Category: Newsletter

I don’t know who needs to hear this but…September is coming! The season will soon start when the leaves start turning all shades of gold, and the best activity is to curl up in a comfy spot with a hot cup of something nice and…a good book, of course.

We have some new ones for you, ready to pre-order – and our newsletter subscribers get a 20% discount with the code n9adb299, remember!

We are thrilled about Zoë Strachan’s new book, Catch the Moments as They Fly. Zoë is one of Scotland’s most loved authors, and the winner of the Betty Trask Award. Her latest novel gives a beautiful insight into the rapidly changing Scotland of the ‘30s to the ‘60s, captured through the lens of her protagonist Rena Jarvie – a strong, ambitious, forward-thinking woman – in a time where such women are never quite heard.

And if you’re in Scotland, don’t miss her launch at Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street Waterstones! This event will also mark Vivien and John’s first ever in-person meeting after being business partners for several years, which is probably also worth a celebration in itself.

Guilt by Carter Taylor Seaton is part murder mystery, part examination of racial and class issues. Carter holds a Tamarack Foundation Fellowship Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, and the West Virginia Library Association honoured her with the 2014 WVLA Literary Merit Award. The book follows the life of Alexander Betts, from his segregated childhood in Southern Georgia to becoming an established judge. From the age of sixteen he has carried a heavy secret: will his position give him the chance to finally right his wrongs?

Lastly, Richard Robison will give you a glimpse of life in 1960s America in The Boy from Nowhere. In this striking autobiography, Richard shows us what it was like as a child to move from town to town without setting roots anywhere, always following his parents’  restless quest for the American Dream, struggling to belong and finding solace in cycling, baseball, and music.

And if you fancy something shorter, have a look at Melanie McGee Bianchi’s latest short story!

We hope we’ve given you enough inspiration for the next month. Happy reading!

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, with the latest from Clive Paget in Musical America:

With his unparalleled knowledge of fin-de-siècle classical music in America, Joseph Horowitz [has] brought us closer to Mahler and his wife Alma than any other author I have read… The Marriage is for anybody who enjoys a good read, but especially for people wanting to know more about who Mahler really was.

Stay tuned for an interview on National Public Radio with Joseph Horowitz about The Marriage.

We were thrilled to see that The Marriage topped Small Press Distribution’s bestsellers chart, with John Fulton’s The Flounder and Other Stories and Cameron Alam’s Anangokaa not far behind. Head to our website to see what all the fuss is about with these brilliant titles.

Patrick Colm Hogan made the journey to Glasgow for an event at Hillhead Library, discussing his epic debut novel A People Without Shame. It was great to hear Patrick go into depth on this outstanding book. You can pick up a copy from us or from Hillhead Library for those in Glasgow.

And now, to the small matter of our next books! We’re delighted to announce that we are putting three new titles up for pre-order. Click on the links below for more detail on each book and each author:

Catch the Moments as They Fly by Zoë Strachan

The Boy from Nowhere by Richard Robison

Guilt by Carter Taylor Seaton

And don’t forget that as a newsletter subscriber you have 20% off all pre-orders on our website! Just use the discount code N9ADB299 at checkout.

Finally, we are pleased to feature Kathleen M. Jacobs on our blog this month, with her piece Toxic Positivity Afloat. Kathleen was one of our short story winners in our competition last year, and perhaps this will be the first in a series of guest pieces. It originally appeared in the Register-Herald on May 20. Toxic Positivity Afloat: a Modern-Day retelling of Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea.

Until next month!

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 speaker and talked about how our editorial process works at Blackwater Press – the dos and don’ts for authors, what gets editors excited, how to successfully submit a manuscript to a publishing company, and much more. 

Whereas on June 12 author John Fulton was over to Glasgow from the States to present his book The Flounder at the Curler’s Rest pub. John also did an online reading for the Dire Street Reading Series on the 22^nd.

June 17 was dedicated to Joseph Horowitz and his The Marriage: the Mahlers in New York in Einsamkeit, presented by Peridance Contemporary Dance Company (NYC) setting Mahler and Schubert performances by Horowitz and bass trombonist David Taylor. 

The end of the month saw David Mould in the UK, launching his non-fiction Mission to Madagascar: The Sergeant, the King, and the Slave Trade. He was at the Anglo-Malagasy Society on the 28^th, and at King’s College London on the 29^th. Stay tuned on our social media platforms for more UK events during his stay! 

