, which make a cohesive collection. They’re all dark, though in most cases, that darkness encompasses loss but doesn’t revel in it. As Yolen puts it in her introduction, there’s “a frisson of terror rather than massive amounts of spilt blood.” … And if the stories themselves somehow aren’t enough, each is accompanied by a poem that extends its themes into evocative verse. Haunting stories from a modern master.

Paul Di Filippo in ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION (July/August 2020) is impressed by THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS by Yolen and Adam Stemple.

The Yolens manage to evoke a mix of sympathy and disgust for every character. In other words, each person illustrates the full spectrum of human behavior. The emperor is a tyrant, but loves his family and his dragons. The empress is a doting mother, but has fallen for Rasputin. Rasputin is a megalomaniac, but also something of a Nietzschean superman. And Trotsky and Lenin wish to liberate Russia, but are ruthless and shortsighted.

If any single one of these folks steals the show, it would have to be Rasputin. The Yolens obviously revel in all his appearances, and his murder and subsequent slow dying are the standout chapters.

By integrating the anomalous dragons into the canonical events, the Yolens achieve what fantastika does best: inverting the familiar and allowing us to see reality more clearly.

QUIRKY CAT’S FAT STACKS (OF BOOKS) feels much the same.

This was honestly an extremely interesting read. I’m not a historical expert (and I would love to hear an expert’s opinion on this book), but I was fascinated by what I read here. Jane Yolen and Adem Stemple had such a way of writing this tale. It felt organic and rich with history and lore, even taking into account all of the alternations that had to be made.

COODE STREET PODCAST spends Ten Minutes with Jane Yolen.

Legendary Grand Master Jane Yolen shares with Gary some delightful personal news, as well as her advice to aspiring authors on how the lockdown can be seen as a gift to writers, the pleasures of “munchie” writing like Cat Valente or Gregory Maguire, the short stories of Theodora Goss, and Linda Barnes’s Carlotta Carlyle mysteries.

July 1, 2020

Each story in Jane Yolen’s THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS is perfect

Rick Klaw blog adam stemple, annie's book stop of worcester, ash & books, interview, Jane Yolen, review, the bibliosanctum, the last tsar's dragons, the midnight circus 0

ASH & BOOKS delivers the first review of Jane Yolen’s forthcoming collection THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS (not due until October, but available for pre-order from your favorite bookseller or direct from Tachyon and for reviewers via EDELWEISS and NETGALLEY).

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A wonderful collection of short stories! Each one is it’s own self contained story that is just perfection. I really had a fun time reading them!

THE BIBLIOSANCTUM is excited about the book.

A collection of darkly weird and wonderful poems and tales, it’s due out later this fall and seems perfect for the Halloween season.

In an interview with ANNIE’S BOOK STOP OF WORCESTER, Adam Stemple discusses THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS.

What was the inspiration for THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS? What were the steps you took to bring it from initial inspiration to the finished book?

THE LAST TSAR’S DRAGONS started life as a short story in The Dragon Book, a collection of short stories edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. It’s a fun collection with the likes of Dianna Wynne Jones and Gregory Maguire adding stories to the mix. We felt like we had more to tell, and pitched it to Tachyon as a novella. Expanding a short story is an interesting task. We added another viewpoint character and a small framing device while fleshing out the characters that were already in the story. I felt that by lengthening it, we were really able to explore some thematic elements—the corruptive nature of power, for one—that there just wasn’t room for in the shorter form.

June 25, 2020

Celebrate Tachyon’s 25th anniversary with the iconic grandmaster Jane Yolen

Rick Klaw blog 25th anniversary, how to fracture a fairy tale, Jane Yolen, poem, the emerald circus, the last tsar's dragons, the midnight circus, the transfigured hart

There Is a T

For Tachyon’s Anniversary

There is a T in my life,
small, tidy perfectly suited
to the short pieces,
small moments,
that make up my writing life.
I do not need 150,000
cheerleaders drunk on words
and rooting from the sidelines,
but the intimacy, the hand-fasting,
I have with you, T,
gives me the love and grace
to write on.

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