Indies First and Last and Always

Wed 23 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., keep it indie, Susan Stinson| Posted by: Gavin

This Saturday when you drop by your local bookstore you may run into your favorite (or new favorite or not!) author when millions of happy authors get to be booksellers for a bit. Here in Northampton Susan Stinson will be guest bookselling at Broadside Books — who have sold a couple of hundred copies of her historical Northampton novel Spider in a Tree.

Who’s coming to your store?

Indiebound has the whole list:
— Nov. 26, 2016 activities by state
— Nov. 26, 2016 activities by store

 

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WaPo Notable Book

Tue 22 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Joan Aiken| Posted by: Gavin

Delighted to see the Washington Post selected The People in the Castle as a Notable Book of 2016:

“A best-of collection — with an introduction by Kelly Link — by the late British master of supernatural fiction and children’s literature.”

I think my favorite line from a review is still  “Sprightly but brooding” from Kirkus Reviews’s starred review which captures something of the range of darkness and light within the book.

Read “Cold Flame” on Tor and the introduction and title story on Tin House.

“The particular joys of a Joan Aiken story have always been her capacity for this kind of brisk invention; her ear for dialect; her characters and their idiosyncrasies. Among the stories collected in this omnibus, are some of the very first Joan Aiken stories that I ever fell in love with, starting with the title story “The People in the Castle,” which is a variation on the classic tales of fairy wives.”
— Kelly Link, from her Introduction

 

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The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz

Tue 22 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Books| Posted by: Gavin

November 22, 2016 · trade paper · 212 pages · $16 · 9781618731081 | ebook · 9781618731098

Trade paper: low stock. Lettered edition: sold out. Numbered edition available:

• Signed on a two-color tipped in page by the author John Crowley, the illustrator Theo Fadel, and the designer Jacob McMurray.
• Accompanied by an exclusive woodcut hand printed, signed, and numbered in her studio by Theo Fadel.
• Presented in a black cloth slipcase stamped with gold foil titles.
• Smyth sewn in oatmeal linen with black and red foil stamped cover designed by Jacob McMurray and including an illustration by Theo Fadel. Printed in black and red ink on a beautiful 70# Finch Opaque Vanilla paper with black endpapers and a black ribbon.

A new edition printed in two colors celebrating the 400th anniversary of one of the most outlandish stories in Western literature. Illustrated throughout.

A Romance in Eight Days
By
Johann Valentin Andreae

In a new version
by
John Crowley

Illustrated by Theo Fadel.
Designed by Jacob McMurray.

Christian Rosencreutz receives a seemingly miraculous invitation to a royal wedding and so begins “one of the great outlandish stories in Western literature.” Often described as an alchemical allegory, John Crowley describes it as “the first science fiction novel. . . . It’s fiction; it’s about the possibilities of a science; and it’s a novel.”

Crowley has now produced his own version of this classic and accompanies it with an introduction, copious footnotes, and an end note. This edition is designed by Jacob McMurray and each of the Eight Days is illustrated with a unique woodcut by Theo Fadel.

Article on the book by Hunter Styles in the Valley Advocate:
“If the long book title, inked in faux-medieval Blackletter, didn’t give it away — let alone the robotic sheep on the back cover — The Chemical Wedding is one of the weirdest and most captivating novels to come out of Easthampton’s Small Beer Press this season.”

5/9 – 6/3/16 Hardcover Kickstarter. Goal: $50,000. Result: 1,317 backers pledged $72,378.
Secret List (of Secret Backers of Secret Books of the Masters of the Universe)
News: Easthampton publisher unearths early sci-fi book

Read a conversation between John Crowley and Kelly Link on LitHub.
Listen: Award winning author Jedediah Berry (The Manual of Detection) and John Crowley discussion The Chemical Wedding.
Watch: two videos of Theo Fadel and the press she built.
Sample pages now available: The Chemical Wedding - Sample (6729 downloads ) . [free pdf download]

Audiobook.

