Page 18 of posts by: montsamu

Friday Quick Updates: DeepSouthCon in Bristol this weekend, new event listings (Maker Faire, Serenity, John Scalzi) and more

Posted on 2014-05-17 at 00:56 by montsamu

Friday, May 16, 2014: DeepSouthCon opened today and continues all weekend at new convention ConTrails in Bristol, Virginia ("the bit that sticks out over Tennessee") with guest of honor Gordon Van Gelder, the legendary editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and artist guest of honor Charles Vess. Meanwhile, as always, I missed quite a few things in the May newsletter, which I've updated with "NEW-NEW" event listings including Maker Faire NC (June 7), the annual "Can't Stop the Serenity

Posted in Friday Quick Updates

The Hardest Part: Jen McConnel

Posted on 2014-05-14 at 14:19 by montsamu

Durham author Jen McConnel is the author of the new adult novel The Secret of Isobel Key (out from Bloomsbury Spark and Audible for Bloomsbury) and most recently of Daughter of Chaos, a contemporary Durham-set young adult novel of witches and choices just released from Raleigh-based Month9Books [IndieBound | Kobo| Kindle]. She's also published in non-fiction, as we briefly touched on in a Carolina Book Beat interview last month, and has a few more novels already well on the way. For "The Hardest Part", the

Posted in The Hardest Part | Tagged jen mcconnel

May newsletter: Mary Robinette Kowal tonight (Monday), new books from David Drake and Monica Byrne, ConCarolinas with George R.R. Martin, and more

Posted on 2014-05-12 at 13:43 by montsamu

Vol 4. No 5. May 12, 2014: Whew! In a month which kicked off with readings from Alena Graedon, Jay Posey, and Christopher Moore, Free Comic Book Day festivities and a "May the Fourth Be With You" burlesque, and when there's a reading TONIGHT from Mary Robinette Kowal, I'm quite a bit late on the May newsletter. Better late than never?

Let's start with the new books. The first week of April brought a crop already covered in the April newsletter, and the rest of the month saw two more local releases: Mistres

Posted in newsletter | Tagged concarolinas, david drake, george rr martin, mary robinette kowal, monica byrne

Coming to Town: Mary Robinette Kowal for Valour and Vanity at Quail Ridge Books

Posted on 2014-05-10 at 17:29 by montsamu

Raleigh native Mary Robinette Kowal has not been a stranger: she launched her debut novel (and with it her Glamourist Histories series), Shades of Milk and Honey in August 2010 at NASFIC in Raleigh; a year ago today she returned for book 3, Without a Summer; in January this year she was co-guest-of-honor at illogiCon; and! on Monday (May 12) at 7:30 pm, she's back again, this time to close her tour for book 4, Valour and Vanity, at Quail Ridge Books. Her events are always fantastic: Regency attire, a

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged mary robinette kowal, quail ridge books

Paul Kincaid's From the Other Side, April 2014: Eastercon, awards news, Lagoon, Claire North, The Brick Moon, and Call and Response

Posted on 2014-04-29 at 20:06 by montsamu

From the Other Side, April 2014

By Paul Kincaid

Easter in Britain is traditionally the time for the gathering of the clans, otherwise known as Eastercon. This year it was held in Glasgow, and despite the fact that the Worldcon is in the UK this year, generally resulting in a smaller than usual Eastercon, it was by all accounts both well attended and very successful.

Of course, this year it was all about awards. For a start, there was the ‘Not the Clarke Award’ panel, by now a fixture at Eastercons. If we

Posted in From the Other Side | Tagged claire north, eastercon, lagoon, paul kincaid, the brick moon, wonderbook

Release Day: Morningside Fall by Jay Posey (Legends of the Duskwalker, Book Two)

Posted on 2014-04-29 at 14:21 by montsamu

Last summer, Durham narrative designer, author, and screenwriter Jay Posey's debut novel Three was published by Angry Robot Books, introducing the titular Three: a lone gunman in a post-apocalyptic wasteland of isolated towns walled against the Weir, a horrifying nocturnal menace of hunting creatures. Three is "The Duskwalker", a man who can travel at night unseen by the Weir and who (against his better judgement) finds himself the guardian of a woman and her gifted young son, Wren, on the run from a more

Posted in local-author-release-day | Tagged jay posey, legends of the duskwalker, morningside fall

Carolina Book Beat preview: Gray Rinehart, Lex Wilson, and Jen McConnel

Posted on 2014-04-28 at 12:18 by montsamu

Monday, April 28, 2014: Today's speculative fiction focus on Carolina Book Beat (WCOM 103.5 FM and online, 10 AM Eastern Time) is a special 2-hour episode! I'm very excited about this one as we really have a fantastic show planned.

Gray Rinehart is an editor, author, and musician -- and if everything goes as planned he'll be performing live in the studio from his new album Truth and Lies and Make-Believe. We'll also talk about some of his short stories (such as "Therapeutic Mathematics and the Physics of

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged carolina book beat, gray rinehart, jen mcconnel, lex wilson

Coming to Town: Alena Graedon for The Word Exchange at The Regulator Bookshop, Flyleaf Books, and McIntyre's Books

Posted on 2014-04-27 at 14:04 by montsamu

Durham native Alena Graedon's debut novel The Word Exchange was released in early April, and she's bringing the book "home" from Brooklyn for three events this week in the Triangle area: Tuesday April 29 at The Regulator Bookshop (7 pm), Thursday May 1 at Flyleaf Books (7 pm), and Saturday May 3 at McIntyre's Books (11 am). Called "a dystopian novel for the digital age", The Word Exchange offers an inventive, suspenseful, and decidedly original vision of the dangers of technology and of the enduring power

Posted in Coming to Town | Tagged alena graedon, flyleaf books, mcintyres books, the regulator bookshop, the word exchange

Friday Quick Updates: Spirits to Enforce, The Festival of Legends, Alena Graedon, Jen McConnel, and Clay and Susan Griffith

Posted on 2014-04-25 at 14:59 by montsamu

Friday, April 25, 2014: There's a packed weekend and week ahead for the Triangle area, with plays, festivals and jousting, book events, new books, and more. While quite a few locals are heading up to RavenCon in Richmond, Virginia this weekend, quite a few more will be at Chapel Hill's Storybook Farm on Saturday and Sunday for the third annual Festival of Legends, featuring jousting and other fighting demonstrations, live music and other entertainment, Paperhand Puppet Intervention, and more. (Including

Posted in Friday Quick Updates | Tagged alena graedon, festival of legends, jen mcconnel, ravencon

2014 East Coast Game Conference, Day 1

Posted on 2014-04-23 at 20:04 by montsamu

April 23, 2014, Durham, NC: Thanks to a generous last-minute press pass, I had a chance to stop by day one of ECGC - the East Coast Game Conference - this morning at the Raleigh Convention Center. I've been to a half-dozen? conventions of various kinds (science fiction, health and fitness, anime, etc.) at this venue and each has taken advantage of the space in different ways. Here, the ECGC is well-laid-out, with branding stickers on the (many!) glass-surfaced entrances into the convention space and plenty

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anna maynard, ecgc, epic games, raleigh convention center, red storm, richard dansky, wayne godwin, will hindmarch