FEATURED TITLES
The Borgia Dove
The myth of Persephone and Hades is transposed onto the opulent Rome of the Borgias, with Giulia Farnese as its magic pivot and history-maker.
Moonlight Special
Detective Frank Wolfman thought he could stay clean by getting a little dirty; but the mob owns Los Angeles, and in the City of Devils, no one is half a sinner. To save a friend, Frank must unearth every rotten decision he’s ever made in his life and unravel the secret of a “moonlight special.”
Fallen
A mythic space opera by SF legend Melissa Scott, set in a fully imagined universe with vividly delineated protagonists, Fallen is a seamless fusion of adventure, myth, and science so advanced as to have become magic—a bold, original re-imagining of the tales of the Atreides, Daedalus, and the Titans.
Fortune’s Favor
A courtesan must engage in high-stakes diplomacy to rescue a beloved child, a rich mercantile city, and the entire two-sun planet of Menaechmi.
The Master of Samar
A traveling cursebreaker rejected by his aristocratic family must discover what is going dangerously amiss in his sea-borne city, where power is based on magic covenants with otherworldly powers.
A Blackened Mirror
The myth of Persephone and Hades is transposed onto the opulent Rome of the Borgias, with Giulia Farnese as its magic pivot.
The Map and the Territory
A wizard and a cartographer combine their knowledge to try repairing their shattered world.
Warlady
Political intrigues, threats of invasion and ancient secrets threaten the life of forbidden lovers but also the future of their entire planet.
The Valley and the Hill
The Valley and the Hill is a fusion of Stephen King and Elmore Leonard with a pitch-perfect take on small-town bureaucracies and intrigues—exacerbated by enhanced sensory perceptions, which prove a decidedly mixed bag.
Unwitch Hunt
Hexene Candlemas was part of the most powerful witch coven in Los Angeles until a mad scientist killed their familiars. In a last-ditch effort at regaining their powers, they journey to La Ciudad de las Brujas, run by witches and intended as a utopia. Hexene quickly learns that’s not the case, and must find new allies in her dangerous quest.
Sounding Dark
Citizens of a rebellious planetary republic desperately search for an ancient lost starship that may give them a chance in their last stand.
In the Deep
Captain Velocity Wrachant and her devoted crew weave a difficult path between Pirian and Combine interests on frontier planet Durbin.
Water Horse
A wily, beloved ruler of a proud people faces great sacrifices to defend their land from invaders foretold to triumph.
Situation Normal
The galaxy’s two multi-species superpowers stand on the brink of yet another pointless war, enmeshing ordinary lives in the messy conflict.
Silver and Gold
An Aztec-inspired fantasy of art, friendship, and rebellion, Silver and Gold seamlessly blends myth and history to present the thorny choices that always confront creators of passion, ambition and talent.
Last Poet of Wyrld’s End
An intricate, funny yet elegiac adventure brimming with invention and poetic flourishes, Last Poet of Wyrld’s End is an SFnal take on Li Bai—or an elevated variation of Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master with a soupçon of Moby Dick.
The Miasma Is Not for Us to Say
The Miasma Is Not for Us to Say is a witty fusion of Stephen King and Elmore Leonard with a pitch-perfect take on small-town bureaucracies and intrigues—brought to a head by a semi-sentient cloud of evil-smelling fog.
Retellings of the Inland Seas
Retellings of the Inland Seas is a collection of original SFnal recastings of foundational (hi)stories & eternal myths from the Mediterranean and Black seas.
A Stitch in Crime
Smart, resourceful, haunted Jane Stitch has been created from the corpses of six women. Now on a quest for her origins and for justice, she’s determined to solve the riddle of herself. Or die—again—trying.
Fates and Furies
The stories in Fates and Furies are seamless fusions of science fiction, fantasy, myths and little-known history that murmur in the reader’s bone marrow, ranging from the uplands of Minoan Crete to the valleys of Mars and everything in between.
The Marten and the Scorpion
Robin Shortt’s cinematic adventure The Marten and the Scorpion unfurls in a medieval Samarkand awash in street gangs, assassins and martial-art secret societies. Balletic, intricate, steeped in Silk Road lore and lethal magic, the story cries out to become a film helmed by Zhang Yimou or Ang Lee.
Finders
A mythic space opera by SF legend Melissa Scott, set in a fully imagined universe with vividly delineated protagonists, Finders is a seamless fusion of adventure, myth, and science so advanced as to have become magic—a bold, original re-imagining of the tales of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Titans.
Wolfman Confidential
There’s never a shortage of work for the last human detective in a city of monsters. Right now, Nick Moss is searching for several shadowy killers. The deeper he gets, the more troubling connections he finds, as he discovers that nothing remains confidential in the City of Devils.
Fault Lines
A tense tale of adventure and conflict exploring the issues of genetic engineering as they play into interstellar power politics, rife with complex, shifting alliances and flawed, vivid protagonists, Fault Lines is Firefly meets GATTACA with a soupçon of Hunger Games.