From the Introduction:

“The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz was published in Germany in 1616 . . . It was presented as the work of . . . Christian Rosencreutz, or Christian of the Rose-Cross, a mysterious magus who died at the age of 106 in 1484 after a lifetime of traveling the world being inducted into the wisdom societies of several lands and forming his own secret society of wise brothers. . . . These little books, plus The Chemical Wedding, which is a very different affair, became the foundation of what has ever after been known as the Rosicrucian phenomenon, or movement, or scare, or hoax. (The Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rose-Cross, or “Rosicrucian Order,” is a modern fraternity founded in 1915 and related only in name to the older one.)“

Excerpt

Reviews

“The long title of The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae, in a New Version by John Crowley depicts with crystalline clarity the layered vision essential to enjoying the best of the imaginative genre. The original version of the book, published in 1616, shows how indebted modern storytellers are to centuries-old conversations about what lies beyond the world we’re familiar with.”
— Nisi Shawl, Seattle Times

“John Crowley’s ambition in re-configuring Andreae’s forgotten book is laudable, and Fadel’s whimsical, dark illustrations add still more modern elements to the new edition. Re-imagining the text as science fiction is an exercise that makes outdated science feel alive and relevant, where it’s so often presented as stale and superstitious. I quibble, slightly, with the designation of The Chemical Wedding as a novel. Its fictional and romantic nature is all but uncontestable. However, the fact that so many readers took Andreae’s story as true (if not in event, than in allegorical content) says something about its context, its intent, and about the reverence its original audience had towards the written word. Despite its bizarre imagery and symbolism, it bears more resemblance to John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress than it does to any contemporary novels. Andreae did dismiss his own work later in life, but whether that is due to his youth and inexperience, or the book’s whimsical content is unknown and unknowable.
“Whether you consider The Chemical Wedding a religious text, a morality tale, or a work of science fiction, however, the fact that it remains so rich in interpretations is one of its greatest strengths. It’s a read that is simultaneously dry and bizarre, but it’s anything but tiresome. Its original uncanniness is only heightened by Crowley’s new edition, and the specificity of its historical moment made more familiar.”
— Emily Nordling, Tor.com

“Readers willing to surrender to its trippy rhythms and odd narrative choices will find many pleasures therein, from Fadel’s lively and grotesque drawings to Crowley’s erudite-yet-accessible footnotes. Especially interesting are the ways in which Andreae presents such a distinctive, funny, frightening and touching view of how the universe operates. Small Beer, Crowley and his collaborators have successfully mixed together disparate elements to create a strange literary concoction that fizzes with creative energy.”
— Michael Berry, Portland Press Herald

“The Chemical Wedding is full of outlandish set pieces—candles that walk on their own; a queen’s gown so beautiful it can’t be gazed upon—that might suggest an allegorical reading. But their imagery, as Crowley points out in his footnotes, is inconsistent: any allegory is defeated by the book’s sheer incongruity.”
— Peter Bebergal, The New Yorker

“A fine specimen.”
— Kirkus Reviews

Hardcover editions were made available through a Kickstarter that ran from May 9 until June 3, 2016 and was featured on: Publishers Weekly · The Guardian · Tor · Huffington Post · Vatan Kitap (Turkey) · La Nacion (Argentina) · io9 · MobyLives · The Paris Review ·

1) 26 lettered copies. $500. Sold out.

• • Signed on a two-color tipped in page by the author John Crowley, the illustrator Theo Fadel, and the designer Jacob McMurray.

• • Includes a tipped in sheet of the Wedding Invitation handwritten by the author.

• • Accompanied by an exclusive woodcut hand printed, signed, and numbered in her studio by Theo Fadel.

• • Presented in a black cloth slipcase with gold foil titles and an exclusive alternate print.

• Smyth sewn in oatmeal linen with black and red foil stamped cover designed by Jacob McMurray and including an illustration by Theo Fadel. Printed in black and red ink on a beautiful 70# Finch Opaque Vanilla paper with red endpapers and a red ribbon.

2) 200 numbered copies. $250. Available.

• • Signed on a two-color tipped in page by the author John Crowley, the illustrator Theo Fadel, and the designer Jacob McMurray.

• • Accompanied by an exclusive woodcut hand printed, signed, and numbered in her studio by Theo Fadel.

• • Presented in a black cloth slipcase stamped with gold foil titles.

• Smyth sewn in oatmeal linen with black and red foil stamped cover designed by Jacob McMurray and including an illustration by Theo Fadel. Printed in black and red ink on a beautiful 70# Finch Opaque Vanilla paper with black endpapers and a black ribbon.

3) A trade cloth edition: 9781618731074. $30. Kickstarter only: not available in bookstores.
Smyth sewn in oatmeal linen with black foil stamped cover designed by Jacob McMurray and including an illustration by Theo Fadel. Printed in black ink on a beautiful 70# Finch Opaque Vanilla paper with matching endpapers.

