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Alansjf (Alansjf)
Username: Alansjf

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 94.194.134.45
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 12:39 pm:   

What with the recent loss of a couple of promising small press publishers, it's good to see the emergence of a promising new one:

http://www.exocccidente.com

I've just got my hands on the R.B. Russell collection, and it's a really nicely put together little volume.

A new collection from Reggie Oliver is imminent, and check out some of the names on the future titles page (Mr Lane, is Faces of Ice a new collection?).
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.209.220.47
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 01:03 pm:   

Yes, the authors connected with this publisher are superb.

I've preordered the Reggie Oliver collection.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.228.250
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 02:09 pm:   

Hmm, I wonder whether they might be interested in more Belgian or French fare. I have a vast library containing at least one hundred hitherto untranslated volumes . . . Ray, Owen, De Ghelderode, you name it . . .
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.168.215
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 02:20 pm:   

Alan, Faces of Ice is a short retrospective collection (about 43,000 words), planned to include 12 previously uncollected stories and two new ones (both quite short). The title is under review and may change. The contents cover 25 years of writing. The aim of the book is to bring together some stories that didn't quite fit into either of my previous collections (or are more recent), but deserved a book of their own... more low-key, more private, that kind of thing.

The Ex Occidente list places emphasis on quiet and thoughtful supernatural fiction, whether traditional (whatever that means) or modern in approach. It's shaping up to be a terrific imprint.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.168.215
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 02:22 pm:   

Hubert, get in touch with them!
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.159.87.15
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 02:23 pm:   

I've preordered the Reggie Oliver collection.

As have I - thanks for the link, Alan.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.180.119
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 02:52 pm:   

I have their first title, Mark Valentine's The Rite of Trebizond, and have preordered the Reggie Oliver one. I was a bit disappointed to see that it doesn't appear to be a collection of brand new stories, but a mix of stories - at least one of which is already available, it seems - and articles (although I expect they will be worth a read). I'm eager to see the collected Mircea Eliade, whose non-fiction I read years ago without realising he also wrote supernatural stories.

They have a Jean Ray collection due soon too. If anyone here hasn't read Jean Ray, you're missing something special. 'The Mainz Psalter' and 'The Shadowy Street' are classics of eerie horror.
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Alansjf (Alansjf)
Username: Alansjf

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 94.194.134.45
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 03:03 pm:   

Thanks for the info, Joel. I like the sound of that - there's always room for quiet and thoughful supernatural fiction in my collection.

And I've also pre-ordered the Oliver. If this thread is any indication, they may have to increase the print run on that one ...
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.228.250
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 03:20 pm:   

Do we know who is behind Ex Occidente?
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.180.119
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 03:28 pm:   

It's run by Dan Ghetu in Romania, Hubert.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.228.250
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 03:38 pm:   

Thanks, Huw.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.180.119
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 03:48 pm:   

You're welcome, Hubert. I like to imagine the books being made in the depths of the Carpathians, but that's probably wishful thinking...
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 04:56 pm:   

I'm really looking forward to Joel's collection and the Jean Ray book. This does look like a very promising imprint.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.134.162
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 05:51 pm:   

Huw, I am reliably informed that the books are printed in the basement of a castle, where they are stacked in between some, er, long wooden boxes. The Ex Occidente Press typesetter is known as the Word Count.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.134.162
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 05:53 pm:   

Huw, I am reliably informed that the books are printed in the basement of a castle, where they are stacked in between some, er, long wooden boxes. The Ex Occidente Press typesetter is known as the Word Count.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.134.162
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 05:54 pm:   

Sorry, you didn't need to see that once, let alone twice.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 79.70.90.136
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 05:56 pm:   

Really looking forward to the collection Joel. Love the title :>)
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.134.162
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 05:58 pm:   

Also, I'm reminded of Hralan Ellison's anecdote about the TV director who told him he didn't understand 'the rules of Jean Ray'. Initially confused as to how a French writer of Gothic fiction was a crucial reference point for a new science fiction TV series, he finally realised the director didn't know how to pronounce 'genre'.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.134.162
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 05:59 pm:   

Ally, don't love the title. It's probably going to change. But thanks.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 79.70.90.136
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 06:06 pm:   

Ah - still love it but no doubt you'll come up with something that you really like.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.159.87.15
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 06:47 pm:   

Yep, I'll be having a bit of Joel Lane when it's out. Also I see that there's a new Steven Duffy book in the pipeline; I have his Ash-Tree collection - bit variable but some goodies within.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.156.241
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 07:49 pm:   

It'll be a hardback, Mick.

Always is when you're around.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.159.87.15
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 08:01 pm:   



Rude man!
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 79.70.90.136
Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 - 08:32 pm:   

Here go the rudey boys again :>)
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.244.154.29
Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009 - 12:01 am:   

Yes indeed, Ex Occidente is one of the most exciting new genre publishers. I have the Oliver and the Quentin S. Crisp collection on pre-order. I was able to read 2 stories from Quentin's collection and it could well become his best, most mature collection. The Reggie Oliver book promises to be splendidly illustrated by the author, and the new story "A donkey at the mysteries" is already very nice. The Jean Ray collection will be a must for us genre lovers.

FYI you may be interested in my quickly written opinions of Ray Russel's collection, which I posted last week on the All Hallows discussion forum as follows:

Most reactions about the first 2 books from Ex Occidente focused on "The Rite of Trebizond", which is indeed a wonderful and atmospheric collection.
In this post I will quickly jot down my opinions of the other book: "Putting the pieces in place" by Ray Russel.

Let us first look at the physical object: a well made jacketless hardcover featuring a classic engraving illustration, nicely sewn, featuring elegant endpapers and a mysterious, dreamy old portrait photo of a woman on one of the first pages. The paper stock is less smooth than the paper used for the other book, but in my perception of the same quality level. No description on the back of the book, but that doesn't really matter since these books will nearly only be sold on the net. In short, this is a decently produced small press book.

Never having read a story by Ray, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, except perhaps when looking at the books he publishes that the stories would probably be subtle rather than in-your-face.
Well, most story parts are indeed subtle as I expected, sometimes it can even be debated if anything supernatural happened, and it's interesting when stories cause such questions. But there also modern elements, such as a few frank sexual details that would never have occurred (or at most only alluded to) in the classic ghost stories. And since the stories are for the most part subtle, a few short, cold explosions of brutal horror are all the more effective. Also interesting, the main characters in these stories are in essence lonely and this state of mind gives the book a peculiar atmosphere.

The title story is one of my two favourite ones. It refers to the mysterious woman portrait that I mentioned. At first it seems to be a story about a manic collector, but there it's in essence a romantic tragedy, a story of longing towards an unattainable ideal. At least, that's how it felt to me! It was also a very "visual" story for me, I thought it could well be adapted as a short movie. Recommended reading!
The 2nd story "There's nothing that I wouldn't do" is not supernatural but rather dramatic with a sudden horrific element. While the title story conveyed romantic longing, in contrast this one was about an unhealthy obsessive longing. The contrast is marked. For my taste there could have been more suspense from early on in the story, but it worked as a whole.
Then there is my other favourite story. From time to time there are movies that are entertaining, but they really jump to another level by a revelation in the last minute that forces you to re-assess everything that happened earlier in the story. Think about "The 6th sense", or "Angel Heart". There are a few stories with this mechanic as well. "In Hiding" is a story in the same vein, and it does really work! It's about an MP hiding from the press on a Greek island. You'll have to discover the rest... The story is effective in introducing the supernatural in joyful sunny Greece.
"Eleanor" is another subtle story, and to my mind it's in essence romantic as well, and about the power of a writer's imagination.
"Dispossed" starts in a convential setting but somehow the unexplainable suddenly creeps in. A story about cold people, and an explosive ending that lingers in the mind.

In short, I thought that this was a worthy debut collection, if you like your supernatural stories to be offered with style, subtlety and finesse, then this book should please.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009 - 01:23 pm:   

I've just pre-ordered the Jean Ray collection, so I hope this press doesn't go the way of too many others and fold before I receive the book...
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.229.107
Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009 - 02:34 pm:   

I always managed to get paid or at least get a sizeable advance before I sent anything in. I imagine working for a small publisher nowadays is a desultory and frustrating business at best; John Pelan (for one) always treated me very courteously and graciously, mind.
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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 85.116.228.3
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 01:34 pm:   

I read the Italian translation of Jean Ray's stories when I was a youngster. I have the book no more but I'm happy to be able to retrieve it from the new small press publisher. Will the mood be the same after, say, about thirty years? I am yearning for a confirmation. The tales smelled old pipe tobacco and entrancing liquors. It's the world seen through the stained glass of a unholy church.
There is another Belgian author, a contemporary one, I'd like to see collected into English, i.e. Eddy C. Bertin, whose stories are only occasionally rendered into English....well, just wishful thinking, but missing a great one, that's painful....
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.76.230
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 01:35 pm:   

Eddy was due to have a collection out from John Pelan's imprint, though I think it's vanished.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 02:12 pm:   

Eddy Bertin is a superb weird fiction writer who has slipped between the cracks: a collection published in Dutch, numerous anthology appearances since in English, no English collection. Make it happen someone. Please.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.219.8.243
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 02:16 pm:   

Step forward Gray Friar... :-)
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.76.229
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 02:17 pm:   

I'm in touch with Eddy regularly. I'll have a word.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.21.233.249
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 05:29 pm:   

I have at least three Dutch Bertin collections, Mijn Mooie Duisterlinge (which he inscribed for me), Iets kleins, iets hongerigs and De achtjaarlijkse god which contains mainly science fiction stories. I know one of his horror yarns, "The Whispering Horror" was originally written in English. I used to be in touch with him, indeed quite a few antient Lovecraft items I own used to be in his Ackermanesque library. We corresponded a while and then it petered out.
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.244.16.241
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 07:46 pm:   

Hubert, fyi there is a nice Bertin best-of collection "Krijsende Muren" ("Screaming Walls") available from a publisher in Mechelen.

see:

http://www.verschijnsel.com/html/krijsende_muren.html
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Matthew_fell (Matthew_fell)
Username: Matthew_fell

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.176.111
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 10:40 pm:   

Tom noted ... Reggie Oliver book promises to be splendidly illustrated by the author, and the new story "A donkey at the mysteries" is already very nice . . .

'A Donkey at the Mysteries' is a reprint. It first appeared in Exotic Gothic 2 (Ash-Tree, 2008)

Christopher
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.228.139
Posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - 11:46 pm:   

Thanks, Tom. An interesting collection with almost no overlap. I'll definitely buy this.
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.243.27.151
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 11:23 am:   

> 'A Donkey at the Mysteries' is a reprint. It first appeared in Exotic Gothic 2 (Ash-Tree, 2008)

Thanks for the correction, Christopher. I knew the story because the author read it convincingly in a GSS podcast. For the curious, I can recommend the download, it's an ideal listen during a mind-numbing commute. Here's the page:

http://tinyurl.com/c59kge
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.243.31.130
Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 - 12:30 am:   

Hi all,

Dan send me three pictures of the upcoming (any day now) Reggie Oliver collection and it is my pleasure to share them.
If you're short on cash then don't view the pictures because you will definitely want to buy the book...

Enjoy:

http://i43.tinypic.com/11lio9t.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/2ebcwap.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/2yzdjpw.jpg
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 90.199.0.51
Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 - 12:43 am:   

I'm getting all of the books this fine publisher is putting out.

And that's a particularly fine goblet on display in that first picture.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.159.155.179
Posted on Friday, February 27, 2009 - 01:22 am:   

Thanks for those pictures, Tom - they make me even happier that I've pre-ordered it, if that were possible!
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.21.233.14
Posted on Monday, March 02, 2009 - 04:31 pm:   

Well, I got a prompt reply from Mr Ghetu. He's not interested in more Jean Ray, but he named four collections by other hitherto untranslated Belgian authors I know too, and we're already working out a deal. He calls himself a 'fast publisher' and asked me whether I am a fast translator!
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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 85.116.228.3
Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 07:22 am:   

Will Eddy C. Bertin be one of those four Belgian authors? Probably not... oh yet we trust.
But who am I to say?
"An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light:
And with no language but a cry."
...and certainly I am not Lord Tennyson.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.231.89
Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 12:16 pm:   

No, they're writers no-one here will ever have heard of. Right now we're investigating whether the first candidate has an estate.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 12:52 pm:   

That quote is amazing, Giancarlo. I've just found the poem. Am trying not to cry as I type.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 12:58 pm:   

Or to be precise, just read that section of the poem. Was wondering how I'd missed it as I like Tennyson, but I've never got through 'In Memoriam' because it's so very long. Maybe time to try however.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 01:06 pm:   

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/html/1807/4350/poem2139.html

Just incredible.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.21.232.239
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 01:03 am:   

Joel, do you happen to know whether our Rumenian friend is in any way involved in - erm, politics?
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.244.16.147
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 08:26 am:   

Hubert, I met Dan while on a business trip to Bucharest. He's a young journalist.

best,

Tom
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Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.165.182
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 01:45 pm:   

There's a Dan Ghetu who's interviewed the likes of Troy Southgate and compiled a tribute to Corneliu Codreanu (Romanian fascist in WW2 era.) Hopefully not the same guy.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.137.11
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 02:02 pm:   

I know a little about this but can't comment – suffice to say I don't believe Dan is in any way a sympathiser with the far right, he is just a journalist and historian trying to get to grips with the past of Eastern Europe. In his day the great crime writer Simenon interviewed French fascists and interviewed Leon Trotsky, but was neither a fascist nor a Trotskyist.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.198.218
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 02:19 pm:   

I remember vaguely discussing Mircea Eliade with Dan, and the controversy regarding Eliade's possible involvement with the Iron Guard came up. I don't recall much about it, and don't know Dan well enough to comment (we've exchanged a few emails in the past), but he certainly doesn't strike me as someone who holds these types of sympathies (not that I'd be able to tell, though, I suppose). Robert Aickman stood up for Leni Riefenstahl when she was attacked by journalists, but that doesn't make him a fascist.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 02:20 pm:   

http://groups.google.com/group/uk.media.tv.misc/browse_thread/thread/25d1b49b96c 6a718/ad05e04936c05d89?lnk=raot&pli=1

No comment. Just found this online. Not that I understand any of it...
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 02:29 pm:   

Just read a few of the messages in the link, and it seems that it's more of the same nastiness from an old friend.
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Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.165.182
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 02:40 pm:   

Joel and Huw- all true. Zed- Yeah, I saw that link too. Nice to see the person in question is carrying on as usual.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 03:06 pm:   

I think it's just a Pavlovian response that greets me when I appear.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.21.232.239
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 03:08 pm:   

I saw both the link and the interview with Southgate (whom I don't really know) the day before yesterday. Intriguing.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.198.218
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 03:13 pm:   

This stuff is still going on?!! Unbelievable.

