Brian Lumley’s nasty bit of work, Necroscope: the Plague-Bearer has just slouched off to the printer, where, we have no doubt, it will creep out all who work on it.

As a reminder, the limited edition (pictured here) contains not only a different dust jacket than the trade hardcover, it also sports five full page illustrations by Bob Eggleton that appear nowhere else. Whichever edition you choose, you’re in for a treat with this long (50,000 words) novella by horror master Lumley.

Having just finished sending out Peter V. Brett’s The Great Bazaar and other stories, and Arturo Perez-Reverte’s classic biblio-mystery The Club Dumas., our shippers have moved on to sending out copies of Wil Wheaton’s The Happiest Days of Our Lives. After that, it’s likely on to Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.

We recognize we have a very definite backlog in shipping new titles, and will be implementing a few new procedures to get books out the door more quickly, and into customers’ hands.

Patrick Arrasmith has done another fine job we think, this time on the cover and interior work to Neal Stephenson’s Zodiac: the Eco-Thriller. As mentioned before, we’ve just sent this title to our Associate Editor, Cherie Priest, for one final run through, and then we’ll work it into our publication schedule.

Remember, the special price ($55 off the usual $150 price) only runs through April 2, so please get your orders in early.

Welcome news indeed.

Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles: the Complete Edition, the book, is done. We should have advance copies in our hands in the next couple of days, and will send out to have the slipcases and traycases made for the limited and lettered editions. If all goes well, the finished books should ship in roughly 8 weeks. We’ll keep everyone posted.

Here’s yet another spiffy cover to one of our Jack Vance offerings, his ornate prose brought to painterly life by Tom Kidd. The current Vance title, Hard-Luck Diggings, a healthy gathering of some quite rare early short stories, is being sent to the printer this week. We’re doing our usual $40 trade hardcover of this 120,000 word volume, as well as a 26 copy signed lettered edition — the last such signed edition we’re likely to be able to offer by Mr. Vance. There are but two copies of the lettered edition left to be reserved. The lettered edition is now sold out.

Still speaking of Jack Vance. His autobiography, This is Me, Jack Vance! has just gone back to press for a third printing.

We’ve secured a limited supply of several signed limited editions by Neil Gaiman that were released by Hill House over the past few years. They include gorgeous, expanded editions of his novels American Gods (complete with an extra Reading Copy); Anansi Boys (which includes a second volume, Notebooks); and the ultra-rare A Screenplay. As the last volume was produced for subscribers to Hill House’s Preferred Series, we believe this is the first time it’s been offered for sale separately.

If you are interested, please get your order in ASAP. The quantities made available to us will be quite limited, and we may have to pull some (or all) of these books from our site before April 2, 2010, the last day we are accepting orders. At that time, we’ll place final orders with our source, and should have the books on hand to ship within a couple of weeks.

Please note: As usual, we are offering Free US shipping on these other publisher’s books.

Just a quick note to let you know that we’re down to the last 25 copies of the Deluxe Leatherbound Edition of this newly published “vintage” book by Charles de Lint. The Deluxe of Eyes Like Leaves is the only version to feature illustrated endsheets, as well as a section of bonus material.

The Signed Trade Edition is selling strongly as well. At this point, it’s over 90% sold out, with orders arriving in a constant stream. We don’t have plans to reprint, so you might want to pick a copy up sooner rather than wait.

You can add Green Man Review to those quite taken with Elizabeth Bear’s 30,000 word new novella, Bone and Jewel Creatures. To wit: “Bear has developed a way of describing the concrete that hints at much wider things, much deeper themes, leaving it to the reader to make the connections… It’s a brief story, with no more flesh than it needs, much like Bijou. And it’s a good one.”

We’ve approved all of the elements for Creatures, so it’s on track to ship in roughly the next month.

We’ve just seen the advance copies of Connie Willis’s time travel epic, Blackout, and the book turned out beautifully. Copies should be going out to customers in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, here’s a bit from Michael Dirda’s review in The Washington Post: “Blackout plunges the reader right into the middle of three key happenings of 1940: the rescue of the British troops from Dunkirk, the evacuation of children to rural villages and country houses, and the life of ordinary Londoners during the Blitz. Every detail rings true, with the kind of authority that only intense research can bring. Still, all of Willis’s knowledge is subsumed in her bravura storytelling: “Blackout” is, by turns, witty, suspenseful, harrowing and occasionally comic to the point of slapstick.”

While we’re at it, here’s a shorter bit from a short review in The Cleveland Plain Dealer: “…despite the conceit of time travel, the book shows the attention to period detail that defines historical novels.”

Don’t hold us to this, but here’s a list of very tentative completion dates for projects we currently have at the printer:

– Bone and Jewel Creatures (Elizabeth Bear), April 12;
– The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury), March 20, although the slipcases will add 6-8 weeks to production;
– A Pleasure to Burn (Ray Bradbury), March 22;
– The New Dead (edited by Christopher Golden), March 19;
– Songs of a Dead Dreamer (Thomas Ligotti), March 22;
– Mister Slaughter (Robert McCammon, reprint), April 9;
– The God Engines (John Scalzi, reprint), March 18;
– The Sagan Diary (John Scalzi, reprint), March 19;
– Blackout (Connie Willis), March 16;

Again, please remember these are tentative dates when the books will be finished. Our warehouse is so overwhelmed that we’re likely to be a few weeks behind release dates when shipping.

Here is a list of books already done, ready to be shipped as soon as we can manage:

– The Book of Dreams (edited by Nick Gevers);
– The Club Dumas (Arturo Perez-Reverte);
– The Skylark (Peter Straub);
– The Happiest Days of Our Lives (Wil Wheaton);