Welcome back to another newsletter from Peschel Press. We’re still working on books, but let’s pause to update you on what’s planned for the rest of the year.
The big goal is to have three more books published by the Winter Arts Show at Hershey High School on Nov. 5.
COMING UP
Here are the three books we want to get done, and where they are now.
* Ride of My Life (space shuttle comic novel by Bill)
Still heavily into the rewriting of it. The first half of the book is mostly finished bar some minor editing. The second half, set at NASA, requires some rethinking and expanding.
See, at the time of the last rewrite in 2006/7, the shuttle program was still operational. Now that it’s over and the surviving orbiters mothballed, it’s time to look back and make some adjustments to the text. The story requires that the ISS be built out for spoilery reasons. There are actions by certain officials that have to be modified knowing what we know now. When you’re setting a story in the near future, you’re given a lot of latitude in deciding on the details. Now that “Ride” has to be set in the past, I have to make sure it dovetails neatly into history.
The goal now is to finish the book by the end of August, have some people read it and give me notes, then put it into production.
* Suburban Stockade, based on webposts by Teresa Peschel
If you’ve read the posts on the website, you already know what it’s about. Teresa wrote 160,000 words, which means we need to go through and shorten it. Some sections were repeated, and some posts don’t need to go into the book at all.
That’s my job (in addition to writing “Ride”): Cut down each chapter and give it to Teresa for her decisions. Then we put it into production.
* Super Secret Untitled Fantasy Novel
I can’t go into this at the moment. The first draft has been written, and it’s going through rewrites. We don’t have a title, nor do we have an author name. I think I can say, after discussing the story with the author, that it’s like nothing we’ve published or plan to publish. Fortunately, it’s a short book so we should be able to get it out by the Winter Arts Show.
Those are the three, although I have hopes for this one, too:
* Sherlock Holmes parodies, volume 4 (1910-1914)
Yes, we’re getting back to this. The stories are compiled; I just have to write the introductions and the footnotes. Of course, “just” means hours of research and writing about 10,000-15,000 words. Then it has to be edited, proofed and laid out. At least the cover’s done.
Then there are the other books in the pipeline, which I’m including to be complete:
* The TwainLock Stories. Mark Twain and Sherlock Holmes; what’s not to love? These are short stories, of which one has been published separately (“The Adventure of the Whyos”) and a couple more included in the backs of the 223B Casebook volumes (specifically “Punch,” “Victorian,” and “Edwardian I” books). I just came up with the covers to the three stories (“The Curse of the Humorist,” “The Adventure of the Jersey Girl,” “The Adventure of the Stomach Club”), plus a fourth (“Our Man in Tangier”) that hasn’t been published anywhere.
Now, all I need to do is finish “Tangier,” reread and refresh the other stories, and get them produced. They’ll be Kindle ebooks only, and available to Prime members.
* Her Martian Tiger (Claudia Moon’s first book, a science-fiction romance set on a terraformed Mars three centuries from now)
* Sherlock Holmes parodies, volume 6 (1920-1924)
* Sherlock Holmes parodies, volume 7 (1925-1930, and we’re done!)
* The Best of 223B Casebook
* Career Indie Author
READING AND WATCHING
Doc Savage Fantasy Covers: http://www.docfantasycovers.com/
Doc Savage fantasy covers
In the pantheon of great pulp heroes, there was no one so long-lastingly pulpier than Doc Savage. I recall reading only one of the books, but when I was spinning the rack of paperbacks down at the drugstore, you couldn’t miss those iconic covers.
At the DSFC site, someone turned the pulp up to 11 by repurposing those covers and adding new villains, such as Jaws, Cthluhu, and (my particular favorite) the Grinch.
Mission Impossible and RED: A few months back, we went on an MI kick and watched the first four movies in succession. They were fine if you’re in the mood for a roller-coaster ride. James Bond without the sexy ladies.
Of the four, “Ghost Protocol” was the most enjoyable with its combination of thrills and a story with a little emotion in it. It also let us see Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye in the Marvel movies) playing a possible villain, and Simon Pegg, who’s worth seeing even in indifferent movies (such as the first two “Star Treks”).
Bland and big portions is fine, but sometimes I want a story with a little flavor on it. Last week, after seeing the fifth MI and finding it to be more of the same – – not bad, but not worth seeing again – – we busted out RED. On the third viewing, it was still a neat ride. Bruce Willis plays a retired agent who somebody wants dead in the worst way possible. To find out why, he kidnaps a clerk he’s been flirting with over the phone and gets the band back together, including John Malkovich playing full crazy, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirran.
RED (and its sequel RED2) are playing in the same league as the MI series, but these games are low tech and the players are flesh-and-blood, not robots (although the upgraded Cruise version looks even more lifelike).
The Big Short: Want to know who voted for Trump and Bernie? Want to know why we got Hillary? Watch this. Based on Michael Lewis’ book on the 2008 rupture of the housing bubble, this movie directed by Will Ferrell’s partner on his “Anchorman” movies pulls every trick out of the bag to make clear what happened and why, and make you laugh hard while doing so. The amazing cast includes Brad Pitt as a paranoid ex-banker and Steve Carell as the world’s angriest financier (for which he deserved an Oscar). This tour de force will leave you drained at the end saying, “Wow.”
(What about books? I hear you say. Sorry. How about I recommend a book I read in July. “The Pyrates” by George Macdonald Fraser. A comic historical novel that draws on real-life pirates, but also referencing Errol Flynn, Erich Wolfgang Korngold soundtracks, Helena Rubenstein, Samuel Pepys, and Annie Bonney? A “Princess Bride” deconstruction and celebration of pirates in legend, song, and Hollywood. Funny throughout. If you haven’t read it, try the first chapter at Amazon. If the introduction makes you laugh, you’ve found a winner.)
See you next time!