First off, Happy New Year you seasonally weary warriors.

Did you all have a great and grand time? Are you all geared up for more fun and games over the year ahead? Of course you are. So let’s start off with an announcement. It’s a good one—but I hope you already know me well enough to know it wouldn’t be anything else.

Back in 1980—almost forty years ago as I type these words, newly married to Nicky, still in my twenties and stretching nervously towards the big three-zero straddling the road ahead—I was in the process of meeting up with a bunch of characters on whose shoulders would rest the future of the world, not to mention a couple of weeks’ reading pleasure over some 730 pages . . . something that was to happen time and again just as it had already happened with the very same author with a yarn featuring a girl with the mother and father of all period problems, a small town overrun by vampires, a snow-bedecked haunted hotel and the first of a four-decade run of short story collections that proved this guy was remarkable talented in both short and the long haul fictioneering.

But none of those prepared me for the blight brought to an unsuspecting world.

Here’s how it started:

Hapscomb's Texaco sat on Number 93 just north of Arnette, a pissant four-street burg about 110 miles from Houston. Tonight the regulars were there, sitting by the cash register, drinking beer, talking idly, watching the bugs fly into the big lighted sign.

Yes, of course, it’s the start-up to THE STAND by Stephen King and if you haven’t already read it, believe me, you are in for a treat beyond your wildest imaginings, no matter whether you’ve read only the original epic or the even more epic uncut version with its extra 345 pages.

And the good news is that . . .

It’s the latest title in the PS King canon and we’re doing the full uncut edition, spread once again—like ‘SALEM’S LOT and THE TOMMYKNOCKERS—over three standalone volumes coming in at a projected 1,200 pages. (Better clear some space on the mantelpiece Marlene!)

We’ve signed up the remarkable Don Maitz who looks set to lambast us with a whole host of groovy paintings and we’re starting right here with the ‘roughs’ (yeah, right: these are just roughs! Sheesh!) of the three dust jackets, the illustrated slipcase, and the three sets of endpapers that show the three stages of Captain Trips. (Like I say, you need to read this baby!)

Don will be drip-feeding us artwork and we’ll be passing it along to you guys as we make preparations for the order page. So hold on to your handkerchiefs and gird those loins apocalypse aficionados, cos daddy’s comin’ home and he’s brought something to make you scared. Very scared.

Now let me hand over to Nicky for the weekly update.

Thanks, Pete. Yes, and so another year of updates begins.

We now have signed copies of UNHOLY LAND by Lavie Tidhar and BY THE LIGHT OF MY SKULL Ramsey Campbell’s collection in stock which means that we will be preparing pre-ordered copies for dispatch next week.

The signing sheets for THE LONG WAY HOME are on their way to Richard Chizmar , they were sent out before Christmas but we are guessing that the postal system was a little busy as Charles de Lint has just been in touch to say that the signing sheets for the deluxe edition of WIND IN HIS HEART have only just arrived and they were posted at the same time as THE LONG WAY HOME.

Signing sheets are also doing the rounds for the signed edition of DARK MIRAGES edited by Paul Kane; and the deluxe editions of BORN TO THE DARK and THE WAY OF THE WORM both by Ramsey Campbell.

We have also recently posted out the signing cards ( like the cards for HORROR EXPRESS by John Connolly) for SPIRITS OF THE DEAD and LES VAMPIRES to the authors Tim Lucas and Tim Major.

That’s all for now.

Thanks, Nicky.

Now, while the rest of us were relaxing and filling ourselves with festive fun, Mike was hatching more plans for PS’s world domination . . . and we think he may just have got it. But it’s a tad too complicated for me so I’ll hand over the Newsletter reins to Mike. Take it away, fella!

Overhaul of postage options . . .

We've been wrestling with the issue of postage for some time. Not least because, a certain online behemoth offers free postage to its prime customers (albeit for a monthly fee!). Of course, we all know there's no such thing as a free lunch but we have been looking at ways to reward your continued and much valued custom. We've also been talking to Royal Mail about a new delivery system that will add additional postage options allowing for better information and updates on the tracking and delivery of your orders. But more of that later, once we've finalised the details with RM.

In the meantime, from this weekend, we're cutting the postage charged on all new orders of more than one book. Put simply, if you buy one book, you'll pay the usual charge, but if you buy two or more, you'll get free postage on the whole order—and that's anywhere in the world.

Thanks, Mike.

That should be enough to kick-start the new year, chums. Keep checking the website—and, of course, future Newsletters—for updates (cos we’ve got lots of other stuff simmering away in the PS pot). Have a fantastic weekend, give yourselves (and those who mean a lot to you) a big bumper hug as we start the year of (wait for it) PS Publishing’s 20th anniversary! Who’d a thunk it, fans! Twenty years! So stick with us and look after each other. Plans are afoot.

Pete

PS: And finally, a postscript . . .

Thank you to Dean for bringing to my attention—out of the blue--The Meat Puppets’ 1991 album, FORBIDDEN PLACES and the standout ‘Sam.’ You’re a good man, Dean and that goes for anyone else who takes the time to drop me a line to include reference to the great Howe Gelb who I interviewed in Leeds some thirty years ago. Nicky and I went to see him in a rare visit to the UK last year and Howe is still doing great stuff—check him out, music lovers.