BOOKCELLAR NOTES (4/14/03 Mon):

CDs played today:
- RAWKUS PRESENTS SOUNDBOMBING (Xgau: A minus)
- Randy Travis ANTHOLOGY: TRAIL OF MEMORIES (2-disc) (Xgau: A)

---Email from Gauntlet Press:
“SOLICITATION FOR GATEWAYS, NEW REPAIRMAN JACK NOVEL
BY F. PAUL WILSON

GATEWAYS, the newest Repairman Jack novel by F. Paul Wilson is now at the printers for what we anticipate to be a late June/early July publication. Nothing much more has to be said about the book other than we can only print 475 numbered and 26 lettered copies and our last Repairman Jack book (THE HAUNTED AIR) sold out on publication with distributors wanting over 200 more copies than we could provide. Our intention is to serve our customers and dealers first (as we did with THE HAUNTED AIR) and distributors last.

GATEWAYS comes in two states:

575 copy SIGNED numbered limited edition.

26 copy SIGNED traycased leatherbound edition with each book containing an original page from the author's 26 page outline, complete with his handwritten notes. THESE ARE NOT PHOTOCOPIES, but his original outline.

Please Note: We have recently released Richard Matheson's previously unpublished COME FIGYRES, COME SHADOWES which Publishers Weekly compared to HELL HOUSE. Since the review we have received over 200 orders from distributors and while we have ample copies of the book available, it could well sell out within the next few months. If interested, now would be the time to pick up this title.”

---I have the Matheson in stock, but will not be ordering GATEWAYS unless I get some advance interest in it. I did get orders for THE HAUNTED AIR after the fact which I could not supply.

---Still no sign of Catalog 145 yet. I am thinking about sending something scaled down, maybe with just the “New Arrivals”, perhaps photocopied, just to stay in contact with non-computer people. The pile of orders I am trying to reckon with just now is still daunting. I should not be fooling around so much.

---I just printed out the New Arrivals so far for Catalog 145 to run off on my copier and include with shipments. A few orders to non-computer customers are going out now. I thought I ought to think of something to help them have a better idea what is in stock.

4/13/03 SUN:
---Added to bookmarks:
- The Smoking Gun
- This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow
- Wil Wheaton

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (4/12/03 Sat):

CDs played today:
- Morton Feldman STRING QUARTET NO. 2 (5-disc)

---A couple new arrivals catalogued today:
Shepard, Lucius AZTECHS, Subterranean '03, 1st edn, one of 526 SIGNED copies, (112-page short novel), new in dj 35.00

Prichard, Kate & Hesketh THE EXPERIENCES OF FLAXMAN LOW, Ash-Tree '03, (psychic detective; first published 1899; Jack Adrian [ed]), new in dj 41.50

4/11/03 FRI:
---Reading George Orwell - AN AGE LIKE THIS: Vol. One of his Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters (1920-1940).
- p 19: “There are times when it is wise to accept without seeking knowledge” (futility of “interpreting” works of art, specifically Melville’s poetry as interpreted by Lewis Mumford in his biography of Melville)
- p 34: “woe to the creed that is not backed by machine-guns!”
- p 35: “His marriage was not unhappy in itself; it was merely the marriage of two unhappy people.” (on Thomas and Mrs. Carlyle)

4/10/03 THURS:
---I have dusted off the old chronometer for use while running. It should cause me to pick up the pace a tad, but might make me more injury prone; less inclined to stop and fix shoelaces, for example, and not so cognizant of aches and pains. Having to push button at quarter-mile markers calls for less abstraction while running (which always means slower with less effort). But since this is my big exercise event of the day, I might as well utilize a proven incentive to try to improve performance. It has gotten so I can cruise along for the five miles and not see any improvement. For health maintenance it is probably fine, but I would like to see some improvement to make it more interesting. Nothing particularly dramatic, but a bit of upgrade would be nice. I know that I am physiologically incapable of achieving the level that some runners are born with, so there is nothing that great about being a better than middle-of-the-pack runner instead of just a middle-of-the-packer. I will record my times here because it is someplace I can find them myself. Certainly they will be of limited if any interest to others, but this is my weblog.
---Heading south on Neal Smith bicycle trail: about a mile from my house to entry at mile marker 21 (9:02); 20.75 (/); 20.50 (4:28/13:31); 20.25 (2:13/15:35); 20 (2:28/18:13); 19.75 (2:18/20:31); 19.50 (2:15/22:47; turn around); 19.75 (2:27/25:14); 20 (2:19/27:34); 20.25 (2:15/29:50); 20.50 (2:22/32:12); 20.75 (2:26/34:38); 21 (2:19/36:58); another approx. mile home (8:05/45.03 final time). About five miles total, perhaps a little farther. Mighty slow, but plenty of room for improvement. I used to be able to string sub 2-minute quarter miles together (except on some of the uphill segments), but then I suffered a string of nagging maladies to the various bones, joints and muscles that get put to the test when the will tries to triumph over the body in running.
---The south-heading route has a bit less shadiness overall, which makes it worse in the summer if I wait too late in the day. It has some gradual up and down hills, but not as steep as the northerly route. For a long time I rarely went to the south, because the stretch paralleling the mile-long bridge road was not very pleasant. Now that a row of pine trees between the bike path and the road has grown, it has become much nicer going that way. The gentler slopes are easier on the legs, too. Either way, the advantage over running on the road with cars zooming past is tremendous. The bike path’s blacktop surface is smooth enough so I do not have to consciously monitor every footfall and it is softer than a concrete road or sidewalk. Except that I might wish for a bit more shade on some days and that I have to run a mile to get to it, it is an ideal place to run. I am lucky to have it nearby. I just wish my capabilities were such that I could run more of the fifty available miles than just the mile-and-a-half either way I generally traverse. My long run is up to 7.5 miles this week. On Wednesday I headed north to mile marker 23.75 before turning around. The plan is to go to mm 24 next time (hopefully Monday by my current regimen--adding a half mile every five days, unless an extra rest day is taken or imposed).

---Odd random bits of ratiocination the last couple days that maybe I should dicker with more carefully before blabbing out, but I want to try to make this weblog a little something more than just a surface survey of my doings. For better or worse, I will try to render a few of my thoughts, entangled and ill-informed as they may be. I can’t always spend the time honing arguments and marshalling evidence as maybe I should before showing up where I don't belong; but I will try to keep working on it. Writing about things is part of the thinking process. A better writer than me can get paid for their output. I am just trying to have it be an element in self-actualization. Being on a weblog makes it a bit more exciting and fun, with perhaps a bit of discipline. I hope as time goes along to become more at-ease with this forum and see what comes out.

4/9/03 WED:
---Revised text to follow?

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (4/8/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Jackie McLean DESTINATION OUT (1963 jazz recommended by Gary Giddins in VILLAGE VOICE)
- Ice Cube GREATEST HITS (Xgau: A minus)
- Albinioni 12 CONCERTI A CINQUE, Op. 5

---Finally back down here. The backroom cleanup project has to be put on the back burner (I wish). At least I can reach the window now. Temps are supposed to get back to 70 later in the week. Then it will be great to open that sucker up. Now is the golden moment between when the mold and insects act up and when it is too cold to operate. (There is no heat in the back room.)

---Here now:
SPACE AND TIME #97, spr/03, (the magazine of fantasy, horror, and science-fiction; A.R. Morlan, Jeff Carlson, Terry McGarry, Jeffrey Goddin; Ligotti interview; more), new 5.00
---Details on #95 (which I still have in stock, as well as many other issues) are at the link above, but not #97, at least as of right now.

---Back in stock from River City (if you knew it was out of stock):
McCammon, Robert R. SPEAKS THE NIGHTBIRD, River City '02, (1st), (727-page novel), new in dj 27.95

---A typical reply to a question about what happened to someone’s order:
“I do have your order. I seem to have gone into self-imposed forced semi-retirement, considering my ability lately to keep up with business. I should expand my capabilities by taking on help instead of the continual erosion imposed by the ageing process. At any rate I will make it a point to get your order taken care of immediately. I will email you the result, as usual. Thanks for everything!”

---Afraid I watched the NCAA Finals last night. I could have done without it. Not only do I have to watch the game, but I have to hang in there through the Shining Moment video melange. It is so sad that that is about as good as it ever gets. Sad but glorious.

---It took me an hour to reconcile my checkbook, usually a snap procedure. Finally figured out I had written in a 285 where it should have been 258 - accounting for the $27 I kept coming up short. At least if it had been the bank which had erred I would have caught it, making it maybe worth the brainwrack.

---Email to Slovenia:
“I wish I had invested in a Slovenia-specific mutual fund. Last I heard things were looking good there. Maybe it was a situation where the only place to go was up. Can't say I care for the way things are going here. There do seem to be parallels with the rise of Hitler and Nazism. It was impossible to be apolitical then--except for being purged, you either had to leave or be loyal to the party/country.”
---To elaborate: Check out the 1981 German-Austrian movie MEPHISTO, wherein the actor/protagonist has to decide whether to exile himself--as do many of his colleagues and even his wife--or stay and be loyal to his country. To leave Germany would be to leave his homeland and language, where his artistic roots lie. When Hitler is elected (“I can’t believe they elected that clown”), civil liberties go down the drain, a culture of imposing self-styled superiority on neighboring countries--lots of things recognizable as, though of course not exactly parallel to, what is going on here today with our supposedly more benificent form of imperialism. It is possible here today in the USA to see a populace going along with, even vociferously supporting, an inimical force taking over the reigns of government, poisoned by a tainted electoral process allowing elements paying lip service but having little to do really with freedom and democracy, to seize unchecked control of the reigns of government. Opposing the present regime equals not supporting “our troops”, being unpatriotic, even committing treason. If it is okay to be opposed before a rush to war has been effected but not during the conflict; if being a wartime leader means increased approval ratings; and if being commander-in-chief means you can wage war at will despite good-willed attempts at restraint and appeals to reason, beating back discussion out of hand; then we are in trouble--and the more “success” these elements achieve, the deeper down the drain we are going. Hitler had his successes too.
---A kind of nationalistic messianic fervor taking hold of a commanding percentage of the population is a very troubling thing to have be going on around one. To equate military success with ethical superiority is totally wrongheaded.

