I'm Not Afraid of Kim Jong Un! My Novel Has A Coup Against His Dynasty.

In today's startling, real world news, IT hackers sympathetic to North Korea's Kim Dynasty have caused Sony Pictures to withdraw its movie The Interview, a comedy about a plot to assassinate Kim Jong Un, by threatening violent attacks on theatres that show the movie.

But people of the free world, do not fret! My novel The Shrine of the Siren Stone is still available, and its plot includes a coup against the Kim Dynasty (chapter 4). Okay, it's just a subplot, but it's still offensive to Kim Jong Un and will get me banned from any science fiction convention in North Korea. That's not a big loss, though, because I hear the hotels have electricity shortages and there are no cosplayers there.

 
You can buy the book that dares to speculate on murder and mayhem against the Kim Dynasty from Amazon in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere.

At Amazon Canada
At Amazon U.S.
At Amazon China
At Amazon Japan

 

Wrestling With Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen): "Mecha-Jesus" is the Lead Story

 

 

My story "Mecha-Jesus" is the first story in the anthology Wrestling With Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen), edited by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart. This is the latest of the Tesseracts series of anthologies of Canadian science fiction and fantasy.

 

"Mecha-Jesus" is about a Japanese town that uses an android of Jesus as a tourist attraction at its Christ Festival, where the locals, none of whom are Christian, celebrate the life of Jesus, the Israeli rebel who escaped crucifixion and became a rice farmer in Japan.

 

Wrestling With Gods' theme is religion in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The stories draw from a wide variety of inspirations. A sample of the stories includes the myths of cuttlefish, a vampire in residential schools, a Muslim woman who wants to get closer, surgically, to her god, the demons of outer space, the downside of Nirvana. Wrestling with Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen) take their faith and religion into the future, into the weird and comic and thought-provoking spaces where science fiction and fantasy has really always gone, struggling with higher powers, gods, the limits of technology, the limits of spiritual experience.
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At times profound, these speculative offerings give readers a chance to see faith from the believer and the skeptic in worlds where what you believe is a matter of life, death, and afterlife.
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The stories are by: Derwin Mak, Robert J. Sawyer, Tony Pi, S. L. Nickerson, Janet K. Nicolson, John Park, Mary-Jean Harris, David Clink, Mary Pletsch, Jennifer Rahn, Alyxandra Harvey, Halli Lilburn, John Bell, David Jón Fuller, Carla Richards, Matthew Hughes, J. M. Frey, Steve Stanton, Erling Friis-Baastad, James Bambury, Savithri Machiraju, Jen Laface and Andrew Czarnietzki, David Fraser, Suzanne M. McNabb, and Megan Fennell. 

Wrestling With Gods is already available as a Kindle edition from Amazon:

Wrestling With Gods
Other e-book editions will be available in February 2015, and the print edition will be available in Canada in March 2015 and in the United States in April 2015.

There will be a book launch at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation, and Fantasy in Toronto on Thursday, April 30, 2015. Stay tuned for more information.

Because the Kindle edition was released in 2014, "Mecha-Jesus" will be eligible to be nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Short Story for 2014. Please read it and consider nominating it for the Aurora Award.

Ricepaper 19.3 (Fall 2014): The Speculative Fiction Issue

Ricepaper, the Asian Canadian literary magazine, published its special Speculative Fiction issue (fantasy, science fiction, and horror) this month. JF Garrard and I were the guest editors. Contributors include Aurora Award-winning editor/author Eric Choi and Writers of the Future award winner Tony Pi.

The fiction line-up is:
"Tushuguan" by Eric Choi: trouble in post-apocalyptic Vancouver
"Woman in the Shadows" by John Matsui: a ghost seeks revenge after a night of sex
"A Spirited Education" by Tony Pi: a Soong Dynasty exorcism
"Designing Fate" by JF Garrard: when designer children go bad...
"Golden Fish, Golden Slippers" by Melissa Yuan-Innes: a Chinese fairy tale
"Sharp Teeth" by Melissa Yuan-Innes: someone has sharp teeth...

Also in this issue:
an interview with comic book publisher James Bade
"Finding My Way Back Home" by Lou Villahermosa: an article about the haunted trees and other evil spirits of the Philippines.

