Warning: the writer of this post is a little giddy from sleep deprivation and other reasons described below. Further reading by the humor impaired is not recommended....

Some of you may have noticed that I have been a little quiet as of late. Well, here's the reason: Ron and I were busting butt the size of one of those Saturnian beasts of burden Eibon and Morghi were herding along, getting The Door to Saturn in to the printer by April 26, which is the absolute "drop-dead" date for them to get the finished product out for a June release. (Printers have to schedule major jobs, such as hardcover books, ahead of time, and they have to coordinate with the binders as well.) Well, today I drove 125 miles to the cool grey city of love (as George Sterling described her), San Francisco, the city all good Republicans love to hate (which puts me in a delicate spot--oh, and the first person to quip that "good Republican" is an oxymoron gets their copy shipped surface mail even if they live across the street from the publisher!!), and after wandering around lost in traffic for 90 minutes finally found the offices of Night Shade Books. Jason Williams and I sat down with the corrected galleys and, through the wonders of PageMaker, we can now say "Habemus liberum!" (Only Dave Drake gets to correct my Latin: well, and Dr. Farmer.)
I also saw Jason Williams' cover painting for volume two, which IMO is better than that for volume one (and I liked volume one). It continues the motif of using the young poet Smith as an avatar for his various characters.
Booklist has a review up on the Amazon site for this title.
Here's what Jason wrote today in the Night Shade newsletter:

Next we've got more of what you love best, Clark Ashton Smith. The Door to Saturn: The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith Volume 2. Hah, didn't think we'd actually manage to get two volumes out in the same year, did you? Speaking of Smith, we're down to a handful of copies of The End of the Story (volume 1). We'll be reprinting at some point, but if you're going to be wanting a first printing, or you don't want to wait until we get around to reprint, I'd suggest you get an order in now. We went through the initial printing WAY faster than we'd expected, and way faster than we've ever sold through on any classic before.

In other words, The End of the Story has sold almost 1500 copies (maybe more) since it hit the street late in January! Does anyone have any Ibuprufen? I pulled a muscle patting myself on the back. :-)

Best,
Scott

Congratulations, Scott and Ron, for a work well done!

That goes for The End of the Story as well. I'm halfway through "Thirteen Phantasms" and have only found one typo and one possible typo in the stories so far (although I've found two in the notes on the stories). So, well done! I'll try to read faster in case the second printing needs to appear soon.

Now I only wish Night Shade could get back to me on upgrading to airmail... However, I'm glad that they finally realised that shipping times to mainland Europe are "completely random" instead of "4-6 weeks" which the USPS has set as an ideal!

Yrs
Martin

Can I purchase from Nightshade with Paypal? I would like to get the End of the Story and I also see it on ebay, which does accept Paypal, however, I would like to support the company directly as this always encourages growth and expansion over buying used (when I can, I bought a well used Montero :))

Night Shade much prefers that people buy their books from dealers and not directly from them. That's their business model, and it is working for them. The best thing you can do from their perspective is go to your local Barnes and Nobles or Borders and buy it from them. If they don't have it in stock, have them place a special order. Take a copy of Michael Dirda's review with you when you order it. They will probably order one or two extra copies to put on the shelf.

Scott

Thank you for the reply, I do appreciate that. Having no Barnes and Noble or Borders handy I will keep scouting about. I am in North Central Idaho, not really the centre of cosmopolitan life:).

Might I suggest Gavin Smith, Bookseller? [www.gavinicussbooks.com]

Scott

Thank you very much, I appreciate your help!

Good news, and glad to hear the first book is doing well. Now, if I can just bring myself to get over the bitterness about missing the subscription deal by one day, I'll go pick up both of them from Amazon :).

Way to go, Scott! I've heralded the news on conan.com, where I'm a newly-dubbed moderator. Mikey C (a member of this forum) is also a new moderator. So, CAS has a warm haven in the land of all things REH. BTW, thanks for the cover info. I thought that the cover protagonist looked a lot like the Last Enchanter.