Toulouse Goes to World Fantasy Convention, Calgary—2008: Part 2—Being There

The Collective Conscious

Cars…they move us all
To the place that becomes a much larger motif.
All of us.
Together.
Cars move us all but we, we are the engine
Fuel for the creative firefight
Fuel for the fire of the mind.
The thought that drives us to look up,
To look forward.
To move in the experience together.
Open.
Talking.
Connecting. Moving together.
Fast cars parked and idling fast.
For now…
— Steph Thevideoguy (written on a piece of scrap paper in a five-minute break during supper at the World Fantasy Convention)

And there was a response…

…Steph wrote a poem about cars and conscious
-ness
Was it a collection of the synergetic mind ****?
Or was it a matter of a single point
Of focus
Tapping into only the personal wealth of the soul?
An unexpected moment of light
Following a period of unfocused obliqueness.
An unexpected moment, a jewel of
Colour,
A wrench
Pulling on the heart, a push
To the creative mind.
A consciousness
Open to the collective.
—Virginia O’Dine (written in a five minute break after)

The World Fantasy Convention in Calgary drew a collective force of creative minds to one place. It was a singularity. We couldn’t help but surge with the energy that sparked through us all like the elegant arc of an epic story. It was everywhere…the surrealistic discussions in the hallways about the role of the artist: “it is the artist’s responsibility to be conscious.” … “the artist produces an unforgiving mirror to our souls.” …The energetic sharing of creative works, such as readings from stories and discussions about writing … The laughter of old friends greeting and new friends being made … The clinking of glasses in the bar, toasting achievements in all manners of artistic expression … And the cheerful gurgling of the mysteriously emptying hot tub—ah, but that’s another blog post…

The convention was a personal success for me on several notes. I already mentioned that meeting all my good friends and chilling with them was a highlight. The science fiction and fantasy community is like a huge family, supporting one another in our art and expression and sharing. I am honored to be included in it. Other highlights included:

• Meeting Heidi Lampietti, of Redjack Books, who has kindly agreed to publish a collection of my short stories.
• Doing several readings to an appreciative audience. I want to particularly thank Broad Universe for arranging a wonderful roster of readers and Edge Books for hosting another cool reading.
• Eating very well (thanks to the incredible hospitality suite) and
• Sharing drinks with great friends (a given)
  
  Photo Legend:

1. The Dragon Moon authors, editors and publisher (Gwen Gades) celebrate a good year
2. Steph Thevideoguy and cool poet contemplates whether the world is flat…or is it the beer?
3. Kay Kenyon, SF author, meets Toulouse (that sly rascal!)
4. Author Jay Lake buys Nina a drink (and makes her happy!)
5. Robert J. Sawyer meets an ecstatic fan (and gets a free desert!)
6. Bruce Taylor, Mr. Magic Realism, charms Toulouse (purring in contentment)
7. Heidi Lampietti of Redjack Books hosts a cool book launch (see Mr. Magic Realism in the mirror?)

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

Edge Science Fiction Publishing

For today’s Friday Feature, I’m showcasing Canada’s largest genre book publisher, Edge Science Fiction Publishing. It wasn’t always so…In fact, it wasn’t until a recent merger with Tesseracts and then with Dragon Moon Press, both now imprints of Hades Publications, that this dynamic publishing house gained its new notoriety. Notoriety?...Well, let me begin with the beginning…

A press devoted to Science Fiction and Fantasy literature seemed like a natural extension to Brian Hades' previous experiences in publishing books on theater, magic and the performing arts. Over a mug of hot chocolate (now standard at all planning meetings), he worked out a business model that would both establish EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing and allow for its future development as a well-established genre publishing house.

In a 2006 interview with Celu Amberstone at SF Canada, Hades explained how EDGE got started: “…The idea of starting a dedicated SF&F publishing house began in the mid 1980's—and was spurred on by a January 1989 Quill and Quire article entitled "SF: Welcome to the Golden Ghetto". The article featured a very young bookseller-turned- author by the name of Tanya Huff. Unfortunately the Canadian market for science fiction and fantasy was very small at that time and there really wasn’t that much opportunity for a new publishing venture. EDGE had to wait for better times.” Then in 1997 Hades met Lynn Jennyc at a meeting of local independent publishers and they started assembling the building blocks that, one year later, became EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing currently encourages, produces and promotes thought-provoking and well written science fiction and fantasy literature, specializing in trade paperback and hardcover novel-length (75,000 - 100,000 words) science fiction and fantasy literature.

Since its award winning publication of Marie Jakober's "The Black Chalice" in 2002, life has been on high speed for this Calgary publishing company. It quickly gained recognition from readers and writers alike for its critical selection of engaging speculative fiction. EDGE's authors come from Canada, the USA, New Zealand and Australia and have garnered world wide recognition and by winning a number of awards; including a Canadian Aurora Award and Australian Aurealis Award and an American ForeWord Magazine Award.

