a certain mr. Hopfrog Pugmire elegantly recommends Double Feature Press and one of his favorite bEasts . . . Again, I'm humbled and delighted to receive his praise. To be associated with a Lovecraftian of his caliber is both, a pleasure and a high privilege.
Showing posts with label Double Feature Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Double Feature Press. Show all posts
Sunday, October 24, 2010
The Book - The Writer . . . Soon to be in a book with This Writer
I'm overjoyed and humbled to be one half of an upcoming book with a Magican this powerful. Robin Spriggs is a master wordsmith; startling imagination, capable of endlessly defying a reader's expectations, style, charm, a wizard of form and literature! !! He is all that and so much more . . .
Robin Spriggs' new collection of prose poems, Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist
, whirls toward the indefinable. Prose poetry itself seems like an odd and engaging anachronism, and the effect is doubled when it is used as a genre-bending skeleton for Spriggs' strange and macabre content. This ambiguity and ethereal charm marks him as a flexible practitioner of the truly unknown and truly fearful, and his latest book collects his workings, somewhere deep in the hinterlands inundated with the weird, the fantastic, and the occult.
The selections inside Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist range from a few short sentences to story length passages. With few exceptions, Spriggs manages to christen his well written pieces with the symbolic depth of poetry in few words. Some stories read as occultic rites, while others make painfully truthful observations about existence. Yet, most of these prose poems are self-contained tales that resonate deeply with the inexplicable imagery and otherworldly vistas common to weird fiction's best. Added to this is the sense of interconnectedness between these stories, which really makes one feel as though they are reading some forgotten diary uncovered in an old chest. But whose? A madman's, a sorcerer's, or a demented poet's? The best answer is all of the above.
Pieces like "Liber I," "Liber Ba," and "The House of Nine" draw on a seemingly rich knowledge of real occultism by Spriggs. But within these rituals are other currents, parallel meanings that are forced to cohabit an incredibly limited space. Readers will uncover philosophical musings on the temporal and the imaginary, as well as a sense that they are eavesdropping on the author's most private concerns and self-reflections. Direct ties between this occultic wordsmithing and the book's pure fiction is not always obvious, but these intermittent passages bridge the gap between fiction and spiritualism, giving the whole of Diary a mystical potency.
Spriggs' fables, this collection's real center, are nearly as diverse as the project as a whole. "The Yordhla" chronicles the onset of strange entities seeking their lord, wrapped in curious and unsettling language very much at home in the weird genre. "Withershin," on the other hand, seems like the bastard offspring of magical realism and dark folklore in describing the leg altering curse that befalls a town's inhabitants. "The Brides," which gives readers a minuscule peak at ghosts from another world, is just as horror inducing in its rich imagery and melancholy mood. On another level, "Practical Magic" and "Through a Doll, Darkly" are nasty and hilarious prose poems very reminiscent of the late Thomas Wiloch's work.
Whether he is doing humor, thought exercises, horror, or magic, Spriggs hits the target about 98% of the time. A tiny handful of pieces fall short in their effect and purpose, however. "Lagomorpha" and "Charge of the Dung Beetle" are too short, and come dangerously near to breaking the spell woven by Spriggs' many excellent offerings. Fortunately, these weaker prose poems are exceptionally rare and mercifully short, and barely even figure into one's reflections on the overall journey--one worthy enough to be taken time and time again.
In an era where technology is abundant and attention spans are short (guess the correlation), prose poetry may well be due for a comeback. It is not impossible, however unlikely, to imagine the Stephenie Meyer readers of today becoming the weird fiction aficionados and creators of tomorrow. Writers like Robin Spriggs may be just the ticket to lead them there. Those who have never experienced the truly magical, frightening, and surreal before Spriggs may not come back after venturing through Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist, and those who have tread the strange many times will have one more uneasy stroll to take when Anomalous Books releases this collection in September, 2010.