It's in bookstores across Canada, but if you can't find it, you can order it online for only $5:

http://ricepapermagazine.ca/19-3-issue/http://ricepapermagazine.ca/19-3-issue/

Nominate "The Faun and the Sylphide", "Flying Devils" and Shanghai Steam for the Aurora Awards

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 have two short stories that are eligible to be nominated in the category of Best Short Fiction - English:

"The Faun and the Sylphide", from Tesseracts Sixteen: Parnassus Unbound, edited by Mark Leslie, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Calgary, 2012

"Flying Devils", from Shanghai Steam, edited by Ace Jordyn, Calvin D. Jim and Renee Bennett, Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Calgary, Alberta, 2012.

 

During the nomination period, these stories will be available free on my website at: http://www.derwinmaksf.com/Auroras-2013.html

Also, Shanghai Steam is the first Chinese-theme steampunk anthology ever, so please consider nominating it for the Aurora Award for Best Related Work - English. Editors are Ace Jordyn, Calvin D. Jim, and Renee Bennett. Publisher is Absolute XPress / EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

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

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

The CSFFA charges a $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.

Nomination deadline is noon, April 15, 2013.

Racism, Future: Sci-Fi Authors RIff

Check out Jef Catapang's article "Racism, Future: Sci-Fi Authors Riff" in The Ethnic Aisle:

http://ethnicaisle.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/sci-fi-authors-riff-on-race/

Jef interviewed me and science fiction authors Suzette Mayr, Terence M. Green, Minister Faust, Hiromi Goto, and Kenneth Tam for this article.

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.

Constellation Awards 2012: What I'll Nominate

It's time to nominate science fiction and fantasy movies and TV series for the Constellation Awards, Canada's awards for excellence in science fiction film and television ( http://constellations.tcon.ca/ ). Here are the movies, TV series, and artists whom I will be nominating. 2011 was another year of overhyped blockbuster movies like Green Lantern, Thor, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, or Captain  America, but I'll nominate the underrated and understated works. While they didn't have massive explosions or giant robots, they did have well-written stories about people and great performances by their actors.

In particular, the CBC TV series Being Erica had a splendid season, and though it's overlooked by hard-core, convention-going science fiction fans, I think it deserves several nominations this year.

You too can nominate your favourite science fiction and fantasy films and television series for the Constellation Awards. Visit the website above and nominate them.

Television Categories:

1. Best Male Performance in a 2011 Science Fiction Television Episode:

Michael Riley in Being Erica "Sins of the Father"

In "Sins of the Father", Doctor Tom, so used to giving advice to others, realizes that he needs therapist to fix his life of broken relationships. Michael Riley gives his best performance of the series.

2. Best Female Performance in a 2011 Science Fiction Television Episode:

Erin Karpluk in Being Erica "Dr. Erica"

 

Erin Karpluk has to tie up all the loose threads of Erica Strange's life in this episode, and she does it so well.

3. Best Science Fiction Television Series of 2011:

Being Erica

Season four was full of drama, humour, and romance. The three previous seasons have been building towards it. What could be better?

Film/ TV Movie / Mini-Series Categories:

4. Best Male Performance in a 2011 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie, or Mini-Series:

Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code

  

This is an intellectual thriller that deserved to do better at the box office. Jake Gyllenhaal is superb as an Air Force officer who gets sent back in time repeatedly to the same train bombing.

5. Best Female Performance in a 2011 Science Fiction Film, TV Movie or Mini-Series:

Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia

Kirsten Dunst's character both neurotically ruins her own wedding and calmly prepares for the end of the world without any change in her personality. She won the Best Actress Award at Cannes for this one.

6. Best Science Fiction Film, TV Movie or Mini-Series of 2011:

Another Earth

 This is an art house movie about the discovery of a twin Earth, where there is a duplicate of everyone on our planet. Quiet and thought-provoking.

Other Categories:

7. Best Technical Accomplishment in a 2011 Science Fiction Film or Television Production:

Douglas Trumbull for special effects in The Tree of Life

In The Tree of Life, he created the universe, matter, energy, the planets, life, evolution, and dinosaurs, and that darn meteorite, all in twenty minutes.

8. Best Overall 2011 Science Fiction Film or Television Script:

Being Erica episode "Dr. Erica"

This is the end of season four, and it's a remarkable episode, showing how Erica and her friends and family have made dramatic changes in their lives. In four years, Erica Strange has gone from neurotic, single therapy patient to a confident book publisher with a steady boyfriend. But that's not the end of her story, as "Dr. Erica" sets her up for a new stage in her life.

