RIP Carl Dow, Congratulations to Rachel A. Rosen,
And the state of things at the BumblePuppy Press
OTTAWA, July 15-September 25, 2026 — As you can see at left, I started writing this post on what would have been author (and my dad) Carl Dow’s 93rd birthday, but his long life was cut (somewhat) short on May 20th, 2026. My father died at the Ottawa Hospital’s General Campus while awaiting surgery to deal with an infection in his hip.
I have posted an obituary here, and a video (and transcript) of the elegy I read at the scattering of his ashes here. I have also started a much longer, personal reminiscence of Carl (I called him “Dad” but have referred to him as “Carl” for a long time) which I will post … when it’s ready.
Carl’s story collection, The Old Man’s Last Sauna, and his novel, Black Grass, are both available in our store. He also died with a new novel, The Women Who Made McCord Chronicle, “almost” finished; I will be reading that manuscript soon, in the hope that it really is (almost) ready to go. He also left behind other manuscripts which may (or may not) be forthcoming from the BumblePuppy Press.
As is perhaps needless to say, the death of a parent is not just emotionally taxing, but comes with all manner of work that must be done, which goes some way towards explaining (if not, perhaps, entirely excusing), the fact that things have been so quiet on my end, or even that this post was started two months ago, but wasn’t finished until today.
Things are mostly back to normal now, and I hope (hope!) to start updating our news feed on something at least approaching a regular basis going forward.
The triumphs (and near misses) of Rachel A. Rosen
Meanwhile, Rachel A. Rosen continues her meteoric rise in the field of science fiction and fantasy. Not only was her second novel, Blight, short-listed for The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association’s Aurora Award for best novel, but so was her short story, “What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire’s Yacht?“, and her podcast, Wizards and Spaceships.
Rachel did not, alas, win in any of those three categories, but (if my reading of ranked ballot voting is accurate) her work managed to come in second in each — no small feat! And, as Rachel said to me in an email, she knows and likes “… all of the folks who won, especially Rob Sawyer who has been incredibly supportive of my writing, so I’m happy for them.”
And (as I learned only this morning!), “What If We Kissed While Sinking a Billionaire’s Yacht?” will be included in the fourth edition of the excellent Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction anthology, which will be available this very month!
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Last week, Rachel (and David L. Clink) made me very jealous indeed, as they had the pleasure of interviewing one of my favourite writers, the inimitable Peter Watts. To quote the episode’s blurb:
It’s the 20th anniversary of Blindsight! David and Rachel sit down in Rachel’s living room with marine biologist, critically acclaimed author, and enemy-of-the-state Peter Watts to drink two bottles of wine and talk about theories of consciousness, cigar-shaped harbour seals, the climate collapse, and why dystopian sci-fi authors are in fact childishly optimistic.
If you’re at all interested in science fiction and fantasy but haven’t yet made Wizards and Spaceships a regular part of your SFnal diet, now is the time to make things right. You can subscribe via your preferred podcast distributor, or listen to it directly from its website.
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But that’s not all Rachel’s been up to! (No, I don’t know how she does it all, either; somehow she is also a high school teacher.)
This past Wednesday, she was one of four writers featured at Toronto’s High Park Library’s A September to Remember author event, which also included Heather Birrell, Pryia Ramsingh, and Su J Sokol. Living in the wrong city (Hi, Ottawa!), I couldn’t be there, of course, but I wish I’d been able to make it!
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If you’ll be in Ottawa, save the dates (October 16 through October 18, 2026)! This year’s edition of Can*Con’s annual celebration of Canadian science fiction and fantasy, will be held at the Brookstreet Hotel, located at 525 Legget Drive,
Ottawa, ON K2K 2W2. The hotel’s rooms are fully-booked, but you can still buy a membership to the convention here.
Rachel will be taking part in two panels at the convention, as a panelist in Class Conflict & Revolution in SFF with Sarah Gailey, tonia laird, and Lynne Sargent at 7:00 PM on Friday, October 16, and as the moderator of Geopolitics is a Thing But I Still Want/Need to Write with Manuela Amiouny, Christy Climenhage, and Ira Nayman, on Saturday the 17th.
She will also be hosting the Wizards & Spaceships room Party on Friday, and participating in the launch of the Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 4, in the Mulligan Room on Saturday, between 2:30 and 3:20 PM.
I believe Rachel will also have a table in the dealers room, but if you can’t make it, you can always buy her books directly from the BumblePuppy Press.
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Lost, then found: So Human As I Am
Quite some time ago, a month or two after a book sale here in Ottawa, I realized that I couldn’t find our copies of the limited edition printing of Rachel’s Sleep of Reason story, So Human As I Am. I knew that I had not left a box of books behind, and yet, I also knew that I couldn’t find that box, and found myself in the unhappy position of having to right off (mentally, if not for tax purposes) most of the copies we’d printed of the book pictured above.
My best guess was that one of Carl’s support workers had somehow tossed the box by mistake, but, as I mentioned at the outset of this post, dealing with the death of a loved one usually means going through all of their things. And sometimes, their things turn out to be your things — or, in this case, my things: a box of books, including the “lost” copies of So Human As I Am.
The book is once again available in our shop and will be until all copies are sold (Rachel should also have copies for sale at Can*Con).
And coming soon …
The BumblePuppy Press does have books in the proverbial pipeline, too.
First, we will be releasing The Inclusive House at Pooh Corner, A.A. Milne’s hilarious and heartbreaking children’s classic, that rare sequel that is actually better than the original, The Inclusive Winnie-the-Pooh.
Unfortunately, due to copyright reasons, these books are currently available only via Amazon.com. I’m not happy about sending you to an American company, let alone the Big A, but needs must, as they say.
In any case, The Inclusive Winnie-the-Pooh is available now, and The Inclusive House at Pooh Corner soon will be, featuring both A.A. Milne’s wonderful stories and prose (and poetry), but slightly altered so that the Hundred Acre Wood is no longer a boys’ club.
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And finally, we are working hard to get another book out before Christmas, but I can’t say any more about it until the last i is crossed and t is dotted! So stay tuned!
Geoff
