Kristin Janz

My story “The Kiss of the Blood-Red Pomegranate” is now out in Imaginarium 2012, an annual reprint anthology from ChiZine Publications and Tightrope Books featuring the previous year’s best Canadian speculative fiction (i.e., science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, and whatever else the editors decide fits).  The story came out last year in Aoife’s Kiss, a small print magazine, so it’s exciting for me that my story was chosen to appear in Imaginarium, and perhaps reach a wider audience.

Imaginarium is already available in Canada, either directly from the publisher, or from Amazon.ca or Chapters/Indigo, and you can get it in either trade paperback or e-book (all the major formats).  I don’t know if it’s also available in brick-and-mortar bookstores.  (You know, the old-fashioned kind, that you have to walk into.)

The publisher does make more money if you buy it from them instead of a third party, and that means they can then put more money back into the business, publishing more books and paying more authors.  But of course, they (and I!) would be delighted if you choose to buy a copy, no matter where you buy it.  There are 37 stories and poems, most of them by Canadian authors far more famous than I.

If you live in the United States, you can get it now from any of the aforementioned e-book retailers (or direct from ChiZine), but the trade paperback won’t be available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or other online bookstores until at least the end of August (although you can pre-order).  I’ll post here again once it is available.  You could still order it from the publisher, but the shipping is another 165% on top of the cost of the book.  (Please blame Canada Post for the outrageous price, not the publisher.)

If you don’t live in either Canada or the United States … well, I hope you like e-books!  Although it’s interesting how our expectations have changed.  20 years ago, if a book I wanted came out from a small publisher in another country (especially if that country was not the United States), I would have taken for granted that it would be difficult and possibly expensive to obtain.  Nowadays, I feel kind of miffed if I can’t get cheap 7-day shipping.  But you may be a better person than I am.  (I’m pretty sure ChiZine will ship the book to you anywhere in the world with a functional postal service, but they will have to charge you whatever it costs them.)

ChiZine Publications does appear at various science fiction conventions throughout Canada and around the world, often with a table of books for sale, if you’re a convention-goer you might also be able to purchase the book there.  (They’ll be at Worldcon in Chicago, and World Fantasy in Toronto, among others.)

The table of contents is up, so it’s official:  my story “The Kiss of the Blood-Red Pomegranate”, published last year in Aoife’s Kiss, is slated to appear in Imaginarium 2012:  The Best Canadian Speculative Writing.  Of course, I feel incredibly honored to have a story chosen for this, along with writers like Cory Doctorow, Geoff Ryman, and Peter Watts.

Imaginarium is a yearly anthology co-published by ChiZine Publications and Tightrope Books.  It’s coming out in July, but you can already pre-order either the trade paperback or the e-book (Kindle, iBook, or Nook).

I’ll post another update once the book has been officially released, and probably another once I’ve had a chance to read all the other stories.  This will be my first appearance in any Best of the Year anthology, so I’m pretty excited!

I recently finished reading my contributor’s copy of Aoife’s Kiss, which features my story “The Kiss of the Blood-Red Pomegranate”.  My favorite story was Rachel Zakuta’s “Memory of Snow”, an urban fantasy retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen”.  I’ve always found “The Snow Queen” the most compelling of Andersen’s stories, and I thought Zakuta’s version worked both as an homage and as its own story, with Gerda having to rescue her younger brother from under the spell of their magically-gifted mother in Canada.

Aoife’s Kiss also published poetry.  I’m not sure I read enough poetry to be a good judge, but I loved V. Shirley Valencia’s poem “The Stray They Brought Inside”, printed on the back cover of the magazine.  It’s a beautifully written poem, the speculative element both subtle and integral to the piece.

I also enjoyed  ”Wolves”, by Laura DeHaan, a retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” with a clever twist; and Chris Ward’s “Happy Shopping”, a satirical science fiction piece about the future of consumerism (you can read Chris Ward’s story and V. Shirley Valencia’s poem for free at the Aoife’s Kiss website).

I really like the diversity of fiction Aoife’s Kiss publishes, everything from steampunk to historical romantic fantasy, to hard science fiction.  They have great cover art, too, this month’s by April Bullard.

Aoife’s Kiss is also the only magazine that both Donald and I have appeared in, so far.  Donald’s story “A Stranger in the Library” appeared back in Issue 23, December 2007.

The magazine comes out in print four times a year, in March, June, September, and December.

My story “The Kiss of the Blood-Red Pomegranate” is now available in print magazine Aoife’s Kiss.  You can order a copy here for $8 plus $3 shipping and handling (they sell subscriptions, too).

The original inspiration for this story was a dream I had, of walking down a mysterious, dimly-lit stone stairwell.  There was something ominous about it, and as I got farther down, the stone walls had Egyptian hieroglyphs carved into them, making me think of old tombs.  The final story did keep the stone stairwell, but everything else in it was dreamed up while I was conscious.

Adam, the protagonist of my Prairie Fire story “Woman Moving to the Country” (published earlier this year) shows up again in this one, though this time it’s not from his viewpoint.  I actually wrote “The Kiss of the Blood-Red Pomegranate” first, though it takes place later, so I guess ”Woman Moving to the Country” could be considered a prequel.  It didn’t have any speculative fiction elements though, and “The Kiss of the Blood-Red Pomegranate” most certainly does!