Saturday 27 November 2021

Belladonna Nights and a story sale

 Copies of "Belladonna Nights And Other Stories" have reached me, and it's a beautiful-looking item. Aside from the cover, which takes its inspiration from the title piece, Marc Simonetti has also done a lovely illustration for the end papers, inspired by the story "Night Passage". It's a privilege to have my stories collected so handsomely, and of course always a pleasure to continue my association with Subterranean Press.

I talked about the book a bit more back in May:

http://approachingpavonis.blogspot.com/2021/05/new-collection-from-subterranean-press.html

In other news, although it's perhaps a bit premature to speak of a story which won't appear in print until the latter part of 2022, I'm very pleased indeed to have sold a new piece to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, my first such sale there in two decades. I didn't mean for it to be such a long gap, but these things happen. My new story is entitled "Things To Do In Deimos When You're Dead", which I hope is a forgivable nod to a song by the late, great Warren Zevon (no, not the one about werewolves). I'm told it will appear in the Halloween-themed issue next year, and I couldn't be happier to be back.


17 comments:

  1. I have gotten a notice of it being in the mail. I'm really looking forward to it.

    I actually realized I'd not read all the stories in Zima Blue, so I started with those while I'm waiting. I had re-read some as well, and had forgotten how depressing "Beyond the Aquila Rift" is...

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  2. Received my signed copy of "Belladonna Nights And Other Stories" today. Thanks for taking the time to sight all those plates, must make for a good finger workout. :)

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    1. The hard thing is trying to keep some kind of consistency between signatures. I do about 50 then take a break to reset.

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  3. Mine turned up today in Oz! Looks beautiful.

    I remember Pratchett mentioning that after his first signing, he had problems at the petrol station trying to sign for his credit card because he'd completely borked his signature at the signing.

    There is some "divergence" in your signature across the bunch of books I've collected of yours that are signed - but I can see enough similarity to believe the same bloke was involved ;-).

    ('s true for all authors (and I guess for all signatures) - dunno how signatures have ever been useful in court because in looking just at drift in author signatures how could you tell if anyone's signature was a forgery?)

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  4. Glad the book has made it to you, Orin.

    I'm not sure how rigorous signature analysis is. All I know is that, right from the start of my career, I tried to keep a distinction between my literary sig (which has evolved) and the one I use for private stuff, which hasn't.

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  5. Funny, I thought it might be a nod to the movie "Things to do in Denver when you're dead" - great film, but hardly one I would have thought would interest yourself :-) Take care!

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  6. The Warren Zevon song came first! I'm aware of the film but don't think I've seen it.

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  7. Ordered it on Amazon in the uk when you said it was on there, but they don’t actually seem to have got it :(

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    1. That wasn't me I'm afraid (I just looked back at the post) because I usually go out of my way not to endorse Amazon, which I detest.

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  8. My copy is stil in transit but in the meantime I will read the free ebook version that was sent by Subterranean press. Great news about your upcoming story, will make sure I pick up the Halloween edition of Asimov’s magazine.

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  9. Our copy hasn't arrived at Powell's yet, but we're definitely looking forward to it! We just finished Inhibitor Phase and loved it, and to have two books from you in one year is a bit of happiness in a tough year. Thanks for keeping the writing going!

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    1. Thank you, writing has been a form of escape and therapy for me as well during this last year or so.

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  10. My copy arrived today from an online retailer whose name shall not be mentioned and I was already excited for new stories from my favourite author. But then I opened it up to find it was a limited edition signed copy! I may have screamed "OH MY GOD" out loud and scared the dog.

    Thanks for the surprise Christmas gift. Just made my month.

    Happy holidays to you.

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  11. I just finished my copy of Belladonna Nights and other Stories. What an amazing collection of stories; loved them all but several that really stood out for me included: “For the Ages”, “Map of Mercury”, “Death’s door” and “Plague Music”. Looking forward to the next collection.

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  12. Any plans to release Belladonna Nights as an audio book?

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  13. Will this ever come to Audible? I can barely sleep knowing there are Revelation Space works out there that I haven't experienced.

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  14. No audio edition in the works, no. Sub Press do print and ebooks, and I'm grateful enough that they've provided a venue for this and other stories of mine.

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