Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Fever Chart by Bill Cotter

Promo copy:

Having spent most of his life medicated, electroshocked, and institutionalized, Jerome Coe finds himself homeless on the coldest night of the century − and so, with nowhere else to go, he accepts a ride out of New England from an old love’s ex-girlfriend. It doesn’t quite work out, but he makes it to New Orleans, and a new life − complete with a bandaged hand, world-champion grilled-cheese sandwiches, and only the occasional psychotic break. Things get better, and then, of course, they get worse.

From a writer who’s worked as a debt collector, book restorer, toilet scrubber, and door-to-door vacuum-cleaner salesman, and filled with a cast of Crescent City denizens that makes for one of the most vivid ensembles since Toole’s Confederacy, Bill Cotter’s debut novel Fever Chart is, we think, funnier and more exciting and just generally better written than any other book or movie or theatrical production you’ll see this year.

Over the next couple of months, you’ll be hearing more from me about this Austinite’s intriguing debut novel.

The Silver Skull (Swords of Albion) by Mark Chadbourn

Promo copy:

A devilish plot to assassinate the queen, a cold war enemy hell-bent on destroying the nation, incredible gadgets, a race against time around the world to stop the ultimate doomsday device… and Elizabethan England’s greatest spy!

Meet Will Swyfte—adventurer, swordsman, rake, swashbuckler, wit, scholar and the greatest of Walsingham’s new band of spies. His exploits against the forces of Philip of Spain have made him a national hero, lauded from Carlisle to Kent. Yet his associates can barely disguise their incredulity—what is the point of a spy whose face and name is known across Europe?

But Swyfte’s public image is a carefully-crafted façade to give the people of England something to believe in, and to allow them to sleep peacefully at night. It deflects attention from his real work—and the true reason why Walsingham’s spy network was established.

A Cold War seethes, and England remains under a state of threat. The forces of Faerie have preyed on humanity for millennia. Responsible for our myths and legends, of gods and fairies, dragons, griffins, devils, imps and every other supernatural menace that has haunted our dreams, this power in the darkness has seen humans as playthings to be tormented, hunted or eradicated. But now England is fighting back!

Magical defences have been put in place by the Queen’s sorcerer Dr. John Dee, who is also a senior member of Walsingham’s secret service and provides many of the bizarre gadgets utilised by the spies. Finally there is a balance of power. But the Cold War is threatening to turn hot at any moment…

Will now plays a constant game of deceit and death, holding back the Enemy’s repeated incursions, dealing in a shadowy world of plots and counter-plots, deceptions, secrets, murder, where no one… and no thing… is quite what it seems.

Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Promo copy:

Boss loves to dive historical ships, derelict spacecraft found adrift in the blackness between the stars. Sometimes she salvages for money, but mostly she’s an active historian. She wants to know about the past—to experience it firsthand. Once she’s dived the ship, she’ll either leave it for others to find or file a claim so that she can bring tourists to dive it as well. It’s a good life for a tough loner, with more interest in artifacts than people.

Then one day, Boss finds the claim of a lifetime: an enormous spacecraft, incredibly old, and apparently Earth-made. It’s impossible for something so old, built in the days before Faster Than Light travel, to have journeyed this far from Earth. It shouldn’t be here. It can’t be here. And yet, it is. Boss’s curiosity is up, and she’s determined to investigate. She hires a group of divers to explore the wreck with her, the best team she can assemble. But some secrets are best kept hidden, and the past won’t give up its treasures without exacting a price in blood.

What Boss finds could rewrite history, cost lives, and start an intergalactic war.

I spent last weekend at the premiere sf literary event of Texas, Armadillocon. While there, I acquired some excellent goodies.

Space Squid Number 7 (Fall 2009) Edited by Matthew Bay, D Chang, and Steve Wilson

In the dark times before the advent of the Internet and the current digital age, science fiction fans commonly produced photocopied and stapled fanzines that they printed on paper! Further obliterating that long illustrious history, the irreverent Space Squid offers 32 pages stories, humor, and cartoons. For those who prefer their sf lunacy a tad more digitally, this zine is available as a handy pdf.

He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson Edited by Christopher Conlon

Promo copy:

Just say the name and the memories come flooding back — Somewhere in Time, Duel, The Shrinking Man, I Am Legend, and countless more. He’s one of the greatest storytellers of our time — or any time.

