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Cover Launch: MR. SHIVERS

With a fresh new look for its paperback debut, here’s Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett. If you’ve been reading along with these cover posts you know I love to take an opportunity to revisit the art when there’s a change of format…it’s especially fun to take a fresh look at a book and art that you like already, and just shake it up a bit.

If you caught Mr. Shivers in hardcover, you will recognize the hobo symbol for Mr. Shivers himself now taking front and center on the cover. You can also see more about the book and the hobo symbols at www.mistershivers.com.

Mr. Shivers is a great read kind of straddling historical fiction, suspense, and horror. and my favorite review (Publisher’s Weekly starred review) of the book says it all for me: “…Like a collaboration between Steven King and John Stienbeck.” Um, how does that not sound awesome? (more…)

Inspiration at the End of the Road

There seem to be two types of people who read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road—those who cry at the end and feel wrung out but deeply improved by the experience, and those who don’t see what all the fuss is about. Each of these types seems incapable of understanding the other. The moved readers suspect unmoved readers are callow or incapable of understanding McCarthy’s style, much less intent. Unmoved readers point to the relentless gloom of the subject matter, the repetition of dreary plot points, lack of conventional punctuation, and the cut-to-the-bone prose, and say they’ve certainly read better books. The internet carries conversations of people on the opposing sides, trying to convince their counterparts of the logic of their reactions to The Road, but no minds have been changed, as far as I can tell. (more…)

Launch of Tracking The Tempest

Ms. Nicole Peeler is out with an awesome new novel,  Tracking the Tempest.  Back in Rockabill, Jane True is learning to control her powers – and finding out more about the paranormals  in her community.  She’s also making time for Valentine’s day with her blood sucking boyfriend Ryu,  but a murder or two later and Jane is involved in much more than a romantic getaway.

It’s in US stores now and out next month in the UK and Australia, and you can read an excerpt here.

We’ve heard from a few others on Jane True:

“Irresistible.” — Romantic Times

“Witty and fun, with a dash of dark suspense.” — Scifichick.com

“Grounded equally in ancient myth and the challenges of modern life, Jane True lives up to her name … true, and truly unique!  A fascinating, fast-paced, sexy storm of a book.” — Rachel Caine

How To Make Brain Cupcakes

So you’re preparing your ultimate zombie-themed dinner party, and you’re stuck for a dessert. Or you’re entertaining a zombie who’s recently gone vegetarian, and is jonesing for those good old days of gray matter and the delicious taste of human brains. Whatever your reasons, you need a brainy treat that puts the “sweet” back into “sweetmeats.”

Luckily, I’m here for you.

These delicious desserts were created by Jennifer at Cups and Cakes Bakery, in San Francisco, California, and she was kind enough to let us come in and record the entire process. Here’s how you, too, can create delicious bite-sized brains for you and your victi…er, guests. First up, a quick instructional video, followed by a detailed recipe.

(more…)

They Came From Orbit – NEW POSTER!

They Came From Orbit poster
2010 Orbit Promotional Poster

Check out our fabulous new Orbit poster, which will be in Australian bookshops from July onwards.  We’ve re-worked the classic Orbit UK poster from many moons ago (1998), so it now showcases the current bestselling stars on our list, for example – Iain M. Banks, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Jordan, Charles Stross, Elizabeth Moon, Brent Weeks, Pamela Freeman and lots more…

Original Orbit promo poster
Orignal Orbit Promo poster

The writing/acting connection

I’ve always been interested in acting, and theatre, and film and tv. Basically in entertaining. I remember putting on puppet shows in my neighbourhood as a kid, and making puppets and stuff like that when I was a tiddler at Lindfield Demonstration School. I was in every primary and high school play I could manage and in 4th class primary school I wrote and directed a play about medieval monks. At one point I was seriously considering auditioning for acting school, but realised just in time that on the whole I wasn’t entirely comfortable being the stark focus of attention on stage. Mind you, that didn’t stop me doing some more acting in local Sydney theatre – Harvey and Charlie’s Aunt at the Pymble Players, a David Williamson play and Bazaar and Rummage at the Pavilion, then after a long break The Odd Couple there as well. A murder mystery at Dural, and one of the main nuns in Nunsense there as well — which is where I learned that as much as I love singing, I really wasn’t comfortable having an entire showstopping number resting on my shoulders! So from there I moved into directing, and have now directed 4 major productions as well as a one-act play of my own.

And now, ahead of tackling the biggest directing challenge of my life so far (more on that when I can say) I’ll be back on stage again later this year at the Pavilion as Mrs Rogers in Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None. (more…)

EARTH ABIDES: A WELL-ORDERED APOCALYPSE

No discussion of great post-apocalyptic books would be complete without mention of George R. Stewart’s 1949 classic, EARTH ABIDES. It’s been reported that it was Stephen King’s inspiration for THE STAND, and worthy inspiration it is. This book is part Robinson Crusoe, part brilliant speculative anthropology, and part Moby Dick, all laid out in scenes of decay like the ones depicted in The History Channel’s LIFE AFTER PEOPLE. This book portrays what it would be like to lose our technology, nearly everything from the bow and arrow onward, and start anew in our tribes.

But EARTH ABIDES doesn’t begin with loincloths and venison roasting on the spit. It begins with young Isherwood Williams alone in the Northern California wilderness, performing research for his graduate thesis. The tension begins immediately. He’s bitten by a snake and then he contracts a nasty virus, but he recovers from both. He then tries to end his lonely and quite nearly life-ending sojourn by driving into the nearest town—only to discover that the people are gone. He drives further into the town, blaring his car horn, but there’s no response. He gets out. Finally he reads the last edition of The San Francisco Chronicle, a single folded sheet carrying the headline: CRISIS ACUTE. (more…)

New Iain M. Banks Culture Novel

Tweet it from the rooftops, a new Culture novel by Iain M. Banks will be released in October.

The title is SURFACE DETAIL, which refers to a number of things, not least one of the principal characters, who is covered, externally and internally, with congenitally administered tattoos.

Here’s the cover:

Here’s the blurb:

It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.

It begins with a murder.

And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.

Lededje Y’breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to
risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.

Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful – and arguably deranged – warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war – brutal, far-reaching – is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it’s about
to erupt into reality.

It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the centre of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.

Orbit will be publishing SURFACE DETAIL worldwide in print and e-book editions this October.