Digital Detective Inspector Chen

Nearly three years ago, on December 1, 2010, I published a blog post on the long-awaited publication of the fifth Detective Inspector Chen novel, The Iron Khan, by author Liz Williams. At that time, the novel was only available in various ebook formats. Morrigan Books, publisher of this fifth DI Chen novel, released the print edition in the first part of 2011.

I had edited all five of Williams's Chen novels for Night Shade Books, but due to circumstances (which the author explained on her Live Journal here and here), the fifth volume was dropped by Night Shade and picked up by Morrigan Books.

Now, finally, all five Detective Inspector Chen novels are available in a variety of ebook formats from Open Road Media -- the novels should be read in order, as the underlying story is revealed that leads up to the proposed sixth and final volume, Morning Star. Here are the five volumes, in order of publication -- and the order in which they should be read: [Note: Links below are to the Amazon Kindle format; other formats can be obtained via iTunes, Google, B&N, and Kobo.]

1. Snake Agent
2. The Demon and the City
3. Precious Dragon
4. The Shadow Pavilion
5. The Iron Khan

Paul Weimer, in his review of The Iron Khan on Goodreads, has summed up what is so special about this series of novels. Paul writes: "As is usual for the Chen books, the narrative not only focuses on Chen, Zhu Irzh and their friends and allies, but new characters, whose goals, desires and needs bloom like a flower quickly coming into full season. Both the titular antagonist, the Iron Khan, other antagonists, and those who oppose their efforts, such as the Japanese warrior Omi, have their narrative threads intersect with our main characters. They have pasts, presents and futures of their own, and never serve to act for the benefit of the main characters. If anything, these characters draw our main characters and their talents into their stories, for ill or will."

All five Detective Inspector Chen novels are also available in matching trade paperbacks from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Never rip off your web designer....

NYC Fresh Market in Harlem
nycfreshmarket.com
(via Hacker News)

Bradley P. Beaulieu Has Booked Passage

Back in April, I published a blog post highlighting my then current project: copy editing the crowdfunded short fiction collection, Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories, by Bradley P. Beaulieu (pronounced "Bowl-yer").

Well, that blog post was four months ago, and I now hold in my hand my contributor's copy of Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories, with cover art by Sang Han, and original black and white illos by Evgeni Maloshenkov that open each of the seventeen stories.

The book is a trade paperback, and the quality is as good as, if not better than, books published by any New York publisher. I'm quite impressed with this book, and pleased to have been a part of this crowdfunded project.

I want to thank Brad Beaulieu for providing me the opportunity to work on this project with him (Here's to hoping there will be others in the near future!) and for his kind words, which he shared with readers in the book's acknowledgements:

To Marty Halpern, you have my thanks for lending your keen eye to the three new stories, and then applying it again to the entire ms. This collection would have been riddled with errors without your help.

Aw, shucks. Thanks, Brad.

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

In memory of Elmore Leonard, crime novelist and screenwriter, October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013. During his sixty-year career, Leonard wrote nearly fifty novels, twenty-six of which were adapted for television or movies.

For all the details behind these Ten Rules of Writing, please read the author's Writers on Writing essay entitled "Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle," published in the New York Times, on July 16, 2001.

(via Mashable.com)

A Mensch by any other name...

The Urban Dictionary defines "Mensch" as:

...someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being "a real mensch" is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous. (Rosten, Leo. 1968. The Joys of Yiddish. New York: Pocket Books. 237)

* * * *

For those of you who have worked as freelancers for any length of time -- especially in the various genre fields -- you have most likely encountered a situation when your employer kills a project that you've worked on, or the employer files for bankruptcy, or, to avoid bankruptcy, is purchased by another entity. In my years of freelancing, I've encountered this twice: the demise of Realms of Fantasy magazine, published for a short time by Damnation Books, and the demise and sale of Night Shade Books.

When these unfortunate events happen, the freelancer is typically owed money and, most likely, not all of that money will ever be forthcoming. Some refer to the money that eventually does get paid as a "kill fee"; I prefer to call it a "screw fee." A kill fee comes from the magazine industry, and refers to, say, an article that is written and accepted, but then never published for some reason. The freelancer did the work, but the article is never used; thus the freelancer is typically paid a pre-defined percentage of the money owed. In my case the work was accepted AND used, and there was no pre-defined "kill fee" clause. I simply wasn't paid the full amount owed to me by either Damnation Books or the new Night Shade Books owners, Skyhorse Publishing and Start Publishing.

And though I would prefer to be paid fully for work performed (Wouldn't we all?), especially at the level of quality that I adhere to for all my projects, I understand that that is one of the risks in freelancing, especially in this business of independent publishers.

* * * *

So what do "mensch" and "kill/screw fees" have in common, you might wonder....

When Night Shade Books was sold, the new publishers owed me for four projects that I had completed between November 2012 and January 2013. Though I was paid only a small percentage of what was owed, on the bright side, something is always better than nothing.

