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Archive for October, 2007
Elizabeth Hand reviews Joe Hill’s ‘Twentieth Century Ghosts’
Posted by Darren on October 31st, 2007 at 17:36
Via The Inferior 4+1, Elizabeth Hand (Illyria, Bibliomancy) points us in the direction of her Washington Post review of Joe Hill's superb collection 20th Century Ghosts.
Elizabeth says the book is: "melancholy and very fine", and that "Hill's best stories veer away from the well-trodden creep shows and back alleys of genre writing into more dangerous territory: suburban basements, ball fields and schoolyards. These are where his protagonists, all male, vie with brothers, fathers, friends (but only occasionally wives or lovers) to stake some small claim to a deceptively mundane prize, what the narrator of the wrenching 'Voluntary Committal' calls 'a strong sense of self.'"
Sadly, the piece doesn't quite give PS a full name-check (we're relegated to "a small British Press"... we should probably blame the editor at the Post for that one, eh?) but of course, everyone who's anyone knows that we produced the first editions of this rather superb collection; all of which are now sold out, alas, although you might be able to find copies on eBay or AbeBooks that cost less than an arm and a leg, if you're exceptionally lucky.
Elizabeth Hand’s ‘Illyria’ covered by the Green Man Review
Posted by Darren on October 29th, 2007 at 18:05
Our man Robert Wexler sent me a link to a review of Elizabeth Hand's Illyria, published online on The Green Man Review (the piece isn't dated so we can't tell how recently the review was written, but it's always better now than never when it comes to a good mention, eh?)
The reviewer, Kestrell Rath, says: "Elizabeth Hand's ... Illyria follows in a long tradition of science fiction and fantasy stories which reference the works of Shakespeare ... and Hand's lyrical writing style is a wonderful fit for the dark romance she sets out to tell."
She then explores the themes of the piece, before insightfully concluding: "Elizabeth Hand demonstrates in Illyria what draws so many of us to the literature of the fantastic, and what connects it so strongly to Shakespeare: the fact that fantastic worlds - no matter how strange they appear in regard to place, time, or culture - throw into contrast what we find most recognizable, that experience we call 'being human'."
Read the full review at www.greenmanreview.com.
Finished Cover: ‘Postscripts #12′ edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers
Posted by Darren on October 27th, 2007 at 8:28
Here's the finished cover design for out forthcoming 12th issue of our Postscripts magazine, with artwork by Britist artist Ben Baldwin (whose website, incidentally, is packed full of stunning digital art images, drawings and paintings - go take a look.)
Announcing a brand new Ramsey Campbell novel: ‘Thieving Fear’
Posted by Darren on October 27th, 2007 at 8:28
PS Publishing is proud and pleased to announce that we will be publishing limited slipcased (£50 / $100 approx.) and signed hardcover (£20 / $40 approx.) editions of the brand new Ramsey Campbell novel Thieving Fear in Spring 2008.
We had hoped to include this title as part of our Major Schedule Update back in September, but were still finalising one or two details at the time. We will also be announcing the introducer and cover artist in the near future.
Thieving Fear can be pre-ordered right away, and pages for each edition have been added to the PS catalogue, as follows:
- Thieving Fear by Ramsey Campbell, Limited Slipcased edition
- Thieving Fear by Ramsey Campbell, signed Hardcover edition
John Berlyne’s ‘Works of Tim Powers’ website relaunches
Posted by Darren on October 26th, 2007 at 15:54
If you're a Tim Powers reader or fan then you'll no doubt be interested to hear that John Berylne's official Powers website www.TheWorksofTimPowers.com has just been given a substantial makeover and relaunched as a Wordpress-driven blog, which John promises to keep up-to-date with all the latest news and developments of interest to Powers fans.
As many of our long-time customers and e-bulletin subscribers will know, we've been working with John for some time now on an incredibly detailed, utterly comprehensive cornucopia of Powers delights called Secret Histories (with a tag-line that varies from time to time).
John has added a Secret Histories section to the new Powers site, where he details the twists and turns of the project to-date and reveals the eventual publication date that we're all now aiming for: April 2009, to coincide with Powers' first visit to the UK as Guest of Honour at the 2009 Eastercon in Bradford.
