Douglas Smith's blog

I am thrilled to announce that my short fiction collection, Chimerascope, has been selected by the jury for the 2011 Sunburst Award short list. In making the selection, the Sunburst jury had this to say about Chimerascope:

"This collection contains a beautifully diverse selection of short tales that runs the full spectrum of the speculative genres. The tales are well-crafted, easily digestible; several of the stories are incredibly moving and stick with the reader long after. The wide range of stylistic approaches works well together."

From the press release:

SHORT-LISTS FOR TENTH ANNUAL SUNBURST AWARD ANNOUNCED TORONTO, ONTARIO (June 28, 2011) The jury for the tenth annual Sunburst Awards has announced the short-lists for 2011. The short-listed works in the adult category:

• Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven: (Penguin Group Canada, ISBN - 10:0670068098)
• Robert J. Sawyer, Wake: (Penguin Group Canada, ISBN - 10:0143056301)
• Douglas Smith, Chimerascope: (ChiZine Publications, ISBN - 10:0981297854)
• S.M. Stirling, A Taint in the Blood: (New American Library, ISBN - 10:0451463412)
• Hayden Trenholm, Stealing Home: (Bundoran Press, ISBN - 10:0978205251)

The short-listed works in the young adult category:

• Holly Bennett, Shapeshifter: (Orca Book Publishers, ISBN - 10:1554691583)
• Erin Bow, Plain Kate: (Scholastic, ISBN - 10:0545166640)
• Charles De Lint, The Painted Boy: (Penguin Young Reader Group, ISBN - 10:0670011916)
• Paul Glennon, Bookweirder: (Doubleday Canada, ISBN - 10:0385665482)
• Robert Paul Weston, Dust City: (Penguin Group Canada, ISBN - 10:0670063967)

The awards will be presented on September 14, 2011 at the Harbourfront Reading Series following brief readings from each of the short-listed works. The jurors for the 2011 award are: Kate Freiman, Mark Leslie, Christopher Roden, and Alison Sinclair.

The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is an annual award celebrating the excellence of writing in Canadian fantastic literature published during the previous calendar year. A jury first selects a short list of five works in two categories: Adult and Young Adult. A winner is then chosen from each category. Winners receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion which incorporates the "Sunburst" logo, designed by Marcel Gagné.

The Sunburst Award takes its name from the debut novel of the late Phyllis Gotlieb, one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian speculative fiction. For more information on the Sunburst Awards, please visit the Sunburst website.

You can view the full short list here with the jury's comments on each, along with all the spiffy covers and ordering information for each of the short listed works. It is an absolute honour to be selected to this short list and to appear with such an astoundingly talented group of writers, many of whom are friends, mentors, and personal writing gods of mine. It is also very special because the Sunburst commemorates Phyllis, an epic talent in our field and a wonderful, warm, funny, intelligent human being, and one that I wish that I could have known longer and better. We miss you, Phyllis.

I'll be appearing at the main branch of the Guelph Public Library on September 21 at 7pm, to repeat the workshop on marketing short fiction that I gave with On Spec's Diane Walton this past May out in Edmonton. This workshop will be the first in a new series that Kevin Nunn has added to the Sound of Writing reading series. Readings and workshops will alternate on a monthly basis going forward, if all works out as Kevin hopes. Here's a link to the public Facebook event page. I'm planning to cover the same topics as in the Edmonton workshop, but this time, unfortunately without the editor's perspective that Diane provided. Here's the outline:

• Did you know that you never actually "sell" a story?: Licensing rights to fiction – what you need to know
• So you've written a story. Now what?: How to market short fiction. How to choose markets. How an editor chooses a story.
• So you've sold a story. What happens next?: Contracts, editing requests, copy edits, getting it noticed, etc.
• Your story's been published. Is that all there is?: Selling reprints and other rights. Awards. Best of Anthologies. Collections.
• Ebooks and self-publishing: What this means for the short fiction writer.
• Question and Answer session
• Reading

Hope to see you there!

Friend and fellow writer Karen Abrahamson blogged recently on how indie authors who are going the ebook route (and print POD as well) need to consider developing a "brand" when they do cover design.

Karen was kind enough to use my new short story ebooks, with covers designed by Erik Mohr (a finalist for the Aurora Award this year as best artist), as one of her examples of how to do this. Check out her blog post here.

And you can check out all of my ebook covers at any of the major ebook retailer sites. I'll also be making these available for purchase directly via this website in the very near future. Stay tuned.

I recently sold reprints of two of my shapeshifter stories, "Out of the Light" and "Spirit Dance," to Best New Werewolf Tales, Vol. 1 and 2 (or maybe 1 and 3).

The sales are cool enough in themselves, and I (obviously) have a soft spot for were-beast stories, so just that news would have been good enough for me. But when I recorded the sales in my ever-so-big-and-complicated submission and sales tracking spreadsheet, I got a surprise.

