 The Phone Box Library at Portesham has two new books for reading lovers to read! This morning, I deposited a copy of each of my novels, I Am a Muse and The Book of Thoth on its shelves whilst on my way to Bridport. The copy of The Book of Thoth is one of the nine books which suffered some water damage back in May 2020 - there are slight brown-orange marks on the corner of a few pages but that's it, so the book is in good condition although obviously not good enough for me to sell it at full price! I added a copy of I Am a Muse because... Well, why not? I hope to find another eight places where to leave a copy of TBOT. Watch this space! The phone box itself has an interesting history. This is from the Portesham Village website: "This is a K6 kiosk designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (designer of Battersea Power Station and Bankside Power Station, now the Tate Modern) , probably put in place sometime after 1949 when the Royal Fine Arts Commission were allowing rural examples to be painted in different colours. Kiosks have emerged painted in colours such as this green and a battleship grey. From1926 the kiosk's fascias were emblazoned with a prominent crown, representing the British government (of which the Post Office was then an agency). Our box sports the Tudor Crown which was in use from 1936 until 1953 at which time Queen Elizabeth II decided to change it to the St Edwards Crown being the actual crown used by British Monarchs."
 We had a lovely day yesterday at Langport Vintage Market with Matt ArtPix! The roomy gazebos provided for the market are brilliant and suit our brand colours (white/red/black). They also protected us from the blistering sun so we were perfectly comfortable the whole day! Sadly, this will probably be the last market for Arcane for quite a while (still waiting to hear about a special event in September) but Matt ArtPix has quite a few lined up for the summer so will share on here! I will also be exploring the options to develop the Arcane online bookshop over the next few weeks/months.
Watch this space!  Picture of Bear on the stall @MattArtPix Yesterday Saturday 2nd July, we crossed the border into Devon to go and trade at Word Play, a literacy and activity-based event organised by Markets In Exeter. It took place at the Positive Light Projects site on Sidwell Street, a good central location. This was a little different for us as we do not usually trade at children's events, but with the huge stock of gorgeous vintage books we acquired last summer, it did make perfect sense to have a go at this kind of event! We also think that encouraging young readers to discover the delights of reading, books and storytelling is crucial to their development, happiness and well-being. Promoting books and reading to young people has become one of the most arduous tasks there is, and catching them early is probably the best way to make them enjoy reading and understand the power of imagination!  The event was really good and we had a great space for our stall. The organisation was top-notch and the Positive Light Project site is fantastic - with large windows onto the streets, a light and airy feel and all the facilities required to make the day comfortable and enjoyable for traders and punters alike. There were loads of activities to do for kids and parents and quite a few people actually stayed the whole day! Our stall attracted a lot of interest and we even sold a copy of I Am a Muse (a book not written for small children, obviously!).  Getting ready...  ... by writing words of welcome on the pavement!  Welcome to Word Play!  The Arcane stall...  The Arcane stall part 1  The Arcane stall part 2.  A few props courtesy of @MattArtPix There was some storytelling by Frances Harrison. Go and visit her website HERE, her work sounds fascinating and now I wish I had gone and listened to her! Folk stories, myths and legends... That's my kind of thing!
We're planning on returning to Exeter and the Positive Light Projects in the autumn/winter!
We hope to have some news about more events soon, especially regarding a very special one at the end of September... Watch this space!  This Saturday, we'll be in Exeter for WORD PLAY, which is something a bit different from the events we usually do! It is now supported by Exeter City of Literature, which is an exciting development! There will be workshops, storytelling, and more! As mentioned in a previous blog, we will be selling some lovely pre-loved and vintage children's books. Here are A FEW of the books we'll bring to the event on Saturday! We will have books at 50p, some at £2-£4, a big stock of £5 and some rarer/more collectable books at £8 and over! 
And of course, we'll have a few copies of Miss Gish's novels, I Am a Muse and The Book of Thoth for the grown-ups! Single copies and two-book bundles!  This event is organised by The Positive Light Projects, Markets In Exeter and In_Exeter.
You can book your free ticket HERE. Facebook event HERE. Saturday, July 2nd 2022 10am to 3pm at The Positive Lights Project, Sidwell Street, Exeter EX4 6RD Something a little different for us as we announce our first event since the beginning of the pandemic!  We will have a stall at WORD PLAY in Exeter... We will be selling some lovely pre-loved and vintage children's books and of course, we'll have a few copies of Miss Gish's novels, I Am a Muse and The Book of Thoth for the grown-ups!
