The Humdrumming Blog

Golly, we just can’t say enough about how much we think Tim Lebbon’s a peach, and he just keeps on demonstrating how he’s the peachiest guy we know. Here’s what he said last month to Paul Kane over at Shadow Writer:

The guys at Humdrumming are completely insane. Let me say that first of all. But in publishing, I think borderline insanity can be a boon, and I’ve had so much fun working with them [on The Reach of Children]. The editing process was in-depth and yet painless, they chatted to me about every major decision they made, and the books are going to look just fabulous. The Extra Special Edition especially will be something to treasure. I’ve worked with Necessary Evil Press a lot, and I have the gorgeous metal traycased limited editions of my books with them (with a couple more yet come), and I think this Humdrumming limited [edition] is going to be just as fabulous. Did I mention that they were mad?

Oh my soul… it brings a tear to my eye…

To read the worth-while interview in full, head here.

This week saw the last files sent to the printers’ file server, and almost everything is now in place for the grand launch of all three titles at FantasyCon in less than a month’s time. It’s astounding to consider that it’s already been a year since the last FantasyCon, which happened to be my first time attending a BFS event of any sort. While I won’t be there this year myself, no doubt all the colourful details will be recounted by those attending.

As to the books mentioned above, the final adjustments to the text of Simon Strantzas’s collection Beneath the Surface have been made, and the cover — which has been in place for weeks now — has had its proof viewed and judged ‘good to go’.

Meanwhile The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories has had a few things corrected inside it, the covers for both the paperback and hard-back editions were fine-tuned a little bit with some lines needing fractions of millimetres, plus the coffee-cup ring on the back needed a little extra “oomph”. Again, some little effort brought everything into the right spots. Meanwhile the signature sheets for the hard-back edition await one session with a couple of authors before being bound into the books before the authors who are attending FantasyCon sign them at the convention.

Lastly the dust-jacket for the Tim Lebbon novella The Reach of Children has been perfected by Lee Thompson, as well as the art for the surface of the book itself being finalized. The text was perfected a few months ago, following printing of our very first “proper Advanced Reading Copy” of the book in a paperback edition that was sent to reviewers and other people guaranteed to ‘get the word out’ around the world. It’s great to see title one in such a perfect state, as it’s of particular importance to us; Tim’s writing talent is just as great as the man himself. We’re really proud of this one, and once you see it you’ll know why.

If you want to order a copy of any of those titles and beat the crowds at the hotel, click the title of the book that catches your fancy.

So next up for us: the grande announcement of joy on the Friday evening. Woo-hoo! A large amount of whoopin’ an hollerin’ is in store, one suspects.

Watch this space… it’ll be worth the effort…

The Sunderland Echo has discovered Gary M^cMahon! And no criminal charges are involved! How thrilling!

Head here to read the feature on the writer and his first novel Rain Dogs.

Sadly, they didn’t mention that he’s had a novella published by us that’s been short-listed for the BFS “Best Novella (2007)” award, nor that this novel of his is published by us as well as how to get said novel. Still, you know better don’t you? Yes…

As a proud participant in the up-coming FantasyCon - held in Britannia Hotel, Nottingham, uk, and held by the British Fantasy Society - Humdrumming is ecstatic to announce details of their specially dedicated event on the first evening! Huzzah! The event is described as follows:

Humdrumming Announcement Event / Knees-Up (cash bar)
on the evening of Friday, September 19^th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

Due to the absence of the Colonial who is Humdrumming’s Acting C.E.O, recently retired C.E.O. Guy Adams [see right for face image] will present an amazing and inspirational list of titles that Humdrumming will be publishing before next year’s FantasyCon. Surprises galore and names you’d never expect to hear! Horror, Fantasy, SF, all genres included; even funny things! Be the first to know what wonders are in store! You’ll gasp! You’ll weep! You’ll beg for mercy!

Witness Tim Lebbon’s novella The Reach of Children being waved in the air for the first time! See the glories that are the dual art editions of Gary M^cMahon’s Rain Dogs and Peter Crowther’s The Land at the End of the Working Day!

Also included is a huge orgy of signings of Humdrumming Books:

• The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, many names, including a Guest of Honour! All completing the signing of the Hardcover Edition of the book available in an affordable and very limited quantity!
• Beneath the Surface, by Simon Strantzas (imported from the wilds of Toronto especially for your delectation!)
• Many other titles as well!

Oiled dancers will move among the crowds, jugglers and trampolines, the lame shall walk, the blind shall see, the closed minds shall be open and love will be passed among all! Let the doves be set FREE!

• rating: 18+ due to language used by the presenter

The British Fantasy Society’s FantasyCon continues (if it’s able to after this event) until the mid-afternoon of Sunday the 21^st.

