Sale!
Wed 28 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Books | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
Spread the word: we are having a once-a-year (or less!) blow out. Books: cheap! 40% off. Or: Even More!
– Books ship December 6th.
– To arrive for the holidays: please order Priority Mail Shipping
– Books shipped by Media Mail will probably not arrive before the holidays.
– International shipping.
– Permanent remainder sale here.
Do us a favor: Go Nuts.
Mobipocket
Tue 27 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., ebooks | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
We’ve uploaded a couple of books to Mobipocket—more will follow, although probably not too fast. Hey, when did we last move fast at anything?
Generation Loss | Endless Things | Stranger Things Happen
Fun to upload stuff to Mobipocket just as Amazon probably kills it with the Kindle . . . we’ll have Kindle editions of these books, too, at some point.
—
Later tonight: more!
Ouch
Mon 26 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., LCRW | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
We get tough love from the Chicago Reader.
Are we hipsters? Hadn’t really considered us that way . . .
Q. Do you have a cool car?
A. Hipsters use the subway and taxis.
Q. Are your tastes impeccably aligned with next month’s Pitchfork columnists?
A. Pitchfork is so Aughts.
Q. Did you see that show by ____ at ____ last night?
A. I used to like them but since they went _____ they kind of suck.
Q. Where do you get your hair done?
A. Hey, I just woke up?
Q. You know it’s 3.08 PM and you’re in a shirt and tie at work, right?
A. Pass.
Mon 26 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Elizabeth Hand | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
Liz Hand is serializing her novella “Chip Crockett’s Christmas Carol” on The Inferior 4+1:
“Chip Crockett?” Brendan frowned, staring at his computer screen as though he was afraid Tony might materialize there. “You mean, like, The Chip Crockett Show?”"Yeah, man.” Tony sighed deeply. “My brother Jake, he just faxed me the obituary from the Daily News. He died over the weekend but they just announced it today.”
There was a clunk over the phone receiver, a background clatter of shouting voices and footsteps. Tony was working as a substitute teacher at Saint Ignatius High School. Brendan was amazed he’d been able to hang onto the job at all, but he gathered that being a substitute at Saint Ignatius was way below being sanitation engineer in terms of salary, benefits, and respect. He heard a crackle of static as Tony ran into the corridor, shouting.
“Whoa! Nelson Crane, man! Slow down, okay? Okay. Yeah, I guess it was lung cancer. Did you know he smoked?”
“You’re talking about Chip Crockett the kiddie show host. Right?” Brendan rubbed his forehead, feeling the beginning of a headache. “No, Tony, I didn’t know he smoked, because I don’t actually know Chip Crockett. Do you?” (Via Boingster Hall)
Mon 26 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Elizabeth Hand | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
Liz Hand is serializing her novella “Chip Crockett’s Christmas Carol” on The Inferior 4+1:
“Chip Crockett?” Brendan frowned, staring at his computer screen as though he was afraid Tony might materialize there. “You mean, like, The Chip Crockett Show?”"Yeah, man.” Tony sighed deeply. “My brother Jake, he just faxed me the obituary from the Daily News. He died over the weekend but they just announced it today.”
There was a clunk over the phone receiver, a background clatter of shouting voices and footsteps. Tony was working as a substitute teacher at Saint Ignatius High School. Brendan was amazed he’d been able to hang onto the job at all, but he gathered that being a substitute at Saint Ignatius was way below being sanitation engineer in terms of salary, benefits, and respect. He heard a crackle of static as Tony ran into the corridor, shouting.
“Whoa! Nelson Crane, man! Slow down, okay? Okay. Yeah, I guess it was lung cancer. Did you know he smoked?”
“You’re talking about Chip Crockett the kiddie show host. Right?” Brendan rubbed his forehead, feeling the beginning of a headache. “No, Tony, I didn’t know he smoked, because I don’t actually know Chip Crockett. Do you?” (Via Boingster Hall)
Episode 4: Honey Porter
Fri 23 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Literary Beer | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Michael
In which I ramble about the history of beer in New England, and demonstrate the process of brewing up a batch of a favorite and storied style.
