Dolls, weirdness, and imaginary numbers...
No, we're not really sure what's going on either.
Hola Fahrenhistas,
Okay, sit tight we’ve got something a bit special.
We’ve got a new project to share with you today that’s unlike anything we’ve ever published before…
Drum roll please…
On Friday 25th November 2022 we’ll be publishing The Perception Of Dolls written by Anthony Croix and edited by Russell Day.
It’s available to pre-order NOW in Paperback or Limited Edition Hardback editions.
Frankly we don’t really know where to start with this so it’s probably best if we let Russell Day explain this project in his own words by sharing an extract of the email he sent with his submission.
“…toward the end of 2018 I received a parcel containing 500 sheets of printed paper, 57 photographs, scores of pen and ink sketches and a collection of exercise books. The documents had been neatly packed into a pair of box files, but not before being wrapped in multiple layers of tinfoil.
I decided I had some phone calls to make.
A few weeks earlier, I’d been contacted by a friend who worked in a small law firm. She’d asked me if I’d be willing to look over a manuscript with a view to formatting it. The manuscript wasn’t hers, she explained, it was the work of a client: Anthony Croix. When pressed for details she invoked client confidentiality but did allow that Mr Croix was ‘having a bad time of it’. On the understanding that I couldn’t promise anything I agreed to look at the manuscript.
What I’d been expecting was an email with an attachment. My experience of formatting and proofreading extended no further than beta reading work presented as Word documents or e-reader files, where changes could be made with a few keystrokes. What I’d been given was a much larger undertaking.
The package had no return address for its author and, it transpired, neither did my friend. She assured me she’d contact Mr Croix, pass on my apologies, and find a way to return the manuscript to him. Weeks passed. Finally, I reapplied the layers of foil and put the manuscript in my attic.
More than a year later, my friend contacted me again, this time acting as executor of Mr Croix’s will.
The ‘bad time’ Anthony Croix had been having had stayed with him. When he died, in a shelter for the homeless, his worldly possessions consisted of the clothes he lay in and the manuscript in my attic. The latter he had bequeathed to me, with no instructions or requests as to what I should do with it. If I wished, I was within my rights to throw my inheritance into a bin.
I found I couldn’t. Homeless, penniless, and alone, Anthony Croix had entrusted to me the only mark he would leave on the world. I retrieved the manuscript from the attic and got to work.
The dedication at the start of this book is Mr Croix’s. All footnotes are attributable to Mr Croix unless expressly stated otherwise. All descriptions of photographic, video or audio material are assumed to be Mr Croix’s unless credited otherwise.
The title The Perception of Dolls, the section and chapter titles, and the addition of a bibliography are attributable to me.
Russ Day, London, 2021”
As you can imagine, this book is something a little bit special even for us.
We guarantee you won’t have read anything else like it and any of you who’ve read King Of The Crows will know that really is saying something.
Russ calls this project his ‘concept album’ and issued meticulous instructions about every aspect of it from the type-setting to the orientation of the cover.
Apparently the cover had to be turned on it’s axis because of something to do with a concept in advanced mathematics called imaginary numbers that seemingly don't relate to normal maths laws and can only be utilised by turning the numbers through 90 degrees.
Well that's what he told us, to be completely frank by that point we were slightly worried by the frenzied look in his eyes, were agreeing with anything he said, and just replied ‘yeah sure mate, right angles, maths, sure, whatever you need fella…’
Anyway, you get the gist of it - it’s epic, it’s awesome, and you wont have read anything quite like it before…
To celebrate Russell’s new project we decided to revisit his old Doc Slidesmith novels and give them a brand-new look - if you haven’t read these we’d advise you to get on it - in fact this weekend we’re giving you 15% OFF both Needle Song & Ink To Ashes + King Of The Crows for good measure - no need for a promo-code the discount will be calculated at the checkout.
We’ll be launching our Christmas store next week and we’re painfully aware that our trading figures over the next 6 weeks will very much determine if we’ll still be here bringing you awesome books in 2023.
So just a heads up, we’ll be dialling up the hustle quite a bit and doing everything we can to extract hard cash from your hard-pressed wallets.
Just before we really start to turn the screw we thought it’d be a nice gesture (and a good bit of karma) *side-eyes the universe to see if she’s looking* if WE GAVE YOU SOMETHING FOR FREE as a gift from us to you just to say thank-you for all your support so far this year and to let you know how much we appreciate all you do for us.
We thought long and hard about what book to give you and then realised we’ve literally just published the perfect title for these belt-tightening times, so here you go people, all this weekend you can download the freshly published Cash Rules Everything Around Me by Rob Gittins for FREE from Amazon.
Please enjoy this amazing book on us and if you’d like to leave a review afterwards that’d be peachy too….
Okay people that’s all from us this week, enjoy your free book on us and get your pre-orders in for The Perception Of Dolls (the hardback especially is a thing of great beauty).
Stay safe and look after each other.
We kiss you
xx