We just got the review from Midwest Book Review! And they like it!

They wrote:

Life is bizarre and it seems our world is only out to make it more confusing. “Snapshots from a Black Hole & Other Oddities” is a collection of short stories from K. C. Ball who spins tales of the everyday gone wrong, with the twists of horror and sci-fi added on throughout it all. “Snapshots from a Black Hole & Other Oddities” is a strongly recommended pick for those seeking a unique and offbeat collection of short stories.

We couldn’t be more pleased.

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw/apr_12.htm#Fantasy/SciFi

Just in time for the holidays! Hydra House is pleased to announce yet another addition to our catalog, a series of twelve short stories based on the twelve days of Christmas by Sandra Odell. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” takes an element from each of the twelve days and expands on it. Odell weaves science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, and urban fantasy out of these ideas to turn them into a fascinating meditation on the holiday season.

Watch for it in early November.

Hydra House is proud to announce our newest acquisition: a two-volume collection of short fiction by Cat Rambo called Near + Far. These collections will showcase her science fiction work from the near future and the far future. Each volume will be roughly 60-70,000 words, both published and unpublished work.

Artist Samala Coffey will provide the artwork.We’ll post that as it becomes available. You can see some of her outstanding work on her website: http://www.samalacoffey.com/.

Tentative publication date is September, 2012. (Assuming the Mayans weren’t right.)

You can keep up with Cat on her blog: www.kittywumpus.net.

The first review is in, and it looks glowing to us! Don D’Ammassa at SF Review (http://www.dondammassa.com/R1A2012.htm) read Snapshots and gave it a positive review. He also had a kind word to say about a fledgling press and said he thought he would hear “from and about” KC again. Yes, you better believe you’ll heard from and about KC again.

I hope you’re as excited as we are! The next adventure of Brigitta of Tiragarrow is The Ruins of Noe, has been completed by Danika and is set to be released on April 21 May 1!

Pre-orders are now being taken through the Hydra House website for a mere $10, through April 20. After that, they go back up to the regular price of $12.95.

To pre-order, click here.

If you like the cover as much as we do, click here to get a full-color print of artist Julie Fain’s work.

 

Here’s a teaser of the story:

“I don’t understand,” said Brigitta, and then glanced back down as the baby yawned and opened her eyes. They were crystal white.

“She has no destiny.” Ondelle reached in, picked the baby up, and cradled it in her arms. “The Ethereals have not visited her.”

~            ~            ~

A child born with no destiny: one of many signs that the White Forest faeries have lost touch with the Ethereals, the Ancient Ones. High Priestess Ondelle is convinced by an old proverb that one faerie is fated to travel to the former home of the Ancients, the Ruins of Noe, to find the answer. That faerie, she believes, is Brigitta.

Ondelle and Brigitta set off to save their forest once again, but when they arrive in Noe they discover something they never learned from any faerie tale. Why had this dark secret been kept from them? Why in the name of Faweh had the Ancients left some faeries behind?

I came across an article about an interesting advertisement for a book:

It’s an interactive book cover, which is a lot of fun to just play with, but it really begs the question about the future of ebook covers.

And it makes you think.

What else could be done? How else could we sparkle up the electronic version of the book cover? There are already what are called “ebook apps,” which is really just a fancy way of launching the book on an iPad (or other tablet) without having to  open an e-reader first. (You can also add other components to an ebook app, like a game, but that’s a little off topic.) The cover images of your basic Kindle are, at the moment, static. But we’re not so far away from seeing interactive covers on such ereaders.

The two big obstacles are memory and finding a program to utilize to run that cover. Meaning, what would you build it in? Flash? HTML5? The e-reader has to run that, which takes CPU resources, which slows your reader down, which would also hog memory …

We’re probably not quite there yet. But almost.

In the meantime, just play with that cover. Go on, play with it.

The launch party has been set KC Ball’s “Snapshots from a Black Hole & Other Oddities” — Friday, January 20 at 7pm, at Rustycon, the scifi and fantasy convention taking place January 20-22 in Seattle. And you’re invited!
Rustycon (www.rustycon.com) has been running for 28 years and we’re proud to launch the book there. We also have a new co-sponsor: Every Day Fiction! How exciting is that! Every Day Fiction is also publishing work by KC Ball — under the imprimatur “Every Day Novels” (www.everydaynovels.com), they’ll be publishing “Lifting Up Veronica,” KC’s first novel. The novel will be published in a unique format: one “bite-sized chapter” a day for fifteen weeks, and you can read it on a subscription basis for a mere $5.
The launch party begins on or about 7:00pm. We don’t have a set format yet, but we expect KC will do a reading sometime about 8:00. There will also be booze (bring your ID) and munchies and door prizes and books for sale.
Mark your calendars!

Hydra House is proud to present “Snapshots from a Black Hole & Other Oddities” by K.C. Ball. This is the debut collection of short stories by a writer of extraordinary insight and complexity. Twenty four stories take you through alternate history, other dimensions, orbiting garbage collectors, dinosaurs–no two stories are the same.

“Snapshots” will be released on February 1, 2012, but pre-orders are now being taken through January 19, 2012, at the discounted price of $12.00+s/h. That’s 20% off the cover price of $14.95! Order now.

Mary Rosenblum calls the collection “like opening a great box of chocolates. Whether you like nuts or crème centers, zombies or a dark love triangle, you’re going to find your favorite.”

First evening at Orycon — fun! It’s a small con in the nice Doubletree Hotel. I slogged through the Friday afternoon Seattle traffic (and I thought Friday afternoon to Vancouver, BC, was bad!), and what should have been a 2.5 hour drive turned into 4+ hours.

But make it I did, checked into my fleabag hotel, and walked over the Doubletree. Had a bite to eat, ran into a couple of people (including Dale Ivan Smith and Patrick Swenson), and then proceeded to the bar. Parties are up on the 14th floor. Arrived too late in the day to see any panels, but I intend to see Cat Rambo on an 11:00am panel this morning.

This weekend, I will be heading down to Portland for Orycon 33, the first time I’ve been to Orycon. Don’t know much about the con, but I plan to be there spreading the word about Hydra House.

And I will have ARCs! Advanced Review Copies of K.C. Ball’s “Snapshots from a Black Hole & Other Oddities,” which is due out in late January, 2012. So if you’re a reviewer, come and find me and I’ll make sure you get a copy.

Looking forward to it! Say hello if you see me.