The Qwillery

Happy last Monday in February 2021! There are 2 debuts this week: The City of Good Death by Priyanka Champaneri; and Glow by Tim Jordan. From formerly featured DAC Authors: Escaping Exodus: Symbiosis by Nicky Drayden; The Girl and the Stars (Book of the Ice 1) by Mark Lawrence is out in Mass Market Paperback; Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons: Stories be Keith Rosson; Out Past the Stars (Farian War 3) by K. B. Wagers; and Alien: Into Charybdis by Alex White.

February 22, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Future God of Love	Dilman Dila	F - Luna Novella 4

February 23, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Chill (h2tp)	Scott Carson	SupTh
Ship of Destiny (tp2mm)	Frank Chadwick	SF/SO
The City of Good Death (D)	Priyanka Champaneri	F/FL
Sea Loves Me: Selected Stories	Mia Couto	LF/SS/MR - Biblioasis International Translation Series
The Bone Fire	György Dragomán Ottilie Mulzet (Tr)	Gothic
Escaping Exodus: Symbiosis	Nicky Drayden	SF/SO
The Upstairs House	Julia Fine	LF
Shadow Fall	Alexander Freed	SF/SO/MTI - Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron 2
Wicked All Night	Jeaniene Frost	PNR - A Night Rebel Novel 3
Master of the Revels: A Return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O.	Nicole Galland	SF/TT
Good & Evil	Eric Giacometti Jacques Ravenne	Occ/Sup/Hist - Black Sun Trilogy 2
The Four Symbols	Éric Giacometti Jacques Ravenne	Occ/Sup/Hist - Black Sun Trilogy 1
Crimson Phoenix	John Gilstrap	Th - A Victoria Emerson Thriller 1
Skin for Skin	Terry Grimwood	F - Luna Novella 5
The Russian Cage	Charlaine Harris	DF - Gunnie Rose 3
Ghost Ups Her Game (h2tp)	Carolyn Hart	PCM - Bailey Ruth Raeburn 9
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (ri)	Shirley Jackson	LF/H/Gothic
Glow (D)	Tim Jordan	SF/AP/PA
The Deep (h2tp)	Alma Katsu	H/Hist/Th
Sword of Fire (h2mm)	Katharine Kerr	F/DF - The Justice War 1
The Undying Monster (ri)	Jessie Douglas Kerruish	H - Essential Gothic, SF & Dark Fantasy
Otaku (h2tp)	Chris Kluwe	SF
The Eleventh Gate (tp2mm)	Nancy Kress	SF
The Girl and the Stars (h2mm)	Mark Lawrence	F/DF - Book of the Ice 1
The First Sister (h2tp)	Linden A. Lewis	SF/SO - The First Sister Trilogy 1
Calculated Risks	Seanan McGuire	UF/P/HU - InCryptid 10
Kingdom of Shadow and Light	Karen Marie Moning	PNR -  Fever 11
Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters	Aimee Ogden	F/SO
Inviting Interruptions: Wonder Tales in the Twenty-First Century	Cristina Baccilega (Ed) Jennifer Orme (Ed)	LC/FairyT/FolkT/LM - Series in Fairy-Tale Studies
Forced Perspectives (h2mm)	Tim Powers	F
Flowers of Darkness	Tatiana de Rosnay	FL/CL/Sus/Dys
Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons: Stories	Keith Rosson	SS/F
A Cat on the Case	Clea Simon	PCM - Witch Cats of Cambridge 3
Plan for the Worst	Jodi Taylor	SF - Chronicles of St. Mary's 11
Hard Time	Jodi Taylor	SF/TT/HistF/F - Time Police 2
Long Story Short: A Short Story Collection	Jodi Taylor	SF/SS - Chronicles of St. Mary's
The Hollow Ones (ri)	Guillermo del Toro Chuck Hogan	SupTh/Sus/GH/Gothic
Transgressions of Power	Juliette Wade	SF/AP/PA - The Broken Trust 2
Out Past the Stars	K. B. Wagers	SF/SO/AC/SE - Farian War 3
The Jackal (h2mm)	J.R. Ward	PNR - Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp 1
Alien: Into Charybdis	Alex White	SF/SC/MTI
The Loosening Skin	Aliya Whiteley	SupTh/H
The Swimmers	Marian Womack	Dys/SF/AP/PA

February 24, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Clockwork Sister	M E Rodman	F - Luna Novella 6

February 25, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Ecocollapse Fiction and Cultures of Human Extinction	Sarah E. McFarland	LC/Sci - Environmental Cultures

February 26, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Shelter for the Damned	Mike Thorn	H

February 28, 2021

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Best of Elizabeth Hand	Elizabeth Hand	F - Collection
The Best of Walter Jon Williams	Walter Jon Williams	SF - Anthology

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



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
BHU - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CM - Crime & Mystery
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
GothicR - Gothic Romance
GW&CC - Global Warming and Climate Change
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistM - Historical Mystery
HistR - Historical Romance
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
Med - Medical
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
MU - Mash-Up
NF - Near Future
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PF - Paranormal Fantasy
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
PP - Police Porcedural
Psy - Psychological
R - Romance
RF - Romantic Fantasy
ScF - Science Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SFTh - Science Fiction Thriller
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
SS - Short Stories
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
TTR - Time Travel Romance
UF - Urban Fantasy
VM - Visionary and Metaphysical
WS - Women Sleuths

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

Keith Rosson (2017) Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons: Stories
Meerkat Press, February 23, 2021
Trade Paperback and eBook, 206 pages

With Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons, award-winning author Keith Rosson delves into notions of family, grief, identity, indebtedness, loss, and hope, with the surefooted merging of literary fiction and magical realism he’s explored in previous novels. In “Dunsmuir,” a newly sober husband buys a hearse to help his wife spread her sister’s ashes, while “The Lesser Horsemen” illustrates what happens when God instructs the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to go on a team-building cruise as a way of boosting their frayed morale. In “Brad Benske and the Hand of Light,” an estranged husband seeks his wife’s whereabouts through a fortuneteller after she absconds with a cult, and in “High Tide,” a grieving man ruminates on his brother’s life as a monster terrorizes their coastal town. With grace, imagination, and a brazen gallows humor, Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons merges the fantastic and the everyday, and includes a number of Rosson’s unpublished stories, as well as award-winning favorites.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Bookshop : Books-A-Million : IndieBound
iBooks : Kobo

K. B. Wagers (2016) Out Past the Stars
The Farian War 3
Orbit Books, February 23, 2001
Trade Paperback and eBook, 400 pages

Gunrunner empress Hail Bristol must navigate alien politics and deadly plots to prevent an interspecies war, in the explosive finale to the Farian War space opera trilogy.