Shortly thereafter I received an email from one of the four authors whose projects I had worked on. S/he asked me how much was owed to me for working on her/his project, because, s/he said, "I want to make it right with you." The author was planning on paying me with the money s/he received, per contract, from the new owners of Night Shade Books.

So, using the percentage of what I was paid versus what I was owed, I figured out the difference, and determined how much I was still owed for that one project.

I emailed the author back, and I quote: "I want you to know that I in no way expect any author to repay me any fees owed to me by Night Shade Books. My invoices are for work performed for Night Shade, not specifically for the author." But, of course, if s/he was determined to pay me what was owed on this specific project, I certainly wasn't going to turn down any money. Keep in mind that my work for Night Shade Books was a significant portion of my income, which has ceased to exist as of mid-January.

That email was sent to me on April 10; on July 23 I received emails from both the author and PayPal that a payment had been made to me.

Now that is what a "Mensch" is. And the author? Well, that's between me and her/him, but saying "thank you" just doesn't seem to be enough.

My Colorscreen: Sunrise

For those of you who are Android freaks and geeks you probably know about the website mycolorscreen.com. And if not, you really need to check this out. On this site I have seen some of the most incredible Android home screens, especially those in which the individual has used PhotoShop to make custom wallpapers and icons. I just shake my head and say "Wow!"

Anyhow, pictured here is my home screen on my Google Nexus 7, which I have titled "Sunrise."

Now for the details, which will undoubtedly bore you unless Android is your OS of choice.

My Nexus 7 runs stock Android Jelly Bean 4.3, Nova Launcher Prime, and the DCikonZ ADW Apex Nova Go Theme for all app icons. Both Nova Launcher Prime and DCikonZ are available in the Google Play Store. The DCikonZ icon pack now contains more than 3,200 icons, and the developer is constantly adding new ones. Many are rather obscure that he has added specifically because of user requests.

1. Battery widget: I created this using the Minimalistic Text app (Google Play Store). However, I didn't use the default battery widget that comes with this app; I created my own, using a custom battery font with no numbers for the "Non-Accented" and "Normal" parts of the battery bar.

2. The Time, Day, and Date widget, also known as a "skin," was added using the Ultimate Custom Widget app, or UCCW (Google Play Store). In the Play Store you'll find the Elegante UCCW Skin, which includes just the Time and Day. I used the Elegante-Plus UCCW Skin, which also includes the Date, available only from the XDA developer's website.

3. Weather skin: I created this minimal weather skin myself using UCCW once again. I replaced the default weather condition icons with Metrowhite weather icons, courtesy of "Marco" on the MyColorscreen YouTube channel.

4. The custom "APPS" icon in the bottom left of the screen is for the Circle Launcher, full version (Google Play Store), which launches eleven of my most used apps -- other than the six media apps appearing in the dock -- in a vertical bar, as pictured in this second screen shot.

As simple as this screen may appear to be, I spent quite a bit of time learning the use of the Minimalistic Text and UCCW apps. There are numerous YouTube videos, some in multiple parts, that provide excellent tutorials for using these apps. The only problem I found is that the apps are constantly updated and the various options, settings, etc. in the vids no longer match those in the current apps. However, the vids will provide the basics, and then it's just some trial and error after that to get the options and settings just right. Just remember to save your work, as you would on any computer.

One final note: Not visible on either of these screen shots is the notification bar. I use another app called Quickly Notification Shortcuts (Google Play Store) that allows me to place up to nine apps on the notification bar pull-down. I have only six of the shortcuts being used, and included among these apps are my Flashlight, tablet Settings, Google Keep, and WiFi Connection manager.

Here's the link to my colorscreen on mycolorscreen.com.

Jack Swag

If you've been in the book biz, say, at least 15 to 20 years (and even longer), then you will remember when publishers used to send out promo swag to encourage bookstores and book reviewers to push their titles. Just some of the goodies I have on hand include the cardboard mask of the cover image on William Gibson's novel Mona Lisa Overdrive, and a red and white Repairman Jack baseball cap from the F. Paul Wilson series.

Which brings me to the photo on the left: the box of swag I received as a contributor to the just published anthology Tales of Jack the Ripper, edited by Ross E. Lockhart -- the first book to be published by Word Horde.

As to the box's contents: Obviously, the most important item is the anthology itself -- one of the nicest looking trade paperbacks I've seen in a long time: true production quality. Working with Ross on this book (along with Claudia Noble on the cover design) felt like a Night Shade Books reunion project. For more on the book, you can read my previous blog post as well as view the video trailer.

Next up is the "official" Jack the Ripper knife. I mean, what would a box of Ripper swag be without a knife? The card to which the knife is attached reads in part: "Meet Jack's little friend! Stab your friends and family!" Now, the red item you see in the photograph is a spongy rubber kidney (sorry that it doesn't show up better in the photo) bearing the title of the book, "Tales of Jack the Ripper." When I first opened the box, the kidney was resting right on the blade end of the knife, and it initially appeared as if the knife had been stuck into the heart!

