• by Peter S. Beagle


• by Jan Bender


• by Connor Freff Cochran


• by Rebekah Naomi Cox

Keep me informed about these titles. (Please note: individual project release dates will be added to this page as they get scheduled.)

SUMMERLONG

Peter's first new novel for adults since 1993!

Summerlong is the magical realist tale of three ordinary people, two not-quite human gods, and the changes that overcome all of them and the world when their lives become entangled. Set in modern-day Seattle, this wonderful book blends fact and fantasy in a mix that is rich, subtle, delightfully alive, wholly original, and further proof that Peter S. Beagle is the living master of fantastic storytelling.

Conlan Press will issue this title in two editions: Audiobook and Definitive (see below). The new hardcover and trade paperback editions will be published by Night Shade Books.

WRITING SAREK

Peter's complete teleplay for his "Sarek" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, annotated, with additional new material covering the story behind the episode and Peter's analysis of Star Trek as a storytelling phenomenon.

Conlan Press will be bringing this out in Hardcover.

 

SMÉAGOL, DÉAGOL, AND BEAGLE: ESSAYS FROM
THE HEADWATERS OF MY VOICE

A collection of essays by Peter about the writers, artists, and individuals who have most powerfully affected him and his career. Essay subjects include his teachers, James Stephens, Walt Kelly and Pogo, T. H. White, James Thurber, Robert Nathan, Georges Brassens, his parents and uncles and grandfather, and of course J.R.R. Tolkien. In the title essay, Peter goes into detail about his experience writing the 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings and includes large pieces of his original screenplay by way of illustration.

Those interested in an advance look at the contents can buy the essay about teachers ("Something To Be Learned") for 50 cents, as an individual short at Amazon.com.

Conlan Press will issue this title in three editions: Audiobook, Hardcover, and Definitive.

THREE FACES OF THE LADY

One of Peter's best-known stories is the classic fantasy "Come Lady Death," first published in 1963 and reprinted many times since. This collection includes not only that story but also the first version (with an entirely different ending); Peter's complete libretto for his own 1990 opera adaptation, The Midnight Angel; plus extensive notes and additional details.

Conlan Press will issue this title in two editions: Hardcover and Definitive.

THE FIRST LAST UNICORN & OTHER BEGINNINGS

Before Peter wrote The Last Unicorn that is known by millions today, he made a first attempt that went as far as 80 pages before it was abandoned. This very different take on the story sat in Peter's filing cabinet for nearly 40 years before it was rediscovered in 2001.

Also in that filing cabinet were a host of amazing treats for Peter S. Beagle fans, including the four chapters that were cut out of A Fine and Private Place by the Viking Press; two never-published Farrell stories; the beginnings of two different uncompleted novels, and many other wonders.

The First Last Unicorn & Other Beginnings collects all these delights together in a single volume, fully illustrated by Stephanie Mui-Pun Law. Also included are "The Butterfly Decodex" (the first-ever line-by-line explanation of the Butterfly's dialog from The Last Unicorn) and an extensive series of interviews with Peter exploring the history of these pieces and how they illustrate different aspects of his creative process.

Conlan Press will issue this title in three editions: Audiobook, Hardcover, and Definitive.

THE INNKEEPER'S SONG

From the original review in Library Journal —

"Three powerful women (each with her own secret past), a stable boy, a weaver's son, and an innkeeper set in motion a series of events that brings each of them face to face with the forces of magic and the workings of fate. Beagle uses many voices to tell this tale of love and death and what lies beyond both. A finely crafted piece as well as a rich, evocative fantasy."

Peter's personal favorite among his novels, this book has been out of print for several years. It was a World Fantasy Award nominee and a winner of the Mythopoetic Fantasy Award. Conlan Press will be bringing it back in three new editions: Audiobook, Hardcover, and Definitive. If things work out the way we want them to, the Definitive Edition will have cover art and illustrations by the award-winning team of Leo and Diane Dillon.

