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Archive for September, 2007
Bewildering Stories ezine reviews Richard Parks’ ‘Hereafter and After’
Posted by Darren on September 30th, 2007 at 15:14
Holly Schmidt, writing at bewlideringstories.com, takes a look at Hereafter and After by Richard Parks, saying that it's "...wonderfully irreverent, taking a skewed look at the afterlife and the gods of Norse mythology and the effect eternity would have on them," and concluding: "PS Publishing has another winner here."
PS titles reviewed by Steve Mazey and I.M. Lester
Posted by Darren on September 29th, 2007 at 13:47
Steve Mazey - who along with his missus, Lesley, has for several years now been providing a steady stream of horror and science fiction genre news and reviews over on their webzine The Eternal Night - dropped us a line to let us know that he's submitted a review of Philip José Farmer and Danny Adams' The City Beyond Play to Tetragon Science Fiction Magazine, a new US-based print and online publication that will be publishing science fiction novellas as well as reviews.
Steve said The City Beyond Play is: "...a wonderful piece of whimsy ... a medieval, chivalrous adventure of feudal realms, nobles and serfs, damsels and knights. But for all that ... most definitely a science fiction book."
He also very kindly pointed us in the direction of the reviews page of an ezine called Down in the Cellar, where three PS titles have been reviewed, all by one I.M. Lester, who to-date has commented on The Scalding Rooms by Conrad Williams ("This is your worst nightmare in print..."), Twelve Collections and the Teashop by Zoran Zivkovic ("...superbly written ... fascinating...") and Ramsey Campbell's The Grin of the Dark ("...fill[s] you with a sense of dread...")
Read all three reviews at www.downinthecellar.com (unfortunately the page doesn't have a sub-index or jump-menu, so you'll have to scroll...)
Advance quotes for Jeff VanderMeer’s ‘The Situation’
Posted by Darren on September 28th, 2007 at 13:05
Jeff VanderMeer is "getting more and more psyched" about the forthcoming publication of his chapbook novelette, The Situation. It looks like he's not alone, either, based on a couple of advance quotes that Jeff has already received:
"In The Situation, Jeff VanderMeer has created a work of surreal humor, bemused sadness, and meticulous artifice. It is as if the workplace novels of Sinclair Lewis and Joshua Ferris had been inverted, shaken, and diced until they came out looking like a Terry Gilliam creation. That a story which curves so resolutely inward toward its own logic could also be so poignant is something of an astonishment." - Kevin Brockmeier
"Take Dilbert, insert him into Gormenghast, add lashings of nighmarish biotech, and you'll have something of the flavour of Jeff VanderMeer's The Situation. This darkly hilarious story tells horrible truths about modern work and workplace relations. Anyone who has ever had a dysfunctional colleague, or served a flawed organisation, will recognise all too easily the machinations and the monsters in here." - Margo Lanagan
We're printing 200 jacketed hardcovers (£15.00 / $30.00 approx.) and 500 standard hardcovers (£7.50 / $15.00 approx.) of The Situation, which we've currently scheduled for publication in Spring next year. Cover art, created by the fabulously talented Scott Eagle is on the way and we'll post an image just as soon as the finalised version arrives.
Paul Witcover posts sample from ‘Everland and Other Stories’
Posted by Darren on September 28th, 2007 at 12:32
We'll be publishing Paul Witcover's short fiction collection Everland and Other Stories towards the end of next year.
To help whet your appetite, Paul has posted one of the stories from the collection, 'After Ivy', over on the Inferior 4+1 LiveJournal blog, to which he is a regular contributor.
On those BFS Award wins…
Posted by Darren on September 26th, 2007 at 7:01
I asked Pete if he might have a few words to say on those BFS Award wins - a few words? I might as well have asked Bill Gates if he could spare a dollar... ;) - and Nicky had something she wanted to add as well...
