Turkey rings: a new publishing tool

  I want to tell you about a new book I’m publishing in July. But first, I want to tell you about turkey rings. If you’re like me, you’ve never ever heard of turkey rings. And when you hear about them, you immediately conjure up some pretty terrible images. Not true for Chris Decker at Tisbury Printers. My new book is one called Star Child, coming out in August, and written by a part time Chilmark resident named Kay Goldstein. This book... Read More

The Chappy Ferry: An Unknown Vineyard Story

I do a lot of thinking about the kind of books Vineyard Stories should do. My mission has since the beginning of the company seven years ago been to tell the story of the Vineyard, both past and present – stories I think would disappear without recording them now. Along the way, of course, I’ve done books that are more fun than history – books like the cookbook Morning Glory Farm and the Family that Feeds an Island or the magnificently illustrated... Read More

The Island network

In my work as a local publisher, I try to use as much local talent as I can find. Sometimes that’s not always easy. Back in the winter I went looking for illustrators for two of my spring books. The books are very different – one is a children’s book that uses the Flying Horses as a backdrop for the story; the other is a collection of essays about life on the Vineyard. Yet both also had one thing in common: they needed creative art, the kind... Read More

Writers and editors

I spend my days dealing with writers, who are a complicated species. They are usually very talented people who are often unsure how far that talent takes them. They alternate between being resentful of editing and grateful for it. They crave the undivided attention of an editor but fear what will come out of an editor’s mouth or computer screen. I love them. I also find them far nicer than I ever was to my own editors. (My husband, long before... Read More

A lighthouse revelation

I was thunderstruck one day last summer when I walked into Alison Shaw’s gallery in Oak Bluffs while she was preparing a new show. Glowing white against a dark blue wall was a  huge picture of a lighthouse. It was instantly recognizable, even though I’d never seen anything like it. I knew a lust so great it hurt. It was 30 inches by 60 inches, so big and so bold that it dominated the space; Sue Dawson, Alison’s partner in both the gallery... Read More

When a book begs to be printed

Work comes to me in many ways. I don’t really advertise what I do, so I have to rely on my books to be my ambassadors. And I need to evaluate each book to make sure I can do the story justice, as well as have the book further the Vineyard Stories’ brand. So it’s always surprising when I find myself saying “yes” to a book I know isn’t really a Vineyard Stories’ book. Such is the case for My Blue Butterfly,... Read More

Next year’s books

This is always a busy time for me in the book world that comprises my work life. Because I try to position most of my books for sell next spring, I’ve been at work for many months on the bigger books or am starting now to organize the smaller ones. This year I’ll have five or six new books, ranging from the Chappy Ferry book you’ve been reading about to a photography book of the lighthouses of Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod, and Nantucket... Read More

The belles of the bells

When you're aboard the Chappy Ferry for a sunset bell concert, this is what you see. A guest blog by Tom Dunlop, author of the upcoming The Chappy Ferry Book: How enchanted a project is this book on the Chappy ferry turning out to be? A few days back, I went down to the ferry house on the Edgartown side of the harbor to meet my friend Margaret, who has lived on Chappaquiddick for a long time and who had a slide that we might want to use. At... Read More

Next Page »