Pyr Celebrates 5th Anniversary With Essay Contest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2010

Pyr Celebrates 5th Anniversary With Essay Contest
Grand Prize Winner Embarks on a ‘Pyr and Dragons Adventure’

Amherst, NY -- To celebrate their 5th anniversary, Pyr, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Prometheus Books, will sponsor a contest that incorporates things they hold dear: creative and powerful writing, a passion for reading genre fiction, and this year’s special number, five.

For their Pyr and Dragons Adventure 5th Anniversary Contest, Pyr invites readers and fans to submit a short essay on the theme: Five reasons why science fiction and fantasy is important to you.

Eligibility requirements follow*. Any essay submissions that do not meet these guidelines will be disqualified:

• Entrants must reside in the Continental United States and be at least 21 years of age.
• Essays must be no longer than 1500 words.
• Essays must be emailed to publicity@prometheusbooks.com as a Word document attachment, with the subject line “Pyr and Dragons Adventure Essay Submission.”
• The body of the submission email must clearly identify the entrant’s full name, address (within the Continental United States), phone number and email address.
• All submissions must be received between April 1, 2010 and June 1, 2010.

*For complete list of rules and regulations see

http://www.pyrsf.com.

All eligible essays will be read and reviewed by publishing staff at Prometheus Books. Not all of these preliminary readers will be science fiction and fantasy fans, so outstanding essays will likely be those that pique their interest in the genre and make them want to read it too. The top twenty-five essays as determined by these industry professionals will be read by Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders, who will select the top three.

The writer of the Third Place essay will win a commemorative Pyr 5th anniversary keepsake and five complimentary books of their choice from the Pyr catalog.

The writer of the Second Place essay will win a complete set of Pyr books as published by the contest end date of June 1, 2010 (one copy of each title, without duplicating those that appear in more than one binding) and a commemorative Pyr 5th anniversary keepsake.

The Grand Prize Winner will embark on a “Pyr and Dragons Adventure” that includes*:

• A round-trip flight to Atlanta, GA during Dragon*Con, one of the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US. Dragon*Con 2010 will be held September 3 - 6, 2010 (Labor Day weekend).
• Two nights hotel accommodation in Atlanta, GA, Sept. 3 and 4, 2010.
• Dragon*Con membership/entry badge.
• Dinner with Special Pyr Author Guests and Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders—details to be announced!

The grand prize winning essay will be posted at the Pyr-o-mania blog, and may be promoted by the publisher by other means, including but not limited to their other blogs, websites, e-newsletters and social networking pages.

Prometheus Books—a provocative, progressive and independent publisher of nonfiction since 1969—launched Pyr in March 2005 to complement its strength in popular science. The imprint rather quickly earned acclaim, awards, and loyal fans, including Pulitzer Prize–winning author Junot Díaz, who called Pyr “the imprint to beat in the science fiction and fantasy fields.”

With an emphasis on quality, Pyr helped to introduce readers to some authors then little-known in the U.S., such as John Meaney, Ian McDonald, Joel Shepherd, Justina Robson, and Joe Abercrombie. Pyr has also published such established authors as Mike Resnick, Robert Silverberg and Michael Moorcock. Pyr Editorial Director Lou Anders has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Long Form for three consecutive years. In 2009, Prometheus Books and Pyr launched a major e-book initiative, with titles available on Kindle and programs with many different e-reader platforms in the works. In 2010, in addition to celebrating its five-year anniversary, Pyr will publish its 100th title.

# # #



For a complete list of contest rules and regulations see

http://www.pyrsf.com

Winner of The Metatemporal Detective by Michael Moorcock

With the help of random.org, I have a winner of the copy of The Metatemporal Detective by Michael Moorcock that I had up for grabs. Congratulations to Teresa W. from Toledo, Ohio. Thanks again to the folks over at Pyr for making this happen.

Winner of River of Gods by Ian McDonald

With the help of random.org, I have a winner of the copy of River of Gods by Ian McDonald that I had up for grabs. Congratulations to Chris M. from St. Catharines, Ontario (I prefer not to give out last names due to privacy concerns – i.e. it annoys me a bit when my full name gets out on the internet). Thanks again to the folks over at Pyr for making this happen.

Stay tuned for future giveaways – I’ll be announcing a giveaway of The Metatemporal Detective by Michael Moorcock (my review) a bit closer to its publication next month.

Win a Copy of River of Gods by Ian McDonald

A while ago I wrote this blog post about contests, where I declared Neth Space to contest free…until someone offered me a contest. Well, the good folks over at Pyr are the first to offer a book for a giveaway here (which is appropriate since they were the first publisher to send me review copies). So, now Neth Space can totally blend in with all those other blogs doing giveaways – which of course is great for those of us who like free books.

So, the giveaway is for the Pyr trade paperback version of River of Gods by Ian McDonald. This Hugo-nominated book has received high praise from numerous sources (unfortunately I still haven’t gotten to my copy yet, but I hope to remedy that soon).

As Mother India approaches her centenary, nine people are going about their business — a gangster, a cop, his wife, a politician, a stand-up comic, a set designer, a journalist, a scientist, and a dropout. And so is Aj — the waif, the mind-reader, the prophet — when she one day finds a man who wants to stay hidden.

In the next few weeks, they will all be swept together to decide the fate of the nation.

River of Gods teems with the life of a country choked with peoples and cultures — one and a half billion people, twelve semi-independent nations, nine million gods. Ian McDonald has written the great Indian novel of the new millennium, in which a war is fought, a love betrayed, a message from a different world decoded, as the great river Ganges flows on.

So, the rules are basically the same as you see elsewhere. Send me an email at

nethspace [at] cox [dot] net

You’ll need to appropriately edit the email so I can avoid the spambots, or you can click on the email link in the sidebar which is coded ‘special’ to block the bots. Use RIVER in the subject and include your full name and mailing address (no P.O. boxes please). Only one entry per person. This contest at least is open to all, since I haven’t been told that international entrees are off limits. The contest is open for a couple weeks – I’ll cut off entries on September 24, 2007 and announce the winner shortly thereafter.

Good luck to all.

A Bit More

In my review of Fast Forward 1 edited by Lou Anders, I made extensive reference to the Introduction – well it’s been posted on-line here. In the very least, it’s a good essay on the place of science fiction in the world. On a related note, this interview with Anders came out today, and he talks about editing at Pyr, science fiction, and a bunch of other stuff.