The 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novel went to Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson ($6.99).
The 1997 Mythopoeic for Adult Fantasy Literature went to The Wood Wife by Terri Windling ($6.99).
The 1997 Shamus Awards included Best Private Eye Novel to Sunset Express by Robert Crais ($5.99 or signed 1st edition hc for $21.95); Best Private Eye Paperback Original to Fade Away by Harlan Coben ($5.50); and Best First Private Eye Novel to This Dog For Hire by Carol Lea Benjamin ($20.95).
The 1997 Anthony Awards included Best Novel to The Poet by Michael Connelly ($6.99); Best First Novel to Death in Little Tokyo by Dale Furutani ($5.99); Best Paperback Original to Somebody Else's Child by Terris McMahon Grimes ($4.99); and Best Critical/Biographical to Detecting Women II by Willetta Heising ($24.95).
The 1997 Macavity Awards included Best Novel to Bloodhounds by Peter Lovesey ($5.99); Best First Novel to Death in Little Tokyo by Dale Furutani ($5.99); and Best Non-Fiction to Detecting Women II by Willetta Heising ($24.95).
Fresh Signed Books
We recently got restocked with signed copies of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Two Tales of Korval ($10), a chapbook set in the universe of their popular Agent of Change series. At the same time, we received for the first time signed copies of Sharon Lee's Variations Three: ($9), a fantasy short story chapbook. In early December we expect to receive signed copies of Steve Miller's Chariot to the Stars ($9), a chapbook with 4 reprint short stories and 1 new story.
David Housewright recently signed piles of his Edgar Award winning Penance ($21, 3rd printing) and the sequel, Practice to Deceive ($22, 1st printing). Margaret Coel stopped in to sign The Dream Stalker ($21.95, 1st printing), and Katherine Hall Page signed The Body in the Fjord ($22, 1st printing), the 8th in her Faith Fairchild series, set in Norway.
Oz Books
Uncle Hugo's recently got in a large number of Oz books and other old classic children's books with the original illustrations reproduced:
Donald Abbott's Father Goose in Oz ($9.95 tr pb), How the Wizard Came to Oz ($9.95 tr pb), How the Wizard Saved Oz ($9.95 tr pb), Magic Chest of Oz ($9.95), and Speckled Rose of Oz ($9.95 tr pb);
L. Fran Baum's Baum's American Fairy Tales ($12.95 tr pb), Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz ($19.95 hc), Dot and Tot of Merryland ($11.95 tr pb), Enchanted Island of Yew ($12.95 tr pb), Litte Wizard Stories of Oz ($20 hc), Marvelous Land of Oz ($22 hc), The Master Key ($11.95 tr pb), Sea Fairies ($12.95 tr pb, $24.95 hc), Sky Island ($24.95 hc), Wonderful Wizard of Oz ($22 hc);
Roger S. Baum's Dorothy of Oz ($16 hc);
Bill Campbell & Irwin Terry's Masquerade in Oz ($9.95 tr pb);
Karyl Carlson and Eric Gjovaag's Queen Ann in Oz ($9.95 tr pb);
Jee Freedman's The Magic Dishpan of Oz ($9.95 tr pb);
Robin Hess' Christmas in Oz ($9.95);
David Hulan's Class Cat of Oz (9.95);
John R. Neill's Lucky Bucky in Oz ($24.95 hc), Runaway in Oz ($24.95 hc), The Scalawagons of Oz ($24.95 hc), Wonderful City of Oz ($24.95 hc);
E. Nesbit's The House of Arden ($12.95 tr pb), The Magic City ($12.95 tr pb), Wet Magic ($12.95 tr pb);
Jack Snow's Magical Mimics in Oz ($12.95 tr pb);
Eric Shanower's Giant Garden of Oz ($9.95 tr pb, $22.95 hc);
Gilbert M Sprague's Nome King's Shadow in Oz ($9.95 tr pb), Patchwork Bride of Oz ($7.95 tr pb);
Ruth Plamly Thompson's Captain Solt in Oz ($12.95 tr pb), Handy Mandy in Oz ($12.95 tr pb), Ozoplaning With the Wizard of Oz ($12.95 tr pb), and Royal Book of Oz ($27.95 hc).
