New Collection, Black Hole Sundown, Coming … Someday

Back in the mists of early-ish COVID-19 history, I contracted with Cemetery Dance Publications for my sixth collection of short fiction: Black Hole Sundown.

At the time, I don’t think anybody anticipated how long the world was going to stay wonky. Or expected supply chain interruptions to cause a global paper shortage — not an insignificant wrinkle in the printing of books. It’s a cascade effect. First paper shortages, then release schedules getting backed up and personnel issues at printing facilities.

So we wait. As of several weeks ago, when the publisher and I last conferred, they’re hoping to get it released this year. Summer, maybe? Even I’m not counting on that, but am willing to be pleasantly surprised.

Happily, a few things got locked down early. I’ve already autographed the prefacing signature sheets. And artist Vincent Chong, who also designed the cover art for Picking the Bones and Cemetery Dance’s edition of Dark Advent, has come up with a fantastical, phantasmagoric panorama to serve as wraparound art for the dust jacket. The imagery blends various visuals from some of the stories.

No pithy observation. Just love.

Titles, for me, come either early and easily, or late, with more difficulty than pulling an impacted molar, and still never seem right.

From the book’s inception, Black Hole Sundown struck me as the perfect title. It’s not a Soundgarden reference, other than stealing a phrase for my own purposes. (I confess that Black Sun Hoedown was a close second.)

Black Hole because, like Skidding Into Oblivion before it, it skews heavily, if not solely, toward cosmic horror.

Sundown because this one is, I think, the last book of its kind for me.

There are other paths, other roads, other horizons … but, pardner, it feels like my work here is done.