Now Gauntlet Press has assembled He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson, a spectacular anthology of original, never-before published stories by today’s best writers — stories set in Richard Matheson’s own fictional universes, and published with Mr. Matheson’s complete cooperation!

And, among the many contributions to the book, is the first collaboration ever between Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, the novella "Throttle" — their take on Matheson’s classic "Duel." This is, obviously, a once-in-a-lifetime publishing event, as it’s father and son’s first collaboration. Both Stephen King and Joe Hill will be signing both the numbered and lettered editions.

Other contributors to this anthology, edited by Christopher Conlon, include F. Paul Wilson, Joe Lansdale, Whitley Strieber, Richard Christian Matheson, William F. Nolan, Gary Braunbeck, Thomas Monteleone, John Shirley and an introduction by Ramsey Campbell.

And, as an added bonus, He Is Legend features the original full-length screenplay "Conjure Wife" — over 20,000 never-before published words by Richard Matheson himself, in collaboration with the late Charles Beaumont that was filmed as "Burn, Witch Burn."

Cover art and six interior illustrations by Matheson’s favorite artist Harry O. Morris.

How could I possibly resist this one? WOW!

Sailor Tom Sharkey Stories by Mark Finn

Another one of those stapled, photocopied things mentioned above, this 30 page contains fictionalized adventures of legendary boxer Tom Sharkey. The acclaimed Finn prepared this edition of three original short stories especially for Armadillocon.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Abstract Comics Edited by Andrei Molotiu

Promo copy:

Abstract comics? Don’t all comics tell stories? How can a comic be abstract? Well, as it happens, beginning with the experiments of Saul Steinberg, through some of the more psychedelic creations of R. Crumb and Victor Moscoso, and with increasing frequency in recent years, cartoonists and other artists have played with the possibility of comics whose panels contain little to no representational imagery, and which tell no stories other than those that result from the transformation and interaction of shapes across the layout of a comic page. Reduced to the most basic elements of comics — the panel grid, brushstrokes, and sometimes colors — abstract comics highlight the formal mechanisms that underlie all comics, such as the graphic dynamism that leads the eye (and the mind) from panel to panel or the aesthetically rich interplay between sequentiality and page layout.

Abstract Comics, edited by Andrei Molotiu, an art historian as well as one of the best-known contemporary abstract-comic creators, is the first collection devoted to this budding genre. It gathers the best abstract comics so far created, including early experiments in the form by cartoonists primarily known for other types of comics, such as Gary Panter, Patrick McDonnell, or Lewis Trondheim, and pieces by little-known pioneers such as Benoit Joly, Bill Boichel and Jeff Zenick, as well as by recent creators who have devoted a good part of their output to perfecting the form, such as Ibn al Rabin, Billy Mavreas, Mark Staff Brandl, and many others. It also features first attempts, commissioned specifically for this anthology, by well-known cartoonists such as James Kochalka, J.R. Williams and Warren Craghead. Comprehensive in scope, Abstract Comics gathers work not only from North America, but also from France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, showing the rise in popularity of the genre to be a true international phenomenon. In the process, the anthology highlights the wide variety of approaches taken to the combination of abstraction and sequential art — approaches resulting in work that is not only graphically bold, but also often proves to be surprisingly humorous or emotionally disturbing.

Complete list of contributors (in order of appearance): R. Crumb, Victor Moscoso, Spyros Horemis, Jeff Zenick, Bill Shut, Patrick McDonnell, Mark Badger, Benoit Joly, Bill Boichel, Gary Panter, Damien Jay, Ibn al Rabin, Lewis Trondheim, Andy Bleck, Mark Staff Brandl, Andrei Molotiu, Anders Pearson, Derik Badman, Grant Thomas, Casey Camp, Henrik Rehr, James Kochalka, John Hankiewicz, Mike Getsiv, J.R. Williams, Blaise Larmee, Warren Craghead III, Janusz Jaworski, Richard Hahn, Geoff Grogan, Panayiotis Terzis, Mark Gonyea, Greg Shaw, Alexey Sokolin, Jason Overby, Bruno Schaub, Draw, Jason T. Miles, Elijah Brubaker, Noah Berlatsky, Tim Gaze, troylloyd, Billy Mavreas.

