Following on from the news of the Marked to Die anthology last year, we are very pleased to make another Mark Samuels-related announcement. Written in Darkness, the fifth collection of short fiction by Mark Samuels, and the twenty-eighth title from Chômu Press, is officially released today. Originally available as a limited edition hardback from Egaeus Press, it is now generally available as a Chômu paperback, with lush new cover artwork from Christopher Conn Askew and book design by David Rix.

Samuels’s fourth collection, The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Weird Tales, released in paperback by Chômu in 2011, has proven exceptionally popular with our readers, and we are sure that the current collection will be enjoyed just as widely and deeply. With a further refinement of the author’s concise, elegant style and a broadening of his themes and subject matter, the nine apocalyptic tales included in Written in Darkness are testament to Samuels’s secure and growing place in the consciousness of the connoisseur as an authentic practitioner of weird fiction.

From the back cover: “Europe decays, but the Bloody Baron’s spirit will not rest. A lone yachtsman is becalmed at sea, and confronts madness, or something greater than madness. A condemned office building is besieged by the forces of transcendent decay. In the city of exiles, an unguessable secret awaits.” For all this and more, book your one-way ticket to the heart of the labyrinth here. Or, if you would first like a sample of the contents, you can listen to Quentin S. Crisp reading the final story, ‘In Eternity—Two Lines Intersect’, by arrangement with the author, at Soundcloud, here:

For further information, the author talks informally to Quentin S. Crisp about the collection, about weird fiction, psychogeography, Thomas Ligotti and many other things, in the following YouTube vlog interview:

Other stimulating news—of Chômu Press and miscellaneous matters

Although Chômu’s release schedule has slowed down recently, news abounds in relation to our authors and the surrounding small-press world. In January, for the first time, one of our titles was mentioned in the New York Times. In interview, Roxane Gay was asked, “What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?”, and replied: “I Am a Magical Teenage Princess, by Luke Geddes.” Of course, our readers can claim to have been ahead of the pack here; we hope that many more will follow their excellent lead.

On BBC Radio 2, in February, talking to Jonathan Ross about his ‘hidden treasures’, Marc Almond recited a poem by the Chômu-published poet (beloved of Björk and J.G. Ballard), Jeremy Reed. Marc Almond, of course, collaborated with Jeremy Reed for his Against Nature project, putting the seminal decadent novel by J.-K. Huysmans to music; the lyrics for that project, written by Reed, are included in the fantastic miscellany, Nothing But a Star.

The first of a three-part interview, in which artist and musician Rachel Margetts talks to Chômu author Quentin S. Crisp about the relevance of the Dao De Jing to the 21st century, has recently been uploaded to YouTube. The interview was conducted by Skype, and the image and ambient background audio are provided by Rachel Margetts.

The Cutest Girl in Class, by Quentin S. Crisp, Justin Isis and Brendan Connell, now in paperback.

The (as the name suggests) friendly press, Snuggly Books, have been very busy of late. Last month, they released in paperback the three-author collaborative novel The Cutest Girl in Class, by Quentin S. Crisp, Justin Isis and Brendan Connell (reviewed by Publishers Weekly here). Other recent releases include An Ossuary of the North Lagoon, by Frederick Rolfe a.k.a. Baron Corvo, and a collection of seasonal tanka, October, by Quentin S. Crisp.

To keep up to date with all Chômu and related news, and if you are not already signed up, please do subscribe here to our e-mail list.

2014 has begun, and after the come-down and hangover of the New Year, a tonic is necessary to fortify us for the year ahead – maybe even hair of the cynosure. And so we continue the astronomical theme with which we brought 2013 to a close, and start 2014 with the release of The Galaxy Club, by Brendan Connell. Set in seventies New Mexico, this is a booze-soaked stranger-comes-to-town tale with the cosmic picaresque vision of Wu Cheng’en and the grit of Jim Thompson. Buried treasure, dragons, and naturally plenty of car chases, are leavened with beat poetry and hard-boiled in a bed of noir, to bring the reading world the Great New Mexican Novel it never knew it was waiting for. Join the club by picking up a copy here.

Details of the prize draw may be found at the bottom of the announcement. Readers in London, please also remember that Jeremy Reed, author of Chômu books, Nothing But a Star and Here Comes the Nice, will be performing live with The Ginger Light at The National Portrait Gallery in two days time (on Valentine’s Day) at 18.30, admission free.

Prize Draw for an inscribed copy of The Galaxy Club

The results of the Nothing But a Star prize draw are as follows: ADW, of Lancashire, England, is the winner of a specially inscribed copy of Jeremy Reed’s Nothing But a Star, which should be on its way to him soon.