Dreaming the Dark
Seamlessly fusing Inuit dream magic with contemporary survivor guilt, Dreaming the Dark tells of a haunting and dangerous leakage between worlds where dreams (and nightmares) can become real.
Windhome
Grounded in science, rich in external and internal discovery, with vivid characters for whom the reader comes to care deeply (and with a haunting cover by multi-award winner Julie Dillon), Kristin Landon’s Windhome is The Left Hand of Darkness meets Black Robe with a soupçon of Alien.
Unraveling Timelines
Original, layered, historically informed, a mythic tale of warring castes (and star-crossed lovers) with psychic powers, Unraveling Timelines is a fresh take on “X-Men Meet Underworld”.
Piper Deez and the Case of the Winter Planet
Seamlessly fusing hardboiled sleuthing with interplanetary politics, Piper Deez is a neat twist on “Outland Meets Smilla’s Sense of Snow” that cries out to become a high-tension movie in Blade Runner mode.
Wellside
The Well:
The infinite pit lined with doors to countless realities. Cities hung from cats’-cradles. A Library of sand. Clockwork spiders, mushroom forests, beings of stone and iron.
And an ancient threat to all the worlds.
Finalist for the 2018 Aurealis Awards in the Fantasy category.
Wisps of Spider Silk, First Thread
Wisps of Spider Silk, First Thread is a diptych of two interlinked space opera stories (“The Stone Lyre” and “The Wind Harp”) that tell of interplanetary cultures in conflict — and in perilous alliances — over psychic talents and the dominance they can confer.
Red Spawn Delivery
Webrid finds himself on another planet-hopping universe-saving adventure with snarky, brainy pals Zatell and Stravin and a host of wacky aliens. This time, Webrid’s cart turns into an interplanetary playpen—or it will, if he can only find fifty kidnapped arachnid spawn.
Drakon
The year is 1880. A hundred years ago, the dragons abandoned Russia and defected to Turkey. Ever since, the Tarasov family has held the Russian border. Now, as war looms in the south and the century-old mystery of the Defection cracks open, the Tarasovs must face their family’s old sins and put aside their differences…or watch Russia fall.
Drakon is best described as “Game of Thrones Meets War and Peace”; it received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and Booklist included it in its “SFF Best of 2017” list.
Fifty Feet of Trouble
There’s never a shortage of work for the last human detective in a city of monsters. Right now, Nick Moss has three cases. The deeper he gets, the more troubling connections he finds—to his past, to some of the most dangerous monsters in the city, and to places he hoped he’d never have to go.
All Nick knows for certain is that he’s in trouble. Fifty feet of it.
To Shape the Dark
Science-based wonder is the core of science fiction. Yet the genre mostly casts science as either triumphalism or hubris. In To Shape the Dark, editor Athena Andreadis offers readers women heroes doing science not-as-usual. Scientists are astrogators who never sleep; To Shape the Dark is part of that vigil.
Finalist for the 2016 Independent Publishers of New England book awards in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category.
Sword
Prophecies have a way of coming true. Whether you want them to or not….
Get Blank
I’m retired.
So why am I running around LA, trying to dodge every conspiracy there is just to stay alive?
Oh, right.
I’m me.
Grave
Death was never the end…
With the fragile balance between zombies and the living shattered by an artificial plague, life has only gotten harder for those still walking. Death himself has had enough and is determined to end it all–permanently.
But even Death has a price, if you’re willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
City of Devils
Once, it was the City of Angels. But now, Los Angeles is the City of Devils…and as the only human P.I. left in a town of monsters, Nick Moss has a devil of a job to do.
Blue Diamond Delivery
Saving the world. Eh, it’s a living.
You’d think I’d get a break after having saved the world once already. But noooo, I gotta go rescue the whole Raralt Planetary Circle this time…
The Other Half of the Sky
Women may hold up more than half the sky on earth, but it has been different in heaven: science fiction still is very much a preserve of male protagonists, mostly performing by-the-numbers quests. In The Other Half of the Sky, editor Athena Andreadis offers readers heroes who happen to be women, doing whatever they would do in universes where they’re fully human.
Substitution Cipher
Spies can change the course of history, and and in the six thrilling stories of Substitution Cipher, they do. Each tale follows its agent through a world that could have been ours, if not for one crucial difference: a clockwork Venice, a Germany marching north instead of east, a city too powerful to silence. And at the heart of each story is the sense of how easily – and how eerily – the world can be changed.
Mr Blank
Every conspiracy needs a guy like me.
Every conspiracy has one… me.
And now someone’s trying to kill me.
Constellation Games
First contact isn’t all fun and games.
When an anarchist alien society comes to earth, all programmer Ariel Blum wants to do is play their video games. But a simple cultural exchange turns up ancient secrets, government conspiracies, and unconventional anthropology techniques that threaten humanity as we know it. If Ariel wants his species to have a future, he’s going to have to take the step that nothing on Earth could make him take.
He’ll have to grow up.
