Nominate Ricepaper Speculative Fiction Issue 19.3 for an Aurora Award for Best Related Work - English

Calling all Canadians citizens at home and abroad and permanent residents of Canada: our national science fiction awards, the Aurora Awards, are now open for nominations. 

Ricepaper magazine's Speculative Fiction Issue 19.3, edited by Derwin Mak and JF Garrard, is eligible to be nominated for an Aurora Award for Best Related Work - English. Ricepaper is Canada's Asian Canadian literary magazine, and issue 19.3 was its first issue devoted to fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

You can purchase copies of Ricepaper's Speculative Fiction issue here: http://ricepapermagazine.ca/19-3-issue/

To learn more about the Aurora Awards and to nominate stories and individuals, visit:

 http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) charges an annual $10 membership fee, so both new and returning members will be asked to pay $10 by Paypal. Renewing members can access the membership portal and make nominations after paying the membership fee. New members will receive a Society number by email and can go back to the Aurora Awards website and submit nominations. Nominees do not get any sort of monetary gain from the fees. The CSFFA is a non-profit organization, and its small budget, raised by the membership and voting fees, goes to administer the awards program and produce the trophies. $10 is a low price to promote national pride in our science fiction and to give a small reward to your favourite authors, artists, and fan organizers.

The online nomination deadline is April 25, 2015, 11:59:59 PM EDT.

Nominate "Mecha-Jesus" for a 2015 Aurora Award for Best Short Fiction - English

Calling all Canadians citizens at home and abroad and permanent residents of Canada: our national science fiction awards, the Aurora Awards, are now open for nominations. This year, my short story "Mecha-Jesus" is eligible to be nominated in the category of Best Short Fiction - English.

"Mecha-Jesus" was published in the anthology Wrestling With Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, edited by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart, from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. Since the Kindle e-book edition was released in November 2014, Wrestling With Gods and all its stories are eligible for the 2015 Aurora Awards. 

During the nomination period, "Mecha-Jesus" will be available free on my website at http://www.derwinmaksf.com/Mecha-Jesus.html

 To learn more about the Aurora Awards and to nominate stories and individuals, visit:

 http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/

The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) charges an annual $10 membership fee, so both new and returning members will be asked to pay $10 by Paypal. Renewing members can access the membership portal and make nominations after paying the membership fee. New members will receive a Society number by email and can go back to the Aurora Awards website and submit nominations. Nominees do not get any sort of monetary gain from the fees. The CSFFA is a non-profit organization, and its small budget, raised by the membership and voting fees, goes to administer the awards program and produce the trophies. $10 is a low price to promote national pride in our science fiction and to give a small reward to your favourite authors, artists, and fan organizers.

The online nomination deadline is April 25, 2015, 11:59:59 PM EDT.

Aurora Award Nominations are Open: Support Canadian Science Fiction

Calling all Canadians citizens at home and abroad and permanent residents of Canada: our national science fiction awards, the Aurora Awards, are now open for nominations. This year, I will nominate the following works and individuals, and I hope you will too.

Eligible for Best English Novel:

Triptych, by J.M. Frey

Read my review of it here

Eligible for Best English Short Story:

My 2 recommendations:

"The Needle's Eye" by Suzanne Church, in Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd I Did Live, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. Available online at Suzanne's website. Note: this is a science fiction horror story, so some graphic content might not be suitable for some readers.

"We Who Steal Faces" by Tony Pi, in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show #22, April 2011. Available online at Tony's website .

Eligible for Best Artist:

Costi Gurgi, for the cover art of Outer Diverse. See it on his website.

Eligible for Best Fan Organizational

Andrew Gurudata, organizing the Constellation Awards 2011. Read about him here

To learn more about the Aurora Awards and to nominate stories and individuals, visit:

http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/Membership/

To make your nominations, go to the above website and register for membership in the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA). Starting this year, the CSFFA charges a $10 membership fee, so both new and returning members will be asked to pay $10 by Paypal. After receiving your Society number by email (if you are a new member), you can go back to the Aurora Awards website and submit your nominations. Nominees do not get any sort of monetary gain from the fees. The CSFFA is a non-profit organization, and its small budget, raised by the membership and voting fees, goes to administer the awards program and produce the trophies. $10 is a low price to promote national pride in our science fiction and to give a small reward to your favourite authors, artists, and fan organizers.

 

Nomination deadline is March 31, 2012. Nominate your favourites now!

Review: J.M. Frey's Triptych Deserves an Aurora Nomination

J.M. Frey's first novel, Triptych, reminds me of the stories of Walter Tevis. Tevis, the author of The Man Who Fell to Earth and Mockingbird, did not write hard sci-fi, with its intricate technology and scientific theories. He came from the school of science fiction that examined the social sciences and societal and cultural issues. Among those writers, he was a master in depicting human relationships, personal drama, and loneliness and other emotions. Triptych reminds me of a Walter Tevis novel in style and theme. But despite the similarities, J.M. Frey is not imitating Tevis. She has a distinct style of her own.

In short, Triptych is about Kalp, one of many aliens who have arrived on Earth after their home planet has died. The government assigns several humans, including Gwen and Basil, to assist the aliens to integrate into life on Earth. One thing leads to another, and Kalp, Gwen, and Basil form a threesome where Kalp is husband to both Gwen and Basil, Basil is husband to both Kalp and Gwen, and Gwen is wife to both Kalp and Basil. You get the idea.

But not everyone is at peace with this type of future. Someone goes back in time to kill young Gwen, and someone is out to get Kalp.

I enjoyed Triptych's development of the relationships. Kalp, Gwen, and Basil are hardly the ideal lovers from a category romance, but they're not the usual dysfunctional couple/threesome that many writers use when they want to appear profound.

J.M. Frey divides the book into sections told from each of the main character's viewpoints. The characters are all well-developed and have distinct personalities and voices. Kalp's memories of his old world and its destruction are especially haunting.

And kudos to J.M. Frey for not portraying the main characters' enemies as easy straw dogs, for example, the Christians, Republicans, white Alabamans, and other stock characters that usually exist only in "fundamentalist" flavour in science fiction. It has become de rigeur in Canadian science fiction to stereotype and demonize so-called fundies and conservatives, but Triptych doesn't follow the trend. Frey, thankfully, wrote a novel about real people.

By the way, Aurora Award nominations for 2012 are open until March 31 (see http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/Membership/). Let's encourage the small presses like Dragon Moon to publish more books like Triptych. Get Triptych, read it, and if you like it, nominate it for Best Novel - English.

Vote for The Dragon and the Stars for an Aurora Award

Help The Dragon and the Stars win an Aurora Award!

Aurora Awards voting is NOW OPEN! Voting procedures are different from previous years'. Now you have to register as a member of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, receive a membership number, and use it to vote online. There is no charge to register as a CSFFA member, but there is a $5.50 voting fee; however, persons attending SFContario 2 (this year's Canvention) will have their voting fee waived.

Here are the instructions from the Constellation Awards on how to vote:

"Here’s how to begin. First go to our membership page

http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/Membership/

and login. For those that registered to nominate you just have to use your email address and the society number you used before. For those that are new please click the “Register” button at the bottom of the form to sign up. We will send you your society number with a link to click to verify your account.

Once you have logged in you will see at the bottom the voting section with our “Buy Now” button. As in past years, there is a $5.50 fee to vote. If you are a member of Canvention this fee is being waived and you will instead see a “Vote Now” link at the bottom."

Remember, The Dragon and the Stars is on the ballot for Best English Related Work! To read its stories, go here:

http://www.aerospacewriter.ca/dragonandthestars.htm

The Dragon and the Stars is an Aurora Award finalist!

The Dragon and the Stars is on the ballot for the 2011 Aurora Awards in the category of Best Related Work. Many thanks to our talented authors for their wonderful stories (see the list below). Thanks to all who nominated our anthology for Canada's national science fiction and fantasy award.

The Dragon and the Stars is the first collection of science fiction and fantasy stories written by ethnic Chinese living outside of China. It features new fiction from Chinese writers in Canada, the United States, the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong.

If you don't have The Dragon and the Stars, what are you waiting for? Get it now at Amazon.ca and Amazon.com

If you like the stories of The Dragon and the Stars, promote our unique fusion of Canadian and international science fiction and fantasy by voting in the Aurora Awards, which are organized by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.

You can vote if you're Canadian or living in Canada.

Voting by both online form and mail-in ballot begins in early June and ends on October 15, 2011.

To learn more about the Aurora Awards and to vote, visit:

www.prixaurorawards.ca

(More information about the voting process will be posted on the Aurora Awards website later.)

Critical acclaim for The Dragon and the Stars:

"There are wonders aplenty in this hegemony-challenging volume."

- The Montreal Gazette

"Looking to read something a little different in SF and fantasy? The Dragon and the Stars features eighteen (in Chinese lore, a lucky number) new tales written by English-speaking writers of Chinese ancestry...I would be hard-pressed to select the best story from this collection."

- Bureau42.com

"A taste of Chinese culture and fine story telling."

