I’m excited that I can now share with you the covers of the Pentridge trilogy, as I am calling the forthcoming three books.
(To see the writing on the back covers more clearly, click on each pic.)
The trilogy label might be a little misleading, as I wrote only two of the three, although I have some writing in the third (which was actually the first). But I can claim a degree of authorship of that one too.
The first edition of Blood from Stone, the poetry anthology emanating from Pentridge Prison, was published in 1982 under my then imprint Abalone Press. I am also the publisher of this new edition, under my own name.
Simultaneously with writing my memoir of that time in my life, and with all the renewed interest in both the history of Pentridge and that of the Melbourne poetry scene of the eighties, it seemed the time was right for a new edition of Blood from Stone.
The Memoir, as you'll see from the first illustration, is called Breaking into Pentridge Prison: Memories of Darkness and Light. (There was plenty of both!)
Then there’s the little spin-off chapbook, Letters to a Dead Man, which can stand alone, but is directly related to the memoir.
I was very lucky to find a local printer. Like most things associated with this project, it happened serendipitously. I didn’t think we had any book printers in this town, but I had lunch with a friend who mentioned that she was getting her family history published as a book by one of the printers here. It’s not the major part of their business, but I’ve now seen samples of the books they’ve produced and they do a lovely job. It’s a nice coincidence that I have a history with this printer, from many years ago when I was conducting a lot of Reiki classes and they used to do all the printing associated with that.
It’s particularly convenient to use a local printer, because I’ve decided against travelling to Melbourne for a book launch there. Travel’s a bit arduous for me these days, as I age, so it will be a Zoom launch instead, in October, and later a local launch in person. It’s a smallish print run initially. The plan is to go to POD and ebooks a little later on. Stay tuned!