Live Long and Prosper

We lost Leonard Nimoy today. Bad day made even worse.

Matt Hill Joins Angry Robot

Matt Hill Joins Angry Robot

Hail Robot Army!

As you can tell, we're not only busy as we approach March and the re-appearance of brand new Angry Robot titles in your local bookshops, but also behind the scenes as we continue to build our Robot family. We're very excited to tell you about our latest acquisition, Matt Hill and his gritty SF book, Graft.

Matt's debut novel, The Folded Man, was runner-up in the 2012 Dundee International Book Prize and praised by none other than Stephen Fry, in his capacity as judge, for capturing "the smell and essence of Britain through its main character, his desires, addictions and strange courage. Written with direct vividness that keeps one inside its totally realised world."

We are delighted to have such a fantastic UK based SF title, where the city of Manchester itself becomes a strong character. Hopefully this appeals to our fans around the world!

Graft

Under the Skin meets The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Fifth Element… with extra limbs.

In Graft, the near future is bleak — especially in Manchester.

Local mechanic Sol steals old vehicles to meet the demand for spares. But when his partner impulsively jacks a luxury model, the structures of Sol’s life begin to warp. Hidden in the stolen car’s boot is a three-armed woman with a strange tattoo on her throat. She is Y: rootless, amnesiac, and scheduled for delivery. What she reveals not only forces Sol to confront his own past, but sends him to the threshold of reality – and asks him to cross it.

A novel about the horror of exploitation and the weight of love, Graft imagines a country in which too many people are only worth what’s on their price tag.

Matt Hill



Matt Hill: "I’m chuffed to bits that Graft has found a home at Angry Robot. They’ve published loads of amazingly written, brilliantly designed books, and I can’t wait to start working with the team."

Phil Jourdan: "Sometimes you get sent a book that ticks every single box for you — plot, character, prose, mood, originality, sheer madness — and you just think, ‘Am I actually ready to take this on?’ Well, the good news is we're ready. Graft is the perfect addition to Angry Robot’s catalogue: a truly unique science fiction book, dark and twisted but gorgeous all the way through."

Matt Hill was born in 1984 and grew up in Tameside, Greater Manchester. After completing a journalism degree at Cardiff University, he trained as a copywriter. He now lives and works in London. His first novel, The Folded Man, was runner-up in the 2012 Dundee International Book Prize.
http://matthewhillswebsite.co.uk/

NEBULA AWARD LIST IS POSTED-BORROWED FROM LOCUS

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have released the final ballot for the 2014 Nebula Awards.

Novel

The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Tor)
Trial by Fire, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu (Tor)
Coming Home, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals; Fourth Estate; HarperCollins Canada)

Novella

We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon)
Yesterday’s Kin, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
‘‘The Regular’’, Ken Liu (Upgraded)
‘‘The Mothers of Voorhisville’’, Mary Rickert (Tor.com 4/30/14)
Calendrical Regression, Lawrence Schoen (NobleFusion)
‘‘Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)’’, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’14)

Novellette

‘‘Sleep Walking Now and Then’’, Richard Bowes (Tor.com 7/9/14)
‘‘The Magician and Laplace’s Demon’’, Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 12/14)
‘‘A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i’’, Alaya Dawn Johnson (F&SF 7-8/14)
‘‘The Husband Stitch’’, Carmen Maria Machado (Granta #129)
‘‘We Are the Cloud’’, Sam J. Miller (Lightspeed 9/14)
‘‘The Devil in America’’, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 4/2/14)

Short Story

‘‘The Breath of War’’, Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless S6/14)
‘‘When It Ends, He Catches Her’’, Eugie Foster (Daily Science Fiction 9/26/14)
‘‘The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye’’, Matthew Kressel (Clarkesworld 5/14)
‘‘The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family’’, Usman T. Malik (Qualia Nous)
‘‘A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide’’, Sarah Pinsker (F&SF 3-4/14)
‘‘Jackalope Wives’’, Ursula Vernon (Apex 1/7/14)
‘‘The Fisher Queen’’, Alyssa Wong (F&SF 5/14)

Ray Bradbury Award

Birdman
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
The Lego Movie

Andre Norton Award

Unmade, Sarah Rees Brennan (Random House)
Salvage, Alexandra Duncan (Greenwillow)
Love Is the Drug, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine)
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future, A.S. King (Little, Brown)
Dirty Wings, Sarah McCarry (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Greenglass House, Kate Milford (Clarion)
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, Leslye Walton (Candlewick)

James A. Moore Re-Signs with Angry Robot

James A. Moore Re-Signs with Angry Robot

Hail Robot Army!

