Juno Books

Since many folks are vacationing, MARIA LIMA has been extended the contest deadline through Friday, September 4. (That’s her birthday too!) She’s reposted all the info HERE.

PRIZES:

* your choice of one of Lori Devoti’s books
* a copy of Vicious Circle by Linda Robertson
* a copy of Matters of the Blood by Maria Lima
* a copy Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost
* a copy of Dancing with Werewolves by Carole Nelson Douglas

* a copy of Vegas Bites anthology from contributor Seressia Glass

Hey, to me it is “the September title”. I forgot the release date was TUESDAY already. (I only know this is Thursday because my “to do” list is lengthy because I go to Context on Friday, uh, tomorrow.)

So, yes, MATTERS OF THE BLOODit is out and Maria (who — bad grrl! — didn’t mention this) a Juno-palooza contest with prizes from several Juno authors. (None of whom told me about this either. Humph.) So, check out Maria’s blog for the Juno-palooza Contest.

And go buy the book.

Enduring Romance:

If I’d seen AMAZON INK in the store, I wouldn’t have looked twice. At most, I would’ve looked at the cover and groaned. “Oh, good grief, another stereotypical Kick-Butt Heroine. For those readers, like me, who prefer a buffet to the same ol’ thing every day of the week, AMAZON INK will drag you into the Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy section of the booksore, or back. The appeal of Mel is all in her motivation — it’s *Primal* and instantly understood by anyone who’s procreated. Sex is great, but any dog can do it. Survival? Well, yes, that’s primal, but a parent will sacrifice his or her life in an instant for his or her child. That’s primal and profound…[and elsewhere by the same reviewer:] I was completely blown away! An Amazon mama! Hey, now this is something different.

Renegades & Rogues:

There is magick and spiritualism. Love and family. Friends and enemies. The lines are clear. The lines get crossed. The lines get blurred. There is understanding and perhaps even the beginning of forgiveness.

Lady Mischief is not a big fan of first person narrative, but Amazon Ink is done so well you forget that someone is telling you a story, you feel as if you are actually there as it all unfolds around you.

The month is now August. Lady Mischief has read over two hundred books since the beginning of the year. She has enjoyed many of the books, given out a few perfect scores, but this book is in a category of its own. The Lady’s only regret is that she read it too soon. If she had waited until Amazon Queen was out then she would be able to stay in the Amazon world. If Amazon Queen is not about Mel and her life, then Lady hopes she is at least a visitor in Zery’s life and that we will she another book featuring Mel, Peter, and Detective Reynolds again.

Lady wishes she could score this book higher, but she will have to settle for a rating of: 5 of 5 (a totally awesome book)

If you happen to be coming to Context 22 in Columbus, here’s my schedule:

Friday Evening 7 pm 10:45 pm: One-on-one critiques; after 10:45: heavy drinking thereafter somewhere

SAT 11:00 AM PANEL: (Buckeye 2) What do editors want?
SAT 3:30: One-on-one crit
SAT 4:00 PM (Alder) Dark Cities, Light Cities: Urban Fantasy

Sunday: One-on-one critiques 11AM until noon

Romance Junkies:

AMAZON INK is a page-turning paranormal thriller where a killer uses weapons none have ever seen before and the targeted victims refuse to work with the police to catch the killer. Melanippe is a protective mother and is not afraid to fight enemies who potentially are much stronger than she is. This was a great, fun read.

…is now posted here if you missed it. Or you can click the link to Juno Books News #15 (Aug 2009) on the Subscribe/Newsletter page.

(1) Yeah, I saw the Tim Holman post about urban fantasy. (”The rise of urban fantasy has without any doubt been the biggest category shift within the SFF market of the last 10 years in the US.”) I didn’t post about it because DUH! I’ve been saying this—also known as “the obvious”—for a long time. And, frankly, a lot of sf/f people didn’t want to hear it. Maybe they will listen to him.

(2) GalleyCat mentioned the Holman post and Ron Hogan, as so many do, brought up “we’d be curious to see how much of what he’s calling “urban fantasy” straddles the “paranormal romance” line, because we’re willing to bet that’s a significant factor, too.”

(3) I dashed off a (too quickly written) note to Ron Hogan explaining there really wasn’t much confusion these days and offered some guidance. Galleycat posted some of it.This got edited down, of course, and also didn’t refer to the URL I provided that I usually refer folks to when they call fantasy “paranormal romance” and/or the point of “how come youse guys call dis stuff ‘urban fantasy’ when us guys always called stuff like Charles de Lint dat…etc.”