Who does he mean when he says to Ramsey: "one of your message board regulars - an award-winning writer - diagnosed you as suffering from a massive insecurity complex"? It's hard to tell how much of this nonsense to take seriously. An awful lot seems to be made up, and the parts that have some basis in fact are often hopelessly twisted and exaggerated. Business as usual....

Oh dear - I've just noticed this on the late, lamented abgf: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.books.ghost-fiction/browse_frm/thread/bd72e95 ec3eaf085#
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 03:18 pm:   

Free publicity, Gary and Des, and an extra sale!

As for how much to take seriously, Huw - none of it. After all, nobody does that to the funny chap we have in mind.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 03:36 pm:   

Yawn.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.145.36.243
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 03:37 pm:   

I've replied on that thread.
des
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 03:42 pm:   

To say he thinks so little of us all, he can't seem to keep himself from peeking in at what we're up to, can he? He's a bit like Prudence in Peeping.Com in that respect, isn't he?

He won't know what I mean, having never read the book in question, even though this nonetheless somehow qualifies him to judge it.

How very transparent and tedious.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 03:55 pm:   

Des, I don't how much you know about the person in question, but if you're thinking of engaging with him, my advice would be: don't bother.

He's like Gareth Keenan with his Top Trumps: "You will never win!"

And the reason you won't win is not because he's a great debater, but because it's the argument he's after. As soon as you start responding, he's won, because that's what fires him.

Ramsey's right: he's essentially a comic character. A person so dreadful that even Moliere couldn't have invented him.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.145.36.243
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:01 pm:   

Yes I know Julian Karswell.
I bought two Reggie Oliver books off him last year.
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.243.29.63
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:02 pm:   

Those endless acidic exchanges are indeed a blast from the past.
Now, I do think that CB has in essence a point about the mutual reviews here or on All Hallows. They are rarely even slightly critical, and therefore I usually do not take them into account. "Tough love" is rare over here.
But I won't lose my time by making an endless fuzz and blowing it all out of proportion.

I'm typically more curious about the opinions and discoveries of a few people whose tastes seem to mirror mine.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.145.36.243
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:05 pm:   

My mode of reviews, Tom, is done quite clinically in a nemonymous fashion - which you will see if you read them. I linked to a list of links on that Google thread.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:09 pm:   

By critical, Tom, I assume you mean negative. Criticism doesn't have to be that if it isn't called for.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:11 pm:   

Reggie Oliver loved The Impelled, too, and was as effusive in his praise as Des.

By the troll's logic, Reggie Oliver must be a back-scratching, derriere-kissing, parochial, provincial and incestuous reviewer, too.

Not that I'm trying to defend the book. There it stands, come what may. I'm on with new stuff now.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:20 pm:   

"Tough love" is rare over here.

I think you'll find we're an honest bunch here, Tom - I mean, I'm always telling Strantzas that his work is rubbish.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.145.36.243
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:20 pm:   

Another factor, Tom. All my complete published book reviews to date are of books I have chosen to *buy* and am reviewing for my own enjoyment...as well as being reviewed as forensically as possible based on 61 years of reading (well say 58 years cos I don't think I read a proper book till I was 3!)
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:23 pm:   

Seriously, though, one of our former members left the board because nobody really cared for his writing.

If I thought folk here were being dishonest about my work, I'd feel let down. From my own point of view, I only review work I enjoy or see value in. The stuff I don't like, I simply ignore.
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.243.29.63
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:23 pm:   

Des, Ramsey, Gary,
I wasn't out to make a general statement. I do find Des' reviews interesting (well, the ones that I read), and I do have Gary's book on pre-order (it's about to be shipped, I believe?).
I wanted to say that there's sometimes a lot of back-patting in this forum, which of course is understandable in a writer's corner.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:25 pm:   

Tom, that's because we all genuienly enjoy each other's work - I was reading some of the writers on here (and having my life changed by their work) before the internet was commonplace.

And I'd say its mutual support rather than back-patting.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.225.104.255
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:27 pm:   

The thing is, the reviews here hew pretty closely to those I've read in other, more "professional" venues. I don't doubt their veracity. After all, most reviews posted here are not sought but freely given -- if I think think McMahon's latest book is a piece of shit, I just don't bother saying anything.

BTW, Zed, I'll.. uh ... post that review soon. I just ... uh .. have to do the wash first.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.225.104.255
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:28 pm:   

I wrote "think think" because sometimes I really need to think when reading Zed's books. Usually, it's thoughts like, "What the fuck is he talking about??" and "Did he think this made any sense at all?"}
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.145.36.243
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:29 pm:   

I wanted to say that there's sometimes a lot of back-patting in this forum, which of course is understandable in a writer's corner.
=============================

I really don't agree, Tom, other than the odd comment here and there, maybe, in fun and friendliness.

BUt when setting out on a time-sensitive on-going self-nurturing review as I did with, say, The Impelled, that was damn serious stuff. Maybe it shouldn't have been put on a discussion thread, because it gives an impression of bon-homie rather than critical exposition - but I find that it leads to genuine observations that I wouldn't have otherwise made on later stories in the process.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.145.36.243
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:39 pm:   

When I say 'a self-nurturing review' that's the review's self not mine - e.g. as in self-perpetuating fountain!
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:42 pm:   

I love you, Strantzas.

most reviews posted here are not sought but freely given

Indeed. I think we tend to supoort one another as a lot of us have cut our teeth together, subbing to the same markets, sharing ToC. Ramsey's fiction is the glue that binds us, and because of our admiration for it, we're bound to appreciate each other's fiction.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.242.10
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:43 pm:   

We were talking about Eddy Bertin not long ago... I've just read some reviews by him in a 1973 fanzine (Ambrosia #2) where he's refreshingly candid about work by his friends and peers – not rude or unfair, just quite prepared to say "This story by xxx didn't convince me"... and later, "I didn't like 'zzz' by yyy when I first read it and I still don't like it [in reprint]."

I'm not suggesting we should abuse each other, but I do think praise carries more weight when you're also prepared to criticise.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.145.36.243
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:47 pm:   

I agree with Joel. And I both praise and criticise. As most of my reviews are of books I have *bought* in the normal course of wanting to read them, I am not surprised that I praise more than I criticise.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:51 pm:   

Well, if a peer's story doesn't work for me, I always tell them - and expect the same treatment. What's the point otherwise? I am, however, very effusive and enthusiastic when a story blows me away.

Other than myself, GF can often be the harshest critic of my work. It's something I treasure about our friendship.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.225.104.255
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 04:55 pm:   

We do criticise ... maybe as not as often as some would have it, but it happens. For instance, Mark Lynch almost never responds to my fiction. When he liked my tale in Shades of Darkness I was surprised.

That said, this isn't really the venue one should go to for in-depth criticism. It's not its mandate.

But, you know, it doesn't really matter. The problem with the internet is this seems like a big deal, but no one (in this forum at least) is all that concerned about it -- not Tom who started it or any of the rest of us responding. I don't think anyone really has a serious problem with the way things work here... espeically compared to some of the other boards where sycophantery reigns.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.145.36.243
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:00 pm:   

As a result of this discussion, I have added this as a comment to my list of my review links post on my blog:

As most of my reviews are of books I have *bought* in the normal course of wanting to read them, I am not surprised that I praise more than I criticise. But the reviews are intended to be forensic in a true 'nemonymous' spirit - which I think you will find to be the case when you read them.

When setting out on a time-sensitive on-going self-nurturing* review as I did with, say, The Impelled by Gary Fry, that was damn serious stuff. Maybe it shouldn't have originated on a discussion thread, because it gives an impression of bon-homie rather than critical exposition - but I find that method of reviewing 'in media res' leads to a genuine evolution of self-generated observations that I wouldn't have otherwise made on later stories in the critique process.

*When I say 'a self-nurturing review' that's the review's self not mine - e.g. as in self-perpetuating fountain!
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.242.10
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:04 pm:   

We know the reviewer doesn't nurture himself. That's why Lettuce Weggs is baking some cookies to send him.
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.167.124.163
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:05 pm:   

But why waste time blasting something. As mentioned above by others, if I don't like something I usually won't talk about it. Also I believe in giving encouragement. I mean honestly, if you tell a writer- 'I really enjoyed X' then it is meant as encouragement. I don't mind giving feed back and I enjoyed Des's commentary- I just don't get people who spend time actually blasting stuff. Life is too short- move on and find something that enrichens your life.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:13 pm:   

Constructive criticism is important, though. I got a great rejection letter from the editor of Dark Animus years ago and it improved my work immeasurably. Same with Colin Harvey who reviewed Sanity and Other Delusions and pointed out my tendency to use info dumps. Mark Lynch and Gary McMahon's comments have been important to me, too.

What I can't stand is 'reviews' which criticise without explaining what the perceived problems are. I suffered one of these in Prism recently. I mean, what's the point of that?
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:16 pm:   

Among others, Joel has pointed out my tendency to shoe-horn themes into my fiction in a too explicit manner. Others (eg, Zed, Andrew Hook) have echoed this. I've taken it all onboard and am now trying to be less heavy-handed. This kind of thing is crucial if you want to improve.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:19 pm:   

Or rather Joel's comment was something like: this story limits itself to those readers who will be interested in this theme, but will turn off anyone who isn't.

I'd never considered that before. It was valuable.
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.167.124.163
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:20 pm:   

Also I was unaware of the links provided above. It kind of blew me away. Anyways I'm probably sort of the outsider here as I don't write fiction-- I guess Gary was kind enough to invite me over because yes I like Campbell's fiction, and the bonus then is coming across all this other great stuff. And I'm still behind on reading Ally's work, John's-- I only just read Joel's book recently.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 79.70.89.166
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:23 pm:   

Quite right - personal emails and opinions on a story can help a lot but if I don't like something I don't go online and say so. It is hard enough for a writer these days anyway. As for reviews, one of the ones I treasure most wasn't sought, it was freely given.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.225.104.255
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:35 pm:   

I just wish I could get McMahon to stop reviewing my work. He's ruining my good reputation!
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.167.124.163
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:39 pm:   

Right And I'm kind of wondering, from skimming those threads provided above, how some are puzzled that this website could attract people interested in the genre, or the craft or whatever when clearly today (IMHO) there really isn't quite as prolific and creative a writer who consistently puts out challenging work that is pushing for something new and fresh.

And yes I can see how constructive criticism is essential and I enjoy reading it when it manifests on the board.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 05:43 pm:   

Incidentally, our hero asks:

>>>NB. Why oh why oh why does no one else speak out about such matters?

After all these years, he still hasn't figured it out.
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.167.124.163
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 06:04 pm:   

Fictional Splatterpunk author photo from the back of the dustjacket.

authorphoto

I think I'm going out to have a very cold pint now.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 79.70.89.166
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 09:11 pm:   

Actually I've just realised that nearly all the reviews I got were unsolicited and much appreciated. I really wish we had an edited button.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 79.70.89.166
Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 09:12 pm:   

......or even an edit button. I give up.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 08:55 am:   

>>>>Oh, and it can't help that Fry is the RCMB moderator. Who on that
board would dare disagree with him? He can prevaricate all he likes
about people speaking their minds, but the truth is, they don't. They
don't want to be frozen out and they don't want to be argued into
submission.

Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, please.

Bring back Albie, someone. He isn't banned.

