Archive for May, 2009
Life’s a Pitch
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Finished writing your masterpiece? Wondering what to do next? Head on over to SFX and let Uncle Lee ease the strain with some hints ‘n’ tips on smoothing the path to the agency/publisher’s door…
Oh, what a quote!
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Sometimes we send our books to other authors we think might like them. Often, we ask for a quote for the book. Occasionally we get a quote back that is just so perfect, from just the right person, we wonder if that person was taking a peek inside our heads when they wrote it.
The mighty Charlie Stross has this (and much else) to say about our very own Moxyland:
the larval form of a new kind of SF munching its way out of the intestines of the wasp-paralysed caterpillar of cyberpunk
He says a lot more. Head on over to his journal (today’s entry) read the rest.
The Future – It’s Not All Doom and Gloom, tha knows.
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Andy Remic, and friend
That Andy Remic! tsk! Not content with selling a gazillion books, forging his own axe from the iron extracted from his own blood, and generally scaring the neighbourhood kids, now he’s only gone and formed a writers’ consortium type thing! Where does he find the time? (As long as he finishes the next couple of Kell’s Legend books we don’t mind – they’re huge fun!)
His latest project? The Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics group. I could summarise everything for you, but it’s late, and besides Rem has done it better than what I could have done it, wot with him bein’ a writer an’ everyfin.
So, over to to you, Mr R…
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics group has been set up by a consortium of authors, co-ordinated by Andy Remic, who wish to celebrate the good side of the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres. By that, we don’t just mean media with a positive theme – no, we’re into violence, sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll like every other monkey – but that our outlook and content will be geared towards the positive.
The site will include reviews, articles and interviews, which is pretty standard across the industry, but also several exciting new angles – such as collaborative stories written by the professional authors therein, and “Viewpoint” articles where writers can collectively wax lyrical on a certain topic.
Andy Remic enthuses, “If we can get all the associated writers together at a convention and suitably drunk on a cocktail of cheap Scandinavian meths, Stella and absinthe, we can also expect a movie! Watch this space!”. The horror.
The official line runs thus:
“Our mission is to celebrate everything positive, funky and exciting in the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Universe! The SFFE is a core platform, a hub of authors who have banded together with the aim of celebrating all that is positive in genre fiction. We aim to leave cynicism and negativity at the door, and concentrate on what makes us smile, what entertains us, and what brings light and joy to our SF, fantasy and horror universe. That’s not to say there is no place for criticism— there’s plenty bad in the world. However, this little digital corner is a place for positive progression, somewhere you will (hopefully) come if you want to smile.”So far, a considerable number of industry figures have signed up to take part, and many more are currently in negotiation! The SFFE currently enjoys: Tony Ballantyne, Eric Brown, Mark Chadbourn, David Devereux, Ian Graham, Paul Kearney, Tim Lebbon, James Lovegrove, Gail Z. Martin, James Maxey, Juliet E. Mckenna, Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough, Andy Remic, James Swallow, Jeffrey Thomas, Jetse de Vries, Danie Ware and Conrad Williams. A healthy dollop of literary roughage, we’re sure you’ll agree!
Check out: www.sffeth.blogspot.com
Love, kisses and chainsaws—
Andy Remic.
So now you know. 
Slights – Free Sample
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We will be offering free sample chapters of all of our titles prior to release.
First off the starting block is Slights by Kaaron Warren.
UK/Aus/eBook: 1 July ’09. US/Canada: 1 October ’09.
All rights reserved.
However, feel free to share this sample chapter with anyone you wish, or to post it on your own site. And if you like this, buy Kaaron’s book.
You can pre-order Slights from Play.com for only £5.99!
Free Sample
The following extract is taken from Chapter 1 of Slights. Please note that the formatting will vary from that of the final commercial product.
Mobi and PDF
Click on the appropriate icon, above to download the sample in your choice of format.
ePub users may choose to download the file (your system may change it to a .zip – if so, just rename the extension to .epub). Alternatively, type the sample URL directly into your device of choice:
angryrobotbooks.com/samples/Slights.epub
The Mighty Dan
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Ladies and gentlefolk, Mr Dan Abnett…
It’s the Final Countdown…
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s hard to believe after all this time that we’re so close to launch. Yes, good people of the United Kingdom and Australia, Angry Robot will be in all good bookshops near you just six weeks from today!
Still plenty of things for us all to be getting on with here at Angry Robot HQ, though – final cover designs, review copies, interviews and assorted promotional gubbins…
Phew!
Good job none of us are going away on holiday, then, really…
So – July 1st. Do make sure it’s in your diaries, won’t you?
Cover of Death!
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It’s a hard life, working in the Angry Robot Office. Yes, we get to choose the books we want to publish, which means that we’re pretty much guaranteed to be more than enamoured by our entire list. And yes, we get to work with some of the best cover artists in the business, and gradually get to see the book encapsulated in a single image. In fact, this is part of what makes working at Angry Robot such hard work. There will come a point in the not-too near future, where we will simply run out of suitable adjectives to describe how thrilled we are when another cover is completed.
Look at this cover, for instance – Angel of Death is published in the UK and Australia in September, and everywhere else in February.
Headdesign have done a phenomenal job in capturing the grit, and the mystery trapped within the pages of Rob‘s book.
Simply gorgeous stuff.
Meet Moxy
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This little fellah goes by the name of Moxy.
It’s a bit of a stretch to suggest that he’s the star of Moxyland (though we’d never tell him that to his face – he may look cute, but just look at those teeth!) but he’s certainly an important part of the book.
Moxy was made by a women’s collective in his native South Africa, and we believe he hopped into the cargo hold on a commercial flight some weeks later.
The thing about Moxy, though, is that he’s virtual. He’s a digital character. He lives within a game designed for children. And being digital, he’s rather easy to duplicate. We got to the office early this morning, only to find him sat atop the photocopier, making digital copies of himself.
So now we’ve a dozen or so. A good job we got to work when we did, otherwise there may well have been tribble-level trouble, so now we’ve changed the PIN on the photocopier, and we’re going to dispose of his clone brothers over the next month or so, part of competition prizes, perhaps, or simply by offering them up for adoption. Then again, maybe we’ll just unravel their stitches and tear out the stuffing! Bwahahahahaaaa!
*ahem*
The best thing about Moxy, though? He’s part of Moxyland by Lauren Beukes - one of our two launch titles. So, although we’re not planning on keeping his copies around for very much longer, Moxy himself will always remain part of our office.
Just look at him, below, reading his story to his devoted other selves. You’d never suspect his homicidal tendencies, just by looking at him, would you?
Awwww, bless…
Proud to be Short
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Yes, proud to be short, goshdarnit! (Apologies for the language). It’s true, I’m not the loftiest of individuals – more an R2D2 than a C3PO, but I’m not talking about my stature.
The lovely folk over at Suite101 asked me to write a guest blog about my love of short stories, and as a devourer of short fiction (and a publisher, through Hub Magazine), I was more than happy to oblige. Read the blog entry here.
Name That Droid
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The Angry Robot “Name that Droid” competition has finished, and we will be announcing the winner in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, if you fancy getting a droid named after your good self, why not head on over to CyborgName.com.
I punched in Marco’s name, and pretty much got his job description thrown back at me, as a result!
It even successfully predicted my love of travelling.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
