Dorchester Publishing is launching a new publishing line, and trying to carve out a new niche within the genres. Shomi (pronounced show-me), the “manga-inspired line of speculative romancecs,” will debut in July.
First, romance went paranormal, with vampires and werewolves. Now it’s going yet another way. “In Shomi, protagonists drive tricked-out trucks in post-apocalyptic realms and put string theory to the test by traversing parallel time dimensions. There are no demons or vampires in these tales. Rather, the unknown is what lies on the other side of the door—whether an alternate reality or another facet of an existing reality.” Trying to boil the concept down to one line, Dorchester says “Think The Matrix, if Neo were female and Trinity male.”
According to Dorchester Senior Editor Chris Keeslar, “Shomi is geared toward the readers who keep fiction relevant: the progressive and voracious. They love Jane Austen as much as The Matrix, Bridget Jones’s Diary as much as their iPod or Xbox. The concept of romance perseveres in these novels, but the roles of women have changed.”
The books will definitely look different. For example, this is the cover of the debut novel, Wired by Liz Maverick. In the novel, “L. Roxanne Zaborovsky is caught between two men—and a multitude of realities. The men are wirecrossers, people who traverse the ever-shifting dimensions (or wires) of time. One man seeks to alter events, and the other strives to counteract those changes. The key to both of their futures lies in Roxanne, but only one can have her and only one can prevail when the final wire is crossed.”
Dorchester Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Distribution Tim DeYoung says “These stories are so new and different from anything you’ll find in the genre, and they needed striking covers to illustrate that fact. But we didn’t want to give them a straight manga look since that’s not what this is. These books are inspired by the manga field and will certainly appeal to those readers, but the focus here is on prose rather than graphics.”
Wired is scheduled to debut on 3 July 2007. The second novel in the series, Moongazer by Marianne Mancusi, will follow in August. September’s title is scheduled to be Driven by Eve Kenin.
In addition to the novels, they’ve already set up a web site at www.shomifiction.com, which will have—in addition to information on the books—discussion boards and contests.