We’ve shortened the review just a bit to avoid copyright violation, but couldn’t be happier with this review, fresh from the pages of The Washington Times:

“Bowing to the tradition confirmed by the classic Modern Library anthology ‘Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural’ (one of the sacred texts of my adolescent reading years), I draw your attention first to a non-ghostly, yet eminently scary terror tale.

The Painted Bride (Subterranean Press, $40, 181 pages) is veteran thriller-writer Stephen Gallagher’s tense melodrama spun from the mysterious disappearance of auto dealer Frank Tanner’s wife Carol, the stalled police investigation into Frank’s possible guilt — and the complications ensuing from the obsessive actions of Carol’s burnt-out, former drug-taking younger sister Molly, who knows Frank did away with his wife, and devotes her dwindling energies to protecting the children now in his care and bringing him to justice…

There’s even a hint of the supernatural in an endangered child’s anguished outcry: ‘He killed my mother and now he won’t die.’ It’s a neat capstone to an accomplished and suitably unpleasant shocker.”

Take a trip in a dirigible in an altered 19th century in Elizabeth Bear’s long (25,000 words) novella, “Lucifugous,” complete with vampires and an inconveniently dead body. If that’s not to your taste, visit Orson Scott Card’s most famous creation, Ender’s World, in “Mazer in Prison.” Add to those two new fiction by Tad Williams, Neal Barrett, Jr., Stephen Gallagher, Philip Jose Farmer (a novella length Doc Savage screen treatment), a sharp Halloween tale by Norman Partridge, and a “Wendy” a gem by Jim Grimsley guaranteed to make you uncomfortable.

We think all this — plus an interview with Alan Moore — make Subterranean #5 one of our strongest issues yet. Consider picking up a copy.

The first review of Poppy Z. Brite’s novella, D*U*C*K, is in, from Publishers Weekly:
“The ghosts of pre-Katrina New Orleans haunt Brite’s latest culinary caper (after Soul Kitchen) in the form of great meals, good times and the carefree spirit that gave the Big Easy its nickname. The loose plot of this picaresque tale concerns Rickey’s tribulations at crafting an all-wild-duck menu for Ducks Unlimited, a Cajun hunting club. Though Rickey’s self-conscious fretting at all the possible disasters that could happen build an element of playful suspense, there’s never any doubt that this will play out as a happy Cinderella story from soup to nuts. Brite does a fine job of evoking the Crescent City and its soul through delectable descriptions of its unique cuisine and the quirky characters who prepare it. This is fun foodie fiction, and readers will scarf it down as quickly as a plate of blackened crawfish.”

For those interested in the first course of this tasty novella, the first 40+ pages are posted to the D*U*C*K page as a pdf file.

We’ve just finalized the contents for Subterranean #6, which will include”
– “The Long Dead Day” by Joe R. Lansdale
– “Chartreuse Mansions: a Lucifer Jones Story” by Mike Resnick
– “Zero Summer” by Caitlin R. Kiernan
– “Take Your Daughter to Work” by Livia Llewellyn
– “Finding Piper” by Cherie Priest
– “Limerent” by Elizabeth Bear
– “The Tenth Muse” by William Browning Spencer

For the first time, we’re also going to feature a full color artist gallery, by Edward Miller, with an appreciation and interview conducted by Peter Crowther. Look for this issue just into the new year.

We’ve just finalized the extras to Farewell Summer, Ray Bradbury’s dazzling sequel to Dandelion Wine. Included only in the twenty-six copy lettered edition will be the original short story, “Farewell Summer,” as well as unpublished stories/fragments “The Strategy” and “The Small Assassins.” The book itself, printed in two colors throughout, is due out in the next 6-8 weeks.

We’ve just unearthed three unpublished sonnets by Cheyenne Fleming, the haunted poet at the center of Tim Powers’ new illustrated tale, A Soul in a Bottle. These lost poems were found too late to be included in the book proper, so we’re arranging to have copies made, which will be laid into the limited edition ($45).

Issue 5 of Subterranean ships later this week to subscribers and retailers. We hope you enjoy this issue, at over 100 pages, the largest yet, anchored by a 19th century novella by Elizabeth Bear, and more great fiction from the likes of Orson Scott Card, Tad Williams, Stephen Gallagher, Jim Grimsley, the latter with a story we think will draw a lot of commentary, and a short, sharp Halloween tale by SubPress favorite Norman Partridge.

We’re already hard at work on issue six, with tales by Joe R. Lansdale, Mike Resnick, William Browning Spencer, Cherie Priest, plus our first featured artist, Edward Miller. Look for the cover soon, and the issue itself in just a few short months.

We’re not quite sure how this happened, but at the moment we have ten brand new hardcovers at the printer, all due to ship in the next two to six weeks. They include
Farewell Summer (Ray Bradbury);
The Painted Bride (Stephen Gallagher);

Havoc Swims Jaded (David J. Schow);
Night Visions 12; (edited by Kealan Patrick Burke, with new work by Simon Clark, Mark Morris, and P.D. Cacek)
A Soul in a Bottle (Tim Powers);

Reassuring Tales (T.E.D. KLEIN);
Saints (Orson Scott Card);
To Be Continued (Robert Silverberg);
Dead Names (Simon);
and a reprint of the trade hardcover edition of Pearls from Peoria (Philip Jose Farmer) which we’re offering at the special preorder price of $28 (which is $17 off the regular price)>

One of our favorite new writers, Cherie Priest, has a brand new novel out, Wings to the Kingdom, the second to feature her ghost-seeing protagonist from last year’s Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Don’t forget, Cherie also have a novel coming out from us, Dreadful Skin, a large part of which we’re running as a serial that has just a few chapters left.
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We’ve just sent Tim Powers’ A Soul in a Bottle to the printer, so look for it in November. Meanwhile, Publishers Weekly clocked in with the following glowing review: “In this taut, eerie novella from Powers (Three Days to Never), used-book hunter George Sydney finds he can summon a beautiful poet when he discovers a signed volume containing a previously unknown variant on one sonnet… There are no thin, hairy specters lurking in this tale, and no cold grue to chill one’s bones. Its impact is more moral than visceral, evoking the pity and fear that are hallmarks of tragedy. Exquisitely illustrated by J. K. Potter, this slender volume is sure to appeal to epicures of the terrible.”

Limited: 500 signed leatherbound copies, with a different dust jacket than the trade: $45
Trade: fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $22