Happy National Read a Book Day!
I’m on radio 1540 WADK, Talk of the Town with Bruce Newbury this morning. You can listen at the link below and the interview will also play in again on his weekend show in the NY/VT area.
At 8:15 am Pacific Time I will be live on the CW affiliate KRCW-TV in Portland OR as well.
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I’ll be returning to Dragoncon for the first time in nearly 30 years! My last visit was as a fan, and I spent a glorious weekend there, having just discovered LARPing. This time, I’ll be attending as a professional and participating on a bunch of panels and book-related things.
Here’s my schedule!
Fantasy Gather
Friday, 8pm
Hanover C–E (Hyatt)
| Title: Awakening the Great Old Ones: Writing Modern Cthulhu Mythos Stories |
| Time: Sat 02:30 pm Location: Peachtree 1-2 Westin (Length:1 Hour) |
| Description: Our panel of experienced writers explore the enduring appeal of the Cthulhu Mythos. Discover how to craft unique creatures, intricate plots, and characters that feel at home in the Mythos while still pushing its boundaries. *A signing with all of these authors will take place following the panel. |
| Panelists: Kenneth Hite(M), Richard Lee Byers, Chris Jackson, James Palmer, Alex Shvartsman, Esther Friesner |
Title: Signing Showcase – Horror track |
| Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: Overlook Westin (Length:1 Hour) |
| Description: Following the Awakening the Great Old Ones: Writing Modern Cthulhu Mythos Stories, the panelists will be featured in the Author Signings area. |
| Panelists: Kenneth Hite, Richard Lee Byers, Chris Jackson, James Palmer, Alex Shvartsman, Esther Friesner |
Title: Xenoarcheologists Present |
| Time: Sat 08:30 pm Location: Embassy AB Hyatt (Length:1 Hour) |
| Description: An esteemed panel of experts from many worlds and disciplines examines archeological finds to help determine what they are, and what they were used for. |
| Panelists: Alex Shvartsman, Jody Lynn Nye(M), Esther Friesner, R.R. Virdi, Doug Burbey, Stephen L Antczak |
Title: Many Tongues, 1 World: Using or Creating Languages in Literature |
| Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: Embassy CD Hyatt (Length:1 Hour) |
| Description: We will be pulling in authors and a linguist to discuss using and creating languages for Fantasy settings. Sometimes they may pull from the real world, other times it might mean making things from scratch. |
| Panelists: Davis Ashura(M), Mera Rose, Mel Todd, Kevin McLaughlin, D.B. Jackson, Alex Shvartsman |
Title: Striking a Balance: Humor in UF |
| Time: Sun 07:00 pm Location: Chastain 1-2 Westin (Length:1 Hour) |
| Description: Our panel of authors will discuss the importance of humor in Urban Fantasy, and how they employ it in their work. Laughter guaranteed. |
| Panelists: R.J. Blain, Stacey Rourke, Richard Lee Byers, Alex Shvartsman, J. B. Garner, Jennifer Morris(M) |
Title: The Mission: Protecting Humanity |
| Time: Sun 08:30 pm Location: Chastain 1-2 Westin (Length:1 Hour) |
| Description: The role of many Urban Fantasy protagonists is protecting the human world from supernatural or magical threats, & sometimes those protectors are not completely human themselves. Our panel of authors discusses the difficulties this situation may present for the protagonist, the community, & humans. |
| Panelists: Patricia L. Briggs, Jim Butcher, Delilah S Dawson, Alex Shvartsman, Jeanne C Stein, Carol Malcolm(M) |
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
There’s a fun interview at Amazing Stories where I talk about Very Deep Things, such as whether it’s better to be a mermaid or a dragon, and whether I’d rather fight 100 duck-sized robots or one robot-sized duck. You know you’re curious!
Unexpected Questions with Alex Shvartsman
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I’ve been sitting on this news for a while, but it looks like the preliminary list has been posted, so I can go ahead and share:
I’ll be one of the Guests of Honor at the Bulgacon 2023 convention in Plovdiv, Bulgaria this September.
I’m very excited to meet Bulgarian writers and fans in person, as well as to connect with other international authors attending the event. This will also be my first time visiting Bulgaria, and I very much look forward to that as well.
Some of the previous GoHs at Bulgacon have included Robert Sheckley, Ian Watson, and Andrzej Sapkowski among others.
I will post the program and more details closer to the event date. You can also check out the official convention site here:
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I’ll be in Boston, MA for Readercon this weekend. Here’s my program schedule:
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
We now have a cover for the anthology of stories about artificial minds interacting with art. The stories and the art are created by humans (the cover is drawn and designed by the spectacular K.A. Teryna!)
Typeface and the blurb below may not be finalized yet, but this is close enough to share!
The Digital Aesthete
Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI
Edited by Alex Shvartsman
Stories that explore the relationship between artificial intelligence and art, written by top science fiction authors from across the globe. Read the tales of robot painters, AI poets, and electronic gallery curators; dystopias where human artists must eke out an existence in societies where AI generates most of the content, and utopias where artificial minds help unlock and enhance human creativity.
Featuring fiction by authors from USA, UK, China, Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Madagascar, Argentina, Chile, Czech Republic, and Sri Lanka.
This book will be released on November 14, digitally distributed by UFO Publishing while the paperbacks are distributed by Arc Manor / CAEZIK SF & Fantasy.
There are several ways you can preorder this book. Our preference is that you do so via our Kickstarter campaign (which ends in just a few days) for the KAKISTOCRACY audiobook. The Digital Aesthete is available as an add-on in print and ebook formats but you can grab just that if that’s what you want.
