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Best. Comic. Ever.

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Amazon's response regarding anthologies and contributor listings

Amazon's response to this issue:

"Hello Win,

I understand the frustration you've experienced in attempting to add your title's contributors to the author byline. Author bylines on detail pages will not include contributors to anthologies at this time. However, contributors to anthologies may include anthologies in their bibliographies. I took a moment to review the list of contributors in your message. I have added this title to bibliographies for those contributors with existing Author Pages, and have created new Author Pages for those without. These changes will appear on the website in 24-48 hours.

This information may also be included in the Product Description of your book. We are working to allow authors to submit updates to the Editorial Reviews section from within Author Central. Because this ability is not yet available to you, I have added the names of your title's contributors to the Product Description. This change will appear on the website in 24-48 hours.

We hope to see you again soon.

Did we answer your question?

Best regards,

Sarah B"

I am not completely satisfied, as it still makes no sense to not list anthology contributors' names as hyperlinks at the top of every book listing, and allow those names to be searched upon. Books listed on someone's Author Central page, therefore, don't necessarily come up on a search by that author's name. (For instance, The Avenger Chronicles
is on my Author Central page, but does not come up when you search in Books by my name. Likewise Tales of the Shadowmen 6: Grand Guignol.)

It's inconsistent.

Adding the contributor names to the Editorial Description of Myths for the Modern Age was a nice touch, but they didn't list everyone. Any Myths contributors who want to be listed, I suggest you copy Sarah B's note above and attach to your own request to Amazon to be added to the Editorial Description (I can't tilt at all the windmills by myself. ;-)

I appreciate Amazon's response here... but they still have some work to do.

Green Hornet and Captain Midnight now listed for pre-order on Amazon

New pre-orders from Moonstone Books:

The Green Hornet Chronicles, which I am co-editing with Joe Gentile and in which I'm also thrilled to have a tale, and The Captain Midnight Chronicles (edited by Christopher Mills and also rating high on the thrill scale!) are both now available for pre-order from Amazon:

The Green Hornet Chronicles SC | HC
The Captain Midnight Chronicles

Introduction to Sherlock Holmes und das Uhrwerk des Todes

A few folks have requested the original English Introduction to Christian Endres' Sherlock Holmes und das Uhrwerk des Todes, and I'm happy to oblige.

Happy New Year!

===

Introduction to Sherlock Holmes and the Clockwork of Death

Sherlock Holmes lived.

Anyone who denies this suffers from delusions and deserves a sound thrashing.

Sherlockian biographical scholarship (commonly called “The Game”) arose as a response to a myriad of discrepancies in Watson’s writings of the master detective Sherlock Holmes, and the Sherlockian tradition in which the object of the fictional biography is treated as a real person followed close on its heels. In the Sherlockian Game Holmes’s amanuensis, Dr. Watson, is also treated as a real person. As Dr. Watson narrates the cases, Arthur Conan Doyle is relegated to the status of Watson’s “editor.”

It stands to reason, then, that there were been many more cases documented by Watson which Doyle never edited and incorporated into the original Canon. The plethora of Sherlockian tales, purporting to come from the legendary battered tin dispatch case, or buried in the attic of some American relative of Watson’s, and so on, bears witness to Watson’s literary fecundity.

Many such tales deviate from the strict confines of Holmes’ deductive powers applied to realistic mysteries, and delve into the realms of the fantastic, the mystical, the outré. Such are those of Watson’s stories discovered and edited for publication by Christian Endres in the present volume. In so doing, Endres follows in a rich tradition of bringing to light the sort of Holmes adventures at which less imaginative followers of the Great Detective scoff and dismiss out-of-hand.

Holmes is Holmes—the violin, the cocaine, Mrs. Hudson, our beloved seventeen steps up to 221B are all present—but in these pages we see him intersect with the likes of Peter Pan, Captain Nemo, the Land of Oz, Count Dracula, and Lovecraftian horrors.