In 2003, EDGE acquired Tesseract Books, the publisher of the highly respected and extremely popular "Tesseracts" anthology of Canadian short speculative fiction. Since its inception 22 years ago, the Tesseracts anthology has featured 344 short works and more than 200 Canadian authors, editors and translators -- including such well known writers as Margaret Atwood, Robert J. Sawyer, Spider Robinson, and William Gibson, to name a few.

Dragon Moon Press came into being in 1993, when Gwen Gades opted against law school after finishing her BA in history. At the suggestion of one of her professors, she decided to incorporate her love for science fiction and fantasy into a career as a publisher.

The name for her publishing company came in a dream, according to an article by J.J. Rahn in On Campus (University of Calgary). Gades recalls being struck by inspiration in the middle of the night with the image of a dragon—an archetype of fantasy—and the moon—a standard of science fiction—coming together as one.

Since the first printing of "Daughter of Dragons" in 1997, Dragon Moon Press has established itself as a leading Canadian publishing house whose dedication to first time authors and writers of literary excellence earned the company a place in the hearts of readers around the globe. The company has produced a number of books over the years, including the very popular "Complete Guide" series, which includes three guides to writing Fantasy and a soon-to-be-released guide to writing Science Fiction, plus an number of award-winners, including this year's top prize in the ForeWord Magazine Award.

Tee Morris, one of Dragon Moon Press’s authors refers to Gades as a woman bent on world domination. Gades says her goal is somewhat smaller—to capture enough of the market to expand to a mid-sized press. The merger with EDGE has, no doubt, provided her with this. In the short term she reflects, “I’d like to walk into any bookstore and find our books on the shelves, have a few breakout authors make the leap to big presses and be able to say ‘Oh, I discovered him/her’!”

Now with the merger of EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publications, Tesseract Books and Dragon Moon Press, this publishing house now has more than 90 titles in print, making it Canada's largest genre-specific publisher. Brian Hades and Gwen Gades (Geez, their names rhyme—they MUST belong together!) expressed their delight with the merger or Vulcan "Mind Meld" of Literary Proportions, as they called it: "We are both committed to producing quality books which feature today's best Science Fiction and Fantasy authors. We know readers will find a wonderful variety of both short fiction and novel length books to choose from ... including works by some of the world's finest writers."

They are celebrating, folks! And well they should! You can get in on the celebration. EDGE is putting on one heck of a Christmas sale on some of its books. Some are going for as little as 50% off regular price. My book, Darwin’s Paradox, is even selling for less! Check it out here.

As for notoriety…well, have you never attended a science fiction & fantasy convention and heard Brian sing SF karaoke? Or seen his vivacious wife, Anita (a ball of fire, by the way) dance the Lambada? Or experienced Gwen Gades’s rendition of a gold Bratislavian dragon hunting prey?...Well!... In my scientific career as a consultant and field scientist, we have an unspoken rule that “what goes into the field stays in the field.” If I were to follow the same code of ethics here, I had better shut my mouth right now…(big smile, though…I like all red wines and the finest quality chocolate…hint, hint…)

Darwin's Paradox by Nina Munteanu

Well, it's Friday again and time for my Friday Feature. First of all, a little sharing...Folks, my book, Darwin's Paradox will be arriving at bookstores all over the world on November 15th, less than two weeks from now and I can tell you that I am unabashedly excited by it. Besides Amazon (e.g., in the U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/; in Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/; in the U.K.: http://www.amazon.co.uk/; in Germany: http://www.amazon.de/; in France: www.amazon.fr/; in Japan: http://www.amazon.jp/) where Darwin's Paradox is available for pre-order, the book can be found throughout North America (both at stores and through their online webstores) at:

• Barnes & Noble


• Chapters-Indigo


• White Dwarf Books (Vancouver)
• The Sentry Box (Calgary)


• various online bookstores (as an ebook)

You can also buy or order the book at Target (www.target.com), one of the major department stores in the U.S. as well as India and Malaysia, Wallmart, or purchase it online at Buy.com, another major retail store.
And those are only the ones I know about (the writer tends to know paltry little when it comes to publishery stuff). If you've enjoyed my blog articles and short stories and enjoy thoughtful and provative science fiction (with a kicking plot) and are inclined to purchase Darwin's Paradox, then here are a few things that I unabashedly, shamelessly exhort you, dear reader, to do:

• If purchasing through Amazon, purchase my book on the day of release (November 15, 2007) to drive sales that day into such significant figures to make my book noticeable on the Amazon radar (which will place the book so that more people will see it)


• go to your local bookstore and ask them to order Darwin's Paradox

And if you're interested in an audiobook (with voice artist Heather Dugan) we'll be arranging that too, hopefully.

So, today's Friday Feature, is run by the incredibly talented and energetic Karen Mason and dedicated to my book, "Darwin's Paradox". And through no major stretch of the imagination, it's also called "Darwin's Paradox".

