Author stakes claim in new vampire anthology
By Trevor Suffield at Winnipeg Free Press
Move over Edward and Bella, and put a stake in it Lestat — Charleswood resident Ron Hore is the newest fang in vampire fiction.
The father of five and grandfather of six recently had one of his short stories published in a new Canadian vampire anthology entitled Evolve: Vampire Stories of the Undead. His story, Chrysalis, chronicles the tribulations of a teenage girl who has one parent that is human and one that is a vampire. Hore says his inspiration did not come from a deep, dark place but rather the radio.
“I was listening to CBC talking about Darwin and that led to me thinking what would happen if a vampire and a human had a child?”
In 2006 he won the top prize in the Canadian Authors National Convention for his short story, Midnight, and has been a member of various writing groups across the city. Hore, who also writes science fiction and fantasy stories, says he isn’t too impressed with the recent slate of vampire stories invading pop culture, including the Twilight saga. His tastes run more along the lines of classic tales like Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Read More here
Paranormal Romance Readers, Where Are You?
by Heather Massey at Galaxy Express
Even though the market for (horror-based) paranormal romance was once supposedly “dead,” it’s not that way now. Readers have developed a rabid taste for preternatural heroes, heroines, and settings. With such a predilection for the exotic, it stands to reason they would also want to glom onto science fiction romance. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror—if you like one, chances are you like ‘em all, right?
So why aren’t the readers who enjoy paranormal romance also driving sales of science fiction romance? It seems as though strong SFR sales should be an automatic by-product of the paranormal romance boom. Clearly, that hasn’t been the case. Why is that?
Read More here
Time Traveler’s Wife Pips Kite Runner To Be The Lovereading Book Of The Decade
via Book Trade
In February 2010 Lovereading began the search for ‘the readers Book of the Decade’.
To begin with Sarah Broadhurst, Lovereading’s Editorial guru, chose her 50 favourites from the last 10 years and then it was over to the readers. The first stage, which attracted nearly 20,000 votes, took the top 50 to a shortlist of ten. Then, in April, the voting reopened to allow readers to choose the overall winner.
“Ten terrific books, something for everyone from love story (The Time Traveler’s Wife) to thriller (The Shadow of the Wind), strong drama (The Kite Runner) to a book narrated by Death himself (The Book Thief); a difficult choice to choose just one. I have, now you must. It is interesting to note that of the ten, seven have been filmed. Good films though they may be, none of them can portray the full depth and strength of the novels so if you have seen the film, why not now read the book. You’ll glean so much more from it.”
The final vote was very close with less than 0.5% between the top two titles! But with 18.1% of the total vote, Audrey Niffenegger’s unique book The Time Traveler’s Wife came out the winner.
Read More here
Living in a Sci-Fi Novel
by Paul Constant at The Stranger
Setting aside the embarrassing lack of jetpacks, there can be no doubt that we live in a science-fiction future. It’s become almost a cliché to say that, but just because a truth is universally accepted doesn’t make it any less true. One of the most discussed product debuts of the last few months is a glass screen, 10 inches tall and half an inch thick, that enables you to contact almost anyone on the planet via text communications, watch movies, read virtually any book ever published, and play games with people on other continents. We live in some author’s paperback science-fiction novel.
What nobody thinks to ask is this: What kind of a science-fiction novel are we living in?
We’re living in a dystopian future, we’re a populace in need of saving, and the logical next question is: What do we do now? For the last hundred years, we’ve looked to our science-fiction authors for the answer.
Read More here
I really like the premise of the Vampire Evolution anthology. That’s why I loved Vampire Tapestry, it deals with Vampirism from a scientific perspective. I don’t really read much Paranormal Romance, so I don’t know if it’s hard to find. I love that The Time Traveler’s Wife won best book of the decade. It’s such a great story, and I think it helped subtly introduce more people to Sci Fi.
What do you think of the idea that we’re living in a futuristic world? Do you think it’s good, or are we living in a dystopia? What do you think of modern Paranormal Romance?
