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Frozen Hell: The Book That Inspired The Thing

Created by John Betancourt

A newly discovered, expanded version of the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" (THE THING) by John W. Campbell, Jr.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

The lettered edition update
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 09:55:05 PM

Good news! Everything is here now for the lettered editions, so we are preparing to wrap up the Frozen Hell Kickstarter at last.

Here is a first look at the box:

The Box

It's black with a matte finish. Quantity was so small, each box was hand made -- so there are some minor imperfections to the finish. I'm assured by the production people that this is normal for matte finish.

Inside the box

Nestled inside the box is a copy of FROZEN HELL, of course—the 26-copy lettered edition. With tipped-in signature plates for Robert Silverberg, Alec Nevala-Lee, Bob Eggleton, and yours truly.

The flap contains a magnet and the box contains a steel plate to seal the box. It should be stored vertically in a bookcase, just like a book. If you have a temperature and climate-controlled room, so much the better! It's on acid-free paper and should last for many generations.

Note that he box is slightly larger than the book, which is intentional. You don't want it too tight or rubbing against the edges. And it has room for a couple of "surprise premiums" that weren't part of the Kickstarter campaign, and which you haven't seen before. Cool stuff.

Take your book for a spin!

Of course, books are meant to be taken out and looked at. Share pics your Frozen Hell boxed, lettered edition with friends and make them jealous!

Books begin shipping TOMORROW.

If you have a change of address, NOW is the time to send it to me. Please use the private message feature here at Kickstarter.

Thanks for being part of our first Kickstarter campaign!

John Betancourt

Publisher, Wildside Press

Some Things
over 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 17, 2020 at 02:03:28 AM

Hope you are all doing well. 

Some Thing updates for you.

1. Due to all of the things going on this year, we have decided to postpone the new Kickstarter until April of next year. It has been a crazy year with a lot of slowdowns in the various industries we need to produce the books you love. On top of that, with the US mail being slow for a few months, it seems like the best thing to do is to wait and give things time to calm down and start running smoothly again next year. So mark your calendars for April, when you'll be able to snap up the new Thing books that continue the mystery and horror across space and time. Our very own award-winning John Gregory Betancourt is already working on the new Thing Trilogy, featuring THE THINGS FROM ANOTHER WORLD,  MARS IS HELL, and the third book tentatively titled END GAME: A NOVEL  OF THE THINGS. We'll be launching the campaign for the first book next year, probably in April, with the rest to follow. The cover will be by the legendary, award-winning artist Bob Eggleton, and if the campaign does well enough Bob may also do interior art for the book as well. Bob previously did the cover to FROZEN HELL, so you know it is going to be amazing. We may do another Thing anthology as a stretch goal, like we did with theFROZEN HELL campaign. Let us know in the comments here if that is something you would like, and which authors you would love to see write short stories set in the Thing universe.


 If you missed out on the audiobook Narrated by  Yuri Lowenthal we have it  here just for you.

2. Film Thing News you might not know!

John Carpenter might be going round two with The Thing for the Blumhouse Adaptation. So that is something to keep track of. We'll give you updates on it as soon as we are allowed to, along with news about exciting new things coming to your screen soon.


3. Talking about our Short Things anthology, if you missed out on it the first time you can snap it up here.

Some of our amazing authors from Short Things have some other things out that you might want to check out.

G. D. Falksen has the first book in an epic new fantasy series out

Maiden of War

Kevin J. Anderson has a new Dune book out

Dune: The Duke of Caladan

 
 Dan Brereton has a new Nocturnals out now
 Dan Brereton's Children Of Night!

Talking about mystery books, right now we have a wonderful new anthology up on Kickstarter, full of mystery stories by award-winning authors. It's called California Schemin' and you can check it out here if you like.

 California Schemin' 


4. Wildsideis launching a graphic novel and art book imprint. We have a line up of award-winning artists and writers ready to go. You are the first to know about this and will be the first to see what amazing new projects we have planned for it.

5. We hope you are doing well and taking care as best you can. With your support we have been able to make amazing art and will continue to do so. Thank you so much for everything. We hope you like the updates so you can be in the know before anyone else. More great things are coming and we just know you are going to love them.

Evelyn

Wildsidepress.com

Things Going On And Things To Come
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Jun 13, 2020 at 12:53:16 PM

First of all we all hope you are doing well and staying safe and healthy. It's so great to see how many of you are happy with the books via your posts online.

 Frozen Hell & Short Things Update 

Most rewards should have been shipped at this point, with a couple of key exceptions. As you'll recall, production of the deluxe lettered hardcover was delayed because of the pandemic, and we working to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

  • Frozen Hell deluxe lettered hardcover — because of COVID-19, there has been a production delay on the boxes still.  We will have an update on this as soon as it has been resolved. We are  very sorry for this unforeseeable delay. 
  • We have shipped out pretty much everything else. We have seen people only just now start to receive items that we shipped weeks ago. If you are receiving things internationally and they haven't arrived yet, give it a little more time as it seems the international mail has been much slower. We think it could have to do with COVID-19 causing so many industry shutdowns, which has slowed everything down. A lot of other publishers have not been able to publish or even ship new books for months.

