Please find below the cover of the forthcoming Steampunk romance anthology from Ticonderoga, Kisses by Clockwork, edited by Liz Grzyb. It will feature 16 stories of Steampunk romance. pre-orders can be made through Indiebooksonline.com
The TOC is as follows:
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If you are not convinced I will let Russ & Liz convince you:
Black-Winged Angels is a collection of 10 incredible contemporary retellings of fairy tales, and will be available in a limited hardcover edition illustrated by the multiple World Fantasy Award nominated Kathleen Jennings.
The collection will feature an introduction by the multiple award-winning Juliet Marillier and be published in August 2014.
Black-Winged Angels comprises ten reworked/reloaded fairytales for adult readers, several available for the first time in Australia.
The book will appeal to fans of Angela Carter ("The Company of Wolves") and Emma Donoghue ("Kissing the Witch").
Angela Slatter's previous Ticonderoga collection, The Girl With No Hands and Other Tales, won the Aurealis Award while her co-authoredMidnight and Moonshine collection (with Lisa L. Hannett) made the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2012.
"I’m so delighted to be working with Ticonderoga Publications again to give these stories a very special second life," says Angela Slatter. "Being able to have Juliet Marillier introduce the collection and Kathleen Jennings to illustrate it is the best gift a writer can get!"
Black-Winged Angels will be published as a limited hardcover edition of 250 copies signed by all contributors.
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- Marilag Angway, "Smuggler's Deal"
- Cherith Baldry, "The Venetian Cat"
- Gio Clairval, "The Writing Cembalo"
- M L D Curelas, "Ironclad"
- Ray Dean, "Practically Perfect"
- Stephanie Gunn, "Escapement"
- Richard Harland, "The Kiss of Reba Maul"
- Rebecca Harwell, "Love in the Time of Clockwork Horses"
- Faith Mudge, "Descension"
- Nicole Murphy, "The Wild Colonial Clockwork Boy"
- Katrina Nicholson, "Lady Presto Magnifico and the Disappearing Glass Ceiling"
- Anthony Panegyres, "The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople"
- Amanda Pillar, "A Clockwork Heart"
- Angela Rega, "The Law of Love"
- Carol Ryles, "Siri and the Chaos-Maker"
- DC White, "South, to Glory"
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Cat Sparks is probably more widely known for her role as an editor and small press advocate (indeed she was included in Donna Maree Hanson’s Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview as such). A talented graphic artist and photographer she’s been a stalwart, a firm fixture in the Australian Speculative Fiction scene long before I rocked up.
The Bride Price collects works that have appeared intermittently over the course of the last decade or so, it’s the short fiction that she’s fitted in around being generally brilliant and multitalented with everything else. And like everything she does in Australian speculative fiction its got that polished feel to it.
You can perhaps tell I am a little bit of a fan.
No collection can be everything to everyone, there’s usually some stories that hit the mark and some that don’t but heavens, I’d have trouble finding a story in this collection that I thought was even slightly off the boil.
The award winning A Lady of Adestan opens the collection. A beautifully written fantasy tale that ducks and weaves under your defences and delivers a sharp stinging uppercut. It was released in 2007 but I won’t spoil it. It’s a brilliant opener that snaps the reader into focus and gets them prepared for some quality work. If you think women can’t write gritty fantasy well read this story and then we’ll chat.
This is followed by the first of the Sammaryndan stories, Beyond the Farthest Stone, which is chronologically the last written, being an original composition for this collection. In Beyond the Farthest Stone, Sparks manages to conjure up a superb post apocalyptic setting reminiscent of those bleak 80’s films like Mad Max 3 and Salute to the Jugger. Only with Sparks, you get the sense of a deeper, more realized and diverse world. You’ll also note that women are mostly the heroes of these stories - which is to say that you get a different perspective, a subtle shifting of focus away from standard tropes.
