This year Revenge Ink is doing it right. We have two new collections for our books, one called ART and the other called POP.
ART as you guessed it, is going to include books with illustrations that go beyond mere text, story or established forms like poetry or prose but enter instead a field of what I have called ‘sacred chaos’ where images and words meet, mind-meld and cohabit together in blissful ignorance, free of the meddling tactics of marketing managers and prissy filing freaks.
POP is fiction we consider popular, fun, entertaining, sharp and always always accessible. We don’t believe popular fiction has to be trashy or insulting to your intelligence. We don’t believe there’s a difference between ‘literary’ and ‘popular’ fiction either. All our writers (including us, the founders) find themselves in this category, and they’ve all written thought-provoking, intelligent, emotionally rich books that have you wondering, laughing, thinking, biting your nails … but always always feeling good about yourself.
So here are our books for 2010 (more might be added on later, but that’s how we do it here: straight from the heart, never obsessed with procedure….) ENJOY!
SON OF STEVE
by Sean Conway
Includes a free DVD of Sean’s award-winning short films
Illustrations by Steve, the author’s father.
Release: June 15, 2010 (Collection: ART)
What’s it about: Sean Conway (www.seanconway.co.uk) is a young film-maker from Yorkshire whose fantastically crazy debut novella sits somewhere between prose and poetry, has no characters except for Jesus and Elvis and talks about nothing in particular except for thoughts on pop culture and sex, creating a sense of suspension in time and space. This is a book about bringing us back to something primal, beyond categories and labels. It isn’t surprising Sean is a film-maker: the pages read like scenes, snap shots taken from nowhere special, but which are highly evocative for this very reason. If we could bring literature back to its deepest roots, it would probably look a lot like Son of Steve.
Amita says: This is a thrilling piece of anti-structuralist writing and fits in perfectly with the ‘sacred chaos’ philosophy of Revenge Ink. Sean is a truly free creative spirit and we were damn glad he came to us.
A little more about: Sean Conway was born and raised on a council estate in Batley, a small mill town in West Yorkshire. His graduation film Rocco Paris premiered at the London Film Festival 2005, has played at over forty festivals in over ten countries and won many awards.
Whilst still at University he sold his first feature film screenplay, Love, to the fashion photographer and founder of Dazed & Confused magazine Rankin (Lives of the Saints). In spring 2007 he was picked to write and direct a Cinema Extreme film. Funded by Film Four and the UK Film Council, Cinema Extreme is the most prestigious short film scheme in the UK. Alex and her Arse Truck, a Third Films production, made its world premiere spring 2008 in Hamburg having screened at the London Film Festival 2007 and has already screened at sixty festivals across the globe. Alex and her Arse Truck broadcast on Channel 4 summer 2008 and has since won Best Cinematography Award at London Super Shorts Festival and been nominated for Best Short Film at the British Independent Film Awards.
His latest short film Sloe Gin Nights, a Pinball Films production and part of the LunchFilm movement, premiered at Sundance 2009. He has been commissioned to write a feature screenplay entitled Erotology for award winning director Ashley Horner (The Other Possibility) and the film is currently in postproduction via Pinball Films. He is currently working on his first novel, The Science of the Beautiful.
Look out for: Sean has a film coming out in the spring, BRILLIANTLOVE, directed by Ashley Horner, Pinball Films.
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Whitehawk
by Simon Nolan
Release date: July 4, 2010, (Collection: POP humor, mystery)
Already published five times (www.simonmaginn.com) Simon Nolan here writes a hilarious story about how people cannot be forced to be excessively rational, and that if you attempt to impose rationality, you merely usher in an even higher level of dramatic, unexpected level of chaos.…
What’s it about: Mel Banff is hired by the shadowy ‘Rationality Unit’ created by the Blair govt to induce people to make rational decisions in their lives so they won’t waste public money. She begins to interact with a family in Brighton (Whitehawk estates) that is made up of strange eccentric pink-kneed Kenneth, his overweight, turkey-necked wife June, a pair of twins one of whom is always wrapped up in a sheet, and a mildly hysterical, precocious teenage girl, Kelly. There’s also Dane, a young hotshot cousin, and a host of other deranged characters. Mel soon gets caught up in the family’s outrageous madness: she hears dog ghosts, finds wedding dresses with tracksuit trimmings, witnesses sex between Dane and (underage) Kelly who are (also incidentally) related. In the end, although Mel tries her best to impose rationality and prevent an incestuous and pedophiliac wedding, she unwittingly becomes part of an extremely bizarre ritual in a narrative twist that challenges all rational explanation…. Not only Mel but members of the family risk death if she doesn’t figure out what to do.