I can't stop laughing . . .
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 08:59 am:   

You don't needs words to show Barker's idiocy; he does that ably enough for himself:

>>>I wasn't criticising your reviewing talents

>>>Everybody's too busy kissing everybody else's derriere. It's a
shocking state of affairs, especially amongst writers and readers who
by virtue of their wide reading should know better. To call it
parochial, provincial and incestuous would be an understatement.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 09:04 am:   

Des, he's not criticising your reviewing talents. He's actually suggesting that you have no principles, are dishonest and are even - most laughably of all - fearful of the consequences of transgressing Castle Campbell and its gatekeeper Fry.

This is a very sick mind. Keep away.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.194.144
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 09:26 am:   

Now you know the awful truth, Gary - all these years I've been a member of this board, I've been sitting here wanting to confess that I actually can't stand your writing (or that Campbell fellow's either!), but have been too damn scared to...

What does he imagine would happen if anyone had the temerity to admit they didn't care for aspects of a fellow message board member's work, I wonder? Hang about, isn't this something I've done on several occasions over the years? I don't think anyone here is afraid of offering honest, constructive criticism. To suggest otherwise is ignorant and insulting.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 10:14 am:   

The only person I've ever banned was some idiot making racist comments. Everyone else has carte blanche. As Albie has proved.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 11:26 am:   

Aye.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 11:31 am:   

That Barker bloke is hilarious. I'm convinced he's actually Keith Lemon turning his attention to obscure literary sub genres rather than celebs.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 11:49 am:   

Yeah, he characterises himself in the role of one of Shakespeare's fools - making acerbic yet essentially truthful comments from the sidelines. He thinks he's someone who's basically outside the boundaries of social mores and therefore not dictated by them. Maybe Shakespeare missed a trick: instead of writing about power and war and other such weighty stuff (as in King Lear) he should have focused on the Elizabethan small press. Hamlet, for instance, could make a wonderfully poetic speech about the ignominity of publishing your mates:

"To print or not to print: that is the question.
Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer
The (mood) swings and marrows of outrageous fools
Or take arms against a barrage of bubbles..."

This is Chris Barker: the tragi-comic character of fuck all.
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Gcw (Gcw)
Username: Gcw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.151.125.173
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 11:59 am:   

I have been known to be critical of writers work here in my reviews - ask Gary Fry.

I am pleased to say the recent stuff by Gary has been such a quantum leap I haven't needed to critisise..I genuinely loved it.

I notice my old nemesis is getting discussion above - guys don't, he is rubbing his hands with glee about it I am sure.

gcw
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.229.21
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 12:05 pm:   

Anyone seen the excellent new drama-documentary MILK, about Harvey Milk? Barker reminds me strongly of Dan White: an egocentric and unstable bully who thinks he's standing up for moral purity. I hope the police are keeping an eye on him.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.229.21
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 12:06 pm:   

GCW – sorry, our posting crossed. You're right.
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Gcw (Gcw)
Username: Gcw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.151.125.173
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 12:16 pm:   

Yeah, the sun is out here - Why drag down a lovely day?

gcw
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.168.57.120
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 03:36 pm:   

Sun? What's that? Hailstones down here...
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.176.111
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 06:50 pm:   

Speaking of Ex Occidente, I've just written an introduction to Peter Bell's forthcoming collection from the press, The Light of the World and Other Stories. About half the tales are original to the collection, and if you enjoy subtle stories with ever-increasing tension then this book is a must have.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.225.104.255
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 07:50 pm:   

I've already placed my order for Peter's book. I can't wait!
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 08:18 pm:   

I can't pick the bones out of the twaddle Zed links us to above, but am I right in believing that Ex Occidente are paying authors only in books?
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 08:24 pm:   

I've heard from another source that they're offering decent advances (decent in the small press, anyway).
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.176.111
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 08:29 pm:   

I've been told by one person who has a book forthcoming from Ex Occidente that he's being paid, and he named two other authors who are; the rest, he says, are being paid in books. I have no reason to doubt this person, who says he's learned this from Dan Gheru, who must be presumed to know. It could be, however, that this arrangement was in place for a time and has now changed for future titles.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 08:40 pm:   

Any sign of the next All Hallows, Barbara? I was reading some old issues today. I miss it. :-(
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.176.111
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 08:58 pm:   

Yes, All Hallows 44 is in production. I'm very sorry for the delay; 2008 was not a good year on a number of fronts, and I was (and still am) seriously over-extended. I recently gave up one project on which I was working, which has freed up a little time, and am now trying to complete a few other projects to which I've committed. In the last week I've proofed my own collection, written the Bell intro (which took a good deal of time, as I wanted to read or re-read all the stories first,), and written (with Christopher) a lengthy intro to a new Barnes & Noble edition of the complete Holmes stories. Now I have several Ash-Tree projects to read or work on, a mountain of AH submissions to read, and a lot of correspondence to catch up with, alongside trying to do some more writing of my own, including four antho submissions and two lengthy non-fiction pieces (for a book on Gothic fiction and for Joshi's upcoming Vampire encyclopedia). All this in addition to putting food on the table and day-to-day family life.

I'm not trying to sound all 'woe is me', nor am I trying to make excuses; I'm just explaining. All current GSS members will of course get two more (300+ page) issues of All Hallows. The journal does take a lot of work, entirely a labour of love, and I've recently been cheered by Todd Treichel's agreeing to take on a lot of the work of compiling the 'News and Notes' section, which takes me almost as much time to pull together as the rest of each issue combined. I was thinking of dropping the section altogether, since it served a valuable function in those far off pre-Internet days when that sort of news was hard to come by, but now seems less necessary. However, I'm conscious that not everyone is capable of, or happy with, getting such news from the Internet, so Todd's help will enable the feature to keep going.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 09:13 pm:   

Can't argue with that. Look forward to it.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.225.104.255
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 11:08 pm:   

That Todd's a dream, no question!

I know at least three people offered decent advances for their Ex Occidente work, which makes me surprised to hear others are only being paid in books. I wonder if money was promised at the outset and now no longer, or if it's a name-recognition thing. I must say, at least two of the three I know about, as good as they are, don't seem to have a tremendously high marquee value. Interesting...
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.176.111
Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 11:28 pm:   

Todd is one of the absolute nicest people I know; a real sweetheart. I'm tremendously grateful for the help he's offering on the 'News and Notes' front. I'm just sorry that the date change of this year's World Fantasy Convention in San Jose means that Todd and his wife Lisa won't be able to be there as planned; I was very much looking forward to seeing them again.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.168.57.120
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 11:26 am:   

Reggie Oliver book turned up today - looks really nice, although it was only in a jiffy bag so a couple of corners have been slightly bumped, unfortunately.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 11:30 am:   

Oh dear. That's the first rule to learn. I know that well - it's the first one I learnt.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 01:36 pm:   

Just to wrap up the Barker debacle: what kind of person can say this ---

Well, bearing in mind that Fry sets out to ape Thomas Ligotti, Reggie Oliver and Robert Aickman - but fails miserably -

And then write on his website this:

Barker’s short stories have been compared favourably to those written by the highly regarded authors Walter de la Mare and Robert Aickman.



Talk about delusions of grandeur!
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.219.8.243
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 01:55 pm:   

What a tit.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 02:12 pm:   

Is that an interactive review, I wonder?

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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 02:22 pm:   

Reggie Oliver is obviously not good enough for Barker. No, he puts his work right up there with de la Mare. So my work is down in the steerage with other 'competents' and his is actually above some of those I'm trying and failing to ape.

And if we look at his list of published fiction we learn that much of it was self-published. Well, fair enough, I say. I mean, a man capable of judging his own work against the likes of de la Mare (as evidenced above) is surely exacting in his standards. I'm sure that Barker the author had to write his very best stuff to meet the ruthless demands of Barker the editor.

Fantastic hypocrisy. Genius, even.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.47
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 02:28 pm:   

My plays have been favourably compared to the best of Pinter and Shakespeare. My short stories have been compared favourably with Ray bradbury and Steven King.

At least I compared them that way so I'm not lying.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 02:32 pm:   

No, to his credit, there's a quotation from a review on Barker's site which does mention de la Mare. From a proper reviewer, you understand. Not a dishonest toadyboy with fears of peer pressure like Des.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.47
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 02:34 pm:   

Seriously though, I did win three awards and was shortlisted for another 9 for my play "One flap of it's Tiny Wings".


Winner Best Original play at GMDF one act festival, Best actor (me) at Hale one act festival, Best Junior actor (another member of the cast) at Wilmslow one act festival. Shortlisted for best play at Hale and Wilmslow, Shortlisted for best actor (me) at Wilmslow and the list goes on. If I could get on my theatre group's website I'd list the rest of them. (Not in a gloaty way of course)
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 03:13 pm:   

Reggie Oliver loved The Impelled, too, and was as effusive in his praise as Des. By the troll's logic, Reggie Oliver must be a back-scratching, derriere-kissing, parochial, provincial and incestuous reviewer, too.


Guess who's writing the intro to Barker's Ex Occidente book? Go on, guess . . .

Oh, but of course, Reggie reviewed my book in All Hallows, didn't he? Another of those "unhealthy places" of which Barker speaks. Indeed, when he writes Barker's intro, he'll be divorced of such pernicious influence and he'll really mean it.

This all gets more hilarious by the minute. I hope Reggie's aware of what his introducee has been claiming.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.168.57.120
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 03:25 pm:   

So my work is down in the steerage with other 'competents' and his is actually above some of those I'm trying and failing to ape.

You do realise that CB will probably quote you on that, Gary!
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 03:27 pm:   

Well, he will now . . . :-)
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 03:36 pm:   

Barker's logic:

1) The Impelled is an average book, so anyone praising it, especially in an unhealty environment, must be a toady.

2) Reggie Oliver praised it in All Hallows - an unhealthy environment.

3) Therefore, Reggie Oliver is a toady.

If I were Barker, I'd be worried about choosing Reggie Oliver as his introducer. By his own reasoning, he obviously has no honour.

* Disclaimer for idiots or folk who might be tempted to perniciously misquote: obviously I believe that Reggie Oliver is an honest and astute reviewer.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 03:39 pm:   

Right, I'll stop now. My sides ache. :-)
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.47
Posted on Monday, March 09, 2009 - 03:41 pm:   

We all know it doesn't matter what we say on here anyway. if it's negative Gary just changes it.

Gary Fry is a twunt.

See How long that stays there.

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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.192.51
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 12:34 pm:   

Has anyone received copies of Ex Occidente books yet? One of the ones I ordered came today (the Jean Ray), and it's a nicely produced book. However, after assuring me that I'd receive the books in 'perfect condition' (I emailed him after hearing from others who'd received damged books in Jiffy bags), what happens? I get a lavishly-designed, attractive hardback stuffed into a pathetic little jiffy bag. When I opened it up, praying that it hasn't been damaged, I found all the corners bumped, as well as heavy bumping to the top and bottom of the spine. The top of the spine had a centimetre long tear, also. I feel like I've paid for a new book and received a used one. I've emailed the publisher to let him know how disappointed I am, and I'd recommend anyone buying Ex Occidente books buy them from reputable sellers such as Cold Tonnage or Ziesing books.
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Jonathan (Jonathan)
Username: Jonathan

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.143.178.131
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 01:26 pm:   

Hope they give you a refund Huw.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.106.220.83
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 01:31 pm:   

My copy of the Reggie Oliver book was fine, but as you say, Huw, it was only in a jiffy bag, so I was just lucky really. I think I'll get mine from Andy in future, to be sure.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 38.113.181.169
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 07:04 pm:   

I've spoken to Dan at Ex Occidente about this. He assures me that he recognises the issue, but finding good packing boxes at a decent rate is proving difficult for him. He also remarks that PS uses padded envelopes as well and don't seem to have these issues.

I've suggested to him that in the future he wraps the books in a few layers of bubblewrap before putting them in the envelopes. This should minimise damage. I don't know if he'll do it, but he's going to have to think of something.

Otherwise, one can always ask him to ship a number of volumes at once. Order three different books and he'll be forced to use a box.
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 90.199.0.99
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 07:06 pm:   

I've got all of mine through Andy Richards and they've all been in perfect condition except the Mark Valentine but I think the binding was a bit dodgy on all of those.
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.208.112.230
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 08:14 pm:   

My copy of Madder Mysteries was also in perfect nick, and also from Cold Tonnage.

I ordered the Mark Samuels collection direct from the publisher, though, so we'll have to keep our fingers crossed.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 82.20.31.211
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 08:59 pm:   

>>>He also remarks that PS uses padded envelopes as well and don't seem to have these issues.

They certainly don't!

Quite apart from anything else, he should at least build a strong package with cardboard wraps over the ends of the books.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 38.113.181.169
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 09:51 pm:   

I suspect he'll get there... eventually. But buying from CT is probably still a good idea.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 11:34 pm:   

Yeah, my PS books arrive very well packed indeed.

I got the Jean ray book from EO, and it was dinged to buggery. I'm a reader not a collector, so it didn't bother me enough to complain, but it's certainly an issue.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 99.225.104.255
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 11:48 pm:   

>>>>>He also remarks that PS uses padded envelopes as well and don't seem to have these issues.

>>They certainly don't!