We are delighted to have shared with you our recent re-signings and new author deals. There are two new author announcements to come very soon, but today we are thrilled to tell you that James A. Moore will be writing two more books in his Seven Forges series, following Seven Forges and The Blasted Lands. Not only that but the next installment, entitled City of Wonders, will be released this November, 2015. More details on City of Wonders below. James is a wonderful member of our Robot Family and we are excited to have his continued involvement with Angry Robot Books.

City of Wonders

Old Canhoon, the City of Wonders, is having a population explosion as refugees from Tyrne and Roathes alike try to escape the Sa’ba Taalor. All along the border between the Blasted Lands and the Fellein Empire armies clash and the most powerful empire in the world is pushed back toward the old Capital. From the far east the Pilgrim gathers an army of the faithful, heading for Old Canhoon and the growing masses of the lost and the desolate, on a mission of which he will not speak and looking for the faithful who will join him in his exodus.

In Old Canhoon itself the imperial family struggles against enemies old and new as the spies of their enemies begin removing threats to the gods of the Seven Forges and prepare the way for the invading armies of the Seven Kings. In the distant Taalor valley Andover Lashk continues his quest and must make a final decision, while at the Mounds, something inhuman is awakened and set free.

War is Here. Blood will flow and bodies will burn.

Quotables

James A. Moore: “I am, of course, delighted to be working with my Robot Overlords once again. There have been rumors about them holding my family hostage through the negotiations and I want to make clear that nothing of the sort has happened. I am assured that the sudden disappearance of family members was merely a coincidence and not, as some AR authors have previously stated, a negotiating tool of any kind.

I have also been informed that so long as my manuscripts are delivered in a timely manner no more unexpected vacations to the “Lunar Gulag Wonderland” will be necessary.”

Marc Gascoigne: "I'm so pleased that Jim has agreed to write not one but two more Seven Forges books for us at Angry Robot. Clever, action-stuffed fantasy like his is why I became a fanatical fantasy fan in the first place."

More about James

James A Moore is the author of over twenty novels, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, Deeper, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels Blind Shadows as well as Seven Forges and the sequel The Blasted Lands.

He has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award and spent three years as an officer in the Horror Writers Association, first as Secretary and later as Vice President.

The author cut his teeth in the industry writing for Marvel Comics and authoring over twenty role-playing supplements for White Wolf Games, including Berlin by Night, Land of 1,000,000 Dreams and The Get of Fenris tribe. He also penned the White Wolf novels Vampire: House of Secrets and Werewolf: Hellstorm.

Moore’s first short story collection, Slices, sold out before ever seeing print.

He currently lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.

Spring/Summer 2015 Horror Titles from Gallery Books

WITHIN THESE WALLS by Ania Ahlborn (on-sale April 21st). From bestselling horror sensation Ania Ahlborn (one of the few female horror writers) comes a brand-new supernatural thriller that questions how far one would go for success.



DAWN OF THE DEAD by George A. Romero (on-sale June 2nd). Nearly 40 years after its original publication, the novel based off the movie of the same name from the “Grandfather of Zombies” is back in print.



FIFTH HOUSE OF THE HEART by Ben Tripp (on-sale July 28th). From the acclaimed horror author of The Accidental Highwayman and the Rise Again zombie series comes a chilling twist on vampire fiction in the bestselling tradition of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot.



HIGHWAY TO HELL by Max Brallier (on-sale August 18th). In the sequel to the “choose-your-own-path” adventure Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?, readers embark on a horrific and hilarious cross-country road trip with the objective of saving zomified America from utter collapse.



BROTHER by Ania Ahlborn (on-sale September 8th). A brand new novel of terror from bestselling sensation Ania Ahlborn that follows a teenager determined to break from his West Virginian family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.

Latest VA News

Online Prescription Tracker Gives Veterans 24/7 Online Access to Status

Recommendation Made by VA Employee, 2013 SAVE Award Winner

Washington – Veterans can now track the status of most of their prescriptions online, thanks to an innovative idea by a Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) employee. The new 24/7 service allows online tracking for most prescriptions mailed from the VA Mail Order Pharmacy.

The Prescription Tracker was recommended by VA employee Kenneth Siehr, a winner of the President’s 2013 Securing Americans Value and Efficiency (SAVE) Award. Siehr’s idea focused on the use of technology as a way to save money and improve the services VA provides to its patients.


“Our nation’s Veterans deserve a first-class pharmacy and quality customer service as a part of the exceptional health care available from VA,” said Siehr, the National Director for Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacies. “It is an honor to be part of serving Veterans and to have been recognized for an idea that enhances our services to them.”


More than 57,000 Veterans are currently using the service through My HealtheVet, an online feature that allows Veterans to partner with their health care team. The number is expected to grow as VA starts to educate Veterans about the new feature. Later this month, the tracking feature will include images of the medication that dispensed. Over the next year, a secure messaging alert will be added so that Veterans know when a medication was placed in the mail.


