Five Rivers Publishing

09/11/2024

Come join me October 5 at the Durham Town Hall. For the Love of Reading is a great literary day featuring local authors: books sales, guest speakers, author highlights, food, fun, and entertainment.

06/11/2024

The kickstarter campaign for Hauntings and Hoarfrost, forthcoming anthology from Tyche Books in which I'm pleased to be included, launches today. There are some exciting options here if you're of a mind to support one of Canada's vibrant small publishers.

Interview with Maria Campos, voice-over artist Hauntings and Hoarfrost update So very pleased to be part of this amazing anthology of freezing horror. Featured authors are: Beth Cato Renee Cronley EC Dorgan Charlotte E. English Chadwick Ginther Beth Goder J.D. Harlock Sam Hicks Catlyn Ladd Konn Lave...

05/17/2024

Interview with Maria Campos, narrator of The Rose Guardian.

Review: Shadow Matter, by S.W. Mayse Interview with Maria Campos, voice-over artist Narrating The Rose Guardian I recently exchanged emails with Maria Campos, the talented voice-over artist I commissioned to narrate my magic realism novel, The Rose Guardian. She did such a remarkable job, I thought....

05/15/2024

The Kickstarter for the anthology, Once Upon a Future Time, Volume 4, is launching tomorrow. I am among 23 authors featured, in my case a flash fiction called "By Any Other Name", which examines a Newfoundlander's experience as a colonist on Mars.
To find out more, visit:

23 authors take us back to once upon a future time as they reimagine classic fairy tales as tales of science fiction.

05/14/2024

Now available in audiobook from Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, beautifully narrated by Maria Campos: The Rose Guardian, a story of grief and the power of forgiveness.

Consummate storyteller, Lorina Stephens, returns with a novel of grief and the power of forgiveness There is a conversation that should have happened between Vi Cotter and her mother. Now it’s too late. But sometimes the dead speak through the legacy they leave, and in this case Vi’s mother bequ...

04/15/2024

Untold Stories wins BookFest award for best anthology.

Supporting Canadian publishers Untold Stories wins First Place The BookFest The BookFest is an online community connecting reading, writing and publishing communities with online events, panels, chats, virtual booths and more. Every quarter they award accolades in various genres from small press and...

03/23/2024

My latest review at On Spec Magazine:

Lorina Stephens’ short fiction has appeared in On Spec, Neo-Opsis, Polar Borealis, Pulp Literature, Postscripts to Darkness, Strangers Among Us, Stories of the Deluge, and Sword & Sorceress X. …

03/22/2024

Observations on the current state of publishing Supporting Canadian publishers I am pleased to be an editor and reviewer at OnSpec Magazine, a quarterly journal of Fantastika fiction, featuring Canadian and International authors. The journal consistently wins genre literary awards, pays professional...

03/15/2024

More good publishing news today. I've sold another flash fiction, "By Any Other Name", to Horror Tree Publishing's new anthology, One Upon a Future Time, Volume 4.

03/12/2024

Very pleased to announce I've sold two short stories today to Mind's Eye Publications, for their JOURN-E 3.1 anthology, "Cornish Pasties on Wednesday", a gentle ghost story, and "Moon Dust", an apocalyptic flash fiction.

03/04/2024

SF&F BOGO on Kobo. My fantasy novel, From Mountains of Ice, is now included in this promotion March 1-31. Great reviews. Immersive story. And a great promotion from Kobo.

Read "From Mountains of Ice" by Lorina Stephens available from Rakuten Kobo. Sylvio spent the past decade banished from Simare’s court, stripped of land, ancestral home and title - from Minister of...

02/27/2024

My latest blog post. Might be a bit ranty.

Review: Lost Cargo, by Noah Chinn Observations on the current state of publishing Let’s talk about AI There are some among my creative colleagues who view AI as simply a tool, nothing about which to be concerned. I cannot begin to express my disbelief, little say outrage, regarding this blind, uni...

02/20/2024

The following message from The Writers Union of Canada is a bit chilling. I quote it here to increase exposure.
Writer Removed from Panel at Supreme Court of Canada
The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) is concerned that renowned Canadian poet, El Jones, and two other speakers were removed at the last moment from a presentation panel organized for law clerks at the Supreme Court of Canada. The website Rabble.ca reported (February 7, 2024) that a delegation organized by former governor general Michaëlle Jean was set to present in mid-January on anti-black racism in the justice system.
According to that report, “El Jones, Derico Symonds and Benazir Erdimi were told only hours before the meeting that they would no longer be allowed to attend. The reason given by Supreme Court Registrar Chantel Charbonneau was because of “controversial” social media posts made by these three members of the delegation.” Dr. El Jones is a former Poet Laureate of Halifax, a professor at Mount St Vincent University, and was a speaker at TWUC’s 2019 AGM.
The Toronto Star also covered the removal of the speakers, and according to both reports, the social media activity in question was unrelated to the speaking engagement or the intended topic.
While all organizations are free to curate their professional development as they see fit, the pre-emptive removal of an invited speaker for unrelated speech sends a chilling message about individual free expression.
TWUC understands that El Jones and her fellow speakers have written to the SCC requesting a meeting. The Union calls on the Supreme Court of Canada to address this incident, and examine policies for speaker presentation.

02/20/2024

The latest issue of Polar Borealis is now available free for download. My story, A Fine May Evening, appears in it.

02/13/2024

Dreams of the Moon, my collection of 10 stories of the fantastika, is now available in audiobook at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Today at Amazon you can also get the trade paperback discounted to $5.11! That's less expensive than the ebook!

The collection has received some pretty great reviews. The audiobook is narrated by Maria Campos, who has an amazing voice. So, whichever way you like to savour your reading, looks like Dreams of the Moon can fulfill that for you.

Dreams of the Moon

02/05/2024

Lots of news regarding my collection of short fantastika fiction, Dreams of the Moon.
First: Amazon has discounted the trade paperback to $5.04, the same price as the ebook!
Second: the audiobook, narrated by the fabulous Maria Campos, is now available at Amazon, Audible, and iTunes! It runs 2 hours and 32 minutes. I think you're going to love it.
Link to the Canadian Amazon page here:

Dreams of the Moon

02/03/2024

My latest review is up at On Spec. This time The Butcher of the Forest, by Premee Mohammed.

https://onspec.ca/book-reviews-page-lorina-stephens/?fbclid=IwAR3tXflCjeGXDE916StKnij-5d41hEVSDZD4FwGa_OCt9QoZ1vMoEEYk3gQ

Lorina Stephens’ short fiction has appeared in On Spec, Neo-Opsis, Polar Borealis, Pulp Literature, Postscripts to Darkness, Strangers Among Us, Stories of the Deluge, and Sword & Sorceress X. …

02/01/2024

Professional association news.

Review: The Twistical Nature of Spoons, by Patti Grayson New Associations It’s about time Only took me until my 69th year to gather the wherewithal to apply and be accepted to two professional publishing-related associations. But as they say, better late than never. The Writers’ Union of Canada ...