We first ordered from this line in the summer of 1996, and the books never arrived. A different company took over distribution this year, and it took about 6 weeks for our order to be filled. If any of these fit in with holiday plans, you should hurry Swe may not be able to restock very quickly.
Holiday Gift Ideas
The single most popular gift option continues to be our gift certificate. We can issue one in any amount. It can be used at either or both stores. It can even be used for mail order, and it can be purchased over the phone or by fax (if you have Mastercard, Visa, or Discover) and we
can mail it either to the purchaser or the recipient.
Calendars are another popular gift. (All calendars are standard wall calendars unless otherwise noted.) By far, our best-selling calendar this year has been the Babylon 5 limited edition calendar ($14.95, only 7500 numbered copies produced--and we sold over 50 copies in the first 10 days we had them). But there are lots of other calendars of interest to science fiction/fantasy fans. This year there are five Star Trek calendars to choose from: Star Trek ($12), Next Generation ($12), Deep Space Nine ($12), Voyager ($12), and Star Trek Stardate (page-per-day, $10). There are also two Star Wars calendars, Classic Characters ($12.95, each month spotlights a character) and Trilogy Special Edition ($12.95, with new images from the Special Editions versions of the films). This year's Tolkien Calendar ($11.95) has art from twelve artists. 3rd Rock From the Sun ($10.95) has stills from the show, plus a 3rd Rock Mobile. Boris Vallejo ($9.95) and Frank Frazetta ($10.99) have the kind of fantasy artwork you'd expect from them. We also have a couple of copies of the Discworld's Unseen University Diary 1998 ($23.95, with many Pratchett quotes scattered through the book).
We managed to find two calendars of interest to mystery fans this year: Mystery Lovers: The Art of Murder ($13.95) features cover art from the 1940s, and Hard-Boiled ($14.95) is an engagement calendar with posters, stills, and quotes from classic noir films.
Other wall calendars include Morpheus International Fantastic Art ($12.95, 9 different artists), Draglings ($10.99, oh-so-cute little dragons by Randal Spangler), Fairy Folk ($11.95, art by Shirley Barber), Fairies ($11.95, 9 different artists), Maxfield Parrish ($12.95), Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Calendar ($10.95, Brian Froud), Shaman ($12.95, Susan Seddon Boulet), Enchantment ($10.99, fantasy art of Josephine Wall), M. C. Escher Perpetual Motion ($12.95, black & white prints), Unicorn Dreams ($10.99, very clear paintings of unicorns by Meiklejohn Graphics), Unicorns ($11.95, misty paintings of unicorns by Jay Burch), Unicorns ($11.95, photos by Robert Vavra), Starscapes ($12.95, paintings by Michael David Ward), Spacescapes ($11.95, photos), The Far Side ($10.95, cartoons), and It's Not An Office, It's A Living Monument to Inefficiency ($10.95, Dilbert, includes stand-up Dogbert, guaranteed to ward off computer evils).
Other engagement calendars include Excuse Me While I Panic ($9.95, Dilbert), The Far Side Desk Calendar ($9.95), Fox Trot Student Planner ($10.95), and Mysteries ($13.95, Susan Seddon Boulet).
Other page-per-day calendars include Big Things Are Coming My Way ($9.95, Dilbert), Disney Days ($10.95, color Disney character on each page), The Far Side ($9.95), and Fox Trot ($9.95).
