young adult

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Lit Bits: A. E. Rought Gets Two-Book Deal w/ Strange Chemistry

From Strange Chemistry: Strange Chemistry, the YA imprint of Angry Robot Books, is delighted to announce the signing of another wonderful author. A. E. Rought has been signed to Strange Chemistry in a two book deal with worldwide English rights negotiated between Amanda Rutter and Gina Panettieri, of the Talcott Notch Literary Agency. The first of these two books will be called Broken and will be published by Strange Chemistry in early 2013. About Broken Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all. A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry’s boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog. When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she’s intrigued despite herself. He’s an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely… familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel’s. The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there’s something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks’ estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows. About A. E. Rought Self-proclaimed nerd A.E. Rought spent most of her early life in libraries and bookstores. It’s no surprise that she turned to writing shortly after creative arts college. She has novels of varying genres, and different pennames, published since 2006. You can visit her at http://www.aerought.com and http://aerought.blogspot.com and follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AERought [@AERought]. Rought says: “When my agent told me Strange Chemistry was interested, I think I squealed out loud. Angry Robot has an amazing reputation, and to be welcomed into their YA imprint? Bliss. Nerdvana. I’m absolutely thrilled to be with Strange Chemistry and working with Amanda.” Amanda Rutter says: “As soon as I received the email from Gina detailing the premise of Broken, I knew that I had to read this book. I was thrilled to discover that the writing was just as good as promised and I have no doubt Broken will prove to be a massive hit!” That’s pretty awesome news, no?  Congrats to A. E. Rought!

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

Episode 90 — Torture Cinema Meets New Moon (Twilight)

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow90seasonThree–TortureCinemaMeetsNewMoon/Sandf–Episode90–TortureCinemaMeetsNewMoon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSYou bastards forced us to watch this piece of crap.  As punishment, we’ve provided exactly 58 minutes and … seconds of pure comedic for your aural pleasure. But that’s not enough.  Oh no.  Reviewing New Moon, which may be the only film to cause severe back-knee bleeding, has given Shaun a wicked idea.  We’ll expose that once we’re past the vacation time… We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 90 — Download (MP3) Intro and Torture Cinema Meets New Moon (0:00 – 58-28) New Moon (IMDB) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

Episode 89 — How to Placate Scifi and Fantasy Authors (Plus Some Silly) w/ Jason Sanford

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow89seasonThree–HowToPlacateScifiAnd/Sandf–Episode89–HowToPlacateScifiAndFantasyAuthorsplusSomeSilly.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSJason Sanford returns for a free-form discussion on all kinds of random nonsense.  We cover the hype surrounding J. K. Rowling’s new adult novel, the abuse of Seanan McGuire by readers (and the stupid things publishers do that hurt authors), the power of science fiction, plus a few silly related topics (including an embarrassing moment for Duke, who lives in an alternate universe of plurals). We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 89 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 50:22) J. K. Rowling to Publish First Adult Novel (Because it’s not like she could sell another 50 Harry Potter sequels…) Don’t Blame the Writer When It’s Not the Writer’s Fault (or, Why You Should Read Before Being a Douche) Science Fiction:  A Mirror From the Future (Cognitively estranging your toaster since the 20s!) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

Episode 87 — Genre Rambles w/ Liz Bourke

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow87seasonThree–GenreRamblesWLizBourke/Sandf–Episode87–GenreRamblesWLizBourke.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSWho’s up for another hard-hitting discussion episode?  You are?  Great! Liz Bourke joins us for episode 87 to talk about LGBT discrimination in publishing, SF/F books for the ladyfolk (whatever that means), history from the classical period (with a little medieval history for good measure), and SF/F in the global sphere (and the women on the margins therein).  Our conversation wanders to all kinds of interesting side topics — in true discussion fashion.   We had a blast, and we hope you will too! Listen away! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 87 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 1:17:50) RWA Chapter Contest Bans Same-sex Novel Entries (or, How to Start a Shitstorm on the Internet) Flavorwire’s list of 10 Great Science Fiction Books for Girls (Because the best way to a girl’s heart is with a book involving children getting kicked in the junk…) (Global) Women in Science Fiction Roundtable (World SF Blog) (I have nothing funny to say about this…) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

Episode 82 (Season Three) — Torture Cinema Meets Twilight

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow2seasonThree–TortureCinemaMeetsTwilight/Sandf–Episode2–TortureCinemaMeetsTwilight.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSOur second episode of the third season is finally here.  I say that knowing it’s only been a few days since the last episode went live.  But we’re catching up on some unfinished business, so you’ll have to give us a break. Episode 82 is our much anticipated Torture Cinema feature, in which we review-while-intoxicated the wonderfully terrible “romance” flick known to lesser beings as Twilight (we like to call it “1,000 Ways to Destroy Female Self-Esteem”). We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 82 — Download (MP3) Intro and Torture Cinema Meets Twilight (0:00 – 28:17) Twilight (IMDB) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

The 2011 Google Reading List

Since August of 2011, we’ve been running a special feature on Google+ called “What Are You Reading?”  All sorts of people have left their responses, which I’ve taken and entered into a Google Form for everyone to see. Here are some of the relevant statistics: 292 entries since August, not including double entries for individuals who were still reading the same book for several weeks (including myself) George R. R. Martin was the most popular author with 7 entries overall; R. A. Salvatore was a close second with 6 Runner-ups were Anthony Brandt, Jim Butcher, C. J. Cherryh, Larry Correia, Thomas Friedman, Neil Gaiman, Laura Ann Gilman, Mira Grant, Anne McCaffrey, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, and Connie Willis, each of which had 3 entries each The most popular books were That Used to Be Us by Thomas Friedman and The Man Who Ate His Boots:  The Tragic History of the Search for the Northeast Passage by Anthony Brandt with 3 entries each The most popular series was A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin 98 books written by women were mentioned; that’s 33.56% of the entries (to be honest, I expected a worse percentage than this) And there you have it.  I was going to put up a gallery of the cover images, but that would take so damned long I’m not going to bother.  If anyone else wants to take up that project, let me know. Thanks to everyone who told us what you were reading!  Here’s to another year of the same thing! Now a question for everyone: How as 2011 as a reading year?  Good?  Bad?  Why?  Leave a comment!

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