Jiang Shi Vampire Fans

Last of the pre-made holiday posts.

We fly back tomorrow. We usually do a last day shop run looking for stuff we can't get back home.  Last time we picked up these two hand held fans.  A European and a Chinese vampire.

No they don't take off if you put the batteries in the wrong way.

Dragon Thongs

Yet another preplanned blog post.
 
By now we've probably found some stuff we want to buy. Last visit we found some gold and silver dragon thongs for RM1 (about 35 cents).

The kind of thongs you wear on your feet, not the other kind. Although in my own opinion, I think I would look spectacular in a dragon g-string.

Santas Evil Helpers

According to myths dating from the 18th century, Saint Nicholas often operated in the companionship of a devil. Having triumphed over evil, it was said that on Saint Nicholas Eve, the devil was shackled and made his slave.   In the 1840s, a Nordic folklore elf called Tomte or Nisse started to deliver the Christmas presents in Denmark.  The Tomte was portrayed as a short, bearded man dressed in grey clothes and a red hat.  The original folklore of Saint Nicolas has many parallels with the Germanic myths of Odin.  These include the beard, hat and spear (nowadays a staff) and the cloth bag held by the servants to capture naughty children.  There are various explanations of the origins of Santas helpers, many involve an enslaved devil.  In some interpretations the helper represents the devil, in others it represents Nörwi, the black father of the night, who defeated the devil and accompanies Odin.

Another, story is of Zwarte Piet (meaning Black Pete) originally was an enslaved devil forced to assist his captor.  Zwarte Piet is usually depicted with the same staff of birch as Odins helper Nörwi.  Piet often dealt harsh punishment to children who were bad.  In the 19th century Black Pete became to be depicted as a Moor in the colourful pantaloons and feathered cap of a Renaissance page.  Coinciding with a story that Saint Nicolas liberated an Ethiopian slave boy called 'Piter' (from Saint Peter), and the boy was so grateful he decided to stay with St Nicolas as a helper.  Because of the post modern trend of political correctness, Zwarte Piet has become a modern servant whose face is blackened by soot from climbing through chimneys.

In German folklore, Knecht Ruprecht (translates as Farmhand Rupert or Servant Rupert) is a companion of Saint Nicholas and is sometimes associated with Saint Rupert.  He appeared in homes on Christmas Eve, as a man with a long beard wearing fur or pea-straw, sometimes carrying a long staff and a bag of ashes, and wore little bells on his clothes (like the modern elves).  Knecht Ruprecht asks children if they can pray. If they can, they receive apples, nuts, and gingerbread.  If they cannot, he beats the children with his bag of ashes.  Ruprecht was a common name for the Devil in Germany.  He was also known as Hans Ruprecht, Rumpknecht, and Rû Clås (Rough Nicholas).

A French character who accompanies St. Nicholas in his rounds during St. Nicholas' Day (6 December) is Le Père Fouettard (translates as The whipping Father).  The Whipping Father dispenses lumps of coal and floggings to naughty children, while St. Nicholas gives gifts to the well behaved.  The most common depiction of Le Père Fouettard is a man with a sinister face dressed in dark robes with scraggly unkempt hair and a long beard. He is armed with either a whip, a large stick.  Some incarnations of the character have him wearing a wicker back pack in which children can be placed and carried away.  Often, his face is darkened to varying degrees and is sometimes depicted identically to Black Pete.

Then there's the Icelandic Yule Lads (no they're not the latest boy band from Iceland) these guys are more like the modern day depiction of Santas elves only evil.  Their number and description varied greatly depending on location, with each Lad ranging from mere pranksters to homicidal monsters who eat children.  Modern consensus is that there are 13 of them.  The Yule Lads are traditionally said to be the sons of mountain-dwelling trolls.  They are often depicted with the Yuletide Cat, a beast that eats children who don't receive new clothes in time for Christmas.  The Yule Lads come to town over the last 13 nights before Christmas, each staying for two weeks before departing.  The English translations of their Icelandic names are: Sheep-Cote Clod, Gully Gawk, Stubby, Spoon-Licker, Pot-Scraper, Bowl-Licker, Door-Slammer, Skyr-Gobbler, Sausage-Swiper, Window-Peeper, Door-Sniffer, Meat-Hook & Candle-Beggar.

