So It Begins Twice-honored As Finalist For Indie Book Award

July 23, 2009 - PRLog -- HOWELL, NJ – Dark Quest, LLC and Editor Mike McPhail would like to announce that So It Begins, a military science fiction anthology combining some of the biggest names in the genre with some of its rising stars, has been selected as a finalist in two categories for the Next Generation Indie Book Award, once for Best Anthology and once for Best Short Stories – Fiction. The collection officially releases at Balticon, a major East Coast science fiction convention held in Baltimore over Memorial Day weekend. The Indie Book Award recognizes and helps promote outstanding published works by independent and small-press authors and publishers.

Contributors to So It Begins include Jack Campbell (The Lost Fleet series), John C. Wright (The Golden Age, Orphans of Chaos), Bud Sparhawk (Vixen), David Sherman (the Starfist series, the Demontech series), CJ Henderson (Brooklyn Knights), Jonathan Maberry (Patient Zero), Mike McPhail (Defending the Future series, The Alliance Archives), Charles E. Gannon (Traveller), James Daniel Ross (The Radiation Angels series), James Chambers (The Midnight Hour series), Jeffrey Lyman (the Bad-Ass Faeries series), Andy Remic (Biohell), Patrick Thomas (Murphy’s Lore series), Tony Ruggiero (Team of Darkness series), and Danielle Ackley-McPhail (The Eternal Cycle series).

This is not McPhail’s first award-winning title; Breach the Hull, the first book in the Defending the Future series, was winner of the 2007 Dream Realm Award for Best Anthology and finalist for the same award for Best Cover Art. This is an auspicious beginning for this series, for which the third book, By Other Means, is already planned for a 2010 release.

“I am very proud of the authors and staff involved in this project,” says publisher Neal Levin.  “This recognition reinforces what I was already aware of: we have a great team and I expect to see future projects gain larger acclaim."

Dark Quest, LLC picked up the series when the previous publisher, Marietta Publishing ceased operations due to health concerns. They are looking forward to a long, successful run for the series.

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Dark Quest Books is a small press publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. They publish in both print and e-book format with their primary method being the print format.

Dark Quest welcomes submissions from traditionally published authors wishing to put their titles back in print, but priority is given to unique new titles.