Amita says: I love this book. It made me laugh and when Gopal and I read it, we liked it instantly. Simon is a previously published author who instead of going for an even larger publishing house this time, came to us because he said he liked the way we did things. We’re damn proud of this one, Simon’s a pro and his book is laugh-out-loud funny, intelligent and unputdownable to the very end!
A little more about: Simon Nolan was born in Wallasey, Merseyside in 1961. He studied music at the University of Sussex, specialising in percussion and composition. As Good as it Gets, his first novel, was published to great acclaim in 1999, followed by The Vending Machine of Justice (2001). He lives and works in Brighton, UK (Britain’s hippest coastal city, apparently). He also writes as Simon Maginn. “Nolan is brilliant…” Time Out.
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Klumbert’s Chair
by JP Christopher Malitte
Release date: September 4, 2010 (Collection: POP, humor, noirish, surrealist)
Translated by Jonathan Sly, Originally published by Actes Sud, France, 2007
Jean-Philippe Christopher Malitte is an English-speaking Frenchman, the kind that likes LA, David Lynch and Chuck Palahniuk. His books are more Anglo than Franco, and he wears this fact proudly, along with his determined desire to be published by a company like Revenge Ink.
What’s it about: Klumbert’s Chair features lead character Humbert Klumbert, millionaire designer of the first ‘infinitely pileupable’ plastic bucket chair. HK is a weird, solitary obsessive-compulsive whose days follow bizarre, pre-established rituals (such as eating at a different junk food place everyday, then throwing up once the meal is done). The novel is told in first person, is highly evocative of the worlds of Samuel Beckett and David Lynch, and is set in LA during the Rodney King riots. As the book proceeds, Klumbert’s days begin to deviate from the strict order he has maintained so far, and he starts to run into amnesiacs, psychotics and finally the police … as it turns out the young girl he’s been watching at the bus-stop everyday has told them about the ‘strange old man who stares at her and creeps her out’ just before she is found chopped up into pieces in a garbage can…. The story chronicles Klumbert’s increasing collapse as his phantom love-affair with extreme order collides violently with the wild chaos raging in the city (and in his psyche).
Amita says: This is an unbelievable book. Incredibly written. One of those books that creeps up on you when you’re not looking; you go through it like the wind because it creates a deep and absorbing atmosphere that keeps you from putting it down. The most striking thing? The meticulous care taken in describing each of Klumbert’s days and how they very gradually come apart in the details. A fantastic mastery of rhythm, vital for this kind of narrative to take full effect.
A little more about: Born in 1973, JP Christopher Malitte, studied at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts et de la Communication and worked as an interior designer for many years before turning finally to the audiovisual field and to writing as a serious activity. He works at Canal + where he was first a free-lance Writer and Art Director before becoming Senior Editor. His debut novel La Chaise Klumbert (Actes-Sud, April 2007), was nominated for the French-Language Award at the Beirut Book Fair. He is currently working on his second novel.
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Virtual Assassin
by Simon Kearns
Release date: Sep 11, 2010 (Collection: POP political thriller)
This is Simon Kearns’ debut novel (visit Simon at spiralise.blogspot.com) and is exceptional in its honesty, heightened political consciousness, and a daring emotional, even philosophical approach to politics that makes it all about how much are we willing to lose in order to honestly express our outrage over the ways our politicians run our world?
