We’ve recently started a series of blog posts over at Torbooks.co.uk aimed at shining a light on various aspects and roles of those of us involved in Team Tor at Pan Macmillan. To give you, the reader, a greater insight into how the book you so lovingly place on your bookshelf, got there. To help kick things off I’ve written a brief piece about what it is I do as the Editorial Director of Tor UK. Apart from, obviously, drink coffee and read books all day!
My job is two-fold, one to find, buy, publish and represent authors of quality speculative fiction—the other is to build and develop the imprint brand of Tor in the UK.
Edgar Allan Poe gave American writers permission to plumb the subterranean depths of human depravity and transform it into art. This may sound obvious, but it’s worth remembering—on his 204th birthday—that Poe composed his pioneering gothic stories for a Yankee audience. Europeans already indulged in the profane poetry of Charles Baudelaire (Poe’s French translator) and attended the bloody spectacle of Grand Guignol theater so it’s no wonder they embraced the graveyard poet before America, whose prudish shores had never read anything like him.
On January 12th, the science fiction community lost writer and editor Steven Utley. Though Utley was fond of referring to himself as “an internationally unknown author,” his work has been widely published in the last several decades, and his wit and elegant, explorative prose can be found in his stories, which often delve fearlessly into subjects such as time travel and parallel worlds. We’re proud to note that one of these wonderful stories, titled “The City Quiet As Death” and cowritten with Michael Bishop, first found a home here on Tor.com.
Today is the 73rd birthday of celebrated and influential author and editor Michael John Moorcock. Involving himself in the SF/Fantasy scene practically as soon as he discovered it, Moorcock began editing Tarzan Adventures in 1957 when he was just 17. His love of high adventure, such as the work of Leigh Brackett and Edgar Rice Burroughs, influenced not only his early editorial work but also his own writing. He is often self-deprecating about his style, saying in the introduction to Elric: The Stealer of Souls:
“I really wanted to write a pulp detective story and everything that it would entail, so I set in New York City,” Adam Christopher explained during his reading of Empire State at the Mid-Manhattan Library last Tuesday. Our reading location was in full view of the famous Library Lions of Fifth Avenue, which were draped in nighttime shadows as the faceless crowd, wrapped in their dark winter jackets, bustled by; looking at this atmospheric backdrop, I could understand how NYC can become a gritty inspiration to any outsider. But more than giving just a tip of the fedora to a classic American genre, Christopher talked about how superheroes, Prohibition, and alternate universes all play a role in his debut novel (read Tor’s 
Kristen Simmons, author of Article 5 will be going on tour next month and in March, and you don’t want to miss it! For those of you in need of a primer, here’s 
In March, Tobias S. Buckell will be going on tour to promote his new book, 
In January, Jo Walton will be touring to promote the paperback release of her novel, 
Coming up next month, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson will be touring to promote their new Dune novel, 
I come here to praise Vernor, and let you all in on a little not-so-secret:
Starting at the end of this month, Cherie Priest will be traveling all over the midwest and west coat to talk about her new book, 
Leslie Esdaile Banks, who wrote fiction under the name L. A. Banks, died this morning, Tuesday, August 2nd, from a rare and virulent form of adrenal cancer.
Author fight!
Thanksgiving is looming; are you all prepared? Lists made, food brought, ovens at the ready?