This is a Dutch family crest hanging in the cathedral in the city of Haarlem, The Netherlands. Note the kegs. And those little golden shapes being carried in the arms of the rampant lions are sheaves of barley. I wish I had taken more pictures of these. There were some with barley, kegs AND beehives.
More than your typical taciturn anti-hero
Wed 21 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Elizabeth Hand | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
Elizabeth Hand gives good interview at Laura Hird’s site:
‘You know, it’s like sex.’ Elizabeth Hand is very enthusiastic about writing novellas. ‘Short stories are like a quickie,’ she explains. ‘It can be kind of satisfying, but it’s over really fast. While a marathon novel-length session can be tiring and it’s a big commitment. But a novella is just the right amount of time to kind of linger over everything, build a little bit…
and a review of Generation Loss:
While utilising the form of a thriller, this book continues to exert its spell when many thrillers prove anti-climatic. After an intriguing beginning, the average thriller will have me shrug and say, ‘well, that’s it,’ when the big mystery is revealed. Then I forget about it. But the strength of the characterisation and the atmosphere carries this book into places where many other thrillers peter out and expire.
Laura’s site is in the UK. Up in Canada Ian Rogers reviews the book for The Lindsay Post:
The thing I enjoyed most about ‘Generation Loss’ is the protagonist. In a book abound with puzzles, Cass Neary turns out to be a veritable mystery herself. Her actions are often questionable, it not flat-out immoral, and she doesn’t come off as the most sympathetic character. And yet there is so much more lurking below the surface than your typical taciturn anti-hero.
What is she, then? Well, that’s part of the mystery. It’s also part of the fun. Check out the book and find out for yourself.
Formats
Tue 20 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., LCRW | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
Here’s part of the skinny on LCRW:
Order: Paypal | order form | Powells | Fictionwise | Lulu
We’ll post more about the secret sale here, too.
Probably.
Later.
Evolutionary reading
Tue 20 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Uncategorized | Leave a Comment| Posted by: intern
Hope you are enjoying Michael’s posts on literary beer. (Mmm, beer.) More posts from Howard Waldrop are expected in a while—he’s got some stories to write which pay even better (cough) than this gig.
And in the meantime here’s something from intern, Margaret Kinney:
It is holiday time. People will be telling you that you, that we, have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas. They may mean Jesus, or pure giving or love, or something vague like that. Nowadays, they will also be telling you that, by forgetting this meaning and engaging instead in an orgy of materialism, you are destroying the environment and contributing to our wasteful, consumerist culture. But more people will be telling you that Christmas is a time for giving, abundant giving, and that you need to come to their store and spend, spend, spend on whatever it is that will assuredly make you and everyone you love so happy. And I believe them. And so do you. And we will buy things and wrap them in wasteful, shiny papers, and set them in heaps until we unwrap them together and glow with happiness just like the ads promised. Those naysayers above offer various reasons for this; we are sinful, greedy, taken in by modern temptations, we are shortsighted, our culture is irredeemably materialistic. Yes, probably. But maybe there is something else.
Episode 3: Cider Revisited
Thu 15 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Literary Beer | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Michael
It seemed I was a mite of sediment
That waited for the bottom to ferment
So I could catch a bubble in ascent.
I rode up on one till the bubble burst,
And when that left me to sink back reversed
I was no worse off than I was at first.
I’d catch another bubble if I waited.
The thing was to get now and then elated.
—Robert Frost, In a Glass of Cider
(For the start of my cider-making exploits, see Episode 1: Traditional Hard Cider)
Today, I noticed that the bubbles of CO2 emerging from the airlock on my jug of cider had slowed to a rate of one per minute, indicating that yeast activity had tapered off and the primary stage of fermentation was complete. Being careful to leave behind as much of the sediment as possible, I siphoned off the clarified cider into a clean glass jug. Mostly, anyway–right at the end I decided I couldn’t help myself and redirected the last ounce or so into a pint glass for testing purposes.
