Major Stuff

The Latest from Martha Wells - Signed
[Wells books]

The Latest from Patrick Rothfuss - Signed
[Rothfuss books]

The Latest from Mike Kupari - Signed
[Kupari books]

The Latest from Larry Correia - Signed
[Correia books]

The Latest from Naomi Kritzer - Signed
[Kritzer books]

The Latest from David Weber / Jacob Holo - Signed
[Weber / Holo books]

The Latest from Sharon Lee / Steve Miller - Signed
[Lee / Miller books]

Signed Lois McMaster Bujold Books
[Bujold books]

Order Uncles Shirts
[T-shirts and Sweatshirts]

Order Uncles Mugs
[Mugs]

 
home

Archived Newsletter Content

home

Newsletter #106 June — August, 2014

Award News

        
        The finalists for the Nebula Award for Best Novel are We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler ($26.95 hc or $16.00 tr pb) The Door Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman ($25.99, $14.99 tr pb due early June), Fire with Fire by Charles E. Gannon ($7.99), Hild by Nicola Griffith ($27.00), Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie ($15.00), The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata, A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar ($16.00), and The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker ($15.99).

        The nominees for the Hugo Award for Best Novel are Warbound by Larry Correia ($27.00 signed hc, $7.99 pb due early June), Parasite by Mira Grant ($20.00), The Wheel of Time (complete series) by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie ($15.00), and Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross ($25.95, $7.99 pb due early July).

        A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar ($16.00) won the Crawford Award for best first fantasy novel.

        Countdown City by Ben H. Winters ($14.95) won the Philip K. Dick Award for best sf book published in the U.S. as a paperback original.

        The British Science Fiction Association Awards for Best Novel was a tie between Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie ($15.00) and Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L. Powell ($8.99).

        Lexicon by Max Barry ($16.00) won the Aurealis Award for best sf/fantasy/horror novel by an Australian.

        Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie ($15.00) won the 2014 Arthur C. Clarke Award.

        The Locus Award nominees for Best Science Fiction Novel are MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood ($27.95, $15.95 tr pb due mid August, Abaddon’s Gate by James S. A. Corey ($17.00), The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord ($25.00 hc, $15.00 tr pb), Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson ($27.00. $17.00 tr pb due mid June), and Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross ($25.95, $7.99 pb due early July); nominees for Best Fantasy Novel are The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman ($25.99, $14.99 tr pb due early June), NOS4A2 by Joe Hill ($17.99), River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay ($16.00), Doctor Sleep by Stephen King ($30.00, $17.00 tr pb due mid June), and The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch ($28.00, $7.99 pb due early August).

        The Edgar Award winners included Best Novel to Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger ($24.99 signedhc or $16.00 tr pb), Best First Novel to Red Sparrow by Jason Mathews ($26.99 hc or $9.99 pb), and Best Paperback Original to The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood ($16.00).

        The Agatha Award winners included Best Historical Novel to A Question of Honor by Charles Todd ($25.99, $14.99 tr pb due mid June), Best Contemporary Novel to The Wrong Girl by Hank Phillippi Ryan ($24.99, $7.99 pb due early August), Best First Novel to Death al Dente by Leslie Budewitz ($7.99), and Best Nonfiction to The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower ($16.99).

        Several awards were presented at the Left Coast Crime convention. The Lefty (for the most humorous mystery of 2013) went to The Good Cop by Brad Parks ($24.99). The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award went to Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses by Catriona McPherson ($25.99). The Squid (for best mystery set in the U.S.) went to Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger ($24.99 signed hc or $16.00 tr pb). The Calamari (for best mystery set anywhere else in the world) went to How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny ($25.99, $15.99 tr pb due early August).

How’s Business
by Don Blyly

        We’ve had computer-related headaches. First, there’s the website. Our home page (with our list of events) sometime loads in 2 seconds, sometimes in 30 seconds. The Newsletter Archive page and the older newsletters that you can click to from that page also load very slowing at times. These problems started when our hosting service changed servers a while back, and we’ll be contacting them again to try to get the problem resolved. However, the newer parts of our website, including the shopping pages, load quickly pretty much all of the time. So for speedy online shopping, please go directly to www.unclehugo.com/prod/gateway.php
        Then there was the problem with our e-mail account. Over about a five day period, I received a couple dozen “Fw: Hi” or “Fw: News” messages with a suspicious link, all from various aol.com accounts. I didn’t click the link on any of them. Then one night hundreds of “Fw: Hi” messages with a suspicious link were sent out as if from UncleHugo@aol.com. I changed my password early the next morning when I learned of the problem. Aol.com was aware of the problem, and that MANY older aol accounts had been hit with this problem. Their story was that there are two different situations–in some cases the account had actually been hacked, in which case the “Fw: Hi” message would show up in the “Sent” file, and the message actually went through Aol servers; in most cases the Aol account name was being used to send messages through non-Aol servers. They alerted other major e-mail providers to not accept messages from Aol accounts unless the messages come from Aol servers. The “Fw: Hi” message did not appear in my “Sent” file, but it was obvious that it went to the addresses in my Aol address book. (All of the bounced back messages from Uncle Hugo’s credit representatives at various publishing companies made it clear that it was from our address book, not just a random selection of addresses.) Aol claimed that 2% of their account were victims of this, but I heard a TV report that claimed it was closer to 20%.
        The winter that refuses to end has continued to hurt business. Our business was WAY down for January, February, March, and April. We’ve heard the same is true for other local businesses. Government statistics says that bookstores nationwide saw a 9.5% decrease in sales in the first quarter. But around the first weekend of May, we had 4 break-even days in a row, for the first time since December. And the next weekend we had 3 days in a row of break-even or better. It’s such a relief to at least break-even after months of heavy losses, and very nice to see some of our regular customers again!
        The oldest LGBT bookstore in the U.S. is going out of business after 40 years (same age as Uncle Hugo’s). The owner of the bookstore also owned the building (as is true of Uncle Hugo’s/Uncle Edgar’s). He had hoped that one of the specialty small publishers would buy his bookstore to insure continued retail exposure of their books, but nothing worked out. This reminded me of all the talk after Borders closed about how the publishers were so concerned about helping the independent bookstores survive, so that they could continue to be “show rooms” for the books that people then went to Amazon to order. I’m still waiting to see what they are going to do to help us survive. One of the smaller publishers that we do a little business with has decided to give retailers an extra 30 days to pay their bills. But from the big guys, I noticed a reduction in co-op advertising funds (which plays a small but appreciated role in helping to pay for this newsletter), but nothing else. (By the way, the newsletter also “show rooms” books that people then order from Amazon. We recently received a very generous contribution to the newsletter from a customer who buys e-books based on what he reads in our newsletter.)
Contact Us Privacy Credits

Copyright © 2002-2020 Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore