And if you want to know a bit about the Man Behind The Book, check out Matt’s great 9-Spot interview on Saundra Mitchell’s blog!

Meanwhile, we have a winner in the Crimsonstreaking contest! It’s hard not to see the appeal (badum-ching) of this entry!

Art & Words will be an ongoing, occasional series of elegantly designed books meant to draw the reader in, and give them free rein to stretch their imaginations. Each book will take a classic work of literature – some fantastical, some more mundane – and update it with new, glorious hand-drawn art by Brigid Ashwood.

Illustrations spun from the text, along with images that correspond to the author’s life and times, will enhance the redesigned original novel, letting readers experience it on a whole new level. And, if the text and images move you, there will be space in the back of the book to write notes, sketch, muse, or jot inspiration for your own next creation.

The first book in the Art & Words series will be an illustrated edition of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. More titles will follow!

You can read all about Brigid’s work and the process of creating the Art & Words logo on her blog.

We’re over the moon to be working with such a talented artist on such a great conceptual series, and we can’t wait to bring you the first books!

The IBPA has announced the finalists for the Ben Franklin Awards…and Erekos and Candlemark & Gleam are among them!

We’re finalists for Best First Book (Fiction) – which is decided based on writing, editorial, design work…the whole package.

It’s a huge honour to be in the finals, particularly for this very coveted, prestigious category of a very prestigious award, and we can’t wait for June 4!

For a full list of finalists, check out the IBPA page. We’re there waaaaay down at the bottom.

May 9: Charlie Cochrane, http://charliecochrane.livejournal.com/

May 10: Kay Berrisford, http://kayberrisford.com/

May 11: Elin Gregory, http://elingregory.wordpress.com/

May 16 and 17: Guest post and interview, Amara’s Place, http://amaras-place.blogspot.com/

And that’s on top of Monday’s Women and Words post!

And there are more tour stops to come, including giveaways, so don’t forget to check in at all the stops for great posts and opportunities to win a copy of the book!

Meanwhile, you can pre-order this stunning solo story collection – and get some very neat rewards – using our usual Kickstarter system! What are you waiting for?

Should the arts be left to the support of the buying public, and weeded out that way? Or should they be supported by governments, wealthy benefactors, etc, on the basis that “culture is necessary”?

Sadly, I can all too easily envision a future in which most of our entertainment takes the form of pop music, reality shows, and blockbuster movies and rom-coms if market forces are allowed to take hold. But at the same time, there’s also this underground aesthetic that promotes more offbeat offerings – such as C&G’s own – that uses bootstrapping, community-building, and general creativity to support creative projects that aren’t as commercial.

I still fear that things like opera, symphony music, and investigative journalism might die out without patronage. But I’m not sure how to reconcile that with the idea that culture evolves, and market pressures make clear what’s working and what’s not in the current culture.

My bigger fear, really, is that the indie aesthetic – as opposed to the blockbuster entertainment mentality – means that fewer in the “creative class” will actually inhabit that class and be able to make a living off their work. Bootstrapping and Kickstarter and whatnot are great – but they require a lot of work, and a lot of skills that many artists and writers and musicians may not have. And even if they do, it’s time that isn’t being spent creating. Which means that even as technology and the indie aesthetic surges forward, and makes it easier for more people to share their creations with the world, it’s harder to be discovered in that fray, and harder to make a living out of creating art and beauty and telling stories.

And that is the problem, as I see it.

What do you think?

Plus, it’s also time to start the pre-order for this thoughtful, transporting collection of fantastic – and fantastikal – tales. Not only can you get a copy of the book – or even a signed copy – but you can also get posters of images that inspired the author while writing, or a photo book filled with art and reference images and notes made by Stevie! You won’t be able to get incentives like that anywhere else…

So what’s in this great collection, you ask? Magic, wonder, and horror! Plus some very sweet – and sometimes unsettling – romance. There’s something for everyone!

A wander down a country pathway, a cruise vacation in the Mediterranean, a school reunion, a sandwich eaten in the park – in the stories of Stevie Carroll, the mundane becomes tantalizingly magical. A footballer’s mistress gets more than just an apartment when her lover tries to keep her in style; a rock-and-roll bass player finds out that second chances aren’t all they’re cracked up to be; something sinister lurks beneath the trappings of a travelling carnival.

Richly peopled with characters you might meet in the shop around the corner, yet haunted by glimpses of something entirely otherworldly, A Series of Ordinary Adventures will transport you from the streets and lanes of England to a place where imagination is only the beginning.

Magical realism mixes with subtle horror and heartfelt romance in a collection of stories that will captivate and transform you long after the final page.

Read the first story for free!

