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library for the price of a book.
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A
library for the price of a book.
I'm experimenting with publishing books in plain text, with an HTML index on CD and DVD. Books in this simple format are easily accessible with any PC, and they are very readable (you can open them in your browser or any word processor and adjust the type size to suit your taste. I actually find that I read about 50% faster this way than with traditional print books.
By the way, I was into self-publishing way back in the early 1970s, when I published my Lizard of Oz, which got lots of reviews and went through three printings. You can read the tale of how I did that at www.samizdat.com/lizard.html Now I publish The Lizard on CD, with audio [my narration] plus text and illustrations).
This Web page has several related purposes: to share book recommendations and reviews with avid readers, to serve as a showcase for writers who are looking for readers, and to point people to Web sites devoted to writers and electronic books. Feedback is greatly appreciated. Please let us know about your favorite books and related Web sites, and also let us know your reactions to the works posted here. Richard Seltzer, seltzer@samizdat.com
Agents, if your clients have manuscripts that deserve to be published, but are gather dust because of today's tight market for fiction and poetry, please contact me at seltzer@samizdat.com Within the limitations of the disk space available to me, I'd like to help out -- linking avid, articulate readers with writers in search of an audience.
Fiction
by Michael Seltzer on CD includes The Eyes of a Child, Life,
and Behind Locked Windows.
You can contact the author at: Michael Seltzer, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. or seltzer@samizdat.com
Rex Sexton is a Surrealist painter represented by Gruen Gallery, Chicago, Illinois since 1986. His art has been televised on PBS, written about in newspapers, reproduced in magazines, and included in national and international exhibitions. They are a prominent part of numerous private and corporate collections. Throughout his career, the artist has also published an extensive body of Poe-like stories and poems. Desert Flower is a noir novel set in the Badlands of South Dakota. A hustler Indian and a roadhouse beauty (Desert Flower) team up for a drugs and money heist against local gangsters. Desert is as lethal as she is alluring. Greenleaf is an ex-con drifter who falls into her trap. The dark tale of their destiny is a journey through a nightmare.
Fiction
and Painting of Rex Sexton on CD includes his novel Desert
Flower, fvie short stories, poems/songs and images of 20 of his paintings,
plus classic works of fiction by some of his favorite authors. His fiction
introduces you to worlds that outwardly seem familiar, but that operate
in accord with their own eerie rules and expectations. Once you get caught
up in the characters, reading one of these tales is like watching your
own recurrent nightmare -- you can't stop reading, and you'll never forget.
Review
in Large Print Reviews
Works of by Roberta Kalechofsky
Works
of Roberta Kalechofsky in Context contains five novels, a book
of short stories, and a book of essays by Roberta, together with 270 related
classic books that provide a context for better appreciating and enjoying
her work. The "context" books deal with Jewish Religion, Christian Religion,
Medieval Europe (including works of Dante, Boccacio, and Chaucer), Greek
classics (including Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles), Latin
American History, Animals, Women's Rights, Anti-Slavery, along with works
of novelists Conrad, Melville, and Hawthorne. Table
of Contents
Fiction and poetry by Helen Seltzer
October 5, 2000 -- Patrick O'Leary, author of Door Number Three, The Gift, The Impossible Bird, and Other Voices, Other Doors.
September 21, 2000Print-on-demand from the perspective of the do-it-yourself publisher, guest = Michael Joyce (translator of Good Soldier Svejk), review of his book
September 7, 2000 eBookIt: a quick way to create multimedia books, guest = Bob Zwick, talking about his eBookIt project and other ebook alternatives. . Check The Lizard of Oz for an example of an audio book made using eBookIt. To hear the narration, you need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer and you must have RealPlayer.
