Pop! The sound of a mind exploding.

Mon 31 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

- Review of Alan DeNiro’s collection at Strange Horizons. Pop! The sound of a mind exploding. [Note: Here's the wince inducingly-named Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.]

- Also, an interesting story, “The Women of Our Occupation” by Kameron Hurley. (Thanks to Gwenda for pushing the story.) Which, with the wonders of the web, looks like this once it goes through Regender.com.

– It’s the last day of July. Celebrate! Or, dig a hole and hide underground from the heatttt.


Brudders of der Head

Fri 28 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Check our email announcement list for some more news. Especially about “Brothers of the Head” which is a dark, elegant film about a proto punk band formed around a pair conjoined twins. Opens in NYC and LA Friday.


Delocate yourself for coffee, books, films

Fri 28 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Add things to Delocator, make it even more useful. You can find indie cafes, bookshops, and cinemas — this is what I’ve been looking for for ages. Brilliant idea. There are probably hundreds of such sites but this one didn’t have tons of distracting ads and so on, it just does what it says it does. But, it needs more content, so: add your fave coffee shop today.


A bright spot

Fri 28 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Try Robert Sydney’s The Bright Spot is a paperback noir/sf original from last year with a great cover design that just grabs you and says read me! Nick Bainbridge (not his real name) is an actor on the second go around after everything he was in in his first shot bombed. He’s picked up work at a crappy educational film maker (ok, it’s virtual something or other, but think low-rent film production studio) who remake lit classics in more populist forms (you have to read it to find out what they do to Frankenstein). Nick and his costar Lu are offered under-the-table parts in a weird sting operation on a powerful old man, James Dumfries — the inventor of “ware”, software that runs on people so that they can do anything. The software helped the USA win the last (unnamed) war but is now used for everything from roadworkers to chefs. The sting goes off but something goes wrong and Nick and Lu’s contact disappears and they don’t get paid. The government starts keeping tabs on them and Nick can’t let go the feeling that there’s more to their own story than meets the eye. All the right parts are here: beautiful blondes (who don’t automatically end up dead!, conspiracies and backroom deals, and through it all smart biting comments on the world today. The Bright Spot is perfect for a bus or train ride or just sitting in a cafe or a bar.


Aug 20, Nantucket

Fri 28 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Added a new reading (and wine and cheese reception) for Kelly out on Nantucket island, yay! Sunday August 20, 7 PM. Brant Point Books, 17 N. Beach Street, P. O. Box 1123, Nantucket, MA 02554 508-228-5856


Poetic fruit and some readings

Mon 24 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Meanwhile, we are out the back with Seamus Heaney Blackberry Picking. We are not, however, entertaining takeover bids from the Ocean Spray cranberry collective, no matter what you may have read in today’s Wall Street Journal.- More readings: Kelly is teaching the final two weeks of the Clarion East workshop with Holly Black and is reading with Holly on the 26th at 7 PM -at the Capital Area District Library, 401 S. Capital Ave, Lansing, MI 48933 517-367-6363 and by herself at the lovely Archives Book Shop, 517-519 W. Grand River, East Lansing, MI 48823.

Half Life- Should you be on the west coast tonight, you have the chance to go see Shelley Jackson read from her new novel Half Life:

July 24, 8 PM – Dog Eared Books, 900 Valencia St (@ 20th), San Francisco (415)282-190
July 25, 7 PM — Cody’s Books 1730 4th Street, Berkeley 510-559-9500
July 26, 7:30 PM — Powells City of Books 1005 West Burnside, Portland 503-228-4651
July 29, 7:30 PM – Elliot Bay Books 101 South Main St, Seattle 206-624-6600
More here.


critical mass

Thu 20 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Stop everything, read this hilarious review of the new M. Night Shyster “film” from the Philly Weekly. (Maybe it will be as bad as Signs!)- Critical Mass is one of the best new lit blogs around and John Freeman put together a good post on “The Middle East — a poetical primer.” Among those he mentions is Naomi Shihab Nye who read at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC, while Kelly was teaching there. Ms. Nye is an incredibly thoughtful writer and a great reader: funny, insightful, a little dramatic but never anywhere near over the top.


Sarah Langan

Thu 20 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Smartest reader at KGB? Sarah Langan! Paul Witcover knows we’re huge fans (review his books, beg him to proofread our books), so he’s pretty secure there. Sarah brought home made cookies (UK readers: biscuits) to the reading at KGB. We are so easily bought! Paul and Sarah both gave great spooky readings. Pre-order The Keeper now! Dracula: Asylum is a semi-sequel to Todd Browning’s Dracula movie and the section Paul read was deeply intense, some fantastic grim writing about a battlefield in World War One. Thought-provoking stuff to hear in a country that just keeps opening up new battlefronts.


Alan at Magers & Quinn

Mon 17 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Tomorrow night Alan DeNiro whoops it up at a local(ish) bookshop: 7 PM — Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN 55408. (612) 822-4611 and the good news is there’s a reception afterward where Alan will probably not be leading the karaoke charge. Probably….