A Series of Ordinary Adventures launches on May 22, in print and digital, wherever books are sold.

First, Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson is now available in print! If you have a hard time waiting for a story to unfold week by week, you can now get a copy of the complete novel in paperback. No more holding out for the next chapter! Of course, you can still sign up for the Plutonium package, which will get you the book AND the serial, plus extras that you won’t be able to get by buying the paperback alone…

Next, I, Crimsonstreak news! We’ve passed our stretch goal of $1,000 for our Kickstarter pre-orders, and that means that everyone who signs up for a copy of the book gets a grab bag of cool extras! There’s still 5 days to go on pre-orders, though, and that means that we’re shooting for a second stretch goal. If we make $1,500, everyone who backs the book for $20 or more will get a poster of the cover, and we’ll make Morty’s guide available as a slim bound volume, instead of just a digital edition.

Plus, the Crimsonstreaking contest is still open! Go Crimsonstreaking and tweet a photo, email it to us, or post a link on your blog, then let us know on this form and you’ll be entered to win a digital copy of the novel. The best Crimsonstreaker, as judged by the author, will get a paperback, plus a goodie bag of swag!

And last, but certainly not least, Green Light Delivery by Anne E. Johnson has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly!

“The book’s joy lies in its humorous prose” which follows Webrid, our “‘everyalien’ caught up in intrigue beyond his understanding.”

Congratulations, Anne!

Deirdre Burns White clings desperately to her normal life. She has a job, a boyfriend and an apartment in the city of First Landing. She’s made sure life is normal… because Dee is an extrahuman. She can make fire with her mind and she has the devil’s luck, but because of that, she was once imprisoned and tortured by the ruthless Confederation military. All she wants is to bury the past and blend in.

When an old friend shows up bearing a letter and a command, though, Dee finds she can’t run any longer. The ghosts of her past have come back to haunt her, even as the first cracks finally begin to show in the Confederation’s smothering oppression.

Now First Landing is in a state of open, wild revolt, and Dee has to make a choice: to hide herself away, lost to guilt and regret, or to embrace her past and her dangerous powers to help save the people and the city she loves.

Dee could set the world on fire; all she needs is a spark.

As with all our books, we’re super-excited to be bringing this to you. But even better is the fact that this is yet another powerhouse entry in a really stunning series – if you’re not reading Extrahumans, you really should be. Susan has an incredible knack for developing characters, and for making a huge ensemble cast really work, even as she throws impossible situations their way.

It’s even topical – you’ll see hints of the Arab Spring – and it’s now even interactive: Susan has launched @MandolianVista as a way for you to get news on what’s going on in First Landing!

The Spark: Coming in Summer 2012!

Write a CDBOEGOACC entry on an alien video game for a chance to win a galley copy of the print version of Constellation Games - it’s an early, unproofed version, and only a handful of them exist. If you’re a subscriber, you can win a subscription upgrade!

Check out the author’s website for more details on how to enter. The entry he judges to be the coolest, wins!

You have until April 10 to enter, so get going!

So I was fairly pleased to see this article on taking a critical look at science fiction and fantasy. Should the genre be held to a standard higher than “mere entertainment”? Of course it should! There’s nothing wrong with just wanting a rollicking good adventure, but there’s also nothing wrong with wanting said adventure stories to be well-examined – don’t just shrug off huge problems with, say, a lack of women, or non-whites, or non-vanilla-heterosexual main characters. Don’t give the genre a pass just because it’s entertaining; there’s nothing that says entertaining can’t also be accurate, or thoughtful, or beautiful.

Hell, that’s what Candlemark & Gleam is about, in large part – proving that there are wonderful stories out there waiting to be told and devoured, in which people of all shapes, colours, creeds, genders, persuasions, etc. can flourish and play a role.

I’m doubly pleased by the article’s acknowledgment of the term “fantastika,” too. As you can tell by one of our slogans – “Purveyors of Fine Fantastika,” I’m a fan of this term – I find it more musical and more applicable than the alternate “speculative fiction,” and both of those terms encompass far more than “science fiction and fantasy” or “sf/f” ever will – and we certainly publish things that fall outside those strict subgenres.

I quite dislike the idea, quoted in the article, that history “began in the 1800s,” however. Not only is it pretty darn Anglocentric (not just Western-focused – ever hear of Greece and Rome?), it’s just plain wrong. Even if you’re looking at it as “the history of fantastika began in the 1800s,” you’re wrong. I would really like to take John Clute out back and thwap him with a copy of Lucian’s True History now, please.

But overall? Nice article. More fantastika. And yes, please, let’s hold authors accountable for expanding out of the “middle class white heterosexual male rut” that so many – regardless of genre – find themselves in.