The hottest items for gift purchases this year at Uncle Hugo's are clearly Babylon 5. In addition to the calendar and the 9 novels (so far), we also carry 9 different B5 bookmarks at $1.50 each (plus lots of Star Trek and Star Wars bookmarks at the same price), 2 different B5 walletcards at $.99 (plus lots of ST and SW walletcards at the same price), the B5 Journal ($7.98 for 160 ruled blank pages, with B5 bookmark), A-Z Guide to B5 ($6.99, reference), Creating B5 ($18.00, reference), Signs & Portents (episode guide to B5 first season, $18.95 for British import, will have a U.S. edition for $11.00 early next year), The Coming of the Shadows (episode guide to second season, $18.95 for British import, U.S. edition not yet scheduled), and The Babylon Project ($25, roleplaying game handbook/ reference book). Babylon 5 Wars ($45) is a B5 minatures game that came out in August, sold out very quickly nationwide, and we were finally able to get restocked just before this went to the printer. The boxed set contains rules, background material, dice, and 12 high quality pewter minatures (3 each of Earth Alliance Starfury Heavy Fighters, Narn Frazi Heavy Fighters, Centauri Medium Fighters, and Minbari Heavy Fighters). The company was also planning to sell the minatures by themselves, but they seem to be having trouble producing them fast enough meet demand for the boxed game.
There are two more B5 game systems that are supposed to be out in time for this holiday season. One is called a "component board game", which seems to mean that the more players you have the more components are on the board, and new batches of components are scheduled to be release to add to the game. The first 4 batches of components (for Earth Alliance, Minbari, Centauri Republic, and Narn Regime) can be bought separately for $12.95, or all together in a starter set for only $29.95. Those were supposed to have been out in October, but as of late November nobody has seen them. New batches of components for the Shadows and for the Vorlon Empire were supposed to come out in December and for Psi-Corp and for League of Non-Aligned Worlds were supposed to come out in January, all at $12.95 each, but who knows when we'll actually see them. The other new B5 game, due in November but also not yet seen, is a collectable card game which starts (according to one information sheet from the manufacturer) with a Earth-Minbari War 2-player game (with a 60 card Human deck, a 60 card Minbari deck, a booster pack of 8 cards, and a 24 page rule book, $18.75) and a Narn-Centauri War 2-player game (with a 60 card Narn deck, a 60 card Centauri deck, a booster pack of 8 cards, and a 24 page rule book, $18.75). A different information sheet from the manufacturer says that the 4 different starter decks will be sold individually at $8.95 and the 8-card booster packs will be sold for $1.95 each. As this goes to the printer, the game wholesaler says that the manufacturers of both these new game systems claim that the games have been shipped, but the wholesaler hasn't yet received either.
Other new items on the card game front include Dune (based on the Frank Herbert novel) decks (60 cards) at $8.99 and boosters (15 cards) at $2.99, Magic: Tempest decks (60 cards) at $8.95, Magic: Tempest boosters (15 cards) at $2.95, a special sales on Magic: Fifth Edition where you get a free booster set with every deck you buy at the regular $8.95 price, Star Wars: Cloud City boosters (9 cards) for $2.50, and a very nicely boxed starter set for Middle Earth which includes a 60-card "Gandalf" deck, a 60-card "Saruman" deck, a full-color Middle-Earth map, and much more for $19.95 (designed for 2 players, ages 12 and up). The Star Trek: The Next Generation First Contact booster sets are now supposed to show up mid-December.
Signed books can be divided into two categories: those that arrive from the publisher in special, limited, signed editions (i.e., expensive) and those that arrive from the publisher as normal editions that we get an author to sign (which we then sell at the same price as an un-signed copy). Uncle Hugo's carries a number of the special editions, including Clive Barker's Everville ($150, 1 left), Orson Scott Card's Memoy of Earth ($200, several left) and Xenocide ($150, 2 left), Charles de Lint's Mulengro ($60, 1 left) and The Wishing Well ($35, 1 left), William Gibson & Bruce Sterling's Difference Engine ($125, several left), Robert Jordan's The Shadow Rising ($200, 2 left) and The Fires of Heaven ($200, 1 left), Stephen King's The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass ($250, British slipcased edition, 2 left), Tanith Lee's Night's Master ($35, 2 left), Jack Williamson's The Humanoid Touch ($30, 2 left), Star Wars by Timothy Zahn (1st of his trilogy, $125, 2 left), and Here There Be Dragons and Way Up High, 2 children's books by Roger Zelazny, illustrated by Vaughn Bode' (2 tall books in a single slipcase, $80 for the set, signed by Zelazny, 2 left).
