Iris and Sherlock (at last, but not together)

It's rather later than expected, I know, but it's now possible to pre-order the two anthologies I've edited this year, Iris Wildthyme of Mars and Tales of the Great Detectives, from Obverse Books. If you're not of a mind to wait for another couple of weeks, or would rather not pay for the print versions (hardback and paperback respectively), it's also possible to buy and download the ebooks for consumption this very instant.

I'm very proud of both anthologies: a total of seventeen thoroughly talented people have contributed to them, they deal with two of my favourite genre characters (albeit in unfamiliar contexts in both cases), the covers are excellent, and I think they've turned out as really lovely books through and through.

Here are the links to do that ordering you'll be so keen on:

• Iris Wilthyme of Mars hardback preorder
• Iris Wildthyme of Mars ebook
• Tales of the Great Detectives paperback preorder 
• Tales of the Great Detectives ebook

Enjoy.

* * *

I've no particular reason to suppose that these will be the last anthologies I'll be editing for Obverse Books, but I thought it might be interesting at this point to look at who I've published so far (since with the publication of these two books the number nearly doubles). Excluding myself, the list goes like this:

• Helen Angove (Tales of the City)
• Aditya Bidikar  (Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Blair Bidmead (Tales of the City and Iris Wildthyme of Mars -- also the cover artist for Tales of the Great Detectives)
• Simon Bucher-Jones (More Tales of the City and Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Rachel Churcher (Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Mark Clapham (Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Jay Eales (More Tales of the City)
• Elizabeth Evershed (Tales of the City and Tales of the Great Detectives)
• Jess Faraday (Tales of the Great Detectives)
• Kelly Hale (More Tales of the City and Tales of the Great Detectives)
• Dave Hoskin (Tales of the City)
• Juliet Kemp (Tales of the City and Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Selina Lock (Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Stephen Marley (Tales of the Great Detectives)
• Chantelle Messier (Tales of the Great Detectives)
• Lance Parkin (Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Ian Potter (More Tales of the City and Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Dale Smith (Tales of the City and Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Daniel Tessier (Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Susannah Tiller (More Tales of the City)
• Richard Wright (More Tales of the City and Iris Wildthyme of Mars)
• Andrew Hickey (Tales of the Great Detectives)

So...

1. That's 22 authors, eight of whom I've commissioned twice, two of whom co-wrote a single story, thus contributing a total of 29 stories (mine excluded). 
2. Of these authors, if I'm remembering correctly, nine hadn't previously been published by Obverse Books or their online wing Manleigh Books; six were making their debuts as professionally published writers. 
3. Of those 22 authors, 16 are British (and I believe in fact English), three American, two Australian and one Indian. However, two of the Brits are based in the USA, and one returned to the UK from India between their first and second commission. The book with the highest concentration of non-UK authors is Tales of the Great Detectives, half of whose contributors are American. 
4. Nine of the authors are women, 13 men; of the stories, 12 are by women and 17 by men. (Those aren't great statistics, admittedly, but they're better than many genre anthologies manage.)  Of the individual anthologies, Tales of the Great Detectives has a majority of female authors, and Tales of the City at least achieves parity (although only if you exclude my contributions).
5. To the best of my knowledge without having actually met them all (see 6), all but one of these people are white. 
6. Eight of the authors are people I've met in real life: five of them I'd never interacted with prior to commissioning them. The rest, predictably, I knew online. (Only three of them are people I went out with, went to university with or invited to my wedding.) 
7. Between us to date (counting co-author credits, and including my own titles this time), the contributors to these anthologies are responsible for 15 Doctor Who novels, four Bernice Summerfield novels, four Faction Paradox novels (with more in the works), four Señor 105 novellas, three Time Hunter novellas and something like 65 short stories for Obverse Books.

Those, then, are the facts. Suggestions as to what any of this might mean, or other ways in which I could (feasibly, and within the bounds of decency and good taste) break that list down, will be received with interest.