Shock Totem Publications is proud to announce the upcoming release of Beautiful Sorrows, a collection of 27 short stories by Mercedes M. Yardley.
There is a place where sorrows pile up like snow and rest in your hair like cherry blossoms. Boys have wings, monsters fall in love, women fade into nothingness, and the bones of small children snap like twigs. Darkness will surely devour you—but it will be exquisitely lovely while doing so.
Mercedes M. Yardley’s Beautiful Sorrows is an ephemeral collection encompassing twenty-seven short tales full of devastation, death, longing, and the shining ribbon of hope that binds them all together.
We first met Mercedes in the same manner that we meet a lot of authors: through submissions. Back on September 18, 2008, Mercedes sent us a wonderful tale called “Murder for Beginners,” which we promptly accepted for the debut issue of Shock Totem. Friendships were formed, and we later asked her to join our staff. She accepted.
And here we are.
The official paperback release for Beautiful Sorrows will happen on Saturday, September 22, nearly four years to the day Mercedes first submitted to us, in Las Vegas, at the fourth annual Killercon convention. The entire Shock Totem team, as well as some of our extended staff, will be on hand for this event, and Mercedes will be autographing and reading from the collection.
Here is the near-final cover art:
Beautiful Sorrows will be available in limited edition hardcover, paperback and e-book format. This will be our first hardcover release, and while we’re still finalizing details we can tell you it will A) be very affordable, B) have a different design, and C) come with a special chapbook featuring the story “Star-Eaten Soul.” The only way to get the chapbook is to order the hardcover, which will be handmade to order. We’ll be taking pre-orders soon.
Here is the cover for Star-Eaten Soul:
[ Both covers created by Yannick Bouchard ]
More details will follow closer to release. If you have any questions, please let us know.
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Congrats, Mercedes and Shock Totem! How exciting! A handmade hardcover? I love that! Wow.
I’m doing the happy dance for you with tears in my eyes, because I know this collection is going to rock in *that* sort of way.
Cheers!
That is awesome! I’m very excited to read this. Mercedes is such a wonderful writer and this collection should go a long way to showing everyone just how amazing her work is.
I love the artwork! Such an eye-catching cover!
The Shock Totem library is ever expanding! Is there a pre-order or what not for this? I want to make sure I get a hardcover…
Can’t wait! M is a fantastic writer!
This sounds very interesting. And since Shock Totem went straight to my favourites list with its magazine issues I am looking forward to see Mercedes M. Yardley’s collection too :)
Thanks so much, everybody! I have to say I was thrilled when Ken brought this up. Shock Totem really pays attention to every detail, so I knew they’d do a fantastic job with it. Rock!
I must admit, I’ve been checking the ST home page every day to see when pre-order info is going to be published. Very excited to read these stories!
I’m in the process of finalizing everything now. It’s a bit more tedious than normal since I’m working through other people this time, specifically with the hardcover, so I get it all right. =)
Amazing cover! I can’t wait to read this.
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Love the cover. Can’t wait to read the book. Congrats!