Cover reveal and holiday books
It’s getting to be cozy snuggling season—that time where you grab a blanket, a book, and a mug of hot chocolate, maybe a couple of plush reading buddies like MOTHMAN, and switch off the Internet for a while because it’s dang good for you. I hope you have lots of that scheduled for yourself. I just made some hot chocolate with a bar of dark chocolate, some milk, and other refinements and ohhhh my. (The refinements were some sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg mixed in, then I topped it with whipped cream and cinnamon.) LOOKIT.
This year’s short stories that I’ve been writing for paid subscribers to this here newsletter will be collected and published next year as THE GREAT BIG BEAR. Spiffy artist Phineas X. Jones did the cover art, capturing the landscape of the Yukon Territory—specifically Vuntut National Park—very well. I love it! Ready to take a gander?
To us this is a fantasy cover. To Oberon and Starbuck, it’s horror.
I’m assuming a timeline very similar to last year’s release of Oberon’s Bathtime Stories—that is to say, we’re looking at a release of April, most likely, and the audiobook should be available then too, narrated by Luke Daniels. Subscribers will get free download of that! Again, my deepest gratitude to y’all who support me—it supports Luke and Phineas as well!
It’s also the season for thinking about spiffy gifts, and in case you’d like to snag some signed books from me, you can order some novellas/stories from Horned Lark Press and they’ll ship anywhere in Canada or the US! All of Oberon’s Meaty Mysteries plus Oberon’s Bathtime Stories can be bought separately, but there are a couple of package deals worth highlighting: You can get the four Meaty Mysteries together for $44, or get The Five Oberons (which adds Oberon’s Bathtime Stories) for $56.99. Both packages include a signed bookmark and an Oberon sticker that says “I am snackworthy.” So long as you order by the end of the month, I’m pretty sure it will get to you in time for the holidays!
My novels, of course, are out there in bookstores—right now Bakka Phoenix in Toronto has a bunch of my signed novels, though I’m unsure about their shipping outside of Canada. It’s worth giving them a call to see about it! But even if you don’t grab a signed copy, thanks for getting your friends and family started on anything I’ve written. Deeply appreciated!
Vague News
I have a new book to announce later…so this is me announcing that there will be an announcement! Publishing is weird this way (and also in many other ways). I know exactly what will be happening but I can’t announce it for months, alas! But suffice it to say that I’m very happy and can’t wait for y’all to enjoy.
What I’m Reading
This first thing is something I think (???) I mentioned months ago because I got an early look, but hey, it’s out now, and it’s fun. Dinosaurs and cyborgs and aliens? YES PLEASE.
God’s Junk Drawer
Forty years ago, the Gather family--James, his daughter Beau, and his son Billy--vanished during a whitewater rafting trip and were presumed dead.
Five years later, Billy reappeared on the far side of the world, telling an impossible tale of a primordial valley populated by dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. Little Billy became the punchline of so very many jokes, until he finally faded from the public eye.
Now, a group of graduate astronomy students follow their professor, Noah Barnes, up a mountain for what they believe is a simple stargazing trip. But they're about to travel a lot farther than they planned ...
Noah--the now grown Billy Gather--has finally figured out how to get back to the valley. Accidentally bringing his students along with him, he's confident he can get everyone back home, safe and sound.
But the valley is a puzzle--one it turns out Noah hasn't figured out--and they'll need to solve it together if there's any chance of making it out alive.
Pulling from Earth's past, future, and beyond, Peter Clines has created a complex, dangerous world, navigated by a dynamic ensemble cast, and a story that is as thrilling as it is funny and heartfelt.
This next one was recommended to me by Becca at Bakka Phoenix Books in Toronto and I read whatever she gives me because it’s always good, and this is no exception!
Hole in the Sky
On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: “First contact imminent.”
Daniel H. Wilson’s Hole in the Sky is a riveting thriller in the most creative tradition of extraterrestrial fiction. Drawing on Wilson’s unique background as both a threat forecaster for the United States Air Force and a Cherokee Nation citizen, this propulsive novel asks probing questions about nonhuman intelligence, the Western mindset, and humans’ understanding of reality.
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