08/08/06 TUE:
---Cataloguing the few things that came in while I was away last week. From Stark House:

McCarthy, Kevin & Ed Gorman (eds) INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: A Tribute, Stark House Film Classic, 6/06, 1st, (essays by King, Koontz, Breen, etc.), new 17.95

---From Tachyon:

Beagle, Peter S. THE LINE BETWEEN, Tachyon '06, 1st ltd hc edn, one of 250 SIGNED copies, new in dj 45.00
---I don’t have the $14.95 trade paperback edition here yet, but I hope to soon.

---From Wheatland Press:

Aguirre, Forrest & Deborah Layne (eds) THE NINE MUSES, Wheatland ('05), (features original stories by fourteen women writers who are breaking new literary ground in speculative and experimental fiction; with an essay by Elizabeth Hand), new 19.95

Lake, Jay (ed) TEL: Stories, Wheatland ('05), (elegant, erudite and strange; dedicated to the notion that great style makes great literature; a book for you to enjoy or hurl across the room as you see fit), new 17.50

POLYPHONY #5, ('05), (fifth volume in critically acclaimed cross-genre series; 418 pp), new 18.95

Rogers, Bruce Holland THE KEYHOLE OPERA, Wheatland ('05), (email subscription stories), new 19.95

08/07/06 MON:
---Received Earthling Newsletter 08/07/06:

Jeff Strand's new novel PRESSURE was published last week and has started shipping! Yes, this is the novel that has been getting the tremendous amount of advance buzz, the latest being from Insidious Reflections Magazine: 'An outstanding novel of nail-biting tension. 5 out of 5 stars. Strand's debut in the genre of suspense is about as top notch as it gets.' There has already been interest from Hollywood, and you will read many more wonderful things about this book on message boards and in reviews over the next several months as word continues to spread. The signed numbered and lettered editions are almost gone, but there are plenty of unsigned trade hardcovers. And a SPECIAL OFFER only for current Earthling Newsletter subscribers: if you buy a copy of the trade hardcover and don't feel it's a helluva good read, you may send it back to me for a full refund. How's that for fair?
Glen Hirshberg's AMERICAN MORONS will be going to the printer this week, and the finishing touches are being put on THE UNBLEMISHED by Conrad Williams. I'll be starting preorders for three titles in our next newsletter, including two titles that are not yet announced.
That's it for now. I hope everyone enjoys PRESSURE!
Thanks and all best,
Paul Miller, Earthling Publications

08/05/06 SAT:
---Made it back from camping trip in Northern Minnesota, with the only negative the usual sore back from lugging the cooler in and out of the car and sleeping on hard ground, etc. etc. The ten-hour car ride probably didn’t help much either. At least it is cooler here now than when we left, and although north of Duluth was hardly better off than anywhere else during the Big Heat Wave, by the time we got there temps had ameliorated somewhat and the only rain was a storm during our first night that obligingly held off until our tent was safely up and we were in it. I dreaded the prospect of all the rigamarole associated with a camping trip, trying in vain to wriggle out of it. But when we were finally ensconced there it was sort of okay. Now back, though, I have to figure out where to start getting to work again.

08/04/06 FRI:
---Picked up big pile of mail at post office, including packages from Stark House, Wheatland, and Tachyon, which I will catalog ASAP. But still nothing from PGW. I guess I will have to check on the status on that one.

---Word from Hippocampus:

Dear Bookseller,
The first ever full-scale critical anthology on Clark Ashton Smith is now available in hardcover and paperback from Hippocampus Press! A blurb is below; please advise quantities desired. Now is also a good time to stock up on our backlist titles by Smith, THE BLACK DIAMONDS, THE SWORD OF ZAGAN and THE LAST OBLIVION.

Thank you for your interest in Hippocampus Press!

Best regards,
Derrick Hussey
---------------------------------------------------------------

THE FREEDOM OF FANTASTIC THINGS
Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith
Edited by Scott Connors
July 2006
376 pages
Hardcover : ISBN 0976159244: $49.95
Paperback: ISBN 0976159252: $20.00

As poet, fiction writer, and artist, Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) has left an indelible mark on the fields of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. But criticism of his bountiful and varied work has been surprisingly scanty, and oftentimes ill-informed. The Freedom of Fantastic Things represents the most substantial volume of criticism of Smith’s work ever published, and includes both original and previously published work by the leading scholars on Smith.

