W. Paul Ganley: Publisher/Bookseller

17/08/2024

When I put a book on eBay at auction, I use the category “collectibles” and when this item appears on line, in my eBay store, it states that shipping will be by media mail (after all, it is a book).
But when the item is sold, the eBay computer does not permit the buyer (or me) to choose media mail.
WHY? What can I do to use media mail via eBay shipping?

No problem if no one bids… then I put it on as “buy-it-now” under “books&magazines—books.”

Anybody out there who can help answer this?

08/07/2024

Finally got to read ELYSIA, the final book in these series by Brian Lumley. At last de Marigny get his chance to be a major (human) character, and we follow him through a number of attempts to get to Elysia. Unfortunately Cthulhu comes free and plans to conquer Elysia and all else. Does he? No. But it’s a complicated plot, leaving Cthulhu in a big big hole. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn’t read it. I think I will take one more book in hand by Brian… that I published, or co-published, at the time I was retiring from my real job and my super-hobby of publishing. More later. (Last couple of weeks have been busy… first, my wife’s birthday, then a fews later our anniversary, then July fourth…)

29/06/2024

Oops! Titus Crow did not reappear in the next book; I’ll have to wait for the last one.
Well, I’ve been kind of busy lately… not much time for reading. But I’ve finally finished Brian Lumley’s IN THE MOONS OF BOREA.
Basically there are two heroes: Hank Silberhutte, primarily, and Henri de Marigny. Allowing for all the sorcery, they manage to survive and find the Time Clock, since they have some sorcery on their own side (with the aid of Armandra, daughter of Ithaqua). Basically it’s a wild adventure story, with a reasonably happy ending… and a cute girl (Moreen) finally for Henri! She and Henri head for Elysia in the time clock at the conclusion. I now want to read ELYSIA again; I have vague happy memories of that book. More later!

18/06/2024

Well… finally got around to reading SPAWN OF THE WINDS. A totally different kind of story, with a different major character, Hank Silberhutte, mentioned briefly in a previous volume. Described as a Texan… and in some ways this whole story was a kind of western novel, with danger everywhere, exciting, adventurous…
Why a new character? Well, probably in order to provide a human male for the daughter of the Wind Walker, Ithaqua. And Hank certainly falls for her… Armandra; and she for him. For she was born of a mating between the elder one (Ithaqua) and a human woman; she felt more like a human than a goddess of evil, and was in opposition to her father.
Lots of battles, lots of excitement, lots of romance, and an ending in which they were safe… for the moment.
More to come in the next book, and Titus Crow will reappear!

06/06/2024

I’m continuing my plan to read all my Brian Lumley books (published by me long ago)… the next up was THE CLOCK OF DREAMS. I finished it last week, but have been a bit busy, and I sometimes like to read something other than horror for a change… anyway, the CLOCK (really a time-traveling space-traveling inter dimensional traveller) is the true “hero” of the book. It is full of small episodes featuring horror and action on the part of both DeMarigny and Crow, as well as others, and I read it in pieces, enjoying the various descriptions of horror. At the conclusion, both Henri and Titus (with his young lover Tiania) are safe… for the moment. I am already into the next book, which is not at all about Titus Crow (or Henri), but the horror seems to be still present. More later...

27/05/2024

Well, here’s my next “rant” on one of the the Lumley “Titus Crow” books: namely, THE TRANSITION OF TITUS CROW. I think it’s been over 30 years since I previously read it. Evidently I had forgotten a lot of the details, so that the events described often seemed totally new to me.
A large portion consists of writings by de Marigny, describing what he knows, including recordings of things told to him directly by Crow. I did NOT find these boring; they actually put me into the story, although it’s fairly complicated, both its vast description of horrors, and the events that occurred to both Crow and de Marigny.
Crow’s “transition” was rather complete, although he was able to keep his actual brain in his new body. I won’t go into that. He does come out a younger man, however, capable of falling in love with the daughter of an Elder God.
Yes, I often felt as if I were in the story and things happening to Titus Crow were happening to me!!!
Some people evidently believe that Lumley went a bit too far with the Lovecraftian views of Cthulhuvian worlds. But after all, HPL did encourage his friends (mostly authors) to go ahead and make use of his concepts in the horror line. (Lots of them did!)
I noticed that toward the end of the novel, we are introduced to the idea of Dreamland… another universe somehow connected to the real world, but created by the dreams of men (and Cthulhu)… This will become more important in the next novel, which I have already begun.
What can I say about the book, except the same thing I probably said over 32 years ago: I loved it!

