Publisher Brett Alexander Savory writes to let us know that ChiZine Publications (CZP) is “now taking orders for limited edition hardcovers of our new titles Cities of Night by Philip Nutman and The Thief of Broken Toys by Tim Lebbon.”
Cities of Night is a collection of 13 short stories set in cities around the world, all gripped in the darkness of night. The 300-page hardcover is limited to 150 copies, priced at $50, and is expected to ship on 15 May. The cover is by Erik Mohr.
In The Thief of Broken Toys, “when a father loses his son and his wife leaves him, he cannot tear himself away from the small fishing village where the boy’s memories reside. They’re all he has left. Thinking that his life is all but over, he takes to wandering the cliffs, carrying broken things that he always promised his son he would fix, but never did. They’re a sign of his failure, and they keep little Toby close. And then he meets the thief of broken toys, and everything begins to change.” The 150-page hardcover edition (limited to 250 copies) will also contain the short story “Ollie’s Oswald”. Priced at $35, it, too, is expected to ship 15 May. The cover is by Erik Mohr.
Savory tells us “these two titles cap off CZP’s run of six books it will launch at the World Horror Convention in March 2010, which also include Chasing the Dragon (Nicholas Kaufmann), Chimerascope (Douglas Smith), A Book of Tongues: Book One of the Hexslinger Series (Gemma Files), and Katja from the Punk Band (Simon Logan).
“In addition, these six books represent a shift in CZP’s publishing schedule—all will be released simultaneously in hardcover, trade paperback, and eBooks formats, whereas previously trade paperbacks and eBooks had followed the hardcover release by several months. Also, all of the hardcovers (except Chasing the Dragon) will contain exclusive content not found in the trade paperbacks or eBooks versions—something CZP has made permanent.
“In the past, some of the hardcovers had exclusive content, but others were the same as the trades. But the plan has always been for the hardcovers to be limited edition collectors’ items. While beautiful, high-quality and signed, co-publisher Sandra Kasturi and I realized that to make them truly worth the money, they needed something more. So, starting with Chimerascope, every hardcover we produce will have something unique.”
The exclusive content for the five Spring books will be:
Chimerascope: short story “Murphy’s Law” (publication date: March 2010)
A Book of Tongues: excerpt from Gemma File’s second Hexslinger novel (April 2010)
Katja from the Punk Band: short story, title to be announced (April 2010)
Cities of Night: three extra illustrations by Mark Maddox (May 2010)
The Thief of Broken Toys: brand new short story “Ollie’s Oswald” (May 2010)