PS Publishing have teamed up with Centipede Press to make available selected Centipede books at a fraction of their original published price. Plus, postage and packing charges will, of course, be lower for UK customers as they won’t need to be shipped from the US.

To start this venture off, they are offering Centipede’s Knowing Darkness, a sumptuous volume full of artwork inspired by the writing of Stephen King. This 448-page art book includes colour and black and white paintings and drawings that have directly or indirectly illustrated King’s writings over the last thirty-five years.

Artists include Michael Whelan, Ned Dameron, J.K. Potter, John Jude Pelancar, Stephen Gervais, and many others. The book features an introduction by Frank Darabont and text (written by King critic George Beahm) that looks back at 34 years of King in print providing a detailed look at the writer and his life, and supplemented with interviews with Michael Whelan, Bernie Wrightson, Drew Struzan, John Cayea, Dave Christiansen, and many others.

The book was originally published at £180 ($295) but PS are offering it for £95 (around $150) plus post & packing (£8.95 in the UK or £12.95 everywhere else). There are only 100 copies available.

Full details HERE

In a deal finalised last month, DarkFuse has acquired the publishing imprint Morning Star Press from Larry Roberts.  Roberts will remain the editor-in-chief during and after the transition.

Morning Star Press was founded in 2008 by the genre publisher, Roberts. Morning Star has published many genre greats including Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, James A. Moore, Edward Lee, Weston Ochse and many others.

Full details of the acquisition HERE

Publishers Weekly reports the launch of a new horror/mystery/thriller ebook imprint, Ravenous Shadows, with John Skipp as editorial director.

The four launch titles are “an Ira Levin-style mystery (House of Quiet Madness by Mikita Brottman), an ultra-violent 80s-style Italian cannibal horror (Tribesmen by Adam Cesare), a Hitchcockian take on a modern suicide cult (The Devoted by Eric Shapiro), and a sexual abuse/revenge story (Die, You Bastard! Die! By Jan Kozlowski).

The aim is to publish 30-40 titles per year. Other titles soon to be published include The Dark, a metaphysical thriller by Scott Bradley and Peter Giglio, and Unwanted, a supernatural story set in both pre- and post-Katrina New Orleans by R.J. Sevin.”

Read the full story HERE

Atomic Fez Publishing has announced its schedule of publications for 2012 and into 2013. The four planned novels are:

The Designated Coconut (Benji Spriteman #2), by John Travis, coming Autumn 2012

“As the first in the series was an homage to the noire thrillers, so we have the second Benji Spriteman tale similar to the classic English Mystery of roughly the same era.

During the visit of the two famous mystery-writing sisters, a death occurs, leading to a complicated series of events. How did the safe in the locked room get stolen? Who was behind the poisoning? Is someone at the resort’s hotel involved, and is it the beer-guzzling band-leader? What do the mole-men have to do with it?”

The House of a Thousand Screams (working title), by John Llewellyn Probert, coming Autumn 2012

“Starring Mr Massene Henderson and Miss Samantha Jephcott; the most un‑likely team of paranormal investigators you’ve somehow lived your life without … until now!

Henderson and Jephcott head to the wilderness of Northern Wales to investigate a house constructed from the bits of haunted buildings and filled with devices of death, all constructed on a foundation of a ‘stone circle’. Designed to be the most haunted house in Britain, the original owner hasn’t been heard from since the mid-1950s, and the new one wants to know if he’s got the real thing or not. What lies in wait for the two detectives and the four people who are there to help in the research, and will anyone survive to claim the fees for their labours?”

I, Death by Mark Leslie Lefebvre, coming Winter 2012

“The terrifying story of a young man coming to terms with a death curse.

By writing an on-line journal, Peter O’Mallick hopes to deal with his emotional turmoil at being dumped by his former girlfriend. While the blog helps, it also attracts cyber stalker Bryan Brecht, who coerces Peter into doing things which should never be done …

Hilarity ensues.”

Sleepless Knights by Mark H. Williams, coming Spring 2013

“It’s not easy being the man behind the myth.

Sir Lucas is butler to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; the person who managed every epic legend behind the scenes. He’s the one who made sure each quest happened in the right place at the right time, and that everyone involved had comfortable accommodation for the weekend. The man whose average working day involved fighting dragons, defeating witches, banishing demons, and ensuring the Royal pot of tea never crossed the thin line separating ‘brewed’ from ‘stewed’. What’s more, 1,500 years after that golden age, he’s still doing it: here in modern Britain, right under our noses …”

Read more HERE

Strange Chemistry – the YA imprint of award-winning independent genre fiction publisher Angry Robot – has announced its first two titles:  Shift by Kim Curran and Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings.  Details HERE

Strange Chemistry have also announced an Open Door period, where the usual submission guidelines are relaxed to allow authors who are unagented to send in a manuscript. Full details HERE

Angry Robot have also announced its second Open Door submissions window. For two weeks in April, they will be accepting un-agented manuscripts from epic fantasy writers.