More than that we're unable to confirm quite yet, but as soon as we've finalised the relevant detail we'll be adding Secret Histories to the catalogue - along with shots of some of the interior pages to give you an idea of the sheer volume of work that's gone into this incredible project - at which point we're anticipating a record-speed pre-order take-up... watch this space for further announcements!
New Artwork by Ben Baldwin for ‘Postscripts issue #14 (definitely) #12′. As you were, everyone…
Posted by Darren on October 22nd, 2007 at 20:01
A correction of our earlier, (as it turns out) incorrect correction
>Ahem< - Earlier today I said the following:
Apologies to all for the confusion but I inadvertently mixed up the cover art for two forthcoming issues of Postscripts Magazine.
It turns out that the Ben Baldwin artwork I posted on Friday will actually be used on the cover of Issue #14 of the mag, not Issue #12 as I incorrectly stated. Issue #12 will instead be graced by cover art from regular PS artist James Hannah.
This came at the end of a mini-saga which started with our having to cancel the hitherto-planned and announced 'Holiday' issue of Postscripts from the 2007 schedule for reasons of time pressure and all the usual things that afflict independent presses the world over, we're sure (subscribers will of course be unaffected and anyone who ordered a copy of that issue will still receive the correct issue number, just maybe a couple of months later than expected).
At that point, following a slight failure on my part to read the appropriate memo, I updated the website catalogue to show Ben Baldwin's lovely artwork (below) as the cover of issue #12. Only to then discover that this was actually going to be the artwork for #14, with James Hannah crafting the artwork for #12 (as above). So I swapped them over. Which was fine, except for the fact that James Hannah has specifically illustrated (as we asked him to) the Paul Jessup story from issue #14, 'The Ghosts We Have Become', which - in our defence - you have to admit does sound almost spookily like the Paul Jessup story we're publishing in issue #12, 'Ghost Technology From the Sun'.
Anyway, you can see how things got just a teensy bit topsy-turvy at the end of a long and very busy website re-launch week here at PS Towers. Oh, how we laughed...
So, to finally re-confirm, for definite: the twelfth, Autumn issue of Postscripts Magazine will feature the Ben Baldwin's wonderfully Autumnal 'Liminal Spaces':
Whilst James Hannah's artwork, which we do now have on file and will feature on the blog in the near future, will now proudly take its place on the cover of Postscripts Issue #14.
This bit of my earlier post still holds true, so I'll leave it in [with embellishments]:
Apologies [yet] again, particularly to Ben and James; my bad entirely, I clearly didn't read the relevant memo [or, indeed, and quite possibly, memos] properly. I can only plead the couple of hundred [and then some] memos-per-week that have been circulating PS Towers like a flock of starlings on amphetamines [and several other class-A substances banned by international treaty] recently, what with the re-launch of the website and all. No excuse really, of course... if anyone needs me, I'll be in the corner with the dunce's hat on [tapping myself repeatedly on the head with a parsnip]...
Yours, comically (or should that be comic-tragically?)
Ariel
PS Webguy
Out Now: ‘Starship Summer’ by Eric Brown
Posted by Darren on October 22nd, 2007 at 11:34
In stock and shipping this week: the hardcover and jacketed hardcover editions of Eric Brown's science fiction novella Starship Summer.
From the synopsis:
David Conway leaves Earth and settles on the backwater planet of Chalcedony, Delta Pavonis IV, in search of a quiet life away from the haunting reminders of his past.
Living aboard a derelict spaceship in the quiet coastal community of Magenta Bay, he meets artist Matt Sommers, beachcomber Maddie Chamberlain and ex-starship pilot Hawksworth, and things seem about as perfect as he could hope... until he discovers that his ship is haunted by an alien spectre.
What follows will change Conway and his friends - and the future of humankind's destiny in space - for ever.
We're still waiting on the slipcases to be delivered for the 26-copy Lettered edition; sincere apologies to anyone who has pre-ordered, but we'll ship the books just as soon as they're available.
Out Now: ‘Dead Earth: The Green Dawn’ by Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks
Posted by Darren on October 22nd, 2007 at 11:28
In stock and shipping this week: the hardcover and jacketed hardcover editions of Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks' zombiepocalpyse novella Dead Earth: The Green Dawn!
From the synopsis:
Something bad has happened in Nevada.
