A special treat showed up in the mail the other day — the author copies of my collection, A Web of Black Widows and Other Stories of Love and Loss.
A very beautiful book — they really do a superb job at PS Publishing. There’s two editions of this book available, the jackletless hardcover (pictured above), and the signed limited edition with a book jacket (only a 100 copies) that matches the cover on the front piece itself. Both are actually limited print runs — only 500 copies total. They’re available only directly from the publisher.
Who knows, maybe someday they’ll be worth some money.
As a teaser, here’s a blurb that appears on the back of the book, which is taken from the story “A Web of Black Widows”:
“You understand it’s forever, huh? Even if you get rid of it later, there’ll still be a scar.”
“I want a spider.”
“All right, it’s your body.”
He pulled out his sketchpad from underneath a pile of magazines that people used to get ideas. Grabbed an HB pencil from the cabinet of supplies he had mounted on the wall. He flipped open the pad to a blank page. “What kind?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Not a tarantula.”
“Okay. You like black widows?”
“I don’t know. What’s one look like?”
He sketched one for her. He had done them lots of times.
“I like that,” she said.
“Okay. Where?”
“On my tummy,” she said, and opened her robe.
Steven froze. Not much happened inside his van surprised him. People wanted tattoos in all sorts of strange places, and after years in the business, he had gotten used to it. But he had never seen a pregnant woman’s naked body in real life.