Early Praise for WONDERKID by Wesley Stace

Wesley Stace's new novel Wonderkid is almost here! This long-awaited novel will go on sale February 27, and the advance praise is pouring in!


“I can’t believe that this amazing book exists. Wonderkid is by far the best music novel I’ve ever read, and the most unexpectedly wild ride I’ve ever been on. Every detail is perfect. Wonderkid is uplifting, inspiring, unhinged, and unpredictable, just like rock ‘n’ roll itself.” - Dan Zanes

“Wesley Stace has written one of the very few novels about rock bands and the music business that doesn’t have a single false note or outsider-wannabe pretensions. It’s a relief–and a joy– to read about the weird particularities of the lives of musicians by someone who knows the world so intimately. He deconstructs, with an elegant and sharp eye, the heightened sense of the unreality of fame, the relentless grind of touring, and the Ego and the Id made deliciously manifest in the Wonderkids (my favorite new band.) He is both ruthless and compassionate, but never cynical. I thought about these characters even when I wasn’t reading the book, and the story will stay with me for a very long time. WONDERKID has both enormous entertainment value and serious literary worth, a very hard trick to pull off.”
- Rosanne Cash, author of Composed

“Highly pleasurable. And unusual, not least because this is a rock’n'roll novel written by someone who actually knows what he’s talking about.”
- Peter Carey, author of The Chemistry of Tears

” Rock and roll is an infantile business, but never more so than in the hands of The Wonderkids, a group of post-teens, playing music for pre-teens, whilst living chaotic adult lives. In WONDERKID, Wesley Stace absolutely captures the band experience: the triumphs, the letdowns, the sell-outs, the success, and the scandal, with an extra helping of absurdity. There were times reading this book that I could actually smell the dank dressing rooms, or feel the bus rolling down the highway to the next gig.” - Peter Buck

“WONDERKID is a gem, a rock and roll novel written from the inside, with an insider’s knowledge of music and the music business, and all the exhilaration and indignities that come with the territory. Wesley Stace is a wise and witty guide to the career of Blake Lear and the Wonderkids, a fictional band that becomes so real over the course of the novel that you’ll think you heard them on the radio.”
- Tom Perrotta, author of Nine Inches

“Wesley Stace has always been the only genuinely gifted fiction writer who also happens to be a rock star, but WONDERKID is the book he was born to write. And if you prefer your novels brazen, poignant and hilarious, as I do, you were born to read it. Like a great show, this will stay with you long after the last cymbal crash and power strum.”
- Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask

“Wesley Stace’s WONDERKIDS is a marvelous satiric mashup of rock-n-roll and pack-n-plays. It’s sweet and funny and knowing — and this is me, holding up my lighter for more.”
- Joshua Ferris, author of The Unnamed

“Wesley Stace writes with verve, pace and great good humor. Wonderkid is a flamboyant novel about rock & roll, sex and drugs, broken dreams and Brits on tour in America. Buy it at once.”
- Patrick McGrath, author of Constance

“At turns illuminating and heartbreaking — but always funny — it’s a Visit from the Goon Squad for the kiddie-music world. A pitch-perfect excavation into the lighter heart of the music industry.”
- Colin Meloy, author of Wildwood

"Finally, a sex, drugs and rock n' roll book for Dan Zanes fans! Wonderkid also happens to be one of the best books about fathers and sons since Turgenev." - Gary Shteyngart, author Super Sad True Love Story

Happy Birthday, Milton Glaser!

Today ushers in the 84^th year for legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser, the man behind New York Magazine, the iconic I (heart) NY logo, Bob Dylan’s psychedelic profile, Brooklyn Brewery’s label, and our very own Winged Elephant to name a few of his many, many accomplishments. Glaser is special to us not only as the artist behind our logo and the author of four books we are proud to publish, but also as a dear friend to our publisher, Peter Mayer (learn how Milton secured Peter his first job, here and how they collaborated on our logo here!).