The Bride Price takes us off earth and possibly several galaxies away to a single man in possession of a good fortune, and in need of a wife. And in this future brides are made to order, contracted to the buyer before they mature to leave time for training. It’s a subtle commentary on the rich and women/people as a commodity. The moral is ( through I hesitate to use the term, as Sparks never preaches) is the suggestion that what is truly worth having, is worth working for.
In The Street of the Dead, Sparks captures Australian rural voice and mannerism (hard to do well without sounding like you are “puttin’ it on a bit strong”) particularly well as Australia suffers an odd alien invasion. Indeed when she sets her stories in near future Australia I think she has a perfect ear for cadence and register.
The second in the Sammaryndan Stories, Sammarynda Deep takes place in Sammarynda. Here we explore the other culture hinted at in Beyond the Farthest Stone. We find out about the tradition of scarring oneself as an act of attaining honour
“When one attains true adulthood in Sammarynda,one must render upon oneself an honour. It may be a small thing
or a great thing. The choice is entirely one’s own.”…
“That scar is my honour. When my time came I asked two friends to hold me down and a third to wield the scythe.”
The light of the moons cast a pearly luminescence on his skin. Mariyam frowned. “You chose to be scarred? Surely you can’t be
serious?” And then the truth of his words hit home. Jahira’s eye.Mariyam gasped, bringing her fingers to her lips.
It’s a delightful detail that is more than just window dressing for Sparks’ apocalypse and it’s central to this particular story. Some scars aren’t visible, some sacrifice is emotional. Sammarynda Deep is my second favourite, after A Lady of Adestan – a subtle twist waiting to slap the reader again.
Seventeen is a story about growing up and outliving ones usefulness as a rent-a-grandchild. Again Sparks manages to make subtle comment on the rich without being preachy. I love the fusion of the ideas - the rich buying the relationships they can’t develop themselves and the edgy reality of street kids surviving by any means necessary, until they are used up and cast off.
Now, perhaps to break up the somewhat dark path the reader’s being treading, Sparks gives us a bit of a respite with All the Love in the World, a story that goes against the grain of most post apocalyptic stories in that the world hasn’t descended into savagery. The drama in this story is much more that of interpersonal relationships and how far we will go for love. The Ramsey Street of the Apocalypse( hmmm though perhaps Ramsey street would descend into cannibalism)- which is not to imply that the story is cheap melodrama but more so that it focuses on a street cut off from the rest of reality.
Now after Sparks has finished her novel in the same world as the Sammarynda stories are set, I want a novel set around the piratical Dead Low. Perhaps I am an old Browncoat at heart and just like the idea of pirates salvage operations in space. The un-heroic side of space opera where it’s the little things that count, not necessarily fighting against the empire or facing off the Kodan Armada in a lone gunship.
In Arctica, Sparks displays her versatility with a tale of trans-dimensional refugees arriving in a 19th Century-ish Earth . It feels steampunk but the focus on and treatment of refugees has me casting a sideways glance at our current political situation in Australia.
I thought we had another Sammarynda story with The Alabaster Child, it certainly has that feel to it. It is a wonderful story that leads the reader one way and then delivers a reveal at the end that changes the tone of the story entirely. It has elements of a Western/ gold rush frontier story but becomes a story of discovery.
Holywood Roadkill has a kind of post-cyberpunk feel to it. The corporations have won and the gap between haves and have nots is marked physically by the superhighway that cuts off the slums from Hollywood City. Playing a game of real life Frogger our protagonists take an all or nothing chance to get into the city by crossing the highway. This isn’t the polished chrome of the 80’s its the story of those that fall through the cracks and the realities that keep them there.
Scarp like The Street of the Dead, is a quintessential Australian, small town setting. Society hasn’t descended into cannibalism but the local council has mutated into a patriarchal group of unelected gluttonous drunkards insistent on preserving the status quo(actually that may not be far from the reality). The tension between the young and the old could be plucked from any rural Australian town, the desire to escape from boredom and restriction. Likewise the landscape is decidedly Australian an isolation enforced by nature as much as the gun.
