Kristin Janz

Tag: Imaginarium 2012

  • Imaginarium 2012

    I finally had a chance to read the other stories in the Imaginarium 2012 anthology, the one that reprinted my story “The Kiss of the Blood-Red Pomegranate” from Aoife’s Kiss.  There are a lot of great stories in here!  I think my favorite was Madeline Ashby’s “The Education of Junior Number 12”, about androids who fall in love with humans (although that simple description fails to convey the wonderful characterizations, and the thoughtful portrayal of the sort of effect this might have on human relationships).

    I also loved Geoffrey W. Cole’s “On the Many Uses of Cedar”, a story reminiscent of Groundhog Day in which the reader’s sense of who the villain is shifts from the easy assumption implied by the opening; Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s “Laikas 1”, about a woman inexplicably followed by a growing pack of feral dogs; Gemma Files’s “Signal to Noise”, about an ex-CIA agent who seems to be sending messages to his former boss from beyond the grave; Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “A Puddle of Blood”, a very unusual vampire romance; Derek Kunsken’s “To Live and Die in Gibbontown”, with its intelligent macaques, bonobos, and gibbons in an apparently post-human world; and Ada Hoffmann’s creepy “Centipede Girl”.

    Imaginarium also includes poetry, and while I don’t know poetry well enough to feel I can speak intelligently about it, I especially liked Peter Chiykowski’s “The Cinder Girl” and Carolyn Clink’s “10 Things to Know About Staplers” (although I’m not sure the latter is actually a poem; I’m not sure what to call it, really).

    Imaginarium 2012 is the first installment in what is expected to be an annual anthology of the best Canadian speculative fiction and poetry (“speculative” being an umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy, and horror).  For those of you who, like me, grew up in Canada, don’t worry:   it isn’t all slow, meditative work about the bleakness of the vast Canadian landscape.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)  There are stories in the anthology set in the Canadian wilderness, while others take place in South America, Africa, Europe, or the Middle East.  According to the anthology editors, Canadian speculative fiction simply means “speculative fiction written by Canadians”; if there was any other measure of “Canadian-ness” used to select stories, I couldn’t see evidence of it here.

    Imaginarium is still available, either directly from the publisher, or from any of the major online retailers.

  • Imaginarium 2012, again

    Okay, it seems to be available from all the American online booksellers now (links are here).  Enjoy!

  • Imaginarium 2012 now available – in Canada

    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.)

  • Story to appear in Canadian Best of the Year anthology

    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!