Chasing the Dragon (Quantum Gravity, Book 4) by Justina Robson

Promo copy:

Lila Black returns in the fourth volume of high-octane, high-magic, high-tech adventures.

Ever since the Quantum Bomb of 2015 things have been different; the dimensions have fused and suddenly our world is accessible to elves, demons, ghosts and elementals and their worlds are open to us. Things have been different for Special Agent Lila Black too: tortured and magic-scarred by elves, rebuilt by humans into a half-robot, part-AI, nuclear-fueled walking arsenal, married to a demon and in love with a recently-deceased elf. It was confusing enough before she was catapulted fifty years into her own future.

Returning to the life of a guns-blazing secret agent, Lila finds herself having inherited all of her former boss’s old offices and whatever mysteries they contain, as the elf has done a runner some fifty years previously. Appointed head of the new android division, she can see all too clearly what lies in store for her if the growth of the alien technologies in her cyborg body continue unchecked.

But there are more immediate concerns. Like resurrecting her lover, Zal. And her husband, the demon Teazle, is embroiled in a fatal plot in Demonia, and her magic sword is making itself happy as a pen whose writing has the power to affect other worlds. The world is off its rocker and most everyone is terrified of faeries.

And all the while, she hears the voices of the machine material projections of an immaterial form, The Signal. The Signal talks constantly if only she knew what it meant.

Chasing the Dragon is bright, fast moving and accessible SF that mixes in fantasy and a cool cult-lit sensibility to create a series that will appeal to all fans of Laurrell K. Hamilton and Peter Hamilton alike.

Sunshine Cleaning

Promo copy:

Academy Award® Nominee Amy Adams, Golden Globe® Winner Emily Blunt, and Academy Award Winner®Alan Arkin find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in this “colorful, refreshingly quirky comic drama” (Leah Rozen, People). Desperate to get her son into a better school, single mom Rose (Amy Adams) persuades her slacker sister Norah (Emily Blunt) to join her in the crime scene cleanup business to make some quick cash. With the help of their ill-fated salesman father (Alan Arkin), they climb the ranks in a very dirty job, finding themselves up to their elbows in murders, suicides, and… specialized situations. But underneath the dust and grime they also come to discover a true respect for one another, and create a brighter future for the entire Lorkowski family.

The Crooked Way by James Enge

Promo copy:

Morlock Ambrosius returns! Travelling alone in the depths of winter, Morlock Ambrosius (bitterly dry drunk, master of all magical makers, wandering swordsman, and son of Merlin Ambrosius and Nimue Viviana) is attacked by an unknown enemy. To unmask his enemy and end the attacks he must travel a long crooked way through the world: past the soul-eating Boneless One, past a subtle and treacherous master of golems, past the dragon-taming Khroi, past the predatory cities of Sarkunden and Aflraun, past the demons and dark gnomes of the northern woods. Soon he will find that his enemy wears a familiar face, and that the duel he has stumbled into will threaten more lives than his own, leaving nations shattered in its chaotic wake. And at the end of his long road waits the death of a legend.

On the weekend of August 14-16, I will be attending Armadillocon, located right here in sweltering hot Austin, TX. This is my 17th Armadillocon as a programming participant.

Friday, August 14

5:00 PM-6:00 PM What You Should Have Played
You want to try a new game, but have no idea which one.

Saturday, August 15

10:00 AM-11:00 AM Sports
Will the Astros win the series before the heat death of the universe? And other sf imponderables.

(I’m also signing at some point on Saturday, time tbd)

Sunday, August 16

10:00 AM-11:00 AM Still a Classic?
Our panelists discuss older works and whether they have withstood the test of time.

11:00 AM-12:00PM Panel of Calamitous Intent
The Venture Brothers!

1:00 PM-1:30 PM Reading
I’m reading my forthcoming Tor.com piece "Six Degrees of Michael Moorcock" and probably at least one other essay.

And don’t be surprised if I sit in on a few other panels as well. Especially on Saturday, when I have a lot of free time.

Several other frequent RevSF contributors including Mark Finn, Alan J. Porter, Steve Wilson, Jayme Lynn Blachke and Matthew Bey will be there as well.

Hope to see you there.

A month or so back, I interviewed Joe R. Lansdale for the San Antonio Current ("Crazy sort of folk" July 1, 2009). As is common with interviews, a lot of it didn’t end up in the final publication. This won’t be a big surprise to anyone who has interviewed Joe, but I had enough left over for two blog posts.

