Hey, hey, hey, Wild Cards fans. Good news. We’re only a couple of weeks away from the release of our latest all-new all-original mosaic novel: MISSISSIPPI ROLL, the twenty-fourth volume in the overall series and the first book in what we’re calling the ‘America Triad.’ LOW CHICAGO and TEXAS HOLD’EM will be following in due course.

DECEMBER 5 is the official publication date for the US hardcover from Tor, and the Australian edition from Harper Collins Voyager (Voyager’s UK edition will follow along next year). Have a look at the two covers:

Tor

Voyager

MISSISSIPPI ROLL features the work of Stephen Leigh, John Jos. Miller, Carrie Vaughn, Cherie Priest, David D. Levine, and Kevin Andrew Murphy, edited by yours truly with the able assistance of my right hand, Melinda M. Snodgrass. You’ll be rolling on the river from New Orleans to Cincinnati with old favorites like Carnifex, the Midnight Angel, Hoodoo Mama, Ramshead, Sewer Jack, Wild Fox, and the Jokertown Boys, and making the acquaintance of Steam Wilbur and the haunted steam packet Natchez. We think you’ll enjoy the ride.

MISSISSIPPI ROLL can be preordered from your favorite local bookstore or online bookseller. Amazon has it at https://www.amazon.com/Mississippi-Roll-Wild-Cards-novel/dp/0765390523

Although this IS the twenty-fourth book in the Wild Cards series, still going strong after thirty years, let me stress that it is not necessary to have read the first twenty-three to understand it. MISSISSIPPI ROLL stands perfectly well on its own, and the story it tells is complete in one volume. A bit of a departure for us, that last…

Oh, and speaking of Wild Cards, there’s a new post up on the WC blog. Kevin Andrew Murphy details the history of Wild Cards Hollywood at http://www.wildcardsworld.com/blog/ Check it out.

((Comments permitted, on Wild Cards ONLY. Please stay on topic)).

Current Mood: bouncy

Aces! Jokers! Once more into the breach… or close the wall up with our English dead.

Which is another way of saying that I’ve just finished editing and assembling our latest Wild Cards book, KNAVES OVER QUEENS, the twenty-seventh volume in the overall series (assuming the current projected publication schedule remains unchanged, which might not be the case), and our first in-depth visit to the British Isles.

Past Wild Cards books have taken our characters all over the world (once literally so, on the world tour that formed the spine of volume four, ACES ABROAD), and we’ve called a few times in England and Ireland for a scene or maybe a story, but we’ve never lingered there long enough to see how the virus affected Great Britain and Ireland… until now. KNAVES OVER QUEENS is, in a sense, a bookend book for our very first volume, WILD CARDS. Both books begin in 1946, with the release of the wild card, and both carry the story through the decades up to the present… 1986 for WILD CARDS, and 2017 for KNAVES OVER QUEENS. In the former, the focus is on New York City and the US; in the new book, it’s on the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The lineup this time around:

KEVIN ANDREW MURPHY: “A Flint Lies in the Mud” and “But a Flint Holds Fire,”
PEADAR O GUILIN: “The Coming of the Crow,” “Cracks in the City,” and “Feeding on the Entrails,”
CAROLINE SPECTOR: “Needles and Pins,”
PAUL CORNELL: “Night Orders,”
CHARLES STROSS: “Police On My Back,”
MARKO KLOOS: “Probationary,”
PETER NEWMAN: “Twisted Logic,”
MELINDA M. SNODGRASS: “Ceremony of Innocence,”
EMMA NEWMAN: “How to Turn a Girl to Stone,”
MARK LAWRENCE: “The Visitor.”

If you’ve ever wondered about the backstories of Captain Flint and Double Helix, this is the book for you… but most of the stories will be given over to brand new characters rather than established ones. I can’t wait for you to meet them. By the time you put the book down, I think you’ll be wanting more. I know that I certainly do. And as you’ve undoubtedly noticed, we’ve recruited a bunch of terrific new writers to the consortium ranks as well. Expect great things.

I know, I know, I am hardly objective, but I think we have some great tales in KNAVES, and I’m very proud of this one. I’ll confess, I was a wee bit disappointed when Wild Cards didn’t even get a whiff of a nomination in the Hugo Awards for Best Series, considering that we’ve been doing some great work IMNSHO for thirty years now. Only one thing to do about that: try to do EVEN BETTER books in the future. I think we will…

KNAVES OVER QUEENS will be published by Tor in the US and Voyager in the UK. No publication dates yet, but you’ll know when I know. While you wait, keep your eyes peeled for MISSISSIPPI ROLL, LOW CHICAGO, and TEXAS HOLD’ EM, the next three volumes in the pipeline… and for more all new, all original Wild Cards stories on Tor.com. Oh, and check out the blog on the Wild Cards website at http://www.wildcardsworld.com/ — new content there every two weeks.

Current Mood: accomplished

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!