So, my apologies for what's turned out to be a lighter publishing schedule here at CCLaP over the last few weeks than normal; turns out that behind-the-scenes work here at the center, plus some extra commitments recently during my daytime life, have conspired against me. Anyway, thought people would be interested in some of the things coming up here at CCLaP soon, the things keeping me on just a light posting schedule right now, so thought I'd throw a short entry on the subject up here on a quiet Saturday...

So to begin with, let's all rejoice; this weekend I actually managed to get the first new episode finished in three months of the CCLaP Podcast, yet another of the occasional all-music specials I do here, this time featuring a dozen great indie bands I came across during my listening adventures this summer. In fact, I'll be using the next episode as an excuse to announce an increase in the amount of music specials I'll be doing here this fall and winter; I've decided to start doing one every month, in fact, just so I'll have at least some fun thing for you to enjoy on a regular basis, even on the months I don't get any interviews done. Anyway, I hope you look forward to that, and don't forget that I'm always on the lookout for great music recommendations (cclapcenter [at] gmail.com).

And then lo and behold, would you look at this -- I've been wanting to keep this quiet for now, just so it wouldn't be jinxed, but it looks like I've actually found a workaround in my life recently for the publishing problems I had earlier this summer, which means that the plans for CCLaP Publishing are miraculously back on schedule. Well, hallelujah for that! (For those who don't know, I was going to start the first wing of CCLaP's publishing plans earlier this year, "pay what you want" electronic books by a series of mid-level writers I highly respect; but then my Mac G3 here at home fatally crashed, along with all my Adobe CreativeSuite software for actually creating the books, which had been on the computer when it had been donated to me, which is why I didn't have backup copies.) I've been futzing around with some alternatives recently, and realized that one of the options is actually going to work pretty well; and that's going to let me now again do the PDF versions that people will be able to send to either American or European laserprinters. That then combined with the Sony Reader version, the Palm version, and the PocketPC/Windows Mobile version, means that CCLaP Publishing is up and running again!

So I guess this is as good a time as any, then, to officially mention for the first time what CCLaP's first book will be; it is in fact the newest book by Chicago author Ben Tanzer, a two-time published novelist whose first book was reviewed here back before we knew each other, and a self-marketing activist who's been featured at the podcast before as well. His book with CCLaP is called Repetition Patterns, and is what I call a "story cycle;" that is, the stories themselves don't directly relate to each other, but each call up a similar series of references and images, sometimes in crafty ways that feed off the other references in other stories, sometimes not. They are stories about the Sam-Shepardesque American Midwest, stories about the dark fears of new parents, stories about the repeated dysfunctions of continuing generations; so the usual Tanzer territory, in other words, done in a tight and sharp way that I think is a new career-high for him*, and that is going to make a lot of people suddenly look at both him and his work in a new way. We're just a couple of weeks from that book getting released, so I hope you all are looking forward to it.

Anyway, so I hope you'll forgive the light book-review schedule here at CCLaP these days, as I do these and more behind-the-scenes things during my daytime life here in Chicago. As always, I appreciate your patience, and hope that you enjoy all the things that do end up getting posted here on any given day.

*And for existing Tanzer fans, by the way, coming by here for the first time today, let me make it clear; yes, the origins of these stories come from the beginning of Ben's career, but he and I have been sitting down quietly over the last six months and actually working these stories over on a line-by-line basis, for a second and third and fourth and fifth time at points, whipping them up into a narrative-length shape so that the stories slyly reference each other over and over in a sophisticated way that's worthy of being called a full-length manuscript. Even if you're already familiar with Tanzer's short work from when he was yet another confessional writer over at Punk Planet, THE2NDHAND and The Truth Magazine (where most of these stories originally came from), you should understand that the stories here in this upcoming book are significantly different than the original stories you read at those places long ago, and that there's a sincerely compelling reason for even long-time fans to sit and read this new collection from beginning to ending like they would a novel.