What's New archive for October 9, 2005 – September 14, 2006

Please note, some of the links below are broken. This is due to the the transitory nature of the web, where sites change, pages get moved, even whole domains disappear, and so it's beyond our control!

September 14th 2006

Well, not only is this update five days late, but it is also going to be incomplete. The biggest news we have to report is that PEARLS FROM PEORIA is now in print. However, the day Subterranean Press started mailing the books, they were sold out of all but the $300 lettered edition! Copies of the trade edition should be still available from online book sellers, but you need to order your copy now before they are all gone.

Subterranean Press put this message from Phil on their site the same day it sold out, "After a lifetime of writing it is a real joy to see a collection such as Pearls from Peoria in print. That it covers so many aspects of my work is especially gratifying. Ive enjoyed revisiting this diverse collection of my work (some over fifty years old!) and am impressed with the thought that went into arranging the pieces into the order they appear. I do believe it gives a good overview of my whole catalog; I hope the reader will enjoy the collection and the access it affords to some of my rarer pieces. I had fun writing them, I hope the reader has fun reading them."

PEARLS is most of the reason this update will be incomplete. Just adding all the links to and from PEARLS FROM PEORIA has taken much longer than expected. That doesn't count creating the new entries on the short stories page for ones that have not been published before. Those we have not gotten to at all. Our goal is to add them over the next several days and not wait until the night before the next monthly update.

I (Mike) have received a copy of PEARLS in the mail already and it is just amazing how large and substantial this book looks and feels. I had no idea the book would be this thick. Surprisingly I have heard from several die hard PJF collectors who say they can't wait to get their hands on this book because it contains a half dozen, or more, rare pieces by Phil they have not read. Now that I think about it, there may not be ten people in the world who have read everything in this book before it existed. I almost wish there were something in there I haven't read.

We made another interesting discovery in Phil's basement during the visit in July. For a while now we have had one of Phil's calling cards on the site. We actually discovered half a box of Phil's cards, but these are different than the one we've had online, you can see the new one here on the bottom. Since there is half a box of them just sitting there collecting dust I have been given a limited number of them to sell here on the site. Now here is the deal: the cards are $20 each. However, if you have purchased the first five issues of Farmerphile you can purchase one of these cards for only $10 when you order Farmerphile #6. You must email me now to reserve your card, but you don't have to pay me until you send payment for Farmerphile #6, which should be out in mid October.

There are two new books out which should be of interest to Farmer fans. The first is a new edition of Caveman Robot! Artist Jason Robert Bell tells us there about five noticeable PJF/Wold Newton bits in it. Only $5.00 + $2.00 shipping for 92 pages in Vivid Grayscale! A Most Magnificent Magical Magazine of Monumenta's Mesozoic Mechanical Man! Just a reminder, if you know someone who needs a really good laugh, send them to one of my favorite sites on the internet; Jason's I.D.R..

Another book we are looking forward to is WorldCon GOH Speeches edited by Mike Resnick and Joe Siclari. This book contains 31 selected speeches from 1939 to 2005, including Phil's GOH speech REAP from 1968. Be sure to listen to the audio excerpts from Robert Silverberg, Ben Bova and Terry Pratchett's speeches.

The hit counter as of September 14th says 148,892 which is 2,761 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update on August 13th.

August 13th 2006

Apologies that this update is four days late, but this has been a very busy month. First Win Eckert, Brad Mengel, Chuck Loridans, John Small and Peter Coogan attended Comic-Con 2006 in San Diego where they presented a very well attended Wold Newton Panel. Chris Carey was also in attendance and put these photos up on his blog, as well as some photos of our good friend Caveman Robot. Keep your eyes on Win's new website for notice that dvd's are available with both the 2004 and 2006 Comic-Con Wold Newton panels.

Immediately following Comic-Con Win and Chris traveled to Peoria for Farmercon I. Most of the Farmerphile editors and regularly contributing writers and artists; Michael Croteau, Paul Spiteri, Chris Carey, Win Eckert, Danny Adams and Keith Howell were all in attendance. Thinking of the larger gatherings we've had in Peoria in the not too distant past, The Living Legend Reception, May 2001 and the Lovers 50th Anniversary Celebration, August 2002, Bette Farmer invited a few more friends, including Locus reviewer Gary K. Wolfe and PJF Scholar/writer Mary Turzillo (Mary T. Brizzi). Many more friends and relatives also came to the dinner Saturday night and to Phil's house Sunday afternoon. For more details please read Chris Carey's blogs from July 30th, August 3rd and August 5th.

