Roy Robbins informs me that artist Dominic Harman will be providing the cover and interior illustrations for the Bad Moon Books release of my novella The Hunger of Empty Vessels, which will appear during the first quarter of 2009. I’m happy to see Dominic attached to this project, because I loved the work he did for me back when I was editing Science Fiction Age. Finally, this time, he’ll be decorating my words.

The Hunger of Empty Vessels will appear in a limited numbered paperback print run of 150 copies and a limited lettered hardcover print run of 26 copies. Purchasers of the lettered hardcover will also get a copy of “Here Choose I,” an additional original story exclusive to that edition.

I’ll share further details here are they’re announced. Meanwhile, start saving up that spare change!

Since I’d mentioned earlier today that a short story of mine which had originally been published in Space and Time had been adapted into an episode of Tales From the Darkside, I figured I’d share it with you, even though it had been extremely loosely adapted and was painful for me to watch.

As I’ve written elsewhere, the original short story told the tale of a man for whom gravity did not work. It had what I felt was a bittersweet ending, sort of like the one in the “Time Enough at Last” episode of The Twilight Zone. (You know, the one in which Burgess Meredith starred as the guy who broke his glasses.) But by the time the script rewrites were done, the TV episode was awash in buckets of blood.

Seeing my name on the screen was fun. Seeing what came after … not so much. But since you couldn’t possibly be as close to the source material as I was, the disparity might not bother you. (more…)

My short story “The Human Race” was just accepted by Space and Time magazine. It’s due to be published sometime in 2009.

My only other publications in the pages of S&T were back during the Paleozoic era in the magazine’s Winter 1982 and Winter 1983 issues.

Here’s a bit of trivia you may not know:

The most recent of those two stories, “Floater,” was adapted into an episode of Tales From the Darkside with the title “Fear of Floating.”

It was extremely loosely adapted, and I winced quite a bit while first watching it when it aired at the time. But still … it was adapted.

That makes sale number four for 2008—and the year isn’t over yet!

John Joseph Adams, editor of the zombie anthology The Living Dead—which reprints my Stoker-nominated piece “Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man”—has just released the following trailer in support of the book.

Watch—and then buy!

A package arrived this afternoon delivering yet another Marvel Comics reprint volume containing stories of mine from the mid-’70s. I’ve been in seven of these over the past few years.

The latest, Essential Marvel Horror Volume 2, contains—along with tales of the Living Mummy, Brother Voodoo, the Golem, and other monsters—my two stories about the Scarecrow which originally appeared in Dead of Night #11 and Marvel Spotlight #26.

As these books keep showing up unbidden at my door, catching me by surprise, I keep remembering what Faulkner wrote, how “The past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past.”

There’s no escape from yesterday!

My short story “The World Breaks” has just been accepted by Pete Crowther and Nick Gevers for Postscripts, which marks my third sale to that magazine. (Though according to this recent announcement from PS Publishing, Postscripts will be turning from a magazine into a quarterly anthology in the spring of 2009, at the same time increasing its word count from the 55-60,000 words range to around 70-80,000 words.)

The Postscripts gang was, as usual, amazing in its response time. I submitted it to Pete yesterday at 1:20 p.m., and today, in an e-mail sent at 2:41 a.m., only 13 hours later, he accepted it with a note saying that I’ll have contracts and a check shortly.

“The World Breaks” is my third sale to Postscripts. Add in my sales to the anthologies Moon Shots, Mars Probes, and Forbidden Planets, and Pete has been my most supportive editor ever.

Thanks for all the love, Pete!

Today’s mail brought yet another Marvel Comics’ hardcover which reprints an old comic story of mine—and at this point, they’re all old comic stories.

The book collects the adventures of such superheroes as Adam Warlock, Nova, Rocket Raccoon and others before they assembled in the 2006 Marvel Comics crossover Annihilation to battle Annihilus, the Super-Skrull, and other super villains.

My contribution to the volume was drawn by Mike Zeck and first appeared as a back-up story in a 1977 issue of Logan’s Run. It focused on an early battle between Drax the Destroyer and Thanos. This is the second time the story has been reprinted, as it also appeared in the trade paperback Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos.

So many of my ’70s comic-book stories have been reprinted in recent years that I occasionally feel that old impulse surge up, and think that I’d like to publish something new in comics. I don’t know that I’ll ever try, because when ideas do pop into my head, they’re always for text-only short stories rather than anything that seems particularly suited for comics. But these reprints certainly do stoke that appetite even as they bring back good memories.

Over at Diversions of the Groovy Kind, a blog devoted to “the far-out comics of the Groovy Age (1967-1980),” the “Groovy Agent” has just featured my character the Scarecrow as part of the site’s month-long Halloween Countdown 2008.

If you follow the link above, you’ll find that my second comic-book story about the Scarecrow from the December 1975 issue of Marvel Spotlight has been reproduced in full. So if you’ve never read any of my comics, here’s your chance.

I wish I could say that it’s improved with age. It hasn’t, but hopefully, I have. Hey, cut me a break—I wrote it when I was 20!

Sharp eyes will spot a reference to the late comedian Andy Kaufman. I wrote him into the story after I’d seen him perform many times at the New York comedy club the Improv. I spoke with him at the bar one night and got his permission (whether I needed it or not) to make the reference.

You can find my own write-up about the Scarecrow here.

To follow up on my most recent post, here’s the complete table of contents for Talebones#39, which has just been posted by Patrick Swenson, the magazine’s editor.

Of all of the following titles, the one that intrigues me the most (other than mine, of course) is the one from Caroline Yoachim. As you can perhaps tell from some of my own short stories, I’m a sucker for that sort of title!

MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL — Ginger Stuyvesant and the Case of the Haunted Nursery
SCOTT EDELMAN — The Only Wish Ever to Come True
DAVID SAKMYSTER — Blackout Man
ARI GOELMAN — Bird of Paradise
PATRICIA RUSSO — Swoop
TIM McDANIEL — Discards
MARSHALL PAYNE — Sausages
EDWARD McENEELY — All Sparks
BRIAN HIEBERT — How Thunder Dog Shed His Shadow
CAROLINE M. YOACHIM — The Best Last Choice I Ever Made
GREG SCHWARTZ — Second Time Around
GREG SCHWARTZ — horrorku
K.S. HARDY — The Weeping Woman

As you can see, I’ll be in good company!

Editor Patrick Swenson just bought my short story “The Only Wish Ever to Come True” for the Spring 2009 issue of Talebones.

And as I’ve learned from reading other LiveJournal entries, Mary Robinette Kowal (winner of the 2008 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer) and Marshall Payne will be in the issue with me.

Patrick must have had a busy weekend!