July 2023
Hello all, Hope everyone is staying safe and well this summer. The news is all a bit depressing at the moment, so how about we just talk books for a minute or two? We have A LOT to tell you. Joseph Horowitz’ debut novel The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York is garnering superb reviews,…
Toxic Positivity Afloat: a Modern-Day retelling of Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea
Toxic positivity is running amok, and not even Hemingway’s Santiago can reel it in. Then again, reeling it in would be the antithesis to Santiago’s indestructible pride just as it would be to a large percentage of humanity whose hold is as relentless as the old man’s. Some would label it a conundrum; others, a…
June 2023
As we welcome July, let’s have a look at what has made June a great month at Blackwater Press, shall we? Probably the keyword for June 2023 was ‘events’. Online, in person, conferences, pub talks… we’ve been places! Starting with the West Virginia Writers conference (June 10), where our very own Elizabeth was the guest…
A Q&A with Patrick Colm Hogan
JR: A People Without Shame is a strange book, full of contrasting parts. At times diary, at times legend, at times transcript, at times article, it seems as though the novel is trying to demonstrate how difficult it is to convey its subject matter in a conventional manner. What do you think of this interpretation?…
May 2023
We hate to brag, but we’re just going to kick off our May newsletter by saying that two (two!) of our newest novels have been listed as Small Press Distribution’s bestsellers! Anangokaa by Cameron Alam, and The Marriage: The Mahlers in the New York by Joseph Horowitz. Please enjoy the latest review of Anangokaa here,…
Mission to Madagascar: The Sergeant, the King, and the Slave Trade
by David H Mould In 1817, a decade after Britain banned the slave trade to its colonies, a 30-year-old East India Company sergeant with no diplomatic training embarked on a risky mission. James Hastie travelled for almost a month from the coast of Madagascar through the tropical rainforest to the central highlands. His mission—to persuade…
April 2023
April started with a bang: Cameron Alam’s debut novel Anangokaa was published on April 3, and has sold out in North America. If you’re waiting on a copy they are shipping as we write. Here’s the latest review. That same week, Melanie Bianchi (author of one of our best- selling books, The Ballad of Cherrystoke and…
March 2023
March was fast! Mid-month we were delighted to be invited to have a stall at the Celtic Village at Charleston’s seventh annual Celtic Calling. It was a somewhat different experience compared with anything we have attended so far, with a whole lot of tartan and a whole lot of bagpipes, but Blackwater Press was received…
On Writing
by Cameron Alam Once upon a time, I thought historical fiction was written the way a house is built, brick by brick, word by word, the author using her mortar of craft to adhere words together into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into chapters as the story is formed. When I sat down to write…
February 2023
Hello, dear subscribers. We’re repeating ourselves here, but February has been as action-packed as usual! Our next books are out in April: Anangokaa by Cameron Alam on April 3, and Joseph Horowitz’s The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York on April 29. Both are available for pre-order, and will be strong additions to the collections of…