Traditions in the alpine regions have characters that are more bestial and range from a goat to an actual demon or devil.  The most popular of these characters is Krampus.  Krampus is prevalent in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and northern Italy.  Krampus is represented by an demon-like creature usually with a basket on his back to carry away bad children and dump them into the pits of Hell.  In some rural areas the tradition also includes birching (corporal punishment with a birch rod) by Krampus, especially of young girls.  Switzerland has Schmutzli he enjoys beating naughty children, sometimes kidnapping and often eating them.  Other companions of  St Nicholas through Europe include Klaubauf, Bartel, Bellzebub, and Cert (The Devil).  Regardless of the name he goes by, he seems to enjoy dishing out corpral punnishment and takes a hard line, zero tollerance towards naughty children.

In some traditions, the bringer of gifts and the bringer of punishment are fused into one.  In Nordic countries the original bringer of gifts at Christmas time was the Yule Goat, a sometimes bipedal fawn like figure with horns.  Giving Santa himself the appearance of his demonic servant.  Rumpelklas, Pelzebock, Pelznickel, Belzeniggl, and Belsnickel are other names for this demonic Santa around the place.  The idea of Santa being a devil go a long way toward explaining a lot of things.  More so it is evident that Santa Clause is in fact Satan himself!  They are two sides to the one coin, the evidence in irrefutable.  On top of the generations of historical stories mentioned above, stories as concrete as Santa is, there is also the following evidence:

Santa is an anagram for Satan.   St Nicholas day falls on the 6th, 6 is believed to be the devils number.  In medieval plays the devil’s most common line as he entered the stage was “Ho, ho, ho!”.  Santa is sometimes called St Nick, Satan is sometimes referred to as Old Nick.  Both Santa and Satan are associated with hoof prints in the snow.  Both Santa and Satan are well know for their beards and are both frequently depicted wearing red suits.  Not to mention that they both heavily associated with the Christian religion.  Neither have any concerns about jumping into fires or hot embers.  But most condemningly the modern Santa and Satan are never seen in the same room at the same time.

Bowl of Sea Cucumbers

Here's another post I prepared earlier.

By now I'm sure I've been offered something that makes me uneasy at the thought of eating, like this bowl of sea cucumbers I found in the kitchen last time we were here.

In my opinion the chicken satay sticks over here are the best anywhere, they sell them on street corners at night.  I remember a few years ago my father in-law offered to take me to a couple of stalls where they sold dog and cat satay sticks. I declined the experience mostly because I was worried the vendors may source their meat from the mangy street animals.

White Christmas

This White Christmas LP somehow seemed appropriate considering where I’m spending the festive season this year.

I can't tell if it's laughter or horror.

Temple Sign

Another pre-made post.

We should be at a resort by now and doing a bit of both day and night sight seeing.



Astro TV

A second pre-planned post.

By this stage I'm probably kicking back watching one of my mother in-laws favourite soaps.  I forget it's name, it's like Days of Our Lives but with kung fu and sorcery!  Astro is the local pay TV provider im Malaysia. Television is awesome over here.

One of my favourites is the Super Trio Show which is a show from Hong Kong where celebrities are made to do challenges no one expects them to win at and then get tormented in some way when they lose.  I’ve seen similar shows in Australia but they seem to lack the crazy energy of some of the Chinese celebrities.

SBS should syndicate some of these shows back home.

Kickapoo

On holidays in Malaysia at the moment, so I'm probably not doing any new posts on this blog.  But here's one I prepared earlier and set on a timer.

On of the first things I check the in-laws fridge for when we visit is one of my favourite soft drinks, Kickapoo, Joy Juice.

I'd describe it as tasting somewhere between mountain dew and creaming soda. Yum. 

Eureka Stockade

It's the anniversary of Australians unsuccessful battle of independence.  For anyone that's not clear on the subject, Australians battle for independence was triggered by unrest over gold mining taxes.  The war was unsuccessful because the British got up early and the revolutionaries had been up late drinking the night before.

On the 11 November 1854 miners objecting to the expense of a Miner's Licence, taxation and lack of representation, formed a union several thousand strong.  In the rising tide of anger and resentment over the next couple of weeks, a militant leader was elected.  In swift fashion, a military stockade was built, brigades were formed, and captains were appointed.  Licenses were burned, the rebel Eureka Flag was flown, and an oath of allegiance was sworn.

