Archive for Orbit US

Behind the Scenes: BITTEN IN TWO

IMG_0888The Art Department is deep into working on the covers for Fall/Winter 2010-2011 and has moved from deciding directions on books and choosing artists right on to the fun part: photoshoots! Today yours truly was at the studio with the crew responsible for the Jaz Parks series by Jennifer Rardin (hey, Bite Marks is out now, don’t forget).

The next book in the series is lucky number 7, tentatively titled Bitten in Two. Jaz and her motley crew of vampire hunting/demon slaying/werewolf shooting misfits are in Morocco this time, hunting for a way to evict the evil spirit locked in the back of Jaz’s skull. If you haven’t read this series, it’s all action, ass-kicking, and one hot vampire. No swooning maidens here. (more…)

Full Circle, Out Now

full_circle_smallThe final book in the Castings trilogy is now out! This is the conclusion to the story that began with Blood Ties and Deep Water. Pamela has written a beautiful story – one where the ghosts walk the land, where old wounds have never healed and where one woman must reach back into time. It’s a fabulous story and if you haven’t checked this series out, you should now that the compete series is in hand.

The Week That Was, As It Was

This week has already gotten off to a wild start with Jesse Bullington’s concluding post re: the history of the Grossbart Brothers, appearing coincidentally with the publication TODAY of his debut novel from Orbit (US | UK), The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart — but before we get too far along, a quick rundown on what you might have missed, last week.

The first two parts of Jesse Bullington’s History of the History;

A. Lee Martinez pointing out the ugly truth about fictional protagonists;

Forthcoming covers of the mass market edition of Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold and Tom Holt’s Blonde Bombshell;

And, Nicole Peeler’s blood-curdling rundown of the Shreveport Smackdown between herself and fellow Orbit author Jaye Wells. Including, photos of the chair.

Cover Launch: BEST SERVED COLD

PrintNow in bite-sized format: the mass market edition of Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. Now even more bad-ass.

I may have gone over this before, but you may ask, “Why would you change the cover from Hardcover to Paperback?” and my answer usually is “Why not?!” — there’s always more than one way to portray the story in a book, and why not take the opportunity to do something new and maybe even attract a few new readers that you may have missed the first time around. There’s some seriously publishing-geeky conversations over here between Editorial and Art about audience, readers, how people browse in bookstores vs. airports vs. bog box chains, etc. but in my book I will usually always go for reshuffling the elements at least — keeping the art, but playing with the crop, size, order, type on a cover. (That is, unless the Creative Director hasn’t had a lot of sleep that week, or some other art emergency is draining manpower when the cover change comes up for discussion, so don’t go back thru the backlist and nitpick me, ok? Ha.) (more…)

Cover Launch: BLONDE BOMBSHELL

Holt_Blonde Bombshell (TP)Don’t tell me you haven’t read Tom Holt yet! You love Douglas Adams, read Terry Pratchett, dabble in some A. Lee Martinez, but you haven’t discovered Tom Holt? Well, now is your chance. A huge favorite in the UK, Tom Holt has an impressive backlist of that kind of really funny, smart, and absurdist humor that we all met with the Hitchhiker’s series (way back in what, high school?) and need a pretty steady fix of. I admit I had never been introduced to his books before, but Orbit UK has been publishing him for a long time, and he’s developed quite an underground fan base in the US, who subsist on a diet of imports. This release will be not only the US launch of Tom Holt but also the start of a new cover look for the UK.

Blonde Bombshell is a great jumping-on point if you’ve never read Mr. Holt, and if you’re already a fan, you’ll be excited to hear that it’s Tom’s first book that is more of a humorous science fiction, (rather than humorous fantasy) novel. Here’s a description: (more…)

That Was the Week That Was

As always we’ve got news and much more coming up for you later this week but wanted to pause briefly to let you know what you might have missed, last week. And, if hadn’t time to read any of our posts yet — well, now’s your chance.

Orbit author Jaye Wells (THE RED-HEADED STEPCHILD) made her debut post on the Orbit blog, telling of the thrill-packed nonstop life of an urban fantasy writer. And, weremonkeys.

The World Fantasy Convention! Orbit editors Devi Pillai (an old hand at this sort of thing) and DongWon Song (a newer but now far more experienced hand) wrote of their experiences, and we reported on the greatest con suite party ever, as hosted by the one and only Gail Carriger, author of SOULLESS.

Creative director Lauren Panepinto unveiled the cover for Jo Graham’s STEALING FIRE; Devi Pillai steered you to Nicole Peeler’s just-published (and Selkie-riffic) TEMPEST RISING; and Anna Gregson passed on many of the great things being said about Marianne de Pierres and her Space Opera Supreme, MIRRORSPACE (Orbit UK/Australia).

The Greatest Suite Party Ever: A Series of Vignettes

That would be the suite party at the just-held World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, hosted by the always snazzily dressed Gail Carriger, in honor of her debut novel SOULLESS.

The soiree featured delectable delicacies, luscious libations, oscillating octopi, parasols aplenty, a bevy of neo-Victorian beauties, as well as numerous delightful dandies — and all immortalized in glossy color photos by photographer Britt Hart.

Treacle tart, anyone?

World Fantasy 2009: A Different Perspective

Devi, my esteemed colleague and likely better in every respect, is a battle-scarred veteran of many a convention. Going into this past weekend she had strategies and plans for survival (and apparently a whole list of mad inventions for future years). I, on the other hand, was an impressionable innocent wandering blindly into the crossfire. I’ve been at Orbit a little over a year and didn’t make it out to Denver last year. I’d bopped around the NYCC a little bit and BEA but those are more trade-shows and I’d somehow avoided all the intense networking and partying they surrounds them. I’d always been interested in going just as a fan, but between work and money and all the other little excuses had never ventured afield to that most scary of SFF meet-ups. I was, as embarrassed as I was to admit it, a convention virgin. (more…)

What I learned at World Fantasy. . .

SoullessSomeone asked me recently how many conventions I had been to. And sadly the answer to that is so many that I have no idea.  I’ve been to at least one a year for the past few years and probably as many as three a year in some cases.  What I love about them is the great sense of energy—talking to authors (which I have much to comment on later) and catching up with people you haven’t seen in months and especially the people you’ve yet to meet. I think this year was more fun than other years for a host of reasons. First, I had not one, but two parties that I was invited to. YEAH ME!!!  Beat that! Um. Well, one of them was the Orbit party we hosted, so I guess I can’t, in good conscience count that. And the other was my author Gail Carriger’s launch party for Soulless and I guess I had to be invited – being her editor and all. . . But on to the news from WFC!  (more…)