I have been accused on occasion of being a touch ... dour on this blog. And in life, for that matter. A shame, that, as I must be, at the heart of things, an optimist. Why else, of course, would one continue as a small press publisher? The wages suck (wages? what wages?), as do the hours. Most of what you do is merely taken for granted. Very little of it is considered good enough. The media largely ignore you. They certainly don't give your books the attention they are due. The distributors can't get your books into stores quickly enough when they are selling, but manage to process returns and their attendant fees in record time. Authors ....
But, Wait! This is, after all, the Good News Edition of Thirsty. And despite the truth of what is above, we've plenty of reasons to be both quite happy and thankful. I thought I might take a moment and list a few of them. In no particular order...
1. Clark Blaise has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada, a much-deserved honour.
2. Sticking with Clark for a moment, he looks set to hand in a new collection of short stories, for publication either in the Fall of 2010 or Spring 2011, in the coming months.
3. Cynthia Flood's daughter Margaret recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Lachlan. Congrats!
4. Alexander MacLeod's first collection of short fiction, Heavy Lifting, is set for a Fall 2010 release. i've been waiting on this one for years. I'm quite excited.
5. K. D. Miller's novel Brown Dwarf, set for Spring 2010, is even better the second time through. Put it down as one of this season's must-reads.
6. We've hired some new help here at the Bibliomanse, Melissa Young, who so far seems to be exactly what we need to help get everything organized.
7. I've just read a page and a half of what will hopefully become a new Chellis Beith novel.
8. Marty Gervais's The Rumrunners: A Prohibition Scrapbook, continues to sell, meaning we should soon be able to pay off most of our creditors. Yes, that (likely) means you.
9. Checked in on the Peripatetic yesterday aft, sitting forlornly in her cradle. But there's only three months until we get her back in the water.
10. The launch date for Terry Griggs's Nieve is only three months away as well. April will be a very good month.
11. I've signed the contract for Rebecca Rosenblum's next collection of stories, The Big Dream. I'm thankful she decided to stick with us.
12. A book I found in a thrift shop should go for between $5000-7000 at auction later this year. A few more similar finds and it will be easier to remain optimistic.
13. Ray Smith's Century has found one more fan, and has the chance to be discovered by a few more. Thanks Kerry.
Wishing you all similarly good things in 2010.
1 comment:
Well, it sounds like congratulations are in order! They are all worthy achievements (though some were luck, rather than hard work - the thrift shop find in particular is amazing!)
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