WHAT IF THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH MY PLEDGE?

Contact John through a private message here and he will fix it.

We need your help with something 

John Gregory Betancourt is already working on new Thing Trilogy. THE THINGS FROM ANOTHER WORLD, MARS IS HELL, and the third book tentatively titled END GAME: A NOVEL OF THE THINGS. We are looking to launch the Kickstarter for the first book in the new series possibly by this July. 

What type of rewards would you like to see with it? Of course it will be the book, but give us your dream list of other rewards to go along with it if you could have anything. That helps us give you what you would like.

Last but relevant to your interests, today is the last day for 

Staying In Place

An anthology of stories to pass the time

Because we know that a lot of you are stuck at home right now, we've put together an ebook anthology of great sci-fi, fantasy,  and mystery stories to help you pass the time. Because it's an ebook,  you'll be able to get it quickly after the campaign is finished, without  having to worry about waiting on the mail.

We have added a stretch goal: if this campaign reaches $2000, we'll commission an original story set in John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" universe.  Kickstarter.com/staying-in-place

We hope you have a great weekend. We look forward to getting you more amazing fun things very soon. Thank you so much for the support you are all so amazing.

Evelyn 

Wildsidepress.com

Things For Twenty Twenty
almost 4 years ago – Sun, May 17, 2020 at 02:23:40 AM

The latest about FROZEN HELL

The Wildside Press offices are closed (and likely to remain so through the summer—John and his wife are both in the high risk category for the coronavirus, and they aren't taking any unnecessary chances). John has the Short Things limited edition hardcovers at home, has finally figured out how to get the shipping software to work (it was being stubborn and trying to charge double the shipping it charged from the office) and has begun sending out the remaining international copies. 

Here is a status update for everything:

  •  Frozen Hell paperback, trade hardcover, leatherbound hardcover, and 100-copy numbered hardcover— shipping long completed. Everyone who ordered them should now have them.
  •  Frozen Hell deluxe lettered hardcover — because of COVID-19, there has been a production delay on the boxes. We will have an update on this as soon as it has been resolved. We are very sorry for this unforeseeable delay.
  •   Short Things paperback — shipping long completed. Everyone who ordered them should now have them.
  •  Short Things hardcover — shipping completed in the U.S. Shipping will be completed next week for the remaining international orders. The end is in sight!
  •  Bookmarks / Bookplates —shipping partially completed. (We included them with books shipped from the office.) We will finish getting the rest of them out once the Short Things hardcovers have all shipped.

WHAT IF THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH MY PLEDGE?

Contact John through a private message here and he will fix it.

WHAT ABOUT THE SEQUELS?

John Gregory Betancourt is working on 2 projects concurrently:

  •  THE THINGS FROM ANOTHER WORLD — John hopes to finish the first draft in August or September.
  •  MARS IS HELL — this book is set in the same universe, but the Things do not make an appearance. It will, however, prove vitally important to the third book in the series, tentatively titled END GAME: A NOVEL OF THE THINGS, and for future books in the series. (How's that for a teaser!)

Something New For John W. Campbell Fans

Staying In Place

An anthology of stories to pass the time

Because we know that a lot of you are stuck at home right now, we've put together an ebook anthology of great sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery stories to help you pass the time. Because it's an ebook, you'll be able to get it quickly after the campaign is finished, without having to worry about waiting on the mail. We just launched the campaign yesterday and it's already been funded!

Kickstarter.com/staying-in-place

Because we didn't expect the project to be funded so quickly, we are still putting together stretch goals for it, but we will have some listed soon. In the meantime, we are excited to announce that we have just gotten permission to include John W. Campbell's 1936 story "The Brain-Stealers of Mars" in the anthology. This story is discussed in the intros to Frozen Hell and is cited as Campbell's first exploration of the Thing concept: explorers land on Mars and find creatures that can mimic them. A piece of literary history that any Thing fan will enjoy reading.

 Thank you for all the support we have so many amazing things in the works for you.  

Things Are Going To Be Ok
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 03:32:59 AM

First of all, we hope that you are all doing OK and staying well.

With the COVID-19 outbreak, the Wildside offices have been temporarily shut down to keep everyone safe, and all of our employees are working from home. We are lucky to have a great team who can get everything done at the office or at home. None of Wildside's employees are sick, nor are our families, thankfully. We are still shipping out books, and you can still order anything from our site or from Amazon. We also have thousands of ebooks that you can get right away.

Second, a quick campaign update. We have approximately 50 Short Things hardcover copies to send out, along with a small number of bookmarks and bookplates. The books will be sent out shortly. The remaining bookmarks and bookplates are in storage at the office and will ship out last, after the pandemic is over. Aside from that, we have shipped out all the rewards that are being managed directly through the Wildside office. If you are still waiting on something from the campaign, please send a private message to John so that he can make note of what is missing and work out how best to get it to you.

Something is going to go live very very soon that should make being stuck at home better. You will be the first to know of it.

Thank you all for your continued support. Please stay safe.

Evelyn