The Qwillery

It's the first Monday in May. May the 4th be with you!


There are 2 debuts this week:

The Down Days by Ilze Hugo;

and

Vanishing Hour by Lisa King.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Westside Saints (A Gilda Carr Tiny Mystery 2) by W. M. Akers;

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey is out in Trade Paperback;

Berlin is Never Berlin: A Tor.com Original (Wild Cards) by Marko Kloos;

and

Goldilocks by Laura Lam.

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

May 5, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Westside Saints	W.M. Akers	HistF - A Gilda Carr Tiny Mystery 2
Soul Chasers: The Decomposition Comedy	Rachel Armstrong	F/HU
The Human	Neal Asher	SF/SO - Rise of the Jain 3
Penric's Travels	Lois McMaster Bujold	F
Rotherweird (h2tp)	Andrew Caldecott	HistF/P/CF - Rotherweird 1
Call It Magic	Janet Chapman	PNR - Spellbound Falls Romance 7
House of Secrets	Darcy Coates	H/F/Occ/Sup - House of Shadows
House of Shadows	Darcy Coates	H/Occ/Sup/Gothic - House of Shadows
The Folcroft Ghosts	Darcy Coates	H/GH/Occ/Sup/Gothic/SupTh
Shadow Flight	Christine Feehan	PNR - Shadow Riders 5
The Shaman of Karres	Eric Flint Dave Freer	SF - Witches of Karres 4
Magic for Liars (h2tp)	Sarah Gailey	CF/Sus
An Easy Death (h2tp)	Charlaine Harris	DF - Gunnie Rose 1
The Down Days (D)	Ilze Hugo	SF/AP/PA/CF/WS
A Brightness Long Ago (h2tp)	Guy Gavriel Kay	Hist/LF
Lake of Darkness	Scott Kenemore	SF
Vanishing Hour: A Novel of a Man, a Girl, and the End of the World	Lisa King	SF/AP/PA/LF/Dys
The Eleventh Gate	Nancy Kress	SF/SO
Steel Crow Saga (h2tp)	Paul Krueger	F
Goldilocks	Laura Lam	SF/SE/Dys/AP/PA
The Kingdom of Liars (e)	Nick Martell	F - The Legacy of the Mercenary King 1
Strange Hotel	Eimear McBride	LF/CW/VisM
Driving the Deep	Suzanne Palmer	SF/SO/AC - The Finder Chronicles 2
Orange World and Other Stories (h2tp)	Karen Russell	LF/SS/VisM
Lock Every Door (h2tp)	Riley Sager	Sus/PsyTh/H
Little Eyes	Samanta Schweblin Megan McDowell (Tr)	Psy/LF/VisM
Light from Other Stars (h2tp)	Erika Swyler	CoA/FL/LF/SF/SE
A Fire Upon The Deep (ri)	Vernor Vinge	SF/HSF/SE/AC - Zones of Thought 1
Network Effect	Martha Wells	SF/HSF - Murderbot Diaries 5

May 6, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Berlin Is Never Berlin: A Tor.com Original (e)	Marko Kloos	SH/SF - Wild Cards
Dark Angels Rising	Ian Whates	SO/SF - Dark Angels 3

May 7, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Command Performance: the Amazing Conroy Omnibus Edition	Lawrence M. Schoen	Satire/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



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
BlHu - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CH - Cultural Heritage
CM - Crime and Mystery
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
Esp - Espionage
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
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PerfArts - Performing Arts
Phil - Philosophy
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SS - Short Stories
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
TTR - Time Travel Romance
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical
WS - Women Sleuths

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.

May 1, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
A Girl From Nowhere	James Maxwell	SF/SE - Firewall Trilogy 1
The Best of Both Worlds	S. P. Miskowski	H

