Jump to: Sim Kern’s Depart, Depart! | Michael J. DeLuca’s Night Roll | Octavia Cade’s The Impossible Resurrection of Grief | Cynthia Zhang’s After the Dragons | Forthcoming
Depart, Depart! by Sim Kern
“With high stakes and a solid emotional core, and a perfect balance of speculation and an all-too-real vision of climate apocalypse, Kern shows the necessity of compassion, empathy, and community in the face of crisis.”
— Publishers Weekly starred review
When an unprecedented hurricane devastates the city of Houston, Noah Mishner finds shelter in the Dallas Mavericks’ basketball arena. Though he finds community among other queer refugees, Noah fears his trans and Jewish identities put him at risk with certain “capital-T” Texans. His fears take form when he starts seeing visions of his great-grandfather Abe, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy. As the climate crisis intensifies and conditions in the shelter deteriorate, Abe’s ghost grows more powerful. Ultimately, Noah must decide whether he can trust his ancestor — and whether he’s willing to sacrifice his identity and community in order to survive.
Click to read an excerpt from Depart, Depart!
Click to read praise for Depart, Depart!
Sim Kern Bio
Sim Kern is an environmental journalist and speculative fiction writer, exploring intersections of climate change, queerness, and social justice. You can find links to all their stories at simkern.com and follow them on Twitter @sim_kern, on Instagram @Sim_bookstagrams_badly, and on their YouTube channel.
Order Depart, Depart!
| Depart, Depart! Paperback | $18.99 CAD Release Date: September 1, 2020 | |
| Ordering directly from Stelliform, you will receive a paperback printed on recycled paper. At this time, paperbacks ordered from other sources such as Amazon are not printed on recycled paper stock. Payment is through PayPal, in Canadian dollars. |  |
| Depart, Depart! Ebook | $9.99 CAD Release Date: September 1, 2020 | |
| Ordering directly from Stelliform, you will receive a DRM-free ebook copy of the novella in either EPUB, Mobi, or PDF format. Payment is through PayPal, in Canadian dollars. | |
Also Available from:
- Your local independent bookstore
- Bookshop.org (link)
- Weightless Books Ebooks (link)
- Barnes and Noble (link)
- Alibris (link)
- Amazon.com (link) | Amazon.ca (link) | Amazon.co.uk (link)
Night Roll by Michael J. DeLuca
IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award Finalist
“Night Roll is the most Detroit story I have read … [it] brings home a lot of things that are wonderful about that city: the incredible diversity, the community-mindedness, and the quirky culture that has arisen out of the ashes of the post-industrial city.”
— Locus Magazine
“A hypnotic near-future novella that will captivate literary and genre readers alike.”
— Publishers Weekly
New mother and climate refugee Aileen Dupree has been abandoned by her partner in post-industrial Detroit. Her neighbor, Virgil, comes to her rescue, bringing useful cast-offs and much needed friendship. Virgil is Aileen’s only connection to the outside world, a refuge for an insomniac newcomer who is overwhelmed by the turn her life has taken. But then Virgil borrows Aileen’s prized possession — a chrome and leather, royal blue fourteen-speed bike — and disappears. Aileen doesn’t know if Virgil’s disappearance is an accident or another abandonment.
When she ventures out to look for answers, Aileen hears strange stories of the Elf, a timeless being that has always fought the colonizers and capitalists of Detroit, and now leads the Night Roll on a frantic race through the city’s disintegrating streets. It is up to Aileen to bring Virgil back to his friends and family. But what can the Elf teach her about her new life? And what must she pay for that knowledge?
Click to read an excerpt of Night Roll.
Click to read praise for Night Roll.
Michael J. DeLuca Bio
Michael J. DeLuca’s short fiction has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex, Mythic Delirium, and lots of other places. He is the publisher of Reckoning, a journal of creative writing on environmental justice. You can find DeLuca on Twitter @MichaelJDeLuca. and at The Mossy Skull.
Order Night Roll
| Night Roll Paperback | $18.99 CAD Release Date: October 15, 2020 | |
| Ordering directly from Stelliform, you will receive a paperback printed on recycled paper. At this time, paperbacks ordered from other sources such as Amazon are not printed on recycled paper stock. Payment is through PayPal, in Canadian dollars. |  |
| Night Roll Ebook | $9.99 CAD Release Date: October 15, 2020 | |
| Ordering directly from Stelliform, you will receive a DRM-free ebook copy of the novella in either EPUB, Mobi, or PDF format. Payment is through PayPal, in Canadian dollars. | |
Also Available from:
- Your local independent bookstore
- Bookshop.org (link)
- Weightless Books Ebooks (link)
- Barnes and Noble (link)
- Amazon.com (link) | Amazon.ca (link) | Amazon.co.uk (link)
The Impossible Resurrection of Grief by Octavia Cade
“Cade’s strength shines in her beautiful descriptions … This thoughtful work is a reminder of humanity’s connection and responsibility to the natural world.”
— Publishers Weekly (link)
“Uncanny, unsettling, brilliant, etcetera; as well as the thylacines there are jellyfish, robots, rock wrens, rats, and a new kind of psychological devastation that flourishes and evolves as everything else collapses. Called simply “Grief”, it is contagious, and hard to spot, and it feels like a creature that’s already here.”
— Catherine Woulfe, The Spinoff Book Report (link)
Watch Octavia Cade read from the novella here.
Read more praise for Cade’s novella here.