A few days before Farmercon, Mike Croteau received an email from Peoria Journal Star reporter Gary Panetta regarding an interview about the upcoming collection PEARLS FROM PEORIA. His timing was perfect as Gary was able to meet in person Mike, Paul and Phil at Phil's house Saturday afternoon to interview them for his article which appeared in the paper on August 6th. Considering how many people were in the room chiming in, the information overload we showered on him, and Gary's unfamiliarity with Phil's work before reading as much of PEARLS as he could before the interview, he really did an amazing job. I expect to hear from him any day now asking "What should I read next!?"

Speaking of amazing reviews of PEARLS FROM PEORIA, as Chris Carey says in his blog (my main source for news these days) he was shocked to see a snippet of the cover art from PEARLS on the main page of scifi.com. The review by Paul Di Filippo somehow echoes the thoughts and feelings of all the people who helped editor Paul Spiteri put this mammoth volume together and what we tried to accomplish with this collection of rarities. If you have not ordered your copy from Subterranean Press do it now. The print run on PEARLS is smaller than that of THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER which sold out very quickly.

In another case of perfect timing, Mike picked up Farmerphile #5 from the printer the day before leaving for Peoria and was able to hand deliver them to everyone there. Like #3, the "Tarzan issue," this issue also had a theme running through it. This time Kilgore Trout and VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL were the common threads connecting many of the pieces. Keith Howell's fantastic cover art was actually the deciding factor in putting this issue together, which also included; Bette's column, The Trickster Awakens: Philip José Farmer and Venus on the Half-Shell by Tracy Knight, Trout Fishing in Bermuda: Why and How by Roger Crombie, Alias Philip José Farmer: The Sore Bridge and a Latter-Day Victorian Chronicler by Danny Adams and The Trout Letters by Philip José Farmer. In addition this issue also contains Heritage of the Flaming God: A Classic Essay, Long Forgotten, Inspired Farmer by Alan Hanson, Bibliophile: a discussion on JESUS ON MARS by Paul Spiteri and Win Eckert's Creative Mythography column. And let us not forget, in addition to the aforementioned "Trout Letters," the fifth installment of UP FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT and the short story The Doll Game by Philip José Farmer himself.

If you have not checked in awhile, the The International Bibliography was updated on July 20th. Rias is in the middle of revamping his already terrific site, something we won't be able to even consider doing while Farmerphile is in print and taking up all our time. We greatly appreciate the fact that Rias is enjoying Farmerphile as much as we are and always has good things to say about it. We are looking forward to issue #6 which will include his own article about the international appeal of Philip José Farmer.

We are eagerly awaiting word from Barb Couri, play selection chairman for Peoria's Corn Stock Theater and Phil's great grandson Zachary who brought the play to her attention, whether or not the theater group chooses to do the stage production of Phil's Hugo winning short story "Riders of the Purple Wage." If they decide to do it, in the spring or summer of 2007, that sounds to us like the perfect event to kick off Farmercon 2!

The hit counter as of August 13th says 146,131 which is 3,106 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update on July 9th.

July 11th 2006

Back in April we announced that Dr. Peter Couri had contacted us regarding a planned Downtown Peoria Museum asking for our help designing a Philip José Farmer exhibit. Also, at the same time he gave Phil a copy of the poem Good But Not Good Enough, a poem that Phil did not even recall being published in the Bradley Quarterly, August 1949. It seems that his wife, Barb Couri, is trying to do him one better! She is play selection chairman for Peoria's Corn Stock Theater. She presented the scripts and a video of the Chicago's City Lit Theater Company's version of "Riders of the Purple Wage" for their consideration last week. They will meet at the end of July for more discussion. The theater seats about 250, I wonder if that will hold all of the out-of-towners that might come to see it?

It seems like it was only the last monthly update when we announced that issue #4 of Farmerphile was available (oh wait, it was the last update since we skipped June). While issue #5 is not actually available, it has been sent to the printer. As you may have guessed from the cover art (and by the way, I agree with the artist Keith Howell, Phil does look cool with an eye patch) this issue has several items dealing with Kilgore Trout and the novel VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL. These are by Tracy Knight, Bette Farmer, Roger Crombie and Philip José Farmer himself! We also have articles by regulars Danny Adams, Paul Spiteri and Win Eckert, along with an article of great interest to Farmerphiles and Burroughians alike; Alan Hanson tells us about the history of his book HERITAGE OF THE FLAMING GOD, which was the inspiration behind Phil's short lived Opar series. Last, but certainly not least, this issue contains another never before published story by Phil, "The Doll Game," and the next installment of UP FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. While it is not yet ready to ship, now is the time to order your copy and send in payment. We hope to mail them no later than July 26th.

Getting back to issue #4 for a moment, when the June 2006 issue of Locus listed Farmerphile in the Magazines Received section, for the first time it ran a picture of the cover! I guess they really like Jason Robert Bell's 3-D rendering of Phil as the Stone God as he is Awakening.

