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Authors and Their Books

This page gathers together all of my blog posts in which I discuss specific authors with whom I have worked (or only met, in the case of Jack Vance), and their books. These posts are typically 2,000 to 4,000 words in length, and I hope to add new blog posts as time permits. The list is in order of publication date, with the exception of a few blog entries I've kept together because they pertain to the same author.

I hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as I did writing them...
  • Andrew Fox and The Good Humor Man
    Posted February 19, 2009: A bit about my history with Andy Fox and how The Good Humor Man, or, Calorie 3501 came to be published by Tachyon Publications in March 2009.
  • George Alec Effinger
    Posted April 11, 2009: This, and the following two blog entries, each focus on one of the three collections of GAE's work that I acquired and edited for Golden Gryphon Press. This post is on Budayeen Nights (2003) and includes my communications with George up to about two and a half weeks before he passed away.
  • George Alec Effinger - Part Two
    Posted May 12, 2009: In which I discuss the making of George Alec Effinger Live! From Planet Earth (2005) -- stories selected by George's friends, fellow authors, and editors.
  • George Alec Effinger - Part Three
    Posted June 8, 2009: In which I discuss the genesis behind A Thousand Deaths (2007), which includes the novel The Wolves of Memory and seven short stories, all of which have the same protagonist: Sandor Courane.
  • 12 Stories Do Not a Collection Make [Alastair Reynolds]
    Posted July 16, 2009: Just because an author has accumulated 12 stories, doesn't mean those stories should be collected into a book! I use (as an example of what a collection should be) my work on Zima Blue and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds and published by Night Shade Books in 2006.
  • At Home with Jack Vance
    Posted July 31, 2009: I visited the home of Jack Vance, and his lovely wife Norma, on two occasions, once in 1989 and again in 1990. I discuss how this all came about. (I also blame Jack Vance for my bibliomaniac affliction.)
  • Mark Teppo's Codex of Souls Seeks the Light
    Posted September 30, 2009: If you're tired of vampires, warewolves, and zombies, and want solid, literate urban fantasy, with just the right touch of the supernatural/spiritual, then check out Mark's Lightbreaker (2009) and Heartland (2010), the first two books in his Codex of Souls series. I edited these two titles for Night Shade Books.
  • Charles Stross: On Her Majesty's Occult Service
    Posted December 10, 2010: I acquired and edited the first two "Laundry Files" novels by Charlie Stross: The Atrocity Archives (2004) and The Jennifer Morgue (2006), both for Golden Gryphon Press. This post discusses how these books came to be. And then I was fortunate enough to also work on book three, The Fuller Memorandum, for Ace Books (July 2010).
  • In the Company of Kage Baker
    Posted January 27, 2010: I began working on this tribute to Kage Baker when I learned that she was seriously ill; I barely finished it before she passed away. This was a very difficult post to write, which is why it took me so long to do so. I acquired and edited Kage's first collection of The Company short stories: Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers (Golden Gryphon Press, 2002).
  • Kage Baker Redux
    Posted February 19, 2010: I was asked to write a few sentences about Kage's contribution to the genre for RT Book Reviews. My "few sentences" turned out to be a lengthy paragraph -- which I asked not to be cut -- which is undoubtedly why it wasn't used. So, here it is.
    • Aliens Have Entered Mainstream's Orbit [Judith Moffett]
      Posted February 16, 2010: We as SF/fantasy/horror editors and publishers are responsible for ghettoizing the genre. I use as an example the work of Judith Moffett. Her Holy Ground trilogy still needs a quality reprint publisher! I acquired and edited the reprint edition of her first novel, Pennterra, for Fantastic Books in 2009.
    • Philip K. Dick & Rudy Rucker's Warez
      Posted August 30, 2010: A bit on Philip K. Dick and my involvement in the PKD Society (headed by Paul Williams) back in the late '80s, and how this all led to my interviewing Rudy Rucker when he was one of the Philip K. Dick Award judges in 1988. Rucker has won the PPKD Award twice, for the first two volumes of his Ware Tetralogy.
    • Tim Powers: Not So Strange Itineraries
      Posted September 24, 2010: About my brief encounter the previous week with Tim Powers at an Orange County restaurant, and some of the work I've done for/with the author.
    • Judith Moffett's Pennterra: Going Native
      Posted September 26, 2010: The full review from H&E Naturist magazine of Moffett's long-out-of-print first novel Pennterra -- which I acquired and edited for Fantastic Books.