- The Baryon Review

"Given the broad mandate of The Dragon and the Stars and the variety of the stories, it is a solid collection that should appeal to a wide range of readers."

- SFRevu.com

Many thanks to these talented authors for their wonderful stories in The Dragon and the Stars:

Introduction by Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling novelist.

"The Character of the Hound" by Tony Pi (Canada)
During the war between the Southern Song and the Jin Dynasties, a soldier allows a spirit to possess his body so he can solve a murder.

"The Fortunes of Mrs. Yu" by Charles Tan (Philippines)
A Filipino Chinese woman is horrified that each of her fortune cookies has a blank strip of paper inside it.

"Goin Down to Anglotown" by William F. Wu (United States)
In an alternate America that is dominated by Asians, three young Asian men go out for a night of intrigue in exotic "Anglotown".

"The Polar Bear Carries the Mail" by Derwin Mak (Canada)
Chinese investors and a Chinese Canadian pilot try to start a space tourism business in northern Canada. Unfortunately, they have bad feng shui at their spaceport.

"Lips of Ash" by Emery Huang (United States)
During the time of a historical dynasty, a cosmetics artist uses dark magic to help the ambitious mistress of a nobleman.

"The Man on the Moon" by Crystal Gail Shangkuan Koo (Hong Kong)
Yue Lao (月老), the Man on the Moon, hosts a beauty pageant to find a bride.

"Across the Sea" by Emily Mah (United States)
A Tlingowa Native American woman's aunt tells a legend about mysterious visitors who came to America hundreds of years ago.

"Mortal Clay, Stone Heart" by Eugie Foster (United States)
During the reign of the First Emperor, a clay sculptor finds love and tragedy with a soldier.

"Dancers with Red Shoes" by Melissa Yuan-Innes (Canada)
In Montréal, magical red shoes dance by themselves.

"Intelligent Truth" by Shelly Li (United States)
A young Chinese American woman discovers truths about herself and her mother’s intelligent robotic servant.

"Bargains" by Gabriela Lee (Singapore)
A young woman meets a strange shopkeeper in Chinatown. The shopkeeper sells success as a writer – but with a terrible price.

"Threes" by E.L. Chen (Canada)
A Canadian man thinks his dead wife has become a Chinese dragon in Lake Ontario.

"The Son of Heaven" by Eric Choi (Canada)
The Chinese rocket scientist Tsien Hsue-shen (钱学森) is persecuted during the Red Scare in America in the 1950s.

"Shadow City" by Susan Ee (United States)
In a fantasy universe, a gatekeeper must stop people from leaving an evil place called Shadow City.

"The Water Weapon" by Brenda W. Clough (United States)
The British police are suspicious of a talking Chinese dragon and a Chinese princess who appear at the Great Exposition of 1851 in London.

"The Right to Eat Decent Food" by Urania Fung (United States)
Two American English teachers in China will do anything to get decent food during the SARS epidemic.

"Papa and Mama" by Wen Y Phua (Singapore)
A Chinese daughter struggles to remain dutiful to her late parents, who are inconveniently reincarnated as a fish and a bird.

"Běidŏu" by Ken Liu (United States)
In the Ming war against Japan, an ingenious Chinese army officer invents new weapons to defeat the Japanese.

Afterword by Derwin Mak and Eric Choi

Prix Aurora Awards Nominations are Open: Nominate My Stories and Books!

Calling all Canadians, at home and abroad, and landed immigrants in Canada: our national science fiction awards, the Prix Aurora Awards, are now open for nominations. This year, I have three short stories, one novel, and one anthology eligible to be nominated in the following categories:

Eligible for Best Short Fiction:

"Cloned to Kill", Infinite Space, Infinite God II, Twilight Times Books

"The Polar Bear Carries the Mail", The Dragon and the Stars, DAW Books

"Family Tradition", Night to Dawn, issue 17, April 2010

Eligible for Best Novel:

The Shrine of the Siren Stone, Orchard House Press.

Eligible for Best Related Work:

The Dragon and the Stars by Derwin Mak and Eric Choi, Editors, DAW Books

To learn more about the Prix Aurora Awards and to nominate stories and editors, visit:

http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/wordpress/

There is no fee or cost to nominate stories.

To nominate stories, go to the above website and register for a free membership in the in the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. Receive your Society number by email, then go back to the Aurora Awards website and submit your nominations. You can submit nominations online (due April 30, 2011) or with the mail-in paper ballot (due April 22, 2011).

You can view my short stories and excerpts from The Shrine of the Siren Stone for free during the nomination period at:

http://www.derwinmaksf.com/Auroras.html