Broodcomb Press

Broodcomb's unique publications are well worth keeping an eye on. Ordered Nocebo several weeks ago, but it has not arrived yet. If it is anything like their earlier works it will be a deep dive into liminal places and states of mind. Especially loved Wild Majoram Tea and The Night of Turns with their "Dark Faerie" elements.
 
Irwin Pengelly

Pengelly, Irwin - Rubbings From Second-Hand Books

Most peculiar work here. Slim volume filled with a mash of found fiction and flash fiction.
Jottings found on the covers of second hand books. Only the ghostly impressions, mind you, not actual ink on covers.
Grocery lists – contact info – equations – dash of poetry – rants – curses – pledges.
Sandwiching the “treasures” are the author’s musings and interpretations regarding the public hysteria that ensued.
The unleashed madness of a core group of readers who believe something greater, if not altogether sinister, lurks in the random scribbles.
I generally dislike this sort of found writing, but it does add more information about the Peninsula for those who read Broodcomb Press.
 
I am so glad that I stumbled onto this thread, and onward into the Peninsula. The R. Ostermeier collection, A Trick of the Shadow, has been dark, unsettling, and a complete pleasure to read. I've just ordered several more titles from Broodcomb because of it. Secondary to the quality of these stories, but I do also really like the design and format of the paperbacks.
 
Walsh / Ostermeier is simply the best writer in this field working today. He is the best since Machen and all of his work is of the same, magnificent quality.
 
Sylvia Littlegood-Briggs

Littlegood-Briggs, Sylvia - Old Children

Jack, walking with vague purpose, heard the child, trapped under fallen stones, crying on the other side of the wall. He rescues the child, only to see it seemingly disappear.
Jack is noticed, however, by a woman who advises him that queer things happen where he is, Hunters’ Wood, and worse at the top, Birdyard.
She introduces herself as Polly, then offers him job at her home, Blackwood Cottage, where she wants a stone wall built, rather a stone maze.
As mentioned, Jack has been noticed. He has a quality “not quite of the fields we know, with more than a touch of the fields don’t know.”
This section, Jack’s observations, training, experiences, make for engaging reading. Two thirds in, however, the author pivots the narrative, dropping Jack into the realm of the Fairy Feller. Jack is added into a caravan, similar to those of Edith Bikker’s The Night Of Turns.
For me, this proved to be a narrative error and I found myself reading with diminished involvement. It seemed as if Littlegood-Briggs lost interest in her own tale, or if she simply lacked the story-telling ability to properly fill and conclude the opening section.
What is here, is excellent, despite the feeling that the two halves have been crazy glued together.
 
Yesterday i read a post from Broodcomb Press, saying that their upcoming book, “Poems from the Sideshow” is delayed but they intend to release a a new strictly-limited R.Ostermeier novella before the end of the year.....

- Plus “Inexistent Texts” vol.4 (their card sets, for anyone who is unfamiliar) is soon to be released....
 
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Today, Zagava announces a third beautiful Ostermeier lettered edition, NOCEBO.

Dear friend,
it’s my great pleasure to announce that the wonderful collaboration with Broodcomb Press will be continued with R. Ostermeier’s Nocebo:​
NOCEBO

by R. Ostermeier


“I believe that religion did a great disservice to the word soul by grabbing it for its own goody-bag. The soul has eyes and ears that receive signals from the light and the dark, from above ground and below, from the quotidian present to the deep past. The soul in this sense is open to the world at a level we cannot comprehend fully because it lies beyond the reach of words, of explanation. Soul resonates to symbol, ritual. It was what I suspected Birdwhistell was trying to articulate with her emphasis that we’d never know what we’d found, and my sense that the word feel was unspoken—.”

