Cover reveal: Kakistocracy

April 19, 2023

File770 graciously hosted an exclusive cover reveal for my next novel yesterday! Kakistocracy is the sequel to The Middling Affliction with more humor, monsters, zany adventures, and snarky heroes!

Please consider placing your preorders early as this really helps. Book stores and even sites like Amazon will base their own orders on the level of interest they see from their customer base, so early orders drive the book’s success more than almost anything else!

Preorder now: [Amazon] [B&N] [Bookshop.org]

Meanwhile, here are some other recent news:

  • The Digital Aesthete hybrid anthology/zine project has launched and you can read Adrian Tchaikovsky’s story right now at Future SF. This book will be published in November and the stories posted on the Future SF website after that.
  • I’ve talked about writing with Ed Willett at the Shapers of Worlds podcast. You can listen to the interview here.
  • My Canopus-nominated “The Race for Arcadia” was reprinted in Adventures in Space, an anthology of SF stories by Chinese and English language writers.
  • UFO9 is now available in audiobook format, brilliantly narrated by Bill Yarbrough!

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Announcing: The Digital Aesthete

February 21, 2023

The Digital Aesthete

Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI

Edited by Alex Shvartsman

UFO Publishing and the Future Affairs Administration are teaming up to produce our next collaborative project, which will explore the relationship between artificial intelligence and art. We hope to feature stories 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.

The Digital Aesthete will be a hybrid anthology/e-zine project, with stories collected in a print and e-book anthology to be published in November 2023, and then gradually posted to the Future Science Fiction Digest website where readers will be able to enjoy them free of charge.

This project will feature 100,000 words of fiction by authors from over a dozen countries and a variety of languages. It will be edited by Alex Shvartsman (editor of Unidentified Funny Objects (UFO), The Cackle of Cthulhu (Baen), Humanity 2.0 (Arc Manor) and over a dozen other anthologies.) Cover art and design will be created by K.A. Teryna. Tarryn Thomas will assume the roles of copyeditor and creative advisor.

We will post further updates about this project at Future-SF.com and on the UFO Publishing Patreon page.

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

New Translations in March 2023 Analog and Asimov’s

February 8, 2023

I’ve got a couple of translations in the March-April issues of Analog and Asimov’s which are about to go on sale next week.

“The Errata” by K.A. Teryna imagines a life on an ark ship very early in its journey (still in our solar system!) This story was commissioned by the Future Affairs Administration which involved K.A. Teryna writing it quickly and then me translating it equally fast, so that a relay translation could be performed from English to Mandarin Chinese. As usual, K.A. delivered a great story and Asimov’s snapped up the first English rights. Bonus: there’s also a cat!

“Incommunicado” by Andrej Kokoulin is a cool space opera adventure where the protagonist must race across the galaxy to reconnect with his lost love. This story reminded me of the best of Soviet-era sci-fi and is refreshingly optimistic. Its appearance in Analog is Kokoulin second English-language publication. My translation of his dark yarn “The Slave” was published in F&SF a few years back.

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Live interview with Josh Grant of Diabolic Shrimp, Tuesday Feb 7 at 1pm Eastern!

February 6, 2023

Come check out a fun chat, show-and-tell, and dramatic performance of a scene from The Middling Affliction, to be live streamed on the Diabolic Shrimp YouTube channel tomorrow afternoon. Audience participation a plus. And, there’s a rumored appearance of a celebrity dog (or, at least, a dog that thinks she’s a celebrity.)

If you can’t make it, you will be able to watch the interview later. But it’s always more fun live, isn’t it?

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

New publication: Cain and Abel by Yefim Zozulya in Galaxy’s Edge #60

January 6, 2023

My latest translation of one of Zozulya’s fablesque stories, “Cain and Abel” is live in the latest issue of Galaxy’s Edge. Two more translations of his works — “The Tale of Ak and Humanity” and “The Living Furniture” appeared in Tor.com and F&SF respectively last year.

Current Issue

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

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.

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

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.

https://canopusawards.org/?page_id=166

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

UFO9 Released

December 4, 2022

Unidentified Funny Objects 9 is out in the world! You can now purchase your own copy, in paperback or ebook formats. (Hardcovers were only available to the Kickstarter backers.)

Here is where you can order it (though it’s available on other platforms as well!)

Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3VsirgL

Google

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-8SdEAAAQBAJ&pli=1

Kobo

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/unidentified-funny-objects-9

B&N

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unidentified-funny-objects-9-alex-shvartsman/1142745091?ean=2940186710516

Direct from UFO Publishing:

https://www.kingsgames.com/online-store/Unidentified-Funny-Objects-9-TPB-p511655871
https://www.kingsgames.com/online-store/Unidentified-Funny-Objects-9-ebook-p511627138

Wholesale pricing is available for stores, please feel free to reach out.

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Meta Boost Brooklyn

November 10, 2022

I am excited to announce that I am the featured Hometown Hero for Meta Boost Brooklyn. I’ll be appearing there wearing my day-job hat, representing Kings Games.

The Meta Boost program aims to help small businesses reach their audiences and recover from disruptions brought on by COVID-19.

You can join and receive free live training on November 16th. During this event, you’ll learn How to Master your mobile photo and video skills for the Holidays and Reels School.

Special guests include Nicola Mendelsohn, VP Global Business Group, Meta, Randy Peers, President and CEO, Brooklyn Chamber, yours truly, and Darlene, Meta. Meta experts will answer your questions submitted during registration and 3 winners will be awarded $500 in ad credits.

Register for free here:  https://metaboostbrooklyn.splashthat.com/

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

2022 Fyrecon

November 10, 2022

I’ll be participating in the all-virtual Fyrecon conference this weekend. On Friday I’ll be teaching an introductory class on editing anthologies, and on Saturday I will participate on a panel led by Martin Shoemaker, about defining sub-genes.

Please check out the conference and the event schedule here:

fyrecon.com/schedule/

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

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