Book Moon Please Reduce Our Inventory 1-day Flash Sale!

Sat 31 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

1-day flash sale


CSA = Crazy-Sexy Agriculture

Fri 30 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Just added LCRW Cooking Columnist Nicole Kimberling’s fifth column for LCRW which was originally published in LCRW 31:

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 31 coverI think whoever invented the idea of paying a local farmer for a whole season of vegetables in advance, must have been some sort of subversive genius. . . .

[read on]

 


Crazy-Sexy Agriculture = CSA

Thu 29 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Free Stuff to Read, , , | Posted by: Gavin

This is LCRW Cooking Columnist Nicole Kimberling’s fifth column for LCRW and was originally published in LCRW 31. 

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 31 coverI think whoever invented the idea of paying a local farmer for a whole season of vegetables in advance, must have been some sort of subversive genius.

The weekly delivery of the CSA (community supported agriculture) box flies in the face of modern thinking about choice—which is that you should have it, always. Contemporary cooks are accustomed to asking the question, “What would I like to make?” and then expecting to be able to go and realize their dreams of out-of-season produce from far-flung lands at any major supermarket. The CSA puts food in front of you and says, “This is dinner. Make the most of it.” Read more


Starred Review for Lost Places!

Wed 21 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

We’re sending out review copies of Sarah Pinsker’s collection, Lost Places, coming in March, and now we get to share the good news that it has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly!

PW review of Lost Places


The 2022 I Knew

Thu 15 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , , , | Posted by: Gavin

This is about my own year, not the press’s. 2022 was . . . constrained. I look at my steps recorded on my phone — and the watch I got this year to assuage worries about my heart rate — and from the ups and downs and the ever-so-slight rising line I think 2023 will be more of the same. It is hard to think of another year like this but I’ll be grateful if I improve. My resting heart rate is about 80. My standing heart rate is a joke, say 105.

I still spend most of my days lying down. I have learned resting and pacing, although truthfully I have learned it any number of times this year. I get up and I feel fine, I forget I am sick, I start to walk at my normal pace, I am reminded bodily that I am a new slower person. I have tried many supplements: I’m a skeptic but if a friend says a tincture or pill helped them, or I read some long covid study, I’ll try it. I had an MRI (clear!), a CT scan (yes, I have an odd bod but mostly ok and not the cause of this), and I even had an EMG test, needles stuck in me, woah, which was all clear. Now I hope to get a microclot blood test but that may take some months.

When, after an hour or so, I start to lose focus on my laptop, I play Asphalt 8+ on my phone or on the TV. I haven’t played videogames in years and this game is both boring and lightly exciting and sometimes literally circular. It passes time in which I can’t think about all the things I either have to do our would like to do. I have watched everything on TV and finished twitter. I did go start a Mastodon account for me and work — I think this will get you there.

I’d like to write both more and less here. I’ve gone away and come back to this a couple of times already today so maybe this is enough. I’ll be back in 3 months for another update.

In my teenage years I wasn’t at all sure adulthood would be worth the wait and while this year has been a somewhat similar very slow dragging out of time while waiting for things to improve I am grateful to my family for their patience and love and to friends near and far who have reached out and helped support us all during this.

There are so many, many crappy people and things and yet there are a lot of good people out there doing mitzvahs for others that are never publicized. I’m getting old and sometimes it’s all Vonnegut all the time in my head, just be kind, why don’t you.

 

 


Signed copies of White Cat, Black Dog

Mon 5 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal.| Posted by: Gavin

Preorder your signed or personalized copy of White Cat, Black Dog, Kelly Link’s forthcoming collection of seven contemporary fairy tales illustrated by Shaun Tan.

Every pre-order placed by publication day — March 28, 2023 — will ship with a signed, limited edition not-for-sale specially made chapbook of a story from the book. Chapbooks will be added randomly to the packages but if you order more than one copy you won’t receive 2 copies of the same chapbook.

Get more of Kelly’s books here.


Holiday shipping 2022

Thu 1 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , , | Posted by: Gavin

Here’s my annual reminder that holiday mail dates are coming up fast. Our office will be closed as usual from December 21 – January 2, 2023. (Of course, Weightless is always open.)

Media mail shipping is free. However, as per our usual warnings, the USPS doesn’t even give a last mailing date for media mail packages as they’re the last ones put on a truck. If the truck’s full, the media mail packages are put aside for the next one. And so on. If it’s really busy, those packages may arrive after the holidays. If you don’t care, yay! If you want to guarantee pre-holiday arrival, please choose Priority Mail.

Here are the last order dates for Small Beer Press—which are not the same as everyone else, see note about the office being closed above.

USPS Retail Ground® Service Dec. 17
First-Class Mail® Service Dec. 17
Priority Mail® Service Dec. 19
Priority Mail Express® Service2 Dec. 21

Happy holidays! Hope you get to rest and read a good book or two.