Casperian Books Blog

There is a new review of Enter Oblivion at Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews and a new review of Fame & Madness in America at The Open End.

Since I’m halfway through getting last year’s books ready for the accountant, here are some statistics:

• 51% of 2011 receipts were payments from our wholesaler

• 23% of 2011 receipts were direct sales through our website
• 26% of 2011 receipts were what we euphemistically term “cash & check payments,” i.e. payment for purchase orders from books stores and educational institutions, receipts from direct sales through Amazon, payments from library fulfillment services and book clubs, etc.

There is a new review of Marina Melee up at Underground Book Reviews.

Lots of activity these past few days! alt.punk has got a lot of shout-outs for the Best of 2011, including from Ben Tanzer at TNBBC’s The Next Best Book Blog, the folks at The Word Zombie, DK at Banners of Death, and the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, which also called out The Rage of Achilles in the same list.

Meanwhile, Bridget Bufford has a new interview up at Q. Kelly’s Author Website and there’s a new review of Cemetery Bird here.

Finally, Ian Woollen has a new story up in The Atticus Review.

A half-hour-long radio interview Bridget gave to The Next Frontier program earlier this month is available for listening to online at Living the Autism Maze.

Red Fez Entertainment has posted a review of Fame & Madness in America, and there’s also a very nice little write-up of The Rage of Achilles at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography.

There is a new review of Flooding Granite and an interview with Tom Mahony in Paddling Life.

Casperian Books is please to announce the release of Garrett Socol’s debut novel, Fame & Madness in America.

When Brenda Bernstein poisons her husband of four days, little does she know that she is about to set off a media circus the likes of which haven’t been seen since O.J. got into a white Ford Bronco.

Brenda becomes an overnight tabloid sensation-and so does everyone she has ever come in contact with, from her grade-school nemesis to her 90-year-old grandmother. As the notoriety of her trial gathers momentum, her erstwhile brother-in-law is courted by reality TV show producers to host their newest dating game show, “Mating After Murder,” and her friend Veronica screen-tests for a remake of Body Heat, while the presiding judge at her trial wisely invests in a complete makeover for the benefit of the cameras infesting the courtroom. And let’s not forget Brenda’s mother, who is so thrilled to see her daughter gracing the cover of Time, she buys all copies of the magazine from her local newsstand.

Told in vignettes from the various important (and not-so-important) players’ points of view, Fame & Madness in America is a wildly entertaining romp that explores the world of fleeting popularity in a culture that worships celebrities.

Click here to read the first chapter of Fame & Madness in America.

There’s a new interview with Bridget Bufford up at the KBIA website and alt.punk has been named as one of the Top 10 Indie Picks of 2011 by Lori Hettler at the BookPage blog.

Rock Dance is going out of print at the end of this month. We have a couple of copies left in stock here, so this is your last chance to buy the book!

There’s a new review of Hoosier Life & Casualty up at the Books, Personally blog.

We are pleased to announce the release of Tom Mahony’s second novel, Flooding Granite.

Zack Pruitt is a river guide long on skill but short on nerve: he dropped out of college, quit his job, and abandoned his girlfriend and young son when things got tough.

Back in the Sierra Nevada, Zack signs on for a high-water river trip with three other guides and eleven clients. As the flotilla careens toward Gallows–a brutal rapid that’s always terrorized him–events spin out of control. A near-fatal accident coupled with a rush of snowmelt leave the guides and clients fighting for survival, and Zack discovers that for once running is not an option.

“River guide Zack Pruitt and his clients get more excitement than they bargained for in this gripping account of three days on the water battling nature, each other, and their own demons. Tightly wrought tension crests to life-threatening levels as Mahony takes readers on a ride filled with unexpected twists and turns. Flooding Granite offers nail-chomping suspense on every page.” –Robin Stratton, Boston Literary Magazine

“Tom Mahony knows how to tell a story and, as a scientist, understands the natural environment. In Flooding Granite, he demonstrates both of these skills with an intelligent action tale that grabs you by the collar and doesn’t let go. More than a man-battles-nature story, Flooding Granite is layered with a human element that will have you rooting for Zack and caring for him despite, and maybe because of, his flaws.” –Wayne Scheer, author of Revealing Moments

Click here to read the first chapter of Flooding Granite.

The first review of Flooding Granite is up at Small Press Reviews.

Nathan Holic, the man behind the front cover of alt.punk, has done a comic of one section of the book. You can read it here at Smalldoggies Magazine.

There’s a new writeup of Cemetery Bird in Vox Magazine.

There’s a new review of alt.punk up at Smalldoggies Magazine.

Fall releases kick off today with the release of Bridget Bufford’s second novel, Cemetery Bird, the story of Hotshot Jay Aubuchon who returns home to Missouri to help care for her autistic nephew after being injured in a forest fire.

On October 1st, we’ll be following that up with Tom Mahony’s new novel, Flooding Granite, in which a group of river guides takes a bunch of tourists on a whitewater rafting trip that soon turns to disaster.

Finally, on December 1st, we’ll be releasing Garrett Socol’s satire, Fame & Madness in America, which explores the nature of celebrity through a series of vignettes from the points of view of anyone even remotely associated with an accused murderess.

And yes, we’re skipping November this year because several members of the Casperian Books family will be halfway around the world for a family celebration and we don’t want those folks remaining in California to have to manage a new release all by themselves.

There is a new review of Enter Oblivion and an interview with its author, C.M. Harris, up at the Top 2 Bottom Reviews website.

There is also a new review of Charles Dodd White’s Lambs of Men in the current Appalachian Heritage (login required).

Last but not least, Lavinia Ludlow’s alt.punk made the Dogzplots “10 Favorite Books I Read So Far This Year” list.

There’s a new review of Marina Melee up at The Internet Review of Books.

There is a new interview with Lavinia Ludlow up at Monkeybicycle.