New Titles Released – Dabbling With Diabelli, La Ronde and The Neo-Decadent Cookbook.

Eibonvale has recently released three new titles, which are now available to order in both hardcover and paperback.

Dabbling With Diabelli by D F Lewis

Originally published in paperback with an extremely limited release, this book collects thirty of D F Lewis’s favourite short stories, all demonstrating his unique style at the intersection of genre, literature and outsider art.  Click here for more info: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/books/books_diabelli.htm

 

La Ronde by Colin Fisher

The latest book in the Eibonvale Chapbook Line.  There are few rivalries bitterer than that of siblings, and few more ferocious than that of art.

Sébastien and Gabrielle Laronde are the most exquisite expression of fin de siècle Avignon. Artists without compare, they exist in eternal competition vying for the supreme accolade – not the acclaim of their peers, but to be found worthy of their family and its mysterious legacy.

In prose as sumptuous and rich as any of the Laronde sculptures and paintings, the twins’ simmering resentments weave a sensuous spell about the Vaucluse artworld. Drawn into their orbit, a new muse brings Sébastien the promise of perfection; his prize lies within the shining stone, but whose craft can be its equal?

Click here for more info: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/chapbooks/Chap14_LaRonde.htm

The Neo-Decadent Cookbook edited by Brendan Connell and Justin Isis

A new anthology containing stories by Ross Scott-Buccleuch, David Rix, Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze, Jason Rolfe, Daniel Corrick, Brendan Connell, Colby Smith, Jessica Sequeira, Justin Isis, Quentin S. Crisp, Damian Murphy, Douglas Thompson, Ursula Pflug and Lawrence Burton.

Have you ever sautéed geometrical sex or eaten fate from the breasts of Minerva? Adjust your palate to the times with the Neo-Decadent Cookbook, the ONLY approved guide to the preparation of metaphysical concepts and other abstractions, alongside recipes likely to cause lasting changes to your internal organs. Editors Brendan Connell and Justin Isis have assembled a diverse list of contributors from around the world, each with their own stylistically novel take on culinary apotheosis. Fragments of fiction, poetry and instructional material will guide you towards a suitably delectable climax. TRUE UNDERSTANDING AND SCIENCE EXPLODE!

This book is currently available for pre-order and copies will be dispatched as soon as I have seen a physical proof copy.  Click here for more info: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/books/books_neo-decadent.htm

A Look at Curious Births to Light the Universe

Here is a look at the cover of Brendan Connell’s chapbook Curious Births to Light the Universe. This style of art is very different to the usual Eibonvale covers, but one that I really enjoy doing and one that I hope rather lends itself to chapbooks.  I hope there will be more of these.

Just to reiterate, there will be only 50 copies of this 44 page book of microfictions and they will only be available as a free gift alongside Hardcover preorders of his collection Pleasant Tales, or as a special bundle with the paperback. Visit the Eibonvale Press website for more info and to get copies while they last.  Way over half of them have already sold, so if you want a copy of this, don’t delay too much longer!

Awakening from Sleep – New Titles and Preorders

Eibonvale Press has been quiet lately while I treated myself to some much needed R&R – but now it is starting to wake up from it’s slumbers and there is new news in the air!

Pleasant Tales by Brendan Connell

I am happy to present a new collection by a familiar face here at Eibonvale press – Brendan Connell. Pleasant Tales – a follow-up to his earlier Unpleasant Tales (one of Eibonvale’s most successful titles) – is now available to preorder, complete with one of our special offers to get things going. The author has provided an exclusive chapbook entitled Curious Births to Light the Universe, limited to just 50 copies. Buy a hardcover of Pleasant Tales and you will get the chapbook for free while it lasts; we have also prepared a bundle deal with the paperback. You can find full information on the Eibonvale website (link below). I expect this to be a fairly brisk seller (some have already gone before I could even announce it!), so I would suggest that you head on over and grab a copy!

http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/bo…/books_pleasant_tales.htm

 

Human Maps by Andrew Hook

Just a reminder that our latest release, Andrew Hook’s collection Human Maps is also available to order here: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/books/books_humanmaps.htm

Forthcoming Titles

And lastly a quick announcement of some future projects. I am in the process of updating the website (oh boy did it need it!) – including the ‘forthcoming’ section. So it is now a matter of public knowledge that more books are on the way. No going to sleep again now!

We have a new collection by Rosanne Rabinowitz, which will be released near the end of this year. And that will be followed by another familiar face – Douglas Thompson and his remarkable novel Barking Circus. Watch this space for info on these!

In addition, news that might be of interest to writers will be following shortly!

 

Miss Homicide plays again…

Finland’s finest Sami Airola, has reviewed Brendan Connell’s Miss Homicide Plays The Flute in glowing terms, over at his Rising Shadow website. Sami writes:

“…In my opinion Miss Homicide Plays the Flute is a superb feast of extraordinary storytelling, seductive decadence and experimental strangeness. It’s a gorgeous combination of different elements and nuances that melt together and produce a beautiful and seducing symphony of sublime pleasures and perversions to readers who appreciate reading something out of the ordinary. (By the way, if you truly want to enjoy the excellence of this novel, pour yourself a glass of wine, put a CD of classical music to your CD player and press play, sit in a comfortable chair, lean back and let yourself be seduced by the story.)

If you appreciate quality and good prose and read literary novels, do yourself a favour and read Miss Homicide Plays the Flute immediately. It’s a unique novel about the art of assassination and poisoning, musical instruments and history (Brendan Connell stirs these elements into a perfect mix of strange beauty and irresistable elegance). If you like thrillers, enjoy classical music, love weird stories and are fond of decandence, you won’t be disappointed by Miss Homicide Plays the Flute, because it offers all of these things and much more in an unforgettably weird package. It’s a literary treasure that awaits to be discovered by as many readers as possible.

Highly recommended!”

Our warm thanks to Sami, as to all our other reviewers and critics for taking the time to offer perspectives on our titles.

Some New Titles Coming Soon from Eibonvale Press

In spite of the on-going project to illustrate Tallest Stories, which has almost brought the press to a stand-still, there have been some new projects trickling in – waiting for me to turn my attention to them at that great moment when Tallest Stories is finally unleashed upon the world.  Some of these projects could be quite quick and some are already underway in the preliminary stages.  However, I trust that the big old echoing world out there will forgive me for keeping Tallest Stories as my priority for the moment!

Defeated Dogs – Quentin Crisp

I have wanted to publish something by Quentin ever since the press first launched.  We were both in the first Strange Tales anthology from Tartarus Press in 2001 and I remember his Cousin X vividly as one of the best stories in the book.  Here we present a retrospective collection and the stories presented here range from elegant philosophical improvisations to superbly crafted classic horror.

Miss Homicide Plays the Flute – Brendan Connell

Unpleasant Tales was one of our most popular titles, so we are very pleased to be working on a new short novel from the same author.  This is a bizarre and elegant mix of crime novel and the author’s signature razor-sharp modernist classicism (if that makes any sense?).  If everything goes according to plan, this will be Eibonvale’s first ever high-quality limited edition.

The Planet Suite – Allen Ashley

Allen is a British author with an eye for sharp and almost satirical literary sci-fi and a real ability to capture both the crazy old world of Britain and the simple humanity that is universal.  We have worked with him before as both an author (Once and Future Cities) and editor (Where Are We Going?), and now we will be producing a new expanded edition (and first hardcover edition) of his first novel.  Filled with the lively energy that often accompanies first novels, this is an extraordinary literary improvisation on the themes of science fiction, the human condition – and Holst’s most famous composition.

An Emporium of Automata – D. P. Watt

This is another reprint – a lightly expanded edition of the now OOP collection originally published by Ex Occidente Press.  These are weird tales with a massive dash of the historical – and the result has a nice blend of a historian’s eye for detail and a masterful sense of passion and phantasmagoria.

Songs for the Lost – Alexander Zelenyj

Experiments at 3 Billion A.M. is one of my personal favourite books in the Eibonvale catalogue.  Alex Zelenyj writes with a haunting and haunted style that is simultaneously deeply rooted in classic horror / SF themes and also moving beyond them into something touching and literary, with an emotion and humanity that both genres all-too-often fail to reach.  Songs for the Lost will be a new collection of stories, slimmer and more concise than the massive Experiments, all revolving around the wispy concept of music.

Solar Bridge reviews Unpleasant Tales

The review is here, and says in part:

“As it is, the writing in these stories is such that, rather than simply being shocking, or gory, there is a real sense depth to the characters and the situations. Though, often, you may be unnerved by the behaviour of one or another of the characters – and much of it is shocking –  it is believable and consistent with what you have already read. Whilst many of these stories are visceral, nothing that transpires feels arbitrary or cheap.”

Unpleasant Tales Reviews

A couple of reviews of Unpleasant Tales have come in.

Seregil of Rhiminee gives a very positive review at Risingshadow.net, from which I have extracted the following quote:

“What I like most about Brendan Connell is that he’s able to write about different kind of obsessions, perversities and weird happenings without flinching (he doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects). He doesn’t stop where other writers would stop, but goes full speed ahead and doesn’t look back. He’s also able to turn a perfectly normal story to a visceral story with just a few sentences and words.”

And, over at the Theaker’s Quarterly blog, Stephen Theaker likes the book and says:

“On the whole, these stories live up to the book’s title extremely well. “For an artist, all experiences are exquisite”, claims the protagonist of “The Tongue”, and this collection pushes that idea to its limit.”

Unpleasant Tales paperback now available

The paperback of Unpleasant Tales is now availabe, for £8.99 direct from Eibonvale, or through Amazon and other places for those who prefer.

Table of Contents for Unpleasant Tales

01 – The Maker of Fine Instruments

02 – The Black Tiger

03 – The Putrimaniac

04 – A Dish of Spouse

05 – The Girl of Wax

06 – The Tongue

07 – The Skin Collector

08 – The Nasty Truth About Dentists

09 – The Nanny Goat

10 – Mesh of Veins

11 – The Flatterer

12 – The Last Mermaid

13 – The Cruelties of Him

14 – Wiggles

15 – The Woman of Paper

16 – The Last of the Burroways

17 – Flit

18 – Kullullu

19 – Sirens

20 – The Unicorn

21 – Virgin Hearts

22 – We Sleep on a Thousand Waves Beneath the Stars