Archive for June, 2011
Best of 5, Best of 20
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It’s an absolute joy to be able to announce that Gary McMahon’s superior horror novel, Pretty Little Dead Things, is shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society’s Best Novel award. Congratulations to Gary, and to the 4 other nominees.
You can read a sample, below, and pick up a copy from all good bookshops.
In other news, Zinzi December, the troubled protagonist in the Arthur C Clarke Award-winning Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, has been named by SFX Magazine as one of The 20 Greatest Heroes of SF Literature. You can also read an extract from Zoo City, below.
Sample chapters (click for full screen):
Hard Spell – the trailer
Posted by: | CommentsFive reasons why you *must* read Hard Spell
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1) “My name’s Markowski. I carry a badge. Also, a crucifix, some wooden stakes, a big vial of holy water, and a 9mm Beretta loaded with silver bullets.” I mean, come on!
2) “it’s an exemplary example of an urban fantasy story and I can’t wait to read more in the series.” (S F Book, 5***** review)
3) “Whoa. Justin Gustainis has given us a fast-paced, brutal and bloody urban fantasy that kept the hits coming.” (Reading the Paranormal, review)
4) “this has to be one of the must read new releases this Summer.” (Amberkatze, review)
5) “I enjoyed every page of Hard Spell. If Sam Spade and Jack Fleming were somehow melted together, you’d get Stan Markowski. I can’t wait to see what Gustainis does next.” (Lilith Saintcrow, author of Night Shift and Working for the Devil)
SAMPLE CHAPTER
Click for full-screen. You can embed the free samples in your own site – just copy the code (by clicking on the “menu” button in the bottom right corner of the sample, and selecting “Copy embed code”) into your site.
The first in the Occult Crimes Unit Investigation series:
Hard Spell is available in the UK (and worldwide as an eBook) from July 7th, and in the US/Canada from the 26th. Pre-order now, or we’ll sulk.
Alt.Fiction – only 2 more sleeps!
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This weekend sees one of the UK’s best-loved conventions – Alt.Fiction.
A relatively young event – this is only its fifth year – for many, it has become the convention of choice for people who love genre fiction.
As you might expect, Angry Robot are out in force, yet again. As well as the Robot Overlords, (Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris), the important people are around, too.
From the old guard we have:
~ Dan Abnett (Guest of Honour, alongside Alastair Reynolds)
~ Guy Adams
~ Colin Harvey
~ Gav Thorpe
~ Ian Whates
~ Peter Crowther
~ Mike Shevdon
~ Gary McMahon
And eager young whippersnappers:
~ Anne Lyle
~ Adam Christopher
~ Guy Haley
The event starts at 10.00am on Saturday at the Quad in Derby, and finishes late afternoon on Sunday. Tickets cost £30 for Saturday, £20 for Sunday or £45 for both, and are available from www.derbyquad.co.uk/altfiction.
And here’s a link to the schedule for the weekend (PDF download).
Weekend activities include: workshops, panel discussions, interviews, author readings, film and quality hanging-out-at-the-bar time (an essential ingredient in all good cons), some of which will be recorded for podcasting, later.
I’ve written a little about this event over at the SFX website, too.
If you’re there, do say Hi.
Steampunk competition Runners-up
Posted by: | CommentsAnd now for all of the fabulous runners-up in our Steampunk competition, each of whom will receive a sparkly batch of our Steampunk books.
First up is Darren from Northamptonshire who supplied some very funky images of a dirigible.
Next up is Aaron who sent in a combination of photos which showed a couple of finished projects (a rather lethal looking Steampunk revolver and a chunky Steampunk rifle) , along with a handful of quick sketches he had devised for future builds.
And last, but certainly not least is a supremely impressive conversion by Melanie, who took an innocent guitar (the one in the first picture) and turned it into a Steampunk rockers axe!
Open Submissions Month – some stats
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We reported in April that we’d had just under 1,000 submissions during our Open Door month in March. After accounting for duplicated and recalled submissions, the final tally is 944*.
Of those 944:
131 were described by the authors as horror.
318 as science fiction
423 as fantasy
72 had no genre attached (despite the submission guidelines stating a genre should be chosen. Ah, well).
Of the 131 horror submissions, 120 were rejected without calling in a full MS. 11 full manuscripts were called in, of which 1 has been rejected so far, and 10 still under consideration.**
Of the 423 fantasy submissions, 246 were rejected without calling in a full MS, 14 were rejected after calling in a full MS, 150 are still in the reading list, and 13 have been escalated to the Angry Robot editorial team.
Of the 318 SF submissions, 130 were rejected without calling in a full MS, none have yet been rejected after calling in a full MS, 186 are still in the reading list, and 2 have been escalated to the editors.
