Recent updates

Scratter here!

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Aug 2 2015

Enjoyed an excellent lunch with Sterling Bland. I left him sleeping like a baby. Shame we couldn't remove him from the restaurant first. Anyway, before he passed out Bland told me that he's been contacted by a 'major publisher' who is interested if partnershing with Scratter & Pomace to publish Donwood's 'classic'.

'The deal is all but done, Dicky,' he assured me as he slid from his chair.

And apparently the case of Somerset Farmhouse Cider I sent that fella Donwood was well received.

Onwards and upwards!

Or downwards in Bland's case. Chin-chin.

@StanleyDonwood

Stanley Donwood: the Artist, the Man

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Aug 1 2015

Sometimes known as the 'sixth member' of Radiohead, Stanley Donwood is the artist responsible for the band's album artwork over the last 20 years and also the artwork for Glastonbury Festival. An internationally renowned and exhibited artist, Donwood has also penned two collections of short stories, both published by Tangent Books, and another published by Faber. 
 

The original edition of Catacombs of Terror! was written after a £5 bet in a pub that Donwood couldn't write 50,000 words in a month. The new, revised, and heavily edited (see original manuscript offered as one of our rewards!) edition will make use of Donwood's Grammy award-winning eye for design and packaging and features a cover designed by Chris Hopewell of Jacknife Prints in Bristol. It's going to be a work of pulp-fictitious art! 

Pre-order a copy or screenprint of Jacknife's artwork here:
https://www.fundsurfer.com/project/catacombs-of-terror-by-stanley-donwood

Don't forget, all pledges come with a limited edition Tangent Books tote too. 

Free tote bag with all pledges

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Jul 31 2015

We are very pleased to announce that every pre-order will be accompanied by a splendid, hot-off-the-press Tangent Books tote! These limited edition totes will feature the Tangent Books logo in black on a natural canvas background. So you can now cart your copy of Catacombs of Terror! round in style. 

Remember, there's still time to pre-order a copy of Catacombs of Terror! and receive your tote too.

Hlp get this pulp fiction 'classic' back in print.

https://www.fundsurfer.com/project/catacombs-of-terror-by-stanley-donwood

Original manuscript sold!

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Jul 31 2015

The original Catacombs of Terror! manuscript, signed by Stanley Donwood, has been bought for £500. 

Scratter here! Dicky Scratter!

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Jul 30 2015

In answer to a few queries, we are definitely publishing Catacombs of Terror! so you will receive your reward even if we don't hit the overall funding target. This is a Take What You Get Project, so it's effectively a means of you pre-ordering the new edition of Catacombs of Terror! or choosing one of the other rewards.

Some people have also asked if Richard 'Dicky' Scratter is a real person. They've suggested that Scratter & Pomace is not a genuine publishing house and that the whole thing is an elaborate facade created by cider-crazed fools. They want to know about the role of Tangent Books and they've demanded to be told why Sterling Bland (see video) bears such a strong resemblance to long-time Stanley Donwood collaborator Ric Jerrom.

Seasoned Donwood-watchers have even suggested that the video was shot and edited under Donwood's direction and that far from having no interest in the project, Stanley Donwood in fact developed the whole plot of lost manuscript, Solsbury Hill, Dicky Scratter and so forth.

To those people we say: why would anyone rewrite a book, commission a brilliant cover artist, concoct an elaborate story about how the book came into being, organise a video shoot with a fictitious character in the basement of a Bath bookshop and then turn the whole thing into a crowdfunding campaign?

Why?

I hope that clears everything up.

UPDATE!

An update for acta centre extension

Jul 29 2015

Hello acta supporters and friends! 

The building works are all going smoothly and it all looks like it will be finished on time! HURRAY! 

I have attached a few photos to this update for you to see. We are all very excited now! 

Our crowdfunding project has almost come to an end and it has very almost reached its target, so, we have made the desicion to extend the crowdfunding time for an extra week so that we can ensure we reach our £2000 target. 

We still need your help! Please keep sharing our video and spreading the word. We can do this! 

Thank you! The acta Team x

First Chapter

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Jul 29 2015

Here's a peek at the first chapter of Catacombs of Terror!