We celebrated a year of Melanie McGee Bianchi’s The Ballad of Cherrystoke, and Other Stories by producing the e-book version, which is now available at our website. It’s been a year, but the unwavering interest in the book means that Melanie was guest author at the Wonderland Book Club in Raleigh on June 30^th.

And if that’s a wrap for June, while we’re at it let us remind you of a couple of further events lined up for early July: Kate Mueser, author of The Girl with Twenty Fingers, has an event on today, July 1^st! And tomorrow, July 2^nd, Joseph Horowitz will be at the Brevard Music Centre. 

Did we mention we are so proud of all of our authors? 

And finally, just a little side note to say that as a small business, every little effort from every one of you helps us grow. What can you do? If you have a moment and if you’ve enjoyed any (or hopefully all!) of our books, it makes a big difference if you could drop them a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or any other platform. It’s not easy being a little fish in an ocean of much, muuuuch bigger fish… but we believe that what we do is meaningful both for our authors and for our readers, and that small businesses are the sustainable way forward. And probably, if you’re following our newsletters, you do too. 

So, thank you.

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, and Joseph Horowitz’s blog post about his time at the Colorado Mahler Festival here, as well as a review in the NY Sun here.

By the time this newsletter reaches you, we’ll have published two more books: A People Without Shame by Patrick Colm Hogan, and The Flounder by John Fulton. Both books have several events coming up. A People Without Shame will be introduced to the world at Pearl Street Books in La Crosse tomorrow  (Tuesday, 30^th May). Patrick will then be coming over to the UK for an event in late July, with more details coming soon.

The Flounder will be launched at Brookline Booksmith , where John shall be in conversation with Daphne Kalotay. He will then have a UK event on the 12^th June at Curler’s Rest, Byres Road, Glasgow. Our authors are going international!

And our next book after that, publishing in early June, is Mission to Madagascar: The Sergeant, the King, and the Slave Trade, by David H. Mould. Based on the diaries of James Hastie, this is an account of his mission to Madagascar at the beginning of the nineteenth century to negotiate an end to the slave trade. Read more in this blog piece, and for those in London, remember to sign up for the event at KCL on 29^th June. And remember: subscribers get a discount on pre-orders.

Finally, if you’re attending WV Writers at Cedar Lakes on June 10, don’t miss the opportunity to hear Elizabeth discuss how best to approach a publisher, and what we look for (or not) in a covering email.

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 Other Stories), Pete Kosky, and Elizabeth presented their collaboration on Rewriting the Ballad Narrative in Appalachian Literature at Booktenders, in Barboursville, and the Kanawha County Public Library. Thanks to all who came and hosted, but especially to Buddy, the Booktenders dog.

We have a definite musical theme this month: Kate Mueser, author of The Girl With Twenty Fingers was interviewed for Californians in Germany about ex-pat life, Mozart, Munich, and writing while having small children to tend to.

Our next book is out on Saturday, April 29: The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York, by the eminent scholar Joseph Horowitz. Gustav and Alma Mahler’s marriage was famous; so why turn to fiction? The introduction to the novel will tell you, as will this article . Love Mahler’s music, and want to know what goes best with the book? We have a soundtrack with a listening guide. Joseph has had a few events this month about the book, in New York and online; he was interviewed for the Colorado Mahler Fest, and on Saturday he’s the guest on the Mahler Foundation’s Mahler Hour.

Speaking of new books, all newsletter subscribers receive 20 percent off all pre-orders. Up next we have The Flounder by John Fulton, A People Without Shame by Patrick Colm Hogan, and Mission to Madagascar by David H. Mould.

In addition to publication day for The Marriage, Saturday is also Independent Bookstore Day. Here’s your reminder that the best way to get our books on the shelves of your local bookstores is to go in and ask them to stock our titles. And please, stay away from Amazon.

See ya’ll next month.

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 exceptionally well and we sold a good many books.

We introduced our new tote bags (US only, for now) at the event, thanks to our City of Charleston grant. Aren’t they pretty? For $9.49 only!

On Monday April 3 Cameron Alam’s much-anticipated Anangokaa will be published. Check out the latest review here, order here, and read her blog post on the inspiration for her novel. 

On Tuesday April 4, Joseph Horowitz is reading from his forthcoming novel, The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York at the Argento Music Project in New York. Go, if you can, and pre-order it if you can’t. 

