Monstrous Affections

Yuko Shimizu reports that her cover illustration for Monstrous Affections  has been selected for American Illustration #34. Nice!

2014 Aurealis Awards finalists announced Conflux Inc., organisers of the 2014 Aurealis Awards, are delighted to announce the finalists for the 2014 Aurealis Awards. Judging Coordinator, Tehani Wess...

Congratulations Kathleen Jennings!

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL/ILLUSTRATED WORK FINALIST

and there are 3 stories from Monstrous Affections as well as one from my co-editor, Kelly Link (from My True Love Gave To Me!). Looks like another fantastic anthology from Jonathan!

“Tough Times All Over”, Joe Abercrombie

“The Scrivener”, Eleanor Arnason

“Moriabe’s Children”, Paolo Bacigalupi

“Covenant”, Elizabeth Bear

“Slipping”, Lauren Beukes

“Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind)”, Holly Black

“Shadow Flock”, Greg Egan

“The Truth About Owls”, Amal El-Mohtar

“Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology”, Theodora Goss

 “Cold Wind”, Nicola Griffith

 “Someday”, James Patrick Kelly

“Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8)”, Caitlin R Kiernan

“Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying”, Alice Sola Kim

“Amicae Aeternum”, Ellen Klages

 “Calligo Lane”, Ellen Klages

“The Lady and the Fox”, Kelly Link

“The Long Haul From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION”, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009”, Ken Liu

“The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”, Usman T Malik

 “Four Days of Christmas”, Tim Maughan

 “The Fifth Dragon”, Ian McDonald

“Shay Corsham Worsted”, Garth Nix

“I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There”, K. J. Parker

“Kheldyu”, Karl Schroeder

“Tawny Petticoats”, Michael Swanwick

“Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)”, Rachel Swirsky

“The Insects of Love”, Genevieve Valentine

“Collateral”, Peter Watts

“The Devil in America”, Kai Ashante Wilson

Fab news: Monstrous Affections is a Junior Library Guild pick!

"In wildly creative, original stories, fifteen YA authors investigate the intense passions that arise when monsters such as krakens and harpies live alongside humans"

Monsters "exist in violation of the way we think things ought to be," write Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (Steampunk!), editors of another delightful (often frightful) anthology of short fantasy fiction--this time about some lovable monsters, the choices they pose and the humans they meet. The introduction to this anthology of 15 stories provides information (and an entertaining pop quiz) about the contents. The well-known authors chose to portray monsters of different types: vampires, embedded spirits and harpies, among others. The strong writing brims with misdirection, humor, horrors and twisty endings. Paolo Bacigalupi's "Moriabe's Children" raises questions about the definition of family: Can the krackens of the deep be kinder to a girl than her own mother is? Holly Black's rollicking "Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind)" prepares readers to survive a pirate attack on a smuggler's ship (e.g., "Don't hide in the cargo hold, because everybody wants what's in the cargo hold"). "Mothers, Lock up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying" by Alice Sola Kim features a group of friends who met at an event for Korean adoptees, who summon a spirit (called "Mom") that literally takes possession of them--to the girls' increasing dismay. This substantial volume will provide older teens--and adults--with hours of thoroughly enjoyable reading. A monstrously entertaining anthology. --Ellen Loughran