---Email from Sweden:
“ Iraq. Don't get me started. Syria or Iran next? Or Norway, since they too got oil? Bush is not that appreciated in Europe right now (apart from England and Denmark...). And why haven't Iraq used all the weapons they had. Or didn't have? Well, I guess you and me are on the same side of the fence, anyway.”
---My modest-proposal reply:
“Thanks for the Norway idea. Dubya might want to consider it. We gotta prove we will kick Nordic butt just as quick as Islamic, so the Arabs will get over that persecution complex they so perversely harbor. Why be a superpower if you don't have super powers? Certainly if Iraq proves to be a pushover. With less than 100 U.S. casualties, how many or how few of these adventures would it take to equal the losses in one Vietnam experience? Maybe enough to conquer the world.”

---Thought for the day (with blog in mind):
“It is probably not a good idea to allow oneself to be too well truly known, since we are all shit at heart anyway. But I will continue to try to rise above the muck.”

---From email to Subterranean Press (regarding minor problems I seem to be having with my orders):
“I know what it is like to be over-busy, but I know customers keep wanting things to be handled correctly too.”
---Later: seems to have worked. Actually a response.

---Received word that Robert Christgau’s latest VILLAGE VOICE column has been posted.

4/7/03 MON:
---Caught a few inches of snow overnight. I think I will have to do some shoveling. Not what I care to be doing on April 7. Amy is home sick today so I don’t have to spring her car first thing.
---Still haven’t got the new shelves erected in my back (corrugated heap) room. Enough floor space was raked clear so I could get the shelves in position.
---The shelves are up, but the mess around them is still of massive proportions.
---This, as you may suppose, is wreaking havoc on my schedule. You might think my priorities would be in order by now, but that does not seem to be the case.
---On top of everything else it is beer-bottling day.

4/6/03 SUN:
---Continued with the cleaning/re-organizing of the backroom cardboard storage area, finding it to be a much bigger job than expected. Picked up a large shelving unit at the local Menards, to optimize floor area. End of the day found the shelves still not erected.

4/5/03 SAT:
---Got started cleaning up of the back room cardboard storage area. It has turned out to be a huge job. I can ill afford to put other things on hold, but that is what happens when these sort of projects gain a toehold on my itinerary.

4/4/03 FRI:
---Big change from yesterday. Temp now (9:30 AM) is 34 degrees. Drizzly and windy too. Yesterday it was still in the 70s.
---More text to follow?

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (4/3/03 Thurs):

CDs played today:
- John Cage COMPLETE PIANO MUSIC vol. 5 (2-disc)
- Bach ST. MATTHEW PASSION in English (3-disc)

---Plenty of books on hand to catalog and mention here, but I am so behind in filling orders and answering emails that I better not get sidetracked for now. My plan, as ever, is to get everything up to today (whatever today that might end up being). And then implement a program to whittle down the umpteen boxes of uncatalogued books hereabouts.
---Another project that is clammoring for attention--a clean-up of my back room where empty boxes are stored. I am just going to have to flatten them out and make a neat pile on some shelves. Having them empty and ready for use produces an accumulation with a mind of its own, quite in opposition to mine. It is getting to be the time of year when I will want to be able to open the window on the far side of the room. Now I would have to wade through that mountain of cardboard to let a little fresh air in back there.

---A new title from Hippocampus:
Gorman, Herbert THE PLACE CALLED DAGON, Hippocampus ('03), 1st edn, (1927 horror novel favored by HPL; Larry Creasy intro; Joshi afterword), new 15.00

---Here from Meisha Merlin:
Lee, Sharon & Steve Miller THE TOMORROW LOG, Meisha Merlin, 2/03, (Gem ser’Edreth #1; first published by Embiid in electronic form), new / dj $30
---There is also a trade paperback but I do not have it (yet).

---And:
NOT ONE OF US #29, 3/03, John Benson, (stories and poems; this issue reflects our fatal attraction with things that cut ourselves and others; Patricia Russo, others), new 4.50
---No Internet connection is mentioned in the magazine, so no link--but probably no less interesting to read.

---An article in NY Times CIRCUITS about the programming competition Neil was in over part of his Spring Break.

4/2/03 WED:
---With Neil home on spring break I didn’t have full access to the computer I use to post blog entries, so there has been a lapse. I hope I can get back in the swing of things now--and maybe figure out a way to not get knocked off track so easily in the future. For now I have posted the missing days with more or less blank entries, so I can come along later and fill in. Some text is already extant from the downstairs (business) computer, and some exists in my fountain-pen notebook that may warrant transciption. Maybe it does not warrant it but might get it anyway. Or might not... we will see.

4/1/03 TUES:
---Back to work in the cellar.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (4/1/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Stanley Kubrik’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE soundtrack (vinyl LP)
- Zelenka RESPNSORIA PRO HEBDOMADA SANCTAS (2CD)
- Nisse Helberg XTREM (non-extreme George Thorogood in Swedish)
- Bruce Springsteen THE RISING (Xgau: HM) - not near as hyper as the terrific TV concert on CBS a couple weeks ago.
- Fred Frith CLEARING

---I am way bogged down (not to say blogged, though I should) getting next catalog (#145) out.
---Temps in 70s by mid-morning, ran 5 miles in shorts as early as I could get out. It finally got up to a high of 87 degrees--downright hot.
---Won’t have much chance to dwell on words here, because I am so behind on everything. As occasions occur, though...

---Another batch of pbs for next insert sheet:
2 • • NEW ARRIVALS (& re-arrivals): 2/17/2003—4/1/2003 • •
Signet E8525 Andrews, Bart THE TOLKIEN QUIZ BOOK, 2/79, (1001 questions), vg+ 5.00
Condor 028 Arnason, Eleanor THE SWORD SMITH, 5/78, (orig; adult fantasy), vg 3.50
Tor 50880 Bell, Douglas MOJO AND THE PICKLE JAR, 5/91, (orig; fantasy), vg+ 2.50
Jove M4556 Bodelsen, Anders THINK OF A NUMBER, 6/78, (Danish thriller), vg 2.25
DAW 600 Bradley, Marion Zimmer CITY OF SORCERY, 10/84, (Darkover), g-vg 2.25
Baen pb 3583 Chalker, Jack L. MELCHIOR'S FIRE, 1/03, (orig; Three Kings #2), new 7.99
Del Rey 31358 Clarke, Arthur C. 1984: SPRING: A Choice of Futures, 11/84, (nf), vg+ 3.50
Pyramid T2281 Clarke, Arthur C. AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT, 6th(8/70), vg-f 2.50
Pocket pb 53817 David, Friedman & Greenberger ST: DSN 20:Wrath of Prophets,5/97, vg 2.00
Carousel 70097 DeBolt, Adriana VOYAGE OF THE TRIGON, ('81), (spacers), g-vg 2.50
Baen pb 3560 Drake, David (creator) FOREIGN LEGIONS, 9/02, (shared-world), new 7.99
Baen 31992 Drake, David LT. LEARY COMMANDING, 6/01, (RCN Series #2), new 7.99
Pop Libr 04614 Eckert, Allan W. SAVAGE JOURNEY, 9/80, (Amazon jungle), vg 2.50
Baen 57814 Friesner, Esther (ed) CHICKS 'N CHAINED MALES, 5/99, (orig), new 6.99
Baen 87867 Friesner, Esther (ed) DID YOU SAY CHICKS?!, 2nd(8/01), (OA), new 6.99
Baen 31950 Friesner, Esther (ed) THE CHICK IS IN THE MAIL, 10/00, (orig; OA), new 6.99
Baen 57868 Gellis, Roberta BULL GOD, 5/00, (when gods still walked the earth), new 6.99
Pop Libr 04245 Gerrold, David DEATHBEAST, 7/78, (orig; savage SF excitement), g-vg 2.25
Pocket 83614 Golding, William THE INHERITORS, 12th, (pre-history novel), vg+ 2.50
Pock Card C207 Goodwin, H.L. THE SCIENCE BOOK OF SPACE TRAVEL, 12/55, vg+ 4.50
Pop Libr 04256 Goulart, Ron INVISIBLE DEATH , 7/78, (Zarkon, Lord of Unknown), vg-f 5.00
Pop Libr 03201 Goulart, Ron THE EMPEROR OF THE LAST DAYS, 4/77, (orig), vg-f 4.50
Baen pb 3585 Greenberg & Tier (eds) GIVE ME LIBERTY, 1/03, (libertarian SF), new 7.99
Dell pb 6668 Harrison, Harry (ed) NOVA 2, 4/74, (OA; Aldiss, Farmer, Anderson), vg-f 3.00
Bantam J2316 Harrison, Harry PLANET OF THE DAMNED, 1/62, (orig), g-vg 3.50
Baen 57848 Ing, Dean FIREFIGHT Y2K, 1/00, (Millenial Retrospective Edition), new 6.99
Avon 71107 Jance, J.A. HOUR OF THE HUNTER, 15th, (Koontzish suspense), new 7.99
Baen pb 3566 Keith, William H., Jr. BOLO STRIKE, 10/02, (created by Laumer), new 7.99
Carousel 70040 Kelly, David J. TOWER OF DESPAIR, ('80), (future battle), g-vg 2.50
Pocket 02424 King, Stephen HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, 3rd, (Sixties novel), new 7.99
Pocket pbk 5596 King, Stephen ON WRITING: A Memoir of the Craft, 2nd, (non-fic), new 7.99
Baen 87713 Lackey, Mercedes (creator) LAMMAS NIGHT, 2/96, (orig; OA), new 5.99
Pinnacle 00901 Lamb, Harold HANNIBAL, 8/76, (history; world's greatest soldier), vg 3.00
Baen pb 3527 Laumer, Keith ODYSSEY, 3/02, 1st combined edn, (2-in-1-plus), new 6.99
Baen 31857 Laumer, Keith RETIEF!, 1/02, 1st unitary edn, (3-in-1; 601 pages), new 6.99
Ace pb 66951 Le Guin, Ursula K. PLANET OF EXILE, nd, g-vg 2.00
Starscape 34568 Lee, Tanith RED UNICORN, 4/03, (enchanting, magical sequel), new 5.99
Pyramid G461 Leinster, Murray MEN INTO SPACE, 10/60, (orig; TV tie), vg+ 5.00
Beagle 95123 Lovecraft, H.P. THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, 8/71, fr-g 2.00
Faw GM d1659 MacDonald, John D. DEADLY WELCOME, nd, (suspense), g 1.75
Faw GM R2005 MacDonald, John D. THE CROSSROADS, nd, (expert chiller), fr 1.50
Faw GM T2443 MacDonald, John D. THE EXECUTIONERS, nd, (tension and terror), vg+ 2.50
Faw GM M2325 MacDonald, John D. THE LONG LAVENDER LOOK, 10/70, (orig), g-vg 2.50
Faw GM d1609 MacDonald, John D. THE PRICE OF MURDER, nd, (suspense), vg 2.50
Timescape 49299 Marshak & Culbreath THE PROMETHEUS DESIGN, 4th, (Star Trek 5), vg 2.00
Pop Libr 00388 Maxwell, Ann THE SINGER ENDIGMA, 7/76, (haunted universe), vg+ 2.50
Dell 1st B110 Merril, Judith (ed) YEAR'S BEST S-F: 2nd Annual Volume, 2nd, vg+ 3.50
Ace pb 73684 Monaco, Richard RUNES, 1/84, (orig; fantasy; Druids vs. Romans), vg 2.50
Pocket 04172 Neiderman, Andrew CURSE, 10/00, (magic or murder?; evil eye), new 6.99
Pocket 02709 Neiderman, Andrew NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH, 1/00, (suspense), new 6.99
Pop Libr 04142 Priest, Christopher THE SPACE MACHINE, 1/78, (martian invasion), vg+ 4.00
Baen 57879 Schmitz, James H. T 'n T: TELZEY & TRIGGER, 2nd(11/01), (#2), new 6.99
Baen 31966 Schmitz, James H. TRIGGER & FRIENDS, 1/01, (Hub #3), new 6.99
Pocket pb 44244 Springer, Nancy THE SILVER SUN, 2nd, (>The Book of Suns; seq), vg+ 2.00
Pocket pb 49564 Starub, Peter JULIA, 15th, (genuinely frightening chiller), vg 2.50
Pop Libr 03173 Wallace, Ian THE SIGN OF THE MUTE MEDUSA, 1/77, (orig), vg 2.50
Baen 31977 Weber, David ASHES OF VCTORY, 3/01, (Honor Harrington #9), new 7.99
Baen pb 3575 Weber, David FLAG IN EXILE, 5th(9/02), (Honor Harrington #5), new 7.99
Baen 87783 Weber, David HONOR AMONG ENEMIES, 5th(7/02), (Honor #6), new 7.99
Baen 57770 Weber, David IN ENEMY HANDS, 5th(8/02, (Honor Harrington #7), new 7.99
Baen 3571 Weber, David ON BASILISK STATION, 8th(2/03), (Honor #1), new 7.99
Baen 57855 Weber, David & others WORLDS OF HONOR, 3/00, (Harrington), new 6.99
Baen pb 3584 Weber, David THE EXCALIBUR ALTERNATIVE, 1/03, (orig), new 7.99
Baen pb 3572 Weber, David THE HONOR OF THE QUEEN, 8th(8/02), (#2), new 7.99
Baen pb 3520 Weber, et al. WORLDS OF HONOR #3: Changer of Worlds, 2/02, new 7.99
Baen pb 3573 Weber THE SHORT VICTORIOUS WAR, 7th(8/02), (Honor #3), new 7.99
Baen 57846 White, Steve EAGLE AGAINST THE STARS, 1/00, (orig), new 6.99
Avon 30973 Zelazny, Roger SIGN OF THE UNICORN, 11/76, (Amber), vg-f 4.50
Avon 33324 Zelazny, Roger THE HAND OF OBERON, 6/77, (Amber #4), vg-f 3.50

