Going, going, gone - title update

Update on some of our titles:
The Liberation of Celia Kahn is now out of print in paperback, though the ebook is still available for the moment. Together with its companion volume, The Credit Draper, which will also fall out of print, J. David Simons' titles are passing to another publisher. This is Saraband in Glasgow. The two titles will appear from them with the third in the loose trilogy - The Land Agent. I've read the third and it is very good indeed. I'm sorry to see the books go, but they will have a great new home with Saraband and it makes sense for the three books to be available from the one source.
Less satisfying is that two of our announced titles will not appear at all. The first is Under the Surface: mining poetry. Unfortunately the editor was unable to complete the book and it has had to be abandoned. A further title, Comrade Marilyn, ran into copyright issues and has also had to be cancelled.
It's rare that we have abandoned titles after announcing them - these might be the first - but there's nothing we can do. Perhaps sometime these titles will come back to life.

Jews with kilts

A Celebration of Jewish Writers in Scotland Free -All welcome! INVERNESS LIBRARY, FARRALINE PARK, INVERNESS IV1 1NH Sunday 22nd April 2012
2.15 pm -5.30 pm Meet the Authors Discussion Refreshments
Book signing
This event is part of the Scottish Government funded 'Being Jewish in Scotland' inquiry and will be followed by a discussion about the preliminary findings
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION & TO BOOK YOUR PLACE Sign up at Inverness Library 01463 236 463 Or contact SCoJec Project worker Fiona Frank Tel 07779 206522 or email fiona@scojec.org
Meet the Authors: Rodge Glass, J. David Simons, Sharon Mail, Annemarie Allan Activities for young readers aged 8-13 with Annemarie Allan
Q and A session: Life as a Jewish Writer in Scotland CHAIR Ephraim Borowski Director, Scottish Council of Jewish Communities www.scojec.org/jewishinscotland.html
Rodge Glass is the author of the novels No Fireworks (Faber, 2005) and Hope for Newborns (Faber, 2008), as well as Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography (Bloomsbury, 2008), which received a Somerset Maugham Award. He co-authored the graphic novel Dougie’s War: A Soldier’s Story (Freight, 2010). His new novel, Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs, (‘A complex and moving portrayal of obsession, football and heroes with boots of clay’ – Will Self) is published in April 2012 by Tindal Street Press. Rodge was brought up in the Manchester Jewish community and now lives in Glasgow where he is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Strathclyde University.
Sharon Mail is an author and freelance writer. Her first book, We Could Possibly Comment – Ian Richardson Remembered, in tribute to the acclaimed Scottish actor, who was a friend, was published in August, 2009. Sharon began her professional writing career in 2006 when she became a full-time journalist for the Jewish Telegraph Group of Newspapers and she has been writing weekly as the JT’s Scottish correspondent on a freelance basis for the past four years. She is a a member of Strathkelvin Writers.
J. David Simons was born in Glasgow in 1953. He studied law at Glasgow University and became a partner at an Edinburgh law firm before giving up his practice in 1978 to live on a kibbutz in Israel. Since then he has lived in Australia, Japan and England working at various stages along the way as a charity administrator, cotton farmer, language teacher, university lecturer and journalist. He returned to Glasgow in 2006. His first novel, The Credit Draper was published in May 2008 by Two Ravens Press and was short-listed for The McKitterick Prize in June 2009. His second novel The Liberation of Celia Kahn was published in February 2011 by Five Leaves Publications along with a re-print of The Credit Draper. He was the recipient of a Writer’s Bursary from Creative Scotland in September 2009 and was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in April last year. Set in the early 20th century, The Credit Draper deals with the Scottish-Jewish experience of a young Russian immigrant going off to become a travelling salesman in the Highlands.
Annemarie Allan was born in Edinburgh. Her father was a French/Jewish immigrant and her mother came from the immigrant Irish community in Scotland. Her first novel, Hox, which deals with the issues of genetic engineering and animal experimentation, won the 2007 Kelpies Prize and was shortlisted for the 2008 Scottish Children’s book of the Year and Heart of Hawick book awards. Breaker, her second novel, focuses on a potential environmental catastrophe when a tanker collides with the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth. Her third novel, Ushig, a fantasy based on Scottish myths and legends, was shortlisted for the 2011 Essex Children's Book Award. Her latest, as yet unpublished, children’s book is about the experiences of a young Jewish boy who finds himself adrift in a mining community in pre-war Scotland, having escaped from Danzig the morning after Kristallnacht. Annemarie will be running activities for young readers aged 8-13 during the first part of the afternoon.
Ephraim Borowski, MBE, Director of SCoJeC, is Convener of the Scottish ethnic minority umbrella, BEMIS; Chair of the Regional Deputies of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; and a lay member of the General Teaching Council. He was a member of the Scottish Government's Race Equality Forum and both the EOC and CRE Scottish committees, and a founder of the Scottish Inter-Faith Council. Before his retirement from Glasgow University, he was head of the Philosophy Department, President of the Association of University Teachers, and a member of Court. He is a regular contributor to BBC Scotland's Thought for the Day.

