Winter 2009

Happy New Year! I've been looking forward to pressing send on this newsletter for a long, long time. Thanks to the tireless work of Jeroen ten Berge, Beth Tendall, and Chris Rapking, my new website took its first cyber-breath last night. The old site, rest in peace, had done its job faithfully for almost five years but with a slew of new projects coming down the pike, it was time for a remodel. When you get a chance, please head over to www.blakecrouch.com and have a look around. There, among other things, you can read the opening of my new novel, ABANDON. Here’s the early jacket flap copy:

On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman and child in a remote mining town will disappear, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins, and not a single bone will be found - not even the gold that was rumored to have been the pride of this town. One hundred and thirteen years later, two backcountry guides are hired by a leading history professor and his journalist daughter to lead them into the abandoned mining town so they can learn what happened. This has been done once before but the people who went in did not come out. With them is a psychic, and a paranormal photographer - the town is rumored to be haunted. They've come to see a ghost town, but what they are about to discover is that twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they are not alone, and the past is very much alive...

ABANDON has been a long time coming, and will be published on July 7, 2009 in hardcover from St. Martin’s Minotaur, and on CD/MP3/cassette by Brilliance Audio.

I also have a number of short stories forthcoming as well. First, Ellery Queen's Mystery

Magazine will publish “Shining Rock” in their May 2009 issue (which will hit newsstands and bookstores in March).

Then a story called “Remaking” will appear in THRILLER 2: STORIES YOU JUST CAN’T PUT DOWN, which will be published by Mira Books on June 1, 2009. I’m thrilled to be included in this anthology, which was edited by Clive Cussler and is the follow-up to the enormously successful THRILLER anthology, put out by Mira and ITW (International Thriller Writers, Inc.) in 2006. Other contributors include Marcus Sakey, Sean Chercover, and Jeffrey Deaver.

On July 24, 2009, Bleak House Books will publish a collection of edgy short fiction entitled “Uncage Me.” This anthology is a total blast. It was edited by Jen Jordan, who recruited a number of already demented individuals and told them to write whatever they wanted. My story for this collection is called, “*69.” Gregg Hurwitz, Victor Gischler, Scott Phillips, and Nick Stone are just a few of the other sick puppies who contributed to this one.

Finally, an ABANDON-related short story, “On the Good, Red Road,” will be included as a bonus feature with the ABANDON audio book, and I’ll be recording this one in the next month or so. I’ll provide more information on all of these stories as their publication dates approach.

Well, it’s still dead of winter here in southwest Colorado, where it’s been endlessly snowy (good) and terribly cold (bad), and looks to stay that way for the foreseeable future. I wish all of you a peaceful and successful 2009, and I hope wherever you're reading this, that winter is warmer for you than it has been for me.

Take care,
Blake