Verb Noire

Due to an unfortunate oversight regarding the contracts for the writers who contributed to Jukebox Bard, I regret to announce that I have been forced to pull the anthology from the virtual shelves until those issues can be resolved. Jamie Nesbitt has taken responsibility for this error and will be leaving the company as a result. I want to offer the most sincere apologies to the writers and readers affected by this oversight and assure you that proper procedures have been put in place to see that this doesn't happen again.

I am certain there are some questions about what this means for the future of Verb Noire so I'm going to do my best to answer them in advance. In the short term, obviously there are some things behind the scenes that need to be resolved. But I want to assure everyone that Verb Noire will continue to put out quality work by excellent authors. To that end, I wanted to let you know that we are currently working with Kelly Jennings to bring her manuscript Martin's War to the masses early next year. I know that'll you'll enjoy it.

The fairytale anthology has only generated a few submissions, and that may mean that the resurrection of Jukebox Bard will be a remix including some of those stories, though I don't know yet the entirety of what can be salvaged. As a new entity, I hope you understand that there will be some growing pains. I am truly grateful to those of you who have stood by Verb Noire since the beginning and supported this endeavor. Thank you for your continued loyalty and understanding.

Due to a series of communication issues we're going to have to temporarily suspend sales of the anthology while we get some things hashed out behind the scenes. I'm sorry to do this, but I can't figure any other solution right now. Thank you for your patience.

Verb Noire is pleased to announce that JukeBox Bard is available for purchase right now! You can get information on the Anthology at Verb Noire's website. You can purchase it directly at the Jukebox Bard page on VN's site. Cover art by the most excellent p_dilla

Jukebox Bard is available in several E-Formats, and costs $9.99 USD. Currently there's only a Google Checkout button, but a PayPal button will be up shortly. is up now =)

We appreciate your support!

Special thanks to kate_nepveu for conversion of the book to e-formats.

Our first anthology will be available next Thursday. The Jukebox Bard is a collection of tales such as one might hear if you stopped in a smoky pub one night on a twisting road to nowhere and everywhere and dropped a coin in the machine next to the bar. Instead of a song the machine opens to reveal a storyteller with a gleam in their eye and a tale on their lips. It might be a passage detailing events yet to come, a glimpse into another world, or maybe a verse telling a truth as old as the sea. Sit down and enjoy the evening's entertainment before you continue your travels.

I just realized that we never mentioned being interviewed by K. Tempest Bradford for the Transformative Works and Culture Vol 3. We've been working away on three new books for publication (along with me writing three books because I am clearly a fan of overdoing it) and it seems like we've been so buried in the work that we're not doing a bunch of communicating with our supporters. Sorry about that failing. Sometimes life in the VN world is a lot of swimming upstream through caramel. So this week emails will be answered, the naming contest for the anthology will kick off, and I'll try to be available to clarify a few things that I see were asked on our latest call for submissions. As always we couldn't do this without your support and we are so grateful for your patience and your patronage.

Back from WorldCon. More about that experience later. Right now I'm having a brain storm and so we're putting out a special call for submissions. In my head I'm imagining retellings of things like Anansi, Baba Yaga, American folktales (with an eye toward Spanish, Native American and/or African American focused stories), Chinese, Japanese, or Korean folktales. We'd also welcome other non-Eurocentric retellings (Middle Eastern, South American, Maori, etc.) of folk tales. Now, this isn't going to be an anthology of those original tales (though I do want copies of the source material so I can give the audience some background) instead I want to see them twisted. Take it to the future, take it off planet, set modern folks loose in the past...basically let's create a whole new stage for fantasy. I'm thinking a 5,000 word minimum with a 25,000 word maximum. And a Dec 1st deadline. Payment of $30 and a free copy of the anthology. It has a loose title of "Globalization...The Fantasy Edition" but that's just my cold medicine drugged brain at work. Expect a title contest for this anthology too. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, submissions should follow our usual guidelines and be emailed to the verb.noire@gmail.com. Feel free to spread the word!

The schedule tanyad posted earlier has undergone a few very necessary corrections.

