Odds and Ends: An Update

A writer I know describes posting on a blog as "speaking into a void," but in the hope that someone out there might be listening, here's an update. I finished a new story of some 8,000 words, "His Two Wars," and it's been paid for and scheduled for an anthology that hasn't yet been published. I also wrote an introduction to a new collection of short fiction by my friend and fellow writer, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. If you're unfamiliar with Quinn's writing, here's what Peter Straub has to say in praise of her work: "Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is one of our finest writers and craftspersons, incapable of a sloppy sentence, a slack paragraph, or a fuzzy thought." 

And my novelette "Dream of Venus" (2000) is apparently going to be translated into Estonian, my first publication in that language. More about these bits of news when I have more details. In the meantime, I'm writing what may turn out to be a piece of short fiction, although I've had short stories grow into novels in the past.

As for news that isn't so vague, Open Road Media, which has almost all of my fiction available as e-books, has launched an "author follow" feature, so if you are interested in following me there, go to this page and click on "Follow" for news from them about my books and writing. All three volumes of my Seed Trilogy are still available from Tor.

A Foreign Sale

I have the contract and an advance check for a new Spanish edition of my historical novel Ruler of the Sky, first published in Spain in 1994 (as Gengis Kan: El soberano del cielo). Ediciones Pàmies in Madrid is the new publisher.

Update on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 12:18PM by Pamela Sargent

And this new Spanish edition of Ruler of the Sky is now out!

A New Paperback Edition

My 2015 novel Season of the Cats is now out in a trade paperback edition from Wildside Press and available from Amazon, independent bookstores, and from the publisher here. 

James Morrow had this to say about the novel: “Pamela Sargent has given us a delectable confection, wrought from an irresistible recipe: a dash of Fritz Leiber, a touch of Neil Gaiman, a dollop of Roald Dahl—plus a full measure of her characteristic adroit plotting and compelling prose. At once whimsical and sardonic, Season of the Cats will enchant all fans of off-beat fantasy.”

And Pat Cadigan, twice winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, commented: “This is a sneaky book. You think you’re reading it; it’s actually stalking you. This is a story that may seem familiar at first but that’s only how it pulls you in. Trust me, you’re about to be unsettled in ways you never imagined.”

The Watchstar Trilogy

The three novels in my Watchstar trilogy, first published during the 1980s, will be available as a set of ebooks at a bargain price at all U.S. retailers on August 29, 2018. But anyone who would like to read them sooner can get them at a good price now from my ebooks publisher, Open Road Media. The page for that trilogy is here, and I'll mention that my Venus trilogy is also now available as a set from Open Road. (And a good thing, too, as the Venus novels are very long and maybe more easily perused on an ereader.) 

A Recent Study of Terraforming in Science Fiction

This review, published in Strange Horizons, of a recent book about terraforming in science fiction mentions a number of works on this theme, including my Venus novels. That book, which sounds like a fascinating and detailed study of the subject (although probably too expensive for anyone besides wealthy readers and libraries to purchase), is Terraforming: Ecopolitical Transformations and Environmentalism in Science Fiction and the author is Chris Pak. 

Update on Saturday, June 2, 2018 at 04:23PM by Pamela Sargent

Chris Pak has informed me that his study of terraforming is now available as an open-access PDF at https://oapen.org/download?type=document&docid=608319. I've just downloaded a copy for myself and look forward to reading it.