Ok. So since I'm already doing Cheever and The Book of Job, this might seem like a bit too much. But I'm down to four clients and my work is finished until Thursday and while I have other things to do (edit the next Dybbuk Press book, work on this short story, upload a document for my SNAP paperwork, etc.), today I feel like going to bed early so I can wake up early and see if I can get tickets to The Music Man because a friend wants to see it.

So I'm going to put that stuff on hold and go with one more thing for these laconic January weeks and start reading and reviewing the first book I ever published.

I am planning on doing a Substack series on publishing books as an independent press (or small press or micro press) including some of the pitfalls and the personality clashes that can be avoided. They really can.

So a few things

Unlike the Stories of John Cheever, I won't review a story with "What the Fuck is this shit?" because I paid for these stories. I accepted these stories. I did a lot of editing on these stories. I know the authors. I like the authors. For the most part. I don't want the authors to find out that some editor that bought a story from them almost 20 years ago (yikes) is talking shit about them now.

There was a lot of drama in the making of this book. I was relatively young. I was immature. I didn't know what I was doing. There was miscommunication (including thinking that I was partnering with a friend who had a publishing company to do a project with him and he thinking that I was using his publishing company for my stuff on the stipulation that I stick his girlfriend's vampire story in the thing. Yeah that's the only one. You can find more tales of that drama when I finally start Substack and you can find the rough drafts when I was still angry at everyone at https://marlowe1.dreamwidth.org/ but you'd have to go back a long time and I'm not helping you find it.

I'm reviewing every book I read this year at https://marlowe1.dreamwidth.org/ because yeah, I can't quit the livejournal world even as livejournal was invaded by Putin's ego long before he invaded Ukraine and the U.S. elections.

Beyond that, the book is short. I should have it finished by the end of the month. Hell, by the end of the month I might have the Stories of John Cheever finished and I'll be off to Les Miserables which was the original notion I had for this thing.

Finally, there are a lot of Amazon reviews saying that this is a piece of shit. Some legitimately hate the book while others are written by people who just don't like me. I don't really have an opinion on them, beyond meh. This isn't the first book that I would offer up if I wanted to show people that I was an editor. It's not the one that was a passion project. It was the one that I wanted to publish so I could stick a story that I wrote in it because I was frustrated about no one buying my stories.

I suppose I could talk about my failed story. I never did sell that thing.

Sapin Sapin in SISC

10 copies coming to Zinemachine this October 13th in Durham, NC! Two Dead Queers (which is my partner @rehellinger and I's little horror micropress) will have a short run of First Holy Cummunion and Other Obscene Sacraments again 😈

Announcing Direct Ordering for Print Titles at Aradia Publishing

I’m so pleased to announce that direct ordering for print titles from Aradia Publishing is now available on our website!

Right now we’re offering a 10% retail pre-order discount on trade paperbacks of Gunsmoke & Dragonfire, which will run until release date, March 31. Pre-order discounts will also be available for the hardcover editions of Gunsmoke & Dragonfire and Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd…