February 2014 – James Chambers

February 18, 2014

Clockwork Chaos Reviewed at SFRevu

Sam Tomaino has kindly reviewed Clockwork Chaos, edited by Neal Levin and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, over at SFRevu. It’s a nice, thorough, story-by-story review. About my tale, “Cat’s Cry in Pluto’s Kitchen,” he writes:

Morris Garvey, who made a fortune with his business, Steam Sweeps and Machinations Sundry, and Detective Daniel Matheson of the New Alexandria police force are trying to solve the crime of the theft of Brazilian virtuoso Felipe Sandeman’s violin in time for him to play it at the closing of the World Expo. The case gets stranger and stranger and involved the cult of Bast, the feline god of the Egyptians. We are led on a merry chase with lots of twists and turns in another great story in this book.

Sums it up nicely. This anthology is full of great writers so click over to the full review for his thoughts on the other stories. Or pick up a copy of the book on Amazon.

I’ve got one more Machinations Sundry story due for publication this year. I’m planning to write one more, and I suspect there’ll be another one after that. I do believe this Morris Garvey fellow, his home city of New Alexandria, and all his friends and enemies have become my new series.

February 6, 2014February 4, 2014

Chiral Mad 2–Video Trailer

Editor Michael Bailey created this awesome trailer for the anthology Chiral Mad 2 (now on sale!). Be warned! It may be encoded with a viral melody that will compel you to buy a copy of Chiral Mad 2, then buy others for every member in your family, and still others for all your friends, and others yet for your co-workers, and even a copy for that grumpy woman on line ahead of you at Starbuck’s every morning. Or, perhaps, not. But even if it was true, all proceeds from sales of the book go to benefit Down Syndrome charities, so it’s all good either way. And rumor has it that reading Chiral Mad 2 will make you immune to earworms while watching the video. For now, though, sit back, relax, and enjoy the chirality.

February 4, 2014

“The Flying Rock” Coming in May in Bad-Ass Faeries: It’s Elemental

Back in the summer of 2011 I wrote a story called “The Flying Rock.” It’s one of my favorite things I’ve written.

It’s part pure fantasy, drawing on classic faerie lore and legend, on Ariel, the faerie queen of the winds, and her dark counterpart, the queen of storms. And it’s part portrait of a father struggling to help his children grow up while his family crumbles around him. And on a another level, it’s deeply personal story about the beauty of childhood and the price we all pay to grow up. I’ve been eager to see in print since I first sent it off to my editor almost three years ago.

Well, the wheels of publishing sometime move at a crawl, but move they do, and Bad-Ass Faeries: It’s Elemental, the fourth volume in the BAF series, will be published this May. I’m thrilled to be in another BAF book and grateful to my editors–Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Jeff Lyman, L. Jagi Lamplighter, and Lee C. Hillman–for keeping the series going and letting me be a regular part of it. Dark Quest Books will be launching it this in May, with a fantastic line-up of stories from many talented authors. I hope to have an excerpt from “The Flying Rock” to post soon. In the meantime, here’s the cover and the final table of contents.