Thursday July 2 News from Austin, Texas

Well today is Thursday, which means that yesterday was Wednesday, which in turn means that I was on “Writing on the Air” last night with Dillon McKinsey and Lee Davis on KOOP 91.7 Austin Community Radio. The guest, Shelley Seale, wrote a book about her visit and her volunteer work with children in Indian Orphanages. You can check out her book here.

I actually SAID something on the air. That was my first time … well, last week, I uttered a couple of words … last night, I actually took part in a little repartee. During the interview, though both Dillon and Lee told me to ask question and take part, I just couldn’t figure out the right time to ask something. I didn’t want to break the flow of questions and answers and storytelling that Dillon and Shelley were going through. In any case, when you sit behind that microphone, and you take part in the show, that 1 hour goes by REALLY quickly.

Make sure to tune in next week, and every week, from 6:00pm to 7:00pm Texas Time. You can tune in on 91.7 if you’re in central Texas, but you can also tune in online and stream the program live. Unfortunately, the shows are not currently being archived, though I’m told they will be soon. So, for the time being, you can only listen to us LIVE.

In other news, Robin Blackburn has completed phase 1 of going from a few poems to manuscript and soon to the printing press and to book! As you might remember, Robin is the third and upcoming New Belleville Press author. She has been working hard the last few months at re-writing every single poem she picked for her collection. She has now rewritten every single one, and we are on our way to Phase 2. Yeah!

Phase 2 is when all those lose leaflets of paper with poems and ideas on them start to take the shape of a manuscript. We will go the a third party to edit the poems, and make more suggestions on word choices, line breaks, et cetera. This is the time where we also start working with an artist for potential illustrations, cover art, et cetera. Phase 3 is when everything is set, and we hire a graphic designer to create the lay-out of the book, the front and back covers, the fonts, margins, and overall look and feel of the future book / object.

It’s exciting! Basically, first we start with the content, and then once the content has been finalize, we move on to the object that is a book.

I read a lot of books, and I see that all too often, and especially with small publishers, they concentrate on one or the other. Often time, when you have a beautiful book-object, what’s inside isn’t worth reading; and when you have a great book, a great story, a beautiful collection of poetry, then the package is lacking and it’s hard work just picking up the book.

To me, both are VERY important, and that is part of my goal here at New Belleville Press, to not only publish great reads, but also to create beautiful objects that you won’t mind showing off to your friends, holding and admiring yourself at all time of the day, and just setting on your coffee table … An object that keeps shouting: Pick Me Up and READ ME!!!!

In yet more exciting news, I am preparing a road trip to St. Louis, MO, for the end of this month. On July 31th, I will be taking off in my little station wagon. It will be loaded with boxes crammed with copies of “Neurotica.” My goal is to deliver lots of copies to Elva Maxine Beach, who happens to live in St. Louis, MO. So, St. Louis, beware, here I come! Chill that beer, please!

You can of course purchase a copy of “Neurotica” right here on this website, at Alibris.com, or in Austin at Sonny’s Vintage, Book People, and Oat Willies.

That’s the news here at New Belleville Press, in Austin, Texas.

Take care, come back often, say hi, leave comments, and most of all, enjoy life and have fun!

Francois Pointeau