I assume you mean "don't have these issues" as they certainly do ship in padded envelopes. At least, to me, and I'm across the ocean.
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.208.112.230
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 - 11:59 pm:   

My PS packages have always been in padded envelopes.

Maybe it's because I'm from Yorkshire?
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.177.119.24
Posted on Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 12:03 am:   

Mine have too, although the books have never suffered as a result.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 01:10 am:   

I think that's because they're also wrapped in bubblewrap, which helps a lot.
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.208.112.230
Posted on Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 01:16 am:   

How do they ensure the bubblewrap doesn't get damaged when the Bubblewrap manufacturers ship it to places?
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.241.143
Posted on Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 10:24 am:   

They wrap it in expensive hardback books.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.191.148
Posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 - 01:21 pm:   

I received my copies of the Jean Ray collection today (including a replacement for the damaged copy I ended up with last time) and they both arrived in great condition. If Dan packs his books like this in future he (and his customers) should have no problems at all. They certainly are fine-looking books.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 79.70.126.68
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 02:42 pm:   

Ordered Joel's book THE TERRIBLE CHANGES TODAY. I'm really looking forward to it.

I really hope that EO have solved their problems with packing. I'm encouraged by what you have just said Huw!
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 03:02 pm:   

Alternatively, Andy Richards sends them securely packed and is in general a very good chap.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.106.220.83
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 03:14 pm:   

He is indeed - he lives a couple of miles from my work so I pop over to see him every so often when I have books to sell...
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.253.174.81
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 03:28 pm:   

I've bought books from Andy Richards for years now and the service he provides has always been excellent.

(And he always tells me when he's run out of copies of my books and has to reorder, which is always a nice surprise)
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.60.106.5
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 03:39 pm:   

Mick I always wanted to 'pop over' and actually visit Andy's store. Must be a cool collection he's got.

Always got great service from him, and all his books always arrived in perfect condition.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.182.14
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 03:40 pm:   

He's never told me that. Wonder why...
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.5.91
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - 10:56 pm:   

"Mick I always wanted to 'pop over' and actually visit Andy's store. Must be a cool collection he's got."

He runs the business from his home, Karim, with a large storage facility nearby, so unfortunately you can't do much in the way of browsing, although there are usually a fair few books about. Mind you, I've not been there for a while so things may have changed. I remember first meeting Andy when he lived at home with his mother and worked as a postman, running a book business on the side!
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.163.6.13
Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 12:10 am:   

Yeah I heard about the storage facility, Mick. I figured since book stores are closing right and left, a visit to a nice aircraft hanger full of books would probably be good for the soul. I had wanted to visit the couple of times I flew over, but then didn't get the chance... Speaking of bookstores, Copenhagen's Central Station had a decent book store for ages; went there a couple of weeks ago and discovered that it had disappeared. phphoof!!! Gone in a puff of logic. I hope they fill the retail space with another McD that has a reality TV DVD rental section and cell phone stand/internet cafe/weaponized body building food supplements.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.21.22.5
Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 09:37 am:   

Sounds tempting. It's not to far from London, so I may go there sometime this summer. 8000 books, no less.
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Simon Strantzas (Nomis)
Username: Nomis

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 38.113.181.169
Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 06:41 pm:   

To get back to Huw's comment, I think Dan has found a method that works for shipping. He followed up with me on my last order to ensure the items arrived in good condition, which they most certainly did. I don't expect to have much problem buying direct from EO any longer.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.6.105
Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 06:57 pm:   

Still waiting for my copy of Joel's book...
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.245.184
Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 09:20 pm:   

Mick, the couriers only fly by night. And they get hungry often.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.6.105
Posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 10:26 pm:   

I'm keeping the windows shut then...
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Steveduffy (Steveduffy)
Username: Steveduffy

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 86.159.105.54
Posted on Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 12:59 am:   

Mick, Dan tells me he shipped 130 parcels the other day. Surely there must be one with your name on it in there!
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.6.105
Posted on Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 01:33 am:   

Let's hope so! I'll give it a few more days before checking with Dan...
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.21.234.239
Posted on Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 03:31 pm:   

On the other hand I'm not sure about his internet connection, for he curiously fails to answer my e-mails.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.6.105
Posted on Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 06:55 pm:   

His internet connection works well when he's selling! Still waiting...
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 11:37 am:   

My latest blog entry is mostly about Quentin S. Crisp, the writer who has a book available from Ex Occidente:

http://rhysaurus.blogspot.com/
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 11:51 am:   

Great blog Rhys. I'm adding it to my favourites.

I'm eagerly awaiting my copy of Cinnabar's Gnosis. It been two weeks since they said it was posted but i suspect Romania to South Wales can be quite a postal trek. Patience etc
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 220.138.162.7
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 01:09 pm:   

You're in South Wales, Clive? I live on the other side of the world now, but I'm originally from St. Davids (in Dyfed, right on the westernmost tip), and have relatives all over the Cardiff, Carmarthen and Llanelli areas as well.

Lord Probert is Welsh too, as is Coral, and Steve (Duffy) lives in north Wales. I believe Rhys is a Welshman too (well, he should be, with a name like that!). Slowly but surely we shall take over the board...
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 01:18 pm:   

Yes, currently in Cardiff although i only moved here last August. I was living in Egypt for a year or so before that and London for the previous 15 years. I was born in Pontypridd though and grew up in Mid Wales. I guess i am returning to spawn (literally, as we have a baby on the way in April). I'm really enjoying returning 'to my rots' as it were. Nice to see a good Welsh gathering here as well.
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 01:20 pm:   

'to my rots'

Ha! Thats my amusing Freudian slip for the day.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 01:37 pm:   

>>Slowly but surely we shall take over the board...<<

And I'm half Welsh, if that counts - my dad is from Newport, Gwent.

To get back to EO, I see from the above discussion that they had shipping problems at one point - is that still the case? Only I don't fancy ordering from them an expensive book if it isn't going to arrive!
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 01:55 pm:   

>>To get back to EO, I see from the above discussion that they had shipping problems at one point - is that still the case? Only I don't fancy ordering from them an expensive book if it isn't going to arrive!<<

From what i've read elsewhere it seems it can take a while but does get there in the end. I think Romania to U.S is particularly prone to delay. Any delay seems to be on the postal side though. They were certainly very quick to email me with a dispatch date.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 02:34 pm:   

A freudian slip? Is that where you say one thing when you mean a mother?
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 03:41 pm:   

Much discussion of Ex Occidente here:

http://www.speculativefictionjunkie.com/2009/08/why-ill-never-buy-from-ex-occide nte.html

I would say it's best to buy from one of the established book dealers rather than direct.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 04:45 pm:   

Oh dear, that doesn't sound good, does it? It does seem best not to order them direct from EO then. EO books are too expensive to risk them arriving damaged or not arriving at all.
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 04:54 pm:   

Yes, i'd read that site before ordering (along with some views on the Ligotti site) and actually tried to order the book from Cold Tonnage first but, weirdly, they couldn't get my credit card to work. Which was odd as i'd used it to order from Tartarus at the same time and that was fine. Anyway, as Cold Tonnage seemed to be the only UK dealer i could find that stocked Ex Occidente i went and ordered direct. I'll get in touch if it hasn't arrived by next week. If anyone knows another online dealer apart from Cold Tonnage that would be great.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 129.11.77.198
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 05:30 pm:   

Try . . .

Jeff n Joys
Fantastic Literature

Dunno if they stock Ex Occ books, tho.
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 05:54 pm:   

Thanks Gary.
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 06:05 pm:   

According to information we got today, there'll be one less established book dealer from whom to buy Ex Occidente titles, as - after months of being jerked around by Dan, who wouldn't ship what the dealer ordered, but would instead ship a partial order and then fill the box with whatever Dan felt like throwing in - the dealer complained, and received an e-mail from Dan saying that he (Dan) would not be sending books to that dealer anymore. As far as I know, that leaves one dealer in North America stocking Ex Occidente books, as those who were dealing with him now aren't, for various reasons, and at least one respected dealer I spoke with in San Jose said he wasn't even going to try dealing with Dan, as he's heard so many horror stories about the difficulty of getting stock.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 06:30 pm:   

That's even worse news then. I don't think EO will last very long if they don't buck up their ideas in the customer service department.
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 08:39 pm:   

I think they need to get a new advocate as well. Reading that thread on the Ligotti board, the chap who's set himself up as some kind of unofficial EO defender is the very last person I'd want in my corner.

The fault lies with the dissatisfied customers because they're trying to stiff the publisher for more books ????

He's got to be kidding, hasn't he?
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 - 10:36 pm:   

Less than two hours have passed since I made that last post, and apparently I've been blitzed on a blog which is mainly notable for the host writing to himself under different guises and congratulating himself on his own views.

Ah well. If the measure of a man is the quality of his enemies ...
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:19 am:   

Oh dear, sorry folks. That was my fault for asking about EO in the first place, when I read further up this thread that there had been problems with deliveries. I had no idea it would spark all that nonsense off again. Sorry!
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 06:17 am:   

Paul, I'm in the crosshairs along with you. Well, at least I'm in good company. And I see that the proprietor of Horror Watch will be in Brighton next month! That WILL be fun for everyone.
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 06:34 am:   

I've not said much publicly about Ex Occidente, because I realise that whatever I say, however justified or temperate, could be construed by some as sour grapes. I do think it hypocrisy in the highest degree, however, for the proprietor of Horror Watch to continue to defend some practices of Ex Occidente which - if they were being indulged in by Ash-Tree, say, or Tartarus - he would be the first to condemn. I have to wonder how much of this defence of EO stems from the fact that the proprietor of Horror Watch has a collection forthcoming from that press.

For the record: no, I have not been approached by EO about a collection (hardly surprising, as I just had a collection published by Prime), although I did write the introduction to Peter Bell's collection from EO (which has been forthcoming for almost a year now), and I also have a story in the HAUNTED HISTORIES volume, which is forthcoming at some as-yet-to-be-determined date (I'm hoping 2010, but am not sanguine).
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Skunsworth (Skunsworth)
Username: Skunsworth

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 86.169.72.33
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 08:46 am:   

I was approached by Dan to put together a collection 18 months ago, I sent him a bunch of stories that he accepted...and then he simply stopped replying to emails. Completely. Even to the ones where I said, If you don't want them now, let me know. And the response I got? Absolute silence. Now, I'm not bothered because my stuff has found a home elsewhere, but I do think it sends a clear message about how Dan treats not just customers and dealers but also potential authors. Not a great business model, I wouldn't have thought.

S
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 10:39 am:   

I had the same experience, Simon.

Very odd, to be honest, because when I was dealing with him, I found Dan a very pleasant and open guy. I suspect he's basically bitten off a lot more than he can chew.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 11:18 am:   

CB says that when he goes to Brighton his enemies will outnumber his friends 2:1. I didn't know there were only 3 people going...
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 11:18 am:   

Cheap shot that. Delete it if you want Mr Fry
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 11:29 am:   

Didn't many of us recently agree that it was probably wiser not to discuss this individual on here? I still think it is.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:32 pm:   

I'm going to have to defend Dan Ghetu here for several reasons:

(a) He lives in Romania where the postal service isn't as great as it might be in the USA, UK or Canada (sorry Romania!)... and mail sent from there does tend to take longer than it should to arrive, and sometimes doesn't arrive at all. This is a problem that needs to be fixed. One way it's going to be fixed is by Dan employing a person to concentrate entirely on shipping arrangements, and indeed this is how his operation is going to proceed this year (2010)... This doesn't mean that people who ordered books that didn't arrive shouldn't be glum; they have every right to be. I'm just asking people not to confuse Dan with the postal service of the country he lives in. Buying from dealers is one safe option for any of you out there, of course.

(b) He's a publisher who is interested in publishing writers that are sorely neglected over here in the English-speaking West. for years I have been banging on about how readers of 'weird fiction' should try to get their heads around some of the European masters. Dan's the only publisher I'm aware of who is interested in writers such as Meyrink, Bulgakov, Ernst Jünger, Cendrars, Buzzati, etc -- and believe me, some of these writers are really worth checking out if you want your imaginations stretched. So he deserves support for this reason alone. There has to be a healthy counterbalance to the M.R. James aesthetic if 'weird fiction' is truly going to thrive and evolve.

(c) Confusing a publisher with one of his writers is a bit weird. I know almost nothing about this so-called Chris Barker, but is he really such a menace and threat to you that the forthcoming publication of one book by him means you have to condemn an entire publishing house that is issuing some great works by some great writers? If you're going to throw the baby out with the bluster, you'll end up losing something special.

(d) I have a vested interest in seeing Dan flourish, as he plans to bring out a volume of my own stories, and not just a normal volume but a mammoth collection of all my best work in the past 10 years. I've worked my cottonpicking scrotum off over the past decade trying to push my creativity as far as I can and I believe I have created a unique body of work unlike that of any other writer. Variety is not only the spice of life (and the publishing world) but necessary for the continued health of the genre. A publisher such as Ash Tree Press would never have given me the opportunity to be so radical and left-field (that's their perogative, of course, but all the same it's a shame). So Dan needs to be allowed to flourish.