3/31/03 MON:
---Got back from taking Neil back to Illinois. Was able to pick up mail but not much else.
---More text to follow?

3/30/03 SUN:
---Took Neil back to Urbana for the balance of his second semester at the Univ of Ill. Will stay in a motel and return tomorrow.
---More text to follow?

3/29/03 SAT:
---More text to follow?

3/28/03 FRI:
---More text to follow?

3/27/03 THURS:
---More text to follow?

3/26/03 WED:
---Picked up Neil at airport for what is left in his Spring Break. He got to go to Beverly Hills for a few days to be in a contestant in the ACM Intercollegiate Programming Contest.

3/25/03 TUES:
---More text to follow?

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/25/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Mekons OOOH! (Xgau: A)
- Stan Getz THE COMPLETE ROOST RECORDINGS (3-CD)

---Received new CD from guitar-whiz Roger Lasley:
Lasley, Roger WALKING BACKWARDS, 03, (more solos and duets for platpick guitar; a fourth CD by the man who sure can pick ‘em!), music CD, new 15.00
---I haven’t listened to it yet, but the previous three were fine listening. So I am looking forward to hearing it.

---I thought about dispensing with the email updates I send, but I think that pushing information into in-boxes is one thing and having people seek it out for themselves is something else. This blog is something I am trying to have some fun and informality with instead of having be an outright crass business website. I figure a proper website is still to come perhaps someday, but for now this easy and costless blogsite is what I seem to be able to do. I don't want to promote it heavily, just casually mention it here and there; because a lot of it will probably end up being unself-edited drivel that will be extraneous to what book-buyers are interested in finding out. So I will continue with the updates, even trying to be a bit less sporadic in their emissions.

---Word from Tartarus Press is that COLLECTED MACABRE OF L.P. HARTLEY is almost gone, and UNCLE STEPHEN, THE LOST STRADIVARIUS and THE SALUTATION are now out of print.

---I forgot to mention that the McFarland books posted yesterday get a 20% discount for members of the discount plan. I notice that my practice now of adding two months to subscriptions with each invoice written means that people who buy on a bi-monthly basis effectively now get their subscriptions for free.
---If my paper catalogs become so infrequent that only wired customers have the information to be able to continue ordering regularly, then a significant sector of my constituency will be lost. I do not think that would be desirable; but printing and mailing costs, not to mention the time spent printing, reducing, laying out pages--and the 40-mile round trip to my printer in Ames, taken twice for each printing--to leave off and pick up catalogs--has become something I seem to have become increasingly unenamored of.

---Received word of the latest Consumer Guide by Robert Christgau (“As Long as I Still Can”)

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/24/03 Mon):

CDs played today:
- The Reputation (Xgau: A minus)
- Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman SONG X (Xgau: A)
- Tweet SOUTHERN HUMMINGBIRD (Xgau: HM*)
- Tom Waits BLOOD MONEY (Xgau: A minus)

---A few days offline here, no fault of the computer, only the spongy softwear of my brain. I have been eager to get back into the routine, however. When others are on vacation hereabouts it is hard for me to not follow suit, even when it is the last thing I should be doing. I have been thinking about lots of things to write here, but if I get started trying to run through the litany--much of which might be all too predictable anyway--the pile that is starting to redevelop on my desk here will become too formidable again.
---Largest pile in front of me now is the shipment from McFarland that has come in:
Joshi, S.T. THE MODERN WEIRD TALE, McFarland ('01), (informal sequel to The Weird Tale; study of many of the leading writers of horror and supernatural fiction since World War II), new 34.95

Muir, John Kenneth HORROR FILMS OF THE 1970s, McFarland ('02), (detailed filmography covers groundbreaking films like The Exorcist, Carrie, Halloween and 225 more; 662 pp), new no dj (pictorial boards) 59.95

Pitts, Michael R. HORROR FILM STARS, McFarland, Third Edition, ('02), (80 horror film stars are covered in this major standard reference work; well-rounded career bios and detailed horror film write-ups, with complete filmographies or genre filmographies; 568 pages; illustrated), new 39.95

Weaver, Tom DOUBLE FEATURE CREATURE ATTACK: A Monster Merger of Two More Volumes of Classic Interviews, McFarland Claaics ('03), (combines 1994’s Attack of the Monster Movie Makers and 1995’s They Fought in the Creature Features; 384+318 pages), new 30.00
---I WAS A MONSTER MOVIE MAKER: Conversations With 22 SF and Horror Filmmakers, McFarland ('01), (actor who was fired by film’s director when he refused to put his head in a working guillotine during a climactic fight scene and other choice tidbits), new no dj (pictorial boards) 38.50
---POVERTY ROW HORRORS!: Monogram, PRC and Republic Horror Films of the Forties, McFarland Classics ('99), (delightful essays and full fimographic data; reprint of 1993 library bound edition; 376 pages), new 25.00
---SCIENCE FICTION CONFIDENTIAL: Interviews with 23 Monster Stars and Filmmakers, McFarland ('02), (312 pp; illus), new no dj (pictorial boards) 38.50

---Back in stock:
Hellekson, Karen L. THE SCIENCE FICTION OF CORDWAINER SMITH, McFarland ('01), (glossary, bibliography, index; 166 pages), new 28.50

Warren, Bill KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, McFarland Classics ('97), (in two volumes bound together), new 35.00

---Another stray thought: If all it takes to muffle dissent is to wage a war then we are in bad shape, because that is something not lost on Government Central Planning.

---New issues of a couple magazines:
PAPERBACK PARADE #59, 4/03, Gryphon, (Ann Bannon interview & more, Jim Thompson’s ‘mind of a killer’, Mexican vintage pbs, British master artist Peff; News; Letters; Ads; More!), new 8.00

PSYCHOTRONIC #38, '03, (Malcolm McDowell, Jan Shepard [Kid Creole], Don Stroud [Bloody Mama], etc.), new 5.95

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/21/03 Fri):

CDs played today:
- Dan Bern THE SWASTIKA E.P. (Xgau: #77 on 2002 Dean’s List)
- Mystikal TARANTULA (Xgau: HM***)

---Wasn’t Enron running pretty high on the hog prior to its precipitous downfall? Is there a lesson still being failed to be learned here?

---Received this from THE PROGRESSIVE:
“Dear Friend,
As the bombing of Baghdad continues, I thought you might want to hear what
Howard Zinn has to say.
The Progressive's editor, Matthew Rothschild, interviewed Zinn on Friday
morning. Zinn said the United States has become "a military monster in the
world." Listen to the interview or read the transcript.”

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/20/03 Thu):

CDs played today:
- Albert Collins TRUCKIN’ WITH: Side Two (not CD: vinyl LP)
- Ornette Coleman DANCING IN YOUR HEAD (Xgau: A)
- Raphael Saadiq INSTANT VINTAGE (Xgau: A minus)

---Stayed up way past my bedtime last night curious if target-of-opportunity Saddam may have been tagged by a cruise missile. Much as I may have deplored the initiation of all this dire foolishness, I confess I shared with even the most nitwit born-again nationalistic hawk-yahoo the hope that Saddam’s removal had been effectuated, although I am sure the attempt could be considered a war crime. It certainly would be if the gesture were reciprocated. I finally went to bed realizing it was probably too good to be true, that a hit had been made. As for what is going on now, I will try to avoid being fixated by the micro-detail and rumormongering of nonstop network coverage (if it is even being offered up at this moment). Likewise I will try to resist the urge to watch the NCAA basketball tournament games starting today, if the war is even allowing them to be on TV--matchups I would not touch with a ten-foot-pole during the regular season now looming huge in importance to participants and fans. All-important but hardly life and death.

---Printed out and faxed order to Random House.

---Chilly foggy day today. I think I will have to go to the grocery store with Amy soon.

---Indeed it turns out the basketball games were shifted over to ESPN, which my non-cable TV does not get. I can’t complain about the Dan Rather marathon, because the importance for people who have loved ones involved in the war situation far transcends petty sports considerations. Even though the events actually transpiring might not seem to warrant such constant coverage, with the lack of newsworthy information coming through in a commensurately ongoing basis, I suppose the situation itself warrants an eye being kept on it while it is in the process of unfolding. Besides, I am able to carry on my regular work now without the basketball on. I did watch Dan Rather for a while, but finally tore myself away, doubtless just before something cataclysmic--but why someone in Polk City needs to be clued in constantly, who is lucky enough to have a son in college and not on the front lines; but who knows there are others’ sons not so safely harboured, who he can certainly empathize with--why he needs to be clued in from moment to moment is unknown. But I am sure there are many who do feel a need to be kept in the loop, and that is also fully understandable, even if their friends or family are not immediately involved.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/19/03 Wed):

CDs played today:
- Albert Collins TRUCKIN’ WITH: Side One (vinyl LP) - I need to play these things more often to keep the belt supple on the turntable.
- Derek and the Dominos LIVE AT THE FILLMORE (2 CD)
- Sarah Vaughan IN THE LAND OF HI-FI

---I have decided to start now with adding two months to existing discount-plan memberships whenever an order comes this way, since the whole idea of the thing is to help pay for catalog printing and mailing. If I am going to delay putting out a catalog for so long, that expense is attenuated as well. If you keep track of me online, whether through the blogsite or email updates, you probably don’t need to get catalogs anyway. For those many who do not seem to have internet accounts, I guess they will have to wait for next catalog to come out to learn about this new wrinkle, even though they are the ones most ripped off by paying a yearly fee but not getting any catalogs.
---Here is the note being added to invoices, starting yesterday:
"note: Due to the dearth of catalogs being produced, your discount-membership is being extended two months."

---A drizzly dreary day, somewhat cooler, enough to make the furnace kick on again. Trying to spend more time getting orders processed before people start getting edgy. Amy is home for her spring break starting today, so that will crimp my style a bit using this upstairs computer that I use to post my blog entries, due its incrementally faster dial-up connection. Her sewing area is right behind me, and furious typing piques her curiosity.

---Getting started on a Random House (Bantam, Ballantine, Knopf, Vintage, etc.) order. Once again, just about totally customer-driven, i.e. most of the books ordered are special requests or replacements for sold-out items in my catalog. I know there are a good many more books I would/should like to get, especially from such a variegated hydra as Random House, but because of the length of time since last order, more than enough books were already in my order-file to comprise a sizeable enough order. Maybe if something comes up that makes me feel the need to order again more quickly I will have to bolster it by referring to the listings/ads in LOCUS or wherever.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/18/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Oh-OK THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS (Xgau: A minus)
- John Cage THE WORKS FOR SAXOPHONE 1 (Mode’s Cage #24)
- Lightning Bolt RIDE THE SKIES (Xgau: A minus)

---This came in today:
Walpole, Hugh TARNHELM: The Best Supernatural Stories of…, Tartarus Press '03, one of 500 copies, (George Gorniak intro; 363 + xiv pages), new in dj 55.00

---I faxed my total-guesswork NCAA picks to my brother in Atlanta this morning. Last year I was 87 percent correct on Thurs and 13 percent on Friday, so that was pretty much guesswork too (a coinflip could have been just as correct; and picking the higher cedes would have doubtless been more effective). I admit I checked out the tournament rundown in the LA TIMES online this year, cribbing some darkhorse, upset, good-game selections from there, and totally reproducing the Final Four picks. I mean, what do I know? I have barely been following the college basketball season at all this year. So if I come up with a hundred percent batting average this year, credit it to my abject willingness to defer to authorities who pay more attention to their subjects than me. Like my adherence to Robert Christgau for rock/pop music-CD choices. He, at least, doesn’t have to try to shoehorn his tastes to fit fifteen-dollar investments, as does the average word-of-mouther. Plus the fact that his pithy analyses are always brilliant and on the money, even when they defy the prevailing opinion of the herd (critical or music-buying). By the way, the atheistic contraction to Xgau is Christgau’s own. I am tempted to go by Xopher myself.

---Ran the five miles again today. Temps in the 50sF, overcast, expecting rain later. Not bad. I will have to figure out the old chronometer again one of these times out to get a benchmark I can try to improve upon. Tomorrow I hope to extend my long run to 6 miles. Scheme is to run 4 out of 5 days, with 2nd of each running set a long run improvable by a half-mile each time. And maybe the fourth one a time trial to try to get my effort level up a bit. I found that when I was timing myself rigorously a while back, my runs were on a par with what I could do in races, thus obviating the need to go to races to try to see what I was actually capable of. Races, requiring logistics of registering to run, getting there, etc., and always being run in worse places than my bike trail, with the element of callow competitiveness albeit in the 50+-age category, have lost their appeal; especailly with a lifetime supply of t-shirts already at hand.

---Among emails received word of the editor of THE PROGRESSIVE’s latest web dispatch “Moment of Falsity”, his reaction to Bush’s speech, and his reaction to George Will's sudden conversion to the case for eliminating economic sanctions. Also, how the Dixie Chicks had to apologize for criticizing Bush.
---Here is a letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush on the eve of war.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/17/03 MON):

CDs played today:
- Kitty Wells COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME (Xgau: A)
- TRANSPLANTS (Xgau: A)

---Another listless weekend allowed to slip through my gnarly fingers. I should have been preparing Catalog 145, but I didn’t.
---Reported for 8AM jury duty on time this morning. A couple trials settled or continued made my presence superfluous, but only after a good three and a half hours sitting reading the magazine I brought. I need to call tomorrow afternoon to see if I should report again on Wednesday. I guess sitting around waiting to see if I need to be enpaneled is better than actually being on a jury
---Another day in the 70sF tempswise. Still cold and clammy down here with windows open three days in a row now, but gradually it is getting better. I should make a recording of the birds outside. They are getting noisy.
---Off day from running after four in a row. These warmer days it is not nearly so hard to convince myself to get out there. What is the alternative? Get some work done?
---A couple book arrivals were here to greet me when I got back from Des Moines:
Shepard, Lucius LOUISIANA BREAKDOWN, Golden Gryphon '03, 1st edn, (Golden Grypon’s Book #23; Poppy Z. Brite intro; J.K. Potter art & afterword; 145 pp), new in dj 21.95

VanderMeer, Jeff VENISS UNDERGROUND, Prime ('03), (striking biomorphic inventions). new 15.00

---Also in mail:
- NY TIMES for Sat.
- HARPER’S (CAUSE FOR DISSENT by Lewis H. Lapham; Andrea Palladio and the Science of Happiness, The Posthuman Condition, etc.)

---Note on magazines in mail: I’ve only recently subscribed to a great number that I am getting, somewhat spurred by the Utne Reader Awards listed a month or two ago. I figured these are days when the independent and dissenting media need all the help it can get. If I can receive some interesting things to read that keep me from the brainfog that Dan would Rather me inhabit as well as help bolster subscriber rolls where needed, then it is the least I can do. I know I get more than I can keep up with and still read a book every once in a while.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/15/03 SAT):

CDs played today:
- Scelsi THE PIANO WORKS 1 (Mode)
- John Forté I, JOHN (Xgau: A minus)

---I didn’t mind watching the basketball games on TV this afternoon, with the Friday NY TIMES occupying 90 percent of my attention, but when Billy Packer came on it finally got to be too much. That guy maintaining with such vehemence things which are so obviously just plain wrong made me flip the TV off in disgust. Just as well--I have no business squandering my time witnessing what has got to be the biggest waste of time invented--these meaningless conference tournaments (unless for some unworthy team to get an automatic berth by beating teams which could care less because they know their cedings are secure). As a metaphor for life itself and its striving, the taking up of allegiances, the ritualized and controlled aggression and violence, sports maybe has a place. Better that than what it is a stand-in for. But I have work to do!
---Ran for third straight day. This time the regular five miles. Kind of plodding, but further along maybe my legs will come around. Can’t complain about the weather. The windows are open down here for the first time in months. Goodbye radon buildup. Hello fresh air--if the neighbor would eschew her smoky smolderer wafting all-too-frequently in our direction.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/14/03 FRI):

CDs played today:
- Public Enemy REVOLVERLUTION (Xgau: A minus)
- OBOE & GUITAR: French Sonatas of the 18th Century (MDG Scene)

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/13/03 THU):
---Noon Big 12 tournament basketball game between Iowa State and Kansas occupied my attention for a while, but Kansas’s domination gave me a chance to doze a little. I found my work wasn’t getting done all by itself. Morning was spent packaging book shipments and going out on 5.5 mile run. I barely managed to make it to the post office by noon.
---Received another invite from Polk County Bank to join their Entrepeneurs’ Roundtable. Topic for Mar 28: Determining Your Website Strategy. No doubt I should show up, but I do not do well in such settings. What is the agenda--to put me in the bank’s debt?

---Faxed an order to McFarland. This is what I am getting:
DOUBLE FEATURE CREATURE ATTACK / Weaver 30.00
HORROR FILM STARS / Pitts 39.95
HORROR FILMS OF THE 1970s / Muir 59.95
I WAS A MONSTER MOVIE MAKER / Weaver 38.50
KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES! / Warren 35.00
MODERN WEIRD TALE / Joshi 34.95
POVERTY ROW HORRORS / Weaver 25.00
SCIENCE FICTION CONFIDENTIAL / Weaver 38.50
SCIENCE FICTION OF CORDWAINER SMITH / Hellekson 28.50

---At the pb book sale last week I picked up a few digest magazines too. I have gone ahead and added them to the catalog. Here they are:
FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, THE MAGAZINE OF…, 4/68, (Galouye cover story; Final War by K.M. O’Donnell aka Barry Malzberg), vg+ 1.50
GALAXY magazine, 3/70, (Ellison’s The Region Between), vg 2.50
IF, WORLDS OF… , 11/65, (Bulmer’s The Domsday Men; Saberhagen, Dickson, Laumer serial), vg 2.00
THE MOST THRILLING SCIENCE FICTION EVER TOLD, spr/68, (digest mag), vg $2
WORLDS OF TOMORROW, 11/64, (Chandler, McIntosh, MacApp, del Rey), vg 3.00

3/14/03 FRI (upstairs notes):
---Temps are supposed to rise to 60F today. I ran early, adding a half mile to my regular 5 miles. With the quarter-mile markers (some gone missing now, though), I can add a half mile by turning around at a further quarter-mile marker. I come it at the 21-mile mark and either run north or south depending on the wind and my mood. I prefer the north route but now that the pine trees along the stretch that parallels Mile Long Bridge Road have grown so that I am not exposed to the road as much, I run to the south as often as to the north. Also, the hills are not as steep running to the south--until you go past the Marina. Then there is a very steep hill down to where the trail runs across the bottom of the barrier dam. No flood this year so far, but the recent snow melt does have things kind of soggy. A sunshiny day like today to melt everything, then a couple more to dry them off, and spring will have sprung.

---In mail today:
- NY TIMES for Thurs
- THE NATION (Tony Kushner on Laura Bush and Evil)

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/13/03 THU):

CDs played today:
- Mildred Bailey THE COMPLETE COLUMBIA RECORDINGS OF...: Discs 1, 2 & 3 (Mosaic) - regrettable racist lyrics but reflective of the benighted times; we are so much more enlightened now.
- Tom Verlaine FLASH LIGHT (X-gau: A minus)

---Finally made it out for a run today. When I was bottling beer the other day I think I twisted my knee, so the leg felt kind of stiff. But that was not a great impediment once I got going. It bothers me going up or down stairs, but not running. After such a long lay-off I figured just to cover the 5-mile distance was enough. I will try to put a few days in a row together. Then when I have jury duty starting Monday, who knows what I will be able to do. There were still icy patches on the bike trail, but the temperaratures are gradually getting better. The snow is slowly disappearing. There were springtime bird songs in the woods today. And the geese are mobilizing for their northerly push.
---When I got to work down here I had to concentrate pretty fixedly on handling orders. The wolves are starting to howl!

3/13/03 THURS (upstairs notes):
---A couple book arrivals:
THE DARKEST PART OF THE WOODS by Ramsey Campbell from PS Publishing in the UK and BABYLON SISTERS (hc) by Paul di Filippo from Prime Books.

---Received in mail today:
- NY TIMES for Sun, Tues, Wed.

---Would you rather eat the cud or the cow? -- a thought that occurred while running. If we eat curd why not cud? I imagine nutritional analyses have been made, but it seems like it ought to be pretty good stuff. Tastes good to the cow. We could attach a spigot to the cow's fifth stomach or whatever and it could become a big eating machine as well as a milk-making machine. Maybe too many stomach acids in there, though. But it seems like tofu, seitan and TVP are but cuddish processing of raw vegetable material themselves. I think there ought to be a better way than slaughter harvest the cow.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/12/03 WED):

CDs played today:
- Shadows Fall 2 song sampler from THE ART OF BALANCE (For Promotional Use Only - are these the guys who lit that fire?)
- Tommy Flanagan SUNSET AND THE MOCKINGBIRD: The Birthday Concert (Blue Note, 1998)

---A late start to say the least today. Had to make a run for a few provisions, including bulbs for my headlight: an absolute necessitiy when pulling books.
---Another item that has been sitting around here uncatalogued far too long, from Necro:
Lee, Edward INCUBI, Necro, 12/02, 1st hc edn, one of 326 SIGNED copies, (only uncut edition available; originally published by Berkley/Diamond in 1991), new in dj 45.00

---And one that just got here (see link below):
Ketchum, Jack PEACEABLE KINGDOM, Subterranean '02, 1st edn, one of 626 SIGNED copies, (stories; author talks about his readers in his intro; 382 pages), new in dj 40.00

---I am ordering both the hc and pb of ROSWELL, VEGAS, and AREA 51, a chapbook from Wormhole.

---I have received an order for Bill Warren’s epic fantastic-film guide KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES. I was sold out, so I have to put together another order to McFarland. Here are a few titles that I may be ordering: They Fought in the Creature Features: Interviews with 23 Classic Horror, Science Fiction and Serial Stars by Tom Weaver, Poverty Row HORRORS!: Monogram, PRC and Republic Horror Films of the Forties by Tom Weaver, I Was a Monster Movie Maker: Conversations with 22 SF and Horror Filmmakers by Tom Weaver, Science Fiction Confidential: Interviews with 23 Monster Stars and Filmmakers by Tom Weaver, It Came from Weaver Five: Interviews with 20 Zany, Glib and Earnest Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Traditions of the Thirties, Forties, Fifties and Sixties by Tom Weaver, Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Flashbacks: Conversations with 24 Actors, Writers, Producers and Directors from the Golden Age by Tom Weaver, Horror Films of the 1970s, The Modern Weird Tale by S.T. Joshi, “Movies Were Always Magical”, and Double Feature Creature Attack . Browsing by subject and choosing SF & F books, I find a bewildering 100+ titles. A lot of them are pretty specialized and can be mighty pricey, but the academic commitment of this publisher is phenomenal. Their overall output in all categories of movies/TV would be staggering to behold, I am sure. Another genre they seem to specialize in is baseball books.

I have added The Joe Bob Report to my Favorites. I'll try to check it out further when I get the chance.

Here is A Website and Weblog about Topics and Issues discussed in the book Smart Mobs - The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold.

3/12/03 WED (upstairs notes):
---Up a bit on the early side to make oatmeal for Amy’s breakfast. These colder days it is not awlays easy getting out from under the warm covers in bed in the morning. But the temps are moderating somewhat now and I would like to work on being more of an early to bed and early to riser.
---Began beer batch by 6:30 - the quicker the start the quicker it will be done with. It is not a difficult process by any means but slowly bringing the steeping grains to a boil, then adding the malt, rinsing out the carboy, adding the hops at the proper times, cooling the mash, pouring the steaming wort into the carboy, pitching the yeast, manhandling the full carboy over to its nesting place over in the corner, installing the airlock - all that is quite easy to do, but it does consume a couple hours of time. If I put it off until later then it might be more of something that puts me off my stride for the rest of the day. As the guidebook says: “Relax...Don’t Worry...Have a Homebrew.” This time of day the having of the homebrew will have to wait - at least until I get back from the post office.
---The smell from the boil, while pleasant to me, does pervade the house. And Amy affects not to like it. So the early start will give that a chance to dissipate or at least ameleorate.
---I have been doing the homebrew for a least a dozen years now. Very little of the store-bought stuff for me in the interim. Maybe at a restaurant or traveling now and then, but essentially the two-bottle-a-day homebrew apportionment has been my dosage for the past many years. You would think I would have become a master-brewer in that time, but aside from Polk City having the hardest water this side of Löwenbrau, Germany, I have not done anything to make the result anything particularly outstanding. It just turns out that way naturally, at least in my opinion. Improvements are always in the direction of making the process easier to perform so it won’t be deemed too much of a hassle when bottling and brewing time comes along every month. I use kits because it takes the guesswork out - not that guesswork doesn’t invariably provide for a more than satisfactory outcome anyway. Belonging to a kit-of-the-month club by mailorder saves me from having to make special trips to Des Moines or Ames for ingredients. And the dry yeast I have to use when buying locally that comes in those packets has a tendency to over-intensify the fementation process, invariably causing the head of the wort in the carboy to to rise up to the airlock and seep over into the pan that holds the carboy, making for a rather sticky mess. In fact, one time the airlock clogged overnight, causing pressure at the rubber stopper so that when I noticed the problem in the morning and went to remove the airlock, the stuff exploded potently against our 10-foot ceiling. The stain on the ceiling was very concentrated. That was a mess! But the batch turned out okay, as they all do. The adjacent bookshelf took a little swabbing down and the books got a little sticky (my personal collection, thankfully), but dried wort is really not hard to clean up, despite what Amy might say. Only when it is spewn so far and wide that it is hard to track down every place it has splattered to, then it can be problematic. But it could have been worse. If my face had been over it, I could be blind in an eye now--or worse.

A new book from Subterranean just arrived:Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/11/03 TUES):

CDs played today:
- Richard Pryor ...AND IT’S DEEP, TOO!: Disc 7
- Steinski NOTHING TO FEAR (Xgau: A minus)
- James Carter JURASSIC CLASSICS

---Trying to get the new cataloguings finished. It occurs to me that if I have to perform jury duty on Monday, then the likelihood that I will be able to deliver Cataog 145 to my printer then is measurably diminished. Things keep mounding up faster than I can handle them anyway, so we shall see when the catalog ever gets issued. I wonder that things didn’t come to this sort of a head sooner. A thought that did occur is that maybe I should extend peoples’ discount-membership by two or three months if they order from the catalog when it finally does come out. I hate to think yearly membershps are running their course while I am not presenting them with possiblities for things to save money on, getting the most from their memberships. I do not want to rip off anybody.

