June 2007

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I'd honestly forgotten just how many books -- and different editions of books -- I've had published around the world until these webpages started coming together. With that being said, another homepage has been completed, this time for the British editions.

These editions were published by Robert Hale Publishing. Robert Hale was founded in 1936 in the heart of London's historic Clerkenwell. As an independent publisher they specialize in limited edition, specialty hardcovers. To date they have released all but four of the Sister Frevisse mysteries, and as of May 2007 they have begun releasing the Joliffe mysteries, as well. For those seeking hardcover copies of the early Frevisse and Joliffe novels, these editions are the only way to go.

To date, Robert Hale is the only publisher to offer my novels in the UK. And, due to their nature as limited editions, most of these books are no longer in print. Fortunately, if you're a British reader, the American editions are also available through Amazon.co.uk.

- Margaret

We've added the large print editions of The Boy's Tale, The Reeve's Tale, The Widow's Tale, and A Play of Knaves to the Alternative Covers page.

These are not the only large print editions extant, but they are the only large print editions I have copies from which to scan the covers. (For example, I know that Ulverscroft, who published the large print edition of The Boy's Tale, has also released copies of The Novice's Tale, The Servant's Tale, The Outlaw's Tale, The Bishop's Tale, and a different large print edition of The Widow's Tale.)

As with the German cover from a few days ago, I'm attempting to obtain copies of these books. If you happen to own a copy of a large print edition which does not appear here and can produce a scan of the cover with a minimum height of 400 pixels, that would be wonderful. Please send the image to me via e-mail (see the Contact link on the left).

And on an entirely tangential basis, I found an interesting page that talks about the educational benefits of large-print books.

- Margaret

The last major layer of the site's "foundation" (as my web-manager likes to call it) is going into place this week: The Short Story homepage.

I have had a total of thirteen short stories published in a wide variety of collections, dating all the way back to my very first short story -- "The Witch's Tale" -- which was written for English anthology editor Mike Ashley. Today's update, in a fashion not entirely coincidental, features all of the Mike Ashley collections I have been featured in, including Historical Whodunnits, Historical Whodunits, Historical Whodunnits, and Historical Whodunnits.

Have I developed a stutter? Not exactly. All of those are actually completely different collections. Confused? Check out the Short Story page for the explanation. I can't promise that it will actually alleviate your confusion, but it's a truly fascinating insight into the world of publishing.

- Margaret

Robin Agnew, the owner of Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookstore in Ann Arbor, MI, had some very nice things to say about me in her blog on Saturday:

And when I went looking to confirm the hyperlink for Aunt Agatha's, I discovered that The Bastard's Tale had been named one of the Best of 2006:

I blush and think it's only fair if I return the sentiment: Visiting Aunt Agatha's every May after I've been to the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo is one of the delights of my trip -- which, given the medievaling delights at the Congress, is saying something! Robin is charming, and her store is an incitement to over-buying.

- Margaret

The Week of the Short Story continues with a fresh update today including the Murder Most collections.

There aren't any fascinating stories of the publishing world to accompany these titles, just three of my short stories: "The Witch's Tale", "The Simple Logic of It", and "Lowly Death". We do have some alternative covers to share with you, however.

- Margaret

These include my short stories "Volo te Habere", "This World's Eternity", and "Strange Gods, Strange Men". If you're looking for something completely different than my normal writing, this last story -- featuring a detective in medieval Egypt -- might be just the ticket. Unfortunately, this story is only available in an old issue of Ellery Queen. We're looking to do something about that, and I hope to have more details on that sooner rather than later.

(A mystery author being mysterious? How extraordinary!)

- Margaret

As something of a coda to our Week of the Short Story, we have a mini-update today featuring two German short story collections.

These collections included translations of two of my stories: "Mord durch Hexerei" (The Witch's Tale) and "Die Hebramme" (The Midwife's Tale).

- Margaret

I'm delighted to be able to announce that my web-manager has secured cover images for the large print editions of The Novice's Tale, The Servant's Tale, The Outlaw's Tale, and The Bishop's Tale published by Ulverscroft U.K.

These are the books which, as I reported two weeks ago, I do not possess copies of. I have to offer special thanks to Sarah Quirke at Ulverscroft for taking the time to scan these covers. Her efforts are much appreciated.

(The large print edition of The Widow's Tale, which I had also mentioned in my post two weeks ago, is not due out until September of this year. My records were confused on this point, and I apologize for anyone who was misled by my mistake.)

With the addition of these four titles, I am also happy to say that the site is now "complete", at least in the sense that it now includes every book and story I have ever published. Of course, there's nothing permanent in that "completeness". In a little over a month, after all, A Play of Lords will be released!

And, in truth, getting all of these books listed is just the beginning for this site. Now that we've got the bare bones of the site laid out, you can expect us to start fleshing things out with sneak peeks, essays, author's notes, sample chapters, special features, and other never-before-seen content.

- Margaret

A Play of Lords, the fourth book in the Joliffe series, will be released on August 7th. But you won't have to wait that long! Starting next week, we'll be posting sample chapters from the new book.

But for those of you who haven't tried the Joliffe series, yet, today you get a chance: Check out the opening chapter from the very first Joliffe book, A Play of Isaac.

- Margaret