"Synthesis" is out!

I’m very excited to share this piece of news with you: Fantastic Books Publishing recently published a science fiction anthology "Synthesis", and one of my stories is featured in the book!

In 2014, FBP organised a short story writing competition for stories of 1500 words or shorter. That isn’t very many words, and there was a time when I would never have even considered attempting to condense a story into such a short form. If you meet me in person, you’ll find that I don’t talk much, but if you let me write... a different story (haha!) altogether. Back when we had to write English essays at school, the word limit was something like 200. I always ended up with maybe about 500-600 words. The cutting took much longer than the actual writing, and that is not the way to write a story. Luckily, when this competition came up, I had already written a few short stories so I gave it a try.

When the results were announced, I was stunned to learn that my story had received the third prize! That was unexpected, but, naturally, wonderful news.

And now it's out - an ebook and a paperback edition of 27 science fiction stories (Amazon has it, too). Most of them are entries from the competition, but the collection also features stories by authors who were invited to contribute. I’ve read some of the stories already, and while they’re bite-sized pieces, they gave me much food for thought. If you’re worried about science fiction being all about space battles and aliens or some sort of technical stuff that only an engineer or a physics professor would understand, no need to worry – there’s much more to this collection. I’m honoured to have my story “If We Start Killing” in this anthology.

10-year Anniversary of Battlestar Galactica

This image from here.

I had barely waken up this morning and was staring at my computer screen with sleepy eyes when I saw this piece of news: It's been ten years since the first episode of “Battlestar Galactica” premiered. That was like a bucket full of icy water emptied over my head. “That can't be right!” (Closely followed by “I feel old!”) But no, they weren't wrong. (And, naturally, since it's been 10 years, I'm talking about the later version, not the older original, which, I must admit, I've never watched.)

Anyway, “Battlestar Galactica” is one of my favourite TV series. But that very nearly never happened!

My husband and I lived in Canada in 2005, so we actually saw the pilot episode when it first aired. I wasn't impressed. My husband kept watching the show, but I didn't care to. Roughly a year later, we'd moved back to Finland, and the series premiered here. I decided to give it another chance. I was instantly hooked. I don't know what happened, or what had changed, but I really, really liked it.

It wasn't the concept or even the storyline(s) or the odd mixture of realism and mystery that grabbed me (though those are great, too). It was the human drama. The relationships between the characters are never easy, never uncomplicated, and that's what makes them real. The characters are pushed beyond their limits and they face moral dilemmas and situations where they're forced to choose the lesser of two (or more) evils. They make their choices and deal with the consequences... and they don't always do that admirably and heroically. But then there are those moments when they do. The first, I guess, is why we like them and root for them. The second is why we love them. We've been shown that they're like us – human, fallible; it's easy to root for them. And then, when they're shown doing the right thing, the impossible thing, or the noble thing... it's inspiring. It's encouraging.

And that's the show's main appeal for me. Even today, when I try to think of examples of three-dimensional characters, characters that have strengths and weaknesses, who struggle and fail, who face conflicts (external, internal – there's plenty of both) and who, as a result, change – for better or for worse (and in some cases, both)... the first characters that come to mind are the ones from Battlestar Galactica.

Story sample

You can now get a taste of my story, 'Blood is Thicker' which is featured in the 'Elite: Tales from the Frontier' anthology. The prologue to the story was published on the anthology site, here, and it is not included in the book itself! So this is a rare opportunity to take a look at it.

And if you don't already know about the anthology in question, it is a collection of 15 stories, set in the Elite: Dangerous universe. Published by Fantastic Books Publishing, the ebook is already available (you'll find the links at the anthology site), and paperbacks, hardcovers and audiobooks are ready for pre-order.

A book by its cover

Yes yes, we're not supposed to judge. Yet we do it all the time. When you're browsing in a bookstore, or a library, or in Amazon or wherever you like to acquire your reading material from, how do you decide which books you pick up? Unless I'm looking for a particular book or a book by a particular author, my choices are influenced by a book's title and its cover.

So what gets your interest in a cover? Do you prefer colourful illustrations, simplistic design or just text? People or objects?

That's not an easy question to answer. I keep picking up the same books in a bookstore because the cover just has that something about it, something that speaks to me, and it's impossible to explain what that is. Sometimes I'm drawn to simple designs, sometimes I'm excited by elaborate ones. I'm drawn to books that use a font that looks somehow 'ancient', books that are designed to look like old tomes (I know it's just an illusion, but whenever I see something like that, my hand reaches out for it). To illustrate, Abercrombie's 'The Blade Itself' (left). I also adore Carlos Ruiz Zafón's 'The Shadow of the Wind' (right), which was a gift from a dear friend and a book I like to keep on my bedside table just because it looks lovely.

There are certain types of covers that are an instant turn-off, although these, too, are difficult to describe. Usually these are covers I'd call somehow 'generic' – there's nothing in them to tell them apart from countless others. Sometimes I pick up a book in a bookstore because the title is interesting, but the illustration on the cover makes me put the book back before I've even bothered to turn it around and glance at the description. I'm aware that I may have missed many good books by doing this... but then, no matter how much you'd want to, you can't check them all out, can you?

When it comes to your favourite book(s), the cover doesn't matter – it's the story you love – but a wonderful coincidence is that some of my favourite covers are, in fact, covers of my favourite books! Manda Scott's incomparable Boudica series has many great covers. Here's one image of all the four books (left) – I love the design, it is simple yet powerful. Here, on the right, is an alternative cover for the first book in the series. This is the one that originally drew my attention to these books. Just look at the cover - how could you resist that?

There are also editions that have covers with wonderful illustrations by Stephen Youll – unfortunately, I was able to find only one image where the illustration is used in the cover. Here it is:

Once – but only once – it has happened that I started collecting a series of books, then saw a different edition with a different cover art and decided I needed those rather than what I already had (although those were lovely, too). This was Rosalind Miles' Guenevere Trilogy, which has these gorgeous paintings by John William Waterhouse (perhaps my favourite of the Pre-Raphaelite painters) as cover art (left). Love them!

And I should mention – I'm very happy with the cover of Elite: Tales from the Frontier anthology that features one of my stories. The cover is by Helen Murphy, and although I've posted it before, it deserves to be shown again:

As for buying books solely on the basis of their covers... my mother used to do that. I read mostly in English, but my mother didn't speak a word of English, yet she persistently bought books for me. She had no idea what the titles meant, so she always chose one with 'a pretty cover'. They made for very... surprising presents. Once she bought me a poetry collection. She never looked inside the book, and was disappointed to learn that what she had thought would be an interesting story, was in fact a collection of poems. I was delighted, however, and it turned out to be a perfect present!

Since this is just a small glance at the covers I like, I've created a new board in Pinterest where I intend to collect beautiful book covers. You're welcome to come over and see what I've found so far. And I'd love to hear about your favourite covers, so feel free to drop some names in the comments!

Cover Art for Elite: Tales from the Frontier

Yesterday, Fantastic Books Publishing released the cover art for Elite: Tales from the Frontier. This anthology will feature 15 stories set in the Elite: Dangerous universe, and one of those stories is my 'Blood is Thicker'. I'm very excited to have my story published in such a beautiful book. :) Here, this is what it will look like:

I'd love to show you the rest of the covers in the FBP's Elite set, but my skills in any sort of... hmm, I don't even know what it's called... the sort of wizardry that allows one to post pictures and organise them so they won't leap randomly all over the place... aren't up to such a challenge. I think the complete set will look stunning, but if you refuse to take my word for it, you can view them all here.