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Archive for November, 2007
PS Publishing Office now closed until mid-December
Posted by Darren on November 30th, 2007 at 17:38
Dear All -
Please note, as per our earlier announcement, the PS offices will be closed for the next couple of weeks. This means that we won't be able to process orders, answer emails or follow-up on enquiries until we re-open in mid-December.
Rest assured that the first thing we'll be doing is tackling our emails and processing any orders that do arrive between now and then. Please see the contact page of the site. You can leave messages at the enquiries@ email address for is to collect on our return.
The PS Team
Out Now: PS Showcase #1 ‘Sanity and Other Delusions’ by Gary Fry
Posted by Darren on November 29th, 2007 at 10:39
We're delighted to announce that the first of our new series of 'Showcase' mini-collections has been printed, delivered to the warehouse and is now being shipped to pre-order customers and anyone placing a new order via our webstore (although please bear in mind that the imminent PS office closure will mean that new orders won't now be shipped until mid-December).
Sanity and Other Delusions by Gary Fry contains six stories of madness and psychological horror: 'Beggars Belief', 'The Indelible Strain of Company', 'No Oil Painting', 'It Can Also End at Home', 'The Familial' and 'Projecting Malice'.
The book is available in two editions:
- Hardcover, £10.00 ($20.00 approx.), limited to 300 copies, signed by Gary Fry
- Jacketed Hardcover, £25.00 ($50.00 approx.), limited to 100 copies, signed by Gary Fry and Stephen Volk (introducer)
"...an outstanding mini-collection of short stories on psychological disintegration..." - Colin Harvey, Suite101.com
Out Now: ‘Postscripts Magazine, Issue #12′ ed. by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers
Posted by Darren on November 27th, 2007 at 8:14
The twelfth, Autumn 2007, issue of Postscripts magazine was officially published and started shipping to subscribers and pre-order customers last week.
This issue features brand new fiction from our usual mix of hot new Talents and established Names (Scott Edelman, Robert Jeschonek, Paul Jessup, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Iain Rowan, Will McIntosh, Robert Weston, Patrick O'Leary, Brian Aldiss, Darren Speegle, B.B. Roo) as well as a guest editorial by Lisa Tuttle.
As always, Postscripts is available in two editions: news-stand paperback, priced £6 ($12 approx.) and limited edition hardcover, signed by all contributors and priced at £25 ($50 approx.).
Subscription information is available over at the PS Webstore. Don't forget, anyone holding a current subscription when the next issue of Postscripts is sent out will also receive a free copy of our bonus chapbook: 'The Saved' by Joe Hill.
Finished Covers: ‘Hello Summer, Goodbye’ and ‘I Remember Pallahaxi’ by Michael Coney
Posted by Darren on November 27th, 2007 at 8:01
Towards the end of the year we'll be publishing two novels by British science fiction writer Michael Coney. The first is his classic sf novel Hello Summer, Goodbye which was first published in 1975. The second is I Remember Pallahaxi, the previously unpublished sequel.
The two novels are available to pre-order now, either as separate volumes priced £20 ($40 approx.) each (click previous links for more information), or together in a two-volume slipcased set, priced £50 ($100 approx.)
Here are the finished covers, both with wonderfully evocative artwork by Edward Miller:
Finished Cover: ‘Postscripts #13′ edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers
Posted by Darren on November 23rd, 2007 at 17:54
Here's the finished cover for Postscripts Issue #13, with original artwork ('Harpy Christmas!') by the one and only Les Edwards.
Prints of this image are available from Les's website, on the off-chance you've got some children you need to traumatise this holiday season or something...
Finished Cover: ‘The Saved’ by Joe Hill
Posted by Darren on November 23rd, 2007 at 17:53
Here's the finished cover, wrap-around style, for Joe Hill's chapbook The Saved, with artwork by PS regular James Hannah:
As we announced earlier in the year, The Saved is this year's bonus chapbook for subscribers to Postscripts magazine, so the only way to get hold of a copy when it's published will be if you're a current and paid-up subscriber when issue #13 of the magazine is sent out.