May 5, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Westside Saints	W.M. Akers	HistF - A Gilda Carr Tiny Mystery 2
Soul Chasers: The Decomposition Comedy	Rachel Armstrong	F/HU
The Human	Neal Asher	SF/SO - Rise of the Jain 3
Penric's Travels	Lois McMaster Bujold	F
Rotherweird (h2tp)	Andrew Caldecott	HistF/P/CF - Rotherweird 1
Call It Magic	Janet Chapman	PNR - Spellbound Falls Romance 7
House of Secrets	Darcy Coates	H/F/Occ/Sup - House of Shadows
House of Shadows	Darcy Coates	H/Occ/Sup/Gothic - House of Shadows
The Folcroft Ghosts	Darcy Coates	H/GH/Occ/Sup/Gothic/SupTh
Shadow Flight	Christine Feehan	PNR - Shadow Riders 5
The Shaman of Karres	Eric Flint Dave Freer	SF - Witches of Karres 4
Magic for Liars (h2tp)	Sarah Gailey	CF/Sus
An Easy Death (h2tp)	Charlaine Harris	DF - Gunnie Rose 1
The Down Days (D)	Ilze Hugo	SF/AP/PA/CF/WS
A Brightness Long Ago (h2tp)	Guy Gavriel Kay	Hist/LF
Lake of Darkness	Scott Kenemore	SF
Vanishing Hour: A Novel of a Man, a Girl, and the End of the World	Lisa King	SF/AP/PA/LF/Dys
The Eleventh Gate	Nancy Kress	SF/SO
Steel Crow Saga (h2tp)	Paul Krueger	F
Goldilocks	Laura Lam	SF/SE/Dys/AP/PA
The Kingdom of Liars (e)	Nick Martell	F - The Legacy of the Mercenary King 1
Strange Hotel	Eimear McBride	LF/CW/VisM
Driving the Deep	Suzanne Palmer	SF/SO/AC - The Finder Chronicles 2
Orange World and Other Stories (h2tp)	Karen Russell	LF/SS/VisM
Lock Every Door (h2tp)	Riley Sager	Sus/PsyTh/H
Little Eyes	Samanta Schweblin Megan McDowell (Tr)	Psy/LF/VisM
Light from Other Stars (h2tp)	Erika Swyler	CoA/FL/LF/SF/SE
A Fire Upon The Deep (ri)	Vernor Vinge	SF/HSF/SE/AC - Zones of Thought 1
Network Effect	Martha Wells	SF/HSF - Murderbot Diaries 5

May 6, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Berlin Is Never Berlin: A Tor.com Original (e)	Marko Kloos	SH/SF - Wild Cards
Dark Angels Rising	Ian Whates	SO/SF - Dark Angels 3

May 7, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Command Performance: the Amazing Conroy Omnibus Edition	Lawrence M. Schoen	Satire/SF

May 12, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Stealing Thunder (D)	Alina Boyden	F
Bone Harvest (e)	James Brogden	H/SupTh/Occ/Sup
Endland	Tim Etchells	LF/Dys/SS/BlHu
In/Half (h2tp)	Jasmin B. Frelih	SF
Unreconciled	W. Michael Gear	SF/HSF/SO - Donovan  4
Queen of the Unwanted	Jenna Glass	F - The Women's War 2
Armageddon House	Michael Griffin	Dys/H
The Porpoise (h2tp)	Mark Haddon	LF/Hist/MR -  Contemporaries
Ten Thousand Doors of January (h2tp)	Alix E. Harrow	MR/CoA/HistF/RF
Vaults Of Obsidian	Darius Hinks	SF/SE - Warhammer 40,000
T.I.M.E Stories: The Heiden File (e)	Christophe Lambert	SF/TT/MTI
Even the Dogs	Jon McGregor	MR/GH/STR/LF
My Mother's House (D)	Francesca Momplaisir	MR/CH/LF
Shakespeare For Squirrels	Christopher Moore	F/HU
Aleph Extraction (e)	Dan Moren	SF/SO/HSF
The Anthill	Julianne Pachico	LF/H
Firewalkers	Adrian Tchaikovsky	SF
Catherine House (D)	Elisabeth Thomas	LF
Sky of Water	Stacey L. Tucker	F/RF/CW/MR/VisM - Equal Night Trilogy 3
Gastronogeek: 42 Recipes from Your Favorite Imaginary Worlds	Thibaud Villanova Maxime Léonard	Cooking/MTI/SF/F/H
Empire of Grass (h2tp)	Tad Williams	F/DF - Last King of Osten Ard  2

May 13, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Benjamin 2073: A Tor.com Original (e)	Rjurik Davidson	SF
Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (ri)	P. D. Ouspensky	VisM/Occ/Sup/Phil

May 14, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Time of Changes (ri)	Robert Silverberg	SF

May 15, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Gender and Environment in Science Fiction (h2tp)	Christy Tidwell (Ed) Bridgette Barclay (Ed)	PopCul/SF/HC - Ecocritical Theory and Practice
The Cold Last Swim	Junior Burke	Noir/AH
Planet Auschwitz: Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television	Brian E. Crim	Holocaust/LC/PerfArts/SF/F/H/Sup
In Our Own Worlds #2: Four LGBTQ+ Tor.com Novellas (e)	JY Neon Yang Kai Ashante Wilson Margaret Killjoy Ellen Klages	F

