So here we are, nearly at the end of another year. It’s been a fairly successful year here at Peschel Press. We were able to publish four books: “Jazz Age I” (Volume 6 of the 223B Casebook series), “Dictionary of Flowers and Gems,” “The Twain-Holmes Casebook,” and “The Bride From Dairapaska.”
That’s quite a mix: one more volume of Sherlock Holmes vintage fan-fiction, Bill’s own fan-fiction relating the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Mark Twain in the real world, the lavishly illustrated floral and gem dictionary that includes scientific names so you have some hope of actually finding that gem or flower, and the first book of a huge series set on a terraformed Mars.
This year also marked an increase in the number of shows we attended to meet the public. We would pack up our card tables, lawn chairs, boxes of books, cookies, cloth grocery bags, Lucite stands holding catalogs and recipes, and our little cash box and head out into the world. We did our usual shows in Hershey (Hershey Art and Flower Fest in May, Culture Fest in June, Winter Arts and Crafts in November) along with flash signings at our favorite local bookstore: Cupboard Maker Books in Enola.
We also left the greater Hershey area to participate in the first annual Shippensburg Book Festival. That was a terrific experience as well and we hope to do it again in 2019.
We even left the great state of Pennsylvania to go to Baltimore and the annual Scintillation of Scions Sherlock Holmes symposium. Scintillation was so much fun we’re planning on going back in June 2019. This time, we’ll stay two days so we can mingle with fellow fans.
Teresa joined both Romance Writers of America and the Central Pennsylvania Romance Writers Group. Both groups have been invaluable leading us to still more interesting people and places. Bill is a member of Pennwriters and participates regularly in their writing group out in New Cumberland. The members have been very helpful in his writing journey.
We’re already plotting out next year. As it stands now, Peschel Press may have a show, library event, or signing virtually every month of the year. Some months may have two! Bill will post all our events on the calendar at the website so if you’re in the area, we’d love to meet you and chat. Most of them are local to Hershey. But not all of them!
I mentioned earlier that we hope to attend a Scintillation of Scions 2019 (https://www.scintillation.org/ ) in June. We’re also thinking seriously about attending Malice Domestic’s convention in early May (check out their website: http://malicedomestic.org/ for more information). There is also a book festival in Hockessin, Del., in November. If it doesn’t conflict, we should be there as well.
We expect to have many more books finished for these shows.
At the top of the list is “Sew Cloth Grocery Bags.” Teresa has been working on this book for several years. It was supposed to be something quick, but, well, that didn’t happen. It turns out it’s really challenging to write detailed and accurate directions, sew up a heap of bags, photograph the process every step of the way, sketch pattern layouts and diagrams, and then have the resulting manuscript cross-checked by beta-sewers to make sure the instructions make sense. “Cloth Grocery Bags” won’t be the first book published in 2019 but it sure will be one we’re happy to have finished.
The first book Peschel Press will publish in 2019 is the completion of the 223B Casebook series. This will be Jazz Age II, covering the period 1925-1930, the year Arthur Conan Doyle died. Immediately on its heels will come “The Best of the 223B Casebook,” a compilation of the best from all seven volumes of 223B along with material from “The Early Punch Parodies of Sherlock Holmes.” With “The Best Of” done, Peschel Press will be able to close a chapter of our own history, bringing hundreds of lost stories back from the past, along with their histories and period illustrations to illuminate them.
After the 223B series and “Cloth Grocery Bags,” the crystal ball gets cloudy. Bill is working on more fiction: a zombie story should be first and possibly “Ride of My Life,” his space shuttle novel. He’s also got a cozy mystery set in a fictional Hershey, renamed Heartsicle. That may lead to quite a few books. There’s also the possibility of two separate series set in the Victorian period. In addition, Bill’s also collecting material for two quote books about writers and the writing life.
His bigger projects include finishing and publishing “Career Indie Author” for every writer who wants to learn something about the business of writing. “Career Indie Author” won’t tell you much about commas but it sure does talk about cash flow, organization, legal issues, and maintaining your health.
Waiting in the wings, after “Career Indie Author,” is “Writers Gone Wilder,” a sequel to “Writers Gone Wild.” It turns out that authors throughout history spent enough time getting up to shenanigans that Bill could easily fill a second book and perhaps even a third.
Teresa wants to publish “NotQuilts.” This will be the second book in her utilitarian sewing series, after “Sew Cloth Grocery Bags.” “NotQuilts” covers the method she invented to make patched blankets that look like crazy quilts but are not sewn like a quilt. It is not foundation piecing, by the way. Not at all.
As with “Cloth Grocery Bags” NotQuilts was written as a series of blogposts that must be edited into a coherent narrative. The title “NotQuilts” refers to the fact that while the finished product looks like a quilt it is not, technically speaking, a quilt.
Odessa Moon anticipates publishing the second book in “The Steppes of Mars” series called “The White Elephant of Panschin.” Set in the domed city of Panschin, far up in the northern latitudes, the story features Airik, the daimyo of Shelleen who we met in “Bride.” He’ll meet Veronica Bradwell, her sister, a jumped-up tunnel rat, and other idiosyncratic characters who all want to get on his last nerve while seeing far more of Panschin than he wanted.
The novel already has a terrific cover, courtesy of Jake Caleb, who did the wonderful cover for “The Bride From Dairapaska.”
After “The White Elephant of Panschin” comes “The Vanished Pearls of Orlov” that will further explore the steppes of Mars. Then comes “The War Dogs of Barsoom,” taking us to the beating heart of Mars, its capital city. These books can be read as standalones, but the picture is richer if you read them in order.
Skye Kingsbury, author of “The Dictionary of Flowers and Gems” is hard at work on a book on divination.
Currently, she is compiling and sorting through a mess of information regarding the use of elements through divining the future. Whether it’s seeing pictures and images in the flicker of a flame, or tossing stones and runes to get a read of the earth, humanity has always had methods of learning what’s to come.
The topic was chosen partially because the information inside is intriguing, but also because there was nothing else on the subject. The book will help guide writers creating fantasy worlds that still want a basis in real-life magic. Game makers, DMs, and artists will find the information useful as well.
We’re looking forward to a great year in 2019. We’ll have lots of new books and we’ll attend lots of shows. We wish you a great year as well.