Launch Party: 11/17/16, 7 p.m. Join John Crowley and Theo Fadel for a reading, Q&A, signing and cask opening of a specially brewed beer at Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton, MA.
Reading: 12/3/16, 11 a.m. John Crowley, Northampton Book Fair, Smith College Campus Center, Northampton, MA

Praise for John Crowley’s books:

“Crowley is generous, obsessed, fascinating, gripping. Really, I think Crowley is so good that he has left everybody else in the dust.” —Peter Straub

“Ambitious, dazzling, strangely moving, a marvelous magic-realist family chronicle.” — Washington Post

“A master of language, plot and characterization, Crowley triumphs in this occult and Hermetic tale, at once naturalistically persuasive and uncannily visionary.” —Harold Bloom

“Like a magus, John Crowley shares his secrets generously, allowing us to believe that his book is revealing the true and glorious nature of the world and the reader’s own place within it.” —Village Voice

“[Crowley] transforms the lead of daily life into seriously dazzling artistic gold.” —Newsday

“So rich and so evocative and so authentic.” —Tom Brokaw

“[An] intricate and stylish romp … both a Gothic extravaganza and a picaresque adventure.” —New York Times Book Review

“An eerily authentic simulation of Romantic literature … beautiful.” — Boston Globe

“Though it’s an impertinent undertaking, it’s also a beautiful success.” —Seattle Times

“A complex, nested novel of literary and biographical reconstruction … A stunning, rewarding work.” —Vancouver Sun

About the Author

John Crowley was born in the appropriately liminal town of Presque Isle, Maine, in 1942, his father then an officer in the US Army Air Corps. He grew up in Vermont, northeastern Kentucky and (for the longest stretch) Indiana, where he went to high school and college. He moved to New York City after college to make movies, and did find work in documentary films, an occupation he still pursues. He published his first novel (The Deep) in 1975, and his 16th volume of fiction (Four Freedoms) in 2009. Since 1993 he has taught creative writing at Yale University. In 1992 he received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He finds it more gratifying that almost all his work is still in print. He is a three time winner of the World Fantasy Award, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. He wonders if this last can be awarded twice, since he is still some years shy of a lifetime and has a couple more ideas.

About the Illustrator

Since illustrating The Chemical Wedding Theo Fadel has discovered she is the eleventh great grandniece of Robert Fludd who defended the Rosy Cross manuscripts in 1616. He mentions building his own wooden robots and other things impossible by “mere mathematics without the co-operation of natural magic.” Theo lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts with her spouse Ruth and four cats in a charmingly old house that stands by natural magic. A native Charlottean and enthusiastic somnambulist, she grew up within a half mile of PTL’s broadcast studio and Billy Graham’s mother, watching Star Trek and Batman in a Peter Max bathrobe. When science sacrificed the moon program she turned to Dungeons & Dragons. She has a BA in Archeology from Bryn Mawr College and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. She studied drawing, sculpture and painting at the Art Students League, NYC, while working in an old German cabinet shop. Her first day there an aged Austrian said “One hundred years and you’re the first woman we’ve seen.” Currently her studio is in Easthampton, her website is theofadel.com, and she’s been in Massachusetts less than a hundred years. This is the first book she has illustrated.

About the Designer

Jacob McMurray is the Senior Curator at Seattle’s EMP Museum, where he has organized over twenty exhibitions. He also dabbles in graphic design, focusing on books and print ephemera. McMurray lives in Seattle with his wife, two daughters, two cats, three chickens, and 50,000 honeybees.

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“How different might my attitude toward dragons have been if I’d met Uggi before Smaug?”

Fri 18 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light| Posted by: Gavin

Getting Travel Light ready for a quick pre-holiday (I hope!) reprint and thinking about this line from Amal El-Mohtar’s “You Must Read This” on NPR —which, when it was published was such a moment of joy that this tiny beautiful book would find such a reader for it — and realized there is a 50/50 chance that our kid will encounter Uggi before Smaug. She is her own reader, so who knows which book she will pick up first.

More from Amal:

Who might I have been if I had met Halla Bearsbairn before Bilbo Baggins? How different might my attitude toward dragons have been if I’d met Uggi before Smaug? How different would the spiritual landscapes of fantasy and science fiction be if they had accepted as antecedents works that showed a corrupt Byzantine Christianity and sympathy toward Islam?

But, most crucially for me, I wonder: Where might I have gone if, instead of a middle-aged Hobbit enamored of his pantry, I had embraced a girl who lost three homes before choosing the open road?

I don’t regret, at all, having The Hobbit at the core of me, and will defend its songs and riddles and elves and spiders to the end of my days. But reading Travel Light unseamed something in me, made me feel that my certainties needed revisiting, and assured me that somewhere within me was, still, a 7-year-old girl waiting to be beckoned onto a path of luggage-less travel, of dragons and Valkyries, languages and air — and that with Travel Light, she’d taken the first step in their direction.

