Breaking News!

Good news on a definitive short story collection, courtesy of my academic colleague Bill Touponce at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies: he and Jon Eller (pictured left) are about to embark on a five-volume series which will contain all of Bradbury's published short stories in the order in which they were written. In many cases, Bradbury stories have taken years to come into print, so this will be the first attempt to put them in chronological order.

This is what Bill tells me about The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition, which is expected to be published by Kent State University Press in five volumes, starting in 2010:

"This edition will reprint (actually establish the text for) every story that Bradbury has published, in chronological order. Ray has signed on the contract and we are just now finalizing plans with the press. I will be the general editor of the volumes with Jon as textual editor. Needless to say, I am very excited; indeed it will be the culmination of my critical writing on Bradbury."


News, too, from Jerry Robbins of Colonial Radio Theatre. CRT's audio production of Bradbury's The Halloween Tree is moving closer to release. It will be out in time for Halloween! Jerry has kindly sent me a preview copy, so I hope to publish a review to coincide with the release. The CD is already available for pre-ordering - see Colonial's website for details.

CRT's previous production, Something Wicked This Way Comes, has won a Silver Ogle Award (these awards for Fantasy Audio Production are presented by The American Society For Science Fiction Audio). The award shelf must be getting pretty full; they already have an Ogle for Dandelion Wine.