In the wake of disappointing sales for the second quarter, Borders Group has announced plans to expand non-book products in many of their 679 stores.

CEO Mike Edwards said, “We are taking steps to transform our retail model, in part through high-impact strategic partnerships, like Build-A-Bear Workshop, that enable us to offer a compelling mix of lifestyle focused products. By offering a rich and relevant selection of product – both book and non-book – together with an exceptional customer experience, we will differentiate Borders from others in the marketplace.” Other planned additions include more stationery, educational games for children, puzzles and games for adults, and more bargain books.

The company reported an 11.5% decline in sales for the quarter ending July 31, with revenues of $526.1 million. They posted a loss of $51.6 million for continuing operations, up from $45.1 million the year before. Same-store sales declined by nearly 7%, though online sales did better, with a 56.2% increase to $15.5 million.

Neal Stephenson & Greg Bear, with Subutai Corporation, announced the launch of their speculative fiction historical adventure novel The Mongoliad, released on PULP, Subutai’s new, interactive social book platform. The platform immerses readers into the world of the novel, letting them experience “meta-narrative” and “para-narrative” by inclusion of character sketches, videos, articles, short stories, music and opportunities within the community to discuss the book.

“PULP is what Gutenberg would have come up with if he hadn’t jumped the gun and released six hundred years early,” said Stephenson. “Kindles and iPads were little better than expensive drink trays until we came up with this.”

Readers can subscribe to to The Mongoliad and receive new chapters weekly.

Bear said, “This is one of the most exciting and interesting projects I’ve worked on in a long while. Collaborating with Neal and our crack team on a magnificent story and a new business model for publishing and media is a real privilege.”

Gaming-related publisher Black Library has announced a new downloadable short fiction magazine, Hammer and Bolter, to launch in October as part of their new e-book publishing initiative.

Each issue will sell for £2.50, and the debut issue will feature a previously-unpublished Warhammer story by John Brunner, who died in 1995. Other authors contributing work to the premiere issue include Ben Counter and Dan Abnett.

For details, see the Black Library site.

The World Fantasy Awards ballot for works in 2009 has been announced. The awards will be presented in Columbus OH, October 28-31, 2010.  Nominees are:

Novel

• Blood of Ambrose, James Enge (Pyr)
• The Red Tree, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
• The City & The City, China Miéville (Macmillan UK/ Del Rey)
• Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Underland)
• In Great Waters, Kit Whitfield (Jonathan Cape UK/Del Rey)

Novella

• The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)
• “I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 12/09)
• “The Lion’s Den”, Steve Duffy (Nemonymous Nine: Cern Zoo)
• The Night Cache, Andy Duncan (PS)
• “Sea-Hearts”, Margo Lanagan (X6 )
• “Everland”, Paul Witcover (Everland and Other Stories)

Short Story

• “The Pelican Bar”, Karen Joy Fowler (Eclipse Three)
• “A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc, or, A Lullaby”, Helen Keeble (Strange Horizons 6/09)
• “Singing on a Star”, Ellen Klages (Firebirds Soaring)
• “The Persistence of Memory, or This Space for Sale”, Paul Park (Postscripts 20/21: Edison’s Frankenstein )
• “In Hiding”, R.B. Russell (Putting the Pieces in Place)
• “Light on the Water”, Genevieve Valentine (Fantasy 10/09)

Anthology

• Poe,  Ellen Datlow, ed. (Solaris)
• Songs of The Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Subterranean/Voyager)
• Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations, Danel Olson, ed. (Ash-Tree)
• Eclipse Three, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)
• American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny: From Poe to the Pulps/From the 1940s to Now, Peter Straub, ed. (Library of America)
• The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology, Gordon Van Gelder, ed. (Tachyon)

Collection

• We Never Talk About My Brother, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)
• Fugue State, Brian Evenson (Coffee House)
• There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Penguin)
• Northwest Passages, Barbara Roden (Prime)
• Everland and Other Stories, Paul Witcover (PS)
• The Very Best of Gene Wolfe/The Best of Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe (PS /Tor)

