NEWS AND PROJECTS

I think everyone knows about the Best American Fantasy project by now. I also hope to announce another anthology project in the next week or so. In the meantime, some updates on the other stuff I'm working on. Skip as necessary.

Coming soon: interviews with Caitlin Kiernan and Mike Arnzen.

Jeff


Book Documentary
Ann and I are working on a full-length documentary on the book business. It follows me around during the whole process involving Shriek, from the initial sale through publication through the post-publication events and lifecycle. In short, it's less about Shriek and more about what happens after you sell a book. We've interviewed Publishers Weekly editors in their NY offices, recorded meetings with PR at Tor, etc. At the very least, this will be a documentary of interest to beginning and intermediate writers or anyone who has sold a first book. Even better, it may be compelling enough to find general release as a documentary. Plans right now are to wrap shooting around January 2007 and finish editing around the summer. Juha Lindroos is currently the choice as editor. Here are a couple of outtakes from the documentary:

Outtake #1

Outtake #2

European Tour
The dates are final for the European tour (well, might vary still by a day either way). In each of these cities, I will be meeting with bookstore people, editors, publishers, and, in most, doing book signings, interviews, and other events in support of my books. Helsinki is, of course, Finncon, with a ton of events planned. It's all pretty surreal. My Romanian publisher tells me there's a chance I might get on Romanian TV, for example.

July 21 - 26 - Lisbon (in support of a chapbook of "The Transformation of Martin Lake")

July 26 - August 1 - Paris (in support of the September 2006 release of City of Saints and Madmen from Calmann-Levy)

August 1 - August 3 - Brussels (okay, so this is just to chill out and drink beer…)

August 3 - August 7 - Berlin (in support of the release last year of City of Saints and Madmen from Klett-Cotta and the forthcoming 2007 release of Veniss from Piper and Shriek from Klett-Cotta)

August 7 - August 11 - Prague (in support of the February 2006 release of Veniss Underground from Laser Books)

August 12 - August 16 - Bucharest (in support of the July 2006 release of Veniss Underground and the release of "The Transformation of Martin Lake")

August 16 - August 24 - Helsinki (in support of the August release of City of Saints and Madmen by Loki Books and, of course, most importantly, as a guest of honor at Finncon)

Leviathan 5
Ann and I are still editing Leviathan 5, the dark humor volume, but we're not sure now if we'll start reading in October or push the reading period back into 2007-08, because of the Best American Fantasy obligation. I think we'll probably push it back, but we won't know for a month or two.

Odyssey Workshop
I'm a guest lecturer at the Odyssey Workshop in New Hampshire the week of June 20th. I'll also be doing a reading and Q&A session that Saturday, probably at 7pm, at Toadstool Book Shop in Milford. Sounds like a great place, and I'm looking forward to meeting the Odyssey students!

Payseur & Schmidt Project
The good people at P&S are going to do a very cool project: a perfect bound complete bibliography, along with perfect bound books of my uncollected (mostly new) nonfiction and my uncollected fiction ("Three Days," etc.), along with some kind of record, probably. All housed in a slipcase. You can buy the books separately or as part of the limited edition full set. This project will be published in late 2007.

Rough Guide to Ambergris
I'm currently re-imagining this multi-media project for the internet. Juha Lindroos will be putting this in Quicktime movie format once I've gotten it revamped. Basically, I'm keeping the funny bits, adding some more funny bits, adding more images, and cutting the actual "readings" portion way back. So it will literally be a kind of rough guide tour to the city. This project will go on the Shriek website.

Secret Lives
I've turned in this project to Prime Books and the limited edition hardcovers will be out in the next three or four months, tops. If you were in on the secret lives offer and have not received a secret life, I will be giving you a copy of Shriek (the Tor edition) as an apology. I just ran out of inspiration on the project and didn't want to force it. As it is, the finished book is about 35,000 words and just about what it needs to be. But don't despair--I will eventually complete all of the secret lives, including yours. I just need more time to think them all through. Once they're all complete, there will some sort of trade paperback edition. In the meantime, if you go to the Prime site you can still order the limited hardcover (although not the limited-limited 26-copy one).

Shriek Endurance Tour
I am planning on doing a six-to-eight city tour of the U.S. in 48 to 72 hours, probably in October, in support of Shriek. If you live in a major metropolitan area or a major airline hub and would like me to come to your city, please let me know what kinds of opportunities there would be to do a reading. Right now nothing is set in stone. How am I going to do six to eight readings in 48 hours? Magic! And some serious planning. Anyway, more details soon.

Shriek Limited Edition
Limited to 52 copies, the Shriek limited will be centered around the Tor hardcover, but with a different dust jacket. It will come in a beautiful but durable stained, lacquered box with a chapbook of scenes deleted from Shriek and a gallery of Eric Schaller's black-and-white Ambergris artwork. It will also come with a DVD of the Shriek Movie, a reading from Shriek, and the Rough Guide to Ambergris presentation. In addition, a jeweler's rendition in silver of the starfish from Shriek will be included. Along with several other goodies, including Ambergris Wartime Stout, provided by Todd Szuch, with label by Eric S. The box itself will be signed and lettered, of course. We're still pricing it but I believe the final retail price will be between $300 and $400. This should be a bargain, as I believe the value will rise quite rapidly after it's sold out. If you haven't already done so, please email me if you are interested in reserving one. (Email me at vanderworld at hotmail.com)

Shriek Movie
Work on this movie is on schedule. Juha Lindroos and I delivered a rough animated storyboard version along with the completed script and an idea of the types of moods and texture to The Church, with help from the indomitable Cat Sparks (thanks, Cat!), and they've completed the soundtrack and are doing some voice work this weekend. Once we have the soundtrack in hand, Juha will start putting the final movie together and shoot the live-action sequences. We're set to debut at Finncon in Helsinki at the same time we debut in major cities in the U.S. (see pr below), then put it on the Internet, and debut in various countries from September through December. British Fantasy Convention will show the film in September, for example.

Shriek Promotion
The plan is to show Shriek in several major cities in August. I'm still planning the details, but if you're a fan of my fiction or if you work at a bookstore, drop me a line. You can be a big help. It's not too late to get involved with this (semi-secret) project. It should be very cool.

Shriek Web Site
Work on the http://www.shriekthenovel.com site is the only thing kind of behind schedule--my fault. However, I'm not too worried as I now have a designer for it--the person who did Elizabeth Hand's website and M. John Harrison's website. I hope it will go live before June.

Fiction
I am working on a story called "Appoggiatura" for John Klima's spelling bee anthology from Bantam, a story called "The Goat Variations" for an alternative history anthology, and a story called "The Circus on the Bridge" (a loose sequel to "Three Days in a Border Town"), which may end up any number of places. I'm also hoping to do anAmbergris story for Solaris called "Severance".

I've sold Romanian rights to Veniss, City of Saints, as well as "The Transformation of Martin Lake" (for inclusion in an novellas anthology).

Finnish rights to City of Saints have gone to LOKI.