The Qwillery

Happy Penultimate Monday in July!

There is one debut this week:

Annex (The Violet Wars 1) by Rich Larson.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed is out in Trade Paperback.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

July 24, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Castellan	David Annandale	SF - Castellan Crowe 2
Record of a Spaceborn Few	Becky Chambers	SF/SO - Wayfarers 3
Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (h2tp)	John Crowley	MR/HistF
Enforcer: The Shira Calpurnia Omnibus	Matthew Farrer	SF - Shira Calpurnia Omnibus
The Serpent	Sarah Fine	UF - The Immortal Dealers 1
The Rift Frequency (h2tp)	Amy S. Foster	SF - The Rift Uprising Trilogy 2
The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard	David A. Goodman	MTI/SF - Star Trek
The Darker Lord (e)	Jack Heckel	F/HU - Mysterium Series 2
Horrorology	Stephen Jones (Ed) Clive Barker (Illus)	H/F
Born of Blood	Sherrilyn Kenyon	SF - The League: Nemesis Rising 13
Annex (D)	Rich Larson	SF/AC/AP/PA -The Violet Wars 1
Hearthfire	Emmie Mears	F - Stonebreaker 1
Gather the Daughters (h2tp)	Jennie Melamed	CoA/Dys/LF
High Voltage (h2mm)	Karen Marie Moning	PNR/FR/P - Fever 10
Binti (ri)	Nnedi Okorafor	SF/AC/SO - Binti 1
Binti: The Night Masquerade (ri)	Nnedi Okorafor	SF/AC/SO - Binti 3
Binti: Home (ri)	Nnedi Okorafor	SF/AC/SO - Binti 2
Sword of Power	Oliver Pötzsch Jaime McGill (Tr)	F - The Black Musketeers 2
City of Endless Night (h2tp)	Douglas Preston Lincoln Child	Sus/Occ/Sup/H/Pol - Agent Pendergast
Sons of the Hydra	Rob Sanders	SF - Alpha Legion 0
Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome	John Scalzi	CyP/MedTh
Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris	Chris Wraight	SF - The Horus Heresy: Primarchs 8
Thrawn: Alliances	Timothy Zahn	SF/MTI - Star Wars: Thrawn 2

July 27, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Born to the Blade: The Complete Season One (e)	Michael Underwood Marie Brennan Cassandra Khaw Malka Older	F - Born to the Blade

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade Paperback to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Woman
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
Fict - Fiction
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
Gothic - Gothic
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humor
HuF - Humorous Fantasy
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
MU - Mash Up
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PI - Private Investigator
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
R - Romance
RF - Romantic Fantasy
RS - Romantic Suspense
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SS - Short Stories
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

The shortlist for the 2018 Arthur C. Clarke Award has been announced.

• Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill (Gollancz)
• Dreams Before the Start of Time by Anne Charnock (47North)
• American War by Omar El Akkad (Picador)
• Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar (Sceptre)
• Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed (Tinder Press)
• Borne by Jeff VanderMeer (Fourth Estate)

The winner will be announced on Wednesday July 18, 2018.

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?

Jennie:  I’ve been writing as far back as I can remember. I don’t know exactly why I do it, just that not writing isn’t an option for me. I go through periods when I’m writing less, or even not at all, but I always return to it. Gather the Daughters, though, was the first piece where I really persevered trying to get it published.



TQ:  Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?

Jennie:  I’d say 70% pantser, 30% plotter. I often know in my head what’s going to happen in terms of broad strokes, but then my characters will run off and do something completely different than I was planning for them. I’m often surprised by what happens when I sit down and write.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Jennie:  Finding the time. I wrote Gather the Daughters while going to graduate school and working- it was a challenge! Even now, when I only work four days a week, sometimes my three days off fly by as I take care of normal human business, and I can only get an hour or so in of writing. It’s frustrating.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Jennie:  I read constantly, and I read very quickly. I’ve found that if I stop reading, I actually get depressed in a week or two. I go through phases in what I read- my last was a Victorian literature phase that lasted a year or two. Everything I read influences my writing in some way.

My work also influences my writing. I work with children as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and I can’t begin to describe some of the chaos and trauma that I witness. I find it comes out in my work, to the point where my agent and editor have to remind me to please lighten up a little bit!