The Sleeping and the Dead I had previously read in Gilgamesh Press’ Ishtar and was my favourite in that collection, though it was a close call with works from Warren and Biancotti included with it. It is gruesome and decidedly post apocalyptic gothic, featuring Necromaidens with a fetish for bones.
A good chunk of this collection is post apocalyptic but Sparks manages to deliver such a variety of post apocalyptic settings that I think The Bride Price is a good place to start for anyone wishing to take on that particularly well done sub genre – an exemplar on how to make those stories original and interesting. The other stories clearly display a versatility in the wider science fiction genre. In short I think Sparks can deliver meaty science fiction with a subtle side dish of social comment whichever setting she chooses. If this is your first experience of Sparks you won’t want it to be your last - I experienced a sense of sorrow when I reached the end of The Bride Price, so immersed was I the stories she had created.
You can buy The Bride Price here.
You can buy various Agog Press titles here .
This review was based on an advanced reading copy.
This post first appeared on Adventures of a Bookonaut.
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I am reading Cat Spark’s The Bride Price at the moment, just go and buy the collection NOW, don’t wait for my review. I am about 75% through and every story has been brilliant.
It’s only $5.99
And while you are there pick up The Girl With No Hands and other tales, Midnight and Moonshine, Dead Red Heart, The Year of Ancient Ghosts and Heliotrope.
Additionally if you wish to buy some more Ticonderoga titles say Prickle Moon by Juliet Marillier, or Kim Wilkins’ The Year of Ancient Ghosts if you make a purchase over $49 you will get free shipping with in Australia.
I own all the works on the list, but in what sounds like a familiar tune, I haven’t had time to read them all. The Twelve Planets are nice, bite sized collections easily devoured the others in the list, particularly the last, are treasure troves that really do need time to sit own and ponder over.
So I have read Cracklescape, Through Splintered Walls, Light Touch Paper…, and have dipped in and out of the others.
And the difficulty here as in some other sections is that they are almost all different beasts. I don’t know that you can really compare them other than to try and go with an intuitive gut feeling about which one made the greater impression. A method that invariably leaves books I have barely read at a disadvantage.
Best Collected Work
————————————————————————
Ticonderoga publications looks to have picked up the publication rights and they are planning to publish limited edition hardcover, hardcover, trade and ebook editions.
The hardcover and limited hardcover can be pre-ordered here.
The book will be published in May 2013
It was a wonderful night and when refrigerated aircon was discovered in the restaurant on the ground floor the group absconded to Brunelli’s for some great pizza.
I rounded off the night with dinner companions my wife Alison, Jason Nahrung, Kirstyn McDermott and a groovy hat wearing Sean Williams. Much bookish chat was had
The details:
14 December
6pm for a 6.30pm start
South Australian Writers Centre
2nd Floor, 187 Rundle Street
Note: If you can’t make it you can still get a personalised copy if you order at indiebooksonline before 8 December (UTC)the book will ship 17 December and should reach most of Australia in time for Christmas. (International orders welcome, though sadly they can't guarantee a shipping or receiving date for overseas orders).
Order here
Juliet Marillier's Prickle Moon available for order: 
Ticonderoga have announced that the limited edition hardcover of Juliet Marillier's Prickle Moon is now available for pre-order.
What’s The Deal
Who is Juliet Marillier?
Juliet Marillier is a three-times winner of the Aurealis Award for fantasy novel. Publishers Weekly calls her "a fine folklorist and gifted narrator".
This limited hardcover will ship in February 2013, 1-2 months in advance of trade editions.
Pre-order this limited edition at http://www.indiebooksonline.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=140
Just a short note to let you know that Damnation and Dames by Ticonderoga is currently discounted at $24.00 on Indiebooksonline.
