The SF Site: Mark V. Ziesing Books

A number of years ago, the Ziesing Brothers operated a large bookstore in the college town of Willimantic, Connecticut. It stocked a wide range of titles but with a particular emphasis on SF, fantasy, horror, and the like. Mark Ziesing had built up a large local clientele along with a substantial mail order arm. They had tried their hand at some non-SF small press publishing when, one day, Mark decided to do Gene Wolfe's The Castle of the Otter. Its success led to a second book, The Wolfe Archipelago, which had double the print run of the first. These were the only two SF items done under the Ziesing Brothers imprint. Subsequent books have appeared with the Mark V. Ziesing Books logo. In 1989, Mark Ziesing and family moved from Willimantic back to his native state, California. The Book of the Dead was the final book published in Connecticut. Setting up a mail order business, as publisher and bookseller, became the principal focus.

Ziesing books can be purchased from a variety of sources. Mark supplies books to specialty book dealers around the world, his titles are available through online suppliers like amazon.com and, of course, directly from him. Ziesing limited editions come only direct, many of which are sold out immediately.

Mark V. Ziesing

Mark V. Ziesing Books Website

Books can be purchased from:
Mark V. Ziesing
P. O. Box 76
Shingletown, CA 96088
They accept Visa and MasterCard.
Phone & Fax: (530) 474-1580
Email :ziesingbooks@frontiernet.net

Mark V. Ziesing Books
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Mark V. Ziesing

Still Dead (1992)
edited by John M. Skipp & Craig Spector

With the success of Book of the Dead 3 years earlier, the editors did another original anthology of 19 stories set in the world of George Romero's Living Dead movies. This time it features a foreword by Tom Savini. The book was released about the same time as that of the Bantam mass-market paperback edition. It contains the following stories:

Prologue: Long Before the Fall

The Old Man and the Dead • Mort Castle

Part One: Where Were You When the Lights Went Out

Don't/Walk • Chan McConnell

Necrophile • Nancy A. Collins

Rise Up and Walk • K. W. Jeter

One Step at a Time • Glen Vasey

The Ones You Love • John M. Skipp & Craig Spector

Part Two: Coping With the Dead

This Year's Class Picture • Dan Simmons

Night of the Living Dead Bingo Women • Simon McCaffery

Abed • Elizabeth Massie

Come One, Come All • Gahan Wilson

The Prince of Nox • Kathe Koja

Beer Run • Gregory Nicoll

Prayer • Douglas Morningstar & Maxwell Hart

Calcutta, Lord of Nerves • Poppy Z. Brite

Part Three: End Games

I Walk Alone • Roberta Lannes

Undiscovered Countries • J. S. Russell

Moon Towers • Brooks Carruthers

Passion Play • Nancy Holder

Bright Lights, Big Zombie • Douglas E. Winter

Globalhead (1992)
Bruce Sterling

This collection contains mostly reprinted stories; one is original to the book. It collects the following stories:

Our Neural Chernobyl

Storming the Cosmos [with Rudy Rucker]

The Compassionate, the Digital

Jim and Irene

The Sword of Damocles

The Gulf Wars

The Shores of Bohemia

The Moral Bullet [with John Kessel]

The Unthinkable

We See Things Differently

Hollywood Kremlin

Are You for 86?

Dori Bangs

Alarms (1993)
Richard Laymon

Two sisters are the focus of this suspense thriller. One is Penelope Conway, with stunning good looks that often lead her into disasters. She'd rather be taken seriously as a writer but men can't see past her beauty. Now she's the victim of a string of obscene phone calls. Her sister Melanie is a violinist, a pale and fragile beauty. She's haunted by odd visions of death. One day at a concert with Bodie, her boyfriend, she collapses to the floor and utters a strange and beguiling premonition. Now Bodie finds himself drawn into a mystery that is both peculiar and exotic.

The Golden (1993)
Lucius Shepard

Based upon designs by the artist Piranesi, Lucius Shepard devised Castle Banat -- a building of immense size, mystical shape and labyrinthian complexity that it even has its own weather. Room after room is laden with horrors almost unimaginable. It is home to the Family, a series of vampire clans. Perhaps their most powerful rite is the Golden. This is the sacrifice of a victim bred to have with the sweetest and most powerful blood known. Set in the 1860s, the book follows a French vampire, Beheim, who is tasked with the job to search the castle and find out who murdered and devoured the Golden. The novel reminds me of a gothic mystery set in Gormenghast crossed with the elegance of 1930s Hollywood. For bibliophiles, the original title of the novel was to have been The Lost Season.

Forthcoming Titles

Books slated for future release include:

A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore edited by Mark V. Ziesing which features weird and dark stories about books and book collectors. Contributors include Thomas Ligotti, Brian Stableford, A.A. Attanasio, Patrick O'Leary, and several others.

A Handbook of American Prayer by Lucius Shepard is planned once the author finally turns in his manuscript.

Mark V. Ziesing

Dirty Work (1993)
Pat Cadigan

A mixture of science fiction and fantasy stories, this collection is introduced by Storm Constantine. Each story features a Cadigan introduction. The contents collect together her work not appearing elsewhere plus one original story, "Lost Girls," which appears here first. It collects the following stories:

Dirty Work

Second Comings-Reasonable Rates

The Sorceress in Spite Of Herself

50 Ways To Improve Your Orgasm

Mother's Milk

True Faces

New Life For Old

The Coming of the Doll

The Pond

The Boys in the Rain

In The Dark

Johnny Come Home

Naming Names

A Deal With God

Dispatches from the Revolution

No Prisoners

Home by the Sea

Lost Girls

Mefisto in Onyx (1994)
Harlan Ellison

Not the usual book format, this novella is produced by turning the pages sideways. The book tells the story of a telepath who is asked by the woman he loves, a District Attorney, to invade the mind of a mass murderer to determine if the man is truly innocent, as his lawyers claim. Unbeknowst to them, the serial killer is able to teleport from his cell and swap minds with whomever he come into contact. Harlan Ellison was instrumental in designing the book. Originally published in OMNI, this version is about 500 words longer than the one in OMNI and slightly rewritten.

Black Leather Required (1994)
David J. Schow

David J. Schow is perhaps best known as an editor and critic. His fiction isn't for the faint of heart. Those who don't mind sex and gore will find this collection of stories interesting reading. The author mentions that the original book title was going to be Headshots. Introduced by John Farris, this collection is a mixture of new and reprint material, it collects the following stories:

The Shaft

Sedalia

A Week in the Unlife

Scoop Makes a Swirly

Kamikaze Butterflies

Beggar's Banquet, with Summer Sausage

Pitt Night at the Lewistone Boneyard

Jerry's Kids Meet Wormboy

Life Partner

Last Call for the Sons of Shock

Where the Heart Was

Sand Sculpture

Bad Guy Hats

Perps