Skipp then issued a plea for readers and writers to acknowledge support of what could now be called The Very Last Book of the Dead in an effort to get the book he was editing published. As of mid-September 1996, it appears that White Wolf HAS picked up Skipp's anthology after all. I count as friends. It's too bad that Bantam canceled the third Book of the Dead , too bad the deal with Severn House in Britain went off the rails, too bad that White Wolf nixed their omnibus volumes. So it goes.
Rumors roil as to reasons.
Besides inviting in talented writers to begin with, the other important factor is the anthologist doing the inviting. I wrote one of my best stories for Poppy Z. Brite's Love in Vein because I knew that she, whose being and whose craft I highly respect and admire, would be my first audience. Ditto, Skipp and Spector. They're good souls, skilled writers. I consider them both friends.