On Thursday April 6, Melanie McGee Bianchi will be in conversation with award-winning banjo player and author Pete Kosky and our very own Elizabeth about the ballad narrative in Appalachian literature, at 5.30pm at Booktenders in Barboursville, WV. The program will repeat the next day at noon, at the main branch of the Kanawha County Public Library in Charleston. 

Check out the latest review of The Ballad of Cherrystoke here. 

And if that wasn’t enough, we have two books coming out in May: The Flounder by John Fulton and A People Without Shame by Patrick Colm Cogan, as well as one in June: Mission to Madagascar: The Sergeant, the King, and the Slave Trade by David H. Mould. 

And Kate Mueser recently interviewed her heroine, Sarah Johnson, for Books By Women. 

We’re introducing a standing 20% for pre-orders for all newsletter subscribers! Spread the word: don’t let your friends miss out on good literature! 

Peace and love. 

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 any historical fiction fans.

The Marriage comes with some bonus material. Gustav Mahler was a major character in early twentieth-century music, and his time in New York was remembered vividly by musicians who worked with him there. These recordings, made in 1964, are available as extra contents, along with a listening guide. Since recording technology was not available in Mahler’s lifetime, we’ll never know how a performance he led sounded, but we can get close. Dmitri Mitropoulos’ 1940 recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, “Titan,” with the Minneapolis Symphony is regarded as stylistically close to how Mahler directed his own music, and we hope you enjoy listening and reading about it.

Now, time for some bragging:

The Historical Novel Society recently published reviews of two our titles: Anangokaa and The Stone Maidens.

We also learned that our North American distributor, Small Press Distribution, has recognized two of our books: Ma Chère Maman—Mon Cher Enfant was on their January bestseller list, and The Girl with Twenty Fingers was chosen for their SPD Recommends list. We couldn’t be happier.

Speaking of The Girl with Twenty Fingers, check out Kate’s video about how she managed to write a novel with three very small children.

Some other news:

We are delighted by how quickly our reputation has grown, but with that comes a massive load of manuscripts to consider. We’ve decided rather than getting any further behind our ideal response time, we shall stop accepting new manuscripts until further notice. We will make an announcement once submissions are open again. Of the problems we could have, this is a good one!

And we leave with this exciting news for next month: we’re trialing free shipping for the whole of March on domestic orders (US & UK). Simply use the code freemarch23 at checkout and a ‘free shipping’ option will pop up. If you were waiting for an excuse to order, wait no longer!

Without standing up, he lifted the book from a stack on a chest next to his chair. “What a coincidence. I’m sure you know that today would have been Mozart’s birthday: January 27, 1756.”

The Girl with Twenty Fingers

Hello all, and congratulations on making it through January – it wasn’t too bad, was it? We hope you’ve been eating lots of chocolate (or not, if your resolution dictates!) and treating yourselves to the steamiest baths. If there’s one thing winter’s good for it’s snuggling up with a book, and Kate Mueser’s gorgeous debut novel – The Girl with Twenty Fingers, released on Mozart’s birthday – is exactly the sort of hygge read you need 🙂 .

Check out lovely Kate talking about the book.

FYI European customers – we ship our books from the UK, which is having a bit of a meltdown with international post following a cyber attack. We can still ship orders (and have been doing so!), but for the time being it may be a little more expensive as we use a courier instead of the Royal Mail. Hopefully all resolved soon!

What else has been going on? Oh yes, we have a new member of Blackwater – Dr Luca Guariento – who hates big introductions so we won’t give him one. Luca will be taking over a lot of our typesetting and e-publishing and many other things. Welcome, Luca! We’re delighted to have you and we’ll leave it at that! That’s now one partner in West Virginia, one in Italy, and two in Glasgow – Glasgow is winning!

This month also saw The Stone Maidens author Ioulia Kolovou feature in the University of Glasgow’s Creative Conversations series with author of Hear No Evil, Sarah Smith. It was a fascinating discussion and great to see so many attendees picking up Ioulia’s book courtesy of John Smith’s Bookshop – so many I couldn’t get a picture of the table in time! Here’s one of the venue instead – not bad at all!

And since we’re on a Glasgow theme, we’ll round off by mentioning that our books are now getting stocked in Glasgow Libraries, which we’re over the moon about. Another step up for our little company, in what is shaping up to be a pretty exciting year!