(4) So, again, if you are interested in the terms “paranormal romance” and “urban fantasy” here are my rough notes on the subjects.

ROMANCE JUNKIES

Linda Robertson will impress readers with her debut book, VICIOUS CIRCLE. I have to admit the first thing about it that caught my attention was the cover. Persephone is one hot witch. VICIOUS CIRCLE is all you could look for in an urban fantasy, with witches, werewolves, and vampires mixing it up and each adding their own uniqueness to the story. The plot was full of suspense and it held my attention from the first page. I will be waiting anxiously for the release of her next book, HALLOWED CIRCLE to hit the shelves. It continues with a new story about Persephone and her werewolf friends. Ms. Robertson has already got me hooked.

Scooper Speaks:

…Demon Inside manages to infuse humor into a blood-soaked urban fantasy story that just happens to have a great romance line and a yummy male character. I love Greyson. He is hot and MANLY. Oh yeah, he’s dangerous, too.

But the most interesting thing about Demon Inside is the look at Megan’s relationship with her family. It is painful to watch and at times I wanted to smack the shit out of Megan’s mom and brother. Kane has done a great job by making me care about that relationship.

Anyways, there are a ton of story lines taking place in Demon Inside and very few lulls in action…

BLEAK HISTORY by John Shirley came out this week. Full disclosure: I’m Mr Shirley’s agent. But the reason I wanted him to write this book was because I knew he’d be great at writing urban fantasy — his own distinctively individual interpretation of it anyway. I was right.

Although women will enjoy the book (there are strong female characters in it and a touch of romance) this is a, well, manly sort of urban fantasy: Urban fantasy with balls. Don’t get me wrong, Gabriel Bleak is not a macho Neanderthal Rambo, no way. He’s very, very human…even if he does have supernatural powers. And the other members of the Shadow Community — other paranormal people — are indelible unique characters.

It’s an action-packed, gritty story–dark, but with wit and depth — with an original take on a world where the supernatural is natural.

Here’s the cover copy:

CLASSIFIED: APPARENT SUPERNATURAL

Subject: Gabriel Bleak. Status: Civilian. Paranormal skills: Powerful. Able to manipulate AS energies and communicate with UBEs (e.g. “ghosts” and other entities). Psychological profile: Extremely independent, potentially dangerous. Caution is urged….

As far as Gabriel Bleak is concerned, talking to the dead is just another way of making a living. It gives him the competitive edge to survive as a bounty hunter, or “skip tracer,” in the psychic minefield known as New York City. Unfortunately, his gift also makes him a prime target. A top-secret division of Homeland Security has been monitoring the recent emergence of human supernaturals, with Gabriel Bleak being the strongest on record. If they control Gabriel, they’ll gain access to the Hidden — the entity-based energy field that connects all life on Earth. But Gabriel’s got other ideas. With a growing underground movement called the Shadow Community — and an uneasy alliance of spirits, elementals, and other beings — Gabriel’s about to face the greatest demonic uprising since the Dark Ages. But this time, history is not going to repeat itself. This time, the future is Bleak. Gabriel Bleak.

Read reviews and an excerpt here.

*The Hollywood Reporter notes Michael Douglas’ Further Films is moving is developing one of my favorite novels We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson’s (1962) into a film.

*The World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winners for 2009 are Jane Yolen and Ellen Asher.

*Sarah Boxer on Slate views the graphic novel version of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 with alarm.

Love Vampires:

…The paranormal world imagined by Robertson for Vicious Circle has some major differences to the majority of urban fantasy novels about today. The magic is quite low-key, invoked with witchy rituals and used when strictly necessary-which makes a change from all the stories where showy, crowd-pleasing magic is thrown around at the drop of a hat. Guidance from the higher-powers comes in the form of meditation and a totem guide, again a more real world way of communing with the divine.

If the witches are low-key, the werewolves have definitely drawn the short straw in Vicious Circle. The werewolf condition is passed on through a contagious virus, meaning that most uninfected humans won’t go anywhere near them for fear of catching the virus themselves and to protect themselves they have passed all sorts of laws to make werewolves second-class citizens. When the moon is full the werewolves retain no human sensibilities, they are just hungry predators – so…there are no opportunities for the werewolves to have great adventures and use their werewolf skills and strengths to their advantage.