The book will be off to the printer and then, la! will be available again soon.

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Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 35

Thu 17 Nov 2016 - Filed under: LCRW| Posted by: Gavin

December 2016 · paper edition 56pp · Ebook ISBN (9781618731388) available from Weightless.

The most popular zine to be published on this day on this planet in this language. Probably.
Three million years from now a thought form called oufaobf will randomly coalesce into LCRW 35 at the same time as 1.2 million monkeys type it out. Which means there will be 2 copies out there in that there far future galaxy. Will Nicole Kimberling’s recipe blow them away? Fiction by Danielle Mayabb or James Warner? Could be.

LCRW #35: 11 stories, 4 poems, a column. A zine. An occasional outburst.

Deadly serious about great weird literature and democracy.

History is written by the people who write.

These are not usual days.
These are not the usual times.
This is a time of grief.
This is a time of gloominess.
This is a time of anger.
This is a time of  witnessing.
This is a time to stand up and be counted.
We will support the ACLU.
We will fight for equality, inclusiveness, for health care.
We will fight racism, misogyny, hatred, and intolerance.
We will write the history of our times together.

Gavin J. Grant
Kelly Link

Reviews

SF Revu

Table of Contents

Fiction

Danielle Mayabb, “People Are Fragile Things You Should Know By Now”
James Warner, “The History of Harrabash”
Clinton Lawrence, “The Peach Orchard”
Kate Story, “The Ghost of the Cherry Blossom”
Jessy Randall, “Anonymized Orgies, Inc.”
Andrew Ervin, “Presently Engulfing the Mid-Atlantic States”
Jack Larsen, “The Equipoise with Lentils”
Diana M. Chien, “Maria Taglioni and the Highwayman”
S. E. Clark, “Genius Loci”
Henry Wessells, “Extended Range; or, The Accession Label”
Emily Jace McLaughlin, “Above the Line”

Nonfiction

Nicole Kimberling, “Holiday Treats: Believe the Dream”

Poetry

Catherine Fletcher, “Four Poems from Spook Speak, A Tale of Espionage”

Cover

Aatmaja Pandya, “A Wizard of Earthsea”

About the Authors

Diana M. Chien is a writer, scientist, and illustrator. Her poetry has appeared in journals including Tin House and Boulevard; this is her first published story. She holds a PhD in Microbiology from MIT, where she teaches and manages a science communication program.

S. E. Clark is a proud graduate of Lesley University’s Creative Writing MFA program. Her work has appeared in Rose Red Review, GeekForceFive, and the Drum Magazine. She lives in a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where she collects local folklore and forages through old cemeteries for names.

Andrew Ervin is the author of the novel Burning Down George Orwell’s House and a collection of novellas, Extraordinary Renditions. His nonfiction Bit by Bit: How Video Games Transformed our World is forthcoming. He lives in Philadelphia.

Catherine Fletcher is a writer and artist based in New York City. Her poetry has appeared in The Offing, Poetry Wales, Bird’s Thumb, and New Contrast, among other publications, and she has performed at venues in the United States, Mexico, and India. She is an editor for Rattapallax magazine, a 2016 New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Su-Casa Artist-in-Residence, and a 2016-17 TWP Science and Religion Fellow.

Nicole Kimberling lives in Bellingham, Washington, with her wife, Dawn Kimberling. She is a professional cook and amateur life coach. Her first novel, Turnskin, won the Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. She is also the author of the Bellingham Mystery Series.

Jack Larsen is a writer and student living in Wellington, New Zealand. At last count his cupboard contained fifty-one kinds of tea. This is his first story in print.

Clinton Lawrence’s fiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Lore, and number of small press and electronic publications. For twenty years, he worked as an electrical engineer, designing and testing equipment for the cellular phone industry, but has never owned a cell phone. He now teaches high school science. He lives in Davis, California.

Danielle Mayabb is a web developer who lives in Reno, Nevada with her wife, four cats, and a rabbit. She spends her spare time on assorted geekery, reading, writing, and looking in dark corners for magical creatures. This is her first story in print.

Emily Jace McLaughlin is a graduate of the Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, where she won seven Hopwood awards for her novel, short stories, essays and play. Her short stories have appeared in VICE, Fiction, and Joyland, and she has written for the critically-acclaimed TV show Supernatural. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Michigan.

Aatmaja Pandya is a cartoonist and illustrator from New York. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2014 with a BFA Illustration degree. Her current project is Travelogue, a fantasy “diary” comic with a focus on worldbuilding. She likes drawing comics about wizards and video games and surly teens.