More information on the Subscriptions page of the PS Webstore, if you're tempted...
Mystery awards: PS Publishing wins two ‘Lilies’
Posted by Darren on November 23rd, 2007 at 12:59
T.M. Wright dropped Pete a line recently to let him know that PS seems to have won two 'Lilies', awards given to independent publishing houses by the 'League of Independent Literature' and announced online at www.thelilies.org.
So, we're delighted to announce two winners:
- On the Overgrown Path by David Herter, in the Fantasy/Gothic category
- Flavors of My Genius by Robert Reed, in the Science Fiction category
...and two runners-up:
- Illyria by Elizabeth Hand, in the Romance Noir category
- I Am the Bird by T.M. Wright, in the Horror category
... but the thing is, we have no idea who the organisers of 'The Lilies' are, or when the awards were first announced, or anything else. There are no contact details on the website, nothing useful that Google can find, and the organisers haven't been in touch at all... we asked our chums at www.sfawardswatch.com and they were just as non-plussed... which is all very odd.
So, if you do know anything about The Lilies, or who we should send our thank-you email to, please do leave a comment below, or get in touch and let us know, won't you?
New cover art for Ray Bradbury’s ‘Dandelion Wine’, 50th Anniversary edition
Posted by Darren on November 20th, 2007 at 9:34
There's been a slight change of plan here at PS Towers regarding the forthcoming 50th Anniversary edition of Ray Bradbury's classic novel Dandelion Wine. Pete will explain how it happened:
Hi Folks -
It was out of the blue. That's how it happened. We were all geared up to print Dandelion Wine when, completely unannounced, one of our fave artists, Tomislav Tikulin, sent us a copy of his latest work... and wouldn't you know it - it was Dandelion Wine! Not only that, but it's absolutely wonderful! I checked with Tomislav to make sure it was for sale and then (having had the thumbs-up) set to trying to figure out how best to shoehorn the second piece of cover artwork into the project.
It was fairly straightforward, as it turned out - ALL copies of the book will have Tomislav's artwork printed onto the boards, while the slipcased and deluxe editions will additionally have the original artwork (as advertised on the website this past few months) on a dust-jacket ON TOP of the illustrated boards.
Prices remain the same except for the trade edition which, because it will not now have a dust-jacket, we're reducing from £25/$50 to £20/$40. If you've paid in advance for that book, you will receive a refund of the extra £5/$10; either that or get in touch and use the overspend as credit on another book. It's your choice - we're easy either way.
This, may mean that the book takes a little longer to finalise and print, but crumbs... Dandelion Wine is one of my all-time favourite books. And that artwork is just superb. I mean... what could I do?! Or, for that matter... what would YOU have done?! See for yourself:
Cheers, Pete!
So, just to confirm, here are the full details for each edition:
Hardcover edition - £20.00 ($40.00 approx.) - 500 copies
This 'standard' edition will now feature the new Tomislav Tikulin artwork on a PPC cover - the artwork will be printed directly onto the book cover - and the book will no longer be supplied with a dust jacket. The price of this edition will also be dropped to £20 ($40 approx.) to reflect the lower production costs involved, and to bring it in line with the rest of the forthcoming PS titles. As Pete said, appropriate refunds will be given to anyone who has already paid the earlier, higher price.
Slipcased edition - £50.00 ($100 approx.) - 200 copies
The slipcased edition will also have the Tomislav Tikulin artwork printed onto the cover, and in addition will feature a dust-jacket with the original Amos Sewell illustration (as per our previous 'Finished Cover...' post. In effect, two jackets for the price of one, and no alteration in the price.
Deluxe Two Volume Slipcased edition - £375.00 ($750.00 approx.) - 100 copies
Likewise, the copy of Dandelion Wine included in the deluxe edition will also have the Tomislav Tikulin artwork printed onto the cover, and the Amos Sewell dust-jacket. The companion volume, Summer Morning, Summer Night will remain unchanged, featuring front and back cover artwork by Ray Bradbury himself.