---Received solicitation from Borderlands Press (website currently under construction) for Thomas F. Monteleone’s THE MOTHERS AND FATHERS ITALIAN ASSOCIATION and John Maclay’s A LITTLE RED BOOK OF VAMPIRE STORIES. Last time I tried to order from Borderlands my order was ignored. I was told, when I finally called and got TFM’s wife or assistant, it was because I refused to give Moneteleone a discount on books at my dealer table at a convention. That I was not even in attendance at that convention, and the few conventions I did go to where I noticed TFM a couple times, I know he never bought books at my table or even stopped at it. What’s more, I am sure I would have given him my “in the business” quasi-wholesale terms, as I know I am wont to do. But instead he probably bears me some sort of grudge, if he bears me anything at all. Maybe it is from when my face got switched with book dealer Robert Gavora in SF CHRONICLE. A photo of him was identified as me. That was a long time ago, but memories are long “in the genre”. Anyway, if someone wants either of these BP books, I will try to get them. Otherwise... although I confess his column is the first thing I turn to in Cemetery Dance. Fun to read but often very wrong-headed, by my recollection.

---Sent out an email update containing information about books from Dark Regions that I carry. It was a bit too long but it seemed to go out okay. Should I reprint it here? I don’t know.

---Here are the NESFA books I have now catalogued::
Brin, David TOMORROW HAPPENS, NESFA, 2/03, 1st edn, (Boskone GoH book), new in dj 25.00

Bujold, Lois McMaster THE WARRIOR'S APPRENTICE, NESFA ('01), newly edited hc edn, new in dj $25

Campbell, John W., Jr. A NEW DAWN: The Complete Don A. Stuart Stories, NESFA, 2/03, 1st edn, (Malzberg intro; includes two essays written as by Stuart, never before published in book form; 462 pp), new/ dj $26

Gaiman, Neil ADVENTURES IN THE DREAM TRADE, NESFA, 8/02, (shows other sides of the writer), new 16.00

Harness, Charles L. CYBELE, WITH BLUEBONNETS, NESFA, 7/02, 1st edn, (autobiographical novel; Zebrowski intro; 157 pages), new in dj 21.00

Van Vogt, A.E.TRANSFINITE: The Essential…, NESFA, 4/03, 1st edn, (573 pages), new in dj $29

---Back in stock from NESFA:
Bergeron, Richard WARHOON 28, ('78), (600-page, mimeographed fanzine collecting the writings of legendary fan writer, Walt Willis), as new no dj 30.00

Bujold, Lois McMaster DREAMWEAVER'S DILEMMA, NESFA, 4th(4/02), (stories & essays; reprint of limited hardcover edition published 2/96), new 12.00
---SHARDS OF HONOR, NESFA ('00), 1st hc edn, (Verkosigan #1), new in dj 22.00

Brown, Fredric MARTIANS AND MADNESS: The Complete SF Novels of…, NESFA, 9/02, 1st edn, (five novels plus two novelets; Tenn intro; 633 pages), new in dj 29.00

Harness, Charles L. AN ORNAMENT TO HIS PROFESSION, NESFA, 1st edn or 2nd(2/99), (title story, The Rose & 15 additional works; intros; bibliography), new in dj 25.00
---an unshrinkwrapped copy is a first edition; shrinkwrapped ones are probably seconds.

Russell, Eric Frank MAJOR INGREDIENTS: The Selected Short Stories of…, NESFA, 9/00, 1st edn, (Chalker intro; Resnick afterword; 701 pages), new in dj 29.00

Silverberg, Robert & Martin H. Greenberg (eds) ROBERT SILVERBERG PRESENTS THE GREAT SF STORIES (1964), NESFA, 12/01, 1st edn, new in dj 25.00

---And from Gauntlet:
Matheson, Richard COME FYGURES COME SHADOWES, Gauntlet '03, 1st, one of 500 SIGNED copies, (beginning of abandoned novel; 144 pages), new in dj 50.00

---A couple from Night Shade (the limited edtions of books I still have the regular editons in stock, except Gods In Darkness may be sold out now):
Hodge, Brian LIES & UGLINESS, Night Shade ('02), 1st edn, one of 150 SIGNED copies with music CD laid in, (far-reaching spectacularly unflinching stories), {trade pb @ $15 and trade hc @ $27 still available}, BOXED, new in dj 55.00

Wagner, Karl Edward GODS IN DARKNESS: The Complete Novels of Kane, Night Shade ('02), 1st edn, one of 150 copies SIGNED by artist Ken Kelly, (3-in-1 edn; collected in hc for the first time; 520 pages), BOXED, {trade hc still available @ $35}, new in dj 75.00

---From Bard College (one that I have had here for quite some time but didn’t get around to cataloguing):
CONJUNCTIONS: 39 (The New Wave Fabulists), Bard ('02), (Straub [guest editor]), new 15.00

---Likewise here for a while:
TALEBONES #25, fall/02, (Alan Deniro; James P. Hogan interview), new 6.00

3/11/03 Tues (upstairs notes):
---I find the more I concentrate on trying to keep up with book business, the less I have to write here that is not repetitious and, I would think, boring. If I am not exposing myself to ideas by reading (which precludes getting work done) or not going out and doing things to produce experiences to relate here, there is nothing much to write about. I could describe what i do, but that description would be the same, day in and day out. Or I could try to reclaim the dream I had last night--of my computer starting a house fire that ended up causing no greater damage than a broken computer monitor screen, although I did have a bit of a hassle with a computer salesperson about getting at my harddrive, which I assumed was okay because the case was not melted away. But nothing conclusive ended up happening, that I recall. I suppose besides reading or getting out, I could sit and do nothing or sit and scribble in my tablet and probably produce more in the way of mental activity than doing book business. Indeed I find that on my run or in the shower, when my thoughts are not preservable, is when the most felicitous ones occur.

---Received in mail today:
- NY Times for Sat and Mon (not Sunday yet, as if I ought to spread that thing around the house now anyway)
- The Week (All You Need to Know About Everything That Matters) - readings from various media sources
- Newsweek - Counter Attack (Biological Weapons and Urban Warfare: How Saddam Might Fight Back)

---Bottled beer this morning.

---Always a delight to learn of a new Rock&Roll& - by Robert Christgau -- What's Not to Like?: A Success Story Where the Good Guys Win? (Norah Jones isn't just "hype").

3/10/03 MON (upstairs notes):
---In mail today:
- THE NEW YORKER
- THE ATLANTIC (The Mind of George W. Bush)
- rental DVDs: Ratcatcher and The Magnificent Ambersons (Can’t remember what recommendation list I was mining to come up with these; but that is half the fun)
- CDs comprising order for A-List discs in Christgau’s Feb 21 “Consumer Guide” and a few stragglers from his Pazz & Jop 2002 Dean’s List, adding too many more to my already overburgeoning accumulation.

---Since later in the week figures to be so nice, except that a fair amount of snow has to melt first, I think I will save myself for running starting tomorrow. Today I better get some work done.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/10/03 MON):

CDs played today:
- Paul Niblook YGPGN (2-CD) (Xi) - mighty minimalist
- Cachao DOS (Xgau: A-minus)

--Time to print out labels for outgoing mail today. First, maybe I can get some books catalogued.
---Here are some trade books from Simon & Schuster (Baen & ibooks) that have arrived:
Betancourt, John Gregory ROGER ZELAZNY'S THE DAWN OF AMBER, ibooks, 9/02, 1st, (New Amber Trilogy #1; prequel), new in dj 24.00

Cadigan, Pat (ed) THE ULTIMATE CYBERPUNK, ibooks, 2nd, (groundbreaking stories selected by The Queen of Cyberpunk; includes exclusive 16-page full-color insert of the “lost” second volume of the authorized adaptation of William Gibson’s Neuromancer), new 16.00

Martin, George R.R. (ed) WILD CARDS XVI: DEUCES DOWN, ibooks, 7/02, 1st, new in dj 23.00

Schmitz, James H. ETERNAL FRONTIER, Baen, 9/02, 1st, (full-length novel & much more; 538 pages), new 16.00

Weber, David WAR OF HONOR, Baen, 10/02, 1st, (Honor Harrington #10; 869 pages), CD ROM bound in, new in dj $26

---Back in stock:
Bester, Alfred REDEMOLISHED, ibooks, 12/00, 1st, (collection of odds & ends), new 14.95
---one copy arrived with corner creased. If you want it you can have it for $9.

Silverberg, Robert (ed) SCIENCE FICTION 101, ibooks, 2nd, (=Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder; where to start reading and writing science fiction), new 14.00

Stirling, S.M. THE DOMINATION, Baen, 5/99, 1st thus, (Draka Trilogy complete in one volume; 778 pages), new in dj 24.00

---Now here: shipments from NESFA, Gauntlet, Night Shade. More info to follow.

3/10/03 MON (upstairs notes):
---Another abrogated Sunday--spent cleaning the house, trimming the beard, watching the Six Feet Under DVD, reading magazines, etc.; when I should have been readying Catalog 145 to take to the printer today. But still, with enough orders still in hand to keep me busy and various and sundry loose ends yet to tie up, the pressure, need, urge to have that catalog be out seems to have shriveled up on the vine. Maybe next week! Meanwhile, time to make amends by lowering my shoulder to the grindstone to get the week started with a big push.
---Part of the problem yesterday was the extreme cold. I even had to turn back from an attempt at going for a run, with a strong frigid headwind making my face freeze, especially with beard freshly shorn. That means the cellar office would be mighty cold too. I should have broke out the vornado space heater a couple months ago to at least take the edge off the chill down there. Today it is supposed to get to ten degrees warmer (or less cold) but that is still well below freezing. Right now (8:21 AM ) it is still plenty cold. Checking the Legion Hall’s flag across the way, it is just hanging there, so maybe not such a wind to contend with. When I go out to the post office in a few minutes I will get a better idea. This time of year, at least the sun should be warming things up a bit more than it was two months ago. But with a decent layer of snow still on the ground it is hard to get above freezing anyway. All in all I prefer it to the humid, insect-ridden, moldy-corner time of year in summer, because just as it may be intolerably cold now, it will be just as intolerably hot come July and August. Iowa does not have a temperate climate.
---But eating my oatmeal just now, turning on the TV briefly to check the current temperature (12 degrees), I see that it is projected to reach 60 degrees by the weekend, with Wed & Thurs in the 50s. So I guess spring will be here soon! (The basement will still be cold, though.)
---Magazine read yesterday--REASON: contains an interview with future-guru and erstwhile SF author Howard Rheingold on mob-blogging. I did not realize the Miss World riots in Nigeria were fueled by hand-held text pagers (“smart-mob technology”).

