Some Holiday Reading: Regeneration, Fresh Fear and Men Briefly Explained

If you're considering buying a book to read over the holidays, how about one of these?

Regeneration: New Zealand Speculation Fiction 2

Regeneration contains my story "Rescuing the Airmen" and 21 other excellent stories of New Zealand speculative fiction. You owe it to yourself to get a copy - in paperback or ebook formats - and you can do so through Random Static or Amazon.

Here is a review of Regeneration from Debbie Cowens, and here is the wonderful cover by Emma Weakley:

Fresh Fear

What could be more horrifying than the holiday season? Nothing except Fresh Fear, a new horror anthology, edited by William Cook, in which my story "Protein" proudly yet modestly appears together with such luminaries of the field as Ramsey Campbell and Charlee Jacob. Get your scare on - or buy it for someone else, and then chuckle malevolently.

Men Briefly Explained

Give the gift of enlightenment! Near and dear ones are puzzled about what makes the [hypothetical] men in their lives tick. Now, with one slim yet chunky volume of poetry, they can find the answers they need.*

Men Briefly Explained is available from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook, and is also available from the publisher and from me: email senjmito@gmail.com for details.

*May not actually contain the answers they need.

Phew!

It's done - the manuscript of The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry, co-edited by myself and P.S. Cottier, has been sent to the publishers. There's now what will doubtless be a fairly epic proofing process to go through, but it's a major milestone nevertheless.

It's been a massive job: reading submissions, finding previously published poems, coming up with longlists, coming up with shortlists, settling on the poems to include, dealing with publishing permissions, and doing everything else that goes with putting an anthology together.

It didn't really occur to me until I was making some late fixes to the Contributors' Notes that we have a very impressive lineup of poets in this anthology, most of whom I'd never heard of before work on the anthology began. I doubt that I'm the only New Zealand poet to have a very limited knowledge of Australian poetry: one of the pleasures of working on The Stars Like Sand has been getting to know the work of some tremendous Australian poets, and another has been the enjoyment of working with my most excellent co-editor.

One big deadline met. Now for all the little ones :-)