Jessy Randall’s stories, poems, and other things have appeared in Asimov’s, Flurb, and McSweeney’s. She has published two stories in LCRW: “You Don’t Even Have a Rabbit” and “The Hedon-Ex Anomaly”. She is a librarian at Colorado College and her website is bit.ly/JessyRandall.

Kate Story is a writer and performer. A Newfoundlander living in Ontario, Canada, her first novel Blasted received the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic’s honourable mention. She is a recipient of the Ontario Arts Foundation’s K. M. Hunter Award for her work in theatre. Recent publications include short stories in Carbide Tipped Pens, Gods, Memes, and Monsters, “Show and Tell” Playground of Lost Toys, Clockwork Canada, and Imaginarium: Best Canadian Speculative Writing 2015. Upcoming publications include Those Who Make Us and The Sum of Us.

Donald Trump lost the popular vote in the recent presidential election in the USA.

James Warner lives in San Francisco. His stories have appeared most recently in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, ZYZZYVA, and Santa Monica Review. He is also the author of the novel All Her Father’s Guns. He is working on more stories set in the world of Harrabash. You can find more information about him at www.jameswarner.net or follow him on Twitter at @jameshjwarner

Henry Wessells is a writer and antiquarian bookseller in New York City. He is author of Another green world and The Private Life of Books, and editor of several volumes by American fantasist Avram Davidson, including El Vilvoy de las Islas, The Wailing of the Gaulish Dead, and, with Grania Davis, The Other Nineteenth Century and Limekiller. His imprint, Temporary Culture, has published works by Michael Swanwick, Ellen Kushner, Don Webb, Gregory Feeley, and Judith Clute. He likes to walk around in the woods and in the dictionary.

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 35 December 2016. ISSN 1544-7782. Ebook ISBN: 9781618731388. Text: Bodoni Book. Titles: Imprint MT Shadow. LCRW is usually published in June and November by Small Beer Press, 150 Pleasant St., #306, Easthampton, MA 01027 · smallbeerpress@gmail.com · smallbeerpress.com/lcrw. twitter.com/smallbeerpress · Subscriptions: $20/4 issues (see page 32 of the print edition for options). Please make checks to Small Beer Press. Library & institutional subscriptions are available through EBSCO. LCRW is available as a DRM-free ebook through weightlessbooks.com, &c. Contents © 2016 the authors. All rights reserved. “Extended Range; or, The Accession Label” Henry Wessells © 2015 Temporary Culture. First published with two etchings by Judith Clute on 17 December 2015. Thank you, lovely authors. Submissions, requests for guidelines, & all good things should be sent to the address above. Printed by quick and accurate people at Paradise Copies (paradisecopies.com), 21 Conz St., Northampton, MA 01060. 413-585-0414.

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Secret List of Secret Backers of Secret Books of the Masters of the Universe

Wed 16 Nov 2016 - Filed under: smallbeer, John Crowley, kickstarter, Thank you, The Chemical Wedding| Posted by: Gavin

On the 9th of May 2016 we launched our first Kickstarter for a series of beautiful hardcovers of John Crowley’s new version of The Chemical Wedding and in the next 25 days 1,299 lovely, lovely people backed it. There were a few people who preferred to be actual Secret Backers so their names are not included here — and if you are a backer and you would like your name removed, please email me or send me a message through Kickstarter.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

