Guide to Punktown w/ Jeff Thomas

It looks like we may be doing a Punktown Guide Book with Jeffrey Thomas. He was so impressed with the special edition I put together for Westermead that he was immediately inspired to come up with some great material.

Of course this is still in the planning stages but Jeff is definitely fired up about it and coming up with great ideas left and right like sections on Punktown restaurants, weapons and gangs. I think it’s going to contain new stories as well and he plans to make the whole thing link up to tell a larger story, sort of an experimental novel. Plus of course it will have plenty of drawings, maps and other visuals. This is really exciting! Although if it’s even half as much work as the Westermead project was there’s going to be a conflagration of midnight oil.

Here’s what Jeff had to say about the Westermead Compendium edition:

Okay, so I’m biased — Scott Thomas is my brother. But the fact that he once had TWO stories reprinted in a single volume (#15) of THE YEAR’S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR says it all about his talent.

For my birthday, I received a treasure of a present: the limited edition (150 copies) of his latest book, WESTERMEAD — a collection of very dark and wildly imaginative fantasy stories — from Raw Dog Screaming Press. (There are an inexpensive trade paperback and a regular hardcover edition available as well.)

This is simply the most beautiful and compelling book, from a physical standpoint alone, that I have encountered since Jeff VanderMeer’s astounding CITY OF SAINTS AND MADMEN. The oversized limited edition is full of artwork and graphic touches that truly capture the feel of the stories and enhance the overall mood. The attention to these details is very rewarding; for example, the groups of stories are sorted by the seasons, and so the page numbers are contained within a different graphic pertaining to each season. The loving care that the publishers put into this volume wins my admiration! I have worked with Jennifer Barnes and John Lawson before, myself — they published my novel EVERYBODY SCREAM! — and I am more impressed with them than ever before, having this book in my hands. Jennifer, by the way, is one of the wisest and best editors I’ve ever worked with, and I think she has helped me approach my own work with a more careful and critical eye.

The margins of the limited WESTERMEAD abound with everything from short fables to recipes to trivia. There is a map. There is much magic.

I can’t thank Scott, praise Raw Dog Screaming Press, or recommend this book, enough!