penum braezine: October 2011

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Penumbra eMag and the Coffin Hop

Welcome to the Coffin Hop

Horror Author Blog Tour

October 24-31

Welcome to the Musa Publishing Penumbra eMag stop on the blog hop. We have thrilled to have you and hope you find something to your liking.

What is Penumbra?

November Issue on Sale 11/1

Penumbra is the speculative fiction eMag published monthly by Musa Publishing. At Penumbra, the Muses are clustered in the part of the psyche caught between the darkness and the light. Whether that results in hardcore science fiction or fantasy humor, psychological horror or a Steampunk poem with a twist is out of the Muses' control.

That control is in the hands of the author.

Penumbra publishes speculative fiction that always culminates in something unexpected - a flash of humor in the darkest tale or a fantasy piece that goes against the tropes - always something that hovers right on the periphery of the eclipse.

Octobers Issue of Penumbra is still on sale Click Here to get to the link. To learn more about Penumbra please friend us on Facebook.

Also Coming Soon from Musa Publishing

From our Urania Spec Fic Imprint

Day Dreamer by Devin Hodgins publication date 10-28-11

To dream every night about the next day--Would a dreamer ever wish to fall asleep?

Steve is a "Day Dreamer:" every night he dreams about the next day. He reveals this strange power to the only person he can trust-- his ex-girlfriend, Dawn. He begs her to help him find a way to stop dreaming of the future, for all he wants is to dream a dream beyond tomorrow.

When Josie Comes Home by A.E. Stanton publication date 10/28/11

The future’s a lot like the past -- the West’s still hard on women and horses.
The future’s a wonderful place to be if you were considered worthy -- until a huge solar flare slagged the world computers. Now, over two hundred years later, the unworthies are all that’s left of humanity, and they’ve reverted back to the old, old ways.

Josie escapes from the forced sexual slavery of Horsetown, vowing to return with help to save her sisters. Ten years later, she’s not home -- but her youngest sister, Sadie, insists Josie will return, with her Hero along to help save the day.

The Gambler’s in Horsetown for reasons all his own. Who is he? What’s he really here for? And what will happen if he’s in town When Josie Comes Home?

Deacon's Ark by A.E. Stanton publication date 11-18-11

The Green Goddess may be carrying the only normal people and animals left in the world -- good thing Josie and her Hero are on board.
Josie and Deacon have left Horsetown and are back in search of The City. Joined by Josie’s youngest sister, Sadie, they decide to travel on the riverboat The Green Goddess to save travel time.

But a plague from the Northern Wastes has been loosed on the river’s port towns. Instead of a relaxing cruise, Josie and Deacon have to protect all the people and animals on board -- because if they can’t stop the spread of the plague, they’ll be the only normal ones left in the world.

From our Thalia Paranormal/Horror Imprint

The Disciple by Jemma Chase publication date 11/04/11

*written by Gini Koch as Jemma Chase*

In the future vampires overrun the Earth, so a small cadre of vampire slayers are sent back to the pivotal moment when the vampire clans were contained to the European continent in hopes of destroying them in the past to save the future.
In the mid-24th century the vampire threat is so terrible that humanity is on the run and their numbers are dwindling. The only ones willing and able to fight the vampire plague are those in The Order.

In addition to creating specialized vampire-killing weapons, The Order has protected all the world’s leading scientists. They’re rewarded with the ultimate breakthrough: time travel. But there’s a catch -- if you return to your present time, your mind doesn’t come home with you.

Now a select team will be sent back to the Middle Ages, to stop the vampire threat before it can spread. They’re the best vampire slayers of their day and age, but once they go a thousand years into the past they’re strangers in a strange old land. Their perfect weapons aren’t working right, their numbers are too small, and the vampires seem to know who they are. It will take the ultimate leap of faith for the team to have a chance to complete their mission -- and survive.

