Susan Forest

The cover art for Immunity to Strange Tales, my collection coming out from Five Rivers Chapmanry Press in August is done. I love it!

Now, this is cool. I was invited by editor Naomi Lewis to do a book review for Alberta Views Magazine! The book is right up my alley: a YA fantasy. I have to say, I really enjoyed the book, though it had some flaws. This made it easy to give a balanced view, because there was lots I really loved about it, but some things to critique as well.

Woot! I sold “Digging Deeper” to Hayden’s anthology through Bundoran Press, Blood and Water! My first sale of the year!

So, now I have galleys for Immunity to Strange Tales! I’ve seen the introduction by Mark Leslie, the cover art, the font–it’s getting really exciting! The launch is in August at When Words Collide.

Yay! I was nominated for an Aurora Award in the short fiction category! My story, “Turning it Off” in Analog last December was eligible, and now I am on the short list! Thanks to everyone who nominated me, and congratulations to all my worthy opponents–some awesome names on that list!

I also got a second, side-ways nomination: the novel I edited, Technicolor Ultramall, by Ryan Oakley, was the first novel I edited for Edge. Also very exciting!

So the Write-Off–IFWA’s semi-annual writers’ retreat–was awesome. Managed to revise a whole short story and re-submit, as per the editor’s request–fingers crossed!

So, last week my husband had off work, so we skied in Golden and Rossland, B.C. Had some awesome conditions with lots of fresh powder and steep slopes. One adventure in Rossland looked as though it was going to lead us over a cliff, but we were able to ski off to the side and get back onto a regular run. Untracked powder through the trees–pretty tempting!

My dad grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs in the thirties, so as an adult he checked out the second-hand bookstores for his favourites and brought them home for my brother to read. That’s how I first got hooked on science fiction. So when I saw A Princess of Mars had been made into a movie, I knew it would be the perfect film for IFWA members to see as a group. We all went tonight, and it was great. Action and CGI. I read several in the Tarzan series, of course (my favourite was Tarzan the Terrible), one in the Pellucidar series and Thuvia, A Maid of Mars, but never A Princess of Mars. However, Gary tells me the movie follows the book fairly faithfully. Had fun!

Had a great meeting tonight with my Kensington Writers’ Group–critiqued two chapters from the beginning of a novel and caught up with the amazing things the group is up to. Naomi Lewis has a collection coming out this summer, for which she has already won an award by the publisher! Governor-General’s Finalist, Shenaaz Nanji has finished the first draft of her next novel, but says she wants to do another pass before she lets us read it for critique–sounds like a fascinating premise, and I can hardly wait to read it.

Aside from writing (and submitting) a complete short story and making a good start on a second, travelling to Washington to write with other like-minded people has been great. This is my fourth year at the Rainforest, and it was great to meet up with old friends and acquaintances, and meet new authors as well. My two daughters were completely starstruck that I met one of the writers for “Portal.” Good times!