It is award season once again. For those interested, here is a list of our qualifying titles by publication month. For those eligible to nominate and vote for the Nebula Awards, files have been posted to the relevant SFWA forums, or you can contact the publisher.
February
NOVEL CATEGORY –
The Clockwork Solution by Michelle D. Sonnier
The Legacy of the Sortilege Line
Treated with disdain by her family her entire life for not living up to their expectations—or prophesy—Arabella Leyden forges her own path and attains her greatest wish: to join the Sisterhood of Witches, doing so in a manner no one ever anticipated.
As the first-ever technomancer, the way before her is fraught with peril. Can she survive the machinations of her order, or be ground between the gears of reluctant progress?
More important yet, can she succeed at her first assignment: find the root cause of the famine sweeping through Ireland? And end it. A task that has already claimed two witches of the Sortilege line.
Her future hangs in the balance… perhaps even her very life…
NOVEL CATEGORY –
Daire’s Devils by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
Give the Enemy Hell!
At the ass-end of the galaxy, Allied Forces—including the 142nd Mobile Special Ops Team, better known as Daire’s Devils—stand ready to defend the contested colony planet Demeter from military invasion and corporate exploitation.
But when the ranks are infiltrated by those determined to secure the top-secret designs of AeroCom’s new prototype flagship, the Cromwell, the newest member of the Devils, Corporal Katrion Alexander, finds herself facing off against an unexpected menace, synthetic operatives indistinguishable from living beings.
She and the Devils must neutralize this new threat, but how when the enemy wears a trusted face?
April
NOVELLA CATEGORY –
Systema Paradoxa: Chessie At Bay
by John L. French
Same ol’ Syn, all new mischief…
Just when Theodore Syn starts thinking about sinking roots, the military comes calling, needing a man with his… unique qualifications to deal with a need-to-know problem that’s cropped up in the Chesapeake Bay.
Something is out there, frightening fish and fishermen alike.
But that’s not the real problem. Someone is masquerading as a military official on American soil, and with war on the horizon, steps need to be taken to safeguard the East Coast, before the Axis Powers drive a U-boat—or something more unexpected—right up the mouth of the Bay.
NOVELLA CATEGORY –
Systema Paradoxa: Eyes of the Wolf
by Robert E. Waters
When a sudden trail of death and desolation sweeps through south and central Texas, elements of the case trigger an alert with a division of the FBI that tracks possible supernatural influence.
Agent Chimalis Burton, a specialist in cryptids of the Americas, has a history of vanquishing such monstrous creatures. When she is assigned the case, she scrambles to find answers before the situation worsens.
Evidence begins to suggest an evil that has festered for centuries; an evil that now rises to reclaim its power.
An evil that rests in the soulful eyes of a wolf.
NOVELLA CATEGORY –
Systema Paradoxa: Alone in the Muck
by Anton Kukal
After what felt like a lifetime in the sewers, Inspector Max Dalton would have thought he’d seen everything. He would have been wrong. When his trainees discover something inexplicable in the muck, life changes radically for all of them, including Max’s granddaughter, Gwen.
News of their discovery gets out and bounty hunters invade the tunnels beneath the city, forcing Max’s cooperation in their search. With life and love and liberty in the balance, Gwen will need help from an unexpected source to evade those looking to capture her new friend.
NOVELLA CATEGORY –
Systema Paradoxa: Forget Me Not
by Carol Gyzander
What is legend? What is truth?
A monster is said to lurk beneath the waters of Lake Erie. Jane and her twin brother Rob are haunted by just that. As children, they lost half their family to a terrible boating accident. They haven’t left dry land since. Only, at the age of sixteen, they allow friends to lure them onto the lake.
But should they have held their ground?
When something nearly swamps their boat, years of secrecy are swept away and the children’s father shares their family history with the supposed Monster of Lake Erie.
Will the tale bring closure or just more tragedy?
NOVELLA CATEGORY –
Systema Paradoxa: Found Footage
by Mary Fan
The camera doesn’t lie… but it has been known to hold a secret or two.