Green Light Delivery
Psst. Hey, buddy…wanna read a story? It’s got space aliens, shootouts, faceoffs, narrow escapes, and some poor bum just tryin’ to make a buck and stay alive in the process. Yeah, that’d be me. Do a guy a favor – check it out today.
Erekos
Her sister swore that she would never let her die; now the entire world may pay the price.
In a land where gods walk beside men and witches defy death, war changes everything. Scholar and warrior, witch and king, priestess and corpse—all must come together to save their world from the ravages of the coming tempest.
POPULAR TITLES
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Constellation Games$5.00 – $21.45 -
The Other Half of the Sky$7.00 – $24.45 -
To Shape the Dark$7.00 – $24.45 -
Situation Normal$8.00 – $25.95 -
Finders$6.00 – $22.45 -
Sword$5.00 – $23.95 -
Substitution Cipher$5.00 – $21.45 -
Drakon$7.00 – $27.95
RECENTLY RELEASED
Satirical yet deeply poignant military space opera, the Coen brothers doing Star Trek.
TO SHAPE THE DARK
Sibling to the acclaimed The Other Half of the Sky: women scientists in our possible futures.
A LEGEND RETURNS TO SF
A gritty, mythic space opera from legend Melissa Scott: Engines of God meets Firefly.
Drakon
What made the dragons defect from Russia to Turkey? And will the answer to this mystery redeem the Tarasov family from past sins and protect them from present dangers?
Temporarily Closed for Submissions
As of Thursday, March 23, 2023, Candlemark & Gleam is temporarily closed to submissions by authors not already published by the press or not referred by trusted colleagues.
MORE TITLES
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The Borgia Dove$7.00 – $22.45 -
Moonlight Special$6.00 – $21.95 -
Fallen$7.00 – $22.45 -
Fortune’s Favor$6.00 – $21.45 -
The Master of Samar$7.00 – $22.95 -
A Blackened Mirror$7.00 – $22.45 -
The Map and the Territory$7.00 – $22.45 -
Warlady$6.00 – $21.45 -
The Valley and the Hill$3.50 -
Unwitch Hunt$6.00 – $21.95
New Helm at Candlemark & Gleam
2025 is a year of change at Candlemark & Gleam. After running the press since 2016, Athena Andreadis has decided to move to other commitments and endeavors. Melissa Scott, already a Candlemark author, offered to buy the press, and the sale is now complete. Scott intends to continue Candlemark’s commitment to publish innovative science fiction […]
Release: The Borgia Dove by Jo Graham
Pealing bells and sacred mystery incantations for Jo Graham’s historical fantasy The Borgia Dove which takes to the skies today like a flight of its namesakes! The Borgia Dove is the second in the series Memoirs of the Borgia Sibyl after the acclaimed A Blackened Mirror. It follows the rise of Giulia Farnese, known to […]
Giveaway: The Borgia Dove by Jo Graham
On Jun 10, 2024, Candlemark & Gleam will release Jo Graham’s riveting historical fantasy The Borgia Dove (second in the series Memoirs of the Borgia Sibyl after A Blackened Mirror): Giulia Farnese is known to historians as a formidably learned and intelligent advisor to two Renaissance popes. But in Graham’s vision Giulia is also a […]
Release Day: Moonlight Special by Justin Robinson
Here’s to the lift-off into a full-moon night-sky of Moonlight Special, the youngest but equally bold and assured sibling to Justin Robinson’s sui generis neo-noir pulp monsterverse series: City of Devils, Fifty Feet of Trouble, Wolfman Confidential, A Stitch in Crime and Unwitch Hunt. The first three books in the series charted the bumpy progress […]
Giveaway: Moonlight Special by Justin Robinson
On March 11, 2024, Candlemark & Gleam will unleash Moonlight Special, the sixth installment of Justin Robinson’s neo-noir alt-history in which humans have become a downtrodden minority in a world of pulp monsters. The digital version is available for pre-order at Amazon, B&N and Kobo; and if all goes as it should, the paperback pre-order […]
Cover Reveal: The Borgia Dove by Jo Graham
I first became aware of Jo Graham when I read Black Ships, an absorbing take on the Aenead with a young sibyl as its narrator. Since then, Jo has gone on to create thirty speculative fiction novels (including the historical fantasy series The Order of the Air with Melissa Scott and tie-ins for several Stargate […]
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Glad to hear that Candlemark & Gleam will live on. C&G is how I discovered Melissa Scott. I look forward…
Really looking forward to this!
Been eagerly awaiting this book, I can’t wait!!
A. M. Tuomala adventure Anne E. Johnson announcements anthologies Athena Andreadis audience participation awards behind the curtain blog tour Broken City of Devils Constellation Games cover art cover reveal eBooks Eleni Tsami Erekos fantasy Fifty Feet of Trouble Finders giveaway giveaways industry Jo Graham Justin Robinson launch lolcritique magic Matchbox Girls Melissa Scott musings neo-noir on writing pre-order pressing matters publicity reviews science fiction space opera the other half of the sky the reckless to shape the dark Webrid Chronicles Wolfman Confidential
Dear Laura, thank you for the compliments and good wishes!