9. Outstanding Canadian Contribution to Science Fiction Film or Television in 2011:

Being Erica (TV series)

 

Being Erica is an underrated fantasy series. True, it's not about interstellar wars or superheroes saving the world. But it is about people creating relationships and coping with them and daily struggles with a much-needed sense of humour. Best of all, it's about book editors and writers in Toronto, so it's a science fiction or fantasy TV series that I can relate to.

"Cloned to Kill" is "fairly awesome and well-constructed" - reviewer at New York Catholic Examiner

John Konecsni of the New York Catholic Examiner reviewed the anthology Infinite Space, Infinite God II for New York Catholic Examiner. He writes about the book: "At the end of the day, if you like science fiction, you'll enjoy this book. It's worth the price of admission..."

And about my story "Cloned to Kill", he writes, "This one was fairly awesome and very well constructed."

Read his review here.

Anders Breivik: Angry Science Fiction Nerd?

My article "The Norway Tragedy: Influences on Madness" was published in SITREP, the journal of the Royal Canadian Military Institute, September - October 2011. It is about Anders Breivik, the confessed killer of the massacre in Norway on July 22, 2011. Media reports say that Breivik was a Christian fundamentalist and a right-wing racist, but my analysis of his manifesto, 2083 - a European Declaration of Independence, shows that he was neither type of person. Instead, he is really a science fiction nerd gone violent. His manifesto, far from promoting Christian or right-wing ideas, has plenty of references to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, and other science fiction and fantasy movies, TV shows, and video games.

The article is available on my website here.

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

Eeriecon 13, April 29 - May 1, 2011

Photo above: I was one of the Guests of Honour at Eeriecon 13, a science fiction convention in Niagara Falls, New York. The other Guest of Honour was the great Larry Niven. In addition to panel discussions, I was on a mission for a friend of mine: to find out how to pronounce the first name of Larry's fictional character, Louis Wu. Is it pronounced like "Lewis" or like "Lou-ee"? I asked Larry, and he said, "Either way goes, but I prefer 'Lou-ee'."

Photo above: For the first time, Eeriecon had a panel about science fiction from outside the North American-British sphere of influence. The panel was called "East Asia SF". Here I am with Ruhan Zhao, who writes science fiction stories for Chinese magazines such as the one he is holding. Ruhan was Eeriecon's first writer from China, though he lives in Rochester, NY, now. Ruhan talked about the revival of science fiction in China, and I talked about Japanese novels now available in English translation.

Photo above: Horror writer and Three Stooges expert Darrell Schweitzer and I give the Communist salute before the masquerade. No, that is not my military uniform. I'm in costume as the Chinese tour guide from the Japanese anime series Ramna 1/2.

Photo above: April 29 was also the day of the Royal Wedding of HRH Prince William, K.G., and Miss Catherine Middleton, the future King and Queen of Canada, so I brought Jaffa cakes to the consuite to celebrate this historic occasion. Jaffa cakes are a biscuit that Giles eats on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The poster is attached to the wall with tape with images of bacon on it. Why do science fiction fans always get the weirdest things?

Anyway, although the Americans were suspicious of the British biscuits at first, by Saturday afternoon, they had eaten all four boxes of them.

Many thanks to convention chairman Joe Fillinger for inviting me to Eeriecon, and many thanks to the convention committee and attendees for this enjoyable convention.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II has its Canadian book launch at Futurecon on New Year's Eve 2010-2011

Photo: Liana K., Futurecon's chairperson (and host of the TV series This Movie Sucks! and Ed and Red's Night Party) and I hold a copy of Infinite Space, Infinite God II. I'm not wearing a costume; that's my St. John Ambulance mess dress uniform.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II, an anthology of Roman Catholic-theme science fiction stories, edited by Karina and Robert Fabian, had its Canadian book launch at Futurecon, a science fiction convention and New Year's Eve party held in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The launch occurred during the cocktail hour that preceded the banquet.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II includes my story "Cloned to Kill", which is about a teenage clone girl who rebels against her creator with the help of a former army chaplain. Editor Karina Fabian says, "'Cloned to Kill' goes beyond the ethics of cloning to explore the nature of free will, forgiveness and belonging to community. As such, it's a story not so much about clones as about us." She also said that the main character, Lorraine, reminded her of Cameron from the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Futurecon was the best New Year's Eve ever! It was a unprecedented idea: a posh party for science fiction fans, with an upscale dress code (semi-formal or formal or SF-fantasy-anime costumes), hors d'ouevres served with plates and forks, and a code of conduct somewhat based on Russian Empress Catherine the Great's Rules for the Behaviour of Those Entering These Doors. We had none of the ragged clothes and people eating junk food with their bare hands that one sees at most science fiction convention room parties! The live entertainment was splendid, and I felt like I was in one of those parties in War and Peace or Brideshead Revisited combined with SF-fantasy-anime cosplay.

