New Collection: Saraband of Sable

Saraband of Sable is now up for pre-order from the publisher, Egaeus Press. The volume is a highly pleasing production in their Keynote Series: the format is pocket-sized, a delightful elegance in a mournful black and gold that you can journey anywhere with and be the envy of everyone you meet.

Of the eight titles that go to make up the contents of Saraband of Sable, two have never been published before. One of them, 'Protector of Thieves', is a Clark Ashton Smith pastiche set in his Hyperborea series. This piece was originally written several years ago for a collection of new Hyperborean tales, but it wasn't used. On reflection, I'm quite pleased it was never accepted for its proposed destination because the stories used in the anthology were, barring the odd one or two, generally uninspiring fare. The second unpublished tale,  'In the Palace of the Lost Winter Stars', grew out of two phrases that I suddenly thought of  - "the rose-opal twilight" and "in the Halls of Basanus" - whilst musing on the theme of winter. But the initial impetus to write the story came upon me after attending a splendid talk on the 1890s author, Richard le Gallienne. I also owe a huge debt to the writings of Sir Hugh Walpole and his Glebeshire locales.

Of the other tales in Saraband of Sable, three of them, 'Betrothed of Winter, 'Lord of the Porphyry Nenuphar' and 'The Mansion of Silent Ravens', have been selected from my collection Allurements of Cabochon (2011), for which they were specially written. However, they should be fairly unfamiliar to most people because the book had a print run of a mere seventy-five, I think, with only sixty for sale. All three stories have had minor revisions for this new collection.

'Circle of Sorrows' was written for Mark Valentine when he asked me for something brief and ethereal to publish under his Valentine & Valentine imprint of handbound books. Unfortunately the tale wasn't that brief and certainly not overly ethereal. The end result, however, was a beautiful book hand-stitched by Jo Valentine in an edition of 25 copies.

Of the uncollected pieces, 'The Sins of Horton' was written for Sorcery & Sanctity (2013), an anthology of new tales in homage to Arthur Machen. The volume - in an edition of one hundred copies - went out of print before publication. The first version of 'Altars' was originally entitled 'Altars: an Epilogue' and was written for a chapbook entitled Beneath Skies of Silver and Sable and printed by my Pallid Lily Press in an edition of eight copies. The booklet comprised six prose poems and was dedicated to the memory of Roger Dobson (1954-2013). The piece was expanded and revised for its appearance in the mammoth volume The Gift of the Kos'mos Cometh! (2016).

Publication date of Saraband of Sable is Friday 20th July.