JC
Alexander
Aimee
andrew
Alan
Maquarrie
Alexis
SecretBaroness
Angela
AnaMaria
Angela
Chellinsky
aneese
Ornithopterx
@nt1
Brian
Branden
Bill
Brock
bssc23public
CailinLiath
Chessie
tournevis
Chris
Kevin
chaosprime
Zach
Ellie
cdragga
ChuckEye
Sharon
Alexandra
Cassandra
Miyajima
JM
DLuv
seth
David Lamp, PhD
Dennis
David
DanFlath
Danielle
Anthony
dqq
Daniel
L
erhouk
Nora
Elijah
Daniel
Tuebor
Ethan
C.
gary
Susan
Skittlegryph
Bert
Hitumi
jair
Jake
Disco_box
Jan
JohnW
Jaime
MayorOfCydonia
jillz
Jimpar4
Johnathan
BlackJack
joem
joey
Kevin
Owlglass
Kyle
Katharine
Kathryn
Frango
Kevin
Kimberley
Kate
Kristin
Booksandwoods
Lianne
LeEtta
LeRoy
mondobongo
LH
Lindsay
Lisa
SHL
Lizz
lisa
Lucrecia
Alda
lrv.
mykljonzun
margaretmoser
Amy
mastadge
Matthew_Iliff
mario
sarah
Meckels
Melanie
Michael
sjmalarkey
proftre
Michael
Greymattersplat
Natalie
n8
noelier
Neile
clemi
Mauro
Celena
Tiffany
Anne
prancelot
Marrameu
Niels
Pyropunk
Matthew
Raida
Robin
Regis
Rhel
rhmail@mythosphere.com
Brian
RyanTheDreamer
sherdman
Tab
Savanna
ShelleyD
Sarah
Sabine
Shana
Richard
steffmetal
Stephanie
Steven!
steves213
Anon
Susanna
Sandra
Tom
Ted
themiria
timo
C.
viragodawg
Magnus
Warren
Wayfarer
William
Zankabo
Paul Abate
Elizabeth Adams
Kanika Agrawal
Petter Ahlgren
Layla Al-Bedawi
Mustafa Al-Laylah
Elisabeth Alba
William Alison
Marco Alpert
Anshul Amar
Talita Amaral
Marlon Amaro
Ken Amos
Michael Anderson
Nicole Anderson
Carol Andreae
Dale Andree
Sara Andrews
Rob Andrews
Jacob Angelo
James Antell
Tobias Apostel
Liam Arbuthnot
Robert Archambault
Joshua Archer
Beth Ardner
Mark Argent
Robert Armstrong
Brian Artiaco
Lionel Artom-Ginzburg
Stephen Ashmore
Richard August
Markus Aurelius
Joanne Austin
Steve Aydt
Dustin Bacon
Kristen Bacus
Jonathan Badger
Matthew Bainbridge
Charles Baird
Donald Baird
Kirstie Baker
varinder bal
the balding
Georgina Ballantine
John Baring
Jeffrey Barnes
Robert Baron
Haven Barros
Mira Bartok
Jordan Bass
Hajnalka Bata
Jess Baucom
Suzie Baunsgard
Dave Baxter
David Baynham
Mike Beagley
Megan Beauchemin
Christopher Becker
Marc Bedard
Scott Beeler
Michael Beeman
Bobbi Beeson
Maarten Beisterveld
Alexis Bencomo
Wilhelm Benker
Kimberley Bennett
Tom Berger
Evan Berkow
Joseph Berlant
Olivia Berry
Tim Berry
Matthew Bess
Marie BIARD
Bill Bibo
Ken Bieber
Orin Bigman
Michael Bikovitsky
earl billingsley
Michel Bintener
Edith Bishop
Eli Bishop
Mia Bishton
Gustaf Bjorklund
Holly Black
William Blackwell
Marion Bloch
Software Bloke
Liza Bloomer
Joshua Bluestein
Glenn Bodnar
Hugo Boisjoly
Elizabeth Boll
Richard Bondur
Cookish Bookish
Greg Bossert
Diane Bottino
Richard Boulter
CHAD BOWDEN
Trey Bowden
Michael Bowman
Michael Boyce
David Boyer
Janet Boyer
Brian Boyne
Jeb Boyt
David Brackeen
Scott Brady
kenneth bragg
David Brainer-Banker
Paul Brazier
Mayer Brenner
John Brescia
Ghislain Breton
Jeremy Brett
Katie Bricker
Floyd Brigdon
Billy Britton
Heather Britton
Katrin Brock
Derek Brooker
LAWRENCE BROOKS
Leanna Brooks
Alex Broquet
Christopher Brown
Mason Brown
Lawrence Brown
William Brown
Erik Brueggemann
April Brumley
Linda Bruno
John Buck
Mark Buckmaster
Bruno Buffone
Thomas Bull
Greg Bunch
Jacob Buraczyk
Timothy Burke
Dennis Burkholder
Sarah Burnes
Mila Burton
Kimberly Bustamante
John Butler
Simon Bye
Par Bygdeson
Nick C
Summer Cable
Colleen Cahill
R Calfas
Jenna Callender
Bryan Camp
Douglas Camp
Paul Campagnoli
scott campbell
Christiaan Campbell
David Campbell
Sarah Campbell
Bill Campbell
Douglas Candano
Michael Canepa
Tamzen Cannoy
Emily Capettini
Mary Capps
Leticia Capriotti
Natalie Caputo
Christian Carballo
Marco Carle
Ron Carroll
Howard Carter
Warwick Carter
Linda Cartwright
Rick Castello
Ian Cavalier
Pop Cavallaro
Robert Chacko
jon chadwick
David Chamberlain
Martha Champion
Ed Chapman
Robert Charrois
Jonathan Cheatham
Matthew Cheney
Rori Christenson
Neal Chuang
Tom Churchill
Oleg Chuykov
Jenn Cicio
Amie Claridge
Alex Clark
Heather Clark
Nathan Clark
Paul Clarkson
Marcella Clashman
Laura Clements
Will Clements
Kevin Clifford
Arthur Close
Alex Coblentz
Geoff Cohen
Howard Cohen
Mark Cohen
Gordon Colburn
Jonathan Colburn
Jeannie Coleman
linda colley
Gina Collia
Chris Coman
Douglas Comeau
Kate Compton
Claire Connelly
Brian Conner
Jeff Constable
Mike Convey
Alvaro Coraspe
Jeffrey Cornelius
Jo Cosgriff
Nick Cotter
Susan Coughlin
Christen Courville
Susanna Craib-Cox
Toby Craig
Jerad Cramp
Samuel Crider
Rob Crosby
James Crossley
donald crossman
Sara Crow
Fern Culhane
Jerry Cullum
Scott Cupp
Sarah Curtis
Daniel Curtiss
Mark Cutright
Robert Dallas
Michael Damkier
Fred Darmstadt
Ellen Datlow
Andrea Davenport
jeff davie
David Davis
Eric Davis
Erik Davis
Matthew Davis
Michael Davis
Pamela Davis
Tobias Davis
Julie Day
Arturo De La Torre
Loren Dearborn
Marion Deeds
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———