No one knows what it is for sure. Rumors fly about plagues and secret government experiments. And the President isn't talking.
In Serenity, New Mexico, Deputy Sheriff Jubal Slate has his hands full. It seems that half the town, including his mother and his boss, are sick from an unusual malady.
Even more worrisome is the oddly-colored dawn sky.
Then a stranger crashes through town, a woman with a nightmarish story about what really happened in the Nevada desert.
Soon, the townspeople of Serenity start dying.
And they won't stay dead.
We're still waiting on the slipcases to be delivered for the 26-copy Lettered edition; sincere apologies to anyone who has pre-ordered, but we'll ship the books just as soon as they're available.
New Artwork by Scott Eagle for ‘The Situation’
Posted by Darren on October 19th, 2007 at 18:15
There's already quite a buzz building up around The Situation, the Jeff VanderMeer chapbook novelette that we'll be publishing in Spring next year. Jeff has been revealing various snippets of info over on his blog, including an early, sneak-peek of the cover art roughs, which was subsequently spotted and commented upon by uber-blog Boing Boing.
And now, for the viewing pleasure of our readers, customers and friends, we're delighted to be able to present the final wrap-around version of Scott Eagle's quite fabulous artwork, in all its surreal and truly Weird glory:
As one commenter on Jeff's blog suggested, this really should be available on a poster...
Finished Cover: ‘The Crystal Cosmos’ by Rhys Hughes
Posted by Darren on October 19th, 2007 at 18:03
I think our chief designer Robert Wexler Luis Rodrigues* has produced a very stylish and extremely effective final cover treatment for our forthcoming Rhys Hughes novella The Crystal Cosmos, keeping the typography elegantly simple and allowing Tomislav Tikulin's faboulous artwork to do the talking:
*Apologies to Luis...
Colin Harvey on ‘Sanity and Other Delusions’ by Gary Fry
Posted by Darren on October 19th, 2007 at 17:24
In a review over at Suite101.com, Colin Harvey says that our first Showcase title, Gary Fry's Sanity and Other Delusions is "an outstanding mini-collection of short stories on psychological disintegration" and that Fry's writing here is "much more complex and multi-layered than in [his] previous works".
We're printing 300 hardcovers and 100 jacketed hardcovers, publication is pretty much imminent, and you can pre-order via the Webstore.
New Artwork by Chris Roberts for ‘The Babylonian Trilogy’
Posted by Darren on October 19th, 2007 at 17:13
We'll be publishing Sebastien Doubinsky's surreal novel The Babylonian Trilogy early next year, and cover artist Chris Roberts has done us proud with this riot of colour and imagery:
Finished Cover: ‘Dandelion Wine, 50th Anniversary Edition’ by Ray Bradbury
Posted by Darren on October 19th, 2007 at 16:41
The publication of our 50th Anniversary Edition of Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury's classic novel of a young boy's summer in the fictional burgh of Greentown, Illinois - is going to be a major landmark in our publishing calendar. For the jacketed hardcover and slipcased hardcover we've selected a piece of suitably evocative artwork by American illustrator Amos Sewell:
The deluxe two-volume slipcased edition will contain that same new edition of Dandelion Wine, along with a companion volume, Summer Morning, Summer Night, that features all the other Greentown, Illinois stories that Ray Bradbury has written to-date; some of which are previously unpublished. The artwork for Summer Morning, Summer Night has been created by Ray Bradbury himself, and here's the wrap-around of the finished cover:
Copies of this deluxe volume - and we're only printing 100 of them - will also be signed by both Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, who has written the introduction to the new edition.
New PS Publishing Website! And a 50% discount sale…
Posted by Darren on October 15th, 2007 at 10:45
Yes, folks, it's finally here! The all new, all-signing, all-dancing, e-commerce enabled PS Website is now live at http://store.pspublishing.co.uk!
The old site might be operational for a day or two yet while I check and fine-tune the new version, but once everything is in place you'll hardly notice that the URL has changed... although you're sure to notice the improved functionality and user-friendliness of the new site.
No more sending credit card details split across two emails, no more faxing orders through and sending a separate cheque... from now on, buying your books direct from PS is just a few mouse-clicks, a couple of personal details and a credit card number away.
