We’ve just reached agreement with the great Jacek Yerka to use one of his illustrations as the cover to Caitlin R. Kiernan’s sf collection, A is for Alien. In addition, Cait has decided on the material that will be in the bonus chapbook (nearly 13,000 words) included with the limited edition: “Between the Flatirons and the Deep Green Sea,” “Persephone,” and “Hoar Isis.”

Over at SciFi.com, Paul di Filippo casts a kindly eye on SF Grandmaster Robert A. Heinlein’s 552 page gathering of scripts, Project Moonbase and Others: “All these narratives are gripping and full of hooks and typically engaging Heinlein characters (as well as his quirks and foibles, as cited by John Scalzi in his fine introduction). The stories have proved themselves in print for half a century, and their virtues survive the transition to a different medium… Bringing these manuscripts into the light of day provides both a real service to the history of SF and a treat for all those who love yesterday’s tomorrows.”

Fans of Heinlein will be happy to know we’re deep into the behind-the-scenes work that will bring volume two into the world next year.

Celebrating 50 Years of Hard Case Crime!

Okay, not really. But what if, instead of having been founded 50 books ago, Hard Case Crime had been founded 50 years ago, by a rascal out to make a quick buck off the popularity of pulp fiction? Such a fellow might make a few enemies—especially after publishing a supposed non-fiction account of a heist at a Mob-run nightclub, actually penned by an 18-year-old showgirl. With both the cops and the crooks after them, our heroes are about to learn that reading and writing pulp novels is a lot more fun than living them…

Fifty-to-One will feature a full color signature page, plus full color endsheets depicting the 49 previous books in the Hard Case Crime Series,

In addition, each chapter of Fifty-to-One bears the title of a previous Hard Case Crime book, including such gems as Lucky at Cards (Lawrence Block), Lemons Never Lie (Richard Stark), The Colorado Kid (Stephen King), and Gun Work (David J. Schow), among others.

Fifty-to-One will be available in two unique editions: 500 cloth bound copies signed by the author, Charles Ardai, and a deluxe limited edition of 50 lavishly bound copies, housed in a handmade traycase, with over twenty full-color signature pages for most of the Hard Case Crime Authors, each hand-tipped front of the chapter that bears the title of one of their books.

Limited: 500 numbered copies signed by the author: $45
Deluxe: 50 copies, custom bound in leather and cloth, housed in a handmade traycase: $750

Thus far the following authors have agreed to sign the fifty copy deluxe edition:
– Richard Aleas/Charles Ardai
– Lawrence Block
– Ken Bruen
– Max Allan Collins
– Allan Guthrie
– Pete Hamill
– Russell Hill
– Stephen King
– John Lange
– Peter Pavia
– Max Phillips
– David J. Schow
– Seymour Shubin
– Domenic Stansberry
– Donald Westlake
– Jason Starr

One final note: Half of the profits from the deluxe edition will be donated to The Haven Foundation.

We’re pleased to announce that the trade edition of Charles de Lint’s What the Mouse Found is sold out a little more than a week after being published. Quantities of the signed, deluxe edition are dwindling rapidly.

We already have more pre-orders (including wholesalers and large online retailers) than we can fill for Charles’s collection Woods and Waters Wild, due later this year. The only way to be absolutely certain you will receive a copy is to order direct.

We’ve got a new James P. Blaylock project in the works — with our designer at the moment, in fact — illustrated by his friend and compatriot Tim Powers, with a meddlesome afterword by William Ashbless.

…Metamorphosis: three stories, each one involving a man who discovers that he has come to dwell, for an hour or for a lifetime, in a house and in a mind not quite his own. Each one opens doors onto rooms of illusion, radiance, regret, and dark enchantment. Welcome to the stories of three young writers, stories written in collaboration with James P. Blaylock. Welcome to the borderland of illusion and reality.

