Greetings everyone. Nicky here.
Mike and I have just finished the weekly meeting about the schedule (which Pete ducked out of—Grrr!) and as promised here is the update for all those titles I mentioned in last week’s newsletter plus a couple more.
We now have copies of the deluxe THE WIND IN HIS HEART by Charles De Lint tucked up in the store room waiting for Blissetts to produce the illustrated tray case. This is another beautiful edition, containing sketches by Cory and Catska Ench. Meanwhile, waiting for their slipcases are copies of the signed BEST NEW HORROR # 29. Mike has been in contact with MacCarthy’s who are just about to have the slipcase illustration printed before it is wrapped around the cases. We also have the signed edition of INSIGHTS by Eric Brown and Keith Brooke in stock now so copies will be posted out this week.
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And now on to the rest . . .
TELEMASS CODA by Eric Brown is just waiting for a small piece of flap copy and then everything will be sent to the printers.
Mike has everything ready for THE STAND by Stephen King (all designed and checks made) and all we are waiting for is the final pieces of artwork from Don Maitz. We’re sure it won’t be long now but we certainly don’t want to rush him. Just look at these examples.
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Yoshika has completed the interior artwork for THE UNQUIET DREAMER: A Tribute to Harlan Ellison edited by Preston Grassmann. The final cover illustration is due in next week. Mike is currently pulling all the elements together and will be producing an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) very soon.
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THE FANTASTIC FICTIONEERS edited by Pete Von Sholly. These magnificient looking volumes are all complete and ready to be printed. The two Petes—that’s Von Sholly and our own version—are aiming to hit the printer this month. This is going to be a BIG title in all senses of the word so get those fingers crossed everybody.
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We've just had the final thumbs up from Ian Watson for THE TROUBLE WITH TALL ONES and the files have been sent over to TJI for printing. The same will apply to TEN-WORD TRAGEDIES once we get approval from editors Chris Golden and Tim Lebbon following the weeknend.
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The huge tomb that is THE BROOD is having a final read-through from Steve Bissette so hopefully that should be ready for printing by the end of the week. Talking about the Electric Dreamhouse series, we have two new titles which are also very close to being signed off as we plan to have copies available at the EdgeLit Convention in Derby on the 13th July. They are COFFINMAKER'S BLUES by Stephen Volk and TOMMY by Kit Power. We’ll make more of a hoohaa later on when we have the order pages ready to put up.
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And the final title on my list are the two great books spear-headed by Steve Saville. First THE BEST OF T.M WRIGHT and then MALLAM CROSS. Both books have been designed but Steve is just doing a little tweaking with one or two things.
I’m now going to drop a line to the printers asking them to clear the decks, oil up the cogs and stand by ready for all the titles coming their way.
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Finally, I had a little note from Cemetery Dance about some of their titles that many of you out there have pre-ordered.
They are NIGHT SHIFT by Stephen King; SLEEPING BEAUTIES by Stephen King and Owen King and then STRANGE WEATHER by Joe Hill.
Brian at CD says there really isn't anything new on STRANGE WEATHER or NIGHT SHIFT, which is slotted to go to the printer soon. You can probably link anyone to their productions updates page though—Brian tries to keep that as up to date as possible.
cemeterydance.com/production-updates.html
SLEEPING BEAUTIES is shipping now. I'm not sure when copies ordered by PS customers will be hitting Carole’s mailing counters but Brian and the CD team are expecting they'll ship to us this week. All we need now is a crystal ball to tell us how long they’ll take to cross the Atlantic.
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. . . followed up her upcoming (as in today through Sunday) presentation at the Writers Guild of Alberta annual conference over June 7-9 with her induction on 10 June (that’s next Monday, culture vultures) into the City of Edmonton Salute to Excellence Arts and Culture Hall of Fame. There will be photos posted and maybe a little video, so watch this space.
For those who missed it then do yourself a favour and check it out. Beginning with the iconic 1988 story "(Learning About) Machine Sex" and ending with a new tale written for the collection, ICE gathers thirty years of the dazzlingly imaginative short fiction of Candas Jane Dorsey, who, as writer, editor, publisher, writing teacher, reviewer, anthologist, and essayist, has had a dramatic and formative effect on Canadian literary, queer and feminist speculative fiction since her debut story was published in 1977.
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First off, an uber BIG welcome home to Tamsin who has returned to the fold after several weeks maternity leave.
You’ve been missed, kiddo! Now everybody, send those letters in to her. Nah, only kiddin’ youse—just take it easy, Tamsin . . . and I suppose you’re going to be pilfering my biscuits again! Oh well, you can’t have everything.
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And, alas, finally a sad note on which to end.
Last week (as you’ll have seen in our previous missive) the field of horror lost one of its greatest practitioners with the passing of Dennis Etchison. We close with a personal tribute from Dennis’s great friend, Ramsey Campbell.
(photos courtesy of J.K. Potter & Jenny Campbell)
Dennis Etchison was a great writer and a great guy. In some ways he kept these two aspects of himself surprisingly separate.
As a writer he pared his prose to the essentials, refining it until not a word was wasted. Like Bradbury, whose work he much admired, he learned economy of expression from Hemingway, leaving out whatever he could. He regarded the short story as the perfect fictional form, and disliked writing novels, which he believed were incapable of sustaining the kind of disciplined intensity he always aimed for. Our agent Kirby McCauley coaxed him into writing several, along with novelisations of films, often based on the original shooting script and including unreleased elements. However much of a chore he found the longer form, his work in it benefits from his care for the material. All the same, his reputation will rest on his short stories, of which he was a master.
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He never set out to write horror, and was initially disconcerted to be seen as doing so.
He came to regard the field as hospitable, and it was certainly enriched by his presence, but I would put it more simply—he was one of the great American short story writers of his time, with an enviably keen eye for the telling detail and for life as it was lived around him. He never achieved the reputation he deserved in his lifetime, and often people (not least publishers) couldn’t even get his name right. An extra N frequently haunted his surname, and I hope he was able to take it as a joke, as he regarded much of his life.
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In person he was huge fun and a wonderful companion.
This may surprise folk who know him only by his austere tales, though Dennis wished readers would find them funnier, a frustration he shared with Graham Greene and me. As with Robert Aickman and apparently Franz Kafka (two writers with whom he shared other affinities), hearing him read helped you get the humour. Once prompted, and often even without prompting, he could entertain a tableful of listeners with hilarious anecdotes from his life, and deadpan gags, and imitations of everyone he’d met in the field, so accurately mimicked that you’d have taken him for them if you hadn’t looked. He and Pete Atkins and Karl Edward Wagner formed a trio of uncles for our children, and I think Dennis may have been the one who most enjoyed having an excuse to rediscover his own childhood.
One anecdote he often told came from childhood. His mother had taken him to a local fair, and the final treat she offered him was either confectionery or a visit to a talking pig. Given his sweet tooth, it’s no surprise that Dennis went for the ice cream, but he always regretted not learning what the pig would have said. Wherever you are, Dennis, perhaps you know that now. Know that you’re irreplaceable and much missed. You’ve more than earned your peace, old friend.
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Thanks, Ramsey.
Have a great weekend everyone, look after each other and happy reading.
Hugs from the seaside one and all.
Pete
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