Earlier this month, the ebook editions of five of the books in the Matthew Corbett series were pulled from the U.S. ebook vendor websites, and I had said they weren’t gone for good. Now I can tell you that Open Road Media will be republishing the ebooks soon. Open Road Media has published almost all of the Robert McCammon ebooks, including Speaks the Nightbird, and they’ll soon be adding these five:
Mister Slaughter
The Providence Rider
The River of Souls
Freedom of the Mask
Cardinal Black
An Open Road spokesperson told me, “Open Road Media is delighted to add these books to our already extensive catalog of Rick’s books, and we’ll get them out to readers as quickly as possible!” Contracts are still being signed, and once that happens, I’ll be able to announce the new publication date.
If you had previously purchased the ebooks that were published by Subterranean Press and Cemetery Dance, they will remain in your digital library, of course.
I finished The King of Shadows toward the end of April. Since then I’ve been resting up because as I think you’ll understand when you read the book, it was quite a lot to put together. For one thing, it took me a while to refine what began simply as a ‘what-if?’ idea that at first seemed so outlandish and ‘out there’ it couldn’t possibly work. Well, I’m happy to say it did, but not without a lot of thrashing and gnashing. Matthew and Company came through for me once again. I’m pleased to say it’s a hefty book too, running about 560 pages.
I wanted The King of Shadows to be completely different from anything that had come before, and I wanted it to have that ‘weird’ and ‘otherworldly’ edge. Also I became very interested in the backstories of both Cardinal Black and Maccabeus DeKay…how did they become what they are? So you’ll find in The King of Shadows the stories of how the young Adam Black became the infamous Cardinal, and how “Mac” DeKay devolved from being a wealthy young man faithful to his father and involved in the sport of horse racing to being the scarred—and soul-scarred—and masked creature of the ‘present’.
Another thing I wanted to play with was the idea that instead of a human antagonist, a physical place could be antagonistic. Thus you’ll find in The King of Shadows a beautiful Mediterranean island called Golgotha that hides a multitude of secrets, and puts both Matthew and Hudson at risk like never before…but maybe not in the way you would expect!
Next up will be a book of seven short stories involving Matthew, Hudson, Minx Cutter, and Katherine Herrald titled Seven Shades of Evil. Some of these stories have previously appeared in other places, but I believe there will be at least three new ones and two of those will be “novelette” length. Seven Shades of Evil will be sort of a compendium of various “problems” Matthew and Company are called upon to solve during Matthew’s career with the Herrald Agency—these being done in the time between the spans of the regular books—and we’ll begin with one of the earliest events and end with one in his later life.
And so we are moving toward Leviathan, the last book in the Matthew Corbett series. It will be set in Italy and will involve—must involve—the worst of the worst that Matthew has yet to face. As someone from the realm of the past tells Matthew in The King of Shadows: “I have a feeling that Professor Fell will seem as a kindly old uncle bouncing baby Corbett on his knee when you meet who’s waiting for you in the future. Because take it from me, my boy…the worst is yet to be.”
You can take that as truth, because the person who tells this to Matthew is none other than Tyranthus Slaughter, returned from the dead.
So…on we go!
Publication of The King of Shadows is probably not going to be until early in 2022, but I hope you’ll feel the wait was worth it when you read the book. Until then, I’ll be working on Seven Shades of Evil and putting Leviathan together.
I hope everyone has a happy summer, and thank you again for your readership and support. I’m certain that in some other realm Matthew and his companions wholeheartedly thank you as well!
Russian publisher Azbooka has released their translations of Swan Song and The Listener. They had previously released a translation of Boy’s Life in February. Swan Song was translated by Oleg Kolesnikov, while Andrey Tretyakov translated The Listener. The beautiful covers for both can be seen below. Swan Song has previously been published in Russia three times. This is the first Russian edition of The Listener.
Per a 2018 contract, Azbooka still holds the Russian translation rights for The Border and Speaks the Nightbird. Those will presumably be released later this year.
They have now also acquired the rights for They Thirst, Stinger, The Queen of Bedlam, and Mister Slaughter in a new, four-book deal.
As some of you have discovered, several of the Matthew Corbett ebooks are currently unavailable from Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Google, and iTunes. They aren’t gone for good! We are working to make them available again soon. I’ll have more information at that time. And of course, if you had already purchased the books, they remain in your digital library.
Hydra Publications will release Writers Workshop of Horror 2 on September 1. The anthology consists of almost three dozen essays and interviews by and with some of the biggest names in horror, including a new interview with Robert McCammon conducted by Brady Allen. From the Hydra Publications website:
Each piece focuses on an element of the craft from the perspective of professional writers of the macabre or dark fantasy. The book is edited by Bram Stoker Award-winner Michael Knost and will be published by Hydra Publications as a trade paperback and ebook. Cover art is by the amazing Greg Chapman.
I spoke with the publisher today and we are going to see pre-orders for Writers Workshop of Horror 2 very shortly! I will keep you updated. Shipping date is set to start September 1st! We will have ebooks, paperback, and also signed (by me)/limited paperback (100 copies) that will be delivered a little earlier than anything else. Thanks to Hydra Publications, all contributors, and Greg Chapman for the amazing cover.
Earlier this month, the ebook editions of five of the books in the Matthew Corbett series were pulled from the U.S. ebook vendor websites, and I had said they weren’t gone for good. Now I can tell you that Open Road Media will be republishing the ebooks soon. Open Road Media has published almost all of the Robert McCammon ebooks, including Speaks the Nightbird, and they’ll soon be adding these five:
