LAST WORD PRESS

Invention of Printing - Gutenberg Taking the First Proof

2012-01-21T15:46:00.000-08:00

2012 Curious Calendar

2012-01-03T17:09:00.000-08:00

Introducing the amazing, astounding, astronomical

2012 Curious Calendar!

Just in time for the end of the world!

Liberating "Holiday Free" design. No longer shall you be at the mercy of your calendar, celebrating holidays you don't even believe in. Now, with the patented "Holiday Free" design you can choose to write in the holidays and events you want to remember.

Never again will you have to suffer the weight of some boring Canadian holiday (Boxing Day) or celebrate the birth of some bloody worthless monarch/tyrant/president.

The 2012 Curious Calendar comes pre-packaged with unique software to allow for ease-of-use perusal of all 365+ days of the year at any time.*

*Offer good during daylight hours (not including eclipses) or in properly illuminated rooms with candles or incandescent bulbs.**
**Not included in the 2012 Curious Calendar.

Bind it Fast, Make or Repair a Book With This Easy Technique

2012-01-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

Adapted from an article in Boys' Life (October 1991) by Brook West.

Does your "Boy Scout Handbook" look as though it has been read by a grizzly bear? Are pages falling out of your favorite novel? Has the cover come off of your copy of "The Hobbit?"

You don't have to buy new copies. It's easy to repair paperback books using Japanese bookbinding techniques. Just punch four holes through the book near the spine and lash it together with needle and thread. You can make sketch books, scrapbooks or blank books this way, too. To make smaller books, fold several sheets of paper paper carefully into halves or quarters, clamp the stack together and punch and bind it, then slit the pages apart with a sharp knife afterwards, being careful not to cut the binding threads.

To rebind a paperback you will need an awl or thin wire brads, heavy thread (eight times as long as the book 's height), a needle, pencil, and ruler. Use carpet thread, strong nylon thread, or waxed dental floss. If you use wire brads instead of an awl you'll want a small hammer. Binder clips are useful, too. For a scrapbook or blank book cut covers from card stock or a file folder.

Here's what you do:

1. Usinga ruler, draw a line from top to bottom of the front cover, about 1/4"from the spine. Make two marks on this line, one 1/4' down from the top of the book, the other 1/4" up from the bottom. Now divide the distance between these marks into thirds and mark the two middle points.

2. Even up the pages and clamp the book together with binder clips, or weight down the front edge to keep the pages from moving. Protect your work surface with a piece of scrap wood or an old phone book as you punch a hole at each of the marked points using the awl or wire brads.

Making these holes should not damage the text in the book. Most paperback books have an inner margin of 1/2" to 3/4", leaving plenty of room for rebinding.

3. Thread the needle and tie the ends together with an overhand knot. Open the book a few pages and, next to the lower middle hole, push the needle through about twenty pages. Pull the thread through until the knot is snug against the pages. Go back out to the front cover by pushing the needle up through the awl hole. This step anchors the thread.

4. Now sew the rest of the book as shown in the accompanying illustrations. Pull the thread tight each time you go through a hole.

Go around the back and back up through the starting hole, then down through the other middle hole. Pull the thread tight after going through each hole.
Around the back again, then up through the top hole.
Around the back, then...
...around the top of the spine and up through the top hole again. Keep going, down through one middle hole, back up through the next, and down through the bottom hole. Keep the thread tight.
Around the back again and...
...around the bottom of the spine and back through the bottom hole. Go up through the starting hole again.
To finish, tie off the thread so the binding won't come loose. Do this by slipping the needle under two of the top threads coming out of starting hole and back through the loop to form a tight knot.
Run the needle back down through the starting hole and cut the leftover thread flush with the back of the book.

For more information on Japanese bookbinding, including decorative bindings, how to make cloth covered hard covers, making cloth covered boxes, and other useful techniques, check your library for Japanese Bookbinding: Instructions from a Master Craftsman, by Kojiro Ikegami (published by John Weatherhill).

Block Posters - an easy .pdf method for creating large posters

2011-12-23T15:27:00.000-08:00

Upload an image from your computer and choose how many sheets wide
you would like your poster to be once printed

Once you're happy with your selection, you can download the PDF file containing your newly created images and print each one massively blown up, resulting in a
huge pixel poster to stick on your wall

No More Fucking Around!

2011-12-03T15:01:00.000-08:00

Okay, yesterday did not go as well as planned. Yes, the new press is beautiful, but true beauty is inside. Namely, if the damn thing doesn't want to work on the inside then it doesn't matter how it looks. Give us a hammer...

Alright, done ranting for the time being. Let's try and print something, shall we? Here we go. Wish us luck.

