The Works of Tim Powers

News is starting to surface on the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides. Several people emailed me with links and I thought you'd like to see what they found.

• Dailymotion has posted the official Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides Trailer
• RadarOnline.com has posted video and photos from the Maui, Hawaii set of the cast of the Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides
• Cominsoon.net reports on the RadarOnline.com details of Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides

Tim Powers is Guest of Honor at Renovation: The 69th World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Reno, Nevada USA between August 17-21, 2011.

Don Glover sent us a link of a video that he did with Tim taken at this year's Westercon.

As John mentioned in his post of April 22nd, 2010, there have been some changes. My name is Rodger and I've taken over the site. Perhaps taken over is a bit aggressive. John asked me to take it over, I said OK and, with John and DT's help, moved it to the server I use for my other sites.

I'm the fellow who does work at SF Site. My title there is Publisher/Managing Editor but only because it looks good on the letterhead. I also work on a handful of other sites like those for Charles de Lint and Stephen Jones.

I first met Tim Powers back in 1984. I was a co-chair of the World Fantasy Convention held in my home town. It had been a hectic weekend. For example, The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub had just been released and just about everyone wanted to get their book signed and spend a moment with the authors. Both of them were gracious in wanting to accommodate everybody.

On Sunday after the banquet, the planned events were wrapping up and I had just left the head table and undid my tie when I was approached by Tim and James Blaylock who stopped me to introduce themselves. I just about swooned. Two of my then and still favourite authors were in town. They thanked me for the grand time they were having and gave me a copy of Offering The Bicentennial Edition of The Complete Twelve Hours of the Night.

I've been re-introduced to Tim Powers many times since. I still buy all of his books and read them immediately and read them again some time later. I'm still a fan and he is still one of my favourite authors. I only hope I can keep up the quality of information and detail that John has gathered and posted. If not, I imagine he'll let me know.

Apologies all for the dormancy of the site. It has been many, many months since I last posted here, as real life has conspired to throw enough at me to send the site far, far down my priority list.

This is not to say there has been nothing to report either! Ironically the last year or so has contained some fantastically newsworthy Powers related stuff - not least the announcement of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Tim being announced as Guest of Honour at the 2011 Worldcon in Reno, the publication of quite a few new editions all over the world, the publication and acclaimed for Secret Histories, Tim and Serena's first visit to the UK and a bunch of other stuff.

Hopefully we'll be able to bring you some detail on all these stories in due course as we're making some admin changes here at the site that are aimed to get things moving once again. More soon!

Publication of Secret Histories creeps nearer, as does TP's appearance of guest of honour at this years Eastercon LX in Bradford. I originally thought that holding the book off from appearing before 2009 might be a mistake, but in actual fact I've been glad of the extra time, as it has allowed me to refine and perfect the design and layout of the thing.

Recently PS Publishing very kindly agreed to produce advanced reading copies - forty were printed up a few weeks ago, in glorious, rich full colour and on glossy 130gsm stock and, even though I say so myself, they look quite stunning. They've now been distributed to the trade and review community and we can only sit back and await the verdict.

Of course, now this thing is actually "out there" as it were, I'm officially crapping it! But, if this first review is anything to go by, it's just possible that I may not have just wasted the last eight years of my life!

Jonathan Strahan Reviews Secret Histories on his blog, Notes from the Other Side of the World.

Here's a fun thing – my best friend Russell, video maestro over at Maytree Media has kindly come up with this little trailer for Secret Histories…

Watch Tim Powers Bibliography in News Online  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

If this little movie piques your interest, Secret Histories is now available for pre-order at the PS Publishing web site so scoot on over there now and get your order in before all copies are spoken for. And of course, the book will be officially launched at this year's Eastercon, where Powers is to be guest of honour. As April approaches, there'll be further news on Secret Histories, so do check back regularly for further updates.

Powers has written the introduction to a new edition of A. Merritt's classic fantasy, The Ships of Ishtar which is being published this coming May from Piazo's Planet Stories imprint. Here's the blurb...

"Explorer John Kenton returns from a lifetime of wanderings and the wreckage of World War I to discover a mysterious block of Babylonian basalt containing a crystal model of an ancient ship—the Ship of Ishtar!

Science fiction legend Abraham Merrit was a giant of the early 20th century, inspiring the lush language and mystical subjects of authors like H.P. Lovecraft, C.L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, and others. In his day he was among the most famous authors in America, with his books selling millions of copies, but today he is mostly forgotten. Planet Stories presents the triumphant return of a true master of fantasy, A. Merritt!"

