Many of you will remember Sam Jordison who supplied some fine reviews of mainstream novels that would appeal to SF&F fans for Salon Futura. Well Sam and a couple of his friends have set up a small publishing house called Galley Beggar Press. The books they publish will probably be right on the edge of what can be classed as fantastical, but like the books he reviewed for me they will definitely be of interest. Their first book, The White Goddess: An Encounter by Simon Gough is a fictionalised memoir by a man who knew Robert Graves very well. The blurb makes it sound a little like John Fowles’ The Magus to me, though with Graves involved the magic will be very different. Sam tells me that their next book will be a collection of short stories featuring Elvis doing things that the real Elvis certainly did not do. It all sounds very interesting.

It is Presidential election time in the USA, and once again the debate is dominated by religion. But this is the near future, and the candidates have good reason to trumpet their belief in God.

The LINK–an interactive, implanted computer network–transformed society. Then came the angels–cybernetic manifestations that claimed to be the working of God’s will. And if angels exist, surely God does too. The only question is, which candidate does He favor?

Deidre McMannus used to work for the NYPD. Then her partner assassinated the Pope. Deirdre has been kicked out of the force and had her LINK implant removed. An Irish catholic with a brother who is a priest, she has never believed in the angels. All that will change when a handsome young police officer named Michael Angelucci appears at her door and gives Deidre the chance to right the wrongs that have been done to her–and to the entire world….

The first volume of Lyda Morehouse’s acclaimed debut series, AngeLINK, will shortly be available in ebook form for the first time. Huge thanks to Lyda for letting me publish it, and to Bruce Jensen for letting us have updated versions of the original artwork for the series.

On it’s first release in 2001 the book won Best Original Paperback P.I. novel at the Shamus Awards given by the Private Eye Writers of America to honor excellent work in the Private Eye genre.

See the Wizard’s Tower Press website for some of the stellar reviews that the book got first time around.

Last week I posted briefly welcoming Dog Horn Publishing to the bookstore. I’m now delighted to report that I have added 15 new books to the store, and mobi editions of all of the books. Many of the books are horror and dark fantasy anthologies or collections, so if you like that sort of thing you’ll be very pleased. Here are a few others that caught my eye.

Rhys Hughes has been on my radar back since Emerald City days. Mister Gum comes with recommendations from Ellen Datlow and Jeff Vandermeer. There’s not much I can add to that, except to say that it pokes fun at the pretensions of the British, which is always worth doing.

Mechagnosis is a novel by Scottish writer, Douglas Thompson. I’m not familiar with his work, but his bio comes with a whole string of recommendations so clearly I need to check him out.

And finally, an anthology that bills itself as being from “the Dog Horn Prize for Literature anthology of cutting edge writing”. That should be recommendation enough, but how can you resist a book called Bite Me, Robot Boy?

All Dog Horn titles are £2.99, so why not give some a try.

From Australia comes the happy news that Kaaron Warren’s short collection, Through Splintered Walls, has won an award from the Canberra Critics’ Circle. Well done Kaaron. Critics are hard people to please (as I should know).

At the beginning of the week I promised you a new publisher in the bookstore. That’s moved a little slower than I’d expected, and I’m still waiting for mobi files for the books, but I have put one on sale just to give you a taste of what is coming.

Dog Horn Publishing bills itself as, “dedicated to publishing the best in cutting edge literature”. Being smart people, they know that means doing a lot of SF&F fiction. They’ve only done paper up until now, but they are branching out into ebooks and I have 18 titles waiting to upload. Some of the books look very interesting indeed. For example, Women Writing the Weird sounds right up my street. Most of the contributors are unfamiliar to me, but it does contain Aliette de Bodard and Eugie Foster. It also has a fabulous cover.

We don’t do Black Friday in the UK. It is All Black Saturday in Wales tomorrow, but that’s something very different, and much less violent than US shopping malls are today. However, the bookstore does stock books from US publishers, and for them today is day for putting things on sale. I’m therefore delighted to announce that Lethe Press have all of the back issues of Icarus magazine available at half price. You can find them here. If gay and lesbian themed SF&F is your sort of thing, this is just the offer you need.

Talking of Lethe, I uploaded a new book from them today. Out of the Ashes is the sequel to A Strong and Sudden Thaw by R.W Day. If you have the first book, you’ll want the second.

Here’s another book freshly added to the bookstore. Hellebore & Rue is an anthology of stories about lesbians with magical powers. The paper book has been out for some time, and has garnered favorable reviews. See this one from Lambda Literary, for example.

Judging from my in box, it is going to be a busy week in the bookstore. Please excuse the flurry of posts. Here we go with new books from Prime.

Over the weekend I got to upload a book by Elizabeth Bear. Can you see me bouncing? I have one of Bear’s books in my store. Shoggoths in Bloom is a short story collection that includes the Hugo-winning novelette from which the book takes its title. I remember that one well as Bear and I ended up on stage together in Montréal. The book also includes the short story, “Tideline”, which won both the Hugo and the Sturgeon. Bear wasn’t in Denver, and memorably didn’t believe me when I put the result up on the live coverage. So it is a book with two cracking stories to start it off. It also has a fabulous cover. Click here for a bigger version. And Finnish friends, don’t forget that Bear will be visiting your country for Finncon in 2014, so you need to get to know her work.

There is something of a festive feel to the rest of Prime’s recent output. Season of Wonder is the most nakedly Yuletide-influenced book, being a themed anthology of wintery tales put together by Paula Guran. There is a stellar line-up of contributors. See here for the full list.

If you are thinking of getting dressed up for parties over the holidays, Bloody Fabulous is the book for you. This anthology by Ekaterina Sedia features stories about clothing and fashion accessories. The line-up includes the utterly wonderful Hugo- and Nebula- winning “The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link. Full details here.

Finally, if snow if what you want, how about a trip to Russia? Moscow but Dreaming is a short fiction collection from Ekaterina Sedia. Kathy’s books sell very well in the book store, so I have high hopes for this one too.

There will be more through the week with new books from Lethe Press, Twelfth Planet Press, Book View Café and an exciting new publisher.

Getting short fiction reviewed is a pretty tough ask, but Colinthology is a charity project, so hopefully there are some people out there who would be prepared to take a look at it. It is only available in ebook form at the moment, but if you are interested please drop me a note (contact details here).

Adele from Fox Spirit has sent me a new book for the bookstore. It is Weird Noir, an anthology of noir detective stories, with tentacles. Not to mention all sorts of other fantastical things that go bump in the night and might commit the odd crime along the way. I don’t recognize any of the names on the table of contents, but it sounds like a really fun concept and a lot of you bought Tales of the Nun & Dragon so I’m expecting this one to sell quite well too.

We have a new book, and a new publisher, in the bookstore today. Outlaw Bodies is the first book from Djibril al-Ayad’s Future Fire imprint. It is an anthology, edited by Lori Selke and Djibril himself, and the theme is human modification. There’s been a lot of talk of late about science fiction not being relevant to current concerns, and I can’t think of anything much more relevant than this. Whether it be live-saving modifications like Neil Clarke’s defibrilator, enabling modification such as Oscar Pistorius’s running blades or Zac Vawter with his mind-controlled legs, identity-related modification such as gender surgery, or just the current popularity of tattoos, hair dye, colored contact lenses and tanning pills, body modification is where it is at. Indeed, this issue is so current that the Royal Society has just issued a report on human enhancement and its likely impact on the world of work. So I’m very much looking forward to seeing what the authors Lori & Djibril have selected have had to say on this issue.