Also in April we announced that PS Publishing is going to print THE CITY BEYOND PLAY, a novel started by Philip José Farmer and completed by his grand-nephew Danny Adams. Then in May we announced that Chris Roberson, author and owner of Monkey Brain Books, publisher of MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE, has been asked to write an introduction to the book. We also told you that in an amazing coincidence Danny has just written a review of Chris' anthology, Adventure, Vol. 1 for Some Fantastic. Well, continuing the "small world" theme, Tracy Knight, mentioned above as appearing in the next issue of Farmerphile and who is also an alumni of PS Publishing himself, with his novel THE ASTONISHED EYE to which Phil wrote an introduction, has himself been asked to write an afterword to THE CITY BEYOND PLAY.

If any of you are attending the Comic-Con in San Diego (June 20 - 23) be sure to check out the Wold Newton panel. Win Eckert, Brad Mengel, Chuck Loridans, John Small and Peter Coogan will all be speaking on various Wold Newton topics.

Win Eckert alerted us to two interesting book reviews since the last update. The first, Friday in the Wold Newton meteor crater, is from the website Comic Book Resources. It begins talking about continuity in comics, which leads to TARZAN LIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE and then to MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE. Win received quite a shock when his hometown newspaper, The Rocky Mountain News ran a review of TARZAN ALIVE which mentioned him by name, without apparently knowing that Win lives in Denver.

Speaking of reviews, Publisher's Weekly gave PEARLS FROM PEORIA a starred review. While it does have a few mistakes it is certainly good publicity for the book, which now, according to the publisher, will ship in September.

And speaking of MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE, Farmerphile editor and MYTHS contributor Christopher Paul Carey looks like he had fun at a book signing he did during his Writing Popular Fiction Residency. Get used to seeing Chris on that side of the table folks, Farmerphile is lucky to have him.

It was only in October 2003 that we learned of the existence of a poem by Phil titled "Black Squirrel on Cottonwood Limb's Tip." Thanks to ebay we discovered a reprinting of this recently discovered poem, in the June 1977 issue of the fanzine The Hunting of the Snark. It always amazes us when we find obscure items like this out of the blue, unfortunately they are becoming few and far between.

The hit counter as of July 9th says 143,025 which is 5,307 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update on May 9th.

June 11th 2006

No monthly update for June as the webmaster is preparing to put his house up for sale and things are in chaos here at the moment. Check back on July 9th.

May 9th 2006

In just three short months, THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER has sold out! Subterranean Press tells us that there will not be a second printing. They also tell us that PEARLS FROM PEORIA has strong pre-sales and suggest that you order a copy soon as the print run for this collection is smaller than for THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER. Speaking of PEARLS FROM PEORIA, Subterranean was nice enough to send me (Mike) the newest addition to uncorrected proofs page.

Last month we announced that PS Publishing is going to print THE CITY BEYOND PLAY, a novel started by Philip José Farmer and completed by his grand-nephew Danny Adams. The latest news on this project is that Chris Roberson, author and owner of Monkey Brain Books, publisher of MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE, has been asked to write an introduction to the book. In an amazing coincidence Danny has just written a review of Chris' anthology, Adventure, Vol. 1 for Some Fantastic.

Finally, on the fourth try, an issue of Farmerphile has come out on time. The first three issues; August 2005, October 2005 and January 2006, actually came out in the first week of the following month. Farmerphile #4 was available and being mailed on April 28th, making the date on the cover accurate for the first time. Like the first three issues, we feel we have another great line up; regular features from Bette Farmer, Win Eckert and Paul Spiteri and the first of a series of articles on Phil's short stories by none other than Danny Adams (who seems to be everywhere lately). Gary K. Wolfe contributed an essay about his adventures with Phil and Bette at a Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, which fits in nicely with the paper Phil read at the 1990 conference and the Guest of Honor speech from the 1992 conference, both of which are included in this issue. Also by Phil is a short story written in 1941 and the next installment of UP FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT.

In the editors note of issue #4, I mentioned four items that I would have loved to print in Farmerphile, if they had not already been published online. Here is a recap and links directly to them. Christopher Paul Carey wrote A Raspold/Carmody Chronology which uncovers a discrepancy in Phil's Raspold/Carmody series of stories, and the story, The Goddess Equation that he wrote to explain the inconsistency. The other two are by Danny Adams (there he is again); A Brobdingnagian Education: Or, How Philip José Farmer Saved My Life In Four Easy Steps and The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World by Philip José Farmer: An Appreciation by Danny Adams.