 Nocebo revisits and reknits themes familiar from A Trick of the Shadow and Therapeutic Tales – there will be one Zagava edition only:

A signed, thread-stitched hardcover with a die-cut window through which we see a round original etching affixed to the endpaper. The book comes with head- and tailband, a silk ribbon marker and is housed in a black clamshell with beautiful petrol-blue edges.
Like the other two titles it will be accompanied by a large bookmark, of course.
​
 
Charon said:
Yesterday i read a post from Broodcomb Press, saying that their upcoming book, “Poems from the Sideshow” is delayed but they intend to release a a new strictly-limited R.Ostermeier novella before the end of the year.....

- Plus “Inexistent Texts” vol.4 (their card sets, for anyone who is unfamiliar) is soon to be released....
Click to expand...
I wrote the publisher about the Ostermeier, and he replied -
"...it is unlikely to be before the end of the year now. The new Ostermeier novella is intended to be part illustrated, but the illustrations did not come out well so... back to the drawing board."
Patience for all Broodcomb fans.
 
Rumsy Schoolchildren

Ostermeier, R - Rumsy Schoolchildren

rumsy.jpg


Elly had attended the auction because of the vintage dolls. Bidding immediately outstripped her budget, which led to her considering the next lot – sixty school desks from Rumsy, circa 1976-1989.
Battered, grimy, scrawled with graffiti on top, gobs of gum underneath. Sex doodles, oaths aimed at despised teachers, private mottos, teen anguish, the lonely misery of adolescence.
Later, cleaned and arranged, the desktops reveal a haphazard history. Perhaps there is enough in them for an exhibition. Perhaps enough for a small book.

The story, which launches on promise, optimism even, skews ever so slightly, and one is drawn deeper into darkness. Elly, our witness, is one who never turns away, even when she suspects something dreadful is being exposed.
Libby Grady beckons and Elly finds the attraction fearfully hard to resist.

This novel is a gradual descent into the horror of “otherness”. Wonderfully paced, as if the curious soul steps carefully, gingerly into the cellar, all while the cellar itself grows dimmer and darker with each footfall.

Caveat? There is an unnecessary afterword that merely serves to bring the proceedings into the “Peninsula” sphere. It dissipates the atmosphere, and ought to be avoided.
Otherwise, this was one of the best things I read in 2024.
 
I was not aware how fast these books would become rare? Makes sense in hindsight. I bought them originally because I loved the literary aesthetic. Just solid writing. I hope they continue long into the future.
 
I have only read R. Ostermeier so I did not do any comparisons but I am reading here that this is the same author as O. Jamie Welsh, etc. Is it possible that all of the Broodcomb authors are the same person? If so I guess that I will need to add to my want list.
 
Ligrotesque said:
I have only read R. Ostermeier so I did not do any comparisons but I am reading here that this is the same author as O. Jamie Welsh, etc. Is it possible that all of the Broodcomb authors are the same person? If so I guess that I will need to add to my want list.
Click to expand...

I'd say there's no question. I've read most of them, though only one R Ostermeier, and they are all good. Highly recommended. Also, they are all copyrighted by JM Walsh, who runs the press and does all the artwork. Plus, three of the authors (Edita Bikker, Jude Golby and Sylvia Littlegood-Briggs) are characters' names.

Buy them before they're gone...
 
Ironrose said:
Ligrotesque said:
I have only read R. Ostermeier so I did not do any comparisons but I am reading here that this is the same author as O. Jamie Welsh, etc. Is it possible that all of the Broodcomb authors are the same person? If so I guess that I will need to add to my want list.
Click to expand...

I'd say there's no question. I've read most of them, though only one R Ostermeier, and they are all good. Highly recommended. Also, they are all copyrighted by JM Walsh, who runs the press and does all the artwork. Plus, three of the authors (Edita Bikker, Jude Golby and Sylvia Littlegood-Briggs) are characters' names.

Buy them before they're gone...
Click to expand...




Thanks so much for the info.
 
