As a Christmas “present” for subscribers, Hill House Publishers produced a special signed and numbered edition of Ray Bradbury’s 1973 story “The Wish”, limited to 250 copies with a new Afterword by the author. A lettered edition of the small hardcover book was also available in a fifty-two-copy edition. As an added “thank you” to subscribers of the forthcoming The Martian Chronicles: The Definitive Edition, a signed fifty-copy edition of Bradbury’s 1950 memoir “How I Wrote My Book” was produced by Hill House in matching format. The book included both a clean text version of the work as well as reproductions of the actual manuscript pages.
The Rolling Darkness Revue once again toured a number of bookstores in southern California during the run-up to Halloween, entertaining audiences with its unique blend of music and fiction. Joining founding members Peter Atkins and Glen Hirshberg in guest spots were Clay McLeod Chapman, Dennis Etchison, Aimee Bender, Lisa Morton and Norman Partridge. All but Bender had stories in the chapbook At the Sign of the Snowman’s Skull (Etchison’s contribution was the only reprint), issued by Earthling Publications to tie in with the 2006 performances. Other merchandising available at the various venues included a signed, limited edition CD of readings and music from the 2005 tour, a new T-shirt design, and a special “Snowman’s Skull” shot glass.
From Gauntlet Press’ Edge Books imprint, Love Hurts and Other Short Stories collected seven original tales and an Introduction by Barry Hoffman, with a cover illustration by Harry O. Morris.
Attractively produced by DreamHaven Books, Strange Birds included two original stories by Gene Wolfe, inspired by the paintings and sculptures of Lisa Snellings-Clark. It was limited to 1,000 copies, and was the first in a projected series by various authors based on Snellings-Clark’s artwork.
Down in the Fog-Shrouded City by Alex Irvine was the tenth volume in the Wormhole Contemporary Chapbooks series. With an Introduction by James Patrick Kelly and cover and interior art by Steve Rasnic Tern, it was limited to 750 numbered booklets, 250 numbered hardcovers and fifty-two lettered editions signed by the author.
Absinthe was a stylish-looking chapbook from Bloodletting Press that contained an original story each by Jack Ketchum and Tim Lebbon. It was limited to 500 signed and numbered copies along with a fifty-two copy deluxe lettered edition.
From California’s Tropism Press, Show and Tell and Other Stories was a collection of six offbeat stories (one original) by Greg van Eekhout. Jenn Reese’ Tales of the Chinese Zodiac appeared from the same imprint.
Foreigners and Other Familiar Faces was a chapbook collection of nine unusual stories (three original) by Mark Rich, published by Small Beer Press.
Edited with an Introduction by Jonathan Reitan and James R. Beach, Northwest Horrors: Stories Presented by the Northwest Horror Professionals was a slim anthology of ten stories (three original) by Elizabeth Engstrom, Bruce Holland Rogers, John Pelan, W. H. Pugmire and others.
Tales from the Black Dog was published by the Minneapolis/St Paul writers’ critique group The Wyrdsmiths. It contained eight stories (one reprint) from various members and an Introduction by founder Lyda Morehouse. Also hailing from St Paul, Velocity Press’ Rabid Transit: Long Voyages Great Lies edited by Christopher Barzak, Alan DeNiro and Kristin Livdahl featured six original travel stories from F. Brett Cox, Geoffrey H. Goodwin, Alice Kim, Meghan McCarron, David J. Schwartz and Heather Shaw.
Poems That Go Splat from Naked Snake Press showcased the work of Brian Rosenberger.
With its sixth issue, PS Publishing’s PostScripts: The A to Z of Fantastic Fiction changed to illustrated boards for its 150-copy signed hardcover edition. As usual, the title published four quarterly issues in 2006 with stories by Rhys Hughes, Stephen Baxter, Garry Kilworth, Conrad Williams, Stephen Volk, Jack Dann, T. M. Wright, Jay Lake, Michael Swanwick, Gene Wolfe, Darrell Schweitzer, Tony Richards, K. W. Jeter, Darren Speegle, Lavie Tidhar and John Grant, amongst others, interviews with Elizabeth Hand and Howard Waldrop, and guest editorials from Steven Erikson, Lucius Shepard, Terry Bisson and Jeff VanderMeer. Issue #6 also featured a fascinating article by Mike Ashley about stage magician Harry Houdini (Ehrich Weiss).
The three issues of Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish’s Cemetery Dance Magazine included contributions from Eric Brown, Tony Richards, Tim Waggoner, Lisa Morton, Simon R. Green, Ed Gorman, Darren Speegle, Gene O’Neill, Peter Atkins, Stephen Mark Rainey, Scott Nicholson, and Michael A. Arnzen and Mark McLaughlin. Neil Gaiman and Tim Lebbon were among those interviewed, and there were the usual columns by Bev Vincent, Thomas F. Monteleone, Paula Guran, Michael Marano and John Pelan. Issue #56 of Cemetery Dance was billed as a “Glen Hirshberg Special” and included a new short story, a novel excerpt and a fun article by Hirshberg, along with an interview with the author and an extended review of his latest collection, American Morons.
Possibly the best-looking of the “publisher’s magazines”, William Schafer’s Subterranean featured fiction by Norman Partridge, Poppy Z. Brite, David Prill, David J. Schow, Jay Lake, Lewis Shiner, Orson Scott Card, Stephen Gallagher and Tad Williams, amongst others.
Another publisher to launch its own magazine title was Prime Books, an imprint of Wildside Press. Edited by Nick Mamatas and limited to 1,500 copies given away at World Fantasy convention 2006, the dull-looking “issue zero” of Phantom featured fiction from F. Brett Cox, Darren Speegle, Sarah Langan and Laird Barron, along with an interview with Stewart O’Nan.
Also now published by Wildside Press in association with Terminus Publishing Co, Weird Tales benefited from some excellent cover art by Rowena Morrell and Les Edwards. Fiction and verse was supplied by Parke Godwin, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, William F. Nolan, Gregory Frost, Tony Richards, Fitz-James O’Brien, Tanith Lee, Holly Phillips, Jay Lake, Brian Stableford, Richard Lupoff, Tina and Tony Rath, Robert Weinberg, George Barr, Jill Bauman, Darrell Schweitzer and Bruce Boston. Issue #341 featured an article celebrating Robert E. Howard’s centenary, while a John Shirley “special author feature” in #342 included an interview with the writer.
In December, Wildside publisher John Betancourt fired the entire editorial team of Weird Tales. Stephen H. Segal was brought in to handle day-to-day operations while the magazine looked for a new fiction editor. Betancourt also announced that the magazine would be getting a new logo and interior design in 2007.
Also from Wildside, the third issue of H. P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror finally made a much-belated appearance. It featured a “Spotlight on Brian Lumley” that included two stories (one original), an interview by Darrell Schweitzer and an overview of the author’s career by Stephen Jones. More decidedly non-Lovecraftian fiction was supplied by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Andrew J. Wilson, Lynne Jamneck and the late Earl Godwin, amongst others, along with review and opinion columns by editor Marvin Kaye, Craig Shaw Gardner, Peter Cannon and Ian McDowell.
Meanwhile, the second issue of the magazine was released as a “collector’s edition” trade paperback with extra fiction not included in the newsprint version.