Many thanks to the convention committee: Liana K., Phil Gotfried, Emily Schooley, Steven Kerzner, David Ross, Tina Olah, Lori Dawn Antaya, Marcus Antaya, and Declan Dennehy.

Buy Infinite Space, Infinite God II at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca, and remember, "Cloned to Kill" is eligible to be nominated for a 2011 Prix Aurora Award in the category of Best Short Fiction.

www.derwinmaksf.com/ISIG_II_main.html

The Dragon and the Stars: 5th bestselling mass market book in 2010 at Bakka-Phoenix Science Fiction Bookstore

This was the best news that I could receive for New Year's Eve. The Dragon and the Stars had not only gotten into the Top 10 but had also ranked 5th in the mass market book sales of 2010 at Bakka-Phoenix Books, Toronto's famous science fiction bookstore. See the Bakka-Phoenix announcement here:

http://www.bakkaphoenixbooks.com/2010/12/30/2010-bestsellers/

The Top 10 bestselling mass market books at Bakka-Phoenix in 2010 were:

Mass Market

1. Wake, Robert J. Sawyer

2. Sandman Slim, Richard Kadrey

3. Lord of the Changing Winds, Rachel Neumeier

4. Julian Comstock, Robert Charles Wilson

5. Dragon and the Stars, Derwin Mak & Eric Choi, eds.

6. Gaslight Dogs, Karin Lowachee

7. Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff

8. Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss

9. On the Edge, Ilona Andrews

10. Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett

I owe many thanks to my co-editor Eric Choi and to all the authors for creating such a wonderful anthology: Tess Gerritsen, Tony Pi, Charles Tan, William F. Wu, Emergy Huang, Crystal Gail Shankuan Koo, Emily Mah, Eugie Foster, Melissa Yuan-Innes, Shelly Li, Gabriela Lee, E.L. Chen, Susan Ee, Brenda W. Clough, Urania Fung, Wen Y Phua, and Ken Liu.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II, with my story "Cloned to Kill", now available

This is the second anthology of Roman Catholic-theme science fiction edited by Karina and Robert Fabian. It includes my story "Cloned to Kill", about a teenaged girl clone who has been created as a military killer, but she rebels against her programming and clone master with the help of a priest.

Editor Karina Fabian says, "'Cloned to Kill' goes beyond the ethics of cloning to explore the nature of free will, forgiveness and belonging to community. As such, it's a story not so much about clones as about us."

"Cloned to Kill" is eligible to be nominated for a 2011 Prix Aurora Award for Best Short-Form Work in English.

Available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca

Kindle version also available at Amazon.com.

Eric Choi's story "Dedication" translated and published in Japanese by Hayakawa SF

Congratulations to my Dragon and the Stars co-editor Eric Choi. His story "Dedication" has been translated and published in Japanese in the anthology The Astronaut From Wyoming and Other Stories edited by Toru Nakamaru, from Hayakawa Publishing, Japan's largest publisher of science fiction.

"Dedication" is the story that won the first Isaac Asimov Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Science Fiction, awarded by Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and Dell Magazines, in 1994. It's about a team of astronauts who struggle to survive on Mars after their rover is damaged by a meteorite shower.

To my Japanese friends: "Dedication" is eligible to be nominated for a Seiun Award in the Best Foreign Language Short Story category.

International Symposium on Chinese Canadian and Chinese American Literature in English, Waterloo, Ontario, Oct. 15-17, 2010

Getting ready to talk about fox demons, Anglotown, and spaceship engineers (photo by Donna Mak).

The editors of The Dragon and the Stars (photo by Donna Mak)

Eric Choi and I attended "Homeland, History, and Representation," an International Symposium on Chinese Canadian and Chinese American Literature in English, held by Renison University College at the University of Waterloo and sponsored by the Confucius Institute.

