Hugos and Legends and Campbells, oh my!

We’re thrilled to see a number of our authors on award ballots and shortlists this year. We’ve done a brief round-up of our authors who are up for awards and Charlie Stross has been nominated twice! Could this be the year we finally HUGO STROSS? Here’s hoping!

A hearty congratulations to all of our authors who are up for these awards!

Hugo Awards

Best Novella

  • Charlie Stross for “Palimpsest” [UK]

Best Novellette

  • Charlie Stross again for “Overtime” [UK]

Best Short Story

  • N.K. Jemisin for “Non-zero Probabilities” [US/UK]

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

  • Gail Carriger [US/UK]
  • Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant) [US/UK]

David Gemmell Award Shortlist

David Gemmell Legend Award

  • Joe Abercrombie for Best Served Cold [US]
  • Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson for The Gathering Storm [UK]

The Morningstar Award for Best Newcomer

  • Jesse Bullington for The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart [US/UK]
  • Amanda Downum for The Drowning City [US/UK]

Cover Launch: BITTEN IN TWO

Tough, sexy, dangerous, and a little bit crazy – that’s Jaz Parks. And Jennifer Rardin’s 7th book in the Jaz Parks series, Bitten in Two, has as much adventure and bad attitude as can fit in an urban fantasy book. For some reason I’ve noticed Jaz taking on a bit of a Joan Jett sneer in my head when I read these books – and that’s all good for me. If you haven’t started reading this series yet, I suggest picking up the first 3 at least all at once – you’ll tear through them wanting to know what happens to Jaz, her vampire boss Vayl, and her ragtag team of techno-geeks, CIA operatives, and one centuries-old prophetess. If you have been reading along with this series, then trust me, this one doesn’t disappoint. (more…)

Mage In Black!

Sabina Kane is back in this kick-ass follow up to Red-Headed Stepchild!

Half-vampire and half-mage,  Sabina Kane has never quite fit in.  Now on the run from the vampire side of the family, she’s finally going to meet her twin sister she never knew about — and a family that might not have her best interests at heart.

From Kat Richardson who called the first novel, “Brassy, sassy, and hip!” to Charlaine Harris who called it “Fast-paced and fun,” Jaye Wells is one of the hottest urban fantasy writers out there today!  Despite the lack of red hair — Angelina Jolie in the upcoming movie, Salt, reminds me of Sabina Kane.

You can find chapter one right here.

Check her out in bookstores everywhere!

Werewolves, and Vampires, and Dirigibles, oh my!

Gail Carriger is back with another tale of the trials and tribulations of Alexia Tarabotti.  Now, I can’t give too much away about Changeless. Suffice to say that there are trips to Scotland, assassination attempts, tea — and even crumpets. And perhaps…even Blameless coming to you in September 2010!

My favorite description of Alexia comes straight to you from io9: “Great worldbuilding and delicious rapier wit that recalls Austen and P.G. Wodehouse.”  Yes!  I love it — a combination of Jane Austen, a few vampires and werewolves and Alexia — and you have the perfect tea party.

And if you haven’t had a chance yet, do check out the video of the making of Blameless!

Environmentally-sound Ebooks!

Orbit is delighted, excited and not a little proud to announce the development of the world’s first 100% biodegradable ebook. As you all know (Bob), the problem with the current crop of ebooks is that the electrons that make up the work have a carbon cost. Certainly, the environmental impact of ebooks is much lower than for traditional publishing, but it is a finite and measurable amount.

Electron
An electron, yesterday

Not anymore!  Orbit’s proprietary new ‘Brigadoon’ e-formatting allows for a 100% carbon-free reading experience. By exposing the ebook file to a short burst of Cherenkov Radiation upon delivery, the electrons composing the file actually decay into lower-energy electrons and tachyons after the first reading. The new, low-powered electrons return to the environment at a net carbon cost of practically zero, while the tachyons, as is their nature, travel backwards in time to replace the ebook file that has just disappeared during the decay of the electrons that formed it.