May 19, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People	Andrea D. Lobel (Ed) Mark Shainblum (Ed)	AH/Anthology
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory: Stories	Raphael Bob-Waksberg	SS/LF/SF
Gather the Fortunes (h2tp)	Bryan Camp	CF - A Crescent City Novel
Maker's Curse	Trudi Canavan	F - Millennium's Rule 4
The Andromeda Evolution (h2mm)	Michael Crichton Daniel H. Wilson	SF
Things You Would Know if You Grew Up Around Here	Nancy Wayson Dinan	LF/MR/STR
Seeing Darkness	Heather Graham	Sus/SupTh/GH/PNR - Krewe of Hunters 30
The Humours of Grub Street	Kate Heartfield	HistF/DF
Boys of Alabama (D)	Genevieve Hudson	Gay/CoA/MR
The Last Watchman of Old Cairo (h2tp)	Michael David Lukas	Hist/LF/MR
Selkie Summer (e)	Ken MacLeod	CF
Chaos Reigning	Jessie Mihalik	SF/SO - Consortium Rebellion 3
Rule	Rowenna Miller	F/RF - Unraveled Kingdom 3
Debt of Honor	Christopher G. Nuttall	SF/SO - Embers of War 1
From Divergent Suns	Sam Peters	SF/CM - From Darkest Skies3
Where the Ocean Meets the Sky	Barbara Stevenson	SS/F
Latitudes of Longing (D)	Shubhangi Swarup	LF/MR/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Impurity	Larry Tremblay Sheila Fischman (Tr)	LF/CF/PsyTh
Wanderers (h2tp)	Chuck Wendig	Sus/SF/AP/PA

May 20, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Beyond the Dragon's Gate: A Tor.com Original (e)	Yoon Ha Lee	SF

May 21, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The City Among the Stars	Francis Carsac Judith Sullivan (Tr) M. Schiff (Tr)	SF/SO/SE - Fiction Without Frontiers
Tomb of Gods	Brian Moreland	HistF/SupTh - Fiction Without Frontiers
Until Summer Comes Around	Glenn Rolfe	SupTh/Occ/Sup - Fiction Without Frontiers

May 22, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Sea Change	Nancy Kress	SF/GenEng/Esp/Dys/AP/PA

May 26, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Weight of the Heart	Susana Aikin	Sagas/CW/MR
Doctor Who: Scratchman (h2tp)	Tom Baker	SF
The Order	Mark Barber	F
Witchy Kingdom (h2mm)	D. J. Butler	HistF
The Bone Mother (ri)	David Demchuk	DF
To Clear Away the Shadows (h2mm)	David Drake	SF/SO - RCN 13
Out of Body	Jeffrey Ford	DF/H
Marque of Caine (tp2mm)	Charles E. Gannon	SF - Caine Riordan 5
Lion El'Jonson: Lord of the First	David Guymer	SF/SO - Horus Heresy: Primarchs
The Notch	Tom Holland	H
Feeling Less Wrong	Kolin Jordan	MR/SS
The Winter Sea (ri)	Susanna Kearsley	TTR/Hist/MR
The Fiery Crown	Jeffe Kennedy	FR - Forgotten Empires 2
Ballistic	Marko Kloos	SF/SO - Palladium Wars 2
Unraveling (h2tp)	Karen Lord	F/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Sunshield	Emily B. Martin	F
Elves	Graham McNeill	F - Warhammer Chronicles
Predator: Stalking Shadows	James A. Moore	MTI/SF/AC
Quichotte (h2tp)	Salman Rushdie	LF/Sagas/MR
Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution	P. W. Singer August Cole	TechTh
Night of the Billionaire Wolf	Terry Spear	PNR - Billionaire Wolf 3
Wolf Under Fire	Paige Tyler	PNR - STAT 1
Age of Empyre	Michael J. Sullivan	F - Legends of the First Empire 6
War (h2mm)	Michelle West	F/FR - House War 8

May 27, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Tourist: A Tor.com Original (e)	Alex Sherman	SF/SE

May 28, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Hell's Bells (Ke)	Lisa Quigley	Occ/H - Rewind or Die 8
The Kelping (Ke)	Jan Stinchcomb	DF/H - Rewind or Die 9

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



AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternate History
AP - Apocalyptic
BlHu - Black Humor
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CH - Cultural Heritage
CM - Crime and Mystery
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
Esp - Espionage
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
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PerfArts - Performing Arts
Phil - Philosophy
PNR - Paranormal Romance
Pol - Political
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
RF - Romantic Fantasy
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SS - Short Stories
STR - Small Town and Rural
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
TTR - Time Travel Romance
VisM - Visionary and Metaphysical

Happy Monday!

There are 3 debuts this week:

The Goblets Immortal by Beth Overmyer;

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro (Chronicles of the Bitch Queen 1) by K.S. Villoso;

and

The Golden Key by Marian Womack.




From formerly featured DAC Authors:

Westside (A Gilda Carr Tiny Mystery 1) by W.M. Akers is out in Trade Paperback;

Voodoo Shanghai (Kincaid Strange 3) by Kristi Charish;

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is out in Trade Paperback;

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James;

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon is out in Trade Paperback;

and

Gravity of a Distant Sun (Shieldrunner Pirates 3) by R.E. Stearns.

