The Devil’s Alphabet: Launch Day

/ Daryl Gregory
The freaky-deaky cover
Click it to flip it

It’s November 24 — the official publication date of my second book, The Devil’s Alphabet. I’ve gotten word from pal Jack Skillingstead that it’s already on the shelves in Seattle—it must be the time difference. And two people just emailed me (it’s 1Am Tuesday morning as I type this) that their order just shipped from Amazon.

The latest reviews, the first chapter, and links to buy are all on the Devil page.

Meanwhile, here’s a party game to play for the launch: go to your friendly neighborhood bookstore, find the book on the shelf… and flip it over. It’s freaky fun for the whole family.

There are a raft of people who were a great help in writing this book. I’d tell you to read about them in the acknowledgments, but what if you never buy the thing? Or if the cover scares you, and you never even look inside?

Better to thank all those people here, in front of God and everybody. Here’s a copy of what you’d find if you opened the front cover:

Many people helped make the book you’re holding (or viewing, or listening to) and I owe them my sincere thanks. Chris Schluep, with a deft hand on the editorial stick, guided this book the final miles over the chilly Hudson. Many more people at Del Rey worked to get these words in front of you, including some–Fleetwood Robbins (who acquired this book when its title was “Work to be Named Later”), and SueMoe! (one word, with exclamation mark)–who’ve moved on and are greatly missed. Deanna Hoak signed up for a second tour of copy editing. And David Bowie–well, he has no idea how much he helped me write this thing.

My gratitude goes as well to the early readers: Charles Coleman Finlay, Sarah K. Castle, Cathrynne M. Valente, and the rest of the Blue Heaven workshop crew who critiqued the first draft; Heather Lindsley, who fine-tuned the second; and Kathy Bieschke, Gary Delafield, and Elizabeth Delafield, who marked up hundreds of pages in between. Emma and Ian Gregory read none of it, but informed all of it.

And to all the Gregorys, Barbaras, Meyers, Riddles, and Heatons, the multitude of aunts, uncles, and cousins — so many cousins! — scattered over the Smokies: thanks for feeding your Yankee relation every time he came to town. Even more than the bizarre residents of Switchcreek, the lonely boy in this book is a creature of pure imagination.

Last, I want to point out that the book is dedicated to my parents, Darrell and Thelma. You wouldn’t believe what they had to put up with.

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16 thoughts on “The Devil’s Alphabet: Launch Day”

  2. Hey there,

    I’d love to get this book for my kindle, but I live in Canada and for some reason Amazon says I can’t get this book in electronic format due to copyright reasons. Any idea what these reasons are and if they will be lifted sometime in the future?

    T.

  6. Congratulations man! I’m nearly done with the first draft of my novel and haven’t been reading much fiction recently for that reason, but I will make an exception for this one. Amazon says I should have it in a day or two. I can’t wait to get swallowed up by it.

  7. Just got back from a bookstore run over lunch. I should have phoned first as the first store didn’t have it. Luckily they had another branch a few miles up the road that did. I also noticed a “year’s best” that included the Lord Grimm story so it was definitely worth the trip.

    I didn’t flip the remaining copy upside down, but I did some minor shelf rearranging to expose the cover.

    At least now I will have something to read in the evenings. I had been holding off starting something else until today.

  14. Well it is set in the Border’s world. You’re a horror writer. Pandemonium was on the horror shelves and now The Devil’s Alphabet.

    By the way finished The Devil’s Alphabet this past week and enjoyed every minute of it. Congratulations!

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