Well, first and foremost: MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone! We hope you are having a lovely festive season. Some of you may be without water or electricity due to the recent weather emergencies; some may be affected by the emotional overload these holidays bring; others may be struggling for a million different reasons. Let’s seize this opportunity to take a moment and reflect on how things could be worse; let’s appreciate what we do have, and should not take for granted. Whether it’s a roof over our heads, a cup of hot coffee, a change of clean clothes, a snuggly puppy, or dear ones to hug.

Never a dull moment here at Blackwater Press; in fact, we have some super exciting news to share with you.

Our little independent press has just been awarded the Small Business Investment Grant by the Mayor of Charleston, West Virginia! More than seventy small businesses applied and we are beyond thrilled that we were among those selected for our contribution to “economy, culture, and character – while also providing unique experiences and fostering relationships within our community,” in Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin’s words. As a small business, this really gets us dreaming of new horizons and possibilities. We already have a plan, and we cannot wait to put it into action!

To help us out and to learn about publishing from the inside, from January 8 we’ll have an intern, Ryann Province. Let’s all give her a virtual round of applause! Ryann is a freshman majoring in creative writing and video production. This internship has been possible thanks to our recent partnership with Marshall University (Huntington, WV), to whom we are very grateful.

To add to the excitement, we are very proud to be the press that publishes Joseph Horowitz’s first novel: The Marriage: The Mahlers in New York. Horowitz  is an award-winning cultural historian and author of several monographs and books about music, as well as being a concert producer and radio broadcaster – and more. Read all about his novel in his own words.

This is the final newsletter of the year, and after a very productive year and a steep (if rewarding) learning curve for us all on several levels, we are so looking forward to next year’s titles:

The Girl with Twenty Fingers by Kate Mueser
Mission to Madagascar by David H. Mould
Lips That Touch by Zoë Strachan
A People Without Shame by Patrick Colm Hogan
The Boy from Nowhere by Richard Robison
Anangokaa by Cameron Alam
The Marriage by Joseph Horowitz
The Flounder by John Fulton
Guilt by Carter Taylor Seaton
Symbiosis by Milagros Lasarte
Three Lives of St Ciarán by Inés Gregori Labarta
While Dragging Our Hearts Behind Us by Boni Thompson
The Medicament Report by Eric Percak

Aaaaand that’s a wrap! We hope you enjoy the rest of the Christmas holidays…see you in 2023! Our warmest wishes for a happy new year when it comes.

It’s November, and the biggest, most seasonal, news is that our Small Business Weekend/Civilized Saturday/Cyber Monday/Not Black Friday (!) sale continues through this Sunday, December 4. All of our books are 25 percent off. FYI: books make excellent gifts 🙂 .

The next bit of good news is that Elizabeth Auld’s long-awaited translation of Lucien and Louise Durosoir’s war-time correspondence has been published: Ma Chère Maman – Mon Cher Enfant. This is the world’s first English edition of their letters and has a little something for everyone. World War I, music, the complexities of a mother-son relationship during one of the darkest periods in human history… We are really happy with this one.

John went to The Greenock Writers’ Club and held an interactive session on editing; thank you very much to everyone there and we’re very excited to see the writing that comes out of that talented cohort. John is looking forward to returning to discuss the trials and tribulations of small press publishing next year.

Oh, and there is the small matter of our next book: The Girl With Twenty Fingers by the incredible Kate Mueser (link to her page).

This will go on sale Monday, December 5. Why? It’s the anniversary of Mozart’s death in 1791. You don’t need to know that to enjoy the book, but it’s a nice little factoid and helps Elizabeth justify all her music degrees. We’ll publish it on January 27, Mozart’s birthday. Read more about the inspiration for the novel here, in our latest blog post by Kate.

And here’s a wee reminder this busy book-buying season: Amazon Kills. Our distributors demand that our books are available there, because in order to reach the most readers they must be, but please, try to buy our books (and any other books) elsewhere! You can support local bookshops (US and UK) through other platforms like Bookshop.org and IndieBound. We all have to work together to keep small publishers and smaller shops alive. We’re likely preaching to the choir, but tell your friends! Our friends at IndieBound have this to say.

And on that note, if you want to see our books in your local shops, the best way is to go into the shops and ask. Demand leads to supply. All of our titles are listed on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble, so please do leave a review!

And here’s a turkey called Ellie that chased Elizabeth across a parking lot. See you next month.