TQ:  Describe Gather the Daughters in 140 characters or less.

Jennie:  A novel about the daughters of a post-apocalyptic cult at the end of the world.



TQ:  Tell us something about Gather the Daughters that is not found in the book description.

Jennie:  Gather the Daughters is, in part, a love story. Most people miss it, and so I probably made it too subtle, but two of the main characters are in love and in another world could live happily ever after.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Gather the Daughters? What appealed to you about writing a novel with a post-apocalyptic setting?

Jennie:  I can’t go into depth without revealing spoilers, but the idea of Gather the Daughters came to me when I was about eighteen, after listening to so many of my friends reveal child abuse in the their past. I began wondering what it would mean for abuse to be encoded into a culture.

When I was a child, I had post-apocalyptic daydreams all the time. Vanessa’s guilt over her own depicts what I consider to be a fairly common child fantasy- that you are the only one left in all the world, and can do whatever you want. I am fascinated by end-of-the-world scenarios in general. I’m not sure exactly what that says about my personality.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Gather the Daughters?

Jennie:  I didn’t do any specifically for Gather the Daughters, but research I did in graduate school made its way into the book. I did some anthropological and sociological investigation into child abuse in other cultures, as well as studying perpetrators of child abuse. It definitely affected what I wrote.



TQ:  Please tell us about the cover for Gather the Daughters.

Jennie:  The US cover came first. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. There is a girl with her eyes closed in a white dress, falling, with the ground vertical instead of horizontal. To me, it depicts the theme of the novel, not any particular scene. The UK cover came next and has the roses, thorns, and mosquitoes, which I think wonderfully contrasts the beauty of the island with the wildness and cruelty it contains.



TQ:  In Gather the Daughters who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Jennie:  Vanessa was definitely the easiest; she is a smart girl who reads a lot and tries to please her father, just like I was as a child, although she’s definitely more popular than I was!
Janey was probably the hardest, simply because the first drafts did not have Janey as one of the main characters- Janey’s story was told from Mary’s point of view. Eventually my editor suggested that I switch to having Janey’s point of view instead, and it wasn’t too difficult, but I felt a sense of loss leaving Mary’s narrative behind. I have a huge soft spot for Mary, and I think she’s a less complex character with Janey running the narrative. That said, it was definitely the right decision.



TQ:  How does isolating the characters on an island affect how they deal with social issues?

Jennie:  There is no point of reference. I think we see this in isolated cultures worldwide, although the number of societies this isolated is shrinking. People live in ways we find wrong or even abhorrent, but they have no way to see that it can be different. Or perhaps someone in power knows it can be different, but chooses to withhold this information, for a variety of reasons. I’m not exempting ourselves from this, I’m often amazed at what a product of culture we are, all of us. That’s part of why I think universal child education is so important, just the ability to think critically and question what we do every day is invaluable.



TQ:  Which question about Gather the Daughters do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Jennie:

Q: Why did you write such a disturbing book?

A: To me, Gather the Daughters deals with types of violence that happen all the time, under our noses, and unless one has a way to be exposed to it, it happens hidden and unseen. Violence towards children has been happening since there were children, as far as I can tell, simply because children are vulnerable, and there are those who are drawn to abuse the vulnerable. I guess in short, I have a disturbing take on humankind in general. I think we are overall selfish creatures, and sometimes that selfishness leaps over a boundary to translate into the oppression of others. And I think we are so good at fooling ourselves that the majority of those who oppress others feel their actions are right and good. I don’t mean to say that people can’t be kind, altruistic, or compassionate. But I think those attributes often have to be taught and nurtured, whereas the darker instincts arise and have a strength all their own.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Gather the Daughters.

Jennie:

“She discovers that grief is a liquid. It passes thickly down her throat as she drinks water and pools soggily around her food. It flows through her veins, dark and heavy, and fills the cavities of her bones until they weigh so much she can barely lift her head. It coats her skin like a slick of fat, moving and swirling over her eyes, turning their clear surfaces to dull gray. At night, it rises up from the floor silently until she feels it seep into the bedclothes, lick at her heels and elbows and throat, thrust upward like a rising tide that will drown her in sorrow.”



TQ:  What's next?

