There is every possibility of a joint-paperback publication of this anthology…

2011 is drawing to a close… a month left and it must be said that this year has been full of ups and downs: unfortunately more downs. Probably my least favourite year in this ten years of publishing madness – again, in awe at fellow indie presses who have families, and the occasional folk who do this for a living: it has been tough.

As a consequence of this, I cannot afford to attend the British Fantasy Society Open Night in London in two weeks – which also means Visions Fading Fast (Volume One) won't be launched at this event. It is though winging its way to the printer for a delivery date in the New Year. Initially it was decided that all 100 hardback copies would be signed by Gary McMahon (the editor) but unbeknownst to me the printer no longer inserts signing sheets (which makes things much easier on a purely logistical level for me). Therefore, only *pre-ordered* copies will be flat-signed by Gary – though all copies will be numbered.

Since I have many patient pre-orderers already (but still copies left…) of which I am extremely grateful, as I thank you to them I will post a copy of the next Pendragon chapbook free of charge.

The schedule for 2012 is yet to be finalised (yes, this may have been my least favourable year but I'm still hanging on in there… I told you this publishing lark is madness, but addictive!) but I will be posting it to the website before the year is actually out.

In other news, chapbook subscriptions are progressing well – and again very welcome – and the number of acceptances for Nasty Snips II is quite low. In fact, the number of submissions have been quite limited: remember, the closing date is end of January 2012 but if we don't receive an influx soon then it may well be extended… I'm looking at an e-anthology of thirty-something stories.

As always, a big thank you to all past and present customers – it is because of good honest folk such has yourself (who don't scream and shout asking where their book is…) that I continue onwards trying to get good writers out there into the open. I've now written that line, and this has crept into my mind: Matt Monro – Born Free.

Before I descend into more schmultz, hope you all have a happy Christmas/holiday and remember: a book is for life, not just an electronic file.

Of course, a subscription displays a great deal of faith on your part – which is why to entice more of you, the first fifty to subscribe will receive a fifth chapbook free of charge!

If this interests you – and I sincerely hope it does, since it not only will give a much needed boost to the coffers to pay the authors and artist a little more for their hard-work – then pop along to the CHAPBOOKS page and press the button.

(Hint: one for all you writers out there…)

In other news, I am looking at my schedule for FantasyCon and decided to push-back the publication of Visions Fading Fast to December to coincide with the annual Open Night in London – in the meantime, I will be readying three more chapbooks for publication in Brighton: The Joy of Technology by Roy Gray, Isabel Jane by Catherine Dale and Allegro by Clifford Royal Johns.

Lastly, David has pointed me in the direction of a rather welcome review of popCult! by Paul Magrs:

I’ll just urge you to seek it out from Pendragon press. It’s like anthony Burgess teaming up with the Mighty Boosh to write a science fiction thriller.

In other news, Kingston to Cable is at the printers – and thanks to Gary Greenwood, a typo on the back cover was spotted in the nick o'time – and Gary McMahon has delivered the stories for Visions Fading Fast: Volume One.

Oooooh, an exciting time ahead!

I don't generally "do" Twitter, but it turns out that every time I update the site it gets tweeted…

Be quick or be dead… well, not literally of course.

£5 to me via Paypal at chris at pendragonpress dot co dot uk.