On the cover is a "Feynman diagram," a type of schematic invented by the physicist Richard Feynman to help account for the interactions of subatomic particles. The diagram shown on the cover represents one of the simplest possible interactions, the mutual repulsion of two electrons ( e- ), with a "virtual" photon ( y ) acting to transfer the momentum between them. This book suggests that an analogous sort of transfer operates on the level of human event, one which provides a mechanism for omens and the results of successful conjurations.
On February 15, 1988 Stephen Mace took the first five copies of the first edition of Sorcery as Virtual Mechanics to Book World in New Haven. When he arrived the night clerk, George, paid him fifteen dollars and he put the five copies on the shelf for retail sale, by that act publishing the book.
Also on February 15, 1988, Richard Feynman died. Mace didn't even know Feynman had cancer until he read his obituary two days later.
So a bizarre coincidence occurred to mark the publication of a book that seeks to explain the dynamics behind bizarre coincidences. At the least, such an omen would seem to indicate that one should pay some attention to the mechanism the book proposes - as if omens and such might actually work in that way.
And so the author did, carrying the notion into his work in the guise of psychic stress resolving itself in the form of physical event. But never again did he promote any analogy with quantum behavior, and he had no problem with letting the first edition slide out of print. Though the original kernel of an idea held as firm as ever, he had come to think that many parts of the book presented their subject in ways awkward, badly organized, confused, or just plain wrong. And yet still it could claim that omen, which gave it a certain authority...
So it happened that when Douglas Grant of Dagon Productions offered to do a reprint, Mace suggested a rewrite, and Grant accepted. This new edition is the result. It covers the same ground, but eleven years later. The ground itself has not changed.
