Timeless, the final book in Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series — as well as the first graphic novel adaptation, Soulless: The Graphic Novel — will be out in March, and Gail will be making a number of appearances to mark the occasion. Click through for details!
Locus published their 2011 Recommended Reading List today, and you’ll see a lot of Orbit authors among their choices:
And, in case you missed them the first time around, keep reading for a round-up of other Best of 2011 lists!
If you’re in the US or the UK, here are some of the places you can see Orbit authors in February, from bookstore signings to conventions.
February 2-4th: SFX Weekender
This convention in Prestatyn Sands, North Wales, will play host to several Orbit authors. Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Benedict Jacka, Michael Cobley, and Ken MacLeod will all be on panels and signing books (full schedule) — and we will have exclusive early copies of MacLeod’s Intrusion and Jacka’s Fated available. Plus, our own Anne Clarke will appear on the “How to Get Published” panel on Friday evening.
Saturday, February 4th
Gail Z. Martin at B&N Carolina Place Mall, Pineville, NC, 1 PM.
Mira Grant (with Stephen Blackmoore) at Borderlands Books, San Francisco, CA, 3 PM.
Friday, February 10th
Gail Z. Martin at B&N Morrison Place, Charlotte, NC.
Saturday, February 11th
Gail Z. Martin at Books-a-Million Concord Mills, Concord, NC.
Wednesday, February 15th
N.K. Jemisin (with Livia Llewellyn) at KGB Fantastic Fiction, New York, NY, 7 PM.
February 17-19: SheVaCon
Gail Z. Martin will be at this science fiction convention in Roanoke, VA.
Thursday, February 23rd
Kate Griffin & Benedict Jacka signing advance copies of their new books (both being published in March) at Forbidden Planet, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, 6pm
February 24-26th: MystiCon
Gail Z. Martin will be at this SFF and horror convention in Roanoke, VA — including a launch party for The Dread in the con suite at 7 PM on Friday.
Saturday, February 25th
Gail Carriger as keynote speaker at the inaugural Passion & Prose Conference, Long Beach, CA.
Walter Jon Williams at Page One Bookstore, Albuquerque, NM, 7 PM.
Sunday, February 26th
Gail Carriger at SF in SF, San Francisco, CA, 1 PM.
Gail Carriger at Borderlands Books, San Francisco, CA, 6 PM.
Monday, February 27th
Robert Jackson Bennett at Book People, Austin, TX, 7 PM.
Wednesday, February 29th
Yes, it’s a leap year! Gail Carriger will be kicking off her tour for Timeless at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hill Crossing, Beaverton, OR, 7 PM.
This episode, Jack Womack talks to Gail Carriger, author of The Parasol Protectorate Series! Topics covered include Gail’s upcoming projects, the comedy of Victorian society, and why Steampunk is so popular in our uncertain times.
Show note: this episode was recorded before HEARTLESS, but a slight production hiccup kept it offline until now.
You can listen to the full episode below, or subscribe on itunes or the RSS feed.
Enjoy!
It is with a mix of joy and sadness that I launch the cover for TIMELESS by Gail Carriger. Joy, because I have loved working on these covers so much, and I happen to be a nerd about things ancient Egyptian, so Alexia Tarabotti + Pyramids = Squee. However, it is sad because this is the final book in the adventures of Alexia Tarabotti!
Of course, that doesn’t mean the end of our Lady Maccon. Did you hear about the Yen Press manga Soulless adaptation being created as we speak? The artwork is amazing! I’ve seen the cover and first chapter, I just can’t wait to see more…Trust me, even if you’ve never thought manga was your thing, you have to keep tabs on this book as it develops. Stunning work, and bravo to our Yen Press brethren.
As usual, we have a fabulous image of The Lady Maccon, portrayed by Donna Ricci, the captain of the steamship we call ClockworkCouture.com. Alexia in her explorer’s gear was shot by Pixie Vision Productions, who was also responsible for documenting the awesome Afternoon Tea that Gail and Donna co-hosted recently in L.A. (There’s a great fan writeup of the event here). I so love collaborating with people active in the world of Steampunk when we’re doing steampunk and victorian titles (hmm, foreshadowing alert for next season perhaps?). Everyone already knows the lingo, they always catch my chronological aberrations, and even better, they always add things to the books that I would never have thought of on my own.
So without further ado, here’s a teaser for Timeless…
Well, as you can tell from the infrequency of the postings from the Art Dept since the holidays, it’s been craaaaaazy busy here. Our Fall/Winter 2012 covers are due in 3 weeks, and we’re killing ourselves bringing you the coolest artists and designs we can. We also have a couple new features in the pipeline which we’ll be talking more about after the evil 2/18 deadline, so hang with us. Meanwhile, we are going to finish posting the rest of the Spring/Summer 2011 Covers for your viewing pleasure, starting with one of my fave series…
Here you go folks, Heartless, the fourth Alexia Tarabotti/Soulless book by Gair Carriger. I love this series, and I am really digging the covers too – who wouldn’t, when I get to work with such fun material as the photos Steampunk icon Donna Ricci keeps sending me? The photographer this round was Pixie Vision Productions.
