Tag Archives: publishing

Rosarium Publishing: “What If Everyone Got to Tell Their Own Story?”

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Laurie and Debbie say:

Rosarium Publishing is raising money to “go to the next level.”  This Indiegogo link has a great description of what they do, and the video goes into more detail. But we like the description on their website, too.

Rosarium Publishing is a fledgling publisher specializing in speculative fiction, comics, and a touch of crime fiction—all with a multicultural flair. We simply believe that talent does not inherently have a race, religion, or region; there is no talent solely found in X or Y chromosome; talent is everywhere, and we will comb the four corners bof this globe to find it. We like to be crazy, wild, provocative. We also like to chill, and there’s never a moment where you won’t find us laughing. If you try to paint us in a corner, we’ll go all TAKI 183 on you and cover it with graffiti. We say that we’re here to “introduce the world to itself,” so you never know where you’ll find us. We might turn up at a con or a festival near you.

We need diverse books. We need diverse publishers. We need spaces for people to tell their own stories. We need comic series called Malice in Ovenland and books called everything from My Booty to The End of the World Is Rye. We need more stories for Chip (Samuel R. Delany) and more adventures of Wally Fresh.

They have five days left to meet their goal. If you give what you can, Rosarium will pay you back, not in the conventional capitalist sense, but with real interest … interesting books, interesting comics, and their interest in fresh, exciting talent and great publications.

 

Gravitas, by Lynne Murray

Debbie says:

Our co-conspirator (well, regular guest blogger) Lynne Murray has been pretty quiet around these parts recently, and one reason is that she’s been working on a new short science-fiction novel, Gravitas, which is now available on Amazon and in other e-book formats, for $2.99 per copy.

Gravitas

I had the privilege of reading Gravitas in manuscript, and I want to recommend it to all of you. It is that rare bird, a novel which embraces fat power while not being about fat power. Instead, it’s about the troubles and travails of Val-Sybilla, who is burdened with a huge amount of the perfume Gravitas, a scent which has the power to cloud people’s minds (well, to turn people on and heighten their other emotional reactions). Val-Sybilla is carrying more Gravitas than most women ever carry, because she expected to get rid of it fairly promptly. But she is forced into an unexpected detour … onto Earth. Val-Sybilla’s people admire large bodies, so Earth is a bit of a surprise:

Before we could enter the building a vehicle cruised past us and someone stuck his head out the open window and yelled, “Get dressed, pig! No one wants to see that!” He tossed a large cup at me. Crushed ice and dark liquid hit me, but I managed to raise a hand to bat the cup back to hit the side of the car.

Every cell in my body seemed to contract in a new reflex. An arc of lightning followed the trail of tossed liquid back to the car, which sank a few inches lower on its suddenly flattened tires. A smell of burnt rubber rose in the air.

As the car settled down in the roadway and began to creep away, the driver yelled. “What did she do to my car?”

His companion said, “Don’t be stupid, how the hell could she do that? You hit a nail or something.”

Josu pulled me into the glass-doored building and the muffled cursing faded. He put an arm around me and turned us away from the window into the store itself. “I’m so sorry you had to endure that insult and the one on the highway. I hate to tell you how often this kind of attack is endured by women of abundant flesh on this planet.”

I stood for a moment half stunned, cold, sticky liquid trickling down my leg. “I thought the Great Mother was worshipped on Earth.” I whispered.

So, fat power, sex (influential women on Val-Sybilla’s planet are expected to have several husbands), adventure, suspense, and goddess worship. What more could you possibly want?