We’ve completed shipping all initial orders (individual, retail, and wholesale) orders for Something Wild is Loose (Robert Silverberg) and Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson). We wound up not filling a good number of wholesaler orders on the Stephenson title, to have copies to sell direct for a short while after publication.

Neal Stepheson’s masterwork, Snow Crash, is in stock and shipping. In our opinion, it’s one of the most important novels of the past twenty years, and one of the most collectible as well. A signed trade hardcover first edition will set you back over $1000. Our lavish limited edition, printed in two colors on 80# Finch, is a relative bargain in comparison.

Limited HC:

$150

While searching through the lowest levels of SubPress stock, in addition to a number of last copies now listed on Ebay, Tim uncovered a box with ten copies of the first printing of Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box. These are part of the 300 copy regular limited edition, which regularly sell for $400+ on Ebay. We’re offering them to folks for $300 per copy, plus shipping (limit one copy per family or household). All of the profits from the sales (after any paypal or credit card fees) will be going to The Hero Initiative, an organization created to be a safety net for comic creators.

Please drop us an email if you’re interested in purchasing a copy to help this very deserving charity, and let us know if you’d like to pay via PayPal or credit card.

Over at Subterranean Online, we’re delighted to bring to light a teleplay co-written by Robert A. Heinlein more than 50 years ago. Delilah and the Space Rigger, is based, of course, on the classic short story. For insight into the practical way in which Heinlein approached writing for the screen, we’re also printing John Scalzi’s introduction. Both of these pieces, and many more teleplays and screen treatments, will appear in Heinlein’s Project Moonbase and Others, which is heading to the printer this week.

Work progresses, but slowly, on Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s masterpiece, The Shadow of the Wind. At this point, the dust jacket is done, while we’ve approved roughs for all of the interior art. The sig pages are with Carlos, but it’s going to take him some time to get to them. His second adult novel, The Angel’s Game, has just been released in Spain with a first printing of one million copies, so Carlos is being kept very busy with promotional duties.

One final note. Our edition of The Shadow of the Wind will contain a secret feature, only to be discovered when readers receive their copy.

This may seem an oddly positive review to post an excerpt from, but here you go: “Although many of the stories are individually outstanding, the jumble of modern, historical and fanciful settings, traditional monsters and imagined threats make this feel more like an issue of a magazine than an anthology with a firm motif.”

If you’re looking for an anthology that covers a lot more ground than your usual theme anthology, then Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy might just be the book for you.

The Limited Edition of Robert E. Howard’s Kull: Exile of Atlantis is less than a week from heading to the printer. Our Director of Production, Yanni Kuznia, has been through the book and index multiple times, making corrections to the files we were sent. We’ve set up a special art/portfolio section for Justin Sweet’s full-color interior illustrations, as well as replacing a few of the black-and-white illustrations with new, improved versions by Justin. That’s not all. Justin has agreed to provide an extra section of rough sketches that will appear only in the Deluxe Leatherbound edition of Kull.

A few things to we should tell you. Our edition, the text, interior illustrations, and endsheets will be printed on a heavier paper than the Wandering Star editions, though we’ve decided on a color art portfolio rather than placing the color interior illustrations throughout the book. Also, as our printer is not able to do top edge gilding on the book, that’s one feature we’ll have to leave behind. We’ll be continuing the two-color foil stamping on the book itself, which will be bound in a beige Pearl Linen that stamps well, and will continue the Wandering Star tradition of having a full-color illustration adorn the slipcase.

We think, given the fact that we’ll be doing far fewer copies than Wandering Star did of their limited editions, and at a $75 lower price point, the SubPress editions of Robert E. Howard’s works will sit proudly on the shelves next to Wandering Star’s glorious volumes.

We’re hard at work on next year’s schedule, and have recently had a few contracts pass through our hands, with books now slated by…

– Jim Butcher, limited editions of books two (Fool Moon) and three (Grave Peril) of the The Dresden Files series;

– George R. R. Martin, Dying of the Light. We’ll be producing a signed limited edition of George’s excellent debut novel, illustrated in color and black and white by SubPress favorite Tom Kidd. Meanwhile, Kidd is also hard at work on the illustrations for Stonefather (Orson Scott Card) and Songs of Dying Earth, a Jack Vance tribute anthology we’ll be releasing.

– Patrick Rothfuss, The Princess, a short illustrated hardcover that looks deceptively like a children’s tale;

– Warren Ellis, The Listener, the limited edition of his second novel;

– R.A. MacAvoy. We’ve just signed Bertie up for a novella, her first book appearance since sometime in the ’90s. Long-time fans will find The In-Between a most welcome return to her elegant storytelling.

– Ray Bradbury, Marionettes, Inc., a new collection featuring the title tale, as well as a number of related stories, including some unpublished material. (Hint: Look for a major Bradbury announcement soon!)

– James P. Blaylock, Metamorphosis, a gathering of three collaborations by one of the creators of steampunk. Metamorphosis will feature an intro and illustrations by Tim Powers, an afterword by the author, and some rather pointed commentary by William Ashbless. You can read “Stone Eggs”, one of the stories, at Subterranean Online.