Bradley Denton, One Day Closer to Death, St. Martin’s Press 1998. Collects eight stories, six of which I already have in the two-volume collection The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians, and A Conflagration Artist from Wildside Press. Those two books, limited to 426 copies, won Denton the World Fantasy Award in 1995. One Day Closer to Death is signed, with an inlaid ticket from a Clarion West event in Seattle, WA in 2001. Those two books limited to 426 copies are among the rarest of limited editions that I own, which granted, is a low bar compared to some collectors. I haven’t see a new Denton book in 10 years or so, but then the genre publishing market is a brutal one, even for award-winning writers.
Bradley Denton, Wrack and Roll, Headline 1987. His first novel, a UK edition and signed by Denton. The pages are slightly faded, but otherwise the book’s in good shape. I’m a bit worried about reading this book, since it’s over 30 years old, and it doesn’t seem that to be made to last, but it appears to be in great shape. Along with One Day Closer to Death, this was the only Denton book I didn’t own, although I still need to get a hardcover edition of Blackburn.
Bruce Sterling, The Caryatids, Del Rey 2009. A hardcover edition of the last book he published before leaving for Europe. There are still a handful of gaps in my Sterling collection, though I do have a couple of early books signed by Sterling, back from when we both lived in Austin (not that I knew him…). I believe one of the books I managed to get signed was at a Capitol Macintosh meeting, a computer user group active in bygone days. Others were signed at Armadillocon, the same time I got several William Gibson books signed. It all seems like such a long time ago, now.
Suzy McKee Charnas, Moonstone and Tiger-Eye. This was the 29th and last in Pulphouse Publishing’s Author’s Choice Monthly series. I have most of the Author’s Choice Monthly books in paperback, but found a hardback copy of this one at a decent price. Since I had recently (by accident) bought another hardback edition of another book in the series, I figured I might as well add this one. Whether this means I now try to replace 25 paperback copies with hardback editions remains to be seen. The Charnas book is in excellent shape.
There are still two books in the series that I lack, which I hope to remedy this year. At some point, possibly the 28th in the series, the covers changed from images of the author to more imaginative covers, although George Barr remained the illustrator. It’s too bad Pulphouse Publishing wasn’t able to continue this series, along with their hardback magazine, which folded around the same time (as did the entire publishing house). More relics of a bygone age.
All these books were bought from the same online seller, arrived in mylar protective covers, and were packaged in ziplock bags and bubblewrap. I was truly impressed by the care the seller took when sending these books. All four had been on my want-list a long time.
