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Call for a narrator Saga of the Jewels
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- Ficção científica
Dear reader,
I’ve decided to switch this newsletter to being all about Romantasy and change its name to ‘Romanon’s Romantasy Ruse-letter’.
Happy April Fool’s.
Also, Happy Easter Monday (a rare lunar-related coincidence). Last weekend the Western Church celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the greatest fantasy story ever told, so great that it might actually be true fantasy, as Tolkien might have said.
FANTASY BOOK NEWS (not April Fool’s):
More awards news from the last month…
First, the SFWA’s annual Nebula awards finalist list has been posted. Some really cool stuff in there, including lots of fantasy and awards for game writing.
Of the nominations for best novel, here are the fantasies:
* The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
* The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK) ←looks especially cool
* Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi (DAW, Gollancz)
* Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
Second, a new set of librarian-run book awards called the ‘Libbys’ has debuted, and it has a fantasy category (and a romantasy category, naturally!). Here were the fantasy finalists for this year (links are to ‘libby’ pages, because Libbys):
Libby Award Finalists for Best Fantasy:
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon 🎧Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 🎧Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo 🎧To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose 🎧Witch King by Martha Wells 🎧
How many have you read? I’ve read…none. But two are on my huge TBR list! Maybe three, now!
YOUR FREE INDIE FANTASY EBOOKS FOR THIS MONTH*:
*Note: I’m aware that a couple of newsletters ago these banner links didn’t work because I’d just moved this newsletter over from Mailchimp. Sorry about that. They all work now. Please tap/click away!
MY WRITING NEWS
In terms of my own writing news, my YA superhero novel WEAKLING won a thing! More precisely, it got a ‘top 10 finalist honourable mention’ in the ‘BooksShelf Awards’:
I have no memory of submitting WEAKLING to this contest. It does not fill me with confidence that these people cannot spell the word ‘bookshelf’ and that their website looks horrendously amateurish, however…it’s something! Assuming the judges actually read it, WEAKLING beat a bunch of other books to a top 10 spot! Every little bit of encouragement counts for something…
Also, I’m spending the last of the money I earned for writing CLARENT SAGA: CHRONICLES on getting a professional edit for SAGA OF THE JEWELS VOL. 1 and commissioning a new, professional cover for its free taster short story PRELUDE: THE FINAL BATTLE. One of the advantages of being indie is that you can choose your own cover artists. The draft sketch for the cover from my artist at miblart came back, and I love it! See below.
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
Last month I finished SWORDS IN THE MIST (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser 3, continuing my late sword-and-sorcery education), carried on with a bit more of and gave up on SUFFICIENTLY ADAVANCED MAGIC (perhaps more on that in a future newsletter) and most recently I’ve been reading PALADIN’S GRACE by T. Kingfisher. This is a beautifully written quirky contemporary fantasy (er, and maybe actually a romantasy too…) that deals with themes of faith and duty, and so far it’s excellent.
WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:
Now this is a very, very guilty pleasure and a deep cut. Did you ever play Warhammer/Games Workshop as a kid? You may or may not remember that in a previous newsletter I mentioned reading TROLLSLAYER by William King, first in the massive GOTREK AND FELIX series which is set in the old Warhammer World. I recently read the second book SKAVENSLAYER as well, and enjoyed it so much I just wanted to keep going…
I read that the audiobooks are excellent, so I picked up the audiobook of DAEMONSLAYER and, well, they are! Jonathan Keeble gets the narration just right, employing fantastic character accents with exact
Dear reader,
I’ve decided to switch this newsletter to being all about Romantasy and change its name to ‘Romanon’s Romantasy Ruse-letter’.
Happy April Fool’s.
Also, Happy Easter Monday (a rare lunar-related coincidence). Last weekend the Western Church celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the greatest fantasy story ever told, so great that it might actually be true fantasy, as Tolkien might have said.
FANTASY BOOK NEWS (not April Fool’s):
More awards news from the last month…
First, the SFWA’s annual Nebula awards finalist list has been posted. Some really cool stuff in there, including lots of fantasy and awards for game writing.
Of the nominations for best novel, here are the fantasies:
* The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
* The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK) ←looks especially cool
* Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi (DAW, Gollancz)
* Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
Second, a new set of librarian-run book awards called the ‘Libbys’ has debuted, and it has a fantasy category (and a romantasy category, naturally!). Here were the fantasy finalists for this year (links are to ‘libby’ pages, because Libbys):
Libby Award Finalists for Best Fantasy:
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon 🎧Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 🎧Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo 🎧To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose 🎧Witch King by Martha Wells 🎧
How many have you read? I’ve read…none. But two are on my huge TBR list! Maybe three, now!
YOUR FREE INDIE FANTASY EBOOKS FOR THIS MONTH*:
*Note: I’m aware that a couple of newsletters ago these banner links didn’t work because I’d just moved this newsletter over from Mailchimp. Sorry about that. They all work now. Please tap/click away!
MY WRITING NEWS
In terms of my own writing news, my YA superhero novel WEAKLING won a thing! More precisely, it got a ‘top 10 finalist honourable mention’ in the ‘BooksShelf Awards’:
I have no memory of submitting WEAKLING to this contest. It does not fill me with confidence that these people cannot spell the word ‘bookshelf’ and that their website looks horrendously amateurish, however…it’s something! Assuming the judges actually read it, WEAKLING beat a bunch of other books to a top 10 spot! Every little bit of encouragement counts for something…
Also, I’m spending the last of the money I earned for writing CLARENT SAGA: CHRONICLES on getting a professional edit for SAGA OF THE JEWELS VOL. 1 and commissioning a new, professional cover for its free taster short story PRELUDE: THE FINAL BATTLE. One of the advantages of being indie is that you can choose your own cover artists. The draft sketch for the cover from my artist at miblart came back, and I love it! See below.
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
Last month I finished SWORDS IN THE MIST (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser 3, continuing my late sword-and-sorcery education), carried on with a bit more of and gave up on SUFFICIENTLY ADAVANCED MAGIC (perhaps more on that in a future newsletter) and most recently I’ve been reading PALADIN’S GRACE by T. Kingfisher. This is a beautifully written quirky contemporary fantasy (er, and maybe actually a romantasy too…) that deals with themes of faith and duty, and so far it’s excellent.
WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:
Now this is a very, very guilty pleasure and a deep cut. Did you ever play Warhammer/Games Workshop as a kid? You may or may not remember that in a previous newsletter I mentioned reading TROLLSLAYER by William King, first in the massive GOTREK AND FELIX series which is set in the old Warhammer World. I recently read the second book SKAVENSLAYER as well, and enjoyed it so much I just wanted to keep going…
I read that the audiobooks are excellent, so I picked up the audiobook of DAEMONSLAYER and, well, they are! Jonathan Keeble gets the narration just right, employing fantastic character accents with exact
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