Alternatives are to order direct from UFO Publishing here: (Ebook) / (Print)
Paperback is also available for preorder on Amazon, B&N, Bookshop, and your favorite local bookstore!
Comments Off on The Digital Aesthete Cover Reveal! | Publishing | Tagged: AI, Cover reveal, K.A. Teryna, the digital aesthete | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman
Yesterday, I got to do a fun thing that I’ve been planning for well over a year. Check it out:
When we discussed cover ideas for The Middling Affliction, the publisher was on board with the five Watch guardians on the cover but wanted them against the background of an iconic Brooklyn landmark. Brooklyn is awesome, but there aren’t that many immediately-identifiable locations like the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building, etc. After some thought I settled on this extremely popular spot in Dumbo offering a view of the Manhattan skyline and a slice of the Manhattan Bridge (not the Brooklyn Bridge, which looks completely different!). The fabulous cover artist Tulio Brito made the spot look both magical and recognizable at the same time. I immediately thought it’d be cool to have a picture taken in that spot, holding the book. Except Brooklyn is huge, and Dumbo is a 45-minute drive away from my house (that’s not even assuming you might get stuck in rush hour traffic.) I was finally in the vicinity yesterday, meeting a friend who was visiting from out of town for lunch, and we got this done.
Of course, this means I will need to visit the Bowling Green by Wall St. and take a photo in front of the Charging Bull when Kakistocracy is released.
Meantime, I’ve been sharing small snippets of text from Kakistocracy on social media as the means of promoting the upcoming book and drawing attention to this campaign. I figured I should share them here as well, since not everyone stalks me on social media (their loss, I say!)
#1. Can you tell what this author’s favorite beverage is?
# 2. Those who listened to the Kickstarter campaign video will recognize what this bit is riffing off of.
#3. This one is non-fiction. Rat Rock is a real NYC landmark, located on West 114th St.
#4. Not a humorous bit but this is very relevant to the themes of the novel.
#5. This one was selected by my friend and one of my favorite writers, Ken Liu, who’s currently reading the book. He said it made him laugh out loud, prompting his kids to ask him what was going on.
There’s less than a week remaining in the campaign. Please continue letting anyone who enjoys audiobooks and a good laugh know about it! Thank you.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ufopublishing/kakistocracy-audiobook
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I was interviewed on Chapman’s Secrets (yes, that Anna Chapman), a documentary show with strong tabloid vibes which airs on the Russian TV network Ren TV. They were working on an episode about the urban myths and legends of New York City, which I’m well-suited to talk about due to the nature of my current urban fantasy series. The episode aired on May 29, 2023 and I got to discuss the origins of many different urban legends. My replies were dubbed into Russian, but those who are able to understand it can watch me talk about crocodiles in the sewers, how a penny dropped from a skyscraper won’t actually kill you, and pizza rat.
https://ren.tv/project/tainy-chapman/1108118-tainy-chapman-gorod-kotoryi-ne-spit-29-05-2023
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I’ll be at Balticon Friday through Sunday this weekend. Here’s where you can find me! And I will also be sure to hang out at the Arc Manor/Phoenix Pick booth in the dealers room.
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
I’m back on Kickstarter today, seeking to fund the production of an audiobook version of my latest novel. It’s a smaller project but one that is both near and dear to my heart, and also risky. But, let me start at the beginning.
Almost exactly a year ago, my funny urban fantasy novel The Middling Affliction was published. The book has done pretty well. It sold out the first print run, received some excellent reviews, and my wonderful publisher Arc Manor/Caezik picked up the sequel. Kakistocracy, book 2 of the Conradverse Chronicles is due to be published on October 17, 2023.
The audio version of The Middling Affliction was published by Orange Sky, a division of Spotify. They selected a wonderful narrator and the audiobook sold pretty well. But, unfortunately, not well enough by huge publishing company metrics to pick up the sequel.
I love audiobooks. Most of my pleasure reading is done in that format, while I reserve my screen and paper book time for reading anthology submissions, books to be blurbed, etc. So, I really wanted an audiobook of Kakistocracy to exist. I don’t have the overhead of a major corporation and so I could get this done at an affordable rate and then have total control over the audiobook, which would allow me to give away copies, run promotions, and do all sorts of things I couldn’t pull off under the watchful eye of a responsible publisher (and their even-more-responsible accountants), such as posting the entire first chapter on YouTube for free.
I reached out to Patrick Boylan, a very talented stage and screen actor who narrated The Middling Affliction, and was thrilled to learn that he’s 100% on board to narrate the sequel! So now, my goal is to offset some of the production and marketing costs of this audiobook.
So, why is this project risky? Traditionally, audiobook-focused campaigns don’t do very well on Kickstarter. People love physical books (ebooks are nice, too!) whereas Kakistocracy has a traditional publisher who has been very supportive and I don’t want to do anything that will hurt their sales or preorders in any way whatsoever. If anything, I’m doing this because I believe controlling the audiobook rights will help me promote the series and generate future sales for both myself and for them. And—again—because I adore audiobooks and really want this to exist.
So, would you please head over to the new campaign page, check out the book promo video and consider supporting this project? I’ve made a lot of my past books available as rewards alongside the audiobook itself, of course. I’m also offering copies of my upcoming 2023 anthology, The Digital Aesthete (read more about it in the campaign.) So there’s lots of goodies available.
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Posted by Alex Shvartsman
Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction 