I’m at the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary, Canada.  I just got to go listen to a small quiet concert played by Ken Scholes.  It was quite wonderful, and reminded me of sitting by Charles de Lint’s feet once when he played (although their music is different), and also of  recent Neil Young Concert.  No, Ken’s not Neil, but who is?  But he does play the acoustic guitar with a harmonica slung around his neck, and with feeling.

His excellent guitar playing aside, he’s an even better writer.  I had the pleasure of getting an advance copy of Ken’s collection of short work, “Long Walks, Last Flights, and Other Strange Journeys,” to blurb.   I had already read a few of the stories, but I there were new ones for me as well.  I loved them all.  Ken reminds me of writers like Ray Bradbury – people who have a gifted voice, and can make short work tell big, important stories. 

I think I may be getting an ARC of his upcoming book Lamentation (fingers crossed) soon, and I am really looking forward to it after reading the seed story for that world in this collection.  Tor is certainly working hard to promote Lamentation.

You can get the book from Fairwood Press.  And for the record, I am a minor investor in Fairwood Press, so I usually don’t recommend those books in this list (Can you tell I work for the government?).  This time, I just really had to recommend it.   It’s small in the larger likely arc of Ken’s career, anyway.  Ken really is a unique voice, and he’s working hard to write great books for us to read.  With a little luck and support, he’ll be a major name in our field.