Unidentified Funny Objects is an annual anthology series of humorous science fiction and fantasy short stories.
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Kakistocracy is published by Arc Manor/CAEZIK in print and ebook formats, and by UFO Publishing in audiobook format. It will be published on October 17, 2023
You can also follow this link to listen to the entire Chapter 1 recorded by narrator Patrick Boylan.
Our next forthcoming title is Eridani’s Crown by Alex Shvartsman, forthcoming October 22, 2019. Preorders for this title will open in August.
CURSED BY PROPHECY. CORRUPTED BY POWER.
When Eridani’s parents are murdered and their kingdom is seized by a traitorous duke, she plans to run. After she suffers yet another unendurable loss, the lure of revenge pulls her back.
Eridani’s brilliance as a strategist offers her a path to vengeance and the throne, but success may mean becoming everything she hates. To survive, she must sway religious zealots, outwit ambitious politicians, and confront bloodthirsty warlords, all with few allies and fewer resources. Yet the most menacing obstacle she must overcome is the prophecy uttered by a powerful sorceress:
Everyone you know and trust will come to betray you.
Paperback: $15.99
E-book: $6.99
The seventh volume in the Unidentified Funny Objects series will be opening to submissions on April 1. Not sure what sort of stories we like for this series? Check out the most recent volume on our website, at Amazon, or on various other platforms such as Google Books, iBooks, Kobo, B&N, etc.
There’s a major blizzard crawling along the East Coast this weekend, and what better way to fight snow and ice than with fire?
Until end of day Sunday, Jan 24, UFO Publishing is offering 25% off all paperbacks (including the brand-new Funny Science Fiction which will begin shipping as of January 29!)
Click here to browse the selection of books. Enter the discount code FIRE at checkout to activate the 25% off discount. Shipping is always free on all orders within the United States.
UFO4 was officially released on October 15. Here is where you can find it:
Direct from UFO Publishing (Paperback)
Direct from UFO Publishing (E-book)
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
iTunes
Scribd
Inktera
Smashwords
UFO4 GoodReads page.
Reviews at Tangent Online and Amazing Stories.
Funny Science Fiction is a spin-off anthology from the Unidentified Funny Objects (UFO) annual anthology series of humorous SF/F. While UFO attempts to collect some of the best speculative humor being written today, Funny SF gathers seventeen from among the best funny science fiction stories published in the last decade.
Whereas UFO covers both genres, Funny SF collected science fiction stories specifically. There are tentative plans for a Funny Fantasy reprint anthology to follow in 2016.
Cover art is by the talented Flavio Greco Paglia. Cover design is by UFO’s amazing graphics specialist-in-residence and game designer Emerson Matsuuchi.
Funny SF will be published on Amazon on September 1, 2015. It will become available on other e-book platforms in 2016.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Alex Shvartsman
“Observation Post” by Mike Resnick (Beyond the Sun, Fairwood Press, 2013)
“Flying on My Hatred of My Neighbor’s Dog” by Shaenon Garrity (Drabblecast, 2013)
“Wikihistory” by Desmond Warzel (Abyss & Apex, 2007)
“Distant Gates of Eden Gleam” by Brian Trent (Crossed Genres, 2015)
“Half a Conversation, Overheard While Inside an Enormous Sentient Slug” by Oliver Buckram (F&SF, 2013)
“Hark! Listen to the Animals” by Ken Liu and Lisa Tang Liu (Galaxy’s Edge, 2014)
“Whaliens” by Lavie Tidhar (Analog, 2014)
“See Dangerous Earth-Possibles!” by Tina Connolly (Lightspeed Women Destroy Science Fiction, 2014)
“Kallakak’s Cousins” by Cat Rambo (Asimov’s, 2008)
“Kulturkampf” by Anatoly Belilovsky (Immersion Book of Steampunk, Immersion Press, 2011)
“Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs” by Leonard Richardson (Strange Horizons, 2009)
“Miss Darcy’s First Intergalactic Ballet Class” by Dantzel Cherry (Galaxy’s Edge, 2015)
“Pidgin” by Lawrence M. Schoen (Aliens and A.I., Eggplant Literary Productions, 2005)
“Nothing, Ventured” by James Beamon (AE: The Canadian Science Fiction Review, 2013)
“Last Thursday at Supervillain Supply Depot” by Sarah Pinsker (Daily Science Fiction, 2015)
“Chicka-Chicka-Bow-Wow” by Mike Rimar (Cucurbital 2, Paper Golem Press, 2011)
“Troublesolver” by Tim Pratt (Subterranean Press, 2009)
Copying the Science Fiction Writers of America press release verbatim below. You can also see UFO listed here.
