Novelist | Editor | Essayist | Short Fiction Author
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
BLACK COAT PRESS LAUNCHES AMBITIOUS “BEST OF FRENCH SCIENCE FICTION” PROGRAM
BLACK COAT PRESS LAUNCHES AMBITIOUS
“BEST OF FRENCH SCIENCE FICTION” PROGRAM
This month, Black Coat Press is launching an extensive program of translations of both classic and contemporary works of French science fiction and fantasy, spearheaded by award-winning writer and translator Brian Stableford, under the editorship of Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier.
At the top of the list of titles to be released in 2010 are a five-volume series of works by Maurice Renard and a six-volume series of works by J.-H. Rosny Aîné, best known to English-speaking audiences for The Hands of Orlac and Quest for Fire, respectively. More classic works by André Couvreur, Henri Falk, Jules Lermina, Gustave Le Rouge, José Moselli, Han Ryner, and Jacques Spitz are currently in the planning stage.
Contemporary authors to be translated include Kurt Steiner (a.k.a. André Ruellan), G.-J. Arnaud, Richard Bessière, André Caroff and P.-J. Hérault. New editions of previously translated works by Gérard Klein and Michel Jeury are also planned.
In total, over two dozen new translations will be released during 2010, an unprecedented effort in the history of genre publishing.
Among the proto- and golden age French science fiction classics already released by Black Coat Press are such significant works as Félix Bodin’s The Novel of the Future (1834), Didier de Chousy’s Ignis (1883), C.I. Defontenay’s Star-Psi Cassiopeia (1854), Charles Derennes’ The People of the Pole (1907), Arthur Galopin’s Doctor Omega (1906), Octave Joncquel & Théo Varlet’s The Martian Epic (1921), Jean de La Hire’s Nyctalope novels (1911-21), Georges Le Faure & Henri de Graffigny’s The Extraordinary Adventures of a Russian Scientist across the Solar System (1888-96), Gustave Le Rouge’s The Vampires of Mars (1908), Jules Lermina’s Panic in Paris (1910), Henri de Parville’s An Inhabitant of the Planet Mars (1865), Gaston de Pawlowski’s Journey to the Land of the 4th Dimension (1912), Albert Robida’s The Adventures of Saturnin Farandoul (1879) and The Clock of the Centuries (1902), as well as two collections of Villiers de l’Isle-Adam stories, two collections of the pulp hero adventures of Sâr Dubnotal and Harry Dickson, and two anthologies of ground-breaking proto-SF stories by Brian Stableford.
Contemporary works include two collections by Jean-Claude Dunyach, The Night Orchid and The Thieves of Silence, a collection of stories by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier,
Since its inception in the summer of 2003, Black Coat Press has been the foremost publisher of French science fiction and crime thrillers in the English-language.
A division of Hollywood Comics.com, LLC, Black Coat Press, named after Paul Féval’s seminal 19th century crime thriller saga The Black Coats, which it publishes, is a Encino, CA-based small press publisher whose products are listed on the Bowker’s Books in Print â index and Publishers Authority Database. Its books are produced by Lightning Source, a subsidiary of Ingram Industries, Inc.
Black Coat Press e-mail: info@blackcoatpress.com
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Wold Newton wikipedia corrections continue...
Sean Levin continues his fine series correcting misinformation regarding Wold Newton mythology. Many thanks, Sean!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE ltd ed half off in Subterranean Press eBay sale
Subterranean Press has listed several copies of the limited edition of The Evil in Pemberley House on their eBay store -- half price!
If you've been waiting to get a limited edition... you probably shouldn't wait much longer...
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Philip José Farmer's DOC SAVAGE and Dave Stevens' THE ROCKETEER and CROSSOVERS
Philip José Farmer's Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life was the starting point for my lifelong fascination with Farmer's Wold Newton Family concept of many popular characters belonging to the same, widespread genealogical family, Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer was the impetus for the idea of the Wold Newton Universe (many more characters inhabiting the same continuity, but not necessarily related to the Wold Newton Family members), and was literally the very first entry in what now is Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World.I've picked up a lot of books from Phil's estate since his unfortunate passing last year, most of them signed by Phil and most of them related to his Wold Newton mythos. Some have been non-PJF books, inscribed to Phil, such as a copy of the British edition of Bunduki signed by J.T. Edson to Phil, and a hardback of Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker's Poodle Springs, signed by Parker to Phil and Bette.
So when Mike Croteau wrote me last night asking if I'd like a hardcover of the Eclipse Comics edition of Stevens' Rocketeer graphic novel (collecting the first storyline which features an unnamed appearance of Doc Savage and his aides), signed "For Philip José Farmer, With Great Respect, Dave Stevens"... let's just say he had me at "hello."
This one is particularly special for me.
Friday, January 15, 2010
More Wold Newton and Wikipedia corrections...
Sean Levin continues his rehabilitation to the misinformation which continues to be perpetuated on the Internet, and particularly wikipedia, regarding Wold Newton mythology. Wold Newton writers, "Game" players, and general fans of the Wold Newton Family and Universe should rejoice at his detailed work:
Short essay publication
Somehow blogging about this slipped past me, but I wrote a short tribute to Philip José Farmer's contributions to the overarching Doc Savage canon and mythology in the program book for Doc Con XII, The Big Book of Bronze #2 (published November 2009).
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Wold Newton Universe and Wikipedia corrections
Those fans who follow and understand the Wold Newton mythos and Game understand that an incredible amount of research goes into creating well thought out articles, chronologies, and fictional genealogies.
Then there are those who think Wold-Newtonry is merely making what effectively amount to wish lists of characters, and proclaiming they are "in" the Wold Newton Family or the Wold Newton Universe without any thought, consideration, research, or logic. Many times these lists erroneously proclaim that Philip José Farmer himself added these characters. These lists are prevalent on the internet, and unfortunately contribute to giving the Wold Newton concept a bad name among those who don't take the time to study and evaluate the ideas and the mythology.
Ah, the internet.
Now, Wold Newton fan Sean Levin has set out to correct, entry by entry, one particularly bad example of these baseless lists of alleged Wold Newton characters. The work Sean is doing is detailed and meticulous, which is what Wold-Newtonry is all about.
Kudos to Sean... you can check out his posts here and here, the first two in a series entitled "Of Wikis and Wold Newton." And I'll be continuing to post about his ongoing efforts in this area.
Then there are those who think Wold-Newtonry is merely making what effectively amount to wish lists of characters, and proclaiming they are "in" the Wold Newton Family or the Wold Newton Universe without any thought, consideration, research, or logic. Many times these lists erroneously proclaim that Philip José Farmer himself added these characters. These lists are prevalent on the internet, and unfortunately contribute to giving the Wold Newton concept a bad name among those who don't take the time to study and evaluate the ideas and the mythology.
Ah, the internet.
Now, Wold Newton fan Sean Levin has set out to correct, entry by entry, one particularly bad example of these baseless lists of alleged Wold Newton characters. The work Sean is doing is detailed and meticulous, which is what Wold-Newtonry is all about.
Kudos to Sean... you can check out his posts here and here, the first two in a series entitled "Of Wikis and Wold Newton." And I'll be continuing to post about his ongoing efforts in this area.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Friday, January 01, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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.
"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!
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
July 2009
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