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

February 18, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Westside (h2tp)	W.M. Akers	HistF - A Gilda Carr Tiny Mystery 1
Voodoo Shanghai	Kristi Charish	UF - Kincaid Strange 3
Bridge 108	Anne Charnock	Dys
The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects, Stunts, and True Stories Behind Your Favorite Fright Films	Meg Hafdahl Kelly Florence	Science
Seven Devils	Kenneth Mark Hoover	W/H
The Last (ri)	Hanna Jameson	Th/PA
Machines in the Head: Selected Stories	Anna Kavan	SS
Sword of Fire	Katharine Kerr	F - Deverry 1
The Queen of Raiders	Sarah Kozloff	F - The Nine Realms 2
Gods of Jade and Shadow (h2tp)	Silvia Moreno-Garcia	HistF
Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities & Other Horrors	Doug Murano (Ed) Michael Bailey (Ed)	H - Anthology
Twilight of the Gods	Scott Oden	HistF - Grimnir 2
Light of Impossible Stars	Gareth L. Powell	SF - Embers of War 3
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow	Natasha Pulley	HistF
The Sun Down Motel	Simone St. James	SupTh
The Priory of the Orange Tree (h2tp)	Samantha Shannon	F
Gravity of a Distant Sun	R. E. Stearns	SF - Shieldrunner Pirates 3
Star Trek: Voyager 25th Anniversary Special Book	Titan	PerfArts/TV - Star Trek
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro (D)	K. S. Villoso	F - Chronicles of the Bitch Queen 1
The Bird King (h2tp)	G. Willow Wilson	HistF
The Golden Key (D)	Marian Womack	F/GothicM

February 19, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Girlfriend's Guide to Gods: A Tor.com Original (e)	Maria Dahvana Headley	F

February 20, 2020

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Garden of Bewitchment	Catherine Cavendish	H - Fiction Without Frontiers
The Blood-Dimmed Tide	Michael R. Johnston	SF/SO - Fiction Without Frontiers
The Goblets Immortal (D - Fantasy)	Beth Overmyer	F - Fiction Without Frontiers

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
AP - Apocalyptic
CF - Contemporary Fantasy
CoA - Coming of Age
CW - Contemporary Women
CyP - Cyperpunk
DF - Dark Fantasy
Dys - Dystopian
F - Fantasy
FR- Fantasy Romance
GothicM - Gothic Mystery
H - Horror
Hist - Historical
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistM - Historical Mystery
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
LC - Literary Criticism
LF - Literary Fiction
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PerfArts - Performing Arts
PM - Paranormal Mystery
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SO - Space Opera
SP - Steampunk
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
UF - Urban Fantasy
W - Western
WW - Weird Western

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

It's time to vote for the 2019 Debut Author Challenge COVER OF THE YEAR! Below you will find the 12 monthly winners in alphabetical order by book title (excluding "the" or "a" or "an", etc.).

Vote for your favorite from the monthly 2019 Winners! Note that there was only 1 debut for December 2019 so it is automatically the December 2019 winner.

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 January 30, 2020 unless voting is extended.

Vote for your favorite 2019 Debut Cover!

The Age of Anxiety

The Border Keeper

Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones

Gideon the Ninth

The Gutter Prayer

The Hungry Ghost

Lies of Descent

A Memory Called Empire

The Revisionaries

The Vine Witch

Waste Tide

Westside

 

pollcode.com free polls

TQ:  Welcome to The Qwillery. What is the first fiction piece you remember writing?

W. M.:  I wrote a twelve page “novel” when I was in sixth grade called, “The Story of Bowman,” which was a riff on the story of the boy who cried wolf. Basically, it was about the watchman for a village who keeps telling everyone that there are monsters in the forest. No one believes him, and then they all get eaten by monsters.



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

W. M.:  Plot, plot, plot! I have two young children, which means that the time I have to write is very restricted. If I didn’t outline everything meticulously, I would never get anything done.



TQ:  What is the most challenging thing for you about writing? How does being a playwright affect (or not) your novel writing?

W. M.:  The hardest thing for me, aside from finding the time to get real work done, is maintaining interest in a project over the long period that it takes to finish something. No matter how much I wish I could get it done faster, writing a book takes months or years, and there are always going to be days when I’m just not feeling it. Those are the days that it really feels like work. Being a playwright helps with this problem, actually, because I find that shifting media makes it easier to keep interested in my various projects. Work on a play for a little while, and suddenly the novel seems fresh again.



TQ:  What has influenced / influences your writing?

W. M.:  I take massive influence from the great prose stylists of the mid-Twentieth Century, with MFK Fisher being my particular favorite. Her sentences are as clear as spring water, and serve as a continual inspiration.



TQ:  Describe Westside using only 5 words.

