BOOKCELLAR NOTES (5/7/03 WED):
---A couple more arrivals:
Kirk, Russell WHAT SHADOWS WE PURSUE: Ghost Stories, Volume Two, Ash-Tree '03, 1st, (Edited, with an Introduction by John Pelan), new in dj 45.00
---and:
Partridge, Norman THE HOUSE INSIDE, Subterranean '03, 1st edn, SIGNED, booklet, new 12.00
---Finally received this, after three or four reminders about my order. I should have also received another chapbook (Ligotti’s SIDESHOW), but I guess that is another no-go. I see it is listed as sold out on their webpage. I am getting tired of having my orders show up months later than other dealers, and my having to remind them to send books, and keep track of their doings lest I lose out. Regretfully, I ended sending them this email:
“I was waiting to return the not-ordered EMBRACE THE MUTATION ltd. expecting long ago the three more AZTECHS you promised (prior to its going OP). Also, Ligotti SIDESHOW and now BOOK OF DAYS which I hear has shipped a while ago but has not shown up here. It seems maybe you would prefer we just part ways. I can't be promising customers books and then have them disappear, with my orders evidently ignored. You seem to be doing fine without my business and you come up with some nice books to publish, so maybe we should just clean up this mess by declaring it null and void. Look for my check for recent invoices with book return. I would say cancel my orders but that seems to have happened already anyway.”
---My exasperation is tempered by the knowledge that there are many who I am sure perceive my own performance as no better. I well know how things can get delayed and seemingly lost, but I get the sense here that I do not need to keep trying to horn in and get books from someplace that will not seem to even try to keep track of my orders. Lots of dealers I am sure are swarming for the books published by Subterranean, so I feel quite superfluous as a source for their books. I apologize to those who I have led to expect I could supply these books. Maybe Subterranean will bow and scrape to keep my business, but my inclination is to give it up. I figured out a couple years ago, when I was also having difficulties that by 2001 I had sent Subterranean more than $10,000. What it has been since then I could figure out too, but do not feel so inclined at the moment. But I am sure it has been substantial enough--at least for my level of business. I guess not for theirs.

---CDs played:
- Black Box Recorder THE FACTS OF LIFE (Xgau: A Minus)
- Unsung Heroes UNLEASHED (Xgau: A Minus)