Media newsletter 21st July 20011

Rosa Mira Books' second publication is released today:  Slightly Peculiar Love Stories, gathered and edited by Penelope Todd.  Our writers from New Zealand, Argentina, Israel, Hong Kong, the US,  and the UK have filled the cup of love to overflowing with their  slightly peculiar tales.    The stories I’ve chosen paint a grand mandala of experience and circumstance: love appears and disappears; it yearns after an old flame or a new planet; it dares to declare itself, or to wait for the right one; it aches in the head, the heart, the groin, and all over. It falls for unlikely people and suffers fits of jealousy … You’ll read of love in a time of war; late, old love; love left too late; and mysterious new love that demands a leap of trust. A couple of stories poke into dark corners where love is whittled to a sliver of hope or a single compassionate act. Find out more about our eclectic and talented authors, the famous and the daisy-fresh,  on the Rosa Mira Blog.   How’s Rosa Mira going?  I’ve been amazed and delighted, since we launched in January this year, by the interest and encouragement of others as I gather components, allies, and active ingredients for this, my long-term experiment in original ebook publishing. The year started well with a grant (money, yes, but as important, a vote of confident curiosity) from Creative New Zealand to aid in the publication of Slightly Peculiar Short Stories. A small team of designers and PR people was readily assembled and we’ve all worked  quietly  at  our jobs for SPLS, fitting them in with our other commitments. Meanwhile Dorothee Kocks’s exhilarating novel The Glass Harmonica  has been steadily finding delighted readers.                  I’m currently editing a couple more exciting manuscripts, each in its  very different way recording a vivid personal and sociological journey.  I trust that by the end of the year another title will leap onto the Rosa  Mira ebookshelf, maybe even two.