Artist

• John Jude Palencar
• John Picacio
• Charles Vess
• Jason Zerrillo
• Sam Weber

Special Award – Professional

• Peter & Nicky Crowther for PS Publishing
• Ellen Datlow for editing anthologies
• Hayao Miyazaki for Ponyo
• Barbara & Christopher Roden for Ash-Tree Press
• Jonathan Strahan for editing anthologies
• Jacob & Rina Weisman for Tachyon Publications

Special Award – Non-Professional

• John Berlyne for Powers: Secret Histories
• Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan, & Sean Wallace for Clarkesworld
• Susan Marie Groppi for Strange Horizons
• John Klima for Electric Velocipede
• Bob Colby, B. Diane Martin, David Shaw, and Eric M. Van for Readercon
• Ray Russell & Rosalie Parker for Tartarus Press

The Life Achievement Awards will be released in the coming weeks in a separate announcement.

Darren Nash is leaving his current post as editorial director at Orbit to take on the newly created role of digital publisher at Gollancz Books.

Liz Gorinsky has been promoted to editor at Tor Books. She edits a list that includes Dave Duncan, Mary Robinette Kowal, Cherie Priest, Brian Slattery, Cat Valente, etc. She also edits and acquires for Tor.com.

The board of the World Fantasy Convention has decided on Toronto, Ontario for the site of the 2012 World Fantasy Convention. The announcement should soon be reflected on the World Fantasy website, and the Toronto website is expected to be up before this year’s convention in Columbus, Ohio.

The finalists for the 2010 Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Award for Short Fiction have been announced:

“each thing i show you is a piece of my death”, Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer (Clockwork Phoenix 2)

“Race to the Moon”, Kyell Gold (New Fables Summer 2009)

“Images of Anna”, Nancy Kress (Fantasy Magazine 9/09)

“James and the Dark Grimoire”, Kevin Lauderdale (Cthulhu Unbound)

“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”, Eugie Foster (Interzone 1/09)

“Siren Beat”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Roadkill/Siren Beat)

“The Pirate Captain’s Daughter”, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #27)

“The Very Difficult Diwali of Sub-Inspector Gurushankar Rajaram”, Jeff Soesbe (DayBreak Magazine 10/09)

The award, created to showcase small-press publishers by recognizing the “best original short fiction” published by small presses in the previous year, will be presented at Capclave 10, to be held October 22-24, 2010 in Rockville, Maryland. The winner will be chosen by members of WSFA.

Dorchester, a mass market paperback publisher since 1971, announced that it will shift away from print publishing, moving to print-on-demand and digital formats only, effective Monday August 9, 2010. Dorchester’s book unit sales dropped 25% in 2009, with declining orders from its primary retail outlets, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Dorchester, known for its romance, paranormal romance, and horror titles, hopes to see digital sales double in 2011.

The 2010 Chesley Awards winners were announced at ReConStruction, the 10th NASFiC, held August 5-8, 2010, in Raleigh NC.

Best Cover Illustration – Hardback Book:

• Matt Stewart, for The Valley of Shadows (by Brian Cullen; Tor)
• Bob Eggleton, for Dragon’s Ring (by Dave Freer; Baen)
• Todd Lockwood, for A Magic of Nightfall (by S.L. Farrell; DAW)
• John Picacio, for Drood (by Dan Simmons; Subterranean)
• Omar Rayyan, for Magic Mirrors (by John Bellairs; NESFA)
• Rohb Ruppel, for Visions of Never (by Patrick & Jeannie Wilshire, eds.; Vanguard)
• Dan Dos Santos, for Green (by Jay Lake; Tor)
• Sam Weber, for Prospero Lost (by L. Jagi Lamplighter; Tor)

Best Cover Illustration – Paperback Book:

• Scott Altmann, for The Mysterious Mr. Spines: Flight (by Jason Lethcoe; Grosset & Dunlap)
• Volkan Baga, for Blutnacht Die Orc (from The Lord of the Rings; Heyne)
• Jon Foster, for Boneshaker (by Cherie Priest; Tor)
• David Palumbo, for Stalking the Dragon (by Mike Resnick; Pyr)
• John Picacio, for World’s End (by Mark Chadbourn; Pyr)
• Dan Dos Santos, for Hunting Ground (by Patricia Briggs; Ace)
• Dave Seeley, for Young Flandry (by Poul Anderson; Baen)

