1999 News

August 10, 1999

Diversicon 7 Post-mortem

• Marti Hood's Inside a Bear very well received.
• Saw Famous Local Author Eleanor Aransen and continued negotiation for her books Ring of Swords, Queen of Swords, and an unnamed collection of short stories.
• Talked to Mark Rich and his SigOt Martha Borchart about starting a literary speculative fiction magazine. Magazine title suggestions are welcome.
• Stone Dragon Press helped Eric Heideman change his magazine Tales of the Unanticipated from a standard 8.5x11 saddle-stapled magazine to a trade-paper format with a color cover. Kudos and encomium were flowing freely. TOTU #20 is uniquely spiffy and heralds a new era in small press magazines.
• Had mail from Forrest J. Ackerman, and he has offered us five novels to be produced under the series title The FJA Sci-Fi Recovery Series. Considering the breadth of Forry's library and republishing rights, this stands to be a fascinating collection of books from the early days of skiffy.
• Talked at length to Darryl Mallett about an infinitude of projects, including purchase of former Borgo Press properties. He knows them, he knows me, etc., etc.
• Met D7 Guest of Honor Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring). Intelligent, articulate, good-looking woman. Crushes were had on. Attendees swooned.

August 6, 1999

• Released a special edition of Marti Hood's Inside a Bear and Other Dark Places for Diversicon 7—only 75 were printed! Regular edition will be out August 20, 1999.
• Stanton Publications came through like a champ! The books look excellent—professional trade paperback books of high quality. We couldn't be more pleased!
• Have killed three artists over Journey to Fusang. Still trying to get the cover done by September 11, 1999.
• All contracts signed and complete for book and art on The Best of Palace Corbie edited by Wayne Edwards. Wayne chose Sharlene Mattera to do the cover, called "Midnight's Child." Sharlene has done work for Wayne on several editions of Palace Corbie.

March 5, 1999

• I'm so excited, I can barely type! I had meeting with Don Leeper (dleeper@stantonpub.com) today and nearly wet myself. He runs a POD service bureau that does what I need done! !! !!! The setup fee is one-time and small, the unit costs are acceptable, minimum print run is minimal, the covers are full-color and laminated, 4-10 day turnaround time, and so on!
• That means it's all over except for the shouting now. We don't need $300K any more—we can get your books into print as soon as the covers are done.
• We hardly know how to respond. The horse has been pulling the investment wagon for so long, it can't understand pulling any other wagon. But don't worry—we're adjusting to the shock and pleased to be getting on with everything else we really wanted to do in the first place.
• Yiiiiiiiii-HAH!

January/February, 1999

• We finished vetting Journey to Fusang, and it all looks good. It's complete except for covers.
• Sorry to say Albert Dalia's "tales of the marvelous" project didn't work out. He only had about 25K words on tap, and that's just not enough for a book. He says he's moved on to novels now and isn't interested in writing short stories any more. Too bad!
• Everything is complete with Ardath Mayhar's two books, The Snowlost and Exile to Vlahil except for covers.
• We're pretty well done with Best of Palace Corbie from Wayne Edwards, except for the covers.
• We have most of Inside a Bear and Other Dark Places by Marti Hood. We're waiting for her afterword, Eric Heideman's foreword, and a couple original stories she wants in the collection. Of course, we still need a cover.
• Hey, did you notice we don't have any covers? Artists, hear our plea! We need cover art! Please-please-puhLEEZE send an artist our way!
• A big investor recently told us no. Heavy sigh. Excelsior!