Pete on Joe Hill's 'Sidney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer':
"We were delighted to discover that Joe had won the British Fantasy Society's Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer simply because it was just so absolutely the right choice. There are always going to be debates - and reasonably so - about whether so-and-so deserved such-and-such an award but in Joe's case, with the formidable potpourri of by turn phantasmagoric, poignant and chilling tales that was 20th Century Ghosts and then his masterful Heart-Shaped Box full-length debut, there really could be no realistic alternative. I reckon we'll be hearing a lot more from Mr. Hill in the years to come."
Nicky on Vincent Chong's 'Best Artist' Award:
"I've been working alongside Pete for over three years now and perhaps the most exciting part of the job for me is searching for artwork for our covers. Sometimes it involves buying the rights to existing works and sometimes a particular book requires us to commission new art.
"There are some incredible artists turning out fabulous work using a wide range of different techniques and styles... and a good cover is always important. More often than not, unless I know the writer really well, a cover can sell a book to me... and I've discovered new authors by the covers on their books, just as I'm sure I've possibly missed some other fine books because their covers did not press all the required buttons.
"Here at PS, we've got some great artists producing our covers giving them that all-important pick-me-up appeal: one of them is, of course, Vinny Chong. He's a consummate professional and a delight to work with and we're thrilled that his talents have been recognised this year with the British Fantasy Society's Award for Best Artist.
"A final note: many thanks to all the artists who have sent us examples of their work and their website details. Every one is looked at and replied to, and those whose style best suits our needs are kept on file for possible future use."
Pete on Mark Morris's 'Best Non-Fiction' Award:
"Mark Morris is a fine writer, a good friend and a regular visitor to Crowther Towers. But with Cinema Macabre he's shown himself to be an exceptional editor to boot (not to mention a man with very saleable ideas!).
"Nicky and I have attended many FantasyCons at which Mark was shortlisted for an award (usually Best Novel or Best Short Fiction) and we've seen him manfully gritting his teeth to applaud - and applaud very generously - the writer who just pipped him at the post. So it was particularly gratifying to see him burst through the finishing tape in first place with this year's British Fantasy Award for Best Non-Fiction with Cinema Macabre. Bravo, Mark - you did good!"
Pete on Winning the 'Best Small Press Award'
"And finally, we picked up the Award for Best Small Press - for the sixth time out of seven. We're delighted... absolutely over-the-moon thrilled to bits. To all those who ask me if they still mean anything let me say immediately that the Award still means as much as it ever did... but possibly even more.
"Before you win one, you're just a contender trying to get a bit of recognition. But as time goes by, and you've won once, and then twice and then three times and so on, if you miss winning on any particular year then it must mean that you've dropped your game. Sure, it can mean that someone else has lifted their game, but generally, it means you've taken your eye off the ball.
"In all areas of our genre - writing, artwork, editing and so on - there are some fantastic talents at work. But in the British small press publishing arena, particularly over the past four, five or six years, the quality of the output has charged forward in leaps and bounds to become truly formidable. David Howe's Telos, Guy Adams's Humdrumming, Chris Teague's Pendragon, Andrew Hook's Elastic and Gary Fry's Gray Friar and many more... they're all of them exemplary, and the fact that PS edged its nose to the front of the shortlist for yet another year is all of the praise we could possibly hope to receive (though, of course, the actual Award is nice!).
"So, many thanks to everyone who voted for us; and thanks to all the other presses I mentioned, plus those I haven't, for pushing the standards ever higher. We're constantly being pushed and we love it.
"And, lest I forget, huge personal thanks from me to the rest of the team who put up with me and manage to turn out wonderful books despite my best efforts to mess things up: Nick Gevers, my fellow editor; Robert Wexler, chief designer and general design overseer; Nicky, office and process manager and my own personal general right- and left-hand co-ordinator; Ariel, webguy, marketing and publicity; Theresa Loosely, our print superviser; and Aimee Bolton, our mailing and storage manager. You're all wonderful! Onwards!"
Out Now: five new titles launched at Fantasycon
Posted by Darren on September 24th, 2007 at 15:58
We're delighted to announce that we launched five brand new titles at this weekend's Fantasycon in Nottingham, UK.