    • Catherynne M. Valente: Remixing Prester John
      Posted November 5, 2010: Some thoughts and words regarding Cat Valente's new novel The Habitation of the Blessed from Night Shade Books. Includes the full review from Publishers Weekly.
    • Detective Inspector Chen Finally Turns 5 [Liz Williams]
      Posted December 1, 2010: The Iron Khan, the fifth Detective Inspector Chen novel by Liz Williams, has been published in all ebook formats by Morrigan Books.
    • DI Chen Finally Turns 5 Redux [Liz Williams]
      Posted December 27, 2010: The cover art by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law for the print edition of The Iron Khan is revealed.
    • Earl Kemp's Who Killed Science Fiction?
      Posted March 7, 2011: An in-depth look at Earl Kemp's Hugo Award-winning WKSF? (and it's later updates), now available in a new print edition as well as a free PDF online.
    • More on the Death of Science Fiction
      Posted July 18, 2011: A follow-up to Earl Kemp's WKSF? blog post, in which I reference an SF Signal article by John H. Stevens entitled "'The Death of Science Fiction' as Mythogenic Rejuvenation" along with a quote by author Neal Asher.
    • Kage Baker's In the Company of Thieves
      Posted May 14, 2013: My work on Kage Baker's final collection of Company stories, In the Company of Thieves, brought back memories of working with her on her first collection of Company stories in 2002.
    • Steven Utley's Silurian Tales
      Posted July 12, 2013: How I almost acquired and published a Silurian Tales collection by Steven Utley (1948–2013), but didn't; and now, thankfully, Ticonderoga Publications has published the series.
    • Do You Fear Lovecraft's Monsters?
      Posted July 22, 2013: Some words on the anthology Lovecraft's Monsters, edited by Ellen Datlow, from Tachyon Publications. This anthology contains one of the best stories I've read this year, and possibly in many years.
    • Digital Detective Inspector Chen [Liz Williams]
      Posted September 23, 2013: All five of Liz Williams's Detective Inspector Chen novels have been released in matching ebook editions, from Open Road Media.
    • Editing in Process...Charles Stross
      Posted October 15, 2013: "Howard; Bob Howard, Capital Laundry Services." My current project is the fifth Charles Stross Laundry Files novel, The Rhesus Chart, to be published by Ace Books in July 2014.
    • Editing in Process...Tad Williams
      Posted November 13, 2013: My work on the 135,000-word short story collection, The Very Best of Tad Williams, to be published by Tachyon Publications, May 2014.
    • Editing in Process...James Morrow
      Posted November 24, 2013: From James Morrow, the master of the sardonic, the new forthcoming novella, The Madonna and the Starship, to be published by Tachyon Publications in 2014.
    • Editing in Process...Kameron Hurley
      Posted January 22, 2014: From the world of God's War, Kameron Hurley's new novelette, "The Body Project," saw a wee bit of my red ink before being published online by Del Rey UK.
    • Editing in Process...Daryl Gregory
      Posted February 27, 2014: A sharp-edged, dark, and troubling novella from writer Daryl Gregory, entitled We Are All Completely Fine; forthcoming in August from Tachyon Publications.
    • Editing in Process...Nancy Kress
      Posted April 1, 2014: The discovery of a "new haplogroup of mitochondrial DNA," aliens, and deadly cosmic spores -- Yesterday's Kin: the new novella from Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Nancy Kress, forthcoming from Tachyon Publications.
    • Editing in Process...The Children of Old Leech
      Posted April 24, 2014: This anthology of horror and dark fantasy is subtitled "A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron"; edited by Ross E. Lockhart and Justin Steele, from publisher Word Horde.
    • Editing in Process...The Very Best of W. P. Kinsella
      Posted August 26, 2014: My work on this collection of 138,000 words (31 stories, all of which had to be scanned) to be published by Tachyon Publications, March 2015. Kinsella is the author of novel Shoeless Joe from which the 1989 movie Field of Dreams is based.
    • On Lucius Shepard
      Posted October 20, 2015: About Lucius Shepard, his novella originally titled "Maceo," and his Central American charity work.
    • The Asylum of Dr. Caligari by James Morrow
      Posted February 4, 2017: My work on the latest novella from the master of the sardonic: James Morrow - The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, forthcoming in June from Tachyon Publications.
    • The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
      Posted February 27, 2017: My work on the World Fantasy Award-winning classic from Patricia A. McKillip; a new edition of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is forthcoming in September from Tachyon Publications.
    • Apocalypse Nyx by Kameron Hurley
      Posted December 11, 2017: My work on the collection of Bel Dame Apocrypha stories by Kameron Hurley, forthcoming in July 2018 from Tachyon Publications.