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Shoto Press releases second book in The Malay Mysteries series
The Ghost of Silver Cliff continues legacy of Xeric award-winning graphic novel Garlands of Moonlight

NEW YORK, December 3, 2002 -- Shoto Press, a small press imprint specializing in speculative fiction and graphic novels, announced today the upcoming release of The Ghost of Silver Cliff at the end of the month.

The second installment in The Malay Mysteries series follows Marsiti, the spirited medicine woman, and Hidayat, her skeptical companion, from the critically-acclaimed Garlands of Moonlight. In the new adventure, the pair hitches a ride with a merchant ship to a reputedly haunted village--a forsaken place where outsiders don't survive the night, or so the story goes. A paranormal puzzle of tragic romance and vengeance, The Ghost of Silver Cliff is printed in the same evocative black-and-silver printing technique as its predecessor. The book is written by Jai Sen, co-author Eric Bryden, and illustrated by Garlands of Moonlight artist Rizky Wasisto Edi.

"Jai and I were always coming up with ideas for stories, with his experiences growing up in India and Indonesia providing a wealth of lore and legends for us to draw upon," said Sen's longtime collaborator, Eric Bryden. "When Jai contacted me years later about actually putting these ideas to work, I was ecstatic and signed on immediately."

The Ghost of Silver Cliff resumes the story of Marsiti's struggles to rid a small Indonesian village of a vampiric creature from Indonesian folklore, and continues with an exorcism. Marsiti ultimately decides to leave the village that falsely accused her of the supernatural murders. Joining Marsiti's quest to find and help others in need of her special talents is the pragmatic schoolteacher Hidayat, who begins to accept the strange new world opening to him through Marsiti's guidance. Together, they find passage with a merchant ship to the village of Silver Cliff, a community haunted by the restless spirit of a suicide and cursed with the untimely deaths of young male visitors.

The Ghost of Silver Cliff will see once again the use of advanced printing techniques and unusual formats that have distinguished Shoto Press books from the other graphic novels on the market. Pioneered in Garlands of Moonlight, a unique formulation of black and silver ink and use of a horizontal format suggests an album of daguerreotypes, matching the turn-of-the-century setting of The Malay Mysteries and catching the nuances of artist Edi's popular graphite renderings.

Along with all other Shoto Press books, The Ghost of Silver Cliff is available through Baker & Taylor and includes Publisher's Cataloging-in-Publication (P-CIP) data provided by Quality Books, Inc., as part of Shoto Press's commitment to facilitate integration of graphic novels into library collections and bookstores.

The Ghost of Silver Cliff is available now for pre-order at the Shoto Press web site (URL: www.shotopress.com) and at bookstores. Pre-orders through Diamond Previews begin in January. Pre-orders at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Online will start later this month.

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