And those five titles are:
- Starship Summer by Eric Brown
- The City Beyond Play by Philip José Farmer and Danny Adams
- PS Showcase #1: Sanity and Other Delusions by Gary Fry
- Dead Earth: The Green Dawn by Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks
- Dagger Key and Other Stories by Lucius Shepard
All of these titles were available throughout the weekend in the Fantasycon dealer's room and sold very strongly indeed throughout the weekend. We were also delighted (as were a lot of book-buyers) with our Fantasycon special offer: in which we knocked 50% off the cover price of all pre-2007 titles available at the convention...
Copies of these new titles should also be winging their way from our despatch house to our pre-order customers as we speak, so if you've pre-ordered any of the five then they should be with you as soon as your local postal service allows!
Mea Culpa: turns out I spoke too soon as what actually happened was that we had a small batch of each of these titles printed early for Fantasycon. So actually, it turns out that whilst The City Beyond Play and Dagger Key and Other Stories are indeed now available and will be shipped towards the end of next week, Dead Earth: The Green Dawn Starship Summer will probably be another two weeks. And the first PS Showcase title, Gary Fry's Sanity and Other Delusions will probably be officially out at the end of October.
Apologies for any disappointment on that score, and rest assured that once the titles are definitely shipping then you'll hear about it here, first; once Pete and I get our channels of communication properly sorted out, obviously... ;)
But in the meantime, do click on any of the covers below for more information on these (imminent) titles:
PS Publishing celebrates double British Fantasy Society Award win
Posted by Darren on September 24th, 2007 at 11:44
We're delighted to announce that everyone here at PS Publishing is celebrating a handsome brace of awards at the 2007 British Fantasy Awards, which were announced yesterday, at the awards & closing ceremony of this year's British Fantasy Convention, Fantasycon.
The first award, for Best Non-Fiction, went to Mark Morris, for his editorial work on Cinema Macabre, our collection of short essay pieces on the subject of horror cinema, written by some of the top international names in the horror genre.
Mark said how delighted he was to win the British Fantasy award and have it presented at Fantasycon, especially as the project was conceived (in the bar), planned (in the bar) and launched (again...) at various Fantasycons over the last three years...
The second award - Best Small Press - was accepted by our very own Pete Crowther on behalf of all of us here at PS Publishing. Pete paid tribute to the extremely strong field of shortlisted nominees, whose consistently excellent work throughout the year is a constant incentive for us all here at PS Publishing to make damn sure that we never rest on our laurels and work our fingers to the bone to keep bringing out as wide and as excellent a range of titles as we possibly can. I'll post a comment from the man himself just as soon as he gets back to the office, but I think 'chuffed to bits' is a pretty good summary for now...
We'd also like to heartily congratulate Joe Hill on winning the inaugural Sidney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. We still have a few paperback copies of 20th Century Ghosts left in stock, folks, if you want to grab yourself a piece of this incredibly talented rising star's publishing history!
Likewise Vincent Chong on winning a thoroughly deserved Best Artist Award. Vincent's artwork has graced several of our covers to-date and will certainly be gracing a fair few more in the future...
Full details of all the winners have been posted over at UK SF Book News.
Looking forward to Fantasycon… and a PS special offer for attendees
Posted by Darren on September 20th, 2007 at 14:10
It's that time of year again, when the miscellaneous members of the British Fantasy Society, crawling from their foetid dens and dank cellars, make their lurching, shambling way to the appointed place of congregation for the annual festival of book-talk, beer-consumption, acquaintance-renewal, prize-giving, human sacrifice and general merriment* that is Fantasycon ... which, for the second year running takes place in the Brittania Hotel, Nottingham, this coming weekend, September 21st - 23rd.