I'm sorry to hear that Simon (Kurt Unsworth) and Paul (Finch) report negatively on Dan; in my own dealings with him I have found him to be nothing less than courteous, erudite and efficient. But then, not every writer gets on with every editor and vice versa. I don't get on with the Rodens; I can live with that, and I'm sure they can. We inhabit different parts of the 'weird fiction' spectrum, so it doesn't matter. A publisher such as Ash Tree Press is far more suited to Simon and Paul's work; and a publisher such as Ex Occidente is far more suited to my own work. Despite the fact it's a cutthroat business, there's still room for everyone. Or there should be. And there will be -- if you want it.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:35 pm:   

I hope what I say below (and have said before) does not make me appear pretentious, disingenuous or apolitical (even disnintentional!), but I do try to see books as books and how they will appear to posterity, irrespective of the circumstances surrounding its writing and its production / distribution etc. After all, posterity will obtain the book, read it and enjoy it (or not) probably without knowing anything about many of its surrounding circumstances (some circumstances that are petty, others that are rumours, yet others that are possibly more important, in the first or second decade of the 21st century (maybe, for them, a hundred years in the past!)).
Just two particular examples to this general end:- I have been recently real-time reviewing two in-print books, 'Cinnabar's Gnosis' (Ex Occidente Press) here: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/cinnabars_gnosis.htm and 'Dancing On Air' by Frances Oliver (Ash Tree Press) here: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/dancing_on_air__by_frances_oliver.htm
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:39 pm:   

That's very true, Des... History won't care about petty disputes between writers; it will care only about the work itself, and it's impossible to say today which writer will be truly valued in the future... We're all going to die one day and when we're dead we can't network: our books will be forced to succeed without us, on their own merit!
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:40 pm:   

My post crossed with Rhys' excellent post. I seriously think the two posts are complementary.
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:45 pm:   

I think Rhys is probably right here.

As I mentioned, I too found Dan very courteous and responsive at first, though he became strangely stand-offish later. Regardless of his delivery problems, he certainly should not be confused with the chap who's taken it upon himself to so belligerently defend Ex Occidente. Whatever this character's name is, he's not the sort of advocate I would want, as I think he's doing EO more harm than good.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:45 pm:   

Crossed again!
(NB, complementary, with an e not an i. You'll be amazed how many erudite books I've come across that get these two distinct words worong))
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:49 pm:   

Now I cross posts with Paul. I hope this is not a 'cross' day!

Just for the record:
complementary = two things that fit together with the points in each efficiently supplementing the other
complimentary - being nice to each other, praising
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:53 pm:   

So what's the word for getting stuff free in hotel rooms?
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:54 pm:   

complimentary (being nice) :-)
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:54 pm:   

Prostitution, Gary.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:57 pm:   

That's free?
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 12:59 pm:   

They do things differently in Swansea.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:04 pm:   

What's the name for a free curry in Swansea, Gary? Remind me. :-)

Just this very minute I learned that I've sold my Tallest Stories collection of sixty linked stories: the one I worked on for 15 years. Despite my worship of the concept of sang-froid, I am delighted with this news!
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:13 pm:   

No-one is condemning the press because it's publishing the work of he who should not be named. They are reporting their negative experiences of the press. If you believe that they're only doing that because of the HWSNBN connection, then you're buying into his paranoid little fantasies about the members of this board.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:19 pm:   

>>>What's the name for a free curry in Swansea, Gary? Remind me. :-)

Hahahaha. That's why I went for the weird one. :-)
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:19 pm:   

I refer you to point (a) of my post above...

I imagine that for some people point (c) really is a motivation, despite what you say.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:22 pm:   

Um, that wasn't directed at you, Gary...

I'm going to visit Dan in Romania later this year. To anyone in the UK who is waiting for books but still hasn't received: I'm willing to pick them up there and deliver it by hand when I return.

Ex Occidente's shipping act in 2010 will be good and not like 2009. If it isn't I'll carr out any forfeit you care to name. Go on, name one.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:23 pm:   

Hmm, lots of spelling mistakes in the above post. Sorry!
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:26 pm:   

>>>Go on, name one.

Read the complete works of Guy N Smith in a week.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:28 pm:   

FUCKER!
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:30 pm:   

OK, a fortnight.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:31 pm:   

Does this include the "Disney Books"?
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:35 pm:   

No. Or as they say in Glasgow: it dis'ney.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:52 pm:   

Glad this thread seems to have lightened up again by the time I got back here, but just for the record in response to Rhys' comment here:

"(c) Confusing a publisher with one of his writers is a bit weird. I know almost nothing about this so-called Chris Barker, but is he really such a menace and threat to you that the forthcoming publication of one book by him means you have to condemn an entire publishing house that is issuing some great works by some great writers? If you're going to throw the baby out with the bluster, you'll end up losing something special."

Rhys, and everyone else, I definitely WASTN'T confusing the publisher with CB. This whole thing kicked off again when I merely asked about EO's current delivery problems. I'd read the comments earlier on this thread and was wondering whether it was sensible to order direct from them or not. CB was brought into it by his own reading and misinterpretation of what followed in response to my query, and his comments on the HW blog. I honestly wish I hadn't asked about EO now!

I definitely have no wish to see them, or any other small press, go under, and I sincerely hope this Dan fella does manage to get things sorted and keep it going nicely. The last thing any of us needs is another great small press publisher going out of business.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 01:56 pm:   

"I imagine that for some people point (c) really is a motivation, despite what you say."

There's no one that petty on this board (except Craig and he's not posted on this thread). and as for point a - that doesn't cover the problems that a couple of people have has with Dan personally - like Simon U.

Anyway, I think I might have to pay a trip to Swansea from the sound of things...
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 02:50 pm:   

"Yes, i'd read that site before ordering (along with some views on the Ligotti site) and actually tried to order the book from Cold Tonnage first but, weirdly, they couldn't get my credit card to work. Which was odd as i'd used it to order from Tartarus at the same time and that was fine. Anyway, as Cold Tonnage seemed to be the only UK dealer i could find that stocked Ex Occidente i went and ordered direct. I'll get in touch if it hasn't arrived by next week. If anyone knows another online dealer apart from Cold Tonnage that would be great."

I've asked Andy Richards about the card problem, Clive.
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 03:22 pm:   

Thanks Ramsey. I'm sure it was just a glitch. I've not had that problem before or since. I'll try ordering from them again soon as there are more Ex Occidente books i'd like, such as the Valentine and Crisp collections. As to ordering straight from EO, i totally understand postal delays etc as i said earlier. It's also a new publisher and bound to have some early problems to iron out. I certainly hope they go from strength to strength. The Meyrink collection looks great but i'm particularly keen on the Bruno Schulz idea.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 03:25 pm:   

Ex Occidente WILL get their shipping act together this year. This is the year of the getting-together-the-shipping-act.

It's vitally important that Dan survives, because there are just too many 'orthodox' collections and novels out there and counterbalance is desperately needed. I believe 100% that if lovers of 'weird fiction' broaden their tastes to include the European masters they will be more than pleasantly surprised: they will be blown away!

Just try it for a week and see... Put down your M.R. Jameses, Aickmans, Straubs and Clive Barkers just for one week and pick up some Calvino, Lem, Vian, Perec, Durrenmatt, Canetti, Nesvadba... One week. No risk. No animated bedsheets.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 03:42 pm:   

Tried Calvino once. Hated it.
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Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.167.138
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 03:47 pm:   

Really? I loved 'Our Ancestors' especially 'Baron In The Trees'. Now who was it who first recommended that one to me? Oh yes! A certain Mr Hughes! ;)
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 03:54 pm:   

>>It's vitally important that Dan survives, because there are just too many 'orthodox' collections and novels out there and counterbalance is desperately needed. I believe 100% that if lovers of 'weird fiction' broaden their tastes to include the European masters they will be more than pleasantly surprised: they will be blown away! <<

Indeed. I'm a huge fan of European weird fiction writers. Schulz is one of my favourite writers full stop but Stefan Grabinski, Meyrink and of course Kafka, are fantastic. Some of the most interesting anthologies i've read are the wonderful The Dedalus Book of .......... Fantasy series. The Austrian and Polish ones being particularly strong. Sadly, i don't have them anymore and some are quite pricey now out of print. Happily, though, i'm pleased to see that there are a couple of new ones being released this spring. Estonian and Flemish. I agree, it's very important to be supportive of the more alternative small press.

CB Editions are also an interesting little publishers. They brought out a cute little paperback collection of Grabinski stories a couple of years ago.


http://www.cbeditions.com

I'd also recommend Twisted Spoon Press who publish some beautiful books by vintage and contemporary European writers. Again, sadly i no longer have any of their books (i had a huge clear out before moving to Egypt a couple of years ago) but i may start buying from them again. It's such a shame it's so hard to come across books like this in the 3for2 Waterstones era.


http://www.twistedspoon.com/
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 03:56 pm:   

>>Tried Calvino once. Hated it.<<

Oh, i love Calvino. My favourite is 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveller'. The very definition of postmodern though so if that don't float yer boat.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 04:05 pm:   

That's the one I tried. I just found it extremely irritating. The style just jarred completely with me. Got about 60 pages in and I got so annoyed with it I threw it across the room.

Got some very strange looks from the other people in the laundrette.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 04:11 pm:   

I seem to remember comments I made about it at the time that it read like it had been translated word for word from the Italian by a computer - with no regard for grammar or sentence construction.

Hate hate hated it
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 04:54 pm:   

I'd certainly never condemn a press simply because of one of the authors in its line-up; and I do realise that the postal system in Romania is not quite, perhaps, up to the standards that Canadians and Americans or Brits are used to. Books do go missing from time to time; but as a rule, it's a fairly rare occurrence, and certainly doesn't happen with replacement copy after replacement copy (unless there's a Romanian post office employee amassing quite a nice collection of multiple Ex Occidente titles).

I spoke with three respected U.S. dealers when I was at World Fantasy, and all three expressed their annoyance with EO. Books are paid for by the dealers and then not sent, or sent months later (this is for in-print titles, not forthcoming ones); the books are often damaged in transit due to poor packing; and at least one dealer reported that he would order certain numbers of certain titles, only to have the order changed, so that he received fewer of the titles he ordered, and the books added to make up the order were ones he didn't want and hadn't ordered. As a publisher, sales to individuals are great, but dealers are your bread and butter, the people who will keep ordering multiple copies, and it seems odd to annoy them to this extent, particularly when there are people on record as saying that they won't buy from EO, only through a reputable dealer.

And I'm annoyed that friends are being jerked around by EO: not only friends who, for various reasons, saw their EO projects fall through, but also friends who are waiting, with varying degrees of patience, for their long-announced collections to see the light of day. I finished my intro for Peter Bell's collection almost a year ago, for a spring/summer 2009 publication date. Here we are in February 2010, and still no sign of it, while other titles that weren't even on the radar with EO a year ago have either been published, or have been announced as imminent.

I admire Ex Occidente's aims and vision and choice of authors, and the few books I've seen are truly lovely. I hope the problems resolve themselves.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.230.177
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 06:08 pm:   

I too found Dan very courteous and responsive at first, though he became strangely stand-offish later.

I had a similar experience. We discussed the possible publication of a dozen or so stories by Belgian author Gérard Prévot, who is imho a much better writer than the perennial Jean Ray. He professed his enthusiasm at the table of contents I sent him. Dan obviously knows quite a few foreign languages and he'd actuaaly read Prévot. This was about a year ago. Then, nothing. Apart from a very curious e-mail only a few months ago wherein he bluntly stated I apparently had some kind of problem with him and his press. I replied I was not aware of any problem and got a reply to the effect he'd obviously made a mistake. All very confusing, to say the least.

Dan, if you read this: I'm still willing to do business.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 80.4.12.3
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 06:10 pm:   

> And I'm annoyed that friends are being jerked around by EO: not only friends who, for various reasons, saw their EO projects fall through, but also friends who are waiting, with varying degrees of patience, for their long-announced collections to see the light of day...

Yes, Barbara, many publishers fail to do what they say they're going to do. It's more common than you might think. Other presses that have been known to fail writers include Prime Books, Razorblade Press and Ash Tree Press. There are plenty of others. That's the publishing world, I'm afraid.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 06:32 pm:   

Yeah, come on, Barbara, be fair: without wanting to start an argument about it, I feel compelled to point out that I'm still waiting for All Hallows issues I paid for years ago.

The point is, all small press publishers have difficulties. And while Ex Occidente's seem unusually long lasting (which makes me wary), I also think that everyone who runs such a press knows all too well the problems which can and do arise.
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Steveduffy (Steveduffy)
Username: Steveduffy

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 86.172.5.176
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 09:48 pm:   

Rhys, Gary: was that the old tu quoque? Is that the best you can come up with? I'd have hoped for something a little less ad hominem.
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Ian Alexander Martin (Iam)
Username: Iam

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 64.180.64.74
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 10:24 pm:   

Am I the only one who can't see anything of Ex Occidente Press's site beyond a list of folders? Rather odd… tough to check out the catalogue of their books when there's nought but that.
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Steveduffy (Steveduffy)
Username: Steveduffy

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 86.172.5.176
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 10:42 pm:   

Ian, this may possibly be because you're relying on an old link, which has three Cs in "Ex Occcidente". If so, try it with just the two.

