Reinventing the Wheel

Some PBP brainstorming sessions have gotten a little out-of-hand over the years. We get these "wouldn't it be great if we..." ideas that turn into us spending long hours and shedding tears and blood to put together a book that most people will never see. It's nice to have creative ideas for books, but it's important to know your limitations too. If it involves rubber molds, a chisel, or toxic chemicals, chances are it's gone too far.

Also, there's something to be said for what people are used to. For example, english readers tend to like books that read left to right, they like their books to have a structural-something holding the pages together, and they want to be able to see the book before they read it. So creating a book out of flash cards, or encased in an inflatable bubble, or written in secret ink are all NOT good ideas.

The book should support the work, accentuate it. It shouldn't outshine it and certainly not obscure it. The book is a mode of convenience. When it's made out of sharp metal or covered in shag it's not convenient. I think all books should be special, just not “special”.

Home Base

Plan B Press started up in Leola, Pennsylvania via Dianne Miller in 1998. It then moved (west) to Philadelphia in 2003 when Steve and I took it over. A year later, when graduate school came knocking, we moved (south) to Alexandria, Virginia for the next four years; and finally (well, not forever we hope) ended up in Fairfax earlier this year.

That's a lot of moving for a little company. We've changed our mailing address on catalogues, websites, books, etc. so many times that we don't print it anymore. It's online and it will stay that way. We have letterhead and business cards with previous addresses that we opt to white-out or just recycle the whole lot. Fortunately, we invested in a post office box for many of these years. Unfortunately we kept our 2080 P.O. Box in Philadelphia long after we moved; and checking the contents posed a problem when we were living three hours away. So we resigned ourselves and bought a box in Fairfax, but I'm not about to go out and get any new letterhead. Our phone number and website will do. After all, nothing is permanent.

Last of the Season

I've been working the past few days on the anthology and on Maguire's and Tolf's books. I got a really late start on the season so I'm trying to race to the finish now without sacrificing quality and attention. I was never the crammer in college, waiting until the last week to study for finals, but it certainly looks that way now.

We're doing the anthology in-house entirely. The books will be completely hand-done. We will be printing, binding, stamping, stapling and pasting them together ourselves. I've been toying with the idea of inscribing each one since there will be such a minimum number printed, but the jury's still out. We will be sending a few out for reviews etc. Those will be the first out the door. Our authors will come second. Lastly will be the ones available for sale. As Steven mentioned, please e-mail us if you are interested in a pre-order. This doesn't mean that you would be obligated to get one (since we don't even know what to charge for them yet) but it would gauge how many we would be printing. I hope to have a sneak preview online in the next week or two. I'm excited about it though. It's looking pretty so far.



Katy Jean May
Creative Director

updating

Katy has been hard at work perfecting the cover and interiors of the anthology. It's going to be something special. It's also going to be an extremely limited edition. Each of our authors will be receiving a copy as a thank you for working with us over the years as well as a few copies to book sellers who have taken a chance with our books.

There will be additional copies available - if interested in having one of these for yourself, please email us to pre-order.


thanks


stevenallenmay
co-founder & President

updates on the 10 year anthology

"This anthology has become more difficult to assemble of late. It's time constraints for one. Add to that the finding of the paper, board, tape, etc. that I will need to assemble it, and also the challenge of adjusting to our new environs (and store opportunities) in Fairfax, VA and it becomes even trickier. I believe I've finally found an art store (maybe) close by that will have some of what I'm looking for. And hopefully within the next two weeks or so I will have a prototype to send out, as I begin mass producing them by hand. Yes, you heard that right. When you run an off-the-cuff publishing company, everything is mass produced by hand, for better or worse. Stay tuned."