To honor this great artist and loyal friend today, we would like to share some of his wisdom, an abbreviated list—laws to live by, if you will—gathered from a talk he gave at AIGA in London. 

Milton’s Manifesto—The full essay can be found on his website.

1.     YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE YOU LIKE

2.     IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE, NEVER HAVE A JOB.

3.     SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC; AVOID THEM.

4.     PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH OR THE

5.     LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE

6.     STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED

7.     HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN

8.     DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY

9.     ON AGING—“IT DOESN’T MATTER”

10.   TELL THE TRUTH

  

Happy Birthday, Milton! We love your work, your ageless wisdom, and your sense of humor!

                                                             *  *  *

Although today is Milton’s birthday, we’re excited to give a gift to one lucky Overlook Press reader.  Leave a comment below and we’ll enter you to win a signed copy of Glaser’s DRAWING IS THINKING presented in an Overlook tote emblazoned with his design.  Good Luck! And be sure to wish him a Happy Birthday via twitter @MiltonGlaserInc!

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: Editor Mark Krotov

If you're reading this little publishing blog, chances are you're already a lover of literature. But as a devotee of the printed word, do you ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at an independent book publishing company? How a jacket gets designed or how a manuscript becomes a book? For curious minds, there's no better way to learn the nuts and bolts of the book business than to meet the people behind the magic. That's where we step in.

If you've been following our employee spotlight series, you've already met some of the creative individuals responsible for bringing Overlook titles to the shelves of your favorite neighborhood bookstores. We've introduced editors, designers, marketers, and even our publisher Peter Mayer to highlight the ins-and-outs of the job of book production. Our series continues today as we bring to the blog associate editor Mark Krotov to shed some light on his role at Overlook.

Mark recently joined the team at 141 Wooster Street last month, following four years at Farrar, Straus and Giroux where he served as an assistant editor and helped produce the FSG Reading Series at the Russian Samovar. When he isn’t staring into his computer screen, Mark can be found watching movies or reading about movies that he'd like to watch. Welcome, Mark!

OP: Describe your job in 140 characters or less.

MK: I read books, I edit books, and I tell people about the books I’m reading and editing.

OP: What are you currently reading?

MK: At the moment I’m reading many submissions, but I’m looking forward to reading two books once I get through this (virtual) stack. The first is a history of night (!) called AT DAY’S CLOSE, by A. Roger Ekirch, and the second is a novel by the brilliant (and brilliantly bearded) Italian novelist Francesco Pacifico called THE STORY OF MY PURITY, which comes out in March.

OP: What is your favorite book that Overlook has published?

MK: I haven’t been here long, so I look forward to changing my answer to this question many times, but Raymond Loewy’s INDUSTRIAL DESIGN is amazing.

OP: If you didn’t work in publishing, what would you be doing?

MK: Perhaps I’d be a film critic, or a graduate student, or an abacus salesman—all promising, future-oriented careers with strong growth potential.

OP: What is your favorite word (Can be in any language—bonus points if there is a funny/interesting story behind it)?

MK: Favorite I’m not sure, but while “Eric” and “Cantor” are perfectly fine words on their own, somehow, when you put the former just before the latter, the combination is very repellent. 

The Legend of the Winged Elephant

In January, we announced the launch of a monthly video series—Conversations with Peter Mayer—to share some of the lesser known stories about the inception of the Overlook Press and to discuss the publishing industry over the last 40 years. Last month, our publisher Peter Mayer talked about the book that originated the Overlook Press, a small operation which started out of his family home in Woodstock, New York. Forty-one years, hundreds of books, and one downtown Manhattan office later, that little business continues to thrive and grow.

