We're pleased to announce Caitlin R. Kiernan's next major project: the short story collection The Ape's Wife and Other Stories. As with previous Kiernan titles, the Signed, Limited Edition will be accompanied by a bonus volume: in this case, Black Helicopters, an exclusive 26,000 word novella, appearing for the first time anywhere.

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Caitlín R. Kiernan has been described as one of “the most original and audacious weird writers of her generation” (Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, The Weird), “one of our essential writers of dark fiction” (New York Times), and S. T. Joshi has proclaimed, “hers is now the voice of weird fiction.” In The Ape's Wife and Other Stories—Kiernan’s twelfth collection of short fiction since 2001—she displays the impressive range that characterizes her work. With her usual disregard for genre boundaries, she masterfully navigates the territories that have traditionally been labeled dark fantasy, sword and sorcery, science fiction, steampunk, and neo-noir. From the subtle horror of “One Tree Hill (The World as Cataclysm)” and “Tall Bodies” to a demon-haunted, alternate reality Manhattan, from Mars to a near-future Philadelphia, and from ghoulish urban legends of New England to a feminist-queer retelling of Beowulf, these thirteen stories keep reader always on their toes, ever uncertain of the next twist or turn.

The Signed, Limited edition will include a second hardcover, Black Helicopters, an original 26,000 word novella, the longest companion volume we’ve yet published by Caitlin

Limited: 600 signed numbered copies, bound in leather, with the bonus hardcover, Black Helicopters: $60
Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $40

Ray Bradbury's fanciful screenplay, Nemo!, is in stock and shipping. We're very nearly sold out of this title, but have discovered we have a few copies of the signed trade hardcover still available.

About the Book:

Between 1905 and 1914, the American cartoonist Winsor McCay created a brilliant, years-ahead-of-its-time comic strip called, alternately, Little Nemo in Slumberland and In the Land of Wondrous Dreams. The serialized adventure recounted the dream journeys of a young boy (Nemo) toward the gates of Slumberland, where the Princess—his destined playmate—awaited. Over the years, this wonderfully surreal comic has exerted a considerable impact on modern popular culture. Among the readers entranced—and influenced—by this strip was another master fantasist named Ray Bradbury.

Nemo! is an original Bradbury screenplay set in the lavishly imagined dreamscape that is Nemo’s world. It is also a heartfelt act of homage to the genius of Winsor McCay. Beginning at the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904, the narrative moves through successive levels of Dream, encompassing moments of beauty, wonder, and raucous comedy while bringing a gallery of classic McCay characters—Nemo, the Princess, Dr. Pill, the sometimes villainous Flip—to vibrant new life. Intensely detailed, as colorful and absorbing as the best of Bradbury’s fiction, Nemo! is both an unexpected gift and a unique collaboration between two of the 20th Century’s most distinguished—and inimitable—creative spirits.

Trade: 1000 fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $35
Signed Trade: 40 copies, signed by Mr. Bradbury: $125

We've just heard from the estimable Paul Miller, who runs one of our favorite small presses, Earthling Publications, that the Gift Edition of Clive Barker's Weaveworld should be shipping to us in the next week. At only $45, oversize, and printed in two colors, this could be the bargain of the year. For those of you interested in the Signed, Limited Edition, we also have a few copies of that version left to be reserved.

We've nailed down the last details, and are happy to let you know that the Signed, Limited Edition of Stephen King's The Shining will go on sale at approximately 12:00 PM, EST, on Wednesday, January 23, 2013.

There is one change to note. Gabriel Rodriguez (of the current comic series Locke & Key) will be illustrating the volume.

As a reminder, we'll be publishing the book in three unique editions:

Lettered: 52 signed copies, specially bound, housed in a custom traycase: $2500
Limited: 750 signed numbered copies, housed in a custom traycase: $450
Gift: 1500 unsigned copies, housed in a custom slipcase: $95

The trade hardcover edition of Robert McCammon's The Hunter from the Woods is in stock and shipping. As longtime McCammon fans know, Hunter contains novellas and stories centered around WWII werewolf-spy Michael Gallatin, hero of the classic novel, The Wolf's Hour. You can check out one of the collection's novellas, "Sea Chase" at the book's page.

