Shout out to new voices!

Sending for the newsletter, but also for a huge WHOO HOO!

So beside myself with excitement to see J. Kathleen Cheney’s debut novel THE GOLDEN CITY on Library Journal’s list of Best Books of 2013: SF/Fantasy!

It’s so funny, because just the other day some writers were bemoaning on my Facebook page the way the “establishment” is so averse to new voices, how we’re all gatekeepers (read evil ogres), etcetera and so forth and yet here’s one of the industry magazines putting a new voice on par with other awesome, established authors.  Hmm, because this is my soapbox and I’ll holler if I want to, here are some other recent and amazing debuts on my list, all new within the past twelve months or forthcoming:

NEXUS by Ramez Naam – a great SF thriller released by Angry Robot Books in December 2012, followed by the sequel CRUX in August 2013

GATED by Amy Christine Parker – a young adult thriller about a girl who grows up in a cult and begins to question as the “end times” are upon them published by Random House Children’s in August 2013

THE GOLDEN CITY by J. Kathleen Cheney (mentioned above) – a fantasy/mystery set in a alternate Portugal released by Roc books in November 2013

BEYOND OUR STARS by Marie Langager – a suspenseful YA science fiction novel in which a girl’s hope for a fresh start on a new planet becomes a nightmare when she’s marked by the current inhabitants for for special testing coming in December 2013 from Bloomsbury Spark

PREDATOR by Janice Gable Bashman – young adult novel with a unique twist on the werewolf mythos coming from Month9Books in Fall 2014

THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY by Genevieve Cogman – wonderful fantasy novel billed by the publisher as Doctor Who with librarians! forthcoming from Tor UK in January 2015

My debut novelists have also included Lynn Flewelling, Carol Berg, Vicky Dreiling, Diana Pharaoh Francis, N.K. Jemisin, Kalayna Price, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Steven Piziks (aka Steven Harper), Tammy Kaehler….  A very impressive list, I think you’ll agree!  So, if you want to see more new voices, the best thing you can do is support them as they come along!