What’s it about: Lee Coller is a successful young graphic designer with a strong political conscience. He is sickened with the politics of the Iraq war and by the no-regrets position of Tony Blair, but feels impotent. His boss happens to be a millionaire friend of Blair’s and has successfully created an online company: anything@all.com in which Lee manages to work in exchange for a good salary with which he rents a nice flat and leads a comfortable lifestyle. One night when he and his colleagues are out in a bar, he hears that Tony Blair might be visiting to the company soon in an official capacity. Immediately, an obsession takes hold in Lee’s mind about what he could say or do to the PM during that visit. As the obsession builds, fuelled by sleepless nights, drugs and alcohol, Lee unexpectedly meets and falls in love with Rosa, an attractive Spanish temp at his office. He also realizes how much he stands to lose now if he goes through with his unavowable plan: to assault the PM using a sharp, knifelike letter-opener he has in his desk. He is prepared to lose everything for the sake of his beliefs, but as the day approaches an unexpected twist occurs. Is it Blair who’s visiting after all? And if it is, will Lee be able to do what he’s planned? Scenes of him in a prison cell make us believe he does. But can one act of pointless violence make up for another? Does it? Should it? This page-turner helps us find out….
Amita says: Simon’s book first went to Gopal who gave it an absolutely unequivocal YES. Then I found I couldn’t put it down either. Not only is this book an expertly written, brilliantly paced thriller, it is striking in its candor over what we all call our ‘political convictions.’ Having myself given up a lucrative profession to become a writer and publisher that opposed the mainstream, I was immediately tuned into this novel which involves a brilliant build-up of suspense but is also a frank discussion of personal anger vs public politics, personal ethics vs public morality.
A little more about: Simon Kearns was born in London in 1972, and raised in Northern Ireland. In 1991 he returned to London to study philosophy. He has written a number of novellas, short stories, and two novels previous to Virtual Assassin. He is fascinated by Neolithic cultures, etymology, and the workings of the news media. Music is very important to his writing process and he often makes his own, distorting samples, soundscapes, and repetitive beats to create trance-inducing tracks. In his writing he is particularly concerned with exploring the multiple versions of reality presented in the 21st Century, and the effect of these constructs upon the mind. He currently lives in a medieval village in southern France with his partner and their two children.
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So Shall Ye Reap
by Mathew Reuben (Mat) Jackson
Release date: Oct 2010 (Collection: POP love story, thriller)
Mat Jackson like Luc Richard (Club Stud, 2009), comes from a non-writer’s background but has a pronounced talent for fiction. Unlike Club Stud, however, this is not a story based on the writer’s own life but is an intricately woven, emotionally intense tale of love, betrayal, abuse and personal responsibility. It contradicts the idea that only women care about love and family and can express intimate emotions with a startling frankness.
What’s it about: This is a chilling story about Dave, an increasingly violent pedophile truckdriver (with violent antecedents of childhood rape) and Jessica Balans, a successful partner in an accounting firm. Both Dave and Jessica begin their journeys in England, but find themselves en route to France and an unexpected destiny…. Jessica who has fallen passionately in love with the suave James McGhinty wants to leave her husband and children. Dave who at first is dimly aware of his taste for child pornography, realizes he can no longer ignore his violent urges. The two stories intersect in France where Jessica’s family is vacationing and the trucker has enacted his worst fantasy. Winding through a network of minor characters who come alive with Mat’s intimate, highly visual style, the story reaches a shocking climax where it seems as if the only man able to take care of Jessica’s under-age daughter is her uncle Dave… the pedophile.
A little more about: Born in Basildon, Essex in 1966 son of a highly successful entrepreneur, Mat Jackson was educated at Felsted with a view to studying languages at Cambridge. He decided instead to develop his love of business and joined the family business at the age of 16. Nearly 30 years later, his life experience has been rich and diverse, including trading foreign currency since aged 17, importing goods from China, setting up a textile manufacturing facility in India, home educating his 3 children, building his own house, buying and selling real estate internationally and developing an Eco resort in the Caribbean.
“It’s been said that everyone has a book in them – but not everyone can write. A difficult period in my life gave birth to setting the challenge of seeing where my passion for language and intriguing storylines could take me. After 2 years of writing, and a year of edits, the result is So Shall Ye Reap….”
Amita says: I was surprised to see how polished Mat’s book was, considering he’d never written a novel before. What was most striking was how he wrote both the female and male characters with a remarkable vulnerability and sincerity. Mat himself seemed to me to be an upbeat and enterprising man, but has clearly been able in this book to tap into his darker, more emotional side. Mat’s book proves that talent can emerge from anywhere, in anyone, and that it is profoundly wrong to imprison fiction behind elitist, bourgeois, snobbish barriers.