About the Book:

The Hunter from the Woods marks the much-anticipated return of Michael Gallatin, the lycanthropic hero of Robert McCammon’s 1989 classic, The Wolf’s Hour. These all-new, interlinked stories offer a full measure of McCammon’s trademark narrative excitement, and comprise a fascinating composite portrait of a unique fictional creation.

The volume opens with a pair of brief glimpses into Michael’s early life in Russia and his initial recruitment into the British Secret Service. It ends with a haunting vision of the werewolf at twilight. In between, McCammon gives us three stellar novellas depicting different phases of Michael’s long, brutal war against Nazi Germany. “Sea Chase” is a nautical tale about the hazards of transporting a defecting German scientist to a place of sanctuary in England. “The Wolf and the Eagle” is the account of an unlikely friendship between rival “men of action” and a harrowing portrayal of a lethal forced march through the North African desert. “The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs” tells of an impossible, ultimately tragic love affair set in the embattled city of Berlin during the latter stages of the war.

Erotic, visceral, and filled with moments of desolating horror and unexpected warmth, The Hunter from the Woods is a triumph of imaginative storytelling. Like the best of McCammon’s earlier work, it offers intelligent, world-class entertainment. In the process, it shines a welcome new light on one of the most uncommon heroes in contemporary fiction.

Trade: Fully cloth bound, smythe-sewn hardcover edition: $35

The Hunter from the Woods is also available as an ebook, for those so inclined.

We've just added a gathering of long novellas by Lucius Shepard to our spring schedule. Five Autobiographies and a Fiction contains tales by Lucius in which he's invested quite a bit of himself, as he explains in the book's introduction.

About the Book

Five Autobiographies and a Fiction, the long-awaited new collection from master storyteller Lucius Shepard, is a significant publishing event, a volume equal in every way to such earlier Shepard classics as The Jaguar Hunter and The Dragon Griaule. Its six long stories offer narrative pleasures as diverse and profound as anything to be found in modern imaginative fiction.

“Ditch Witch,” set in rural Oregon, concerns a young man on the run in a stolen car, a hitchhiker who may or may not have witch-like powers, and the bizarre inhabitants of the seemingly innocuous Elfland Motel. “The Flock” is a tale of high school football and small town malaise set against an impossible intrusion from the natural world. A washed-up actor and a Malaysian “woman of power” stand at the center of “Vacancy,” the account of a man forced to confront the very real demons of his past. “Dog-eared Paperback of My Life” follows a writer (Thomas Cradle) on his erotically charged journey down the Mekong River, a journey enveloped in a maze of multiple, interpenetrating realities. “Halloween Town” tells the story of a small, extremely strange town and one of its denizens, Clyde Ormoloo, a man who sees too deeply into the “terrible incoherence” of human affairs. The final story, “Rose Street Attractors,” takes us into 19th century London  and the heart of the steampunk era—in the richly atmospheric tale of a most unusual haunting. Rounding out this generous volume is an Introdution in which Shepard offers a startlingly frank assessment of his own troubled adolescence, identifying the “alternate versions” of himself that appear in these pages and illuminating those points at which fiction and “near-autobiography” converge.

Lyrical, brutal, and always powerfully composed, Five Autobiographies and a Fiction is something special. Each of these six novellas speaks in its own distinctive voice. Each one takes us into the heart of a thoroughly imagined world. Only Lucius Shepard could have created those worlds. Only Lucius Shepard could have given us this book.

Limited: 250 signed numbered copies, bound in leather: $60
Trade: Fully cloth bound trade hardcover: $45

If you were luckly enough to score a Kindle, Nook, or other ereader this holiday season, we have a ton of ebooks available, including these newest offerings:

• Amityville Horrible (Kelley Armstrong, an ebook original);
• Forbidden (Kelley Armstrong);
• Garrett Investigates (Elizabeth Bear, an ebook original);
• The Ape Man's Brother (Joe R. Lansdale, an ebook original)
• Baba Yaga's Daughter and Other Tales of the Old Races (C.E. Murphy);
• The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz (Dan Simmons);
• Muse of Fire (Dan Simmons);
• Diary of a Dragon (Tad Williams);

That's just a partial list of our ebooks. Please head over here to see everything we have on offer, with convenient ordering links.