Last, but certainly not least, are the Tales of Jack the Ripper postcards and book marks, and Word Horde stickers.

And if you are interested in obtaining a box of Tales of Jack the Ripper swag -- including an ebook edition in the format of your choice, then hit the Word Horde site at this link and place your order for the Saucy Jack Deluxe Pack.

And, enjoy the read. I'm confident that we'll be seeing a number of these stories on "best of" lists for the year, and even a few award nominations.

Edit Ruthlessly....

(via @thecreativepenn)

You Don't Know Jack....

Tales of Jack the Ripper, from Ross E. Lockhart and Word Horde. Official publication date is August 31, the 125th anniversary of the Whitechapel Murders. However, the anthology is shipping now....

The trailer was created by author Patrick Tumblety, whose story "Something About Dr. Tumblety" is included in the anthology. Here's the full press release with the complete table of contents.

Do You Fear Lovecraft's Monsters?

Recently I completed my fiftieth book project for Tachyon Publications. That project milestone was a copy edit of anthology Lovecraft's Monsters, edited by Ellen Datlow, to be published in early 2014.

Back in June, while I was working on this project, I read Brian Hodge's story, "The Same Deep Waters as You," for the first time. (The story was originally published in Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth, edited by Stephen Jones, Fedogan & Bremer, 2013.) And I posted elsewhere that this may just be one of the best stories of the year! I'm not a book reviewer, so I don't do review-speak at all. What I can say is that this story has just the right mix of intelligence, tone, anticipation, dread, etc. to make it one of the best stories I've read this year. What more can I say? The story just hit the right spot in my reading psyche.

I'm not particularly fond of stories with excessive blood & gore and/or nail-biting psychological horror. I'm not a "fright night" kind of guy. Which is why the stories in Lovecraft's Monsters appeal to my reading sensibility. The Brian Hodge story was the only one I actually posted about, but a number of the other stories were just as exceptional.

Lovecraft's Monsters has an April 2014 pub date, but you can order the book now -- and order often! Here's the complete table of contents.

Steven Utley's Silurian Tales

In the latter part of 2002, as an acquiring editor for Golden Gryphon Press, I was happily working away on a second collection of George Alec Effinger stories. To that end, I had contacted George's fellow writers, editors, and friends for their favorite GAE story (and once they named their favorite, I then cajoled and begged them into writing a brief introduction to said story for the collection). ¹

Gardner Dozois was one of the editors whom I contacted, and he responded to my query via email on December 24, 2002. After recommending a number of Effinger stories in his email, including the pseudonymously written "O. Niemand" stories (which he did, in fact, introduce in the collection), Gardner wrote:

Cheeky as it may be of me, I've also been meaning to write to you and suggest two other worthy collections that are floating around out there and which don't seem to be able to find a home anywhere in the commercial publishing world.

The first collection Gardner recommended was for "Avram Davidson's wonderful and as yet uncollected stories about Jack Limekiller, and his adventures in an imaginary but vividly detailed Central American country drenched with magic, strange creatures, and supernatural menaces." ²

As to the second collection, Gardner went on to write:

The other collection I'd like to recommend is Steven Utley's collection of Silurian Tales, which have been appearing in venues such as ASIMOV'S, F&SF, SCI FICTION, and elsewhere over the last decade or so. This probably will never appeal to the big trade publishers, since there are no dinosaurs in it, Steve somewhat perversely having decided to take us back in time to the Silurian Age rather than the dinosaur age, when the biggest things on land are segmented worms. But [the stories] have maintained a sustained level of brilliance all these years, with many of them making one or another Best of the Year collection, and I think a collection of them would make a worthy book.

After the new year (2003), I tracked down a number of Steven Utley's Silurian Age stories in my copies of Asimov's SF and elsewhere, and was intrigued enough to contact the author. And a few months later Steven submitted a full collection of his Silurian tales.

At the time, Golden Gryphon Press was publishing eight hardcover titles per year, but unfortunately that level of production didn't last. Some months later I received an email from the publisher informing me that he wanted to reduce the number of books per year to a maximum of six titles. Given my current commitments, that meant my half of the schedule was already booked through the next two years. Consequently, were I to acquire the collection of Silurian tales, it wouldn't see publication for at least three years. I didn't feel that was right, to hold up the publication of Steven's collection for three years, when he might find another press who could publish the book sooner.

My rejection letter to Steven Utley is dated November 26, 2003, and concludes with the following paragraph:

If you’re up to it, I would be most grateful if you would keep me posted on your efforts to have the collection published. And, as I said, I would be pleased to put in a good word for the collection with another publisher, and explain why, given Golden Gryphon Press's current schedule, we're not publishing the book instead. In fact, I would like to know by whom and when the book will be published so that I may place an order myself for a copy!