When Hail finally confronts the Farian gods, she makes a stunning discovery. There are no gods—only the Hiervet, an alien race with devastating powers who once spread war throughout the galaxy long before humanity’s ancestors crawled out of the sludge of Earth’s oceans.

But this knowledge carries with it dire news: the Hiervet have returned, eager to take revenge on those of their kind who escaped. And they don’t care who gets caught in the middle of the battle—Shen, Farian, or Indranan.

Once again, the fate of the galaxy is on the line and Hail will have to make one final gamble to leverage chaos into peace.

Praise for The Farian War Trilogy:

"A fantastic send-off for one of science fiction’s most remarkable recent protagonists." —Publishers Weekly

"Action-and-emotion-packed, folding political tension, personal relationships, and trauma into a vivid space opera that does not pull any punches." —Library Journal (starred review)

"An exciting dose of space opera and political intrigue peppered with hard choices. Highly recommended!" —Booklist

The Farian War Trilogy
There Before the Chaos
Down Among the Dead
Out Past the Stars

For more from K. B. Wagers, check out:

Indranan War Trilogy
Behind the Throne
After the Crown
Beyond the Empire

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Bookshop : Books-A-Million : IndieBound
Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

The Farian War 1

The Farian War 2

Alex White (2016) Alien: Into Charybdis
Titan Books, February 23, 2021
Hardcover and eBook, 340 pages

The critically acclaimed author of Alien: The Cold Forge takes readers to a rogue colony where terror lurks in the tunnels of an abandoned Weyland-Yutani complex.

"Shy" Hunt and the tech team from McAllen Integrations thought they'd have an easy job--set up environmental systems for the brand new Hasanova Data Solutions colony, built on the abandoned ruins of a complex known as "Charybdis." There are just two problems: the colony belongs to the Iranian state, so diplomacy is strained at best, and the complex is located above a series of hidden caves that contain deadly secrets. When a bizarre ship lands on a nearby island, one of the workers is attacked by a taloned creature, and trust evaporates between the Iranians and Americans. The McAllen Integrations crew are imprisoned, accused as spies, but manage to send out a distress signal... to the Colonial Marines.

Alien: Into Charybdis TM & © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Bookshop : Books-A-Million : IndieBound
Google Play : iBooks : Kobo

Happy Monday? We are back after a 4 day hiatus. Hope that everyone is okay during these strange times. Keep well!

There is one debut this week:

Red Noise by John P. Murphy.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

ReV (The Machine Dynasty 3) by Madeline Ashby;

When Jackals Storm the Walls (Song of Shattered Sands 5) by Bradley P. Beaulieu;

The Amberlough Dossier: Amberlough, Armistice, Amnesty by Lara Elena Donnelly (eBook Bundle);

The Dragon Republic (Poppy War 2) by R. F. Kuang is out in Trade Paperback;

The Adventures of Arabella Ashby: Arabella of Mars, Arabella and the Battle of Venus, Arabella The Traitor of Mars by David D. Levine (eBook Bundle);

and

Road Seven by Keith Rosson.

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

July 14, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Jest Right (ri)	Piers Anthony	F/HU - Magic of Xanth 43
ReV: The Machine Dynasty	Madeline Ashby	SF/AP/AP/CyP - The Machine Dynasty 3
When Jackals Storm the Walls	Bradley P. Beaulieu	F - Song of Shattered Sands 5
Unicorn Mountain (ri)	Michael Bishop	SF/AC
Peace Talks	Jim Butcher	UF - Dresden Files 16
The Amberlough Dossier: Amberlough, Armistice, Amnesty (e)	Lara Elena Donnelly	HistF
Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future	Jun Eishima Final Fantasy XV Team	F/MTI - Final Fantasy XV
The Vessels	Anna M. Elias	SupTh/VM/F - Vessels 1
Queen of Storms	Raymond E. Feist	F - Firemane Saga 2
Silver Ravens	Jane Fletcher	F/MR
His Dark Materials and Philosophy	Richard Greene (Ed) Rachel Robinson-Greene (Ed)	Philosophy - Popular Culture and Philosophy 132
The Only Good Indians	Stephen Graham Jones	H
The Relentless Moon	Mary Robinette Kowal	SF/AH/HSF - Lady Astronaut 3
The Dragon Republic (h2tp)	R. F Kuang	HistF - Poppy War 2
In the Kingdom of All Tomorrows	Stephen R. Lawhead	F/HistF - Eirlandia 3
The Adventures of Arabella Ashby: Arabella of Mars, Arabella and the Battle of Venus, Arabella The Traitor of Mars (e)	David D. Levine	SF/SP
The Passengers (h2tp)	John Marrs	TechTh/Sus/SF
Knaves Over Queens (h2tp)	George R.R. Martin (Ed) Wild Cards Trust	SH/SF - Wild Cards 22
The Dreaming Tree (h2tp)	Matthew Mather	M - Delta Devlin Novels 1
The Storyteller’s Daughter (e)	Victoria McCombs	RF
Star Trek: Discovery: Die Standing	John Jackson Miller	SF - Star Trek: Discovery 7
Utopia Avenue	David Mitchell	LF/SF/Dys
Gideon the Ninth (h2tp)	Tamsyn Muir	SF/SO/F - The Locked Tomb Trilogy 1
Red Noise (D)	John P. Murphy	SF/SO/AP/PA
At the Lucky Hand: aka The Sixty-Nine Drawers	Goran Petrović Peter Agnone (Tr)	MR/LF
All Up	J. W. Rinzler	AH
Road Seven	Keith Rosson	MR/LF
Shadows Rising	Madeleine Roux	F - World of Warcraft Shadowlands 3
Best of British Science Fiction 2019	Donna Scott (Ed)	SF - Anthology
Heart of Gold (e)	Sharon Shinn	SF/CyP
Hell Divers VII: Warriors	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/CyP - Hell Divers 7