In this second and final installment, Joe discusses story collections, young adult fiction, and other things Lansdale.

How does the recent Chicken Fried and Sanctified: The Portable Lansdale differ from the forthcoming Best of Joe R. Lansdale?

Instead of calling it The Best, I think they’re gonna call it Selected Stories. They will differ dramatically. Probably, two or three stories will overlap, but it will have a lot of stories.

What other collections are forthcoming?

The next independent collection will contain stories that will never be reprinted again because I got the rights to reprint a Hellboy and couple of other things I don’t own.

People say, “I kinda resent you having these short story collections that have the same stories.” My answer to that is “Go fuck yourself.” The reason for that is very simple: Just because you bought it doesn’t make you have to buy the next one. Also. every two or three years there is a whole new group of readers and those books are no longer available. I’m not just trying to appeal to the people who already enjoy the work. I’m trying to appeal to the people who have not had the opportunity. A lot of new readers are just starting to be interested in my work. They’ll go to buy a collection and you won’t find Writer of the Purple Rage or By Bizarre Hands. A lot of these things were small printings to begin with and some of them are way out of print or nearly out of print. So every few years, [the stories] are valid to be re-released.

What’s next for you?

I just sold a young adult novel to Delacorte. It’s set in the 1930s and called All the Earth Thrown To the Sky. Same [time] period as The Boar and The Bottoms. The novels takes place in Oklahoma for a large part and moves toward East Texas.

Also, Keith [Lansdale, Joe’s son] and I edited the Son of Retro Pulp Tales. It’s suppose to be out at the end of July.

Do you find it difficult to write for young adults in terms of violence?

No. I always see them as different. It’s not that I can’t write without violence, but I don’t want. Depends on the book. When I wrote The Bottoms, there is violence in it but there’s almost a young adult feel to that novel. And The Boar is an example of what I can do. A lot more of the modern young adult books isn’t like See Spot Run or the Hardy Boys. I’m getting an opportunity to do something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time. If this goes well, I’m planning on doing more.

More in Part I.

A month or so back, I interviewed Joe R. Lansdale for the San Antonio Current ("Crazy sort of folk" July 1, 2009). As is common with interviews, a lot of it didn’t end up in the final publication. This won’t be a big surprise to anyone who has interviewed Joe, but I had enough left over for two blog posts.

This first entry focuses on the unpublished questions pertaining to Hap & Leonard.

Why did Vanilla Ride first appear in Italy?

There are two reasons. First of all, Italy has been very good to me, so my last three books have appeared there first. I purposely wanted that to happen. I’m a bestseller over there. This book is a bestseller over there. I made an effort to give them that little bit extra. The other reason is their publishing schedule works much quicker than ours. I will probably go back to America first then Italy second depending on publication. But the last three I purposely did that.

Is Black Lizard planning to reprint all of the Hap & Leonards?

They are. They’ve reprinted four of them and the other two are due this fall.

What about the shorter stories such as “Veil’s Visit”?

I’ve actually thought that particular section with Veil could possibly go into one of the novels. I think that’s a possibility. I also have another one “Blue to the Bone” that is often erroneously thought to be Vanilla Ride with a title change. It was one that I started that was farther into the series than I originally anticipated. I don’t know if I’ll do a novel or it’ll become a novella or what. I feel certain that’ll eventually come to pass.

Do you have Hap & Leonard’s lives mapped out?

No, not really. I have ideas and I borrow things from my own life, but I also borrow from people I know. I have a general idea of where they are going, but it’s a very general idea. I do some things on instinct. The stories come out of the characters— little revelations and little ideas. The little things will change the whole course of the novel. The characters themselves redirect my plans.

What’s the status of a Hap & Leonard film?

There’s been a lot of film interest in ’em. I’ve been offered two deals [recently], neither of which I’ve accepted. They just couldn’t meet the terms I wanted.

The violence in Vanilla Ride seemed extreme even for you.