Please do visit the new site, have a look around and let us know what you think, by sending any feedback via the Contact page. And of course, while you're there, you could always test the new e-commerce functionality by buying something... ;)
And to make that an even more tempting prospect for you:
SALE! SALE! SALE!
50% off all pre-2007 books, while stocks last!
We wanted to do something special to mark the launch of the new site, so we've decided to hold the first ever PS Publishing discount sale, and we've knocked a massive 50% off the price of all pre-2007 books (back-issues of Postscripts not included) in our Current Catalogue.
The discount will be applied automatically as you place the items into the shopping basket (please note that the usual postage costs will still apply).
The offer will run until the end of November 2007 (perfect for a spot of early Xmas shopping for the bibliophile in your life...) and will apply to individual titles only while stocks last. The stock levels of some of the titles included are running pretty low already, so if you're tempted to buy something at a bargain price, then you probably shouldn't hang around too long, because once a title is out of stock in a particular edition, it's gone; we're not planning on re-printing.
If you have any questions about the sale, please drop us a line via service [at] pspublishing.co.uk and we'll do our best to get back to you just as quickly as we can, although please do bear with us - we hope to be very busy in the mail room for the next few weeks!
Apologies for radio silence…
Posted by Darren on October 12th, 2007 at 12:32
Sorry folks, I know it's been a while since the last PS News Room post, but I've had my head down on finalising the brand new PS website (expect an announcement on that in the next few days) and haven't had much time for anything else for the past couple of weeks.
But now it's Friday afternoon, 99.9% of the work on the new site is finished, and I'm going to spend the next couple of hours posting a bunch of news items.
I'll probably back-date most of the articles to round about the time they were first sent through to us here at the News Room, just to keep the archive straight for posterity. So, if you're reading this post on the News Room homepage and time after 5 p.m. on Friday, do scroll on down to find all the latest updates. Alternatively, if you're reading this in your RSS reader as it happens, then stay tuned, because here is the news...
Eurocon 2007: SF Authors take Copenhagen!
Posted by Darren on October 9th, 2007 at 12:07
PS author Zoran Zivkovic sent us a few photos taken at Eurocon 2007, which took place in the lovely Danish capital city of Copenhagen over the weekend of September 21st - 23rd (the same weekend as Fantasycon, which is why none of us were able to attend) and where Zoran was one of the Guests of Honour.
L to R, above: Harry Harrison, Zoran Zivkovic, Klaus Mogensen, Anne McCaffrey and Stephen Baxter. Cheryl Morgan (who was in attendance) says, via the comments, below: "It isn't a GoH panel [correcting my earlier mis-captioning - Ariel]. I think it is the Saturday morning 'why do we go to conventions' panel."
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)
And we're equally proud to have published three Stephen Baxter novellas to-date:
Joe Hill interviewed by SeaCoastOnline.com
Posted by Darren on October 9th, 2007 at 11:36
There's a good, mid-length interview with rising star Joe Hill over at www.seacoastonline.com, (The Source for Seacoast NH and Southeast ME).
The interviewer leads with some fairly predictable questions about the writer's 'secret' identity - which we here at PS did our very best to keep under wraps throughout the publication of Joe's debut collection 20th Century Ghosts - and then moves on to talk to Joe about the forthcoming US re-issue of 20th Century Ghosts, the Neil Jordan movie version of Joe's debut novel Heart-Shaped Box and Joe's current comics project:
"I'm writing Locke and Key ... It's a straight up comic book about three children who after tragedy move to a vast New England mansion. They discover there secret doors ... Eventually the first six issues will be collected into a trade paperback graphic novel."
The Largesse of the Gentleman Publisher…
Posted by Darren on October 8th, 2007 at 11:08
There is a Gentleman Publisher
And he stoppeth one of three
"By thy short grey beard and glittering eye,
Are those free books for me?"*
The photo above was sent in by Peter Coleborn - publisher, photographer, editor of the BFS magazine Dark Horizons - and shows our very own Peter C demonstrating his generosity during the British Fantasy Awards ceremony at this year's Fantasycon in Nottingham.
You see, there were a few PS titles left in the dealer's room at the end of the weekend and so our Mr Crowther - rather than cart them all back to PS HQ - decided to give them away to any Fantasycon 'virgins' who were brave enough to stand up and be so-identified at the start of the ceremony. A certain scoundrel of the Lebbon clan, who we suspected of being far from virginal, had to be sent packing with a flea in his ear, 'tis true, but otherwise the operation was a great success.