If you have any questions at all, please send them to the general enquiries email address on the Contact Page.
Christmas Last Ordering Date: November 28th, plus: 50% Sale Extended to December 31st!
Posted by Darren on November 13th, 2007 at 18:57
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
The PS Publishing office will be closed between November 30th and December 13th this year. Therefore, if you want to buy books from us for attempted Christmas delivery, please place your order no later than November 28th, to give us time to process your order.
Orders placed on or after November 30th will be queued and processed during the week commencing December 17th. Unfortunately this is after the last posting dates for both Royal Mail and our parcel carrier DHL. As a result, those orders will, most likely, be delivered between Christmas and the New Year, or quite possibly during the first couple of weeks of January.
If you have any questions about Christmas Delivery, please send them to our main enquiry email address:
enquiries [at] PSPublishing [dot] co [dot] uk
If, on the other hand, you're not in a rush to get your books by Christmas, then we have some very good news for you:
The Current PS Sale - 50% off all pre-2007 book titles - will be extended to the end of December 2007.
We've had a number of emails from customers and friends suggesting that it would be a great idea if they could spend their Christmas pennies on the PS Sale, and who are we to disagree?
December 31st is therefore the new cut-off date for the sale, and that will definitely be it. No more extensions, no more titles added, nothing. Given that this is our first and only sale in eight years of publication, this could quite easily be the only sale for quite some time...
And don't forget, sale prices only apply while stocks of individual titles last, so the longer you leave it, the higher the chances that you'll miss out.
PS Sale Progress - Low Stock Alert!
Posted by Darren on November 13th, 2007 at 18:50
Our current special offer - 50% off all book titles published before 2007 - has been a huge success since we launched it on October 15th and the books have been almost literally flying out of the warehouse.
As a result, we're now down to fewer than 25 copies of the following titles.
- Light Stealer [jhc] by James Barclay
- Mayflower II [jhc] by Stephen Baxter
- Secret Stories [sc] by Ramsey Campbell
- Told by the Dead [sc] by Ramsey Campbell
- Jigsaw Men [jhc] by Gary Greenwood
- Jigsaw Men [pb] by Gary Greenwood
- The Lost Poetry of William Hope Hodgson [jhc] ed. by Jane Frank
- By Moonlight Only [jhc] ed. by Stephen Jones
- The Uglimen [jhc] by Mark Morris
- Nowhere Near an Angel [sc] by Mark Morris
- Cinema Macabre [jhc] ed. by Mark Morris
- Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography [pb] ed. by Lavie Tidhar
- Flavors of My Genius [jhc] by Steven Utley
- In Springdale Town [pb] by Robert Freeman Wexler
Order sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment if there's something in that list that you've had your eye on for a while, because once it's gone, it's gone...
We're also low on several back-issues of Postscripts magazine. They're not included in the sale, but we thought we should take this opporuntity to let you know, in case you have any gaps in your collection:
- Issue #1 [pb]
- Issue #3 [pb]
- Issue #4 [hc]
- Issue #5 [pb]
- Issue #6 [hc]
- Issue #8 [pb]
- Issue #8 [hc]
- Issue #9 [pb]
- Issue #10 [hc, unsigned]
- Issue #11 [pb]
- Issue #11 [hc]
Justice and Wilbanks’ ‘Dead Earth: The Green Dawn’ on Green Man Review
Posted by Darren on November 7th, 2007 at 17:09
Reviewer Craig Clarke admires the "straightforward, cinematic prose style" of Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks' zombiepocalypse novella Dead Earth: The Green Dawn, saying:
"...the duo's writing is smooth and assured, not at all like the product of most relative beginners. The authors have created a paean to the old pulp-style adventures, only with dead instead of living foes."
You can read Craig's full review over at greenmanreview.com.
Kevin Stone reviews Eric Brown’s ‘Starship Summer’ for TTAPress.com
Posted by Darren on November 6th, 2007 at 15:35
Reviewer Kevin Stone had, among other things, the following to say about our recently-published Eric Brown novella, Starship Summer, in a piece published on the TTA Press website:
"Starship Summer sticks to the tradition of writing about people rather than delving too deeply into the technological aspects of the setting, being in essence a very traditional story about friendship, and how the bonds between mankind can elevate us beyond our wildest dreams."