W. M.:  Weird as hell 1921 mystery.



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

W. M.:  It has baseball in it! I’m a big baseball nerd—I even made a tabletop baseball game—and I couldn’t write a historical mystery without sneaking in as much baseball as my editor would allow.



TQ:  What inspired you to write Westside? What appeals to you about writing Historical Fantasy?

W. M.:  I’ve lived in New York since 2006, and from the first day I lived in the city, I found myself wondering what it was like before I got there. New York history is an exquisitely deep vein, and the more I learned about it, the more I found myself yearning for a version of the city that had existed long before I was born. Westside is my way of interrogating that nostalgic impulse. Why do we think old New York is so fascinating, and what ugliness existed there that we prefer not to think about?



TQ:  What sort of research did you do for Westside?

W. M.:  Old New Yorker essays were a great resource—I love you, Joseph Mitchell—and I leaned heavily on the frantic underworld histories of Herbert Asbury. But the New York Times archives were the most useful thing, as they provide a primary source window into how the period felt to the people who lived there. I had so much fun digging around the Times archives that I eventually turned that process into a newsletter all about weird stuff in the 1920s Times.



TQ:  Please tell us about the cover for Westside.

W. M.:  The jacket was designed by Owen Corrigan, and it is gorgeous. Westside’s hero, Gilda Carr, is a detective of tiny mysteries, and the image shows the missing white glove that kickstarts her adventure. Inside it is a map showing the fence that divides my imaginary Manhattan, and some of the most important locations in the novel: Washington Square, the docks, and all the darkest alleys of the West Village.



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

W. M.:  I had a hell of a lot of fun writing Gilda Carr. Her voice came naturally to me, and whenever I sat down to work on the book after a long time away, I heard her speaking to me, impatient to start telling her story again.



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

W. M.:  What fictional location from the book would you most like to visit? The bazaar—the massive discount food market housed inside the ruins of old Penn Station, which was inspired by my beloved Park Slope Food Coop.



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

W. M.:  “Across the river, New Jersey twinkled stupidly.”



TQ:  What's next?

W. M.:  I’m working on a new play, a new Deadball game, a new RPG and, most importantly, the sequel to Westside! Details to come later this year…



TQ:  Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

W. M.:  Thank you for having me. It was an absolute pleasure.

Westside
Harper Voyager, May 7, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 304 pages

"Bracing, quite possibly hallucination-inducing, and unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before…The illegitimate love child of Algernon Blackwood and Raymond Chandler.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The Alienist meets The City & The City in this brilliant debut that mixes fantasy and mystery. Gilda Carr’s ‘tiny mysteries’ pack a giant punch." --David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder As a Fine Art

New York is dying, and the one woman who can save it has smaller things on her mind.

A young detective who specializes in “tiny mysteries” finds herself at the center of a massive conspiracy in this beguiling historical fantasy set on Manhattan’s Westside—a peculiar and dangerous neighborhood home to strange magic and stranger residents—that blends the vivid atmosphere of Caleb Carr with the imaginative power of Neil Gaiman.

It’s 1921, and a thirteen-mile fence running the length of Broadway splits the island of Manhattan, separating the prosperous Eastside from the Westside—an overgrown wasteland whose hostility to modern technology gives it the flavor of old New York. Thousands have disappeared here, and the respectable have fled, leaving behind the killers, thieves, poets, painters, drunks, and those too poor or desperate to leave.

It is a hellish landscape, and Gilda Carr proudly calls it home.

Slightly built, but with a will of iron, Gilda follows in the footsteps of her late father, a police detective turned private eye. Unlike that larger-than-life man, Gilda solves tiny mysteries: the impossible puzzles that keep us awake at night; the small riddles that destroy us; the questions that spoil marriages, ruin friendships, and curdle joy. Those tiny cases distract her from her grief, and the one impossible question she knows she can’t answer: “How did my father die?”

Yet on Gilda’s Westside, tiny mysteries end in blood—even the case of a missing white leather glove. Mrs. Copeland, a well-to-do Eastside housewife, hires Gilda to find it before her irascible merchant husband learns it is gone. When Gilda witnesses Mr. Copeland’s murder at a Westside pier, she finds herself sinking into a mire of bootlegging, smuggling, corruption—and an evil too dark to face.

All she wants is to find one dainty ladies’ glove. She doesn’t want to know why this merchant was on the wrong side of town—or why he was murdered in cold blood. But as she begins to see the connection between his murder, her father’s death, and the darkness plaguing the Westside, she faces the hard truth: she must save her city or die with it.

Introducing a truly remarkable female detective, Westside is a mystery steeped in the supernatural and shot through with gunfights, rotgut whiskey, and sizzling Dixieland jazz. Full of dazzling color, delightful twists, and truly thrilling action, it announces the arrival of a wonderful new talent.

