Douglas Smith's blog

Here's another chance to own, at an incredible bargain, ten books that readers like yourself have already voted to be the best examples of speculative fiction published in Canada. I'm once again curating an ebook bundle for StoryBundle of winners and finalists for Canada's premier speculative fiction prize, the Aurora Award.

The Auroras are awarded annually by the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association (CSFFA) for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Introduced in 1980 as the Casper, it was renamed the Aurora in 1990. I'm honored to have won the award three times and to have been on the final ballot another sixteen.

This Aurora bundle again delivers a great mix of speculative fiction genres: SF, fantasy, science fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, as well as young adult. The titles once more reflect the long history of the Auroras, spanning over two decades of Canadian speculative fiction from 1995 to 2016.

A little short notice but here are a couple of my appearances happening this coming week, one in person and one online.

• Wednesday, July 18, 6:00-9:00PM EDT: Pulp Literature issue #19 launch. Along with several other authors, I'll be doing a short reading from my Pulp Literature #12 story, "The Last of a Thing," as well as signing and selling books. Location: Another Bar, 926 Bloor St. W., Toronto. [Correction to first posting: this starts at 6pm, not 7pm.]

• Saturday, July 21, 12:30-2:30PM EDT: I'll be giving an online workshop hosted by SFWA president, Cat Rambo, on Rights and Reprints for Short Fiction, based on my writer's guide, Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction. Full information and registration link here.

Hope to see you at one of these events!

And I neglected to post about this one, but this weekend I was at the annual Toronto (okay, Richmond Hill) genre convention, Ad Astra, doing panels, a reading, and selling and signing. Thanks to all of you who dropped by and said hello. The photo to the right is from a very fun panel on the different ways of writing time travel stories, called appropriately enough "The Timey-Wimey Stuff."  Panelist were (left to right): Kari Maaren, Cameron S. Currie, Jen Frankel (m), Cathy Hird, James Bambury, and me.

In case you're located in Southern Ontario, here are some of my upcoming appearances over the next few months:

May 8, 2018 (new date!): Reading, Toronto Public Library, Parliament Street Branch, 269 Gerrard St. E, Toronto. 6:30-8:00pm. Books will be available for sale and signing.

May 26-27, 2018: Limestone Genre Expo in Kingston. Author Guest. I'll be on panels as well as giving a workshop based on my writer's guide, Playing the Short Game

June 3, 2018: Aurora Street Festival, Aurora. Signing and selling.

Hope to see you at one of them!

Laura Powers, Celebrity Psychic, Host, Entertainer, and fellow writer, interviews me on her Write Hot podcast about short fiction and my writer's guide, Playing the Short Game. The podcast is available on iTunes, Sitcher and Hipcast.

Fellow writer, Sherry D. Ramsey, interviews me on her blog about writing my story "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down," why I love short fiction, my all-time favourite short story, my approach to novel writing, my fascination with shapeshifter stories, what music I listen to while writing, and what I'm working on now.

I'll be attending the 2018 Limestone Genre Expo in Kingston, Ontario on May 26-28 (Sat-Sun). I'll be giving a workshop on marketing and selling short fiction, participating on panels, and selling and signing my books. 

Limestone Genre is a fun con that has quickly grown from a part-day event to a full weekend in just a few years. Unlike many genre conventions that focus on visual media, this expo has a clear literary focus and consciously caters to actual (gasp) book readers. Like you, or you wouldn't be here, right? 

From the website: "The Expo is a two-day literary event, celebrating the best in Canadian genre fiction. We offer panel discussions, workshops, readings, pitch sessions, a large vendor area, and many opportunities to interact with our attending authors, editor and publishers.​"

Kingston is a pretty town and this is a great time of year to be there. I hope you'll mark this expo in your calendar. 

I'll be reading as the special guest at the Open Mic programme at the Parliament branch library in Toronto on Tuesday, May 8 in the evening. There will be a number of short readings starting at 6:30p, and then I'll read up to 8pm. I'll also be selling my books at discounted prices and signing. If you're in the area, I hope you'll drop by or tell some friends.