Yanni Kuznia's acclaimed new anthology, A Fantasy Medley 2, is in stock and shipping. We should be able to get everyone's copies in the mail before the new year ticks over.

About the Book:

In A Fantasy Medley, editor Yanni Kuznia assembled a diverse quartet of stories from some of fantasy’s most exciting authors, and the sell-out volume earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Now Kuznia returns with A Fantasy Medley 2, offering absorbing new tales of the fantastic from four of the brightest stars in the field:

With “Quartered,” Tanya Huff returns to the world of her beloved Quarters series with the story of the young bard Evicka, whose mission to spy on an assassin brings peril, tragedy, and, ultimately, revelation.

In “Bone Garden,” Amanda Downum revisits Erisín, setting of her critically lauded novel The Bone Palace from the Necromancer Chronicles. Deadly spirits are preying on the city’s most vulnerable citizens in this story of secrets and sacrifice.

“The Sergeant and the General” finds Jasper Kent weaving a tale from the other side of the battle lines drawn in his Danilov Quintet, with a French veteran of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign haunted by more than just memories.

And in “Rat-Catcher,” Seanan McGuire travels into the past of the October Daye series to pull back the veils on both the world of 17th century London theater and the faerie Court of Cats as two worlds collide in one of the greatest conflagrations in history.

Limited: 224 numbered copies signed by the authors and editor: $45
Trade: 1500 fully cloth bound hardcover copies: $20

From Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):
“Subterranean staffer Kuznia keeps to the successful formula in her second four-story anthology: having successful authors write winning novellas that function equally as gateway introductions for new readers and exciting material for fans of their popular fantasy worlds. The best of these four is Amanda Downum’s “Bone Garden,” an exciting gothic tragedy set among actors and refugees in the world of the Necromancer Chronicles…”

From Library Journal:
“The second volume in a promising series…should attract most fans of fantasy, whether urban, epic, or classic.”

Our latest Jack Vance mystery omnibus, Desperate Days, continues to draw praise, this time from Matthew Hughes over at SF Site, who wrote, “Readers who know and love Vance for his sff will not be disappointed…in Desperate Days.”

Earlier praise from Publishers Weekly included the following: “This second collection of Vance crime novels edited by Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan (after 2011's Dangerous Ways) shows Vance to be a highly skilled practitioner of the traditional mystery… Fans of mysteries with a strong regional flavor will be rewarded.”

All of our earlier Jack Vance titles are now out of print. We have high hopes that this one will follow suit shortly.

Merry Christmas from the Kensingtons
By Lewis Shiner

1952
All of the cards are the same size, each longer and narrower than a standard picture postcard.  The early cards are in black and white.  This first one contains the greeting MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE KENSINGTONS on the right side, followed by the year, 1952, and four handwritten first names that clearly correspond to the four people on the other half of the card, left to right.

Bill, the father, is kneeling in front of a large Christmas tree that is decorated with glass balls and candy canes and tinsel.  He is a slim white man in his late twenties, dressed in slacks, cardigan, and an open-collared shirt.  His handsome face reflects calm confidence.  His left hand is on the shoulder of a boy of about 3, Tommy, who is dressed in a cowboy outfit:  Stetson-style hat, fringed jacket, gunbelt.  Tommy points an enormous toy Colt .45 at the camera, and laughs with fierce pleasure.  Next to him, in a pale playsuit, is Janey, not more than a year old, sitting with outstretched legs inside the protective right arm of her mother, Nancy.  Nancy is also white and in her twenties.  She sits with her legs folded to her left, her skirt tucked primly under her knees.  She wears a hand-knitted reindeer sweater that shows off her shapely figure.  Her dark, wavy hair is tucked behind her ears and her smile is radiant.  A black Labrador retriever sleeps contentedly in the foreground.

1953
The most obvious change from last year is the addition of a new family member, Bobby.  He is in Nancy’s arms, only a few weeks old.  From Nancy’s expression, he is the center of the universe.  He and Nancy sit in an armchair with Tommy and Janey posed on either side of her crossed legs.  Tommy has one arm around the dog.  Bill leans over the back of the chair, smiling easily.  His face his filled out since last year and his posture seems more comfortable.  The Christmas tree, even taller than last year’s, is at the far left side of the card.

