Current Projects

Waiting for two more short stories, then I'll be able to put out a collection of classic cryptobotanical and weird vegetation short stories. Some I've reprinted before, but several are rarely seen.

Finishing up the first volume of Al Spoo's Nature Notes, a compilation of his Lititz, PA, newspaper column.

Scanning in Phantom Bouquets, a short book on the Victorian practice of skeletonizing leaves for display and decorations.

Have a bunch of black panther stories OCR'd, need to keep going with the other mystery felines for the Varmints book. Might actually just make it one volume, and incorporate the canines and other carnivores... There are far fewer mystery canines (lots of wolves and coyotes) in old newspaper accounts, and not much in the way of mystery bears. Although, I do have a very interesting account of a giant polar bear-like animal, so ursines won't be completely overlooked.

Move Over, Kindle...

Looks like a forthcoming e-reader is going to blow Amazon's Kindle out of the water. The Readius features a rollable display for easy pocketing, and doesn't (from what I can see) require proprietary software to create readable content. (They say readers will be able to get content from the Readius portal, other companies, or your own website.) That alone should be enough to garner the support of e-publishers everywhere. (And, of course, publishers won't be forced to give up 60% of retail to Amazon to sell their books... Amazing how Seth Godin constantly overlooks that fact when he knocks publishers for setting ebook prices so high.)

Eight-Legged Marvels

Sent to printer (finally): Eight-Legged Marvels: Beauty and Design in the World of Spiders

About Time

Just uploaded to the printer, About Time: The Forerunners of Time Travel and Temporal Anomalies in Science Fiction and Fantasy. 15 stories from 1819-1916 that rely on time travel, time shifts, and other temporal tamperings before the "golden age" of science fiction.