Tag: Castalia House

Reviewers wanted

Castalia has been publishing a lot of non-fiction of late. But over the next few months, we’re going to be getting back to our original mission, which is advancing the state of Blue SF, which is to say science fiction that is written in the spirit of the science fiction giants, particularly Robert Heinlein.

So, I’m looking for 10 volunteers who can review for Amazon a forthcoming book by an author we are billing as the New New Heinlein – he does Heinlein better, more respectfully, and in a much more original way than Scalzi ever did – as well as 10 volunteers who can review a novel that is written in the tradition of Louis L’Amour.

That’s right, in addition to the return to Blue SF, we’re bringing back the Western too. So, if you’re ready, able, and willing to read and review one of these books in short order, please email me with either BLUE SF or WESTERN in the title.

UPDATE: We have enough reviewers, thank you!

In addition to TWO new John C. Wright novels we will be publishing this summer and fall, I’m particularly excited to publish a novel that I can only describe as written in the tradition of W. Somerset Maugham’s short stories. It’s intelligent, funny, and remarkably good.

Our range is becoming increasingly eclectic, but as I told David the Good after his second-straight book went #1 in Gardening, (the Kindle and Paperback editions of Grow or Die are currently #3 AND #5 in the category) Castalia House has four major guidelines for the books we publish:

  • Expected #1 category bestseller. If it’s not at least as popular as the most popular books in its category, it’s probably not for us. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book, but we intend to not only maintain, but improve our level of quality as we grow. As more good authors exit the orbit of the failing major publishers, we expect more of them to come our way.
  • Intelligent. We don’t aim for the lowest common denominator. We’ll leave that to everyone else.
  • Different and original. As Marc Aramini openly informed his SJW critics at Making Light, no one else would have published Between Light and Shadow. No one, because it was a crazy, unprofitable thing to do. Even Gene Wolfe, though flattered, thought the project was completely insane. It is brilliant and unique and completely over the heads of everyone who isn’t a Wolfe fanatic, myself included. And that’s why we published it.
  • No SJWs. We publish science fiction. We publish fantasy. We publish science. We publish philosophy. We publish religion. We publish literary analysis. We publish gardening. We publish economics. We are in the process of publishing both Westerns and literary novels. But we do not publish social justice in any form.

On a tangential note, I should note that later this year, there will be another debate on free trade. We’re still sorting out the timing and the details, but it appears Robert Murphy, Thomas Woods, and myself will be involved.

Grow or Die paperback

We are pleased to be able to announce that the bestselling survival gardening book, GROW OR DIE: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening, is now available in paperback for $11.99. While we are massive proponents of ebooks, this is arguably the one book that you will definitely want to own in a physical format.

While I can’t be certain that Kindles will not function properly in the post-Apocalypse, it’s probably not the safe bet.

For some reason, Amazon has elected to confer upon David the title of Assistant Professor Psychology and Applied Therapies, so I’m sure you will all join me in congratulating him upon this unexpected academic achievement.

There Will Be Volume XI

Jerry Pournelle has an important announcement.

There Will be War Volume XI

 Now open for submissions at twbw@castaliahouse.com. Publication will be in late November or early December of this year. Reprint anthology, but original works are eligible; three original fiction stories in Volume X were nominated for Hugos; winners will be announced at MidAmericon II in August. Although unpublished works will be considered, there is no additional payment beyond payment for reprint rights, and first publication rights remain with the author (until, of course, they expire at publication of this volume).

Payment is $200 on acceptance. This is an advance against royalties. Royalties are a pro rata share of 50% of all royalties due from the publisher (the other 50% is to the editor). We buy non-exclusive anthology rights.  Publisher is Castalia House, which will make advances and royalty payments directly to the contributors. Again, payment is the same for previously published and previously unpublished works. Story selection is by me (the editor).  Editor’s contribution will include a volume introduction and introductions to each contribution, and may include more as I judge necessary.

Submissions can be fiction or non-fiction of under 20,000 words relevant to the future of warfare.  Previous volumes have included stories of ground combat, interplanetary and interstellar naval engagements, “space opera”, terrorism, a major essay in asymmetric warfare by a professor of military history, and articles from military journals. Most works to be included have been previously published. Submissions accepted until October 2016, or until announcement that the volume is filled.

Two classic stories by well-known award-winning authors have already been accepted, others are expected. I emphasize that payment of an advance against royalties is on acceptance.

