Hello and welcome to Silverthought's tenth year as a fully armed and operational battle station. I won't waste time this month waxing eloquent or waning gibbons about the significance of our tin anniverary, but I will let you in on some developments that certainly are exciting to me and may or may not certainly be exciting to you.

Books, books, books. They're everywhere these days, so I've decided to publish a few. First up this year is a novella by David S. Grant, Bliss, the prequel to Bleach/Blackout. A wooden leg figures prominently in this transgressive high school adventure. Bliss will be Silverthought's first e-book-only publication. I continue my efforts to convert much of the back catalog to e-book formats, but reading books on an electronical screen kills my eyes. Somewhere there is an intense irony. Anyway, you can expect Bliss to hit virtual bookshelves in February.

Silverthought has had an imprint or two in its day, including the oft-misunderstood and much-maligned Offense Mechanisms division, which covers the transgressive/experimental/leftover side of things, but we just don't have an imprint for genres like plain old, you know, fiction. And non-fiction. And poetry. Good old fashioned non "genre" genres. So within the next few months you'll see the debut of our latest imprint, Elm Ridge Books, which will accept submissions of literary fiction, poetry, and even some non-fiction. I'm thrilled to announce that Elm Ridge's first publication will be a collection of poetry by a familiar-name-around-ST David LaBounty, who has truly found his calling--and his following--in the world of poetry. More details to follow.

I'm also chuffed--to steal a turn of phrase--to announce that Silverthought will be publishing Drink for the Thirst to Come, a collection of short fiction by Lawrence Santoro. In this update, Lawrence joins ST editor Mark Brand and Davis Schneiderman, author of Drain, for Breakfast with the Author: Episode 3.

Vampires. Yes, the V word. Not V, the crappy ABC crappy crap crapfest, but the V word. Doesn't make sense? Read "Night Trial" by Russell Lutz, the winner of the Silverthought Sparkly Vampire Jamboree contest. I didn't hate it. Nor did I hate "Charlie Makes His Way" by Peggy McFarland or "Revenant" by Dan Kopcow, both entries to our vampire contest that I've included here for your reading enjoyment. I was shocked and awed at how very little I hated these vampire stories, and I may in fact have to have another vampire contest sometime soon. But probably not, since the last time I said I hated vampires on Facebook, I lost at least five friends. I can't afford to lose more or my Farmville crops will die or something.

Give a warm Silverthought welcome to David Bastin, Georgina Kamsika, and Deanna Knippling. Who are these people? Well, besides each having very interesting names, they are each very interesting writers, and I have included their short fiction in this update.

Also included in this update is an interview Mark Brand conducted with Jim Bainbridge, the author of Human Sister, a book that, if you've not already read it, you should. Really. It's our latest release, and it's a beautiful hardcover, and it's a heartbreaking story, and this interview reveals at least a little of the precision and depth and intricacy of the story. Human Sister is available now from Silverthought Press.

So yes, our tenth year begins with some super awesome developments and will continue with even more as soon as I'm authorized to reveal the details to the world. Thank you to everyone who has supported us the last decade. Check out our newly remodeled forum and join us on Facebook and Twitter and all those stupid social media things that weren't around when we started.

—PEH