3 Reasons Why We Launched 'Oasis of the Desert Books'

Welcome to our literary publishing imprint and culture journal.

I’m very excited to now launch Oasis of the Desert Books and welcome you to the beginning of an enriching journey across literature, poetry, history, film, music, and philosophy.

While our book publishing company's general-interest Substack God of the Desert Books features fun podcasts, often provocative polemics, updates on our upcoming titles, and other offerings for our readers’ entertainment and enlightenment, this one will provide a very different experience.

Here are three reasons why we have created this imprint and what sort of content you can expect delivered to your inbox weekly - hopefully more often, once we ramp up to full speed.

Why

1. We currently have two poetry collections, two novellas, and three novels—all completed, now moving through the various stages of the production process. We plan to release these titles through this imprint. The first, Home Life: Poems by Jon Bishop, is now available for pre-order in ebook format, releasing on December 10. A paperback will follow. These other works include books Howard Foster and P. David Hornik, to be followed by a mediocre, absurd, experimental work by me. (Apologies in advance for this last one.) I’m excited to introduce our readers to these authors who I really believe in, whose writing careers Sally Shideler and I really enjoy encouraging. I regard all four of them as better writers than I am.

2. We want to promote a cultural environment where people can set aside ideological and partisan differences to engage in peace and friendship, using the common languages that once united us. At this Substack and book imprint, we will not focus on contemporary problems or political controversies. We will primarily explore and celebrate cultures from 70 years ago and much further back - particularly those dating to before the rise of television. Thus, the majority of what we publish here will be at a PG-13 level or, preferably, lower. In some cases, a literary work might include more mature themes or profanity, but for the most part, we’re going to aim for content appropriate for a bright freshman in high school. So everyone is welcome.

3. We need more beauty in this world.

How

1. We will publish original fiction, poetry, and nonfiction essays by both our author team and invited contributors. The first will be a wonderful short story by Marc Friedman.

2. You can read excerpts here from our upcoming books.

3. Music: We will encourage the appreciation of classical music and jazz. Expect regular short posts with embedded YouTube videos.

4. Great Literature: We will reprint excerpts from classic works, share YouTube videos with free audio books, and offer historical information about notable authors. In January, works copyrighted in 1929 will enter the public domain. At this point, most of the books that we’d want to discuss could be reprinted in full. Expect an initial British Modernist bias in many of these initial selections—my literary period of choice since college—but we will certainly explore more broadly across other periods.

5. History: This imprint will publish historical fiction. A novel and novella in our lineup both feature settings in the past. Thus, you can expect essays discussing historical periods and short posts sharing YouTube videos on historical themes. This will include philosophy, too.

6. Humor: This isn’t all going to be stuffy, undergraduate college course material. One of our forthcoming novels is a clever, biting literary satire. We’ll aim for laughter in that vein here, delivered with more sophistication than the usual product on offer today. However, you can certainly expect some appreciation of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Marx brothers here, too.

7. Speaking of film: We will also celebrate classic cinema and the art-film world. To that end, you can anticipate the occasional discourse on directors like Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Fellini, Welles, and others in the pantheon of legendary filmmakers.

8. I will serve as Editor-In-Chief for this Substack and the Substack of our sci-fi/fantasy imprint Heroes of the Desert Books. Sally serves as Editor-in-Chief for Goddess of the Desert Books and our book publishing. We both collaborate together on the mystery-thriller imprint Ghosts of the Desert Books.

All right! So in other words, Oasis of the Desert will be a Substack offering the traditional pillars of a liberal arts education.

I hope you will join us by clicking that Subscribe Now button right below this sentence. Thank you so much!

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