It feels like a chilly minus 18 degrees outside, which makes it a good time to warm up with some cookies and tea (in this case, Earl Grey hot) and my copy of the inaugural volume of Winter of Sci-Fi & Fantasy. Edited by Dustin Bilyk and published by Worldstone Publishing with beautiful artwork by Emily’s World of Design, this new anthology features a lucky thirteen tales including my story “Random Access Memory”. Winter of Sci-Fi & Fantasy is available for pre-order now and will be released February 17th.

You can read an excerpt from “Random Access Memory” here.

All earnings from “Random Access Memory” are donated to the Veterans Transition Network, an organisation that helps Canadian veterans move into civilian life with a focus on support for mental health. VTN had a program that had helped evacuate Afghan interpreters and other local civilians that had been working with the Canadian Armed Forces or the Government of Canada who had been abandoned by the government of the day when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021.

I am delighted that my story “Random Access Memory” will appear in the inaugural volume of Winter of Sci-Fi & Fantasy edited by Dustin Bilyk and published by Worldstone Publishing with beautiful artwork by Emily’s World of Design. “Random Access Memory” was first published in the anthology Game On! edited by Stephen Kotowych and Tony Pi. My Aurora Award nominated story “A New Brave World” had previously appeared in the third volume of Worldstone’s sister anthology series Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy.

The Kickstarter campaign for Winter of Sci-Fi & Fantasy has been launched and will run until December 18th. The book is scheduled for release on February 1st (pretty much the middle of northern hemisphere winter). Please consider joining me in backing this wonderful project.

All earnings from “Random Access Memory” are donated to the Veterans Transition Network, an organisation that helps Canadian veterans transition to civilian life with a focus on support for mental health. VTN had a program that had helped evacuate Afghan interpreters and other local civilians that had been working with the Canadian Armed Forces or the Government of Canada who had been abandoned by the government of the day when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021.

I am thrilled to announce that my new story "The Observer Affected" will be appearing in the upcoming anthology Unréal, a new collection of weird and fantastical tales set in Montréal / Moon’yaang / Tiohtià:ke produced by AEscifi.ca and published by Flame Arrow. "The Observer Affected" concerns disturbing events at a Montréal psychiatric hospital (specifically, this one) during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thank you to Paul Jarvey, Duff McCourt, Su Sokol, and the entire team at AE!

Thank you Stephen Kotowych for including me again in the second volume of Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction. I am honoured that Volume Two will include my story “Hemlock on Mars” which was the opening story in the anthology Life Beyond Us edited by Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law, and Susan Forest. Life Beyond Us is well represented in Volume Two as it also includes “Third Life” by Julie Czerneda. The book will be available in October. You can read the opening scene of “Hemlock on Mars” here.

Volume One of Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction received a much-deserved Aurora Award and has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award. My Aurora nominated story “A New Brave World” appeared in the inaugural volume.

Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy: Volume Three is now available, just in time for (northern hemisphere) summer reading! Edited by Dustin Bilyk with beautiful artwork by Emily’s World of Design, the anthology features 20 stories including Dustin’s new novella “The Mapmaker at the End of the World”, “The King of Dust” by Aurora Award winner Jean-Louis Trudel, “Never After” by Diana Olney, “Agnar and the Shadow Dragon” by Simon Kewin, “The Home of the Weird and Wonderful” by Sam Muller, and my Aurora Award nominated story “A New Brave World”.

The inaugural volume of Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Stephen Kotowych is now available in trade paperback and ebook. The collection features 37 stories and poems including my Aurora Award nominated story “A New Brave World”.

Richard Graeme Cameron has written in Amazing Stories online a glowing review of the collection:

“There is a lot of excellent genre fiction being written in Canada. May this series become the definitive annual sample. If all are good as this one, I can see them becoming textbooks for high schools and universities...You owe it to yourself to purchase it for your bookshelf.”

The praise for the collection is richly deserved, but what he said about “A New Brave World” put a lump in my throat:

“Proof that the hard science genre is still capable of enjoyable originality, especially in the capable hands of excellent writers such as Eric Choi. I found the story exhilarating. It reminds me why I fell in love with science fiction in the first place.”

[Kobo] [Amazon Canada] [Amazon U.S.]

Life Beyond Us, the new astrobiology-themed science fiction anthology from the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media Groups, has arrived on planet Earth! Edited by Julie Novakova, Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest, Life Beyond Us features twenty-seven stories, each accompanied by an essay written by a scientist in a relevant field. My new story “Hemlock on Mars” opens the collection with the accompanying science essay “Planetary Protection: Best Practices for the Safety of Humankind (And All Those Aliens Out There)” by Giovanni Poggiali of Observatoire de Paris. Also check out the latest post on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog in which Julie, Lucas, and Susan explore The Big Idea behind the anthology and discuss my story “Hemlock on Mars”.

Thank you Julie, Lucas, and Susan for the honour of being included in this ambitious and beautiful anthology!

My contributor copies of the anthologies Life Beyond Us and Extraordinary Visions, under the watchful visage of an extraordinary terrestrial lifeform.

Life Beyond Us is the new astrobiology-themed science fiction anthology from the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media Groups, edited by Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law, and Susan Forest. The book features twenty-seven stories, each accompanied by an essay written by a scientist in a relevant field. Opening the collection is my new story “Hemlock on Mars” with the accompanying science essay “Planetary Protection: Best Practices for the Safety of Humankind (And All Those Aliens Out There)” by Giovanni Poggiali of Observatoire de Paris. Life Beyond Us will be arriving to our planet on Earth Day (April 22).

Extraordinary Visions is the first-ever fiction anthology presented by the North American Jules Verne Society, edited by Steven R. Southard and Matthew Hardesty. The book featuring thirteen stories inspired by the writings of Jules Verne including my story “Raise the Nautilus” which closes the collection. Extraordinary Visions is available now in paperback and hardcover. Check out the review on the Nerds of a Feather website.

While their themes are different, these books have much in common. Both are beautiful, with gorgeous cover art by Dan O’Driscoll and Amanda Bergloff respectively, and vividly illustrated interior designs. Both are ambitious, with terrific stories brought together by visionary editors who are passionate about the respective themes of their books. I am grateful and proud to be a part of these anthologies.

For your reading pleasure this Holiday season.

Just Like Being There
My first collection of short fiction featuring fifteen of my hard SF and alternate history stories including the Aurora Award winning “Crimson Sky”.

Brave New Worlds
Edited by S.C. Butler and Joshua B. Palmatier featuring fifteen original stories that follow humanity’s long dream of travelling to the stars including my story “A New Brave World”. [Reading Copy (for SFWA members)]

Extraordinary Visions
The first-ever fiction anthology presented by the North American Jules Verne Society featuring thirteen stories inspired by Verne’s work including my story “Raise the Nautilus”.

Other Covenants
Edited by A.D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum, this alternate history collection features stories and poems by thirty authors and includes my novelette “A Sky and a Heaven”. [Reading Copy (for SFWA members)]