Books may be the last medium where the logo on the spine can mean something. While it cannot convey the book’s content, it can instantly communicate how the title feels, and in which genre it belongs. Underland Press aims to be the next great indie brand, in which its logo will be a sign of taking chances in fiction of the fantastic. Victoria Blake, the woman behind this new publishing startup, talked with BOOKGASM about her exciting venture.
BOOKGASM: With publishing facing a highly uncertain future, why enter the fray now? Do you think the small press is better positioned to survive?
BLAKE: I have absolutely no doubt that fiction will continue to be read, and it will continue to be written. The delivery mechanism for the fiction might change, and the content will certainly change and develop, but I don’t think fiction will ever go away. I hold this belief so strongly, I can’t even imagine a world without fiction.
It’s like trying to imagine my face without my nose. We need fiction. As humans. We need it to make sense of the world. So even though publishing is facing an uncertain future, fiction is not. I think it’s a perfect time to be entering the fray. Transition means opportunity. Maybe. With a little bit of luck.
BOOKGASM: What can one expect from the Underland Press brand?
BLAKE: Ah! You’re the first person to call it a brand! Excellent. That’s one of my goals. I want the Underland website to become a place where people who like a certain type of fiction, who have a certain sensibility, will come, and will come back.
What can you expect? You can expect weird, strange, odd and unsettling stories. That’s anything from psychotic clowns to self-mutilators to islands made of mold. It includes serial killers, but it also includes children with heads that turn around on their neck. You won’t see violence for violence’s sake, but rather you’ll see the weird stuff employed for a larger narrative purpose.
BOOKGASM: What can you tell us about the first two books you’ve selected to kick off this new effort? Why did you choose them as your out-of-the-gate releases, so to speak?
BLAKE: The first book we’re publishing is the book that made me want to start Underland. It’s Brian Evenson’s LAST DAYS and it blew my mind when I read it, back when I was working at Dark Horse.
I met Brian at BEA, and he and I got to talking. He agreed to write an ALIENS book for Dark Horse — it’s called NO EXIT — and it was released last month, and he sent me a chapbook of BROTHERHOOD OF MUTILATION, a novella published by Earthling. It gave me chills. A year or so later, he told me that he had completed a follow-up novella, and that he was considering printing both as one work.
I waited to quit Dark Horse until I’d heard that Brian would be able to sell me the rights to LAST DAYS. Actually, it happened in an e-mail. I saw his name pop up in my inbox, and I told my boyfriend, “It’s either a go, or it’s not.” And it was.
The second book is THE PILO FAMILY CIRCUS by Will Elliott, and won all sorts of awards in Australia, where it was first published. The story is about a trio of clowns that kidnap the protagonist, Jamie, and bring him to an otherworldly circus. All sorts of crazy things happen there — including a war between the acrobats and the clowns. I’m amazed that this is Will’s first published book. I’m very, very jealous of what a strong writer he is. Somehow, he manages to make this very odd world live on the page.
BOOKGASM: How many releases are you planning for your first year? Any other titles you can announce at this point?
BLAKE: I’m incredibly lucky to be able to publish Jeff VanderMeer’s third Ambergris book, FINCH. I met Jeff through Brian Evenson, when I was at Dark Horse. Jeff wrote a PREDATOR novel for Dark Horse, called SOUTH CHINA SEA.
Jeff’s a great guy — really generous with his time and his input. Lately, though, our e-mail exchanges have fallen off a bit. He’s finishing the manuscript for FINCH now, and he’s gone into a creative hole. Hurry up, Jeff! I can’t wait to read the book!
The fourth book this year is Escober’s CHAOS, a thriller I had translated from Dutch. That sounds weird, I know, but everybody who read this book in the original loved it, and I went with that one faith. I was nervous to receive the translation, but I shouldn’t have been. It knocked me off my feet. I read the proof in two days, and I’m really hoping it sells well enough to justify bringing Escober’s other books into English. They have three more that I really, really want to publish.
BOOKGASM: Before this, you were an editor at Dark Horse. What projects did you most enjoy working on there, and what did you learn in your time there to prepare you to launch Underland?
BLAKE: I loved the ALIENS and PREDATOR books. I love the idea of licensed fiction — that the same central concept can be treated differently by many different minds. Plus, the Predators are just cool. I’d take them over the Aliens any day.
I also really loved Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar books. Leiber had an incredible prose style and an incredible imagination. I will always remember Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser looking down into that wobbling pillar of air that extends down from the top of the ocean. At the bottom of the ocean, they find a cavern of air. Fafhrd lights a torch, and the cavern fills with smoke. It’s perfect — both the classic swords-and-sorcery setting, and the way that the two characters interact with the setting.
What did I learn? I learned what my boss, Rob Simpson, told me on my first day: “Publishing isn’t rocket science. It’s just a lot of fun.” He was right on both counts. —Rod Lott
OTHER RECENT BOOKGASM AUTHOR INTERVIEWS:
• Q&A with MY BRAIN IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN’s David Heatley
• Q&A with THE NEW ANNOTATED DRACULA’s Leslie S. Klinger
• Q&A with NIGHT OF THE FURIES’ David Angsten
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I’ve recently completed both Last Days and Pilo Family Circus, and cannot recommend them highly enough. Great, warped imaginations. Underland Press is one to watch, most definitely so.