'Tis The Season

We're having a lot of fun at Pegana Press right now making holiday cards.  Mike designs and prints the cards, and I apply the sparkle.

For the last three days, we've been cranking up the festive tunes while we crank out the festive cards.

We now have five designs to choose from and this year we're offering the cards for sale on our website.

They will be available to purchase
starting on Tuesday, November 19.


As with everything we make here at the press, we have limited quantities of each design, so if you'd like to have a few hand made letter press cards to give to the very special people in your life, then we invite you to take a look at what we have to offer at Pegana Press.

We will leave you with a quote (as we like to do).




May Love & Joy be yours this season.

Happy Holidays

from Pegana Press.

Pegana Press Blogcast Episode 1

We have been working on a blogcast and now we're ready to post our first episode.

Today's story feature is Truth And Her Companions,  from The Twilight Of The Gods by Richard Garnett (1835–1906).

This illustration of Jupiter and Truth is the work of Henry Keen (1871–1935).

We initially planned to do a simple reading, but when we found this story (the only one that appears in the book as a short play) we decided to do it as a dramatization.

In this program we do a reading of Truth And Her Companions, and we chat a bit about Richard Garnett and The Twilight Of The Gods.  We wanted to keep it brief, so the blogcast is approximately 25 minutes in length, otherwise I would have wanted to read more stories.  It was a hard choice to make, as it was.  But Truth And Her Companions seemed to carry a very timely message.  And knowing human kind, it probably always will.

We had a lot of fun making this episode, and we hope you will enjoy listening.  We welcome any discussion on this topic or if you have any input for other shows. 

We would love to include you in the conversation so if you send us an email please let us know if we may add your comments to a future show, and if we may use your name, or if you prefer to remain anonymous.

We are using Cascade Microphones for our recording.  If you need Microphones we urge you to check out the link.

The opening melody entitled Out Of Time was written and played on piano by Rita Tortorello (me).  Mike Tortorello added all the layers and parts with some vocalization by me.  I might add that I am not a piano player, but Mike made it all sound pretty good.  Before he started up Pegana Press he had a career in the Music Business as an Audio Engineer/Producer.  While Mike is still doing recording, Pegana Press now takes up the bulk of his time.  (The short reading over the top of our opening melody is from Lost Tales Vol. 1 by Lord Dunsany--published by Pegana Press.)

I have removed the media player embedded on the page, please try this link   Pegana Press StoryCast episode 1

Out Of Time © Rita and Mike Tortorello

This Week at Pegana Press

Mike and I started reading books together back in 1990. 

We let television go out of our lives about 20 years ago.  We didn't really miss it, because always --we have read books. 

And often times sharing a book --with me reading aloud.

We've read almost all of the works of PG Wodehouse out loud during our humor phase.  Then we switched to mysteries written in the 1920s through the '40s, (Craig Rice ghost wrote a murder mystery for actor George Sanders in 1944 called Crime On My Hands).

We've read aloud, Ernest Bramah and H Rider Haggard, GK Chesterton and George MacDonald, Lord Dunsany and Hope Mirrlees...and so many more.

Right now we're reading what else? The Gods Of Pegāna because we've never read it aloud before, though I would venture to guess that Mike has probably read it at least a dozen times or more without me.

I have to admit, that I'm having a blast saying the names of the all various gods out loud. 

And it is truly a pleasure

to speak aloud

the words

written on the page

 by a master of his art.

So one of the other things we're working on right now is --I guess you could call it a podcast.  Where we hope to read little excerpts from authors.  Either very short stories, or just tasty little samples from a larger work.

We are nearly finished recording the first one.  It's taking a back seat right now as we scramble to get another book finished and try to line up future projects. 

And because Mike has also spent many years working in the recording industry, there is no slapping this project together. 

We even wrote a song for the opening.  Yes, I think we're probably having too much fun with this project.

So now I'll leave you as I like to do, with a quote.  This one is from the book we are currently reading aloud, which is The Gods of Pegāna by Lord Dunsany.

"Some say that the Worlds and the Suns are but the echoes of the drumming of Skarl, and others say that they be dreams that arise in the mind of Māna because of the drumming of Skarl, as one may dream whose rest is troubled by sound of song, but none knoweth, for who hath heard the voice of Māna-Yood-Sushāī, or who hath seen his drummer?"

The Dreams Of Māna-Yood-Sushāī by Sidney H. Sime