Tag Archives: Lord Yamada

Friday PSA

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Okay, so it’s more of a self-serving announcement. Maybe we need a new desgination for that. Maybe SSA? Anyway, here’s the deal–Scott Andrews at Beneath Ceaseless Skies has just released The Best of BCS, Year 3. Here’s the ToC:

  1. The Ghost of Shinoda Forest · Richard Parks
  2. Dying on the Elephant Road · Steve Rasnic Tem
  3. Bread and Circuses · Genevieve Valentine
  4. Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin · Adam Callaway
  5. Mr Morrow Becomes Acquainted with the Delicate Art of Squid Keeping · Geoffrey Maloney
  6. Butterfly · Garth Upshaw
  7. Red Dirt · Ian McHugh
  8. The Nine-Tailed Cat · Michael J. DeLuca
  9. Letters of Fire · Margaret Ronald
  10. Fleurs du Mal · J. Kathleen Cheney
  11. Gone Sleeping · Heather Clitheroe
  12. Dirt Witch · Eljay Daly
  13. Silent, Cold, and Still · Kris Dikeman
  14. The Angel Azrael Rode into the Town of Burnt Church on a Dead Horse · Peter Darbyshire
  15. Playing for Amarante · A.B. Treadwell
  16. The Suffering Gallery · Matthew Kressel
  17. In the Gardens of the Night · Siobhan Carroll
  18. Beloved of the Sun · Ann Leckie

 From the BCS web site: “The Best of BCS, Year Three  features such authors as Richard Parks, Garth Upshaw, Margaret Ronald, Matthew Kressel, Geoffrey Maloney, and World Fantasy Award-winner Steve Rasnic Tem.

It includes “Walls of Paper, Soft as Skin” by Adam Callaway, named to Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2012, edited by Paula Guran, as well as three stories named to the Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2011 and four given Honorable Mention in Year’s Best Science Fiction 29, edited by Gardner Dozois.”

 

Special offer going on– buy The Best of BCS, Year Three from Weightless Books between now and Oct. 19 and get a free copy of Best of BCS, Year One or Best of BCS, Year Two.

You can also pick it up at all the usual places, Amazon, B&N, Smashwords…..here’s the thing–proceeds from the sale of The Best of BCS, Year Three go to pay BCS authors and artists for their work and keep the magazine going. Two subjects near and dear to my heart, it has to be understood.

Okay, commercial over. Thanks for your patience.

 

Anticipation….

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There’s a lot that has to happen before a book is ready for its close-up, Mr. Demille. As I noted earlier, I just turned in the final manuscript for the Lord Yamada collection last month. It has to be reformatted for printing, flap and/or catalog copy written, the cover art chosen and the cover designed….

Speaking of that, we’ve already run into a slight snag. When my publisher and I first talked about doing this particular collection, he already had a piece of cover art in mind, and the assumption was we’d use that when the time came. Well, to cut to the chase, when the time actually did come, it turned out that the cover art was licensed to a gaming company and wasn’t available. So…we have to find another one, and soon, so his designer can get to work on it. Since we’re kind of under a time crunch to get everything ready, I’m also looking. Maybe I’ll find the perfect cover first. Have to say, though, that so far that has not happened. I have no doubt we’ll get everything done in time, and I’m looking forward to seeing the result. There’s a certain mixture of excitement and dread  that comes from seeing a book cover for the first time, at least when it’s your own.

It’s your baby. You care what it’s wearing out in public.

Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter

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Now that everything’s more or less settled, I’m officially announcing—very loudly, in fact—that my fourth print collection will be a compilation of the Lord Yamada series, Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter, and is scheduled to be published by Prime Books in February. That’s not too far away. I’ll try to put up a cover image once that’s been sorted, but in the meantime here’s a list of the planned contents along with a reference to the story’s original appearance, if any:

 “Fox Tails”                                Realms of Fantasy, June © 2005

“Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge” Realms of Fantasy, April © 2006

“A Touch of Hell”                     Realms of Fantasy, April © 2007

“Hot Water”                              Realms of Fantasy, December © 2007

“The River of Three Crossings”          Realms of Fantasy, February © 2009

“The Bride Doll”                       © 2013 Richard Parks. First Publication

“The Mansion of Bones”          Beneath Ceaseless Skies #19, © 2009

“Sanji’s Demon”                       Beneath Ceaseless Skies #38-39, © 2010

“Lady of the Ghost Willow”      Beneath Ceaseless Skies #53, © 2010

“The Ghost of Shinoda Forest” Beneath Ceaseless Skies #63, © 2011

This material covers the first story arc of Yamada’s career. I’m not done with him yet, but there is a progression and resolution to these stories. What isn’t here will be in the Yamada novel, To Break the Demon Gate, from PS Publishing, also scheduled for February. Next winter promises to be a fairly busy time.

Going, Going, Gone

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Three days ago, Amazon listed two copies of The Heavenly Fox for $19 each direct from them. As of yesterday there are still two listed, only one’s listed new at $197 and the other is listed used and priced at $99. Yeah, good luck getting those prices, but it does demonstrate something I was rather anticipating—The Heavenly Fox has sold out it in both published states. There was a 100 copy signed, numbered and DJ’d run, which sold out several months ago. I checked with the publisher and, sure enough, the second, unsigned state has also sold out. Since both were limited runs I’m not too surprised. I’m just glad it didn’t take longer.

I’ll know in a few days who it lost the Mythopoeic Award to, but in the meantime I’m getting used to the fact that, for the first time in about five years, I don’t have a single book in print at PS Publishing. Good thing the Yamada novel is coming out from them next year.

Making Sausage

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The cliché is “If you love sausage, never watch it being made.” As someone who once loved such and had seen it made on several occasions, I can attest that there’s some truth in that. Another cliché is “Scratch a writer, find a reader.” So there’s the dilemma. As readers we neither want to know nor need to know the process that produces the stories and books we love to read. Sure, there’s idle curiosity at work, but past a point, watching a writer at work is a lot like watching paint dry, without the drama. As writers, looking away during the process is not an option. Which perhaps explains why some writers never, ever re-read their own work except to review a proof, and then only under duress. I understand that. For my own part, when I’ve done something that at least approximates the vision I had of it, I don’t mind. It reminds me that now and then I get it right.

None of which changes the fact that the process can be very chaotic and messy and unpleasant. But it’s got to be done, or no sausage. Continue reading →