James Patrick Kelly has announced the launch of Strangeways, an e-zine available for Nook and Kindle for .99c per issue. Each issue will include reprints of two short stories, two essays, and bonus materials. The first issue, currently available, includes “Plus or Minus” and “The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum.”
Pyr is launching a line of young adult novels after seeing the appeal of some of their titles with the young adult audience. The first novel in the new Pyr Young Adult line will be Lightbringer, the debut novel by K. D. McEntire. Other works scheduled for publication include Ian McDonald’s Planesrunner and Ari Marmell’s Thief’s Covenant.
Dave Truesdale has announced that both on-line fiction Managing Editor Kevin Tipple and Assistant Managing Editor Steve Fahnestalk have stepped down from their positions at Tangent Online, which reviews short SF/F. Joseph Giddings has been named the new Assistant Managing Editor. Fahnestalk has stepped down to focus on his writing career and Tipple is stepping down for health reasons. Both editors stayed in their positions until Truesdale returned to the on-line world to ensure the smooth continuation of Tangent Online.
After a four year battle, Vera Nazarian is losing her home in California to foreclosure proceedings and will be moving cross-country to Vermont. Nazarian is asking for people to help her out by purchasing books from Norilana Press, which publishes in both paperback and e-book formats.
CZP has announced it will be relaunching their online speculative fiction ‘zine, The Chiaroscuro/ChiZine.com. The ‘zine began publishing in 1997 and in 2008, the publisher branched out to print as well. The April-June 2011 issue of the zine will be a massive issue with more than 200 short stories and poems by previous contributors including Elizabeth Bear, Bruce Boston, Gary Braunbeck, Mike Carey, Neil Gaiman, Jay Lake, Sarah Langan,Tim Lebbon, Stewart O’Nan, and Tom Piccirilli.
April R. Derleth (b.1954), the President and CEO of Arkham House, died on March 21. Derleth was the daughter of author August Derleth. Arkham House has announced that all sales and unfilled orders are temporarily being suspended.
Buzzy Multimedia, a publisher of audio book and specialty t-shirts, has announced plans to launch Buzzy Mag, an online zine of fiction by new and established sf authors. The magazine has announced a rate of 5 cents/word for stories up to 10,000 words. Buzzy Mag is also instituting a beta reading system which requires authors who submit to agree to read and critique at least two other submissions.
Publisher Walter Zacharius (b.1925) died on March 2. Zacharius founded of Kensington Publishing in 1974 after working for Lancer Books. Over the years, Zacharius published science fiction under the Zebrea imprint (which is now a Romance imprint).
Margaret K. McElderry (b.1912) died on February 14. McElderry began her career as a librarian, working at the New York Public Library. She left the library in 1945 to become head of the juvenile department at Harcourt, Brace and Company, where she was the first editor to have books with the Newbery and Caldecott in the same year. In 1971, she moved to Atheneum to found Margaret K. McElderry, becoming the first juvenile books editor to have her own imprint.
Holly Lisle has announced the closure of her nascent publishing operation Rebel Tales. Lisle has stated that the misrepresentation of the company by a potential editor has convinced her that she “cannot guarantee that some other person will never misrepresent himself and his actions while using [Lisle's] name and the name of Rebel Tales as cover for wrongdoing.