Our shippers are just sending the last copies of Naomi Novik’s sold out Black Powder War out the door early this week, and will spend a few days catching up on distributor and random individual orders, processing a batch of returns, and then turn their attention to the signed, limited edition of Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill. Copies won’t start going out until the end of the week, but we’ll keep you posted here on our news page and in our email newsletter. Once shipping is complete, and we have a final count, we do expect to have a handful of copies of the limited to offer to our mailing list, so keep your eyes peeled.

And don’t forget, if you miss out on the limited, there’s a $60 trade hardcover edition — limited to only 1000 copies, and not to be reprinted by us — coming this fall.

As is probably clear by now, we here at SubPress love large retrospective collections, and have published volumes by the likes of Lucius Shepard, Michael Swanwick, Robert Silverberg, and many more, with similar projects in the works by Peter S. Beagle, Lewis Shiner, Larry Niven, and Joe Haldeman.

Well, one that got away was Gene Wolfe, though we’re pleased to be able to offer the limited edition of The Very Best of Gene Wolfe, to be published by our friends at PS next month. Their version is limited to only 300 numbered copies signed by the author, and includes one story not in the US trade hardcover. Head on over to the book’s page for the full details, and the complete table of contents.

As usual, we’re offering FREE US shipping on this PS Publishing title.

We just reached agreement — yesterday, in fact — to publish The New Dead, a zombie anthology edited by Christopher Golden, with new stories by Joe Hill, Max Brooks, Mike Carey, Kelley Armstrong, and more than a handful of other fine writers. Head over to Chris’s blog to check out the full table of contents. You’ll want to keep an eye on our email newsletter — we’ll post ordering information soon, and the print run will be only 250 signed numbered copies.

And here’s the cover to Joe R. Lansdale and Keith Lansdale’s Son of Retro Pulp Tales, with original stories by Joe R. Lansdale (a Dead in the West novelette), David J. Schow’s great Donald Westlake homage, Harlan Ellison’s uncollected Martian novelette, and a bevy of other tales that play with pulp conventions while being thoroughly modern. We’ve just started sending the signature pages around, so Retro looks to be right on schedule for its July release.

We’ve just reached agreement with Brian Lumley to publish a long (over 50,000 words) Necroscope novella next year. We’ll have the full details for you shortly, but for now can tell you that Necroscope: The Plague-Bearer takes place during Harry Keough’s “Lost Years” and is the sort of punchy, pulpy adventure for which Brian is best known. We’ve already sent the manuscript to Bob Eggleton, who will be providing a full-color cover and a ton of black-and-white text ornaments to be spread liberally through the book.

For those of you with short memories, here’s Dave McKean’s cover for Gordon Dahlquist’s The Dark Volume, which features the only-a-mother-could-love-them features of Cardinal Chang, who happens to be neither Catholic nor Chinese. Instead, he’s a ruthless killer, caught up, as are Celeste Temple and Colonel Abelard, in fighting the cabal which controls the glass books, the ultra-cool invention that sucks the life experiences and emotions out of its victims. The Dark Volume is a fine literary fantasy, in an alternate Victorian setting (as was its prequel, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters) filled with close calls, violent encounters, well turned phrases, and the thrill-a -minute pacing of the serials of the 19th century. It also happens to be one damn fine novel.

We’re taking one last tour through the files for Robert E. Howard’s Crimson Shadows, which will be headed to the printer shortly. Our edition features full-color plates and endpapers by Jim and Ruth Keegan not in the del Rey trade paperback, as well as an exclusive chapbook of preliminary sketches that will accompany the deluxe limited edition. The book’s been freshly proofed to make certain no errors were introduced in transferring files from the paperback publisher to our designer, and the art for the slipcase and exclusive foil stamping for both editions are all in place. Our Director of Production, Yanni Kuznia, has to sign off on all of the elements, and the production process will get underway. Look for finished copies, right on schedule, in August.

It must seem like a Jack Vance festival at our printer, as we’ve just sent them three of the SF Grandmaster’s titles, including his autobiography (This is Me, Jack Vance), a stellar collection of short stories (Wild Thyme, Green Magic), and what may well turn out to be the anthology of the year, in which writers such as Dan Simmons, Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin and others play in Vance’s signature milieu in the nearly 700 page anthology, Songs of the Dying Earth.

If that’s not enough, China Mieville’s subtle, fantastic, and slippery detective novel, The City & the City, is at our printer. This is one book where the two color printing really meshes well with the story within. Other titles that are in production at our printer include Kage Baker’s steampunk novella, The Women of Nell Gwynne’s.

Just a quick post on a few Ray Bradbury matters:

– His short story chapbook, The Shop of the Mechanical Insects, designed and illustrated in full color by Dave McKean, is selling more quickly than just about any other chapbook we’ve ever announced. Without including any retailer or wholesale orders, more than 300 copies have already been reserved.

– We just finished negotiating the rights to reprint Summer Morning, Summer Night, as a trade paperback next year. As Publishers Weekly noted in its starred review, Summer is “as intoxicating as Bradbury’s legendary Dandelion Wine, the 27 new and old stories in this potent collection resonate with timeless power.” Look for ordering information soon.”

Add i09 to those giving glowing reviews to Kage Baker’s new steampunk novella: “Despite the fantastic elements and twists The Women of Nell Gwynne’s feels faithful to the Victorian Period. One of Kage Baker’s great strengths is her brilliance in presenting other time periods. As a writer, educator, and actress she lives and breathes history. She captures not just the little details and mannerisms of daily life but the deeply held attitudes of her characters whether from 1844, 1604, or the 24th Century. Subterranean’s Deluxe Hardcover Edition won’t be for everyone’s budget but if you get a chance pick up The Women of Nell Gwynne’s. It’s a witty steampunk thriller as if written by Ian Fleming’s crazy libertine aunt. I am hopeful we will see more of Lady Beatrice and her sisters in espionage.”

And in later news, Publishers Weekly has just chimed in about Nell Gwynne’s: “This steampunk novella, set in 1844 London, follows the exploits of the harlots of the exclusive establishment known as Nell Gwynne’s, where they gather intelligence for the shadowy Gentlemen’s Speculative Society, a predecessor to the Company featured in several of Baker’s novels…. The beautifully drawn Victorian era is neatly spiced up with futuristic technology such as mechanical eye implants. Baker’s fans will delight in this slight, bawdy and funny confection.”