Occultation cover
 

Hi, all. Matthew Jaffe did the painting for Occultation, my collection coming out from Night Shade this May. For those who'd care for a preview of the art:

http://pics.livejournal.com/imago1/p...0h548/s640x640

http://www.nightshadebooks.com/cart....t_detail&p=163

Re: Occultation cover
 

nice, very nice.

I love those trees in the background.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Very nice cover. I will definitely be getting this one. I really enjoyed The Imago Sequence. Some of the stories, and even the cover above, reminded me of work of Jack London and the cosmic horror or cosmic indifference of Lovecraft.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Wow. What a cover! I'm really looking forward to this one.


To be perfectly honest, after reading The Imago Sequence, I didn't know what to make of it; I didn't even know if I liked it, at first. However, after I had given the stories some time to gestate in my mind and percolate up through my subconscious, they slowly began to form into something very powerful and loaded with surreal vitality. Now I see Imago as one of the best horror collections I've read in years.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Nice! If I were a horse, I'd be champing at the bit. And that's regardless of the cover (which is, to repeat, very nice).

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thank you, NJ. The colors and the trees are my favorite components as well.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thanks, Matt.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thank you for giving the book a shot -- and I'm glad it grew on you.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thank you. I read a lot of London, Robert Service, and Louis L'Amour when I was younger. "To Build a Fire" is one of the great classics.

Re: Occultation cover
 

It's funny that you mentioned the colors and the trees, because as I was typing trees I was thinking colors. I guess it's the combination of the two that makes the effect greater than the sum of its parts.

The story To Build a Fire by Jack London never fails to remind me of The Interlopers by Saki. The cold outdoors has a way of magnifying the fear and dread, kind of like darkness.

Re: Occultation cover
 

The Imago Sequence was one of my all time favorite collections and I've been anticipating Occultation for a while now. I hope that Night Shade will do a nice limited edition (possible w/ extra story as they used to do) to match my prized limited of The Imago Sequence. Laird, do you know if NS plan on doing a limited along with the trade? This is great news and nice cover too!

Re: Occultation cover
 

I'm really fascinated by the cover of Occultation. The artist, Matthew Jaffe, will also be illustrating a forthcoming Arthur Machen collection to be published by Centipede Press. You can also check out his blog here:

http://darethedragon.blogspot.com/

Re: Occultation cover
 

Centipede does first class work. I'm looking forward to the Machen project.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thanks, Justin. :)
The limited hasn't been confirmed -- but I did write an exclusive short story in case they decide to publish such an edition. I've asked about this and will make an announcement when I have news one way or the other.

Re: Occultation cover
 

I'm looking forward to this as well, and the cover looks really great. The art seems to be a clever mix of the classic and modern to me, and the colours are superb. I must confess that I have not even read The Imago Sequence yet, but the stories I've read in anthologies are fantastic!

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thank you! I've been fortunate to be included in some fine anthologies.

Re: Occultation cover
 

I've had quite a few people ask if Occultation will be available in a limited edition. No, that is not on the table. However, the book will now contain another 6k story called "Six Six Six," which I've made vague reference to in the past. So, Occultation features three original pieces for a total of approximately 45k of new, previously unpublished work. Imago, by contrast, contained one 24k original novella. Thank you for the inquiries. ;)

Re: Occultation cover
 

My copy of Occultation just arrived in the mail today. How gloriously appropriate that it should arrive on Beltane! I'm taking it as a sign. :)

Re: Occultation cover
 

Mine shipped yesterday, can't wait.



Got it today.
It's a nice looking book.
Now to find an afternoon to plunk down and read it.

Re: Occultation cover
 

I began reading the book last week and made a vlog praising it on MrWilum -- then last week got real stupid and I've not been able to return to the book, as I've been dealing with my ailing Mother and trying to finish my collection for Mythos Books. I look forward to some quiet days in which to slowly sip the book. I've read most of its contents, but Laird is a writer to whom it is always an intense pleasure to return. The cover is indeed magnificent, and those illustrations by the artist for the Machen book (some of which were printed in last year's Centipede Press catalog) are brilliant!

Re: Occultation cover
 

NJ: Thank you for trying out the book.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thanks, Wilum. See you soon.

Re: Occultation cover
 

That the END IS NIGH! (thanks for picking it up) ;)

Re: Occultation cover
 

Just got my copy from Amazon today -- YAY! !!

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thank you, Joe.

Re: Occultation cover
 

By, the way: If one clicks the Look Inside feature, Amazon has made available the Michael Shea intro, the opening pages of "The Forest" and the entirety of "Six Six Six," which is an original story.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Am I wrong to find it uncool of Amazon to post the entirety of one of the book's original stories?

Re: Occultation cover
 

Not at all. From my chair, it seems more than just uncool, to me, it is a crime.