Jennie:  I am at the very beginning of a work that is related to Gather the Daughters. I can’t promise it will flourish into anything, but I really like what I have so far. That’s all I’m going to say!



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Jennie:  You’re very welcome!

Gather the Daughters
Little, Brown and Company, July 25, 2017
Hardcover and eBook, 352 pages

NEVER LET ME GO meets THE GIVER in this haunting debut about a cult on an isolated island, where nothing is as it seems.
 
Years ago, just before the country was incinerated to wasteland, ten men and their families colonized an island off the coast. They built a radical society of ancestor worship, controlled breeding, and the strict rationing of knowledge and history. Only the Wanderers--chosen male descendants of the original ten--are allowed to cross to the wastelands, where they scavenge for detritus among the still-smoldering fires.

The daughters of these men are wives-in-training. At the first sign of puberty, they face their Summer of Fruition, a ritualistic season that drags them from adolescence to matrimony. They have children, who have children, and when they are no longer useful, they take their final draught and die. But in the summer, the younger children reign supreme. With the adults indoors and the pubescent in Fruition, the children live wildly--they fight over food and shelter, free of their fathers' hands and their mothers' despair. And it is at the end of one summer that little Caitlin Jacob sees something so horrifying, so contradictory to the laws of the island, that she must share it with the others.

Born leader Janey Solomon steps up to seek the truth. At seventeen years old, Janey is so unwilling to become a woman, she is slowly starving herself to death. Trying urgently now to unravel the mysteries of the island and what lies beyond, before her own demise, she attempts to lead an uprising of the girls that may be their undoing.

GATHER THE DAUGHTERS is a smoldering debut; dark and energetic, compulsively readable, Melamed's novel announces her as an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

About Jennie

Jennie Melamed is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who specializes in working with traumatized children. During her doctoral work at the University of Washington, she investigated anthropological, biological, and cultural aspects of child sexual abuse. Jennie lives in Seattle with her husband and their two dogs.

Website  ~  Facebook
Twitter @jennie_melamed

Happy Monday!

There are 5 debuts this week:

The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein

The Five Daughters of the Moon (The Waning Moon Duology 1) by Leena Likitalo;

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed;

Strange Practice (A Dr. Greta Helsing Novel 1) by Vivian Shaw;

and

Talon of God by Wesley Snipes and Ray Norman.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Nod by Adrian Barnes is out in Mass Market Paperback;

Red Right Hand (The Mythos War 1) by Levi Black is out in Trade Paperback;

The Wilding Sisters by Eve Chase;

Killing Is My Business (Ray Electromatic Mysteries 2) by Adam Christopher;

Time Siege (Time Salvager 2) by Wesley Chu is out in Trade Paperback;

Sovereign (Nemesis 2) by April Daniels;

Gilded Cage (Dark Gifts 1) by Vic James is out in Trade Paperback;

Raid (Wastelanders 2) by K.S. Merbeth;

and

Blood Gamble (Disrupted Magic 2) by Melissa F. Olson.

Debut novels are highlighted in blue. Novels, etc. by formerly featured DAC Authors are highlighted in green.

July 24, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Betrayed by Blood (e)	Beth Dranoff	PNR - Mark of the Moon 2
Accidental Sire (e)	Molly Harper	PNR - Half-Moon Hollow 14

