2022 Publication Recap – Award Eligibility Post

December 17, 2022

Here are my 2022 publications, should you feel inclined to consider them for your end-of-year posts, award nominations, or just recommending to your friends!

Novel

The Middling Affliction – Caezik SF&F

Short stories

The Book of Raisa – Other Covenants anthology – Ben Yehuda Press

Number of Americans Swept into Oz Rises to Unprecedented Levels – Daily Science Fiction

A Dark and Stormy Night – Silence in the City, Founders House

Translations

The Farctory – K. A. Teryna – The Best of World SF 2 – Head of Zeus

Fly Free – Alan Kubatiev – Clarkesworld

The Tin Pilot – K.A. Teryna – Asimov’s

The Living Furniture – Yefim Zozulya – F&SF

The Tale of Ak and Humanity – Yefim Zozulya – Tor.com

Editor – short form

Future Science Fiction Digest

Unidentified Funny Objects 9

Future SF is also eligible in a semiprozine category.


2023 Canopus Awards Nominee!

December 14, 2022

My story “Repairs at the Beijing West Space Elevator” was nominated for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Writing! This story originally appeared in Chinese as part of the FAA Lunar New Year Gala and was published in English at Analog.

Congratulations to my fellow nominees (that’s an impressive list and I really don’t expect to win my category!) Results will be announced at the 100YSS conference in Nairobi this coming February.


“The Farctory” by K.A. Teryna published in The Best of World SF 2

October 15, 2022

My translation of K.A. Teryna’s 11,000+ word novelette “The Farctory” was published this week in The Best of World SF 2 edited by Lavie Tidhar. This is an original, previously unpublished in translation story, and one of the longest among Teryna’s works. l like to describe it as an M.C. Escher painting in a written form. 🙂

I earned a prestigious RusTRANS grant from the University of Exeter to translate this story back in 2020 and Lavie picked up the completed translation for this anthology, which has already earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly.


Fly Free by Alan Kubatiev (translation) published at Clarkesworld

October 11, 2022

This month’s Clarkesworld magazine includes my translation of “Fly Free” by Alan Kubatiev. This is definitely one of the most difficult pieces I’ve translated to date, and I hope everyone will check it out!

Click here to read.


Audible Member Sale!

September 19, 2022

Audible is having a huge sale right now, with most audiobooks deeply discounted (up to 85% off!). That means you can grab the audio version of The Middling Affliction for just $4!

Eridani’s Crown will set you back $7 while a copy of Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma is a princely $8.73

Check out your favorite authors’ books as they’re probably discounted, too.

Now, you do have to be an Audible Plus member to take advantage of these prices (or even to see them on the Audible site!) You can sign up and try Audible Plus and if you do it via this link, Audible will throw me a few bucks. It won’t be enough to offset what I already spent buying audiobooks today. though. 🙂


A Brief Overview of Modern Ukranian SF&F in Clarkesworld

September 1, 2022

My translation of the article on the history and roots of Ukrainian SF/F by Volodymyr Arenev and Mykhailo Nazarenko is now live at Clarkesworld:

The White Tree of Gondor: A Brief Overview of Modern Ukrainian SF&F by Volodymyr Arenev and Mykhailo Nazarenko, translated by Alex Shvartsman

Book 2 of the Conradverse Chronicles Acquired by Caezik SF&F

July 19, 2022

I’m super late in posting this update, since I announced on social media last week, but it was either finish the book the publisher has so kindly bought, or post blog updates. I opted for the former!

I do have actual breaking news to report however: as of a few minutes ago, I delivered the manuscript to Arc Manor/Caezik. The book stands at 85,000 words, and I sincerely hope it will live up to reader expectations, given the incredibly enthusiastic response to The Middling Affliction.

The announcement does not list the book title, since it’s possible that the publisher may want to change it. As it stands right now, it’s Kakistocracy. This is a fancy term for the system of government where the worst and least qualified people are in charge. Those of you who read book 1 may remember a certain individual running for mayor of NYC at the very end of the book? Yeah, so that goes about as well as you might expect. But it’s not even the biggest problem Conrad Brent has to deal with this time.

There are fae serial killers, sidhe vendettas, factions of On High and Down Below quarreling over an unassuming house in Gravesend, and, of course, industrial quantities of snark. During the course of this book you will learn the true nature and purpose of Abaddon, Inc., the fate of Mose after his disappearance will be revealed, the coolest villain from book 1 will get a redemption arc, and Conrad will be forced to make very difficult choices–again.

This book is still about a year away, but I will keep everyone updates when there’s more news!


The Big Idea

June 2, 2022

“The big idea behind The Middling Affliction is actually three middling ideas stacked on top of each other, in a noir-sleuth trench coat.” Thus opens my guest blog post for John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. Huge thanks to John for hosting me, and if you’d like to check out the post, you can read it here:

There are several other cool recent links I must share (so please bear with me!)

I was on Alan R. Warren’s syndicated NBC radio show House of Mystery, and you can listen here:

https://www.alanrwarren.com/hom-podcast-episodes/episode/73210dd0/alex-shvartsman-the-middling-affliction-the-conradverse-chronicles-book-1

Finally, DC Gomez hosted me on her Amazon show The Book Corner:

https://www.amazon.com/shop/dcgomez-author


Liftoff!

June 1, 2022

The book is live! You can buy it in bookstores, online, and in all three formats (print, ebook, and audio.) And if you need an extra reason to do so, here are a few more reviews to sway you!

https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/middling-affliction-conradverse-chronicles

https://primmlife.com/2022/05/26/review-the-middling-affliction-by-alex-shvartsman/

https://www.anthonycardno.com/blog/2022/5/6/book-review-the-middling-affliction


Publishers Weekly Reviews AFFLICTION, and Other Good News

March 16, 2022

There’s a fabulous review of THE MIDDLING AFFLICTION over at Publishers Weekly and I’m so very stoked. It’s a treasure trove of great pull quotes to paste onto books, marketing materials, and possibly my forehead:

“Shvartsman delivers a laugh-out-loud, snarky adventure, throwing out pop culture references and wry observations with dizzying frequency.”

“Shvartsman takes a kitchen sink approach to urban fantasy, packing enough plot into this volume to span a whole series.”

“His supernatural New York City is vibrant and authentic, and Conrad fits right in with wisecracking fan favorite heroes like Harry Dresden and Simon Canderous.”

“A thoroughly satisfying romp.”

At the moment, my grin can be seen from space.

Meantime, the audiobook is now available for preorder from all the usual platforms, and you can preorder it for as little as $11, which is super inexpensive for an audiobook! Or just throw a credit at it on Audible. Both paperback and audio can be found here, and I expect the ebook preorder will join them soon.

Meantime, my translation of another century-old Yefim Zozulya story, “The Living Furniture” is live in the current issue of F&SF. And a new translation of “Incommunicado” by Andrej Kokoulin will appear in a forthcoming issue of Analog.

Finally, a new issue of Future Science Fiction Digest is now live. It features the following stories, as well as my editorial on the invasion of Ukraine.

“A Friend on the Inside” by Will McIntosh (USA)
“Four-Letter Word” by Alexy Dumenigo (Cuba), translated by Toshiya Kamei
“Rat’s Tongue” by Xing Fan (China), translated by Judith Huang
“Vagrants” by Lavie Tidhar (UK)
“The Sweetness of Berris and Wine” by Jo Miles (USA)
“Paean for a Branch Ghost” by Filip Wiltgren (Sweden)

Cover art: Oleksandr Kulichenko (Ukraine)
Cover design: Jay O’Connell (USA)