July 13, 2000 -- Punktown, with Jeffrey Thomas, author of "Punktown" a powerful collection of short stories that creatively pose age-old questions through bizarre and intriguing circumstances on another planet in the future. See review at www.samizdat.com/isyn/punktown
June 22, 2000, June 29, 2000 guests: Jeff Edmunds, author of the novel Metro, and Jeff VanderMeer from the publisher, Ministry of Whimsy Press. The complete book is available online for free at www.mindspring.com/~toones/ministry.html). See review at www.samizdat.com/isyn/metro.html
May 18, 2000 guest: Jack Trout, author of Differentiate or Die You can see his profile at www.tenagra.com/ips/private/Wiley/differentiate/profile.html , an excerpt from the book at www.samizdat.com/diff.html, and a related article at www.samizdat.com/raging.html (edited transcript not yet avaliable)
May 11, 2000 Terry Pearce, co-author with David Pottruck of Clicks and Mortar: Passion Driven Growth in an Internet Driven World related article www.samizdat.com/startups.html
April 20, 2000 Greg Helmstetter and Pamela Metivier, authors of Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web. For details and an excerpt see www.samizdat.com/affil.html
February 3, 2000Feb. 10, 2000 Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, and David Weinberger, authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto. For a review of this book see www.samizdat.com/clue.html related article http://www.samizdat.com/listen.html
December 2, 1999 Joseph Sinclair, author of eBay the Smart Way
JUST PUBLISHED -- Saint Smith and Other Stories by Richard Seltzer
Saint Smith and Other Stories consists of two novellas and five short stories. "Saint Smith" focuses on Charlie, a would-be experimental film maker, Sarah his traditional Bible-believing mother, and Irene the clever ironic uninhibited German woman he marries. "The Barracks" takes place in basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, at the time of the Viet Nam War. The five stories deal with puzzles of human nature and the meaning of life. http://samizdat.stores.yahoo.net/sasmandotstb.html or http://www.amazon.com/dp/1455400866 or http://www.createspace.com/3507928
"[Saint Smith is] rich in thought and peopled with intriguing characters
(each soul exotic in its own peculiar mix of angels and demons, reality
and fantasy, order and anarchy). The selected episodes of their lives are
like pieces in an interlocking jigsaw puzzle which, when assembled, present
another puzzle – the “What’s wrong with this picture?” kind. Everyone and
everything is in its appropriate place, all is proper. Yet something is
missing. Something isn’t right. Somehow it all has the quality of a dream.
And yet it isn’t a dream – it’s life. The theme of sandcastles, the building
of houses, the mansions in houses, the building of lives, the dream of
living, Charlie with his camera like waves sweeping over fragile constructions
at once real and make believe is all brilliant, and challenging. It has
a Barth, Vonnegut, even Borges aspect to it, as do the rest of the pieces
in the collection, only without the surrealism, which may make it even
more effective as the impact settles in."
-- Rex Sexton, author of "Desert Flower", "The Time Hotel", Night
Without Stars", and "X Ray Eyes"
Everything
But the Internet gathers the complete non-Internet works
of Richard Seltzer on CD, in plain text, with software that lets you listen
as well as read. It includes: The Name of Hero, Ethiopia Through Russian
Eyes, The Lizard of Oz, Without a Myth, Spit and Polish, Mercy, Rights
Crossing, short stories, articles, book reviews, and poems.
Africa World Press/Red Sea Press
recently published a print edition of this book which you can buy from
Amazon.com: 
The full text is also available here on the Web:
Or you can read the text (in full) here on the Web:
Heresy on Mount Athos: Conflict over the Name of God among Russian Monks and Hierarchs, 1912-14 by Tom Dykstra, same as above, as an Acrobat (.pdf) file. You can contact the author at dykstra@u.washington.edu, His Web site is http://students.washington.edu/dykstra
Letters from Princess
Mary Orbeliani (sister of Alexander Bulatovich) to Richard Seltzer
(author of The Name of Hero)
Transcripts of tape-recorded
conversations with Princess Mary Orbeliani, sister of Alexander Bulatovich,
June 3- 4, 1973
In the course of our correspondence he sent me copies of his self-published fiction and poetry, which he intended for me to post on the Web to reach a larger audience. I procrastinated, then he died (in 2001), then I misplaced the box in which I had stored them and his letters to me. I found the missing box last week (in November 2011). I will post here his fiction and poetry as .pdf images and his letters (some in English and some in French) which I will typed in.
