New For 2020: Pegana Press Podcast

Several years back, we tried doing a Storycast, where we read rare stories.  We tried posting them on our blog and website, but didn’t really have the proper platform to do it.

Over time this idea has been resurrected in two ways.  One is where Mike Tortorello in partnership with Daven Tillinghast creates audio stories with music.  You can find out more about that on Dreamer’s Tales on Patreon .

The second evolution of Storycast comes in the form of a podcast on anchor . fm.  We’ve just put out our first episode.  You can listen on Pegana Press Podcast 

We hope to make this a regular thing and plan to release two episodes a month for now.

We invite you to join us.

Pegana Press StoryCast #4: Reading Samples from Winter Tales

Winter Tales chapbook available from Pegana Press January 2015

We've just finished our first StoryCast since July.  We discuss Winter Tales in the intimate setting of the library in front of a cozy fire (which, as you will also learn, plays the main role in Voice of Fire), with short excerpts read from two of the three stories.

We hope you will enjoy it.

Winter Tales is available from Pegana Press at the special preorder price through January 18, 2015.

Pegana Press StoryCast: The Ghost of the Valley

Mike took a little time off from printing Lord Dunsany: Lost Tales Volume 3 to record a new StoryCast.

We are doing The Ghost of the Valley, because it was one we had hoped to put in Volume 3.  Fortunately, just before setting type for this story, Mike found it had already appeared in The Ghosts Of The Heaviside Layer and Other Fantasms.

Although we were disappointed to lose such a wonderful story, we were grateful that Mike discovered it before investing the time to typeset, and even more importantly, before it became part of the book.

It's such a great story that we wanted to do a reading for our PeganaPress StoryCast series.  We have a copy of the typewritten manuscript and found as we were reading from both the book and the manuscript that there were one or two variances.  

If you don't already have a copy of The Ghosts Of The Heaviside Layer, then find a copy.  And if you do have one, read along with us. Headphones are highly recommended as the ghost voice may be hard to distinguish on laptop/computer speakers.

We hope you enjoy our newest StoryCast, The Ghost of the Valley.

Pegana Press Story Cast: The Bee-Man of Orn

In this #StoryCast we do a reading from the Bee Man of Orn, by Frank R. Stockton and we discuss briefly, other works by this author.

We hope you enjoy it.  Feed back is welcome.

It's a lot of fun for us to record these story readings, and we'd love to hear from you.  If you have a favorite author or story to suggest we read, please share with us.

We took longer than expected to get this one out partly due to the holidays and partly due to the fact that Mike has been working at the press almost non stop.  We hope to have a new Pegana Press Story Cast to share next month.

Here's the link.  Enjoy!   Pegana Press Story Cast # 2

We're using a WAV file this time to preserve the integrity of the recording.  We used a compressed file before.  We hope it makes a difference in how it come through.

As an afterthought:  Mike was a music producer and studio sound engineer before the thought of Pegana Press was ever conceived, and so he likes to create theme songs for the recordings.  I think it's a tribute to his talent in that respect that he can take tracks recorded on a tarnished flute with sticky keys by someone (OK, me) who hasn't played in 30 years and make it sound pretty good.

While recording the flute, he expressed his desire that I should play a "little riff".  I looked at him blankly and said "Oh, you want a REAL flute player".  I wasn't "riffing", but hopefully the Bee Man's theme song, conveys the simple, joyful, meandering dance through life, which we picture for Frank Stockton's Bee-Man.

The reading in the theme song, Out Of Time is from Lost Tales Volume 1 written by Lord Dunsany and published at Pegana Press


Pegana Press Story Cast theme song: Out Of Time © Rita and Mike Tortorello
Bee Man theme song:  Buzzing Along © Rita and Mike Tortorello
We use Cascade Microphones  :)

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



What's New at the Press

This week Mike has been setting type for The Age of Malygris, a collection of stories written by Clark Ashton Smith.  This project was decided upon based on the feed back received from some of you.  We really do appreciate your input and encourage you to communicate with us, either here or on the website.

Rita has continued to bind deluxe copies of The Emperor's Crystal & Other Lost Tales Vol 2 by Lord Dunsany  and should be finishing up before the end of October.

Also In The Works

It's a bit of an experiment, but we would like to incorporate some reading and some discussion into a podcast.  We are also working out the logistics of posting the recording to our site, and who knows how that will go.  We'll announce it here on the blog when it's ready.

That about brings us up to date with life at Pegana Press.

And so for now, we leave you with a quote by Clark Ashton Smith from The Last Incantation...

"And all the vistas of time that had been so full of gold and splendor, the days of triumph that were colored like a soaring flame, the crimson and purple of the rich imperial years of his prime, all these were chill and dim and strangely faded now, and the remembrance thereof was no more than the stirring of dead embers."