Gearing up for Vol. XI

I am very pleased to observe that Jerry Pournelle has pre-announced a new volume in his legendary There Will Be War series:

Shortly we will announce that There Will Be War, Volume XI will be published in November and is now open for submissions. It’s not the formal announcement because I don’t have the web addresses for formal submission. I don’t open attachments to emails to me (obviously with some exceptions which I’m not going to tell you) because I only read plaintext in Outlook, so sending me stories to Chaos Manor isn’t going to work; I’m sure I’ll have the web addresses very shortly.

Publisher is Castalia House. There will be an omnibus hardbound edition (with Vol. XII) and eBook editions. We buy non-exclusive anthology rights only: that means we buy previously published works, and if you send an original work – a lot of people do – understand that if it is accepted you still have first serial rights until after November, after which they no longer exist for anyone. Payment on acceptance is an advance against royalties: royalties vary in this strange age, so it’s hard to say exactly, but they are competitive, and contributors receive a pro-rata share of half what I receive.

My contribution is a volume introduction, and individual story introductions. I have been known to make editorial suggestions, particularly to original contributions. I have also been known to make other contributions, fiction and non-fiction, as I find necessary.

The series has done well, even the nearly thirty-year-old volumes. Three stories in Volume X were nominated for Hugo Awards.

We’ll get on the email addresses for submissions and whatnot this weekend. In the meantime, this means we’re going to need slush readers for it, so if you’ve got the time and you wish to volunteer to be the first line of defense, please email me with VOL XI in the title.  Last year’s readers did an excellent job, so the bar is high. Every reader should expect to read between 20 and 30 short stories in six months.

Nota Bene: If you’re thinking of submitting once the floodgates open, that’s great, but DO NOT SEND ANYTHING THAT IS NOT MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION. I cannot stress this enough. I couldn’t believe how many stories we were sent that were obviously and totally unsuitable for the anthology series. Don’t waste your time. Don’t waste our time. And keep in mind that Jerry is no respecter of persons. I’m the assistant editor, one of my stories, submitted anonymously, passed the slush readers, and Jerry didn’t hesitate to reject it anyhow. He rejected big names. He rejected very big names. He rejected unknown names. He has nothing left to prove and he has high standards, so keep that in mind before you send in anything less than your best.

And yes, we’re still doing Riding the Red Horse Vol. 2. Things have just been a little chaotic, that’s all. Tom and I need to sit down and figure out how many stories we’ve got already, and how many more we need.

A few mostly unrelated items to address while I’m at it:

  1. Can someone email me the .mobi of The Return of the Great Depression? Update: Got it, thank you.
  2. We have some exciting new authors to announce at Castalia House very soon. Three, to be precise.
  3. Is anyone interested in a three- or six-month marketing internship? As you’ve probably noticed, I’m pretty good at that sort of thing, but my bandwidth is increasingly limited and I don’t do one-tenth the marketing that I should do. That’s about all the time that would be necessary to learn everything involved. My thought is to have a revolving marketing internship, in order to maximize the number of Ilk who are up to speed on these things.
  4. Four words: Brainstorm. Steve Keen. Soon.

A question for the readers

Which would you rather have first, A Sea of Skulls or SJWs Always Double Down? I’ve been focusing on the former, given how long Selenoth fans have been waiting, but it occurs to me that it might make sense to, you know, actually ask the core market what it prefers.

On a somewhat related note, the first novel in what could reasonably, but will not be, described as a New Heinlein series, Mutiny in Space by Rod Walker, will be published soon. It’s an intentional attempt to capture the style and spirit of Robert Heinlein’s classic SF juveniles. I think you’ll find it is considerably more successful in doing so than some of the previously declared New Heinleins.

UPDATE: The readers have spoken. The current schedule will remain in place. First A Sea of Skulls, then SJWs Always Double Down.

GOD, ROBOT

It is the year 6080 AD. Detective Theseus Hollywell has at last discovered the hiding place of William Locke, a notorious fugitive from justice who has been hunted for decades after committing unspeakable crimes.


But Locke has a trick up his sleeve, one that the detective couldn’t expect: He has a story to tell.


This is the tale of the theobots, the robotic beings created to love God and Man with a perfection no mere mortal could achieve. In ten stories by eight different science fiction authors, Locke recounts the role of the theobots throughout history, from the purposes for which they were originally created to their ultimate role in deciding the fate of Man, the galaxy, and one lost and tortured soul.

GOD, ROBOT is a themed collection of intertwined stories from some of the best known names in superversive science fiction. Written in the tradition of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and edited by Anthony Marchetta, the book contains stories by John C. Wright, Steve Rzasa, Joshua Young, L. Jagi Lamplighter, and others.