I SEE BY MY OUTFIT

Time magazine called this title "an enchanted journey recounted with the special magic of a born troubadour." It is Peter's best-known nonfiction work, and an absolute treat. If you haven't yet read it, you absolutely should. In 1963, Peter and his artist buddy Phil Sigunick loaded everything they could carry onto a couple of temperamental German motor scooters nicknamed Jenny and Couchette, and headed west from the Bronx to California. Their zigzag journey across an America that no longer exists is fascinating, not least for their initial blithe cluelessness and almost never-flagging humor. (Hint: Peter's working title for the manuscript was How To Freeze.)

Originally serialized in Holiday magazine, I See By My Outfit is now recognized as one of the all-time great works of American travel writing, Conlan Press will be issuing this title in its first-ever Audiobook edition, along with new Hardcover and Definitive editions. (The new trade paperback edition will be published in 2007 by Centro Books.)

A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE

Peter's first novel — A Fine And Private Place was written when he was only 19 years old — has been recognized as a modern fantasy classic since its initial publication in 1961.

To quote Connor, in the analysis he drafted before starting in on a new screenplay adaptation with Peter:

"This is not a book about ghosts, or a talking raven. It is not a book about a quiet, kindhearted man who has run away from the world to go live in a cemetery, or a woman who doesn't know what to do with her life, now that the husband she worshipped is fourteen months dead. It isn't about any of those things. Those are just the trappings. This book is really about love and resurrection. It loudly proclaims that there is no such thing as a last chance, not if you are brave enough — and not if you understand that our greatest opportunities for bravery are our moments of greatest loss and fear."

It pleases us beyond words to announce that Conlan Press has acquired the book rights to this title and will be reissuing it in new Hardcover and Definitive editions. (The new trade paperback edition will be coming out in 2007 from Tachyon Publications.)

(We will also be releasing, separately, an illustrated edition of the new screenplay adaptation by Peter S. Beagle and Connor Cochran.)

THE MAGICIAN OF KARAKOSK

Americans familiar with Peter's bibliography will scratch their heads at this title. "Wait a minute," they will say. "That's not one of his books. That's the title of the second story in his Giant Bones collection!" And so it is. But it is also the title that this terrific collection had everywhere else in the world...except for France, anyway, where they split the collection into two volumes entitled Le magicien de Karakosk and La dernière chanson de Sirit Byar ("The Last Song of Sirit Byar," which is the first story in the book).

Now that we're going to be bringing this long out-of-print book back from limbo, we thought it was probably time to get with the international program. So The Magician of Karakosk it is. And besides — Peter likes this title better! (Calling it Giant Bones wasn't his idea in the first place.)

As for the book's contents, well...the collection was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, so that should tell you something. And here's what the reviewer in Booklist had to say:

"Beagle is the class act of fantasy writing, the only contemporary to remind one of Tolkien and, in his darker moments, Dinesen... One of these six stories, 'Lal and Soukyan,' uses characters from The Innkeeper's Song, and all are set in its milieu. Gentle yet biting, far-fetched and altogether common, Beagle's fairy tales invoke comparison with those associated with yet another great name, the Brothers Grimm."

Conlan Press has acquired the book rights to this title as well, and will be reissuing it in Hardcover and Definitive editions.

THE UNICORN TAPESTRIES

More than two decades ago, a publisher of children's books asked Peter to write a poem cycle based around the famous Unicorn Tapestries that are on display at the Cloisters, in New York City. Peter did so, but the material took a darker turn than the publisher wanted (what did he expect? The tapestries depict the hunt, capture, and killing of a unicorn!) and then the publisher's business took a darker turn of its own, into nonexistence. Although the poem cycle has subsequently been printed in a couple of small journals and poetry collections, no one has ever tackled putting it out in book form. Until now. Our goal with this title is to create a volume so exquisitely illustrated and beautifully bound that it could be displayed right next to the Tapestries themselves. Quality Art Hardcover edition only.