“VA prescription refill online is an excellent example of how one employee looked at the process of VA prescription tracking through the eyes of our Veterans and came up with an idea that better serves Veterans,” said Interim Under Secretary for Health, Carolyn M. Clancy. “This idea is both innovative and transformative, and it is certainly one, when put into action, improves customer service for America’s Veterans.”

Adam Rakunas Joins the Robot Author Ranks

Adam Rakunas Joins the Robot Author Ranks

Hail Robot Army!

We have a very happy announcement to make: we have assimilated one of your own. Step forward Adam Rakunas, Robot Army member of some years and who happened to tend the bar at Angry Robot's big launch party back in 2009 at Montreal's WorldCon!

Acquired from Sam Morgan at JABberwocky Literary Agency, Adam's debut, Windswept, is the first in a two-book deal and will be released in September 2015. The as-yet-untitled sequel will follow in 2016.

WIndswept

Windswept stars Padma Mehta, a long-time labor organizer who is on the verge of making the deal of her life when it all falls apart. Now, she has to rely on the neighbourhood scam artist and a handful of stowaways to save her city, her planet, and Occupied Space — all before Happy Hour. With a host of well-crafted characters, Windswept is a part detective, part space operetta with snappy dialogue, adventure, and plenty of comedic timing.

Adam Rakunas

Adam Rakunas: “I’m stoked to join the assimilated masses at Angry Robot, especially after I was informed that the process no longer hurt as much as before. Some of my favorite books and authors have come from the digital mines of AR, and I’m honored that my little book about sex, violence, and labor relations will join them.”

Adam Rakunas has worked a variety of weird jobs. He’s been a virtual world developer, a parking lot attendant, a triathlon race director, a fast food cashier, and an online marketing consultant. Now a stay-at-home dad, Adam splits his non-parenting time between writing, playing the cello, and political rabble-rousing. His stories have appeared in Futurismic and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Windswept is his first novel.

Reach Adam online:

Join us in congratulating Adam; you can reach him through these various links:

Twitter: @rakdaddy
Facebook: Adam Rakunas Books
Tumbler: rakdaddy
Website: Giro.org

The good news is we have even more author announcements coming in the next fortnight or so; keep your eyes peeled to discover your next favourite book.

VA BUDGET FOR COMING YEAR

Care and Benefits for Veterans Strengthened by $169 Billion VA Budget

WASHINGTON – The President has proposed a $168.8 billion budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in fiscal year 2016. The proposed budget will support VA goals to expand access to timely, high quality health care and benefits, continue the transformation of VA into a Veteran-centric department and end homelessness among Veterans.



“VA has before it one of the greatest opportunities in its history to enhance care for veterans and build a more efficient and effective system. This budget will allow us to continue important progress to better serve Veterans, their families and their survivors,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald. “We are listening to what Veterans, Congress, employees, Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs), and other stakeholders are telling us. We aspire to make VA a model agency that is held up as an example for other government agencies to follow with respect to customer experience, efficient and effective operations, and taxpayer stewardship.”



The budget includes $73.5 billion in discretionary funding, largely for healthcare, and $95.3 billion for mandatory benefit programs such as disability compensation and pensions. The $73.5 billion total in discretionary spending, including over $3.2 billion in medical care collections from health insurers and Veteran copayments, is $5.2 billion and 7.5 percent above the 2015 enacted level. The budget also requests $66.6 billion, including collections, for the 2017 advance appropriations for medical care, an increase of $3.4 billion and 5.4 percent above the 2016 medical care budget request. As a first-time request for advance appropriations for 2017 for Compensation and Pensions, Readjustment Benefits, and Veterans Insurance and Indemnities, within our mandatory benefits programs in the Veteran’s Benefits Administration, $104 billion is requested for 2017.



“We remain committed to providing Veterans the opportunity to pursue their education, find meaningful employment and access high-quality health care and earned benefits,” Secretary McDonald added. “From the men and women of ‘the greatest generation’ to the Veterans who have returned from our most recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, every Veteran deserves to have a seamless, integrated, and responsive VA customer service experience every time.”



However, more resources will be required to ensure that VA can provide timely, high-quality health care into the future. VA is hearing directly from Veterans and their representatives that they would prefer to get their care in VA facilities from the medical professionals they know and with whom they have relationships. In the coming months, the Administration will submit legislation to allow the Department to reallocate a portion of unused funding from the Veterans Choice Program to support essential investments in VA system priorities in a fiscally responsible, budget-neutral manner. This flexibility will allow the Department to serve Veterans the way they want and deserve to be served.



VA operates one of the largest integrated health care systems in the country with approximately 9.4 million enrollees; the tenth largest life insurance program; monthly disability compensation, pensions and survivors benefits to more than 5.2 million beneficiaries; educational assistance or vocational rehabilitation benefits and services to 1.2 million students; mortgage guaranties to over 2 million homeowners; and the largest cemetery system in the nation.



