We have a major announcement this week but first off, I’d like to talk to you about stories . . .
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. . . whether they’re short, novelette or novella (my personal favourite) or short short (such as Fredric Brown’s NIGHTMARES AND GEEZENSTACKS, 47 stories—some of which are barely a page or two long—from 1961 . . . and if you haven’t read it then stop what you’re doing and remedy that oversight pronto).
Out of everything I just mentioned, the novella is PS’s flagship line; after all, we kicked off the whole company with them back in 1999 . . . four fine examples from the pens of Graham Joyce, James Lovegrove, Kim Newman and Michael Marshall Smith, a quartet boasting a tremendous range and depth. Since then, of course, we’ve done many more fine examples of the novella length (generally 20,000—40,000 words) and we’ve cast our corporate net wide to include both fiction and non-fiction of all manner of length. But I guess the short story is King.
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Over the years—twenty of them come 2019 (so watch out for an anniversary announcement)
—we’ve championed the short story Big Time, and we’re not alone: my good friend Stephen Jones is THE class act of the short form, as are many more but I do like to think that, in its brief brace of decades, PS has delivered the goods in style . . . POSTSCRIPTS magazine, a bevy of brief pamphlets, plus a plethora of collections. Indeed, at this very moment, we currently have a dozen such volumes underway—be they single author or anthology.
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Here’s a brief extract leading onto a link for the full piece. Good stuff.
“First lines matter a lot in short stories. That’s a well-worn truth that many modern writers seem to forget. If you can’t hook the reader from the off, you might as well give up. If La Rochefoucauld can accomplish more in a single epigram than you can in an entire story, then you have a genuine problem. You can’t rely on your cultural kudos, artistic or intellectual aspirations, or reputation to keep eyes moving down the page: you have to snag them.
“Out of all the horror books I’ve read this year, this is probably the one I’ll be returning to most often in future, thinking “How can I do something like that?” and just “Wow.” A striking showcase of some marvelous work in the genre, and a superb demonstration that horror, in its purest, strictest sense, is more imaginative, diverse, cruelly elegant and finely crafted than it’s ever been.”
greydogtales.com/blog/trains-terror
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(as it is every year, to be honest) to be recognized for furthering the short form with such remarkable examples of the field as, Thana Niveau’s OCTOBERLAND volume and Stephen Volk’s wonderful novella triptych, THE DARK MASTERS TRILOGY about which Christopher Fowler had this to say:
“Stephen Volk has a penchant for weaving real-life figures into fictions and creating psychodramas between surprising protagonists. In ‘Whitstable’ we find a frail Peter Cushing forced to become the unlikely champion he played in his films. In ‘Leytonstone’ a disturbing incident in Alfred Hitchcock’s formative years helps us to understand why he became the master of suspense. The concluding part of the trilogy, ’Netherwood’, is its crowning glory; a sinister cat-and-mouse confrontation that becomes a battle of souls between a strutting, arrogant Aleister Crowley and the unlikeliest of opponents, the writer of lurid supernatural pulps, Dennis Wheatley. It’s a knockout conclusion to a unique, deeply English trilogy.”
Yes, bravo Chris.
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But I look at the shelves—often!
And it saddens me to see so many fine writers that I haven’t been able to include (at least not yet) with a PS imprint on their spines, and not all of them in our traditional field of printed books. So yes, stories come in a range of formats
On the musical side (I’m sure you’ll permit me the briefest of brief sidebars) there’s Nanci Griffiths’s ‘Love at the five and dime,’ Bob Dylan and Sam Shepard’s ‘Brownsville Girl,’ and many others. I played the Griffiths song only a couple of days ago and I was quite moved by her tale of a Woolworths branch (the five and dime store in the title, Woolworths being a retail chain long since lost to malls and supermarkets and Amazon et al) its employees dancing up and down the store’s aisles with her song now out-of-date as a result of the constant erosion of High Street Main Street storefronts. And, though Mr. Zimmerman has many fine examples of tale-telling, it’s Bob’s collaboration with Sam Shepard—‘Brownsville Girl’—that takes the cake if only because of this one couplet:
“How far are y'all going,” Ruby asked us with a sigh.
“We're going all the way 'til the wheels fall off and burn.”
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But there’s one volume—which would be colossal—that would take pride of place on my shelves, and now it’s too late to get him.
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I’m talking about Stan Lee who passed on a few days ago age 95.