Professors, scholars, and authors from across North America and China attended this conference, where they presented papers on the literature of Chinese North American authors such as Judy Fong Bates, Amy Tan, Wayson Choy, Yan Li, and Fred Wah.

Imagine our surprise when a professor told us that a colleague of hers has been researching and cataloging stories by Chinese Canadians, including Eric's and my stories. She phoned her colleague, and he came running from across the university to see us.

We gave a presentation about The Dragon and the Stars and its authors, describing the stories they had written for our anthology as well as other stories they have written. The audience received our presentation very well, and professors from places as diverse as New Hampshire, Washington, D.C., and Inner Mongolia asked questions about our stories and Chinese Canadian and American science fiction and fantasy writers.

Ka Nin Chan, the composer of the opera Iron Road, asked me about the Chinese characters in Star Trek. My reply: "What Chinese characters?" Eric added that there has never been a Chinese character in Star Trek, but there was a Chinese actor (Garrett Wang) who played a Korean character who was the only officer never promoted throughout all the seasons of Star Trek Voyager.

On Saturday evening, we had dinner at Lucinda House, a 150-year-old house owned and restored by Wilfred Laurier University. After dinner, arts reporters from the Chinese newspaper Guong Ming interviewed me about Chinese Canadian and Chinese American science fiction writers and genre fiction in North America.

Jim Wong-Chu, poet (Ghosts of Chinatown), past editor of Ricepaper magazine, and founder of the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop, made my day when he said that Eric and I were "pioneers" and that we had to continue encouraging Chinese Canadians to write science fiction and fantasy.

We met some interesting people at this conference. Petra Fachinger, a German languages professor researching Chinese literature at Queen's University, told us that some Germans have recently developed a fascination with Chinese culture. Farah Moosa, a Ph.D. student studying Chinese Canadian literature at McMaster University, knew what Wiscon is (It's a feminist-oriented science fiction convention in Madison, Wisconsin.). And Professor Patricia Chu from George Washington University told us about her daughters' love of fantasy stories such as Harry Potter.

Many thanks to Professors Yan Li (University of Waterloo) and Eleanor Ty (Wilfred Laurier University) and Jun Liu (University of Waterloo) for organizing and inviting us to this conference. Thanks to Sue Anne Tu for interpreting between English and Mandarin for my interview with the Guong Ming reporters.

The Dragon and the Stars presentation (photo by Donna Mak)

Professor Zhongming Chen, from the Foreign Languages College, Inner Mongolia University, speaks on the writings of Larissa Lai, Sky Lee, and Yan Li. Interestingly, there is a Canadian Studies Centre at Inner Mongolia University.

Jim Wong-Chu, poet (Ghosts of Chinatown), past editor of Ricepaper magazine, and founder of the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop, reads some of his poems.

Professor Eleanor Ty (Wilfred Laurier University) speaks on old and new diaspora subjectivities in Judy Fong Bates' Midnight at the Dragon Cafe.

Professor Yan Li (University of Waterloo), novelist (Lily in the Snow), and organizer of this conference.

In the centre: Romulan Ale at the Renison University College cafeteria?

Lunch on Saturday. Eric is drinking the Romulan Ale.

Eric gets an autograph from Denise Chong, author of The Concubine's Children, The Girl in the Picture: The Kim Phuc Story, and Egg on Mao.

The Shrine of the Siren Stone launched at Polaris Science Fiction Convention

My novel The Shrine of the Siren Stone had its book launch at the Polaris Science Fiction Convention in Richmond Hill, Ontario, on July 17, 2010. The maids of Cafe Delish, Anime North's maid cafe, assisted me in promoting the book (see photo). They performed a song and dance act at the launch.

The Shrine of the Siren Stone is published by Orchard House Press (formerly called Windstorm Creative) of Port Orchard, Washington. Thanks to Cris DiMarco, my editor, for publishing this novel. The Shrine of the Siren Stone takes place in the same universe as The Moon Under Her Feet, but you don't have to read The Moon Under Her Feet to understand The Shrine of the Siren Stone.

Description:

Ishiro is an otaku, an anime-obsessed geek without a decent job or loving parents. His only friends are Mr. Endo, owner of a maid cafe in Akihabara, and Yuko, a waitress in a French maid uniform. Ishiro falls in love with Yuko, a but she turns out to be an android using him to learn about human love. Does she have real feelings for him or is she just programmed to act like a girlfriend? When Mr. Endo splits the couple apart, Ishiro joins the Japanese Navy and goes to war, and Yuko's behavior becomes increasingly human and rebellious. Their paths cross again at the mysterious Shrine of the Siren Stone, where a telepathic meteorite holds the secret of the human spirit...