Black Dog

Ostermeier, R - Black Dog

The holiday was forced upon him. Ben preferred structure, not the empty break from routine.
Perhaps the choice was fate, perhaps Ben nursed a contrary streak. His choice of vacation, Oakmotherley was on the coast. It had a maligned reputation, an unhealthy place, and it was also known as Black Dog.

A triplex on the sands, recently renovated for a tourist trade that never materialized.
Quiet enough, though, for Ben Bagwell to work on his etchings and idle time with passersby.
The step toward the Black Dog sect was just a soft turn, a twinge of curiosity, until he found himself knee deep. Accepted.

This is a story that lulls one, tugs at you insistently, until you find yourself in the spell of enlightenment or madness. One way or another, you may never regard grapes the same way.

Suggestion: Prior to reading this, you might want to view “What Artists Do All Day: Norman Ackryod” to get an understanding of the etching process.
 
David Oyston

Oyston, David - Poems From The Sideshow

Confession. Poetry isn’t really my bag. I lost my appetite for it decades ago. Likely my age; time dwindling by the moment, and me urging the poet to get to the damn point already.
This collection makes for an exception, however. For me. And for those who are familiar with the Broodcomb Peninsula.

The sideshow feels like a midpoint between the settlements and the caravans, with a sizeable population of geeks, gaffs and assorted misfits.

Initial section strolls from tent to tent, wagon to wagon, meeting individuals. Characters. And yes, this is poetry. This leisurely introduction is approximately half the book.

Next, a rollicking wedding. Where bashful clash with the obnoxious. Guests invited, as well as the menacing interloper. Poetry notwithstanding, on the Peninsula, danger is ever a breath away.

Following the reception, there is dispersing. Guests scatter and page after page is crammed with fragmented dialogues and thoughts. Readers who have read sections in order will be on surer footing, in that you might differentiate voices. Navigating each and every page here might intimidate.

Did I enjoy this? Not altogether. Oh, this is heady stuff. Again and again, however, my mind drifted back to the settlements, to the caravans.

One stanza lingered with me long after I closed the book:

“Always distrust the perfect smile
Crook tooth, split tooth, yellow canine
or lost incisor is more honest
than the faultless light of a white smile.”

I immediately thought of what passes for our modern smile. The rictus grin. Teeth clenched, lips raised in an ironic sneer. The social tease of the beauty contestant, the prostitute, the politician. Disdain cloaked by warmth. Frauds and fakes. While the spectators, gullible fools, are so often you and I.
Be safe out in the Wide World, friend.
 
Ironrose said:
I'd say there's no question. I've read most of them, though only one R Ostermeier, and they are all good. Highly recommended. Also, they are all copyrighted by JM Walsh, who runs the press and does all the artwork. Plus, three of the authors (Edita Bikker, Jude Golby and Sylvia Littlegood-Briggs) are characters' names.

Buy them before they're gone...
Click to expand...

Apologies, I'm new here and screwed up my first post!

At 60, I've recently read my first Ligotti writings - Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe. I loved them- but either because I am slow, or drink too much beer while I read, I found myself wanting find some help on understanding his work. That brought me here.

While poking around earlier, I noticed some postings on Broodcomb Press books, and it seems like you have a fairly extensive knowledge of their (his) writings. I too had found them from Nancy Oakes and her Oddly Weird Fiction. About two years ago I bought a couple of books from Jamie on his recommendations as to where I should start. That was A Trick of the Shadow, Wild Marjoram Tea and Nocebo. They have now just about reached the top of one of my TBR piles. After reading yours and this groups posts on the Broodcomb books, I thought it might be prudent to ask if I could get a recommendation as to what order I should be reading them in. I know that will probably mean I need to source out a few that might be higher in the starting order, and that is fine with me - I think the "right order" is a bit important sometimes. Jamie had mentioned that the only two that really have an order are The Settlements and The Revenants (both of which I do not have). However, that doesn't mean that readers, with knowledge aforethought, would have preferred to go in a certain order.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Tom
 
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