Just some quick hit news:

– In Halloween of ‘09 we’ll be publishing an omnibus of Ray Bradbury’s three mystery novels (Death is a Lonely Business, A Graveyard for Lunatics, Let’s All Kill Constance). Bradbury himself is the main character in the trio. We’ll be working closely with Mr. B’s bibliographer, Donn Albright, to add extras to the volume.

– We’ve bought a new collection by Norman Partridge that will join the Bradbury for its Halloween Release.

– Acclaimed artist John Picacio has just agreed to provide a full-color cover to Dan Simmons’s novella, Muse of Fire. This is going to be one gorgeous limited edition, printed in two colors throughout.

– SubPress favorite William Browning Spencer is working on a new novel for us, slated to land in our offices by the end of the year. All we can tell you so far is that it’s called My Sister Natalie: Snake Goddess of the Amazon, and that the first 80 pages are utterly strange.

The April issue of Booklist contains a triple threat of SubPress reviews, all of them quite positive.

Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key (Kage Baker):

“One fine day in 1671, young seaman John James steps into a tavern in Port Royal. Just back from the sack of Panama, he plans to settle down and live respectably in the future. First, he has to deliver a letter to the mistress of a dead comrade… John James is definitely a sadder but wiser man when the tale ends. Baker’s characters are convincing and delightful, and the action keeps one flipping pages. As the setting is a time and place in which almost anything could happen, the yarn’s fillips of fantasy fit right in.”

Haggopian and Other Stories (Brian Lumley):

“Lumley’s knack for spinning inventively gruesome scenarios provides hours of agreeably unsettling entertainment.”

Black & White (Lewis Shiner):

“[Black & White] shines a light on a little-known and shameful part of America’s “urban- renewal” history and does so with palpable anger.”

We’re in the final stages of proofreading Naomi Novik’s second Temeraire novel, Throne of Jade, which will be out this summer. Those who have a copy of the numbered edition of His Majesty’s Dragon — or have a lettered copy of same on order — should head over to the Throne page and get their order in. If you own a numbered copy of HMD, please don’t forget to mention your copy number when checking out, so we can make sure you get a matching number of Throne of Jade. (A couple of notes: if you pay via PayPal, you’ll need to send a separate email to subpress@gmail.com mentioning your number, as comments don’t come through when customers pay via that route. Second, you can only order a lettered copy of Throne of Jade if you have a lettered copy of His Majesty’s Dragon on order.)

We’ve just posted the first two (of the fifteen to twenty) sketches that Dave McKean is working on for our chapbook, Skeletons, by Ray Bradbury. We’ve also sent Dave a file of the two stories — one the famous version of the tale “Skeleton”, the second an obscure version not reprinted in over 60 years — so that he can design the chapbook as well as illustrate it.

We’ve just received the signature pages for Jim Butcher’s novelette, Backup, which will be able to be printed as soon as Jim has the chance to do the final proofing on it. He’s on tour for his new novel right now, so that may take a little while.

As to Storm Front, we’ve sold more than half of the numbered edition, almost all of the lettered edition, with sales being steady every month. We’ve proposed an artist to Jim and his agent, so be looking for news on that front as soon as they get back to us. If you’re interested in collecting the limited editions of The Dresden Files — his main publisher has accepted our offers on books two and three in the series — order early to get in on the ground floor..

Late word on Backup: We’ve just posted a few of Mike Mignola’s interior illustrations to Backup’s product page. Head over and have a look!

From Rambles.net:

“Though brief, they are filled with the rich imagery and almost-alive characterizations that are to be expected in de Lint’s writing. So don’t be surprised if, while reading, you feel a light breeze tickle your feet, hear the crunch of leaves and far-off voices or smell, just at the edge of imagination, a fresh chocolate-chip cookie.

“De Lint has released a whole library of books aimed at adults and young adults, but his kid-oriented work is more rare. What the Mouse Found & Other Stories is a treasure for parents and children’s librarians — but also will find a happy home with anyone who holds a soft place in his or her heart for the wonders of childhood.”

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson will be out of print on publication. We will be turning away some wholesaler and large online retailer orders, so to be guaranteed a copy, you need to order one direct from us. We’ll be shipping Snow Crash in just a few short weeks — we’ve approved the slipcase prototype, and the books themselves are already done.

Again, we will not have enough copies to fill all wholesaler and large online retailer orders, so the only way to guarantee you’ll receive a copy is to order direct from us.

We’ve been sent a gift by Ray Bradbury, one of the best projects we’ve ever had the chance to work on. Summer Morning, Summer Night is a collection of 27 short stories set in Green Town, the setting for Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and countless other Bradbury classics. A full seventeen of these stories and vignettes make their first appearance in this collection — which was released in a 100 copy edition last year by PS Publishing. We’re more than proud to be able to make this book available to the general public, printed in two colors, with a Vincent Chong dust jacket, all for $35.

An important note: Our contract strictly limits us to 2000 hardcover copies priced not less than $35, and given the number of stories that debut in this collection, we expect demand to be high.

The good folks at Publishers Weekly have just weighed in on Lewis Shiner’s ambitious historical thriller, Black & White, and we’re quite pleased with the results: “Set in Durham, N.C., Shiner’s powerful and affecting sixth novel (after 1999’s Say Goodbye) explores civil rights, race relations and “progress” in that city over the past half century… Shiner weaves Michael’s, Robert’s and Ruth’s stories into a stunning tapestry that captures the hopes, dreams, greed, bigotry, ambitions and betrayals that shaped their destinies and those of our country.”

Both the Signed Limited Edition (pictured) and the Trade Hardcover of Tim Powers’s thrill-a-minute dark fantasy, On Stranger Tides, are in stock and shipping. Our editions feature the original James Gurney cover art, with different designs for the Limited and Trade editions.

Lettered HC:

$250

Limited HC:

$75

Trade HC:

$18.95