2nd
February 2nd: Greetings for the New Year!
This is a New Year’s greeting posted almost a month after the actual New Year’s celebration; but, it seems that there are a lot of things in the wind right now that signal it’s being more of a new year to me than there were on January 1.
To begin with, of course, we are now a country with a new president, Barack Obama;that alone is cause to break out the champagne on almost a daily basis.
But, on a more local level vis a vis Schaffner Press, there is much that is new and much to celebrate. Firstly, there was the wonderful article that appeared in last week’s Publisher’s Weekly concerning myself, the press and the wonderful authors I have had the honor to work with thus far, and all the great books I have been involved in these last seven years.
I am looking forward to some exciting publishing moments this year, and have already enjoyed a couple in just this last month. Here are some of the highlights:
DANCING AT THE RIVER’S EDGE: A Patient and Her Doctor Negotiate Life with Chronic Illness was just released in hardcover early last month, and has already sold 1,000 copies. Thanks to my brother Valentine of the Nabi Gallery who co-hosted the event, we had a hugely successful launch party in New York on Friday, January 9th. There were well over 100 people in a attendance and over 90 books were sold. In addition, earlier that afternoon, Ken Browne of Ken Browne Productions conducted interviews with the authors Alida Brill and Michael D. Lockshin individually and together.He is at work on editing this down to a three-minute webisode that will be featured on this site as well as the Schaffner Press website, Dancing at the River’s Edge. com, Alida Brill.com and many other sites as well.
HUMPTY DUMPTY WAS PUSHED/ Marc Blatte. This “first truly wonderful hip-hop noir” has been getting a lot of advance acclaim, and reviews have appeared last month in Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal where is was dubbed “an entertaining mystery.”It also received a rave review from “Mystery Scene” Magazine (see below)
“SMALL PRESS
Reviewing the Independents
by Betty Webb, Mystery Scene Winter Issue #108,Feb.2009
Forget about the groundhog’s prediction. Just warm yourself with the following cache of crime capers, fem-jeps, suspense novels, cozies, and blood-drenched noirs.
To maximize your pleasure, begin your midwinter read-a-thon with Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed, by Marc Blatte (Schaffner Press. $24.95). In this dark, witty, and often brilliant novel, Pashko Gazivoda, an Albanian immigrant employed as a nightclub bouncer, is found murdered near a trendy lower Manhattan hot spot. When his cousin Vooko, also a bouncer, vows revenge, the mayhem begins. As Vooko rampages his way through Manhattan, the body count skyrockets. Confronting Vooko’s rage are Proof Positive, a rising hip-hop group; Black Sallie Blue Eyes, a homicide detective carrying a torch for his ex-wife; Lady Panther, a female wrestler; and a fleet of “big money maggots.” No angels inhabit this grimly funny book, just a series of flawed human beings, some a little less wicked than others. Author Blatte makes a smart choice by telling his story through various characters’ points of view, thus serving up a savory goulash of homicidal thoughts and crackling dialogue, ranging from Vooko’s hilarious malapropisms and Proof Positive’s gangsta riffs, to the sublime musings on the finer points of contemporary music production by a heard-it-all-before recording engineer. Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed is such shocking good fun that you won’t even feel guilty about laughing at all the carnage.
A dark, witty, and often brilliant novel. Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed is such shocking good fun, you won’t feel guilty about laughing at all the carnage.
Betty Webb, Mystery Scene; Winter Issue (Feb. 2009)”
ONE RING CIRCUS: Dispatches from the World of Boxing/Katherine Dunn
We have also had a lot of terrific advance reviews on this title, and blurbs from Bert Sugar Boxing Hall of Fame Journalist and Historian, Nebula-Award winning writer Lucius Shepard and Thom Jones, the acclaimed author of “The Pugilist at Rest”
Most recently the CyberBoxingZone.com website posted a review of the book (see below):”
Dunn’s collection is a great addition to your boxing library that illuminates and glorifies this misunderstood and maddening sport, one of those rigorous disciplines that “offer us greatness and hurl us deeper into life by their drama and beauty.”
A game fringed with bagmen and bloviators, shysters and showoffs, has finally got the wise, lucid spokesman it needs and deserves.”David Gianfriddo, Staff Writer
So, all told, we’re off to a great start, and no doubt February will bring forth new surprises and unlooked for rewards!