Among the notable contributions are Donald Sidney-Fryer’s exhaustive discussion of Smith’s relations with his early mentor, George Sterling; Brian Stableford’s brilliant analysis of Smith’s cosmicism; Fred Chappell’s sensitive treatment of Smith’s fantastic poetry; S. T. Joshi’s essays on The Hashish-Eater and on Smith’s prose-poetry; Scott Connors’s penetrating study of Smith’s relations to literary Modernism; Lauric Guillaud’s rumination on fantasy and decadence in Smith’s work; and other essays by Carl Jay Buchanan, Charles K. Wolfe, Steve Behrends, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Ronald S. Hilger, and other leading authorities.

At the conclusion of the volume is Steve Behrends’s exhaustive chronology of Smith’s work and a comprehensive primary and secondary bibliography. All in all, a feast for devotees of the necromancer from Auburn!

Scott Connors is the coeditor of Smith’s Red World of Polaris and of a forthcoming five-volume edition of Smith’s fiction. He is also working on a full-scale biography of Smith.

Table of Contents:

Introduction by Scott Connors
“The Centaur” by Clark Ashton Smith
Klarkash-Ton and “Greek” by Donald Sidney-Fryer
Contemporary Reviews of Clark Ashton Smith
Eblis in Bakelite by James Blish
James Blish versus Clark Ashton Smith; to Wit, the Young Turk Syndrome by Donald Sidney-Fryer
The Last Romantic by S J Sackett
Communicable Mysteries: The Last True Symbolist by Fred Chappell
What Happens in The Hashish-Eater? by S T Joshi
The Babel of Visions: The Structuration of Clark Ashton Smith’s The Hashish-Eater by Dan Clore
Clark Ashton Smith’s “Nero” by Carl Jay Buchanan
Satan Speaks: A Reading of “Satan Unrepentant” by Phillip A Ellis
Lands Forgotten or Unfound: The Prose Poetry of Clark Ashton Smith by S T Joshi
Out the Human Aquarium: The Fantastic Imagination of Clark Ashton Smith by Brian Stableford
Gesturing Toward the Infinite by Scott Connors
Clark Ashton Smith: A Note on the Aesthetics of Fantasy by Charles K Wolfe
Fantasy and Decadence in the Work of Clark Ashton Smith by Laurie Guillaud
Humor in Hyperspace: Smith’s Uses of Satire by John Kipling Hitz
The Song of the Necromancer: “Loss” in Clark Ashton Smith’s Fiction by Steve Behrends
Brave World Old and New: The Atlantis Theme in the Poetry and Fiction of Clark Ashton Smith by Donald Sidney-Fryer
Coming in from the Cold: Incursons of “Outsideness” in Hyperborea by Steven Tompkins
As Shadows Wait Upon the Sun: Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique by Jim Rockhill
Into the Woods: The Human Geography of Averoigne by Stefan Dziemianowicz
Sorcerous Style: Clark Ashton Smith's The Double Shadow and Other Fantasies by Peter H Goodrich
Loss and Recuperation: A Model for Reading Clark Ashton Smith’s “Xeethra” by Dan Clore
“Life, Love, and the Clemency of Death”: A Reexamination of Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Isle of the Torturers” by Scott Connors
An Annotated Chronology of the Fiction of Clark Ashton Smith by Steve Behrends
Bibliography
Contributors
Index

07/30/06 SUN:
---Getting an order ready to send to HarperCollins. Am still waiting for PGW--another order to a larger publisher/distributor. It is always fun to get these books, but it can become a little tedious compiling the orders and dealing with mishaps. Anyway, I’m trying not to stop doing them completely. But as well, I don’t want to get carried away sending them out.
---Leaving tomorrow for a few days, so won’t be too in touch. But what else is new? Things still laying around here for me to do that I should have done before leaving will have to wait for me to get back, hopefully with renewed energy and a revitalized sense of purpose.
---Even though enough material has probably trickled in since last time, a blogmail hasn’t been sent in too long now. But I don’t want to send one now, because I will have to hold off on responding to any garnered emails until my return.