Damnation and Dames is 324 pages of paranormal noir featuring the writing talents of:
You can buy any book or book combo from either press and add the acclaimed New Ceres Nights anthology to your order for just $10.00 (including postage). New Ceres Nights features stories from:
Dirk Flinthart, Thoraiya Dyer, J C Hay, Aliette de Bodard, Kaaron Warren,Stephen Dedman, Matthew Farrer, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sue Isle, Martin Livings, Sylvia Kelso, Lee Battersby, and Angela Slatter
Time und Date:
Friday, December 14, 2012 at 6pm.
Location:
SA Writers’ Centre, 2nd floor, 187 Rundle Street, Adelaide, South Australia
Honoured Guests and Ceremonial Launchers:
Kirstyn McDermott and Jason Nahrung.
RSVP
editor@ticonderogapublications.com by December 3.
I had the pleasure of listening to Jane Routley speak on a couple of panels at Continuum 8. It turns out that Ticonderoga are rereleasing her Chronicles of Dion series.
All of these titles can be ordered through Indie books online, either individually or as a trilogy set in paperback or hardcover.
Obviously the organisers were spurred on by The Coode Street Podcasts last airing. But without further ado, please cast your eyes over the following:
Edit: A special shout out to Lisa L Hannett (a South Australian) published by Ticonderoga (from Western Australia). Not forgetting Charles Tan, blogger and commentator from the Philippines.
• Those Across the River, Christopher Buehlman (Ace)
• 11/22/63, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton as 11.22.63)
• A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
• Osama, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
• Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor)
• "Near Zennor", Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors)
• "A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong", K.J. Parker (Subterranean Winter 2011)
• "Alice Through the Plastic Sheet", Robert Shearman (A Book of Horrors)
• "Rose Street Attractors", Lucius Shepard (Ghosts by Gaslight)
• Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA Press; Clarkesworld)
• "X for Demetrious", Steve Duffy (Blood and Other Cravings)
• "Younger Women", Karen Joy Fowler (Subterranean Summer 2011)
• "The Paper Menagerie", Ken Liu (F&SF 3-4/11)
• "A Journey of Only Two Paces", Tim Powers (The Bible Repairman and Other Stories)
• "The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees", E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld 4/11)
• Blood and Other Cravings, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tor)
• A Book of Horrors, Stephen Jones, ed. (Jo Fletcher Books)
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Harper Voyager US)
• The Weird, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Corvus; Tor, published May 2012)
• Gutshot, Conrad Williams, ed. (PS Publishing)
• Bluegrass Symphony, Lisa L. Hannett (Ticonderoga)
• Two Worlds and In Between, CaitlÃn R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press)
• After the Apocalypse, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer)
• Mrs Midnight and Other Stories, Reggie Oliver (Tartarus)
• The Bible Repairman and Other Stories, Tim Powers (Tachyon)
• John Coulthart
• Julie Dillon
• Jon Foster
• Kathleen Jennings
• John Picacio
• John Joseph Adams, for editing - anthology and magazine
• Jo Fletcher, for editing - Jo Fletcher Books
• Eric Lane, for publishing in translation - Dedalus books
• Brett Alexander Savory & Sandra Kasturi, for ChiZine Publications
• Jeff VanderMeer & S.J. Chambers, for The Steampunk Bible
Special Award Non-Professional
• Kate Baker, Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan & Sean Wallace, for Clarkesworld
• Cat Rambo, for Fantasy
• Raymond Russell & Rosalie Parker, for Tartarus Press
• Charles Tan, for Bibliophile Stalker blog
• Mark Valentine, for Wormwood
Info on the award can be found here
There’s a good mix of well known writers and some that I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting. There’s also a pretty good gender balance with just over half being female writers.
It’s due out in October of this year.
The Emerald Key is set in London in 1864 and blends alternate history with elements of horror, mystery and urban fantasy. The game is afoot and Ember Quatermain, the brilliant and courageous daughter of legendary explorer Allan Quatermain, must draw upon all of her abilities in order to save the day. Along the way she encounters dirigibles, the lost tomb of Alexander the Great, and the charming and irresponsible Peter Styles.