Thank you!

 

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2016 Holiday Shipping

Wed 16 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., holiday, housekeeping, post office, shipping, shopping, usps| Posted by: Gavin

Updated from last year, here it is again:

This is our annual post about holiday mail dates: like the zombies, they’ll be here slightly faster than expected. As usual, our office will be closed over the holidays, this year that’s from December 24 – January 3, 2016. It is unlikely we will ship over that period. (Weightless is always open.)

Order now, order often!

Here are the last order dates for Small Beer Press — which, in case you’re thinking about waiting until the last minute to order some chocolate Christmas trees are about the same as every other biz in the USA. Dates for international shipping are here.

All orders include free first class (LCRW) or media mail (books) shipping in the USA.

But: Media Mail parcels are the last to go on trucks. If the truck is full, Media Mail does not go out until the next truck. And if that one’s full, too, . . . you get the idea. So, if you’d like to guarantee pre-holiday arrival, please add Priority Mail:

Domestic Mail Class/Product	Cut Off Date
First Class Mail	Dec-20
Priority Mail	Dec-21
Priority Mail Express	Dec-23

Order now, order often!

Just like to read a book, don’t care about a ding or two?

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This Thursday: John Crowley Event

Tue 15 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., John Crowley, The Chemical Wedding| Posted by: Gavin

This Thursday night, November 17, come one, come all to the Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton, Mass., and join John Crowley and Theo Fadel for a reading, Q&A, signing of The Chemical Wedding wherein alchemical and zymurgical secrets will be spilled (although hopefully no beer) and the Brewery will open a cask of specially brewed beer.

Where: Abandoned Building Brewery, 142 Pleasant Street Unit, 103A, Easthampton, Massachusetts 01027 (back entrance of the mill — a little bit down from the fab Mill 180)
When: Thursday, November 17, 7 p.m.

What’s it all about? The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz! A 400-year-old book (novel? hoax? definitely a bestseller of its time) that John Crowley came across while writing Aegypt and decided it would be fun to make a contemporary edition of. And it is! It is a wacky delight and with Theo Fadel illustrating and Jacob MacMurray designing, it is a beautiful object.

Sure. But What Do Reviewers Say?

“Readers willing to surrender to its trippy rhythms and odd narrative choices will find many pleasures therein, from Fadel’s lively and grotesque drawings to Crowley’s erudite-yet-accessible footnotes. Especially interesting are the ways in which Andreae presents such a distinctive, funny, frightening and touching view of how the universe operates. Small Beer, Crowley and his collaborators have successfully mixed together disparate elements to create a strange literary concoction that fizzes with creative energy.”
— Michael Berry, Portland Press Herald

“The Chemical Wedding is full of outlandish set pieces—candles that walk on their own; a queen’s gown so beautiful it can’t be gazed upon—that might suggest an allegorical reading. But their imagery, as Crowley points out in his footnotes, is inconsistent: any allegory is defeated by the book’s sheer incongruity.”
— Peter Bebergal, The New Yorker

“John Crowley has consulted several older English versions, as well as living German advisors (Rosicrucian adepts?), and has come up with an utterly unpretentious working of this weird old parable which reads like a late-night barroom colloquy.” — Counterpunch

Not a print person? Get the audiobook here.

