Reminder for Philip José Farmer fans!

Just a reminder that Titan Books kicks off it's Wold Newton Series of Philip José Farmer reissues in two short weeks with the elder steampunk novel The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, due in bookstores on May 8!

I'm also pleased to announce that this edition contains the original interior illustrations by Rick J. Bryant found in the 1982 Tor Books edition.

Of course, H.W. Starr's addendum entitled "A Submersible Subterfuge, or Proof Impositve" is also included.

The Titan edition also includes two new pieces:

• Afterword by Win Scott Eckert: "Only a Coincidence: Phileas Fogg, Philip José Farmer, and the Wold Newton Family"

(Family tree fans take note--this afterword has a new chart which is an extension of the Wold Newton Family tree charts found in Farmer's Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life!)

• Chronology by Win Scott Eckert: "A Chronology of Major Events Pertinent to The Other Log of Phileas Fogg 

And if you already own a copy of the book, I can't put if better than my friend Mike Croteau, webmaster of the Official Philip José Farmer Home Page:

Let's face it, if you already own a copy (or several) of any of these titles, the bonus materials are why you are buying these books. The real key will be if new readers are attracted to the books and buy them (yea again for the great covers). If so, these bonus materials, most with an emphasis on the Wold Newton Universe and how the books are related to each other, should help make it so new readers don't stop at just one. How about this: Do Phil's memory a big favor and buy at least one of these titles just to give it to someone who has never read Farmer. See if you can't set the hook and reel them in. You know you would be doing them a great favor in the long run.

Order your copy now--and put the next book in the series, Time's Last Gift, on your list as well!

• Amazon 
• Barnes & Noble 
• Titan Books direct

The Wild Huntsman

    Thus, Tarzan has as ancestor Woden. It would be difficult to find a more highly placed forefather than the All-Father.
     Perhaps the great god of the North is not dead but is in hiding. It pleased the Wild Huntsman to direct the falling star of Wold Newton near the two coaches. Thus, in a manner of speaking, he fathered the children of the occupants. The mutated and recessive genes would be reinforced, kept from being lost, by the frequent marriages among the descendants of the irradiated parents.
—Philip José Farmer, Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke

In November 1795, after undergoing a harrowing adventure in France, Sir Percy Blakeney—The Scarlet Pimpernel—decided to call a Conclave of some of the most remarkable people of his time to plan how to influence the political and revolutionary climate sweeping across Europe. These extraordinary people, many of them heroes in their own right, were the ancestors of a group of mutant supermen who have played a large role in our affairs—Sherlock Holmes, Doc Wildman, Captain Nemo, and the lord of the jungle, among many others.

It is December 13, 1795. The ionized radiation accompanying a meteor strike in the tiny village of Wold Newton, Yorkshire, endows Blakeney and his fellow Conclave attendees with a boost—a nova of genetic splendor—that will result in those supermen and women.

Or does it?

A mysterious time traveler has come to Wold Newton to witness the momentous event, and is quickly drawn into investigating a series of impossible murders heralded by an ominous tolling, murders never recorded in the history books. As the Conclave guests divide into camps, and hopes for a solution to the European problem dwindle, so too dwindles hope for the future. For if the enigmatic time voyager cannot overcome the machinations of an immortal trickster and ensure that the right people are at the right place, at the right time, then not only will his own future and past be erased, but the whole of history itself will be rewritten…

Drawing on the cornerstone Wold Newton novels, biographies, and stories by science-fiction Grandmaster Philip José Farmer, including Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Time’s Last Gift, The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, and A Feast Unknown, “The Wild Huntsman” is a 12,000-word novelette by Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert. A sequel to Eckert’s tale “Is He in Hell?” (The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1: Protean Dimensions), “The Wild Huntsman” will see publication in Meteor House’s The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 3: Portraits of a Trickster (2012).

Note: Time is running out for readers to win to a chance be Tuckerized in a major story in The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 3: Portraits of a Trickster. Readers can enter this contest up to three times (see www.pjfarmer.com for details) but the deadline is June 30.

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg - Bonus Materials

I'm very pleased to announce that I'll be contributing two bonus pieces to the Titan Books reissue of Philip José Farmer's "secret history" novel The Other Log of Phileas Fogg.

Other Log reveals the hidden events behind Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. First published in 1973, the book is considered to be one of the first examples of elder steampunk.

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg is currently scheduled for release in May 2012, and is available for pre-order at major outlets such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Editions include trade paperback and digital (Kindle & Nook).

Other Log kicks off Titan's series of Wold Newton novels, to be followed by Time's Last Gift in June 2012. More titles will follow, so stay tuned to Mr. Farmer's official website, and Facebook (Philip Jose Farmer | Win Scott Eckert) for more information.

As for the bonus materials, the new edition will contain the following pieces, exclusive to this edition:

• a new afterword entitled "Only a Coincidence: Phileas Fogg, Philip José Farmer, and the Wold Newton Family"
• a timeline entitled "A Chronology of Major Events Pertinent to The Other Log of Phileas Fogg"

So get over to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and get your pre-order in now!

Announcement: The Evil in Pemberley House - A new novel by Philip José Farmer & Win Scott Eckert

Earlier today, at FarmerCon 90, a convention in honor of Philip José Farmer's 90th birthday held at the Lakeview branch of the Peoria Public Library, a "Mystery Panel" was held in which it was revealed that Phil and Bette Farmer made the decision to have writers they trusted complete some of Phil's unfinished manuscripts.

