Out tomorrow: The Book of Dragons
Tomorrow, The Book of Dragons will be released worldwide. This is a hardcover masterpiece edited by Jonathan Strahan, fully illustrated by Rovina Cai. It includes my poem “I Make Myself a Dragon.” It is a poem that is both angry and hopeful, and it’s even more relevant now than when I wrote it last year. I somehow infiltrated this anthology that reads like a modern who’s-who of genre masters. Here’s the back copy:
Here there be dragons . . .
From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations.
Bringing together nearly thirty stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today— Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, Zen Cho, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang—and illustrated by award-nominated artist Rovina Cai with black-and-white line drawings specific to each entry throughout, this extraordinary collection vividly breathes fire and life into one of our most captivating and feared magical creatures as never before and is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales.
Find it wherever books are sold. I encourage you to support indie shops through individual stores or at Bookshop, or go through Barnes & Noble or Amazon.
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Read MoreForthcoming anthologies to preorder
This is a rough time for the publishing industry and authors, period. Many bookstores are closed or operating in different ways. New releases are not getting much attention. Readers have other priorities for their time and money. Authors are struggling to focus, promote, and write. The actual publishing process is in a bad way, with warehouses closed because of sickness and paper imports from China greatly curtailed.
I want to highlight four forthcoming anthologies that have preorder links available. If you can’t budget to buy new books, you can always request your local library to carry them. And always, reviews on places like Amazon and Goodreads are a huge help.
First up, on May 26th, Swashbuckling Cats: Nine Lives on the Seven Seas is released by Tyche Books. PIRATE CATS. This is an anthology all about PIRATE CATS. How awesome is that?! A release day party will be held on Facebook. Find out about that here and participate in the event for a chance to win door prizes.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Cats will be released in print and ebook on July 7th, 2020. (Release was pushed back a month.) I’ve had stories in a lot of Chicken Soup cat books, but this will be my first story about my ‘new’ cats–with this one all about my brilliant ginger trickster, Finn.
Also out on July 7th: The Book of Dragons will be a beautiful, fully-illustrated (by Rovina Cai!) hardcover release from Harper Voyager, edited by Jonathan Strahan. I’ve already read it in galley form, and let me tell you the blunt truth: this is one of the most solid anthologies released in recent years. It includes my first solicited poem, “Make Me a Dragon.” I wrote it while very angry. I am betting a lot of people will relate to the mood.
On October 20th, Titan Books will release the Escape Pod Science Fiction Anthology. The table of contents for this book blows me away. I’m still stupefied that I was invited to take part. My story is very much a signature Beth Cato kind of thing, science fiction with a dose of fantasy plus a cantankerous felizard (that’s part feline, part lizard) that threatens to steal the show.
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Read MoreNew publications to start off May
The publishing industry slogs onward, rejecting works with as much fervor as ever… with the occasional acceptance offered for variety. Plenty of things are still being published, too. Here is my latest:
Podcast:
– “Clouds Gleam Across Her Eyes” (reprint) was read by Tina Connolly at Toasted Cake as part of the Run of Hope
Poetry
– “The Girl Who Survived” in Mirror Dance
– “he scores” co-written with Rhonda Parrish in Star*Line 43.2
– watch me awkwardly read my previously-published “Wayfaring King” in Cuttlefish Poetry Reading, Episode 2 over on YouTube
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Read MoreFour poems as Rhysling Finalists
I feel odd reporting good news as the modern civilization seems to be eroding around us, but I’ll take whatever positives I can get. Four of my poems were nominated for the Rhysling Award this year. That means they’ll be published in the Rhysling Anthology, and members of the SFPA will consider them as they vote for the annual winners. I’m honored to have anything up for such an honor again!
Here are my works that are finalists, with links to the two available online:
Short category:
– “My Ghost Will Know The Way” • The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August
– “A Purring Cat is a Time Machine” • Daikaijuzine 1
– “What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain” • Star*Line 42.1
Long category:
– “Childhood Memory from the Old Victorian House on Warner” • Uncanny 27
Here is the complete list of nominees.
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Read MoreNew Publication Flood!
Publishing is weird. Stories and poems get accepted and could be published a week later or the next year. It seems like once or twice a year, weird timing kicks in and a whole bunch of things end up published at the same time. This is one of those times.
New stories:
– “The Wind Knows All” in Nature (plus, a blog post on the story behind the story)
– nonfiction “The Advent of New Holiday Traditions” in Chicken Soup for the Soul: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas [Amazon affiliate link]
Poetry:
– “Old Coyote” in Eye to the Telescope Issue 34: Tricksters
– three poems in Daikaijuzine: “A Purring Cat is a Time Machine,” “Dollar Store Monsters,” and “Drought and Dryad”
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Read MoreI won a Rhysling Award?!
The Rhysling Award is the top award within science fiction, fantasy, and speculative poetry, as voted on by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA). I’ve had poetry make finalist for like four years now–but this is no short list. The nominees fill an entire small book, and these poems are GOOD. Like, make you cry or gasp in reaction kind-of-good. I’ve always been happy to have my poems hang with that crowd.
This year, something bonkers happened. I WON. My poem “After Her Brother Ripped the Heads from Her Paper Dolls,” published in Mythic Delirium, won 1st place in the short poetry division. Even more bonkers, I also placed 2nd in the long form category with “The Fairies in the Crawlspace,” published in Uncanny Magazine.
Thanks to everyone who voted for my poems. I remain gobsmacked by this honor.
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