About W. M. Akers

W. M. Akers is an award-winning playwright, Narratively editor, and the creator of the bestselling game Deadball: Baseball With Dice. Westside is his debut novel. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about his work at wmakers.net.




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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 2019 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 May 31, 2019, unless the vote is extended. If the vote is extended the ending date will be updated.

Vote for your favorite May 2019 Debut Cover!

Last Day

Mischief and Mayhem

The Obsoletes

Tears of the Trufflepig

Westside

The Window and the Mirror

Year of the Orphan

 

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Happy 1st Monday in May!

There is 1 debut this week:

Westside by W.M. Akers.




From formerly featured DAC Authors

Treason of Hawks (Shadow 4) by Lila Bowen is out in Trade Paperback;

What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine is out in Trade Paperback;

and

A Chain Across the Sky (The Universe After 2) by Drew Williams.

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

May 6, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
In Darkness, Delight: Masters of Midnight (e)	Andrew Lennon (Ed) Evans Light (Ed)	H - Anthology

May 7, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
Westside (D)	W.M. Akers	HistF
River of Bones (h2mm)	Taylor Anderson	AH/SF - Destroyermen 13
Magic Triumphs (h2mm)	Ilona Andrews	UF/PNR - Kate Daniels 10
The Warship	Neal Asher	SF - Rise of the Jain 2
Orbus (tp2mm)	Neal Asher	SF - Spatterjay 3
Census (h2tp)	Jesse Ball	LF
By Fire Above (h2tp)	Robyn Bennis	SP/F - Signal Airship 2
Treason of Hawks (h2tp)	Lila Bowen	HistF/CoA - Shadow 4
Storm Cursed	Patricia Briggs	UF/CF/PNR - Mercy Thompson 11
Exhalation: Stories	Ted Chiang	SS/LF/SF
Noir Fatale	Larry Correia (Ed) Kacey Ezell (Ed)	F/SF - Anthology
Miss Subways (h2tp)	David Duchovny	LF/MR/FairyT/FolkT/LM
The Pilo Traveling Show (e)(ri)	Will Elliott	H
When Darkness Loves Us (ri)	Elizabeth Engstrom	SS/H - Paperbacks from Hell
What Should Be Wild (h2tp)	Julia Fine	LF
By Demons Possessed	P.C. Hodgell	HistF - Kencyrath 6
Tangle's Game	Stewart Hotston	SF
Electric Forest (ri)	Tanith Lee	SF/GenEng/CyP
Severance (h2tp)	Ling Ma	LF/SF/AP/PA/Asian American
Snakeskins	Tim Major	SF/TechTh
A Devil Comes to Town	Paolo Maurensig Anne Milano (Tr)	LF/Psy/Occ/Sup/Satire/BH
Octavia Gone	Jack McDevitt	SF/HSF - Alex Benedict 8
Middlegame	Seanan McGuire	CF/SF
Oath of Gold (ri)	Elizabeth Moon	HistF - Paksenarrion 3
Spinning Silver (h2tp)	Naomi Novik	F/FairyT/FolkT/LM
Million Mile Road Trip	Rudy Rucker	SF
The Big Aha	Rudy Rucker	SF/GenEng
Hell Divers V: Captives	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	SF/AP/PA - Hell Divers 5
Theater of Spies	S. M. Stirling	AH/SF/Esp - Novel of an Alternate World War 2
Light from Other Stars	Erika Swyler	LF/FL/SF/SE/CoA
The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (h2tp)	Stuart Turton	HistTh/LF/Occ/Sup
The Gordian Protocol	David Weber Jacob Holo	SF/TT
Dawn of the Hunters	Ryan Wieser	SF/SO - Hunters of Infinity 3
A Chain Across the Dawn	Drew Williams	SF/SO/HU - The Universe After 2
Empire of Grass	Tad Williams	F/DF - Last King of Osten Ard 2

May 8, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
One Nation Under Gods	Jerome Stueart	HistF/UF

May 9, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
The Western Passage: Exodus	G. DiCarlo	DF
Doomsday Furnace (e)	Brent Michael Kelley	SF - Collection

May 10, 2019

TITLE	AUTHOR	SERIES
King of Hell	Christopher Golden	UF - Shadow Saga 7

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



AB - Absurdist
AC - Alien Contact
AH - Alternative History
AP - Apocalyptic
BH - Black Humor
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
HistF - Historical Fantasy
HistTh - Historical Thriller
HSF - Hard Science Fiction
HU - Humorous
LF - Literary Fiction
LM - Legend and Mythology
MR - Magical Realism
MTI - Media Tie-In
Occ - Occult
P - Paranormal
PA - Post Apocalyptic
PNR - Paranormal Romance
PopCul - Popular Culture
Psy - Psychological
PsyTh - Psychological Thriller
SE - Space Exploration
SF - Science Fiction
SFR - Science Fiction Romance
SFTh - Science Fiction Thriller
SH - Superheroes
SO - Space Opera
SocSci - Social Science
SP - Steampunk
SS - Short Stories
Sup - Supernatural
SupTh - Supernatural Thriller
Sus - Suspense
TechTh - Technological Thriller
Th - Thriller
TT - Time Travel
UF - Urban Fantasy
VM - Visionary & Metaphysical