In 2012 Stan was over here in the UK attending a big convention while, at the same time, we were launching our hardback slipcased volumes of PLANETCOMICS. Never one to miss a trick I went across to Stan’s area and showed him one of the books. “It’d be great if you came across to see them?” I said. He said he’d see what he could do, so I went back to our big display area. Must have been 15 or 20 minutes later and suddenly we were aware of a lot of activity. When wen turned around, there he was, large as life, beaming to everyone in the convention as he strode purposefully into our area where he flicked through all the books, said a lot of great things and posed for photos with Paul and me.
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My point here is that Stan was one of the greatest short story writers in the world. I mean, c’mon . . . ‘Monster at my window’ Take a look-see!
youtube.com/watch?v=kfz7M-7gT04
Fantastic! I bought that comic and lots more just like it in Leeds Market. My favourite shop was Guest’s Greeting Cards but there was also Stringers, where piles of new titles rubbed shoulders with old ones in fantastic condition. My friend Jem and I used to hang out there on holidays, sitting on naugahyde barstools breathing in the curious but strangely intoxicating mixture of cooking bacon, flowers, cigarettes and fruit and vegetables. And, you know, strangest of all, the smell was right somehow. Whenever I go back to Leeds, I always go to the market and re-live it. The man and woman who ran the place (Mr Guest and Alice) used to save all my comics until I’d amassed enough by doing chores and getting good (or just ‘reasonable’) grades. For the next week or so I would re-read those comics until I could repeat them near on verbatim. Then at the weekend, I would buy more. And so it went on.
And, indeed, so it continues. Happy trails, Stan.
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And for those readers who live in or near Edmonton Canada make sure you get yourself down to Audreys Bookstore where Candas Jane Dorsey is launching ICE AND OTHER STORIES at 7pm tonight Friday 16th November. We’d love to hear from you if you do make it down there. Go to Audreys Bookstore facebook page for more information. It does mention reading, drink and food!
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Now over to Nicky for this week’s update
Thanks, Pete. First an update on the deluxe copies of NIGHT SHIFT—Pete has mailed out 14 copies so far with just a dozen left to do. Hurrah!!! These will be wrapped and packed next week.
Arriving this week (yesterday in fact) were the signed editions of THE DARK MASTERS TRILOGY by Stephen Volk; OCTOBERLAND by Thana Niveau and RIME by Tim Lebbon. All three look absolutely gorgeous showing off their signing sheet and endpapers.
When I spoke to our slipcase manufacturers the other day they said it would be a couple more weeks before we receive them for THE WAY OF THE WORM and BY THE LIGHT OF MY SKULL but I’m sure it’ll be worth it when you see it all put together.
This week I sent an order for the tickets that will be signed and numbered for the Electric Dreamhouse books SPIRITS OF THE DEAD by Tim Lucas and LES VAMPIRES by Tim Major. I’ve also put in an order for some interesting signing sheets which we will tell you about in a future newsletter.
The sheets for DARK MIRAGES edited by Paul Kane and BY THE LIGHT OF MY SKULL by Ramsey Campbell are still going the rounds.
Thank you to all those people who often write to me to let us know their order has arrived. You also sometimes do a bit of ‘waxing lyrical’ which is always very welcome.
And thanks once again for your patience when our orders don’t reach you as fast as we would like them to.
And now back to Pete for this week’s big news.
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Okay. Here goes, gang. Starting immediately . . .
Every so often we have one of those crazy brainstorming marathons at our weekly meeting and all sorts of wacky ideas get bounced from bonce to bonce. Some, thankfully, never see the light of day, but every now and then, one seems to strike a chord.
Lately, we've been thrilled by the many kind words you guys have written to us regarding our trade paperback range—the production quality and French flaps seem to have gone down particlularly well. With the BEST NEW HORROR line-up taking shape—Steve Jones has begun pulling together the next (BNH#29) in readiness for the new year—and our Ramsey Campbell trade paperbacks coming through with brand new covers, the format is on the up. And now, it would appear that those who shop on Amazon—they're stripping our warehouse shelves at ever increasing rates—have taken a liking too.
So in answer to those who would rather shop at PS Towers, we've taken a very radical step. As of now, we're offering FREE POSTAGE on all our DIP paperbacks and trade paperback editions, and that goes whether you're here in the UK, on mainland Europe, North American, or down under in Australia and New Zealand. We've got customers in Mali, Thailand, Brazil and even Ascension Island 'Hi Bob' and you're all in the PS 'say no to paperback postage' club.
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Okay folks, that’s it for this week.
There’s just the hint of graveyard mist creeping up the greensward from the seafront and already gathering at the foot of the Towers’ west wing so take it easy and drive carefully if you go out. It’s only about 35 days to the shortest day and then we can get back to summer togs (though, to be honest, Mike and I are still in our shorts).
Look after each other and happy reading.
Pete
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