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Kitty in the Underworld Sweepstakes
Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty in the Underworld doesn’t hit shelves until July 30, but we have a chance for you to win a copy now!
We have seven copies to give away. Comment below to enter for a chance to win.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins May 13, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. ET. and ends May 17, 2013 12:00 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. Please see full details and official rules go here. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Ultimate Urban Fantasy Sweepstakes
Sign up for the Tor/Forge Newsletter for a chance to win 25 urban fantasy books!
About our newsletter: Every issue of Tor’s monthly email newsletter features original writing by, and interviews with, Tor authors and editors about upcoming new titles from all Tor and Forge imprints. In addition, we occasionally send out “special edition” newsletters to highlight particularly exciting new projects, programs, or events. Read a sample here >>
If you’re already a newsletter subscriber, you can enter too. We do not automatically enter subscribers into sweepstakes. We promise we won’t send you duplicate copies of the newsletter if you sign up for the newsletter more than once.
Sign up for your chance to win today!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins May 1 at 12 a.m. ET. and ends May 31, 2013, 11:59 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. For Official Rules and to enter, go here. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Grab Bag Sweepstakes
Our bookshelves are a little overcrowded right now and we need to make room for new books arriving soon. So, we thought we’d make room by offering up books and more to you! Comment below to enter for a chance to win this prize pack:
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins April 25, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. ET. and ends April 30, 2013, 12:00 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. Please see full details and official rules go here. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
How I Learned to Stop Grumbling and Love Vampires
Written by Carrie Vaughn
I’m best known for writing about werewolves. I started writing about werewolves—made the main character of my series a werewolf—because I was far more interested in them than the other usual supernatural critters. They simply hadn’t had a lot of attention paid to them in supernatural fiction, and when I was starting out, few people were writing books that featured werewolves as main characters. Plenty of people were writing about vampires; I didn’t feel a need to throw my hat into that ring. I didn’t have anything to say about vampires that hadn’t already been said. They were, in a word, kinda boring.
I didn’t want to leave vampires out of my stories entirely. I certainly wasn’t going to pass up a chance to mock them. Or at least mock the usual current vein of stereotypes about them. (No pun intended, I’m sure.) I’m writing supernatural stories, I wanted the full complement of the supernatural world at my beck and call.
But in creating my vampire characters, Alette and Roman and especially Rick, I discovered something. Something that vampires bring to the table that other supernatural creatures don’t: history. One of the first things I do when I create a vampire character is figure out their history. How old are they? Where did they come from? How does their background affect them? Have their values and outlooks changed over the decades, or centuries? That aspect, making vampires these walking repositories of “living” history, finally made vampires interesting to me. If vampires seem strange to my mortal human and werewolf characters, it isn’t so much because they’re bloodsucking monsters—it’s because they often come from entirely different places and times. They’re historical aliens.
One of Kitty’s best friends and closest allies in Denver’s supernatural underworld is the vampire Rick. Rick—Ricardo de Avila—was born in sixteenth-century Spain and came to North American as a young conquistador. He didn’t quite find what he was looking for, though, and was made a vampire instead. This is someone who was raised to be a devout Catholic in a world where Catholicism and the Spanish colonial empire were the dominant powers in Europe. These things were part of his identity. They still are, even though he lives and functions seamlessly in the modern world.
The idea that after all this time as a vampire, unable to go into churches and unable to take part in any of the rituals or symbols of Catholicism, Rick still considers himself a devout Catholic has always intrigued me. I touched on it a bit in his origin story, “Conquistador de la Noche,” found in Kitty’s Greatest Hits. But I’ve always known there was more to his story to that, and that far from being outlandish, I could turn that idea into something wider-reaching than one character’s backstory.
In Kitty Rocks the House, Rick doesn’t just get validation for his spiritual identity as a Catholic—an identity that he believes has kept him sane and ethical for five centuries. He learns of the existence of an entire order of vampire priests. He’s not alone, and that changes everything.
And this is why I love my job. Over the course of writing the eleven novels of the Kitty series, I’ve gone from not really wanting to write about vampires, to having vampires become some of the most intriguing supporting players in my books, to creating an entire order of vampire priests. And that just blows the story wide open, doesn’t it?
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From the Tor/Forge April newsletter. Sign up to receive our newsletter via email.
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More from the March Tor/Forge newsletter:
New Releases: 3/26/2013
The Week in Review
Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.
- Leading up to the release of Halo: Silentium (March 19, 2013), Tor and 343 Industries will be sending out encrypted communications via halowaypoint.com bulletins and forums, which will allow Halo fans to unlock additional content. There will also be embedded data in the text of the Halo: Silentium paperback and e-book editions.
- For her birthday, Mary Robinette Kowal posted a free short story. Some great Friday reading: “The Lady Astronaut of Mars!”