And why not?

Many are the fans of Holmes’ extraordinary adventures. He fought the Martians several times (most notably in Sherlock Holmes’ War of the Worlds by Manly W. Wellman and Wade Wellman), confronted Count Dracula even more often (in Loren D. Estleman’s Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count and many others) and confronted myriad Cthulhuoid terrors (in Shadows Over Baker Street, Michael Reaves and John Pelan, eds., among others). These tales by Dr. Watson, unearthed and brought to light by Endres, are worthy and charming additions to this brand of Holmesian storytelling.

“No ghosts need apply,” indeed!

Win Scott Eckert

Denver, Colorado, USA

July 2009

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Sherlock Holmes und das Uhrwerk des Todes

My contributor copy of Christian Endres' Sherlock Holmes und das Uhrwerk des Todes (Atlantis, December 2009) arrived today and it looks like a quite nice package indeed (speaking as someone who doesn't read German).

Christian and I met online a while back when he interviewed me for the the German SF/F magazine Phantastich!, and I was pleased to return the favor by providing the Introduction to his new collection of Holmes stories.

Christian dedicates his volume to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, William S. Baring-Gould, and Philip José Farmer.

So, if you read German and are a Holmes fan, check out the links above and tell Christian I sent ya!

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Tales of the Shadowmen 6: Grand Guignol

My contributor copies of Tales of the Shadowmen 6: Grand Guignol arrived yesterday and I'm mightily pleased. My tale features Sir Percy Blakeney, better known as The Scarlet Pimpernel, and takes place in France and England in November 1795... just one month before he was present at the small East Yorkshire village of Wold Newton when a meteor fell there.

What could have been in Sir Percy's head to cause him (and several other notables) to trudge up to an out-of-the-way place such as Wold Newton in the middle of December?

Table of contents, followed by a description from the publisher. As my fellow author Christopher Paul Carey notes, the cover is meant to be Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius, who appears in Jean-Marc Lofficier's story, "J. C. in Alphaville":

US$22.95/GBP 14.99 - 6x9 tpb, 312 p.
ISBN-13: 978-1-935558-00-2

Contents:
Christopher Paul Carey: Caesar's Children
Win Scott Eckert: Is He in Hell?
Emmanuel Gorlier: Out of Time
Matthew Baugh & Micah Harris: The Scorpion and the Fox
Travis Hiltz: The Treasure of the Ubasti
Rick Lai: Incident in the Boer War
Roman Leary: The Children of Heracles
Jean-Marc Lofficier: J.C. in Alphaville
Randy Lofficier: The Spear of Destiny
Xavier Mauméjean: The Man for the Job
William P. Maynard: Yes, Virginia, There is a Fantômas
John Peel: The Biggest Guns
Neil Penswick: The Vampire Murders
Dennis E. Power: No Good Deed...
Frank Schildiner: Laurels for the Toff
Bradley H. Sinor: Where the Shadows Began...
Michel Stéphan: The Red Silk Scarf
David L. Vineyard: The Children's Crusade
Brian Stableford: Where Zombies Armies Clash by Night (Part IV of The Empire of the Necromancers)

This sixth volume of Tales of the Shadowmen is dedicated to simpler horrors and theatrical villainy. Tremble as you face the terror of Fantômas, the villainy of Madame Atomos, the sorcery of Leonox, the unspeakable King in Yellow and the insanity of Alphaville!

Fortunately for us, and for the world, there are always stalwart heroes rising up to stem the tides of darkness and restore peace and order to the world. Chevalier Dupin! Harry Dickson! Mowgli! Arsène Lupin! The Scarlet Pimpernel! Raffles and mamy more are there, to confront crazy sorcerers and ravening zombies, mad scientists and giant rats, evil computers and Hindu death cults, Martians and monsters!

Long live the Shadowmen!

Amazon fails again--and contributors to anthologies get punished

In the past year, Amazon has eliminated listings for contributors to anthologies. Their first stated rationale was that anthology participants are not "authors" and thus they were all deleted. Amazon instructed that participants should be listed as "contributors."