GOD, ROBOT is 162 pages, is DRM-free, and is available on Amazon. Note: One story in the collection, “The Logfile” by Vox Day, was previously published in The Altar of Hate.

UPDATE: From the Amazon reviews:

FIVE STARS. This one pleasantly surprised me. I don’t mind
Asimov-style sci-fi and find the basic concept of the three laws of
robotics very interesting, but it’s not my favorite subgenre, and I felt
I could guess where things were going to go before I read it. It took a
few pages, but in spite of my initial reservations I was drawn in by
the multi-part sequential story which takes the well-known three laws
and posits what might happen if two more laws were added… the greatest
commandments of scripture–love God above all, and love your neighbor
as yourself–and builds an alternate future based on the
theologically-aware robot race that results and seeks its own place in
God’s creation.

Castalia site down

I heard from the technical gentlemen. It’s no big deal, just some ISP-related stuff. It should be back up on Friday, Saturday at the latest.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

On the Existence of Gods

ON THE EXISTENCE OF GODS is the response to a public challenge posed by Dr. PZ Myers, a militant atheist who claimed to have never encountered any good arguments for the existence of gods. It is a competitive discourse between a Christian and an atheist, each of whom argue for their position on the subject, after which the arguments are adjudicated by a team of three judges, a Christian, an agnostic, and an atheist, before additional arguments are presented.

The format is compelling and the results are at times surprising, as the discussion takes unexpected twists and turns, while the judges exhibit ruthless impartiality as they criticize the arguments of both sides without mercy or favor. Vox Day, the author of The Irrational Atheist, presents the Christian perspective, while Dominic Saltarelli argues for the atheist position. The debate is wide-ranging and intelligent, but remains civil throughout, even as the momentum swings in favor of one side, and then the other. It also includes an appendix that addresses the argument for a science-based morality presented by Sam Harris in The Moral Landscape.

ON THE EXISTENCE OF GODS is a compelling test of how open the reader’s mind is to the various possibilities of reality, and is a worthy addition to the long history of Man’s contemplation of his own existence in the face of the divine.

From the reviewers:

  • This is the first thing that I’ve read in a very long time that actually had new, novel, and interesting arguments – and both authors achieved this, on both sides of the debate. I find myself giving this book five stars purely for the astonishing
    achievement of presenting novel arguments. After two thousand years of
    debating the topic, that’s a remarkable achievement.
  • Watching a relentlessly logical mind like Vox Day at work is a sight to behold.
  • I enjoyed it very much, not least for the subtlety of the arguments.
    This is a really enjoyable intellectual battle between a believer and an atheist which has the very unusual distinction, in such battles, of being courteous, humorous, and on a high intellectual level.

ON THE EXISTENCE OF GODS is 105 pages, $4.99, and DRM-free.

Iron Chamber of Memory by John C. Wright

The small island of Sark in the English Channel is the last feudal government in Europe. By law, no motor vehicles run on the road, and no lights burn at night. Only the lord of the island may keep hounds.Into the strange, high house of Wrongerwood wanders Hal Landfall, penniless graduate student at Magdalen College, looking for his missing friend Manfred Hathaway, who has just inherited the lordship, the house, and the island. What he finds instead is the lovely, green-eyed Laurel, a beautiful girl from Cornwall who is Manfred’s wife-to-be. 

There is said to be a haunted chamber in the house, erected by Merlin in ancient days, where a man who enters remembers his true and forgotten self. When Hal and Laurel step in, they remember, with fear and wonder, a terrible truth they must forget again when they step outside.

From the reviews:

  • “A wonderfully creepy, profound, sad and yet uplifting story. Wright’s latest is another fantastic and inventive piece from an author whose imaginative faculties boggle the mind.”
  • “There are few authors who can maintain extremely high 5-star quality in
    every single piece of work they produce. JCW is one of the very few
    grand-masters who manages to pull this off consistently.”
  • “It was a roller coaster ride, and I mean that in a great way. Few works have affected me like this novel.  I quit reading it twice in order to think about things.”

Iron Chamber of Memory, John C. Wright’s latest novel, is now available exclusively on Amazon. It is 242 pages, retails for $4.99, and is DRM-free.

A few things

If you’re looking for a job and you’re interested in this one, email me with NC in the subject:

Senior Linux Administrator – RHEL preferred by not required. Central NC. On-site only; no remote option.

Okay, so we’re good on Iron Chamber and Existence reviewers, thank you. However, we still need another PHP volunteer or two for a few weeks on Project Big Fork.