Douglas Smith's blog

This news is so cool from several viewpoints. First, my story "Going Harvey in the Big House" is being reprinted in the very first issue of the new SF magazine, Black Infinity, now available here on Amazon. This issue is titled "Deadly Planets."

That's great all by itself, but check out the awesome retro-SF cover. Isn't that great? Love it.

But the absolute best part is getting my name on the cover on top of a list that includes Clifford D. Simak, Harry Harrison, and Jack Kirby. I loved Simak's short stories when I started reading SF, especially his novel Out of Their Minds. And I devoured Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books. And Jack Kirby? The "King of Comics"? Yeah, definitely made my day.

"Going Harvey in the Big House" first appeared in the US young adult magazine, Cicada, in 2005. It was a finalist for Canada's Aurora Award in 2006.

I hope you'll check out the issue and help support a new magazine. Amazon link is here.

I'm thrilled to have my story, "Fiddleheads," included in the upcoming horror anthology, Group Hex 2, which, as the number implies, is the second such volume containing stories from members of the Ontario chapter of HWA (Horror Writers of America). I also had a story ("By Her Hand, She Draws You Down") in volume 1, so it's great to be in the second volume as well.

Volume 2 again has an excellent lineup of authors, with a mix of best-sellers, cult faves, and impressive newcomers: Kelley Armstrong, Suzanne Church, Brian Clement, Derek Clendening, Alessia Giacomi, Sephera Giron, Danann Hawes, Repo Kempt, Nancy Kilpatrick, Monica S. Kuebler, Shebat Legion, John R. Little, Stephen B. Pearl, Mary Rajotte, Lou Rera, Andrew Robertson, Douglas Smith, Robert Smith, Julianne Snow, Jessie Turk, and Jason White. Collected by Andrew Robertson. Art editor Brad Middleton.

The book will be released with an official launch on October 26, suitably just before Halloween, at the Glad Day Bookshop at 499 Church St. in Toronto, starting at 7:30pm. After release, it will be available on Amazon for Kindle, with other retailers to follow for both print and ebook editions.

Another great ebook bundle promotion from BookFunnel is launching today. This one offers fifty fantasy titles and all for free!

The promotion works like others from BookFunnel. You can download any or all of the books in the bundle just by signing up to the author's mailing list by providing your email address. And BookFunnel is fantastic in getting your ebook onto your ereader, no matter what type of device you use. If you encounter any problems getting the book onto your ereader (unlikely), BookFunnel technical support is there to help you.

There's no downside to these promos for readers. You can always unsubscribe to the newsletter(s) after at any time. But you might not want to. Many authors, like me, give away free stuff to their subscribers on a regular basis or offer other perks to followers such as discounts, special offers, or chances to be beta readers or participate in cool contests (like getting a character in a book named after you).

So check out the bundle here. It runs from October 16-30, then it's over.

Booktoberfest is another great ebook bundle with a great selection of 70+ paranormal romance, urban fantasy, science fiction, horror, and suspense titles. The bundle is a promotion from BookFunnel, which means that all the titles are FREE! Yep, over seventy ebooks for free.

As with any BookFunnel promotion, you can download any or all of the books in the bundle, provided you signup to the author's mailing list by providing your email address. And BookFunnel is fantastic in getting your ebook onto your ereader, no matter what type of device you use.

There's no downside to these promos for readers. You can always unsubscribe to the newsletter(s) after at any time. But you might not want to. Many authors, like me, give away free stuff to their subscribers on a regular basis or offer other perks to followers such as discounts, special offers, or chances to be beta readers or participate in cool contests (like getting a character in a book named after you).

So check out the bundle here. It runs to October 31, then it's over.

I'm delighted to have one of my books included in the first ever fantasy ebook bundle from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and delivered by StoryBundle. The bundle runs from today to Thursday, November 2.

This bundle offers twelve excellent fantasy titles, all from SFWA pros. Pay a minimum of $5 to get the basic bundle of four titles. Pay $15 or more, and get all twelve titles. Buy the bundle here and check out this page for more information.

Founded in 1965, SFWA is an organization for published authors and industry professionals in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and related genres. Some of the proceeds of this bundle will go to support SFWA in its mission to support, promote, inform, defend, and advocate for professional fantasy and science fiction writers. #SFWApro

My short story "The Red Bird" has been reprinted recently in the Japanese fantasy anthology, Tales of the Sunrise Lands, from Guardbridge Books in the United Kingdom. Love this cover, shown here at the left.

