Good Grief

I have a confession: I am not a superhero fan. It’s not that I dislike them—not at all. But after a brief flirtation with the genre when I was a teen, I haven’t really given superheroes much thought. Oh, I knew they were around, of course, and I’ve even caught the odd Superman and Batman movie (and enjoyed them), but I wouldn’t know Deadpool from Deadman.

So, you can understand my bemused delight at ending up in Superhero Universe: Tesseracts Nineteen.

Superhero UniverseI’ve enjoyed working with Claude Lalumière before, so when I saw the call for submissions for one of his anthologies, with Mark Shainblum, I wanted to submit something. But what?

Have I mentioned that I’m not steeped in the superhero genre…? I knew I didn’t want my superhero to have a mega superpower… that’s just not me. But I’ve always been fascinated by the sense of smell. I know some people who will only know the milk has spoiled by drinking it. Others will know the moment they walk into the kitchen. So, what happens when someone’s sense of smell is so developed it becomes debilitating?

And what if this new power developed in an ordinary guy just coming out of World War II who is forever changed by unusual circumstances? It’s not something he wanted—nobody would want that kind of superpower—but he has it and now he has to figure out what he’s going to do with it.

To be honest, I wondered if Bloodhound was “superhero-y” enough. After all, he can’t fly, or climb walls. He doesn’t have any of the other conventional superhero powers. Really, he’s just a quiet guy, who’d rather be left alone.

So, after all this, I still don’t know a whole lot about superheroes. But maybe Bloodhound is more like the ones I know than I had thought. He just wants to be left alone, but he can’t sit idly by when he sees something wrong. In the end, he really is rather extraordinary.

If you want to learn more about the stories in Superhero Universe, I invite you to visit Corey Redekop, one of the authors in the anthology. In collaboration with Edge Publishing, Corey has been posting a series of interviews with the authors. Cool stuff.

facebook | twitter

A Trailer for Superhero Universe

How cool is this? Edge Publishing has launched a trailer for the upcoming release of Tesseracts Nineteen: Superhero Universe, edited by Claude Lalumière and Mark Shainblum

Superhero UniverseRelease Dates:
Pre-Order Kindle E-book:
Jan. 11, 2016 thru Jan. 24, 2016
Exclusive Kindle E-book: Jan. 25, 2016 thru April 17, 2016
E-book Everywhere: April 18, 2016
Print Canada: March 14, 2016
Print USA: April 18, 2016

You can see the trailer here.

 

We have a cover!

Superhero Universe

Here’s the cover for Tesseracts Nineteen: Superhero Universe. It’s edited by Claude Lalumière and Mark Shainblum, and published by Edge Publishing. The cover artist is Jason Loorox (Jason Loo), creator of the brilliant Indy superhero comic The Pitiful Human Lizard.

Superhero Universe will be available in March 2016. My short story, “Bloodhound,” is in it.

Tesseracts Nineteen: Superhero Universe

I’m thrilled to announce that one of my short stories will be included in the anthology Tesseracts Nineteen: Superhero Universe, from Edge Publishing, edited by Claude Lalumière and Mark Shainblum. More details will follow in the coming months, but in the meantime, here’s the news release from Edge Publishing:

EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing            

Announces Author Line Up for

Superhero Universe (Tesseracts Nineteen)

(Calgary, Alberta) Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story! EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing is proud to announce

the lineup for Superhero Universe, the 19th edition of the prestigious Tesseracts anthology series.

Edited by Claude Lalumière and Mark Shainblum,Superhero Universe (Tesseracts Nineteen) features twenty-four stories (and one poem) by some of Canada’s best fantasy and science fiction writers:

John Bell

P. E. Bolivar

Kevin Cockle

Evelyn Deshane

Marcelle Dubé

Chadwick Ginther

Patrick T. Goddard

Kim Goldberg

Geoff Hart

Sacha Howells

Arun Jiwa

D. K. Latta

Michael Matheson

Bernard E. Mireault

Luke Murphy

Brent Nichols

David Perlmutter

Mary Pletsch & Dylan Blacquiere

Jennifer Rahn

Corey Redekop

Alex C. Renwick

Jason Sharp

Bevan Thomas

Leigh Wallace

A.C.Wise

Superheroes! Supervillains! Superpowered antiheroes. Mad scientists. Adventurers into the unknown. Detectives of the dark night. Costumed crimefighters. Steampunk armoured avengers. Brave and bold supergroups. Crusading aliens in a strange land. Secret histories. Pulp action. Superhero Universe (Tesseracts Nineteen) features all of these permutations of the superhero genre and many others besides!

