Friday, June 4, 2010

6.4.10


Recent publishing activities:

"Mr. Wosslynne," Phantom.

"Machines of Concrete Light and Dark," Lovecraft Unbound.

"Violence, Child of Trust," Black Wings.

"Modern Cities Exist Only to Be Destroyed," Cinnabar's Gnosis: A Homage to Gustav Meyrink.

"Last Drink Bird Head," Last Drink Bird Head.


Coming Soon:

"The Cadaver is You," The Master in the Cafe Morphine: A Homage to Mikhail Bulgakov.

"Bread and Water," in a yet to be announced anthology.

A Michael Cisco Omnibus from Centipede Press, which will include all the novels published to date and some short fiction as well, including a few new items. Also, a new essay on supernatural literature, and more.

A new novel! The Wretch of the Sun has been accepted by Ex Occidente Press for publication this year.

Nonfiction

Joshi's upcoming Encyclopedia of the Vampire will contain a piece by your reporter on Gogol's short story "Viy," and the (first) film adaptation.

I am also very proud to announce that my essay, "The Eternal Return in Sadegh Hedayat's The Blind Owl" has been accepted for publication by Iranian Studies, and is scheduled to appear this fall (September, I think) ...

And there is more to come ... I am authorized to say that one of my already-published stories has been selected for a truly remarkable anthology from Atlantic. Formal announcement in the months ahead.

I'm attending Readercon as usual. Assassins take note.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Splendid news Mr. Cisco. Four novels published; five unpublished? Novel five is _The Great Lover_? Novel six is _The Narrator_? Novel seven is _The Wretch of the Sun_? Well, I would love to know more about all of the unpublished titles. I was hoping that you and Quentin S. Crisp would join forces via Chomu Press as two of the outsiders of horror/weird/supernatural fiction, but much of this does sound promising and I suppose you must see how it plays out.

-E.S.-

Michael Cisco said...

Here's the list, in order of composition:

The Divinity Student
The Golem
The Traitor (published fourth)
The Tyrant (published third)
The Great Lover
The Narrator
The Wretch of the Sun
Celebrant
Member (just putting the finishing touches on this one)

I should say, in defense of the works above, and not in my own, that I am really lazy when it comes to approaching agents and publishers. I'd just much rather be writing.

As for Chomu Press - I'm wide open if they're interested!

Anonymous said...

Lovely. Thank you for the response. I am currently on vacation and intend to revisit your work whilst away from my own.

_The Traitor_ was polished after Jeff Vandermeer posted an except -- yes? I seem to recall that "Wite" was "White" in the Vandermeer posted excerpt amongst other changes. Though I suppose the story elements remained the same. I am just curious as to how extensive your revisions and polishing of your unpublished works is.

Interesting that _The Tyrant_ was the latest published work as that was my favorite to date. Whilst each published novel differs from the others (well, obviously the San Veneficio books are of a piece), they still scream of a common author and offer a progression of sorts. I am curious if any of the unpublished titles demonstrate a significant new direction or considerable shift in emphasis? _The Great Lover_ excerpt left me somewhat confused (though that may not be a bad thing), but _The Narrator_ was as captivating in except as your previous work. I wonder if the lack of an article in the title of your last two composed novels represents such a change?

I suspect that Chomu Press is interested, but that their future plans are contingent upon _Remember You're a One-Ball!_ and their next title's reception.

If you ever wish to pursue a larger audience and corresponding monetary reward, I suggest you reserve the audio book rights of your titles and adapt and sell them yourself. You are the best reader I have heard after Anthony Burgess and much like Greer Ilene Gilman your reading of your work helps to not only illuminate it for the audience, but also enhance it. I am neither one to listen to audio books nor purchase files online (music, books, et cetera), but were you to offer digital audio books of your titles for sale, I would certainly purchase them. You could even offer up half of an audio book for free on your website and then have a unique code in copies of the physical book that would unlock the second half. Just a thought.

-E.S.-

Paul Smith said...

Michael,

For those ardent fans who already own all your work up to date, do you think the new material in the Centipede collection will be ever be published elsewhere?

I am really excited for The Wretch of the Sun, Ex Occidente put out some fantastic stuff. I ordered Black Wings from PS this week so I should have Violence, Child of Trust to read this week as well.

Paul

Michael Cisco said...

Paul - I can't say. Very likely not, with the possible exception of the essay.

ES - I fiddled very little with The Traitor after that excerpt appeared. I do go over my works repeatedly, but the amount of revision varies from one to another. The Traitor was a linear story with a straightforward structure.

New directions. After The Tyrant, my books started to expand to cover more characters. I began to think more and more about the overall structure of the narrative, and to make alterations on that level.
I dropped the article as of Celebrant, that's true. I lost interest in the absolute singularity of the main characters.

I have wrestled with the audio for years now, and it remains one of those things I nag myself about without bothering to do, but which could actually get done anyway.

I've been asked to record a story by someone else (I omit the name just in case I'm not supposed to mention this project yet - I can never remember what I'm allowed to discuss) by the end of the summer. I plan to do it, and so I might as well record some of my own, etc.

Quentin S. Crisp said...
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