Many thanks to Nyssa Pascoe who has created this spanking-new website for Andromeda Spaceways; and thank you also to the people who make this cooperative actually function. Specifically for this issue, that includes Felicity Dowker who chose stories and art; Juliet Bathory, who really cares how type is set on the page; and the unflappable Simon Petrie without whom this issue would not be. I will list instead of just linking the Table of Contents when the artists and illustrations are as credited in the ToC and online as the wordsmiths and their works.
Marc McBride's cover-art painting is now online, untrammeled by text, with my accompanying story—
Marc is a splendid artist and a writer of magic (his World of Monsters is a collector's item) who I feel lucky to have anything to do with, let alone have a story that goes with his art. I say this deliberately, since he said in public how much he feels for writers who get covers that never gave the fiction the time of day. If only he was the God of Publishing! So when Felicity offered us a chance to have a story with illo, I asked Marc to go back to those golden days of slush, producing the picture as my lead. I'm thrilled that this picture is the cover art.
As with Ellen Datlow, who so inspired with her Lovecraft challenge, Marc's painting was a hot needle to a boil. Ahhhh.
Oh I think you are being too kind here. 'Tis I that am lucky to be working with the alchemy and magic of the Tambour!
ReplyDeleteOh, that was me, but I come up as anonymous. I've lost my identity!
ReplyDeleteDoesn't that prove to you, Marc, that it is I who is the lucky one? Your identity has been swallowed by the beast. But this gives me a chance to say something more that I was wanting to, about your World of Monsters. "Edgar Wishbone" should have many more journals like this, but even if he doesn't, this is one book that should be an international classic. It is the best book I've ever seen that makes life science and the history of life an adventure for all ages. Your paintings are stunning and witty, and your story and all its "notes" and diversions (my favourite is Treegoona) are intensely fun, but subversively educational. The layout and structure, and the playful way the book literally unfolds also make every reading of it, the opening a present with every turn of a page.
ReplyDelete