---The hc of SPECTRUM 9 from Underwood just arrived. I was wondering about that. The tpb has been here for a while. Check out SPECTRUM for information on the series, but the link only gives info through SPECTRUM 6.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/8/03 Sat):

CDs played today:
- Handel CONCERTI GROSSI Op. 6: Discs 2 & 3 (of 3) - Amy is upstairs so I have to be nice with what I play on the stereo.
- Pixies PIXIES (SpinArt) (Xgau: A-minus)
- Cassius AU REVE promo (freebie disc from distributor)

---Never got that stack on my desk worked down yesterday. I am trying to avoid the situation I always find myself in, where the layers of paper on my desk becomes formidable. Things that should be getting immediate attention get buried under things I would like to give attention to when the opportunity presents itself, whenever that may be.
---Highest stack in front of me at the moment: Golden Gryphon books, yielding:
Waldrop, Howard CUSTER'S LAST JUMP and Other Collaborations, Golden Gryphon #24, '03, 1st edn, (with riotously funny and libelous story notes), new in dj 24.95

---Back in stock:
Baker, Kage BLACK PROJECTS, WHITE KNIGHTS, Golden Gryphon '02, 1st edn, (brings together the early Company stories for first time), new in dj 24.95

Duncan, Andy BELUTHAHATCHIE and Other Stories, Golden Gryphon '00, 1st edn, (two originals; Bishop foreword; Kessel afterword), new in dj 23.95

Kelly, James Patrick STRANGE BUT NOT A STRANGER, Golden Gryphon '02, 1st edn, (stories, including one original; intro by Connie Willis), new in dj 25.95

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn STORIES FOR AN ENCHANTED AFTERNOON, Golden Gryphon '01, 1st edn, (author's first collection; Kevin J. Anderson foreword), new in dj 24.95

Watson, Ian THE GREAT ESCAPE, Golden Gryphon '02, 1st edn, (stories), new in dj 23.95
---one of the copies has a creased dj. Anyone wanting it can have it for $14.

Zebrowski, George SWIFT THOUGHTS, Golden Gryphon '02, 1st trade edn (Easton Press is doing a signed/leather edn), (stories; Benford intro), new in dj 24.95

---This is supposed to be the weekend, finally, for Catalog 145 preparation, but surveying the amount of material I still need to deal with, I am strongly considering another week of delay. I know how everything comes to a standstill when I work on a catalog. I don’t know--maybe if I can get on top of things a little bit prior to sending out the next catalog, I may have a chance to not allow myself to be in such a fine mess in the future.

---This from THE PROGRESSIVE that is probably worth checking out (whether you agree or not):
- On Bush's latest comments and the session at the U.N. Security
Council: "Bush's Press Conference, More Fearmongering and
Warmongering."
- About the scary faceoff with North Korea: "Diplomat Bush Makes a Mess of Korea."

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/7/03 Fri):

CDs played today:
- Handel CONCERTI GROSSI Op. 6: Disc 1 (of 3) - probably background music but I find myself lolling back extolling in its virtues. Are there any all-time better composers than Handel and Vivaldi?
- Richard Pryor ...AND IT’S DEEP, TOO!: Disc 6 (while shelving books and pulling orders)
- Peter Garland ANOTHER SUNRISE (Mode)

---Nice pile of things to do on my desk this morning, but not a long time in which to do them.

---UPS just brought books from Golden Gryphon and Simon & Schuster (ibooks, Archway, Pocket/Baen tpbs/hcs)

3/7/03 FRI (upstairs notes):

---The paperback book sale was great. I added another 177 titles to my retirement plan, mostly 60s and 70s titles, including several Philip K. Dick pbs. Most all were vg+ or better. Indeed, the scenario of somebody’s collection being donated in its entirety does seem to have been what occurred. I fear this is something that will be happening quite a bit in years to come.

---In mail today:
- REASON magazine (Free Minds and Free Markets)
- NY TIMES for Thurs (Circuits section) and Tues (Science section)
- Rental DVD of SIX FEET UNDER: First Season (Disc Two) - not getting cable channels on our TV (only the local broadcasters: ABC, CBS, NBC. FOX, PBS, and WB), it is interesting to get these DVDs to find out what people are talking about that I never get to see.

3/7/03 FRIDAY (upstairs notes):
---I have been packaging and reshelving books this morning. Thinking about going to the PB book sale at noon in the Botanical Center. It would behoove me to be there at its opening, if I am going to go at all. Moving boxes around lately I have encountered many a one marked PB BOOK SALE and dated from over the years. I have forgotten many of the “finds” I know I made. When I get a chance to catalog these books, if I ever do, it will be fun to re-experience that exhiliration of extracting the odd nugget from the dross. Except this time it will be more like diamonds among sapphires--at least it might be that way sometimes. Not all the book sales have been fertile hunting, but I remember some of the have been pretty good. You never know from year to year. It doesn’t take more than one collector biting the dust with his wife or progeny being only too eager to get rid of his books for there to be a nice little vein to mine.

---Fedex dumped off a box from Babbage Press. Four titles only to begin with (from their impressive list): THE EMERALD BURRITO OF OZ, HOMUNCULUS, A SONG FOR LYA and WILD HAIRS.

3/6/03 THURS (upstairs notes):
---When I don’t get started on the right foot first thing in the morning, it is hard to get back on track. This morning I went to my dentist appointment, where I got the spiel about getting crowns on my fractured teeth (or potentially fractured), saying that I might need a root canal later on, or maybe a tooth extraction, etc., etc. But I managed to get out of the office with only an appointment for my next checkup: Sept 11 at 8AM. Usually I can’t remember when my next check-up is supposed to be.
---After I got back from the dentist it was still early. I had picked up the mail. The new LOCUS arrived. Also: NY TIMES for Wednesday (what happened to Tues--Science Section day?), a rental DVD of SOPRANOS: Season One (Disc 3), and the shipment from Haffner. I decided I better go for a run, after four off days. The bike trail was snow-covered, more than ankle deep in places, so I was glad I decided to wear my trail shoes. I only wear them two or three times a year, but they are much better trudging through snow than my regular smooth-surface shoes. A strong wind from the south but temperatures still in the frigid range. The sun was shining, so it was very nice out there.
---Amy got home early so we went to the grocery store. Ate at a new Panera’s (yuppie fast food) in Ankeny. Not as good as the one we stop at in Davenport on the way to take Neil to Urbana, but it sufficed.
---Better wind this up for now so I can get some things done that actually need to be done. I will post this tomorrow because I have found my evening postings sometimes get bogged down from being during peak internet traffic times. Plus I am too dang tired in the evening.

MARTIAN QUEST: The Early Brackett arrived from Haffner today.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/4/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Northern State DYING IN STEREO
- Richard Pryor ...AND IT’S DEEP, TOO!: Disc 5
- Beethoven TRIPLE CONCERTO/SYMPHONY No. 10 (first movement)
- Sonic Youth SYR 3 WITH JIM O’ROURKE (an emusic download)
- Wes Montgomery COMPLETE RIVERSIDE: Disc 5 (another from emusic)

---The first two CDs above are not too good as background discs, because the words bear listening to. I was reshelving books and moving more boxes around, so it was a good time to listen to them.
---I thought I was covering all my bases by ordering everything Prime Books has in print, but not only was I surprised by the number of titles they have issued, but I also find that I missed a couple--namely the hc of BABYLON SISTERS, which a couple people want me to get. Also, I have asked about (MONSTROCITY by Jeffrey Thomas), and VENISS UNDERGROUND by Jeff VanderMeer. Another publisher taking a walk on the Wildside!

---Need to catalog the Baen/Pocket paperbacks clogging my desk now.

---Later: Now have 67 paperback new arrivals catalogued, just shy of the 70 for printout on package-insert sheet. I will paste it into this site when it reaches the magic number.

3/5/03 WED (upstairs notes):
---Watched rented DVD of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN last night. Hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. Back then the horror elements outweighed the comic, but now it is the other way around. You could see Karloff having a lot of fun being the monster. The thing is a collection of famous movie stills come to life. I am skipping the go-through-again-with-commentary, but I find that a good way to imprint a movie more fully in the mind. A good commentator can clue me in to things I missed or didn’t know about the movie, background information, etc.; and the camera work can be appreciated more fully as well, watched a second time with variant audio. But there is that greater time commitment. No doubt there are tons of movies that warrant such extra scrutiny. Lots of books too. But I better stick to my repetitions being for music-CD listening, which more easily can slide into the background and seeming inattention. Still, I find there is always part of the brain listening even if it is not the conscious part--or the conscious conscious part. When I re-play something, thinking I missed it, I often find that I remember hearing it after all.
---Worked on establishing too many web links for the blog last night. The idea was to bite off more than I could chew, hoping that I would figure out the quickest and easiest things to do. I did change a few procedures as I went along and developed some ideas for use in the future--no doubt primitivistic to a computer adept; but if I can get something to work and stick with it, then it might be worth continuing along with it. Only time will tell.
---Just finishing my morning oatmeal now. Had to get outside earlier and shovel the snow out the driveway, as well as the sidewalks around the house. It was not as bad as the foot we received a couple weeks ago, but it probably gave me as much exercise as I will get today. Looks like a fourth day in a row not running, after I managed to put together four consecutive running days.
---Got a call from the dentist office reminding me of my 9:00 appointment tomorrow. I like getting it out of the way early. Later on I have a tendency to let the time slip by unbeknownst. Now he wants to charge me $68 if I miss an appointment. I wonder if our dental policy would pick that up.
---Received in mail today:
- LIGHTNING OVER WATER DVD (Wim Wenders)
- THE NATION (How the Other Half Still Lives)
- NY TIMES for Monday

---Better get downstairs and get to work. Check out the mail later.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/4/03 Tues):

CDs played today:
- Purcell SONNATTAS Vols. 2 & 3 (2 CDs)
- Ockeghem MISSA AU TRAVAIL SUIS (ASV Gaudeamus)--makes me feel holier than thou
- THE HARD EDGE OF ALTERNATIVE (a “The Mix” from emusic)--makes me feel unholier than thou
- BURN, BABY, BURN! (another “The Mix” from emusic)--fiery fusion

---Working on inputting of Prime Books that arrived yesterday. Eleven titles (and it looks like a good number more than that on their website). I am trying out copying the URLs for each book-detail listing, to see if it might not be too much trouble to set up links when I do my blogpost tonight. So far linking has gone well enough, but I do not want to be trying to do something so labor-intensive that I end up getting way behind on the things that matter more than setting up links perhaps no one will ever use. I have tried out some of the ones I set up experimentally already and they worked like a charm, so that is kind of slick.