Tribute to Loompanics

2011-11-29T06:37:00.000-08:00

Loompanics Founder & Editor Mike Hoy, in his office in the 1980s

Dug this one up the other day, not a bad piece. And I think you can google around and find the missing links this author mentions at the end of the article... though I still can't find Claire Wolfe's tribute to Loompanics... any ideas?

(Originally published at Earthblog.net)

When I think of America, the picture in my mind is not the Statue of Liberty or the flag, but the Loompanics Unlimited catalog. Loompanics is the apotheosis – a word I’ve always craved the opportunity to use – of free speech, the most perfect example of everything that’s right with our beloved country. As Marilyn epitomizes movie stardom, as Willie epitomizes country music –in the same way, Loompanics is the ideal example of what America is all about. Or was meant to be.

Both distributor and publisher, in a typical year the company produced 15 books under its own imprint, and added around 150 new titles from other houses. Four-time Loompanics author Claire Wolfe, who has been called America’s most eloquent anarchist and the Ayn Rand of the 21st century, says, “Loompanics had a well-deserved reputation as the most bold, eclectic, and in-your-face of all freedom-oriented book catalogs.” I’d certainly never received another that featured a disclaimer, warning the customer that the bookseller can’t be responsible for the fate of your package if it happens to cross the path of certain government officials.

The news that Loompanics is folding its tent comes as a real blow to many. “They were one of the only book publishers in the world to publish Ace Backwords. And now they’re closing down. I just hope there wasn’t a connection there,” says the author of Surviving on the Streets, continuing, “Loompanics occupied a special niche in the book publishing world, and now that niche is no more. Which is a sad state of affairs. A lot of would-be rebels, pseudo-nonconformists, and arm-chair anarchists talked ABOUT subversion. Loompanics showed you how to BE subversive.”

The company has published and/or carried the works of Karl Hess, L. Neil Smith, Jim Goad, Russ Kick, Vin Suprynowicz, Paul Krassner, and many other notable thinkers. “I have seen the best minds of my generation…..in the Loompanics catalog,” as Allen Ginsberg might have said in his most famous poem.

The arrival of the 200-plus page, non-shiny, black and white catalog always promised several evenings of delight. Many of those pages were accounted for by articles about the latest abhorrent schemes of the government and big business, making it as much a magazine as a catalog. Other gems also turned up, original essays you can’t find anywhere else, like an Ace Backwords memoir of working in the red-light district.

You Are What You Know
You Are What You Do
Help Yourself
No More Secrets
No More Excuses
No More Limits

That’s the Loompanics philosophy, summed up in 6 precepts. Not a bad platform. If a Presidential candidate offered the same, I’d vote for her.

Loompanics never hesitated to take a stand, announcing Jack Herer’s masterpiece The Emperor Wears No Clothes, as “the most important book we have ever sold!” Some of its offerings were pure philosophy, like William J. Murray’s Anarchic Harmony and Unconditional Freedom. Others sound like an outlaw curriculum: how to do armed robbery, pick pockets, beat a lie detector, collect illegal debts, bury your contraband, change your identity, and disappear.

Before saying “tsk-tsk,” a rational person will pause for moment to consider the multitudes of fellow citizens incarcerated for victimless crimes, who emerge months or years later with a full set of thug credentials. When it comes to manufacturing career criminals, nobody does it better than the American justice system. No mere book of dirty trickery or exotic weaponry could hope to have a fraction of the impact. Government goons may be the only ones remaining who hold the touching faith that books have tangible power. Most real thugs don’t or can’t read.

Loompanics books can help protect your computer from viruses, your phone from tapping, and your house from unauthorized entry. They can also help you promulgate computer viruses, tap somebody else’s phone, and unauthorizedly enter someone else’s house. You could learn how to lie with statistics, and also how to unmask their lies. How to cheat on your wife without being caught, and how to win a street fight in case you get caught anyway. How to create a revolution or a nuclear strike, and also how to survive a revolution or a nuclear strike. It’s equal-opportunity knowledge and, like all knowledge, a sword with two edges. What if everybody knew everything, all the time? Us and them – what then? Can you imagine living on a planet of telepaths?

It goes without saying that Loompanics provided a full complement of sex books and drug books. Not to mention cannibalism, conspiracy theories and female serial killers (one book features 182 of them.) Subjects ranged from the practicalHow to Get Your Filipina Finacee to the U.S. to the ecclesiastical Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible to the whimsical yet totally useful Complete Guide to Science Fiction Conventions.

Yes, Loompanics has published some unapologetically awful things. Former chief editorial director Steve O’Keefe reminisced to an interviewer about a book (not named) which “so upset the staff that the entire staff revolted against working on it…. Seven printers refused to print it……” The company’s ads have been banned, either permanently or partially, by The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Soldier of Fortune, and Google Adwords, Which is their perfect right, but still…..Soldier of Fortune???