By the way, it seems the proprietor of Ex Occidente is reading all these posts, so I don't know why he didn't tell you this himself. Still, I don't mind acting as his PR flack.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.47.10.77
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 10:49 pm:   

This one works for me.
http://exoccidente.com/
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.47.10.77
Posted on Friday, February 12, 2010 - 10:51 pm:   

And that is not 'works for me' - merely a link.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.180.31
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:20 am:   

If Ex Occidente Press are thinking about a Bruno Schulz tribute anthology, or a collection of his work, that's exciting news. I'm reading a Penguin omnibus of his short fiction at the moment and he writes beautiful, strange, sensual stories – yet another example of how what we call 'slipstream' has been around for as long as what we call 'genre'. If not longer.
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:47 am:   

Yes, a wonderful writer. The Ex Occidente book is a tribute anthology along the lines of the Meyrink one. I guess it's a way off but it's certainly an exciting prospect. Incidentally, you can find a large number of Schulz stories translated by John Curran Davis here...

http://www.schulzian.net/

I think i prefer the Celina Wieniewska translations found in the Penguin and Picador books but it is always fascinating to read another translators work.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 09:27 am:   

Steve, I wasn't saying Barbara was wrong about EO's delays in publication. She's obviously right. However, I don't think it's unreasonable of me to say that, like Barbara in relation to EO, I'm annoyed that money I paid Ash Tree Press several years ago has resulted in no copies of the All Hallows issues I expected as part of my GSS membership. And it does seem a bit rich for the publisher of that journal to pull up other presses for delays which are far shorter than how long I've been waiting for AH.

If I'm wrong here, please tell me why. Am happy to be corrected.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 80.4.12.3
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 10:16 am:   

I think that maybe Steve Duffy has become a dancing bear. Dance dance dance for your masters, Steve!
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Nathaniel Tapley (Natt)
Username: Natt

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 78.149.238.109
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:17 am:   

I have absolutely nothing to add on EO or other small publishers

However, surely a 'tu quoque' argument cannot be 'ad hominem' unless it was an 'ad hominem' argument the first time it was used...
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Skunsworth (Skunsworth)
Username: Skunsworth

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 78.149.54.191
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:21 am:   

Duffy as a dancing bear? No, I don't think so. I've just blogged a bit about this, and the now legendary Ghostwriter Publications, if anyone's interested:

http://simonkurtunsworth.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/fortyfifth-time/

S
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:27 am:   

Bears don't think logically. They just have sore heads...

But seriously, why is nearly every writer in the small-press also a part-time partisan? The reflex seems to be: I must automatically and instantly defend those who publish me in the hope of being published again by them (irrespective of morality)!

And whatever happened to the honourable institution of single combat? If two people are engaging in slugging it out, everyone should stand back and let the duel proceed naturally. That's correct behaviour (see The Iliad for more details); putting a toe of your boot in when you are just a lackey is bad form.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:33 am:   

Simon (Unsworth): it's a good blog entry but I think you're very wrong about EO preferring 'ephemeral' tales. I think that's just a pale insult. The writers that are the touchstones of EO are anything but 'emphemeral' -- could any objective person every really describe Bulgakov as emphemeral? Or Junger? Or Schulz? Or Buzzati?

These were men who lived tough lives in much more troubled times than we do, and who wrote solid and very clear prose on philosophical themes (it might sometimes be baroque prose, but it's always muscular).
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Gcw (Gcw)
Username: Gcw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.156.38.66
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:34 am:   

I am a simple soul, book publishing/selling to me is no different to selling a fridge, if you pay, you should expect good product & service.

Thats why people come back for more.

I have been only one EO book, which I bought directly off Joel, superbly put together, a very attractive book.

gcw
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.47.10.77
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:39 am:   

It is hard to believe that Ex-Occidente has been in business such a short time. They produce such beautiful books and I'm looking forward to reading some of what is to be published this year, and definately more of the European weird writers. I hope that both Ash Tree Press and Ex-Occidente go from strength to strength and continue to publish writers we'd probably never come across otherwise.
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Skunsworth (Skunsworth)
Username: Skunsworth

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 78.149.54.191
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:40 am:   

Rhys: 'ephemeral' wasn't meant as an insult, merely to point out that there's a different tone to the writings that EO are choosing to publish than occurs in my writing. EO's stuff seems, to me, to be less directly supernatural and more (as you say) philosophical. That's not a problem - in fact, it's quite exciting, but I am aware I wouldn't fir there now. My issue is with Dan's method of doing business, and his level (or otherwise) of professionalism.

S
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:41 am:   

The Junger tribute is the one I'm looking forward to most. I am still constantly amazed at the heroism of Junger's stand against Hitler. It's easy to live in London, Manchester or Kamloops with soft chairs and democracy: much harder to be born into a militaristic milieu and to be subjected to conditioning all your life but still have the intelligence and guts to publish an anti-Hitler book in 1939 in Germany during the highest point of Hitler's power; and to publish it openly!

'Ephemeral'? My arse.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:43 am:   

Simon: fair enough. Point taken. Good luck and I'm more than a little confident you'll do well as a writer of supernatural tales.

One of the reasons I'm so keen to support Dan is because at long last I see a publisher who is interested in all the writers I've been banging on about for years and years... Buzzati, Junger, Cendrars, Kharms, Borges, Nesvadba, Schulz, etc. I just need to get him into Calvino and then get him to consider a Calvino tribute book...

Without Dan, I'll be left with M.R. James and Lovecraft; and I don't think I can bear that...
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.47.10.77
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:45 am:   

I'll go and read Simon's blog.....
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:49 am:   

I hope that both Ash Tree Press and Ex-Occidente go from strength to strength and continue to publish writers we'd probably never come across otherwise
=============================

Hear hear, Ally!
Or Here Here?
I was getting at that overriding fall of the dice in my earlier post, but you put it far more effectively. :-)
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:50 am:   

But to return to my earlier point: single combat in all disputes from now on. That's the only fair method.

The Iliad contains an excellent code for living an honourable and righteous life. Go read it if you haven't already.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:55 am:   

I don't think there is any such thing as single combat in discussions about non-tangble philosophical, literary matters or even business ethics.
It is and should be a Jungian cut and thrust froma all quarters. For its own sake in the hope that truth will prevail. Truth (until nailed down) being a slippery customer of viewpoint just as much as deceit or prevarication.
But at the end of the day, only the books themselves will end up mattering, whether in ten or hundred years.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:56 am:   

No, Des, because brave individualists will be at the disadvantage of the ignorant mob, and that's not fair. Single combat it is. There is no other way.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 11:59 am:   

Who distinguishes the brave individualist from a member of an ignoant mob? Another (braver?) individualist?
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:03 pm:   

I'll do the distinguishing if you like, Des, even though I'm really too busy to take on yet another responsibility...

A brave individualist is someone who wouldn't join a society or go to conventions; who doesn't seek to cultivate friends in the writing world; and who treads his (or her) own path in the writing world. That's my guess.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:04 pm:   

...and who probably doesn't have an artistic background, but a background in science, engineering or philiosophy.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:11 pm:   

Thankfully, Rhys, you (and now I), I think, are successfully taking this discussion into absurdist territory with this line of rarified debate about mobs and individualists! Well done. :-)
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:17 pm:   

I'm deadly serious, Des.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:20 pm:   

Well, if you're serious, we need a debate to air all the implications of what you say about individualists and mobs. And i feel there are many such implications. It is a very big subject. Or am I wrong?
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:25 pm:   

Here's a duel proposition for you: I'll choose msyelf as my own champion (because I'm an individualist)... Anyone who wishes to oppose me can nominate themselves.

Here are the duel terms: 50 years from now, who will be more famous?

The one who is the most famous is the winner.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:26 pm:   

So, any takers? I'm in the arena right now...
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:30 pm:   

I'm happy to take you up on that, Rhys. You may still be alive by then, but I shall be dead. So I shall have a flying start. ;)
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:32 pm:   

Done.

As I'm the challenger, it's your right to choose the yardstick by which the 'fame' is to be judged. My suggestion is: Penguin Modern Classics. But it's your call.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:35 pm:   

OK, Penguin Modern Classics or its equivalent if the former doesn't exist or a better yardstick emerges (i.e. a replacement yardstick as deemed by a consensus of current RCMBers left alive at that time in 2060).
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:40 pm:   

And if neither of us is famous by that yardstick, the duel is null immortalis.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:42 pm:   

I accept Penguin Modern Classics.

50 years from now we must return to see who has won. The winner of the duel has won the dispute (we don't have a dispute but we can create one later). Destiny always allows the person who is in the right to win a duel.

If we aren't in a position to return 50 years from now, our reputations must return on our behalf.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:44 pm:   

OK, Rhys. (Did that cross with my previous post - if so I need your agreement to that correlative rider).
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:50 pm:   

Des, once a challenge has been issued and the challengee has agreed weaopins and the challenger has confirmed, I think it's too late to change. But I'll check for you. One moment. I use Wilson.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6085
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:51 pm:   

Does it cover crossed posts prior to the agreement being finalised?
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:53 pm:   

Chapter III, Rule 2... "The old notion that the party challenged, was authorized to name the time, place, distance and weapon, has been long since exploded; nor would a man of chivalric honor use such a right, if he possessed it. The time must be as soon as practicable, the place such as had ordinarily been used where the parties are, the distance usual, and the weapons that which is most generally used, which, in this State, is the pistol."

Interpreting this in the light of our modern situation (where pistol = Penguin Modern Classics) I would say it's definitely too late to change now.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.230.177
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:14 pm:   

Just don't shoot each other in the back.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:15 pm:   

I am not changing anything, other than offereng up at least a possibility that neither of us will become famous on the agreed criteria. Or both of us will!
I think we are in agreement. Good luck.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:22 pm:   

Destiny has already chosen me for fame, Des. But it might have chosen you too, and that's the factor I'm unaware of (which makes it a proper duel rather than a firing squad).

The question isn't whether I'll be famous 50 years from now (destiny has said yes, I will) but whether you will be MORE famous than me. If you are, you have won.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:27 pm:   

Well, anyway, good luck.
(If we're both in Penguin Modern Classics, I assume we add up the respective wordage in there and the one with the biggest wins the duel).
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:30 pm:   

Well, that depends. We have a choice of wordage, forewords or blurbs. Do you want to choose formally?
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Steveduffy (Steveduffy)
Username: Steveduffy

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 86.172.5.176
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:33 pm:   

Gary, I was simply suggesting that any issues you may have over the GSS (and I'm not a member, so I don't really feel able to comment here) don't necessarily have any bearing on the matter at hand - namely, Dan Ghetu's inability to honour his promises.

I might as well state for the record at this point that I've today severed all connections with Ex Occidente. Put simply: assurances were made to me that have not been honoured; deadlines were repeatedly broken; issues of legitimate concern ignored or fudged; and the press' proprietor is clearly unable to comport himself in an acceptably businesslike manner. So, good riddance. I can only apologise to anybody who's pre-ordered my collection - the one that Dan Ghetu promised to publish in 2008 - and I would suggest that they contact Ex Occidente immediately concerning a refund.

And finally, how very delightful to be lectured on my behaviour by Rhys Hughes, Ex Occidente's bestest friend. Quick, Rhys! Run and tell Dan Ghetu what the nasty man said about him!.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:35 pm:   

It'll make it easier for others to have a scientific basis (i.e. wordage) to use rather than a subjective one (assessing forewords or blurbs).

I say this in the full knowledge that your works are invariably bigger in size than mine.

(I am also knowingly abandoning any weight thrown into the balance of Fame provided by the legacy of 'Nemonymous').
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 01:39 pm:   

Accepted, Des, we'll go for wordage.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 06-2008
Posted From: 86.153.238.132
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 02:37 pm:   

And, btw, Rhys, thanks so much for igniting in me a revelation about the meaning of 'null immortalis' in the context of a tied duel about the 'immortality of fame'.

I hope you (and others here) are submitting to this paying market (i.e. the last Nemonymous, No. 10). (Your work was in the first three, I recall, or was it 4?)
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 03:11 pm:   

"A brave individualist is someone who wouldn't join a society or go to conventions; who doesn't seek to cultivate friends in the writing world; and who treads his (or her) own path in the writing world..."

Can't the artistic individuality be achieved without the other requirements? To be honest, it sounds like a sad case to me - the kind of person who boasts of not having friends as if it's an achievement to be admired.

Me, I have a lot of friends. Some are writers, some aren't, and I make absolutely no distinction between the two. Perhaps it's because in general I like people. I also try to be polite, even to those who I don't think deserve it. This seems to be an example I increasingly need to set on this board.
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 03:46 pm:   

Gary: I should point out that Ash-Tree Press and ALL HALLOWS are completely separate: the latter is not published by the former. I did post a message concerning the current state of AH on this board not long ago; if you require further clarification, please e-mail me privately.

