Click here to purchase Odd Corners by William Hjortsberg
When a book goes out of print it is like a death in the family. Used copies may still be found in second-hand stores but something vital is missing. They’ve become things of the past, mere nostalgic curiosities. And so, to have two of my books resurrected from this limbo makes me want to shout for joy.
Odd Corners collects Gray Matters and Symbiography along with two short stories, all of the “speculative fiction” (a more sophisticated designation than “sci-fi”) that I have written to date. I owe their rebirth to my publisher, Jack Shoemaker, who inquired about the books during the course of an interview for a biography I’m writing on our old friend, Richard Brautigan.
It was Jack who decided “Cyberworld” sounded out-of-date and suggested using the words “Slip-stream” instead in the subtitle. I had never heard of the term, other than in its relationship to aviation, but didn’t feel a bit hypocritical in agreeing to its use as all of my science fiction was written without any real knowledge of science. Winging it on pure imagination alone seems pretty slip-stream to me.
 |
 |
|---|