Big News at Permuted!

Something really great came up today for the good folks at Permuted Press. Here's the press release:

POCKET BOOKS PARTNERS WITH PERMUTED PRESS TO PUBLISH ZOMBIE FICTION

New York, New York (July 1, 2009) – Anthony Ziccardi, Vice President and Deputy Publisher of Pocket Books, has announced a new co-publishing venture with Permuted Press, best known for horror, dark fantasy and science fiction novels . The seven book deal was brokered by Marc Gerald at the Agency Group. The books will be Zombie focused, with the first release DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON by J.L. Bourne, slated for October 2009.

“I am excited to be the pioneer author for the Pocket Books and Permuted Press joint publishing venture. Horror fans are in for an absolute thrill and can expect to enjoy bold, fresh and riveting fiction as a result of this project. The journey with Permuted Press has been a great success and I know that success will be further enhanced as we shift gears into a new and exciting relationship with Pocket Books. Keep your doors locked!” --J.L. Bourne

Jacob Kier, Publisher, Permuted Press, said “I couldn't be more excited about teaming up with Pocket Books to bring some of Permuted's most exciting and thought-provoking tales of the end of the world to a larger audience.”

Permuted Press began its publishing program in 2004 and quickly became noted in the horror fiction genre. Bourne’s DAY BY DAY ARMAGEDDON is Permuted’s biggest seller, with sales of approximately 25,000 copies. Other titles entering the co-publishing venture have sold between 10-20,000 copies. Permuted has achieved unprecedented success for a small company operating from a remote corner of Missouri and, until now, has utilized only a print on demand (POD) centered publishing model.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Permuted Press and expand their very successful brand.” said Anthony Ziccardi. “We feel the horror genre and zombies in particular, will be a growing category at retail. Even Hollywood seems to be focused on zombie tales and we feel that we are well positioned to capitalize on this trend.”


Titles to be included in the joint venture are:

* Day by Day Armageddon and sequel by J.L. Bourne
* Plague of the Dead by Z.A. Recht
* Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth
* Down the Road by Bowie Ibarra
* Empire by David Dunwoody
* The Zombie Chronicles: Escape by James Melzer

Congratulations Jacob and all the authors!

Daikaijuzine 4.5

The latest issue of Daikaijuzine is out today. It's a web-zine so no hard copies :(. The magazine's unusual name is derived from the Japanese "dai" ("large" or "giant") and "kaiju" ("strange creature" or "monster"). A daikaiju is a giant monster. More specifically, it is one of the gigantic monsters Like Godzilla, King Ghidorah, or Mothra that appear in Japanese movies. With a name like that it seemed like the perfect market for a tale of a 400' foot pangolin terrorizing the city of Chicago.

The story is Panzersloth, and, if you notice an extra amount of wonderfulness in the telling that's due to my co-author, the extremely talented Leah Clarke.

I hope you'll find the story as much fun to read as it was to write.

Brave Blue Mice

Brave Blue Mice.com is a nifty little e-zine run by my friend Greg. It hosts stories by a number of talented writers, including alums from the PIT writer's workshop, Kody Boye and Bobbie Metevier. He's also accepted a story of mine recently.

"Taking the Horn" is an excursion into high fantasy. It came about as the result of an on-line conversation about which would win a fight between a unicorn and a zombie. From such unlikely beginnings my story, this story of three unlikely adventurers and their desperate quest was born.

Shameless Self Promotion

I'd posted that I was mentioned in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, 2008 Edited by Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant. Well, it's a little late but I finally tracked down a copy and here are the citations:

High Seas Cthulhu, edited by William Jones (Elder Signs Press), is an anthology of twenty Lovecraftian tales set on the sea. All but one are original and although every story is readable, there isn't enough variety in tone, setting, or style. The more interesting stories are by Matthew Baugh, Tim Curran, John Shire, Stewart Sternberg, Charles P. Zaglanis, and Lee Clark Zumpe.

The other mention was also from something Edited by the very talented William Jones.

Frontier Cthulhu Ancient Horrors in the New World, edited by William Jones (Chaosium), is a pretty good anthology of fifteen Lovecraftian stories taking place in the American West. The best originals are those by Matthew Baugh, Lon Prater, and Jason Andrews.

Didja notice that there's one name in common on both lists? Huh? Didja? Didja?

(Okay, I'll be quiet now.)
:)

Longest Running Fictional Character

My sister Allison sent me this article asking about the longest running fictional character of all time. The writer has indeed stacked things in favor of Superman, and both comic books and newspaper comic strips seem to have a huge advantage in this kind of contest.

Still, the Phantom who was created in 1936 beats Superman out by several years, and (from reading the blog's responses) I see that people have pointed out that the characters in Gasoline Alley and Little Orphan Annie both trump the Man of Steel as well. Annie has been an orphan since 1924 and Gasoline Alley started publication in 1918. Even the relative newcomers Dick Tracy (1931) and Prince Valiant (1937) have maintained continuity for longer.

My first thought for the all time champion was Nick Carter an adventurer/detective whose published adventures began in 1886. Sadly, though Carter continued to appear regularly until 1990, the series ended at that time.

There has got to be some mention of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. They have been teen detectives since 1927 and 1930 respectively.

I know that the article was really trying to make a point about the problems with allowing character series to continue for such long periods of time, but this has turned into a fun game.

I'm sure there are some I'm missing. Any suggestions?

LAMB

I just finished this novel by the amazing Christopher Moore. The full title is: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I really like Moore. He is one of the funniest writers around and has the best titles of all time, my favorites being Island of the Sequined Love Nun, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, and The Stupidest Angel (The last is a heart-warming Christmas story with zombies).

Lamb is not a terribly orthodox (big surprise) retelling of the Gospel stories, nor is it strictly accurate from a historical point of view (another big surprise). Moore is well-known for his absurdism and goody sense of humor, and both are on full display here.

Levi, the son of Alpheus, aka 'Biff', Joshua (the name used for Jesus throughout the story) and Mary Magdalene aka "Maggie" are inseparable childhood friends. Biff is a natural con man with a heart of gold, Maggie is the smart, brave, pretty girl who both boys adore, and Joshua is the Son of God. It makes for an eventful childhood that is by turns touching, funny, and sad.

Childhood ends when Joshua and Biff decide they need to leave Judea to find the three wise men and learn what Josh needs to know about being the Messiah. It's a bizarre journey that takes them as far as the Shaolin Monastery in China, where Joshua learns kung fu and creates his own non-violent martial are of Jew-do. Finally the friends return to their home where they gather disciples, are reunited with Maggie, and run through the familiar events of the passion.

I put off reading this one because it's so hard to do a Jesus story well. People either tend to do pious rehashings of things that have been done a million times already, or else harsh debunkings that reveal shocking secrets.

Moore doesn't go in for either of those paths. He writes with a healthy disdain for conventional piety, but also with real affection. His Joshua is wise, loving and fearless, but far from omniscient. He makes mistakes, generally because he cares too much, but learns from them without ever becoming cynical. It's also refreshing to see someone having so much fun filling in the lost years of Jesus. Moore recognizes the absurdity of this kind of endeavor and uses it playfully.

It's not theologically earth-shaking (nor was it meant to be) but it's a good read, funny and fast moving with the occasional nice insight of affecting scene. I liked it better than any Jesus fiction I've seen in a long time.

Arrived Today!

I got my copy of ROBOTS BEYOND in the mail! It's a great looking book and exciting to finally have in hand. I'm looking forward to reading it!