World Book Night

Writing on Facebook, our writer J. David Simons said about the forthcoming World Book Night: I'm not sure what to think of World Book Night. Of course, it is a noble cause to get great books out there into the hands of readers. I wonder what kind of deals these already well-known writers have with their publishers - is there anything in at all for the writers apart from the proliferation of their books? [I know a couple of the writers on the list- I must ask them]. If it's all for free, could we have other such nights of free services for other noble causes? A World Boiler-Fixing Night, A World Car-Servicing Night, A World Free Banking Night, A World Free Bottle of Wine Night, A World Free Cinema Night, A World Free Insurance Night. Why does it always have to be the writers that give away their work for free?!

My own experience of WBN is limited. Last year I was a "giver" but rather than send the books to my appointed pick up point, a bookshop, WBN sent them to a library miles from where I live and work. Two buses away in fact (I don't drive). I was not keen on carrying 48 copies of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold on the buses, but I did not need to as the books never actually arrived. They are out there somewhere. I did, however, make up part of a panel at an arts association in deepest rural Leicestershire, with a writer, a librarian and a bookseller. Several of the association were givers. We had a very good discussion on all things bookish, and WBN was the trigger.

I can see David's point, but I know that he and most other writers do want to create a reading culture whereas I doubt the bloke who comes to mend our boiler wants to put boilers at the heart of public life. And, locally, some people have from time to time organised free cinema showings on giant screens for all to see. Certainly we give away some overstocks from time to time - usually anthologies lest any individual author gets upset - as freebies in, for example, Library Reading Day goodie bags.

My main concern about WBN is that as that it relies on well known writers giving their work away free (I presume it is free) it will perpetuate the dominance of those big name writers. Wouldn't it be grand if WBN also had some dosh to pay deserving writers, and deserving small publishers to enable, well, us to give away 25,000 books to help draw the reading public's attention towards, say, J. David Simons?

WBN givers often do try hard to get books into the hands of those who don't read very much, but I confess that over the last year I've got my hands on several of last year's list, introducing me to writers I'd been meaning to read. We all like freebies. I mentioned recently to Robert Chandler, the translator of Life and Fate, that I'd recently found a copy of his book in goodie bag at a Vintage event, having already bought two copies. He said that he was recently at a similar event and on leaving found his goodie bag had that book in it too.

Some bookshops have been concerned about books being devalued by being free, or taking up people's reading time to the exclusion of bought books. I don't accept that. Most book readers read from all sorts of sources, bookshops, second hand bookshops, libraries, book sales at summer fetes, borrowing from friends. But I'm interested to see how this argument develops.

Kicking and screaming into the 21st century

Five Leaves has just published its first three e-books, each at £2.99. All three titles were previously published in paperback. J. David Simons' novels are set within the Jewish community in Scotland and though connected can be happily read as stand alone novels. The Pretender is a novel about literary forgery. This is new territory for us, and we are still learning. More of our backlist titles will follow. Click on the links below to find out more about the books. In due course they will appear on every platform, but at the moment they are only on kindle.

http://tinyurl.com/liberationofceliakahn, http://tinyurl.com/creditdraper, http://tinyurl.com/belbinpretender

Five Leaves' writer awarded awarded Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship

No, the prize is not to be kidnapped or to be marooned on a desert island, , but six weeks accommodation in a self-catering studio at the Hotel Chevillion International Arts Centre in Grez-sur-Loing (the town where Robert met his missus, Fanny Osborne). There is also a small stipend. Our author is J. David Simons, who will be joined by poet Niall Campbell, novelist Gwendoline Riley and film maker Joern Utkilen. David will use his time to work on ideas for a third novel set in Scotland and British-mandate Palestine, which will complete the trilogy including The Credit Draper and The Liberation of Celia Kahn, both Five Leaves. The Fellowship allows the writers time away from their normal environment and the opportunity to discuss their work with other Fellows. We hope that the third part of the trilogy will be published by Five Leaves in 2014.