- Author Max Gladstone (Three Parts Dead) has a fantastic guest post talking about “the coolest monkey in world literature,” Sun Wukong, alias the Stone Monkey King.
- Just to add even more to your TBR pile…io9 posted a great list of non-fiction books that are as thrilling (and terrifying) as genre fiction can be.
- The Con or Bust auction is now open!
- Valentine’s Day was yesterday, and to celebrate, Tor.com posted eight unabashed love stories in sf/f.
And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!
- Goodreads Giveaway: Eve of Destruction by Sylvia Day (Ends 2/26)
- Goodreads First Reads: Pandemonium by Warren Fahy (Ends 2/27)
- eBook Sale: The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson is on sale for $2.99 (Ends 2/28)
- Goodreads First Reads: Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal (Ends 3/1)
- Goodreads First Reads: Kitty Rocks the House by Carrie Vaughn (Ends 3/1)
- Goodreads First Reads: A Time of Change by Aimée and David Thurlo (Ends 3/13)
- Goodreads First Reads: Code White by Scott Britz-Cunningham (Ends 3/13)
The Week in Review
Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.
- Rumors are flying about new Star Wars movies, including the origin story of Han Solo. Tor.com wants to know: who do you think should play a young Han Solo?
- Because you needed more books to add to your TBR list: io9 has posted their list of books you can’t afford to miss in February.
- The Wheel of Time reread continues with the final volume, A Memory of Light!
- All young scientists start somewhere, and this girl has a great story – and video! – of where her future science career will begin. She sent a Hello Kitty doll into space.
- Are you following along with Ron Hogan’s read of The Human Division, by John Scalzi? They’re up to Episode 4, “A Voice in the Wilderness.”
- Flavorwire compiled a list of some truly amazing fictional libraries. What did they miss?
- Tor.com has announced that they’re expanding their short fiction program. Submit your stories now!
The Tor/Forge newsletter went out this week! Check out these fascinating articles from our authors:
- Cory Doctorow on Aaron Swartz
- An Interview with Lady Trent, Dragon Naturalist by Marie Brennan
- Speechless: Writing Dialogue for Characters Who Don’t Speak by Evie Manieri
- A Demented Labor of Love by James Frenkel, Senior Editor
And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!
- Waiting on Wednesday: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett (Ends 2/12)
- Goodreads First Reads: Deep Down by Deborah Coates (Ends 2/13)
- Goodreads First Reads: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett (Ends 2/13)
- Goodreads First Reads: The Six-Gun Tarot by R. S. Belcher (Ends 2/15)
- Goodreads Giveaway: Eve of Destruction by Sylvia Day (Ends 2/26)
- Goodreads First Reads: Pandemonium by Warren Fahy (Ends 2/27)
- eBook Sale: The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson is on sale for $2.99 (Ends 2/28)
- Goodreads First Reads: Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal (Ends 3/1)
- Goodreads First Reads: Kitty Rocks the House by Carrie Vaughn (Ends 3/1)
A Demented Labor of Love
Written by James Frenkel, Senior Editor
I have edited, packaged, or been the in-house editor for several dozen anthologies since I started working in publishing, late in the last millennium. I’ve always loved working on them, especially anthologies with original stories, because they give readers (and the editor, too!) a chance to discover talented young writers who haven’t yet made a name for themselves with novels, as well as cool short fiction by wonderful established writers. Anthologies are also perfect new millennium media, especially for people who are too busy to read long books. In an anthology, each story is complete, but doesn’t take a long time to read. And themed anthologies, if they’re done well, like this one, are often a great revelation, as you read one story after another, each one offering a different writer’s original, creative take on the theme.
The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, brought to me by the obviously demented, twisted John Joseph Adams, has been a labor of love. Twisted, tortured, tied-up-in-baling-wire-that-cut-into-my-bleeding-wrists love, but definitely love.
Its genesis was a long, seriously difficult process: at one point, the longest story in the anthology was hijacked by the editors of another anthology; sadly, one of the contributors died, and we don’t know just how many have fled into the hills . . . but we know Adams himself abandoned the East Coast for what he obviously perceived to be the relative safety of California. Obviously, he doesn’t understand the perils of unstable plate tectonics and multiple fault lines.
Were all these developments really coincidence? Hmmm.
But I had to keep going. Why? Hahahahahaha! Did you read the title? It’s the Mad Scientist’s Guide.
Have you ever noticed, in sf and fantasy books, almost always, the good guys win. The bad guys — Mob bosses, over-ambitious warlords, evil scientists, power-mad wizards — are usually crushed, their hopes and dreams, however misguided, or yes, perhaps even malevolent, turned to ashes.