18/05/2024

I’ve taken quite a while to read the BURROWERS BENEATH… It didn’t drag me into its story the way most of Lumley’s work does. It was more like a history book, describing what happened from the writings of various people. Horror? Yes, horror everywhere, with much explanation, and much description of what could happen to our world if Titus Crow and his friend deMarigny (who tells a lot of the story in the first person) could not stop the horrors beneath the surface of our earth. I found some excitement in the ending, but it was the sort of excitement that made me want to read the next book. I’ll be doing that soon.

Here are three quotes from on-line reviews that I kind of agree with:
“The story has a pacing problem, though, and way too long conversations really do spoil the flow of the story. Still, I somehow like it.”
“The first of the Titus Crow novels is The Burrower's Beneath. This novel introduces Titus Crow, Henri deMarigny, the Chthonian race, the Wilmarth Foundation, and more or less recaps the entirety of H.P. Lovecraft's works so newcomers will understand all the references being made. It's a chaotic, but in a good way, novel which deals with big issues.”
“Truth be told, this is not a great novel. The structure doesn't flow smoothly at all. There are several epistolary excursions, with whole chapters being essentially short stories to fill in background information for the main plot. And it suffers from the Indiana Jones problem wherein our two main characters barely matter at all to the events. Nor is there much in the way of a satisfying conclusion.”

My own conclusion is that the book really is fun although I think it’s kind of overwhelming if read all at once. But a good start for the next one, because it ends up with us readers wondering exactly what happened to Titus and Henri and the magic “clock?”
Please don’t bother looking for a copy of this title in my eBay store. My version is out of print. Copies of that are available elsewhere on line at rather high prices, but there are also reprints in softcover versions from other publishers.

10/05/2024

I’ve taken a bit of time to read the next Brian Lumley book that I published (date 1987)… THE COMPLEAT CROW. Actually it isn’t all that “compleat,” since it was followed by a number of novels… But I have decided that it is better not to read them quickly in succession… so I will do one a week or thereabouts.
THE COMPLEAT CROW consists of semi-related short stories, which include a couple of novelet-length ones. All have their interest, but I especially liked LORD OF THE WORMS… a novelette which I originally published in WEIRDBOOK a few years earlier. So… I should have remembered it well, but I could hardly recall anything about the story as I read it. And that was great. I loved it. Lots of horror; unlike many Lovecraft tales, the major character does not run away or drop dead; Titus Crow is a really heroic character, and the first small tale in the book gives a subtle explanation of why he is the way he is… even before his “Transition” in a later novel. The artwork by Steve Fabian is very dark and full of subtle impressions of horror. I wish I had listed the illustrations by page number on a separate contents page. I tried counting them… more than 12 full page drawings.
Of course this book is long out of print; I just have a couple of copies for myself, so there are none for sale in my eBay store. Other publishers have reprinted this book (such as Hodder & Stoughton and Subterranean Press, for example), and copies should be available on line. Don't know if those reprints included any of the Fabian artwork.. do you? (I don't think so.)

28/04/2024

What's on my mind (says the Facebook computer)? — Brian Lumley of course. I have been planning to re-read all my Brian Lumley books (published by me), and next up were to be the Titus Crow series… except that I almost forgot one book — the first Lumley book I did, 40 years ago. This was:
THE HOUSE OF CTHULHU and other tales of the primal land, beautifully illustrated by Jim Pitts.
I had previously published what I called “special” issues of WEIRDBOOK… they were three different collections of stories by three different writers. In doing this fourth one, I began to realize that I was publishing BOOKS, not special issues of a magazine. After finishing this one, I changed my policy and started publishing books that looked like books. HOUSE OF CTHULHU et al was published in magazine format (the usual 8.5 x 11 inches, double columns).
I hunted down my copy and started reading. (By the way, this has been OUT OF PRINT for quite a while, so I have no copies for sale.)
My impression (after 40 years) is that the start is rather slow… first an introduction, then a couple of tales that are loaded with information about the primal land… rather slow reading. But THE HOUSE OF CTHULHU was more interesting… it was located in Arlyeh and sank at the end of the tale (note the similarity to R’lyeh). The other stories were also of interest, and I liked them, but the odd thing about reading these is that I had just finished reading two of them last month… two tales of Tarra Khash, which were reprinted in the COMPLEAT KHASH books. Even though I had recently read them, I really enjoyed them again!
It was publishing this book (in magazine format), plus the sudden acquisition of several new manuscripts by Brian Lumley, that pushed me into being a book publisher, rather than merely the publisher of WEIRDBOOK. I probably would have published twice as many issues of WB if I hadn’t been spending time and money producing books (and not just by Brian). Do I regret this? No. I think I made the right decision.
I notice that copies are available on line (at various prices), and this includes later editions by Headline Books and Tor Books. (I myself don’t even have copies of those.)

