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WIT'S END
PUBLISHING
NEWSLETTER: Vol.1 No.1, August 2003
1129 Aebersold
Drive, New Albany, IN 47150 p: (812) 945-3228 f: (270) 477-7061
Comments? Suggestions? Email us at witsend@oivas.com
Visit our website at http://www.sendwit.com/
To join this mailing list, send a blank email to witsend-subscribe@oivas.com,
or reply to this email.
In this
installment:
Foreword
Charles
Willeford: The Second Half of the Double Feature
Forthcoming titles: Douglas Fairbairn, Charles Willeford,
Glenn Erickson, and Leena Krohn
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Foreword
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We're proud to announce our new publishing venture, Wit's
End Publishing. WE consists of Juha ("JT") Lindroos
and Kathleen Martin, currently located in Southern Indiana.
WE will be introducing new short fiction collections by acknowledged
masters like Charles Willeford, as well as reprinting little-known
classics like STREET 8 and SHOOT by Douglas Fairbairn. We
plan to have 5-6 titles in print before the year is over.
Our first selection is:
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Charles Willeford - The Second Half of the Double Feature
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Our first title is by the late great author of the internationally
acclaimed Hoke Moseley detective series that was recently
optioned for the movies by Curtis Hanson (of L.A. Confidential
fame). A collection of short stories, vignettes and autobiographical
sketches, it is the most comprehensive selection of Willeford's
short work to date. Consisting of 25 stories -- mostly out-of-print
material along with some never-before-published short stories
-- this is the first trade collection of Willeford's short
stories since MACHINE IN WARD ELEVEN in 1964. It includes
all the key works contained in the limited edition collection,
EVERYBODY'S METAMORPHOSIS (Dennis McMillan), and adds unpublished
and uncollected stories to the mix. The trade edition is available
at $17.95 and, to the readers of this newsletter, we can
offer free shipping within the continental US.
We also have an expanded hardcover edition of the book available,
which has all of the text in the trade edition plus the additional
bonus of the full text of Willeford's published poetry collections:
"Outcast Poets", "Proletarian Laughter"
and "Poontang and Other Poems." These booklets are
extremely rare, and their sum total value these days exceeds
$2,000. We offer these works, and nearly 50 previously unpublished
poems, for $35.95.
http://www.sendwit.com/secondhalf.html
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Forthcoming titles
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Douglas
Fairbairn: STREET 8 with an introduction by Les Standiford.
"The cornerstone of modern South Florida fiction."
James W. Hall
STREET 8
is the quintessential Miami thriller, the progenitor of the
many books that have come to constitute South Florida noir
in its many forms.
The book
tells the story of Bobby Mead, an Anglo car dealer on SW 8th
Street, ("Calle Ocho") who hires a Cuban salesman
in an attempt to keep up with the changing demographics of
his customer base in 70’s Miami. Mead is a typical used-car
dealer trying to make a living, but before he knows it, a
man by the name of Oscar Perez has embroiled him in an international
terrorist plot that will change his life forever.
This is
a shocking novel, and one of its most disturbing elements
is the inability of its characters to understand, or their
unwillingness to accept, the reasons that have led them here.
They are unable to correct their past mistakes as they either
try to atone for the things they have done, or ignore the
past the best they can. The novel shows -- it doesn't moralize
or judge, but it positions the reader to view -- the situation
as it happens, and it reveals the horrible consequences of
their actions.
STREET 8
is a sad and chilling novel of violence, domestic trauma,
damaged people and the root causes of terrorism. It is more
relevant today than at the time of its original publication
in 1977.
"taut...tight...a
gripping piece of work!" The NY Times Book Review http://www.sendwit.com/street8.html
suspense
/ trade paper / expected publication date and price 09/2003,
$16.95.
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Douglas
Fairbairn: SHOOT ("brilliant novel" Stephen King)
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"Unusual,
gripping, menacing." The New York Times
Ranked by
Stephen King along with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr.
Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge
of Courage, Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and James
M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice as a "masterpiece
of concision," this is an intense tale of violence that
escalates from a spare beginning into a full scale war. .
.
"Fairbairn's
bloody story...assumes frightening credibility...As explicit
and horrid as you can imagine." Philadelphia Inquirer
"Action
and adventure up there with the best...painfully realistic...
A novel easy to read, but difficult to forget." Los Angeles
Times
suspense
/ trade paper / expected pub. date and price 11/2003, $16.95.
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For those
who love Willeford's works, we are also delighted to announce
the forthcoming publication of a reprint edition of his classic,
THE BLACK MASS OF BROTHER SPRINGER. This will be published
in a trade paperback format, with a new introduction by James
Sallis, and included is Willeford's previously unpublished
play version of the novel.
“Willeford's
experience of his life led him to a certain attitude toward
the world and his place in it, and this attitude, ironic without
meanness, comic but deeply caring, informed every book he
ever wrote, from his two volumes of autobiography through
all the unnoticed novels.” Donald Westlake
This classic
novel is an early depiction of the civil-rights movement in
the South. It is narrated by Sam Springer, a white novelist
who abandons his wife, accepts a fake ordination, and then
assumes the ministry of a black church in Jacksonville, Florida.
Springer is a characteristically Willefordian amalgam of selfish
mercenary and well-meaning drifter. He bounces through life
like a pinball, responding shrewdly to the moment and giving
little thought to the future.
Written
in 1957, this is a wryly humorous novel that deals with personal
responsibility, and it is also one of the earlier works seriously
discussing segregation in the South.
Southern
literature / trade paper / expected pub. date and price 10/2003,
$17.95.
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We are also
hard at work with Glenn Erickson to bring you the DVD SAVANT
GUIDE, a handbook for the unheralded, classic and forgotten
films out on DVD. From Billy Wilder to Yasuzo Masumura, the
DVD Savant will guide you through the muddle of new and old
DVD releases to help you find the gems.
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And finally,
from the author of DONA QUIXOTE, Leena Krohn's novel, TAINARON:
Mail From Another City, consists of a series of letters sent
beyond the sea from a city of insects. Nominated for the prestigious
Finlandia Prize, this is a wonderful introduction to the work
of this modern fabulist. Illustrated by Inari Krohn.
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Thanks!
We're always open for suggestions, we're constantly looking
for independent bookstores that would like to carry our books
(ask for our discount schedule) -- we offer every release
first to the independent bookstores, in advance to them being
available from www.amazon.com, www.bn.com and various other
major online vendors. We sell the books directly -- just email
us at witsend@oivas.com -- or you can order them from the
following independent bookstores. Better yet, if you're in
the area, go check them out.
Baltimore, MD: Royal Books
Delray Beach, FL: Murder on the Beach
Louisville, KY: Carmichael's Bookstore and Hawley-Cooke
New York, NY: Mysterious Bookshop
Portland, OR: Wrigley-Cross Books
Seattle, WA: Seattle Mystery Bookshop
London,
UK: Murder One
online: shocklines
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JT
Lindroos & Kathleen Martin
wit's
end publishing / www.sendwit.com
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