Steven did keep in touch, at least for a while; I recall receiving group emails from him with links to this and that, whatever he felt might be of interest to his contacts. At some point the emails stopped, and I never did hear anything further from him regarding the publication of his Silurian tales. (Though I will admit that I hadn't been actively searching for information either.) And then early this year, on January 12 -- or maybe it was the 13th that I actually read the news -- Steven Utley passed away.

Editors/Agents: What would you like writers to stop doing?

Over the July 4th holiday weekend, I attended Westercon 66 at the Hilton Arden West Hotel in Sacramento. I participated in three group panels, and one solo panel, which is the primary focus of this blog post.

First, just for the sake of posterity, I'd like to list the three group panels on which I participated, with a special nod to my fellow panelists who helped make the respective panels enjoyable as well as educational (for me as well as the audience).

July 5, 11:15:00, Sonoma conference room

The Pain & Joy of Self Publishing

Self-publishing allows the author to retain total creative control, but means they forgo the benefits of being with a major label. Our panel discusses the benefits and drawbacks of self-publishing and how to compensate for not having an editor and publishing house.

Panelists: M. Todd Gallowglas (M); Valerie Frankel; Marty Halpern; Emerian Rich; Karen Sandler; Jean Marie Stine.

July 6, 11:15:00, Sonoma conference room

Secrets of Publishing

Nearly every SF/fantasy author has been published by a smaller press at some point in their careers. It is also known for publishing new authors, midlist authors, short story collections, and other "odd" books typically rejected by the big New York publishers. Our panelists represent a spectrum of publications, and can "tell

all."

Panelists: David Maxine (M); Marty Halpern; Jacob Weisman.

[Note: I was under the impression that the "tell all" part of this panel was for the panelists to share some of their "publishing secrets" with the audience. Unfortunately, though I had come prepared with plenty of secrets, this was not the case. Instead, the discussion concerned copyright, distribution, etc. -- and I left with all of my "secrets" intact. Maybe next time....]

July 6, 12:30:00, Folsom conference room

Publishing Options: Traditional vs On-Demand and Self-Publishing

The days of needing your own printing press are long gone. With modern publishing methods you can print one copy or 1 million. Our panelists will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the various publishing options.

Panelists: Ben Yalow (M); Kelley Eskridge; Marty Halpern; Phyllis Kalbach; Emerian Rich; Jean Marie Stine.

So these were the three group panels in which I participated. I've been on a number of similar panels over the course of the past few years, at Baycon, Fogcon, Convolution, and Westercon, but since the industry -- and technology -- change so rapidly, and the panelists differ from con to con, there is always an opportunity for the audience (and me as well) to learn something new or, at least, to learn how the industry has changed.

And here are the details for my solo panel:

July 6, 3:00:00 Merlot conference room

Ask The Editor

Join Marty Halpern for "Ask the Editor." Bring your general editing questions or specific editing questions. You may also bring a copy of your own work for demo editing.

Marty Halpern (M)

Fortunately, no one in the audience had brought manuscript pages to be demo-edited; I say "fortunately" because the projection system and flip chart that Westercon programming had promised to provide me were never delivered (which, in my overall experience at a number of Bay Area cons in recent years, is fairly typical; if you really need a projection system, flip chart, etc., bring your own).

Following my lengthy introduction and some general chatting with the audience, I asked for questions -- and Effie Seiberg posed the following: "What would you like writers to start doing?" and "What would like writers to stop doing?"

These were actually very good questions, and the first part -- What I would like writers to start doing -- was easily answered: spell check your work! I'm not talking about spelling errors like "their," "they're," and "there." I'm talking about blatant spelling errors that even Microsoft's lousy spell checker would catch. Not to spell check your work is, in my humble editorial opinion, nothing but pure laziness. Blatant spelling errors in a manuscript will easily turn off a potential agent, editor, or publisher, because it shows a lack of respect for your own work (and their time).

Of course, once I had given the "spell check" response, a second thought immediately came to mind: style sheet. I've previously written about style sheets in December 2010, in February 2011, and again in January 2012. As I've mentioned at least once in those three blog posts, in my near fifteen years as an editor, only two authors have ever provided me with a style sheet: Michael A. Stackpole and Mark Teppo. Style sheets should become a matter of habit for every author, for novels especially, but for short stories, too. I would argue that a detailed style sheet will eliminate a number of questions and mark-ups on the author's manuscript, thus making the editor's job easier and, in turn, the author's job when the manuscript is returned.

As to the second half of Effie's question: What would I like writers to stop doing? -- though I thought for a brief moment, nothing really came to mind then -- and nothing has come to mind since. I'm not a stickler for formatting guidelines, or grammar rules, as long as the author is consistent throughout the manuscript. So I guess I could add a third point to the "What I would like writers to start doing": be consistent.

Which brings me to the audience participation part of this blog post: If you are an agent, an editor, and/or a publisher, what would you like writers to stop doing?

