The Tease of Things I Don't Need

An update from Stainless Steve

Steve Englehart sent a note around to some of us this evening concerning some past and upcoming work, so I thought it a good idea to note it here, too. I'm mainly just reprinting his note, putting in hyperlinks where they seemed to make sense. If you have any problem with the link to Amazon - maybe a bad experience with them, or you're an independent bookseller who sees them as undermining you - blame me, not Steve. I just thought it might prove handy if, like me, one likes to put wish lists together or place pre-orders.

Hi there -

This is another in the occasional series of emails from me, which you get because at some time or other you expressed some interest in my work. As always, you can turn them off by just asking. (Conversely, I do run into people who haven't contacted me but want to get on, so if you know somebody in that category, they just have to ask, too.)

This one's the latest update on The Long Man, coming from Tor this July.

First, a correction on the cover artist. Last time I pimped Tomer Hanuka, because that's who Tor said would be doing it - but somewhere along the way they switched to Frank Stockton. Their styles are similar so it's no big change, and you can see Frank's cover with the preliminary title layout at http://steveenglehart.com. Since, as I mentioned last time, this is one of a four-book run, I'm really excited to see what Frank does over time.

Now, as to those four books - let me see if I can make this simple because evidently I confused a few people last time.

The Long Man comes out in July. It's the first of the new run, and the first with Max August as a Timeless man.

Before The Long Man was The Point Man. It was published in 1980 and takes place in 1980, when Max was not yet Timeless, so I now think of it as Book Zero in the series. The Point Man will be republished by Tor in January 2010 (or so they tell me), with a new cover by Frank and the barest minimum of reworking by me. I'll tell you more about what I'm doing, and not doing, with The Point Man when we get closer to its pub date. But if you're one of those people who's contacted me to ask how you can get a copy of TPM, you don't have to troll eBay any longer - unless you just can't wait, or want to read Book Zero before Book One. I used to collect comics, so I fully understand the desire to read things in logical order, but I did make sure that anyone starting with The Long Man would know everything he needed to know to make that work. And since I'm now plowing through The Point Man after finishing The Long Man and being hip-deep in The Plain Man, I can testify that it's actually a lot of fun to know Max now and then go back to see him when he was on the cusp of all this.

After The Long Man comes The Plain Man. That will appear late in 2010 (or so they tell me), and all I'll say about it now is that it takes place at a fire festival in the Nevada desert which I have dubbed Wickr.

Then will come the fourth book, whose name continues to bedevil me. Logically, it's got to be some riff on three dimensions - you did study geometry with its Point, Line, Plane, and Cube, right? - but neither The Cubic Man nor The Cubist Man nor The Cubicle Man has yet won my heart. I am open to all suggestions, and if you give me the right title I'll do something nice for you which we can mutually determine (meaning, I just now decided to beg for help). It doesn't have to involve "Cube"; "Solid" is another way to go, and there may be more. The only trick is, each title is slightly off-center - The Long Man instead of The Line Man, The Plain Man instead of The Plane Man. Oh, and by the way, The mmmble Man deals with the whole Mayan
end of the world in 2012 thing.

Did I mention that Max moves through time just like we do? Well, he does and we do, and I'm sure I'll have more news as we all close in on July.
--

Steve Englehart