CHAPTER I

Death Threats

Let's see. Friday 10th July, 11.30am. Not a good time for me, and not a good day either, so far. Not if you were me. The best thing about my situation was that I'd escaped the wind. And the rain. The cold was still with me, but I was forgetting it fast. I'd delegated. A third coffee was dealing with it. The worst thing about my situation you don't want to know. Yeah, well. I didn't know the worst thing about my situation either. Not yet, anyway.

July. The coldest and wettest ever, I thought. Okay. But I thought that every year. Maybe it was getting worse, every year. The sky squatted above the city, snagging on the chimneys and aerials, sagging into the streets. I lit my fourth cigarette since escaping the downpour and tried to focus on the newspaper I had propped in front of me. The usual. Imminent terrors, tawdry killings, economic gloom. I wasn't feeling too good.

I put my coffee cup down and stared out at the rain. I had enough available overdraft to pay this month's rent, but apart from that I was looking at a series of humiliating, embarrassing and finally futile phone calls to my bank manager. Brown envelopes through the door en route to the wastepaper basket. Reminders, ditto. Final demands. Bailiffs. Then what?

I still hadn't been paid for my last job. Or the one before that. My first couple of years as a private investigator had gone okay. Dull, but okay. But this year had been dead. Three cases, all of them very boring. Identify, tail, photograph, deliver prints. And my last two clients had defaulted. Hadn't returned my increasingly frequent phone calls. I'd started considering employing a debt collector. Not my favourite kind of people, having been on the receiving end of their kind more than once. It wasn't a global crisis, I thought, looking briefly at the headlines. But it wasn't any kind of fun. It was enough. And Barry Eliot? He was more than enough. The guy was not necessary.

Well, okay. Maybe the Barry Eliot problem was my fault. Partly my fault. About one third my fault, I reckoned. Half my fault would be pushing it ... maybe. Alright. I'd met Karen Eliot the night before. Again. I had been on my way home after a busy day watching the telephone, fiddling with paperclips, reading a magazine. A quick drink? Sure, why not. A bite to eat? Well, I had nothing much to look forward to in my fridge back at the flat, so, hey, why not. Well, okay. Barry's away. You're lonely. Sure. And then I'd woken up in the morning, Friday 10th July, in her bed. Groggy, hung over, and with the horribly dawning realisation that I'd done it again. I'd spent the night with Karen. Again.

It had been only two weeks since Barry had caught us in bed, one stupid afternoon when he was supposed to be playing golf with some of those high fliers he likes so much. He'd probably suspected something was going on. Karen and me – we really got on well. And I mean it. She hated Barry. She liked me. And maybe more than liked. I felt – well, I felt that we could have had some kind of life together. In another world. Another life. Some other dimension. Anyway. Barry had walked in. It wasn't a good moment, not compared with the moment just before. He threatened to kill me – yawn – and then threatened to have my licence revoked. Okay. Death threats from Barry, with his squeaking voice and appalling taste in golfing slacks I could handle, but losing my licence ...

The trouble was that Barry was extremely well connected. I didn't know why, but he was. He knew people in the Council. He knew people in the Police force. I mean, the guy played golf. He put on those revolting slacks, those sickening pullovers, those laughable shoes – and schmoozed in the nineteenth hole with magistrates, judges, superintendents and commissioners. He had his gig sewn up. If Barry wanted, Barry usually got. He was, you could be forgiven for thinking, not a guy to cross. And I was screwing his wife. Maybe I was in love with her. I didn't know. I couldn't tell.

You see? That was the worst thing about my situation. As I thought then, as I shouldered my way out of the cafe and into the weather. Yeah. As I thought then.

Seven days to go

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Jul 27 2015

Hi,

Thanks for your support - we've got seven days to raise as much as possible. Please share this campaign as widely as possible.

Last signed hardback sold!

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Jul 20 2015

We've just sold the final standalone signed original hardback! Final one only available as a package.

Are these the last signed copies

An update for Catacombs of Terror! by Stanley Donwood

Jul 20 2015

I've just checked out Amazon and ABE Books and neither has any copies left of the original Catacombs of Terror! signed or unsigned. It looks as though that box of signed copies found in the broom cupboard at PRSC could really be the last ones. #stanleydonwood