Fri 14 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

TrickedAlex Robinson, whose Tricked ain’t a bad book, writes a great piece on the music behind the book. (Which is one of those books with pictures.) One of the very enjoyable aspects of the book is that all the music and the bands are imaginary — which, for a book about a musician, is amazing fun. All this band history and hagiography gets tossed around, with tons of injokes and references, but instead of being some music scene you know/don’t know, care/don’t care about, it’s all part of the furniture and decoration of the novel. One quote:

Reading Albert Goldman’s THE LIVES OF JOHN LENNON was actually a big influence on the conception of the book. Though it seems pretty much forgotten today, Goldman’s book was very controversial when it came out in the late 1980s. Basically, Goldman said that the Lennon-Ono version of their life (Lennon and Ono madly in love and off drugs, Ono runs business while Lennon “retires” to raise son, bake bread and be a house husband, etc) was a big fat lie. In Goldman’s version, Lennon was a reclusive, violent drug addict who was about to leave the cold, cunning Ono until she had him hypnotized (!) into staying.


Fri 14 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

TrickedAlex Robinson, whose Tricked ain’t a bad book, writes a great piece on the music behind the book. (Which is one of those books with pictures.) One of the very enjoyable aspects of the book is that all the music and the bands are imaginary — which, for a book about a musician, is amazing fun. All this band history and hagiography gets tossed around, with tons of injokes and references, but instead of being some music scene you know/don’t know, care/don’t care about, it’s all part of the furniture and decoration of the novel. One quote:

Reading Albert Goldman’s THE LIVES OF JOHN LENNON was actually a big influence on the conception of the book. Though it seems pretty much forgotten today, Goldman’s book was very controversial when it came out in the late 1980s. Basically, Goldman said that the Lennon-Ono version of their life (Lennon and Ono madly in love and off drugs, Ono runs business while Lennon “retires” to raise son, bake bread and be a house husband, etc) was a big fat lie. In Goldman’s version, Lennon was a reclusive, violent drug addict who was about to leave the cold, cunning Ono until she had him hypnotized (!) into staying.


Alan in NE

Tue 11 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Tons of people at the reading in Boston last night — yay! Now Alan + Kristin are off back to Minneapolis and he gets a break until the next reading. – The Boston Phoenix blog points toward Alan and Theodora Goss’s reading tonight.

– Last night’s reading at the Amherst Bookshop was great fun. To celebrate the new issue of LCRW we had a couple of people read pieces from the new issue. Caitlin Beck and Lauren Smith read (or, really, performed) David Schwartz’s story “Play” — a playful story in two voices which was hilarious. Michael DeLuca read Fred Coppersmith’s short piece “At Uncle Ogden’s House.” Then the three of them read Dear Aunt Gwenda’s latest column — with Caitlin reading Aunt Gwenda’s incisive and informative responses while wearing an orange boa! Jeanette Westwood (whose story “Crimson-lady at the Auction, Buying” is in the issue) dropped by to say hello but couldn’t stick around for the reading. Next time! Nice people from One Less and Zygote Games and lots of readers turned up for the wine and the reading. The evening was recorded so at some point we may be able to add it to the audio pages. We’ll send you an email when and if….


TOChicago

Mon 10 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Time Out Chicago likes Skinny Dipping:

“Deniro’s greatest gifts are those of a poet, and his prose is filled with stunning images and incantatory rhythms. Debuts often come along with press releases touting them as “assured,” and sure enough, Deniro’s was no different. But with talent as deep as his, it’s no wonder Deniro is confident in touring us around his strange worlds.” –Jonathan Messinger

Tonight: a reading!


Book Sense!

Thu 6 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Big News: Alan’s book is a Book Sense Pick for August with a great quote from Caleb Wilson of Davis-Kidd who obviously got the book. (Thanks go all those bookshops who nominated it!) So now the bookshops should have it and hopefully be selling the heck out of it!

SKINNY DIPPING IN THE LAKE OF THE DEAD: Stories, by Alan DeNiro “This is a great debut collection of loopy, off-the-wall, and still-somehow-packing-emotional-weight stories; DeNiro can weld words into some mighty strange configurations.”
–Caleb Wilson, Davis-Kidd Booksellers, Nashville, TN

If you are in Massachusetts, come meet Alan Deniro, hear him read, pick up a reader’s guide (and drinking guide), join the LCRW launch party, and see him and Theodora Goss all in the next few days:

7-9 — Readercon 17, Burlington, MA (where Small Beer will have a table and many interns will attend!)

10 (Monday)– Amherst Books, 8 Main Street, Amherst, MA 01002 413.256.1547 — 800.503.5865
– with LCRW 18 launch party

11 (Tuesday) — Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street, Cambridge, MA 02140 · (617) 491-2220
– with Theodora Goss (In the Forest of Forgetting)

Also on the Book Sense list in case you didn’t believe us earlier. This is a damned good book:

JAMES TIPTREE, JR.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, by Julie Phillips (St. Martin’s) “Alice Sheldon trekked across Africa with her parents in the 1920s, became an accomplished painter, joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary, worked for the CIA, received a Ph.D. in psychology, and married twice. She also had a career as an influential writer of science fiction as James Tiptree. Her complex gender identity and sexual orientation is utterly fascinating, as is her remarkable life, which is made all the more vivid in this rich biography.”
–Kris Kleindienst, Left Bank Books, Saint Louis, MO


SBP1 – Erik the Shipping Tzar

Thu 6 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Erik the Shipping Tzar (self-declared) tells the whole truth on YouTube. (More lo-res videos to come.)


Fireworks +

Tue 4 Jul 2006 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press

Get out there and celebrate the freedoms you have!

- Sean Stewart came and went and signed lots of books in the meantime. And … left us an ARC of Cathy’s Book – yay!


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