A vision of an ecologically threatening cityscape marks the cover art of The Fragrance of Orchids and Other Stories by Sally McBride, revealed today from publisher Brain Lag. The artwork features a figure in old-fashioned SCUBA gear standing in front of the overgrown ruins of a city, suggesting something dangerous or toxic about the natural greenery.
The imagery suits the theme of several stories in which a varying level of natural world poses a threat to humans or humanity, including “Speaking Sea”, “The Emperor of the Half-Garden”, and “A Breath After Dying”. The alienness of the foliage also suits the award-winning title story, about a lone extraterrestrial stranded on Earth.
Preorders are now open for The Fragrance of Orchids and Other Stories ahead of its July release. The book will be available in trade paperback (264 pages, ISBN 978-1-998795-00-0, $23.99 CAD) and ebook (ISBN 978-1-998795-01-7, $4.99) formats. Several launch events are in planning for the book’s release, both in-person in the Toronto area and virtual.
This book is the first time McBride’s short fiction has been collected into a single volume. The stories included were previously published in various volumes of Tesseracts, On Spec, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Northern Frights, and more. “The Fragrance of Orchids” won the Aurora Award for best short fiction and was nominated for Nebula and Hugo Awards on its original publication. Thirteen other stories accompany it, from horror to fantasy and other science fiction tales. The book closes with “The Faraway Club”, an all-new science fiction/ghost story novella. A second volume of McBride’s fiction will follow in January 2024.
McBride has been deeply involved with the science fiction community for nearly forty years, since the sale of her first story, “Totem” (included in The Fragrance of Orchids and Other Stories) in 1985. Since then, she has been published in over a dozen magazines and anthologies, served as editor and as co-creator of a Canadian speculative fiction magazine, and had three novels published, most recently her critically-acclaimed historical fantasy The Nightingale’s Tooth (Brain Lag, 2023). McBride splits her time between Toronto and the mountains of Idaho, where she enjoys skiing and hiking with her husband.
The Fragrance of Orchids and Other Stories will be Brain Lag’s 46th title and sixth release of 2023. It is the publisher’s fifth single-author short story collection. More collections from other authors will be coming in 2024.
Media inquiries and requests for review copies or to contact the author can be directed to publishing@brain-lag.com.
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