ParaSpheres

On Monday, Jill, Rina, and I went over to Moe’s Books in Berkeley, which was hosting an event for ParaSpheres. ParaSpheres is an anthology of New Wave Fabulist stories, edited by Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan, publishers of Omnidawn books in Richmond, California. The event included readings by Michael Moorcock, Laura Moriarty, Mary Mackey, Charlie Anders, and Mercedes Sanchez.

Omnidawn, previously a publisher of poetry books, is expanding into science fiction. ParaSpheres is their first foray into sf, and if it is any indication, their choices are going to be eclectic and very interesting. This is a huge anthology, 637 pages in all, with stories by fifty authors, including Angela Carter, Kim Stanley Robinson, L. Timmel Duchamp, Rudy Rucker, Jeff VanderMeer, Stepan Chapman, Jeffrey Ford, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Michael Moorcock (twice). Many of the other writers are relatively unknown, inside or outside the field, and a large proportion of their stories are original to ParaSpheres. It’s exciting to see a publisher putting out an anthology with so much original fiction, a rarity in the current (risk-aversive) sf world. Omnidawn has also been picked up by our distributor, Independent Publishers Group.

I had a wonderful time at the event. Moorcock and his wife, Linda, were as charming as always; Charlie Anders and Liz Henry are delightful people I don’t get to see often enough; and Rusty and Ken were full of exuberance for their publishing endeavors.

I’m looking forward to seeing what OmniDawn does next.

Jacob

Terry Bisson in Helix Magazine

Terry Bisson has a fun new story up on Helix, "Put Up Your Hands." No spoilers, except to say that conspiracy theories should always be this intentionally funny.

Helix is a new(ish, they've just published their second issue) online sf magazine, featuring original fiction, poetry, reviews, and editorial features. Excellent to see a legitimate new outlet for sf short stories. In fact the editors, William Sanders and Lawrence Watt-Evans, are staunchly determined to champion what they both freely admit may be a doomed form. (Well, doomed forms actually, both the sf magazines and short stories. Ouch.)

Jill

Feeling Very Strange - SciFi.com Holiday Pick

When SciFi.com asked for a review copy of Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, we thought, oh sure, the Sci Fi channel's gonna review our weird, intellectual anthology. And then they picked it for their Holiday Gift Guide. Only twelve titles selected, and just three anthologies. We're in great company, with Hartwell and Kramer's The Space Opera Renaissance, and Dozois' Year's Best SF. Not unhappy about this, not even a little.

Other great selctions were books by John Picacio (Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio) and Julie Phillips (James Tiptree, Jr: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon). There's also a fascinating interview with Joe Hill (alas, not posted online), in which he compares being outed as Stephen King's son to Alice Sheldon being outed as Tiptree. Aside from being a kick-ass writer, the man knows his sf history.

Jill

New Website Outed

Jonathan Strahan blogged about Tachyon twice this week. On Monday he complimented our upcoming Ellen Klages collection, Portable Childhoods, and then yesterday he mentioned our website revamp and was impressed with our Spring 2007 line (with one notable exception). So that's very cool.

Not that we've actually announced our shiny new website. I swear it's only a couple of days old, but you can't keep anything a secret in this field. Of course it's a secret only because I haven't written our newsletter yet. Better get on that. But it's Friday...

Jill

Tachyon

Hi, fans of quality science fiction and fantasy books. Welcome to our blog.

Tachyon Publications is an independent publisher of really excellent genre fiction. Publishing is changing, and we believe the indie presses are leading the way. Tachyon is dedicated to the craft of making entertaining books with actual literary value. We work with some of the top writers and editors in the field, and we have a great time doing it.

The folks at Tachyon will be posting here about lots of cool things: our new and upcoming books, author events and conventions, general news, and occasional rants about anything else we think is relevant (or simply amusing). Feel free to leave comments - we want to hear from you.

See you back here soon.

Cheers,

Jacob
Jill
Jennifer
Clyde
Koufax