As for Ex Occidente: perhaps I should not have said anything in a public forum, but I was under the impression I had the same right to free speech as anyone else. Clearly the proprietor of EO thinks differently, to judge by the exceedingly insulting and offensive, not to mention lengthy, e-mail which I received from him yesterday. Life is far too short to deal with people like that, so I have severed my (albeit limited) ties with the press, and won't be discussing EO any further.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 04:15 pm:   

Fair enough, Barbara. My issue was that, as you did with me once, you tend to wade into other presses without really acknowledging the similar difficulties your own has experienced. The reasons you gave for AH's delay were good ones. Maybe other presses struggle in a similar way, though. You seem unforgiving of them, however, which is surprising since you have that kind of personal insight into the problems which can arise.
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 04:58 pm:   

ALL HALLOWS is not a press, Gary, in quite the same way as Ash-Tree or Tartarus or others. I have explained the situation as regards ALL HALLOWS, and will say once again that it is not to be conflated with Ash-Tree Press. And it is not that I am unforgiving of other presses - heaven knows, I know the difficulty inherent in publishing anything - but can at least state that I've been open as regards the situation with ALL HALLOWS.

As far as Ash-Tree goes: in fifteen years there has been the odd hiccup, but we have consistently honoured our commitments to writers, customers, and dealers; on the few occasions when we could not, we have explained the situation, or otherwise dealt with it. I had thought that I was within my rights to raise a legitimate point, but since the response has been ad hominem attacks, rather than a discussion of the point raised, I was clearly in error.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 05:06 pm:   

>>>ALL HALLOWS is not a press, Gary, in quite the same way as Ash-Tree or Tartarus or others

Sorry, I just don't see what difference it makes. I paid my money to you for a product. I haven't got what I paid for.

You've made the same complaint about Ex Occidente.

It's a legitimate point, isn't it? Or am I in error?
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 05:13 pm:   

Yes, it is a legitimate point, Gary. The difference, as I see it, is that I have openly explained the situation as regards ALL HALLOWS, and promised that subscribers will receive the issues owed them, not responded with lies and/or evasions. Anyone who is unhappy with the situation may request, and receive, a full refund of any money owed.

And now, if it's acceptable, I would like to put this matter to rest, at least publicly. If you have further questions or points, please contact me privately.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.0.114.254
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 05:15 pm:   

Fine. Case closed.
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Skunsworth (Skunsworth)
Username: Skunsworth

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 78.149.54.191
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 06:08 pm:   

The news for EO just gets worse: the Haunted Histories anthology (which was one of the most exciting books due to come out from them for me, along with Mr D's collection) has now been pulled as well.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 10:42 pm:   

Barbara, was the email Mr Ghetu sent you in response to your posting on this board?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.5.1.44
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 04:09 am:   

50 years from now we must return to see who has won. The winner of the duel has won the dispute....

Sorry, Rhys: I've just been back from 50 years hence, and, well - Des wins.

No, no - there is no objection, no explanation necessary or required - it just is. Accept it. It'll be okay.

As a consolation, you're fondly remembered for something involving youtube and a toaster and a small toy poodle, but it's all gone fuzzy now.
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 06:40 am:   

Yes, Ramsey, it was in response to the posting here. Apart from the odd screed from a certain quarter, I've never received so offensive and insulting (not only to me, but to several writers whom I also consider good friends) a message.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.156.233.165
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 09:16 am:   

'This seems to be an example I increasingly need to set on this board'
Sorry, Ramsey.
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Skunsworth (Skunsworth)
Username: Skunsworth

Registered: 05-2009
Posted From: 78.149.54.191
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 10:44 am:   

Dan's offensive email to me was in relation to my posting here. Well, I say offensive, it was actually so ridiculous and preposterous that I started to laugh - I read the message via my phone whilst buying CDs, and the guy serving me in the shop thought I was having some kind of fit, I was laughing so hard.

S
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 11:28 am:   

Well, since it was apparently my posting of 11 February on this thread that started all the trouble, perhaps the sender of these emails would like to favour me with one. My contact details are on the home page of this site.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 12:31 pm:   

> Can't the artistic individuality be achieved without the other requirements? To be honest, it sounds like a sad case to me - the kind of person who boasts of not having friends as if it's an achievement to be admired.

Well, boasting of not having friends would be an act of strange perversity even by my standards! If that's how it came over, I'm an idiot.

Clearly people should be allowed to have friends in the business: it's none of my business, in fact. But I do worry about such issues as favouritism and nepotism when it comes to friendships in the writing world. "It happens in every industry; get over it and shut up!" is the standard response to this. I guess that's right.

To anyone I have offended on this board, I offer my apologies. I also apologise for being a bad guest. I still urge you to try reading some Calvino, Junger or Bulgakov, however!

Try Calvino's *Cosmicomics* rather than *If on a Winter's Night...*, or maybe Stanislaw Lem's *The Cyberiad*.

Regards and my apologies again!
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 12:38 pm:   

And a quote from Nietzsche:

"We often contradict an opinion, while actually it is only the tone with which it was advanced that we find disagreeable."

I believe this is true more than 90% of the time.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.230.177
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 01:34 pm:   

One of the fundamental laws of communication. Every communication has a content and relationship aspect such that the latter classifies the former (Watzlawick). In other words: when we say something to someone the relationship we have with that person will transform the interpretation of the content.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 01:51 pm:   

And if there is no prior relationship?
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.230.177
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 02:45 pm:   

The idea is that there is always some form of relationship. If the other individual is a complete stranger then whatever it is you're saying is going to be interpreted accordingly, i.e. as the utterance of another complete stranger. The other might attach less or no credence at all to what you're saying simply because he doesn't know you [relationship] - even if what you're saying is of vital importance to him [content]. Watzlawick's first law holds that there is no such thing as non-communication: we cannot not communicate.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.27.30.20
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 02:52 pm:   

Depends how long you've been married.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 03:27 pm:   

"we cannot *not* communicate."
"Depends how long you've been married."


"Well, since it was apparently my posting of 11 February on this thread that started all the trouble, perhaps the sender of these emails would like to favour me with one. My contact details are on the home page of this site."

Ramsey - your posting was a helpful, and perfectly legitimate response to my question. I had no idea my question would set off these kinds of reactions - I just wish I hadn't asked it now!

Perhaps I should point out to anyone outside the board reading this - my question was posed purely as a book-buyer. I'm not a writer, nor a "rival" publisher. I have no vested interest in seeing any small press fold. Indeed, I love the small presses. Without them, I wouldn't have as many fantastic books to read. I really do hope EO can put their house in order and continue publishing great books (which they then deliver to satisfied customers).

Actually, this discussion has made me think with my "business management consultant" hat on. It would be interesting (from that point of view) to look at why small presses fold. Then, we could see what they need to do better in order to keep going. Customer satisfaction is certainly a key issue. With three types of customer - the individual book-buyer, the dealer and the writer themselves - there's quite a lot for the small press publisher to consider there in keeping everyone happy. Hmmmm, any small press publishers out there want to hire a cheap and cheerful freelance business management consultant to identify areas of possible concern and how to rectify them?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.250.6
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 04:01 pm:   

I'd like to wish this thread a Happy Anniversary.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.230.177
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 04:39 pm:   

Threads like these ought to be preserved for posterity
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 05:41 pm:   

And I've just realised that my comment about business management consultancy will probably make me the most hated person on this board. Can I please retract that statement? I'm a nice person really.
* runs off and cries *

Seriously, it's actually got me quite excited at the thought of doing some research into small presses as business ventures. Boy, am I a sad person!
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Stephen Theaker (Stephen_theaker)
Username: Stephen_theaker

Registered: 12-2009
Posted From: 62.30.117.235
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 06:12 pm:   

From what I've seen, Caroline, it's the taking money in advance from customers that causes problems. Most writers seem pretty sanguine about the way publishers will let them down (as indeed you were when I didn't have Pantechnicon out on time!), but when money's taken from customers and booksellers it becomes a bit more troublesome.
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.213.27.210
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 08:41 pm:   

I've had a sensible reply to an email from Dan. I requested an alternative title in exchange for Steve Duffy's collection (that I'd preordered). He's offered TWO books as compensation - one of my choice and one of his choice. I don't think you can get fairer than that.

I also queried Mark Samuels' collection (that I also preordered but have yet to receive) and was told it had been delayed by Mark's request, in order to include some extra content, but should be available for WHC in March.

The only titles I'd already received (Joel Lane's and Reggie Oliver's collections) had been packaged well and arrived on time.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 82.38.75.85
Posted on Sunday, February 14, 2010 - 10:07 pm:   

>>(as indeed you were when I didn't have Pantechnicon out on time!)<<

You haven't seen that voodoo doll I've created of you yet though, have you Stephen? There, did you feel that pin go in. And there, there's another ..
*evil chuckle*
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 01:13 pm:   

"Try Calvino's *Cosmicomics* rather than *If on a Winter's Night...*, or maybe Stanislaw Lem's *The Cyberiad*."

Indeed! And Invisible Cities, do you think? Of Lem I've only read Solaris, which I liked.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 01:33 pm:   

Oh man! Please read The Cyberiad... If you do, I'll do something in return (choose something) but I know you'll LOVE it.

Well, you might not, I suppose, but if you liked Solaris I'm confident you will. Ideas, ideas, ideas every page: funny and sad at the same time. Superficially uninvolved with this world and modern life and yet profoundly engaged with it at a much deeper level...
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 01:34 pm:   

Er, in other words I recommend it.
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.78.35.185
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 01:43 pm:   

Yes, "The Cyberiad" is seriously good. Actually everything I read by Lem is absolutely marvelous.

I also loved Invisible Cities. It has such a poetic atmosphere, a book like no others. A masterpiece.

Meanwhile I was able to change my EO preorder of Duffy's book for the Bulgakov; a book that interested me but since I had a number of other expenses of late I didn't order it. I am curious about it and I do think that this series of homages to interesting middle-European writers is a good idea. If I understood it well, eventually there will also be a Leo Perutz homage, which could be very interesting - I can recommend everyone here to for example try his "The Swedish Cavalier" - it's wonderful and unbelievably tragic.

I believe that after the Bulgakov book the next one to be released is the Bell collection and then the Samuels. Both seem more than interesting.
Personally I don't mind so much that these take longer to appear than originally expected - that's something that often happens in small press; but I do think (and suggested recently to Dan) that it's better to clearly communicate new expected dates.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 01:52 pm:   

I'm curious about the Leo Perutz tribute book, as I know almost nothing about that writer (other than that Borges was a big fan; which is a very good recommendation in itself).

Of all the tribute volumes that Ex Occidente are planning to issue, the ones that excite me the most are the Bulgakov, the Junger and the Buzzati.

As for single-author collections: let me rave again about Mark Valentine's The Night Farers; and let me also rave equally feverishly about Quentin S. Crisp. Indeed, here's a link again to my blog, where I wrote about him (sorry for repeating this, but it sort of got lost in the recent ructions, and you don't have to look at it, of course!)
http://rhysaurus.blogspot.com/2010/02/mystical-nihilism-flavour.html
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.78.35.185
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 02:11 pm:   

Yes, the Valentine and Crisp books are amongst the very best collections that appeared last year.
FYI, if you're interested I made a concise review on YouTube about The Nightfarers, and I plan to do the same about Quentin's book (still have to read one or two stories first).
Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMvKjlve028

btw isn't Buzzati the writer of that story of a guy who lives a solitary existence as a sentry in a remote fortress? It's still on my to read pile, and it did look amazingly well written.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 02:17 pm:   

Yes, The Tartar Steppe -- it's partly a satire against Mussolini's Italy (amongst many other things).

Thanks for the YouTube link. Sterling work!
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 02:17 pm:   

>>btw isn't Buzzati the writer of that story of a guy who lives a solitary existence as a sentry in a remote fortress? It's still on my to read pile, and it did look amazingly well written.<<

Yes, 'The Tartar Steppe'. Wonderful novel. It's all i've read of him but i keep meaning to get hold of some of his short stories.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 02:22 pm:   

One of his short stories about a woman falling off a tall building has always stayed with me, and I don't even remember its title! On the way down she gets to (very briefly) interact with all the inhabitants of each level.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.47.10.77
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 02:36 pm:   

Thanks Tom! Looking forward to the YouTube Quentin Crisp book review, too.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.47.10.77
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 02:42 pm:   

'Yes, The Tartar Steppe -- it's partly a satire against Mussolini's Italy (amongst many other things).'

and...

'One of his short stories about a woman falling off a tall building has always stayed with me, and I don't even remember its title! On the way down she gets to (very briefly) interact with all the inhabitants of each level.

Both sound really interesting.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 - 03:53 pm:   

'Oh man! Please read The Cyberiad... If you do, I'll do something in return (choose something) but I know you'll LOVE it.'

You're on!
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 - 11:37 am:   

I know longer see any reference to Peter Bell's collection on the EO site.

That's a pity, as I was looking forward to trying to get hold of a copy.

Anyone know if this is just a glitch, or if it's due to appear elsewhere?
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Tom_alaerts (Tom_alaerts)
Username: Tom_alaerts

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.78.35.185
Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 - 03:40 pm:   

> I know longer see any reference to Peter Bell's collection on the EO site.

> That's a pity, as I was looking forward to trying to get hold of a copy.

Yes it's a pity, isn't it.
In the All Hallows forum Christopher Roden mentioned that Ash Tree will publish it later this year.