Keep an eye on our BLOG and EVENTS pages as we will add some pictures and details of the stock we'll take over the next few weeks! This event is organised by The Positive Light Projects, Markets In Exeter and In_Exeter. You can book your free ticket HERE. Facebook event HERE. Saturday, July 2nd 2022 10am to 3pm at The Positive Lights Project, Sidwell Street, Exeter EX4 6RD  Last Friday, we delivered copies of Miss Gish's two novels, I Am a Muse and The Book of Thoth to the bookshop at Athelhampton House near Dorchester. This is such an honour! In THIS BLOG, Miss Gish writes about the house and why she thinks this is the ideal place to sell her novels!  5/10/2022 Icon: Marilyn Monroe is back! This big Marilyn Monroe poster has pride of place at the Arcane Publishing HQ! The fabulous Marilyn Monroe has always been a favourite of the Arcane Publishing team! Indeed, Miss Gish had several posters of the legendary Hollywood star on the walls of her bedroom from the age of 8 (we have pictures the prove it!) and she was given a very special Marilyn Monroe book for her 10th birthday (it's still on our shelves!) many centuries ago... We have a big stock of classic cinema books for sale here at Arcane towers and we used to sell quite a lot of them up to a few years ago. Unfortunately, classic cinema has fallen out of fashion and favour with audiences - as demonstrated by the axing of Radio 4's The Film Programme which was often fascinating, especially the programmes presented by the super-knowledgeable Antonia Quirke. This radio show was the only place where you could still regularly hear about classic cinema in the mainstream media. Thankfully, the BBC IPlayer has some movies up (but they don't often upload any new ones) and programmes in their archives - and at the moment, there is the amazing RKO Story: Tales from Hollywood, which we highly recommend. Once a lover of classic cinema always a lover of classic cinema. We cannot help regularly adding to our pile of Golden Age of cinema volumes and ephemera... and of course, we are collectors ourselves; you should see the amazing books we own, all about the fascinating history of Hollywood, the pioneers, the stars, the set designers, the writers, etc. We just adore the whole thing! Even though Marilyn Monroe had remained iconic for decades, modern tastes had made people turn their back on this most unique of stars... She was rather astonishing as a person, for many reasons. And incredibly talented. Not only was she a superb actress with an incredible presence (-yes, really, watch her films!) she was also a poet and a thinker. Over the past week, I have seen MM mentioned twice in the cultural pages of newspapers. Are we about to see a rehabilitation of Marilyn? On Tuesday morning, Andy Warhol's artwork titled "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" sold for $195M - a record sum in the art world. Hopefully this news will bring Marilyn back into the public's consciousness. Then there is the Netflix documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes which is currently being shown on Netflix (I haven't got Netflix so won't watch it myself!). So here at Arcane Towers, we have some amazing Marilyn Monroe items for sale from our "Classic Hollywood stock." For more pictures of the books and magazines, head to our Instagram Page (links in the titles below)!  Marilyn Among Friends, 1987  Before Marilyn, 2015  Paris Match - L'Affaire Marilyn, July 1962  Paris Match - Goodbye Marilyn, August 1962 4/4/2022 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! I cannot believe that it has been 10 years since I founded Arcane Publishing! I am immensely proud of the two novels I have written and published so far on the imprint, and I cannot wait to publish my third novel The Right Place and start work in earnest on my fourth book... We have done a lot in those ten years. I have written, edited and published two novels thanks to the help of @bigstevepoet and of course artist, designer, antiques and vintage trader extraordinaire @mattartpix It's not easy to develop a very small business when you have a tiny budget but we have kept our independence and we do everything on our own terms. So now in 2022, after two years of pandemic, we have a lot of plans... We will publish our third book, The Right Place, in late 2023. Work has already started on our fourth book, Hell Lane: A Barton Stacey Mystery. We will be developing our pre-loved, vintage and rare books business further this year with events and hopefully at some point in 2023, an online shop. And we'd love to find a brick and mortar temporary home too! Watch this space for further announcements!
3/31/2022 We're back! Projects and more... We are finally back, and planning on working on several related projects over the next few weeks and months: in addition to Miss Gish working on the completion of the first draft of The Right Place, we need to sort out various promotional material for Arcane and its publications, and start planning an online website for the pre-loved/vintage and rare books side of the business. I am also thinking about booking some events to promote the imprint and my books, and sell some pre-loved books!
2/21/2022 Update February 2022! Arcane is slowly coming out of hibernation, and we are full of energy!
Miss Gish will very soon go back to work on her third novel, The Right Place! We have been working behind the scenes to prepare for a spring and summer blitz of promotion! In 2022/2023, we will be dedicating our time to publishing The Right Place and developing Arcane's bookselling business... The pub date for The Right Place is now late autumn 2023... We will be updating this website regularly as we spend the next few months working towards publication and developing our online bookshop! We are also really looking forward to starting work properly on Miss Gish's fourth novel, Hell Lane... There are already a lot of ideas swirling around, and we think it's going to be a good one! We might have a few exciting announcements to make very soon, so watch this space! |
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September 2023
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