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The table next to us at Worldcon was occupied by the writers and publishers of ChiZine Publications. Of the small presses represented at Worldcon, ChiZine had, hands-down, the best looking collection of books. ChiZine seems to have really made an effort to develop all their materials—books, flyers, cards, magazines, ads—with really strong and consistent design work. As a bit of a graphic design geek myself—in one of my previous careers, I dabbled with desktop publishing and bits and pieces of layout and design work—I was really drawn to the quality of their offerings.

I also had a few very pleasant exchanges with one of the ChiZine writers Daniel A. Rabuzzi and his charming wife Deborah Mills.

Daniel has written a really interesting looking YA-oriented fantasy novel, The Choir Boats, which includes illustrations and cover designs by Deborah (a fantastic wood carver and artist).

The Choir Boats is, in some ways, a very traditional fantasy novel. Daniel has received a great deal of inspiration from Tolkien and Nordic mythology—he has even studied Old Norse—but he seems to want to spin those influences through a slightly weirder lens than the Professor. I haven’t read the novel yet, but it’s been added to my urgent stack and I’ll report back on my findings.

One of the most engaging parts of my chat with Daniel concerned his academic background. I’m always fascinated by the struggles of book-lovers inside of post-modern, post-historical academia—partly as a result of exposure to my sister’s working life as a Professor of English Literature (no comment and the less said the better etc.)—and partly out of my own experiences with what seemed to be a turning away from post-modernism in the fine arts school I attended in 1989. Daniel seemed to agree with me that even Barthes didn’t mean that we should give up the Moliere, or Shakespeare, as qualitative equal to anything else…but I digress…

Daniel has moved on from academia to bigger and better things with the publication of his first novel and I wish him all the best. You can also catch up with him at his blog: Lobster & Canary .