High-school student Jenny Chen captures a glimpse of an unbelievable creature when filming a student movie in the woods near Princeton, New Jersey. Despite her proof, only her best friend believes her.
Determined to reveal the truth about the strange creature, Jenny returns to search the woods, only to end up in a terrifying game of hunt and chase. Someone wants her discovery silenced…but who?
July
NOVELLA CATEGORY –
Systema Paradoxa: The Play of Light
by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
Life and Death and Family Secrets…
Sheridan Cascaden faces more than memories when she receives a call in the darkest hours summoning her home.
Sent away five years prior to safeguard her from the evil that claimed her mother, Sheridan hasn’t been back since. She returns to find her childhood home in a disturbing state and her father straddling the Veil, with nothing to explain what happened. Now not only must she deal with her own demons, but she will have to delve into his if she is to unlock the mystery and save Papa’s life.
But wherein lies the line between truth and madness? Sheridan must find out before it’s too late… for both of them…
August
NOVEL CATEGORY –
Rags by Ty Drago
Atlantic City, 1982
One cold December night, sixteen-year-old Abby Lowell and her foster sister are rescued by a mysterious and deadly figure in rags and a large hood. Abby never learns his name and never sees his face, but he’s obviously good with that black-bladed knife of his, very good.
Abby dubs him “Rags.”
But Rags isn’t done, not by a long shot. With her foster family under threat from the ruthless Bernards, who are determined to tear down their dilapidated hotel in favor of yet another casino, Abby finds herself in desperate need of a defender. A part of her is relieved when Rags returns to protect her again. And again. And again.
Now, with an army of thugs and a terrifying Voodoo witch hunting her, Abby must not only understand the dark truth behind Rags. She must accept that truth, frightening as it is, before it’s too late.
November
NOVELLA CATEGORY –
Systema Paradoxa: Hell’s Well
by Sean Patrick Hazlett
Astrophysicist Dr. Kate Gavin Weaver’s life was hard enough fighting for tenure at Caltech while raising a four-year-old daughter as a single mother. It was even harder living under the shadow of her estranged father, Mack Gavin, the host of the wildly popular television series, The Cryptid Hunter.
But when Mack disappears while researching the subject of his next episode in a secluded wilderness town in California, Kate decides to leave the relative safety of Pasadena to find her father.
What she uncovers there shakes the very foundation of her reality and forces her to grapple with an adversary she could’ve never imagined.
“Steampunk, werewolves, spirits, and romance. All the ingredients a reader needs for a fast-paced, action-packed adventure.” 
Wandering souls! Restless spirits! The vengeful dead! Those who die with unfinished business haunt the living and make their presence known from the world beyond: 
Atlantic City, 1982
April has turned into a pretty busy month for us here at eSpec and Systema Paradoxa. We have a whole lot of titles coming out all at once due to some shuffling of the SP titles in the Cryptid Crate Boxes. Our congratulations to all the authors and our thanks for their talent and patience, and our thanks to Box Mountain and Cryptid Crate for inspiring this series.
To note the highlights of the weekend, I will have a reading on Saturday at 3:15pm in the library, which I am sharing with David Walton. And in a slightly less recognizable form than pre-‘Rona, we will be holding an eSpec Book Launch with many authors in attendance, including Amy Grech, Gordon Linzner, Teel James Glenn, Robert Ottone, John P. Collins, Jonathan Lees, Marc Abbott, Christopher J. Burke, Hildy Silverman, and Keith R.A. DeCandido, celebrating all the orphan books that grew up in isolation, most particularly Even In The Grave, edited by James Chambers and Carol Gyzander, and Devilish & Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail.
Gordon Linzner is founder and former editor of Space and Time Magazine, and author of three published novels and scores of short stories in F&SF, Twilight Zone, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, and numerous other magazines and anthologies, including Footprints in the Stars (eSpec Books). He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and a lifetime member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.
eSpec Books 