During the 2nd of December, some 1500 men were training in and around the stockade. That night many of the miners went back to their own tents after the traditional Saturday night carousing.  At 3:00am Sunday, 3rd of December 1854 the British approached the stockade.  Official records show that the war raged on until approximately 3:10am the same morning when the army of miners was routed and decided they should go home.  22 miners and 6 soldiers were killed.

The battle of Eureka Stockade.  A truly Australian story.

Marcel Marceao

This LP cover is like salt in the wound as just recently the publishing company’s have decided to turned down my book entitled “Great Mime Quotes of the 20th Century”.

A mime is a terrible thing to waste.

All My Friends Are Dead

Ha.  This is good.

All My Friends Are Dead online book.

Read it online here: http://www.nomorefriends.net/

Photographic Illusions

While looking for images to appropriate for the post on Tetris a few days ago, I stumbled onto the website of a photographic artist from Sweden called Erik Johansson.  In addition to the Tetris picture, I quite like some of his other stuff, especially the optical illusion pictures, so I thought I'd post a sample and link.

Erik is neither a Viking nor half a bee.  You can view more of Erik Johansson's portfolio at his website alltelleringet.

Tetяis

Tetris is the largest selling game in history, although it's profits are still exceeded by Pac-man.  It can be found on more than 60 platforms, including mobile phones, ATM machines, and handheld electronic organisers.

When someone plays Tetris for a significant amount of time it can incur upon their other thoughts, mental images and dreams and they can develop Tetris Syndrome.  People who play Tetris for a prolonged amount of time may then find themselves thinking about ways different shapes in the real world can fit together, such as buildings on a street or boxes on a shelf.  I recall having Tetris Syndrome in the late 80's.  I remember picturing what shape brick would best fit between various parked cars and between the edge of the TV screen and the News readers head!

A similar effect occurs with other computer games and can occur with any prolonged visual task (such as sorting fruit, driving long distances, etc).  It also manifests in the other senses, like that tune you can't get out of your head or sailors still walking with "sea legs" on land.  In more extreme cases people also see images of falling Tetris shapes at the edges of their visual fields or when they close their eyes, they may also have dreams involving falling Tetris shapes. 

Despite Tetris Syndrome the impact of the game on the human brain isn't all bad.  A 2009 Oxford study suggests Tetris-like video games may help with Post Traumatic Stress.  If the game is played soon after a traumatic event, the preoccupation with Tetris shapes is enough to prevent the mental recitation of traumatic images.  It specifically interferes with the way sensory memories are laid down in the period after trauma and reduces the intensity, accuracy, frequency and overall number of flashbacks that are experienced afterwards.  So keep a Gameboy in the first aid kit to treat traumatic shock.

Developed in the Soviet Union in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov at the Computer Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Based on an ancient Roman puzzle Pentamino, the game  was called  Genetic Engineering and shaped pieces made of text characters were moved about the screen with cursor keys into spaces.  Alexey came to insist the pieces should fall from above into a well and began calling the game Tetris.  As the developed the game, Alexy and his team had trouble finishing the code as the testing process was so addictive.

At the time in the Soviet Union individuals were prohibited from engaging in private business.  Additionally, the Russian Academy of Sciences technically owned the game, since the code was written on the Academys computers.  Alexey showed Tetris game to Vladimir Pokhilko a clinical psychologist who was experimenting with the use of puzzles for psychological tests.  Vladimir instantly saw the mass appeal of the puzzle.  Alexey and Vladimir began leaking the game outside the country in an effort to bypass Soviet politics.  Tetris became the full focus of Alexey's time, and the game evolved into the full graphical version complete with sound and music based on Russian folk songs.

When the CEO of British software company Andromeda saw the game in Budapest he behaved like a 17 year old software pirate and started selling copies to companies (like Microsoft) around the world without any legal rights to the game.  When Andromedas activities were discovered by the Russian programmers they hesitated at revelling their project to their Government.  Before they decided what to do, Andromeda wired contracts for the rights to Tetris directly to the Russian Academy of Science itself, then the CEO flew to Moscow to sign the deal.  The Academy had no idea who he was or what he was talking about.  Meanwhile Tetris, already released by Spectrum and Microsoft, was causing a sensation.

In 1986 the government created a new department, Elektronorgtechnica (ELROG), The Russian Ministry for the import and export of software and took over all rights to the game.  Alexey and Vladimir considered selling the game to software companies directly, but were sure they would end up in a Soviet prison.  Over 10 years, ELROG brokered deals with Nintendo and Atari and Alexey saw none of the $40 million in royalties.  ELROG ruled that Andromeda had been selling rights to a product they never owned, however by this stage Mirrorsoft and Spectrum had already sub-licensed their rights to the game, causing their licensees to engage in legal battles around the world.  Nintendo, Tengen, Bullet-Proof Software, Blue Planet Software and Sony were in all shapes of interlocking litigation with each other, leaving the original programmers effectively blocked out.

In 1996, the ELORG restrictions in the Soviet Union expired, and Tetris rights reverted to Alexey. Together Alexey and Vladimir launched AnimaTek International.  Under the name The Tetris Company, AnimaTek claimed to hold copyright and took out trademark registrations for Tetris in almost every country in the world.  In 1998 the company began experiencing difficulties brought on by economic upheaval in Russia.  Alexey believed he would be the fall guy if he could not find capital somewhere and went on tour to see what he could drop into place.

Thinking he was unsuccessful Vladimir Pokhilko snapped.  One Monday evening at his home, he apparently took a hammer and bludgeoned his wife in the back of the head a dozen times and stabbed her in the back repeatedly with a hunting knife killing her.  He then went into his 12 year old son’s bedroom and stabbed him some 30 times while he slept.  Finally, he slit his own throat and died on the floor face-down in his son's bedroom.  He left a less than coherent suicide note which read:

"  I'VE BEEN EATEN ALIVE.
VLADIMIR.
JUST REMEMBER THAT I AM EXIST
THE DAVIL.  "

The police investigation was brief, after discovering the note all the pieces fell into place.

In a cruel twist of fate, representatives from the Japanese computer giant Squaresoft, unaware of the deaths, showed up Wednesday in AnimaTek's offices. They were ready to wire $200,000 to AnimaTek's accounts for the next day.  Since then The Tetris Company has sent cease and desist letters to web sites that misused the Tetris trademark as well as to Google insisting that 35 Tetris-clones be removed from the Android Market.

10 daily games at gamesforwork.com

But if you want to get more involved in the game, you can try First Person Tetris and experience the game from the tetrominos perspective.

Jozin z Bazin

I couldn’t not post it.  Here’s Jozin z bazin (Joseph from the bog).

The internet has given the group to newfound fame (just over 20 years later) and they even sometimes do tours around Europe performing.

The Black Bun

Went out and had yum cha today (yum!) then stopped by the Chinese bakery and picked up among other things a Charcoal Bamboo Bun.  I’ve been wondering what they were like since I saw them.  Unfortunately I can’t eat it myself due to a food allergy, so I acted like a gastronomic voyeur while my wife tried it.  Here's the black bun on a black plate on a black table. 

It’s sort of a mild garlic bread.  It’s The Garlic Bread of Darkness.  Or maybe it's The Bread of Garlic Shadows.  Or The Yin Bun of Garlicness.  Either way I wish they made a gluten free one I could eat.

Sexy Saucer People

I’ve decided to do a book cover review.  Not a book review, a book cover review.  “Those Sexy Saucer People” is a Greenleaf Classic book by Jan Hudson, which I’ve discovered is an alias.  The authors name is actually, George H Smith.  Apparently he wasn’t all that proud of what he’d written in this novel.

The brunette on the right looks like she is drugged, possibly by the red (sexy?) alien who has a syringe in one hand.  The Blond in the foreground appears to have a severe hangover and “morning after" regret.  The (sexy?) red alien in the centre appears to be contemplating his urine therapy treatment.  Possibly because it was donated by the blond, which could also explain the morning after regret.  The (sexy?) alien in the background has a square behind that has a similar shape to a small television.

Facebook

I have this good idea for a new social networking site.  It’s called Arsebook.  It’s like Facebook but arse.  I have no doubt it will very popular.

Why do the Cybermens pants resemble stockings and underwear...?