July 15, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Everything's Fine: A Tor.com Original (e)	Matthew Pridham	SF

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



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
LMF - Legends, Myths, Fables
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
RF - Romantic Fantasy
ScF - Science Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy
VM - Visionary and Metaphysical

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

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

July 1, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Ones Who Look: A Tor.com Original (e)	Katharine Duckett	SF
Memory and Utopian Agency in Utopian/Dystopian Literature: Memory of the Future	Carter F. Hanson	LC
Scarlet Odyssey (D)	C. T. Rwizi	F/CoA/FairyT/FolkT/LM - Scarlet Odyssey 1

July 2, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The House on Widows Hill	Simon R. Green	SupM - An Ishmael Jones Mystery 9
Dark Harvest	Cat Sparks	SF/PA

July 7, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Aftermath of an Industrial Accident: Stories	Mike Allen	H/DF
The Vanished Seas	Catherine Asaro	SF/SO - Major Bhaajan 3
In the Palace of Shadow and Joy	D. J. Butler	SF/SO
Hollow Kingdom (h2tp)	Kira Jane Buxton	LF/F/HU/SF/AP/PA
Whispers in the Mist	Darcy Coates	H/Occ/Sup/AP/PA/SupTh/Dys - Black Winter 3
The Librarians Trilogy (e)	Greg Cox	F/MTI
Kill Orbit (e)	Joel Dane	SF - Cry Pilot 3
Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders (e)	Aliette de Bodard	DF/H - Dominion of the Fallen Story
Little Brother & Homeland	Cory Doctorow	SF/CyP
Unconquerable Sun	Kate Elliott	SF/SO - The Sun Chronicles 1
Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air	Jackson Ford	SF/CyP/GenEng/HU - Frost Files 2
The Bright Lands (D)	John Fram	SupTh
At the End of the World	Charles E. Gannon	SF/AP/PA - Black Tide Rising 8
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor	Hank Green	CoA/SF/CF
Titandeath	Guy Haley	SF/SO - Horus Heresy 53
Genetics and the Literary Imagination	Clare Hanson	SF/HC - Oxford Textual Perspectives
The Strawberry Thief	Joanne Harris	LF
The Big Book of Mars: From Ancient Egypt to The Martian, A Deep-Space Dive into Our Obsession with the Red Planet	Marc Hartzman	PopCul/Astronomy/Science History
Children of Dune (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 3
Heretics of Dune (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 5
Chapterhouse: Dune (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 6
God Emperor of Dune (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 4
Dune Messiah (ri)	Frank Herbert	SF - Dune 2
Mephiston: City of Light	Darius Hinks	SF/SE - Warhammer 40,000
Haunted Heroine	Sarah Kuhn	UF/RF/CF - Heroine Complex 4
The Name of All Things (h2tp)	Jenn Lyons	F - Chorus of Dragons 2
Branwell: A Novel of the Brontë Brother	Douglas A. Martin	LF/AH
Where the Veil Is Thin	Cerece Rennie Murphy (Ed) Alana Joli Abbott (Ed)	F - Anthology
Binti: The Complete Trilogy (h2tp)	Nnedi Okorafor	SF/SO/AC
The Need	Helen Phillips	LF/SpecFic
Every Sky a Grave	Jay Posey	SF/SO - The Ascendance 1
Cinderbiter: Celtic Poems	Martin Shaw Tony Hoagland	Poetry
Things From the Flood	Simon Stålenhag	SF/AP/PA
The Book of Dragons: An Anthology	Jonathan Strahan (Ed)	F
Battle Luna	Travis S. Taylor Timothy Zahn Michael Z. Williamson	SF/HSF
Growing Things and Other Stories (h2tp)	Paul Tremblay	Occ/Sup
A Peculiar Peril	Jeff VanderMeer	YA/F/AH - Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead 1
The Beast of Blackmoor (e)	Milla Vane	F/P/PNR
Or What You Will	Jo Walton	CF
Arms of the Ocean (e)	Jamie Webster M. Dalto	F
Red Dust	Yoss David Frye (Tr)	SF - Cuban Science Fiction

July 8, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Necessary Arthur: A Tor.com Original (e)	Garth Nix	ScF