Re: Occultation cover
 

You're welcome, Laird. I'm dying to lose myself in this one. Damn thing gives off a vibe just holding it. And Michael's intro is brilliant! !!

Re: Occultation cover
 

Joe & Wilum:You guys are great, and thanks for worrying on my behalf. Speaking only for myself, I have no problem with what amounts to a free sample. Kelly Link has made her very successful collections free to download and Night Shade is supportive of Amelia Beamer's free serialization of her upcoming zombie novel. Certainly other authors disagree with this model and I respect that difference.Several of my fans read Imago in its entirety at B&N or Powells and certainly nothing is stopping a potential buyer from reading Occultation as they sip coffee at the bookstore coffee shop (as I'm sure many will), so a free story on Amazon seems more restrictive in reality than what brick and mortar buyers face.At this point, my problem is anonymity rather than being pirated. If I could airdrop crates of my books over major population centers, I would. As sales and delivery models shift toward the digital I may very well become more conservative -- but at the moment, my feeling is exposure is good and that it leads to being more widely known and thus read.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Just ordered this (and The Darkly Splendid Realm) from Amazon. I've started to explore the world of contemporary weird fiction after getting into Ligotti last year, and I wanted to thank you, Laird. The list of authors you posted on your blog has been enormously helpful in pointing me in the right direction (thanks also to all the great writers and small press publishers who frequent these forums). I've also been able to cajole my local library into ordering a copy of The Imago Sequence (along with a few other pieces of weird writing).

Re: Occultation cover
 

I certainly understand your view on exposure and applaud you for it. Yes, I want to be read—badly, and no, I’m not seeing any kind of money from my work, but I fear the eBook world, and possibly losing our rights/control to our work. That said, as one who lived in the library as a kid, I’m all for reading for free. If not for my local library, Heinlein, Frank Herbert, and Hesse, and tons of others, would have come to me much later and that would have been painful.

Anonymity J You should not fear it. You will become a giant, that’s already written. Your work is of the highest caliber (You ARE an unerring master) and readers will hear of it and flock to it, and love it, and always want more. It is guys like me, and Wilum and Cisco, who are almost tiny Ligottis, we will have small(er) readerships, as our work is too far from the mainstream, I think. Your work is brilliant and it’s only a mater of time before you are received w/ open arms by much larger audiences. And I will rejoice to see you read as widely as you deserve to be.

At the end of the day, some money for our work would be nice, but exposure, to be read and have our work enjoyed, that is the heart of it indeed.

Re: Occultation cover
 

I can tell you from experience as an author, I've sold more copies of my book solely because I made complete stories available for free download. And, as a reader, I can tell you that anything less than a full short story would not prompt me to buy. For novels, excerpts are fine because they are a different beast. Collections require an entire tale.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Speaking purely as a reader, downloadable stories can definitely inspire me to purchase a full book. I will be ordering Richard Garvin's "The Darkly Splendid Realm" this month, after having read the sample story posted on the Dark Regions Press website. I downloaded a number of other Dark Regions PDF samples, and will be reading then as time allows too.

I also still like collections for checking out new authors. PDFs are nice, but books are better. The last one I bought was "Lovecraft Unbound", where I had my first exposure to a number of authors mentioned and/or present on this board, including Mr. Barron. "Catch Hell" made me resolve to finally read "The Imago Sequence" - it has been on my Amazon Wish List since before I even knew about TLO, and I now have it on good authority from a certain Joe P. that it is not to be missed. I took the plunge, and ordered both "The Imago Sequence" and "Occultation" today.

I notice that since finding TLO last year, I watch less TV and read more books. That is undoubtedly A Good Thing.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Yes, I see this and mostly agree. Certainly, I wouldn't have most of the readers I now have if it weren't for my books being offered through Amazon. I almost always refuse payment and ask to be paid in lots of copies of the book, so that I can give them away to friends (booksellers complain about this but, strangely, not publishers...). And I am always offering bits of unpublished work in places such as this forum and my blog. It just struck me as uncool for Amazon to post one of the original tales in its entirety without the author's permission -- as I assume is the case. But if doing so results in people buying the book -- awesome!

Re: Occultation cover
 

You are going to thank yourself for getting Laird's books. Hell, you will think it's yer birthday :)

Re: Occultation cover
 

Thank you for picking up my books, Sam. Richard's collection is excellent. His work displays classical influences such as Poe, Machen, Aickman, and the like.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Amazon now only shows a few pages of the opening story, although I don't think my publisher applied any pressure. Someone at the switch might've been initially overzealous....

Re: Occultation cover
 

The publishing world is fickle and makes little sense, even to the wiser heads who serve our corporate overlords. I don't know what to expect from the digital realm either.

Re: Occultation cover
 

Wonderful cover!
I'm looking forward to reading this, Laird.