Cover art - "The Dragon Reborn" by Robert Jordan

As you know and as I mentioned in a previous post Tor is releasing Robert Jordan’s “The Wheel of Time” novels in ebook format and for these editions they commissioned 14 artists to create new covers for the series. After the first two novels with covers illustrated by David Grove and Kekai Kotaki, Irene Gallo reveals on her blog the cover for the third novel, “The Dragon Reborn”, illustrated by the great artist Donato Giancola. Once again I wonder if someday I will see these wonderful covers on physical copies of the novels, because I would certainly like to have them. I am also eagerly looking forward to see the cover for the next novel, “The Shadow Rising”, which will be illustrated by Sam Weber.

Black Quill Awards 3rd edition nominees

Dark Scribe Magazine announced the nominees for its 3rd Annual Awards, Black Quill Awards. The Black Quill Awards honor the works of dark genre literature from both mainstream and small press publishers, each category awarding two winners with the Editor’s Choice and Reader’s Choice. Any registered reader can vote for his favorites from now until January 24th, 2010, when the voting is closing. The winners will be announced on February 2nd, 2010.

Dark genre novel of the year:

- "Audrey's Door" by Sarah Langan (Harper)
- "Castaways" by Brian Keene (Leisure Books)
- "Dark Places" by Gillian Flynn (Shaye Areheart Books)
- "Drood" by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown and Company)
- "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters (Riverhead Hardcover)
- "The Unseen" by Alexandra Sokoloff (St. Martin's Press)

Best small press chill:

- "As Fate Would Have It" by Michael Louis Calvillo (Bad Moon Books)
- "Frozen Blood" by Joel Sutherland (Lachesis Publishing)
- "Kelland" by Paul G. Bens Jr. (Casperian Books)
- "Last Days" by Brian Evenson (Underland Press)
- "The Harlequin and the Train" by Paul G. Tremblay (Necropolitan Press)
- "Valley of the Dead" by Kim Paffenroth (Cargo Cult Press)

Best dark genre fiction collection:

- "Martyrs & Monsters" by Robert Dunbar (DarkHart Press)
- "Monstrous Affections" by David Nickle (ChiZine Publications)
- "Pumpkin Teeth" by Tom Cardamone (Lethe Press)
- "The Haunted Heart and Other Tales" by Jameson Currier (Lethe Press)
- "Ugly Man" by Dennis Cooper (Harper Perennial)

Best dark genre anthology:

- "Dark Delicacies III: Haunted" edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb (Running Press)
- "He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson" edited by Christopher Conlon (Gauntlet Press)
- "Lovecraft Unbound" edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse Comics)
- "Midnight Walk" edited by Lisa Morton (Darkhouse Publishing)
- "Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe" edited by Ellen Datlow (Solaris)
- "Shivers V" edited by Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance Publications)

Best dark genre book of non-fiction:

- "Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues" edited by Loren Rhodes (Scribner)
- "Stephen King: The Non-Fiction" by Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks (Cemetery Dance Publications)
- "The Stephen King Illustrated Companion" by Bev Vincent (Fall River Press)
- "Writer's Workshop of Horror" edited by Michael Knost (Woodland Press)

Best dark scribble:

- "Flatrock Sunners" by Sarah Totten (Black Static #12 / Print)
- "Following Marla" by John R. Little (Horror World, February 2009 / Virtual)
- "Night Nurse" by Harry Shannon (Horror Drive-In, July 2009 / Virtual)
- "The Loyalty of Birds" by Rachel Sobel (Clarkesworld #30 / Virtual)
- "The Man in the Mirror" by Jameson Currier (Icarus #1 / Print)
- "The Mind of a Pig" by Ekaterina Sedia (Apex Magazine, March 2009 / Virtual)

Best cover art & design:

- "As Fate Would Have It" / Artwork: Peter Mahaichuk; Cover Design: César Puch (by Michael Louis Calvillo from Bad Moon Books)
- "The Estuary" / Artwork: Johann Bodin; Cover Design: Jacob Kier (by Derek Gunn from Permuted Press)
- "The Haunted Heart and Other Tales" / Artwork by: Richard Taddei; Cover Design: John Molloy (by Jameson Currier from Lethe Press)
- "The Pilo Family Circus" / Cover Design by: Heidi Whitcomb (by Will Elliot from Underland Press)

Best dark genre book trailer:

- "Audrey's Door" / Production by JT Petty (Author: Sarah Langan)

- "Far Dark Fields" / Production by John Palisano (Author: Gary Braunbeck)

- "Isis" / Production by Circle of Seven (Author: Douglas Clegg)

- "The Lifeless" / Production by Coscom Entertainment (Author: Lorne Dixon)

- "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" / Production by Seth Dalton and Ransom Riggs (Author: Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters)

Congratulations and good luck to all the nominees!