ABOUT THE EDITORS:

Claude Lalumière has edited thirteen previous anthologies, including one prior volume in the Tesseracts series (the Aurora nominee Tesseracts Twelve: New Canadian Fantastic Fiction) and two other superhero anthologies, includingSuper Stories of Heroes & Villains, which was hailed in a starred review by Publishers Weekly as “by far the best superhero anthology.” In addition to being a frequent contributor to Tesseracts anthologies, he’s the author of Objects of Worship, The Door to Lost Pages, and Nocturnes and Other Nocturnes.

Mark Shainblum was born and raised in Montreal, where he and illustrator Gabriel Morrissette co-created the comics series Northguard and the bestselling humour book series Angloman, which later appeared as a weekly strip in The Montreal Gazette. Mark also collaborated on the Captain Canuck daily newspaper strip and Canadiana: The New Spirit of Canada, a webcomic featuring the first female Canadian flag superhero with her own series. In the late 1990s he co-edited the Aurora Award-winning anthology Arrowdreams: An Anthology of Alternate Canadas with John Dupuis. Mark currently lives Ottawa with his wife Andrea and daughter Maya.

ABOUT THE TESSERACTS SERIES:

Each year EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing chooses a team of editors – which keeps the collections fresh, new and ever changing – from among the best of Canada’s writers, publishers and critics. The editors then select innovative and futuristic short fiction and poetry from established and emerging voices of Canadian speculative fiction.

Since its first publication in 1985, more than 315 Canadian authors, editors, translators and special guests have contributed 529 short stories, poems, editorials and forwards to the series.

Each volume of the Tesseracts series features established as well as emerging authors. Some of Canada’s best known fiction writers have been published within the pages of these volumes – including Margaret Atwood, Susan Swan, and Hugo and Nebula award winning authors William Gibson, Spider Robinson, and Robert J. Sawyer.

The entire series includes Tesseracts One through Nineteen, plus Tesseracts Q, which features translations of works by some of Canada’s top francophone writers of science fiction and fantasy.

The series has won the prestigious Canadian Aurora Award.

ABOUT EDGE:

Celebrating its 15th anniversary, EDGE publishes thought-provoking full length novels and anthologies of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Featuring works by established authors and emerging new voices, EDGE is pleased to provide quality literary entertainment in both print and pixels.

-30-

For the full release: http://ymlp.com/zYmuBA

Masked Mosaic shortlisted

Masked MosaicHow cool is this! The Masked Mosaic anthology, published by Tyche Books, is a 2014 Alberta Book Publishing Award finalist! The anthology includes my short story, The Man in the Mask, and was edited by Claude Lalumiere and Camille Alexa.

I think it’s a grand anthology, and I’m pleased that the Book Publishers Association of Alberta thinks so, too.

Masked Mosaic now available

I can’t wait to hold my very own copy of Masked Mosaic! The anthology’s formal title is Masked Mosaic: Canadian Super Stories and is published by Tyche Books. It was edited by Claude Lalumière and Camille Alexa, with a foreword by Mark Shainblum, who created Northguard.

My story is The Man in the Mask, under my Emma Faraday pen name, and I am in excellent company. Just take a look at the post below this one for the full list.

Masked Mosaic is also available, either as an e-book or in paper format, from:

Abebooks.com
Alibris.com
Amazon.COM, .CA, .CO.UK
BarnesAndNoble.com
BookDepository.co.uk
Chapters.Indigo.ca

…and other fine retailers. 🙂