Now, I track ever so much re my fiction subs and sales – subs, rejections, rejections before first sale for a story, total stories sold, sales by story, sales by country and by language, and more. And one of the stats I track is my total number of words sold and published.

When I entered these two sales, the cell in my spreadsheet for total words sold went all "######" on me, meaning that the result was too big for the current column size. So I expanded the column and what did I see? 1,001,866! Over one million words sold!!

Not bad considering that all of those words are from short fiction sales. So thanks to Best New Werewolf Tales for helping me hit a milestone. If you want to read these two stories, my bookstore links are shown above for both stories (available in all ereader formats). They're cheap and they're good. What more could you ask for?

My story "Scream Angel," which won the Aurora Award in 2004, has just been translated into Portuguese and reprinted in the premiere issue of the new Brazilian speculative fiction magazine, Hyperpulp, edited by Alexandre Mandarino. The cover looks gorgeous, and I'm proud to be part of the launch of a new genre magazine.

An early review described "Scream Angel" as "a true pearl of fantastic literature. Breath-taking." This is the thirteenth publication for "Scream Angel," and its tenth language. It remains one of my own favourite stories, and it's good to see that it still has legs (well, actually she has wings...).

I'll be a guest at Comic Con March 23-25, 2012 at the Direct Energy Centre at the CNE in Toronto. I'll post more details once I know them but at a minimum I'll be selling and signing Chimerascope, Impossibilia, the "By Her Hand" movie book, and ebook short stories. Hope to see you there!

I'll be signing at the Small Press Book Fair this Sunday at Hart House at University of Toronto, as part of ChiZine Publications presence at the Fair. Come down to sample the best of the small presses, and to meet the CZP staff and other ChiZine authors. The Fair runs from 11am to 5pm, and I'll be signing my collection, Chimerascope (which is on this year's Aurora Award ballot), from 2-3pm. Details on the Fair are here.

I did it! This past weekend, June 11-12, I was one of over 4,600 cyclists who rode in the 2-day major cycling event called The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer. This is the fourth year for the Ride, which this year raised a record $17.5 million for The Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, to support cancer research, treatment, and services. The Princess Margaret is Canada's leading comprehensive institution devoted to cancer research and care.

And with help from many of you who read this blog, I raised $4,185 myself. Thanks to all of you who supported me!

On Wednesday June 22, I'll be reading at the eBar in Guelph, along with friend and fellow writer, Marcy Italiano. The eBar is connected to the bookstore, The Bookshelf, at 41 Quebec Street.

I'll be reading from my collection, Chimerascope, currently a finalist for the 2011 Aurora Awards. The readings run from 8-9pm, and then it's mixing, mingling, and munching. There will be books on hand to buy, and Marcy and I will be signing copies. If you're in the area, please drop by.

(November 2012 update:  The PS Publishing ebook version has now been replaced by my new version, in both epub and mobi formats.

I'm very pleased to announce that my first collection, Impossibilia, published in 2008 by the award-winning and most excellent UK press, PS Publishing, is now available in ebook format in both .epub and .mobi (Kindle) formats. You can buy directly from PS Publishing or from Amazon at the following links:

• PS Publishing ordering link (.epub or .mobi formats)
• Amazon ordering link (Kindle / .mobi format)

Impossibilia was a finalist for the 2009 Aurora Awards for best long form work. The lead story, "A Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by Van Gogh," was also a finalist for the 2009 Aurora for best short form work. Another story in the collection, "Spirit Dance," won the Aurora in 2001 for best short story.

From the reviews:

"...stories that are so unusual and beautiful that no other name than Impossibilia could possibly describe this collection."

"Impossibilia is a treasure to be savoured, like gourmet chocolates and fine wine...beautifully written and wondrously imagined."

"The writing is superb. Douglas Smith is an artisan and his stories beautifully crafted. ... In my search for the perfect short story, the three in this volume certainly qualify."

"Each tale was rapture and ecstasy, magical and mysterious, perfect and implausible."

"Highly, highly recommended."

"...echoes of Ellison and Bradbury..."

"There is a certain exhilaration that comes from reading the book’s complex and powerfully emotional stories couched in that deft and smooth prose."

"A fun romp that delivered something different......exhilarating, enjoyable..."

"I loved them all from the first word to the last."

"A book that ably demonstrates what Smith is capable of as a writer..."

"Smith [lays] bare the psychological and emotional fragility that motivates his characters."

"A wonderful book...Each [story] is an example of how a master at the art tells a story."

"An amazing little collection."

"[Smith deserves] to be known to by a very wide audience indeed."

"I don’t know what else to say...except READ THIS BOOK!!!"

And of course, you can still order the signed and numbered, limited hardcover edition (cover at left).