July 14, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Jest Right (ri)	Piers Anthony	F/HU - Magic of Xanth 43
ReV: The Machine Dynasty	Madeline Ashby	SF/AP/AP/CyP - The Machine Dynasty 3
When Jackals Storm the Walls	Bradley P. Beaulieu	F - Song of Shattered Sands 5
Unicorn Mountain (ri)	Michael Bishop	SF/AC
Peace Talks	Jim Butcher	UF - Dresden Files 16
The Amberlough Dossier: Amberlough, Armistice, Amnesty (e)	Lara Elena Donnelly	HistF
Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future	Jun Eishima Final Fantasy XV Team	F/MTI - Final Fantasy XV
The Vessels	Anna M. Elias	SupTh/VM/F - Vessels 1
Queen of Storms	Raymond E. Feist	F - Firemane Saga 2
Silver Ravens	Jane Fletcher	F/MR
His Dark Materials and Philosophy	Richard Greene (Ed) Rachel Robinson-Greene (Ed)	Philosophy - Popular Culture and Philosophy 132
The Only Good Indians	Stephen Graham Jones	H
The Relentless Moon	Mary Robinette Kowal	SF/AH/HSF - Lady Astronaut 3
The Dragon Republic (h2tp)	R. F Kuang	HistF - Poppy War 2
In the Kingdom of All Tomorrows	Stephen R. Lawhead	F/HistF - Eirlandia 3
The Adventures of Arabella Ashby: Arabella of Mars, Arabella and the Battle of Venus, Arabella The Traitor of Mars (e)	David D. Levine	SF/SP
The Passengers (h2tp)	John Marrs	TechTh/Sus/SF
The Dreaming Tree (h2tp)	Matthew Mather	M - Delta Devlin Novels 1
The Storyteller’s Daughter (e)	Victoria McCombs	RF
Star Trek: Discovery: Die Standing	John Jackson Miller	SF - Star Trek: Discovery 7
Utopia Avenue	David Mitchell	LF/SF/Dys
Gideon the Ninth (h2tp)	Tamsyn Muir	SF/SO/F - The Locked Tomb Trilogy 1
Red Noise (D)	John P. Murphy	SF/SO/AP/PA
At the Lucky Hand: aka The Sixty-Nine Drawers	Goran Petrović Peter Agnone (Tr)	MR/LF
All Up	J. W. Rinzler	AH
Just Make Believe	Maggie Robinson	PCM - Lady Adelaide Mysteries 3
Road Seven	Keith Rosson	MR/LF
Shadows Rising	Madeleine Roux	F - World of Warcraft Shadowlands 3
Best of British Science Fiction 2019	Donna Scott (Ed)	SF - Anthology
Heart of Gold (e)	Sharon Shinn	SF/CyP
Hell Divers VII: Warriors	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/CyP - Hell Divers 7
Knaves Over Queens (h2tp)	Wild Cards Trust	SH/SF - Wild Cards 22

July 15, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Everything's Fine: A Tor.com Original (e)	Matthew Pridham	SF

July 20, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
All the Dead Men	Errick Nunnally	H - Alexander Smith 2

July 21, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Saturnine	Dan Abnett	SF/SO - The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra 4
MEG: Generations	Steve Alten	SupTh/SF - Meg 6
Uranus	Ben Bova	SF/HSF/AC - Outer Planets Trilogy 1
Alpha Omega	Nicholas Bowling	SF/TechTh/H
The Killing Light (h2tp)	Myke Cole	F - Sacred Throne  3
Fearful Symmetries (e)(ri)	Ellen Datlow (Ed)	H - Anthology
John Landis Presents The Library of Horror Haunted Houses: Classic Stories of Doors that Should Never Be Opened	DK	H - The Library of Horror
The Pull of the Stars	Emma Donoghue	Hist/Dys
Axiom's End (D)	Lindsay Ellis	SF/AC/Th
The Year of the Witching (D)	Alexis Henderson	H/Occ/Sup/DF
A Summoning of Souls	Leanna Renee Hieber	GH/Gaslamp - A Spectral City Novel 3
I Come with Knives	S. A. Hunt	H/CF - Malus Domestica 2
Trouble the Saints	Alaya Dawn Johnson	HistF/LF
Darkdawn (h2tp)	Jay Kristoff	F - The Nevernight Chronicle 3
Inch by Inch (h2tp)	Morgan Llywelyn	SF/AP/PA - Step by Step 2
Malorie: A Bird Box Novel	Josh Malerman	Sus/H/SF/AP/PA - Bird Box 2
Quantum Shadows	L. E. Modesitt Jr.	SF
Restoration	Angela Slatter	UF - Verity Fassbinder 3
Vigil	Angela Slatter	UF - Verity Fassbinder 1
The Rightful Queen	Isabelle Steiger	F - Paths of Lantistyne 2
Annihilation Aria	Michael R. Underwood	SF/SO - Space Operas 1
The Sin in the Steel (D)	Ryan Van Loan	F - The Fall of the Gods 1
The Big Book of Modern Fantasy	Ann VanderMeer(Ed) Jeff VanderMeer (Ed)	F - Anthology
A Touch of Stone and Snow	Milla Vane	FR/F/PNR - A Gathering of Dragons 2
Mean Machine	Aleksandr Voinov	Dys
Savage Legion	Matt Wallace	F - Savage Rebellion 1
South of the Buttonwood Tree	Heather Webber	CW/MR/STR
Ashes of the Sun	Django Wexler	F - Burningblade & Silvereye 1

July 23, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Chimera Code (e)	Wayne Santos	SF - Witchware 1

July 27, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
House of the Rising Sun	Richard Cox	SF/AP/PA
The Best of Greg Egan: 20 Stories of Hard Science Fiction	Greg Egan	SF/HSF

