Book of the Week, Episode II

Know what would suck? You write this awesome book. Early readers call it one of the best debut novels in a loooooooooong time. You sell it to a small press that seems destined for greatness. Horror fans whisper "Gotta read it gotta read it gotta read it gotta read it" in their sleep. The hype is phenomenal. Your book gets published...

...and then your publisher goes out of business. Bookstores report difficulty getting the copies they need to fill pre-orders. Just when the ordering frenzy should be at its highest peak, the book is unavailable.

And so it happened with John R. Little and his novel THE MEMORY TREE. Oh, sure, I got my copy directly from him at the World Horror Convention--heh heh--but in the end he was left with a large audience and a small number of books. Better than having dumpsters filled with books that nobody wants to buy, but still, it sucks.

(The demise of Nocturne Press also cost readers the chance to read THE CORRUPTED by Drew Williams--which has since found another publisher--and PEOPLE ARE STRANGE by James Newman, for which I wrote a very silly foreword. What a cruel, cruel world!)

But, hey, when you've got talent like John Little, you move up in the world. Namely, to Necessary Evil Press, home to some of the finest-lookin' collector's edition books on the market. Though best known for their hardcovers, they also do a series of paperback novelettes featuring the rising talents, the most recent of which is PLACEHOLDERS by...wait for it...John R. Little.

PLACEHOLDERS is one of those stories where the surprises start from the very beginning, and I really don't want to spoil anything. I could do the high-concept movie trick of saying that it's "_________ meets _________" but that would a) give away too much, and b) be a disservice to the sheer inventiveness of this novelette. It falls into the "What the hell is going on?" category of storytelling, which is not a favorite of mine, but I loved this one and tore through it to the (completely satisfying) conclusion.

It's heartfelt. It's suspenseful. It's fascinating. It's mean and nasty. It is, quite simply, a great story, wonderfully told. You must buy it, read it, and cackle with glee ten years from now when it's worth enough to buy a private island.

Oh, yeah--this one, a 275-copy limited edition--is sold out from the publisher, though unlike THE MEMORY TREE that was supposed to happen. Usually "sold out" means that you can still get it pretty easily from online bookstores, but I see now that I'm trying to pull up the appropriate URLs for your clicking convenience that PLACEHOLDERS seems to be pretty darn scarce. However, it looks like you can get all three of the Necessary Evil Press novelettes as a set (all highly recommended--in fact, author Michael McBride will be featured for Book of the Week #3) right here:

http://www.camelotbooks.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=125&products_id=2709

A Google search will turn up other sources (with a markup, unfortunately). Keep up with the world of John R. Little at his personal website right here: http://www.johnrlittle.com/