"It's Romeo and Juliet meets Benny and Joon in a futuristic Japan. Then stuff blows up! The Shrine of the Siren Stone is a wonderful, female-friendly story and a welcome departure from the stereotypes of the science fiction genre. The plot twists surprised me, I got teary-eyed in a few places, and I laughed out loud in others. What's not to love?"
- Liana K., host of Ed and Red's Night Party on G4

"Derwin Mak creates a dazzling mix of artificial intelligence, future warfare, otaku romance, and Japanese religion. His characters are comic, then heroic, and finally self-sacrificing. He achieves something of great rarity in science fiction: a novel of heartfelt poignancy."
- John-Allen Price, author of The Mutant Chronicles

The Dragon and the Stars is in bookstores now

Photo: The Dragon and the Stars, World's Biggest Bookstore, Toronto.

The Dragon and the Stars, edited by me and Eric Choi, is in bookstores now! It's in major bookstores like Chapters, Indigo, and Borders. Look for it in the section for science fiction and fantasy anthologies.

For those of you in the Toronto area, the Canadian book launch will be at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, May 13, 2010, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at the Lillian H. Smith Branch of the Toronto Public Library, 239 College Street, Toronto.

It's also available at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca now:

Amazon.com

Amazon.ca

From the back cover of The Dragon and the Stars: This unique anthology of science fiction and fantasy tales includes stories by authors of Chinese ancestry, who make their homes in places as varied as the United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. The talented authors included here have drawn upon China's rich and venerable heritage as well as the traditions and cultures of their current homelands to create imaginative and fascinating stories. From the tale of a murder that can only be solved by spirit possession to a fortune cookie that offers an uncertain future...from a man who believes his wife has become a Chinese dragon to an inventive army officer in the Ming conflict with Japan...from a young woman's fateful encounter with a Chinatown shopkeeper to a Chinese rocket scientist caught in the perils of 1950s America -- here are eighteen science fiction and fantasy visions that showcase the diversity of the Chinese experience around the world.

Introduction by New York Times bestseller author Tess Gerritsen. Stories by Tony Pi, Charles Tan, William F. Wu, Derwin Mak, Emery Huang, Crystal Gail Shangkuan Koo, Emily Mah, Eugie Foster, Melissa Yuan-Innes, Shelly Li, Gabriela Lee, E.L. Chen, Eric Choi, Susan Ee, Brenda W. Clough, Urania Fung, Wen Y Phua, Ken Liu.

Nominate Andrew Gurudata (the Constellation Awards) for a Prix Aurora Award for Fan Achievement - Organizational

The Prix Aurora Awards has a category for Fan Achievement - Organizational.

I attend various science fiction awards ceremonies, and one of the best organized and entertaining is undoubtedly the Constellation Awards, held annually at the Polaris Science Fiction Convention. It's got videos that work, comedy skits, celebrity emcees, and Canadian actors, actresses, and models. And it's also the best-dressed of the Canadian science fiction award ceremonies (Fashion TV should do a report from the Constellations).

Andrew Gurudata organizes this ceremony, so please consider nominating Andrew Gurudata for the Constellation Awards Organization.

You can nominate him online at: http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationVoting.htm

Also please nominate people and works in other categories as well.

Act now! The nomination deadline is February 15!

Nominate Eric Choi's story "Another's Treasure" for a Prix Aurora Award

Eric Choi is my co-editor of The Dragon and the Stars.

Eric Choi's short story "Another's Treasure" is indeed that rare treasure: a humorous science fiction short story published in a time when most science fiction writers are trying to exceed each other with serious, pessimistic themes. My warped sense of humour liked it, which is why I'm nominating it for Canada's national science fiction award, the Prix Aurora Award, in the category of Best Short-Form Work in English.

"Another's Treasure" was published in the anthology Footprints, edited by Jay Lake and Eric T. Reynolds, from Hadley Rille Books. See it here at Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Footprints-James-Van-Pelt/dp/0981924395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262752154&sr=1-1

If you're a Canadian citizen (even if not necessarily living in Canada) or permanent resident of Canada, you too can nominate the story for the Prix Aurora Award, Best Short-Form Work in English category, online at: http://www.prix-aurora-awards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationForm.php