From the BumblePuppy’s nest #007

Of Aurora Awards and book launches

May 9, 2025, Ottawa — Exciting news for the BumblePuppy Press: Rachel A. Rosen, who’s new novel, Blight, we will be publishing next month, has been nominated for an Aurora Award!

As you may already know, Rachel, along with David Clink, has been hosting the Wizards and Spaceships podcast for just a bit more than a year, and they have been rewarded for their great work with a nomination in the Best Fan Related Work category.

You can listen to the latest episode, in which David and Rachel discuss what AI and trans-humanism really mean for humanity and our planet with award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer here.

If you are voting for the Aurora Awards, you can cast your ballot for Wizards and Spaceships here. If you want to join the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, you can sign up here for only $10.00. Note that you must be a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident to join.

The Blight is coming to Toronto

Rachel’s nomination comes just as we are readying her new novel, Blight, for publication on June 15th.

Rachel will be launching the book in Toronto on July 3rd, 2025, at the famous Glad Day Bookstore. The event starts at 6:30 PM and will run until 8:30. Rachel will talk about how a fantasy featuring demons and sea monsters and wizards (oh my!) is relevant to life in 2025, on speculative fiction as a terrain for resisting fascism, and writing about the future before it turns into history.

Admission is free, but you can guarantee yourself a seat by “buying” a ticket via Simpli Events. I’ve seen Rachel speak before, and can promise that you’ll be in for a treat — and she’ll be happy to sign a copy of her book(s) for you, too. Glad Day is located at 499 Church Street, Toronto. Their phone number is (416) 901-6600.

A newsletter at last!

Finally, some housekeeping.

This is the first edition of From the BumblePuppy’s Nest to live beyond the confines of our website. I have decided to try out Substack as a newsletter application.

You can, of course, continue to read our entries here at bppress.ca, but if you would like to be notified when a new post drops, please visit our Substack to subscribe. Subscriptions are free, of course, and you can easily share our posts on social media or directly with people you think might be interested in one of Canada’s best small presses.

Finally, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to visit our shop and buy a book (or three)!

Thanks and looking forward,

Geoffrey Dow, publisher