1954
This looks like a different living room, in a newer and larger house, and in fact the return address on the back of the card shows a different house number on the same street.  The family is arrayed on a staircase to the viewer’s right of the towering Christmas tree.  Bill is at the top and Tommy, who has had a growth spurt, is on the next step down with the dog.  Janey stands shyly two steps further down, one finger in her mouth.  Nancy and the baby are at the foot of the stairs and the baby is crawling toward her contented smile.

1955
Bill is definitely gaining weight, though not yet enough to look heavy.  He stands with one arm around Nancy, watching the children on the floor in front of the tree.  Tommy is a private eye in a fedora, shoulder holster, and tie, all of them too large for him.  He is pointing out something in the newspaper to Bobby, who gazes at him worshipfully, as does the dog.  Janey sits a few unbridgeable feet away with a doll at her feet, looking on.

This is the card that first grabbed my attention, lying on top of a couple of hundred commercial post cards in a box at the flea market near my house, nearly lost in a sea of diners and motels and vistas of the Grand Canyon and the Golden Gate.  Maybe what I felt when I looked at it was what anyone would feel, spying on this intimate moment that had been intended only for friends and family and not for a stranger 57 years in the future.  Maybe it was the fact that I had been Bobby’s age in 1955, that I had craved that exact Mattel snub-nosed revolver in Tommy’s shoulder holster.  Maybe it was the way I had wanted a brother so badly as a kid, somebody to buffer me from my father’s violent temper, to give me continuity in our restless moves from one coast to the other.

1956
The furniture has been cleared away except for the Christmas tree, which is once again in the corner by the stairs.  Tommy, at age 7, is well over four feet tall.  He has taken a batter’s stance over the wrapped package that is serving as home plate.  In the foreground, Bill is grinning at the camera as he pretends to wind up for a fastball.  Janey, in a tomboy phase, stands to one side in cap, jeans, and tiny fielder’s glove.  Nancy, behind the plate, is incongruously holding out her arms in the umpire’s “safe” signal while Bobby waves his cap in excitement and the dog barks and wags his tail.

1957
The family stands in the driveway on an overcast day, lined up next to the station wagon, apparently en route to church.  The men are in coats and ties, the women in long dresses, hats, and veils.  A bit of snow is visible on the roof of the house next door.  Tommy and Nancy are waving at the camera.

This is the Mystery card, the one I come back to again and again.  It’s the only photo taken outdoors, the only one with a sense of weather, the only one that feels like it might have been intended for something else.  The thing that I can’t get over is that Tommy and Nancy are the only ones waving, as if they had some bizarre premonition.  I have searched Bobby’s face countless times for a clue as to what happened to him, but all I can see is a four-year-old boy who’s happy to be in his dress-up clothes, to be with his brother and his family, to be in the midst of the comforting ritual of Sunday and church.

1958
Tommy is in his Cub Scout uniform and Janey in her Brownie uniform.  Bobby has a miniature Cub Scout uniform of his own.  Bill and Nancy bracket the children.  They have both gained weight and Bill’s hair is thinning in front.  The Christmas tree and the stairs are visible in the background once more, but there is no sign of the dog.

1959
The photo is from the previous Halloween.  Tommy and Bobby are dressed as pirates and both brandish plastic swords.  Janey is a reluctant princess.  Bill and Nancy look on from the left and right sides of the picture.

1960
The family is lined up across the living room floor.  Bill is holding a nine iron, Tommy a hockey stick, Bobby a baseball bat, Janey a badminton racquet, all in identical poses.  Nancy, at the far right, holds a broom and shakes her finger at them in mock protest.

1961
From here on the cards are in color.  Tommy now signs his name as “Tom.”  He holds a small US flag as the other family members pretend to examine his Science Fair project, set up on the coffee table in front of the Christmas tree.  Mounted to the posterboard backing are the parts, replicated in balsa wood, of a Project Mercury space capsule.

1962
The family is in a huddle, open to the camera, and in the center is Tom, on one knee in jersey and helmet, one arm extended in classic blocker’s posture, a football tucked under the other.

