Inside Jacket

This Wednesday, 5/18, at 4 PM Eastern, fans will have a chance to chat with author John Scalzi while he’s on tour for FUZZY NATION!

Tor Books is excited to announce that this month’s #TorChat will feature author John Scalzi! #TorChat is a monthly series of twitter chats, in which guest authors join fans in a lively, informative and entertaining discussion of all that’s hot in genre fiction, 140 characters at a time. The chat will take place on Wednesday, May 18th, from 4 – 5 PM Eastern.

This Wednesday’s #Torchat will be with New York Times bestselling author John Scalzi (@scalzi), who is currently on tour for his brand new novel, FUZZY NATION (May 10, 2011). John will be participating, barring any complications with travel, from his hotel in Salt Lake City. John will be available to answer fan questions and to talk about his new novel and its inspiration (the 1962 Hugo-nominated novel Little Fuzzy), his long running blog, Whatever, and what it’s like to be on tour.

The chat will be introduced and (loosely) moderated by Tor publicist Cassie Ammerman (@leanoir), with giveaways of advance copies of upcoming genre releases from @TorBooks following the 4 PM chat.

Keep an eye on the @TorBooks account, as well as that of the moderator, @leanoir, for updates on the chat’s start time, which is fluid due to the fact that John is on the road.

Our Author guest:

JOHN SCALZI is the author of several SF novels, including the bestselling “Old Man’s War” sequence, comprising Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Last Colony. He is a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and he won the Hugo Award for Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, a collection of essays from his wildly popular blog Whatever. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter.

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 and committed (although not limited) to SF and fantasy literature. 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 paperback, 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. Books from Tor have won every major award in the SF and fantasy fields, and for the last twenty-three years the company has been named Best Publisher in the Locus Poll, the largest consumer poll in SF.

Filed under: Events, News

“This outstanding first effort, the first book in a trilogy, will appeal greatly to zombie fans, but the undead are merely the catalyst for a far more disquieting tale of societal collapse.”

The First Days by Rhiannon Frater has received a Starred review in this week’s Publishers Weekly!

Below is the full review:

“This world is fragile.” This truth lies at the core of Frater’s intensely compelling first novel. When Jenni wakes up one morning and discovers her husband devouring their baby, she flees into a world suddenly populated by zombies. She is rescued by Katie, a lawyer haunted by her abandonment of her now-undead wife. The two traumatized women escape the city and discover unsuspected reserves of strength as they meet other survivors, some waiting for the government to save them and others trying to support one another through the chaos. Katie and Jenni join a group in a fortified site and are faced with the enormous task of rebuilding the world. This outstanding first effort, the first book in a trilogy, will appeal greatly to zombie fans, but the undead are merely the catalyst for a far more disquieting tale of societal collapse.” (July)

What others are saying about The First Days:

Fatally Yours
Buy Zombie
Random Musings
Horror Drive-in

Filed under: News

There are readers and then there are book lovers. Rachel falls into the latter category. When you need a good fantasy recommendation, seek out Rachel. This girl knows her stuff! And now she's heading up our Fantasy Book Group, which meets the 3rd Saturday of each month at noon, and our Young Adult Book Group, which meets the 2nd Saturday of every month at noon. These groups are open to anyone, so we'd love to see you!

You can also check out Rachel's book reviews by visiting her blog.

Our book group coordinator, Cindi, took some time to ask Rachel some questions. Enjoy!

1. Why did you want to start, not one, but two book groups at VB?

I actually mentioned my desire to start both a Young Adult and a Fantasy book group during my job interview. As a customer, I loved Village Books, but the store struck me as out of the loop in the fantasy scene. I have talked to a lot of other people who feel the same way, and shop elsewhere for this reason. The Young Adult section seems much more up to date, but still we don't have a large young adult demographic. The book groups are just one of the ways I would like to work on improving our perception in both those areas. In general, though, these genres have a lot more in common than is immediately apparent: they are both underappreciated, often labelled trite, and considered easier to write. Book groups are the perfect opportunity for those who love these genres to meet others with the same passion, and discuss not only specific books, but why some of these stereotypes about young adult and fantasy exist, and how the actual books disprove them.

2. How long have you been a fan of fantasy and why?

I was converted into a fantasy fan when I read Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet in eighth grade. From there, it didn't take much reading in the fantasy genre to notice a clear trend: women in fantasy are often tougher, smarter, and cooler than those in other books (or at least that's how it struck me in junior high). I couldn't get enough of these women who seemed more powerful, and less inhibited than women in other works. I believe that fantasy was able to help lead the way into writing stronger women, because people were more agreeable to reading about an opinionated woman in an unrealistic setting, so they could justify her strength as fantasy. Of course, all fantasy stems from and spills back into reality. Still I never actually prefered fantasy over other genres until I started writing. When I realized that most of what I was writing was fantasy, it became a necessity to ensure I read plenty in the field I want to publish in. Now I'd say about 75% of what I read is fantasy.

3. Some have said that Young Adult (YA) literature is more exciting in today's market than adult fiction, what do you think?

I agree! I do not say this to be insulting to adult fiction. Rather YA literature deals with discovering who you are. Most adult fiction deals with REdiscovering who you are. Both are important journeys, but I've always been most drawn to that period when you're finding your place in the world for the first time.