Google Reader: October 2005 to July 2013

Sync No More

Wattsworld: Peter Watts and Beyond the Rift

I'm quite a cheerful guy in person. Apparently people are surprised by this.

I don't know what they were expecting....But insofar as I'm known at all, I seem to be known as The Guy Who Writes The Depressing Stories....While mulling over what to put in this essay I did a quick Google search for the descriptors commonly applied to my writing. I list a few for illustrative purposes:

Brutal

Dark (frequently "unrelentingly" so)

Paranoid

Nightmarish

Relentless

The blackest depths of the human psyche

Ugly

Savage

Misanthropic

Dystopian

Cover art by Hugh Sicotte

So writes Peter Watts, in the afterword, entitled "Outtro: En Route to Dystopia with the Angry Optimist," to his forthcoming short story collection, Beyond the Rift.

As to Peter's opening sentence above, often readers confuse the writer with their writing. Though authors often call upon personal experiences in their writing, it certainly doesn't mean that the writer him/herself is in any way the protagonist in their stories. That's why these stories are called fiction.

If you've not previously read the works of Canadian science fiction writer Peter Watts, indeed, you are in for a treat.

Take, for example, the story "The Things," an homage to the classic science fiction movie, told from the creature's point of view. Then there is the story "The Island," in which a mother and son and an AI called "Chimp," aboard the generation ship Eriophora, must deal with a close encounter in the far reaches of space. "The Things" (originally published in Clarkesworld #40, January 2010) won the Shirley Jackson Award for best short story, and "The Island" (originally published in The New Space Opera 2, edited by Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins) won the Hugo Award for best novelette. In fact, Watts's stories and novels have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Hugo Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the Campbell Award, the Locus Award, and the BSFA Award, among others -- and some of these awards more than once.

Beyond the Rift was my most recent project for publisher Tachyon Publications -- a copy editing job that I had been looking forward to since I first learned of the project earlier this year.

Watts's stories are all so well written that it is difficult to pick a favorite story. I think my favorite is "A Niche" (originally published in Tesseracts 3, edited by Candas Jane Dorsey & Gerry Truscott, Porcépic Books) because, well, because we all need our own space, our own personal niche -- even if it just happens to be below three kilometers of ocean; and we're all a little bit weird in our own unique way, aren't we? But then again, if you asked me next week what my favorite story is I could very well select a different one: maybe "Ambassador" (originally published in Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing), which is sort of like the car chase in The French Connection but with spaceships jumping across interstellar space.

In "Outtro," we also learn a bit about Peter Watts the person. He shares with us his run in, in December 2009, with U.S. border guards at the U.S.-Canadian border, upon returning home from a visit with friends in Nebraska. The outcome -- which prohibits Peter from ever again entering the United States -- most certainly contributes to his dystopian outlook in his writing.

You can read "The Things" online courtesy of Clarkesworld Magazine. After which, I hope you'll be adding Beyond the Rift to your online shopping cart. The book will be published on November 1.

Weird Solutions to the Fermi Paradox

Back in 2010, my co-edited (with Nick Gevers) anthology Is Anybody Out There? was published by DAW Books: stories each with a unique take on the Fermi paradox. And just what is the Fermi paradox, you may ask? Here's an excerpt from our pitch for the book:

Why is it that, in such a vast cosmos, with hundreds of billions of stars in this galaxy alone, and no doubt billions of Earth-like planets orbiting them, we have found no evidence of intelligent alien life? No evidence that aliens have ever visited Earth (other than discredited UFO mythology), no detectable signals in all our SETI searches with radio telescopes...

So it was with great interest that I happened upon an article on io9.com entitled "11 of the Weirdest Solutions to the Fermi Paradox." Though, when you think about them, they're not so weird after all -- especially in comparison to some of the stories in Is Anybody Out There?

I'll list the eleven points, with a very brief explanation; you'll need to read the io9 article, which I heartily recommend, for the details:

1. The Zoo Hypothesis: we're stuck inside some kind of celestial cage, and we're being watched.

2. Self-Imposed Quarantine: Extra-Terrestrial Intelligences (ETIs) may have collectively and independently decided to stay at home and not draw attention to themselves.

3. The Whack-a-Mole Hypothesis: ETIs are hovering over us with a giant hammer ready to smack it down should they suddenly not like what they see. Sort of like the Zoo Hypothesis, but not as friendly.

4. We're Made Out of Meat: Yum! Reminds me of The Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" (based on the story of the same name by Damon Knight).

5. The Simulation Hypothesis: we're living inside a computer simulation — and the simulation isn't generating any extraterrestrial companions for us.

6. Radio Silence: it's possible that ETIs are listening, but no one is transmitting.

7. All Aliens Are Homebodies: an advanced enough ETI could lose all galactic-scale ambitions.

8. We Can't Read the Signs: it's totally possible that the signs of ETIs are all around us, but we just can't see/understand/detect them.

9. They're All Hanging Out At the Edge of the Galaxy: we’re looking for ET in the wrong place — they've set up camp where it's super cool, at the outer rim of the Galaxy.