They have also managed to sign author Ian McHugh for a debut collection. The working title is Angel Dust. The collection will feature a number of award winning and award nominated works as well as new content.For more information on Ian McHugh visit his website.
Angel Dust is scheduled for publication in mid-late 2014 and ill be available in limited edition hardcover, hardcover and trade editions.
Is it just me or does Speculative Fiction Small Press in Australia seem to be really healthy?
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Robert Ashby has been signed for the first book in The Kingbreaker Chronicles series The Assassin.
The Assassin follows the coming of age of Lydia Estrella, as she becomes an assassin in the employ of Lord Zhe, the crown prince of the Empire of Nara. The daughter of a merchant captain, Lydia is thrust into a world of intrigue, corruption, magic and, of course, murder.
Scheduled for publication in early 2014. The novel will be available in limited edition hardcover, hardcover and trade editions.
Janeen Webb will be releasing her debut collection, tentatively titled Death at the Blue Elephant through Ticonderoga. There’s a scheduled release date for the first half of 2014.
It will be a mix of award winning shorts and never before seen material.
If the name sounds familiar it should be. Janeen co-edited the World Fantasy Award winning Dreaming Down Under and has her own young adult series, The Sinbad Chronicles. Janeen is also a noted critic and academic. You can check out a selection of her work here.
You can also read a recent interview with her by Jason Nahrung.
Russell B Farr is a name that keeps popping up for anyone with a cursory interest in the Australian scene, and going by the answers to the questions below you can see what a solid and silent achiever he is.
Thanks Russell for your time, I can see it’s precious.
Ticonderoga has put out some wonderful work of late, Bluegrass Symphony and Damnation and Dames to name just two. What are you working on at the moment?We published 5 books in 2010, 7 last year, and are on target to publish 9 this year with 8 titles for 2013 already contracted. It’s been a long time since I only worked on one title at any time.
What am I working on at this very point in time?
Finalising the covers for The Bride Price (Cat Sparks, April 2013), Blood Stones (ed Amanda Pillar, October 2012), The Scarlet Rider (Lucy Sussex, mid-2012), The Year of Ancient Ghosts (Kim Wilkins, June 2013), The 400-Million-Year Itch (Steven Utley, August 2012) and Invisible Kingdoms (Steven Utley, February 2013).
Also doing the final edits on Bread and Circuses (Felicity Dowker, June 2012), finalising material for The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2011 (eds Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene, June 2012).
There are edits waiting for the two Utley collections, Greg Mellor’s collection (Wild Chrome, October 2012),
Then there’s promoting Damnation and Dames, and Bread and Circuses...
I’m also pondering what sort of special celebration our 50th title will be, as it’s due for publication mid-2014.
So what I should say is that what I’m working on right now is making sure I spend time with my wonderful fiancé, Liz Grzyb.
Ticonderoga has been a solid presence in the Australian Speculative Fiction community since the late 90s, looking back what swells your heart with pride?I guess I do feel a bit of pride just for still being here, as I doubt this is what I imagined when I started TP way back in 1996.
I’m proud to have been able to deliver books that really needed to be published, such as Troy (Simon Brown, 2006), Steven Utley’s Silurian Tales (The 400-Million-Year Itch, August 2012, Invisible Kingdoms, February 2013), and Sara Douglass’ The Hall of Lost Footsteps (November 2011).
I’m proud to have been able to work with so many fantastic writers over the years, too many to name but open every TP book to the contents page and there they are.
I’m proud to have put together the Belong anthology, dedicate it to my parents, and give my mother a copy before she passed away last year.
I’m probably proudest whenever someone comes up to me and tells me that they bought, read, and loved a book we’ve published.
