2015 marks the fifth year of operation here at Nualláin House, Publishers, and while there were a few surprises and learning experiences, there is also no doubt the education opportunities will keep presenting themselves.  Of the four books Nualláin House has published to date, two have been genre fiction and two have been poetry.  This should not be surprising as among the principals of the publishing concern are two poets.  Genre fiction will still be a focus but because of the abundance of readily available material, poetry will always be a consideration.  Now with four books complete and available, a fifth is in the planning stages.   More on that in the near future.

The Nualláin House mission has not changed. As a publishing venture committed to introducing diverse literary entertainment to the reading public, Nualláin House, Publishers, will continue to offer a range of quirky and engaging titles to enhance the modern “reading life.”   What has changed is the variety of options available in presenting and producing written entertainment, and one that Nualláin House, Publishers, is encouraged to attempt.

Access and availability seem to be the buzz words.  The reading public now totes their devices the way some folks used to carry paperbacks around (some folks still do).  In fact, one of the early paperback publishers was Pocket Books, the name emphasizing their product’s portability.   What has changed is that information, in this case literature, no longer needs to be tied to a single use artifact.  Access to the virtual information cloud seems unlimited as is its round the clock availability.  Technology always changes the way business is done whether it is developing a new type of spearhead or the latest application for digital devices.  How it applies to independent publishing requires a reevaluation of what is being made available, in this case reading material.  Business, independent publishing included, carries with it the assumption that there will be compensation for the effort expended in offering a product, and that money needs to change hands. Although that aspect of business will not go away if it expects to remain business, it is quite possible that virtual content will represent merely the ephemeral inducement to acquire the printed artifact as an item of cultural capital.

Perhaps the access to intellectual product should not be predicated on a monetary return.  The factor that will determine such a product’s financial viability is demand.  If there is no significant demand should the property be withheld or should unconditional access be open to all cyber grazers in the marketplace?  Granted, such a free site becomes a special niche, boutique, if you will, visited by a unique readership brought there through interest generated on social media.

Although eBooks seem to occupy the virtual niche, their basis is not all that different from their printed versions in that they are, at the get-go, a product that must be purchased to access, albeit at a reduced cost.  Also, their virtual life lasts only as long as it takes to complete reading the text which can be anywhere from 12 hours to several months, depending on the product.  An alternate paradigm would be one that takes its cues from entertainment programming in that it offers episodic installments available at a predictable time and date and a compelling story arc that carries over an extended period the interest and attention of the reader.  That it is offered without cost removes a further obstacle in its availability.  What is being described is the online serial.

While the concept of an online serial is not new, Nualláin House is encouraged to adapt the concept to an ongoing pulp series of online genre fiction and is currently testing the waters with an original online serial fiction, Ode To Sunset.  Judging from the initial and ongoing response to posted episodes, there is no doubt that it is a viable enterprise with exciting potential. Many of the details are still in flux as to the format and presentation of serial online fictions, but one thing is certain: companion print editions will inevitably be available for purchase.  More will be forthcoming as further developments take shape.

Ode To Sunset, A Year in the Life of American Genius, is the title of the ongoing online serial fiction.  As of this post, eight installments have been published, with two more episodes to complete the current section.  Ode To Sunset is the story of American genius told over the course of a year. It is about a poet who is not quite Charles Baudelaire not quite Charles Bukowski, who looks like a well worn Alex Trebeck but with the demeanor of a Mickey Rourke.  It mostly takes place in a city not always quite Frisco.  It is satirical, playful, and inevitably deadly serious.  Now available for your oculation.  Ode To Sunset.

Nualláin House Publishers is also the sponsor of a sister site, Parole, blog of The New Black Bart Poetry Society.  Parole features essays and critiques on the art of poetry, poets, and the poetry world in general.  Previous posts have included essays on Philip Whalen, William Carlos Williams, Andrei Codrescu, and Bob Dylan.  Membership in The New Black Bart Poetry Society is open to anyone who follows Parole.