07/28/06 FRI:
---Here today from PS Publishing:

Aylett, Steve FAIN THE SORCERER, PS, 6/06, one of 800 (total) SIGNED copies, (short comic fantasy novel; Alan Moore intro), new 18.00

Bowes, Richard STREETCAR DREAMS and Other Midnight Fancies, PS, 4/06, 1st edn, one of 700 (total) SIGNED copies, (author’s ‘stand alones’: stories that didn’t get incorporated into novels; Jeffrey Ford intro), new in dj 45.00

Watson, Ian THE BUTTERFLIES OF MEMORY, PS, 6/06, 1st edn, one of 700 (total) SIGNED copies, (stories, with specially written new prefaces; Paul McAuley intro; 438 pages), new in dj 45.00

---Deluxe slipcased hardcovers of the two hcs above are also available @ $90 and a hc of the trade pb for $45, by special request. It looks like I didn’t order enough copies to be able to have them for listing here now.

07/26/06 WED:
---Here today from CD Publications:

CEMETERY DANCE #55, '06, (Ed Gorman, Tim Lebbon, Thomas F. Monteleone, Tony Richards, etc.), new 5.00

07/24/06 MON:
---Here today from TTA:

INTERZONE #205, 8/06, (Britain’s longest-running science fiction magazine; stories, films, books, news, interviews, art; Steven Erikson, Sean McMullen, Rudy Rucker, Terry Bisson, Steve Erickson, Paul di Filippo, etc.), new 7.00

07/17/06 MON:
---Word from Necro:

-AVAILABLE ONCE AGAIN-
It sold out a year ago after numerous glowing reviews and is now avaiable again in a SIGNED unlimited trade paperback.
"...if you dig weird war stories, zombies, vampires, werewolves, and sheer balls-to-the-wall horror/adventure, then this is a book YOU MUST NOT MISS. It's not for everyone. This is literary red meat, rather than literary bean sprouts; a heady mix of Edward Lee, Skipp & Spector, and Garth Ennis, a novel that combines black humor, crisp prose, buckets of gore, and has at its center, a very human heart.

" Highly recommended.

" I absolutely LOVED it!"
--Brian Keene reviewing for HELLNOTES
Bram Stoker Award winning author of THE RISING and TERMINAL

AND DON'T FORGET THESE CLASSIC EDWARD LEE TITLES
NOW AVAILABLE IN SIGNED TRADE PAPERBACK

Incubi
Edward Lee
[Signed Trade Paperback]
Unlimited edition. Signed
$19.95

Succubi
Edward Lee
[Signed Trade Paperback]
Unlimited edition. Signed
$19.95

Coven
Edward Lee
[Signed Trade Paperback]
Unlimited edition. Signed
$19.95

Portrait
Edward Lee
[Signed Trade Paperback]
Unlimited edition. Signed
$19.95
Necro Publications and Bedlam Press
www.necropublications.com

07/09/06 SUN:
---Have been listing quite of few $1 paperbacks on half.com. The competing price from other sellers for most of them is 75¢, but buying any individually for that price would probably add two or three dollars in postage--apparently how these sellers make their money. You can buy these from me through Half, or from me direct, with probably less in postage costs. I can download an “Inventory Snapshot” and forward it, if desired. Also, these books--and others I couldn’t list because they don’t have ISBNs or the ISBNs they have are not in the half.com database--can be seen in the Covershots 7 folder on my Covershots DVD-R or individually on CD-R, also by request. Eventually I hope to have them catalogued in my normal fashion, but for now there are still other books I need to deal with first.

07/06/06 THU:
---Performed monthly update of catalog data for burning on CD-Rs.

07/04/06 TUE:
---Ran in Urbandale Fourth of July 5K race. A bit faster but still mighty slow.

07/03/06 MON:
---Here today from Small Beer:

LADY CHURCHILL'S ROSEBUD WRISTLET 18, 6/06, Small Beer, (The Ethereal Issue; ever lively zine from Gavin Grant, Kelly Link and company; contains fifteen pieces of fiction, four nonfiction not including “Article Withdrawn” by “Name Withheld”, and five poems; 64 crammed pages), new 5.00

06/28/06 WED:
---Word from Don Webb:

Dear Friends,

As some of you know I have a new book coming out in the Fall. This is a
limited edition of horror and dark fantasy including many of my Lovecraftian
tales, some published here for the first time. The collection will sell out
fast, so pre-orders are recommended. Please pass this e-mail along to
anyone you think may be interested.

http://www.avramdavidson.org/whentheycame.html

Best Wishes,

Don

06/27/06 TUE:
---Word from Stark House:

Hello Booksellers:
Normally, Stark House Press reprints mystery books from the 50's and 60's. But the next book is a bit different. It's a reprint and a complete revisement of a book that was published originally by Berkley Boulevard Books in 1999 as "THEY'RE HERE..." INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: A TRIBUTE, edited by Kevin McCarthy & Ed Gorman.
This new edition from Stark House, simply titled INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: A TRIBUTE, removes a few of the redundant essays, includes a new interview with Kevin McCarthy, star of the original 1956 version of the movie; and features many b&w stills from Kevin's personal collection.
Still included from the original edition is an introduction by Dean Koontz, essays by Stephen King, Jon L. Breen (on author Jack Finney) and Tom Piccirilli; and interviews with Dana Wynter (co-star of the 1956 classic), Philip Kaufman (dir of the 1978 remake), Robert H. Solo (the producer), W. D. Richter (screenwriter of the 1978 version), Abel Ferrara (dir of the 1997 remake) and Stuart Gordon (original screenwriter of the 1997 version).
The Berkley edition was not available for very long, as Boulevard folded soon after the book was published. The Stark House edition will be priced at $17.95, isbn 1-933586-07-9, and will be available in about three weeks.
Many of you have standing orders for new Stark House books. If you would like this new edition to ship as your usual standing order, you don't need to respond to this email. But if you'd like to cancel the standing order, or change it in any way, please let me know.
Cheers,
Greg Shepard
Stark House Press

06/25/06 SUN:
---Word from Small Beer:

Chris,

LCRW 18 are shipping and I wondered if you needed anything else?

Newest title: http://www.lcrw.net/deniro

Cheers,

Gavin

--
Naomi Mitchison, TRAVEL LIGHT
Kate Wilhelm, STORYTELLER
Sean Stewart, MOCKINGBIRD
Kelly Link, MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS
Maureen F. McHugh, MOTHERS & OTHER MONSTERS

Small Beer Press
http://www.lcrw.net

06/24/06 SAT:
---Here today from Ash-Tree:

Adrian, Jack (ed) (ed) ASH-TREE PRESS ANNUAL MACABRE 2005: Haven't I Read This Before?, Ash-Tree '06, 1st, (looks at a number of writers whose work appears to have been influenced by, or been an influence upon, the work of others), new in dj $45

Oldknow, Antony THE PASSION PLAY and Other Ghost Stories, Ash-Tree '06, 1st, (inspired by M.R. James; author's first full-length collection of supernatural fiction), new in dj 46.00

06/23/06 FRI:
---Here today from Tartarus:

James, Henry THE SENSE OF THE PAST: The Ghostly Stories of..., Tartarus '06, (includes unfinished novel; Glen Cavaliero intro; 657 pages), new in dj 65.00

06/22/06 THU:
---I keep saying I am ordering from different places, but somehow end up putting it off. Latest I’m getting ready to go for, hopefully for real, is Wheatland Press. Including these 2005 TITLES:

Polyphony 5:
Deborah Layne and Jay Lake, Editors.
The fifth volume in the critically acclaimed slipstream/cross-genre series will feature stories from Jay Caselberg, Ray Vukcevich, Jeff VanderMeer, Theodora Goss, Leslie What and Nick Mamatas.

The Nine Muses:
Forrest Aquirre and Deborah Layne, Editors.
Original anthology featuring some of he top women writers in science fiction, fantasy and experimental fiction, including Kit Reed, Ursula Pflug, Jai Clare, Jessica Treat, and Ruth Nestvold. With an introductory essay by Elizabeth Hand.

TEL: Stories:
Jay Lake, Editor.
An anthology of experimental fiction featuring Greer Gilman, Jeff VanderMeer, Tim Pratt, and Brendan Connell.

The Keyhole Opera:
Bruce Holland Rogers.
A collection of short-short stories by the master of the form. Includes the World Fantasy Award-winning story “Don Ysidro” from Polyphony 4.

06/21/06 WED:
---Email rec’d:

Hi there,

I've just published a collection of short stories by AFTERLIFE and
GHOSTWATCH and Hollywood screenwriter (Gothic, Octant, The Kiss, The
Guardian) Stephen Volk called DARK CORNERS: would your store be interested
in stocking copies? It retails at £8.50.
Check out the beautiful cover and contents (including a sequel to the
notorious GHOSTWATCH) here:
http://www.grayfriarpress.com/catalogue/dcorners.html

Best -

Gary Fry
Gray Friar Press