Author Ryan Schneider's Blog

This Author Spotlight features Lisa Mason author of The Garden of Abracadabra This week's author spotlight features a returning guest, Lisa Mason .  Lisa is the author of ten novels, including Summer of Love , a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and a San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book, The Gilded Age , a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book, a collection of previously published science fiction and fantasy,  Strange Ladies: 7 Stories , and two dozen stories and novellas in magazines and anthologies worldwide. Her Omni story, "Tomorrow's Child," sold outright to Universal Studios and is in development. Lisa also served as a judge for the 2016 Philip K. Dick Award. Lisa is herself a Philip K. Dick Award finalist, which you can read about HERE . She shared her book Summer of Love with us in December 2012. You can read that interview HERE . She visited again to share her book Strang...

Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! A Philip K Dick Award-nominated novel. Eight hundred years ago Doran Falkner gave humanity the stars, and he now lives with his regrets on a depopulated Earth among tumbledown ruins and ancient dreams brought to life by modern technology. But word now comes that alien life has been discovered on a distant world, life so strange and impossible that the revelation of its secrets could change everything. A disillusioned knight on the chessboard of the gods, Doran must confront his own lost promise, his lost love, and his lost humanity, to make the move that will revive the fortunes both of humans and aliens . . . “ Knight Moves is an engrossing and evocative read, a tale of immortality and love and death rendered in a style that reminds me more than a little of the early Roger Zelazny. Williams’ people are intriguing and sympathetic, and his portrait of an Earth left transf...

Unique and Diverse! The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle by Lisa Mason Author of Summer of Love and Curator of the Philip K. Dick Storybundle What the authors and books of The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle share is the award itself, whether the book was a Finalist or Winner. Above and beyond the prestige of the award—and the superb quality of the work—you will find a diverse array of protagonists to root for and startling worlds to visit. In Aestival Tide by Elizabeth Hand , come to Araboth—the majestic, domed, multi-tiered city of the Ascendants as the once-in-a-decade Aestival Tide approaches and destruction looms. In Life by Gwyneth Jones , meet Anna Senoz, a scientist who makes a momentous discovery about the X and Y chromosomes. Anna’s discovery provokes shocking reactions and impacts her career, her marriage, and her child. In The Cipher by Kathe Koja, join Koja’s artists of the modern-day demimonde as they experiment with the mys...

How I Chose the Books for The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! by Lisa Mason As a 2016 PKD Award judge , I had access to the master list of Finalists and Winners going back to 1983, when the award was inaugurated. When Storybundle agreed  to do a Philip K Dick Award Storybundle comprised of Finalists and Winners , I researched the authors on that list. I chose these authors and books because they meet the following criteria: 1. They weren’t dead (that’s a joke); 2. They have an ebook of their Philip K Dick Award Finalist or Winner ; 3. They and their publishers were technically able to participate in StoryBundle’s DRM-free environment. You would be surprised how many authors going back to 1983 couldn’t meet those simple criteria, including the first. I’m delighted and thankful for this list. I’ve read all of the authors’ works, often first as magazine stories, and met several at conventions and parties. I truly encourage you to...

Summer of Love by Lisa Mason is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! A Philip K. Dick Award Finalist. A San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book of the Year. The year is 1967 and something new is sweeping across America: good vibes, bad vibes, psychedelic music, psychedelic drugs, anti-war protests, racial tension, free love, bikers, dropouts, flower children. An age of innocence, a time of danger. The Summer of Love. San Francisco is the Summer of Love , where runaway flower children flock to join the hip elite and squares cruise the streets to view the human zoo. Lost in these strange and wondrous days, teenager Susan Bell, alias Starbright, has run away to San Francisco to find her troubled best friend. Her path will cross with Chiron Cat’s Eye in Draco, a strange and beautiful young man who has journeyed farther than she could ever imagine. With the help of Ruby A. Maverick, a feisty half-black, half-white hip merchant, Susan and Chi discover a love...