In contrast to Hollywood's fondness for dramatizing the effects of catastrophe on major cities, first-time novelist Mills examines the ways that small-town inhabitants of a valley on the Washington State/British Columbia border deal with a trio of worldwide disasters: a deadly avian flu; an additional virus that turns people into simian, proto-humans (or "lucies"); and the wildfires that break out once the population is too diminished to prevent or control them. Mills presents stark, harrowing descriptions of injury and death while chronicling ex-librarian Sage Van Peldt's struggle to survive a prisonlike FEMA camp, and the efforts of paramedic Alex Gautier and RCMP officer Ronnie Sapriken to fight the fires and deal with a gang that sells captured lucies as slaves. This grim near-future tale showcases the best and worst of humanity while never falling prey to the tyranny of the happy ending.

Mark Watson at Best SF (http://www.bestsf.net/reviews/interzone205.html) reviews "Blue Glass Pebbles," my novella  published in Interzone #205 (July/August 2006):

The longest and strongest story in the issue. It covers some big issues through the viewpoints of three flawed generations of a family. The big issues are Canada's global position as a supplier of what in a near future in which global warming which was made water the new oil. That position is under military threat from those countries which don't have water, and in the face of imminent military action, some drastic steps are taken to ensure that Mother Earth is treated with more respect in the future. The matriarch of the family is the elderly ex-PM of Canada, who has retired from her globe-trotting pressing-the-flesh role. Her somewhat dynamic son, and his daughter, are brought together at a remote hideaway when the full extent of her plan is finally revealed. She has in fact been passing on a nano-virus, with a view of infecting a significant proportion of the world's population with a fatal virus which will be triggered when she decides the time is right.

For a newish writer the story bodes well for the future, with strong characterization, and a no-easy-answers ending, compared with, for example, the recent Analog story which also featured nano-viruses passed on by touch. Richard A Lovett's 'A Pound of Flesh' (Analog Sept 2006) - features a (you guessed it) down-on-his luck PI, who gets a big commission from a (you guessed it) glamorous business woman/scientist, who uses a 'truth nano' to test his suitability for the job

 Nakusp Festival of Fine Arts

I taught two writing workshops on " Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy" and "So You Want To Be Famous:  Publishing Science Fiction and Fantasy," at the Nakusp Festival of Fine Arts at Nakusp Secondary School in Nakusp, BC.  I had a great time, and really enjoyed the presentation assembly where the students got to show off their work from the festival.  And, I was invited to read from Burning Stones.  The photo to the left is by Lynda Lafleur, Publisher/Editor of the Arrow Lakes News.

Burning Stones was launched at Norwescon 29 in Seattle, Washington, April 13-16 2006, in the grand company of award-winning dark fantasy author, Holly Phillips, (In the Palace of Repose; The Burning Girl), and acclaimed writer and photographer Derryl Murphy (Wasps at the Speed of Sound).   Check out my Norwescon photo gallery for pics of a great weekend!

Bought by Sean Wallace, editor at Cosmos Books (an imprint of Wildside Press) in April 2005, Burning Stones is published as a Print-On-Demand trade paperback. 

BURNING STONES

A Novel by Steven Mills

In a world already desolated by an avian influenza, paramedic Alex Gauthier's 21-year-old daughter, Gemma, afflicted by the so-called Lucy virus, is devolving, turning into a proto human, while forest fires besiege the valley where they live.  When Gemma asks Alex to kill her--perform a mercy killing--when she is no longer human, he finds himself making a promise he doesn't want to keep.  At the other end of the valley, Veronica "Ronnie" Sapriken, the only remaining RCMP officer, is struggling to keep the peace in a disintegrating town while the rest of the world is falling apart, only to discover that someone has been trafficking in devolving kids.  Locked away in a FEMA camp outside Spokane, Sage Van Peldt, whose husband and children were among the first to be infected with the strange virus, plans escape back to the valley of her childhood, not knowing whether she will survive the trip, or what she will find once she gets there. 

Burning Stones is the harrowing story of devolution, and of making choices no one wants to have to make. 

Bought by Sean Wallace, editor at Cosmos Books (an imprint of Wildside Press) in April 2005, Burning Stones is published as a Print-On-Demand trade paperback.  Click here to buy copies of Burning Stones.