-Grim Blogger
, whirls toward the indefinable. Prose poetry itself seems like an odd and engaging anachronism, and the effect is doubled when it is used as a genre-bending skeleton for Spriggs' strange and macabre content. This ambiguity and ethereal charm marks him as a flexible practitioner of the truly unknown and truly fearful, and his latest book collects his workings, somewhere deep in the hinterlands inundated with the weird, the fantastic, and the occult.The selections inside Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist range from a few short sentences to story length passages. With few exceptions, Spriggs manages to christen his well written pieces with the symbolic depth of poetry in few words. Some stories read as occultic rites, while others make painfully truthful observations about existence. Yet, most of these prose poems are self-contained tales that resonate deeply with the inexplicable imagery and otherworldly vistas common to weird fiction's best. Added to this is the sense of interconnectedness between these stories, which really makes one feel as though they are reading some forgotten diary uncovered in an old chest. But whose? A madman's, a sorcerer's, or a demented poet's? The best answer is all of the above.
Pieces like "Liber I," "Liber Ba," and "The House of Nine" draw on a seemingly rich knowledge of real occultism by Spriggs. But within these rituals are other currents, parallel meanings that are forced to cohabit an incredibly limited space. Readers will uncover philosophical musings on the temporal and the imaginary, as well as a sense that they are eavesdropping on the author's most private concerns and self-reflections. Direct ties between this occultic wordsmithing and the book's pure fiction is not always obvious, but these intermittent passages bridge the gap between fiction and spiritualism, giving the whole of Diary a mystical potency.
Spriggs' fables, this collection's real center, are nearly as diverse as the project as a whole. "The Yordhla" chronicles the onset of strange entities seeking their lord, wrapped in curious and unsettling language very much at home in the weird genre. "Withershin," on the other hand, seems like the bastard offspring of magical realism and dark folklore in describing the leg altering curse that befalls a town's inhabitants. "The Brides," which gives readers a minuscule peak at ghosts from another world, is just as horror inducing in its rich imagery and melancholy mood. On another level, "Practical Magic" and "Through a Doll, Darkly" are nasty and hilarious prose poems very reminiscent of the late Thomas Wiloch's work.
Whether he is doing humor, thought exercises, horror, or magic, Spriggs hits the target about 98% of the time. A tiny handful of pieces fall short in their effect and purpose, however. "Lagomorpha" and "Charge of the Dung Beetle" are too short, and come dangerously near to breaking the spell woven by Spriggs' many excellent offerings. Fortunately, these weaker prose poems are exceptionally rare and mercifully short, and barely even figure into one's reflections on the overall journey--one worthy enough to be taken time and time again.
In an era where technology is abundant and attention spans are short (guess the correlation), prose poetry may well be due for a comeback. It is not impossible, however unlikely, to imagine the Stephenie Meyer readers of today becoming the weird fiction aficionados and creators of tomorrow. Writers like Robin Spriggs may be just the ticket to lead them there. Those who have never experienced the truly magical, frightening, and surreal before Spriggs may not come back after venturing through Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist, and those who have tread the strange many times will have one more uneasy stroll to take when Anomalous Books releases this collection in September, 2010.
-Grim Blogger
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Double Feature Press - A New [Dark] Light on the Publishing Horizon - Please read and support in any way you can ...
About this projectWelcome to the Kickstarter page for Double Feature Press. We are a small press formed by Sarah L. Covert in October of 2010. Sarah grew up on drive-in movies. That is where her love for Science Fiction, Strange Tales, and Horror was born. Double Feature Press has an interesting concept, based around the old double feature drive-in flicks. Each book has two authors. Each author contributes either short stories, poems, or novellas to make up their half of the book. The books will all be in the genres Sarah loved as a child and loves even more now. They will be limited edition runs.Our first book is due out in 2011.
Hi! My name is Sarah L. Covert. Some of you may know me from my work at Lurker Films and the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon. Many of you will know me from She Never Slept - a science fiction, strange tales, and horror news and reviews website. For those of you who don't know me, please check out my bio on the sidebar - and oh, nice to meet you!