I tried to find a good British castle as a stand-in for the pack headquarters, and I think the cool heavy stonework here does the job – I can totally picture Alexia going up and down those steps to visit with the werewolves camped out on the back lawn…and whipping some military discipline into them!
After the jump is a teaser, and I’ve tried to take out as many spoilers as I could, but still, if you haven’t read the previous books (Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless) then BE WARNED, SPOILER ALERT. (more…)
And the winner is…….Bountiless! The contest really did come down to the wire between Bountiless and Breathless, but in the end, Boba Fett took the prize. And speaking of prize, we were SO impressed with the quality of the contestants, and the feverish commenting, that we decided to award the winner with a $100 gift certificate to Clockwork Couture, helmed by none other than expert panelist and Alexia model, Donna Ricci.
Mr. Fett, please contact me at lauren (dot) panepinto (at) hbgusa (dot) com and we’ll work out the details on the prize.
Of course, ’tis true that Boba Fett is a bit of a tough fit for the world of the Parasol Protectorate, but I think it can work if you think of it like this: If you forget that this is a reimagining of Boba Fett, and just take the costume fresh and just on Steampunk merit, it is absolutely a fine piece of craftsmanship and design. And a hell of a lot of manpower. And I think there is definitely room in the Parasol Protectorate for a helmeted bounty hunter.
And, you know, besides that, it’s freaking Boba Fett in Steampunk. That’s awesome.
You can find out more about the mysterious Mr. Fett at his facebook page. I hear he is available for parties!
Truth be told, all of our finalists — and really all of the contestants — embodied the best aspect of Steampunk: they had fun. I love Steampunk and other “retrofuturism” because you really can bring so much of yourself to it, and look awesome doing it. Your own background, look, culture, your own nerdy obsessions. And it takes chutzpah to dress up on a day not related to Halloween, even for a convention where a whole lot of other people are dressed up too. I applaud the entire Parasol Protectorate Class of 2010. And get working on your costumes again for next year!
Parasol Protectorate fans, I have a special treat for you today. I have the face of Alexia Tarabotti herself, Donna Ricci, here to give some critiques and comments on the Parasol Protectorate cover finalists. We’ve talked about Donna’s role in the covers before, but I love talking about what a great team-up these covers have been. Donna is the proprietress of Clockwork Couture, which, in my opinion, has the best selection of Steampunk clothing and accessories on the web. She’s also a professional model, a writer on Steampunk fashion, and a champion of beasts great and small. I can’t think of a more fitting person to be our Alexia. And as an extra treat, I’m going to post the images below that became our Parasol Protectorate covers, before and after I did all the photoshop magic to them. You’ll see Donna needs very little retouching!
Before I hand it over, however, I just want to update you guys. We’re going to leave voting open over the whole weekend, and I’ll be tallying votes sometime Monday (after my first coffee, at least) and announcing the winner. N0w remember guys, one vote per email address please…that means you, mom-of-Doubtless! haha.
Ok, here’s the original images of Donna, next to the cover images of without the text, as a bit of a cover “evolution” shot:
The competition is fierce and the comments are flying over at the finalist round for the Parasol Protectorate cover contest, and I thought it would be fun to have some “Steampunk Experts” give us some professional opinions of the finalists ensembles and posing. First up is the Ay-leen the Peacemaker, mistress of the fabulous blog Beyond Victoriana, who also contributes to other blogs and projects on retro-futurism. Beyond Victoriana focuses on multiculturalism in Steampunk and retro-futurism, and just won a Last Drink Bird Head Award.
I really enjoy reading Ay-leen’s essays because it’s good to remember that although there is a huge Victorian Age element to Steampunk, that does not mean that it has to be solely Victorian England. I’m really into the idea that a lot of the fun of retro-futurism is that you can really make it personal in style, and that can include your own family and cultural heritage. For example, check out the costume in the Careless cover below, which kind of has an awesome eastern/turkish element to it.
Anyway, enough about what I think…on to Ayleen’s comments…
Voting is now open for the finals of the Parasol Protectorate cover contest! The competition was fierce, and after 5 rounds of intense voting, here are your finalists. You’ll have all this week to vote. On Monday I will again tally the votes and name the winner and new Team Captain for the Parasol Protectorate Class of 2010…or is that 1910?
You might notice there are 6 finalists, and that’s because there was a bit of suspicious voting in Round One. So let me make the rules clear once more. Only vote once. I can see your email addresses so if there are two votes coming from the same account (that aren’t an obvious computer error) then all the votes from that account will be disqualified. To vote, please state clearly in the comments which cover (by title) you are voting for. DON’T say “#3” and don’t say you’re stuck between Sugarless and Hairless, because neither will count as a vote. DO feel free to applaud, praise, or heckle other finalists in the comments as well. DO feel free to vote for yourself. And most of all DO remember that you are voting on the person’s costume and pose. And poise. Not the title, cover layout, or background, which were all entirely my doing.
Over the next few days I will have some Steampunk and fashion experts weighing in on the finalists, so stay tuned! The finalist covers are after the jump…