Go to http://www.samizdat.com/orbeliani/
for links to
Twenty Eight Gramms of Poetry (1982)
Herr Luftinspektor, a Poem (in English, no date)
Lunaya Sonata (a poem in Russian, 1967)
The Scarlet Lady (a novella, 1973)
Jeff Smeerkaas, a play in five acts (no date)
Library Journal -- "An intriguing and very entertaining little novel"
Aspect -- "Carroll and Tolkien have a new companion"
Lancaster (PA) Independent Press -- "a work so saturated that the mind is both stoned with pleasure and alive with wonder"
Philadelphia Bulletin -- "A commentary on our times done delightfully"
You can both read and listen to this story here on the Web:
Audio-book version of The Lizard
of Oz (complete text, plus illustrations by Christin Couture and audio
narration by the author). To hear the audio, you must have the RealPlayer.
This is a new, expanded version of the underground classic, originally
published in 1974. This edition (which includes new episodes and changes
throughout) is not available in print.
Or you can buy that same audio-book version on CD:
Five
children's books by Richard Seltzer: The Lizard of Oz (illustrated
by Christin Couture), Now and Then and Other Tales from Ome (illustrated
by Richard Seltzer), See You Later, Elevator, Hundreds and Hundreds of
Gerbils, and Tiger in the Intercom. All are presented in both HTML text
and audio form (read by the author). Review of this book CD http://www.largeprintreviews.com/lizard.html
You can also buy a paperback of the first edition there:
The
Lizard of Oz by Richard Seltzer. When an elementary class sets
out on a quest to save the world from disenchantment, their adventures
reveal paradoxes of the human mind and ways of awakening the magic within
us.
Library Journal -- "An intriguing and very entertaining little novel."
Paperback. Autographed on request.
Everything
But the Internet gathers the complete non-Internet
works of Richard Seltzer on CD, in plain text, with software that lets
you listen as well as read. It includes: The Name of Hero, Ethiopia Through
Russian Eyes, The Lizard of Oz, Without a Myth, Spit and Polish, Mercy,
Rights Crossing, short stories, articles, book reviews, and poems.
If you would rather read The Lizard on your palm device, for $5 you
can buy an 84K zip file with the full text at www.palmgear.com To
read that file you need iSilo (software available for from www.isilo.com).
(Thanks very much to David Gilford for doing this.) 
Or you can read the text-only version of of the second (expanded) edition of The Lizard of Oz:
"1101. K-12 (+) Seltzer, Richard, The Lizard of Oz. CAST: 6f, 14m, u. ACTS: 1. SETTINGS: Bare stage. PLAYING TIME: 50 min. PLOT: Two fish, in a fishbowl in a basement classroom, remark on the boredom of the students. One of the fish, Mr. Shermin, explains to the other, Mrs. O'Rourke, that the boredom is caused by the Humbug's tune, which can only be changed by the Lizard of Oz. One of the children Eugene, overhears the conversation and conspires with the fish to travel to Oz in a little green VW with several classmates. On the way, the car falls into a pothole, and encounters a witch who gives them directions. They meet the potheads, people with pots for heads, who help them with more water for the fishbowl. The witch reappears at various times, and the group meets Sir Real, who has a cereal bowl for a head; eggheads, including Humpty Dumpty; a wallflower; an empty-headed pothead with blue eyes (Mr New Man); Mr. Francis Bacon, the librarian; Mr. Charon, the ferryboatman/undertaker; Lewis Carroll; William Shakespeare; Mark Twain; and Plato and the Muses. Mrs. O'Rourke swims off and Mr. Shermin becomes a human teacher. The gang reaches Oz and a bevy of further odd characters and returns to the classroom, refreshed, and with a new teacher, Mr. Shermin. RECOMMENDATION: The adventures and the characters are out of Alice in Wonderland, but the overall effect is comic and interesting."
The full text of the play, as an HTML file is available here. You can also get it as a pdf file (with all the illustrations embedded). You can buy this playscript at our online store http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat
Boston Globe -- "A highly original collection of short stories -- sometimes humorous, sometimes profound."
Philadelphia Daily News -- "Seltzer has produced four charming stories for, he suggests, children around the age of nine. Adults will find the book has its appeal too: My favoite story is the one about the little princess who had a nice mother and was very happy and therefore very unhappy because how could Prince Charming come and rescue her if there was nothing to rescue her from?"