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Dogsend, the Story of Simba
by Gauri Smith
Release date: Oct 2010 (Collection: POP autobiographical pet fiction)
Gauri Sinh is our first Indian author to b*tch-slap two aspects of the Slumdog Millionaire-God of Small Things type of narrative that seems never to go away when it comes to India (the two aspects being: India=poverty and Indian women=to be pitied). While Danny Boyle may proudly shoulder the white man’s burden and stoop magnanimously to teach us po’ Indians what we seem incapable of learning (ie., how to care for our poor, which of course, the West does SO well, witness the complete lack of homelessness in the cities of the Caucasian rich), Gauri Sinh attests to the fact that most Indians are perfectly capable of carrying on lives that are happy, emotionally fulfilled and remarkably human. Gauri’s beautiful story about her pet Labrador Simba who comes to her as an adorable puppy takes us to Mumbai not as a city of poor hopelessness and slum-ridden cruelty, but to a place where everyday life is happy and secure, where children go to school, women work (and are independent and respected), people enjoy themselves and life is redolent with warm friendships, close family ties and mutual aid and support.
What’s it about: Simba is a Labrador puppy that Gauri buys for her husband Chait, a man of few words but a quiet dedication to his wife, his family, his rugby pals, his personal space and above all, his dogs. Having grown up with pets, Chait wants a dog so Gauri finally relents, learning to make room for Simba who has a clear preference for Chait over her. As the months and years go by, Simba nuzzles his soft furry way into her heart, even as he insists on sharing the bed with his ‘parents,’ pokes a pregnant Gauri in the eye, never obeys anyone but Chait, and shows a rather perilous affection for violent strays. When Gauri and Chait realize they are expecting a baby, Gauri’s concern becomes, will Simba be jealous of the little girl or will he show her the love he shows everyone so naturally? A harrowing skirmish with death later, Gauri and Chait discover that no concerns (this or any other) can ever come in the way of their lasting love for Simba. A wonderful story of life and love in Mumbai, of friendships built around pets, of moving visits with pet psychics, of family ties, a narrative that creates a profound and genuinely enlivening picture of life as it is actually lived in India: heartfelt, passionate, warm and deeply human.
This is not a miserabilist vision of India, indeed, the dominant note here is that of a genuine warmth, such as most Indians routinely experience in their personal lives. This book proves that people everywhere seek life, liberty and the right to pursue happiness.
A Little More About: Gauri Sinh was born and brought up in Mumbai (Bombay), India. She did her Masters in English from the University of Mumbai (having topped St. Xaviers College, Mumbai, in English at the HSC boards, and having got onto the National and State Merit Lists as well) and then went on to emerge as a top-ten finalist in the Ms. India contest. She subsequently enjoyed a rather entertaining modeling career that took her to various parts of the world, and finally gave up on that to marry into Indian royalty. She then went back to her first love, writing. As Editor of Bombay Times, the lifestyle and entertainment supplement of the largest-selling English broadsheet newspaper in the world, The Times of India, she tracked for a few years the colourful canvas of glamour and grime that makes Mumbai. (Before which, she also enjoyed being Editor of Femina Girl, the youth offering of Femina, the largest selling English women’s magazine in India). She then took a break to have her daughter, during which she wrote Dog-Send, the Story of Simba.
She now finds herself back in the workforce, as a working mother. As Editor of After Hours, (the lifestyle and entertainment supplement of DNA, the second largest English broadsheet newspaper in Mumbai city) she is once again covering stories on Mumbai – the city she knows and loves best.
Amita says: Not being a softie really (then again, maybe we’re all softies at heart!), I didn’t expect to enjoy Gauri’s novel but it grew on me, much as Gauri’s love for her dog Simba, grows on her in her book. Gauri has a charming warm style and a wonderful natural ability to evoke life in Mumbai, a city where I have also lived and where I found (much to my surprise) genuine lasting friendships and a remarkable appetite for life. This in spite of the insanity, the Bollywood frenzy and the genuine poverty of Mumbai. It is undeniably true that an utterly unique and amazing spirit reigns in that great city, and Gauri captures it in a sincere, authentic ‘Revenge Ink’ sort of way.
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