Now, apparently, Amazon is refusing to list such participants as "contributors." Such a position devalues those of us who write for anthologies, but then devaluing the writer is nothing new with Amazon.

A few days ago I noticed that Amazon had eliminated the listings for all the contributors to my anthology Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe--despite the fact that when Amazon eliminated all the "author" listings a few months back, I dutifully went back into Amazon and re-entered them as "contributors."

Noticing the listings were once again gone, I re-entered the contributors... and received this pleasant missive this morning:

==== This is an automated response message - please do not reply ====

Thank you for using the Catalog Update Form to send suggestions for

Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (ASIN 1932265147)


At this time we cannot accept the correction you have submitted for one of the following reasons:
- Could not verify
- Incorrectly formatted
- Provided URL did not confirm
- Some data on high-profile items is not editable

To help us make sure your submissions are correct, use proper case and correct punctuation and spelling, don't add comments or questions and include a valid URL from an authoritative source for verification.

Attribute: Author function
Current value: Win Scott Eckert | Editor
Your suggestion:
Win Scott Eckert
Editor
Philip Jose Farmer
Contributor
Matthew Baugh
Contributor
Christopher Paul Carey
Contributor
Peter M. Coogan
Contributor
Rick Lai
Contributor
Chuck Loridans
Contributor
Jess Nevins
Contributor
Dennis E. Power
Contributor
John A. Small
Contributor


Data accuracy is highly important to us. We appreciate the time you have taken to submit your updates to us.

Best regards,


Catalog Department
www.amazon.com

Amazon, enough is enough. I know who contributed to the anthology I edited. I submitted correct information, following your guidelines. I provided a URL listing the table of contents, and the contributors.

I've been playing ball with you, Amazon, entering, and re-entering, and re-entering correct information on both the anthology I edited, and other anthologies in which I've participated, only to have you constantly move the target.

Amazon's refusal to list Philip José Farmer as a contributor to a book in which he has nine essays--Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe--is counter-intuitive at best and mean-spirited at worst. And it runs counter to Amazon's own self-interest by preventing readers from searching by authors, in order to locate anthologies to which their favorite authors have contributed.

I've tried Amazon's "customer service"... only to get the runaround and contradictory answers. Surprise.

Is it any wonder I do my damnedest to avoid purchasing from Amazon?

Please repost, re-tweet, re-fill-in-the-blank. Enough is enough.

pics o' the past two days

"De Fer et de Bronze" by Christopher Paul Carey & Win Scott Eckert, Les Compagnons de l'Ombre (Tome 6)

"Le Mouron Rouge en Enfer" by Win Scott Eckert, Les Compagnons de l'Ombre (Tome 7)

Or... get 'em in English from Black Coat Press' Tales of the Shadowmen series...

BBC Interview is online

In honor of Wold Newton Day, the fine folks at the BBC have posted an online interview with me discussing Philip José Farmer and the Wold Newton Family.

Please check it out!

THE GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES edited by Gentile & Eckert with covers by Orbik & Procopio

Check out the beautiful Glen Orbik cover to Moonstone Books' The Green Hornet Chronicles.

Orbik did the cover for another book which I was fortunate enough to have my name on the cover, The Evil in Pemberley House, and I'm thrilled that we're together again on this project.

Also loving the alternate cover by Ruben Procopio!

Here is the full release info:

Moonstone Books is getting a jump on the hype surrounding the upcoming Green Hornet movie, by releasing The Green Hornet Chronicles in the spring of 2010.

The Green Hornet Chronicles
Edited by Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert
****Advance solicited for June release
Written by: Harlan Ellison, Greg Cox, Robert Greenberger, Ron Fortier, James Van
Hise, Will Murray, plus many more!
Interior Art: Rubén Procopio
Cover Art: Glen Orbik, Ruben Procopio
Introduction by Van Williams
Afterword by Dean Jeffries

In addition to co-editing duties, I'll have a tale in the volume as well.