Got a moment? Here’s an interview in the Believer (is John a Belieber? You’d have to ask him) from a couple of years ago.

Can’t make it on Thurs

day? There’s one more chance to catch up with John: December 3 at 11 a.m. John will be at the Northampton Book Fair in the Smith College Campus Center, Northampton, Mass.

Hope to see you there!

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Next week

Tue 15 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

We’re going to add new titles for Spring 2017. This week: a reading plus dejection and anger. Woo hoo.

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The Climate Change Battle

Mon 14 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Lydia Millet| Posted by: Gavin

Kirkus Reviews just reviewed Lydia Millet‘s third and final book in her Dissenters series for kids, The Bodies of the Ancients:

“Children, adults, and myriad creatures fight the final battle in a war over climate change…. genrewise, the book completely fuses science fiction with fantasy…. relationships are tender. Memorably unusual.”

You can start reading The Fires Beneath the Sea right now on Wattpad for free and while we get the final book ready, we’re going to offer the whole series at special prices for a limited time:

The Fires Beneath the Sea
Hardcover: $16.95 $9.95
Paperback: $12 $5.99

The Shimmers in the Night
Hardcover: $16.95 $9.95

The Fires Beneath the Sea
The Shimmers in the Night
2 Hardcovers @ 50% off: $33.90 Buy Now: $16.95

The Fires Beneath the Sea
The Shimmers in the Night
The Bodies of the Ancients
Hardcovers: $50.85 Buy Now: $24.95

 

 

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Thu 10 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Rotating Cleverness| Posted by: Gavin

We delight in not having pop-up ads.

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2016

Thu 10 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., despair, politics| Posted by: Gavin

Our friends at Topatoco are selling a succinct t-shirt which captures some of the despair I feel over the US election result. A man who cares not a whit about anyone except himself and his businesses was elected despite lies, deceit, rudeness, misogyny, racism, bankruptcies, and more. Although he lost the minority vote and although he has various legal charges against him and although he can’t even be trusted with his own Twitter account he received at least 59,704,818 votes — plus some others who voted for Trump to win by voting for third party candidates.

I voted against him along with 59,942,916 voters who voted for Hillary Clinton. I don’t really care about third party candidates (I am a single issue voter against anyone who is anti-vaccine) or their voters because while the two-party system isn’t great, it is better than a one-party system (no: the 2 parties are not the same) and the country has not managed to put forward viable third parties in recent years. I am registered as Undeclared in that neither party is humanist or progressive enough for me.

There are bright signs that this country is not a heaving mess of white racists but there are also millions of people who sat out the election. I have no great takeaway. I can barely not just lie down on the ground and wish to stop breathing. But this body keeps going and I suppose the body politic might, too. I grew up in Scotland where Thatcher was the prime minister — although, like Trump, she never won (was never closeto winning) the popular vote in Scotland. She was awful for the country. Here I am again, back in opposition.

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Ayize in NYC

Thu 10 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal., Ayize Jama-Everett, Liminals| Posted by: Gavin

Don’t miss West Coast author Ayize Jama-Everett making 2 exclusive appearances in New York as part of Book Riot Live:

11/11, 7 pm, 826 Broadway, 3rd floor
Books & Booze with Diane McMartin and Book Riot Live
Join host and sommelier Diane McMartin (This Calls For a Drink!) and Alyssa Cole, Ayize Jama-Everett, and Tara Clancy. McMartin will be pairing speakers’ books and hand-selected wine, followed by readings from the authors. Your ticket includes refreshments and a $15 gift card to The Strand. Sponsored by Unbound Worlds.

Please note: this event is 21+, as alcohol will be served.
Tickets: $40 (available here) includes refreshments and a $15 gift card to The Strand.

11/12, 1:15 pm, MetWest Stage 2
Farm to Table: How a Book Gets Made
How does a book get from submitted manuscript to your bookshelf? Not always the way you think! Find out more from publishing experts who work behind the scenes.
Self-publishing and small presses: author Ayize Jama-Everett
Book packaging: Sona Charaipotra
Editor: Michael Reynolds
Marketing: Kathryn Ratcliffe-Lee
Sponsored by Speaking American: How Y’all, Youse, and Your Guys Talk from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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Please Vote!

Tue 8 Nov 2016 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

If you are in the the USA and can vote, please vote today. Thank you!

Me: I am off to vote at our kid’s school where there is always a bake sale to raise funds for the kids to go on field trips and so on. I support that bake sale with as much fortitude as I can. Vote, vote, vote! The more the merrier. The neighbors are voting. Let’s do it!

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