Feeling Notorious?
Update time for projects in various stages of readiness. Some bad news, some good news, and some great news.
Notorious Press was among the fine dealers at two prominent bookish events in the last month - the annual World Horror Convention and Left Coast Crime. Met and swapped stories with literally hundreds of authors, industry pros, and some of the most dedicated fans and academics in the book world.
Premiered several of the newest originals & classic re-releases, (art page coming soon), including:
The Steam Man, or the Huge Hunter - a dime novel from 1865 by Edward Ellis, with a new introduction from Ken Rand!
Tangled Trails - a “Detective Western” novel of 1920s Denver by William MacLeod Raine. And this just in - Steve Rasnic Tem has completed an original introduction for this book, which will be available in May, 2008!
The Phantoms of the Footbridge - Appalachian ghost and mystery tales from 1895 to 1911 by Charles Egbert Craddock, (pseudonym of Mary Noilles Murphy.) Horror/SF/Mystery author Lee Killough has added an original introduction for this collection - release date coming soon!
Fantazius Mallare - a decadent 1920s novel by Ben Hecht, with amazing art by Wallace Smith. Possible deal for an original introduction from a major author is in the works - final details t.b.a. (Production flaws require a reprinting of this one, which will come when the intro is added.)
In Search of the Unknown - Adventures in Cryptozoology, fiction by Robert W. Chambers, best known for the horror fiction classic The King in Yellow. (Tentative deal for an original introduction is in the works - final details t.b.a.)
The House on the Borderland - a novel of horror set in west Ireland by William Hope Hodgson. (Tentative deal for an original introduction is in the works - final details t.b.a.)
Soul Taster - Four Dark Tales by Ken Rand, with an introduction by James Van Pelt. Extreme oddness with settings ranging from post-apocalyptic America to the dark continent of the future.
The Parenticide Club & Neglible Tales - pointed fiction by the always acerbic Ambrose Bierce.
The Scrutinies of Simon Iff - 6 occult detective stories by Aleister Crowley, with the detective using philosphy as much as logic to solve each case.
Under the Sunset - Fairy Tales by Bram Stoker, among Stokers earliest fiction - predating Dracula.
The Lost Stradivarius - a novel of artistic possession from the 1890s by J. Meade Falkner.
The Haunted Chamber - a gothic novella by “The Duchess” - a mixture of the “society novel” and the late 1800s gothic craze.
Weaving Murder - a mysterious novella by Anne Wingate writing as Lee Jordan. From the author of the “Deb Ralston” mystery novels, this tale follows two Mormon cops from Utah to Central American jungles in search of a killer from a lost civilization.
And coming later this year . . .
Hardboiled Horror - Tales where Mystery and Horror collide - edited by James Van Pelt, the first original anthology from Notorious Press!
How’d They Do That? (tentative title) - edited by Jenifer Nightingale, an anthology of “quirky” mystery tales.
The Sorcery Club by Elliot O’Donnell, a novel of Atlantaean magic in the modern world
The Courage of Captain Plum - the first adventure novel (1908) of James Oliver Curwood, of special interest for the Lake Michigan setting and the “Mormon” history related plot!
.. and several more to be announced quarterly.
Looking ahead to 2009:
Possible anthology of “Weird Western” novellas, details t.b.a.
A Hawaiian mystery novel
And a dozen more releases of originals and classic re-issues, many with the genre crossover elements we love so well.
And now for the bad news. The publisher (me!) has had a few very bad months lately, with rather serious health problems preventing much progress on the two big anthology projects currently in the pipeline. Tentative cover art was displayed at the two big events mentioned above, but the final production and release dates and details are still in flux. Watch for final word by May 2008, with release a few months later.
Thanks are due the intrepid editors of those two projects. Please don’t blame them for any of the delays, as I have been unavailable to them much of the last few months as well. The problems are solely with the publisher’s health problems. Some anthology contributors have already been paid, and the rest of the checks will be sent with the contributor copies before publication/circulation this summer.
Thanks!
Douglas Wood, Notorious Press
Welcome to Notorious Press, a new “small press” dedicated to producing new releases and reprinting classics and oddities. Many of the releases on the production calendar are in the Mystery/Crime realm, but we won’t be limiting ourselves. Crossover work combining elements of multiple genres will be a staple of the Notorious lineup.
While most of the ink on this web site in the last few months was about soliciting submissions for our two forthcoming anthologies, other projects were and are still percolating in the background.
The first in the Notorious Press “Dime Novel” revivals is at the printers. “The Steam Man of the Prairies” by Edward Ellis was a hit in 1865, and spawned a long series of followups and imitators. The title figure is a huge man-shaped steam locomotive pulling a wagon and riders across the open plains. Plenty of action, and an interesting glimpse of some outrageous character stereotypes. Ken Rand adds a witty intro. More quirky reprints will be unleashed in 2008.
Our anthology, HOW’D THEY DO THAT? closed to submissions October 21. Mixed blessing - there was a mini-flood of submissions in the final few weeks, so authors can now expect up to six weeks for a response instead of the previously stated two weeks.
There were about 160 submissions of stories, and at least 50 suggestions for “re-naming” the anthology. Those who submitted tales in September or earlier have probably already been notified whether they are in the “hold folder” or not - the rest will likely only get a final “innie or outtie” mesage. If you have a story on hold, congratulations. It was considered among the best of the bunch for this themed anthology. However, math hurts. Because of the volume of submissions, not all the stories in the “hold folder” can be kept for the final publication.
In the next week or two most posts about the submission stage of HTDT? will be moved to an archive page, leaving this front page open more more timely items.
Our other new anthology, HARDBOILED HORROR, is also closed to submissions with over 375 stories in the mix! Editor James Van Pelt will be toiling for the next month to make those final, fatal cuts, and we’ll announce the table of contents in November. Good Luck!
Authors - would you like to be Notorious? Well, you simply must submit. Because if you don’t, we can’t publish your stories - kind of how the process works. Notorious Press currently has two anthologies on the schedule, along with other projects in various stages of pre-production, but no other anthologies open at the moment.
THANKS!
- the pub -