The idea for Double Feature Press has been brewing for over a year now. After reviewing a lot of books from indie/small press, I came to a realization. There are a lot of good publishers out there and some really great publishers, but for every one of those there are three or four really bad ones. I have heard the same kinds of things from many authors - the publisher didn't edit their copy, they didn't promote them, they didn't give them copies of their work, and worse than all that -- sometimes the publishers wouldn't even pay them. Eventually I grew weary of hearing this kind of thing and decided that I would be part of the solution... I would throw my hat in the ring and add to the ranks of the good guys! I shared my thoughts with my friend Joe Pulver, and he thought my ideas were wonderful. He was ready to work with me on the spot! He is an exceptional writer, so I was happy to have him on board. His endless support is what made me persist and never give up on this dream.
"Some writers one admirers and others make one want to do as they do, or try. For me, Joe Pulver is of the latter type. His imagination is so vile so much of the time that it makes me giggle with amazement. And the prose so deadly visionary. I'm grateful that the pieces in this collection are those of a fellow horror writer who has raised the ante on what it means to be such a creature." – Thomas Ligotti
“In an earlier day I feel sure Joe Pulver would have been arrested for writing some of the stuff in this collection. Maybe he will be yet! In any case, I cannot shake the feeling that his stories are all well described by analogy to "The Colour out of Space" in that the descent of some elder, outer entity acts as seed producing, from the dark mulch of Joe's subconscious, a luxurious growth of beautiful and at the same time poisonous blooms. One knows one ought to flee but cannot resist hanging around to savor the corruption! How can he write, with such intricate delicacy, thunderous prose that fairly rips up the pages it is printed on? I wish I knew!" -Robert M. Price
At the time I was working a full-time job and my website was like a second job (that I didn't get paid for), I didn't have the start-up money or the second author for the book, so the dream was on the backburner for a while. I never stopped searching for though. About a month ago I received a book in the mail from author Robin Spriggs to review on the She Never Slept website. I was floored - his book, Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist, was nothing short of brilliant. I instantly knew he would be the perfect pairing for Joe! We opened dialogue between the three of us and in a matter of days decided that this was it and now was the time.
"Spriggs's style is filled with elegance, literary wit, and uncanny dread. His work builds to an inescapable climax that eschews the happy endings in the work of lesser fantasists. I enjoy the frisson of his endings immensely." -Michael A. Arnzen
"...an author who is serious about stretching the creative boundries of fantastic literature." -Cemetery Dance
There was a small problem with this, though the stars were right for this in so many ways, the startup money would be difficult (at best) to obtain. You see, I am now unemployed. I would not be able to get a loan and didn't want to find a big money investor who would surely want creative input in our project. I was perplexed. But after thinking for some time, the lightbulb lit up! A few months back, my friend Wolfgang Parker used Kickstarter to get funding for his graphic novel and i was a huge success. I applied and was accepted! That brings us to the present.
We are asking fans of Robin Spriggs, Joe Pulver, She Never Slept, and those in the Kickstarter community to become involved. All of the money we raise here will go towards the first print run for Double Feature Press.
Throughout the process, we will be posting updates on our blog (that will only be accessible to backers) about our ongoing adventure of getting this small press running. You will hear from the authors, be able to read edited clips of work going into the book, see sketches of cover art, read about my search for the best printer and learn what it takes to make an idea a physical reality, see video or audio clips of Joe reading his work, and so much more. It will surely be a unique experience.
We want you to know much we appreciate your help, so we have instituted a rewards program for you to choose from based on the level you pledge. The incentives include everything from the blog "backstage pass", to limited edition Double Features swag, to free copies of the book, to limited edition signed copies of the book, to your name in a story or poem written by our authors! It's our way of thanking you for helping to make a dream become a reality and helping us do what it is we love most. If you look at the sidebar you can see details of each pledge reward. All you need is an Amazon account to make a pledge. If you don't have an account don't fret, they are quick and easy to set up. Your account will only be charged if we meet or exceed out pledge goal by the deadline. Remember, any amount you donate gets us one step closer to meeting our goal and is appreciated more than any words could ever express adequately.