Aside from Peter Mayer himself, a constant presence throughout Overlook’s history has been that of our beloved wingéd elephant. Today we bring to you the tale of this inspired logo which has graced the spines of Overlook books since 1941. You may already know that this high-flying colophon was designed by the legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser. But do you know why an elephant was chosen to watch over our eclectic press? Or how our elephant sprouted wings? Prompted by an inquiry from the Publishing Trendsetter, we thought it was time to reveal this long held mystery. It may have been forty-one years ago that the idea for this flying pachyderm was born, but don’t you know that an elephant never forgets? Play the video below to get the full scoop from the man who started it all.

BOOK EXPO WEEK! See You at the Overlook Press Booth (#3439)

It's that time again! Book Expo America, the annual gathering of booksellers, publishers, authors, agents, and industry followers, will fill the halls of Jacob Javits Center this week.

The Overlook Press, celebrating 40 years of independent publishing, will be in BOOTH #3439. Come by and say hello - and meet founder and publisher Peter Mayer, along with the Overlook staff.

We're also delighted to welcome bestselling author Eoin Colfer, who will be at our booth on Wednesday, May 25, from 2pm to 3pm, signing advance reading copies of his crime fiction debut Plugged.

Our booth will also feature some of the hottest galleys of the show: Sam Christer's new thriller The Stonehenge Legacy; Alan Cowell's The Paris Correspondent; and Mark Derr's How the Dog Between Dog.

We'll also be raffling off a special Overlook Press 40th Anniversity Poster, designed and framed by legendary graphic designer and Overlook author Milton Glaser!

Internet Housekeeping: Events on OverlookPress.com

Did you know that Peter Quinn is reading tonight in Tribeca? Or that Frank Deford is speaking Thursday in White Plains? If not, that means you're not keeping up with the Calendar section of Overlook's website. And you're missing out!

While our website has a ton of information about Overlook, our books and our authors (have you checked out the reader's guides?), it also constantly updates our author events with detailed information about the type of event as well as the time and location.

If you're a fan of our wonderful authors, check it out! And make sure to come back periodically--we try to publicize our events on Facebook, Twitter and right here on the Winged Elephant, but don't miss out!

Overlook Publisher Peter Mayer in The Bookseller Magazine

In a column appropriately named "Forever Young," John Blake writes about Peter Mayer in The Bookseller magazine: "Ask people to name a truly iconic publisher—and I think many would come up with the name of Peter Mayer.

His rise from runner at the New York Times, to two decades brilliantly creating the modern Penguin Group, to his fabulous career at Overlook Press in New York and Duckworth in London, is the stuff of ­legend. I was thrilled, honoured and (to be honest) slightly terrified, therefore, when he first bought US rights to our biography of Lady Gaga by Emily Herbert, then announced he was flying into London and would like to meet.

“He’s a genius, he speaks six languages, you won’t have a clue what he is talking about,” friends warned me. Thanks. Anyway, he shambled into Sheeky’s restaurant, looking a little like Keith Richards’ younger brother, then proceeded to charm and amaze me for a couple of hours.

Despite his own very considerable contribution to serious literature, Peter appeared fascinated by the success of our fast turnround books (he brought a copy of his edition of Lady Gaga with him, less than a month after buying rights, which is entirely unprecedented in the slow-motion world of US publishing). He talked about his success with a high-speed Susan Boyle book, of how he brought sudoku to the US, and of the new outlets and sales opportunities for selling books in the UK and the US.

While all of us who love books are saddened to see wonderful independent shops, and chains such as Borders, going under we have to deal with the new world order, or go out of business. And, though Peter has already chugged effortlessly past his 70th birthday, he is still exhilarated and excited by the challenges we now face.

Reflecting, afterwards, it came to me that book publishers, with a passion for what they do, seem to have discovered the secret of remaining forever young. In Fleet Street, where I worked in another lifetime, youth is every­thing. William Lewis, the editor of the Telegraph, is 39. Dominic Mohan, the latest editor of the Sun, is all of 40. Meanwhile, in the world of literature, Ernest Hecht at Souvenir Press continues to publish wonderful, original titles (and to tell very funny stories) even though he has swung effortlessly past his 80th birthday. Naim Atallah, at Quartet, is 78 but still has the enthusiasm of a teenager. Even Ed Victor, that doyen of agents has, unbelievably, reached 70.