For this month’s prize draw, we are offering a specially inscribed copy of Brendan Connell’s The Galaxy Club. For all those unfamiliar with them, here are the rules: To be entered for this draw, please sign up here to our mailing list (or using the ‘Free updates’ widget on our home page) and send an e-mail with the subject heading ‘We are stardust’ to info at chomupress dot com. If you are already on our mailing list, of course there is no need to sign up again – simply send an e-mail with the ‘We are stardust’ subject heading to the address mentioned. Only one entry allowed per person. Deadline for draw, the 28th of February, 2014.

Please remember also to sign up to our e-mail list for Chômu news and exclusive author interviews delivered directly to your inbox.

The year 2013 draws moodily and mistily to its close, but if there is one bright spot in the nighted firmament, it is the advent of our 25th book. That’s right, with Nothing But a Star, by Jeremy Reed (cover photo by Gregory Hesse-Wagner), we have reached the quarter century in the number of volumes we have published. Jeremy Reed’s stellar novel, Here Comes the Nice, received a starred review at Publishers Weekly when we released it in November 2011. This time we are releasing an eclectic collection of his poetry, essays, lyrics and more besides. We may be shivering at the foggy fag-end of the year and of civilisation, but let us warm our hearts by the starlight of poetry.

Glamorous, autumnal, visionary, distilling the future from the present moment, glittering with pop spontaneity and smooth with velvet melancholy, capturing the dread and tingle of the moods of London, and spinning out from the light-polluted urban night across the universe, Nothing But a Star is the perfect book to bring a decadent, empurpled twinkle to the long, cold nights of December. Part intimate scrapbook, part jeweller’s tray, Nothing But a Star contains, as well as poetry, an essay on the suicides of Hart Crane and Harry Crosby, a playscript for a version of The Picture of Dorian Gray set in the 21st century, a pop libretto written for Marc Almond and based on J-K Huysmans’ À rebours, and other specimens of dopamine in literary form. Catch a falling star by picking up a copy here. There now follows the testimony of other stargazers:

Jeremy Reed’s talent is almost extraterrestrial in its brilliance. He is Rimbaud reconfigured as the Man who fell to Earth, a visitor from deep space whose time machine was designed by Lautréamont and de Sade, and powered by the most exotic fuels the imagination has ever devised.

- J.G. Ballard

The most beautiful, outrageously brilliant poetry in the world.

- Björk

The man is light worlds apart from his contemporaries in poetry.

- Andrew Loog Oldham

Jeremy Reed may be heard reciting one of his poems as part of the act The Ginger Light in the inset clip below:

As usual, there is a prize draw, details of which may be found at the bottom of the announcement. Please also remember, if you require books for Christmas, and they appear to be temporarily out of stock at Amazon, that The Book Depository delivers worldwide at no extra cost. And for those anticipating the coming year, please look out for Brendan Connell’s The Galaxy Club, which continues our astronomical theme. And finally, in other news, the collaborative novel by Chômu authors Brendan Connell, Justin Isis and Quentin S. Crisp, The Cutest Girl in Class, a less-than-simple tale of “boy meets inanimate object” (Joe Simpson Walker) was released last month from Snuggly Books.

Prize Draw for an inscribed copy of Nothing But a Star

The results of the Member prize draw are as follows: Caleb Wilson, of Illinois, was the winner of a specially inscribed copy of Michael Cisco’s Member, which should be on its way to him, or has perhaps already arrived.

This month’s prize draw, of course, is for a specially inscribed copy of Jeremy Reed’s Nothing But a Star. For anyone unfamiliar with them, please allow me to repeat the unchanging rules: To be entered for this draw, please sign up here to our mailing list (or using the ‘Free updates’ widget on our home page) and send an e-mail with the subject heading ‘But some of us are looking at the stars’ to info at chomupress dot com. If you are already on our mailing list, of course there is no need to sign up again – simply send an e-mail with the ‘But some of us are looking at the stars’ subject heading to the address mentioned. Only one entry allowed per person. Deadline for draw, the 3rd of January, 2014.

Those on our mailing list can also expect exclusive interviews from Chômu authors. The next interview is still to be with P.F. Jeffery.

The first Chômu release of 2012, Dadaoism (An Anthology), is something of a lepidopterous monster (perhaps not unlike Mothra). It has taken many times more person-hours than our single-author volumes to produce, featuring 26 pieces of writing (short stories, flash fiction, novellas and poems, as well as work slightly harder to categorise) from 25 authors, a killer cover design from Anil Nataly of Bigeyebrow, and what we believe to be stylish mayhem and mystery throughout. As well as authors previously published under the Chômu banner, such as Reggie Oliver, Michael Cisco, Nick Jackson, Jeremy Reed and Brendan Connell, we are also very pleased to present a plethora of authors new to us, and perhaps to the reader: Katherine Khorey, Jesse Kennedy, Megan Lee Beals, John Cairns, Kristine Ong Muslim, Peter Gilbert, and more. The full table of contents is viewable here, from where you may also pick up a copy for yourself.

