Tag Archives: PS Publishing

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.

Excerpt – The Heavenly Fox

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I’m trying something new for the blog–snippets. Today’s post is an excerpt from The Heavenly Fox (PS Publishing 2011). To frame this bit,  the fox vixen Springshadow has successfully brewed and and imbibed (how often do I get to use that word?) the Golden Elixir of Immortality, and now she’s awaiting the results with her friend, a Taoist immortal named Wildeye and the goddess/bodhisattva Kuan Yin who showed up unannounced for reasons of her own:

     Springshadow stood up. Her form was somewhere between fully human and fully vulpine; a transitional form that gave her human hands and other aspects of humans that were useful, without fully surrendering her fox senses, and she’d used it often. Only now there seemed to be more to it. Several “mores,” actually.

     “My tail feels funny.”

     “Say rather your tails, girl,” Wildeye said, and started counting.

     “You’re a Heavenly Fox now, Springshadow. Look up,” said the goddess.

     Springshadow looked up. There, in the distant sky far beyond the clouds, far beyond the mortal world yet clearly visible, clearly reachable, was a magnificent floating city with towers of gold and walls of the finest jade.

     Wildeye gave a grunt of triumph as he finished his count. “Nine! And each as magnificent as the last.”

     “What are you babbling about? Nine what?” Springshadow said, unable for the moment to take her eyes off of Heaven and the floating city.

     “Tails, of course,” he said.  “Yours.”

     That finally got Springshadow’s attention. She quickly glanced behind her like a courtesan checking her appearance. It took her a moment to understand what she was seeing, but she finally saw what Wildeye saw–fox tails.

     Nine in all, and all, as Wildeye said, belonging to her. Attached.

     “Nine?!”

     “Nine.” Wildeye nodded in grudging respect.  “You have to admit,” he said, turning to the goddess, “that’s pretty damn impressive.”

As the Old Year Comes to Its End…We Skip Ahead

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Don’t panic. I’m not going to list New Year’s Resolution angst or get all nostalgic and maudlin about 2011. The year was…interesting. Not great, not terrible, just interesting. I got some work done, tried some new things, and in so doing realized I’d actually broken last year’s New Year’s Resolution, which is and was the only resolution I ever make–to keep doing what I’m doing as long as I can. All that means is staying in the game. I know very talented writers who have packed it in, and I resolve not to be one of them. Writing-wise, I kept on track, but technically my flirtation with DIY publishing violates the “keep doing what I’ve been doing” part of the resolution. So I’ll make the same resolution this year, with the understanding that “keep doing what I’m doing” has new components, and I always hope that “getting better” is in that process somewhere.

Enough about that. The “skipping ahead” part comes now. To 2013, to be more exact. Sean Wallace at Prime Books and I had agreed to do the first ever Lord Yamada story collection, and 2013 is the year. I don’t even have a title yet, but the bulk of the Table of Contents looks like this:

  • “Fox Tails”                                                      9100
  • “Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge”                   13800
  • “A Touch of Hell”                                          9500
  • “Hot Water”                                                    6000
  • “The River of Three Crossings”                      6500
  • “The Bride Doll”                                             8100
  • “The Mansion of Bones”                                7100
  • “Lady of the Ghost Willow”                          8700
  • “Sanji’s Demon”                                              11,300
  • “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest”                        6,000
  • “The Tiger’s Turn”                                            8,900
  • “The Sorrow of Rain”                                        3,700

That number to the right is the word count. Just over half of the Yamada stories are novelettes, so 12 stories adds up to over 98000 words, a pretty respectible size. “The Bride Doll” was sold to an anthology that has yet to appear, and will probably wind up being published first in the collection. “The Sorrow of Rain” was the last story in the sequence and I was going to try it on Realms of Fantasy, but since that’s no longer an option I’ll note it here if it appears anywhere else beforehand. There will be at least one story original to the volume and available nowhere else. I’ll post more here once plans and schedule are more solid.

The quick evolution of the character should be really evident when the stories are read in sequence. “Fox Tails” was the very first, and I’d pictured Yamada as a sort of Heian Noire private eye, which wasn’t completely wrong, but when he reappears in “Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge” it’s clear that he’s going in his own direction. After that I just went along, which I think was the right choice.

The Yamada novel will also probably appear in 2013, that’s To Break the Demon Gate, and that will be from PS Publishing, so 2013 might be a pretty busy year. 2012? I have no idea what’s shaking there. I guess we’ll find out as it happens.

Going, Going…Gone

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Back in November I posted an alert that PS Publishing was having a “Last Chance” sale on some items, including the few remaining copies of the non-jacketed edition of Hereafter, and After. Well, they’re all gone now. There are Kindle and Nook editions, but now the only people who have physical copies for sale are the dealers. Also gone is the 100 copy signed limited edition run of The Heavenly Fox. The only one left is the non-jacketed edition, and there can’t be very many of those, either, since it was only a 300 copy run. Personally, I love it when a limited edition sells out. It means there are people who actually want to read it (they can’t ALL be collectors). Probably not so good for the people who may have waited too long.

Just sayin’.

Public Service Announcement

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Well, ok. I consider it a PSA. You might not, but it’s my blog, so there. To cut to the chase, PS Publishing is having a sale. They’re clearing out the almost-but-not-quite-gone items in stock, and that includes a few (a very few) of the regular signed hardcover of Hereafter, and After, including the lovely introduction by Andy Duncan. Once these are gone, that’s it. They’re selling them for 6.99L, which is around $11.18 USD. They originally sold for $40, so if someone would prefer the hc to the ebook edition, now is pretty much your last and best chance, because I can guarantee that the dealers won’t let it go for that.

Ok, besides me, they also have books by Jeff Ford, Chris Roberson, Tim Lebbon, and Joe Hill, among others on the sale page. And I’ll tell you something else–I looked at the sale page yesterday, and I looked at the sale page today. Guess what? It was a LOT shorter. They’re going fast.

Just sayin’.