The Medical Uses of Urine

OK so this is part two of the post a couple of weeks ago regarding The Domestic Uses of Urine.  There's also a wee bit of an update to that here.

Urine has been used as a healing substance, both externally and internally in all parts of the world through history. Urine contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes, hormones, antibodies, and amino acids, steroids, thousands of compounds in all.

One of the prescriptions the Damar Tantra, an ancient Sanskrit text is massaging one's skin with fresh, concentrated urine.  The Sahih Bukhari Islamic text, quotes the Prophet Muhammad advocating drinking camel's urine as a medicine in several verses.

In Roman times, there was a tradition among the Gauls to use urine to whiten teeth, both as a rinse and a tonic.  In 17th century France, wrapped urine soaked stockings around their necks to cure strep throat.  Aristocratic French women reportedly bathed in urine to beautify their skin. The details as to who's urine this was is open to speculation, aristocratic French women reportedly did a lot of things.

In the early 1800s, a book titled One Thousand Notable Things describes the use of urine to cure scurvy, relieve skin itching, cleanse wounds, and many other treatments. An 18th century French dentist praised urine as a valuable mouthwash and tooth whitener. In England during the 1860-70s, the drinking of one's own urine was a common cure for jaundice. Alaskan Eskimos used urine as an antiseptic to treat wounds.

Peeing on a hand towel and applying the urine directly to the face has been known to reduce acne. Some sports professionals and even dancers have used urine to treat athletes foot, simply by urinating on the feet will cause the athletes foot to reduce or even cure completely.  Madonna has admitted to using this method, apparently it worked like a prayer.  Dolores O'Riordan from The Cranberries admitted on a music TV show that when she was first learning to play guitar she had a serious problem with calluses on her fingers which she treated with this method under instruction from her band mates.  This may have been the influence in deciding the title of their 1993 album "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?".

Urokinase, an enzyme extracted from human urine, is being used to treat victims of heart attacks.  But where is all this medical pee coming from?  Well it is being collected by pharmaceutical companies in association with porta-loo companies. That's right, the ingredients for the pill millions pop on their tongue is collected from those reeking portable toilets that we all hate to use.  When you take a wiz at your favourite outdoor concert you may be making a donation. The Porta-loo features a filtering system that collects the pee proteins for later manufacture into urokinase.

Horse urine from pregnant mare's has high amounts of estrogens, which is isolated and sold as Premarin hormone therapy for women.  Ingestion of urea has been found to increase the antibacterial activity in urine itself against urinary tract infection.  Other compounds in urine used in medication are gastric depressants for ulcers and allantoin in ointments to promote wound healing.

The tonic of first morning urine is prized widely by pee-drinking advocates many of which believe that because the resting body uses less vital nutrients than during the daytime, it releases the unused excess into the morning urine.  Kind of like a do it yourself vitamin supplement with your breakfast toast.

The hormone melatonin is present in morning urine in significant quantities but much less during the day due to its secretion being shut off by the eyes exposure to bright sunlight.  Melatonin, when ingested, provokes tranquillity and heightened visualisation, working as a mild analgesic.  Why bother with finding an opium dealer when you could be drinking pee.

Despite the positive fizz of urine therapy, urine's ability to concentrate substances is not always a beneficial one. A diet high in salt leads to urine high in salt. And slurping down extra salty piss will give you diarrhoea.  In a similar but more deadly vein other toxins can become harmfully concentrated in the urine and pee recyclers with toxins creeping into their diet will soon find them selves on a much faster downward health spiral.

Know your supplier! You may be guzzling down a great deal more than you bargained for.  If the pee you choose to drink is your own, wash down below thoroughly and then collect the urine mid-stream.  If the urine belongs to another person, consider that there are certain viruses and bacteria that can be carried in and transmitted through the urine (such as Hep-B).  Drugs and hormone pills (birth control) leave traces in the urine, so feel free to accuse anyone with man boobs of being a pee drinker.  Taking a drug test after drinking the urine of someone taking performance enhancing drugs could cost you your victory.  Then again if you fail your next sports competition drug test you could try blaming your wee lifestyle choice.

Count On Dracula

Must be time for a new LP cover.  This one is Count on Dracula by Birth Control. 

I like how it has elements of Sesame Street overstated undertones (or it could be understated overtones I’m not sure which).