Quoting the introduction from co-editor Justin Isis, the first online review of the anthology concludes thus:

“Feel free to eat this book, tear out any pages which displease you, add corrections and emendations. Feel free, as always, to write lies in the Book of Life.” A truer characterization of unbridled rebel spirit and richly attitudinal contents under pressure could not be made.

- Gordon Hauptfleisch, Blogcritics

This is the first of a projected seven books for 2012. (Although we are publishing fewer books this year than last, with the help of this anthology, we are publishing more authors.) Please watch this site for details of future titles and general news, or sign up here to our mailing list. (Speaking of general news, and for those who missed it, ‘An Interview with Quentin S. Crisp’, a short film by R.B. Russell, in which mention is made, amongst other things, of Chômu, is viewable on YouTube, at this link.)

Prize Draw for uniquely inscribed copy of Dadaoism (An Anthology)

We are presenting another prize draw this month, this time, of course, for a uniquely inscribed copy of Dadaoism (An Anthology). The prize copy will be inscribed and otherwise creatively defaced by the editors, Justin Isis and Quentin S. Crisp. The same rules apply as in previous prize draws: To be entered for this draw, please sign up here to our mailing list (or using the ‘Free updates’ widget on our home page) and send an e-mail with the subject heading ‘No, it’s not weird fiction’ (remember the important apostrophe) to info at chomupress dot com. If you are already on our mailing list, of course there is no need to sign up again – simply send an e-mail with the ‘No, it’s not weird fiction’ subject heading to the address mentioned. Only one entry allowed per person. Deadline for draw, the 31st of May.

We come to the thirteenth and final Chômu release of 2011, The Secret Life of the Panda, by Nick Jackson, a collection of exquisitely realised short stories that forms a fitting(ly unusual) cap to an exciting and rewarding year. So, what can you expect to find between the mysterious covers of this volume, with its beautiful and evocative artwork from Suzanne Norris? Many things as rare as the titular panda: a perfect mastery of the short fiction form that is both unmistakably contemporary and authentically beautiful, a fusion of realism and dream-like fantasy that is seamless, an ability to summon potent emotions with small details and show the internal through the external, and the spreading of a large imaginative canvas on which the characters remain vivid. A disappearing world of strange and private visions is here for you to discover.

Here are rumours of the secret life that have already reached us:

“With exquisite delicacy and a keen eye for the bizarre, Jackson (Visits to the Flea Circus) creates a series of moody vignettes taking readers from religious strife in 16th-century [Germany] to a jungle camp of [Cuban] guerrillas and the mundane hallways of a contemporary British school. … The spectacular “Boys’ Games” intertwines the confused cruelties of children in the schoolyard and men at war. And the otherworldly dedication involved in studying or recreating nature comes to life in “The City in Flames” and “Shell Fire,” respectively.”

- Publishers Weekly

“In romanticizing the uncanny, the fantastic and the horrific, Nick Jackson’s fiction emulates that of the great 19th century writers of suspense, Poe, Wilde and Shelley. With his unique marriage of subtlety and decadence Jackson is able to minimise the carnal horror whilst preserving the spine-tingling fear. Whether unleashing his ghosts or exorcising his demons, Jackson’s is an almost ethereal voice in a literary world of bloody over-abundance.”

- Rachel Kendall

“Nick Jackson’s fertile imagination is matched by his skill with the English language: writing about both mundane matter as well as fantasies made real seems so natural to him that the reader is left wondering why this shamanistic mind has not bloomed around the world – so many stories are here that suggest that his fount of inspiration is bottomless. He has perfected the art of short story writing (no mean feat): he makes us long for a novella or novel that would allow us to explore his talent even further.”

- Grady Harp

On Monday the 19th of December, there will also be a book launch for The Secret Life of the Panda at Olives in Norwich (40 Elm Hill, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 1HG). The event will take place between 7.30 and 9.00pm. Nick Jackson will be reading extracts from the collection, and from 8.30 there will be a musical set from singer-songwriter Kimberley Moore. If you’re anywhere near Norwich, or if you’re a travelling kind of person, please do drop in.

Prize Draw for uniquely inscribed copy of The Secret Life of the Panda

The winner of last month’s prize draw for an inscribed copy of Here Comes the Nice is Thomas Strømsholt, who will be receiving his prize in the post soon.