Katy Jean May
Creative Director - and Mom

review of 'Constellation of the Dragonfly'

"Constellation of the Dragonfly by F.J. Bergmann (Plan B Press, P O Box 3242, Fairfax, VA 22038) is a poetry collection which glows like a pearl necklace of the mind. There are poems like Moonlighting which begins with a humorous list of day job titles, like cakewalker, praline chef and reveals the real job poignantly. "Atonal Bisque" sang to my unconscious: Lo! a banquet is / arranged before us…/ this collection is a banquet of otherworldly dreams, techno-magic, familiar images mutated unexpectedly by Bergmann's expert and moving wit."


--linda addison
Time and Space Magazine

Dog days of late summ...er, autumn

Right now we are working on our two Fall books (Dan McGuire & Francine Tolf) and assorted reprints, as well as the anthology. We're starting our news-spreading for the contest. We still have the Sandy Crimmins Award which we have sort of put on the back-burner inadvertantly. It can be tough to focus on the press when there are so many other things going on.

We're (I'm) plotting the construction of the Anthology, which we may end up creating in-house so I can have more control over it. It's been a few weeks since we did substantial work on the press (aside from our everlasting car trip to Western MD). The last session I made was devoted to cleaning up the website.

Of note: We are now collecting e-mail addresses of people who want e-announcements of book releases, events, and contests. Just go to our front page.

Katy Jean (the beleaguered) May
Creative Director & MOM

happy anniversary, Katy Jean May!

On this day, six years ago, on a beautiful late summer afternoon, at 3:00 PM, Katy Jean & I got married by the local JOP (Justice of the Peace). It's been a hectic time for us since. Both of us artists and working at being a married couple, and now with two little O's to boot. There's the Press we run, the books we publish and the occasional art we actually produce on our own. Like this piece by Katy Jean from earlier this year.

As we enter the 5th autumn of scheduled books, I want to take this brief moment to thank her publicly and in our own little blog-universe for everything and hope to spend many lifetimes with you (Katy). I also want to mention that Dan McGuire's book is nearly completion with Francis Tolf's not far behind.

There is a brief east coast reading tour by F J Bergmann in the works with stops in New York and Philly and more controlled mayhem to follow.

stay tuned and have a great weekend

stevenallenmay

Recovering from Book Fair HELL

It wasn't hell as much as it was a 3 hours jaunt through Tropical Storm Hanna with 2 young children to arrive at a book fair in the far westerner corner of Maryland. A bit like Northern Exposure meets Twin Peaks.

It rained, and rained, and rained all the way there. It was an interesting event that might have been enhanced had we not arrived car-lagged, hungry, burdened, overwrought, shouted-out, road weary, and generally already at each other's throats after driving with two whining kids. Yeah, there might have been a better way to deal with it all....like, staying at home, for example.

The event was not terribly well attended and for the community of Cumberland, Maryland, Hanna was not the issue whatsoever as it never reached that far corner. It was home-grown neglect. Old fashion apathy. Which ought not subtract from the heroic efforts of the Frostburg University Center of Creative Writing nor their ringleader, Gerry LaFemina.

I don't take much from the first George Bush's administration, but I do appropriate his "thousand points of light" phrase from time to time, and I do here because it's necessary for folks like LaFemina and his students to add to the culture. As I had been able to contribute with Bardfest in Berks County, PA so these stubborn and eager volunteers have done in Cumberland, Maryland. I also want to note the wonderful generosity of the library in Cumberland and the small presses who also ventured great distances to attend this event. I was glad to meet Reb Livingston for No Tell Motel, for example, who lives close to us in Northern Virginia.

But we were numb from the journey there and drank just enough coffee to pile back into the car for the equally long drive home, which included a huge 45 minute parking lot sometimes called Interstate 66 (east bound) due to a nasty accident we never saw but believe was out there....somewhere.

We have eleven months to contemplate any further involvement with this event, but if you live within fair driving distance, we highly recommend you check it out. Western Maryland Publishing Fair.

Plan B Press at Small Press Fair on Sept. 6

Plan B Press will be participating in and manning a table at the Second Annual Western Maryland Publishing Fair from NOON to 4:30 this Saturday at the Washington Street Library in Cumberland, MD. Should be lots of fun, photos will appear shortly after the event on our site.

Hope to see you there!