In yer face, pal! That’s right, that butt-kicking, pistol-whipping paragon of punishment is back. Fedora III, though it won’t hit the shelves until fall, is now available for pre-order.

Why do I care about this? Because this volume features the ink-and-paper debut of a terrific (?) young (??) writer named Graham Powell. Yes folks, after three years of stinking up the web, my short story “Empty Houses” will be among those collected in this new book from editor Michael Bracken.

Allow me to quote liberally from my Stories page:

One evening I was on my way to my writing group and was stuck behind a Sunday driver, slowing down at every intersection to look at the street signs. The first line of this story popped into my head: “It’s tough to follow someone who doesn’t know where he’s going.” I really learned how to plot with this story. I had a good start, but I didn’t know A) what Chapel was looking for, B) why he was looking for it, and C) why he didn’t know how to find it.

Also contributing:

Tom Sweeney

Lee Goldberg

Carol Kilgore

George Wilhite

J. L. Abramo

David Terrenoire

David Bart

Bev Vincent

James S. Dorr

Chelle Martin

Dorothy Rellas

Ann Aptaker

Nick Andreychuk

Michael Hemmingson

Michael Bracken

Kevin Egan