Of the “other” 72, 64 were rejected without calling in a full submission, 6 were rejected after calling in the full MS and 2 have been escalated.
So, altogether:
336 still to read.
570 rejected at partial stage.
21 rejected after calling in the full MS.
17 have so far reached the editors’ desks (that’s 2.8% of the submissions read so far).
If the remaining submissions follow the same pattern, then around 26 manuscripts will be read by the AR editorial team.
Of the 17 that have been passed up so far, 15 are still under consideration. 2 have been read and rejected. One was very good, one was exceptionally good, but not a good fit for Angry Robot.
.
*due to the way in which the filing system operates, these figures might be out slightly, but they’ll be more or less right.
** If you sent in a submission and marked it as horror, you should have received a response by now. If you haven’t, drop us a line through our Contact Form. (Note: if you marked it as “horror/fantasy” or “horror/SF” it’s been designated as fantasy or SF and will probably still be in our reading list, so don’t query, yet.
Chuck Wendig joins our quest for world domination
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American writer Chuck Wendig is best known for his hilarious examinations of the everyday struggles and victories of the writer’s life, on his website terribleminds.com. Now Chuck’s proving those long hours at the keyboard have not been in vain, as Angry Robot publish his first series of novels.
Blackbirds follows Miriam Black, blessed – or cursed – with the ability to foresee how someone will die just by touching them. This terrible ability has afforded her a living, of sorts, but now it’s time to use her powers to save someone – at great personal cost. This rip-roaring paranormal fantasy is already being considered for a TV series.
Chuck said, with typical candour: “It’s crazy-delightful to find myself with a publisher that cares about its authors – I know quite a few within Angry Robot’s talented stable of penmonkeys and I hear nothing but good things. So it is with great glee I find Blackbirds and its sequel in the capable hands of a kick-ass publisher.”
In all seriousness, Blackbirds was one of those stories that grabbed us from the first page. Chuck’s an amazing writer, and I’m thrilled we’re going to be able to take his series to a global readership.
Blackbirds will be published in May 2012, with a sequel Mockingbird to follow soon after.
Steampunk Competition winner
Posted by: | CommentsAs promised, here is a quick look at the fabulous winning entry from Michal in Slovakia!
He has kindly sent in a step-by-step gallery as he opens the card up. Apparently he made the card for his girlfriend for her birthday – which drew ‘aaaahs’ from everyone in the judging panel 
Secretly I think we were all just a little bit jealous…
And finally – here is the man himself!
Congratulations again to Michal!
Steampunk Competition results!
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It is International Steampunk Day today… and to commemorate that fact we have decided to release the much anticipated results of our competition to win a steampunked Kindle.
The competition was fierce – we received over 65 entries to the competition, many of which were of the highest quality. We got beautiful line art, some Steampunk fashion drawings, a haiku or two, photos of you all dressed up in your gear, Steampunk conversions, tattoos…and even a photo of an Angry Robot decked out in a flying cap! Thanks to everyone who took part and who sent in pieces, I had great fun sifting through them all – you are very a talented bunch.
The judging team included Lee and I, as well as Roland (one of our UK sales team) and Sara and John (our US sales and marketing team) – and we had a very difficult job in front of us. After much debate we all went off into a corner and each selected our own top 5 list – which I then combined using complex algorithms (and an abacus) to work out who had won.
So without delay, here are the runners up – in no particular order – who will each receive a pack of our Steampunk books:
Darren – for his fabulous pictures of a very cool dirigible.
Aaron – for his pictures of two Steampunk weapons (a rifle and a pistol) along with some very ambitious concept art for his next couple of planned pieces.
Melanie – for her brilliantly constructed Steampunk guitar, shot in glorious detail, using a real guitar for a base and turning it into a fabulously realized piece of Steampunk rock!
And finally – drum roll please…..
The winner of a Steampunked Kindle is:
Michal – whose entry was a pop-up Steampunk birthday card. His entry melted the hearts of all the judges. It was cute, it was clever, it was unique and it was a brilliant idea. It stood out as a surprisingly minimalist entry when compared to the coils of copper and bolts that dominated some of the conversions. A Steampunked Kindle, pre-loaded with a bunch of our books is heading towards him now, on the fastest zeppelin in our arsenal! Congratulations Michal!
Over the next couple of days I will be posting up images of the winning entry and the three runners, so keep an eye out for some glorious Steampunk goodness!
It’s International Steampunk Day! So BOGOF!
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Yes, it surely is!
We’ll be announcing the results of our Win-A-Steampunked-Kindle competition later today, but for the rest of today you can pick up any or all of our steampunk titles at www.angryrobotstore.com in a Buy One Get One Free deal.
Offer applies to eBooks bought from our online store, only.