I never can tell. To me, I don’t notice any difference between this one and the others. I really don’t. When I look at Bad Chili, I think “Whoa! That was pretty violent.” I always think of it and Two Bear Mambo has the most violent of the Hap & Leonard series. Nightrunners and Waltz of Shadows, those are VERY violent. I never think about that. I never think that I’m going to make this scene violent or what. It just sort of arrives. I’ll read these others books and this book is just a violent as my books. Why don’t they talk about these people? As other people have told me: “But they don’t write violence the same way. They don’t have that kind of poetic description.” I appreciate that.

More in Part II.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

Promo copy:

In the occupied and oppressed city-state of Ambergris, the detective John Finch must solve a sensitive double-murder for his inhuman masters, the Grey Caps. Nothing is as it seems as he negotiates his way through the landscape of spies, rebels, and deception. The fate of the city is in the balance, with Finch caught squarely in the middle.

A blunt sharp shock to the system, VanderMeer’s latest takes noir mystery, adds surreal fantasy, and comes up with a startling new hybrid.

One of the most eagerly anticipated novels of the year, VanderMeer returns to the surreal world of Ambergris. In my Austin Chronicle review I had this to say about his previous novel: “With literary stylings, a complex, riveting plot, and ideas that lesser writers could not imagine, Shriek: An Afterword further establishes Jeff Vandermeer as the finest fantasist of his generation.” I even listed it among my favorite books of 2006. This moves up to the top of my must read pile.

My Dead Body by Charlie Huston

Promo copy:

NOBODY LIVES FOREVER. NOT EVEN A VAMPYRE.

Just ask Joe Pitt. After exposing the secret source of blood for half of Manhattan’s Vampyres, he’s definitely a dead man walking. He’s been a punching bag and a bullet magnet for every Vampyre Clan in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, not to mention a private eye, an enforcer, an exile, and a vigilante, but now he’s just a target with legs.

For a year he’s sloshed around the subway tunnels and sewers, tapping the veins of the lost, while above ground a Vampyre civil war threatens to drag the Clans into the sunlight once and for all. What’s it gonna take to dig him up? Just the search for a missing girl who’s carrying a baby that just might be the destiny of Vampyre-kind. Not that Joe cares all that much about destiny and such. What he cares about is that his ex-girl Evie wants him to take the gig. What’s the risk? Another turn playing pigeon in a shooting gallery. What’s the reward? Maybe one shot of his own. What’s he aiming for? Nothing much. Just all the evil at the heart of his world.

The Quiet War by Paul McAuley

Promo copy:

Twenty-third century Earth, ravaged by climate change, looks backwards to the holy ideal of a pre-industrial Eden. Political power has been grabbed by a few powerful families and their green saints. Millions of people are imprisoned in teeming cities; millions more labour on Pharaonic projects to rebuild ruined ecosystems. On the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, the Outers, descendants of refugees from Earth’s repressive regimes, have constructed a wild variety of self-sufficient cities and settlements: scientific utopias crammed with exuberant creations of the genetic arts; the last outposts of every kind of democratic tradition. The fragile detente between the Outer cities and the dynasties of Earth is threatened by the ambitions of the rising generation of Outers, who want to break free of their cosy, inward-looking pocket paradises, colonise the rest of the Solar System, and drive human evolution in a hundred new directions. On Earth, many demand pre-emptive action against the Outers before it’s too late; others want to exploit the talents of their scientists and gene wizards.Amid campaigns for peace and reconciliation, political machinations, crude displays of military might, and espionage by cunningly wrought agents, the two branches of humanity edge towards war.

Pixu: The Mark of Evil by Gabriel Ba, Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, and Fabio Moon

Promo copy:

This gripping tale of urban horror follows the lives of five lonely tenants — strangers — whose lives become intertwined when they discover a dark mark scrawled on the walls of their building. The horror sprouts quite innocently from a small seed and finds life as something otherworldly, damaged, full of love, hate, fear, and power. As the walls come alive, everyone is slowly driven mad — defenseless against the evil in the building, stripped of free will, leaving only confusion, chaos, and eventual death.

Originally self-published as a two-volume book, this groundbreaking work receives a deluxe presentation in a hardcover edition with a sketchbook section.

* The 2008 Eisner Award-winning team for Best Anthology — Gabriel Bá (The Umbrella Academy), Becky Cloonan (American Virgin), Vasilis Lolos (The Last Call), and Fábio Moon (Sugarshock) — return with their latest collaboration, Pixu: The Mark of Evil.

