New Shadowrun fiction anthology released!, Spells & Chrome is out, with 15 new stories, one Stackpole reprint Options

[JM Hardy]

I'm very excited to continue what is rapidly turning into Good News May by announcing the electronic release of the Spells & Chrome fiction anthology. Edited by Hugo-nominated editor John Helfers, this packs in 15 new stories with one Michael Stackpole classic, covers a range of cities including Manhattan, Lagos, Los Angeles, and of course Seattle, and brings a bunch of quality writers together including Shadowrun novelists Jean Rabe, Stephen Dedman, and Steve Kenson, along with skilled scribes like Phaedra Weldon, Kevin Killiany, Matt Forbeck, Ilsa Bick, Steve Mohan, and more! Including me! It's available from the Battleshop now in both ePub and Kindle formats. I hope you enjoy it, and as always I look forward to Dumpshockers putting their incisive critical eyes to work!

Jason H.

[Ancient History]

<yawn> Let me know when and if it ever hits print.

[/edit] There's a bit of lingering bitterness over this much-delayed anthology because when it was first solicited, the actual Shadowrun freelancers weren't asked (or really allowed) to submit for it because we weren't "industry professionals." Kenson and Hardy, natch, had more than a few novels under their belt at that point. I haven't read Jason's piece, but Steve Kenson turned in a very decent short story. The others...well, I didn't read all of them, but you can imagine the difficulties when fantasy authors not familiar with SR start trying to write SR with no real idea of the setting of the game. I can only hope that they were finally edited into something resembling SR now that they're being release.

[Ol' Scratch]

We get it, AH. You burned your bridges and you're pissy at the company despite everything they're doing to try and fix things. Jesus Christ. Get over it all ready.

[LurkerOutThere]

I wondered how many posts it would take i'm not sure if I'm disappointed or amused.

[Ancient History]

Never let it be said I disappoint, then.

Seriously, it's not my intention to denigrate the authors of the short stories in this collection or their work, if for no other reason than I simply haven't read most of it. Of the stories I did read that I know are in the anthology - Kenson's and Stackpoole's reprint - they are both solid pieces of work. I do think that not letting the actual SR freelancers submit was a shitty thing to do.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

So this is the fiction book that delayed all the sourcebooks?

[Matsci]

<yawn> Let me know when and if it ever hits print.

[/edit] There's a bit of lingering bitterness over this much-delayed anthology because when it was first solicited, the actual Shadowrun freelancers weren't asked (or really allowed) to submit for it because we weren't "industry professionals." Kenson and Hardy, natch, had more than a few novels under their belt at that point. I haven't read Jason's piece, but Steve Kenson turned in a very decent short story. The others...well, I didn't read all of them, but you can imagine the difficulties when fantasy authors not familiar with SR start trying to write SR with no real idea of the setting of the game. I can only hope that they were finally edited into something resembling SR now that they're being release.

Jeez, AH, you are turning into Trollman 2.0.

[The Dragon Girl]

Is this actually in print and not electronic? I actively hate reading books on the computer, but buy up anything in print I can get my hands on.

[Ancient History]

So this is the fiction book that delayed all the sourcebooks?

It was one more piece on the pile that needed editing and layout, and it too went through several developers and various people saying an anthology wouldn't sell well. Other than that, I don't believe it appreciably delayed any sourcebooks.

[knasser]

Jeez, AH, you are turning into Trollman 2.0.

You don't think it's reasonable that people who have written a very large proportion of the current Shadowrun fiction should be annoyed when they're told that they wont be allowed to even submit work for consideration? Sounds reasonable to me and some of us are interested in hearing what goes on behind the scenes, thanks, so it's not your place to tell others that they shouldn't post.

Thanks,

K.

[MindandPen]

As a general comment, more things in Kindle format would be good (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Stahlseele]

no. i want hardcopy. analogue text-files. dead tree format. not buying.
Sourcebooks and stuff where i want to search with text strings or comics with many images and little text are okay, but if i wanna read a story, i'm gonna stay with a book.

[nezumi]

I hate to say it, but I'm with Stahlseele. I buy my sourcebooks in digital format, because I rarely read them cover to cover, but novels... I like to be able to read (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Grexul]

Well, being the owner of a brand new B&N Nook e-reader, I am loving anything in epub as far as novels and such.

