Maintenance Monday
Have You Ever Heard Of . . . ?
First off, hats off to Jo Walton, my favorite Tor.com blogger. She always has posts that either inspire me to go buy something, or she provides inspiration for this column. Well, this particular inspiration was a long time fermenting, but since I posted my review of Karin Lowachee's The Gaslight Dogs last night, it got me thinking.
Who are your favorite neglected authors?
Jo Walton collected an interesting list here, but even that is barely the tip of the iceberg, and I don't agree with all of the selections (C.J. Cherryh? Robin Hobb? Jack McDevitt? Really?). But Walton's post focused on neglected authors, and I want to focus on something even smaller: great authors it seems like NO ONE IN THE WORLD has heard about, authors you may have a hard time finding in the store. I'm not including debut novelists either, because not hearing of them and them being debut kind of goes hand-in-hand, you know?
I'll start, and each name is a link to all of my reviews of that author.
Adam-Troy Castro (I just went to his website to learn more about the third Andrea Cort novel and learned it's contracted in GERMANY. Not the US, but Germany. WTH?)
Christopher Barzak (He may not count now that he's officially made the Nebula list for Best Novel, but I've heard more than one person wonder who the hell he is, so…)
Karin Lowachee (I think I effectively explained this one yesterday; she needs a Cherie Priest-esque breakout a-la Boneshaker, and FAST.)
Kathleen Ann Goonan (The tragedy here is that most of her books are out of print, and if I buy them, the author gets any proceeds and the publisher doesn't track used sales.)
Syne Mitchell (Suffers from the same issue as Goonan, but worse, her last book was marketed as book one in a series, and then the publisher pulled the plug. Even sadder is that Mitchell apparently no longer keeps an internet presence, as her webpage and blog are gone, gone, gone.)
There's a few things that disturb me about my list, and maybe part of it relates to how long the authors have been publishing novels. BUT: the first two, men, both have books that are still in print, but it seems like news of their latest is long-coming and/or I know few, if any, people who've read them.
The rest of my list are all women, all who write SF. Save for Goonan and Lowachee, who both have their latest releases in print (and Lowachee's is fantasy to boot), all of them have out-of-print backlists, and that's just sad. If anyone ever asks me why I have a sense of dread about getting published, I need to point to this list. Publishing isn't often kind to the women who write the SF that moves me. It's very, very depressing.
BUT! The point of this list is awareness, yes? So here are my authors that I would buy every single thing they wrote if I could get my hands on it and make sure they got the royalties, but it seems that few people have heard of. Who are YOUR favorites that no one has heard of? Comment below, but forgive me if you mention a name (like people did in Jo Walton's post) of an author who CLEARLY has a major following. How can you tell? Just check to see how many raviews the author has on Amazon for a particular book! :)
Now that I've scared you off the question, I'll try again: who are YOUR favorite authors that nobody has heard of?
Book Club Selections
April: The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
May: Natural History by Justina Robson
June: Theme: No Sparking Vampires! Vote Now! Poll closes 4/14!
Book Sale: In order to buy new books, I have to sell old ones. Help me out? :) Details are here.
Follow me on Facebook! Please? I post new cover art and give up-to-date tabs on what I'm reading! :)
Giveaways & Challenges
@ calico_reaction, we've got TWO giveaways running, with at least TWO MORE in the pipeline. Don't miss out!
To win Running with the Pack, a werewolf anthology, click here. Deadline 4/17.
To win Sins & Shadows, Lyn Benedict's dark, urban fantasy, click here. Deadline 4/24.
@ Book Love Affair, click here to win one of ten books in her 250 Follower Giveaway! Deadline 5/8.
@ Jawas Read, Too!, click here to sign up for her "Summer of Series" reading challenge! It's an ambitious project, but you don't have to sign up for the WHOLE thing. :)
Got a giveaway or reading challenge you'd like to promote? Please comment.
Upcoming Reviews: The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay, Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky, Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn, Replay by Ken Grimwood
Currently Reading: Seeing by José Saramago
2010 Reading Total: 30 out of 50 (once I hit 50, I'll move that number up to 75).
2010 Comics Total: 115 out of 365. #116 will be tonight!Poll Time!
So the other day, I sat down to outline the rest of my book club themes for the year, and I realized I had A LOT of ideas but not a lot of time. What do I mean? Well, we're currently selecting through June, and September is the one-year anniversary of the book club, so the remaining themes (July & August) need to be something people are excited about, because it's the summer and I want to choose themes YOU'RE interested in. Also, while we'll keep with this theme-centric voting process through the end of the year, there's no telling what I'll do in 2011, so I thought it'd be a good idea to figure what of the following themes, if any, tickled your interest. Please feel free to offer suggestions in the comments as well as titles that might fit those suggestions. The same is true for the author-centric question, but be sure to select authors who have a big enough body of work that I can select any mix of four stand-alone or first-in-a-series/trilogy books. Clear as mud? Let's vote!
Poll Pick Your Favorite Challenge Themes!
