annemariesblog
The Spring 2024 Dragon Gems anthology is out as of April 26! This new release from Water Dragon Press includes lots of entertaining stories — including my short “Bradzar and the Dragon”.
Dragon Gems will be available in a Kindle version and also as a paperback. The Kindle edition is currently available for preorder here.
This is becoming a tradition!
September 6 is National Read a Book Day. For the third year, I thought I’d offer some reading suggestions to celebrate the day! This post is highly subjective and focuses (with some exceptions) on science fiction, fantasy and horror. But everything on the list is a good book.
Some Great Space Opera: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh. This is apparently her first novel, and it’s outstanding. I flew through this wonderful space opera that starts out as military science fiction on an isolated space station, but ends up encompassing all of space and time, a huge canvas. In addition to a page-turning story there are themes of radicalization and a transforming worldview as Kyr discovers that the world is not as she’s been taught.
Something about Migrants: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Although not written by a migrant, this is still a good story. Lydia, a Mexican bookseller, is forced to flee from cartel violence with her son, Luca. She sees only one place for them to go to escape with their lives: across the border into the United States. It’s fiction, and certainly not every migrant’s experience, but it’s a good place to start to explore fiction about a crisis we usually see only from our own viewpoint. And a moving story on a human level as well.
Something Intense: The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias. Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the Shirley Jackson Award, this horror novel is excellent but warning — it is also brutal in places, and full of rage and desperation. It paints a dark picture of human nature as the main character, Mario, sets out on a dangerous mission to interfere with a cartel’s drug shipment so he can try to pay back medical bills from his daughter’s fatal illness. This is a gripping story, touching on the supernatural as well as the lengths human beings will go to in greed or desperation. Some parts are in Spanish, but not enough to impede reading for non-Spanish speakers.
Something Old-fashioned: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. This novel was published in 2016, but feels like a charming, old-fashioned long read. Set in the Soviet Union during a big chunk of the 20th century, this novel follows Count Alexander Rostov, a member of the Russian nobility who escapes death during the Revolution only to be sentenced to permanent house arrest in the Metropol, an elegant old-world hotel. There we meet a fascinating cast of characters, glimpse the march of history and enjoy the Count’s narrative on everything from food to the barber to the characters he meets.
Something Recommended by my Daughter: This year’s recommendation by my daughter is The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher by E.M. Anderson. Edna Fisher is an elderly lady in a nursing home when she receives an unexpected visit from a wizard, who tells her she is the Chosen One — chosen to “save the Knights from a dragon-riding sorcerer bent on their destruction” (from the Amazon blurb). I love stories about unexpected heroes, and I am just getting started reading this one myself.
Something … by Me! This one’s easy, because it’s a short story and it’s online. My newest short story, “A Deep and Breathing Forest”, was in Issue 9 of Haven Speculative and is available here. It’s a short story, so I won’t summarize it, but I hope you’ll check it out along with the other stories and poetry in Haven Spec.
September 6 is National Read a Book Day 2022. Just like last year, I thought I’d offer some suggestions for readers who love science fiction and fantasy — and maybe a little horror.
Something Powerful: Station Eleven, by Emily St John Mandel, published in 2014. Although the author considers this literary fiction, science fiction readers will appreciate it. It’s set after a pandemic has ravaged the world, killing most of the global population. It follows a few key characters who are interconnected by relationships and by a graphic novel titled Station Eleven treasured by Kristen, a member of a traveling theater group in the Great Lakes area. It’s a magnificent novel, one I’d recommend to anyone.
Something New: The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow by Rachel Aaron. This is a fantasy alternate-history Western set in a world where there is a mining rush — not for gold but for crystal, a dangerous and powerful substance with magical properties. A good adventure story with three interesting main characters.
Something in a Great Series: Turns out this isn’t the newest book in the series, but it was new to me! The Queen’s Bargain by Anne Bishop is tenth in the Black Jewels series. If you’ve read any of these you know they are dark, with rich characterizations and complex relationships. (They are also erotic and sometimes violent, definitely not for young readers.) In this one, Warlord Prince Daemon Sadi’s marriage is crumbling, and possibly his mind as well. This one is a little lighter than the original three books in the series, but still intense and a good read for series fans.
Something Recommended by my Daughter: Just like last year, I’m including a recommendation from my daughter! Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas is a New York Times bestseller and a LGBTQIA+ ghost story. In the story, a trans boy with a very traditional Latinx family summons the ghost of his murdered cousin to prove something — and can’t get the ghost to leave. Here’s a link to a review from Kirkus.
Something on my To-Be-Read List: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This is an actual tome — 526 pages not including notes — and it is nonfiction. The book looks at human history from a different perspective, arguing that early civilizations had a variety of social and economic structures and reexamining what we think we know about the past. It comes highly recommended (check out the editorial reviews on Amazon), and I can’t help but think it might be a good read especially for writers who engage in world building as part of their work.
Something … by Me! Yes, I’m doing this again, including something by me. In this case it’s an anthology that includes stories by ten different authors. Blood on the Blade is a sword & sorcery anthology (edited by Jim Beard and and John C. Breuning) and winner of the 2022 Imadjinn Award for Best Anthology. My story is “The Sorceress Maiz”, but check out all the stories — there are a number of different takes on the sword & sorcery genre, and it’s a good read.