We are presenting another prize draw this month, this time, of course, for a uniquely inscribed copy of The Secret Life of the Panda. The same rules apply as before: To be entered for this draw, please sign up here to our mailing list (or using the ‘Free updates’ widget on our home page) and send an e-mail with the subject heading ‘Secret Life’ to info at chomupress dot com. If you are already on our mailing list, naturally there is no need to sign up again – simply send an e-mail with the ‘Secret Life’ subject heading to the address mentioned. Only one entry allowed per person. Deadline for draw, the 30th of December.

That today is the last day for entering the prize draw for an inscribed copy of Here Comes the Nice, by Jeremy Reed.

And that tomorrow, December the 1st, is the day of the book launch, for Here Comes the Nice. Doors open at 8pm and admission is £5, but this is refunded with a signed copy of the book which costs £10 (IE, you’ll save five quid on the usual price of the book). Copies of the book will be limited, of course, so this offer is first come first served, or, as they say ’subject to availability’.

The venue is Jamboree, 566 Cable Street, Limehouse, London. Jeremy Reed will be performing with The Ginger Light:

The support act is confirmed as Lord Magpie and the Prince of Cats:

November is here. There must be something in the air. On the 14th of this month (two days ago), The Who’s Quadrophenia: The Director’s Cut was released, a re-issue of the 1973 ‘mod opera’ and the tale of a young Mod called Jimmy. Today we look into the future and go also a little further into the past, with the literary fireworks of Jeremy Reed’s Here Comes the Nice, the tale of the Face, the proto-Mod who came out of nowhere with a quantum leap of style, and who may have leapt the bounds of time itself. Get the low-down on the High Numbers by picking up a copy here.

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly have this to say of the novel:

Pop culture revivals and obsessive style nostalgia are extrapolated to an almost frightening degree in this speed-rush of music, drugs, and time-travel mysticism. Paul is a journalist in a dystopian, gray, near-future London. As he works on a biography of 1960s fashion designer John Stephen, Paul begins running into a mod archetype called the Face, still young, riding his decked-out Vespa among the armored limousines and roving “hoodie gangs.” Is the Face a time traveler, a meth addict obsessed with the last generation’s fashions, or, like the aging bands and politicians, trying desperately to freeze time? Reed’s portrayal of the 1960s—the clothes, the language, the sex, and the music—is surreal and perfect. He doesn’t shy from the queer side of mod culture and accurately portrays the legendary young bands as kids, both amateurish and brilliant. Either a critique of retro chic or its most extreme expression, this page-turner is a volume knob-turner as well.

The legendary Jeremy Reed, with Here Comes the Nice, shows us the brilliant supernova of his creativity is still expanding. In a work that takes the reader back to the raw early gigs of The Small Faces, The Rolling Stones, The Pretty Things and The Who, and forward to the collapsing brink of the near-future, the time-travelling Mod has never been more NOW.

To add to the excitement, there is also the Here Comes the Nice book launch at Jamboree, 566 Cable Street, Limehouse, London, featuring Jeremy Reed performing with The Ginger Light.

Prize Draw for uniquely inscribed copy of Here Comes the Nice

We would also like to announce a prize draw for a signed and uniquely inscribed copy of Here Comes the Nice. You may know the drill by now, but here it is again: To be entered for this draw, please sign up to our mailing list (using the ‘Free updates’ widget on our home page) and send an e-mail with the subject heading ‘The Nice’ to info at chomupress dot com. If you are already on our mailing list, naturally there is no need to sign up again – simply send an e-mail with the ‘The Nice’ subject heading to the address mentioned. Only one entry allowed per person. Deadline for draw, the 30th of November.

In further news, and on the subject of The Orphan Palace, we are very pleased to announce that Issue #117 of Rue Morgue magazine contains as spotlight feature on Chômu Press, which includes a look at The Orphan Palace and an interview with Quentin S. Crisp. It also has a very fetching image of Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera on the cover.

Coinciding, by chance or fate, with the Quadrophenia Director’s Cut box set next week, we have the release of Jeremy Reed’s brilliant Here Comes the Nice, more details of which will follow on the 16th of this month. For those living in London, or able to travel, don’t forget that there will be a book launch at Jamboree on Cable Street, featuring Jeremy Reed performing with The Ginger Light.

John Elliott Interview by chomuradioarchive

Last and not least, something calling itself the ‘Chomu Radio Archive’ (thanks to Joe Campbell) has uploaded a long, in-depth, audio interview with Chômu writer John Elliott. John Elliott talks to Quentin S. Crisp about Philip K. Dick, Lovecraft, Oulipo, John Calder, Queneau, Georges Perec, and many other things.