Best Cover Illustration – Magazine:

• John Picacio, for Asimov’s Science Fiction (9/09)
• Les Edwards, for Cemetery Dance (10/09)
• Bob Eggleton, for Analog Science Fiction and Fact (10/09)
• David A. Hardy, for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (11-12/09)
• Kazuhiko Nakamura, for Clarkesworld (#38)
  David Palumbo, for Heavy Metal (11/09)
• Adam Tredowski, for Interzone (2/09)

Best Interior Illustration:

• Gary Lippincott, for “Come to the Fairies’ Ball” from Come to the Fairies’ Ball (by Jane Yolen; Wordsong)
• Brom, for “The Child Thief” from The Child Thief (by Brom; Eos)
• Gregory Manchess, for “Conan of Cimmera” from Conan of Cimmera, Volume 3 (by Robert E. Howard, Wandering Star)
• John Picacio, for “Salem’s Lot” from Knowing Darkness (by George Beahm, ed.; Centipede)
• Michael Whelan, for “The Little Sisters of Eluria” from The Little Sisters of Eluria (by Stephen King; Donald M. Grant)
• Mark Zug, for “Bugs in the Arroyo” (by Steven Gould; Tor.com)

Best Color Work—Unpublished:

• Raol Vitale, for “Unrequited”
• Eric Fortune, for “Allure”
• Rebecca Guay, for “Gwenevere”
• Patrick Jones, for “Death of Diana”
• Michael Whelan, for “Lumen 5″
• Mark Zug, for “Helium”

Best Monochrome Work – Unpublished:

• Justin Gerard, for “Steampunk Wizard of Oz”
• Jim Burns, for “Pod Shift”
• Eric Fortune, for “Hollowed”
• Sheila Rayyan, for “Faces of You”
• L.A. Williams, for “Lost Love”

Best Three-Dimensional Art:

• Vincent Villafranca, for “The Switching Hour”
• Tom Kuebler, for “Grandma Hoodoo & Zombie John”
• Kris Kuksi, for “Anglo-Parisian Barnstormer”
• David Meng, for “Satyr’s Head”
• Charles Vess & David Spence, for “Titania”

Best Gaming-Related Illustration:

• Lucas Graciano, for “Silverwing”
• Daren Bader, for “Boarguts the Impaler” from Drums of War (World of Warcraft Trading Cards)
• Volkan Baga, for “Joraga Bard” from Zendikar (World of Warcraft Trading Cards)
• Kekai Kotaki, for “Lorthos the Tidemaker” from Zendikar (World of Warcraft Trading Cards)
• Todd Lockwood, for “Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet” from Zendikar (World of Warcraft Trading Cards)
• Matthew Stewart, for “Serendib Efreet” (Magic: the Gathering Trading Card)

Best Product Illustration:

• Matthew Stewart, for “Battle Under the Mountain”
• Scott Gustafson, for “A Confabulation of Dragons”
• Kokai Kotaki, for “Guild Wars 2″ concept art
• Gregory Manchess, for “Above the Timberline” greeting card
• Ian Miller, for “Cthulhu Temple”
• Jordu Schell, for “Na’vi character design” from Avatar

Best Art Director:

• Irene Gallo, for Tor
• Lou Anders, for Pyr
• Jeremy Jarvis, for Wizards of the Coast
• Jon Schindehette, for Wizards of the Coast
• Jerad Walters, for Centipede

Contribution to ASFA:

• Ingrid Neilson, for work on the Chesley Awards for 20+ years
• Mike Willmoth, for maintaining the organization of ASFA, 2007-2009
• Patrick & Jeannie Wilshire, for hosting the Chesley Awards Ceremony at IlluXCon 2

Award for Artistic Achievement:

• Greg Hildebrandt
• Brom
• Larry Elmore
• Ian Miller
• Boris Vallejo