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Tales of the Shadowmen 5: The Vampires of Paris -- now available!

Once upon a time, the world was but a stage for the exploits of the Shadowmen... The Vampires haunted the rooftops of Paris... Count Zaroff hunted the Serpent Men in the streets of New York... The Queen of Atlantis killed to save her mythical Kingdom... Arsene Lupin prowled the back alleys of Saigon... While in outer space, Doctor Omega and Professor Moriarty finally set foot upon an asteroid...

This fifth anthology of pastiches features some of the most amazing encounters between the legendary heroes and villains of popular literature: Count Dracula and Joséphine Balsamo, Lord Ruthven and the Count of Monte Cristo, the Nyctalope and Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Arsène Lupin and Hanoi Shan, Irma Vep and Fascinax, Monsieur Lecoq and Dr. Loveless... and even Sherlock Holmes and Tevye the Milkman!

I was fortunate enough to convince my good friend (and very talented writer!) Christopher Paul Carey to collaborate on a tale, and our editor and publisher, Jean-Marc Lofficier, was very pleased with the result. Our story, "Iron and Bronze," combines elements drawn from Pierre Benoit's L'Atlantide, Jules Verne's duology The Barsac Mission, J. H. Rosny and Philip José Farmer's Ironcastle, and Guy d'Armen's Doc Ardan, against the backdrop of H. Rider Haggard's Africa.

Tales of the Shadowmen 5: The Vampires of Paris, is now available direct from Black Coat Press and from Amazon.com -- coming soon to B&N.com and Borders.com We hope you'll check it out!

Vegas pics

For the better half's birthday, we spent four days in Vegas last week, played some slots (and came home even), had some spectacular meals, and saw a few shows (Cirque "O" (Wednesday), the kitchy & racy Folies Bergere (Thursday), and Blue Man Group (Friday). Also engaged in a little retail therapy, particularly at the Bettie Page store (!!), where I got a nifty retro Bettie Page clock and a Bettie Page tie, for swingin' jazz and rockabilly evenings out sipping martinis.

On Thursday we had spa treatments together, after which Lisa went off for more girlie spa goodness while I lounged the manly section of the spa and let the hot jet tubs blast my back muscles into jelly, and then received an amazingly good bit of news emailed to my new crackberry phone. No more on that now, until it's official.

Here are some pics of the Bellagio fountains taken from our hotel room, and the fake Eiffel Tower across the street. From the pics, you'd think we went to Europe or something. :-)

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Happy Birthday, Tarzan. :-)

Revolution SF -- Pulpy Goodness

And a shout-out for The Avenger Chronicles.

"The pulps have returned."

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Happy Birthday to Doc Savage!

And his daughter, Patricia Clarke Wildman. ;-)

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Happy Birthday, 007.

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The Avenger Chronicles - signed copies available

I have 2 copies of the Caras cover (blue) available, and 1 copy of the Dorman cover. The Caras version has a glossy finish and the Dorman version has a matte finish. Both look great and I'm very pleased. I can offer these 3 signed copies at $14.95 each (plus shipping), which is $4 off the cover price.

Once I get more copies in stock (presumably when I can order more from Amazon or B&N.com), I'll have to mark them at a higher price, since I got the 3 which are presently in stock at a significant discount. Still, I'll offer any future copies at my cost (that is, the Amazon or B&N discount), which should be somewhat less than the cover price).

Confused yet? Email me with any questions. :-)

Best,

Win

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Finally

A few simple words and numbers...

As of 11 pm MST, here are a couple simple, yet powerful numbers:

Overall US: 338
Colorado: 9

Word of the Day:

Finally.

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The Avenger Chronicles -- shipping to comic shops on Nov. 5!

See Bill Thom's excellent Coming Attractions site for details. :-)

-Win

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Google Settles with AAP, Authors Guild

Read the article...

This provision is particularly significant: "Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works -- Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry that will also locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project."

I'll be very interested to see how they pull that off...

Here is an information page for copyright holders.

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Signed books for sale

As a leftover from MileHiCon 40, I have a few more books on hand than I need. I'm thinking of selling signed copies myself: Myths for the Modern Age, Tarzan Alive, Tales of the Shadowmen, vols. 1-4, Lance Star--Sky Ranger, and perhaps even some Farmerphiles if Mike Croteau agrees. No profit motive here, I'll sell them for what I paid for them (that includes the Amazon discount I got when I bought them), plus shipping -- and signed! :-)

Let me know your level of interest by commenting back here, please. If interest is minimal, I'll box them up store them for some future Con. Conversely, if interest is high, I'll consider buying some extra copies of The Avenger Chronicles and Tales of the Shadowmen, vol. 5, and anything else that comes out in the future, signing them, and reselling them at cost. So let me know.

Info on books, prices, and number of copies left is linked in the left navigation bar, under Signed Books for Sale.

Con report - day 3

Started the day participating on a panel about "Dealing with Death." Most interestingly, the discussion focused on avoiding death in sf. ;-)

Had a signing; a few folks picked up Farmerphile flyers, and one or two already had MYTHS and/or Tarzan Alive. They didn't know I was at the Con, or my involvement, so they didn't bring their copies for me to sign.

Met local writer David Boop, a very nice guy, and we agreed to stay in touch about future opportunities.

A few more goodies from the Dealer's Room: a SFBC edition of Farmer's The Magic Labyrinth (for $1 !); a pristine 1st paperback of Farmer's The Wind Whales of Ishmael (Ace) for $1 !; a pristine copy of a Captain Future paperback, Planets in Peril, for --wait for it -- $1 !; and two more Musketeers-as-investigators novels by Sarah D'Almeida, The Musketeer's Seamstress and The Musketeer's Apprentice. My better half got a signed 1st hardback of Gregory Maguire's latest Oz novel, A Lion Among Men.

I'm tired, all conned out, and looking forward to focusing on and finishing The Phantom story in the coming weeks; in fact, my editor emailed late last night giving me until Thanksgiving to turn it in, which is a huge relief.

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Three STAR TREK covers -- for Ray