So I’m in cold, rainy Cape Town, and Pete Crowther phones me from sultry Yorkshire. "Nicky and I are away to the wilds of the Wirral this weekend to join Ramsey and Jenny Campbell in celebrating Ramsey's receiving the Liverpool John Moores Honorary Fellowship for his outstanding contribution to literature," he says, "so you’re writing this week’s Newsletter." Who, me? I stammer. "Yes, you," says Pete, with the ominous insistence of Lord Kitchener in that old recruiting poster. But I’m not a writer, I say. I’m but a poor editor, gifted with no fluent abundance of words. I’m not even from Yorkshire! "No matter," insists Pete; "you’re it; you’ve been volunteered, my lad." 

And thus I find myself writing this . . .

Well, no, it wasn’t really like that. Not quite. But it is an intimidating task. How can I emulate Pete’s genial, dulcet way with words, familiar to many from countless newsletters? I can but try. Here goes.

POSTSCRIPTS #34/35 BREAKOUT

For a long time Pete and I edited Postscripts together. Pete remains publisher, but I’m now sole editor. So it is my honour to present advance details of the next bumper Postscripts double anthology: Breakout, containing around 150,000 words of first rate SF, fantasy, horror, and crime fiction. Get ready for

• “Breakout” by John Gribbin: riveting lunar adventure from one of Britain’s finest writers of both SF and scientific non-fiction.
• “Scenes from the City of Garbage and the City of Clay” by fast-rising American author Paul Tremblay: dark anarchic music of New York in the lost Seventies.
• “Those Who Remain” by noted US storyteller of the supernatural Kelly Barnhill: in dying industrial towns, who still lives, and who does not?
• “Chasing Gaia” by veteran virtuoso of the fantastic Garry Kilworth: when Earth is destroyed and gone, its children, scattered among the stars, seek a desperate solace.
• “A Walk in the Rain” by ace short story writer Vaughan Stanger: heartbreaking and heartwarming sequel to classic eco-SF tale “A Walk in the Woods” (the latter reprinted here).
• “Bradbury’s Finger” by Greg Quiring, eloquent devotee of Ray Bradbury: the great master reaches his beloved Mars—in a certain sense.
• “Crossed Gates” by able UK fantasist Adrian Tchaikovsky: British Rail, take note; take very fearful note.
• “The Seven Mirrors”, Marly Youmans’ brilliant, poetic novella of growing up—and the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe . . .

And that’s just eight out of twenty-seven scintillating stories in Breakout, coming very soon from PS Publishing.

Table of Contents

That wasn’t so difficult after all. I may even take a bow. But first, here’s the full Table of Contents for Breakout:

• Breakout -- John Gribbin
• Josephine Knows Who -- Allen Ashley
• The Cicadas -- Jessica Reisman and Steven Utley
• Notes on the Future -- John Weldon
• Circular Tour -- Howard Priestley
• Yesterday’s Dreams -- Kaitlin Queen
• Scenes from the City of Garbage and the City of Clay -- Paul Tremblay
• Those Who Remain -- Kelly Barnhill
• Chasing Gaia -- Garry Kilworth
• Endpapers -- Lisa L. Hannett
• Holes -- Keith Minnion
• In All Your Sparkling Raiment Soar -- Robert T. Jeschonek
• A Walk in the Woods -- Vaughan Stanger
• A Walk in the Rain -- Vaughan Stanger
• Curb -- Robert Reed
• Scraps of Paper -- Simon Strantzas
• Forever Boys -- James Cooper
• Bradbury’s Finger -- Greg Quiring
• The Needle, the Stitch, the Night, and the Sky -- Kat Howard
• The Ebony Crucifix -- Kit Reed
• The House of the Witches -- Darrell Schweitzer
• The Aniseed Gumball Kid -- Andrew Hook
• Easy to Imagine -- Ian Whates
• The Glasshouse -- Emma Coleman
• All the Layers of the World -- Steven Utley and Camille Alexa
• Crossed Gates -- Adrian Tchaikovsky
• The Seven Mirrors -- Marly Youmans

In the meantime. . .

Copies of our most recent POSTSCRIPTS anthologies are still available, packed with fantastic stories from today’s finest writers of speculative fiction.

Happy reading, and have a great weekend!

Nick