"The Red Bird" first appeared in the long-running, award-winning, Canadian speculative fiction magazine, On Spec, way back in 2001 in their "World Beat" issue. The story was an Aurora Award finalist in 2002, and remains one of my personal favourites.

I'm proud to see it in such good company in this wonderful anthology of fantasy tales, all set or influenced by the Land of Rising Sun. It's also quite cool to get a cover credit.

Tales of the Sunrise Lands is available from Amazon worldwide and in the UK from Guardbridge Books.

My novel, The Wolf at the End of the World, has been getting a lot of love lately. First it was featured in a BookBub promotion earlier this month, and now it's part of an excellent ebook bundle called Heroic Tales available here from BundleRabbit.

This is a huge bundle, folks, featuring nineteen (!) titles for only $4.99. You can buy directly from BundleRabbit or, if you prefer, from any of the major ebook retailers, including Amazon, Kobo, B&N, and Apple. Nineteen books for under $5! Come on, that's hard to beat. Grab it before the bundle goes away.

And to help promote this great bundle, the hero of The Wolf at the End of the World, Gwyn Blaidd, agreed to come out of seclusion in his Northern Ontario retreat to talk a little about himself and the story with fantasy author A. L. Butcher. Read Gwyn's interview here.

The excellent audio fantasy fiction magazine, Far Fetched Fables, has my Aurora Award winning novelette, "Spirit Dance," up on its site now, and you can listen to it right here (2023 update: FFF site no longer operating).

I'm really happy with the treatment FFF gave to the story. Mark Kilfoil, a fellow Canadian, does a wonderful job with his narration, nailing the voices, pronunciations, and rhythm of the prose and story.

Far Fetched Fables is one of several fiction podcast sites under the District of Wonders umbrella, the other sites being Tales to Terrify (horror, in case you couldn't guess) and Starship Sofa (SF, again as you probably guessed).

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 Aurora Award ebook bundle for StoryBundle.com that contains more winners and finalists for Canada's premier speculative fiction award, the Aurora Award. These Aurora bundles will now be an ongoing series on StoryBundle, running twice a year (until we run out of titles!), so they make a great way for you to build your library of the best in Canadian speculative fiction.

The Auroras are awarded annually by the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association (CSFFA) for excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy. The award started in 1980 as the Casper and was renamed the Aurora for the 1990 awards. 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 SF and fantasy, adult and YA novels, as well as a selection of short fiction. The books included reflect the long history of the Auroras, with titles spanning a quarter century of Canadian speculative fiction from 1992 to 2016.

This time, the bundle provides a great introduction to several wonderful series, including the first book in four separate series and the second book in a series that can be read as a stand-alone title. It also lets you sample the rich tradition of Canadian short speculative fiction, with two acclaimed collections.

I'm teaching a three-week workshop at the Humber School for Writers on how to market and sell short fiction. The course will be based on my writer's guide, Playing the Short Game, and runs on three consecutive Tuesday evenings starting on March 28, 2017. Each workshop session will be three hours, running from 6:30-9:30pm. The classes will be held at Humber's Lakeshore campus at 3199 Lake Shore Blvd West.

You can register for the workhop via the Humber School for Writers site.

Here's an outline of what I'll cover in the workshop:

Week 1

Chapters 1-2: Introduction to the course / Why are you writing? / The benefits of short fiction to a writing career.

Chapter 3: Understanding rights and licensing for short fiction

Chapters 4-6: How to judge when is a story ready to submit to a market / A strategy for selecting your target markets / How to find short fiction markets

Week 2

Chapters 7-8: Selecting the right market / How to submit short fiction to a market

Chapters 9-13: What not to do when submitting / What to do after you've submitted a story / How an editor selects (or rejects) a story / Dealing with rejections / When to stop submitting a story

Week 3

Chapters 14-15: What to look (out) for in short fiction contracts / Working with an editor

Chapters 16-17, 19: What your first sale really means / Dealing with reviews

Chapter 20-22: A writer's magic bakery / Selling reprints / Selling foreign language rights / Selling audio rights