Here at PS Publishing we always look forward to this once-a-year opportunity to undo the rusty ankle-shackles, swing wide the dungeon door and creep forth into the blessed daylight - blinking myopically and shrieking in consternation at roar of the passing horseless-carriages - and wend our way to gather with others of a similar ilk and persuasion. It's always a special occasion for us, particularly as for five out of the past six years we've been honoured to win the British Fantasy Award for Best Small Press. And as we've been shortlisted again this year, there's a damn good chance you'll find us in attendance at the annual BFS Awards banquet, with assorted appendages firmly crossed...
Well, Pete will definitely be there, because he's been press-ganged accepted an invitation to act as the Master of Ceremonies for the event (so I hope if you're attending that you've warmed up your heckling muscles). And yours-truly will be lurking in the vicinity as well, quite possibly acting in some sort of hosting capacity for the PS table. And of course, prior to that we'll both be around and about pretty much all weekend, just in case you want to ask either of us anything about PS Publishing, or the News Room, or the new website, or what we think of the new Arcade Fire album, or what our favourite single malt is (a double one, thanks, wahey!), or the state of the economy, or global warming, or... well, anything, really.
But the main point to this post (and there is one, I assure you, despite evidence to the contrary) is to tell you that if you're at Fantasycon this weekend, you should definitely bring your pennies along with you (or even better, your plastic!) because we'll be making a very special offer via our table in the dealer's room... we'll not spoil the surprise here, but suffice to say it's a bit of a stonker... brace yourselves!
*Human sacrifice optional (additional charge may apply), general merriment all-but guaranteed!
Artwork by Jamie Bishop for ‘Passing for Human’
Posted by Darren on September 19th, 2007 at 10:59
Here's the artwork we'll be using on our Michael Bishop and Steven Utley edited anthology Passing for Human, which is currently scheduled for publication early next year. This superbly rich and vibrant piece was created by Michael's son, Jamie Bishop.
New Artwork by Tomislav Tikulin for ‘Omega’
Posted by Darren on September 19th, 2007 at 10:17
This wonderfully striking piece is by an artist who's rapidly becoming a regular - and a firm favourite - here at PS, Tomislav Tikulin. This is the wrap-around art for Christopher Evans' new novel, Omega, which we'll be publishing later in the year.
Mario Guslandi reviews Ed Gorman’s ‘The Moving Coffin’
Posted by Darren on September 19th, 2007 at 9:48
There's a very good review of The Collected Ed Gorman, Volume 2: The Moving Coffin, over on www.laurahird.com in which Mario Guslandi says:
"Gorman is not a creator of mere action thrillers, although his stories are certainly not devoid of action and thrill, but a writer who likes to explore the darker side of human nature and the disreputable aspects of the world we inhabit."
He then makes his personal selection of the pieces in the volume that he most appreciated, before concluding:
"Highly recommended to any lover of good, entertaining but thought-provoking fiction."
You can read the full review on www.laurahird.com.
The Collected Ed Gorman, Volume 1: Out There in the Darkness is still available, as is the Volume 1 & Volume 2 slipcase. And don't forget that if you pre-order The Collected Ed Gorman, Volume 3 from us before the end of September, you'll be able to take advantage of our current free postage offer.
New artwork by Jason Van Hollander for ‘Living With the Dead’
Posted by Darren on September 19th, 2007 at 9:20
This wonderfully macabre piece by Jason Van Hollander will be gracing the cover of our forthcoming Darrell Schweitzer novella Living With the Dead, which is one of a batch of new titles that we'll be publishing in early 2008.
Personally, I just love those old Gustave Doré woodcut illustrations, so this one is right up my street.
Special Offer: Free Postage on all pre-orders until September 30th
Posted by Darren on September 13th, 2007 at 13:42
To mark our major schedule update announcement we're making this special offer until the end of September 2007:
Free Postage on all pre-publication orders placed before October 1st 2007!
That's right, if you pre-order any items from our list of forthcoming titles and complete your order by September 30th* (full payment has to reach us by that date to qualify) then we won't charge you our usual postal rates for those books. The book(s) will be sent out as soon as they're published by our usual first class / international airmail carriers (as applicable).