Among these are:

• The Song of Kwasin, a continuation of the Khokarsa cycle, the first two books being Hadon of Ancient Opar and Flight to Opar - completed by collaborator Christopher Paul Carey (I've read it, and it's a wonderfully stirring conclusion to the saga, which fans of H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and, of course, Phil Farmer, are going to absolutely love; read Chris' own blog post here)


• A Western, Cougar By the Tail, with collaborator Tracy Knight (author of many short stories and two novels, Beneath a Whiskey Sky and The Astonished Eye
  
• "Getting Ready to Write," a very funny Polytropical Paramyth written with Paul Spiteri, and appearing in Farmerphile #13 (July 2008)


• The Evil in Pemberley House with collaborator Win Scott Eckert
  

I first discovered the short synopsis, longer outline, handwritten notes, and incomplete manuscript for The Evil in Pemberley House in the "Magic Filing Cabinet" in Phil Farmer's basement on a trip to Peoria with Mike Croteau, publisher of Farmerphile and webmaster of the Official Philip José Farmer Home Page, in July 2005. (During the same trip we also discovered the Kwasin manuscript and notes, much to Chris Carey's joy.) At Phil's bequest, I researched and prepared to finish the novel for two years (amidst other writing projects, in particular finalizing the manuscript for Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, long-anticipated and coming in 2010 from MonkeyBrain Books) and wrote in earnest this past year.

During this time Chris Carey was also completing The Song of Kwasin and I can't thank him enough for the literally hundreds of emails and many phone calls, in which we bounced ideas around, exchanged feedback, and in general provided much needed support and encouragement.

It's an incredible honor and supreme thrill to have been selected to tell the story that Phil didn't complete, the "origin story" of Patricia Wildman, the "woman of bronze," the daughter of "Doc" Wildman, who was a renaissance man and battler of evil-doers from the Golden Age of the 1930s. (For fans who may have forgotten, Phil brought this bronze superman's real name and family background to the world-at-large in a "fictional biography" published in the early 1970s.)

With Phil and Bette Farmer's blessing, the manuscript is now in the hands of Phil's agent.

For more information, I've launched a website for The Evil in Pemberley House. Please bookmark it and check back often for news, a forthcoming book trailer, etc. I'm thrilled beyond belief to be involved in this project, and to finally launch it in earnest to the blogosphere. An excerpt from the novel will appear in Farmerphile #14 (October 2008).

In the meantime, content yourself with the gorgeous spot illustration of Patricia Wildman, woman of bronze (lovingly rendered by the amazing Keith Howell) and read below the summary which appeared in the convention booklet handed out today at FarmerCon 90.

THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE

For over thirty years, readers have marveled at Philip José Farmer’s clever integration of some of popular fiction and literature’s most beloved characters, in a mythical web known as the Wold Newton Family. First described in the fictional biographies Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Farmer expanded the mythos in The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, the Tarzan-Sherlock Holmes pastiche The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, Time’s Last Gift, Hadon of Ancient Opar, Flight to Opar, and the authorized series novels The Dark Heart of Time: A Tarzan Novel and Escape from Loki: Doc Savage’s First Adventure.

Now, from imagination of Philip José Farmer and Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert, comes an addition to the Wold Newton cycle, a Gothic tale of adventure which builds upon the Canon of Sherlock Holmes mysteries and explores the psyche of a pulp superman’s offspring…

It’s 1973, and Patricia Wildman is traveling from New York to Derbyshire in England to claim her legacy, the grand estate known as Pemberley House. The descendant of famous and infamous dukes and duchesses, and of Pemberley’s memorable Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, Patricia is also the daughter of the world-renowned crimefighter of the 1930s and ’40s, Dr. James Clarke “Doc” Wildman. She is also the inheritor of her father’s bronzed skin, gold-flecked eyes, and his physical and intellectual perfection, as well as her mother’s cunning and compassion.

Patricia is looking to put her past behind her and start a new life at Pemberley. Instead, she’s almost immediately attacked by poachers and has to contend with the resentful inhabitants of Pemberley who would prefer the venerable estate pass to them. Foremost among those seeking to prevent Patricia from accepting her legacy and becoming the new Baroness of Lambton are the imperious 103-year-old dowager duchess of Pemberley, her adopted grandchildren, and her personal physician, Dr. Augustus Moran.

Patricia, however, is not only faced with the devious machinations of British nobility and greedy hangers-on, but must also contend with being haunted by her direct ancestor, the 16th century Baroness, Bess of Pemberley. Or is the “Pemberley Curse” really the product of the conniving residents of Pemberley House?

As Patricia struggles to reconcile the supernatural evidence in front of her with her rational scientific upbringing, she also attempts to work through unresolved feelings about her late parents. It’s not easy being the daughter of a superman, after all…

The Evil in Pemberley House is an adventure, Gothic horror, and genealogical mystery set against the backdrop of Jane Austen’s Derbyshire, which will excite a broad array of readers of both pulp and popular literature, especially fans of the Doc Savage pulp novels, the Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Farmer’s own celebrated Wold Newton Family mythos.