Blasphemous contract, In the Outposts of Beyond is out!

Raided the Halloween candy and swiped a few Pixie Stix to take to work with me this morning. Had five of them with my coffee. The morning went by in a blur of buzzy, bright, shiny, pinpoint-prick of consciousness. Whee! But oh, ouch, my head hurts now.

Got the contract for Blasphemy at last. The whole U.K. versus U.S. thing had me a little perplexed, but the publishers/editors are good at communicating. They wanted more rights than I realized they were asking for initially (exclusive worldwide print rights versus first U.K. print rights, or even first anthology rights), which seemed to exclude reprint marketing for the duration of the contract (2 years). This would be problematic if I wanted to submit “In Suffering Lies Salvation” to an annual “best of” anthology or even to include it in a collection of my own works (pipe dreams, yes, but still . . . ), but upon discussion, the editors/publishers are fine with that sort of reprint. They just don’t want the stories mass reprinted for the first six months to a year that Blasphemy is first published and if it’s reprinted in a “best of” antho, they want credit for where it first appeared. Fair ’nuff. So, that clarified, I dotted my I’s and crossed my T’s, and the contract is winging its way to Scotland.

I still don’t know how I’m going to handle the whole pounds to dollars exchange, but I’ll deal with that later. Soon, soon, I shall have something published overseas! *cackle*

I’ve started checking my mailbox for my contributor’s copy of and check for In the Outposts of Beyond. The publisher’s website has been updated, and it’s officially available. Rah!

Also got a chance to see the artwork for the cover more clearly. Couldn’t really make it out before. I see now that it’s a cat peering into a fishbowl that has mermaids swimming around in it. And there are marbles (or perhaps they’re planets or maybe bubbles?) spinning around everywhere, including the cat’s eyes. I guess I can sort of see the connection to an otherworldly tavern theme in that. No, wait, I really can’t. Oh well, it’s colorful and cool. And the editor said he’s going to try to get the title on specialty bookshelves as well as available online with the regular players (Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.).

Also got to see the full TOC listing. I’m sharing pages with Bruce Boston, Ralan Conley, and fellow writer email buddies Terrie Relf and Justin Staunchfield. I recognized a bunch of other names on the TOC as well, although I’m not as familiar with their works.

Shiny, anthology goodness!