Valley Press Friday Digest, #3 (Saturday Edition)

It happened again - I put 'write the weekly round-up' at the bottom of my Friday task list, and here I am doing it on Saturday afternoon, in between the weekly shop and some gardening. To be fair, this is only my third effort in this new series, so I'm still getting into the swing of it... perhaps I'll do better next week? Anyway, here's what's been going on in the world of Valley Press over the last seven days:

• Since I published my very first book in 2008, I've been keeping one copy of each edition on a special shelf I refer to as 'the archive'. Whilst gazing happily at it this week, I realised I'd never taken a picture of this shelf and shared it with the world; so I remedied that immediately, as you can see below. Perhaps I'll update this every so often, as it continues to grow?

 

• The next addition to this hallowed stretch of shelf will be In Between by John Wedgwood Clarke, a new pamphlet I announced this week - you can read all about it here. With this publication, John becomes the first person ever to be published by Valley Press three times - we did Sea Swim in 2012, Ghost Pot in 2013, and now this small but perfectly-formed new title, due out on June 13th.

• In Between is a short sequence of poems considering the 'snickets, passageways, courts and yards' of York, in particular how people 'have shaped and been shaped by these transitional places' (a lovely turn of phrase I can't take credit for). These poems were commissioned by the York Curiouser project, and were first seen written in chalk in the locations they describe (if you follow me). Photographer Chris Jones captured some of this work, as you can see below, and on his website here.

• There was some great news for Love and Eskimo Snow this week, as a deal was struck with WHSmith Travel to feature the book in a 'buy one get one half price' offer during the summer, starting in mid-July. WHSmith Travel are the branches in train stations, airports and motorway service stations, so if you find yourself in one of those after the 17th July, ask the staff where you can find that summer book with the word 'snow' in the title - you'll be led straight there, I should think!

 

• And finally: I spent as much of this week as possible editing on paper, outside, as the weather has been lovely. However, by now I am running out of work I can constructively do whilst on a deckchair - so suggestions are welcome. Some excitement was provided on Thursday by the arrival of a new printer at Valley Press, my first wireless one; and yesterday I enjoyed reading this post on Rebecca Goss's blog, which happens to feature an excerpt from Opera di Cera not previously seen online - so head over there and enjoy that, and I'll see you next week. On Friday!