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Some of my colleagues are more cautious, not calling a deal till the contract's signed; but I am frankly too chuffed to wait, so...
Every good story has a story of its own, a story of relationships, a place in the conversation. This one started way back, when I was a thriller writer in the UK, transitioning into what we did not then call urban fantasy. I'd published a few stories in horror markets, and a letter came unexpectedly from the US: this guy William Schafer - Bil, he called himself then - was guest-editing an issue of Cemetery Dance, and he liked my work, and would I care to write something for him?
I wrote back - these were the mid-nineties, still the days of letters; it would be a couple of years yet before I got online - to say that honestly I thought a story was unlikely in the time-frame. And indeed, it didn't happen; but Bil also had a fledgling small press of his own, publishing chapbooks and novellas. Did I have anything that might fit there? As it happened, I did: a long short story, properly a novelette, called The Keys to D'Esperance. This led in the end to two novels set in the same house, but it started as a chapbook from Subterranean Press.
I sent Bil more stories, he sent me books. Sometimes the phone would ring of a Sunday morning, and that would be him; we'd chat for half an hour, and my Sophie-cat would sit on my shoulder and purr all the way to America.
He was a librarian, but he lost his job; when he said he thought he could make a living from SubPress, I thought it was a pipedream. Sometimes it's good to be wrong. He's not just survived, he's thrived; and he's turned Subterranean into one of the finest independent presses that we have. Actually, let me refine that: one of the two finest (the other stand-out being PS in the UK, run by m'friends Pete and Nicky Crowther).
I haven't published anything with SubPress for a while now, not since Bill grew into his second l - but we've kept in touch, we've met in person, it's been a delight to watch what he's been doing.
Meanwhile, as you know, I've been writing about Mars. Kipling is kinda stuck at the moment. and all the other stuff is waiting on him to work free - but before any of this there was an initial short story, "The Burial of Sir John Mawe at Cassini".
Which I am delighted to announce that it has been sold to Bill for Subterranean Online, the magazine he publishes for free.
Every good story has a story of its own, a story of relationships, a place in the conversation. This one started way back, when I was a thriller writer in the UK, transitioning into what we did not then call urban fantasy. I'd published a few stories in horror markets, and a letter came unexpectedly from the US: this guy William Schafer - Bil, he called himself then - was guest-editing an issue of Cemetery Dance, and he liked my work, and would I care to write something for him?
I wrote back - these were the mid-nineties, still the days of letters; it would be a couple of years yet before I got online - to say that honestly I thought a story was unlikely in the time-frame. And indeed, it didn't happen; but Bil also had a fledgling small press of his own, publishing chapbooks and novellas. Did I have anything that might fit there? As it happened, I did: a long short story, properly a novelette, called The Keys to D'Esperance. This led in the end to two novels set in the same house, but it started as a chapbook from Subterranean Press.
I sent Bil more stories, he sent me books. Sometimes the phone would ring of a Sunday morning, and that would be him; we'd chat for half an hour, and my Sophie-cat would sit on my shoulder and purr all the way to America.
He was a librarian, but he lost his job; when he said he thought he could make a living from SubPress, I thought it was a pipedream. Sometimes it's good to be wrong. He's not just survived, he's thrived; and he's turned Subterranean into one of the finest independent presses that we have. Actually, let me refine that: one of the two finest (the other stand-out being PS in the UK, run by m'friends Pete and Nicky Crowther).
I haven't published anything with SubPress for a while now, not since Bill grew into his second l - but we've kept in touch, we've met in person, it's been a delight to watch what he's been doing.
Meanwhile, as you know, I've been writing about Mars. Kipling is kinda stuck at the moment. and all the other stuff is waiting on him to work free - but before any of this there was an initial short story, "The Burial of Sir John Mawe at Cassini".
Which I am delighted to announce that it has been sold to Bill for Subterranean Online, the magazine he publishes for free.