Novella Deal: His Unburned Heart
Today we welcome Professor David Sandner as a contributing member of the consortium! We’ve signed his novella and a bonus piece of short fiction to be published together in one volume of the journal. We invite you to share virtual cake to celebrate with us in our virtual break room.
ABOUT THE NOVELLA
His Unburned Heart, tells the story of Mary Shelley’s quest to retrieve her husband’s heart from his publisher. History tells us that Percy Shelley was cremated, though his heart failed to burn, but the rest of the details are lost to time. Sandner has channeled Mary Shelley herself to share the story with us. The second piece in the book is The Journal of Sorrow, named after Mary Shelley’s personal journal, and imagines Percy Shelley’s demise.
“Sandner’s work resonated so powerfully with me that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Mary Shelley has been such a force in the literary world that it’s hard to think of her as a real person, but His Unburned Heart brought her to life for me. It gave me a deeper understanding of the woman behind the work,” says managing editor Jennifer Barnes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. David Sandner is a member of the HWA and SFWA. Recent work includes novella books Mingus Fingers (2019) and Hellhounds (2022), from Fairwood Press, co-written with Jacob Weisman. The Afterlife of Frankenstein (2023) is due out in November in Lanternfish’s Clockwork Editions series. His short stories and poems appear in leading magazines, including Asimov’s SF, Weird Tales, PodCastle, and in anthologies, like the HWA Poetry Showcase VI, The Mammoth Book of Dark Magic, Monstroddities, D.O.A III, and others. He has published scholarship on Mary Shelley, Philip K. Dick, horror, the critical history of the fantastic, science fiction, and the workings of the sublime. He is a Professor of English at California State University, Fullerton.
ABOUT THE NOVELLA LINE
The Selected Papers from the Consortium for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena (CSAP) is a line of novellas curated by editor/academic R.J. Joseph. She serves both as editor for the line and also imaginary “Crypt-Keeper,” introducing each tale as a found document and part of the fictional journal produced by the CSAP society. The first book in the series, Bleak Houses, is now available and contains two novellas from Kate Maruyama. We have also announced Errant Roots from Sonora Taylor and 12 Hours from L. Marie Wood, Hollow Tongue by Eden Royce, Asylum by Sarah Hans and Blood Cypress by Elizabeth Broadbent.