More information here :
OFFICIAL HUMDRUMMING SITE: www.humdrumming.co.uk
OFFICIAL FantasyCon SITE: www.fantasycon.org.uk
OFFICIAL BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY SITE: www.britishfantasysociety.org
OFFICIAL SIMON STRANTZAS SITE: www.strantzas.com
OFFICIAL TIM LEBBON SITE: www.timlebbon.net
OFFICIAL GARY M^cMAHON SITE: www.garymcmahon.com
OFFICIAL GUY ADAMS BLOG: lizardsplay.blogspot.com

please note: High-resolution images of book covers and some participants available upon request to those who dare.

Well, here’s an interesting development… What started as a bit of a lark has turned into a real-world testing lab.

That’s the person who started me thinking more seriously about this electronic book thing. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, eh?

In his original post, he pointed out Christopher Fowler’s lack of by-line on the Independent’s site where it reproduced his second article about ‘forgotten authors’. I responded. Fowler’s a wonderful guy and I think the world of him. Read his books. Better yet: buy his books. Do it or you’ll be smacked with a wet sock. Go to a store or library and get several. I’ll wait here until you’re back.

[hums idly until reader returns]

You’ll be glad you did that, I assure you.

Now in this post, Mr. Cane speaks of e-books and our lack of supply of them. After explaining that this is very much one of our stated goals in development of our ‘get books to the people’ campaign (as well as blaming Guy Adams for one of many things), I offer to ’set a girl up’ so that we might have someone ‘outside the family’ to look at things and see if they work the way we’d like them to. Also, there’s the added attraction of testing books written in ‘proper English’ on those who seem hell-bent on destroying it in all manner of fashions.

How do you feel about the ‘e-book’? Like it in theory, but the equipment’s too expensive? Like it in theory but the equipment can’t be taken into the bath? Loathe it in theory and practicality and feel the need of smashing the Kindle every time you see one?

For those of you in the last field (and I recognise your view as being my own initial one), here’s something to consider: you’re reading a text on a screen right now. Not so bad, is it? Here’s another article that Mike Cane referred to in his continuing campaign for e-books to conquer the world, from the blog The Digitalist, written by Digital Team at Pan Macmillan (and let’s hope they don’t look too closely at some of our titles).

10 Reasons Not to Write-Off Reading from a Screen

1. We do it all the time anyway. Whether it’s emails, blogs, the newspaper or text messages for the bulk of us, most of our reading is already on screen. The New York Times now [has] 13 million online readers per day against a print readership of 1.1 million.

Tough to refute that. Still, the experience of holding a real book — and just using the term ‘real’ subjugates the e-book — is something that many value above all else, equating it to an over-all sensory experience that is nigh-on orgiastic when applied to borrowing a book from the library and thumbing its well-worn pages that has been handled by so many other anonymous users and then returned to the shelf like some cheap harlot in Limehouse.

And yet, if one’s basic concept regarding the written word in its varied forms — short story, novel, fiction, non-fiction, biographical account of history, whatsoever it may be — is that the word is prima rosa, then of what importance is the method of its delivery? Do we criticise the reader of Tolstoy’s works in mass-market paperbacks because hard-cover editions are the only way of honouring the ‘great words of the master’? Do we decry those who peruse the sonnets of the Bard of Avon because they’ve bought a volume of them exclusive of his plays? Do we eschew the company of those who read The Menachme in — pshaw! — English? No! none of these are important, because we all rejoice to see the tales continue to be read and the stories within them prove their timelessness to another generation of people.

So, that being agreed to, why then do we suddenly jump up and cry ‘foul!’ when paper isn’t involved? Is there a more or less acceptable form for a tale to be provided in? Because the works of Dickens are suddenly available in a form suitable to Sony Reader or the Amazon Kindle, does this mean men will come to your home like the Firemen of Fahrenheit 451 and destroy all of your carefully collected first editions? NO! All are free to continue using ‘dead tree’ versions already extant, as well as future paper versions of things.

However, when I stare at over a yard length of books I have yet to read (some of them our own titles, embarrassingly), the use of one of these little electric sex boxes is crystal clear: they don’t weigh much and you can stuff a large number of books in an overcoat pocket with ease.

When I returned from overseas last fall, Guy lent me a large number of books he felt were worthwhile in my continuing effort to know more about the forms of fantastical fiction available. Wonderful stuff, and it got me into Christopher Fowler’s writing (see how we complete the circle here? niiiiiice…). And yet, those fuckers weighed a ton and I had to pay ‘excess baggage’ charges because of it. Now, had those seventeen volumes been electronic books, I would have had to pay zilch, with the possibility that a few of my own book files would have had to be deleted to make room for these ones of Guy’s, but that would be fine as I would have had master copies of them on my computer at home in this hypothetical paradise.