Before accusing Loompanics of being a dreadful bad influence, pause and take a look at some of the stuff you can get at the most respectable giant chain bookstores: for instance, Writers Digest puts out a compendium of poison information, including symptoms, forms, methods of administration and reactions. A similar volume, on murder and forensic medicine, reveals “how police distinguish between accidents and foul play.” But this is okay, according to the party line: such reference books are only for professional writers, who require accuracy in their fictional violent acts. Yeah, sure, you bet.

Many books on tamer, more life-affirming skills could also be found in the catalog: food growing, bee keeping, brain expansion, language-learning. Rancho Costa Nada: The Dirt Cheap Desert Homestead has been a perennial best-seller. It’s typical of the many works teaching vonu, a life of voluntary simplicity, usually mobile, that keeps you off the grid and under the radar. This may be combined with tax “avoision,” a made-up word encompassing avoidance and aversion. A whole catalog sector was devoted to self-sufficiency: taking care of yourself without government “help.” Because once you stick out your arm for a handout, that’s where they put the handcuffs.

To think the company’s chosen books are dangerous because you can learn how to pick locks or handle explosives, is a superficial view. It’s much worse than that. It’s the ideas, such as tax avoision and vonu, which pose a real threat to the encroaching national Dark Age. There is genuine empowerment in the knowledge of skills we hope we won’t need, but might anyway: how to pass a pee test, fight police abuses, prevent identity theft, or navigate the underground economy. However you or I may feel about it, there are things it would behoove us to know, before the day arrives when we regret our ignorance.

Being as how the US keeps a larger proportion of its people behind bars than any other country, the ugly and unfortunate truth is that even in the best of families, someone is likely to wind up a convict. The several books about how to survive in prison become more relevant, as fewer and fewer of us reach the end of life without needing such information.

The founding and sustaining genius behind Loompanics is Mike Hoy, whose interview at AuthorViews.com, recorded only a few months ago, now has an ironic flavor. “I’ve been doing this for approximately thirty years and the good lord willing I’ll be doing it for another thirty.” Willing as any disembodied spirit undoubtedly is, other factors intervened.

If one had a paranoid cast of mind, one might suspect pressure from the authorities. In the current political climate, a publisher with such a customer database as Loompanics must have – not to mention the true identities of authors who write about things nice boys and girls aren’t supposed to know – such a publisher might find discretion the better part of valor, and close the doors before the inevitable visit from mofos in suits sneering, “Hand over your records.”

But that’s only paranoia. One person familiar with the operation says, “The feds haven’t been so bad. Hell, they’re one of Loompanics’s biggest customers.” It’s possible that a mundane factor like insurance costs pounded the final nail into the coffin. Attempts have been made to hold the company responsible for people’s actions, and to collect damages. Mike Hoy says it’s just been a steady decline in sales. Boring, but also reassuring. I’m glad it wasn’t jackbooted goons in the night. Too many Americans have already become martyrs to the sadly misdirected quest for “security.”

(Originally this piece had 3 links, which have apparently now all disappeared. What’s up with that?)

Interview with Mike Hoy on Loompanics’s own site          gone
Hoy on the AuthorViews site                                                       gone
Claire Wolfe’s tribute to Loompanics                                       gone

Last Earth Distro Unearths Another Interview with Michael Hoy, Founder and Editor of Loompanics

2011-11-24T16:55:00.000-08:00

Loompanics Unlimited's Logo

We plan on publishing a little zine or pamphlet of all the interviews with Michael Hoy we can dig up, as well as conducting our own one of these days. So if you come across one we haven't posted yet, let us know!

Thanks to Sunni at Sunni's Salon, for the rights to republish! Here's an excerpt, float on over to Last Earth Distro for the full text of the interview.

SUNNI: I think most freedom lovers have a similar story, don't you? We never seem to fit in, sometimes even with other freedom lovers. But, speaking of being young, who inspired and motivated you when you were young? Who do you count among your heroes?

MIKE: I have been inspired and motivated by lots of people, including Edgar Allan Poe, Ayn Rand, especially the brilliant and late Michael O'Donohue, and Lysander Spooner. My heroes include Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Paul Krassner, Michael O'Donohue, Lysander Spooner, Durk & Sandy, Pedr Lund of Paladin Press, my late father when he was young and strong, and Stewart Brand of The Whole Earth Catalog.

Last Word Press Launches Etsy Storefront!

2011-11-22T00:08:00.000-08:00

Finally, a place for just the things we make in our shop in Olympia, uncluttered by the bells and whistles and rags and tags of the used book world, untouched by the inept hands of our volunteers and co-workers at Last Word Books. Etsy provides the perfect platform for everything we create in the dark of night and call our own. Check us out and tell yer friends.