July 28, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Doctor Who: Pirate Planet	Douglas Adams James Goss	SF - Doctor Who
The Technician (tp2mm)>	Neal Asher	SF/SO - Polity 4
The Butterfly Lampshade	Aimee Bender	LF/MR/FL
Afterland	Lauren Beukes	Sus/Dys
The Baron of Magister Valley	Steven Brust	F - Dragaera 4
Reaping Willow (e)	Boone Brux	UF - Grim Reality 4
Lies of Descent (h2mm)	Troy Carrol Bucher	F/DF - Fallen Gods' War 1
My Enemy's Enemy (tp2mm)	Robert Buettner	SF
Kushiel's Chosen (ri)	Jacqueline Carey	RF/F - Kushiel's Legacy 2
The Perfect Wife (h2tp)	JP Delaney	Sus/Psy/GenEng
Empire of Wild (D - US)	Cherie Dimaline	Native American & Aboriginal/STR/SupTh
William Shakespeare's The Merry Rise of Skywalker: Star Wars Part the Ninth	Ian Doescher	SF/SO - William Shakespeare's Star Wars 9
Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror	Mark Gatiss	SF - Doctor Who
The Imago Stage	Karoline Georges Rhonda Mullins (Tr)	LF/Dys/FL
Spells for the Dead	Faith Hunter	UF - Soulwood 5
A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror (h2tp)	John Hornor Jacobs	H
Flyaway	Kathleen Jennings	CF/DF/Gothic
At Death's Door (hmm)	Sherrilyn Kenyon	HistF/FR/PNR - Deadman's Cross 3
Cold Storage (h2mm)	David Koepp	Sus
Kinsman's Oath (e)(ri)	Susan Krinard	PNR - The Kinsman  2
Prince of Shadows (e)(ri)	Susan Krinard	PNR - Val Cache 3
The Forest Lord (e)(ri)	Susan Krinard	PNR - Fane 1
Star-Crossed (e)(ri)	Susan Krinard	SF
Prince of Dreams (e)(ri)	Susan Krinard	PNR - Val Cache 2
Prince of Wolves (e)(ri)	Susan Krinard	PNR - Val Cache 1
Twice a Hero (e)(ri)	Susan Krinard	PNR
Body & Soul (e)(ri)	Susan Krinard	PNR
Kin	Snorri Kristjansson	Cr/Hist/HistTh - Helga Finnsdottir Mysteries 1
Crossings (D)	Alex Landragin	LF/MR
Sabella (ri)	Tanith Lee	SF/SO
Bound by Shadows (ri)	Kathy Lyons	PNR - Grizzlies Gone Wild  1
The Dawn of a Nazi Moon	Douglas MacKinnon	SF - Dawn of the Nazi Moon 1
Tyger Burning (tp2mm)	T. C. McCarthy	SF
The Five Books of (Robert) Moses	Arthur Nersesian	AH/LF/AB/Sagas
Chaos Vector	Megan E. O'Keefe	SF/SO/SE/GenEng- Protectorate 2
The Memory Police (h2tp)	Yoko Ogawa Stephen Snyder (Tr)	LF/SF/Dys
River of Night (h2mm)	John Ringo Mike Massa	SF/AP/PA - Black Tide Rising 8
Deal with the Devil (h2tp)	Kit Rocha	SF/SFR - Mercenary Librarians 1
Demon in White	Christopher Ruocchio	SF/SO/HSF/AC - Sun Eater 3
Relentless: A Drizzt Novel	R. A. Salvatore	F - Generations  3
Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds (h2mm)	Brandon Sanderson	SF - Collection
Doctor Who: Dalek	Robert Shearman	SF - Doctor Who
Automatic Reload	Ferrett Steinmetz	SF/CyP/HSF
Privateer (h2mm)	Margaret Weis Robert Krammes	F - The Dragon Corsairs 2
The Worst of All Possible Worlds	Alex White	SF/GenEng/SO - Salvagers 3
Doctor Who: The Witchfinders	Joy Wilkinson	SF - Doctor Who
Master of the World (tp2mm)	Edward Willett	F - Worldshapers 2

July 31, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Gray Matters (D)	John Webster Gastil	SF/CyP/Medical/PolTh
Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 3	William Schafer (Ed)	DF - Anthology

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



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
LMF - Legends, Myths, Fables
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PolTh - Political Thriller
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
RF - Romantic Fantasy
ScF - Science Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupM - Supernatural Mystery
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy
VM - Visionary and Metaphysical

J. Ashley-Smith

The Attic Tragedy
Meerkat Press, June 9, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 68 pages
(Debut - Novella)

Sylvie never called them ghosts, but that’s what they were—not that George ever saw them herself. The new girl, Sylvie, is like a creature from another time, with her old-fashioned leather satchel, her white cotton gloves and her head in the clouds. George watches her drift around the edge of the school playing fields, guided by inaudible voices.

When George stands up for Sylvie, beating back Tommy Payne and his gang of thugs, it brings her close to the ethereal stranger; though not as close as George would have liked. In the attic of Sylvie’s father’s antique shop, George’s scars will sing and her longing will drive them both toward a tragedy as veiled and inevitable as Sylvie’s whispering ghosts.

G.D. Penman

The Wounded Ones 
The Witch of Empire 2
Meerkat Press, June 23, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 232 pages

Demons and serial killers are Iona "Sully" Sullivan's bread and butter, but nothing could have prepared her to face off against the full weight of the British Empire at the height of its power. With the War for American Independence in full swing, she finds even her prodigious talents pushed beyond their limits when citizens of the American Colonies begin vanishing amidst rumors of crop circles, hydra sightings and worse. Through a wild and lethal adventure that will see her clashing with the Empire around the world and beyond, the only constants in Sully's life are an undead girlfriend, a giant demon crow that has taken a shine to her, regular assassination attempts by enemies on all sides, and the cold certainty that nothing and nobody is going to make it out of the war in one piece.

Keith Rosson

Road Seven
Meerkat Press, July 14, 2020
Trade Paperback and eBook, 300 pages

Mark Sandoval—resolutely arrogant, covered head to foot in precise geometric scarring, and still marginally famous after Hollywood made an Oscar-winner based off his memoir years before—has been strongly advised by his lawyer to leave the country following a drunken and potentially fatal hit and run. When a woman sends Sandoval grainy footage of what appears to be a unicorn, he quickly hires an assistant and the two head off to the woman's farm in Hvíldarland, a tiny, remote island off the coast of Iceland. When they arrive on the island and discover that both a military base and the surrounding álagablettur, the nearby woods, are teeming with strangeness and secrets, they begin to realize that a supposed unicorn sighting is the least of their worries.

Happy Monday!

There are 3 debuts this week:

Miranda in Milan by Katherine Duckett;

A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan 1) by Arkady Martine

and

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.