12/04/2024

Well, I've been pretty busy but finally did manage to read the rest of the Brian Lumley's "Dreams" books. Don't have much to say about SHIP OF DREAMS, other than it more or less continues the tale of Hero and Eldin as a sort of combination of thieves and heroes and is entertaining. MAD MOON OF DREAMS was another thing entirely; I had forgotten the amount of horror in that book... including creatures so horrible that they not only threatened the existence of Dreamland, but the very existence of the real world!! So frightful was this that Hero and Eldin (and their friends and colleagues) actually teamed up with previous enemies (such as the Eidolon Lathi, and Zura). I enjoyed it and actually felt the horror myself at times. As for ICED ON ARAN, it is a collection of stories. I enjoyed the longish one, A-MAZED IN ORIAB, which was a lot like the previous three books. I also enjoyed a shorter one, AUGEREN... interesting to hear the monster Augeren talking with Hero... rather regretting the kind of monster he is, but looking forward to killing and eating Hero... and Hero kind of feeling sorry for the monster, even though he is tied up and about to be eaten. By the way, all four books have some very fine artwork; ICED ON ARAN was done by Stephen Fabian, and has some excellent interior illustrations. Amazing to me how much I had forgotten about the details of these four books. I did enjoy reading them.

21/03/2024

As I said above (or below?), I intended to read the four "Dreams" books by Brian Lumley (which I published 35-40 years ago). Long time ago, long time since I read them. But doing taxes, packing up book sales, watching the Yankees preseason games on TV, and other things have kind of interfered. But I have now finished HERO OF DREAMS. So a few comments:
David Hero and Eldin the Wanderer are not exactly like Tarra Khash. They are dreamers from Earth who seem to be trapped in Dreamland. They plod onward for various purposes, having incredible adventures with nightmarish monsters, wizards, etc., and even encounter weird friends (like a gigantic Tree). But they always get away safely. When rescued from their first real predicament by a cute young lady, who then joined them in their adventures (and who later agreed to marry Eldin, who fell for her), I began to realize that this was a fun book—— filled with horror, yes, including a mention of Cthulhu, but I felt certain they would always survive their near-disasters. (I normally survive mine when I am dreaming, after all.) Still it was fun to read and enjoyable. And they did survive... didn't they? Well, sort of... but....
More commentaries later on. I am now part-way into SHIP OF DREAMS. Visitors coming for a few days, so who knows when my next commentary will appear....

12/03/2024

Finished reading the Tarra Khash books that I published (by Brian Lumley). I was really surprised by the second volume... it was so filled with horror, adventure, romance, and other ideas... and I had not recalled much about it. It's not only about Tarra Khash but others, friends, allies, and enemies... not only of Tarra but enemies of all of humanity. Very Lovecraftian... but Lumley's heroes do not get frightened to death or run away; they fight back. And all the fascinating artwork by Jim Pitts!!! Wow.
Now I'll be starting the "Dreams" series, with "Hero of Dreams." Somewhere in between re-reading these old books I published long ago, and other activities (such as maybe selling a book or two on eBay), I have got to start working on this year's taxes!

07/03/2024

I'm quoting something I just wrote on my regular Facebook:
"Haven't said much of late... a bit shocked by the death of Brian Lumley, early this year. Would like to write quite a bit about his influence on my major hobby, publishing. But that would look a bit like advertising, since many of his books (that I published years ago) are still in print and available from my eBay store. (It would be advertising, too, wouldn't it!!) So I think I will limit my comments to my face book 'Page,' and I will start by really advertising some of the titles... at the end of that series of actual advertising, I will make some comments on his influence on me. And I will do it in my 'Page,' rather than here, since the people who follow that may be a lot more interested in my comments. What I plan to do is actually re-read those books I published over 20 years ago; I started with The Compleat Khash, Volume 1 (Never a Backward Glance), and will be reading the second one in the next day or so. Then I'll comment on those... and follow with more books as time passes."