Despite all the new challenges, the magic of constantly dealing with wonderful new stories and ideas seems to be the best tonic in the world. Aren’t we lucky?"

Meet The Overlook Press at the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 13

Hope to see all our New York area friends and fans at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, September 13. This is a fantastic, free public even presenting an array of literary stars and emerging authors. One of America’s premier literary and literacy events, this hip, smart, diverse gathering attracts thousands of book lovers of all ages - and The Overlook Press (booth #37) is proud to be part of it. The festival is held at Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, 10am-6pm.

Author of SIMA'S UNDERGARMENTS FOR WOMEN featured in Shelf Awareness

As the excitement mounts over next month's publication of Sima's Undergarments for Women , Shelf Awareness featured a Q&A with the author, Ilana Stanger-Ross, in today's Book Brahmin piece:

Ilana Stanger-Ross grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. She holds an undergraduate degree from Barnard College and an M.F.A. from Temple University and is currently a student midwife at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine. She has received several prizes for her fiction, including a Timothy Findley Fellowship, and her work has been published in Bellevue Literary Review, Lilith magazine, the Globe and Mail and the Walrus magazine, among others. Her new novel, Sima's Undergarments for Women, is a February Overlook Press publication.

On your nightstand now:
I covet a nightstand. But on the floor between my bed and my bedroom door is a more or less upright stack of books, including John Updike's Pigeon Feathers, Tony Horowitz's A Voyage Long and Strange, Wayne Johnston's The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and Maureen Freeley's Enlightenment. I read a few of the Updike stories while watching my daughters in the bath the other night, and they're incredibly rich and almost unbearably sad. The others are all still in the good-intention stage.

Favorite book when you were a child:

If I'm Lost, How Come I Found You? by Walter Olesky. It's hard to pick one favorite, but that was the first chapter book I read on my own. It was a Christmas gift from my second grade teacher--we all were given one book to read over the holidays, and I chose that one out of the grab-bag. I loved it. I no longer remember the plot other than it involved a lost child and some heartwarming adventures, but I do remember the enormous sense of pride in reading a chapter book entirely on my own.

Book you've faked reading:

Oh, I don't fake. But I have perhaps let on that I liked certain experimental books more than I did. Barthes comes to mind. Also Moby Dick--I skipped the whaling detail parts.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen. If you haven't read it--go read it right now. Now. It's a slim novella--you can be through it in an hour, easy, though you'll want to sit and savor it if you can. There's an Alice Walker blurb on my paperback edition. She writes, "Every time I read Tell Me a Riddle it breaks my heart." I can't say it better.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Vox by Nicholas Baker. I was in seventh grade and found myself drawn to the hot-pink cover. Or maybe that's just the excuse I gave myself after devouring the first few pages in the chain bookstore near my junior high. Pretty shocking material for a seventh grader--the hot pink meant something on that one.

Book that changed your life:

Our Bodies, Our Selves by the Boston Women's Health Collective. As a 13-year-old at summer camp, I pored over it along with all the other pre-teen campers. It was my first introduction to women-centered care, healthy sexuality, queer-positive thinking, etc. I'm currently studying to be a midwife, and I can trace my interest in women's health at least in part back to those bunk bed study sessions.

Favorite line from a book:

In To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Ramsay is trying to remember a poem. And the line she remembers, which apparently comes from a poem written by a not particularly well-regarded poet Woolf knew, is "And all the lives we ever lived, and all the lives to be, are full of trees and changing leaves." Isn't that lovely and true? I first read To The Lighthouse in high school, and that little rhyme has stayed with me. (Though, like Mrs. Ramsay herself, I am forever doomed to not remember the rest of the poem.)