4. Have you been in book groups before?

No, I haven't, and the reason why is very relevant here. I tried a few times, but it never worked out. Every book group I attended looked down on fantasy (and sometimes on young adult), and would say, "we want to read REAL books here." I read all kinds of books, but I feel strongly that fantasy and young adult deserve as much respect as any other genre and they don't always get it. I would be perfectly comfortable in a book group that didn't read fantasy exclusively, but I don't feel welcome in one that spits on the genre.

5. Describe your reading taste.

I will read anything, but, of course, I have favorites. Currently, I primarily read fantasy, though I also read a lot of young adult as well. The foremost reason for this is because I'm trying to publish my own fantasy works and it's important to know what's current in the genre you're working in. Honestly, though, I just enjoy a good story. The best way to really know someone's taste is by specific books, so here are some books I loved (you will see a lot of fantasy and young adult, but then others pop up in there!): Love, Inc. by Yvonne Collins and Sandy Rideout (YA), The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, The Black Jewels by Anne Bishop(F), The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison(YA, F), Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (YA, F), The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (YA), A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (YA, F), Sabriel by Garth Nix(YA, F), Looking for Alaska by John Green (YA), His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (YA, F), Shogun by James Clavell, Graceling by Kristin Cashore (YA, F), The Other Boleyn Girl by Philipa Greggory, Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson (YA), Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA), Blood and Chocolate by Annete Curtis Klause(YA, F), Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder (F), Aurelia by Anne Osterlund (YA), Druids by Barbara Galler-Smith and Josh Langston (F), Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan (F), Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander (F)

6. Tell us something about yourself that is unique to you and might surprise us…

I do not re-read books. This is a shocker to a lot of book lovers, but my reasoning is that there are so many amazing books out there that I haven't read yet that I cannot bring myself to spend (I won't say waste) my precious time re-reading things. I have re-read books in the past, usually by necessity, and I have never found a book that I enjoyed reading as much as the first time.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day. To commemorate the holiday, I enlisted the help of Piper Weiss, the author of the charming new blog-to-book “My Mom Style Icon.” Weiss was inspired to start a blog after discovering a hidden cache of pictures of her mother, Marilyn, taken during her globetrotting youth in the late sixties. In one picture, a Jamaican soldier ogles fetching young Marilyn, who’s wearing a wide-brimmed hat, hip-huggers, and a groovy arm band; in another, Marilyn wears a bright-yellow jumpsuit while sitting astride a camel in Morocco. Chock-full of aged snapshots of once-young mothers in cat-eye glasses, beehive hairdos, and fringed suede vests, “My Mom Style Icon” is a celebration of vintage fashion and the youthful spirit that once inspired it. Below are Weiss’s thoughts on some fashionable literary moms.

• “The thing about Patti is that she always did what she wanted, and continues to do so. In terms of style, the best photos of our mothers are the ones that capture a moment when they didn’t seem to care what anyone thought. If she did care, she cared defiantly, like a teen-ager. It’s the kind of style you can’t exactly copy.”
• “If, like Erica Jong, your mom had coined the term ‘zip-less fuck,’ you’d know her wardrobe was important to her—even if it was more about taking it off. I love those two-tone, oversized glasses, a staple of the late seventies, and her trench coat. All perfect for a surreptitious tryst.”
• “This is one of my favorite photos in the book. A celebrated romance novelist, Edith Layton sports an outfit that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. Red hair, bright green dress, her look literally pops off the page. According to her daughter, looks popped off her pages as well. ‘My mother loved dressing her characters,’ says daughter Susie Felber. ‘The clothes were just as important going on as they were coming off.’”
• “Sandals, a cigarette, and a lot of leg. She looks like the template for a Diane Von Furstenberg collection. Like her poems, every photo of Ann Sexton is a profession of her femininity. It seems like it was both an asset for her and a source of frustration—which of course makes for a great photo.”
• “Joan Didion’s trademark oversized glasses have defined her image as an author the way Tom Wolf’s white suit defined his. Her look has always been accidentally glamorous, fragile but intimidating. You can’t look at her photos from the seventies without imagining a room with a stuffed ashtray, a Harry Nilsson record playing and Jack Nicholson on the couch drinking a scotch. It brings to mind the L.A. scenes in ‘Annie Hall.’ She’s like a hybrid of Alvy and Annie.”
• “There’s something very Hugh Hefner about this photo of Jaqueline Susann, as if she’s flaunting the fact that she can wear pajamas like outerwear at this point in her career, and look elegant no less. It’s not the kind of author photo someone takes to earn respect in the literary world, but Susann had a different M.O.”
• “I love this photo of Alice Walker so much in part because of her expression. She seems unapologetic, at peace with herself as a woman. It was taken in Berkeley, in 1983, the same year she wrote ‘In Search of Our mothers’ Gardens.’”
• “The author of the memoir ‘Ticket to the Circus’ and Norman Mailer’s sixth wife, Norris Church Mailer began her career as a model. This studio shot from 1976 captures her glossy, ethereal beauty. Her son, John Buffalo Mailer, recalled her elaborate hair- and makeup routine in ‘My Mom Style Icon’: ‘It felt almost like she was Roman gladiator getting prepared to enter the arena and conquer whatever challenge was put in front of her. My mother has the ability to make most things seem like an adventure.’”

Cornell Woolrich was an incredibly successful crime writer, who also wrote under the pseudonyms of William Irish and George Hopley. Even though his novels and short stories sold in huge numbers and were adapted into numerous Hollywood thrillers, Woolrich led a sad life and most of his books are now out-of-print.

Rediscover one of the true masters of murder and mystery writing, and some of the fantastic, dark and pulpy covers of his books.