So... a warning... if this doesn't interest you, don't tune in to my future rants over the next month or two!!!

04/01/2024

Ah... back home from two weeks in San Diego... actually sold a few items in my eBay store while we were gone, so have a bit of packing up to do (some already accomplished!). Happy New Year to all.

18/12/2023

Holidays are zooming closer, so I'll be putting my eBay store on vacation setting. People can still see items and bid or buy, as long as they don't mind waiting till next year (!) for shipment.

28/11/2023

Back tonight from a Thanksgiving weekend vacation. My eBay store is now back on. Two people actually bought books while we were gone! Never expected that, but just finished packing them up to mail tomorrow (Tuesday). I'll have to get busy putting some more on at auction since those now at auction are coming off in the next couple of days. (If not bid on, most will back on as buy-it-now books.)

25/10/2023

Either people have stopped buying books from my eBay store, or this isn't a book-buying season, or maybe someone has hacked my system. Don't know. Still putting on new ones at auction, the most recent being Caleb Carr's KILLING TIME.

15/09/2023

Went on vacation for a week, and put my eBay store on vacation setting. Can't believe that I actually sold six different books (six different buyers, also)! WOW. Maybe I should go on vacation more often!!!!!

12/08/2023

Just put a copy of CARNACKI THE GHOST-FINDER at auction, plus some more swords-and -sorcery items (though Carnacki doesn't count as one of those!!). I enjoyed that book, years ago, and I still did when I just reread it. Not your usual supernatural tales.

15/07/2023

Lately I've been putting some "Robert E. Howard" books on line (mostly paperbacks), and now I am adding some related items, such as CONAN books by other authors. Take a look under the"Swords & Sorcery" listing or my current auction offerings.

18/06/2023

Just playing around on line and I found copy of Wetzel's GOTHIC HORROR AND OTHER WEIRD TALES reduced to $20. Wow. And I am still offering them at the original price of $4 (or is that even a dollar less; I forget). Oh well... i'm not tempted to double my price.

18/06/2023

Not possible but I guessed 10 out of 10 (!)

How high will you score?

05/06/2023

Here's one of a number of Robert E. Howard books I have been putting on eBay:

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ROBERT E. HOWARD—THE MOON OF SKULLS—Centaur Press (Nov., 1969)—TIME-LOST SERIES at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

27/03/2023

I've been putting some Karl Edward Wagner weird fantasy/horror books on eBay (early edition paperbacks, mostly), and I just couldn't believe what they have been selling for lately on line. Even cutting my initial bid by half, it seems incredible. Guess there is a reason why I originally bought them to read. Yup! The "W" stands for Weird, and that goes for Wagner as well as me.

15/03/2023

Put a couple more Gene Wolfe books on eBay auction (paperbacks, this time), and just finished putting one of my very old favorites, H. Warner Munn's WEREWOLF OF PONKERT in the old paperback edition from Centaur Books. That other Wolfe book that I offered got snapped up almost at once!

10/03/2023

Well, at least I finished doing our taxes, and now I'm back to putting new items at auction on eBay... most recent are books by Gene Wolfe, by Roger Zelazny, and by Sax Rohmer (but not Fu Manchu).

21/01/2023

Just thought I'd mention that I have put 7 paperbacks at auction on eBay in the "Lensmen" series by old "Doc" Smith (PhD). Books are fairly old also. Used to be among my favorites, but actually I don't read much SF any more.

26/12/2022

Snowed in now for the third day... won't be mailing any packages till the end of the week. At least we haven't lost our electric power (so far, anyway). Lots of football games on TV to watch.

22/12/2022

Wishing everyone a Merry New Year and a Happy Winter Solstice. We're expecting to get hit by a super-storm as a Christmas Present! We ended up staying home for the holidays instead of visiting family. Looks like people are out shopping instead of buying books from my eBay store. Oh well, no packages to wrap up — that gives me a chance to goof off!

30/11/2022

Well, we're home from Thanksgiving vacation. Sold a few items even though the store was on vacation setting. Maybe I'll sell more at Christmas the same way. Meanwhile, I'll be adding some more books to the set of auctions... including a really neat old paperback called "The Judges of Hades," by Hoch. OOPS: sold it soon after making this comment.

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for EDWARD D. HOCH—The Judges of Hades and other Simon Ark Stories—Leisure Books '71 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!