Whatever you choose to read, it’s a great day to start a new book! Feel free to comment if you have recommendations of your own.
Today is National Book Lovers’ Day. Celebrated every year on August 9, today is all about books.
We all have beloved books that have entertained us or had an impact in our lives. But today is about trying something new!
In honor of that, the ebook editions of all three of my fantasy novels are on sale today on Amazon. Black Tide (Color Mage Book One), Sword of Jashan (Color Mage Book Two), and the standalone fantasy novel Taylenor are all on sale. Click the title above to buy!
If you think you’d like a good fantasy read, give one of them a try! Otherwise, today’s a good day to choose something new — something you don’t ordinarily read. Maybe a mystery, some good nonfiction, something by an author you’ve been meaning to read but haven’t gotten around to. Happy National Book Lovers Day!
The Blood on the Blade sword & sorcery anthology, published by Flinch Books in late 2021, was awarded an Imadjinn Award for Best Anthology at the Imaginarium Convention last weekend.
The anthology contains ten stories, including my short story “The Sorceress Maiz”. Also in the anthology is the Best Short Story Imadjinn winner by Steven Shrewsbury, “Knock the Hell Out of You”.
In short, it’s a great anthology! I’m delighted to have been a small part of it.
The new anthology Blood on the Blade from Flinch Books is now available in paperback or as a Kindle ebook! My story, “The Sorceress Maiz”, is one of ten sword-and-sorcery tales about warriors fighting dark sorcery, spell casters, and conjurers who have only power and evil as their goal.
From the Amazon listing: “BLOOD ON THE BLADE chronicles the adventures of these savage yet noble warriors as they stand against conjurers and spellcasters who practice dark magic in their pursuit of power, their lust for fortune, and their demonic desire to watch the world burn. And when it all unfolds, you have a front-row seat for the mayhem and carnage.”
More than 40 authors (including me) will be participating in the Holiday Extravaganza sponsored by Strong Women, Strange Worlds. Live Quick-Reads and round-robin Speed-Date-a-Book events on Zoom (Dec 12) will be accompanied by other December events across the Internet!
Find a new favorite author — discover a new book for yourself or for gifting — even win a free ebook or other prizes in this event. The live readings on Dec 12 will be accompanied by micro-fiction contests on Twitter and other events on Instagram and Facebook.
More updates to come! This online event is free, but you need to register at this link.
I’m excited to share the cover of the new Sword & Sorcery anthology from Flinch Books! This action-packed cover is by Mark Wheatley. I’m one of ten authors with short stories in the anthology, which will be released later this month. Here is a link to the Flinch Books Facebook page for the full announcement!
Some suggestions from me for readers who love science fiction and fantasy (and maybe a little horror), for National Read A Book Day, 2021:
Something Classic: Dune, of course! Especially since there’s a movie coming out that I’m excited about. Dune, by Frank Herbert, is a brilliant classic science fiction novel with complex politics and environmental world building. A truly great book.
Something Newer: The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark. Published in 2019, this is a novella that’s a science fantasy novel about a possessed tram car. It’s set in Cairo in an alternate 1912.
Something Epic: The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin. It’s the first book in the Broken Earth series and won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016. Set in a land that is constantly in danger of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, with a complex civilization and characters.
Something Short: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. This is a series of five novellas about an AI constructed to be a Security Unit, that overrides its controlling module. The first in the series is All Systems Red, which won the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella. Highly entertaining!
Something on my To-Be-Read List: The Buried Giant, by Kazuo Ishiguro. This has been on my TBR list for a while, and I’ll be reading it very soon. Here’s what The Guardian had to say about the novel.
Something Recommended by my Daughter: My daughter had a couple of recommendations. This one is also on my TBR list: Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Published in 2020, this is a gothic horror novel set, of course, in an isolated house. Here’s what NPR had to say about the book. After reading the review, I actually can’t wait to read it!
Something … by Me! Why not? Taylenor, published in 2019, follows Jaena, who is a priest of the peaceful goddess Imn-ashu. Jaena brings a young mage-talented boy to the city to save his life, only to find she has delivered him into the hands of the Mage Defender, who rules by stealing the magic — and the lives — of children. Link to the ebook is here.
Whatever you choose to read, it’s a great day to start a new book! If you have your own recommendations, feel free to comment with them!
I’m happy to share a link to this month’s fantasy channel podcast at New Books Network! I was interviewed by the host, Gabrielle Mathieu, about Taylenor, and the interview is currently available here!
Gabrielle interviewed me about Jaena, the main character who is a Priest of her goddess, Imn-ashu, and about what Imn-ashu — and Jaena — stand for in their world. We talked about Mage Herrein, the Mage Defender, who steals the power of children to feed his own. And about some of Jaena’s companions on her desperate quest to save a life.
I thoroughly enjoyed the interview. There is a new author podcast available every month as Gabrielle interviews authors of new fantasy releases.
Taylenor is available in ebook or paperback editions.
Author Anne Marie Lutz 