For more information on me, the authors who will be in Double Feature Press's first book, and Double Feature Press itself - please follow the links below.
Hi! My name is Sarah L. Covert. Some of you may know me from my work at Lurker Films and the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon. Many of you will know me from She Never Slept - a science fiction, strange tales, and horror news and reviews website. For those of you who don't know me, please check out my bio on the sidebar - and oh, nice to meet you!
The idea for Double Feature Press has been brewing for over a year now. After reviewing a lot of books from indie/small press, I came to a realization. There are a lot of good publishers out there and some really great publishers, but for every one of those there are three or four really bad ones. I have heard the same kinds of things from many authors - the publisher didn't edit their copy, they didn't promote them, they didn't give them copies of their work, and worse than all that -- sometimes the publishers wouldn't even pay them. Eventually I grew weary of hearing this kind of thing and decided that I would be part of the solution... I would throw my hat in the ring and add to the ranks of the good guys! I shared my thoughts with my friend Joe Pulver, and he thought my ideas were wonderful. He was ready to work with me on the spot! He is an exceptional writer, so I was happy to have him on board. His endless support is what made me persist and never give up on this dream.
"Some writers one admirers and others make one want to do as they do, or try. For me, Joe Pulver is of the latter type. His imagination is so vile so much of the time that it makes me giggle with amazement. And the prose so deadly visionary. I'm grateful that the pieces in this collection are those of a fellow horror writer who has raised the ante on what it means to be such a creature." – Thomas Ligotti
“In an earlier day I feel sure Joe Pulver would have been arrested for writing some of the stuff in this collection. Maybe he will be yet! In any case, I cannot shake the feeling that his stories are all well described by analogy to "The Colour out of Space" in that the descent of some elder, outer entity acts as seed producing, from the dark mulch of Joe's subconscious, a luxurious growth of beautiful and at the same time poisonous blooms. One knows one ought to flee but cannot resist hanging around to savor the corruption! How can he write, with such intricate delicacy, thunderous prose that fairly rips up the pages it is printed on? I wish I knew!" -Robert M. Price
At the time I was working a full-time job and my website was like a second job (that I didn't get paid for), I didn't have the start-up money or the second author for the book, so the dream was on the backburner for a while. I never stopped searching for though. About a month ago I received a book in the mail from author Robin Spriggs to review on the She Never Slept website. I was floored - his book, Diary of a Gentleman Diabolist, was nothing short of brilliant. I instantly knew he would be the perfect pairing for Joe! We opened dialogue between the three of us and in a matter of days decided that this was it and now was the time.
"Spriggs's style is filled with elegance, literary wit, and uncanny dread. His work builds to an inescapable climax that eschews the happy endings in the work of lesser fantasists. I enjoy the frisson of his endings immensely." -Michael A. Arnzen
"...an author who is serious about stretching the creative boundries of fantastic literature." -Cemetery Dance
There was a small problem with this, though the stars were right for this in so many ways, the startup money would be difficult (at best) to obtain. You see, I am now unemployed. I would not be able to get a loan and didn't want to find a big money investor who would surely want creative input in our project. I was perplexed. But after thinking for some time, the lightbulb lit up! A few months back, my friend Wolfgang Parker used Kickstarter to get funding for his graphic novel and i was a huge success. I applied and was accepted! That brings us to the present.
We are asking fans of Robin Spriggs, Joe Pulver, She Never Slept, and those in the Kickstarter community to become involved. All of the money we raise here will go towards the first print run for Double Feature Press.
