20Jittery5
Apr 03, 2025 7:28 pm
Good Day,
I've had this newletter open all week but been unable to write. There are so many interesting things going — where "interesting" means "fascinating" not " — in the bookish world but the Stupid World keeps interrupting. Imagine voting for someone who thinks tariffs are the answer. Then voting for him again. Then imagine all the lickspittle toadies who tag along and excuse supporting it as just being along for the grift.
» Tomorrow and Saturday, April 4-5: Kelly will be at the Bristol Book Festival in Bristol, Rhode Island.
» Adding at the last moment the thing I meant to start with. March: what a month for books. Here's a tiny note from the beginning of our Book Moon weekly newsletter:
I highly recommend three very different novels that all came out in March: Karen Russell's The Antidote, Laila Lailami's absolutely on point The Dream Hotel, and Sylvia Park's fantastic debut novel Luminous which I am still thinking about it. It's set a few decades from now and while much is familiar, the technology is leaps and bounds beyond exploding self-driving cars.
» LCRW 49 received a lovely review from Paula Guran in Locus.
» Congratulations to Jennifer Hudak as her story “The Witch Trap” from LCRW 48 is one of six fine finalists for the short story Nebula Award.
» I'll be raising the prices of LCRW on April 15th. Subscribe/re-up here. I just ordered the chocolate for the next issue. Next issue if #50 and I am going back and forth (very slowly, ha) on trying to make a fuss. I write this flat on my back, as per usual. How much fuss could I make? Besides, next year is the 3,000th anniversary of the zine (if the president can lie, so can I). It all started in 1996 (wait, I know this story already), so wouldn't it be more fun to make a fuss then? What if we've moved to Iceland, Scotland, some Land where disabled people such as me are allowed to immigrate? Hmm. Anyway, 50 issues. I should make a little stack and take a picture. Now that's the kind of fuss I can make.
» Kobold Press has launched a crowdfunding campaign for Kij Johnson's first RPG: RiverBank: A cozy RPG of elegant animals, chaos, & whimsy. Looks fabulous — order now and don't forget to add on tea.
The RPG is lightly related to Kij's novel The River Bank which was a followup to Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. The book can be added to the game. Kij has a (fabulous) sequel to her novel ready to go if any publishers are reading this.
» Anya Johanna DeNiro has put up a new epic poem for sale: The Shanty in the Center of the Wound.
» Download free No Nazis and Read Books Punch Nazis sticker templates here.
» We now have 3 Read Books Punch Nazis t-shirt campaigns. To be 100% clear: we make no money from these. Your payments go to Bonfire who deduct their cut and pass the rest through. Mutual aid shirts ftw. I'd much rather read books and make and sell zines, books, t-shirts with odd animals or weird stuff on them but nazis can drop dead.
» April 26th is Indie Bookstore Day. Every day is indie bookstore day unless you live nowhere near a bookstore and even then Bookshop.org usually gives an auto 10% discount, so, really, indiefy yr bks.
» Kelly's novel The Book of Love is now available in a neat trade paperback edition. It is a finalist for the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize — as is our friend Jedediah Berry's fabulous novel The Naming Song(!). I read a review that said it is too long. Yep, some novels are too long for some people. This one was not for me. Of course if you only like short stories, Kelly has you covered.
We are at last getting out the four-volume limited edition:
The Character Edition — $1,000; 2 copies left
The Lettered Edition —$600
https://smallbeerpress.com/the-book-of-love-limited-edition/the-book-of-love/
The Numbered Edition — $225
— Local pickup at Book Moon in Easthampton, MA, is available or Priority Mail shipping within the USA.
These will be going out soon but due to unforeseen circumstances the final count will be more like 400 copies.
https://www.bookmoonbooks.com/the-moon-the-moon-or-about-us/the-book-of-love-limited-edition
» April 28th is the 250th Anniversary of Paul Revere's ride. Time for another revolution USA? Sure feels like it.
Wherever you are, hope you and yours are doing ok. Thanks for reading. I expect there will be another newsletter when the next issue of Little Charlie's Runaway World comes out later this spring,
Cheers!
Gavin