A new small publisher has launched in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dailey Swan Publishing, focused on science fiction and other genre fiction. The first seven titles are all by first-time authors, including my own The Lamp Post Motel about sexual anthropology students of the future coming here to the murky past for field research. The book will be released on Oct. 22, 2006, and available from independent bookstores.

Another title, Confessions of a Virgin Sacrifice by Adrianne Ambrose is a comedic fantasy about a young lady who hurries to abandon her virginity so as not to be tossed into the local volcano, and the barbarian she meets along the way.

For young adults, Mark Jansen's Apers is about genetic engineering that creates a new life form for use as agricultural labor, and the problems when a perhaps too-bright "aper" (a smart apelike animal) decides she's got better things to do with her life than work the fields or get her intellect "pruned" back. Apers has been nominated for a Hal Clement award for best young adult science fiction of the year.

An epic poem is publisher Casey Swanson's own work, dealing with self-doubt, creating and destroying universes in Beyond the Fears of Tomorrow.

For comedy and science fiction, Dale Mettam offers The Pub at the Center of the Universe. Have a look at the full line as it grows at daileyswanpublishing.com. If you'd like to see more of my novel, check out thelamppostmotel.com.

--Joe Gold, San Francisco