One lucky recipient actually went away with a particularly rare item - a slipcased (no less!) copy of the original (mis-)printing of Ramsey Campbell's (according to the spine, anyhow) The Darkest Part of the Wods [sic] (dammit, Pete told me he'd had all of those pulped... he must have missed one!)
And a couple of weeks later, we received a very nice thank-you email from one such virgin, by the name of Kelvin, who said: "I would just like to say a very big thank you for the copy of Moby Jack and Other Tall Tales by Garry Kilworth that you gave me, after the banquet, at FantasyCon '07 ... A most excellent compilation of diverse and different long (short) stories; each one delivering a point, through differing characters, in wonderfully diverse settings. Mr Kilworth’s imagination is a treasure to behold."
There's nothing we at PS like more than a happy customer, and we reckon they probably don't come much happier!
*With sincere apologies to the the shade of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who must be approaching at least 200 r.p.m. after that one...
Zoran Zivkovic made Professor at Belgrade University
Posted by Darren on October 6th, 2007 at 17:04
PS Author Zoran Zivkovic sent us the following press release:
The Serbian novelist Zoran Zivkovic has been made a professor in the Faculty of Philology at Belgrade University, where he will teach Creative Writing.
Zivkovic is the author of many critically-acclaimed fictions, including Time Gifts, Impossible Encounters, Seven Touches of Music, The Library and Steps Through the Mist [all of which we published in the single-volume collection Impossible Stories].
His most recent novel, The Last Book [which we'll be publishing next year], sold out its 20,000-copy first print run within days of release in his native Serbia. His novel The Bridge [another 2008 PS publication] was the winner of the 2006 Isidora Sekulic Award, named after one of the greatest Serbian female writers and essayists of the 20th century, a major mainstream literary prize. The Bridge was previously shortlisted for the NIN Award – Serbia's major literary award.
Zoran Zivkovic said: "I am delighted I'll have an opportunity to transfer my writer's experience to talented students. I am certain we could all benefit from my teaching."
Hearty congratulations to Zoran from everyone here at PS!
David Craddock on Steven Erikson’s ‘Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, volume 1′
Posted by Darren on October 4th, 2007 at 16:36
David Craddock, writing on the Fantasy Book Critic blog, has reviewed our Steven Erikson novella collection, Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: The Collected Stories, Volume One, which compiles the three titles Blood Follows, The Lees of Laughter's End and The Healthy Dead into one handy, recently re-released volume for only £20 ($40 approx.)
David was particularly impressed by Steven Erikson's superb characterisation, comparing it extremely favourably to sometimes less-successful efforts that can be found in much longer works:
"Relying more on people rather than a world to drive his action, the strong personalities of Bauchelain the conjurer, Korbal Broach the eunuch, and Emancipor 'Mancy the Luckless' Reese drive each of the novellas. Though the reader never fails to uncover new facets of each of these three main personalities throughout the trilogy, each protagonist's goals, and motivations used to reach those goals, are understood almost perfectly by the midpoint of Blood Follows. Some authors fail to convey proper understanding of their protagonists over the course of several books, but Erikson does so after a few dozen pages."
David concludes: "Bauchelain and Korbal Broach... not only combines three novellas that form a complete story, but does so with the fluidity lacking in many 1,000-plus page monsters." Which touches on just one of the reasons why we here at PS love the novella form so much, and why we're so keen to see as many excellent novella-length works make it into print as we possibly can.
Finished Cover: ‘Cage of Night’ by Ed Gorman
Posted by Darren on October 1st, 2007 at 16:07
Another superb piece of work from that man Vincent Chong, this time gracing the cover of our forthcoming brand new Ed Gorman novel, Cage of Night.
We'll be publishing before the end of the year, schedule-gremlins allowing...
Finished Cover: ‘Random Walk’ by Lawrence Block
Posted by Darren on October 1st, 2007 at 15:57
British Fantasy Award-winning artist Vincent Chong has sent us the finished cover art for our forthcoming Lawrence Block novel Random Walk and another excellent cover it is too:
We'll be publishing this one before the end of the year.