We are Conan
Wed 14 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., LCRW | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
Mike Levy reviews The Best of LCRW on Strange Horizons and says Kelly and Gavin…
have created something of a miniature literary empire for themselves.
Who knew we could build an empire without working out on our (bronz’d) thews?
Since the only empire we know of that fell and rose again was Reggie Perrin’s and since we have recently been watching the wonderful and despair-inducing 2nd series of Rome on the televisual box now we are worrying how bloody our empire’s fall will be. Eek! We surrender, we surrender!
Numbers trouble
Thu 8 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Publishing | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
Unread around here as yet but posted as something of passing interest to more than a few people we know. Besides Jedediah Berry’s new story, the latest issue of the Chicago Review (53:2/3) has an article about gender breakdown in poetry in Conjunctions, The New Yorker, and 10 other magazines. The article, a response, and some numbers can all be found here.
Episode 2: Beer Economics
Tue 6 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Literary Beer | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Michael
In an interview I once read in The Valley Advocate (a local Western MA arts paper), with regard to his experience starting Small Beer Press, Gavin quoted the following old chestnut: “How do you make a small fortune in publishing? Start with a large fortune.”
The same is more or less true of brewing beer. In the long run, it costs half as much to brew your own beer as to buy it, assuming you’re used to drinking beer of quality. But starting out as a brewer of small beer does require some investment in equipment. And the small fortune you accrue in savings over a long life spent developing the craft of making delicious spirits will be nothing compared to the matching spiritual fortune you will reap. The analogy to independent publishing begins to seem apt indeed.
In this episode I’m going to do some beer math (somewhat less accurate than tea math, but less jittery than coffee math, and more fun). I will lay out the financial requirements in gear and raw materials and graph that against the quantity and quality of the beer produced, in the hopes of helping you, the avid consumer of literary beer, to decide if you’re ready to brew.
Ethical credit cards?
Tue 6 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Uncategorized | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
In the UK the link between personal spending and personal ethics are openly acknowledged and talked about in articles on the MSN, the Thrifty Scot (ahem), and in The Guardian:
This week the Co-op Bank launched a new credit card called “think”, which offers a lower rate of interest for designated ethical purchases via a link-up with partners including Ikea, cosmetics firm Lush, green electricity company Ecotricity, bikes giant Raleigh and fair trade organisation Traidcraft.
The first time the card is used, the bank will arrange for half an acre of Brazilian rainforest to be bought and protected in the customer’s name. Also, for every £100 spent on the card, 25p will be donated to the charity Cool Earth, which protects rainforests.
In the US there are “affinity” cards where donations in the range of 0.25 – 0.75% of spending go to the charity (or whatever) the individual wants to support.
Of course there’s also Working Assets but their credit card program is run by FIA, who are formerly MNBA—associated or owned or the same thing as the massive and depressingly willing to squeeze the last drop of air from your dying throat, Bank of America. Which isn’t really a friendly happy company.
After looking at some comparison websites and so on, there don’t yet seem to be ethics-slanted credit cards on the US market. So what’s left? Cash rewards and donations to charities of choice? Give it up and just go for the airline miles? Hmm.
“the star called Wormwood”
Mon 5 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., John Crowley | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
John Crowley, who popped in to the WFC this past weekend for a reading from Four Freedoms and to sign a few books for the ardent multitudes, has a letter in the NY Times Book Review.
Ron Drummond, also in Saratoga, was carrying around a printer’s dummy or blank of his crazy beautiful 25th anniversary edition of Little, Big. It is huge! 7.5 x 10 inches, 3, maybe 4 inches thick. He also had some early, nearly-final copies of the first chapter. This is going to be one awesome object.
Free Liz Hand book
Mon 5 Nov 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Elizabeth Hand | Leave a Comment| Posted by: Small Beer Press
Over at AbeBooks in the Author’s Corner there’s an interview with Liz and a chance to win a free copy of Generation Loss.
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