FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2010

Pyr Celebrates 5th Anniversary With Essay Contest

Grand Prize Winner Embarks on a ‘Pyr and Dragons Adventure’

Amherst, NY — To celebrate their 5th anniversary, Pyr, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, will sponsor a contest that incorporates things they hold dear: creative and powerful writing, a passion for reading genre fiction, and this year’s special number, five.

For their Pyr and Dragons Adventure 5th Anniversary Contest, Pyr invites readers and fans to submit a short essay on the theme: Five reasons why science fiction and fantasy is important to you.

Eligibility requirements follow*. Any essay submissions that do not meet these guidelines will be disqualified:

– Entrants must reside in the Continental United States and be at least 21 years of age.
– Essays must be no longer than 1500 words.
– Essays must be emailed to [email protected] as a Word document attachment, with the subject line “Pyr and Dragons Adventure Essay Submission.”
– The body of the submission email must clearly identify the entrant’s full name, address (within the Continental United States), phone number and email address.
– All submissions must be received between April 1, 2010 and June 1, 2010.

*For complete list of rules and regulations see http://www.pyrsf.com/.

All eligible essays will be read and reviewed by publishing staff at Prometheus Books. Not all of these preliminary readers will be science fiction and fantasy fans, so outstanding essays will likely be those that pique their interest in the genre and make them want to read it too. The top twenty-five essays as determined by these industry professionals will be read by Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders, who will select the top three.

The writer of the Third Place essay will win a commemorative Pyr 5th anniversary keepsake and five complimentary books of their choice from the Pyr catalog.

The writer of the Second Place essay will win a complete set of Pyr books as published by the contest end date of June 1, 2010 (one copy of each title, without duplicating those that appear in more than one binding) and a commemorative Pyr 5th anniversary keepsake.

The grand prize winning essay will be posted at the Pyr-o-mania blog, and may be promoted by the publisher by other means, including but not limited to their other blogs, websites, e-newsletters and social networking pages.

Prometheus Books—a provocative, progressive and independent publisher of nonfiction since 1969—launched Pyr in March 2005 to complement its strength in popular science. The imprint rather quickly earned acclaim, awards, and loyal fans, including Pulitzer Prize–winning author Junot Díaz, who called Pyr “the imprint to beat in the science fiction and fantasy fields.”

With an emphasis on quality, Pyr helped to introduce readers to some authors then little-known in the U.S., such as John Meaney, Ian McDonald, Joel Shepherd, Justina Robson, and Joe Abercrombie. Pyr has also published such established authors as Mike Resnick, Robert Silverberg and Michael Moorcock. Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Long Form for three consecutive years. In 2009, Prometheus Books and Pyr launched a major e-book initiative, with titles available on Kindle and programs with many different e-reader platforms in the works. In 2010, in addition to celebrating its five-year anniversary, Pyr will publish its 100th title.

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For a complete list of contest rules and regulations see http://www.pyrsf.com/

So, let’s talk about your blog for a bit. You’re pretty connected to the news of the fantasy world, able to get interviews with such greats as Blake Charlton and even deign to speak with such no-names like Joe Abercrombie, your reviews tend to be viewed as honest and affable and you’re a writer yourself. You’re officially one of the big names in blogging. Do you think your success is undeserved? And if not, don’t you think you should? What’s next for A Dribble of Ink?

Okay, first I should clear some things up about Abercrombie. He came to me. Both times, on hands and knees, no less. I don’t know why he was so desperate, his books are pretty popular, but he hounded me excessively, begging me to allow him on the blog.

One night, at three in the morning, I got a phone call. On the other end, through the static of the trans-atlantic phonelines, I could hear heavy breath, like the person was breathing only through their mouth, and the gentle scrape of a comb running through a well-tended neck-beard.

He uttered a single phrase, which I will not appear here, that sent a chill down my spine and haunting my dreamscapes with visions of Logen, Friendly and Ferro having unending threesomes. Ever since then, he’s been allowed to come on my blog and rant, in hopes that the dreams may one day cease.

As for the success of my blog, well, I work hard on it and pour a very substantial part of myself into it, so in that respect, yeah, I think the success is deserved. That said, my official answer is: ‘I’m nothing more than a humble guy just doin’ his thing. I didn’t even know people read my blog, I guess that’s kinda neat!’. There, now I don’t sound like an asshole.

What’s next? Onwards and upwards. This year I hope to cover more short fiction and conduct more interviews. Hopefully there’s good news on my own writing, also. Then I can turn A Dribble of Ink into a platform to shill my own material. That would be good, no?

The sea is full of saints. You know that? You know that: you’re a big boy.

The sea’s full of saints and it’s been full of saints for years. Since longer than anything. Saints were there before there were even gods. They were waiting for them, and they’re still there now.

Saints eat fish and shellfish. Some of them catch jellyfish and some of them eat rubbish. Some saints eat anything they can find. They hide under rocks; they turn themselves inside out; they spit up spirals. There’s nothing saints don’t do.

Make this shape with your hands. Like that. Move your fingers. There, you made a saint. Look out, here comes another one! Now they’re fighting! Yours won.

There aren’t any big corkscrew saints any more, but there are still ones like sacks and ones like coils, and ones like robes with flapping sleeves. What’s your favourite saint? I’ll tell you mine. But wait a minute, first, do you know what it is makes them all saints? They’re all a holy family, they’re all cousins. Of each other, and of . . . you know what else they’re cousins of?

That’s right. Of gods.

Alright now. Who was it made you? You know what to say.

Who made you?