What wonderful items can you find there? Well, here are a few juicy bits:

• Chapters One through Thirteen of the book (available in eight different languages: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and Chinese)


• podcasts of chapters One to Thirteen (so far) done by voice artist Heather Dugan


• schedule of my appearances (including conventions and booktours)


• select interviews


• writing tips


• media kit (including press release, media material, etc.)

I am so indebted to Karen for tirelessly running this site and for her astute advice on blogging, internet navigation, media design, logic, human behaviour (remember, I'm an alien) and good wine.

Literary Mind Meld

In a literary "Mind Meld" of universal proportions publishers Brian Hades and Gwen Gades announced on August 11, 2007, that three publishing imprints, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Tesseract Books and Dragon Moon Press, have merged to form Canada's largest genre publisher of Science Fiction and Fantasy. This triumvirate publishing house now has more than 90 titles in print.

In a recent presentation at Calgary's annual convention of Science Fiction and Fantasy fans, Brian Hades, publisher of EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, and Gwen Gades, publisher of Dragon Moon Press, expressed their delight with the merger: "We are both committed to producing quality books which feature today's best Science Fiction and Fantasy authors. We know readers will find a wonderful variety of both short fiction and novel length books to choose from ... including works by some of the world's finest writers."

About Dragon Moon Press: Since the first printing of "Daughter of Dragons" in 1997, Dragon Moon Press has established itself as a leading Canadian publishing house whose dedication to first time authors and writers of literary excellence earned the company a place in the hearts of readers around the globe. The company has produced a number of books over the years, including the very popular"Complete Guide" series, which includes three guide books on writing Fantasy and a soon-to-be-released guide book about writing Science Fiction. Oh, and, of course, one of my favorites (:D) "Darwin's Paradox".

About EDGE Science Fiction Publishing and Tesseracts Books: Since its award winning publication of Marie Jakober's "The Black Chalice" in 2002, life has been on high speed for this Calgary publishing company. It quickly gained recognition from readers and writers alike for its critical selection of engaging speculative fiction. EDGE's authors come from Canada, the USA, New Zealand and Australia. EDGE authors have garnered world wide recognition by winning a number of awards - including the Canadian Aurora Award, the Australian Aurealis Award and the ForeWord Magazine Award (USA).

About Tesseract Books: In 2003, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy acquired Tesseract Books - the publisher of the highly respected and extremely popular "Tesseracts"anthology of Canadian short speculative fiction.

About the Tesseract Anthology Series: Since its inception 22 years ago, the Tesseracts anthology has featured 344 short works and more than 200 Canadian authors, editors and translators --including such well known writers as Margaret Atwood, Robert J. Sawyer, Spider Robinson, and William Gibson, to name a few.

Darwin's Paradox available for pre-order at Amazon

The cover of my new book, "Darwin's Paradox" is out and it's BEAUTIFUL! Don't you agree? A large part of the story takes place within the self-contained megalopolis, Icaria (formerly Toronto), where people live contentedly inside and connect via underground trains and giant malls (sound familiar?) Note that most of the buildings are in a state of ruin, overrun with vegetation; only some of the larger buildings remain in good shape. They are Icaria, thrusting up through the decrepit chaos of the past like a rising phoenix that soars into a blushing sky. The cover art was done by the accomplished Croatian illustrator, Tomislav Tikulin (www.tomtikulin-art.com/), whose art work I find transporting, evokative, eerie and thoughtful. I am honored that "Darwin's Paradox" is graced with his vision.

"Darwin's Paradox" is now available for pre-order at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.

Alien Musings

OK...so I'm a science fiction writer. I've written a few novels (my newest is coming out this November from Dragon Moon Press, called "Darwin's Paradox"...more on this later). I've published a few SF short stories here and there. I've even had some of them translated and reprinted in magazines abroad (e.g., into Polish [Nowa Fantastika], Hebrew [Bli Panika] and Greek [the Dramaturges of Yan]). I also review SF movies and books (check them out on Gotta Write Network or Strange Horizons). But here's my question...What is SF? I've got a crazy discussion going on with fellow romance writers right now on one of my other listserves. We're having a hard time defining it. Is it speculative fiction? Or is that a sub-genre? And who the @%*& cares, you might ask? Well, the bookshop owners care, that's who. They're the ones who stock the bookshelves so you, the book buyer, can find them better. AHH!! But that's all going by the wayside now, you say, because we now have online bookstores like Amazon.com and Chapters.ca and Fictionwise, etc. who've dispensed with those mortar and brick bookshelves by using virtual bookshelves. Well, I don't know about you, but I still like to browse in a real bookstore, flip and smell the pages, glance at all the glossy covers, lose myself in a maze of paper. And in a place like that, you need categorization. Categories. Genres. So, we're back to SF and what is it? Or, more to the point, WHERE is it?