Douglas Smith is a five-time award-winning author described by Library Journal as "one of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction."

His latest work is the multi-award-winning YA urban fantasy trilogy, The Dream Rider Saga (The Hollow Boys, The Crystal Key, and The Lost Expedition). Other books include the urban fantasy novel, The Wolf at the End of the World; the collections, Chimerascope, Impossibilia, and La Danse des Esprits (translated); and the writer's guide Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction.

His short fiction has appeared in the top markets in the field, including The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, InterZone, Weird Tales, Baen's Universe, Escape Pod, On Spec, and Cicada.

"The man is Sturgeon good. Zelazny good. I don't give those up easy." —Spider Robinson, Hugo and Nebula Awards winner

"A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice." —Charles de Lint, World Fantasy Award winner

"His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think." —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Awards winner

Impossibilia by Douglas Smith

Impossibilia was Doug's first collection of short fiction, from the award-winning UK press, PS Publishing as part of their "Showcase" series highlighting genre fiction's best up-and-coming writers.

An Aurora Award Finalist for Best Long Form, Impossibilia contains three novelettes, including an Aurora Award Finalist and an Aurora Award Winner. With an introduction by award-winning UK fantasy and mystery writer, Chaz Brenchley.

In "Bouquet of Flowers in Vase, by van Gogh," remote viewing drives a search through the past for lost masterpieces. An ex-CIA agent, haunted by the presence of his dead wife, falls in love with a beautiful remote viewer with her own secret. But can viewing the past change the present?

Cree Indian legends, a love triangle, a covert government agency, and shape shifters collide in the award-winning "Spirit Dance," described in Challenging Destiny as "...a vivid and wonderfully written tale about Native Canadian spirits, in the vein of Thomas King."

In "Going Down to Lucky Town," an itinerant gambler chases a streak of luck across the country, while trying to win back the love of his daughter. The secret he finds forces him into the gamble of his life for the highest stakes of all: his daughter's life.

 

REVIEWS

  • "Rarely have I seen such an apt title to any book! Douglas Smith has given us three amazing stories that are so unusual and beautiful that no other name than Impossibilia could possibly describe this collection. Each tale was rapture and ecstasy, magical and mysterious, perfect and implausible. In short, I loved them all from the first word to the last. ... I don't know what else to say without spoiling things for you so I won't say anything else, except READ THIS BOOK!!!"

    – Mass Movement Magazine

  • "The three stories collected in 'Impossibilia' are very different, covering almost the entire range of speculative genres. The writing is superb. Douglas Smith is an artisan and his stories beautifully crafted. ... In my search for the perfect short story, the three in this volume certainly qualify."

    – SF Crowsnest Book Reviews

  • "Both thematically and stylistically, these stories sometimes recall the work of better known authors, including Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, and Ray Bradbury. But Smith puts such a personal stamp on his stories, and invests them with such depth of feeling, that they transcend the dangers of … imitation and emerge as wholly original. … There is a certain exhilaration that comes from reading the book's complex and powerfully emotional stories couched in that deft and smooth prose. It is easy to see why PS Publishing considers Smith an author who deserves more attention. … [Smith deserves] to be known to by a very wide audience indeed."

    – Dead Reckonings review magazine

  • "Highly, highly recommended."

    – Fantasy Book Critic

  • "Doug Smith is, quite simply, the finest short-story writer Canada has ever produced in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and he's also the most prolific. His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think."

    – Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author

  • "One of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction."

    – Library Journal

  • "A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice."

    – Charles de Lint, World Fantasy Award Winner
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

If the friends and enemies of Charles Tobias Perlman could agree on one thing, it was this — you never bet against Charlie the Pearl.

Ever.

And if his enemies numbered higher than his friends, well, Charlie just put it down to the life he had lived. A life that did not appear, at that particular moment, as if it would be lived much longer.

He lay in the dirt behind the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto on a beautiful August evening of 1967. His mouth was bleeding and his head throbbing from the beating just delivered by Eddie Fenton, his former partner-in-crime who was now taking out a gun.

Reaching down, Eddie pulled the big pearl stickpin from Charlie's tie. He polished it with a couple of rubs on his paisley shirt, then stuck it in the lapel of his dirty denim jacket.

Charlie looked up at him, licking blood from his lips. "That," he commented, "looks ridiculous."

"Shaddup." Eddie aimed the revolver at Charlie's head. "Payback time, old man. Looks like my lucky day."

Recent events ran through Charlie's head faster than a drugged filly. He spat out a broken tooth and chuckled. "Kid, you know absolutely nothing about luck."

Eddie laughed. "And you do? Lying bleeding in the dirt and about to eat a bullet?" He pulled back the hammer with a click that sounded like two dice knocking together. "You got nothing left to teach me, pops."

With an amazing degree of detachment, Charlie watched Eddie's finger tighten on the trigger. "Trust me, kid," Charlie said quietly, "I'm about to give you one last lesson."