The New Dan Simmons Novel May Make Your Hat Explode

Last year, I interviewed illustrator John Picacio about his work on the first volume in a new edition of Michael Moorcock’s Elric series—and a collection of Moorcock’s Seaton Begg stories called The Metatemporal Detective. It’s the Victorian-askew look of the latter that came to mind this morning when I got a look at Picacio’s artwork for a limited edition of Drood, the new Dan Simmons novel that asks the question, “Did the famous and loveable and honourable Charles Dickens plot to murder an innocent person and dissolve away his flesh in a pit of caustic lime and secretly inter what was left of him, mere bones and a skull, in the crypt of an ancient cathedral that was an important part of Dicken’s own childhood?”

Well, now that the question’s been put on the table, we’ve got to know, right?

Subterranean Press will be publishing 500 signed, numbered copies of Drood for $80; for $500, you can get one of just 26 copies that comes in a custom traycase. If those options seem too steep, there’s always the regular trade edition from Little, Brown coming in a few weeks. Although the cover art to that edition, while suitably atmospheric, isn’t quite as… arresting, shall we say, as Picacio’s take on the story.

8 January 2009 | uncategorized |

Beatrice @ The Merc: Mark Budman & Cristy C. Road

I’m proud to announce a new batch of events for “Beatrice @ The Merc,” a reading series dedicated to debut novelists that I curate for the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction. On Wednesday, January 14, my guests will be Mark Budman (My Life at First Try) and Cristy C. Road (Bad Habits); the reading will take place at the Mercantile’s midtown Manhattan headquarters (17 E 47th St.) at 7 p.m. Books will be available for purchase after the readings, and we’ll also have wine and cheese.

Mark Budman‘s works have appeared or are about to appear in such magazines as Weird Tales, Mississippi Review, Virginia Quarterly, The London Magazine, Iowa Review, McSweeney’s, Turnrow, Connecticut Review and the anthology Flash Fiction Forward. He is the publisher of the flash fiction magazine Vestal Review. He is the co-editor of the anthology You Have Time for This, published in 2007 by Ooligan Press; a yet untitled anthology is forthcoming in 2009 from Persea Books.

Cristy C. Road has been illustrating ideas, people, and places, ever since she learned how to hold a crayon. She graduated in 2004 with a bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Illustration, whether or not the administration at herschool irritated her. Roughly two years after that, her repertoire consists of ten years of independent publishing, two graphic novels, and countless illustrations for a broad slew of magazines, record album art, concert posters, and political organizations.

And, while I’ve got your attention, mark January 28 and February 11 on your calendar—I’m still pinning down a few last details, but the authors I do have lined up already are great, and you’re going to want to be there!

6 January 2009 | events |