These differences help to make Vicious Circle stand out from other books in this genre and above all stop Seph from becoming just another self-righteous, monster hunting, gun-toting gung-ho female urban fantasy protagonist in leather pants… And let’s face it there are already more than enough of those manly heroines to go around.

[However…] In the most general of terms parts of Vicious Circle seem derivative of other popular fantasy novels. For example we have a heroine who doesn’t know that she is actually the Lustrata, a key figure of power in the supernatural world. We have a long lost magical book that suddenly turns up and everybody wants it - not to forget that Menessos, the master vampire is amazingly attractive and suddenly interested in Seph. But you could just as easily say that Vicious Circle bows to urban fantasy genre conventions since these are some of the established corner stones of the genre.

The leading men in the story, namely Johnny, the werewolf Goth-metal band singer and Menessos, the powerful vampire-wizard both leave something to be desired in the romantic prospect stakes….

Vicious Circle is a good start to the Persephone Alcmedi series and although fantasy-wise there is little new here, the writer’s light touch keeps the story well grounded. Her characters add a feeling of real life to the story, in particular “Nana”, Seph’s loveably irritating grandmother is an inspired addition to the story.

Tim Holman of Orbit blogs on the frequency of certain elements in fantasy . (Actually probably a demonstration of the sort of “data” one can arrive at if one has summer interns like the semi-acknowledged “Caitlin, our summer Orbiteer” I’d be happy is my “interns” cleaned their own litter boxes…) He notes the “most commonly seen element appearing on fantasy books published last year was, it seems, the sword. Closely followed by glowy magic, castles, and dragons.” In descending order, other elements were:horses, boats,bows & rrows, guns, wolves, dark cover of meaninglessness, staffs, damsel in disress, tatoos, elcves/fae, hobbits/dwarves/goblns, stilettos, maps, unicorns. His chart is here.

Note that only covers from Ace, Baen, Bantam, Del Rey, Eos, Orbit, Pyr, Roc, Spectra, and Tor are included. Pyr is technically an indie press, but other fantasy publishers (Night Shade, Subterranean, Prime, Juno, etc.) are not included.

As noted, my interns are not useful for such work, I won’t take the time to check other publishers. I can say, as far as the eleven titles published for 2008:

All but one featured a female (one had two females)
Two of those ten had “headless women”
Seven of the nine females pictured were brunettes.
Two had “glowy magic” balls
Two (related) had lightning bolts
One had an owl
One had a tiger
One sorta had a boat and a semi-castle if you looked closely
There were no swords or weapons at all unless you count the shadowy sorta-spear-things on one
Zero unicorns, maps, hobbits/goblins/dwarves/orcs, faires/fae, tattoos, damsels in distress, staffs, meaningless dark, wolves, horses, or dragons.

Book Love:

…I have to start this one with a purely personal response—I have never read a sex scene that made me cry before this book.

The raw emotional pain of Meg, raised in one of the worse imaginable environments, and struggling to come to terms with that as an adult, even if she tries to hide her coping behind her role as a therapist, is overwhelming. Meg is absolutely compelling as she tries to convince herself that she is a good person, despite dating a demon, being part demon, not to mention a demon queen, and the strange cravings for very inhuman things that begin to overcome her. Her own personal darkness, a textbook example of the damage childhood abuse does to an ordinary person, is delicately, but firmly tied into her struggle with the nature of the demons tied to her…But despite the sheer desolation there’s a victorious element, because Megan might not be what her family wants, or what her partners in the practice want, or even what her demon followers want, but what she is under the damage is a core of molten steel trying to survive the inferno of emotions and rise in a world where she can be loved, respected and valued…very highly recommended.

To promote the upcoming release of Scott Westerfeld’s new book, Leviathan (release date: Oct 6) Simon & Shuster is offering a free PDF version of his bestselling SF novel for teens, Uglies, for one month. Uglies is an enjoyable read for adults, but if you know a 12-18 year old girl, give it to her: “Uglies is set in a world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. You might think this is a good thing, but it’s not. Especially if you’re one of the Smokies, a bunch of radical teens who’ve decided they want to keep their own faces. (How anti-social of them.)”

And no, I’m not being a shill for S&S — I found out about it via BoingBoing and GalleyCat.