About the Book
IN A DYING WORLD, GRIEF HAS A LIFE OF ITS OWN…
With the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of species comes the Grief: an unstoppable melancholia that ends in suicide. When Ruby’s friend, mourning the loss of the Great Barrier Reef, succumbs to the Grief, the letters she leaves behind reveal the hidden world of the resurrected dead. The Tasmanian tiger, brought back from extinction in an isolated facility, is only the first… but rebirth is not always biological, and it comes with a price. As a scientist, Ruby resists the Grief by focusing her research on resilient jellyfish, but she can’t avoid choosing which side she’s on. How can she fight against the dead and the forces behind them when doing so risks her home, her life, and the entire biosphere?
About Octavia Cade
Octavia Cade is a New Zealand writer with a PhD in science communication. She attended Clarion West 2016, has won three Sir Julius Vogel awards for speculative fiction, and is a Bram Stoker nominee. She was the 2020 writer in residence at Massey University, where she wrote The Impossible Resurrection of Grief.
Order The Impossible Resurrection of Grief
| The Impossible Resurrection of Grief Paperback | $18.99 CAD Release Date: May 20, 2021 | |
| Ordering directly from Stelliform, you will receive a paperback printed on recycled paper. At this time, paperbacks ordered from other sources such as Amazon are not printed on recycled paper stock. Payment is through PayPal, in Canadian dollars. |  |
| The Impossible Resurrection of Grief Ebook | $9.99 CAD Release Date: May 20, 2021 | |
| Ordering directly from Stelliform, you will receive a DRM-free Ebook copy of the novella, in either EPUB, Mobi, or PDF format. Payment is through PayPal, in Canadian dollars. | |
Also Available from:
- Your local independent bookstore
- Bookshop.org (link)
- Weightless Books Ebooks (link)
- Barnes and Noble (link)
- Alibris (link)
- Amazon.com (link) | Amazon.ca (link) | Amazon.co.uk (link)
After the Dragons by Cynthia Zhang
“Lovers of soft fantasy with low stakes should already have After the Dragons on their radar … This is a fantastic read for people who love climate fiction and fantasy but who need to just lose themselves in a gentle story now and then.” — Book Riot (link)
“This is a slim, beautiful jewel-box of a novel. It is vividly atmospheric and feels real as if tiny flocks of dragons might sit on telephone lines in modern-day Beijing. It explores falling in love in the wake of grief and the ways in which we try to exert control over our lives. Its quiet intimacy will break your heart and give you hope — and also dragons. Perfect, beautifully drawn dragons. It’s a lovely debut and I look forward to seeing what Cynthia Zhang does next.” — Mary Robinette Kowal, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of The Calculating Stars
Read more praise for After the Dragons here.
Watch Cynthia Zhang read from her novel here.
About the Book
Dragons were fire and terror to the Western world, but in the East they brought life-giving rain…
Now, no longer hailed as gods and struggling in the overheated pollution of Beijing, only the Eastern dragons survive. As drought plagues the aquatic creatures, a mysterious disease—shaolong, or “burnt lung”—afflicts the city’s human inhabitants.
Jaded college student Xiang Kaifei scours Beijing streets for abandoned dragons, distracting himself from his diagnosis. Elijah Ahmed, a biracial American medical researcher, is drawn to Beijing by the memory of his grandmother and her death by shaolong. Interest in Beijing’s dragons leads Kai and Eli into an unlikely partnership. With the resources of Kai’s dragon rescue and Eli’s immunology research, can the pair find a cure for shaolong and safety for the dragons? Eli and Kai must confront old ghosts and hard truths if there is any hope for themselves or the dragons they love.
The cover art for After the Dragons is by Wang Xulin, with typography and design by Yu-Lobbenberg Rachel.
About Cynthia Zhang
Cynthia Zhang is a Ph.D. student in Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture at the University of Southern California. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Kaleidotrope, On Spec, Phantom Drift, and other venues. She is a 2021 DVdebut mentee.
Pre-Order After the Dragons
| After the Dragons Paperback | $21.99 CAD Release Date: August 19, 2021 | |
| Ordering directly from Stelliform, you will receive a paperback printed on recycled paper. At this time, paperbacks ordered from other sources such as Amazon are not printed on recycled paper stock. Payment is through PayPal, in Canadian dollars. The book will be shipped to you in August 2021, ahead of the release date. |  |
| After the Dragons Ebook | $9.99 CAD Release Date: August 19, 2021 | |
| Ordering directly from Stelliform, you will receive a DRM-free Ebook copy of the novella, in either EPUB, Mobi, or PDF format. Payment is through PayPal, in Canadian dollars. You will receive a download link in August 2021, ahead of the book’s release date. | |
Also Available From:
- Your local independent bookstore
- Bookshop.org (link)
- Weightless Books Ebooks (link)
- Barnes and Noble (link)
- Alibris (link)
- Amazon.com (link) | Amazon.ca (link) | Amazon.co.uk (link)
Forthcoming Books
The House of Drought
A novella by Dennis Mombauer
Synopsis
On the island of Sri Lanka, a colonial mansion stands between the forest and the paddy fields. It has seen inhabitants come and go as the days grow hotter and the harvests fail. It is a dry house, a hungry place that shifts upside-down inside its shell. The house is a labyrinth of banging pipes, of bulging stomachs, and of salt-littered floors. A glass of water opens a doorway here. A running tap attracts the house’s unquenchable thirst.
From the surrounding forest, the Sap Mother watches. She visits the house, squeezes through its holes, and burrows below its foundations, demanding recompense for what was taken from her. THE HOUSE OF DROUGHT is the story of one house’s unwitting inhabitants living between the ravages of colonization and climate change, and a forest spirit that threatens to cut a swathe through the humanity that is replacing the natural world with one of deprivation.
Author Bio
Dennis Mombauer lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he works as a consultant on climate change and as a writer of weird fiction and textual experiments. He is co-publisher of a German magazine for experimental fiction, “Die Novelle – Magazine for Experimentalism.” His first English novel, “The Fertile Clay,” will be published by Nightscape Press in 2021.