From formerly featured DAC Authors:

How to Move Spheres and Influence People: A Tor.com Original (A Wild Cards Story) by Marko Kloos;

A Parliament of Bodies (Maradaine Constabulary 3) by Marshall Ryan Maresca;

Smoke City by Keith Rosson is out in Trade Paperback;

The Clarity by Keith Thomas is out in Trade Paperback;

and

Forever Wolf (Legend of the All Wolves 3) by Maria Vale.

Clicking on a novel's cover will take you to its Amazon page.

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

March 26, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Iron Hound (tp2mm)	Tim Akers	F - The Hallowed War 2
HALO: Silentium (ri)	Greg Bear	SF - HALO - Forerunner Saga 3
HALO: Primordium (ri)	Greg Bear	SF - HALO - Forerunner Saga 2
HALO: Cryptum (ri)	Greg Bear	SF - HALO - Forerunner Saga 1
The Compleat Werewolf: And Other Stories of Fantasy and Science Fiction (e)(ri)	Anthony Boucher	F/SF - Collection
Chain of Command (tp2mm)	Frank Chadwick	SF
Tiamat's Wrath	James S. A. Corey	SF/SO/SE/AC - Expanse 8
Miranda in Milan (D)	Katharine Duckett	F/DF/HistF
Relic (h2mm)	Alan Dean Foster	SD/AC/AP/PA
The Queens of Innis Lear (h2tp)	Tessa Gratton	F/HistF
Death Doesn't Bargain (h2mm)	Sherrilyn Kenyon	HistF - Deadman's Cross  2
Black City Dragon	Richard A. Knaak	UF/HistF
Neogenesis (h2mm)	Sharon Lee Steve Miller	SF/SO - Liaden Universe 21
A Parliament of Bodies	Marshall Ryan Maresca	UF/DF - Maradaine Constabulary 3
A Memory Called Empire (D)	Arkady Martine	SF/SO - Teixcalaan 1
Fleet Insurgent (tp2mm)	Susan R. Matthews	SF/SO - Under Jurisdiction 8
Prince Of Demons (e)(ri)	Mickey Zucker Reichert	F
Smoke City (h2tp)	Keith Rosson	MR/LF/CF
Head On: A Novel of the Near Future (h2mm)	John Scalzi	SF/CyP/Cr - Lock In
The Old Drift (D)	Namwali Serpell	LF
Galactic Patrol	E.E. 'Doc' Smith	SF/SO/HSF/SE - Golden Age Masterworks
The Clarity (h2tp)	Keith Thomas	Th/Spec
Forever Wolf	Maria Vale	PNR/FR - Legend of All Wolves 3

March 27, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
How to Move Spheres and Influence People: A Tor.com Original	Marko Kloos	SF

March 29, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Blue Morphos in the Garden: A Tor.com Original	Lis Mitchell	CF

March 31, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Perfunctory Affection	Kim Harrison	Psy/H

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



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
Cr - Crime
CyP - Cyberpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FairyT - Fairy Tales
FolkT - Folk Tales
FR - Fantasy Romance
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PerfArts - Performing Arts
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
Spec - Speculative
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical



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

Happy Monday!

For genre fans - Dark Shadows (all 1,225 episodes) is available on Amazon Prime Video! So if you've got a Prime account you can stream the series for free. I adore this show! Season 1 can be found here.

There are

Markswoman (Asiana 1) by Rati Mehrotra;

and

The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Roar of the Storm (The Fracture Worlds 2) by Adam Burch;

Devoted to Destiny (Muse Chronicles 5) by Lisa Kessler;

Creatures of Light (Creatures of Light 3) by Emily B. Martin is out in digital format;

Siege Mentality (ReMade Season 2 #10) by Andrea Phillips;

Smoke City by Keith Rosson;

The Tree (The Wrath & Athenaeum 2) by Na'amen Gobert Tilahun;

and

The Raptor & the Wren (Miriam Black 5) by Chuck Wendig.

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

January 22, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Knight Magic (e)	Yasmine Galenorn	PNR - Otherworld
Devoted to Destiny (e)	Lisa Kessler	PNR - Muse Chronicles 5

January 23, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Warden of the Blade (h2tp)	David Annandale	SF - Castellan Crowe 1
The Only Harmless Great Thing	Brooke Bolander	AH
The Martian Simulacra: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery	Eric Brown	M/SF - NewCon Press Novellas Set 3
Roar of the Storm	Adam Burch	SF/SO - The Fracture Worlds 2
Miranda and Caliban (h2tp)	Jacqueline Carey	HistF
The Juniper Tree (ri)	Barbara Comyns	Fict/Myth/FolkT
House of Echoes (h2tp)	Brendan Duffy	Th/LF
Judgment Road	Christine Feehan	PNR - Torpedo Ink 1
Dark Imperium	Guy Haley	SF - Dark Imperium 1
Pandora: Outbreak	Eric L. Harry	SF/PA
Rogue Trader: The Omnibus	Andy Hoare	SF - Rogue Trader
The King of Bones and Ashes	J.D. Horn	CF - Witches of New Orleans 1
Fury	Craig Martelle	Dys/PA - End Times Alaska 4
Creatures of Light (e)	Emily B. Martin	F - Creatures of Light 3
Markswoman (D)	Rati Mehrotra	F - Asiana 1
SINthetic	J.T. Nicholas	SF/GenEng/CyP - New Lyons Sequence 1
The Memory Detective (e)	T. S. Nichols	SF/GenEng/Th
Elysium Fire	Alastair Reynolds	SF
Smoke City	Keith Rosson	MR/GB
Cast in Deception	Michelle Sagara	F - The Chronicles of Elantra 13
Cast in Shadow (ri)	Michelle Sagara	F - The Chronicles of Elantra 1
Cast in Courtlight (ri)	Michelle Sagara	F - The Chronicles of Elantra 2
The Sky Is Yours (D)	Chandler Klang Smith	LF/GB/PA
Her Beautiful Monster	Adi Tantimedh	M - Ravi PI 2
The Tree	Na'amen Gobert Tilahun	UF - The Wrath & Athenaeum 2
Starlings (e)	Jo Walton	F - Collection
The Raptor & the Wren	Chuck Wendig	SupTh - Miriam Black 5
Destiny's Conflict	Janny Wurts	F - The Wars of Light and Shadow 10: Sword of the Canon 2
Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child	S. Craig Zahler	FairyT/FolkT/LM/Gothic

