Okay, walk with me on this now

Long ago—much longer than I’m comfortable sharing with you beardless warriors—fans of spooky TV were encouraged every week to fulfill a Friday appointment. Our man Smith—and everyone should have a man Smith—came up with the idea of resurrecting that weekly meet-up and linking it into something special for PS fans and particularly for lovers of horror fiction. At a little after 11 pm UK time this Friday—that’s tonight as you read this, calendar-whiz-kids—we’ll be honoring that long ago Friday tradition—namely, APPOINTMENT WITH FEAR—and allowing everyone to download totally free of charge one of our much-loved e-Book titles.

Kicking it off this week is the volume that started a whole tradition . . .

Stephen Jones’s and Ramsey Campbell’s BEST NEW HORROR VOLUME 1. There’s method in our madness, of course because, while yes, it’s free, it also serves to bring to your attention some fantastic titles you might have missed. Go take a look if you don’t believe me. But remember, this window of downloadability will last until midnight . . . and it won’t happen every week: only when Mike and Tamsin are just plum overcome with generosity, so best keep an eye out cos we may unleash the next one without warning (heh heh heh!)

Okay, here’s Nicky with an update on where we are

First up is THE FIREMAN by Joe Hill: we’re still waiting for the final artwork from David Stoupackis.

Have you seen the recently finished piece David posted on Instagram?

Mike has now sent the design art for the illustrated slipcases for THE SEARCHING DEAD and THE PARTS WE PLAY over to MacCarthy’s, our slipcase makers.

Meanwhile, THE SEARCHING DEAD (Ramsey Campbell), THE PARTS WE PLAY (Steve Volk), THE WRACK LINE (Robert Edric) and A WIZARD’S HENCHMAN (Matt Hughes) are having their signing sheets tipped in so we are hoping deluxe copies will arrive next week.

Stephen Jones and Marie O’Regan are busy proofing the definitive ‘must have’ two-volume collection of THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF SOLAR PONS with over 1400 pages in an omnibus presentation of Basil Copper's entire Solar Pons canon choc full of previously unseen material edited by Steve.

Mike, in the meantime, has been working on the trade paperback edition of Charles L. Grant’s short story collection SCREAM QUIETLY which has also been passed over to Steve and Marie for final proofing.

Dave McKean has been away from his NIGHT SHIFT easel while finishing work on Subterranean Press’s upcoming anthology THE WEIGHT OF WORDS (see Pete’s note below for details of how you can pre-order a copy)—though not before turning in this stunning piece.

Angela Slatter’s WINTER CHILDREN collection is now with Marie for the final read-through and the cover design is almost complete. This book will be another Pedro Marques production (pause for a little fanfare) so the stories will delight and the surround package will entrance.

And finally, a parcel arrived two days ago containing the signed sheets for Ian Cameron Esslemont’s ASSAIL (well done, Cam—just goes to show how effective these Newsletters are: Pete only mentioned how we needed the sheets just last week) so they are now being tipped into the books by Nigel and his Merry Band of ‘tipper-inners’ even as we speak.

One last thing . . .

We’ve had an upsurge in customer queries these past few weeks and they seem to be arriving via any email address that is linked to PS PUBLISHING. The problem occurs when the customer finds another email and—cos they didn’t get an immediate answer or were worried we’d maybe not received it—they write to that one, too. And then they find another address and so on. Sometimes we're all chasing around and bumping into each other in the corridors, trying to sort out the very same query without realizing.

Now if we want Mike to crack on with the design team, Pete to write contracts and bring in new projects, Tamsin to blog, tweet and Facebook, Nick to concentrate with his editing and reading duties, Carole to wrap and pack and me to organize all those spinning plates then it’s just not possible if we're all fielding customer queries.

It’s always great to hear from you, particularly when you say lovely things but we also realise that the world of publishing is not perfect and books do go missing, or arrive dinked (rarely, but they do from time to time) You may just want to have a jolly good moan, or you ordered a copy of a book and you can’t remember what it was!

So from now on, whenever you have something you would like us to investigate, please write to just one email address.

info@pspublishing.co.uk

In the subject bar please put Customer Query and if it is about an order then please put your name or the order number next to Customer Query. The order number is the first five numbers before the /—that’s all we need to track your order down.

Well that wasn’t too bad was it? Back to Pete for his final bit.

Thanks, Nicky. Just time for one final item, this time from Subterranean.

The artwork of Dave McKean has permeated popular culture for more than thirty years. His images, at once bizarre, beautiful, and instantly recognizable, have graced an impressive array of books, CDs,  graphic novels, and films. In THE WEIGHT OF WORDS, ten of our finest  contemporary storytellers, among them the artist himself, have created a  series of varied, compelling narratives, each inspired by one of  McKean's extraordinary paintings. The result is a unique collaborative effort in which words and pictures enhance and illuminate each other on page after page.

The volume opens with Alastair Reynolds's "Belladonna Nights," set in the world of his novel, House of Suns, the ultimately poignant portrait of a thousand nights-long "reunion" held in the far  reaches of space. Elsewhere in this generous book, we find a series of lovingly crafted tales featuring, among other elements, doppelgangers,  lost souls and lucid dreamers.

Highlights include Joe R. Lansdale's "Robo Rapid," a near future cautionary tale about Man vs. Machine; M. John Harrison's "Yummie," in which a middle-aged man experiences the hallucinatory aftermath of a heart attack; Joe Hill's "All I Care About Is You," the account of a pure, if temporary, friendship; Catherynne M. Valente's extraordinary "No One Dies in Nowhere," a tale of death and detection in the afterlife;  Maria Dahvana Headley's "The Orange Tree," the story of an 11th century golem that is also a  profound study of loneliness; and "Monkey and the Lady," an ironic  creation myth by the artist's longtime friend and creative associate, Neil Gaiman.  Together with "Train of Death," an abbreviated account of the literal death of literature, this is one of two new stories by the always  remarkable Gaiman.

Containing more than two dozen illustrations and printed in two colors throughout, THE WEIGHT OF WORDS really does offer something for everyone. Its complementary marriage of words and images adds up to something special, something more than the sum of its impressive parts. It is both a major accomplishment in itself and a long overdue tribute to McKean himself.
 Here’s the full line-up:

• The Weight of Words - Dave McKean
• Belladonna Nights - Alastair Reynolds
• The Orange Tree - Maria Dahvanna Headley
• Monkey and the Lady - Neil Gaiman
• No One Dies in Nowhere - Catherynne M. Valente
• Objects in the Mirror - Caitlin R. Kiernan
• Yummie - M. John Harrison
• Robo Rapid - Joe R. Lansdale
• The Language of Birds - Dave McKean
• Broken Face - Iain Sinclair
• All I Care About is You - Joe Hill
• The Train of Death - Neil Gaiman

We’ll have twenty copies of the signed and slipcased edition priced at £99.95 plus postage and forty copies of the unsigned edition at just £39.95 plus postage.

Meanwhile, enjoy the weekend that’s crouched out there in the woods amongst the leaves. Look after each other—particularly that one-off special person who puts the smile in your day . . . you know who I mean (I see everything from up here . . . )—and maybe treat yourself to a book or two. Happy trails.

Pete