Those of you on the newsletter list already know about the recent discovery made by the aforementioned Mr. Carey. In Barnes & Noble's Classics series of books they are "featuring the greatest books ever written" (those in the public domain anyway one assumes). However, they are doing a nice job of including new material in these books in the form of introductions and notes. In the notes of their edition of TARZAN OF THE APES they include a section titled Inspired by Tarzan where you will find a long and fairly thorough rundown of Phil's Tarzan inspired books. For only $5.95, the price of a mass market paperback, this trade paperback is a bargain.

Our good friend Zacharias, webmaster of The International Bibliography, sent us a bunch of scans, this time concentrating on images we were missing from the short stories page: NEW TOMORROWS, DANGEROUS VISIONS, ONCE AND FUTURE TALES FROM THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, BEYOND TIME AND SPACE, MICROCOSMIC TALES, THE MISTS FROM BEYOND, THE BEST OF NEW DIMENSIONS, ORBIT 3, AN ABC OF SCIENCE FICTION and THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION No.8 which we didn't even have listed on the page.

This has been a good month for reviews. We have added four new ones to the site, three are links to online reviews while one of them has appeared in print. Check out the entries for TARZAN ALIVE, THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER , and PEARLS FROM PEORIA.

Since we keep getting new visitors all the time, we might as well continue to post updates on the next showing of the Riverworld Pilot which will be shown yet again on June 11th at 9:00am. This will be the 23rd time the pilot has been shown on the sci-fi channel.

The hit counter as of May 9th says 137,718 which is 3,086 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update on April 9th.

April 9th 2006

Those of you on the newsletter list received a preview of what we thought would be the big news this month. After all, how often do we hear that a new museum is being built in downtown Peoria, and while still in the planning stages, those in charge of telling Peoria's history would like our suggestions for a display about Philip José Farmer. Dr. Peter Couri visited Phil and Bette Farmer in March telling them about the museum, showing them what it might look like and asking for their input. They told him to contact us at the website and he got our attention very quickly, telling us "I just refuse to let Phil's photograph be on a wall with some nice words underneath. He deserves a prominent exhibit full of vibrant ideas and colorful images that reflect all that he has given to the world. I hope you can share your thoughts for this quest." Please take a look at the PJF Forum, read the ideas that have already been posted and leave any other suggestions you can think of.

As it says on the Forum, we are already in Peter's debt. When he visited the Farmers he brought with him a copy of a poem by Phil, published in the August 1949 Bradley Quarterly, that we did not know of - and that Phil himself didn't even remember! You can find "Good But Not Good Enough," on the poems page.

So what is the big news this month if not the Peoria Downtown Museum? How about a new novel by Phil. For a couple of years we have been selling photocopies of some of Phil's unpublished short stories and unfinished manuscripts here at the webpage. Copies of the short stories are no longer for sale as they will all be printed this summer in PEARLS FROM PEORIA. Copies of the unfinished manuscript for the novel THE CITY BEYOND PLAY are no longer for sale either. Those of you who purchased a copy, or who looked over that page may recall that it said "This was my favorite of these three unfinished novels and the one I most wish had been written." So I (Mike), am very pleased to announce, finally, that Phil's grand-nephew Danny Adams, has not only completed this novel, but already has a publisher for it. In fact, I heard from Phil's agent a few months ago after he read the finished manuscript. When he sent it out to publishers he challenged them to read it and try and tell when Phil's original ends and Danny's continuation begins. The result was an auction for the book, which PS Publishing won. (You may recall that PS Publishing also published Tracy Knight's THE ASTONISHED EYE, to which Phil wrote an introduction.) I have read some of Danny's early chapters and I was floored by how well written and how seamless the transition was.

Those are two forthcoming books we have to look forward to. Just moved off the forthcoming page and added to the books page is the newest edition of TARZAN ALIVE from Bison Books. For those of you unaware of this latest edition, it can truly be considered the definitive edition of the book as it also contains; a new foreword by Win Scott Eckert, a new introduction by Mike Resnick and two accompanying pieces by Phil, An Exclusive Interview with Lord Greystoke and Extracts from the Memoirs of "Lord Greystoke". If you collect Farmer, this is one reprint very much worth owning.

The March issue of Locus magazine has several items of interest for Farmer fans. Page 14 has a full page ad from Subterranean Press, half of which is for THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER. The Magazines Received section contains a listing for Farmerphile #3. The Books Received section contains a listing for MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE, but more importantly MYTHS is listed in the New & Notable section on page 69. However, the attention Phil gets in the April issue of Locus is much more interesting. First there is a nice long review of THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER followed by "Short Takes" on STRANGE RELATIONS, MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE and Farmerphile! We hope that this exposure for Farmerphile will result in some more first time sales.