Audio-book version of Now and Then and Other Tales from Ome (complete text, plus illustrations and audio narration by the author). To hear the audio, you must have the RealPlayer. You can buy the audio-book version of this book plus The Lizard of Oz, See You Later Elevator, Hundreds and Hundreds of Gerbils, and Tiger in the Intercom on CD from our online store at http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat You can also buy Now and Then in paperback or hardcover there.
The complete book, including all illustrations
Separate files for each story, no illustrations (fast-loading):
This play has not yet been been published in paper form. It will be produced for the first time by High Impact Theater at the Met Performing Arts Center in Spokane, Washington, in the spring of 2000. They first found the play at this site. If you have any suggestions on how we could get this produced elsewhere, please let us know.
This play, together with other plays by Richard Seltzer, is available on a single diskette, which you can buy from Amazon.com
Making sense of the myths behind Greek tragedy, in particular the mythos of Pelops/Atreus/Agamemnon, article by Richard Seltzer
Both Burgoyne and Mercy Warren were playwrights. After the Revolution, Burgoyne wrote several "hit" plays for the London stage. In 1775, during the British occupation of Boston, he wrote The Blockade of Boston. Mercy replied with a play entitled The Blockheads.
These two historical figures are natural antagonists who should be made to meet on the stage.
(If you have any suggestions on how we could get this produced, please let us know.)
This play, together with other plays by Richard Seltzer, is available on a single diskette, which you can buy from Amazon.com
Mercy Warren home page, where we are posting her history of the American Revolution and her plays
The action focuses on the strategic importance of the ferry crossing that would one day become Columbia; situated between Congress in York and the army in Valley Forge. The fates of the town-to-be and the nation-to-be are interwoven, with local historical figures playing significant roles in a plausible confrontation with Conway and Mifflin.
Conway, plotting to overthrow Washington, tries to seize the ferry. But he underestimates the determination and resourcefulness of old Susannah Wright, the owner of the ferry, and her nephew Sam, the future founder of the town of Columbia.
(If you have any suggestions on how we could get this produced, please let us know.)
This play, together with other plays by Richard Seltzer, is available on a single diskette, which you can buy from Amazon.com
Acrobat (.pdf) version of Spit an Polish, in standard movie-script format
Spit and Polish (AKA "The Barracks", AKA "The Summer of Our Discontent") has never been produced nor published. The setting is basictraining at Fort Polk, Louisiana, in the summer of 1970 ( just after the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings). The trainees are reservists, national guardsmen, and four black draftees who have been "recycled." The draftees want nothing to do with the war. They have been through basic before and deliberately failed in order to postpone being shipped to Viet Nam. For the others, basic is a brief, but painful interruption in their normal lives. So long as there is no major foul-up, they'll return to their school or job in a few weeks. But the disappearance of one of the blacks threatens them all.
(If you have any suggestions on how we could get this produced, please let us know.)
This play, together with other plays by Richard Seltzer, is available
on a single diskette, which you can buy from Amazon.com
An ordinary ride down a crowded superhighway becomes surreal when the
drivers realize that htey have no control over their vehicles. (10 pp.)
A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities by Melvin E. Page Useful if you need to reference texts from the Internet in footnotes or bibliography
Everything
But the Internet gathers the complete non-Internet works
of Richard Seltzer on CD, in plain text, with software that lets you listen
as well as read. It includes: The Name of Hero, Ethiopia Through Russian
Eyes, The Lizard of Oz, Without a Myth, Spit and Polish, Mercy, Rights
Crossing, short stories, articles, book reviews, and poems.
Return to the Readers'
Room
Go to the Writers'
Showcase
Return to the B&R Samizdat Express
discuss books at Blogging about Books http://www.samizdat.com/blog/
Other book reviews
by Richard Seltzer
Opus authors -- contemporary
writers whose entire work is great
The Readers' Corner
and Writers Showcase
This site is published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. 617-469-2269 seltzer@samizdat.com
Book
collections on CD and DVD. A library for the price of a book.
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offer: 2 for the price of 1
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