More in Part II.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

The Saga of Solomon Kane Written by Writer: Robert E. Howard, Roy Thomas, Don Glut, et al Art by David Wenzel, Howard Chaykin, Steve Carr, Neal Adams, Al Williamson, Bill Wray, et al

Promo copy:

From his pulp-fiction origins in Weird Tales to his latest Dark Horse incarnation, Robert E. Howard’s sixteenth-century Puritan adventurer has captured the imaginations of readers for decades. Now all of the Savage Sword of Conan short stories from the 1970s are collected for the first time: equal parts comics adaptations of Howard’s formative tales and inspired new chapters from venerable scribes Roy Thomas (Conan the Barbarian) and Don Glut (Kull the Destroyer)! Follow along Kane’s restless travels with pistol and rapier as he is compelled to be a weapon of God, ridding the world of evil wherever it may be found — from the jungles of Africa to the high seas, and whether cannibal, demon, vampire, or pirate!

* A fantastic companion volume to Dark Horse’s best-selling Savage Sword of Conan omnibus series!

* Contains short stories from various Savage Sword of Conan and Conan Saga issues, and from Kull and the Barbarians #2 and #3, Marvel Preview #19, Monsters Unleashed, and Dracula Lives.

Sasha by Joel Shepherd

Promo copy:

Spurning her royal heritage to be raised by the great warrior, Kessligh, her exquisite swordplay astonishes all who witness it. But Sasha is still young, untested in battle and often led by her rash temper. In the complex world of Lenayin loyalties, her defiant wilfulness is attracting the wrong kind of attention.

Lenayin is a land almost divided by its two faiths: the Verenthane of the ruling classes and the pagan Goeren-yai, amongst whom Sasha now lives. The Goeren-yai worship swordplay and honour and begin to see Sasha as the great spirit—the Synnich—who will unite them. But Sasha is still searching for what she believes and must choose her side carefully.

When the Udalyn people—the symbol of Goeren-yai pride and courage—are attacked, Sasha will face her moment of testing. How will she act? Is she ready to lead? Can she be the saviour they need her to be?

The Prodigal Mage (Fisherman’s Children Book One) by Karen Miller

Promo copy:

Many years have passed since the last great Mage War. It has been a time of great change. But not all changes are for the best, and Asher’s world is in peril once more.

The weather magic that holds Lur safe is failing, and the earth feels broken to those with the power to see. Among Lur’s sorcerers, only Asher has the skill to mend the antique weather map that governs the seasons, keeping the land from being crushed by natural forces. Yet, when Asher risks his life to meddle with these dangerous magics, the crisis is merely delayed, not averted.

Asher’s son Rafel has inherited the father’s talents, but has been forbidden to use them. Many died in the last Mage War and these abilities aren’t to be loosed lightly into the world. But when Asher’s last desperate attempt to repair the damage leaves him on his deathbed, Rafel’s powers may not be denied. For his countrymen are facing famine, devastation, and a rift in the very fabric of their land.

Stalking the Dragon by Mike Resnick

Promo copy:

It’s Valentine’s Day and private detective John Justin Mallory is planning on closing up the office early and taking his partner, Col. Winnifred Carruthers, out to dinner, since he’s sure no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and lock the door, a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody visits them. It seems that the Eastminster pet show is being held the next day, and his dragon, Fluffy, the heavy favorite, has been kidnapped.

Mallory’s nocturnal hunt for the miniature dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan—Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village and is populated by witches and covens); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre come alive; Gracie Mansion (which is haunted by the ghosts of former mayors); and the Bureau of Missing Creatures, a movie set where they’re filming a PBS documentary on zombies and various other denizens of the Manhattan night. As Mallory follows the leads and hunts for clues, he comes up against one dead end after another.

Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, and a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan. Aided by a strange goblin named Jeeves, Mallory has only one night to find a tiny dragon that’s hidden somewhere in a city of seven million.

More in Part I.

My review of Dames, Dolls & Gun Molls: The Art of Robert A. Maguire appears in the online version of the San Antonio Current.

Check out the entire review at the San Antonio Current.

[  Mood: Amused ]
While reading Graham Joyce’s forthcoming novel How to Make Friends with Demons, I discovered this enlightening passage I wanted to share.

Here’s what Night Shade Books had to say about their publication.

Expect a review of How to Make Friends With Demons in the near future.