More information can be found HERE

Hammer Books have announced further publications for 2012. After initially publishing several novelisations of their classic films by authors such as Shaun Hutson, Peter Curtis, Francis Cottam and Guy Adams, they then obtained the rights to reprint three classic Graham Masterton novels.

They are now branching out further, with books including: Jeanette Winterson’s original novel based on the true story of the Pendle Witches trial of 1612 which will be published in February; a new novelisation of Hammer’s cult classic Vampire Circus by Mark Morris due in March; Tim Lebbon‘s new novel Coldbrook also due in March; and Helen Dunmore’s original ghost story The Greatcoat, about “the power of the past to imprint itself on the present, until the present is possessed by the past”, to be published in April. Further books will be announced soon.

Full details HERE

At the same time many of their films are set to be restored for release onto Blu-Ray. More than 30 films are involved, with several to include new or extended scenes that were cut from the original. One of these is Terence Fisher‘s Dracula, which will incorporate a recently-discovered extended death scene considered too gruesome for cinema release in 1958. Other titles involved include Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, The Mummy, and Frankenstein Created Woman.

See the full BBC story HERE

Jo Fletcher Books has acquired World English rights for Seoul Survivor, a futuristic satirical thriller and the debut novel from Zeno Agency client Naomi Foyle.

“The world balances upon the edge of a knife. A meteor known as Lucifer’s Hammer is about to wreak a terrible destruction on the earth and terrorists have annihilated the City of London, covering it in a blanket of nuclear poison.

Rumours of war abound in every continent, but if the end of the world is imminent, there is only one safe place to be.

American-Korean bio-engineer Dr Kim Da Mi thinks she has found the perfect solution in the mountains above Seoul, but her methods are strange and her business partner, Johnny Sandman, is not exactly the type of person anyone would want to mix with. Sydney, a Canadian model trying to escape an unhappy past, is drawn in by their smiles and pretty promises – until she realises that the quest for perfection, comes at an impossible price …”

A second untitled novel has also been acquired as part of the deal. Seoul Survivor is currently scheduled for release in February 2013, with the untitled second novel following in 2014.

Spectral Press, publishers of limited edition signed and numbered single story supernatural chapbooks, are introducing a line of occasional novellas – Spectral Visions. The first will be The Respectable Face of Tyranny by Gary Fry, to be published in April 2012. It is intended that there will be several versions of each novella – a hardback, paperback and ebook version.

More information can be found HERE

Cemetery Dance have announced an exciting new membership plan that will allow you to read ANY ebook they publish in 2012, along with all of the ebooks they’ve already published, for a small one-time fee.

They state:
“In the six months since we launched our ebook store, we’ve published books by William Peter Blatty, Peter Straub, Jay Bonansinga, Norman Partridge, Glen Hirshberg, Brian Hodge, Brian Keene, Mick Garris, Rick Hautala, Ronald Kelly, Simon Clark, Ed Gorman, Geoff Cooper, Brian James Freeman, James A. Moore, Rocky Wood, Kirby McCauley, and many others.

There are nearly 40 ebooks you can download right away with a combined retail value of more than $130, plus we have dozens of new ebooks in the works for 2012, including some exciting originals and also reprints of classic out of print horror novels you haven’t read in years.

Our ebooks range in price from $0.99 to $9.99, but the cost of this membership is just a one-time fee of $49, which breaks down to $4.08 per month. If you think you’d want to download even a couple of ebooks each month, this is a great deal!

Because we hope you still love print editions as much as we do, members will also receive a FREE signed Limited Edition hardcover later this year. All you’ll have to pay is any applicable shipping. Considering the retail value of $30 to $40 for the free book, the low purchase price of this membership is an EVEN BETTER deal with this special bonus!”

Full details of the membership plan can be found HERE

Angry Robot Books are in the advanced stages of launching a crime fiction imprint, due in 2013. As a result, they have a new and potentially very exciting vacancy. They are looking for a Commissioning Editor for this new imprint, which will publish crime fiction, including suspense, mysteries and thrillers. They will be hiring someone with experience of the crime fiction field – although not necessarily someone with a specific publishing background. Duties will be to source new titles for the imprint, buy them, get them edited and ultimately published in digital and book format, using Angry Robot’s existing resources and systems.

The imprint will be a standalone line, with its own name and presence, but will employ the same fresh and distinctly modern approach that Angry Robot has in the SF/F world. The editor will play a key role in building the personality of the imprint, and telling the world about its books, especially online. The key skills this role demands, therefore, are an up-to-date knowledge of US and UK crime fiction publishing, eBooks, editing, project management, negotiation – and the ability to act as the mouthpiece of the coolest new crime imprint on the block.

This role could be based in either the US or UK. The Osprey Group, of which Angry Robot is a part, has offices in Oxford and Nottingham in the UK, and New York in the US, but also has employees who telecommute and work from home offices. For the right candidate, therefore, they can be flexible.

Anyone who is interested in this role should apply with their CV and salary expectations to incoming [at] angryrobotbooks [dot] com or via the contact page HERE. The closing date is noon GMT on 24 January 2012.