I've been gone forever--last post was the Dan Brown book review. Not that I haven't thought of a ton of things to say, but our publishing schedule this year is twice the normal, what with new editions of authors' backlist titles and trying to make up for the unintentionally abbreviated schedules the last three or four years.

On top of that, I chaired this year's ArmadilloCon here in Austin, which was fun but a major time-suck in August. So now, like the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass, I'm running twice as fast just to stay in place.


I'm really excited about our most recent new books. First was the English translation of Dutch author M.W. Maryson's award-winning Unmagician trilogy, The Towers of Romander. Although I'm as fond of fast-paced fantasy as anyone, sometimes it's nice to kick back and enjoy a book where things travel at a more leisurely pace, a welcome characteristic of much European speculative fiction.

In this case, it's by sea on a watery world where an ancient evil is rising to devour everything. Literally. And the only one who can apparently stop it is a boy with no magical talents at all. You can sample it here.



Then, for something completely different, came Toto's Tale, which is just what you'd expect from the title--The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the dog's point of view. This delightful take on the classic story was co-written by historical romance author Kate Dolan, as K. D. Hays, and her then-11-year-old daughter Meg Weidman. The hugely talented April Martinez did the cover and illustrations, and noted SF writer Catherine Asaro contributed an introduction. We're planning some fun with this one. Check it out.

And just out this week, a strange little debut novel by Alex O'Meara, Bad Day for the Home Team, which explores the question What makes an average guy murder 40 strangers then kill himself? Deeply ironic, and just a bit creepy, O'Meara's dead mass murderer follows a police detective, an ambitious reporter and his own brother, trying to find out himself why he did what he did. The answer he discovers may say more about us than it does about him. Sample Bad Day for the Home Team.