10. Directed Panspermia: we haven’t made contact with ETIs because we're the aliens, or at least, they're our ancestors.

11. The Phase Transition Hypothesis: the universe is still evolving and changing, and the conditions to support advanced intelligence have only recently fallen into place.

Most of these "weird" solutions, or theories, however, are nothing compared to what you will find in Is Anybody Out There? How about an alien that appears only once a year, and only visible at a certain time and place, because the alien is out of phase with our own reality? ("The Dark Man" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch) Or aliens who try to communicate via the hypertext in an online library database? ("Graffiti in the Library of Babel" by David Langford) Or, a dying astronaut, who insists he made alien contact during his time in space, but no one believes him -- well, maybe one does. ("Where Two or Three" by Sheila Finch) Aliens are among us, residing in the human brain. ("The Taste of Night" by Pat Cadigan)

These are just a taste (no pun intended) of the fifteen stories included in Is Anybody Out There? which has obviously sold well enough to justify a second printing -- not too shabby in the world of mass market paperback anthologies. I have a dedicated IAOT? page with links to all the blog posts, including the complete text to a half-dozen of the stories, including the four mentioned above.

Skyhorse Publishing and Start Media Acquire Night Shade Books

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Oleg Lyubner
olyubner@skyhorsepublishing.com
Meghan Kilduff
kilduff@start-media.com

SKYHORSE AND START ACQUIRE NIGHT SHADE BOOKS

(June 3, 2013) Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. and Start Publishing are pleased to announce the acquisition of Night Shade Books, an award-winning independent publishing house dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Founded by Jason Williams in 1997, who was joined by partner Jeremy Lassen shortly after, Night Shade Books has over 250 titles in its catalog, including some renowned genre fiction—written by multiple nominees and winners of Shirley Jackson, Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, Nebula, and Hugo awards. In 2003, Night Shade Books won the World Fantasy Special Award for Professional Achievement. Both Williams and Lassen will continue to be with Night Shade in a consulting capacity.

THE AGREEMENT WAS REACHED FOLLOWING A SPIRITED AND PUBLIC DEBATE AMONG AUTHORS, AGENTS, FANS, AND PUBLISHERS, WHICH RESULTED IN A DEAL APPROVED BY NIGHT SHADE’S AUTHORS. “THIS AGREEMENT BRINGS TOGETHER NIGHT SHADE’S DISTINCTIVE EDITORIAL VOICE AND SKYHORSE’S BUSINESS SAVVY AND MARKET REACH, FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL INVOLVED, INCLUDING AUTHORS AND THE GREAT COMMUNITY OF SF/F FANS,” SAYS MICHAEL J. MARTINEZ, AUTHOR OF THE DAEDALUS INCIDENT, SLATED TO BE THE FIRST TITLE FROM THE NEW NIGHT SHADE. “I’M HONORED THAT MY FIRST BOOK WILL HELP KICK OFF THE NEXT CHAPTER IN NIGHT SHADE’S ONGOING STORY.”

“We’re absolutely thrilled to have added Night Shade to our various other imprints and look forward to working with Start Publishing to build it into the strong science fiction imprint that we feel confident it can become,” said Tony Lyons, Publisher of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

“Nightshade has been at the forefront of science fiction and fantasy for years. Start Publishing, alongside Skyhorse Publishing, welcomes the opportunity to provide Night Shade and its authors a platform to continue that tradition,” added Michael Maher, CEO of Start Media.

“I am very excited to have found a buyer that is such a good fit for Night Shade, one that will be able to take us further than I was able to on my own. I look forward to building up Night Shade into the powerhouse of science fiction and fantasy for years to come,” said Night Shade founder Jason Williams. Night Shade had net sales of roughly $1.5 million for the 2012 calendar year.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Oleg Lyubner, Director of Publicity at Skyhorse Publishing, and Meghan Kilduff at Start Publishing.

Publicity Contacts

Oleg Lyubner / (212) 643-6816 x 229 / olyubner@skyhorsepublishing.com

Meghan Kilduff / (212) 431-5455 / kilduff@start-media.com

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
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Ross E. Lockhart's Word Horde and Tales of Jack the Ripper

In the past few weeks I've worked on three projects by former Night Shade Books assets. "Assets" -- don't you just love that word? It's so wonderful when the publishing industry refers to its authors -- people -- human beings! -- as assets. I tend to think of assets as material objects: company cars, machinery, inventory -- property; but not people. And maybe, just maybe, that's why the traditional book publishing business is in the asset hole that it currently finds itself, as more and more assets -- people -- leave traditional publishing to self-publish and/or set up their own micro presses.

The first of the three projects was Bradley P. Beaulieu's self-published short fiction collection, Lest Our Passage Be Forgotten & Other Stories, which I blogged about here; and the second project is the forthcoming collection of Company stories, In the Company of Thieves, by Kage Baker and Kathleen Bartholomew, from Tachyon Publications -- which I blogged about here.