Take a look at our recent schedule update announcement and that list of forthcoming titles to see what's included in the offer - there's around fifty new titles to browse through, so we're sure you'll find something to tempt you!
See the how to order page of the site for further details on placing an order with us.
*Not September 31st, as previously advertised. Much as we'd love to add an extra day to the month so that you can place another 24 hours' worth of orders with us, we're still working on the technical details of that one... ;)
Major Schedule Update - Forthcoming Titles to December 2008
Posted by Darren on September 13th, 2007 at 13:33
We've just run a major update of the current main PS Publishing website (no, not the full e-commerce implementation, not quite yet, but that's definitely on the way) and have added a total of 32 new titles to the forthcoming titles page on the site.
Here's a full list - in approximate order of planned publication - of those 32 new titles, with links to the relevant catalogue pages. Click on the links to view full information on a particular title:
- PS Showcase #1: Sanity and Other Delusions, a six-story collection by Gary Fry
- Cage of Night, a novel by Ed Gorman
- Omega, a novel by Christopher Evans
- The Last Book, a novel by Zoran Živković
- Harsh Oases, a short fiction collection by Paul Di Filippo
- The Babylonian Trilogy, a novel by Sebastien Doubinsky
- The City in These Pages, a novella by John Grant
- Passing For Human, a short fiction anthology ed. By Michael Bishop & Steven Utley
- Planet of Mystery, a novella by Terry Bisson
- The Book, The Writer, The Reader, a novella by Zoran Živković
- The Bridge, a novella by Zoran Živković
- Living With the Dead, a novella by Darrell Schweitzer
- The Song of Time, a novel by Ian R. MacLeod
- The Collected Ed Gorman, Vol. #3, a short fiction collection by Ed Gorman
- Basil Copper: A Life in Books, a biography and bibliography by Steve Jones
- Return of the Crimson Guard, a novel by Ian Cameron Esslemont
- The Situation, a chapbook novelette by Jeff Vandermeer
- Camp Desolation and an Eschatology of Salt, a novella by Uncle River
- Blue Canoe, a novella by T.M. Wright
- The Enigma of Departure, a novella by Nick Royle
- The Witnesses Are Gone, a novella by Joel Lane
- Billy's Book, a short fiction collection by Terry Bisson
- Shrike, a novella by Quentin S. Crisp
- Counting Tadpoles, a short fiction collection by Uncle River
- Urbis Morpheos, a novel by Stephen Palmer
- Postscripts #16 ed. by Pete Crowther & Nick Gevers
- Everland and Other Stories, a short fiction collection by Paul Witcover
- Mystery Hill, a novella by Alex Irvine
- Postscripts #17 ed. by Pete Crowther & Nick Gevers
- Val / Orson, a novella by Marly Youmans
- The Painting and the City, a novel by Robert Freeman Wexler
The following titles have been on the forthcoming titles schedule for a while now, but here's a handy reminder-list for your browsing convenience...
- Dandelion Wine, 50th Anniversary Edition of the novel by Ray Bradbury
- Starship Summer, a novella by Eric Brown
- The City Beyond Play, a novella by Philip José Farmer & Danny Adams
- Dagger Key and Other Stories, a short fiction collection by Lucius Shepard
- The Crystal Cosmos, a novella by Rhys Hughes
- Dead Earth: The Green Dawn, a novella by Mark Justice & David T. Wilbanks
- Random Walk, a novel by Lawrence Block
- The Luminous Depths, a novella by David Herter
- Tales From the White Hart, a short fiction collection by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
- Hello Summer, Goodbye, a novel by Michael Coney
- I Remember Pallahaxi, a novel by Michael Coney
- Template, a novel by Matthew Hughes
- Ellison Wonderland, a short fiction collection by Harlan Ellison
- The Day it Rained Forever, a short fiction collection by Ray Bradbury
- Long After Midnight, a short fiction collection by Ray Bradbury
- The Economy of Light, a novella by Jack Dann
- The Machineries of Joy, a short fiction collection by Ray Bradbury
And here are our previously-announced issues of Postscripts magazine, all edited by our very own Pete Crowther and Nick Gevers:
These titles are all available to pre-order now, direct from PS Publishing.