See how much easier that is for everyone? I don’t have to pay baggage charges, we don’t have to use up precious fuel resources moving the weight of them across the globe so I can read them (still working on them, by the way), we don’t have to use more fuel and postage to get them back to Guy, and no trees need die for them to be in existence in the first place!

Okay, now that this is all out there for your consideration, here’s three views of “The Kindle Option” from Sheldon: The Daily Comic Strip by Dave Kellett (and click each one to go to his site and see them bigger):

Out now is the ’short list’ of those individuals and / or works which have been nominated and voted for by members of the British Fantasy Society and attendees of the 2007 and 2008 FantasyCons. You can read the complete list right here.

Titles of ours have made the short-list in two categories:

• Best Novella: All Your Gods Are Dead, Gary M^cMahon
• Best Anthology: The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, Ian Alexander Martin (as editor)

The competition in both categories is considerable, and very much worthy of your regard. We are chuffed to be considered alongside them for these two awards.

Should you wish to examine these two titles for yourself, move your little clicky pointer and select the cover of the book you are intrigued by through the images below.

All Your Gods Are Dead Gary McMahon	The 1st Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories

The awards are announced on Saturday, the 20^th of September, 2008, at the Britannia Hotel, Nottingham, UK. We wish the best of luck to all those nominated in every category.

For those of you wanting to know a little more about Tim Lebbon’s novella The Reach of Children, and its genesis, head to Paul Kane’s Shadow Writer blog and read the interview conducted betwixt Mr. Kane and Mr. Lebbon.

That interview can be arrived at through this here linkage and includes at its end the text of “Part I: Long Pine Box”.

Our staff skirt, Trudi, has a comic strip. No, that’s not akin to Robbie Coltrane taking off his clothes… Think Peanuts. Only without dogs. And much of the rest.

Okay, scrap that, let’s start again.

Go here. You will like it. Or we will hit you.

We’ve had a heck of a time explaining that a ‘Printed Paper Case’ binding is not a paperback book, but a hard-cover book with an outer surface of paper with artwork printed on it instead of a dust-jacket.

Then, to make matters worse, sometimes we’ve put a dust jacket on a book that has a different design altogether, and called that a ‘Hardback Dual Cover’ thing. Which makes it sound like you’ve got a second layer of board on the outside of the book as though it’s a protective box or something.

So, for those of you confused about the whole ‘dual art’ jacket vs. book surface thing, let’s turn to some visual aids.

See that there? At the top of the paragraph? That’s the front of the dust-jacket. Right? All good so far? Grand.

Now, if you lift off the dust-jacket, the book looks like this:

Right? Makes more sense now, eh? Splendid. Glad we could help.

One last thing, order here: Humdrumming… books and an explanation as well!

Yes, The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories is on its way, and we’re pleased to announce it will be available in two versions: traditional paperback, and now Jacket-less Hard-Cover!

Both of the versions will have the same artwork on their outsides [image, left], and both will have the same 258 pages inside filled with horror and terror! Rammed-full of scary and disturbing tales of things guaranteed to make your tummy all wobbly-like!

The Limited Edition, hard-cover, signed by as many people as we can, Printed Paper Case, matt laminated, un-numbered, strictly limited to 100 copies World-wide, Vitamin-D® injected, Collector’s version is made available to you for the low, low, ultra-reasonable price of only £20 and can be pre-ordered right here.

Each and every author will be signing the books using a signature sheet entirely designed & created in the Humdrumming Canadian Headquarters. That’s a total of 17 signatures: Guy Adams, James Cooper, Christopher Fowler, Gary Fry, Rhys Hughes, Davin Ireland, Andrew Jury, Michael Kelly, Tim Lebbon, Gary M^cMahon, Ian Alexander Martin Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough, Simon Strantzas, John Travis, Carol Weekes, and Conrad Williams!! Oh yes!

The traditional version will be available for £9.99 and can be pre-ordered by clicking right here for as long as we can sell it.

Which version will you get? The traditional, boring version, or the exciting, signed one? You know you want both…!

So, it would seem that we’re giving away much of our wares around the virtual town that is the internet. So much so it’s difficult to remember who got what from us.

I’m speaking about literature, yes; why do you ask…?