For those whose pockets are not so deep, Uncle Hugo's offers many regularly priced editions that have been signed by the authors, including Peter S. Beagle's Innkeeper's Song ($20), Terry Brook's Running With the Demon ($25.95), Steven Brust's and Emma Bull's Freedom & Necessity ($25.95, signed only by Brust), Lois McMaster Bujold's Cetaganda ($21), Dreamweaver's Dilemma ($19.95 hc or $12 tr pb), Women at War (edited by Bujold, $23.95) and Young Miles ($22), Octavia Butler's Dawn ($15.95), Orson Scott Card's Earthfall ($22.95) and Speaker For the Dead ($21.95, 1 copy left, a little scuffed up), C. J. Cherryh's Invader ($19.95) and Rider at the Gate ($21.95), Glen Cook's Bleak Seasons ($22.95), OuidaCrozier's Shadows After Dark ($9.95 trade paperback), Gordon R. Dickson's Magnificent Wilf ($21) and Other ($22.95), David Feintuch's The Still ($12.99 trade paperback), Alan Dean Foster's The Spoils of War ($19.50), James P. Hogan's Paths to Otherwhere ($22), J. V. Jones' The Barbed Coil ($22), Dark Angels: Lesbian Vampire Stories edited by Pam Keesey ($10.95 trade paperback), Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Two Tales of Korval ($10), Sharon Lee's Variations Three: ($9), Jonathan Lethem's Amnesia Moon ($12.95 tr pb), As She Climbed Across the Table ($22.95), and The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye ($23), Richard Lupoff's Lovecraft's Book ($15.95) and Before ... 12:01... and After ($27), Sharyn McCrumb's Zombies of the Gene Pool ($18), Jack McDevitt's The Engines of God ($21.95) and Standard Candles ($25), The Golden Key by Melanie Rawn, Jenniefer Roberson, and Kate Elliott (signed by all 3, $24.95), Katya Reimann's Wind From a Foreign Sky ($23.95), Kim Stanley Robinson's Blue Mars ($24.95, British 2nd printing, 1 copy), Joel Rosenberg's The Road Home ($21.95), Will Shetterly's Elsewhere ($16.95) and Nevernever ($16.95), John Sladek's Bugs ($12.95, British hc), Patrick Tilley's Star Wartz ($32.95, British hc), Joan D. Vinge's Dreamfall ($22.95), Joan Marie Verba's Boldly Writing: A Trekker Fan and Zine History, 1967-1987 ($12.95), Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles 1: The Skystone ($22.95) and 2: The Singing Sword ($23.95), Tad Williams' Otherland ($24.95), Dragonbone Chair ($19.95), and To Green Angel Tower ($25), Dave Wolverton's The Golden Queen ($22.95), Patricia Wrede's The Book of Enchantments ($17), Calling on Dragons (#3) ($16.95), and Magician's Ward ($22.95), Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Better in the Dark ($23.95, 1 copy a little scuffed up) and Darker Jewels ($13.95 tr pb), Jane Yolen's Camelot ($19.95), Here There Be Angels ($18), and Here There Be Dragons ($16.95), and Jim Young's Armed Memory ($21.95).
Uncle Hugo's also has piles of signed mass market paperbacks, including our annual Christmas best-seller, War for the Oaks by Emma Bull ($5.99). Signed books for almost any budget!
