Wednesday, September 24, 2008

still hearing from Golden Gryphon

Email rec'd:
Greetings from the Gryphon: 

The trade paperback editions of Jeffrey Ford’s Well-Built City trilogy: The
Physiognomy, Memoranda, and The Beyond, with triptych covers by John Picacio, are now
available!
Jeffrey Ford's World Fantasy Award-winner The Physiognomy introduces Cley,
master of Physiognomy, the pseudo-science of judging a person by his physical features, in
a nightmare city, a city the finally repentant Cley will seek to destroy. In
Memoranda, the reformed physiognomist embarks on a surreal quest through the mind of the
monster who imagined the dark metropolis, seeking a cure to a plague. In The Beyond, now
shunned by the village he saved, and seeing no future in the ruins of the Well-Built City,
Cley ventures into The Beyond, a wilderness peopled with demons that feed on
humans, where the strange and weird rule, where Paradise is hidden, and where the girl
that Cley disfigured may be, whose forgiveness Cley craves. He encounters wonders and
horrors, friendship and hate, mysteries almost beyond comprehension. But will he finally
find what he seeks?

With a triptych Picacio cover like, this, your local library should order two
copies, one to frame and display and one for reading.
The Physiognomy / ISBN 978-1-930846-53-1 / $14.95
Memoranda / ISBN 978-1-93084654-8 / $14.95
The Beyond / ISBN 978-1-93084655-5 / $14.95
Trade paperbacks
Cover art by John Picacio

Saturday, September 20, 2008

word from Hippocampus

One of these days I will take steps to get on top of some orders I know I need to be sending out. To whit:
Here are our four most recent releases! Two collections of new fiction from Ramsey Campbell and Jonathan Thomas, a second printing of The Place Called Dagon with new cover art sure to attract attention, plus the latest issue of Lovecraft Annual. Please advise quantities desired.
 
INCONSEQUENTIAL TALES
By Ramsey Campbell
Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9793806-6-2: $15.00: 248 pp
Ramsey Campbell is the most distinguished and highly acclaimed writer of horror and supernatural fiction of our time. In more than a score of novels and hundreds of stories, Campbell has demonstrated mastery in every facet of the weird tale. This volume gathers tales, written over a period of more tha n thirty years, that have not yet been included in any of Campbell’s dozen or more short story collections. Among them are such dark jewels of the supernatural as “The Reshaping of Rossiter,” an early version of the celebrated tale “The Scar”; “Broadcast,” which invests terror in a microphone; “Writer’s Curse,” in which horror writing itself is made a subject of terror; “Murders,” a bizarre mix of horror and science fiction; “Snakes and Ladders,” a powerfully cosmic vignette that served as an early version of “Playing the Game.” Also included are two previously unpublished tales, “The Precognitive Trip” and “Pet.” Campbell’s distinctive vision, fecund imagination, and meticulous prose shine through every sentence, making the slightest of these tales a literary treasure.
  
MIDNIGHT CALL AND OTHER STORIES
By Jonathan Thomas
Foreword by S. T. Joshi
Paperback: ISBN 0979380693: $15.00: 260 pp
An artist is summoned to paint the portrait of sinister Mr. Finster in a decaying mansion . . . A suburban couple is vexed by the inveterate lawn-mowing of a ghost . . . In ice-bound Vermont, one farmer’s crop is suspiciously bountiful . . . A miniature nymph is found swimming in an office water cooler . . . These are the bizarre conceptions of Jonathan Thomas, a powerful new writer of weird, horrific, and supernatural fiction who introduces himself to the reading public with this rich and varied short story collection. Thomas is, however, a practiced hand at terror-weaving, and his work spans the spectrum from comic fantasy to psychological suspense to science fiction. Unifying all his tales is a prose style of singular fluency and grace, enlivened by keen observation and mordant satire.
  
THE PLACE CALLED DAGON
by Herbert Gorman
Lovecraft’s Library series – second printing
Paperback: ISBN 9780972164436: $15.00: 188 pp
Featuring fantastic new cover art and interior illustratons by Allen Koszowski!  H. P. Lovecraft spoke highly of The Place Called Dagon (1927) in Supernatural Horror in Literature, and for good reason. It uncannily reflects many of the themes in Lovecraft’s own fiction, and probably influenced his "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and "The Dreams in the Witch House." This novel, whose very title is Lovecraftian, has waited too long to find a new generation of readers, but is now reprinted here uncut and unabridged, with an introduction by leading Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi and Gorman expert Larry Creasy.
 