More info, courtesy MajorSpoilers.com.

Bzzzzz.....


P.S. These two covers hopefully make up for missing my regular "pic o' the day" posts yesterday and today... ;-)

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Happy Wold Newton Day, in celebration of a very special meteorite which fell 214 years ago today.

And cheers to the man who created the Wold Newton Family, Philip José Farmer.

We miss you.

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The Green Hornet, Vol 1 (Moonstone Books)

My tale has been accepted for Volume 1 of Moonstone Books' Green Hornet prose anthologies. And, in fact, my story was inspired by this promotional image lovingly rendered by Ruben Procopio.

I'm also happy to say this is not the extent of my involvement with the Hornet and Kato, but further details are under wraps right now.

So stay tuned, and keep on buzzin'.

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pic o' the day - on vacation

The pic o' the day is on vacation this week. It will be back sometime next week. Stay tuned.

Tales of the Shadowmen, Vol. 6: Grand Guignol - pre-order on Amazon

Tales of the Shadowmen, Vol. 6: Grand Guignol is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

Edited by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, this latest entry in the Tales of the Shadowmen anthology series from Black Coat Press "is dedicated to simpler horrors and theatrical villainy. Tremble as you face the terror of Fantômas, the villainy of Madame Atomos, the sorcery of Leonox, the unspeakable King in Yellow and the insanity of Alphaville! Fortunately for us, and for the world, there are always stalwart heroes rising up to stem the tides of darkness and restore peace and order to the world. Chevalier Dupin! Harry Dickson! Mowgli! Arsène Lupin! The Scarlet Pimpernel! Raffles and many more are there, to confront crazy sorcerers and ravening zombies, mad scientists and giant rats, evil computers and Hindu death cults, Martians and monsters!"

Contents:

• Christopher Paul Carey: Caesar's Children starring The Ponto Family.
• Win Scott Eckert: Is He in Hell? starring The Scarlet Pimpernel, Leonox.
• Emmanuel Gorlier: Out of Time starring The Nyctalope, The Time Patrol.
• Matthew Baugh & Micah Harris: The Scorpion and the Fox starring Becky Sharp, the Yellow Shadow.
• Travis Hiltz: The Treasure of the Ubasti starring Sâr Dubnotal, Mowgli.
• Rick Lai: Incident in the Boer War starring Fantômas, Raffles.
• Roman Leary: The Children of Heracles starring The Nyctalope, Professor Quatermass, The Master.
• Jean-Marc Lofficier: J.C. in Alphaville starring Jerry Cornelius, Alphaville, The Castle.
• Randy Lofficier: The Spear of Destiny starring Phantom Angel.
• Xavier Mauméjean: The Man for the Job
• William P. Maynard: Yes Virginia There is a Fantômas starring Fantômas, Frederick Dickson.
• John Peel: The Biggest Guns starring Doc Ardan, Lord Roxton, The Gun Club.
• Neil Penswick: The Vampire Murders starring Harry Dickson.
• Dennis E. Power: No Good Deed… starring Père Tabaret, Chevalier Dupin.
• Frank Schildiner: Laurels for the Toff starring Jean Kariven, The Toff.
• Bradley H. Sinor: Where the Shadows Began... starring Michel Ardan, Inspector Legrasse.
• Michel Stéphan: The Red Silk Scarf starring Harry Dickson, Madame Atomos.
• David L. Vineyard: The Children's Crusade starring Arsene Lupin, Harry Lime.
• Brian Stableford: Where Zombies Armies Clash by Night (Part IV of The Empire of the Necromancers) starring Ned Knob, Germain Patou.

For you Wold Newton fans out there, my tale pitting the Scarlet Pimpernel against Leonox takes place in November 1795--just one short month before a meteor with strange properties landed near the village of Wold Newton, England.

Hmmm.