Here are highlights from the President’s 2016 budget request for VA.



Health Care

With a medical care budget of $63.2 billion, including collections, VA is positioned to serve approximately 9.4 million veteran patients enrolled to receive care in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The enrollee total includes over 1.4 million Veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn

Major spending categories within the health care budget are:

· $7.5 billion for mental health;

· $2.8 billion for prosthetics;

· $556 million for spinal cord injuries;

· $232 million for traumatic brain injuries;

· $243 million for readjustment counseling; and

· $7.5 billion for long-term care.



Expanding Access

The President’s Budget would ensure that care and other benefits are available to Veterans when and where they need them. Among the programs that will expand access under the proposed budget are:

· $1.2 billion in telehealth funding, which helps patients monitor chronic health care conditions and increases access to care, especially in rural and remote locations;

· $446 million for health care services specifically designed for women, an increase of 8.3 percent over the present level;

· $598 million for the activation of new and enhanced health care facilities;

· $1.1 billion for major construction projects;

· $86.6 million for improved customer service applications for online self-service portals and call center agent-assisted inquiries; and

· $5.9 million to bring into full operation two new national cemeteries opening in 2015, and to activate one new national cemetery and one rural National Veterans Burial Ground in 2016.



Improving the Efficiency of Claims Processing

The President’s Budget provides for full implementation of the Veterans Benefits Administration’s (VBA) robust Transformation Plan -- a series of people, process, and technology initiatives -- in 2016. This plan will continue to systematically improve the quality and efficiency of claims processing and assist the Department in processing all disability compensation claims within 125 days.

Major claims transformation initiatives in the budget invest $431 million to bring leading-edge technology to claims processing, including:

· $290 million ($253 million in Information Technology and $37 million in VBA) to support the electronic claims processing system – the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS); and

· $141 million for Veterans Claims Intake Program (VCIP) to continue conversion of paper records, such as medical records, into electronic images and data in VBMS.



In addition, the President’s Budget supports rightsizing VBA’s workforce to address staffing needs so it can continue to improve the delivery of benefits to Veterans. As VBA continues to receive and complete more disability compensation rating claims, the volume of appeals, non-rating claims, and fiduciary field examinations correspondingly increases. The request for $85 million for 770 additional full-time equivalent employees (FTE) will allow VBA to provide more timely actions on appeals and non-rating claims, and will ensure strong fiduciary oversight.



Eliminating Veterans Homelessness

The Administration has made the elimination of Veteran homelessness a national priority. The budget request targets $1.4 billion for programs to prevent or reduce homelessness, including:

· $300 million for Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) to promote housing stability;

· $374 million for the HUD-VASH program wherein VA provides case management services for at-risk Veterans and their families and HUD provides permanent housing through its Housing Choice Voucher program; and

· $201 million in grant and per diem payments that support temporary housing provided by community-based organizations.



MyVA

In 2014, Secretary McDonald introduced the MyVA initiative, an effort to reorient the Department around the needs of Veterans and make VA a more customer-centric organization. This will ultimately be the largest department-wide transformation in VA’s history and will measure success based on Veteran outcomes and satisfaction. The 2016 budget supports MyVA implementation, which will create a VA that is organized for success from the perspective of Veterans – combining functions, simplifying operations, and proving Veterans the care and services they have earned and deserve.



Veterans Choice Act

The Veterans Choice Act provided $5 billion in mandatory funding to increase veterans' access to health care by hiring more physicians and staff and improving the VA’s physical infrastructure. It also provided $10 billion in mandatory funding through 2017 to establish a temporary program (the Veterans Choice Program) improving veterans’ access to health care by allowing eligible veterans who meet certain wait-time or distance standards to use eligible health care providers outside of the VA system. The Veterans Choice Program may provide a measure of short-term relief from the pressure of escalating health care needs as current patients in the VA system elect to receive their care through the program. These investments, together with the 2016 Budget, will provide the authorities, funding, and other tools to enhance services to veterans in the short-term while strengthening the underlying VA system to better serve veterans in the future. However more resources in certain areas will be required to ensure that the VA system can provide timely, high-quality health care into the future. In the coming months, the Administration will submit legislation to allow the VA Secretary to best meet Veteran needs. This will allow the Secretary to make essential investments in VA system priorities in a fiscally-responsible, budget-neutral manner.



Other Key Services for Veterans

· $266 million to administer the VA-run system of 133 national cemeteries;

· $4.1 billion for information technology (IT), including investments to modernize Veterans’ electronic health records, improve Veterans’ access to benefits, and IT infrastructure; and

· $1.7 billion in construction, cemetery grants, and extended care grants to include nine VHA major construction projects and four gravesite expansion projects.