Special Offer - Free Postage on pre-orders before October 1st
Place (and complete) your pre-order for any of the forthcoming titles listed above by the end of September 2007 and we'll send your books post free by first class post or airmail (as applicable) as soon as they're published. See the how to order page of the website for further details.
Introducing PS Showcase, our new line of short fiction mini-collections
Posted by Peter Crowther on September 13th, 2007 at 13:28
This month, September 2007, sees a brand new PS Publishing initiative hit the racks: PS Showcase.
The idea is to put out a series of mini story-collections - priced as per our novellas at £10 / $20 (approx.) for the hardcover and £25 / $50 (approx.) for the signed, jacketed hardcover - from writers whom we believe are deserving of more attention.
The first PS Showcase collection we're putting out is by Gary Fry and we're aiming to have his Sanity and Other Delusions available for a launch at the upcoming FantasyCon (September 21st - 23rd, Nottingham, UK). Here's the wrap-around version of J.K. Potter's fantastically eerie cover art in all its glory:
I'm particularly excited about this new venture because it ties in with one of my greatest loves: comic books. In 1956, DC Comics' Julius Schwartz started a new title called Showcase, and in that comic book he launched re-workings of characters such as The Flash and Green Lantern onto a world that had grown just a little bored with super heroes.
It was a huge success and those characters - plus many others launched in the title - went on to become mainstays of the comic book industry. We're hoping that, in our own small way, we may be able to do the same sort of thing with PS Showcase.
Showcase #2 is scheduled for early in 2008, with #3 and #4 due later in the year. Keep checking the website for more details.
Out Now: The Collected Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, hardcover edition
Posted by Darren on September 11th, 2007 at 20:02
At the start of the year we announced a limited, signed, slipcased edition of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: The Collected Stories Volume One by Steven Erikson, containing his first three B&KB novellas: Blood Follows, The Healthy Dead and The Lees of Laughter's End.
It seemed like we'd hit a good idea on the head with that one, as the slipcased edition sold out long before publication in June. As a result, and in response to numerous email requests, we've now released a new hardcover edition of the book, priced at £20.00 ($40.00 approx). This new edition isn't signed, but does still incorporate Steve Erikson's original cover artwork.
We're printing 500 copies of this edition and we're anticipating something of a run on them, so get your order in while you can...
Out Now: Postscripts magazine, issue #11
Posted by Darren on September 11th, 2007 at 19:10
The 11th issue of our award-winning Postscripts magazine is now available - indeed, our subscribers should already have received their copies (although overseas subscribers may still be waiting on their local postal services to deliver...)
Postscripts #11 features a guest editorial by Paul Di Filippo and includes brand new short fiction from Matthew Rossi, Kealan Patrick Burke, Mikal Trimm, Dave Hoing, Forrest Aguirre, Steve Aylett, Richard Paul Russo, Eric Schaller, David Barnett and Christopher Harman.
Missing Signature
A message from Pete: "A quick heads-up to readers and subscribers of the signed hardcover edition of Postscripts. During the course of the dreaded signing sheets going the rounds of all the contributors we discovered that Matthew Rossi has moved house. Even more frustrating, he's also changed email addresses. Thus we had to go without Matt's signature. We're really sorry about that but there's nothing else we could do. I hope it doesn't spoil your enjoyment of the issue too much."
Free gift for Subscribers
And on the subject of subscribing to Postscripts, don't forget that at the end of the year, everyone who holds a current, paid-up subscription to the magazine will receive an exclusive, subscribers-only chapbook, absolutely free of charge, with the end-of-year issue.
This year's chapbook is Joe Hill's 'Saved' - see our earlier News Room post for details.