Many thanks for those who voted in the recent Locus Awards poll. We not only had four of the top ten short story collections — The Winds of Marble Arch (Connie Willis); The Jack Vance Treasury (Jack Vance) New Amsterdam (Elizabeth Bear); Ascendancies (Bruce Sterling) — SubPress was voted second place in the Best Publisher/Imprint category. Thanks to everyone for taking what started as two guys working over a kitchen table and turning it into such a growing success.

While we’re slinging praises about, we’re delighted to pass along what Gardner Dozois had to say about Subterranean in the summary section of his current Year’s Best Science Fiction: “Subterranean, edited by William K. Schafer, in particular has quickly established itself as perhaps the best place on the internet to find stylishly written horror–but it also publishes fantasy and science fiction. There were good stories at Subterranean this year from Bruce Sterling, Lucius Shepard, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Chris Roberson, Jim Grimsley, Jay Lake, John Scalzi, Joe Lansdale, and others.”

Speaking of Subterranean and horror, this week’s tale is a dark little novelette by David Prill, who strays into Joe Lansdale and Norman Partridge territory with “The Midland Specter.”

“The gunshot hole burned and bled, and as he fled through the rain and mean wind Jack Elmer pressed the base of his palm to the wound on his arm, hoping to stem the stream of life as it sought a way out of his body. His fingers felt sticky and the blood was thicker than water but not thick enough, no, not thick enough.”

Click over to the story to read on.

Just a few quick, early words. We’ve just bought a long (130k words) unpublished fantasy by Charles de Lint that he plans to revise to bring up to his current standards. Look for info on EYES LIKE LEAVES in the coming weeks.

We also, as of a few minutes ago — ain’t the internet grand? — reached agreement to publish Richard K. Morgan’s fantasy debut, THE STEEL REMAINS, as a signed limited edition. We’ll have an announcement on that as soon as we’ve had a chance to confer with Richard on an illustrator.

Caitlín R. Kiernan has turned in her next project for us, A is for Alien, a gathering of her science fiction stories, including the novellas “Bradbury Weather” and “Zero Summer.” Here, we’ll let the flap copy tell you a bit more about the collection: “A is for Alien is award-winning author Caitlín R. Kiernan’s first collection devoted entirely to her science-fiction work. It includes the critically acclaimed novelette “Riding the White Bull” (chosen for The Year’s Best Science Fiction, 22nd Annual Collection), along with seven other tales of a less-than-utopian future. Ranging from the wastelands and mountains of Mars to the streets of a late 21st-Century Manhattan, from the moons of Europa and Saturn to an iceless Antarctica, these tales bring Kiernan’s trademark brand of the eco-gothic to bear on what it means to be human and the paths and decisions that may face mankind only a little farther along.”

A is for Alien will be published in early 2009 in two unique editions, a cloth bound trade hardcover ($25), and a signed limited edition of 250 copies, with a chapbook of additional fiction ($45). The limited editions of our other Kiernan projects have all sold out prepublication, so please order early if that’s the edition that interests you.

This week alone — just a week after it was released — we’ve received orders for nearly 1500 copies of Charles de Lint’s delightful book of Children’s stories, What the Mouse Found. If you’re interested in snagging a copy, we suggest ordering one soon. We’re unlikely to have copies of the trade edition beyond the next round of wholesaler and large online retailer orders.

Lewis Shiner’s multi-generational thriller, Black & White, is in short supply as well. We’re down to the last 150 copies of the trade edition (we started with around 3000), and only have a double handful of copies of the limited edition left!

Publishers Weekly has just weighed in with their opinion on David Weber’s mammoth, 270 thousand word collection, Worlds of Weber, and it’s a doozy. To wit: “This hefty and moving reprint collection of nine novellas written between 1995 and 2007 fills in the corners of Weber’s celebrated Honor Harrington series (most recently 2005’s At All Costs) and offers several other variations on political and military themes… With restraint and good taste, Weber tempers his mourning for war’s destruction with heartfelt celebrations of the honorable men, women, creatures and machines of the armed forces.”

Worlds of Weber is right on schedule for publication in late August or early September.