Throughout the process, we will be posting updates on our blog (that will only be accessible to backers) about our ongoing adventure of getting this small press running. You will hear from the authors, be able to read edited clips of work going into the book, see sketches of cover art, read about my search for the best printer and learn what it takes to make an idea a physical reality, see video or audio clips of Joe reading his work, and so much more. It will surely be a unique experience.
We want you to know much we appreciate your help, so we have instituted a rewards program for you to choose from based on the level you pledge. The incentives include everything from the blog "backstage pass", to limited edition Double Features swag, to free copies of the book, to limited edition signed copies of the book, to your name in a story or poem written by our authors! It's our way of thanking you for helping to make a dream become a reality and helping us do what it is we love most. If you look at the sidebar you can see details of each pledge reward. All you need is an Amazon account to make a pledge. If you don't have an account don't fret, they are quick and easy to set up. Your account will only be charged if we meet or exceed out pledge goal by the deadline. Remember, any amount you donate gets us one step closer to meeting our goal and is appreciated more than any words could ever express adequately.
For more information on me, the authors who will be in Double Feature Press's first book, and Double Feature Press itself - please follow the links below.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Double Feature Press
I'm over the moon to split the 1st release by DFP with Robin Spriggs. His work is amazing! !! Everyone from Laird Barron on praises him and for good reason!
Robin's half of the tome will be --
The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom
The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom, according to arcane legend, is a collection of stories and poems about a collection of stories and poems by (if titles can be trusted) a certain Ozman Droom. But who is Ozman Droom? Or what is Ozman Droom? And when, where, why, and how is Ozman Droom? The answers to these and countless other questions of equally perilous rank await the curious seeker within the collection itself . . . provided such a book does indeed exist. And perhaps even if not. Caveat lector.
Mine, maybe something like this:
Night Begets
Night burns and burrows, vast as any idea it declares its bottomless truth -- Terminus. The players and observers come, absorb and discard atoms, fill moments with ripples they call magic, or love, or chance, heartache, and fate. For knowledge and pleasure they steal editions, wait for, or take, more. Night loves nothing . . . and, finally, it takes all.
Joe Pulver’s, Night Begets, is a collection of tales and poetic texts about lovelorn ghouls and other night-bound creatures as they discover sin and ashes bloom and echo in the noir labyrinths and pitch black, dungeon skirts of Night. It is a work that provokes and will leave an indelible mark on anyone who picks it up and comes through on the other side, painting a world that is as much brutal as it is beautiful and imploring readers to reconcile these seemingly antagonistic aspects of existence.
more info can be found here:
http://doublefeaturepress.com/home.html
and here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/505398600/double-feature-press?ref=search
Robin's half of the tome will be --
The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom
The Untold Tales of Ozman Droom, according to arcane legend, is a collection of stories and poems about a collection of stories and poems by (if titles can be trusted) a certain Ozman Droom. But who is Ozman Droom? Or what is Ozman Droom? And when, where, why, and how is Ozman Droom? The answers to these and countless other questions of equally perilous rank await the curious seeker within the collection itself . . . provided such a book does indeed exist. And perhaps even if not. Caveat lector.
Mine, maybe something like this:
Night Begets
Night burns and burrows, vast as any idea it declares its bottomless truth -- Terminus. The players and observers come, absorb and discard atoms, fill moments with ripples they call magic, or love, or chance, heartache, and fate. For knowledge and pleasure they steal editions, wait for, or take, more. Night loves nothing . . . and, finally, it takes all.
Joe Pulver’s, Night Begets, is a collection of tales and poetic texts about lovelorn ghouls and other night-bound creatures as they discover sin and ashes bloom and echo in the noir labyrinths and pitch black, dungeon skirts of Night. It is a work that provokes and will leave an indelible mark on anyone who picks it up and comes through on the other side, painting a world that is as much brutal as it is beautiful and imploring readers to reconcile these seemingly antagonistic aspects of existence.
more info can be found here:
http://doublefeaturepress.com/home.html
and here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/505398600/double-feature-press?ref=search
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