1963
The family grouping is similar to the previous year’s, but the mood is more somber.  Wearing dark clothes, they kneel with joined hands around a framed photo of JFK.  The usual Christmas greeting is replaced this year with the words THE KENSINGTON FAMILY HONORS JOHN F. KENNEDY 1917-1963.

1964
Tom is now 15 and taller than his father.  Janey is an uncomfortable 13, arms folded over her chest.  Bobby, now Bob, takes up a new position at the far left of the photo, with his mother between him and his siblings.  The tree is smaller this year and the camera seems to have caught everyone at an awkward moment.  The caption once more reads MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE KENSINGTONS.

1965
A professional family portrait taken at Olan Mills.  Everyone is dressed up, but Bob, now Robert, age 12, has the first hints of peach fuzz on his upper lip and pimples on his forehead, and he looks as if his clothes belong to someone else.  Bill is now wearing black-rimmed glasses and has a pronounced widow’s peak.  He and Nancy, whose hair has an artificial auburn sheen, are in the center, Tom to their right, Janey and Robert to their left, Robert not touching anyone else.

1966
A staged “evening at home,” with everyone in exaggerated poses.  Bill is in front of the TV with his feet on an Ottoman, feigning an open-mouth snore.  Janey lies with her back on the floor and her legs against the wall, talking on the telephone.  Robert is earnestly strumming an acoustic guitar.  Tom is doing pushups as Nancy heads for the front door with bags of Avon cosmetics to deliver.

1967
Tom is in his Marine dress blues.  Bill and Nancy flank him, each with a hand on one of Tom’s shoulders.  Bill looks proud, Nancy brave.  Janey, who has began to blossom into a beautiful young woman, stands in front of him with a neutral expression.  Robert, to the right side of the photo, smiles bitterly.  His hair has crept over his collar in back and his sideburns flare below his ears.

1968
There is no card from 1968.

1969
Bill, Janey, Nancy, and Robert, who is now Rob, sit on the couch, smiling with varying degrees of success.  The tree is even smaller than before, with only a few presents under it.  Only their four signatures appear under the caption SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM THE KENSINGTONS.

1970
Janey is now the center of the photo, her arm around an athletic looking young man with short blond hair.  Everyone but Rob is smiling with real pleasure.  Rob, who now has shoulder-length hair and a mustache, appears to be trying.  The signatures read “Bill, Nancy, Rob, and Brian and Janey Davis.”

1971
Another family grouping on the couch.  Janey is again in the middle, this time holding a baby in her arms, whose name is Belinda.  Brian is next to Janey, smiling proudly.  Bill, who has gained quite a bit of weight, is at one end of the couch.  Nancy, at the other end, has lost weight and, although she is also smiling, her face seems drawn.  The caption reads HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE KENSINGTON AND DAVIS FAMILIES.  Rob is not in the picture, though his name appears in a handwriting that looks like Nancy’s.

1972
The family is in some kind of public building, a waiting room.  There is an abstract painting in cool greens and blues above their heads.  There are sitting together on a couch with a steel frame and blue vinyl cushions.  Nancy is in the center.  She wears a turban and she is very, very thin.  She is wearing a good deal of makeup and a forced smile.  Janey is on one side and Bill on the other, each with an arm around Nancy.  Brian sits next to Janey, holding the baby.  A small, artificial Christmas tree sits on an end table to Brian’s right.  Rob’s name appears again, this time as “Bobby,” in Janey’s hand.

1973
There are no more cards after this one.  Writing to the return addresses and searching on Facebook have yielded nothing.  These 21 cards are all I will ever have of the Kensingtons.

The final photograph is captioned MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE DAVIS FAMILY.  The names at the bottom read, “Brian, Belinda, Janey, and Grandpa Bill.”  Janey has written all of the names herself.

The colors are warm and intimate.  There is a large stone fireplace in the background with a fire blazing.  Bill is in a recliner, watching the others.  His expression is impossible to read.

Brian and Janey have Belinda, now two and a half, by her hands and are swinging her in the air.  Janey has her other hand resting on the swollen mound of her belly.  They are clearly full of joy and you can almost hear their laughter ring.