Uncle Edgar's also has a large selection of regularly priced books signed by the authors (especially after Bouchercon). Signed hardcovers (only single copies of some titles) include Harold Adams' A Way With Widows ($18.95), Jo Bailey's Erased ($21.95), Nevada Barr's Ill Wind ($19.95), Stephanie Barron's Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor ($19.95), Lawrence Block's A Walk Among the Tombstones ($17.00), Scott Borg's Water Hazard ($21.95), Michael Bowen's Fielder's Choice ($16.95) and Washington Deceased ($15.95), Rita Mae Brown's Pay Dirt ($21.95) and Murder, She Meowed ($22.95), James Lee Burke's Cadillac Jukebox ($22.95), Jan Burke's Hocus ($22), Dear Irene ($20), and Sweet Dreams Irene ($20), Dorothy Cannell's Femmes Fatal ($19.50), P.M. Carlson's Gravestone ($20), Jill Churchill's Fear of Frying ($22), Carol Higgins Clark's Iced ($19.95), Mary Higgins Clark's Let Me Call You Sweetheart ($24), The Lottery Winner ($22), Moonlight Becomes You ($24), My Gal Sunday ($23), and Silent Night ($16), Margaret Coel's The Ghost Walker ($21.95) Dream Stalker (21.95), Robert Crais' Sunset Express ($21.95) and Indigo Slam ($22.95), Deborah Crombie's Mourn Not Your Dead ($21) and Dreaming of the Bones ($22), Diane Mott Davidson's Killer Pancake ($19.95) and The Main Corpse ($21.95), Jeffrey Wilds Deaver's The Lesson of Her Death ($18.50), Praying for Sleep ($21.95, and A Maiden's Grave ($22.95), Jane Dentinger's The Queen is Dead ($19.95), Michael Dibdin's Dark Specter ($23) and Dead Lagoon ($21), Jerome Doolittle's Bear Hug ($20) and Head Lock ($20), Carole Nelson Douglas' Irene's Last Waltz ($22.95), Pussyfoot ($19.95), Cat on a Blue Monday ($21.95), Cat With an Emerald Eye ($24.95) and Cat in a Diamond Dazzle ($24.95), Eileen Dreyer's Brain Dead ($22), Susan Dunlap's Death and Taxes ($18), John Dunning's The Bookman's Wake ($21, 5th printing), Aaron Elkins' Old Scores ($20), James Ellroy's My Dark Places ($25), Janet Evanovich's Three to Get Deadly ($24), Terrance Faherty's Come Back Dead (22), Kill Me Again ($22), The Lost Keats ($18.95), and Prove the Nameless ($22.95), Ken Follett's A Dangerous Fortune ($23.95), Earlene Fowler's Goose in the Pond ($21.95), Kinky Friedman's God Bless John Wayne ($22) and Armadillos & Old Lace ($21), Jonathan Gash's The Possessions of a Lady ($21.95), Shari P. Geller's Fatal Convictions ($24), Paula Gosling's The Body in Blackwater Bay ($17.95), Linda Grant's Lethal Genes ($21), Kate Green's Shooting Star ($20), Adam Hall's Quiller Meridian ($22) and Quiller Solitaire ($20), Timothy Hallinan's Everything But the Squeal ($17.95), Ron Handberg's Savage Justice ($18.95) and Cry Vengeance ($18.95), David Handler's The Man Who Cancelled Himself ($19.95), Colin Harrrison's Manhattan Nocturne ($24), Carolyn G. Hart's Scandal in Fair Haven ($19.95), Ellen Hart's A Small Sacrifice ($20.95), A Killing Cure ($19.95) and Faint Praise ($20.95), John Harvey's Wasted Years ($19.95), Owen Haskell's Lizzie! ($25), Pete Hautman's Short Money ($21), The Mortal Nuts ($21), Ring Game ($22), and Mr. Was ($16), Jeremiah Healy's Swan Dive ($16.95), Foursome ($20), Rescue ($20) and Invasion of Privacy ($21), Jonellen Heckler's Circumstances Unknown ($21), M. R. Henderson's If I Should Die ($14.95), Joan Hess' Busy Bodies ($19.95), Tickled to Death ($18.95), Poisoned Pins ($18), O Little Town of Maggody ($19) and Martians in Maggody ($18.95), Tami Hoag's Thin Dark Line ($22.95), Wendy Hornsby's 77th Street Requiem ($21.95), David Housewright's Penance ($21) and Practice to Deceive ($22), H. Edward Hunsburger's Death Signs ($15.95), Susan Isaacs' Lily White ($25), Jonnie Jacobs' Murder Among Friends ($16.95), J. A. Jance's Skeleton Canyon ($23), Failure to Appear ($20), Lying in Wait ($17.95), Tombstone Courage ($20) and Without Due Process ($20), Michael A. Kahn's Firm Ambitions ($18.95) and Due Diligence ($20.95), Christine T. Jorgensen's You Bet Your Life ($19.95), Jon Katz's The Family Stalker ($18.95), Death by Station Wagon ($18.50) and The Last Housewife ($19.95), David A. Kaufelt's The Fat Boy Murders ($20), Robert Kearney's Hole in the Water ($22.95), Toni L. P. Kelner's Country Comes to Town ($18.95), Shirley Kennett's Fire Cracker ($21.95) and Gray Matter ($21.95), Laurie R. King's Beekeeper's Apprentice ($22.95), A Letter of Mary ($23.95), and With Child ($21.95), C. J. Koehler's Profile ($19.95), J. Dayne Lamb's A Question of Preference ($16.95), Wendy Lee's Missing Eden ($21.95), Dennis Lehane's darkness, take My hand ($24) and Sacred ($23), John Lescroart's Guilt ($24.95), John Leslie's Love For Sale ($22), Chuck Logan's The Price of Blood ($24), Mary Logue's Still Explosion ($18.95), William F. Love's Bloody Ten ($19.95) and Chartreuse Clue ($18.95), Peter Lovesey's Butchers ($15.95) and Diamond Solitaire ($18.95), Richard A. Lupoff's The Cover Girl Killer ($21.95), The Bessie Blue Killer ($20.95) and The Silver Chariot Killer ($21.95), T. J. MacGregor's Storm Surge ($19.95) and Mistress of the Bones ($21.95), Charlotte MacLeod's Vane Pursuit ($15.95) and The Odd Job ($18.95), Richard Marcinko's Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior ($20), Margaret Maron's Fugitive Colors ($18.95) and Shoveling Smoke ($50), Edward Marston's The Merry Devils ($16.95), Lia Matera's Designer Crimes ($21), Face Value ($20, small mark on bottom), Prior Convictions ($17.95), Last Chants ($21), Francine Mathews' Death in Rough Water ($22), Alex Matthew's Secret's Shadow ($22.50), Ed McBain's Mary, Mary ($19.95), Lady Killer ($22), Death of a Nurse ($22) and Romance ($22.95), Peter McCabe's Wasteland ($20), Sharyn McCrumb's Foggy Mountain Breakdown ($22.50), Zombies of the Gene Pool ($18), The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter ($19) and If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him... ($20), Val McDermid's Crack Down ($20), Jill McGowen's Verdict Unsafe ($22), Marlys Millhiser's Murder at Moot Point ($17), Richard Moquist's Eye of the Agency ($22.95), David Morrell's Desperate Measures ($22.95) and Extreme Denial ($23.95), Mike Mullane's Red Sky ($21.95), Marcia Muller's A Wild and Lonely Place ($19.95), Sharan Newman's Strong As Death ($23.95) and The Wandering Arm ($23.95), Helen Esper Olmsted's edited Homicide Host Presents ($25, signed by 7 of the 14 authors), Abigail Padgett's Moonbird Boy ($21.95), Katherine Hall Paige's Body in the Fjord ($22), Michael Palmer's Critical Judgement ($22.95), James Patterson's Jack & Jill ($24.95) and Hide and Seek ($23.95), Barbara Paul's Fare Play ($20), Anne Perry's Farriers' Lane ($20), The Hyde Park Headsman ($21) and Belgrave Square ($18), Thomas Perry's Dance for the Dead ($21), Nancy Pickard's Bum Steer ($16.95), Confession ($20) and But I Wouldn't Want to Die There ($20), David Prill's The Unnatural ($21) and Serial Killer Days ($21.95), Junius Podrug's Frost of Heaven ($19.95), Sandra West Prowell's When Wallflowers Die ($22.95), Ian Rankin's Strip Jack ($20.95), Lev Raphael's Let's Get Criminal ($20.95), Gilian Roberts' With Friends Like These... ($18), Les Roberts' Snake Oil ($17.95), Frank M. Robinson and Paul Hull's Death of a Marionette ($22.95, signed bookplate), Peter Robinson's Final Account ($21.95), Marion Rosen's Death by Education ($17.95), Richard Rosen's Saturday Night Dead ($16.95), Kate Ross' Whom the Gods Love ($20.95), Alan Russell's Multiple Wounds ($22), Justin Scott's Hardscape ($19.95), Laurence Shames' Virgin Heat ($21.95), Sarah Shankman's He Was Her Man ($20), Barbara Burnett Smith's Dust Devils of the Purple Sage ($21.95), Julie Smith's Crescent City Kill ($23.50), Sarah Smith's Knowledge of Water ($23), Keith Snyder's Show Control ($20.95), Stephen Solomita's Damaged Goods ($22), Dana Stabenow's Play With Fire ($19.95, some specks on top of book), Les Standiford's Raw Deal ($22), Michael Stone's The Low End of Nowhere ($20.95), L. A. Taylor's Poetic Justice ($16.95), Ross