You can read the full review over at www.TTAPress.com.
TOC: ‘Passing for Human’ edited by Michael Bishop and Steven Utley
Posted by Darren on November 3rd, 2007 at 20:08
Here's the finalised Table of Contents for our forthcoming short fiction anthology Passing for Human, which we're publishing in early 2008:
- The Other Celia by Theodore Sturgeon
- Mimic by Donald A. Wollheim
- The Man Upstairs by Ray Bradbury
- Neutrino Drag by Paul DiFilippo
- Nights at the Crimea by Jessica Reisman
- The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg
- Once by Jack Slay, Jr
- Linkage by Barry N. Malzberg
- Apprenticeship by Howard Waldrop
- Cooking Creole by A. M. Dellamonica
- Under the Hollywood Sign by Tom Reamy
- All the Kinds of Yes by James Tiptree, Jr.
- Judgment Call by John Kessel
- A Spaceship Built of Stone by Lisa Tuttle
- Detectives and Cadavers by Jeff VanderMeer
- Sex and/or Mr. Morrison by Carol Emshwiller
Heck of a line-up, we think you'll agree (indeed, it's a "juicy and mighty line-up", according to SFSignal). We're publishing in two editions: hardcover at £20.00 ($40.00 approx.) and slipcased hardcover at £50.00 ($100.00 approx.)
Both are available for pre-order from the Webstore now.
Peter Crowther interviewed by Jeff Vandermeer for SFSite.com
Posted by Darren on November 2nd, 2007 at 17:11
For his latest (October 2007) 'Dispatches from Smaragdine' column for SFSite.com, the one and only Jeff VanderMeer talked to our very own Peter Crowther about topics including writing, publishing, and the ongoing evolution of PS Publishing.
To give you a taster, when asked what he had learned from his years of running PS, Pete told Jeff: "I think that, primarily, I've learned that great quality in writing does not necessarily translate to great success in terms of sales. If it did, then Ramsey Campbell would be one of the wealthiest writers alive. Similarly, of course, I'm constantly reminded when I read the book-performance charts every week that sales success does not necessarily mean a work is particularly good."
Read the full interview over at www.sfsite.com.
Jeff VanderMeer’s Ministry of Whimsy Press to relaunch
Posted by Darren on November 1st, 2007 at 16:54
Here's one that we didn't quite get time to mention when the word first went out in mid October: Jeff VanderMeer (The Situation) has announced the New Year rebirth of the Ministry of Whimsy Press:
"Effective January 1, 2008, Jeff VanderMeer’s Ministry of Whimsy Press will come out of hibernation as an imprint of Wyrm Publishing. VanderMeer will work as a creative consultant and publicist for the Ministry’s books.
"In its previous incarnations, the Ministry published the Philip K. Dick Award-winning Troika by Stepan Chapman, as well as the landmark Leviathan fiction anthologies. The Ministry was a World Fantasy Award finalist in 1998 and VanderMeer won a World Fantasy Award in 2003 for co-editing Leviathan 3, also a Philip K. Dick Award finalist.
Future projects for the Ministry will include Last Drink Bird Head, an anthology of flash fiction in support of literacy projects that features contributions from Gene Wolfe, Peter Straub, Tanith Lee, Stephen R. Donaldson, Rikki Ducornet, Caitlin Kiernan, Michael Swanwick, and many more. Through Wyrm Publishing, the Ministry will release two to three books a year, with the Leviathan series set to return in 2009. The Ministry is not currently soliciting book projects.
Wyrm Publishing was established by Neil Clarke earlier this year, and will soon publish books by Charles Stross, Gene Wolfe, and Tobias Buckell, in addition to the ongoing publication of Clarkesworld Magazine and its annual Realms anthology. For more information on Wyrm Publishing, visit their web site: www.wyrmpublishing.com.