Hoo-boy, but that is a terrible title. We’ll see if I can come up with a better one as the year progresses. I am keeping to tradition though, here at Peschel Press. I’m late with the monthly newsletter.
Oh well.
Let’s start with a big thank you to all you subscribers! We can’t do it without you.
We have a busy year planned; don’t we always? We hope, hope, hope to publish five books this year. That should be very possible since three of them are at the 95% mark and the other two (both started) have stone-cold drop-dead deadlines. On the other hand, the universe may disagree. Miraculously since my last newsletter (Nov/Dec) no cars were broken into, no whomping willows fell on our property, and we endured no gripping medical dramas. I’d like very much for that string of good luck to continue, both for us and for you too, in our brave new year of 2020.
So, on to the books we plan to publish.
The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links
First out of the starting gate should be The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie and Bill Peschel. He’s very close to completion and I’ve edited his numerous footnotes and essays. It’s loaded with details about British expats in France, the differences between British and French policing, lists of period golf novels (a big topic at the time) and his serendipitous discovery of the notorious murder that inspired “Links.”
In her autobiography near the end of her life, Agatha couldn’t remember the crime, except for the events she recounted in “Links.” She also said that one of the victims had died from choking on her dental plate (ugh!).
Bill had tried to find the crime using his Google-Fu, but came up with nothing.
Then, something happened that was a combination of preparation and luck. He had just gotten a book – “Manners and Morals in the Age of Optimism: 1848-1914” by James Laver. He’s always on the lookout for history books that are crammed with details he can use, either for the annotations or some future project.
Laying in bed with me (we read at night before turning out the light), he flipped to the back of the book, because he’s left-handed and does backwards things like that. He came across a salacious story about the president of France, Felix Faure, and his affair with his mistress that ended in his death in the presidential palace. It was a great scandal at the time, hushed up, but the detailed leaked out.
The book went on to talk about the mistress, Marguerite Steinheil, and how years later she was caught up in another scandal. She had been found tied to her bed, her husband and mother were in another room, dead. Her husband was strangled, and her mother choked on her dental plate.
Bingo! There it was, almost hiding in plain sight. You can find more about her on her Wikipedia page, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Steinheil). My goodness but that woman had a dramatic life. She richly deserves to have some bilingual person (the pertinent documents are all in French) write a lurid, tell-all biography. Ms. Steinheil is an inspiration to adventuresses everywhere.
But Bill will tell the whole story in “The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links.”
(And, yes, it appears no other Christie researcher made the connection, so Bill’s going to take the credit. He does note, however, that on the French version of Wikipedia, an anonymous editor also made the Steinheil / Links connection.)
The White Elephant of Panschin
In February, we expect to publish The White Elephant of Panschin. Bill is making the final edits now, and we want to have copies in hand for when I (as Odessa Moon) attend my second “‘Love is in the Air” romance book event at Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses in Mechanicsburg, Pa. It would be very nice to have the second book in my “Steppes of Mars” series.
Man Out of Time
After that, we should finally see Man Out of Time, Bill’s time-travel novella about Christopher Marlow leaping forward four hundred years to take a great big bite out of the Big Apple.
The Cases of Blue Ploermell
Then, something new and unexpected and unseen since 1923. James Thurber wrote a series of Sherlock Holmes parodies for the Columbus Dispatch. He was a cub reporter and his stories about Blue Ploermell are unique, to say the least. They also haven’t seen the light of day (other than a single story in our 223B Casebook series: Jazz Age I 1920-1924) since they were published nearly 100 years ago.
Bill acquired the 12 short stories, deciphered the blurry copies of blurry microfilms, and will be presenting them, complete with original illustrations and plenty of accompanying footnotes and essays at the 13th annual Scintillation of Scions Sherlock Holmes convention in Baltimore in June.
Career Indie Author
Our final planned book for 2020 is the long-awaited Career Indie Author. Bill’s been working on this book for years and I’ve been adding my own material too. Everything we have learned about managing the writing business here at Peschel Press plays into Career Indie Author. This isn’t your typical writing book. We aren’t going to tell you how to plot or craft glittering, jewel-like prose. Our concern, my concern, is cash-flow. How should a writing business be run? Do you need a business plan? What about your heirs? How should you handle your taxes? Remember, if you aren’t making money writing, you’ve got a hobby. The IRS says so and who am I to argue with the IRS?
The plan is for Career Indie Author to debut in September, if not earlier. Bill and I will be teaching the September class at Cupboard Maker Books Story Makers writing program. We’re going to talk about business and Career Indie Authors is the textbook.
After those five books? Let’s see.
I’m writing away on The Vanished Pearls of Orlov, the third book in my ‘Steppes of Mars’ series. You can read it as I write (it’s first draft material so be forewarned) at either Wattpad or at AO3. Here are the links if you want to follow along:
https://www.wattpad.com/story/210012332-the-vanished-pearls-of-orlov
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22020619/chapters/52550551
Now that I’ve finished Sew Cloth Grocery Bags, I plan on getting NotQuilts pulled together from all those blogposts I wrote a few years ago. God willing, NotQuilts won’t take three years to edit, format, beta-read, edit again, and publish.
Skye (our hand model for The Vanished Pearls of Orlov cover) is working on both Divination and, while she waits for me to do my part editing what she’s already written, a huge tome on mythological beasties and cryptids. She is making that book as comprehensive as possible while at the same time avoiding all the usual suspects such as vampires and elves. There are literally thousands of cryptids being ignored despite being fascinating beings. Skye will give each of them their shot at the limelight. For you White Elephant of Panschin fans, you’ll learn more about both bluekaps and knockers.
As for Bill, he’ll move onto Agatha Christie’s The Secret of Chimneys, due to come out of copyright on 1 January 2021. When he completes Chimneys, then he’ll return to The Man in the Brown Suit. For those of you who know that The Man in the Brown Suit came out of copyright a few days ago and are wondering why we are bypassing it, here’s why.
It’s a publishing decision.
Even though everyone in the household has read and marked up our copy of The Man in the Brown Suit (it’s quite good), Bill can’t get it annotated and the essays written fast enough to publish it and still have The Secret of Chimneys ready on 1 January 2021. The workload of other books is too large. Having The Secret of Chimneys ready on 1 January 2021 means we can take full advantage of any hoopla about another of Agatha Christies’ books entering the public domain. More importantly, we’ll be out of the starting gate right away, at the top of the list, when everyone else releases their quickie editions (with zero footnotes or maps or essays) on 1 January 2020. We missed the deadline by a huge margin for Murder on the Links entry in the public domain. Thus, The Man in the Brown Suit will have to wait.
After that? We’ll see. We’ve got plenty of ideas.
In the meantime, we have a few public appearances if you’re in Central Pennsylvania.
Saturday, 15 February 2020, Odessa Moon will appear at ‘Love is in the Air’ at Ashcombe Farms and Nursery in Mechanicsburg, Pa from noon until 4 pm (or thereabouts). (https://www.facebook.com/ashcombegreenhouse/ or https://www.ashcombe.com/) I hope to debut The White Elephant of Panschin.
Saturday, 21 March 2020 at 10 am, I will be demonstrating how to sew cloth grocery bags at Newport Public Library in Newport, Pa (https://pecoinfo.org/library-hours/newport-public-library/).
Saturday, 28 March 2020 at 4 pm, we’ll be signing books at Cupboard Maker books in Enola, followed by a murder mystery party. It should be fun! Visit https://www.cupboardmaker.com/ for more details closer to the event or, as always, visit our website for regular updates: https://peschelpress.com/
Thanks again for reading and see you in February.