Check out that beautiful cover art, revealed yesterday by Ticonderoga Publications for the new Arabian Nights inspired anthology Dreaming of Djinn, edxited by Liz Grzyb. I am never disappointed with the cover art from Ticonderoga, and they’ve excelled themselves once again. I’m especially pleased as I have a story in this book, due out around April. People are always talking about not judging a book by its cover and, ironically, that applies to pretty much everything except books. It’s right to not judge people by their appearance, for example, or the quality of a home by the building it’s in. But people do, quite rightly, judge books by their covers. That’s what covers are for. They’re the first port of call for a prospective buyer. If the cover looks good, they’ll pick up the book and read the back cover blurb. If that grabs them, they’ll maybe thumb through a page or two. Then they’ll buy the book. If they’re buying on recommendation anyway, the cover is less important, but bad covers still do put people off.
In this day and age of mass production and awful, homogenous graphic art that makes all books look the same, it’s great to see something with some real artistic value and quality design going on. In this case, the artwork is from Ukraine artist, Nadiia Starovoitova, and the design is by Ticonderoga’s own Russell B Farr.
My story in this one is about a young woman with challenges in her life, not least of which being a father who won’t let her grow up. Then she meets someone connected with the Djinn. My story is called On A Crooked Leg Lightly and I’m very proud it was accepted for this book. Look who else is in there:
- Marilag Angway “Shadow Dancer”
- Cherith Baldry “The Green Rose”
- Alan Baxter “On A Crooked Leg Lightly”
- Jenny Blackford “The Quiet Realm of the Dark Queen”
- Jetse de Vries “Djinni Djinni Dream Dream”
- Thoraiya Dyer “The Saint George Hotel”
- Joshua Gage “The Dancer of Smoke”
- Richard Harland “The Tale of the Arrow Girl”
- Faith Mudge “The Oblivion Box”
- Havva Murat “Harmony Thicket and the Persian Shoes”
- Charlotte Nash “Parvaz”
- Anthony Panegyres “Oleander: An Ottoman Tale”
- Dan Rabarts “Silver, Sharp as Silk”
- Angela Rega “The Belly Dancing Crimes of Ms Sahara Desserts”
- Jenny Schwartz “The Pearl Flower Harvest”
- Barb Siples “The Sultan’s Debt”
- Pia Van Ravestein “Street Dancer”
- DC White “A Dash of Djinn and Tonic”
Dreaming of Djinn features 18 incredible tales of romantic Orientalism. The book will be available in April and you can pre-order it here.
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Look at this beautiful tome. It’s the Bloodstones anthology from Ticonderoga Publications, edited by the awesomely talented Amanda Pillar. You can tell she’s awesomely talented because she picked one of my stories to be in this book. And all the others, of course. Bloodstones is an anthology of short fiction using unusual creatures, myths and legends in dark, urban fantasy settings. And let’s be honest, that kind of brief is right up my flagpole. My story is called Cephalopoda Obsessia and it’s my little cephalopod overlord homage. I won’t say any more than that.
Greg Mellor is a relatively new voice in Australian science fiction, but his debut collection from Ticonderoga Publications places him firmly in the upper echelons of SF writers at work today. Wild Chrome is a collection of 21 short stories, ten of them new and original to the collection and the other eleven reprints from such august publications as Clarkesworld, Cosmos, Aurealis and more.
As if 
Who is Jodi?
The other publication I can reveal today is 
Jason Nahrung grew up on a Queensland cattle property and now lives in Melbourne with his wife, the writer Kirstyn McDermott. He works as an editor and journalist to support his travel addiction; in particular, an abiding love affair with New Orleans.
Salvage, and the fact it’s now available at 
