The Future is Bleak for June 11 (guest: Victoria Blake of Underland Press)

Ben is joined by Victoria Blake, publisher of Underland Press. Join us as we discuss the challenges facing small publishing houses, what makes a good book, and just what the hell a "wovel" is.

From the Underland Press website (www.underlandpress.com)--

WE LIKE STORIES that scare us. We like the macabre-monsters and magic and men with nothing to lose. More than anything, we like to be intrigued and entertained.

UNDERLAND PRESS was started to bring the best of the world’s scary and strange stories to life and to light.

CALL IT THE NEW WEIRD, or fantasy, or dark fantasy. Call it what you want. We like reading by flashlight under the covers at night. We want to make books you can’t put down.

We’ve got some good ones: Contemporary alt-lit master Brian Evenson’s latest-a story that started its life as a limited-edition detective novella set in a sect of self-mutilators; world-renowned fantasist Jeff VanderMeer’s new Ambergris novel, the third novel set in a world where nothing is what it seems; newcomer Will Elliott, a writer whose demonic clowns caused the critics to swoon and readers to demand more when they first saw print in Australia and Britain; the husband-and-wife team called Escober, a best-selling export from the Netherlands brought to America for the very first time; and rising star Kealan Patrick Burke doing the world’s firstever wovel, sponsored on Underland Press’ groundbreaking website.