I'm not yet sure if I'll ask Dan for a refund on this title or change to a different preorder.

If there is a positive side to all this, then it is that EO's portfolio becomes over time more focused on middle-European writers and their literary sensibilities, meaning they'll have a clear and rather special position in the market.
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 - 04:48 pm:   

Thanks for drawing my attention to that, Tom.

At least we'll see the book in some form.
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.190.19
Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2010 - 05:09 pm:   

Peter Bell's collection THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD will indeed be published by Ash-Tree later this year. Peter's doing some light editing on the stories as we speak, and there'll likely be an additional story that wasn't included in the book's previous incarnation.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, March 05, 2010 - 12:36 pm:   

> If there is a positive side to all this, then it is that EO's portfolio becomes over time more focused on middle-European writers and their literary sensibilities, meaning they'll have a clear and rather special position in the market.

That's what I've always wanted: a press specialising in exactly that area of literature. I know that Daedalus were good for that, but I came to them late for some reason and missed out on the 90s buzz surrounding them.
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.210.209.136
Posted on Friday, March 12, 2010 - 11:43 pm:   

Got my package from EO today. I'd originally preordered Steve Duffy's collection (which wasn't to be). Instead I got both Mark Valentine's 'The Nightfarers' and 'The Horrifying Presence and other Tales' by Jean Ray. Much as I'm disappointed I couldn't get Mr Duffy's book - although I'll be buying the forthcoming ones he has due out - I'm pleased with what I got in its place.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 12:21 pm:   

The Nightfarers is truly an excellent book, and Mark Valentine is a superb writer!
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 188.147.215.164
Posted on Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 12:34 pm:   

Rhys - with reference to BFS forum, promoting the authors, etc, do you really write 400/500 words daily? It seems so little compared to the vast amount of books you've written. Maybe you write in big letters, fill up all those pages quite easily then (;
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 01:12 pm:   

Big letters... It's a good suggestion, Frank!

But yep, my average since August 1989 (the date of my first surviving short story) is 350 words every day. But this really is the average, so it's unlikely that I've ever written exactly 350 words in any one day.

In fact I'll have days when I write nothing and then other days when I'll write 2000 or 3000 words (almost never more than that).

It soon mounts up, believe me!

Write a page of fiction every day (just one page) and in 20 years you'll have more than 7000 pages of fiction. That's double the length of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

It's the opposite of a War of Attrition -- it's a War of Accumulation!
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Clive (Clive)
Username: Clive

Registered: 10-2009
Posted From: 81.104.165.168
Posted on Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 01:59 pm:   

I received Cinnabar's Gnosis recently as well and it certainly lives up to expectation. Beautifully produced and fascinating. I'm taking my time with it.

'The Nightfarers', along with 'All God's Angels Beware', are next on my list. I'm also intrigued and excited by the upcoming 'An Emporium of Automata' by D.P. Watt who i don't think i'd read before his Pulvis Lunaris in Cinnabars' Gnosis which was fantastic. The 15 page preview on the EO site certainly whets my appetite just by story title alone!
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.169.219.174
Posted on Wednesday, November 03, 2010 - 03:01 pm:   

A new book I'm real-time reviewing. You'll all love it, I'm sure!
An Emporium of Automata by D.P. Watt (Ex Occidente Press 2010)
http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/an-emporium-of-automata-by-d-p-wa tt/
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.157.25.58
Posted on Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - 01:17 pm:   

Just received two gorgeous-looking purchases:
THE SATYR by Stephen J Clark
OBLIVION'S POPPY by Colin Insole
I intend to real-time review these in due course.
des
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.157.25.58
Posted on Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - 04:23 pm:   

I note Chris B's facebook has completely vanished. I hope he's OK, as his recent posts seemed to be from inside hospital where I got the impression he has been quite seriously ill. All the best to him from friends and foes alike, I hope, should he be reading this. He may read this as his name has appeared quite a lot on this thread....
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 91.110.242.55
Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - 09:12 am:   

Des, I'll join with you in wishing Chris better health and a swift recovery.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - 09:47 am:   

I won't.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.68
Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - 10:05 am:   

I second Des and Joel.
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Johnny_mains (Johnny_mains)
Username: Johnny_mains

Registered: 04-2010
Posted From: 86.31.118.252
Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - 11:18 am:   

I'm speaking to Chris daily at the moment, he is going through a very rough time in hospital, though he does feel optimistic for the future.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.140.190.159
Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - 02:58 pm:   

Chris was the first person I encountered on the net to be really rude and hurtful to me. Ah, memories!
But God, we mustn't harbour grudges. It's bad for everyone. Wish him well for me Johnny.
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Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch)
Username: Mark_lynch

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.171.129.72
Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - 04:33 pm:   

Yup. Best of health to CB.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.179.37.237
Posted on Sunday, November 28, 2010 - 07:20 pm:   

Ordered a book from Ex Occidente on 25th September.

No sign of it. Emailed Dan about it last week. Not a word.
Great.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.179.37.237
Posted on Sunday, November 28, 2010 - 08:14 pm:   

...now hopefully sorted.
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.180.184
Posted on Sunday, November 28, 2010 - 08:24 pm:   

Good thing I don't have a cynical bone in my body, otherwise I'd be noting the coincidence of you not hearing anything about the matter, and then it getting sorted within an hour of you posting something here about it.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.179.37.237
Posted on Sunday, November 28, 2010 - 08:26 pm:   

I emailed this afternoon again mentioning my concerns and he's now emailed me back to say he'll sort in a day or two. Here's hoping...
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 80.4.12.3
Posted on Monday, November 29, 2010 - 11:04 am:   

> Good thing I don't have a cynical bone in my body, otherwise I'd be noting the coincidence of you not hearing anything about the matter, and then it getting sorted within an hour of you posting something here about it.

Would you prefer it if it wasn't sorted, Barbara? That seems a bit... odd.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 80.4.12.3
Posted on Monday, November 29, 2010 - 11:06 am:   

If I had a cynical bone in my body I would have written "tactical" instead of "odd".
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Gcw (Gcw)
Username: Gcw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.155.172.153
Posted on Monday, November 29, 2010 - 11:35 am:   

I probably have more reason to hate Chris Barker than anyone on this board. I don't hate him though, I just don't want him involved in my life.

I know he has a young family, I hope whatever is wrong with him he gets well soon.

gcw
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Barbara Roden (Nebuly)
Username: Nebuly

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 216.232.180.184
Posted on Monday, November 29, 2010 - 06:23 pm:   

Of course I'm pleased it's apparently been sorted, Rhys. Honestly, what sort of person do you think I am? Oh, hang on, you think I'm the sort of person who posts derogatory comments anonymously in a forum I've never been a member of. Okay, strike that second sentence.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - 11:24 am:   

Great! I'm very glad you are pleased it has been sorted, Barbara. So let's drink a toast, you and I, to Ex Occidente, a fine publisher of weird progressive European literature! Ready? Salut!
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.169.221.108
Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 - 02:43 pm:   

Just received my purchases MAD MATINEE in BAKU by Albert Power
and THE COANDA EFFECT by Rhys Hughes

Real splendid-looking books.

Thanks to the Essex postman who struggled through drifting snow to hand me this
big parcel from Romania.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.169.221.108
Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 - 04:58 pm:   

Now started a RTR of the above Rhys Hughes book:
http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/the-coanda-effect-by-rhys-hughes/
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, December 03, 2010 - 11:22 am:   

Much obliged, Des!
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 81.155.31.11
Posted on Friday, February 11, 2011 - 11:50 am:   

Ex Occidente Press seems now to be changing its business plan and will be continuing beyond April 2011. This is good news for lovers of the books themselves.

“It is pleasing to many people that you are here seeming to extend the lifetime of your publishing company beyond April and I hope that you manage to squeeze in a few more than you expected …ad infinitum, till the very last balcony falls.”
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 11, 2011 - 12:03 pm:   

Might as well ask Dan if he'd be interested in taking back your collection then, Des.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 81.155.31.11
Posted on Friday, February 11, 2011 - 12:10 pm:   

No, I don't think that would be advisable for either party. Or for the still finite structural life of any balcony. But thanks for the thought. :-)
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, February 11, 2011 - 12:14 pm:   

Well, I think you should.
Just my view, though...
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 81.131.174.204
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2011 - 05:38 pm:   

Just received this 'book' I've purchased, as written by Mark Valentine. THE PEACOCK ESCRITOIRE.
I make no other comment (of liking or disliking) - so far - (and these are
preliminary impressions without reading anything inside) - other than describing
that it is designed like a plush decorated sizeable purple escritoire which
folds open to reveal a luxury book of stories (?) in an enlarged version of the
previous Passport Levant formats on one side of the escritoire and, on the other
side, a bundle of loose leaves (like luxury letter paper?) which I have not yet
unribboned but I can see they contain text and pictures. There is a seemingly
real peacock feather decking this bundle.
des
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.253.77
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2011 - 05:45 pm:   

Madness.

I've stopped buying these silly expensive limited editions. It's either paperback or Kindle. Apart from Ramsey's books, which I'll always get in hardcover.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 81.131.174.204
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2011 - 05:51 pm:   

Madness or not, I keep my powder dry. :-)
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.23.87.170
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 10:30 am:   

I like sensibly priced HCs with no thrills. Just a nice book and an autograph and a small print run. Eminently, quietly collectable. That's why I publish that way.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 11:19 am:   

> I like sensibly priced HCs with no thrills.

I like the actress in the film Ondine, which I watched last night. Can't remember her name. I don't mean the aggressive Irish wife, but the one who pretends to be a magical seal.

I also like cashew syllabub.

I also like cotton shirts.

Yetis are funny. I like them too.

Anyone else like any other things??
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.23.87.170
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 12:21 pm:   

I like punching Welshmen right up the bracket.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 12:36 pm:   

I don't like that.
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.23.87.170
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 12:41 pm:   

It's my hobby. :-)
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 81.131.174.204
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 01:09 pm:   

I like punching Welshmen right up the bracket.
================

Good job I'm only half-Welsh, then. :-)
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Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.209.217
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 01:50 pm:   

And me.
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Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 80.4.12.3
Posted on Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 06:53 pm:   

Better to be punched in the bracket than in the colon.

I've just thought of something else I like:

* virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar salad dressing

I'll add more things that I like as I remember them...
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 81.153.252.217
Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2011 - 02:53 pm:   

I've just received my purchased copies of:

The Exorcist's Travelogue by George Berguno
Old Albert - An Epilogue by Brian J. Showers
Allurements of Cabochon by John Gale
The Mauve Embellishments by Charles Schneider
The Bestiary of Communion by Stephen J. Clark
The 'Star' Ushak by Louis Marvick

What a trove!
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 81.154.251.221
Posted on Friday, March 09, 2012 - 10:00 am:   

I woke during the night with a sudden revelation. I recorded it on my real-time review of SECRET EUROPE at the point I had reached, i.e. with 'Cabaret Zoltaire' by Mark Valentine. Whether or not this is an intentional literary trick, it’s a literary trick that will go down in history!
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 81.154.251.231
Posted on Thursday, April 05, 2012 - 09:00 pm:   

New competition (showing Dan Ghetu's photograph): http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/our-last-balcony-dan-ghetu-photog raph/
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.148.175.188
Posted on Monday, June 11, 2012 - 08:38 pm:   

I received a beautiful looking anthology book today from Ex Occidente Press: THIS HERMETIC LEGISLATURE. It has stories written by George Berguño, Rhys Hughes, Karim Ghahwagi, Stephen J. Clark, Joel Lane, Mark Valentine, Oliver Smith, John Howard, Charles Schneider, D.P. Watt, Dominy Clements, Adam S. Cantwell, Douglas Thompson, Colin Insole, Mark Samuels, Reggie Oliver, Anna Taborska, Michael Cisco, R.B. Russell.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.148.175.188
Posted on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 - 09:00 am:   

I note that the two George Berguño Ex Occidente Books have been given e-versions.

See George's own comments appended to my two RTRs:

http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/%e2%80%98the-sons-of-ishmael-by-g eorge-berguno/

http://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/%e2%80%98the-exorcists-travelogue %e2%80%99-by-george-berguno/
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.148.23.94
Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2012 - 03:52 pm:   

I received a beautiful looking anthology book today from Ex Occidente Press: THIS HERMETIC LEGISLATURE.
------------------------
The stories in this book by RCMBers Joel and Karim are true classics.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 178.116.61.103
Posted on Saturday, June 16, 2012 - 07:27 pm:   

I'm curious as to how much they got paid.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 109.153.8.63
Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 06:10 pm:   

A telling post above from Joel linking to some Tennyson lines:
http://www.knibbworld.com/campbelldiscuss/messages/1/1582.html#POST24164
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.233.40
Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 07:18 pm:   

That's a wonderful poem, Des. Profound and deeply touching. Thanks for drawing my attention to it.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.177.161.221
Posted on Thursday, March 27, 2014 - 09:28 am:   

Yes, I agree, Stevie.
BTW, having reread this thread, it's an amazing discussion!
Here is my current growing list of all Ex Occidente books: http://admtoah.wordpress.com/other-ex-occidente-zagava-books/

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