Speaking of Farmerphile, issue #4 is nearly complete. The final corrections will be made over the next few days and then we go to the printer. If all goes as planned, which would be a first, these will go out in the mail the last week of April and a newsletter will be sent out shortly before. Not only do we have four separate pieces by Phil in this issue, and all the regular features such as Bette's column, Win's Wold Newton column, a Bibliophile discussion on one of Phil's less popular novels, we also have a great essay by Phil's long time friend Gary K. Wolfe and an article by Danny Adams as he digs into the back ground of Phil's classic story Sail On! Sail On!.

Zacharias updated his website, The International Bibliography on Saturday April 8th. Besides making many additions to the page he has also begun redesigning the site, and it looks great. As usual this means more work for us adding his new finds to our page, but this will have to wait for the next update. Back just before the February 9th update he sent us a bunch of scans of reference material, both covers and articles for ; THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION, THE SCIENCE FICTION SOURCE BOOK, MODERN FANTASY: THE HUNDRED BEST NOVELS, WATERSTONE'S GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY & HORROR, SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTIBLES, Transformational SF Religions, and, by Phil, The Journey and finally the cover scan for THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES which is on my Christmas list (it's never too early) if only to have a book with both Phil and P.G. Wodehouse in it.

The hit counter as of April 9th says 134,632 which is 5,390 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update on February 9th.

March 13th 2006

Sorry for delay in posting this message, but for the first time since this site became Phil's official website, we will not have a monthly update. Please check back on April 9th for a hopefully longer than usual reporting of the additions to the website and other news about Phil.

February 9th 2006

The beginning of February has brought us two new collections of Phil's early classic work. Pre-ordered trade edition hardcovers of THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER have been shipped by the publisher Subterranean Press. In addition to the truly stellar table of contents this book also includes an introduction by Joe R. Lansdale, an afterword by Michael Croteau and several illustrations by Keith Howell. If you have ever wanted to turn someone on to Phil's work, this is the book to do it with. Joe's heartfelt introduction will suck them in and the variety of stories in this book will keep them turning pages. Also released this month is a new omnibus edition of STRANGE RELATIONS from Baen Books. Besides the original five short stories in this collection this edition also includes the novel version of THE LOVERS and the expanded version of FLESH. Baen has an excerpt from the short story "Mother" online and the entire book is also available as part of Baen's Webscriptions program.

For those of you looking for some new material by Phil, Issue #3 of Farmerphile is now available. Not only does this issue contain the next installment of UP FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT, and the funny short story That Great Spanish Author, Ernesto by Phil, it also prints Phil's speech I Still Live!, from the 75th anniversary dinner celebrating the publication of TARZAN OF THE APES. This issue also contains articles about Phil by Tracy Knight, Bette Farmer, Bob Zeuschner, Rick Beaulieu, J.G. Huckenpohler, Win Scott Eckert and Christopher Paul Carey, an interview with Win Scott Eckert and Chris Roberson about MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE, and all new artwork by Charles Berlin and Keith Howell.

On Sunday January 22nd, the Peoria Journal Star, Phil's hometown paper, ran a nice long article about Farmerphile. You can read it here online.

The cover artist for Farmerphile #3, Charles Berlin, who has also done some great interior illustrations in issues 1 and 3, has his own book out. Prof Wexler World Explorer is a 134 page collection of the illustrations and comics Chas has done for World Explorer Magazine since 1998. Those unfamiliar with Professor Wexler, The Worlds Greatest Explorer, are in for a treat. Rumor has it he may be descended from a prominent Wold Newton Family member and Win Eckert is researching his background now.

Two newsletters ago, on December 22nd, we mentioned this item but somehow we forgot to mention this on the last website update. Phil's nephew Danny Adams, who we have mentioned before when he wrote an article about Uncle Phil's influence on his life, has written a really well thought out appreciation of Phil's story "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World." This can be found at the ED SF Project which is an off-shoot of scifi.com's Sci Fiction website which printed many original science fiction short stories as well as reprinting many classics. Either one of those articles would have been perfect for Farmerphile, we're trying to make sure that the next thing Danny writes about Phil does appear in our magazine.

In the last newsletter we mistakenly said that MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE made Locus Online's Best 0f 2005 list. It actually made Claude Lalumire's Best of 2005 list at Locus Online. While on the subject of Locus Magazine, now is the time to let your vote count in the 2006 Locus poll. While MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE is not listed as one of the choices to vote for, it could always do well as a write-in.

In further related publishing news, Win tells us that TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN 2 is now available from Black Coat Press. Like its predecessor, TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN 2: GENTLEMEN OF THE NIGHT is chock full of Wold Newtonian and pulp fiction goodness. Here is just a partial list of characters or references in the anthology, all of which can be linked to Phil's Wold Newton mythos through crossovers: Arsene Lupin, Fantmas, Harry Dickson, the Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes, Zenith the Albino, Doc Ardan (Doc Savage), D'Artagnan, Doctor Omega (Doctor Who), Irene Adler, Doctor Natas (Fu Manchu), the Nyctalope, Violet Holmes, the Sr Dubnotal, Judex, John Devil, Frankenstein, Countess Cagliostro, James Bond, the Moonstone, the Lovecraftian Mythos, and more.

Since we keep getting new visitors all the time, we might as well continue to post updates on the next showing of the Riverworld Pilot which will be shown yet again on March 27th at 10:00am. This will be the 22nd time the pilot has been shown on the sci-fi channel.

We did receive more content for the website over the last month, but there just has not been any time to add it to the pages. This being a "between" month for Farmerphile we should get it all added in the next few weeks or so and will talk about it on the next update. Most of this new content came from our good friend Zacharias, webmaster of The International Bibliography. He updated his website back on January 25th and as always he has done a fantastic job. It really means a lot reading his positive comments about Farmerphile.

The hit counter as of February 9th (in the good old Central time zone anyway) says 129,242 which is 3,139 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.

January 9th 2006

We have several things to talk about this month, but nothing really qualifies as "big news." So let's start with the updates we have on the forthcoming books page. The latest word from Subterranean Press is that THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER will be available and sent to those who pre-ordered at the very end of January or the very beginning of February. Baen books new omnibus edition of STRANGE RELATIONS is now listed as being available in February 2006. You can find an excerpt from Mother online and when the book comes out, it will also be available as part of Baen's Webscriptions program. There is no change to the listing for TARZAN ALIVE. However, we do have a new advertisement for the book. The University of Nebraska Press has a full page ad for the book in their Spring/Summer 2006 catalog. The ad includes a long quote from our very own Win Scott Eckert who has written the afterword to the book.

I (Mike) finished reading MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe in December. I must confess that many of the Wold Newton articles you can find online go over my head because I am not familiar enough with some of the characters being discussed. Win did a great job of selecting the articles and ordering them so that the book builds upon itself as you work your way through it. Still my favorite articles were those that dealt chiefly with Phil's work; such as "The Green Eyes Have It - Or Are They Blue? or Another Case of Identity Recased" by Christopher Paul Carey and "Jungle Brothers, Or, Secrets Of The Jungle Lords" by Dennis E. Power. And I laughed out loud all through "A Review of Final Menacing Glimpses" by Art Bollmann. Every time I pick up the book I find something else remarkable about it.

The nice people at Locus mentioned Farmerphile #2 in the Magazines Received section of the December issue. Also in that issue, both MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE and the new edition of TARZAN ALIVE are mentioned in the forthcoming books section as well. While on the subject, Farmerphile #3 is almost finished and ready to send to the printer. This issue is taking a little longer to lay out than the last two. In fact, we finally had to add four more pages to get everything to fit. As soon as we get these back from the printer we will send out a newsletter letting everyone know it is time to order.

Last month I mentioned here that two original paintings by Richard Clifton-Dey, for the first British paperback editions of LORD TYGER and TARZAN ALIVE, are available for sale for $950 each or $1750 for the pair and that I hoped my wife would consider buying them for me for Christmas (see the PJF Forum for details). Hey, I can dream can't I? She didn't buy me the paintings but much to my surprise she did buy me a book for Christmas, something she has refused to do for years now because, well, I buy so many books anyway. She helped fill a hole in my collection by getting a signed, limited edition (#83 of 250) copy of THE ADVENTURES OF HERLOCK SHOLMES by Peter Todd for me. This was a great gift both because it was one of the few limited edition books signed by Phil of which I did not have a copy, and because I was finally able to read his foreword and add the details to the forewords webpage.

In the increasingly unlikely event that you have not seen it yet, the Scifi Channel will be showing the Riverworld Pilot yet again on February 4th at 11:00pm. This will be the 21st time the pilot has been shown.

The hit counter as of January 9th says 126,103 which is 2,800 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.

December 9th 2005

Those of you on the newsletter list heard the disappointing news a couple of weeks ago that publication of PEARLS FROM PEORIA has been suspended by The Rose Press. However, it is now our pleasure to announce that PEARLS has been picked up by none other than Subterranean Press, publisher of the forthcoming collection THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER. Subterranean tells us there will be 100 numbered copies priced $125-$150. 26 lettered at $250-$300. And an unsigned trade edition with a likely price of $40-$45. They expect the book will be 600 to 800 pages when fully designed, but they are not taking pre-orders at this time.

Speaking of PEARLS FROM PEORIA, artist Keith Howell is now selling prints of the three illustrations he did for the book. The prints are done on matte photo paper that is acid free, lignin free, 10 mil heavyweight (68lb), and they look fantastic. I (Mike) ordered the first set of prints and they look even better than I expected them to. Be sure to put these on your Christmas list while there is still time!

