Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Mark Your Damn Calendar

The lovely and talented Nick Antosca will be reading from his debut novel FIRES at Housing Works on Thursday, January 11th at 7 pm. along with the incomporable Kate Hunter. If you missed the recent readings by Kate or Nick at KGB, here's your chance to catch them both together like the dynamic duo they are. Here is the blurb they have on the Housing Works calendar:

A night of debut fiction from Iowa City’s Impetus Press, committed to offering what other small presses don’t, and what commercial publishers can’t – literary fiction with a pop edge. Two of their authors will read, Nick Antosca from his novel Fires and Kate Hunter will read from The Dream Sequence, a novella. The reading will be followed by a question-and-answer session and book signing.

Praise for The Dream Sequence: “A complex structure of narratives within narratives. Scary, mesmerizing, sometimes improbably funny, The Dream Sequence is a masterful performance.”—John Ashbery

Praise for Fires: “Fires is fantastic. It s often dark, often startlingly beautiful, and it s crammed with a smoky, foreboding atmosphere that kept pulling me along, thrilled and a little scared, toward the end.” —Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and the forthcoming We Disappear

Kate and Nick are so talented and gracious it isn't even funny. So, please come out and support them-- and independent publishing.
Christmas . . .Vacation

Wow. Its been a long time since I updated the blog. A lot's hapened, and at the same time, not much has changed. I wish I could say that the Holidays were equal amounts peaceful and restful, but, alas, that was not the case. We did, however, manage to ship almost 1000 lbs of books to the new distributor. Don't even ask how much of a nightmare it was.

I spent x-mas with Willy's family, who were lovely, and laid around with my dog for two days, mostly letting him bite my hands (he likes it). We made a ton of food, including my grandmother's lasagna, and I got some very lovely presents form both my own family, and willy's as well. New Years Eve was complete madness, spent in a rented corner of hell called the Moose Lodge, drinking copious amounts of whiskey and champagne in a crowded space, while watching go-go dancers pantomine taking it all off. I love Iowa.

Willy and I didn't spend an awful lot on each other this christmas because . . . WE'RE GOING ON VACATION!

Yes, that's right, you heard me correctly. I used some of my monkey-for-hire earnings (otherwise known as the YA novel I ghostwrote) to buy a trip to Eastern Europe. For the next 12 days I am no longer a publisher. For the next 12 days I am a multinational monkey traveling all over Vienna, Prague, and Budapest, stuffing cake into my face in regular intervals, and pretending the rest of the world does not exist. For the next 12 days there will be no stress, no worrying about release dates, or author's concerns. There will be no obsessive checking of my many email accounts, or making phone calls.

Unfortunately, this break comes right at the release date of FIRES, but we're not anticipating any problems. The books are being printed, and soon they will be resting safely in Biblio's warehouse, quietly snoozing until they are catapulted onto bookstore shelves all over the U.S. And rightfully so. We'll have emai access, in case of any snafus.

That being said, we're taking a much-needed break. We deserve it.

Until January 15th XOX