For some time, Exile Editions has been putting out a Book of series of anthologies all of which are some of the finest literary and speculative fiction being written in Canada. Through the Portal follows in that tradition, being the 20th edition.
I’ve known Sally McBride for some number of years now. Under Five Rivers Publishing, when it was a going concern, I published her first novel, Indigo Time.
C.E. Hoffman is a very young, quite talented writer of speculative fiction, which could be better categorized under the slipstream genre. According to her website, they are a screenwriter, author, poet, performer, publisher and lyrical journalist. They’ve won multiple awards and grants, have seven books in publication, and numerous short works.
Robert G. Penner lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is represented by John Silbersack of The Bent Agency, a high-profile agent and agency. Penner’s previous novel, Strange Labour, is one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Science Fiction Books of 2020.
Suzan Palumbo is a new writer to me, a Brampton, Ontario denizen of Trinidadian background. Her short fiction has appeared in many of the more edgy spec-fic magazines, and she’s also deeply committed to championing Caribbean voices, and Ignyte Awards which is a people’s choice award.
Matt Hughes is a Canadian writer with an impressive background: former staff speechwriter to two federal cabinet ministers in the 1970s, and a top-rated speechwriter for three decades in British Columbia.
Peter Darbyshire is a Canadian journalist and editor, with a sheaf of books to his credit. This October, Wolsak & Wynn presents a new edition of Darbyshire’s wild ride, The Mona Lisa Sacrifice, first released in 2013 by ChiZine Publications under Darbyshire’s pseudonym, Peter Roman. The Mona Lisa Sacrifice is the first book of the Book of the Cross series.
Young, talented, well-acquainted with 18th and 19th century gothic horror and dark fiction, Elliot Gish has launched her debut novel, which is relatively accomplished, and certainly makes for an interesting read.
J.R. McConvey is a writer new to me. Apparently, that’s my shortcoming, definitely not his. A consummate communicator, he’s been involved in copywriting, creating content for publications, organization and institutions, as well as writing and producing award-winning documentaries.
Autokrator, the debut novel by Emily A Weedon, brings with it some perceived credibility: Weedon is a Canadian Screen Award winner for best writing in a webseries. She’s also won or been nominated for 10 other screen writing awards. And she’s represented by Sam Hiyate of The Rights Factory.
I must admit I became enamoured of Geoff Ryman’s work after reading The King’s Last Song, a superb tale which relates the story of an archaeologist working on the stupendous site of Angkor Wat where he finds a book of golden leaves which is a memoir written by Jayavarman Seven, one of the first Buddhist kings in Cambodia.
S.W. Mayse comes with a pedigree, having received the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best True Crime for Ginger, as well as another Ellis award for first novel first runner-up for Merlin’s Web. She was also shortlisted for the Georgette Heyer Award for Historical Fiction for her novel, Awen.
I don’t usually come to a novel series without having read the first, and it was likely my oversight that Lost Cargo was part of a series which may have swayed my opinion to the favourable.