Zoran Živković wins 2007 Stefan Mitrov Ljubisa award
Posted by Darren on September 4th, 2007 at 15:30
PS author Zoran Živković has been in touch to let us know that he has been named the winner of the 2007 Stefan Mitrov Ljubisa Award for life achievement in literature. The award was presented at a ceremony in the Montenegrin city of Budva on August 29th this year and everyone here at PS would like to send him our heartiest congratulations!
Zoran tells us: "The award, named after one of the greatest Montenegrin writer of the 19th century, is a major mainstream literary prize that also includes 1,000 euros in prize money."
The photos below were taken by Slaven Vilus and are used here with his kind permission. The first shot shows Zoran receiving his award from award jury member Professor Bozena Jelusic, and in the second he's catching a few well-earned rays down at the Budva marina...
PS is proud to be the UK publisher of the following titles by Zoran Živković:
- Impossible Stories
- Twelve Collections and the Teashop
- The Last Book (forthcoming, 2008)
- The Bridge (forthcoming, 2008)
- The Book, The Writer, The Reader (forthcoming, 2008)
His short fiction has also appeared in various issues of our Postscripts magazine and we'll be publishing his new novel The Last Book towards the end of the year. We also have some more Živković news to announce in the near future...
Novella Acquisition: ‘The Fiery Angels’ by David Herter
Posted by Darren on September 4th, 2007 at 13:10
PS Publishing is delighted to announce that towards the end of August we acquired a brand new David Herter novella. Entitled The Fiery Angels, it's a stand-alone story, unrelated to his currently ongoing sequence of novellas which starts with On the Overgrown Path and will continue with a sequel, The Luminous Depths, which we'll be adding to our forthcoming titles page in the near future and plan to publish towards the end of the year.
The Fiery Angels us currently slated for publication in the summer of 2009; full details will be posted to the main website in due course.
Charles de Lint reviews ‘Hereafter and After’ by Richard Parks
Posted by Darren on September 3rd, 2007 at 13:17
Richard Parks dropped us an email to let us know that no less a luminary than World Fantasy Award winning author Charles de Lint has reviewed two of Richard's titles, including our own Hereafter and After, in the August 2007 edition of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine.
Here's a short extract from the review:
"[In Hereafter and After] we meet recently deceased Jake Hallman who, after getting hit by a garbage truck, awakes to find himself in the afterlife on something called the Golden Road. An angel comes to escort him to Heaven, but Hallman has questions, which leads him to have an 'insight', which makes him that rare being in the afterlife: a dead person who is capable of change. The dead aren't supposed to change after their death; those who do become free souls.
"And that leads Hallman on a stranger journey through the afterlifes of all sorts of myths with only the company of an equally bewildered ex-Valkyrie named Freya for company. All of this allows Parks to poke gentle fun and make some serious commentary on our belief systems, and it gives us a terrific read."
You can read the full review over at the F&SF website, in which Charles de Lint also covers Richard's collection Worshipping Small Gods.
Feedback: on Stephen King’s ‘The Colorado Kid’
Posted by Darren on September 3rd, 2007 at 13:05
If there's one sort of email we like receiving here at PS Towers, it's an email from a satisfied customer. And we've received a fair few of those recently regarding our edition of Stephen King's The Colorado Kid - which we're particularly proud of ourselves - so please do excuse us if we blow our own trumpets for a moment and post a few of the comments that we've received:
"The Chadbourne Traycase arrived last night in perfect condition. It's absolutely beautiful. I own MANY rare items in my book / art collection. This traycase edition just got moved to the top of my favorite list. Please tell everyone at PS they did an excellent job." R Mulleins, collector
"I just wanted to congratulate you (and thank you) on a fine job with The Colorado Kid. Everyone I've spoken to loves his / her editions, regardless of which they are." Ceri, www.skfakes.co.uk (a members-only Site designed to help Stephen King collectors identify fake King signatures on eBay)
"You truly outdid yourself on both signed editions, but I particularly like the traycased/lettered editions. Most publishers would have just made the leather all the same colour for ease and cost issues, but you didn't and it really adds to the uniqueness." Ray Smith, collector
Ah... the warm glow of a job well done...