When: Sat 12:30
Location: P-524B
Title: The Fleuve Noir Publishing House and its Anticipation Imprint
Session ID: 562
All Participants: Bradford Lyau, Jamie Nesbitt Golden, Michelle Kendall
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Literature in English

When: Friday 7:00 pm
Location: P‑513A
Title: White is Good, Curves are Great, but Seldom a Purple Face to Be Seen
All participants: Nora K. Jemison, Michelle Kendall
Duration 1:00 hrs
Language: English
Track

When: Sat 12:30
Location: P-524B
Title: Verb Noire presents Faces of Fandom: The importance of race and representation to the future of SF/F
Session ID: 562
All Participants: Jamie Nesbitt Golden, Michelle Kendall
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Literature in English

When: Sat 14:00
Location: P-511A
Title: Writing the Other and Other Assumptions
All Participants: David Anthony Durham, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Kate Nepveu, Wendy Gay Pearson, Jamie Nesbitt Golden
Duration: 1:30 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Literature in English


When: Sun 9:00
Location: P-512CG Title: How Not to be a Jerk Online
All Participants: Catherynne Valente, Kate Nepveu, John Scalzi,
Michelle Kendall
Moderator: John Scalzi
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Human Culture

When: Sun 12:30
Location: P-511A
Title: Writing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Geographic Terms
All Participants: Jenny Rae Rappaport, Kate Nepveu, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Phoebe Wray, Jamie Nesbitt Golden, Tobias Buckell
Moderator: Kate Nepveu
Language: English

Hullo from Montreal!

One last news bit before I get back to the Con. verbnoire.com has a new look! Check it out here, and please let us know about broken links, etc.

Please keep in mind some links were left intentionally blank, like the Wiscon and Think Galacticon 2010 links.

Also, there may be a couple pages that keep taking you to the previous layout but same content. That may be something that I've done in getting the page up while on the road and I'll take responsibility for that.

Lastly, I'm at WorldCon myself and won't have internet access on a regular basis so if there's a web emergency, please send a note to verb.noire@gmail.com and I'll get that faster than an LJ comment until I return to Chicago.

The lovely ladies of Verb Noire are almost here! :) For those folks who are at WorldCon, here's their schedule.

Here's the Verb Noire session schedule for WorldCon in Montreal Aug 6-10

When: Sat 12:30
Location: P-524B
Title: The Fleuve Noir Publishing House and its Anticipation Imprint
Session ID: 562
All Participants: Bradford Lyau, Jamie Nesbitt Golden, Michelle Kendall
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Literature in English

When: Sat 14:00
Location: P-511A
Title: Writing the Other and Other Assumptions
All Participants: David Anthony Durham, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Kate Nepveu, Wendy Gay Pearson, Jamie Nesbitt Golden
Duration: 1:30 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Literature in English

When: Sun 12:30
Location: P-511A
Title: Writing Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Geographic Terms
All Participants: Jenny Rae Rappaport, Kate Nepveu, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Phoebe Wray, Jamie Nesbitt Golden, Tobias Buckell
Moderator: Kate Nepveu
Language: English

When: Sun 9:00
Location: P-512CG Title: How Not to be a Jerk Online
All Participants: Catherynne Valente, Kate Nepveu, John Scalzi,
Michelle Kendall
Moderator: John Scalzi
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Human Culture

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters and we'll try to do right by that gift. We're also going to announce the anthology title and set a release date sometime this week (it's a wee bit hectic so bear with us being slightly scattered) so that people can pre-order if they like and get a copy before everyone else. We're still haggling over the title and the layout, but it's coming together nicely and with luck we'll be finished before everyone goes back to school.

There's going to be some changes coming to the main site including some free poetry scattered about and a serial novel called Frenzy (going live August 17th) that I've been working on in between everything else as well as a new look. You will not need a subscription to read Frenzy. It will be available to anyone that wants to check it out. I'm putting up a tip jar, but you don't have to donate to enjoy the story. At least I hope you'll enjoy it and the poetry (not mine it's polymexina's and I've been loving it) as well as the great stories in the anthology.

On the WorldCon front there is a flyer put together by kate_nepveu listing all the Diversity programming. If you're going to be there you'll have at least a clue on where to find us. We're arriving on Thursday and I'll post when I have all of our locations, schedules, and other such info squared away. It's our last con of the year so we hope to see you there. Thank you again for all the support and good wishes and cash and whatever else I haven't mentioned.