To explain in layman’s terms: the electrons return to the environment and the ebook effectively travels backwards in time, reinventing itself before each reading causes it to cease to exist. With reference to Clarke’s Third Law, we hope you’ll forgive us a triumphant ‘Hey, presto!’

All of Orbit’s April titles will be available in Brigadoon as well as epub format from all good replicators.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

There is something about a prison, like a police station, that makes you feel a little like a criminal even if you’ve done nothing wrong. I’m sure if you work there day in and day out that wouldn’t be the case, but as a visitor it’s hard to avoid the first time. The guards (both male and female) aren’t mean but they’re not, in general, entirely friendly either. The walls and floors are concrete. The doors do clang and buzz like the images in all of those prison movies and TV shows (and only open one at a time so there is never a way to run straight out). There are cameras everywhere, not so hidden if you know where to look. There are barely any windows, certainly not in the cell wings. (more…)

Brighton Shock – notes on the World Horror Convention 2010

Last weekend I attended the fabulous World Horror Convention in Brighton, a celebration of horror fiction from the Victorian age to the present, and the first time this event has been held outside North America.

Horror is a fascinating area and, as with SF and fantasy fiction, the definition seems interestingly fluid and has the capacity to evolve in new and exciting ways with each new generation of writers. We have the legacy of 19th century gothic horror (Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker). This was followed by Lovecraftian horror, and more recently we have seen contemporary horror wordsmiths such as Stephen King, James Herbert and Ramsey Campbell.

One of the highlights of the convention was watching Neil Gaiman interview grand master of modern horror James Herbert (while I sat next to the agent who discovered him). Neil Gaiman appeared unannounced as a surprise guest interviewer, and it was as if Elvis had entered the building as news of his arrival rippled tantalisingly through the convention … James Herbert focused on his epic career and on his underprivileged East End origins which inspired him to write. It’s interesting to think how the supernatural thriller/disaster fiction of the 1970s and 80s, turbulent decades of wealth and deprivation lived under the shadow of the bomb, might differ to what is being produced today.

We now have an explosion of new vampire fiction, as Kelley Armstrong discussed with other (more…)

Cover Launch: THE HEROES by Joe Abercrombie

And you thought we couldn’t get any bloodier than Best Served Cold? Here to prove you wrong is the cover of The Heroes, by Joe Abercrombie. It’s a standalone story, which is great for readers who haven’t read Joe Abercrombie before, but it’s set in the same world as The First Law Trilogy and Best Served Cold, and fans of those books will definitely be recognizing returning characters.

This is the hardcover version, so we’re keeping the general style of the somewhat controversial Best Served Cold hardcover, then we’ll be repackaging for mass market paperback with the graphic Best Served Cold mass market style. Just a quick note: the map in the background is not final, it’s the one I stole as a placeholder from BSC, until the artist finishes the new map. Steve Stone, an Orbit Books favorite, was responsible for the image reflected in the, um, gore. I’ll repost the cover with the new map when it’s finished, but this one was drawn by Dave Senior. (Yours truly was responsible for the agonizing blood photoshopping.) (more…)

The Tools of My So-Called Trade

So, you imagine that all a writer needs to get the job done is some ideas, a wordprocessing package and a keyboard, right?  Wrong.  Writers are fragile, delicate creatures who require far more in the way of equipment to armour themselves for the daily, soul-destroying struggle with the blank page.  Or just to distract themselves from it.  (more…)

Digging Up the Story

People ask me all the time how I write. It’s not just aspiring writers either. Story craft seems to mystify the average Joe too. “How do you do that?” they ask.

Well, I can’t speak for other writers, but today I’m going to tell you how I do it. Kind of.

But first, imagine for a moment that I am not Jaye Wells, author and bon vivant. Instead, picture me in an kicky fedora and wielding a spade (the shovel, not the playing card). That’s right, my friends, today I am Jaye Wells, international archeologist of mystery. If this were a movie, it’d be titled  Indiana Jaye and the Book of Doom. (more…)