The winners of the 2009 Hugo Awards, chosen by members of the World Science Fiction Society have been announced. Special congrats to winners for novelette, “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear; Fan Writer Cheryl Morgan; and Semiprozine: Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer and Stephen H. Segal. Ann and Stephen are also nominated for a World Fantasy award

Among other winners over the weekend: The Chesley for Best Cover Illustration: Magazine - Matts Minnhagen, Clarkesworld, April 2008. Which I think marked the first-ever nomination for a cover illo for an online magazine, let alone a win. Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace of Clarkesworld are also nominated for the World Fantasy award.

VICIOUS CIRCLE by Linda Robertson was/is a Fresh Pick at Fresh Fiction! Oh and there’s still time…hurry!…to comment on Linda’s guest blog at Paranormality and enter the contest there.

Scooper Speaks:

Linda Robertson has done a great job in creating characters that draw the reader in with their multi-dimensional personalities in her debut novel, Vicious Circle. As the story progresses the plot begins to thicken and twist, and I was quite pleased to know that all was not as it seemed starting with Seph.

The heroine, Seph, has parental issues (who doesn’t). She is open minded, caring and compassionate, but most importantly she’s smart. It’s not “in your face” smart, but she has her moments. She also does a ton of learning about herself, most of which comes from recognizing her own flaws.

The male characters in the book are extremely interesting and mysterious. Wait, did I mention they are smokin’? They are mysterious and we’re only allowed peeks at their past and nature. It’s intriguing and makes me want more. Thankfully, the second book, Hallowed Circle, come out in January 2010.

Bloomsbury has told Publishers Weekly that it will change the controversial cover of Justine Larbalestier’s Liar.

SFREVU

Another new entry into the urban fantasy genre–with an interesting twist to it. Strong women and men interacting to form teams, of sorts. At first glance it is difficult to know who is on which side once you know the argument, so you’d better watch carefully for clues…

The newsletter went out yesterday and we’re having a contest. But, aha! Unless you subscribe, you can’t have a chance at winning the fabulous prizes! Just go to http://juno-books.com/maillist.html to subscribe.

Meanwhile, I realized I never put the July newsletter online or here on the blog. (Gosh! I must be serious about this “subscribe” thing! No, really, I usually do post it sooner than this.) Anyway, here it is below and online in the archive. Remember, this is now a month old. I’m much further along on submissions for one thing…

Juno News

07.06.09

IN THIS ISSUE:

• THE CURE
• BOOKS: VICIOUS CIRCLE by Linda Robertson
• CONTEST…ALMOST
• EBOOKS
• TWEETS & FACING
• SUBMISSIONS
• QUOTATION

VICIOUS CIRCLE by Linda Robertson is now out from Pocket/Juno. Although some
elements of the novel — girl meets werewolf, girl meets vampire, girl gains
supernatural power, etc. — conform to what is “expected” from this type of urban
fantasy, you’ll find it, well, not exactly like your already-read-that…yawn UF
novel.

So if you are getting *urban fantasy fatigue* — a syndrome in which the
reader’s eyes glaze over at yet another book that is pretty much the same as the
last book read — VICIOUS CIRCLE might cure you.

Of course, you may already have “taken the cure” with AMAZON INK by Lori Devoti,
our first Pocket/Juno release (of which one reviewer said: “I wasn’t going to
read AMAZON INK because I thought…” then concluded: “Boy was I wrong.”)

Comments from reviewers and readers of these (and previous Juno UF titles)
usually include words like “refreshing,” “imaginative,” “unique,” “original,”
“unusual twists”…

Beginning to get the idea? Yes, we are here to entertain you, but we are not
sticking precisely to an established formula or cutting our cookies with the
same now-old-hat cutter. As Laura Miller recently wrote on Salon.com
(http://tiny.cc/UEUyC): “Urban fantasy has its own conventions — it is a
genre, after all — and like any convention they can be employed mechanically or
lose their luster with overuse.”

Juno titles are not about adhering robotically to those conventions nor are our
authors in the habit of recycling to the point of dullness. We don’t even
completely fit into Miller’s definition: “a cross of fairy tale, noir and
classic coming-of-age narrative.” As definitions of this genre go, Miller’s is
not bad, but not all Juno heroines are coming-of-age. Some are, but not all.
They may be discovering themselves, but that’s not quite the same as wrestling
with one’s “muddled post-collegiate years.”

