Peschel Press December 2019 News

We’re closing in on the end of year seven at Peschel Press. While the concern had been operating since May 2012, when “Whose Body?” appeared, it became a full-time business when I punched out of my newspaper job on Jan. 1, 2013.

In between then and now, Beloved Wife and I have published 20 books covering Sherlockian parodies, annotated mystery novels, sewing, self-help, science-fiction romance, true crime, and reference.

It’s been a year of beginnings and finishings. As Odessa Moon, Teresa began her “Steppes of Mars” series. I finished the 223B Casebook series of Holmsian parodies and pastiches.

So where are we going in 2020?

I can’t tell you. At least not everything. But we’ve got a lot of books in various stages on the stocks, and while I secretly want to launch all of them, I know it’s best not to tell you.

But here’s what I can talk about:

The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links

I’m nearly finished with the first draft. The 400+ footnotes are written, and I’m working on the essays for the back of the book. I’m really happy with the second appearance of Poirot. Some of the footnotes were really eye-opening and fun to write. Even better, the mystery of the true crime that inspired Agatha to write this has been solved! It was a horrific crime, just as she wrote in her autobiography, and my research into it uncovered even more layers of bizarreness. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Man Out of Time

This time travel comedy novella has been written, but I want to give it a polishing draft and let my beta readers tell me what they think.

Since I haven’t written the description, let’s try this: When 16th century playwright Kit Marlowe drops into 21st century Manhattan, he disrupts Molly Day’s life, career, and prospects for wedded bliss. While Kit’s unstoppable charm, enthusiasm, and horniness charms and enrages everyone around him, Molly and her friend Sheldon need to figure out how to break the curse that binds him to their world, and discover that the good life and a true love is not always where you expect to find it.

White Elephant of Panschin

The book’s been written, but needs one more polish by Teresa. After that, I have to edit it, return it for her comments, then put it into production.

In the meantime, we’re serializing an early draft at two sites: Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. We’re only a couple weeks away from finishing its run there, so if you want a taste of it, well, there’s a site for that!

We’re planning on getting all three of these books out in the first quarter of next year. We have more in store, but you’ll have to hang around to find out!

Cheers,

Bill