|
October 2005
Atone website is launched!
September 2005
75 copies of Atone completed.
Each copy is handmade to exacting specifications.
The mirror-like cover material is screenprinted, then scored
and glued to the interior pages. A paper guillotine is used
to give each edge a sleek cut, including the trademark slant
cut along the bottom which gives the book its distinctive
'guillotine' look.
The final phase is the dipping in and splashing on of blood
to finish the effect.
It's a laborious process, but we know it's worth it to provide
the public with the very best book, the book they've always
desired, right from the very beginning.
|
Welcome, you've found the online home of the Atone Neither
Overflowing Clause, a literary tome de form by authors AEM
and Rob Read. This page will give you all the information
you need to decide.
Atone started as a sort of assignment - a mission even. Two
novellas with a number of shared characters and objects. Conjoined
novellas - like twins - blind twins. Each half was written
by its author without any but the most scant information about
its other half.
The reslut is a text of epic proportions.
[Below: the finished front cover of
the limited edition first run of Atone]
Atone is the first in a series of creative collaborations
to be published as time allows. So far two more volumes are
finished and awaiting publication, and a companion volume
of non-fiction, somewhat about the collision between these
two authors' very different approaches (Open Letter, Closed
Book) has already been published, and is sadly currently out
of print.
[Above: The blood-splattered bottom
edge of Atone]
[Below: The back cover, which perhaps
gives the best indication that the entire book is cut on a
slant to resemble a guillotine]
The content of Atone is highly variable - in one half, a
doctor and patient converse in a theatrical search for meaning.
Just what is this Sleeping Giant that has sent the Glass Snake
on its apparently deadly journey? Dr. Meph wants to know,
and Mason knows - or does he? Does anyone? A stunning musical
climax gives a reverberating effect as this half closes.
[Above: The Sleeping Giant]
[Below: The Glass Snake]
The other half of the book follows the tale
of two clowns (Shakespeare and Fulke Greville), who have inadvertently
created a time machine. Because any real attempts at or successes
with time travel would fracture time/space so completely that
it would never make sense to anyone - this half of the book
likely doesn't make sense to anyone - or does it? Many chapters
are adaptations of topical newspaper articles, while others
follow the madcap adventures of a young Milton at the Academy
for Arts and Knives, where he is finally killed at the hands
of a gun that shoots pencils (this gives away little of the
plot since it happens on page 3).
[Above: Shakespearean playwright William
Shakespeare, perhaps most famous for having written Shakespeare's
Sonnets.]
[Below: Elizabethan poet and author
of the Masque of Mephistopheles, Fulke Greville. Murdered
by a butler who mistook him for a ghost at Warwick Castle.]
As for the style - the novellas are written
so deftly and with such skill that most professional authors
who have read it have been astounded (and even a bit jealous!).
Nothing like it will you ever read. From chapter to chapter,
even page to page, the strength and adaptability of both authors
is astounding.
Together, these two disparate and yet unbreakably-paired
novellas have no choice but to reside in the same home forever.
And what a home it is. The book is hand-bound in mirror-like
silver paper, screenprinted, and then cut to the shape of
a guillotine. The final application of blood gives Atone its
100% original look and feel. When one picks it up, they feel
a distinct frisson pass through their fingers and into
their very bloodstream.
[Below: A picture showing the frontispiece
to Atone.]
[Below: An example of the stunning
typesetting.]
[Below: Another example of the design
and layout of Atone, showing the entire spread this time.]
BUY YOURS
TODAY WHILE THEY ARE STILL AVAILABLE
Yes, only a limited number
of copies of Atone are produced, for several reasons. Because
of the abrasive and untempered energy behind this book, no
publishing house would let it see the light of day. Not to
mention the extra concerns of the time-consuming setup to
construct the book to the authors' exacting specifications.
Therefore, the authors vowed
to release this book themselves - each copy is hand-bound
and decorated by Rob Read and AEM personally. So each purchase
is not just a chance to read and enjoy two fantastic novels
(which due to their nature, have high re-reading value). Each
purchase is not just a chance to hold in your hands a unique
object created personally for you. Each purchase is also an
investment - and I don't mean a 'cultural investment', but
a financial one - just imagine what a unique book written,
published, and hand-bound by James Joyce might be worth today!
You wouldn't get many stock options for $25,
but you will get a unique and
one-of-a-kind copy of Atone.
It's your choice really, you
can sit here reading about how good Atone Neither Overflowing
Clause is, or you can decide today that you want to see it
for yourself. It's a choice you won't regret making.
By the way, shipping is very cheap at just
$5 per book.
Keep
Shopping at Produce Press
Questions
of Comments?
|