The Liberation of Maw Broon

Years of reading American crime fiction leads me to think of the early morning flight from Glasgow to the East Midlands as being "the red-eye", when really it should be the "shiny suit and laptop case" - bunches of tired looking business people heading south to do what business people do. Save for the shiny suit I was not out of place coming back from our Glasgow book launch (see last posting). J. David Simons' The Liberation of Celia Kahn was duly launched, with 143 people being made very welcome by Debbie and her staff at Sauchiehall Street Waterstone's. Following a talk and a reading, David was interviewed by Rodge Glass before we decamped to The Tearoom at The Butterfly and Pig. Oh, and we'd had music before the launch too.

There were a fair amount of writers present, including Michael J Malone who's joining our list next year. There were also others from the industry - from Saraband, Cargo and Waverley to name three. The Waverley people told me how many copies of Maw Broon's Cookbook they'd sold in the last five years. It did make me think it was time to explore the Robin Hood Gourmet Venison Cookbook, but no - these Scottish-based publishers have a great advantage in cultural icons like the Broons known better by every Scot than they know their own family.

I was glad to see Eleanor Logan at the launch, especially as we were in Waterstone's which has just made her redundant after a long spell as Scottish manager, which followed her time as Scottish manager of Ottakars. I'd have thought with so many branches in that increasingly different country the chain would need a national manager, but what do I know. I hope she gets another job in the trade soon.

I picked up the programme for Aye Write (http://www.ayewrite.com/) which includes our Zoe Wicomb discussing her/our new book The One that Got Away with Louise Welsh. I have to say that this year's festival looks like the most interesting programme of any book festival I've seen.

The Liberation of Sauchiehall Street Waterstone's

I can exclusively reveal that this blog has had 120 page views by people in South Korea since it started. Brazilians are also showing an interest in Five Leaves that can only be termed healthy. Our Scottish readers will, however, only be logged separately when independence is finally achieved. But assuming there are some, I was hoping to announce a rave review for J. David Simons' The Liberation of Celia Kahn in today's Herald, but no show. Of any review of the book, let alone a rave one. Maybe next week. On the other hand, over at Gutter magazine there's a great review, and in a recent Tribune and Edinburgh's The Skinny, and this one in the interestingly named blog Vulpes Libris where you have the rest of the evening to put your name into a draw for a free copy. Sorry about the lack of notice on that: http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/the-liberation-of-celia-kahn-by-j-david-simons-giveaway.

J. David Simons' book is about socialism, contraception, Jews and Scotland, which combination throws up some interest when plonked into google.

Anyone footloose in Glasgow on Wednesday is welcome to come to Sauchiehall Street Waterstone's at 6.30pm to hear David talking about the book.

I can also exclusively reveal that to sort out some editorial queries an embarrassed male author had to explain to an embarrassed male editor exactly how a Dutch Cap worked. How was I supposed to know that?

Notes from the frozen north # 2

It will be obvious to anyone who has spent time in Scotland, particularly around Glasgow, that the country is short of names. Many men seem to be called Jimmy and many women Hen. This lack of names clearly affects Scottish writers too. Five Leaves has five Scottish writers on its list, or coming onto its list. One is J. David Simons. That is is name but if it was just David Simons the J. would have to be added to avoid confusion with the slightly better known American writer David Simons. Russel McLean became Russel D McLean to prevent confusion with someone similar. And we now have Michael Malone from Ayr joining us, his first crime novel will be out in 2012. Unfortunately there is already a crime writer called Michael Malone so he, ie our one, will become Michael J Malone. So that's 60% of our Scottish writers needing to use an initial due to this acute name shortage. Something needs to be done. Michael Malone though will have some problems as he is already a published poet sans J. So there is now Michael Malone the crime writer, Michael Malone the poet and Michael J Malone the crime writer. Surely some enterprising literature programmer should put them all on the same bill, for an evening with Michael Malones.

J. David Simons joins Five Leaves

We are pleased to announce that J. David Simons will be joining Five Leaves in 2011. His second novel The Liberation of Celia Kahn will be published in February, together with his first novel, The Credit Draper, which will move over from Two Ravens and into a new edition. David Simons got in touch after I'd reviewed The Credit Draper somewhere, which led to my attending a reading of his in London. The Credit Draper was set among the Jewish immigrant community in Glasgow, the main character become a credit draper (a tally man, or pakn treger, as they were sometimes known) in the Highlands. In the way you do we had a grown up conversation about utterly fictional people, in particular about one character, Celia Kahn, who was becoming interested in ideas outside her community, ideas of feminism and socialism getting on for a hundred years back. What happened to her? There was only one way to find out for sure, and the novel was written, and Five Leaves seemed an obvious choice of publisher. We've just finished the editing, which led to the poor writer having to give his publisher a detailed description of how a Dutch cap works to ensure one passage (no pun intended) was correct. Every day is an education.