I'm Silvia Moreno-Garcia. My debut novel, Signal to Noise, about teens casting spells using vinyl records, won a Copper Cylinder Award. That novel and my second book, the Mexican vampire novel Certain Dark Things, were nominated for the British Fantasy, Locus, Aurora and Sunburst awards. I also won a World Fantasy Award for co-editing the groundbreaking anthology She Walks in Shadows.

Prime Meridian is my first novella. It's mundane science fiction, near future, literary spec fic. Labels, labels are strange. But what's it about, you ask? Let me see:

Amelia dreams of Mars. The Mars of the movies and the imagination, an endless bastion of opportunities for a colonist with some guts. But she's trapped in Mexico City, enduring the drudgery of an unkind metropolis, working as a rent-a-friend, selling her blood to old folks with money who hope to rejuvenate themselves with it, enacting a fractured love story.  And yet there's Mars, at the edge of the silver screen, of life. It awaits her. 

I've finished the first draft of Prime Meridian. Now I have to edit it, proof it, and make it into an actual book with an introduction by award-winning writer Lavie Tidhar. That's where you come in. I've published several books before, including the award-winning anthology She Walks in Shadows. I want to publish this myself but I need time. Time to revise the manuscript, time to make it into a book. Consider this a pre-order. My way of getting an advance.

What You Get

I've funded and produced other books using IndieGoGo. I aim to get this one out to backers this December 2017. You' can get a copy of the novella, as well as a copy of my short story collection Love & Other Poisons for $10. There's other rewards, of course, but that's the basics.

What if I wait until it's on sale in a bookstore?

I don't plan on releasing this widely in the near future. That means you won't find it available for the Kindle or Nook come December. I'm running a bit of an experiment, so only the people who back me get the book in December 2017. If I release the book widely, it won't be until several months have passed. That means if you back me now you'll get to read it December 2017 and if you don't, then it might be until the summer of 2018, December 2018 or even later. Think of it as an exclusive pre-sale.

How do I know you'll finish on time?

I've already finished the first draft of the manuscript, but as any writer can tell you, there's always need for revisions. That's what I must do: revise, polish. I'm confident I'll be done on time. The talented Lavie Tidhar (winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, World Fantasy Award and Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize) is writing  a lovely introduction for the novella. It's all going very well.

I've crowdfunded other projects and always delivered the final books. That's how She Walks in Shadows came to be.

What's your writing like? Are there any samples of your previous work?

My work straddles several categories, including horror, fantasy, magic realism, literary and noir. You can find many stories of mine in anthologies and online magazines. Of course, my novels are also available in bookstores.

Novels

Signal to Noise: A trio of teenagers in Mexico City learn to cast spells using vinyl records. Winner: Copper Cylinder Award. Finalist for British Fantasy, Locus, Sunburst and Aurora awards.

Certain Dark Things: Vampires, humans, cops, and gangsters collide in the dark streets of Mexico City.  Selected by NPR as a Best Book of 2016, Locus finalist, on the Sunburst longlist.

Anthologies

I've co-edited several anthologies, including She Walks in Shadows (World Fantasy Award, first all-woman Lovecraft anthology), the Fungi anthology (yes, speculative fiction with a fungal theme), and many more. I'm also an editor at the horror magazine The Dark.

Collections

My collection Love & Other Poisons gathers a bunch of my stories, from Gothic horror to science fiction.

You can check out these free short stories online:

• Them Ships: Aliens invade Mexico City. (Audio recording at Escape Pod, 2015)
• Lacrimosa: A ghost haunts an immigrant man. (Nightmare Magazine, November 2015)
• Snow: An empty winter campus and the end of the world. (Reprinted at Postscripts to Darkness, 2015.)

Where can I find you?