Just A Reminder
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Your Name Here, New Poems by Pat Nolan
Never one to settle into a style, Pat Nolan has made of his poetry an exploration of other poetries and of the numerous ways a poem can be.  As an adherent of the Philip Whalen Buddhist-inspired “mind moving” school, he holds to the idea that the poem is framed sentience. Just as the observed world is an occasion of subjectivity, it also mirrors the self in a way that reflects objectively.  The poems in Your Name Here revolve around that quantum axis with seemingly random discontinuities that do not pin down meaning but are left to mean themselves.  Written to be heard by the mind’s ear, Nolan’s poetry enacts a sub-vocal monologue that is like the murmur of cosmic background radiation, noticeable only in its cessation or as pauses when the mind registers the sum of discrete moments in an instant.

November 2014 ~ 80 pages ~ $16 ~ paper ~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-0-9

Hello Life by Gail KingPoetry; The poems of Hello Life achieve their freshness in the particularity of experience. The poet surrenders herself to the moment and tenders that subtle cognition as a delighted welcome to life. The ease of her expression in dealing with the everyday communicates an uncommon wisdom. The poems present, through playful understatement and sly humor, the immediacy of spontaneous impressions. Maureen Owen, former artistic director for The Poetry Project in NYC and author of Edges of Water and Erosion’s Pull, says “In Gail King’s poems the events of the day become transformative, the images of the temporary become immediate, and the mystery of being alive in the Now unfolds. “…time like a lake breeze” says the poet, and the wind rises.” Gail King’s poems have also won the praise of Andrei Codrescu, poet, novelist, essayist and NPR commentator, author of So Recent Rent A World, who said “Reading Gail King has always been one of my great poetry pleasures. Her inimitable voice narrates the world with humor and tenderness, a world of beauty and occasional sorrow. Her work has healing effects.”

December 2013  ~  $16.00  ~  64 pages ~ Paper  ~  ISBN 978-0-9840310-3-0

The Last Resort, A Lee Malone Adventure by Pat Nolan
Pat Nolan has written a fast paced, tongue-in-cheek, pun filled comedy of errors, misunderstandings, and faux intuition in the mode of a 1930’s pulp thriller to talk about the pulp fiction of that era.  In doing so, The Last Resort presents an unlikely set of circumstances in which a worldly-wise female reporter must untangle herself from her past in order to deal with the puzzling events of her present.  Rather than the typical splinter-jawed, broken nosed, tobacco breathed tough guy hero, Nolan upends the stereotype by introducing a gorgeous internationally famous former fashion model whose super power is her beauty.  The Last Resort, A Lee Malone Adventure, is a quirky, entertaining recreation of the lurid screed that once peopled pulp pages on newsstands everywhere.

August 2012 ~ $19.99 ~ 212 pages ~ Paper~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-2-3

On The Road To Las Cruces, Being A Novel Account of The Last Day In The Life of A Legendary Western Lawman by Pat Nolan
On The Road To Las Cruces, a work of fiction tethered loosely to historical fact, is the story of the relationship between two men, one garrulous, the other taciturn, the Mutt and Jeff of the old Southwest.  What is related on the road to Las Cruces is as much a retelling of some history as it is how such a retelling might come about, and is represented in the manner of a tall tale, the deadpan details of a crime story, melodrama, and a conspiracy to murder. The road to Las Cruces is full of twists and turns.  The sound of a door slamming like a gunshot brings us into the world of the old Southwest and the gun violence of that historical era.  More than just the tale of a legendary lawman who remains nameless to the end, it is a lesson in storytelling and an allegory for how lives were lived and how death was dealt.  As much a dusty tale of buffalo hunts and shoot-outs as a politically driven “whodunit,” On The Road To Las Cruces is the story of youthful bravado and an old man’s regret.

November, 2011 ~ $16.99 ~ 154 pages ~ paper ~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-1-6

Nualláin House, Publishers, in partnership with Bamboo Leaf Studio, will continue to offer its series of linoleum block print portraits entitled Smoking Poets featuring such literary luminaries as Dylan Thomas, Roberto Bolano, and Charles Bukowski.

Also available from Bamboo Leaf Studio are selection of Buddhist-inspired prints featuring faux homilies for the 21^st Century. All linoleum block prints are hand printed on unbleached mulberry washi and signed by the artist with his seal.Order through Nualláin House, Publishers Box 798, Monte Rio, CA 95462