Thomas' Voodoo, Ltd. ($19.95), Kathy Hogan Trocheck's Homemade Sin ($20), Janwillem Van de Wetering's Just a Corpse at Twilight ($20), TheHollow-Eyed Angel ($22) and Mngrove Mama ($40), David J. Walker's Fixed in His Folly ($21.95), Mary Willis Walker's Under the Beetle's Cellar ($22.50), Marilyn Wallace's Lost Angel ($22.95, signed bookplate) and The Seduction ($18.50), Robert Ward's Cactus Garden ($12.99, remainder mark on top of book), Timothy Watts' Steal Away ($22), Valerie Wilson Wesley's When Death Comes Stealing ($19.95), Kate Wilhelm's Justice for Some ($18.95, signed bookplate), The Best Defense ($21.95) and A Flush of Shadows ($22.95, signed bookplates), Barbara Wilson's Trouble in Transylvania ($18.95), Stuart Woods' Choke ($23), James Yaffe's My Mother the Detective ($40), R. D. Zimmerman's Red Trance ($20) and Death Trance ($20), and Mark Richard Zubro's Another Dead Teenager ($19.95) and An Echo of Death ($18.95). Uncle Edgar's also has many, many signed paperbacks--just ask if you're not sure where to look.
Both stores carry large selections of books on writing, including 1998 Writer's Market ($27.99, this year in trade paperback for the same price as last year's hardcover). The Elements of Fiction Writing Series is a set of specialized books dealing with various aspects of fiction writing: Beginnings, Middles & Ends ($13.95), Characters & Viewpoint ($13.95), Conflict, Action & Suspense ($14.95), Description ($15.99), Dialogue ($13.95), Manuscript Submission ($13.95), Plot ($14.99), Scene & Structure ($14.95), Setting ($14.95), Theme & Strategy ($14.95), and Voice and Style ($15.99). A series of writing books that are targeted for mystery writers but could also be useful for science fiction writers who want to add some crime to the plot are:Amateur Detectives: A Writer's Guide to How Private Citizens Solve Crimes ($16.99), Armed And Dangerous: A Writer's Guide to Weapons ($14.95), Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds & Injuries ($16.95), Cause of Death: A Writer's Guide to Death, Murder & Forensic Medicine ($15.99), Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons ($16.95), Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to How Criminals Think ($16.99), Missing Persons: A Writer's Guide to Finding the Lost, the Abducted, and the Missing ($16.99), Modus Operandi: A Writer's Guide to How Criminals Work ($16.99), Murder One: A Writer's Guide to Homicide ($16.99), Police Procedural: A Writer's Guide to the Police and How They Work ($16.95), Private Eyes: A Writer's Guide to Private Investigators ($15.95), and Scene of the Crime: A Writer's Guide to Crime-Scene Investigations ($15.95). More specialized books include How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card ($13.95), The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells by Ben Bova ($16.95), The Writer's Guide to Creating a Science Fiction Universe by George Ochoa & Jeffery Osier ($18.95), How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction by J.N. Williamson ($12.95), Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy: 20 Dynamic Essays By Today's Top Professionals ($8.95), Aliens and Alien Societies ($17.99), Space Travel: The Science of Interplanetary and Interstellar Travel ($16.99), Time Travel: The Real Science of Plausible Time Travel ($16.99), World Building: A Writer's Guide to Constructing Star Systems and Life-Supporting Planets ($16.99), The Joy of Writing Sex ($16.99), How To Write Horror Fiction by William F. Nolan ($15.95), The Children's Picture Book: How to Write It, How to Sell It by Ellen E.M. Roberts ($19.95), Writing Mysteries edited by Sue Grafton for the Mystery Writers of America (18.95), Writing the Modern Mystery by Barbara Norville ($12.95), How to Write Mysteries by Shannon OCork ($14.95), How to Write Action Adventure Novels by Michael Newton ($13.95), How to Write & Sell True Crime by Gary Provost ($17.95), and Successful Script Writing by Jurgen Wolff & Kerry Cox ($14.95).