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

W.M. Akers

Westside
Harper Voyager, May 7, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 304 pages

"Bracing, quite possibly hallucination-inducing, and unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before…The illegitimate love child of Algernon Blackwood and Raymond Chandler.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The Alienist meets The City & The City in this brilliant debut that mixes fantasy and mystery. Gilda Carr’s ‘tiny mysteries’ pack a giant punch." --David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder As a Fine Art

New York is dying, and the one woman who can save it has smaller things on her mind.

A young detective who specializes in “tiny mysteries” finds herself at the center of a massive conspiracy in this beguiling historical fantasy set on Manhattan’s Westside—a peculiar and dangerous neighborhood home to strange magic and stranger residents—that blends the vivid atmosphere of Caleb Carr with the imaginative power of Neil Gaiman.

It’s 1921, and a thirteen-mile fence running the length of Broadway splits the island of Manhattan, separating the prosperous Eastside from the Westside—an overgrown wasteland whose hostility to modern technology gives it the flavor of old New York. Thousands have disappeared here, and the respectable have fled, leaving behind the killers, thieves, poets, painters, drunks, and those too poor or desperate to leave.

It is a hellish landscape, and Gilda Carr proudly calls it home.

Slightly built, but with a will of iron, Gilda follows in the footsteps of her late father, a police detective turned private eye. Unlike that larger-than-life man, Gilda solves tiny mysteries: the impossible puzzles that keep us awake at night; the small riddles that destroy us; the questions that spoil marriages, ruin friendships, and curdle joy. Those tiny cases distract her from her grief, and the one impossible question she knows she can’t answer: “How did my father die?”

Yet on Gilda’s Westside, tiny mysteries end in blood—even the case of a missing white leather glove. Mrs. Copeland, a well-to-do Eastside housewife, hires Gilda to find it before her irascible merchant husband learns it is gone. When Gilda witnesses Mr. Copeland’s murder at a Westside pier, she finds herself sinking into a mire of bootlegging, smuggling, corruption—and an evil too dark to face.

All she wants is to find one dainty ladies’ glove. She doesn’t want to know why this merchant was on the wrong side of town—or why he was murdered in cold blood. But as she begins to see the connection between his murder, her father’s death, and the darkness plaguing the Westside, she faces the hard truth: she must save her city or die with it.

Introducing a truly remarkable female detective, Westside is a mystery steeped in the supernatural and shot through with gunfights, rotgut whiskey, and sizzling Dixieland jazz. Full of dazzling color, delightful twists, and truly thrilling action, it announces the arrival of a wonderful new talent.

Daniel Findlay

Year of the Orphan
Arcade, May 21, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 288 pages

The Road meets Mad Max in this stunning debut with a gutsy, charismatic young female protagonist—for fans of Station 11, The Passage, and Riddley Walker.

In a post-apocalyptic future where survivors scavenge in the harsh Australian Outback for spoils from a buried civilization, a girl races across the desert, holding her treasures close, pursued by the Reckoner.

Riding her sand ship, living rough in the blasted landscape whose taint she carries in her blood, she scouts the broken infrastructure and trades her scraps at the only known settlement, a ramshackle fortress of greed, corruption, and disease known as the System. It is an outpost whose sole purpose is survival—refuge from the hulking, eyeless things they call Ghosts and other creatures that hunt beyond the fortress walls.

Sold as a child, then raised hard in the System, the Orphan has a mission. She carries secrets about the destruction that brought the world to its knees. And she's about to discover that the past still holds power over the present. Given an impossible choice, will the Orphan save the only home she knows or see it returned to dust? Both paths lead to blood, but whose will be spilled?

With propulsive pacing, a rich, broken language all its own, and a protagonist whose grit and charisma are matched by a relentless drive to know, The Year of the Orphan is a thriller of the future you won’t want to put down.

Fernando A. Flores

Tears of the Trufflepig
MCD x FSG Originals
Trade Paperback and eBook, 336 pages

One of Lit Hub and The Millions's Most Anticipated Books of 2019 and one of Buzzfeed and Tor.com's Books to Read This Spring

“Funny, futuristic, phenomenal, Fernando A. Flores is from another galaxy. Fasten your seat belt. You are in for a stupendous ride.” ―Sandra Cisneros

A parallel universe. South Texas. Narcotics are legal and there’s a new contraband on the market: ancient Olmec artifacts, shrunken indigenous heads, and filtered animals—species of animals brought back from extinction to clothe, feed, and generally amuse the very wealthy. Esteban Bellacosa has lived in the border town of MacArthur long enough to know to keep quiet and avoid the dangerous syndicates who make their money through trafficking.