Sushi Lightsaber

Several months ago my wife purchased a sushi maker, it roles the rice and filling of the sushi so all you have to add is the seaweed exterior.  The device absolutely looks like a kitchen lightsaber. 

As you can see in the picture, it could be either Obi-wan Kenobis lightsaber from The Phantom Menace or Obi-wans from the original A New Hope.  It depends on which way round you hold it, but it's definitely of a Kenobi design.

A Wee Oversight

I made a wee oversight in my post the other week on the domestic uses of urine. Plastic manufacture! Mixing urea and formaldehyde creates urea-formaldehyde (sometimes know as urea-methanal) which is a non-transparent thermosetting plastic resin.  It was commonly used from the 1950s to the 1980s to make plastic casing of electrical equipment.  Heaps and heaps of things in your grandparents house was made from urine, desk lamps, light fittings, radios it was everywhere.  Urea-formaldehyde is still sometimes used as a bonding agent in marine plywood.

All Hallows Even

It's Halloween!

Halloween has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain loosely referred to as the pagan new years, however, the name comes from the Christian holiday All Saint’s Day that was placed on the same day.  Samhain is Gaelic for “summer’s end, the end of the “lighter half” of the year and the beginning of the “darker half.”

In Old English All Hallows in Old English means “the feast of the saints.”  In the 16th century, the Scottish variant "All Hallows Even" started to be commonly used and later the word was abbreviated to “Hallowe’en”. The current variation was adopted in the early 20th century.

Here's Stephen Lynch with his Halloween song. 

Zombie Alert Meter

This groundbreaking Zombie Alert Meter from OMFGzombies is designed to give you accurate information about current worldwide zombie infection levels.

Stay alert with the OMFGZOMBIES Zombie Alert Meter (ZAM). Currently it updates every 1/2 an hour, ensuring you can take appropriate precautions when leaving the safety of your home.

Lacking the sensual enthral of the vampire or the animal sex-appeal of the werewolf, zombies are very much the unwanted aged pensioners of the supernatural world.  The true zombie tradition originated in the Congo and was brought to Haiti by slaves.

Creating a zombie follows a process where a voodoo houngan creates a special powdery toxin that contains large amounts of tetrodotoxin from puffer fish.  The toxin in this powder is absorbed through touch contact.  After the victim is declared dead and buried, the houngan unearths the victim a few days later in ritual involving a second powder of hallucinogens. Between the brain damage from the first drug, being buried alive, then ritualistically dragged from the grave and the effects of the second drug, the victim was more or less stripped of their intellect and self-will.  Doomed to more or less behave like an undesirable aged pensioner.

The first ever zombie movie was White Zombie in 1932 staring Bela Lugosi and was a film interpretation of a stage play.  But it was George Romero's 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead that spawned the zombie film genre.  A genre which has lead to such great titles as: Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town, Nudist Colony of the Dead, Space Zombie Bingo, Zombie Ninja Gangbangers, Zombie vs. Mardi Gras, Psycho Zombie Love Butcher and not forgetting The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.

A complete list of every zombie movie ever made (and some upcoming ones) is at The Zombie Reporting Centre.

Harpo Marx Cornflake

A few years ago I found a cornflake that looked exactly like Harpo Marx of The Marx Brothers fame. Recently while clearing up some things I found a small jar containing the flake still intact!

I'm quite pleases I still have the Harpo-flake, I'm hoping it will make me very rich some day.

Nude Croquet

Continuing with theme a few weeks ago on books I haven’t read.  Here’s another book I haven’t read, Nude Croquet by Leslie A. Fiedler.

All you have to do is look around and you’ll agree that there is no doubt about the statement everything is more fun when done naked and croquet is no exception.

All you have to do is look around, or try for yourself, and you’ll agree that there is no doubt about the old saying "Everything is more fun when done naked". 

Sky diving, running through cricket matches, pilates, ironing, using power tools and showering are all more fun naked, croquet is no exception.

When you think about it, it’s the only way to play.

In other book news, I’m glad to see that Brian Lumley has a new book out for his Necroscope series.  Necroscope: The Plague Bearer is the most recent addition to the now fifteen novels and two short story collections. 

The books present release is only as a special edition leather-bound hardback (very old school like the author).  I’m hanging out for the Australian paperback release next year some time.