To celebrate California Bookstore Day Black Hill Press has produced The Cost of Paper, an anthology of short fiction and artwork that you can buy in paper format for, um, the cost of printing the thing in paper format: $4.06. You can get an e-version for free.

The anthology features my short story, “Wenona’s Leap,” which is a scene that I’d planned for my novella Sing for Life: Away, You Rolling River but which in the end, didn’t really fit with how the story was progressing; I never actually wrote it. The anthology seemed like a good opportunity to write the scene independently of the things that went before and after in the main story (now that I’ve written it, it still wouldn’t fit exactly). I convinced Benjamin Mills, who did the cover art for Sing for Life: Away, You Rolling River and indeed, the rest of the Benjamin Mills Collection for BHP), to do an illustration as a companion to the story.

Ryan Gattis, the editor of The Cost of Paper, Volume One, says:

“This isn’t so much an anthology of short fiction and art as a book in the tradition of eclectic record samplers. Full of B-Sides and Rarities from nearly every member in our artistic family, it’s the equivalent of a mix-tape packed with different styles and genres: Supernatural Fantasy, Shoe-gazing Romance, Mystery, Historical, Noir, and Surreal Sci-Fi. The stories inside span eras and places, from Louisiana to California, from Harlem to Kyoto. This sampler is a testament to the power of collaboration, and we enjoyed the process so much, we’re making The Cost of Paper an annual tradition, not for a profit, but to share who we are and what we most believe in with you—all for the cost of what it takes to print.”

Go buy it and/or download it now.