Award potential? Quick

I’ve just returned from a cycling marathon puffing up Welsh mountains visiting names such as World’s End, Heol Offa, Horseshoe Pass and Llangollen. A non-writing friend  in Coedpoeth, Wales, I dropped in unannounced, for a cup of tea en route was keen to tell me how much he enjoyed Escape Velocity: the anthology I’d given him a few weeks ago. He’s been reading SF for over 40 years and pressed upon me that it was by far the very best collection he’d ever read. Wow. I know I’d spent two years going through thousands of submissions, selecting the best from our Escape Velocity mag included. One of mine is in there to lower the standard but he liked that too. Then he said why not enter it for the BFS best anthology? I said I don’t think as editor that I am allowed… but perhaps another member of the BFS could.

Details: Escape Velocity: The Anthology contains stories from 40 contributors including Jaine Fenn, Sonny Whitelaw, Ian Whates, the controversial Rebecca Latyntseva, TTA’s Roy Gray, Rob Harkess, Catherine Edmunds, and so on. A mix of hard SF, time travel, thoughtful ponderings, a cartoon…

Published 8 April 2011 by Adventure Books of Seattle, (owned by Robert Blevins) edited by Geoff Nelder and Robert Blevins ISBN-13: 978-0982327197

or Kindle on Amazon see http://amzn.to/H04ZqB

pub website http://adventurebooksofseattle.com/

Between you and me I’d hoped that by involving 40 writers that they would have bought copies for themselves and friends but few have done so. It really is an excellent collection and even though I plugged it here and there a lone voice isn’t enough. If you are a member of the BFS I would be very grateful if you would consider nominating our Escape Velocity: The Anthology (31 March 2012 deadline -  aaarrgh)  http://www.britishfantasysociety.co.uk/british-fantasy-awards/

for the category of best anthology collection of short stories.

Launch day

Today we launched Escape Velocity: the Anthology. At least it was for the e-book version. The print comes out later in the month. Strange and unique day. I spent most of the morning sending PayPal payments to authors who’d contributed to the EV antho – not done that before! It felt soooooo good adding the paypal message to thank them for their stories.
I was frustrated at not finding the paypal emails or addresses (for cheques) for some contributors – I’d sent emails requesting such weeks ago but no response. Tonight, I was still working on tracking missing authors and responding to facebook and email requests when my wife pulled at my elbow. “We’re going to the pub.” I tried to say no but remembered we’d arranged a retirement evening for a colleague. Damn. But it was great in the end to chat with not-wriitng friends. I’ve given up mentioning my writing to them and talk about our kids, holidays etc. One is an English teacher but although he enjoys our chats about Chekhov, he seems to switch off if I talk about science fiction or fantasy. Oh well, we are an esoteric lot, aren’t we?

For British readers who’d like to see the Kindle version of the Escape Velocity anthology, the link is here, while for Amazon.com users it is here.

Science Fiction reviewers please get in touch with me at geoffnelder(AT)yahoo.com

Escape Velocity: the Anthology

It’s coming soon. I’ve been kept busy reading hundreds of excellent science fiction short stories for months and at the eleventh hour this weekend came more. Writers have spurned family outings to hone their tales of wonder and hidden dimensions to slip them under my nose. Just in the last few days I’ve had my imagination spun by Jon Pinnock, Catherine Edmunds, Mark Iles and Roy Gray. All the stories and one cartoon and a poem are now in. There are 40 pieces from over 30 contributors – it is a hell of a starry brilliant read. Watch this space.

Illustration is from the first issue of Escape Velocity – probably we’ll use the same image for the anthology. Olympus Mons on Mars.

Also hoping to make a million – all right, a few bob – from the ebook of my Escaping Reality humorous thriller. Less than 2 dollars at Smashwords here.  I’ve seen blogs and articles about how Amanda Hocking has sold hundreds of thousands of her bloody fantasy books. “They are no where near as fun to read as Nelder’s Escaping Reality.” Quote from a drunken friend – yes, I bought her the drinks.

Back to my little world of writing – must get the third book of my Left Luggage trilogy done. I can’t wait to see how it ends.

Escape Velocity: The Anthology

The anthology of best and new stories submitted to Adventure Books of Seattle’s Escape Velocity magazine is nearing fruition. Last night I finished proofreading 35 stories for the anthology. Not all will be used in it because some are now rather dated and we want the publication to excite readers with its brilliance. Names you might know that are in it are in random order:

Rebecca Latyntseva, Ian Whates, Rosie Oliver, Robert Harkess, William C McCall, Clyde Andrews, Gayle Applegate, David Tallerman, Brian Koscienski and Chris Pisano, Mark Lewis, Gareth D Jones, Joshua Blanc, Gavin J Carr, David Wallace Fleming, Karl Bunker, Sheila Crosby, Ben Bamber, Branden Johnson, Barbara Krasnoff, Ian Smith, Tina M Crone, Bec Zugor, Barry Pomeroy, Lawrence Buentello, Richard Jay Goldstein, Paul Freeman, Adam Colston, Kaolin Fire, Derek Rutherford, and a couple of stories from me and Robert Blevins. Hopefully, we can squeeze in a cartoon by Roberta Gregory too.

We have March 17th as a release date. That may be optimistic but best to have goals. The stories range from edgy noir near future, to struggling on a space rock, weird stuff in future in-ear audio devices to how can a child-bride save herself, both from a violent husband and the psychiatrist. I am exuberant over this anthology. It’s taken a lot of time and work – the nearest an editor gets to giving birth – in a literary sense!