Here’s a list of material available, in chronological order of when they became available (click the title to go there in a new window or tab, depending on what you’re using and how you’re using it… oh stop that, you filthy people!):

• “Fable with Turkish Coffee” (Fantasy Book Spot exclusive) by Rhys Hughes, from his collection Less Lonely Planet
• “Part I: Long Pine Box“, the first fourteen pages of The Reach of Children, by Tim Lebbon
  • Also available via Horror World’s on-line library [click here]
• “Falling Off the World” (Fantasy Book Spot exclusive) by Tim Lebbon, from the anthology The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories
• “Behind Glass“ by Simon Strantzas (via his web-site), from his collection Beneath the Surface
• “Something New” (Fantasy Book Spot exclusive) by Simon Strantzas (via his web-site), from his collection Beneath the Surface
• “Prologue: URBAN RAIN DANCE” and “Chapter 1: OUT” (Fantasy Book Spot exclusive), both excepts from Rain Dogs, by Gary M^cMahon
• “Pinholes in Black Muslin“ by Simon Strantzas (Horror World Library exclusive), from the anthology The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories
• “The Kraken“ by Michael Kelly, (via the on-line Horror World Library) from The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories
  • ‘Long-Listed’ for the BFS Awards, hence also available via Vote Humdrumming’s on-line library [click here]

Right… that ought to keep you busy for awhile…

The acclaim for Gary M^cMahon will not end! Now his short story “Slap” in Black Static (Issue #5) has been declared the best fiction in the issue by Suite101 by Colin Harvey. Have a gander at this:

[In] “Slap” by Gary McMahon… what happens to the man who reluctantly interferes in one such attack doesn’t follow the expected path in this, the best story in this issue.

And then, as if that’s not enough, the magazine is given amazing praise itself:

As always, this issue of Black Static provides one of the most interesting magazines available.

So, Gary’s story is the best thing in one of the best things going! Read the full text of the review by clicking here.

Who needs a copy of Rain Dogs?, then eh? Don’t be shy; the quality goes in before the name goes on; step right up, step right up; something for the little lady…?

Huzzah! Christopher Fowler has won the Nobel Prize for Literature! Fill the air with flourishes and doves!

Well, alright, that’s not strictly true, but Mr. Fowler — associated with us through his contribution to The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories — has won a wonderful award for his collection of short stories Old Devil Moon released by the independent publishing firm of Serpent’s Tail: the Edge Hill University Short Story Competition “People’s Choice Award” for 2008!!

And, as if this wasn’t already enough for him, the book is also up next for Bram Stoker Awards, where it’s ’short listed’. Then it’s on to the BFS awards (where it’s ‘long listed’ at the moment) and the WHA as well.

Plus his last small press novella, Breathe (Telos, 2004) just sold-out its run, adding to the title’s distinction of already winning the British Fantasy Society’s “Best Novella Award” in September of 2005!

Just released is his sixth — and probably last — instalment in the ‘Bryant & May’ series: The Victoria Vanishes (Bantam; 2008), and in the middle of the month is the trade paperback edition of the fifth book: White Corridor (Bantam; 2007).

Whew! Makes one tired just to look at all that.

So, what’s he doing to relax and celebrate all those achievements?

I return to the dead Mediterranean sea now to splash about among the bobbing detritus of Eurotrash yachts, and pay 12 dollars for a cup of coffee as the waiters laugh behind their backs at the strength of the Euro.

It’s a man’s life, i’nnt?

LATER EDIT [2008-07-16]: Mr. Fowler’s collection is also short-listed for the Shirley Jackson Awards‘ ‘Best  Collection’ prize now, “which is held in Minne - Minni - somewhere in America”, he intelligently explained. One hopes that if he attends, he will do research sufficient before leaving to locate the one of theTwin Cities where the event is held. Possibly even learning its name might be a step in the right direction. Head to Mr. Fowler’s site and click the ‘about the author’ link to view one of the most self-satisfied expressions ever recorded.

No, this isn’t one of “those sorts of posts”, I assure you.

Award-Winning, Best-Selling Author Mark Morris [photo, right] is doing a ‘Question and Answer’ session in the Message Board section of Pantechnicon [head here]. You don’t have to register to read, but if you want to either ask your own question or merely to add your comment to an existing topic discussion that does require registration. I recommend doing so anyway, as the group of people who post there are witty, intelligent, and just plain loony. The world has too much sadness, so insert some happy fun in your portion of it today.

VOTE HUMDRUMMING: for a better literary future!

Truly we stand at the precipice of a brave new age! This is the dawning of the Age of Humdrumming!

When we were made a part of the British Fantasy Society’s ‘long list’ of recommendations, we were typically quiet and humble about our achievement, because ’tis the English Way, what?

And so, enough of that balderdash now. Oh yes. We want nothing less than 100% success over the rest of our so-called ‘competition’. Their wailing shall be loud, and we shall chase them before us as we conquer the weak! Their land shall be ours and we will be munificent in our justice when we have made what is theirs our own.

VOTE FOR US RIGHT HERE: britishfantasysociety.org/awards.html!

You’ll have to be a member of the British Fantasy Society to vote, so show you care AND BECOME A MEMBER SO YOU CAN SUPPORT US!: britishfantasysociety.org/store/bmem.html

If you need some convincing about this, then head to votehumdrumming.co.uk and learn about our plan for Total Global Domination!

VOTE HUMDRUMMING: for a better literary future!