Grexul

[Enin]

For loving a setting set in the future where almost everything is digital, I find it a bit ironic that a lot of you refuse to read something that's not made out of paper. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[augmentin]

Jeez, AH, you are turning into Trollman 2.0.

In defense of AH, there are others on these boards that much more closely match both Trollman's acerbic style and penchant for wanton personal attacks.

AH, at least, has confined his attacks to a single entity.

[toturi]

For loving a setting set in the future where almost everything is digital, I find it a bit ironic that a lot of you refuse to read something that's not made out of paper. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Oh no... in a future setting where everyone is using all means at their disposal to get ahead, I find it appropriate that most people without the hacking skills want to buy a book in hardcopy. Afterall, you never know what additional software the e-version might contain, but purging a hardcopy of RFIDs may well be within the means of the average Dumpshocker.

[hermit]

Hm. I haven't yet found an ebook reader for my desktop I am even remotely happy with, so I hope this sees print. Furthermore, I hope there will be more novels to follow. And I am unwilling to buy a third computer - besides my netbook and my desktop - just for reading one single file format. If anybody could recommend me a decent program that has a working search function (unlike Stanza), and can actually *scroll the text*, I'd be very much obliged.

And on what Ancient wrote: I suppose they were going for known names in that anthology, shutting out people only known to the hardcore fanbase for names that would (maybe) grab the attention of a wider audience. Understandable from a business standpoint maybe, but really nothing that makes for a good atmosphere when you have to work together, I imagine. I can understand Ancient is angry about this, though I also see why this may have been laid out as it was by the Line Developer. Maybe a mix of stories by known authors and sourcebook authors would have worked too, but wat's done is done, I guess.

[JM Hardy]

Hm. I haven't yet found an ebook reader for my desktop I am even remotely happy with, so I hope this sees print. Furthermore, I hope there will be more novels to follow. And I am unwilling to buy a third computer - besides my netbook and my desktop - just for reading one single file format. If anybody could recommend me a decent program that has a working search function (unlike Stanza), and can actually *scroll the text*, I'd be very much obliged.

[snip]

Stanza for iPhone is very nice, but for some reason Stanza for desktop is quite poor. I was just checking out Adobe Digital Editions and I like it better for desktop ePub use. It has working search, and it scrolls text. Give it a shot.

Jason H.

[hermit]

Thanks. Will check it out.

[Udoshi]

You don't think it's reasonable that people who have written a very large proportion of the current Shadowrun fiction should be annoyed when they're told that they wont be allowed to even submit work for consideration? Sounds reasonable to me and some of us are interested in hearing what goes on behind the scenes, thanks, so it's not your place to tell others that they shouldn't post.

I have to agree with knasser. AH's insight into the workings of the company, and the knowledge of shadowrun before I even heard of it is quite nice. I, for one, like having him around to point out neat things.

[Kid Chameleon]

And on what Ancient wrote: I suppose they were going for known names in that anthology, shutting out people only known to the hardcore fanbase for names that would (maybe) grab the attention of a wider audience. Understandable from a business standpoint maybe, but really nothing that makes for a good atmosphere when you have to work together, I imagine. I can understand Ancient is angry about this, though I also see why this may have been laid out as it was by the Line Developer. Maybe a mix of stories by known authors and sourcebook authors would have worked too, but wat's done is done, I guess.

Yeah, sometimes those choices are tough. My story lost out to someone with more name recognition for the 25th Ann. BT book. I actually got the opening fiction for the Tech Manual but it was cut due to space. Sometime this industry isn't totally egalitarian. Some people can write sourcebook fiction, others can write standard fiction. Some can write both.

[Ancient History]

And some aren't given the opportunity.

[Kid Chameleon]

And some aren't given the opportunity.

Yup.

[Tiger Eyes]

I can understand Ancient is angry about this, though I also see why this may have been laid out as it was by the Line Developer. Maybe a mix of stories by known authors and sourcebook authors would have worked too, but wat's done is done, I guess.

Actually, at the time, the Line Developer (Peter Taylor) wasn't given this responsibility. Randall and Loren decided to have someone else manage the novels and fiction work. I believe Peter didn't see the stories, or have any input at all on authors, during his stint as Line Developer. I saw the stories during my brief stint as co-developer; mostly because I'd written one of the stories. None of the line developers - while I was still working with CGL - had any input on the anthology (outside myself, and my input, like I said, was very limited).