June Showcase: Fritz Leiber

Twelve heartbeats to go.

Death most strongly felt that, if only for artistry’s sake, heroes should be made to make their exits from the stage of life in the highest melodramatic style, with only one in fifty score let to die of old age and in the bed of sleep for the object of irony.

Death has a quota to fill in The Sadness of the Executioner by Fritz Leiber, and only twenty heartbeats in which to claim tenscore human lives.  

Let’s see, thought Death with a vast coolness that yet had a tiny seething in it, one hundred sixty peasants and savages, twenty nomads, ten warriors, two beggars, a whore, a merchant, a priest, an aristocrat, a craftsman, a king, and two heroes.  That would keep his books straight.

We are invited to peek over the shoulder of Death as he tries to creatively engineer the demise of Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser in fulfillment of the heroes quota.  While completely unaware that Death has his eye upon them, will they unwittingly cheat death?

Pegana Press brings you this hugely entertaining story from a master weilder of the sword and sorcery genre in a limited edition handset letterpress chapbook edition titled Nehwon Vision.  This volume contains Fritz Leiber’s The Sadness of the Executioner with frontispiece by Patrick Mallet.

If you love letterpress, and appreciate Sword and Sorcery, we bring you this chapbook to whet your appetite and to give you a taste of the simple elegance that a small press edition can bring to your collection.

We’ve chosen to Showcase this book and are making it available to purchase at the special price of $65.00 through the end of June.

Please visit our website for details.

And one thing more...Pegana Press is on Patreon.  We invite you to view our page and our subscription levels.  If being a patron of a small press appeals to you, we offer great patron rewards to express our gratitude.

Like free shipping on The Sadness of the Executioner for new patrons who sign up before the end of June.  See details on our website.

Death Does Not Take A Holiday

I spent the last week folding, scoring, trimming and gathering  sheets for our latest release, Nehwon Vision by Fritz Leiber, with new artwork.  It's a tremendous story from Leiber, a timeless tale of Death, Fafhrd, and the Gray Mouser played out in 20 heartbeats. Well worth checking out.  More information and how to order can be found here.

The new audiobook , The Vengeance of Thor  should be available to download and purchase sometime in the next month.  A truly immersive rendering of rare stories by Lord Dunsany.

Next up a new Dunsany release!

Finding Dunsany

Back when we were younger and more adventurous we traveled a great deal around the Northwest and whatever city we were going to I researched to see what bookstores they might have so we could visit.  We rolled into Bellingham, just south of the Canadian border and found a bookstore but it contained nothing but modern 1sts and paperbacks.  Disappointed, I told the shopkeeper the kinds of books I was interested in. If you ever asked that question knowing you were in the wrong bookstore and expecting the glazed and bored response you know what I mean.  Instead they mentioned a private bookstore in a Victorian house that we might be interested in.  They called the owners who invited us over.  This was the Old London Bookshop run by Michael and Gingyr Schon.  They welcomed us inside and gave us tea and a wonderful chocolate brownie and we spoke of books for awhile.  Every square inch of the Victorian house was full of books with different rooms for specific genres.  Everything was neat and tidy and organized.  So we went to the sci fi/ fantasy room and I found this Jorkens book and the Leiber.  Rita recalls there were other books we put back that we couldn't afford.  What I remember most was the charm and friendliness of those two sweet people who shared their home with books and cats and welcomed kindred spirits in and made us feel at home.  Michael has since passed but Gingyr still carries on.  When I read the Dunsany it takes me back to that store and its charm.  Time had no meaning there and couldn't touch us.

I'll post this on our Dunsany community page.  We encourage you to join and take an active part in keeping the magic and truth of Dunsany alive by participating.  Dunsany has much to teach us and many who need to learn from him.  Perhaps you can share your experiences of where you bought a Dunsany and if a story or memory surrounds it.