Genres arise because readers create them. They die if they do not constantly
grow and find new ways to express core ideas while continuing to entertain the
current readers and attracting new ones.

We aren’t into, like, genre death. Okay?

BOOKS: VICIOUS CIRCLE by Linda Robertson

Want to know more? Try the Web page:
http://juno-books.com/vicious-circle.html

You’ll find a link to an interview with the author, an excerpt to download,
reviews, links to the author’s Web site and blog…and more!

And here’s a super secret tiny peek that’s not online elsewhere:

From VICIOUS CIRCLE:

I grabbed more bags from the trunk. In the garage, Ares was in his cage barking
like mad. “Just a minute, boy,” I said. “I’ll let you out in a second.” I headed
for the light falling from the open door. Johnny slipped past me to get the
remaining bags and I sat the ones I brought in on the table beside the others. I
put my coat on the back of a chair and began sorting through the bags. “Nana!
Beverley! We’re back.”

Overhead, the floor creaked.

I found the milk and carried it to the refrigerator. But what I saw when I
opened the door made the gallon jug slip from my grasp. Fear stilled me rigid,
unable to move. A scream clawed at my throat like a caged animal desperate for
freedom, but my throat had closed. My mind grappled for understanding.

As soon as I fully recognized what I was looking at, my throat opened. Air
sucked into my waiting lungs and I screamed….

CONTEST…ALMOST

We’re going to run a contest this month, but since I’m going to be at Readercon
this Thursday through most of Monday, I didn’t want to start it until I got
back. I’ll send out a short “newsette” message when it is up and running.

The prizes? We want you to buy our books, so we’ll give away someone else’s

EBOOKS

Each Juno title should be available from wherever you buy ebooks as soon as the
print edition is released - including on Amazon in Kindle format.

Simon & Schuster has also e-republished the earlier books PERSONAL DEMONS,
DANCING WITH WEREWOLVES, and BRIMSTONE KISS. Since MATTERS OF THE BLOOD and
BLOOD BARGAIN are being re-released as “new” books this fall, their e-versions
will reappear then, too.

SUBMISSIONS

If you submitted before April 15, you should have received a reply of some type
by now. Although most everything between then and June 30 has been read, you may
or may not have gotten a reply yet.

Hint for this month: We do not publish paranormal romance. We understand there
are books that can be “fantasy” just as easily as they can be “romance.” But if
your novel is primarily about a guy and a gal and their relationship, we aren’t
the publisher for you.

And in case you missed them, there were hints June 21 on the blog.

QUOTATION

“Many persons read and like fiction. It does not tax the intelligence and the
intelligence of most of us can so ill afford taxation that we rightly welcome
any reading matter which avoids this.” — Rose Macaulay, English writer (1881 -
1958)

HUNTRESS REVIEWS

***** FIVE STARS! If you have not read the previous title, Personal Demons, then you may find yourself lost a few times. I highly suggest you purchase and read it before beginning this title. Once you begin, you will find out that the cost of both books were well worth the money. As with Personal Demons, I could not stop reading this story. Luckily I was on vacation from work, so I could stay up all night devouring the words. The story opens with Megan rushing inside of a stranger’s home to help one of her demons. What she finds is the results of the demon exploding. This set the tone for the entire book. Danger, unique situations, apathy, and steamy romance abound on every page. Unlike many stories, this one never slowed down in the middle. There is something exciting happening at all times. I ended up reading this book, cover-to-cover, in one night. Stacia Kane has become one of my favorite authors. Outstanding!

FALLEN ANGELS:

…Vicious Circle is a smart, action-packed urban fantasy that will have fans everywhere cheering for more! There are so many great characters to choose from that it was hard to choose a favorite, but I did have one. It was Steph’s Nana. She wanted to be in the middle of everything, but at the same time didn’t like what Steph did. She especially disliked the werewolves. She felt they would hurt her, so she got herself a Great Dane puppy. Just picture a little old lady taking care of a hyper-active puppy. Vicious Circle deserves four angels.

Uber-geek Chris Howard put together a fun name genrator a few weeks ago. (He’s working on an iPhone app for it, too.) It’ generates some creative male and female names–many of them useful, some of them just zany. *Shanika Headlam* was one I got — almost see Charles Dickens using that one…if he wrote in the 21st century. On the male side of it, I giggled at *Rodrick Lapping*…

Anyway, it is a lot of fun: The Name Generator — try it!