By D.M. Youngquist
Hello all. Hope everyone is well. We’re finally getting our March weather. Too bad it’s almost May. In May, the flowers are supposed to be blooming, the gardens are supposed to be safe from frost. Baby plants are supposed to be thriving. But things are just a little weird this year. Comes and goes in cycles I guess. We’ve had to replant a few parts of the garden, but it’ll survive and come back. This fall Fay and I will be canning up salsa and putting away beans and carrots. And since I tilled in truckload of manure from the folk’s place, we ought to have a pretty successful garden this year.
Something else about May 1 this year: It’s our birthday at Dark Continents Publishing. One year ago in Austin, Texas we got together and launched 13 titles from the World Horror Convention. We took people on a bat cruise on Lady Bird Lake. We met a lot of great folks, some of whom have become part of the DCP family.
Now I know statistically, most businesses don’t make it through their first year. But with a lot of support from the writing and artistic community, and other indie publishers like us, we have made it to the one year mark. I know there were people out there betting we wouldn’t make it, and to be honest, at times I didn’t think we were going to. But we made it. We’re here. We’ve got a strong group of writers, and we’ve learned a lot.
So, we wanted to celebrate and say thank you to our fans and the people who have supported us through the year. The first year of a business is special. Something goes bad, or the managers just don’t know how to do their job, and it fails. But like our garden this year, now that we’re past the rough weather, we’re going to have a darn successful season.
When I talked with the rest of the board about what we wanted to do to thank everyone for their support this past year, we bounced around several ideas. Finally what we’ve come up with is a dual purpose event. We’re going to have a sale through the month of May. We’re going to knock ten percent off the price of our books, and shipping will be free. This is on sales from our website only, though, so don’t look anywhere else for this.
On top of that, we’ve wanted to do something to support cancer research. Many of us here in the DCP family have been touched personally by this scourge. My father has fought skin cancer. Last year, I lost my uncle, Harry DeVrieze to lymph cancer. Recently Tracie’s dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which is one of the reasons her thirteen year old son Declan shaved his head. Willie Meikle’s dad Barclay is fighting the good fight against this monster. Personally, I’d like to see this monster beaten.
So, what Dark Continents Publishing will do through the month of May, is donate ten percent of our website sales to The American Cancer Society. I took it as a goal to reach $1,000 to donate to cancer research from the company. If we get that much coinage, I’ll shave off my mustache for the first time in twenty seven years. Neither my wife or daughter have ever seen me without it. Even my mom, when I told her, said she couldn’t remember a time in my adult life when I didn’t have the lip crawler. Maybe if we’re lucky, we can get some of the more hirsute members of the DCP family to join in the fun. If we get that $1,000 to donate, I’ll post up a video of me taking it off. Adam Agushi has already volunteered to do the filming.
Now you may ask yourself, why should I buy a book when I could just donate a few bucks myself? Good question. You could do it that way, but we’ve also put together a few prize packages as an incentive to buy from us. If you simply purchase one book you’ll get a discount, and the warm feeling of having saved money and donated to cancer research.
But if you pick up two books, you’ll be in the running to win our second place prize. This includes a hand turned and fired coffee mug created by Jeffrey Goard, the artisan potter at The Prairie Arts Center in Bishop Hill, Illinois. You’ll also get a pound of custom roasted coffee from Bishop Hill as well. We’ll throw in a DCP tee shirt, and a Zombie Fiend “Fiend it like you mean it” T-shirt as well. In addition, you get another book of your choice from our catalog.
If you buy three books, you’re entered into our first place drawing. This includes the mug, the coffee, the shirts and the book. But then we’ll add a zombie chopping kukri knife for use after the Z-Poc (or just chopping wood and clearing brush), a Mitch Foust print of “Out With the Boys,” and a signed copy of one of our covers done by James Powell.
If you buy four or more books, then you’re entered for the big drawing. Our Grand Prize winner gets the mug, the coffee, the shirts and book. We’ll also include a bug out bag from the US Army and two signed covers from James Powell. But then you get something truly unique. You get to be famous. One of our authors will name a character for you in a book. Now, I can’t guarantee your character will be a hero or mass murderer, but you’ll have an interesting piece of history you can show off to your bar buds.
We’ll be adding stuff to the goodie bag as well as the month progresses, so keep watching the site. Maybe by the time we’re done, we’ll need a U-Haul to deliver everything.
Thanks for the help, folks; we do appreciate your support through the year. Look for us on other blogs, and watch our Facebook page and blog for updates. I’ll be doing a follow up blog with Nerine Dorman after the event, and like she says, I hope it’s sans moustache.
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