Thanks for voting, and remember, comments are always welcome! :)
First off, hats off to Jo Walton, my favorite Tor.com blogger. She always has posts that either inspire me to go buy something, or she provides inspiration for this column. Well, this particular inspiration was a long time fermenting, but since I posted my review of Karin Lowachee's The Gaslight Dogs last night, it got me thinking.
Who are your favorite neglected authors?
Jo Walton collected an interesting list here, but even that is barely the tip of the iceberg, and I don't agree with all of the selections (C.J. Cherryh? Robin Hobb? Jack McDevitt? Really?). But Walton's post focused on neglected authors, and I want to focus on something even smaller: great authors it seems like NO ONE IN THE WORLD has heard about, authors you may have a hard time finding in the store. I'm not including debut novelists either, because not hearing of them and them being debut kind of goes hand-in-hand, you know?
I'll start, and each name is a link to all of my reviews of that author.
Adam-Troy Castro (I just went to his website to learn more about the third Andrea Cort novel and learned it's contracted in GERMANY. Not the US, but Germany. WTH?)
Christopher Barzak (He may not count now that he's officially made the Nebula list for Best Novel, but I've heard more than one person wonder who the hell he is, so…)
Karin Lowachee (I think I effectively explained this one yesterday; she needs a Cherie Priest-esque breakout a-la Boneshaker, and FAST.)
Kathleen Ann Goonan (The tragedy here is that most of her books are out of print, and if I buy them, the author gets any proceeds and the publisher doesn't track used sales.)
Syne Mitchell (Suffers from the same issue as Goonan, but worse, her last book was marketed as book one in a series, and then the publisher pulled the plug. Even sadder is that Mitchell apparently no longer keeps an internet presence, as her webpage and blog are gone, gone, gone.)
There's a few things that disturb me about my list, and maybe part of it relates to how long the authors have been publishing novels. BUT: the first two, men, both have books that are still in print, but it seems like news of their latest is long-coming and/or I know few, if any, people who've read them.
The rest of my list are all women, all who write SF. Save for Goonan and Lowachee, who both have their latest releases in print (and Lowachee's is fantasy to boot), all of them have out-of-print backlists, and that's just sad. If anyone ever asks me why I have a sense of dread about getting published, I need to point to this list. Publishing isn't often kind to the women who write the SF that moves me. It's very, very depressing.
BUT! The point of this list is awareness, yes? So here are my authors that I would buy every single thing they wrote if I could get my hands on it and make sure they got the royalties, but it seems that few people have heard of. Who are YOUR favorites that no one has heard of? Comment below, but forgive me if you mention a name (like people did in Jo Walton's post) of an author who CLEARLY has a major following. How can you tell? Just check to see how many raviews the author has on Amazon for a particular book! :)
Now that I've scared you off the question, I'll try again: who are YOUR favorite authors that nobody has heard of?
Book Club Selections
April: The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
May: Natural History by Justina Robson
June: Theme: No Sparking Vampires! Vote Now! Poll closes 4/14!
Book Sale: In order to buy new books, I have to sell old ones. Help me out? :) Details are here.
Follow me on Facebook! Please? I post new cover art and give up-to-date tabs on what I'm reading! :)
Giveaways & Challenges
@ calico_reaction, we've got TWO giveaways running, with at least TWO MORE in the pipeline. Don't miss out!
To win Running with the Pack, a werewolf anthology, click here. Deadline 4/17.
To win Sins & Shadows, Lyn Benedict's dark, urban fantasy, click here. Deadline 4/24.
@ Book Love Affair, click here to win one of ten books in her 250 Follower Giveaway! Deadline 5/8.
@ Jawas Read, Too!, click here to sign up for her "Summer of Series" reading challenge! It's an ambitious project, but you don't have to sign up for the WHOLE thing. :)
Got a giveaway or reading challenge you'd like to promote? Please comment.
Upcoming Reviews: The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay, Firefly Rain by Richard Dansky, Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn, Replay by Ken Grimwood
Currently Reading: Seeing by José Saramago
2010 Reading Total: 30 out of 50 (once I hit 50, I'll move that number up to 75).
2010 Comics Total: 115 out of 365. #116 will be tonight!Poll Time!
So the other day, I sat down to outline the rest of my book club themes for the year, and I realized I had A LOT of ideas but not a lot of time. What do I mean? Well, we're currently selecting through June, and September is the one-year anniversary of the book club, so the remaining themes (July & August) need to be something people are excited about, because it's the summer and I want to choose themes YOU'RE interested in. Also, while we'll keep with this theme-centric voting process through the end of the year, there's no telling what I'll do in 2011, so I thought it'd be a good idea to figure what of the following themes, if any, tickled your interest. Please feel free to offer suggestions in the comments as well as titles that might fit those suggestions. The same is true for the author-centric question, but be sure to select authors who have a big enough body of work that I can select any mix of four stand-alone or first-in-a-series/trilogy books. Clear as mud? Let's vote!
Poll Pick Your Favorite Challenge Themes!
Thanks for voting, and remember, comments are always welcome! :)