Further to my announcement back in July 2007, there's a little more (but not much!) news on the forthcoming Powers release from Charnel House Books which now has a confirmed title... tantalising stuff, eh? Click on the ad text below to go directly to the publisher's web site, where you can register your interest in this title prior to pre-orders opening.

Secret Histories, my book about Tim Powers (yes, that book! the one I've been writing for about a hundred years!), which is being (aptly) described as a "bibliographic cornucopia" is at long last available for pre-order direct from the PS Publishing web site. Hoorah! The book is available in three states - but hurry, because availability is very limited indeed...

• Ultra Deluxe three volume edition - Limited to only twenty six copies.
• Slipcased two volume edition - Limited to only two hundred copies.
• Numbered signed single volume edition - Limited to 1000 copies.

So, you've followed those links and ordered, right? No? Well, if you need any further persuasion, here's the official marketing blurb on the project...

A book that essentially redefines the term 'bibliography', Secret Histories has been nearly ten years in the making and brings together an astonishing range of Powers ephemera - a huge treat and a remarkable resource for both fans and collectors alike.

As well as a complete, illustrated reference of every Tim Powers book published to date, Secret Histories offers an extraordinary insight into the stories behind the stories, collecting together in a single volume Powers material previously seen only in private collections.

Here - in print for the very first time - you'll find poetry, drawings, research and plotting notes, novel outlines, early drafts, out-takes and an excerpt from the author's unpublished 1974 novel, To Serve in Hell.

Supporting these riches are story notes and commentary by Powers himself and you'll also find articles and essays from collaborators, friends and renowned Powers aficionados including Dean Koontz, Jim Blaylock, China Miéville, Karen Joy Fowler, John Bierer, John Berlyne and William Ashless. Powers: Secret Histories is an unprecedented bibliographic tribute celebrating the work of a truly extraordinary writer.

This deluxe, slipcased, lettered edition includes two additional volumes and is a package to rival any lettered Powers edition released thus far...

The first is an incomplete and previously unpublished novel written by Powers in the early seventies entitled The Waters Deep, Deep, Deep. Only available as part of this package, The Waters, Deep, Deep, Deep will be signed by Powers and will feature unique cover art and internal illustrations by him, as well as both an introduction and afterword.

The second - and this is a doozy!!! - is a full colour facsimile edition of the original handwritten manuscript of The Anubis Gates, complete with doodles, crossings out, dog-eared corners and even coffee stains! Only twenty-six copies of this facsimile, signed by Powers and individually lettered, will be available as part of this deluxe three book, specially slipcased edition... and if you're after one of these , you need to get in there quickly at the PS Publishing web site!

So, there you have it - I'll post more news on this project over the next few months - possibly including preview downloads and sneak peaks at some of the incredible artwork both by Powers and Dirk Berger, specially commissioned for the project. Watch this space!

On Stranger Tides is one of my favourite Powers novels - I mean come on! Voodoo magic? Zombie Pirates? The Fountain of Youth? Who doesn't want to read an adventure chock-full of all that stuff? I remember I first read that book back in the late 80s and as well as loving the novel, I was captivated by the cover art - I'm talking here of the UK edition published by Grafton, which featured an amazingly strong cover image painted by Richard Clifton-Dey.

The artist died in 1997, but left behind an incredible body of work, now highly sought after by collectors. This wasn't always the case - a few years ago now, I began to make enquiries about his pirate painting and these led me (after some considerable investigation work!) into contact with his agent, the hugely helpful Alison Eldred who told me that following his death, Clifton-Dey's widow had basically shut down his studio and put everything under wraps. Perhaps my interest in the pirate painting might convince her it was time to look at allowing some of the originals on to the market. On my behalf Alison kindly travelled down to visit Mrs Clifton-Dey and found a treasure trove of his work, all stored, preserved and untouched since his death. And there also she found, in perfect condition, the pirate painting and also his cover art for the Grafton edition of The Anubis Gates (this edition being the very first Powers book I ever read, and largely becuase of the cool cover!), along with the preparatory sketches for both commissions. I ended up with both the paintings and the sketches and no, they're not for sale!

In this recent blog entry, the wonderful American artist Jim Gurney wrote a piece about his experiences of producing the cover art for the original Ace edition of On Stranger Tides, a painting that has been reused a number of times, most recently on the recent Czech translation and on the Subterranean Press reissue of the novel
published earlier this year. You can read this fascinating article by following the link above. Most interesting to me was the inclusion of the image shown below of Gurney's preparatory watercolours for the eventual image - a wonderful accompaniment to Clifton-Dey's pencil sketches above. As to which of the two images make for the best cover... well, that is a debate that will run and run!