Latest Shenanigans: Strange Horizons • 47North • Hugos …

Before you all hit ‘silent mode’ for the month of August (that is, those of you who live in the northern hemisphere), I thought I’d bring you up to date with what’s happening in my little world. It’s just one month since I received the email from David Pomerico at 47North offering me a publishing deal, and it’s been full-on hectic – in a good way – since then. But before I tell you what’s happening with the new edition of my book…

Over at Strange Horizons (SF articles, reviews, new fiction), you’ll find my review of Ioanna Bourazopoulou’s What Lot’s Wife Saw, translated by Yiannis Panas. This dystopian novel won the The Athens Prize for Literature.

While you are there, I’d recommend the article Evaporating Genres, by Gary K. Wolfe. Gary examines the crossover of SF with historical fiction, horror, fantasy and thrillers. Also, Niall Harrison is reviewing Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus, which my local book group is reading at this very moment.

 47North edition of A Calculated Life

Meanwhile… things are moving apace with the new edition of A Calculated Life, due to be published by 47North on 17 September. I went through the copy-edits last week and I’m pleased to say that the ‘Americanization’ of the novel does not mean that the book’s setting is shifting from Manchester to Chicago, as a couple of friends predicted (what a wind-up!). And the vocabulary is pretty much unchanged. Manchester’s pavements have not become sidewalks. But a ginnel has become an alley! Well, let’s face it, who knows what a ginnel is outside Greater Manchester? In fact, many of the changes deal with punctuation! The house style is based on the Chicago Manual of Style and it’s markedly different to what I’m used to. They’re a great team at 47North and the process so far has been intense but smooth. One unexpected spin-off is that I’m getting to know other authors (new friends!!) represented by this imprint of Amazon Publishing. We’ve decided to write for one another’s blogs from time to time so you’ll be meeting the authors over the coming months.

Here’s a first for me: one of my reviews has been included in an efanzine. My review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312, which first appeared on this blog, is running in DrinkTank, in a special issue on The Hugo Awards 2013.

Talking of The Hugos, I will be reviewing the short story shortlist before the winners are announced at the end of the August. (I’m into short stories at the moment. In fact I might write a post about my favourite collections. Perhaps you’d like to suggest some).

And, finally, I’m delighted to see that NoViolet Bulawayo has reached the 2013 Man Booker longlist with her novel We Need New Names. I reported here on NoViolet’s event at Hay Festival and I was impressed. Also on the list is Colum McCann for TransAtlantic. My tweet about Colum’s remark at Hay went (almost) viral: ‘I like a female protagonist. Women somehow have bigger, baggier emotional wardrobes.’

If you’d like to read the Man Booker shortlist before the winner is announced, here are the dates:
10 September 2013 – Shortlist announcement
15 October 2013 – Winner announcement

That’s all for now!

P.S. Come and meet me on twitter here