January 24, 2018

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Siege Mentality (e)	Andrea Phillips	SFTh - ReMade Season 2 #10

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



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - CyberPunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FiaryT - Fairy Tales
Fict - Fiction
FL - Family Life
FolkT - Folk Tales
GB - Genre Bender
GenEng - Genetic Engineering
GH - Ghost(s)
Gothic - Gothic
GothicR - Gothic Romance
H - Horror
HC - History and Criticism
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistM - Historical Mystery
HU - Humor
LF - Literary Fiction
LM -  Legend and Mythology
M - Mystery
Meta - Metaphysical
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Myth - Mythology
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PCM - Paranormal Cozy Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
Ref - Reference
SH -Superheroes
SF - Science Fiction
SFTh - Science Fiction Thriller
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SO - Space Opera
SocSci - Social Science
SP - SteamPunk
SpecFic - Speculative Fiction
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
UFR - Urban Fantasy Romance

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

Keith Rosson (2017)

Smoke City
Meerkat Press, January 23, 2018
Hardcover and eBook, 325 pages

Matthew Sullivan (2017)

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Scribner, January 9, 2018
Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Hardcover and eBook, June 13, 2017

When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this “intriguingly dark, twisty” (Kirkus Reviews) debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.

Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.

But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?

As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. “Both charming and challenging” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review), Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a “multi-generational tale of abandonment, desperation, and betrayal…inventive and intricately plotted” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Melodie Winawer (2017)

The Scribe of Siena
Touchstone, January 2, 2018
Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Hardcover and eBook, May 16, 2017

“Readers of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander and Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring…will be swept away by the spell of medieval Siena” (Library Journal, starred review) in this transporting love story and gripping historical mystery.

Accomplished neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato knows that her deep empathy for her patients is starting to impede her work. So when her beloved brother passes away, she welcomes the unexpected trip to the Tuscan city of Siena to resolve his estate, even as she wrestles with grief. But as she delves deeper into her brother’s affairs, she discovers intrigue she never imagined—a 700-year-old conspiracy to decimate the city.

As Beatrice explores the evidence further, she uncovers the journal and paintings of the fourteenth-century artist Gabriele Accorsi. But when she finds a startling image of her own face, she is suddenly transported to the year 1347. She awakens in a Siena unfamiliar to her, one that will soon be hit by the Plague.

Yet when Beatrice meets Accorsi, something unexpected happens: she falls in love—not only with Gabriele, but also with the beauty and cadence of medieval life. As the Plague and the ruthless hands behind its trajectory threaten not only her survival but also Siena’s very existence, Beatrice must decide in which century she belongs.

The Scribe of Siena is the captivating story of a brilliant woman’s passionate affair with a time and a place that captures her in an impossibly romantic and dangerous trap—testing the strength of fate and the bonds of love.

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

Keith:  Thanks so much! I started out doing punk zines in the mid-‘90s, when I was in art school. Y’know, those who can’t play instruments, write. The zine was dorky anecdotal stuff, record reviews, interviews with bands. Eventually that morphed into more personal creative nonfiction stories. Meanwhile, I wrote my first incredibly bad novel at 20, my second slightly better one at 27 or so, and in my mid-thirties wrote one that was pretty solid and will be published next year. Then I wrote The Mercy of the Tide. I’ve also been kicking out short stories for the past six or seven years or so, which I probably love more than novel writing, though there’s something alluring about the huge emotional brain-drain that writing a full length book takes. And I’ve always been a ferocious reader, something I personally think is integral to being even a half decent writer.



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

Keith:  That’s a good question. I generally plot a few chapters ahead – and by plot, I mean I have a very rough idea of what’s going to happen. I’ve tried plotting out larger, more extensive chronologies and it’s just no fun; I eventually find myself struggling to adhere to earlier plotlines when what I really want to do is take it in a new direction that I’ve come up with after I’ve already penned the original plot. You know? So yeah, I like to have a general idea of the book’s direction, with maybe a line or two laying out a few future chapters, but that’s about it. I also have a separate doc that I refer to full of locations, names, bios of characters, important plot points and facts, and reminders. For example, in this new novel I’m working on, I have about three dozen bulletpoints that say things like this:

• In the Sandoval section, the bus station is swamped.
• Introduce Liza’s miniature pony, Fish.
• Have Viktor introduce himself at the Hotel, and establish that Orvar is indeed his cousin.

When you work on a bigger piece, there’s a lot of things to keep in the air, a lot of moving parts. I’m constantly referring to my notes. So I guess I’d say I’m mostly a “fly by the seat of my pants” guy, with moments of mild plotting.



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

Keith:  Writing. Quite the hot take, right? The actual act of getting past the trepidation and uncertainty and distractions and fear of failure and sitting my ass down in front of the computer and getting to work, that’s the most difficult thing. Once I make it there it’s almost always great, and I almost always remember how much fun it is to write. But first I have to move past that nattering voice that tells me I won’t be able to do it, that today will be the day that I freeze up, that this’ll be the day that I will just bomb. I’m writing my fifth novel and have written dozens of stories, and ignoring that voice and getting to work is still the biggest challenge.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

Keith:  Reading. One of the most significant tools a writer can have is a joy of reading. It helps us hone our craft, shows us by both good and bad example, offers a sense of solace, transports us – at least to me personally. While I try very hard not to be directly influenced by the current books I’m reading, there’s no refuting that being a voracious reader has helped me find my own voice and themes throughout the years. Honestly, I’m a little wary of writers who aren’t big readers too.