---Another dozen titles from Prime came in the mail today, as well as the new one from Ash-Tree in Canada. A pause for brunch (the last of the leftover split-pea soup), and now back at it. The Prime titles will certainly put my capacity for picayune chores to the test, setting up links to all these book titles. But it will be a good test. I had seen reviews of their books cropping up all over the place and wondered how come I wasn’t getting them. Well, now I am. The invoice has not arrived, so I do not know what discount members of the discount plan will be receiving. Probably 20%. I will apprise if it gets better.

---UPS just dumped a couple boxes on the porch: shipments from Subterranean and Pocket/Baen. I wonder about the chapbooks that I think Subterranean has published lately. I have tried to have a standing order for these, but do not see any in present shipment. The paperbacks from Pocket/Baen mostly consist of restocking sold-out titles and extra copies of special-ordered books (if it seemed like they might sellable). If I check to see what else to get my completist tendencies tend to run too much amok. Or you could say that I had enough books already in my order-file, to make enough of an order. Maybe next time I won’t have so many and I will have to check more carefully on what Baen and Pocket have been publishing lately.
---When I went upstairs I was surprised to see it has started snowing rather heavily. Today is now the third day in a row I have skipped my 5-mile run. The winds were kicking up pretty strongly with temps in the teens when I went to the post office, so that was sortie enough for me.

---Finally got the Prime Books catalogued, sort of:
---Twenty-three titles from Prime Books now in stock. These are POD editions, with only the first title stating First Edition on the copyright page. This one inaugurates my belated standing order:
Bishop, K.J. THE ETCHED CITY, Prime, 2/03, 1st edn, (intricate novel), new 16.95

---Maybe these did too in their initial demand printing:
Castle, Mort NATIONS OF THE LIVING, NATIONS OF THE DEAD, Prime ('02), (Romany stories; "Mort Mythology” by a master of the short story), new 15.00
Di Filippo, Paul BABYLON SISTERS and Other Posthumans, Prime ('02), new 17.95
Fisher, Jack (ed) WHISPERS AND SHADOWS, Prime ('01), (horror stories), new $15
Fox, Derek M. JACKDAW, Prime ('02), (stark evil in every tale), new 15.00
Gonzalez, J.F. OLD GHOSTS and Other Revenants, Prime ('02), new 15.00
Hughes, Rhys NOWHERE NEAR MILKWOOD, Prime ('02), (stories), new 17.95
Lebbon, Tim THE NATURE OF BALANCE, Prime ('02), (apocalyptic visionary), new in dj 29.95
Logan, Simon I-O, Prime ('01), (industrial-style stories; cybergoth SF), new 12.00
Maynard, L.H. & M.P.N. Sims THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF DEMONS, Prime ('01), (novella; modern nightmare of riotous colour & white-knuckle action), new $12
--- & ---(eds) DARKNESS RISING 4: Caresses of Nightmare, Prime ('02), new 12.00
--- & ---(eds) DARKNESS RISING 5: Black Shroud of Fear, Prime ('02), new 12.00
O'Neill, Gene THE BURDEN OF INDIGO, Prime ('02), (sf/fantasy/horror tale), new $15
---GHOSTS, SPIRITS, COMPUTERS AND WORLD MACHINES, Prme ('01), (horror stories; introduction by Kim Stanley Robinson), new 15.00
O'Rourke, Monica J. SUFFER THE FLESH, Prime ('02), (horror novel), new 15.00
---(ed DECADENCE ONE, Prime ('02), (erotic horror tales), new 12.95
REDSINE: A Quarterly of Dark Fantasy & Horror #7, 1/02, Prime, (Stableford, VanderMeer; Hand interview) • ---#8, 4/02, (Rhys Hughes; Tim Powers interview), • ---#9, 7/02, (Kim Newman interview) • ---#10, 10/02, (Sallis, etc.; Stableford interview), new each, 6.00
Savory, Brett A. THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED, Prime ('01), (novelette), new 15.00
UNDERWORLDS 1, Prime ('02), (horror/suspense from mentally-ill editor), new 5.99
Waggoner, Tim ALL TOO SURREAL, Prime ('02), (McKiernan intro), new 15.00
---An interesting-looking batch of books, to say the least. Prime Books may have Wildside disease (erstwhile Pulphouse disease), but with this print-on-demand technology, I guess numerous titles can be unleashed with less monetary risk. Even if not sustained, this is already enough stuff for many a publishing career.

---Sent an order for the latest Golden Gryphon books (Waldrop and Shepard), as well as to replenish depleted stock on several of their titles.

---Just added a “new” update to the list of email to be sent next time on-line. It gives information about the big fat Robert McCammon book I think I only have one copy of right now, but would love to get more. I should have mentioned, but I think there was also a limited. As usual, I carry the cheapest edition, but can try to order the limited. What the discount might be, I can’t say. Or if it is even still available.

---I catalogued the Subterraneans that came in:
Bloch, Robert THE LOST BLOCH Vol. Three: CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS, Subterranean '02, 1st edn, one of 776 copies SIGNED by editor Davud J. Schow and someone whose name I cannot decipher--it doesn’t look like any of the participants I can find; maybe it says on the Subterranean website, (the novella here is Dr. Holmes’ Murder Castle with five otherwise unreprinted short stories; appreciations by Douglas E. Winter and widow Eleanor Bloch), new in dj $40
---more copies; I already had some, but haven’t gotten around to listing it here yet (which hasn’t stopped it from selling anyway).

Brite, Poppy Z. THE VALUE OF X, Subterranean '03, 1st edn, SIGNED, (mature work), new / dj $35

Matheson, Richard OFF BEAT: Uncollected Stories, Subterranean '02, 1st edn, one of 750 SIGNED copies, (includes five originals; William F. Nolan [ed]), new in dj 40.00

---Back in stock:
Lansdale, Joe ZEPPELIN'S WEST, Subterranean, 6/01, 1st edn, one of 1500 SIGNED copies, (a Lansdalean holiday into weirdness and camp), new in dj 40.00

---And here is my listing for the Ash-Tree book which came in today too:
Boston, Noel YESTERDAY KNOCKS, Ash-Tree '03, 1st, (ghost stories), new / dj $45

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/3/03 Mon):

CDs played today:
- David S. Ware GO SEE THE WORLD (Columbia, 1997)
- Massacre MELTDOWN (Tzadik)

---Yesterday was another Sunday washout. It is a wonder that Sundays have been my day for catalog preparation. By my latest quarterly catalog schedule next week is when I will come out with #145, or at least ready it for the printer. With my vehicle incapacitated I had been thinking maybe to take the layouts in on Saturday (using my wife’s car) and picking up the finished product a week later. But I hitched a ride with my mother-in-law to Des Moines where Neil’s car was being stored in her garage. Now I have another vehicle on its last legs to try to tool around in. I won’t have an excuse to miss my dentist appointment on Thursday. Or the paperback book sale at the Botanical Center on Friday. Nor the jury duty I have been assigned to starting Mar 17--the day I figured to be mailing the catalog. And I should be able to make it to the printer on schedule--finally. Thirteen weeks between catalogs--I don’t know about that. I had hoped to be catching up on more things by having the extra time. Well, I could still start bearing down now.

---Once again I did not get much done today. I should have erected the new shelves I picked up yesterday, but instead I did it this morning. I thought it would be something I could do quickly, but it turned out to be quite a chore. Now that it is done there are only a few million other things standing between me and a perfectly well organized workspace down here. But right now I have some books to catalog, some orders to process, etc., etc.

---A batch of books from Prime Books arrived today. Now I should have all their in-print titles. More later.

BOOKCELLAR NOTES (3/1/03 Sat):

CDs played today:
- Henry Purcell DIOCLESIAN Discs 1 & 2 (Chandos, 1995)

---Got off to an 8AM start at the computer but quickly fizzled, having to get to post office by closing at 9:30, with a few packages needing to go out. After that, my fourth day in a row running my five-mile route. Legs are starting to feel it! Tomorrow is a rest day.
---Amy (my wife) is at Iowa Public Television in the telephone-anwering line-up for their Festival fundraising drive kick-off this morning. I tuned in for a while after my run and saw her, practically non-stop with the phone at her ear.
---I hope to be able to make it out later this afternoon to get a new table and shelf unit to further my attempt to improve my work area, and hopefully give me renewed impetus to get to work.

---I did get to make a run for a couple new furnishings for my workspace, including a work table and another shelf unit. These should make a couple of the difficult spots to pull books from quite a bit easier, as well as make things a bit less disorderly--at least for now. But that has left with me with no chance to get anything much else done today.
---I can note that word has arrived from Ash-Tree Press that YESTERDAY KNOCKS is on the way. Also, I inquired of Gauntlet about a title I wondered if I actually had ordered as I was supposed to: COLLECTED STORIES by Richard Matheson. The reply:
“COLLECTED STORIES may end up being one of our last titles of the year. We're still working on IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE. With all the material it's taken us longer than we expected. We also just got the manuscript for the F. Paul Wilson Repairman Jack book and that will be next followed by THE KOLCHAK SCRIPTS. When all of that is done we'll begin work on the COLLECTED STORIES. I've noted your order. There will be a solicitation later on this.”