Last week, BCP publisher and poet Christina Butcher recorded a podcast episode with our friends at We Art Tacoma, a podcast about the arts in Tacoma, Washington, and the story of the people behind the art.
Listen to the podcast here and enjoy a short conversation between Christina and We Art Tacoma host, Erik Hanberg, about how Blue Cactus Press got started, the literary scene in Tacoma, and who has time for their own creative writing (hint: not Christina).
For those of you unfamiliar with We Art Tacoma and the podcast network it’s a part of, let us fill you in! We Art Tacoma is a part of Channel 253, which has multiple podcasts about Tacoma, featuring conversations on art, civics, journalism and more. Check out more of their podcasts here.
Guess what, friends?! Libro.fm, our favorite independent audiobook platform, is our new podcast sponsor!
Libro.fm is the first and only company which lets you purchase audiobooks directly from your favorite local bookstore (we’re looking at you, King’s Books). When you sign up for Libro.fm, you can pick from more than 125,000 audiobooks, including New York Times best sellers and recommendations from booksellers. You’ll get the same audiobooks at the same price as the largest audiobook company out there (you know the name). But you’ll be part of a different story — one that supports community.
Here’s how our sponsorship works: Libro.fm now has a standing, special offer for listeners of The Prickly Pear Podcast: get 3 audiobooks for the price of 1 ($14.99) with your first month of membership.
All you need to do is use the following code when signing up for your first month of membership: PRICKLY
Every sign up with this code will help financially support Blue Cactus Press and the production of our podcast, AND you can still designate your favorite independent bookstore to receive a small portion of the proceeds, as well! You can also follow this link to sign up.
If you haven’t already, download the Libro.fm app on your smart phone (of course, it’s free) and start listening. It’s Friday, after all 🙂
Over the last few months, the folks behind Blue Cactus Press (including myself, the publisher, our authors, intern and new conspirators) have kept our heads down and our hands deep in the weeds of publishing work. Today we’re coming up for air, and we’ve got big news to share with you, our much-loved community. Read all about it below!
We broke-up with Amazon
Over the last two and a half years, we’ve learned a lot about the publishing industry, what we can do to conduct business ethically, and how best to support other businesses in the publishing chain. We’re still learning, but one thing we’ve known for a while is that when we utilize Amazon’s services – as a print-on-demand and sales platform – we aren’t serving anyone well. Sure, Amazon is cheap and fast, but every time we utilize it for publishing purposes, we take business away from printers and independent bookstores, no to mention severely lower profits for authors, artists, designers, editors, and our company. So, we’ve officially pulled our titles from all Amazon platforms. Doing this will allow us to better support other small businesses in the industry, including independent bookstores, printers, artists, designers and of course, authors.
The live-recording was sponsored by Write253, as part of the fourth annual Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB)-Tacoma teen poetry slam festival (March 2019). The festival culminated in a youth poetry slam on March 23 at Alma Mater.
It’s official! Blue Cactus Press now has a podcast, aptly titled The Prickly Pear Podcast. Each episode will feature interviews with creative people at the crossroads of artistic media. Lucky for us, Tacoma-based DJÂ JCDelaCÂ created music exclusively for The Prickly Pear Podcast!
That’s right, Blue Cactus Press is starting its very own podcast! We’ll delve into the creative worlds of writers, artists, entrepreneurs and general bad-asses across the Pacific Northwest. But before we set up our microphones and chat with our cool-kid guests, we need your help! We’ve gotten ourselves into a bit of a pickle: we can’t decide what to name our new podcast! We’re stuck, we’re wavering in silly indecision about whether to name it
The Prickly Pear or The Clay Pot
So, instead of wasting away in this valley of confusion, we’ve decided to ask you – our friends, colleagues and literary crushes – to vote on which of these two (amazing) choices is best. Chime in by filling out the form below!
We can’t wait to see what you choose! We’ll post the results sometime next week. Now get to votin’ !
Hello, friends! We wanted to introduce you all to our new favorite podcast: Storytellers Telling Stories. This lovely little production is a literary “radio theater” podcast created by Jude Brewer. It features a different storyteller every week (many of whom we have a serious literary crush on) narrating their literary work for listeners’ pleasure.
Storytellers Telling Stories launched in October 2017 and since then, over 21 episodes have been published! Included in Season One are two episodes by Blue Cactus Press authors: Christina Butcher (yes, that’s me!) and Sam Snoek-Brown (yes, he’s amazing!). But, we’re not writing this blog post to toot our own horns; we’re writing it to introduce you to the magical literary experience Jude creates in this podcast. We’re also hoping to convince you to listen and subscribe 🙂
In addition to clean audio and riveting stories, each episode of Storytellers Telling Stories includes sound effects and music. Now, if you’ve ever worked on a podcast you know how much work can go into just a few minutes of finished audio – so trust us when we tell you Jude has spent copious amounts of time and energy on each episode!
Did we mention that Jude also enlists the help of local artists to create artwork for every episode? Yeah, he really does. Each collaboration results in a lovely, meaningful piece of art directly connected to the episode’s content. It’s the perfect marriage of visual arts and literature.
The next time you’re stuck in the car during rush hour, getting ready for a long walk through the neighborhood or looking for a good story on a rainy day, plug your headphones in and download an episode of Storytellers Telling Stories. It’s literary magic, friends.
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