While on the subject of artwork for Christmas, I am sure there are plenty of you out there, including my wife, who are wondering what to get me for Christmas. The answer just appeared on the PJF Forum last week. Two original paintings by Richard Clifton-Dey for the first British paperback editions of LORD TYGER and TARZAN ALIVE are available for $950 each or $1750 for the pair.

Also in the last newsletter we mentioned that PEARLS FROM PEORIA editor Paul Spiteri had discovered a previously unknown article by Phil in a fanzine, but he sent it to us too late to make the last monthly update. Actually the "article" in question turned out to be letter from Phil which the editor combined with a letter from Donald Franson and created an article. This is good news for the rest of us because Phil gave his permission to reprint on the website any letters that we find in print.

As we mentioned last month, Zacharias, webmaster of The International Bibliography, sent us about 15 scans of book and magazine covers, mostly of reference books. Highlights on the articles page include; THE ULTIMATE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION, SCIENCE FICTION SOURCE BOOK, WATERSTONE'S GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY & HORROR, THE DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE FICTION PLACES, THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION and Extrapolation Vol. 35 #4 among others. He also sent us some scans for the forwards and introductions page; THE ARSENE LEPINE - HERLOCK SOAMES AFFAIR, THE ADVENTURES OF HERLOCK SHOLMES, ROBERT BLOCH: APPRECIATIONS OF THE MASTER and FANTASTIC TALES. As always we appreciate Rias' hard work on both his website and this one.

Also mentioned last month was the fact that MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe appears to be selling very well at the major online booksellers and that Barnes & Noble even featured the book in their "Explorations" email newsletter. Since then things have gone even better as Barnes & Noble is now stocking the book in stores and is even featuring the book on the science fiction aisle end-caps in some locations. No one closely involved with this book is really surprised by any of this.

Don't forget, if you have not seen it yet, or maybe have not watched it in over a year, the Scifi Channel will be showing the Riverworld Pilot yet again on December 11th at 1:00pm. This will be the 20th time the pilot has been shown.

That is all for perhaps our shortest monthly update since the site became the Official PJF site. Blame it on Farmerphile as it is now using up all the time that used to be spent on the website. However, it is well worth it! Issue #3 will be out in January and although it is only half done at the moment, we are confident that this will be the best issue so far.

The hit counter as of December 9th (in the Central Time Zone anyway) says 123,303 which is 2,555 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.

November 9th 2005

This has been a busy and exciting month, there is so much to talk about that we almost don't know where to start. However the publication of MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe is easily the biggest story of the month. Not due out until November, Barnes & Noble started shipping copies in late October, some people received theirs as early as the 26th. Since then B&N has really promoted the book adding an online Editors Review and listing it on their Explorations page and email newsletter. Sales at amazon.com also appear to be very good as the sales rank made it all the way to 4,866 on October 31st. On November 5th they said there were only three copies left in stock but apparently they have ordered more. Congratulations to Win, Phil and all of the contributors to this fantastic book. We asked Win for his reaction once he received his copy and he replied, "Between the excellent reviews, and the ecstatic reactions from the books' contributors upon receiving their copies, I'm very pleased. I think that the scholarship that went into the essays in this volume – the first ever volume dedicated to Phil's Wold Newton mythos – are a fitting tribute and accompaniment to Phil's work, and it's my greatest hope that he agrees."

So, MYTHS has now been moved from the forthcoming books page and added to the short story collections page, even though technically eight of the items by Phil in the book are articles and one is an excerpt. Also removed from the forthcoming books page is the new edition of THE UNREASONING MASK from The Overlook Press. However, still on the forthcoming books page is THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER. Not due out until January 2006 (which is a real shame as this would make a great Christmas present for anyone you wanted to introduce to Farmer) we mention it now because we have been lucky enough to be able to add it to the uncorrected proofs page.

More news on the publishing front as the second issue of Farmerphile is now available. Besides the next installment of the novel UP FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT, we have the short story by Phil, "The Unnaturals." It is sort of a "what if Baum had written THE WIZARD OF OZ, not as a children's book and during a different era" story. I have read this story four times now and enjoyed it more each time. This second issue also contains some fine artwork and six articles about Phil and/or his work. Ironically one of the hardest parts about publishing Farmerphile is remembering to add the items that appear in the magazine to the website; on the articles about page, excerpts page and the short stories page.

While we are on the subject, Farmerphile needs content! We need articles about Phil's work, we need essays about Phil from those who know him personally and we need artwork. If you would like to contribute to the magazine please contact Mike.

