{"id":7,"date":"2003-02-15T22:03:06","date_gmt":"2003-02-16T03:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=7"},"modified":"2007-08-24T18:33:35","modified_gmt":"2007-08-24T23:33:35","slug":"happy-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/happy-valentines-day","title":{"rendered":"Happy Valentine’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a happier Valentine’s Day than I was expecting. As if in response to my Pattern Recognition<\/a> complaints, something astonishing happened yesterday. I received what may be the first legit post-9.11 novel.<\/p>\n

Background: in addition to editing a pharmaceutical trade magazine by day, I run Voyant Publishing, a small press publishing house, by night. One of the authors I’ve published, Paul West, recently asked me if I’d be interested in looking at a new book of his. We worked together last year to reissue his great novel, The Place In Flowers Where Pollen Rests<\/a> and, though sales have been sluggish (we’ve done much better with the scatological queer porno romance mystery academic thriller novel, The Mad Man<\/a>, by Samuel R. Delany), Mr. West seemed impressed enough by our operations to offer me the new book.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, it showed up in the mail. I got home from work and found a shoebox with the return address of Mr. West’s wife, the poet and essayist Diane Ackerman<\/a>, sitting at my door. Any plans of going into NYC to meet friends on Valentine’s Day were dashed. I sat down and read the first section of the book (65 pages) after dinner, and was floored. Mr. West has thus far seemed to nail down the book I’ve been desperate to see since the terrible events of 9.11. I had to restrain my impulse to call him at home and tell him that we’d publish it. There’s still 350 or so pages, and things could go awry. But I’m amazed at what he’s written so far. (My apologies for the vagueness: it’s deliberate, in order to respect Mr. West’s privacy and not give away too much about an unpublished book.)<\/p>\n

Always thinking as a publisher (in addition to an aesthete), it warmed my heart that Mr. West chose a title almost as difficult to remember as The Place In Flowers Where Pollen Rests<\/em>: that is, The Immensity of the Here and Now<\/em>. Never hurts, with books that need word-of-mouth promotion, to use a long and unwieldy title . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a happier Valentine’s Day than I was expecting. As if in response to my Pattern Recognition complaints, something astonishing happened yesterday. I received what may be the first legit post-9.11 novel. Background: in addition to editing a pharmaceutical trade magazine by day, I run Voyant Publishing, a small press publishing house, by night. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Happy Valentine’s Day”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":514,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/to-the-editor","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":0},"title":"To the editor","author":"Gil","date":"March 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"On March 7, the New York Times published an article entitled, \"Literary Novelists Address 9\/11, Finally\", on the occasion of several new novels about the attacks and their aftermath.Unfortunately, your writer seems not to have researched this matter well enough. In September 2003, I published Paul West's novel, \"The Immensity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13621,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-380-bill-campbell","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":1},"title":"Episode 380 – Bill Campbell","author":"Gil","date":"June 30, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 380: Bill Campbell \"When you own the field, it's very easy to move the goalposts.\" Author & publisher Bill Campbell joins the show to talk about what he's learned from running Rosarium Publishing (and how he accidentally became a publisher). We get into how having a diverse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/campbellcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C530&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/campbellcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C530&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/campbellcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C530&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/campbellcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C530&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/campbellcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C530&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11997,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-302-jerome-charyn","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":2},"title":"Episode 302 – Jerome Charyn","author":"Gil","date":"January 9, 2019","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 302: Jerome Charyn \"In most historical novels, you're dealing with events, and I'm really dealing with trauma and wounds.\" On the latest stop on his blog tour, author Jerome Charyn joins the show to talk about his new novel, The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King: A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/E6949DE2-42FC-4058-84FD-38DB687707C8.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/E6949DE2-42FC-4058-84FD-38DB687707C8.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/E6949DE2-42FC-4058-84FD-38DB687707C8.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/E6949DE2-42FC-4058-84FD-38DB687707C8.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/E6949DE2-42FC-4058-84FD-38DB687707C8.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9016,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-133-what-if-we-give-it-away","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":3},"title":"Episode 133 – What If We Give It Away?","author":"Gil","date":"September 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #133: Stona Fitch\/Rory Flynn - What If We Give It Away? \"One of my favorite things is to take a character, figure out what's most important to them, and then take it away and see what they do.\" Stona Fitch joins the show to talk about balancing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"ThirdRail_cover_277x419","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ThirdRail_cover_277x419.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8854,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-122-a-muse-apart","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":4},"title":"Episode 122 – A Muse Apart","author":"Gil","date":"June 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #122: Jonathan Galassi - A Muse Apart \"The literary writer still needs someone to have a dialogue with, to help shape their book, understand it and make it as presentable to the world as possible.\" FSG president Jonathan Galassi has been a literary editor and publisher for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/jonathan_galassi_535.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14838,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-460-rutu-modan","url_meta":{"origin":7,"position":5},"title":"Episode 460 – Rutu Modan","author":"Gil","date":"November 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 460: Rutu Modan \"I don't feel that I finished everything I want to say with comics. 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