February #TorChat Sweepstakes

Did you participate in today’s #TorChat? We hope you enjoyed it and look forward to your participation in next month’s chat on March 20th!

In the meantime, here’s your chance to win a prize! Five – that’s right, five – lucky winners will receive a trade paperback edition of The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination. Leave a comment below to enter.

And again, we’d like to thank Diana Gabaldon, Seanan McGuire, and Austin Grossman for participating. We’d especially like to thank editor John Joseph Adams for moderating!

Sweepstakes closes to new entries on February 27th at noon.

And don’t forget to come and join us next month, on March 20th, at 4 PM Eastern!

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 February 20, 2013 at 4:30 p.m. ET. and ends February 27, 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.

February #TorChat Lineup Revealed

This month, #TorChat is taking you into the lab…of some mad scientists! Join us as editor and moderator John Joseph Adams chats with Seanan McGuire, Austin Grossman, and Diana Gabaldon on February 20th at 4 PM Eastern.

Mwahahaha!

Tor Books (@torbooks) is thrilled to announce the February #TorChat, part of a monthly series of genre-themed, hour-long chats created by Tor Books and hosted on Twitter.

This month, #TorChat is taking you behind the scenes in some very dangerous places – the minds of several mad scientists. Joining us will be the mistress of time travel and author of the New York Times bestselling Outlander novels, Diana Gabaldon; the creator of Soon I Will Be Invincible’s Doctor Impossible, Austin Grossman; and creative genius (and by that, we mean mad scientist) Seanan McGuire, the author of the October Daye series, as well as the Newsflesh Trilogy (as Mira Grant). Together, they’ll be discussing the best layout to the underground lair, how to perfect your evil laugh, and, of course, the best way to try to take over the world!

The chat will be loosely moderated by editor extraordinaire and mad scientist wrangler John Joseph Adams, a fantastic anthologist, editor, and the publisher of Lightspeed Magazine. We hope all you budding evil geniuses will follow the chat and join in using the Twitter hashtag #TorChat!

About the Authors

JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS (@JohnJosephAdams) is the bestselling editor of Wastelands, Under the Moons of Mars, Seeds of Change, The Living Dead, The Way of the Wizard, By Blood We Live, and The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He’s a two-time finalist for the Hugo and a three-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award. He is also the publisher and editor of Lightspeed Magazine, and the co-host of Wired.com’s “The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy” podcast. His newest anthology is The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, publishing on February 19th.

DIANA GABALDON (@Writer_DG) is the author of the award-winning, number one New York Times bestselling Outlander novels, which include Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums Of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath Of Snow And Ashes, and An Echo In The Bone, with twenty million copies in print worldwide. She has also written a graphic novel called The Exile, and a number of novels and novellas about her character, Lord John Grey, the latest of which, The Scottish Prisoner, came out in 2011. The eighth novel in the main series, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, will be published in 2013.

AUSTIN GROSSMAN (@Austin_Grossman) is the author of Soon I Will Be Invincible, which was nominated for the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. His writing has appeared in Granta, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He is a video game design consultant and a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, and he has written and designed for a number of critically acclaimed video games, including Ultima Underworld II, System Shock, Trespasser, and Deus Ex. His second novel, You, came out from Mulholland Books in 2012, and his short fiction has also appeared in the anthology Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom.

SEANAN MCGUIRE (@seananmcguire) is the author of the October Daye and InCryptid urban fantasy series. Writing under the open pseudonym Mira Grant, she is the author the Newsflesh trilogy—which includes Feed, Deadline, and Blackout—which she describes as “science fiction zombie political thrillers” that focus on blogging, medical technology, and the ethics of fear. A story set in that milieu appeared in John Joseph Adams’s anthology The Living Dead 2. Her other short work has appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Book View Café, The Edge of Propinquity, Apex Magazine, and in the anthologies Zombiesque and Tales from the Ur-Bar.

About #Torchat
#TorChat is a genre-themed, hour-long chat series created by Tor Books and hosted on Twitter. Guest authors join fans in lively, informative and entertaining discussions of all that’s hot in genre fiction, 140 characters at a time, from 4 – 5 PM EST on the third Wednesday of every month. Each #TorChat revolves around a different genre topic of interest, often of a timely nature, and strives to provide a new media opportunity for readers to connect with their favorite authors.

About Tor Books
Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is a New York-based publisher of hardcover and softcover books. Founded in 1980, Tor annually publishes what is arguably the largest and most diverse line of science fiction and fantasy ever produced by a single English-language publisher. In 2002, Tor launched Starscape, an imprint dedicated to publishing quality science fiction and fantasy for young readers, including books by critically acclaimed and award winning authors such as Cory Doctorow, Orson Scott Card, and David Lubar. Between an extensive hardcover and trade-softcover line, an Orb backlist program, and a stronghold in mass-market paperbacks, books from Tor have won every major award in the SF and fantasy fields, and has been named Best Publisher 25 years in a row in the Locus Poll, the largest consumer poll in SF.

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:

• 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
• Grab Bag Sweepstakes

Goodreads First Reads: The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams

About The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination: From Victor Frankenstein to Lex Luthor, from Dr. Moreau to Dr. Doom, readers have long been fascinated by insane plans for world domination and the madmen who devise them. Typically, we see these villains through the eyes of good guys. This anthology, however, explores the world of mad scientists and evil geniuses—from their own wonderfully twisted point of view.

An all-star roster of bestselling authors—including Diana Gabaldon, Daniel Wilson, Austin Grossman, Naomi Novik, and Seanan McGuire…twenty-two great storytellers all told—have produced a fabulous assortment of stories guaranteed to provide readers with hour after hour of high-octane entertainment born of the most megalomaniacal mayhem imaginable.

Everybody loves villains. They’re bad; they always stir the pot; they’re much more fun than the good guys, even if we want to see the good guys win. Their fiendish schemes, maniacal laughter, and limitless ambition are legendary, but what lies behind those crazy eyes and wicked grins? How—and why—do they commit these nefarious deeds? And why are they so set on taking over the world?

If you’ve ever asked yourself any of these questions, you’re in luck: It’s finally time for the madmen’s side of the story.

Enter for a chance to win on Goodreads here!

(Ends January 31)

Also, don’t forget to check out our other sweepstakes!