This book is for them—really, yes, for those maligned, misunderstood MADMEN who merely want to RULE THE WORLD (or destroy it). Cloaked in the sheep’s garb of fiction, hidden within the pages of this guide, are secrets that readers probably will never discover . . . but those for whom this book is really intended (you know who you are, in your secret lairs, your hidden laboratories, your camouflaged hideaways with booby-trapped entrances to trap the uninitiated) will see, will discern the true, masterfully disguised intent!
And then, all the others, the unsuspecting readers who will enjoy the “stories,” will know, to their eternal doom, that what they thought were mere tales by “fiction” writers such as Diana Gabaldon, Daniel Wilson, Austin Grossman, Ben Winters, Naomi Novik, Harry Turtledove, Jeffrey Ford, Mary Robinette Kowal, Alan Dean Foster, Seanan McGuire, David Farland, Carrie Vaughn, Grady Hendrix — there are nine others, and you might find them out if you are clever, but . . . stop me before I say too much! . . . are really plans.
Yes, plans . . .
World domination will be theirs! Even the “cover artist,” Ben Templesmith . . . ha! if you think the image on the cover is mere decoration, you will rue your naive confidence. What does a “temple smith” really do? Have you really considered that? I thought not.
And now it’s too late . . . and I have enabled them . . . if the world ends now, I will know I did my part. For now it is enough to know that nothing can stop them — the “stories” — now! They are free to infect the world . . .
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From the Tor/Forge February newsletter. Sign up to receive our newsletter via email.
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More from the February Tor/Forge newsletter:
The Week in Review
Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.
- Want to see Brandon Sanderson’s writing process? You can. He’s recorded himself writing the new Stormlight Archives book in real time.
- io9 looked at how the military background of some sci-fi and fantasy authors affected their fiction. Did they miss anyone?
- If you saw Wreck-It Ralph in theaters, you might have gotten to see a beautiful six minute short film from Disney. Now, the full thing is available for anyone to see. Check out Paperman on io9.
- Suvudu has announced the participants of the 2013 Cage Match! Who are you rooting for?
- Mary Robinette Kowal’s annual Month of Letters has begun! Are you participating in the challenge?
- This week, we were excited to announce that we’ve signed a new trilogy in author Charles Stross’s Merchant Princes series. More details are on Tor.com.
- In Forge author news, Linda Stasi, the author of The Sixth Staion, was on the Today Show earlier this week! Check out her interview and read an excerpt of her book.
- Last, but definitely not least, the Fantasy Reader blog has collected a huge variety of fantasy maps. Hours of entertainment, right there.
And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!
- Goodreads First Reads: Deep Down by Deborah Coates (Ends 2/13)
- Goodreads First Reads: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett (Ends 2/13)
- Goodreads First Reads: The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher (Ends 2/15)
- Goodreads Giveaway: Eve of Destruction by Sylvia Day (Ends 2/26)
- Goodreads First Reads: Pandemonium by Warren Fahy (Ends 2/27)
- Goodreads First Reads: Without A Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal (Ends 3/1)
- Goodreads First Reads: Kitty Rocks the House by Carrie Vaughn (Ends 3/1)
- eBook Sale: Lion of Ireland by Morgan Llywelyn (Ends 3/6)
Urban Fantasy Sweepstakes
Tor.com
- Three Short Stories With Stranded Time Travellers
- The Healer Sweepstakes!
- Let’s Sort the Arrested Development Cast Into Hogwarts Houses
- Indexing (Excerpt)
- The Folding Knife Reread: Chapter Ten
- Morning Roundup: When this Baby Gets Up to 88, I’m Going to Say Allons-y
- Sketchy Sweepstakes!
- It’s the End of the World As We Know It: The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill
- AD&D First Edition: the Old Firm
- The Lost Prince (Excerpt)
Heroes and Heartbreakers
- Catching Up with Continuum (And Its Ships!)
- Don Jon Movie Trailer
- First Look: Molly Harper’s A Witch’s Handbook of Kisses and Curses (May 28, 2013)
- Fire Inside: Exclusive Excerpt
- Watch It!: Voyeurism in Romance Novels
- What Fan Fiction Would You Like to Read?
- First Look: Nancy Gideon’s Prince of Shadows (May 27, 2013)
- Squick Me Out, Part 4: Return of the Moist
- Exclusive Cover Reveal: Cat Devon’s Love Your Entity!
- Shapeshifted: Exclusive Excerpt
Criminal Element
- Gangster Cinema, British Style: The Long Good Friday
- The Purrrr-fect Spy: Operation Acoustic Kitty
- Nobody Expects the Space Inquisition: Warhammer 40K Tie-in Novels
- Thinking of Manderley: The Strange History of Stonemere
- Art and Science Collide: Be Careful Where You Leave Your DNA
- Why I Believe in Blue Bloods
- Fresh Meat: Wounded Prey by Sean Lynch
- The Dreadful Beauty of Top of the Lake
- Introducing the Criminal Element Book Club!
- Fresh Meat: Transparent by Natalie Whipple
