Graeme Feltham would have been 55 years old today

I often wonder what Graeme would have thought of With the Safety Off. I aimed to produce something that I hoped he would have been proud of.

I had a dream recently that Sinclair Beiles had hooked up with John Lennon in London, in 1965, and together they had worked on some cut-up prose poems.

As Mike Hardaker has pointed out, such a meeting would not have been impossiblr.

And on the subject of music, Beiles once maintained that he had read poetry at a Grateful Dead concert at the Great Pyramids in Egypt. The Dead had indeed once played there, sometime in the 70s, but had Beiles shared the stage with them? Who knows ...

Wanna know more about Sinclair Beiles?

Then order Who was Sinclair Beiles? - email dyehardpress@iafrica.com for details.

With the Safety Off reaches Unisa

Dawie Malan, subject librarian at Unisa, is enjoying reading his copy of Graeme Feltham's With the Safety Off.

Why not order a copy yourself? Send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com for details. Also available at select bookstores.

News about Chatsworth from Sweden

Pravasan Pillay has been interviewed about Chatsworth in the Swedish magazine Klass, which focuses on working-class literature. He chatted with journalist Beata Hansson about, among other things, melancholy, existentialism, outsiders, the body, class society and chai.
Chatsworth will be published in Swedish next year.
And if you live in Joburg and still haven't read it, you can still get copies at some Exclusive Books branches, and definitely at The Commune, a new bookstore in Braamfontein.

More news on With the Safety Off

I have received an order for Graeme Feltham's With the Safety Off from Paul Wessels, who heads the Master's degree in Creative Writing programme at Rhodes University, Makhanda. It seems Paul worked with Graeme 'a bit' on an earlier version of the  novel - something I was not aware of - I was not even aware that Graeme and Paul (whom I have known since the early 1990s) knew each other. But there you go ... the novel continues to widen its reach.

Sun Ra mail art from Henry Denander

More mail art from the great, generous Henry Denander - a stamp series of his watercolour portrait of Sun Ra - thank you, Hank!

With the Safety Off on Goodreads

Graeme Feltham's novel With the Safety Off, recently published by Dye Hard Press and altoviolet, is now listed on Goodreads. If you have read it and enjoyed it, why not pop in and give it a short review?

Check it out here.

With the Safety Off availability continues ...

Just as well I have been slack in collecting the launch stock of With the Safety Off from David Krut Bookstore ... more copies have sold since launch night!

Oh, and Clarke's in Cape Town has ordered copies!

Did you know ....

Did you know…

That of the 3 million Indians living in Southeast Africa, 1 million live in South Africa?

That Durban is regarded as the largest ‘Indian’ city outside India?

And having asked those questions, have you ever been to Chatsworth?

Well, whether you have or you haven’t, or maybe you’ve lived there or still do live there, get yourself a copy of Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth, published by Dye Hard Press! It would also make an excellent Christmas gift!

And Chatsworth is now available at Braamfontein’s new bookstore The Commune - so check out this new store too!

Photos from the launch of Graeme Feltham's With the Safety Off

Hans Pienaar, co-publisher and MC for the launch.

Artist James de Villiers, who was a friend of Graeme Feltham and who wrote an introduction for the book.

Nick Hauser, friend of Graeme Feltham.

Luke Feltham, son of Graeme Feltham.

Gary Cummiskey, main publisher of the book.

James de Villiers, Hans Pienaar and Gary Cummiskey

Facebook post by Derek Davey about the launch of Graeme Feltham's With the Safety Off

James de Villiers talks at the launch of Graeme Feltham's new book With the Safety Off, published by Dye Hard Press. There were some innaresting speeches, particularly one by my old china, Nick Hauser. Nick drew parallels to Fig and Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov, both schismatic characters, and cited similarities between Graeme and Herman Charles Bosman. High praise indeed for a grungy book about drugs in Yeoville in the 90s ..

At the launch of Graeme Feltham's With the Safety Off

South African journalist Dennis Beckett checking out copies of Graeme Feltham's With the Safety Off, at the launch held at David Krut Bookstore on 27 November.

When Spirit Meets Bone

When Spirit Meets Bone, a CD of music by Graeme Feltham, compiled by James de Villiers. The CD was available for sale at the launch of With the Safety Off, published by Dye Hard Press.

A final reminder for the launch of With the safety Off by Graeme Feltham

A reminder to RSVP - the launch is tomorrow night!!!

You gotta be the morning aftertaste: an extract from Graeme Feltham's With the Safety Off, published in Mail & Guardian

Fig claws through the cobwebs of some or other muckmare, the details of which he thankfully cannot remember. 

He takes the mirror off the bedstand and snorts the line of coke he prepared before falling asleep like a log.

On the spot he’s awake on the double-bed sponge mattress with a crate on either side, the Hitachi L 17 on the one crate, a few books on the other (no library here, commensurate with his avowed unbelief in property), two other crates that double as chairs scattered on the floor and against the one wall his clothes are folded in wooden tomato boxes. Read more.

Exclusive Books Sandton City has ordered five copies of With the Safety Off, so they should be on the shelves soon! I wonder what Fig, the main character, would think of that - at the start of the book he is working for a Sandton ad agency!