Tim Powers!

Best,
Scott

WOW!!

Hey Scott! Thank you so much for that information. I've been a Powers fan since Laser Books published Discrown the Skies (with that great Freas cover). So, you've lined up Tim and Gene Wolfe. What other coups shall you attain? Too bad Leiber and Bradbury aren't around. What about Ellison? I'll be sure to post the news on conan.com.

Oh yeah. Don't forget that David Drake is a big CAS fan.
DEUCE



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12 Apr 07 | 06:27PM by deuce.

It would be neat if Gahan Wilson could write an introduction for one of the volumes as well.

We have seen the darkness
Where charnel things decay,
Where atom moves with atom
In shining swift array,
Like ordered constellations
On some sidereal way.
--from Nyctalops

deuce Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey Scott! Thank you so much for that
> information. I've been a Powers fan since Laser
> Books published Discrown the Skies (with that
> great Freas cover). So, you've lined up Tim and
> Gene Wolfe. What other coups shall you attain?
> Too bad Leiber and Bradbury aren't around. What
> about Ellison? I'll be sure to post the news on
> conan.com.
>
> Oh yeah. Don't forget that David Drake is a big
> CAS fan.
> DEUCE

Actually, Gene Wolfe wrote an introduction to the Prime Press edition of THE RETURN OF THE SORCERER. This is a "best of" collection that Bob Weinberg is editing using the original magazine versions. What is exciting about this is that the B&M stores like Borders and Barnes and Nobles have been placing very large pre-orders for this one, so it should introduce a lot of non-fan SF and Fantasy readers to CAS.
Dave is an old friend of mine. We're leaning more towards figures that can help bridge the gap between CAS and the literary mainstream. China Mieville is one such, there are a couple of others I don't want to mention for fear of jinxing the deal. But there are a couple of Pulitzer Prize winners who are mulling over the possibility of writing an introduction quite seriously.
I was very pleased with Tim's intro==short but sweet. I had the pleasure and the honor of being on a panel with him (and Dave Drake), along with REH maven Rusty Burke, at WFC in Austin last year, where we discussed the Unholy Trinity of HPL, REH and CAS. ("God the Yankee, God the Crazy Texan, and God the Hermit living in the Cave," as someone quipped on Zothique Nights several years ago.)
Best,
Scott

ArkhamMaid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It would be neat if Gahan Wilson could write an
> introduction for one of the volumes as well.

Gahan wrote the introduction (or was it the afterword?) to THE AVEROIGNE CHRONICLES: "That is not dead...."

Scott

Thanks for letting me know, Scott! Is that edition still in print?

We have seen the darkness
Where charnel things decay,
Where atom moves with atom
In shining swift array,
Like ordered constellations
On some sidereal way.
--from Nyctalops

ArkhamMaid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for letting me know, Scott! Is that edition
> still in print?

Please excuse the hysterical peals of laughter echoing from elsewhere on the server. Ron, would you like to tackle this one? (Evil grin smiley....)

Best,
Scott

Scott Connors Wrote:
> Please excuse the hysterical peals of laughter
> echoing from elsewhere on the server. Ron, would
> you like to tackle this one? (Evil grin
> smiley....)
>
> Best,
> Scott

Ron -- Scott -- someone -- help me out here! ;)

We have seen the darkness
Where charnel things decay,
Where atom moves with atom
In shining swift array,
Like ordered constellations
On some sidereal way.
--from Nyctalops

OK, I'll do it, even though the honour technically belongs to Ron, being the editor of The Averoigne Chronicles...

The reason for the hysterical laughter is that the book was announced in the early 1990s -- unless I remember wrong, it was supposed to be out for the Smith centennary in 1993.

That didn't happen, and we're still waiting, 14 years later.

So to answer your original question: "No, it's NOT YET in print."

For a time the publisher, Donald M. Grant, had an announcement on their website saying it was "moving forward weekly", but I suppose they got tired of the "moving forward weakly" jokes.

Yrs
Martin

And I mean of course that Ron is the editor of The Averoigne Chronicles -- sorry for being a bit unclear!

A hearty welcome goes out to ArkhamMaid, and grateful greetings to Martinus as well. Yes, it's all true--14 years and still waiting. In 1990 Grant publishers brought out a limited edition of "At the Mountains of Madness" as a centennial tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. I was busy grouping CAS tales into various collections at that time, and thought "Gee, I wonder if Grant would be interested in publishing a similar centennial tribute to CAS?" As it turned out, they accepted the idea, but were extremely busy with Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series at that time. So Averoigne was put on hold and the 1993 CAS centennial slipped by without seeing the Smith tribute. The next ten years saw many more King books published by Grant and also Donald Grant became seriously ill and was forced to turn the company over to his partner Robert Wiener. The last 3 or 4 years has seen intermittent work on the book, during which Robert Wiener was going through a rather painful divorce, and just this year has seen his own father through his last illness.

These are not excuses, just the simple truth. Over these many years I have suggested that we change the format of the book (9 inches tall by 13 wide with a leather embossed cover, no DJ) into a more affordable, regular sized trade edition and drop the somewhat ludicrous centennial tribute premise, but the Duvall illustrations were designed for this format and could not be altered without compromising the quality of the art. So the book must remain in its originally conceived format.

The good news is that things are back on track for publication (I'll just say sometime this year) and you will have the opportunity to read Gahan Wilson's very fine introduction at last. In the meanwhile, I'll give you a little teaser . . .

"The humanity of the people in Smith's Averoigne, on the other hand, is in full flower. They sweat and smell of garlic and wine; they have orgasms and rumbling stomachs; they fumble at important moments; their faith fails them exactly when they need it most, and they boast and brag just when they should have kept their mouths shut."

Again, I apologize in advance for the price of this book will likely exceed what most average readers are willing to pay. On the other hand, it will be a beautiful edition; and don't forget some poor bovine gave his or her hide for that lovely burgundy-colored cover!!

Cheers!
-Ron

Wow, it sounds excellent and I'll definitely buy it when it comes out! And thanks for the excerpt from Mr. Wilson's introduction as well. ;)

We have seen the darkness
Where charnel things decay,
Where atom moves with atom
In shining swift array,
Like ordered constellations
On some sidereal way.
--from Nyctalops