Pretty hot cover, eh? Well, she’s a hot babe.
We’re in the 23rd century and it’s not quite what we hoped or expected. Those nasty repressions and civil wars in the 21st made a mess of things. Nothing works and nobody gives a damn. Well, some do — Jemma, for instance, who discovers early in life that what the Administrative Government of North America (AGNA) tells her is a pack of lies. Jemma says the acronym sounds like gagging. She sets out to find the truth.
Jemma is a skilled saboteur. She likes to blow the nasty AGNA chemical labs to smithereens, you know—the ones where they manufacture mind-numbing drugs to control the rebellious and the curious. Her story is full of adventure and discoveries — good things like love and loyalty; bad things like violence and betrayal.
Early reviews: “... a heartbreaking page-turner... The novel is amazing. Recommended.” — Suzette Hayden Elgin, author of Native Tongue, the Ozark Trilogy, etc etc
“... Brave New World meets The Handmaid’s Tale, with some serious ass-kicking along the way.” — Louise Marley, author of Terrorists of Irustan, The Glass Harmonica, The Child Goddess, etc etc
It’s a futurist novel with some interesting kinks. I think you’ll like it. You can order it here:
[Photo] EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
Amazon.com
Or, BETTER YET, ask for it/order it at an independent book store. We need to support the independents before they all get gobbled up by the big boxes.
Let me tell you something about EDGE. It’s the largest genre publisher in Canada, based in Calgary, Alberta. They also own Tesseract Books and Dragon Moon Press. They are very “hands-on” and involved with their writers in a friendly, generous, and exciting way. At least that’s my experience.
BUT, more than that—their generosity extends to the planet. Concerned about the number of trees a publishing house cuts down to make the paper to get those books into our hands, EDGE’s publisher, Brian Hades, announced in December 2008 that a percentage of the profits from every book sold will be recycled to plant trees to reduce and/or erase their carbon footprint! That’s fabulous! But that’s the kind of people they are at EDGE.
Here’s the current hot topic!
I just heard from the editor, Betty Dobson, that my strange little horror story “Names” will be included in a bracing new anthology from Inkspotter Publishing. It’s called Backless, Strapless & Slit to the Throat: A Femme Fatale Anthology. It’s set to be released in Spring 2008. You can keep your eye on it here:
http://inkspotter.com/publications/books/backlessstrapless.htm
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Phoebe Wray
BIO
I started making up stories before I could actually write, encouraged by my family, especially my Dad, who was a great story-teller. My nick-name was “Phoebe the Fibber,” not because I told lies, but because I would make up a story on demand. Adults indulged me shamelessly, I’m afraid, but it only made me eager to learn to write and read.
My first poem was published in the local weekly newspaper of my small hometown when I was nine. It was dreadful doggerel but had perfect rhymes. I was the editor of our class newspaper in the 5th grade. [Photo]
My ambition was to be a journalist, especially a foreign correspondent. That had a romantic, exciting allure, and I went slinking around in a trench coat. I majored in journalism at Santa Rosa (California) High School, was editor of the school newspaper in 11th and 12th grades, and worked as a reporter and music critic for the daily Santa Rosa Press Democrat. I also served briefly as Assistant Editor of The Montgomery Village News. Then I ran away with the circus, so to speak, and became a stand-up comic in the avant-garde cabaret clubs of San Francisco.
I had always harbored a secret desire to be an actress—well, what else is a story-teller?—and finally wrote my own comic material and started a long career in the theatre. I quickly moved from clubs to the stage, settled down to serious study of the art, and eventually made it to New York City. I had a nice career for a dozen years, mostly Off-Off-Broadway (the avant-garde, again!), Off-Broadway, cabaret revues, summer stock, and regional theatre. But I never gave up writing. I supported my theatre habit by writing travel brochures for travel agencies and airlines, promotional copy, song lyrics, an occasional scholarly essay for journals such as Modern Drama, poetry (in Cat’s Magazine, Quartet), and, of course, plays, some of which were done in NYC, Boston, London and, I think, elsewhere. I switched gears again, left New York for Boston, and founded a non-profit international environmental education group (The Center for Action on Endangered Species) and started writing teaching materials and public information on endangered species (especially the neglected ones like bats, manatees, and the unarmored three-spine stickleback), and marine mammals.
I was an advocate as well, and three times served on the official United States delegation to the International Whaling Commission, the treaty organization that meets annually to divvy up what’s left of the whales, not always a happy time. I wrote white papers, teaching kits, articles, fact sheets. I’m still writing for the environment, most recently an essay on people’s involvement with dolphins for The Encyclopedia of Nature and Religion, and a short essay “God’s Kittens,” which is what I call snow leopards, for Faerie Nation Mag, but spend a lot of time teaching in the Theatre Division of The Boston Conservatory. I had always promised myself that “some day” I would get around to writing fiction. And so I have.
The other info: I was born in Franklin, Pennsylvania, and raised in near-by Cochranton (a “Brigadoon” kind of village of a 1000 souls), then went to Santa Rosa, California, with my parents for high school. And oh yeah, the academic stuff. I’ve attended UC Berkeley, The New School. CCNY, Harvard, and was a Richard King Mellon Fellow at Yale. I’ve taught at University of Southern California, Bradford College, and The Boston Conservatory. I lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City before settling in the Boston area.
I live in Ayer, Massachusetts, in an 1860 farmhouse with my three cats, Max, Mouse and Jenny.