PETER S. BEAGLE: THE DEFINITIVE SET

When we first started talking to Peter about producing books and audiobooks of his work, he came clean and shared a long-held secret fantasy. "I've always wanted," he said, "to be a boxed set. To have all my different titles available in one unified edition." To that end Conlan Press is launching a program that will eventually release all of Peter's books exactly as he has dreamed. Each Definitive Edition volume will be in a carefully-designed, set-matched archival binding, and will be fully illustrated by Peter's choice of artist.

The Definitive Edition series will begin with Peter's new novel, Summerlong. Other books in the run will be released as they are completed.

Keep me informed about these titles. (Please note: individual project release dates will be added to this page as they get scheduled.)

ARTPRINTS, POSTERS, POSTCARDS, COMPUTER WALLPAPERS, ETC.

Jan is a brilliant visual artist, and hundreds of her paintings and drawings are worthy of mass circulation. We will be carefully selecting and releasing sets of images in different formats and on different objects over time. We are also looking into the best ways to manufacture and release high-quality reproductions of her carvings, and to adapt her art and designs as jewelry.

THE FORTUNATE FOX

CARVING IN SUNLIGHT

PEACH BLOSSOM DRAGON

These three books are not specifically related. But since all of them take their inspiration from Chinese or Japanese mythology and history, it isn't too far off the mark to think of them as Jan's "Asiatic Folktale Trilogy." Each book will be illustrated, though not necessarily by Jan, since for her they were conceived first and foremost as literary works. One of them (The Fortunate Fox) has been privately circulated in small editions, to great response, through the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in Los Angeles. We're happy to be bringing this tale to a bigger audience, as well as adding Carving By Sunlight and Peach Blossom Dragon to the set.

Fair warning: True folktales (such as the original, unbowdlerized stories of the Brothers Grimm, or Hans Christian Anderson) contain just as much shadow and horror as light. They are emphatically not the prettified and polished things we've come to expect in a DIsney-dominated world. Asian folktales are no exception to this rule. In drawing on them as her starting point, Jan has done nothing to shield the reader from the full range of their original emotional color. You will find pain, sacrifice, and suffering here as well as moral lessons, love, and release. Readers in search of "cute" should stay away.

THE LIONS GO AWAY

THE SANDY CHILD

ANNIE MOFFATT AND THE GRIFFIN

Three elegant, simple, highly original children's books that showcase Jan's combined strengths as a writer-illustrator.

AND MORE: There are lots of other titles by Jan in the planning stage, along with audiobook adaptations as well. We will post more information here as plans become official. (Connor has sworn a blood oath that sooner or later he will get Jan's delightful Penguins Have No Mercy out where everyone can enjoy it. Just you wait and see.)

Keep me informed about these items. (Please note: individual project release dates will be added to this page as they get scheduled.)

THE MICHELANGELO INTERVIEWS (with Jeff Norberry)

Nonfiction? Fiction? Pure fantasy? You be the judge. The creative works and personal history of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarotti Simoni have captivated the world for more than 500 years. Hundreds of books have been written about him, and thousands of scholarly papers. Given that vast array of texts you'd think there was nothing new that could be possibly be said about the man or his creations, and yet the truth is that most of Michelangelo's life has always been shrouded in layers of mystery.

When Jeff Norberry set out to write an opera about Michelangelo, he had no idea just how deeply into those mysteries he would ultimately have to dive. And Connor Freff Cochran, secretly exploring an unexpected and unsought ability, could not have guessed that his gift for opening a door to other sources would launch him and Jeff on an exploration into the past that would challenge 500 years of historical orthodoxy.

Nor did they suspect how tragic and absolutely heartbreaking a truth they would finally unveil.

