Things are moving quickly now for the Shapers of Worlds anthology coming from Shadowpaw Press, which I successfully Kickstarted earlier this year: it features original fiction and reprints from some of the authors who were guests during the first year of The Worldshapers podcast.
All stories are edited, the layout is done, the proofreading is done, and I’m lining up a printer for the Kickstarter paperback. On track for print books to go out in September! (Ebooks could go out even sooner.) I still have to finalize the cover (the front is done, but not the back), but today I wrote a draft of the back cover/online bookstore blurb. Here’s a sneak peek:
Shapers of Worlds
Within these pages lie eighteen stories from eighteen worlds shaped by some of today’s best writers of science fiction and fantasy, all of whom were guests on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers during its first year.
Some of these writers are bestsellers. Among them are winners and nominees for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, Aurealis, Ditmar, British Science Fiction Association, and Dragon Awards. Some have been writing for decades, some are still early in their careers, but all have honed their craft to razor-sharpness.
A teenage girl finds something strange in the middle of the Canadian prairie. A xenobiologist tries to liberate a giant alien, enslaved by humans on its own homeworld. The music of the spheres becomes literal for an Earth ship far from home. A league of superheroes interviews for new members. Strangers share a drink on a world where giant starships fall. Two boys, one a werewolf, one a mage, get more than they bargained for when they volunteer to fight an evil Empire. A man with amnesia accepts a most unusual offer. A young woman finds unexpected allies as she tries to win a flying-machine race in steampunk London . . .
Ranging from boisterous to bleak, from humorous to harrowing, from action-filled to quiet and meditative; taking place in alternate pasts, the present day, the far, far future, and times that never were; set on Earth, in the far reaches of space, in fantasy worlds, and in metaphysical realms, each of these stories is as unique as its creator. And yet, they all showcase the innate, irrepressible need of human beings to create, to imagine, to tell stories:
To shape worlds.