I’m on the Motherboard of the international membership organization
Broad Universe, a group that promotes, encourages, and celebrates women who write science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It was founded in 2000 and is going strong, getting bigger and more influential every year. There’s an online magazine, The Broadsheet, a weekly newsline, tips for authors, and a whole lot more on our website: http://broaduniverse.org/[Photo]
CONVENTIONS AND OTHER PLACES I’LL BE IN 2008
Feb 15-17 – BOSKONE, Boston, MA
Mar 14-16 – LUNACON, Rye Beach, NY
Mar 28-30 – CONBUST, Smith College, Northampton, MA
May 23-26 – WISCON, Madison, WI
July 18-20 – READERCON, Burlington, MA
BOOK LAUNCH PARTY/READING/FUN
Soometime in March — Trident Books, Newbury Street, Boston, MA
These are the catboys, Max and Mouse. Sweet, big fellas.
You can find some of my poetry on the internet here:
Prayer Curse - a poem in Snow Monkey
Encounter and The River - two short poems
Eden, Early One Morning – a poem
THINGS OF MINE YOU CAN BUY ... That is, if you’re looking for something a little off-beat, and feeling generous.
“Drinking Picasso” is a goofy spec-fic story that appeared in Issue #4 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. You can buy it at http://projectpulp.com/
“The Least Navigable Craft: Whales at the Millennium” is in Wild Earth: Wild Ideas for a World Out of Balance, edited by Tom Butler, published in 2002 by Milkweed Editions as part of their series The World As Home. Available through Amazon.com and at http://www.milkweed.org/
I‘ve done a lot of work in the environment—as a writer, teacher, public speaker, rabble-rouser, and an international advocate.
I have a humorous short short story “Help Desk” in Issue #4, Fall 2006, of the UK magazine Farthing. http://www.farthingmagazine.com/index.php You can read a review of it here http://www.tangentonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=908&Itemid=261
My essay, “A Place to Say Something,” is included in Return to the Caffe Cino, a book of plays and remembrances from and about that Mecca of Off-Off-Broadway, edited by Steve Susoyev and George Birimisa for Moving Finger Press, available at Amazon.com and at http://www.movingfingerpress.com/ (It gets five stars on Amazon.) I was one of the actor/director/playwrights who spent the sixties madly avant-garde and thrillingly involved with theatre in New York—at Cino’s, LaMama, The Old Reliable, Playwrights Workshop, and other strange little cubbyholes that we turned into theatres.
Favorite_Links
If you have a spiritual bent, and lots of extra cash, you can purchase the amazing and amazingly thorough Encyclopedia of Nature and Religion, edited by Bron Taylor, 2 Vols, Continuum International Publishing Group, London, UK. May 2006. My piece is called “Cetacean Spirituality,” and is a preliminary look at the cults that spring up as more and more people interact with dolphins and we begin to understand their behavior. The newest in “cargo cults,” perhaps?
SHARING THE PLANET [Photo]
We have not been good stewards. We have not been kind to the earth. We need to learn to share the planet. I took the picture (above) at the Massachusetts Audubon Farm in Lincoln, MA. I’ve done lots of writing about sharing the planet and especially about endangered species and marine mammals, of couple of which can be found on the ‘net.
Cultural conundrums: Can there ever be a loop? Comments about the "Free Willy" campaign
The Boston Conservatory, where I work (in the Theatre Division), is a terrific school for musicians, dancers, actors and all combinations of those: http://www.thebostonconservatory.edu/
Francesca De Grandis’ marvelous, whacky, exciting site http://www.outlawbunny.com/
Send mosquito nets to Africa for $10 to help people avoid malaria. Sponsored by the NFL Channel and Sports Illustrated: http://www.nothingbutnets.net/
Help people who protect and cherish the endangered and beautiful Snow Leopard ( I like to call them “God’s kittens”) and the people in Asia who share their space with the big cats. Go here for information, to donate, or to buy wonderful handmade goods, which helps the people in Nepal and elsewhere. My cats absolutely recommend the felt mice! http://www.snowleopardtrust.org/ [Photo]
Here’s Mouse, playing with one of those felt mice! The rug also came from the Snow Leopard people.
My good buddy, writer, jazz musician, composer, poet, Mike Dickman, has a great site. http://www.jungcircle.com/mist/
Samuel R. Delany’s first big hit, “The Star-Pit,” was recorded in the sixties for WBAI radio’s “Hour of the Wolf” program. I was in the cast! It’s still around, and you can hear it/buy a copy at http://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/TheStarPit/index.html
Scholar, writer, thinker, good friend with a wonderful family, here’s Deborah Mattingly Connor’s eclectric, fascinating and sometimes disturbing blog: http://themoonsfavors.blogspot.com/
Poet, educator, fellow lover of Gaslight literature, Bob Champ can be found here: http://www.robertchamp.com/index.html
Robert Patrick’s Incredible Caffe Cino pages: http://hometown.aol.com/rbrtptrck/CINOCONTENTS.html
Diane Silver and friends’ zippy political blog, proves that many people in the bread-basket states are thinkers: http://hopeandpolitics.blogspot.com/
Harry Hart-Browne, a fabulous actor and the kindest person I know, has a neat website at http://www.harryhart-browne.com/
Just for fun: Cockney Rhyming Slang Dictionary: http://www.aldertons.com/
[Photo] Not to be overlooked — this is Jenny. She was born in my basement in 2002, along with three other kittens — all of them female. She’s very sweet but timid as all get-out. I’m the only one who ever sees her. When anoyone comes into my house, she vanishes. If you want to contact me, you can do it here: mailto:phoebewray@aol.com
