PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY just broke the story here http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72958-book-deals-week-of-march-6-2017.html so now that we’ve gone public, I’m jazzed to be able to announce a huge new deal for WILD CARDS.

Our uber-agent, Kay McCauley of Aurous, has just come to agreement with the good folks at Tor for nine (yes, count ’em, nine) more volumes, a combination of old and new titles that will keep the series going until 2020, at the least.

Five of those titles will be reissues. Tor will be bringing out new trade paperback editions of volumes eight through twelve from the original series run: ONE-EYED JACKS, JOKERTOWN SHUFFLE, DOUBLE SOLITAIRE, DEALER’S CHOICE, and TURN OF THE CARDS, all of which have been out of print for more than twenty years (as the escalating prices on ebay have demonstrated). That quintet contains the first two solo novels in the run of the series. DOUBLE SOLITAIRE was a solo by Melinda M. Snodgrass, a space opera in the grand style starring Dr. Tachyon, Popinjay, Cap’n Trips and his friends, and the most despised villain in Wild Cards history, Blaise Andrieux. TURN OF THE CARDS was Victor Milan’s solo outing, featuring Trips and friends. In between we have a full mosaic in DEALER’S CHOICE, the climax of the Rox War, with storylines by Edward Bryant (Wyungare, Cordelia, and Sewer Jack), Walter Jon Williams (Modular Man), John Jos. Miller (Carnifex), Stephen Leigh (Bloat), and yours truly (the Great and Powerful Turtle).

Before any of those three, however, we have ONE-EYED JACKS and JOKERTOWN SHUFFLE, volumes eight and nine, which set up all that follows. With those two, our intent is to add some new original never-before-published stories, just as we did with the reissues of volumes one and four, to sweeten the pot and turn the excitement right up to eleven. Stay turned for more news on that front.

In addition to the five reissues, Tor will also be releasing four new books in hardcover.

One will be a collection. FULL HOUSE will reprint all the of the Wild Cards stories that have appeared on the Tor.com website, the first time any of those tales have been on paper. The table of contents will include work from Daniel Abraham, Cherie Priest, David D. Levine, Walter Jon Williams, Paul Cornell, Carrie Vaughn (x2), Caroline Spector, Stephen Leigh, Melinda M. Snodgrass… and a few more players to be named later. Watch this space for more details, and Tor.com for more stories.

Last but not least, we will have three more originals. Assuming FULL HOUSE slips in there as volume twenty-seven, the new books will be volumes twenty-eight, twenty-nine, and thirty of the overall series. (Though, as ever, you do NOT need to read all the books that have gone before to read and enjoy the new ones.).

We’re in very early days in planning the new books, so I cannot tell you much about them as yet… but I will share a few tidbits, so long as you promise not to hold me to ’em. (Things do have a way of changing in this game). One of the new books is going to be another solo novel, from a terrific writer we have not seen nearly enough of in WILD CARDS. Another one promises to take the action back into space. And the third will move the focus across the Atlantic, to the British Isles. To help us write that last one, we’ve added some exciting new writers to the madhouse that is Wild Cards. Wait till you meet their characters!

Oh, and for all our Wild Cards readers on that side of the pond… HarperCollins Voyager will be publishing the three new books as well, I’m pleased to announce, as well as the three books that precede them, MISSISSIPPI ROLL and LOW CHICAGO and TEXAS HOLD ‘EM.

With the television show in development, the new web site, the reread going on over at Tor.com, and all these new books in the pipeline, this is an exciting time to be a Wild Cards fan. (And we do hope that you will remember Wild Cards when making your Hugo nominations too!)

We can’t die yet! We haven’t seen the Jolson Story!