As I said above, we’ve got 9 books coming out this year, and should be settling into an 8 or 9 book per year schedule. I think I’ve said before that barely a day goes by without me thinking of stopping the press, but there’s never a week that goes by where I don’t think I’m doing the most worthwhile thing I can. While that continues I guess I’m here for the duration, though I do expect to review things in a couple of years as we approach 20 years in this biz.
We’re contracted into 2014, with a bunch of fabulous titles coming up. This year will see us publishing (in addition to those mentioned above) awesome collections by Lezli Robyn (Bittersuite, August), Greg Mellor (Wild Chrome, October) and Angela Slatter and Lisa L Hannett (Midnight and Moonshine, November). Next year we’ve also got fabulous collections by Juliet Marillier (March 2013), Jason Fischer (October 2013), and a fantastic original sf novel by Patty Jansen (November 2013).
As a publisher of Australian works what particular work by Aussie authors or editors has impressed you recently?Obviously all of the writers Ticonderoga are publishing are producing impressive work—if they didn’t impress me we wouldn’t be working together and I’m humbled that these amazing talents are willing to work with TP. Similarly I think all of our editors are top notch.
Top of the list of editors in Australia right now has to be Jonathan Strahan, he’s truly deserving of all the accolades and success, having worked hard for a long time. He’s pretty much without peer. Also peerless is Stephanie Smith, the powerhouse behind HarperCollins/Voyager, and I’d hate to be the one taking over from her.
There’s a bunch of excitement in the indie scene, but I guess the press that seems most impressive would have to be Fablecroft. They’re still finding their feet, but I feel have a lot of potential.
As for writers, where do I start? I don’t want to miss any out but probably will. There’s great work coming from Jo Anderton, Alan Baxter, Marianne de Pierres, Rjurik Davidson, Thoraiya Dyer, Margo Lanagan, Ian McHugh, Nicole Murphy, Trent Jamieson.
I probably should also do a shout out to Penelope Love, as I think she’s perhaps one of the most creative and under-rated story writers around. Also Kaaron Warren, who gets better with every story (almost putting her 2010 Ticonderoga collection, Dead Sea Fruit, to shame).
Two years on from Aussiecon 4, what do you think are some of the biggest changes to the Australian Spec Fic scene?I’ve been pondering this recently, and I think the biggest change has been a lack of change. In 1999, Aussiecon 3, a lot of independent presses geared up for a big show, produced some fabulous work, and either aimed for this to be their swan song or burnt out in the aftermath. There was a definite trough in the couple of years following.
There was certainly a big push for Aussiecon 4, a lot of awesome titles on display, and while it represented a winding down for a couple of presses overall the genre is showing a lot more resilience than a decade ago. It’s a good thing that there’s a lot going on right now.
Russell B. Farr is the founding editor of Ticonderoga Publications and has published almost thirty titles since 1996. His recent anthology, Belong, explores the concepts of home and migration. In 1999 he established ticon4, now Australia’s longest running semi-professional science fiction webzine. Previous works as editor include the award-winning anthology Fantastic Wonder Stories, award-winning collections Magic Dirt: the Best of Sean Williams, and Angela Slatter’s The Girl With No Hands and other tales, and Australia’s first work-themed anthology The Workers’ Paradise.
As editor of Ticonderoga Publications, Russell has overseen the publication of landmark story collections by Simon Brown, Stephen Dedman, Terry Dowling, Angela Slatter, Stephen Utley, Lucy Sussex, Lisa L Hannett, Justina Robson, and Kaaron Warren.
Russell lives in Greenwood, Western Australia, with his wonderful fiance Liz Grzyb, a sociopathic cat and a somewhat neurotic dog. [Source: Russell B. Farr]
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This is the first in a series of anthologies from Ticonderoga Publications that will focus on non-traditional horror. I want stories that are horrific, but that also fit within other genres—let’s look beyond the borders. This year’s anthology will focus on non-traditional urban fantasy. This means that I don’t want stories that feature vampires, witches or werewolves; if you send one, it probably won’t make it through to the final cut….[read on if you're interested]