Both Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's carry small selection of books on tape and some tapes of radio dramas within their specialties. Much of Uncle Hugo's selection is Star Trek related (including the ever popular Conversational Klingon ($11) and Power Klingon ($12)), Ruby and other ZBS radio programs, or Roger Zelazny reading his Amber novels (9 books so far at $15.95 each). Much of Uncle Edgar's selection is Sherlock Holmes radio programs. We also carry the tapes of the BBC radio productions of The Hobbit ($4 cassettes, $22.95) and The Lord of the Rings (13 hours, $59.95)
Uncle Hugo's also carries a large selection of music tapes that are in some way related to science fiction or fantasy. The most popular of these are those related to the books of Mercedes Lackey (such as By the Sword ($10 cassette, $18 CD), Freedom, Flight, & Fantasy ($11 Cassette, $18 CD), Heralds, Harpers & Havoc ($12 cassette, $18 CD), Lovers, Lore & Loss ($10 cassette, $18 CD), Magic, Moondust & Melancholy ($10 cassette), Oath- bound ($10 cassette), Oathbreakers ($10 cassette), and Shadow Stalker ($10 cassette, $18 CD), C. J. Cherryh (Fever Season, $10 cassette), and Andre Norton (Songsmith, $10 cassette, $17 CD), plus tapes featuring authors Emma Bull and/or Steven Brust The Flash Girls: Maurice and I (Emma, $15 CD), and A Rose For Iconoclastes (Steven, $10 cassette or $15 CD) and Boiled in Lead's The Gypsy ($10 cassette or $15 CD, based on Steven's book of the same name).
Uncle Hugo's has gotten so many new CDs in lately that we had to add another new fixture to hold them. Babylon 5 and Babylon 5 Vol. 2 by Christopher Franke ($16 each CD) are unmistakably science fiction music. We also have lots of CDs by Steeleye Span, Golden Bough, Boilded in Lead, and Loreena McKennitt (a Canadian harpist and folk singer, whose recent release The Book of Secrets ($19 CD) is interesting both for the music and the liner notes about searching for Celtic influences around the world). We just recieved Musical Evenings with the Captain: Music From the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian($16 CD) with interesting liner notes by Patrick O'Brian about the importance of music of people in the period when his books are set. We also have a CD player and many sample CDs behind the counter, so you can hear a sample of unfamiliar artists.
We've just received a couple of very nice art books, Crime Movie Posters ($20, with hundreds of full color movie posters from silent films to the present day) and Pulp Art ($19.99, with many original cover paintings of the 1930s and 1940s, usually shot from the original art instead of from the magazine cover with all that lettering, plus lots of text about the pulps). By the time you read this, we hope to finally have in the overdue Spectrum 4 ($25 tr pb, $35 hc), an annual collection of the best in contemporary fantasy and sf art. We still have a few copies left of the out-of-print Spectrum 3 ($24.95 tr pb). Highly recommended.
We are restocked with our sturdy, attractive canvas book bags, with Uncle Hugo's artwork on one side and Uncle Edgar's artwork on the other side ($7). For December, we will give a free canvas book bag with a $100 purchase - use it yourself, or give it as a gift.
