New year, new books!
Dear friends of Blue Ear Books,
I’ve never been a big one for year-end or sentimental holiday messages, but as the publisher of Blue Ear Books, I do appreciate all of you and your interest in and support for the books we publish.
2022 has been a remarkably productive year, mostly behind the scenes. I’m being kept very busy with books to edit, several of which you’ll be seeing soon on our website and being promoted and discussed here on our Substack. You’ll also be seeing this Substack more often, as we develop it into a rolling online literary periodical, with frequent short articles by our authors on their topics of interest, excerpts, reviews, and more.
Andrew Russell and I spent most of 2022 completing the work needed to, finally, publish the updated edition of Christo Brand’s memoir Doing Life with Mandela: My Prisoner, My Friend, about how a South African prison guard became lifelong friends with his most famous - and once most notorious - prisoner, who went on to become one of the great world statesmen of the 20th century. Much of Andrew’s work entailed gathering and curating 16 fresh writings to supplement Christo’s personal account. In one of those John Carlin, author of the remarkable book Playing the Enemy (made into the film Invictus), says:
Brand had the bigness of heart to see beyond Mandela ‘the terrorist’, ‘the communist’, the convicted prisoner. Seeing that Mandela treated him with kindness and respect, he responded in kind. Brand may be seen as a milestone in Mandela’s political mission: his first white convert.
The new edition of Doing Life with Mandela has been selling well in South Africa since October, and it’s now finally available in the United States. We’re accepting orders now via www.blueearbooks.com, to be shipped in January. The book will also soon be available on Amazon.
Purchase Doing Life with Mandela for US$19.95 plus $3.95 US shipping
Another book I’m proud to be publishing soon, in early 2023, is Just Keep Pedaling: A Peace Corps Volunteer in Uruguay by Connie Ness. Soon we’ll be accepting preorders for Connie’s wonderful personal account. Watch this space!
Much of my work this year has been with American military veterans of a variety of ages and backgrounds. Without exception, all of the veterans I’m getting to work with are interesting, admirable people, and each of them brings a wealth of experience to the project of writing a book. You’ll be hearing much more about these books over the next year, and beyond. The next in the pipeline is No One Leaves Unscathed: A Woman in the Marine Corps by Stesha Colby-Lynch.
Speaking of veterans’ books, Lisa Carrington Firmin (USAF, ret.) has been busy throughout 2022 promoting her powerful Stories from the Front: Pain, Betrayal, and Resilience on the MST Battlefield, including in an excellent online event in October with Yale University.
Purchase Stories from the Front for US$18.95 plus $3.95 US shipping
Thank you again for being part of our Blue Ear Books community. This newsletter is free to anyone, but you can support what we do, first and foremost, by purchasing our books, and also by becoming a paid subscriber:
You can also, especially this time of year, give gift subscriptions:
Thanks again. Later this week we’ll be sending out new short essays for you to enjoy by Blue Ear Books authors Lisa Carrington Firmin and Qaisar Shareef.
Publisher, Blue Ear Books