July 25, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Wildfire	Ilona Andrews	PNR - Hidden Legacy 3
The Unholy Consult	R. Scott Bakker	F - Aspect-Emperor 4
Nod (tp2mm)	Adrian Barnes	Dys/LF/SF/AP/PA
Red Right Hand (h2tp)	Levi Black	DF/H - The Mythos War 1
Tomorrow War: Serpent Road	J. L. Bourne	TechTh - The Chronicles of Max 2
The Wilding Sisters	Eve Chase	CW/CoA/FL
Killing Is My Business	Adam Christopher	SF/Noir/PI - Ray Electromatic Mysteries 2
Time Siege (h2tp)	Wesley Chu	SF/TT - Time Salvager 2
Glory Imperialis: An Astra Militarum Omnibus	Mark Clapham Andy Hoare Richard Williams	SF - Astra Militarum
The Dream Keeper's Daughter	Emily Colin	R/TT/F/HistF
Sovereign	April Daniels	SH - Nemesis 2
Death's Bright Day (h2mm)	David Drake	SF - RCN 11
Dark Carousel (h2mm)	Christine Feehan	PNR - Carpathian 30
Dark Screams: Volume Seven (e)	Brian James Freeman (Ed) Richard Chizmar (Ed)	H - Dark Screams Anthology
Resurrection	John French	SF - The Horusian Wars 1
Battlefront II: Inferno Squad	Christie Golden	SF/MTI - Star Wars
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: The Official Movie Novelization	Christie Golden	SF/MTI
Dark Rites	Heather Graham	PNR/SupTh - Krewe of Hunters 22
The Fifth Doll	Charlie N. Holmberg	HistF
Gilded Cage (h2tp)	Vic James	F/Dys/SF - Dark Gifts 1
Assassin's Price	L. E. Modesitt Jr.	F - The Imager Portfolio 11
The Punch Escrow (D)	Tal M. Klein	SF/TechTh
The Five Daughters of the Moon (D)	Leena Likitalo	HistF/DF - The Waning Moon Duology 1
Red Tithe	Robbie MacNiven	SF - Carcharodons 1
Bone White	Ronald Malfi	H/GH/Th
Gather the Daughters (D)	Jennie Melamed	LF
Raid	K.S. Merbeth	SF/AP/PA - Wastelanders 2
Blood Gamble	Melissa F. Olson	UF - Disrupted Magic 2
Copper Veins	Jennifer Allis Provost	Dys/FR - Copper Legacy 3
Strange Practice (D)	Vivian Shaw	CF - A Dr. Greta Helsing Novel 1
Extinction Age	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/AP/PA - The Extinction Cycle 3
Talon of God (D)	Wesley Snipes Ray Norman	UF
Age of Swords	Michael J. Sullivan	F - The Legends of the First Empire 2
After the Downfall	Harry Turtledove	AH

July 26, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
These Deathless Bones: A Tor.com Original (e)	Cassandra Khaw	H
Hounds of the Underworld	Dan Rabarts Lee Murray	M/Noir/H - Path of Ra 1

July 27, 2017

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
She-wolf: A Cultural History of Female Werewolves (ri)	Hannah Priest	LC/SF/F
The Leper House (e)	Andrew Taylor	GO
Broken Voices (e)	Andrew Taylor	GO
The Scratch (e)	Andrew Taylor	GO

D - Debut
e - eBook
Ed - Editor
h2mm - Hardcover to Mass Market Paperback
h2tp - Hardcover to Trade Paperback
ri - reissue or reprint
tp2mm - Trade to Mass Market Paperback
Tr - Translator


AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GH - Ghost(s)
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GO - Gothic
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legends and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Noir - Noir
Occ - Occult
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PI - Private Investigator
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PRS - Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Psy - Psychological
R - Romance
RPGs - Role Playing Games
Satire - Satire
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superhero(es)
SP - Steampunk
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisMeta - Visionary and Metaphysical
W - Western
Z - Zombies

Note: Not all genres and formats are found in the books, etc. listed above.

Each month you will be able to vote for your favorite cover from that month's debut novels. At the end of the year the 12 monthly winners will be pitted against each other to choose the 2017 Debut Novel Cover of the Year. Please note that a debut novel cover is eligible in the month in which the novel is published in the US. Cover artist/illustrator/designer information is provided when we have it.

I'm using PollCode for this vote. After you the check the circle next to your favorite, click "Vote" to record your vote. If you'd like to see the real-time results click "View". This will take you to the PollCode site where you may see the results. If you want to come back to The Qwillery click "Back" and you will return to this page. Voting will end sometime on August 5, 2017.

Vote for your favorite July 2017 Debut Cover!

The Bone Mother

Devil's Call

The Epiphany Machine

The Fifth Ward: First Watch

The Five Daughters of the Moon

Gather the Daughters

Godblind

Gork, the Teenage Dragon

Graveyard Shift

Hook's Tale

Like a Fly on the Wall

Lost in Arcadia

The Magical World of Madame Metier

The Null Prophecy

Out in the Open

The Punch Escrow

Strange Practice

Talon of God

Tropic of Kansas

The Truants

Uncle Brucker the Rat Killer

When the English Fall

 

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