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. I read it over a few days while sitting in a rocking chair in our Toronto apartment, my then-infant daughter Eva asleep across my lap. I loved the novel and couldn't put it down, but more than just the wonder of that story I want to revisit the moments during which I read it: winter outside, warm inside, my first baby (now four) asleep against me, and nothing to do but rock and read the most wonderful adventure.

HAPPY LABOR DAY from The Overlook Press

Happy Labor Day to all our friends and fans from The Overlook Press!

We'll be back in September will some exciting new releases, including Doug Kmiec's provocative book on Catholics and the presidental candidacy of Barack Obama, Can A Catholic Support Him? set for release on September 15.

Plus - Will, an acclaimed novel by Christopher Rush on the life of William Shakespeare; A Wild Ride Through the Night by Overlook favorite Walter Moers; and Jonathan Fast's fascinating examination of school shootings, Ceremonial Violence.

Have a great weekend!

Meet THE OVERLOOK PRESS at BookExpo America in Los Angeles, May 29-June 1

The book world gathers in Los Angeles this weekend at BookExpo America, held May 29- June 1, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. To all those dedicated readers of The Winged Elephant, we wish to extend an invitation to stop by The Overlook Press at Booth #2800. On Saturday, May 31, from 2-3pm, Robert Blair Kaiser will sign copies of his acclaimed investigation of the Robert Kennedy assassination and trial, "R.F. K Must Die!:" Chasing the Mystery of the Robert Kennedy Asssassination.

CELEBRATE GREAT WRITING During National Small Press Month

March is National Small Press Month, now in its 12th year, a nationwide promotion highlighting the valuable work produced by independent publishers. An annual celebration of the independent spirit of small publishers, Small Press Month is an effort to showcase the diverse, unique, and often most significant voices being published today. The Overlook Press, honored by the New York Center for Independent Publishing in December 2007, and recently profiled in Publishers Weekly, is a small press in its 37th year! Celebrate great writing this month with these new releases: The Wentworths by Katie Arnoldi; Song of the North by Jules Watson, Courting Shadows by Jem Poster, Funny Boys by Warren Adler, The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte by Laura Joh Rowland, and The Better Angels by Charles McCarry.

Overlook's PETER MAYER to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at 2008 London Book Fair

The Bookseller reports "Peter Mayer is to be awarded with a lifetime achievement award at this year's London Book Fair, following in the steps of Lord Weidenfeld, Christopher MacLehose, John Lyons, and Lynette Owen. Mayer will pick up the fifth annual LBF/Trilogy Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing at the London Book Fair on Tuesday 15th April at a special reception in the Earls Court Conference Centre. The award, voted for by the London Book Fair's advisory board, was unanimously agreed after the merits of a shortlist of six international publishing figures were debated. This year's judges commented that Peter Mayer had made an outstanding lifelong contribution to the international publishing industry through his various roles including Penguin India. From 1978 to 1996 he was the chairman and c.e.o. of the Penguin Group, based in London and New York. Since 1996 he has held the position of president and publisher of The Overlook Press and since 2003 he has been the president and publisher of Duckworth Publishers in the UK. Simon Master, chair of the advisory board, said: "Peter Mayer has long been an inspirational figure in the publishing industry both in the UK and overseas. His dedication to British and international publishing has distinguished his career and makes him fully deserving of the London Book Fair/Trilogy Lifetime Achievement Award 2008."

Come to the INDEPENDENT AND SMALL PRESS BOOK FAIR in NYC, December 1-2

Join us on Saturday and Sunday, December 1-2, at the 20th Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair in New York City! The Overlook Press will be exhibiting on the Library Floor at the New York Center for Independent Publishing in the landmark building of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesman in midtown Manhattan. We'll show off the best of 2007, in hardback and paperback, and preview some of our new titles that are coming in January 2008. See you there!