One sure sign that the economy is limping back out of the ditch is the long-delayed release of SPORE, the new Skipp & Goodfellow novel. but the details should make it crystal clear that nothing will eveer be like it was, in genre publishing.

Spore was slated to come out in November, 2010 from Leisure Books, and was a casualty of the company's financial troubles. When Dorchester announced its plans to go from mass market paperbacks to an all e-book format, many of the house's signature names pulled their titles. We stuck around, and we're glad we did. SPORE is available now in Kindle and Nook formats, and if the new paradigm works out, they plan to put out a trade paperback edition in Summer of 2011.

But if you're impatient for a dead-tree version of Spore (and one of the lucky few who never got sideswiped by the recession), a handsome signed, illustrated fetish-object edition is coming out any day now from Bloodletting Books. With art by Perilous favorite Steven Gilberts and a limited run of 150 numbered copies, this edition should sell out faster than tickets to that Spider Man musical.

Meanwhile, more Skipp & Goodfellow hijinx are on tap here, here and here, and my latest solo short stuff is out now here and here.