Details:

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

6:30-8:00 pm

Toronto Public Library

269 Gerrard Street E.

Toronto

For Toronto-area peeps: I'm giving a 2-hr workshop on marketing & selling short fiction at the Albert Campbell branch library tomorrow from 1-3pm. The workshop is taken from the first part of my Playing the Short Game book and covers the benefits of writing short fiction, rights and licensing, a strategy for marketing your short fiction, how to find markets, how to select the best markets, how to submit, the no-nos of submitting, and much more. 

If you're a short fiction writer or if you know someone who is, please spread the word.

Details:

Friday April 13, 1-3pm

Albert Campbell branch

Toronto Public Libraries

496 Birchmount Road

Toronto

 

Cost: $20, which includes a copy of the book

Thanks.

If you're a writer as well as a reader, you'll be interested in this. NY Times and USA Today best-selling author, Joanna Penn, recently interviewed me on her webcast / podcast, The Creative Penn, about my guide for writers, Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction. Much of the discussion focused on how writers can make money from a short fiction career or by adding short fiction to a novel career.

The interview covers a lot of topics, including:

• The differences between short stories, novellas, novelettes and novels
• How to know the ‘size' of an idea – whether it's a novel or a shorter piece
• Finding good markets for short fiction
• Submitting short fiction vs. publishing it indie
• How to track submissions and why it's so important
• Has the magazine market been disrupted the way the book industry has?
• On rights, including language and territory
• The audio market for short fiction

You can watch the video interview, listen to the podcast or read the transcript here. 

Playing the Short Game is available in both trade paperback and as an ebook from all major retailers. 

My urban fantasy shapeshifter story, "Out of the Light," has been reprinted in issue #2 of Black Infinity. The theme for this issue was "Blobs, Globs, Slime, and Spores." Check out the great retro cover at the right.

"Out of the Light" first appeared in Dark Wisdom Magazine (#11) in 2007. It was nominated for an Aurora Award, but as I had another story on the ballot that year, I asked for it to be removed from the ballot so I wouldn't compete with myself. 

Black Infinity #2 is available now on Amazon and will be available shortly on Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and other ebook retailers. From the Amazon page:

Black Infinity #2 features 13 tales of blobs, globs, slime, and spores, plus a brief history of gunk and goo in SF magazines, movies, TV and comics; not to mention science fact, retro movie reviews and comics. 200 pages of slimy fun, with new stories by Rhys Hughes ("Swallowing the Amazon"), Gregory L. Norris ("The Tree Surgeon") and Marc Vun Kannon ("Boarding Party"). Plus Douglas Smith's "Out of the Light" and Kurt Newton's "The Old Mill."

I also had a story in the debut issue and will have a story in issue #3 as well, which will be the first time I've been published in three consecutive issues of any magazine. Very cool.

How would you like to own, at an incredible bargain, ten books that readers like yourself have already voted to be the best examples of speculative fiction published in Canada? Well, here's your chance. I'm once again curating an ebook bundle for StoryBundle.com of winners and finalists for Canada's premier speculative fiction award, the Aurora Award.

The Auroras are awarded annually by the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association (CSFFA) for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Introduced in 1980 as the Casper, it was renamed the Aurora Award in 1990. I'm honored to have won the Aurora three times and to have been on the final ballot another sixteen.

This Aurora bundle again delivers a great mix of speculative fiction genres: SF, fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, steam punk, as well as young adult. The titles reflect the long history of the Auroras, spanning nearly a quarter century of Canadian speculative fiction from 1993 to 2016.

This bundle also provides a great introduction to several wonderful series, including the first title in three separate series and the second book in two more (which can be read as stand-alone titles). And the bundle lets you sample the rich tradition of Canadian short speculative fiction, with two acclaimed anthologies and a collection.

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you feel generous), you'll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format worldwide:

• Destiny's Fall by Marie Bilodeau
• Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond by Jayne Barnard
• Evolve edited by Nancy Kilpatrick
• Scream Queen by Edo van Belkom

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the above titles, plus six more:

• Far-Seer by Robert J. Sawyer
• Tesseracts14 edited by John Robert Colombo and Brett Savory
• Thunder Road by Chadwick Ginther
• Steel Whispers by Hayden Trenholm
• Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism by David Nickle
• Relativity by Robert J. Sawyer

The bundle allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub and .mobi) for all books!

Check out the bundle here for more information and details on each of the included titles. And remember, it's available for a very limited time only, from today until November 30 at midnight.

#SFWApro