With EMPRESS marching up the bestseller charts, My Book The Movie asks Karen Miller who she would cast to play Hekat, Nagarak, and others. Karen is adamant that the movie will never get made … but with a cast like this, we sure want to see it!
Orbit UK & US author Jennifer Rardin posted an interview with Orbit US author Robert Buettner, over at her blog just yesterday.
They talk about Robert’s ‘Jason Wander’ series, what he sees as the main differences between science fiction and urban fantasy, his life in interesting times as “soldier, Spook, palaeontologist and lawyer” and his approach to world-building. Plus, Robert offers his advice to aspiring writers.
That’s not the only interview Robert has given recently; he’s also chatted to SciFi.com‘s John Joseph Adams for a piece that was posted on the site today.
Find out more about Robert Buettner’s ‘Jason Wander’ series at www.robertbuettner.com, and Jennifer Rardin’s ‘Jaz Parks’ books at www.jenniferrardin.com.
We’ve just this minute unveiled the brand new Orbit Facebook page.
If you’re a Facebook user, please feel free to head on over and sign up as a fan. We’ll be posting a range of regular updates, including news updates from the main website, as well as monthly cover galleries of our new releases, details of forthcoming Orbit-related events, exclusive previews and giveaways, along with anything else we can think of that’s relevant and interesting to Orbit Books fans.
If you have any suggestions for additional content you’d like to see on the page, please do drop us a line via the contact page of the Orbit site.
Fantasy fiction mega-blogger Pat St. Denis, of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist fame, is currently running a sweepstake to win one of two copies of Small Favour, the brand new Dresden Files novel by Jim Butcher.
The entry conditions are simplicity itself: all you have to do is send Pat an email with your postal address. Just the once, though; he’s very strict about disqualifying multiple entrants (and quite right, too).
Full details can be found over at fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com.
This year’s James Tiptree Jr Award – the annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender – was announced this week.
Alongside the winner, the award committee also announced the 2007 Honor List and Orbit authors Charles Stross and Karen Miller were both named, for (respectively) Glasshouse and Empress / The Riven Kingdom (which we’re publishing in October) .
Many congrats to Charles and Karen! Visit sfawardswatch.com for the full details of this year’s award.
And speaking of polls, you can vote for your favourite SF and Fantasy authors of all time over at SFX. There’s no suggested list, though we could think of a few (or many!) Orbit authors that fit the bill…
We’ve been checking out the 2008 Locus Poll & Survey in the office this week. This is the final voting poll, and you don’t actually have to be a Locus subscriber to register your vote.
In each of the categories there are a number of suggested titles, sourced from the 2007 Locus Recommended Reading List, or you can add your own titles via the write-in boxes on the form.
We’re particularly happy to see a number of Orbit’s lead publications for last year included in the recommendation shortlists, including:
Ken MacLeod and Charles Stross also have long-listed pieces in the Best Novella, Best Novelette and Best Short Story lists. And what’s that you say? Orbit are long-listed under Best Publisher? Well, yes, but we’re all far too polite to mention it…
Over at Adventures in Scifi Publishing, Shaun and Sam chat with Robert Buettner about his Jason Wander series, which continues this month with book three, Orphan’s Journey. Look for Orphan’s Journey, along with the reissues of books one and two, out now from Orbit. And visit Robert online at robertbuettner.wordpress.com/.
Karen Miller, the bestselling author of The Innocent Mage, talks about Empress, her writing and kitty litter over at The Book Swede:
Could you tell us a little about Empress? (I like to be original in my opening questions)…
Well, Empress is the first book in the Godspeaker trilogy (my first trilogy, yikes!). Actually, I tend to think of my stories in acts, like plays, so it’s Act 1 in a 3 act play.
It’s the story of a young girl from an exceedingly harsh background, who discovers the power that lies within her and rises to greatness against enormous odds. It’s the story of a young man, who’s also been touched by power and greatness. It’s about his relationship with her, and her relationship with the god they worship … which isn’t at all a kind or benevolent deity.
Publishers Weekly gives Marie Brennan’s Midnight Never Come a starred review in this week’s issue:
“Stunningly conceived and exquisitely achieved… Brennan’s myriad fantastical creations ring as true as her ear for Elizabethan and faerie dialogue.”
You can read the whole review here (with a bit of scrolling)
