Readers of Wil Wheaton’s website know that he is a masterful teller of elegant stories about his life. Building on the critical success of Dancing Barefoot and Just A Geek, he has collected more of his own favorite stories in his third book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. These are the stories Wil loves to tell, because they are the closest to his heart: stories about being a huge geek, passing his geeky hobbies and values along to his own children, and vividly painting what it meant to grow up in the ’70s and come of age in the ’80s as part of the video game/D&D/BBS/Star Wars figures generation.

The Subterranean Press edition, limited to 2000 deluxe signed hardcover copies, will be expanded from the version Wil released himself, and include an exclusive photo section. Please see the book’s page for full details.

We’ve just had a number of books designed and are sending them out to be proofread. They include:

– Marionettes, Inc. (Ray Bradbury);
– Fool Moon and Grave Peril (Jim Butcher);
– The Onion Girl (Charles de Lint);
– Crystal Nights and Other Stories (Greg Egan);
– The Reality Dysfunction (Peter F. Hamilton);
– Locke & Key (Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez);
– Crimson Shadows (Robert E. Howard)
– In Between (R.A. MacAvoy);
– Purple and Black (K. J. Parker);
– Vacancy & Ariel (Lucius Shepard);
– The Terror (Dan Simmons);

You may notice that a good many of these books aren’t up for preorder yet. Once the new year turns, we’re going to be able to announce these and a lot of other exciting new projects.

A number of projects at the printer are progressing nicely. Here’s a quick rundown.

– The Proteus Sails Again (Thomas M. Disch). Proteus is at the printer. We’re waiting for various proofs to arrive and approve before the book is printed.

– The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman): We’ve approved the full-color foldout, and the interior color section, which have both been printed. The guts of the book are expected to be printed in the next two weeks, while we wait for the handmade marbled Ann Muir paper that the book will be partially bound in to be completed. (Please note that the illo no longer reflects how the book will look. We had to go for an alternate paper when it turned out our first choice can no longer be manufactured.) We expect the paper to be delivered in early-to-mid December, at which time the books will all be bound, and then we can have slipcases constructed.

– A Feast for Crows (George R. R. Martin): All of the interior color artwork has been approved and printed, and we’ve seen the digital bluelines from our printer. This one’s in the printing queue, and slated to be landing at our shipping facilities in mid December, at which point we’ll order the slipcases. Look for the two volume set to start shipping sometime in January.

– Those Who Went Remain There Still (Cherie Priest). Everything for this book has been approved, and the interior pages have been printed, as has the chapbook that will accompany the limited edition. Look for Cherie’s hillbilly monster mash to be shipping in the first couple of weeks in December.

– Kilimanjaro (Mike Resnick). We’ve just approved a printed-but-unbound copy of the book, so it should be shipping in the next two weeks.

– Muse of Fire (Dan Simmons). Everything for this title is approved, and it’s slated to ship to us around 12/10. Please note that the limited edition is completely sold out, and we have orders for more than 1000 of the 1500 trade edition copies, with large online retailer orders due soon.

– The Last Science Fiction Writer (Allen Steele). A printed but unbound copy of this one has also been approved. It’ll be shipping in just another week or two.

– The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon). Everything has been approved, and the guts and color artwork for the book have been printed. This is such a complex job, printed in duotone throughout, with full-color plates interspersed through the book, and a “secret” image on the reverse of the dust jacket, that it’s taken a full month or so longer than our usual projects to print. Look for us to be shipping in mid-December. Shadow may turn out to be the nicest limited edition we’ve ever done.

Copies of Kage Baker’s rollicking tale of the red planet, The Empress of Mars, are already completed and nestled comfortably among hundreds of other boxes in our shipping facilities. By agreement, we can’t start shipping this one until December 1, but intend to start getting copies out to customers on that very day. Thus far, we’ve sold over 350 of the 448 copies, and we’re still waiting for a large online retailer order, so Empress is doing quite well, especially considering it’s Kage’s first true limited edition.

Our Jack Vance tribute anthology, Songs of the Dying Earth, edited by George R. R Martin and Gardner Dozois, is very close to its final shape. Two of the final stories are now in house, and have been sent to Tom Kidd to illustrate. We’re delighted that Neil Gaiman (”An Invocation of Incuriosity”) and Howard Waldrop (”Frogskin Cap”) are now onboard. As soon as one final story lands in our laps, we’ll be sending out to have Advance Reading Copies printed, and will be able to set a firm publication date. At over 600 pages, and featuring a major new novella by Dan Simmons among its many excellent tales, Songs may turn out to be the must-have anthology of 2009.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that all individual, retailer, and wholesale orders for Orson Scott Card’s fantasy novella, Stonefather, have shipped. We had far more orders for copies than the print run’s total, so you might want to track down a copy soon if you’d like one.

Next up for our shippers will be the trade edition of Barry Hughart’s omnibus, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, which is also Sold Out on publication. We’ll keep you posted as copies go out. Please note that we’re still a good 4-6 weeks from shipping the limited edition, as we wait for the slipcases to be completed.

Noted Steampunk aviatrix Cherie Priest debuts what she calls The Clockwork Century (”Combat dirigibles skulk across the sky and armored vehicles crawl along the land. Military scientists twist the laws of man and nature, and barter their souls for weapons powered by light, fire, and steam.”) in the novelette, “Tanglefoot“, the story of a gentle, tragic mad scientist and his boy assistant.

Sfsite has just posted a highly complimentary review of John Scalzi’s gathering of the “best” from the first ten years of his blog, Whatever. According to them, Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded is for you: “If you are comfortable reading something that is likely to lampoon at least one of your deeply held opinions then this collection is for you. If you are the sort of person who goes looking for things to be upset about then this collection is also for you. However, you should be aware that the grading of hate mail is something that the author no longer has time for, so make sure it’s your best effort.”

A couple of our higher end limited editions have just sold out, and are being pulled from the site as soon as our webguy can manage it. Robert E. Howard’s Kull: Exile of Atlantis met with even stronger sales than we anticipated.

The next Robert E. Howard volume, Crimson Shadows, is also selling well, and with a smaller print run than Kull.

Naomi Novik’s debut novel, His Majesty’s Dragon came strong out of the gate and continued to sell steadily until our stocks became depleted. All signs point to her sequel, Throne of Jade performing the same way.

Finally, the $38 trade hardcover edition of The Jack Vance Reader, which collects three of the Grandmaster’s best novels, is out of print. We still have a small supply of the limited and lettered editions.

The first review for Caitlin R. Kiernan’s debut science fiction collection, A is for Alien is in, from Publishers Weekly: “Known for dark fantasy that skates the edge of horror, Kiernan (Tales of Pain and Wonder) turns to science fiction with equally unsettling effects in these eight stories.”