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Monday, 17 October 2011

Penumbra eMAG What is Spec-Fic

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BLOG HOP TOUR (OCT 17-24)

Believe it or not, the question I most often get from spec fic writers is, “What exactly is spec fic?” Someone sends me a manuscript, I accept it, and then a few weeks later they write me and say, in a cyber-whisper, “By the way, I was just wondering…” or “You know, a friend at work asked me the other day …” or “I’m really embarrassed to even ask this question …”

Don’t be embarrassed. Most of us grew up thinking in terms of two related genres—science-fiction and fantasy. I say related, but maybe what I mean is “inexplicably in the same section of the bookstore.” Fantasy and sci-fi tended to get lumped together, even though they were very different. Orson Scott Card once wrote that science fiction has rivets and fantasy has trees. That’s a fun over-simplification, and there’s some truth to it. Really though, most people who read traditional sci-fi fans steer clear of traditional fantasy, and vice versa. The thing that bound the two genres together—at least in the minds of booksellers—was that both were fantastical.
The question in recent years has become, what do you do with books about fantastical subjects that don’t qualify as either sci-fi or as fantasy? For example, there was a disastrous attempt several decades ago to market George Orwell’s 1984 as science fiction. It might have some science fiction elements, but it’s definitely not the sort of thing most traditional sci-fi fans recognize as sci-fi. It is dystopian fiction, similar to Orwell’s other masterpiece Animal Farm, and Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World.

And what about the works of Charles Williams? Difficult to classify. Tarot cards that come to life; Platonic forms that roam the earth; Hell as a plane of existence that co-exists alongside our own. Sometimes you find Williams in the fantasy section, but that’s too easy. His books are not genre fiction; they are meaty and philosophical and full of deep theological themes.

So, what do we do with all these other books that don’t fit traditional definitions of fantasy (wizards, elves, and dragons) or science fiction (robots, machines, and space ships)? The solution has been an umbrella term: speculative fiction, or spec fic for short. Spec fic encompasses fantasy and sci-fi, but it also includes horror, dystopian and utopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic, alternate histories, supernatural tales, even superhero fiction … basically, anything that speculates on the apparently improbable or seemingly impossible.

The term “spec fic” isn’t an attempt to rename the old fantasy/sci-fi section. It is, rather, a way to gather all the loose clusters of related genres under one convenient term. And you’ll find all of the above-named genres published at Musa under the Urania imprint (with the exception of horror, which is handled by Thalia, our paranormal line).

So don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know what spec fic is. Writers still tend to think of themselves as working in a particular genre, and those genres still hold. It’s simply a more expansive, more inclusive term.

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Sunday, 9 October 2011

Getting to Know Larry Ivkovich, author of The Turin Effect

Hello Everyone. My name is Larry Ivkovich and I write science fiction, fantasy and horror. My dark fantasy, "The Turin Effect," is the featured story in the debut issue of Penumbra, which is a great thrill in itself. In addition, this is my first pro-rate sale, and I want to thank Celina and the staff of Penumbra for taking a chance on my work. I still haven't descended from Cloud 9 yet!

I've published several short stories in various online and print markets and my debut novel, THE SIXTH PERCEPT, is being published this month by IFWG Publishing. It's an urban fantasy with science fiction and horror elements, part of it taking place in contemporary Pittsburgh and part in ancient Japan.

Writing has always been like an "alternate state" to me. It's like when you zone out while driving and wonder how you ended up where you did. Sometimes I'll read what I've just written and can't believe it came from me. I have no set rules for writing - for the most part, I just sit down with a germ of an idea and start and see where it takes me. It's a passion I hope to continue for a long time to come and to share with anyone who wants to tag along for the ride.

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Tangrams And Storytelling by Daniel Ausema

I suspect it's no surprise to those who've read "The Square That Hides a Thousand Stories" that the story was inspired, in part, by tangram puzzles. Sometimes you'll see tangrams referred to as a storytelling device, and one fanciful history of the puzzle from a hundred years ago claimed (with no evidence) that the puzzle originated over 4000 years ago as a gift from the god Tan. Neither claim is reflective of the puzzle's actual history. Most reports I can find suggest that the puzzle was invented--as a puzzle, not a storytelling device--in China in the 18th century. It's possible that it predates those first references by some years, and it certainly has antecedents in a variety of sources in the preceding centuries, but it is vanishingly unlikely that it dates back thousands of years (and there is no evidence of the supposed god Tan).

Yet the idea of such an ancient origin entertained me, and the tangram is used today in school classrooms as a storytelling device as well as a mathematical manipulative. So I started with the idea that the puzzle (or something similar to it) truly was that old and that its original purpose was for telling stories. And if that old...then likely it would have spread to many other places in antiquity as well, and inspired local legends wherever it ended up. So that is how this story came about.

Editor's note--Daniel Ausema's story The Square That Hides A Thousand Stories, is in Penumbra's inaugural issue, available now at www.musapublishing.com.