LOVECRAFT ANNUAL No. 2 (2008)
Edi ted by S. T. Joshi
ISSN 1935-6102
Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9814888-6-8: $15.00: 215 pp
This latest issue of new scholarship on H. P. Lovecraft features a lengthy article on astronomical motifs in Lovecraft’s horror fiction, as well as an examination of “The Rats in the walls” by Robert Waugh, author of the critical anthology The Monster in the Mirror: Looking for H. P. Lovecraft. Other fascinating research on Lovecraft and his works is included along with reviews of relevant new publications from all sources, and notices of upcoming events in the Lovecraft community. **Please note that in addition to its overall ISSN, each issue of Lovecraft Annual will now have an ISBN, which will change from year to year.

Monday, September 8, 2008

word from Centipede

Email rec'd:
Saturday, 6 September, 2008

Dear Dealers:

Videodrome
now available in mass quantities

Just a reminder that our major shipment of Videodrome just
arrived Friday afternoon. If you have already placed your
order, your copies will be shipping out on Monday. With 750
of our 1200 copies already on back-order, we don¹t expect
this fine paperback to last much longer. The hardcover
edition, signed by Tim Lucas, will also be available in
about six weeks.

The paperback is $25

* * *

The Other
Thomas Tryon
paperback edition

Our low cost paperback edition ($17), which has a number of
color plates and a sewn binding, is also available. It is $17
less your discount of 50%, or $8.50 each. This is a very
handsome item and should do well as a low-cost item that
may entice some of your regular customers.

With a print run of about 1,200 copies, nearly a thousand
are gone, with most of them shipped out last month.


* * *

Forthcoming.
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe. The artist
has just completed the final works for the book and we
will be going to press in a few weeks.

A large number of The Shadow of the Torturer are now
in the bindery and should be shipping out in about
2-3 weeks. Thank you for your patience, those of you
who have been waiting while this item is on backorder.

Madball by Fredric Brown
introduction by Dick Adler
Now in proofreading.

Sharp Practice by John Farris
introduction by Ed Gorman
afterword by John Farris
plus a bonus short story
Now in bindery.

Jerad Walters
Centipede Press
---Got to get my order in to Centipede -- way overdue on doing this!!! (Amongst other things.)

word from Tartarus

Email rec'd:
Hi Chris,
 
Just to let you know that we are getting low on the paperback edition of Emma Tennant's Heathcliffe's Tale and I expect it to go out of print in the next couple of weeks. (The hardback issue is still okay for a while.) If you'd like any copies please do let me know.
 
All the best
 
Ray
---Don't believe I ever even got the pb edn of this title -- I still have the hc listed, though.

Friday, September 5, 2008

word from Stark House

Email rec'd:
Hello Mystery Readers & Booksellers:
 
I'm pleased to announce that our WADE MILLER book is coming out this week--THE KILLER / DEVIL ON TWO STICKS (1933586230, $17.95).
 
"Wade Miller" is the writing team of Bob Wade and Bill Miller, and in their 15 year writing career from the late 1940's to the early 60's, they created some of the finest hardboiled fiction. Not only did they give us the dark and moody Max Thursday detective series, but they also wrote the book, BADGE OF EVIL, that Orson Welles turned into the film noir classic, TOUCH OF EVIL.
 
Bill Miller passed away in 1961, but Bob Wade continued on, eventually winning the Private Eye Writers of America's 1988 Life Achievement Award. Together, they created a wild kind of mystery magic.
 
THE KILLER is the story of a big game hunter who is hired to track down and kill a reckless bankrobber, while he himself is pursued by the bankrobber's wife. DEVIL ON TWO STICKS is a mystery told from the inside out, as a crime syndicate boss's enforcer must ferret out the traitor in their midst while falling in love with his prime suspect's daughter.
 
Two very original stories from this very creative team.
 
Bob Wade provides a new introduction, as does David Laurence Wilson, who writes about the Wade Miller career in "The Deadly Collaboration," a thorough history of the writing team. 
 
And while I'm on the subject of reprints, our last book, A SHOT IN THE DARK / SHELL GAME by Richard Powell is still available (1933586184, $14.95). A recent review by Bruce Grossman at Bookgasm points out that "Powell does an extraordinary job of keeping all the secrets hidden until the big reveal." Powell is ripe for rediscovery!
 
And as always, thanks for your continued support!
 
Cheers,
Greg Shepard, publisher
Stark House Press
---The Powell is in stock here now -- the Wade Miller doubtless will be shortly.