But his simple life starts to get complicated when the swashbuckling investigative journalist Paco Herbert invites him to come to an illegal underground dinner serving filtered animals. Bellacosa soon finds himself in the middle of an increasingly perilous, surreal, psychedelic journey, where he encounters legends of the long-disappeared Aranaña Indian tribe and their object of worship: the mysterious Trufflepig, said to possess strange powers.

Written with infectious verve, bold imagination, and oddball humor, Fernando A. Flores’s debut novel, Tears of the Trufflepig, is an absurdist take on life along the border, an ode to the myths of Mexican culture, a dire warning against the one percent’s determination to dictate society’s decline, and a nuanced investigation of loss. It’s also the perfect introduction for Flores: a wonderfully weird, staggeringly smart new voice in American fiction, and a mythmaker of the highest order.

Simeon Mills

The Obsoletes
Gallery Books, May 14, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

The Obsoletes is a thought-provoking coming-of-age novel about two human-like teen robots navigating high school, basketball, and potentially life-threatening consequences if their true origins are discovered by the inhabitants of their intolerant 1980s Michigan hometown.

Fraternal twin brothers Darryl and Kanga are just like any other teenagers trying to make it through high school. They have to deal with peer pressure, awkwardness, and family drama. But there’s one closely guarded secret that sets them apart: they are robots. So long as they keep their heads down, their robophobic neighbors won’t discover the truth about them and they just might make it through to graduation.

But when Kanga becomes the star of the basketball team, there’s more at stake than typical sibling rivalry. Darryl—the worrywart of the pair—now has to work a million times harder to keep them both out of the spotlight. Though they look, sound, and act perfectly human, if anyone in their small, depressed Michigan town were to find out what they truly are, they’d likely be disassembled by an angry mob in the middle of their school gym.

Heartwarming and thrilling, Simeon Mills’s charming debut novel is a funny, poignant look at brotherhood, xenophobia, and the limits of one’s programming.

S. D. Nicholson

Mischief and Mayhem
Faerlands Chronicles 1
Koehler Books, May 24, 2019
Hardcover, Trade Paperback, 238 pages

After lying dormant for centuries, a dark presence awakes and invades the realm of the Faers. While malicious forces quietly stir in the southern nation of the Meadows, Ophelia Maplewood, along with her companions from the Woodland Scouts, finds an unexpected human, new strength, and allies in the north. Will their journey bring balance to the homeland and prevent chaos from spreading to the other realms? Only time will tell. Part One of the Faerlands Chronicles.

Domenica Ruta

Last Day
Spiegal & Grau, May 28, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 272 pages

The fates of a cast of seemingly unconnected people converge during the celebration of an ancient holiday in a thought-provoking debut that brings to mind such novels as Station Eleven and The Age of Miracles.

In Domenica Ruta’s profoundly original novel, the end of the world comes once a year. Every May 28, humanity gathers to anticipate the planet’s demise—and to celebrate as if the day is truly its last.

On this holiday, three intersecting sets of characters embark on a possibly last-chance quest for redemption. In Boston, bookish wunderkind Sarah is looking for love and maybe a cosmic reversal from the much older Kurt, a tattoo artist she met at last year’s Last Day BBQ—but he’s still trying to make amends to the family he destroyed long ago. Dysfunctional Karen keeps getting into trouble, especially when the voices she’s been hearing coax her to abandon everything to search for her long-lost adoptive brother; her friend Rosette has left the Jehovah’s Witnesses to follow a new pastor at the Last Kingdom on Earth, where she brings Karen on this fateful day. Meanwhile, above them all, three astronauts on the International Space Station, Bear, an American; Russian Svec; and billionaire Japanese space tourist Yui, contemplate their lives as well as their precious Earth from afar.

With sparkling wit, verbal ingenuity, and wild imagination, Ruta has created an alternate world in which an ancient holiday brings into stark reflection our deepest dreams, desires, hopes, and fears. In this tour-de-force debut novel she has written a dazzling, haunting love letter to humanity and to our planet.

Henry Thomas

The Window and the Mirror
Oesteria and the War of Goblinkind 1
Rare Bird Books, May 14, 2019
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages

A captured soldier must escort a mysterious girl to a distant city to broker peace between two peoples poised on the brink of war. Left to die in a deep chasm, his commander stumbles on to a dark and powerful secret: how to harness the energy of men’s souls and bend them to his will. Is this the secret that Goblinkind has been hiding from the race of men? That all the shiny trinkets of the fabled Goblincrafters are powered by the trapped souls of humans? For Mage Imperator Rhael Lord Uhlmet, the lure of such power is irresistible, even if he must start a war to attain it.