Which brings me to my most recent project:

There is a new publisher in town, virtually speaking, that is: Word Horde press.

After serving five years as the anchor that centered and steadied the inevitable tsunami-bound ship that was Night Shade Books, Ross E. Lockhart formed his own publishing venture earlier this year, and thus we have Word Horde.

Cover art by Arnaud de Vallois

While at Night Shade, Ross edited the two epic Lovecraftian anthologies -- The Book of Cthulhu and The Book of Cthulhu II. Now, with the launch of Word Horde, Ross's first book -- the enthralling Tales of Jack the Ripper -- affirms the Ripper's Whitechapel slayings in 1888, 125 years ago.

You can read the official Press Release, which includes a complete list of the contents of the anthology, but let me take this opportunity to excerpt just a paragraph from that PR:

The story of Jack the Ripper captured lurid headlines and the public's imagination, and the first fictionalization of the Ripper killings, John Francis Brewer's The Curse Upon Mitre Square appeared in October of 1888, mere weeks after the discovery of Jack's first victim. Since then, hundreds of stories have been written about Bloody Jack, his victims, and his legacy. Authors ranging from Marie Belloc Lowndes to Robert Bloch to Harlan Ellison to Roger Zelazny to Alan Moore have added their own tales to the Ripper myth. Now, as we arrive at the quasquicentennial of the murders, we bring you a few tales more.

Of the seventeen stories (and two bookending poems by Ann K. Schwader) included in this volume, fourteen of them are original to the anthology. (Again, check the official PR for a list of the contents.) The three reprint stories are by a few authors you may even recognize: Ramsey Campbell, Alan M. Clark and Gary A. Braunbeck, and Joe R. Lansdale.

Every themed anthology faces the issue of repetitive content: Can the editor -- and the contributing authors -- maintain the reader's interest/attention through fifteen or twenty or more stories without yielding to theme overload? After reading (and copy editing) Tales of Jack the Ripper this past week, I believe this anthology successfully (and I use that word with emphasis) responds to this issue. While reading these stories I found myself amidst the offal and stink of the back alleys of 1888 Whitechapel; questioning who the Ripper really was (a female assailant?); tracking how the "Ripper disorder" skipped generations to present day; and more.

It's probably best not to read the stories in Tales of Jack the Ripper at night -- and alone.

Jack Vance 1916–2013

Today we lost one of the greats: Jack Vance -- a Grand Master of science fiction; or maybe his style of writing would be better served were I to call it "science fantasy." Jack Vance was 96 years young, with a lifetime of experiences that ranged the entire world.

In memory of Jack Vance, I would like to post the following, which I originally published on this blog on July 31, 2009: I recount my two visits to the Vance household in the Oakland foothills, in 1989 and 1990; I also hold Jack Vance responsible for my book collecting addiction....

At Home with Jack Vance

At 92 years of age (soon to be 93, on August 28), author Jack Vance is finally garnering some long-overdue, well-deserved attention in the media. And considering that he hasn't published any new fiction since 2004 (novel Lurulu, sequel to Ports of Call, 1998; both from Tor Books), this is indeed a remarkable accomplishment. Why all the media attention now? Because Vance has two books that have just been published by Subterranean Press. First and foremost is Vance's autobiography, This Is Me, Jack Vance! (more on this in a bit). The second title is anthology Songs of the Dying Earth, which is subtitled "Stories in Honor of Jack Vance." Songs features some of the best writers in the genre: Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin (who co-edited the anthology), Lucius Shepard, and Dan Simmons, to name only four, with an appreciation by Dean Koontz. What makes this book even more special is that Vance himself has written a new preface to open the anthology.

Carlo Rotella, director of American Studies at Boston College, wrote an excellent and lengthy piece (nearly 3,700 words) on Jack Vance entitled "The Genre Artist" in the July 15 New York Times. Rotella's introduction to Vance's fiction occurred when he was 14 years old, and he's been reading the author's work ever since. In this article Rotella quotes from a number of Vance novels, quotes from contributors (Tanith Lee and Dan Simmons) to the Songs anthology, and even quotes from Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon: "Jack Vance is the most painful case of all the writers I love who I feel don't get the credit they deserve. If 'The Last Castle' or 'The Dragon Masters' had the name Italo Calvino on it, or just a foreign name, it would be received as a profound meditation, but because he's Jack Vance and published in Amazing Whatever, there's this insurmountable barrier." Well said, Mr. Chabon! I'm awaiting my copy of This Is Me, Jack Vance! from Subterranean Press, but in the meantime I have Rotella's article to tide me over. By the way, Rotella notes that "Vance takes pride in his craft but does not care to talk about it in any detail, going so far in his memoir as to consign almost all discussion of writing to a brief chapter at the end." If you're not familiar with Jack Vance, this article is a great mini-introduction to Vance's work, and his life. Kudos to Carlo Rotella.