Hal W. Hall, webmaster of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database contacted us last month about getting a subscription to Farmerphile so he could begin including it in his database. Because we think his project is an important one we instead offered him a trade; we would send him Farmerphile if he would assist us in locating copies of articles about Phil that are currently missing from this website. So far these include: News from the Authors, Lucian of Samasata and Philip José Farmer, The Paper World: Science Fiction in the Postmodern Era and Love, Psyche, and Transformations: The Anima and Farmer's The Lovers. However, the icing on the cake was finding an article by Phil himself, Hayy ibn Yaqzam by Abu ibn Tufayl: An Arabic Mowgli. This is a speech that Phil gave at Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts and it discusses a fictional tale of a child being raised by animals that pre-dates Kipling's THE JUNGLE BOOK by over 800 years. In any normal month, this would have been our biggest news.

Zacharias updated his webpage, The International Bibliography, for the first time in about three months. We were very pleased to see that the first two things you see on his site this time around are MYTHS and Farmerphile. Rias also sent us about 15 scans of book and magazine covers, mostly of reference books, but we did not have time to add them to the website. These will be added before the next update.

Jason Robert Bell sent us a link to what just might be the coolest website on the internet, The Visual Index of Science Fiction Cover Art. Check out the cover pop pages.

It is amazing how we can keep telling you this same news item seemingly over and over again. If you have not seen it yet, or maybe have not watched it in over a year, the Scifi Channel will be showing the Riverworld Pilot yet again on December 11th at 1:00pm. This will be the 20th time the pilot has been shown.

The hit counter as of November 9th says 120,748 which is 2,888 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.

October 9th 2005

Today marks the fourth anniversary of The Official Philip José Farmer Home Page. For those of you unfamiliar with the history of this website and how we came to be Phil's official representative on the internet, now would be a good time to check out the About this website page. Ironically, due to all the time spent working on Farmerphile, this may be the shortest monthly update ever. Here is a sneak preview of Issue No. 2. It is nearly complete and we hope to send it to the printer within a week and have them ready to mail before the end of the month. The day they are ready to mail we will send out a newsletter about it.

One fun aspect of Farmerphile is that the cover of each issue of will be a picture of Phil, usually as one of his characters. When artist Karl Kauffman heard from editor Chris Carey that this issue would contain a story by Phil set in Oz, he said he had a great idea for a cover. I (Mike) kept picturing Phil as the Tin Woodman or the Scarecrow or even the Wizard of Oz himself, but Karl's idea was stroke of genius. As you can see, the table of contents is longer in this issue than the first one as we are beginning to get more contributors. We really hope that the new articles and essays about Phil will be as interesting as the unpublished works by him.

While time is absolutely flying by and it seems like we barely finish one issue of Farmerphile before it is time to mail out the next one, time has to be absolutely crawling for Win Eckert; webmaster of the Wold Newton Universe website, regular contributor to Farmerphile and editor of MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe which is due out in November. Yes, October is going to be a slow month for the seemingly omnipresent Mr. Eckert who also has written a Wold Newton related afterword in the new graphic novel The Black Forest 2: Castle of Shadows.

MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE isn't even out yet, but there are already three reviews of the book online. Also new to the reviews page, is an online review of RED ORC'S RAGE sent to us by Craig Kimber. Ok, just one more mention of MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE and then we will find something else to talk about; we have added a full page ad from MonkeyBrain Books to the Advertising page.

Is there anything more bitter-sweet than reading the last book in a really long series? This past month I read CALLAHAN'S CON, the (as of now) last book in Spider Robinson's Callahan series and added some details from it to the Ralph von Wau Wau page. Still set in Key West, Spider continues to borrow characters from Laurence Shames' funny series of novels set in that Floridian cul-de-sac. According to Spider, the next Callahan book, assuming there is one, probably won't appear until 2008.

Speaking of Ralph von Wau Wau, don't forget about the Who Will Finish, "Who Stole Stonehenge?" contest. We are now up to five entrants, and time is running out if you want to take a crack at finishing this story!

The book poll that Claus Skaanning created for us has proved to be pretty popular. Not surprisingly the first books in Phil's two most popular series are the leading vote getters; TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO and THE MAKER OF UNIVERSES. A little surprising is that A FEAST UNKNOWN is tied for second place. But perhaps not, as most of the people voting are probably Phil's diehard fans, and not just casual readers.

Zacharias has not updated his webpage, The International Bibliography, since August but he was kind enough to send us this photo of Phil, and many others, from the Second International Film Festival in Rio de Janeiro, 1969.

Only one week away, if you have not seen it yet, or maybe have not watched it in over a year, the Scifi Channel will be showing the Riverworld Pilot yet again on October 16th at 11:00am. This will be the 19th time the pilot has been shown.

The hit counter as of October 9th (central time anyway) says 117,860 which is 2,611 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.