August 3, 2015
For Immediate Release
Unidentified Funny Objects Becomes SFWA’s First Anthology Qualifying Market
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is pleased to announce that Unidentified Funny Objects, edited and published by Alex Shvartsman, is the first anthology series to join the SFWA list of Qualifying Professional Markets, which holds markets that have been qualified by the SFWA Membership Committee as meeting the SFWA bylaws and other membership criteria. More information can be found on the Membership Requirement page: http://www.sfwa.org/about/join-us/sfwa-membership-requirements/.
Maintaining the list is one way SFWA tries to make the qualification process easier for its members by pre-vetting markets where it can. Unidentified Funny Objects is an annual anthology of humorous SF currently in its fourth year. Past contributors to the anthologies have included George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Esther Friesner.
Shvartsman said, “I’m extraordinarily proud for the Unidentified Funny Objects series to join the ranks of the fine publishers and magazines on the qualifying market list. I view our admission both as a valuable service to those authors we’ve published who are in the early stages of their careers, as well as a personal milestone, akin to the moment I was able to join SFWA as a member myself.”
“I’m pleased to see SFWA starting to work out the nuts and bolts of how independently published authors qualify,” said SFWA President Cat Rambo. “As the publishing industry changes, SFWA needs to shift with it, recognizing the various paths to professional success and helping members with whichever they’ve chosen.”
The fourth annual Unidentified Funny Objects anthology will contain 23 stories totaling approximately 86,000 words. Cover art by Tomasz Maronski. Interior illustrations by Barry Munden.
“We Can Get Them for You Wholesale” by Neil Gaiman
“The Time-Traveling Ghost Machine of Professor Jaime Peligrosa” by Andrew Kaye
“Please Approve the Dissertation Research of Angtor” by Caroline M. Yoachim
“Match Game” by Esther Friesner
“The Transformation of Prince Humphrey” by Brent C. Smith
“In the End, You Get Clarity” by Laura Pearlman
“Project Disaster” by Tim Pratt
“Hello Hotel” by Piers Anthony
“Bob’s No Kill Monster Shelter” by Ian Creasey
“Board Meeting Minutes” by Oliver Buckram
“Armed for You” by Anaea Lay
“The Unfortunate Problem of Grandma’s Head” by Karen Haber
“My Mother Loves Her Robot More than Me and I Feel Bad” by Eric Kaplan
“The Worm that Turned” by Jody Lynn Nye
“Department of Death Predictions, Final Notice” by Tina Gower
“Champions of Breakfast” by Zach Shephard
“Keeping Ahead” by Mike Resnick
“So You’ve Metamorphosed into a Giant Insect. Now What?” by James Aquilone
“Confessions of an Interplanetary Art Fraud” by Michael J. Martinez
“Texts from My Mother about an Alien Invasion” by Tina Connolly
“Support Your Local Alien” by Gini Koch
“Topics to Avoid on a First Date with Yourself” by Jonathan Ems
“The Monkey Treatment” by George R. R. Martin
[Buy direct: Paperback | E-book]
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[Audio Book]
Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma and Other Stories, a collection of 40 short stories by Alex Shvartsman is now available in print and e-book formats.
Audio book, narrated by Tina Connolly, is forthcoming from Audible. You can listen to the title story now:
And here is “Fate and Other Variables”:
The third annual volume of UFO contains 82,000+ words of fiction, cover art by Tomasz Maronski and interior art by Barry Munden. It will be released on October 1, 2014.
Table of Contents:
Two reprints are included (stories by Robert Solverberg and Mike Resnick). The rest are original material.
E-Book: 5.99 – Click here to pre-order now.
Paperback: 15.99 (includes free ebook) – Click here to pre-order now.