I personally lay all the blame for my rampant book collecting on Jack Vance... Well, that's not really fair: his mass market paperback publishers Berkley Medallion and DAW Books actually share that dubious honor. I was already an avid book reader, but it was Jack Vance's Demon Princes series that drove me to my bibliophilic behavior. I don't recall how the Demon Princes series was brought to my attention, but in the early '80s I made a concerted effort to track down these five books. Now, you have to remember that at that point in time, there was no internet; there was no "online" in which to do an online book search. In those days we actually had to visit bookstores; and we used the telephone and, dare I say it, book catalogs sent through the mail to acquire specific titles. My favorite bookstore was Books, Inc. in the Town & Country shopping center near the corner of Stevens Creek and Winchester boulevards in San Jose. Books, Inc. closed down not too long after the Barnes and Noble superstore opened about a block away; and now the entire Town & Country shopping center is gone, replaced by the upscale Santana Row. But back to Books, Inc.: The store was a panacea for SF readers in particular because the management never returned a book. Regardless of the number of copies they ordered of any particular paperback, those copies would remain on the shelves until they sold. You could find paperbacks on the shelves that were years old, the pages often yellowed from age. So that's where I went to purchase the five volumes in Vance's Demon Princes series. The first three books in the series -- Star King, The Killing Machine, and The Palace of Love -- were published in the '60s by Berkley Medallion; the final two books in the series -- The Face and The Book of Dreams -- were published by DAW Books in 1979 and 1981 respectively. Unfortunately, I only found one of the DAW books on the shelf. A clerk assisted me by looking up the other four titles in Books in Print (available as a set of humongous hardcovers as well as on microfiche). It turned out that two of the five titles were out of print -- one from Berkley Medallion and the first book from DAW. And, not understanding the stupidity of publishers at the time, I couldn't comprehend why any publisher would allow the middle books of a five-book series to go out of print. It just didn't make any sense to me -- then. But in the course of looking through Books in Print, the clerk discovered that the series had been published in a hardcover edition by an independent press called Underwood-Miller. Great, I said, let's order them. Sorry, said the clerk, we don't deal directly with that publisher, and those titles aren't available through our regular distributor. Sigh... Time to go home and make some telephone calls to other bookstores in the area.

This is how I discovered genre bookstore Future Fantasy in Palo Alto, about a 25-mile drive from where I live. I telephoned the store, and yes, they could order the books for me, but I would have to pay for them in advance. So I made the drive to Palo Alto, only to discover that the store proprietor would only order one volume at a time -- even though I was willing to pay for the five books all at once, up front. Not sure of her rationale; but keep in mind that this was the early '80s and each of these trade hardcovers cost, I believe it was, $20.00 each -- so the set of five books was $100.00 (plus tax). Anyhow, I paid for the first book in advance, returned to the store a couple weeks later when the book arrived and paid in advance for the next one in the series, and so on until I owned all five books. Of course, I was now hooked on hardcovers and limited editions, having been in Future Fantasy -- browsing and buying -- six times over the span of about three months: the road to ruin, you might say. Future Fantasy moved a few years later to a larger store, but then the local competition and the internet finally took its toll and the store closed as well.

CrossMe Color app for Android Redux

As I've mentioned in two previous blog posts (here and here), I have a rather strong addiction to an Android game called CrossMe Color. It's sort of like Suduku, but with numbers and colors.

I have now completed all the puzzles through level 8, which is the "Shogun" or "Expert" level. The game has a level 9, but all the puzzles are random. By that I mean the puzzles are simply random patterns, squares, and colors. Once a puzzle is completed, a return to the main menu will automatically clear the puzzle and randomize the patterns, squares, and colors again. When I get desperate enough for a CrossMe Color fix, I will work a random puzzle, but I'm not particularly fond of them: I prefer a puzzle of an actual picture/object, which is saved when the puzzle is completed.

Of course, I can always delete any puzzle solution and re-solve the puzzle, but for now I want to retain the completed puzzles. I'm hoping that the CrossMe Color developers will have an update soon that adds a few new puzzles to the existing levels.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a few of the level 7 (Sensei/Advanced) and the level 8 puzzles and solutions; I enjoy discovering what those rows and columns of colored, numbered squares will form when I complete a puzzle.

Puzzle 7.10 - Young Homer

Puzzle 7-23 - Bird

Puzzle 8-3 - Dog

Puzzle 8.4 - Giraffe

Puzzle 8.7 - Cat

Puzzle 8.14 - Parrot

Puzzle 8.16 - East

Puzzle 8.20 - Turtle

A few of the "expert" puzzles presented some difficulty, and I had to snag a few hints from the CrossMe Color Solutions Blog. But what I've pictured above are some of the puzzles that I solved completely on my own, and were personal favorites.

The CrossMe Color Premium app is $4.95 on both Google Play and the Amazon Appstore: a small amount for the hours (and hours) you'll find yourself engrossed in these puzzles.