The Michelangelo Interviews is the history of their exploration. It is also exactly what its title proclaims — a collection of channeled interviews with the greatest artist of the Renaissance, and with other important figures from his life. Whether you believe or disbelieve, you will still find the language in these interviews incredible, the new observations and historical explanations astonishing. They separate the sculptor from the marble, the painter from the frescoes, and reveal a man both more human and more extraordinary than previously suspected.

This illustrated book will be released in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and Audiobook editions.

BRAVE CONFESSIONS — Vol. 1 of Creative Options

LIFE ABOVE THE LIGHTNING — Vol. 2 of Creative Options

ON ANY SHELF OR TABLE — Vol. 3 of Creative Options

THE BLUE BETWEEN NIGHT AND DAY — Vol. 4 of Creative Options

From 1986 through 1999 Connor wrote a regular column called Creative Options for Keyboard magazine. His official brief, starting out, was to write about creativity: what it is, how to support it, and most especially how to sweep away the many blocks which get in its way. But since creativity is part of everything in human life, the column gave Connor permission to explore a range of subjects and material that encompassed...well, everything, from identifying a friend's body in the Brooklyn morgue to quantum physics to the intricate courtship dance of a Hollywood pitch meeting.

The essays quickly became the most popular and most despised feature in the magazine (depending on whom you asked). They won a national writing award, beating out competition from Playboy and Smithsonian. They were Xeroxed and passed along, from friend to friend and relative to relative, circling the globe. Letters came in from readers in India, Taiwan, South Africa, and Luxembourg. One man wrote Connor to say he'd met his future wife when he shared a Creative Options essay with a woman sitting across from him at the library. A Colonel in the Marines wrote to say he was using the essays in his leadership training courses at Quantico. The VP of Production at HBO Films turned out to be a fan. And two different University-level English courses made the essays part of their standard curriculum.

Now Conlan Press will finally be releasing all the Creative Options essays — four volumes containing 120 pieces, plus new material and extended commentary — in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, Audiobook, and Multimedia editions.

RUN DOWNHILL LAUGHING: A BOOK OF OPPORTUNITIES

LEFTY LYRICS

Before his experiments in left-handed automatic writing led him to Jeff Norberry's Michelangelo opera, Connor had already extensively explored the "Lefty" phenomenon as a source of both creative inspiration and emotional analysis.

Run Downhill Laughing is an illustrated collection of some of the most thought-provoking, eye-opening, and amusing Lefty aphorisms.

Lefty Lyrics, meanwhile, is just what it sounds like: a collection of poetry and song lyrics generated spontaneously, and entirely without editing or revision, by this remarkable source. There are more than 150 candidate lyrics currently being culled down to a final selection. For an advance taste, click here.

Conlan Press will be releasing both titles in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and Multimedia formats.

WHERE THE MUSIC COMES FROM

A CHILD'S GARDEN OF WORSE

EMPRESS MOUSE

Three children's books by Connor. Where The Music Comes From began its life as a Creative Options essay. Both it and Empress Mouse will be illustrated by Jan Bender.

ARTPRINTS, POSTERS, POSTCARDS, COMPUTER WALLPAPERS, ETC.

Connor started his professional career at 17, working as an illustrator, cartoonist, and fine artist. Along the path of his ridiculously expansive freelance life he added photographer and computer graphics artist to that list. At various times and for various companies he has penciled and inked comics, illustrated different books and magazines, done costume and set sketches for film development, designed logos and product packaging, and once had to draw an eight-foot wide cutaway rendering of an oil tanker.

We promise to spare you the oil tanker. But lots of his other art is worth sharing, so we will.

Keep me informed about these items. (Please note: individual project release dates will be added to this page as they get scheduled.)

ARTPRINTS, POSTERS, POSTCARDS, COMPUTER WALLPAPERS, etc.

Rebekah and her art are described more fully here. She is young but extremely talented. We look forward to helping her find the audience she deserves, and supporting her talent fully as it continues to develop.

The first commercial release of her work, a set of 10 computer wallpaper images inspired by Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, is now available from Conlan Press. Click here to see it.