New and Forthcoming Books

Charlaine Harris – Dead Reckoning (A Sookie Stackhouse novel) Gollancz £7.99

Paul Kane & Marie O’Regan – The Mammoth Book of Body Horror (“25 stories of transformation, mutation and contagion”) Robinson £7.99

Gareth Roberts – Doctor Who: Shada (“The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams”) BBC Books £16.99

Sam Sykes – Black Halo (The Aeons Gate book two) Gollancz £9.99

Connie Willis – Blackout (Time travel and World War II) Gollancz £8.99

Westview Writers' Workshop

Weekend Residential Course

Are you a writer looking to take the next step towards publication? Or you need a helping hand with your story or novel. Our weekend workshop could be the answer. So join us at Westview Guesthouse, for a weekend of writing – stretching the imagination – just a few minutes from Hay-on-Wye, the town that is built on books.

The course is on 18-20 May with tutors Peter Coleborn from Alchemy Press and Jan Edwards from Oldhaven Books. The course is all inclusive with accommodation, meals and tuition over the weekend.

Please pre-submit up to 2000 words of fiction (a short story or the start of your novel; no poetry), should you wish, for one-to-one feedback on Friday evening.

Check out the website for full details. It's only a click away.

Doctor Who: Shada

Released next week: Doctor Who: Shada (BBC Books £16.99) is Douglas Adams’ Lost Adventure, completed /novelised by Gareth Roberts.

“The Doctor’s old friend and fellow Time Lord Professor Chronotis has retired to Cambridge University – where nobody will notice if he lives for centuries. But now he needs help from the Doctor, Romana and K-9. When he left Gallifrey he took with him a few little souvenirs – most of them harmless. But one of them is extremely dangerous.”

This novel is based on the scripts by Adams, but never made it to the screen. It features the fourth Doctor – played by Tom Baker.

Plague Town by Dana Fredsti

“In the small university town of Redwood Grove, people are succumbing to a lethal strain of flu. They are dying—but not for long. Ashley Parker and her boyfriend are attacked by these shambling, rotting creatures that crave human flesh. Their lives will never be the same again.

When she awakes Ashley discovers that she is a ‘wild card’ — immune to the virus — and is recruited by a shadowy paramilitary organization that offers her the chance to fight back. As the town falls to ever-growing numbers of the infected, Ashley and her team fight to contain the outbreak — but will they be enough?”

Plague Town (an Ashley Parker novel), by Dana Fredsti, is published by Titan in April.

New and forthcoming books

Paul Finch – Dark North (Malory’s Knights of Albion) Abaddon £7.99

Charlaine Harris & Toni L P Kelner, editors – Home Improvement: Undead Edition (Anthology including a new Sookie Stackhouse story.) Jo Fletcher Books £16.99

Karen Lord – Redemption in Indigo (“A retelling of a Senegalese legend.”) Jo Fletcher Books £8.99

James Lovegrove – Age of Aztec (Part of The Pantheon Series) Solaris £7.99

Steve Rasnic Tem – Deadfall Hotel (“The hotel where our nightmares go…”) Solaris £7.99

V M Zito – The Return Man (“Civilisation’s gone. He’s stayed to bury the Dead.”) Hodder & Stoughton £11.99

The Return Man by V M Zito

The Return Man by V M Zito is scheduled for publication at the end of March (Hodder & Stoughton £11.99). This story apparently began as a serial on the author’s website – and is now optioned for the movies.

“Before the outbreak, Henry Marco was a doctor, doing his utmost to save lives. Now his job is to end them… The Outbreak tore the USA in two. The East remains a safe haven. The West has become a ravaged wilderness. They call it The Evacuated States… Civilisation’s gone. He’s stayed to bury the Dead.”

Home Improvements: Undead Edition

Home Improvement: Undead Edition, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L P Kelner, sees publication later this month from Jo Fletcher Books at £16.99. The book features fourteen stories all original to this anthology, including a new Sookie Stackhouse tale. Authors include Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Melissa Mar, S J Rozan, Suzanne McLeod and Simon R Green.

“There’s nothing like home renovation for finding skeletons in the closet or otherworldly portals in the parlour… And when you add in a hefty dose of the supernatural, the normal, everyday challenges of home DIY become even more hazardous!”

Deadfall Hotel by Steve Rasnic Tem

Steve Rasnic Tem’s latest from Solaris is Deadfall Hotel (due in a month or so at £7.99).

“This is the hotel where our nightmares go… It’s where horrors come to be themselves, and the dead pause to rest between worlds. Richard Carter finds a new job, and a new life for him and his daughter, as manager of the mysterious Deadfall Hotel. Jacob Ascher, the caretaker, is there to show Richard the ropes, and to tell him the many rules and traditions, but from the beginning their new world haunts and transforms them.”

Queen Victoria's Book of Spells

Ellen Datlow has announced the ToC for Queen Victoria's Book of Spells edited by Datlow and Terri Windling, and due from Tor (probably later this year):

The Fairy Enterprise by Jeffrey Ford
From the Catalogue of the Pavilion of the Uncanny and Marvelous, Scheduled for Premiere at the Great Exhibition (Before the Fire) by Genevieve Valentine
The Memory Book by Maureen McHugh
Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells by Delia Sherman
La Reine D’Enfer by Kathe Koja
For the Briar Rose by Elizabeth Wein
The Governess by Elizabeth Bear
Smithfield by James P. Blaylock
The Unwanted Women of Surrey by Kaaron Warren
Charged by Leanna Renee Hieber
Mr. Splitfoot by Dale Bailey
Phosphorus by Veronica Schanoes
We Without Us Were Shadows by Catherynne M. Valente
The Vital Importance of the Superficial by Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer
The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown by Jane Yolen
A Few Twigs He Left Behind by Gregory Maguire
Their Monstrous Minds by Tanith Lee
Estella Saves the Village by Theodora Goss

Mammoth eBooks...

A number of Stephen Jones anthologies are available as eBooks -- including the Mammoth Books Of... published by Constable & Robinson. Their website is rather sketchy on details, including price information. It appears that some are free and at least one is priced at £6.12.