Cover & synopsis - "Dog Blood" by David Moody

The end of the year is almost knocking on the door and as always December is very much a month of looking in retrospective, but also a month of looking with hope into the future. I am not writing my top of the year book list already, but I am certainly working on the shopping list for the next year (although I think I’ve started working on it from the beginning of this year). Balancing the both sides I have to say though that one of this year’s titles that with certainty will be present in my end of the year top is David Moody’s “Hater” and this makes me look forward to his next novel in the Hater series, “Dog Blood”, which will be released by Gollancz next year in June, if I am not mistaken. But until then I have to wonder what David Moody has in store for his story looking over the cover and the synopsis of “Dog Blood”.

The world has suffered a catastrophe of unknown cause, dividing humankind into two: the Haters and the Unchanged. Each group believes the other to be the enemy; each group is fighting for survival. Only by working together can the enemy – whoever that enemy is – be defeated. There are no other choices. Danny McCoyne has managed to break free, and after days of indiscriminate fighting and killing, he is determined to make his way home, to recalim the only thing of any value to him in this strange new world: his daughter Ellis. Unlike his wife and son, Ellis is like him, and he knows, in his heart of hearts, that she is not dead. His dearest wish is for Ellis to be fighting for the world at his side – but Danny soon discovers his daughter is worth far more than just another fighting body. Others like him have discovered that children are absolutely vital to the cause. They are strong, small, fast, and they have no inhibitions. They are pure Haters…

Cover art - Raymond Swanland

This year the artist who caught my eye with every single piece he drew and left me in awe with every cover artwork he made is Raymond Swanland. I hope you don’t mind me featuring him once again. This time is the series of cover artwork Raymond Swanland made for the Richard Baker’s trilogy, “Blades of the Moonsea”, set in the Forgotten Realms world and published by Wizards of the Coast. I really like Raymond’s style, the way he inflicts a sense of motion into his artwork and how his works seem so powerful and lively. I wonder how such a work would look in a bigger size. From the three novels, “Corsair” was released this month in the paperback edition and “Avenger” will be released next year in a hardcover edition.

Road trip

Actually is more of a business trip, but I’ll be visiting a few cities in the next couple of days. Therefore my access to an Internet connection will be rather scarce and I will not be able to post anything this week. I’ll come back home this week-end and until we see each other once again next Monday I hope you’ll have a great week and an even greater week-end.

Another interesting Romanian anthology - "6 Years of Fiction"

Yet again Millennium Press comes with another very interesting Romanian anthology of speculative fiction, “Millennium Fantasy & Science Fiction: 6 Years of Fiction”, edited by the owner of the publishing house, Horia Nicola Ursu. This is another praiseworthy project of the Millennium Press with an anthology that promotes the Romanian authors of fantasy and science fiction and which benefits from another wonderful cover artwork (it is even impressive the work behind the cover artwork done at the Millennium Press considering the other covers seen on the Romanian market). I am waiting to read this title too.

Also since today is the editor’s birthday I would like to wish Horia Nicola Ursu a very Happy Birthday!

Michael Haulică – "Anotimpul de praf" (The season of dust)
Don Simon – "Priveşte înainte cu mînie" (Look forward with anger)
Liviu Radu – "Complexul lui Oedip" (The Oedip's complex)
Ladislau Daradici – "Şobolanul" (The Rat)
Ana-Veronica Mircea – "Rayadatis" (Rayadatis)
Andrei Valachi – "Călătorie prin natură moartă alternată cu peisaj românesc" (Journey through still life alternate with Romanian landscape)
Cotizo Draia – "Aşteptînd la Sargos" (Waiting at Sargos)
Ana-Maria Negrilă – "Împăratul de îngheţată" (The Emperor of icecream)
Val Antim – "Fenomen inexplicabil de violare" (Unexplained phenomenon of violation)
Radu Pavel Gheo – "Cîinii nu pot iubi" (Dogs can't love)
Mihail Gălăţanu – "Răzbunarea" (The revenge)
Voicu Bugariu – "Ucigaşul melcilor" (The snails' killer)
Ovidiu Bufnilă – "Apocalipsa după Buf" (The apocalypse after Buf)
Costi Gurgu – "În umbra legii" (In the shadow of the law)
Mirel Palada – "Pîndarul" (The watchman)
Florin Pîtea – "Veniţi afară!" (Come outside!)

Cover art - "L’Ange de la Nuit" (Night Angel) by Brent Weeks

Once again I go to the French market, because this month Bragelonne released the third novel in the Brent Weeks’ “Night Angel Trilogy”, “Beyond the Shadows” (Au-delà des ombres). Like the first two novels “Beyond the Shadows” benefits from a fantastic cover artwork, one of the best cover artworks I’ve seen this year and one that would certainly whisper sweet words of buying in my ear if I was seeing it in a book shop. The three covers of the series are made by the French artist Frédéric Perrin and are looking exceptionally well. I only wish to see more such amazing covers.