TQ:  Describe The Mercy of the Tide in 140 characters or less.

Keith:  In 1983, members of a small coastal town recuperate from loss as Cold War tensions rise and some unnamed monster terrorizes the community.



TQ:  Tell us something about The Mercy of the Tide that is not found in the book description.

Keith:  The hands on the cover of the book spell out M-E-R-C-Y in American Sign Language, a hidden nod to the fact that one of the main characters is deaf.



TQ:  What inspired you to write The Mercy of the Tide? Why a genre-bending novel?

Keith:  Well, without giving key plot points away, I’ll just say that it started out as an entirely different book. It was still an alternate history novel, but the first attempt was set in present day. I kept coming up against particular roadblocks in the story – “How did this particular event actually happen? Why are certain people acting like this?” Long story short, I found that I was backtracking a lot to fill in a lot of foundational stuff surrounding the story I wanted to tell, and a lot of world-building, and it just reached the point where it was obvious I needed to tell the back story first. So I started from the beginning, which turned out to be in 1983. But originally it was a whole different book.



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for The Mercy of the Tide?

Keith:  An incomplete list: nuclear yield of various Cold War-era ICBMs, American Sign Language, Europe’s role in the 1980s stalemate between Russia and the US, educational options for deaf children in rural Oregon during that time, mythology of Native American tribes of the Oregon coast, the Indian Wars of the 1850s, Hinckley’s assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan, to name a few. Fun! I seriously do love the research aspect of novel writing.



TQ:  Please tell us about The Mercy of the Tide's cover. Does the cover depict something from the novel?

Keith:  It totally does! It’s essentially a grid pattern of various visual elements of the book. A Sheriff’s badge, a gun, a bird, a skull, etc. They’re all indicative of key characters and plot points in the novel. I was fortunate enough to be able to design my own cover, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.



TQ:  In The Mercy of the Tide who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?

Keith:  I’d say the teenaged kid Sam was the toughest to write. It’s hard to remember the torpor and angst I held as a high school kid, though I know I had a toooon of it. It was tough to try to pull that off convincingly and also run Sam’s character through the lens of someone who has just lost his mother and is trying his best, in spite of his age and limitations, to take care of his sister. Meanwhile, I took a dark pleasure from writing about the mental and physical unraveling of Hayslip, the sheriff’s deputy, though one or two scenes specifically were pretty tough to write, as he’s kind a tumbling shipwreck of a guy who doesn’t make the best choices. Though to be honest none of the book was particularly easy, per se.



TQ:  Which question about The Mercy of the Tide do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!

Keith:  I feel pretty happy with the questions that folks have asked about the book. I get a lot of folks asking if there will be a sequel or not, and all I can really do is pensively rub my chin for a moment and then point over the person’s shoulder and say, “Hey, look! A puppy!” And when they turn back… I’m gone. Oh, and I did know a kid named Todd who went by Toad, the same as in the book, though the similarities stop there.



TQ:  Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from The Mercy of the Tide.

Keith:  Honestly, I’m not even sure about apt quotes, but one of my favorite aspects of the book is when people begin to recognize the minute differences of this world compared to ours. The reader isn’t made aware of the differences right away, but there are little kernels lining the path throughout. One of my particular favorites is that Trina, a 9 year-old deaf girl and one of Mercy’s main characters, adores Judy Blume novels. Loves em. But in Mercy, she’s very excited about the new (as of 1983) Blume book that’s just been published, The Wolf In the Basement, which of course is entirely made up and doesn’t actually exist. But the publisher and I wrote Blume a huge fan latter and she was totally cool with me fictionalizing her stuff and making up books she’d never actually written. That’s just one little tidbit among many, but I love it so much.



TQ:  What's next?

Keith:  Meerkat Press, the publisher that’s worked their ass off getting Mercy out there, will be publishing my second novel, Smoke City, in early 2018. Really excited for that. Meanwhile, I’m writing a book about a crypto zoologist and his reluctant assistant investigating a unicorn sighting off the coast of Iceland. So, you know, staying topical and whatnot.



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

Keith:  Oh, goodness, thanks for the opportunity, I really appreciate it.

The Mercy of the Tide
Meerkat Press, February 21, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 294 pages

Riptide, Oregon, 1983. A sleepy coastal town, where crime usually consists of underage drinking down at a Wolf Point bonfire. But then strange things start happening—a human skeleton is unearthed in a local park and mutilated animals begin appearing, seemingly sacrificed, on the town’s beaches. The Mercy of the Tide follows four people drawn irrevocably together by a recent tragedy as they do their best to reclaim their lives—leading them all to a discovery that will change them and their town forever. At the heart of the story are Sam Finster, a senior in high school mourning the death of his mother, and his sister Trina, a nine-year-old deaf girl who denies her grief by dreaming of a nuclear apocalypse as Cold War tensions rise. Meanwhile, Sheriff Dave Dobbs and officer Nick Hayslip must try to put their own sorrows aside to figure out who, or what, is wreaking havoc on their once-idyllic town.

Keith Rosson paints outside the typical genre lines with his brilliant debut novel. It is a gorgeously written book that merges the sly wonder of magical realism and alternate history with the depth and characterization of literary fiction.

About Keith

Keith Rosson’s fiction has appeared in Redivider, Cream City Review, PANK, The Nervous Breakdown, and more. He is the author of The Best of Intentions: The Avow Anthology, an omnibus collection of his long-running punk fanzine, Avow, as well as an illustrator and graphic designer, with clients that include Green Day, Against Me, the Goo Goo Dolls, and others. An advocate of both public libraries and non-ironic adulation of the cassette tape, he can be found at keithrosson.com.


Twitter @keith_rosson

The Mercy of the Tide - Keith Rosson - Book Excerpt