Last Word Press is located in Olympia, WA in the catacombs of Last Word Books. Last Word is more than a bookstore, more than the four walls that contain it. Those nattering naboobs of negativity have long declared the death of the printed word, but we refuse to let that happen. Using an antique letterpress, offset presses and digital copiers we are slowly cobbling together the foundations of a publishing empire.

More than ever we believe in the need to invest in the traditions and habits of the printed word, to give voice to the lives and livelihood of a life that cannot be captured in pixels alone, a life that is more than the sum of its reading. With each our own story to tell we must capture that illusive spirit that lives between the lines and after the closing of the book of our days, where we all live past dreams and remembrances of things past.

The future of print is not dead, it's read!

Cool Video

2011-02-23T23:50:00.000-08:00

Found this little gem through boingboing:

William Gibson on Cybernetic Warfare

2011-01-27T17:59:00.000-08:00

Found this today in the NYTimes; interesting article from William Gibson on the nature of cybernetic warfare: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/opinion/27Gibson.html?_r=1&hp

New Titles from Last Word Press

2011-01-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

History of May Day by Alexander Trachtenberg, 32 pp. Originally published in 1929 and reissued in many editions, this edition is published by Last Word Press in Garamond No. 8 in a revised format. A brief history of the struggles to establish working rights and the formation of a national day of action and solidarity, History of May Day offers readers a glimpse at labor history and efforts to corrupt and distort the workers' movement in the United States. This pamphlet also explores the foundation of Labor Day as a counter-balance to the workers' movement in order to subvert the workers. A nice addition to any labor library.

20 Theses on the Subversion of the Metropolis by the Plan B Bureau; 16 page staple-bound pamphlet/zine. Originally published in Italian as Tesi sulla sovversione della metropoli, and later printed by the Institute for Experimental Freedom, this edition is printed and published by Last Word Press in Olympia, WA. The twenty theses in this pamphlet/zine explore the nature of the metropolis in relation to oppression and resistance, discussing how contrary forces co-exist within the confines of the metropolis, which is everywhere.

Portland Zine Symposium

2010-08-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, the monkeys have been busy slaving away at their typewriters and so far they've come up with this little gem of literature:

"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven,
we were all going direct the other way--

Gimme a fuckin' banana (and some cigarets)--

Bubbles mad! Bite face! Throw shit!
Bubbles not typing this fuckin' machine anymore!

Well, we're just gonna have to shoot him off into space and be done with it. He can't use that kind of fuckin' language! There might be children present.

In other news, we're gearing up for the Portland Zine Symposium on Aug. 28th & 29th. We'll be there with a whole spate of new zines and books, including this little gem.

Interview with Loompanics Unlimited Founder Mike Hoy

2010-07-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

An Interview With Mike Hoy, Founder
and President of Loompanics Unlimited
Regarding What It's All About

Q: What is “Loompanics Unlimited?”

Loompanics Unlimited is a publishing and bookselling company specializing in odd, unusual, controversial, and wild-ass books, with an emphasis on questioning authority. We have been in business for 28 years now. We are a small business, bringing out about 15 of our own titles a year, and offering approximately 150 new titles per year from other publishers. Our current Catalog with Supplements contains more than 800 titles.

Q: Why is your Catalog dedicated to the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the tendency towards universal entropy – in short, over time, chaos will prevail. "Things fall apart, the center cannot hold…” (Yeats). Within society, Loompanics favors more entropy, i.e., less government laws and other social restrictions – increased anarchy. Within our own bodies, Loompanics favors less entropy, i.e., less degeneration and death. So the Second Law of Thermodynamics is at once a friend indeed, and a worthy adversary. America needs to loosen up.

Q: Many of your books deal with violence and criminal activity. Aren't you harming society by making available information on how to manufacture illegal drugs, or offering how-to-do-it violence manuals?

Of course not. Nothing harms “society” more than censorship and dogmatism. I believe that people are mature enough to be allowed to find out anything they want to know about anything they want to know about, and that any attempt to suppress the free transmission of ideas and information will cause much more harm than freedom ever could. Mostly, the “harm” of freedom is to institutions and ideologies that don't want us to be able to find stuff out. The “harm” from publishing, say, Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture (now in its 6th edition) is nothing compared to the harm of having the DEA be our only source of information about drugs, or the harm of throwing people in prison for talking about drugs in a way that they don't like.

Q: So you think it would be harmless for a fourth grader to get hold of a copy of Secrets of Meth? How can you say that?

In the first place, I do not sell to fourth graders, but for the sake of argument, let's say that I did sell a copy of Secrets of Meth to a 9-year-old – what could the “harm” possibly be? Here is a brief excerpt from that book: “Another way of doing the electric cell method of turning the propenylbenzene into phenylacetone is given in the Journal of Organic Chemistry article, Volume 49. If, at the conclusion of passing current through the reaction mixture, a little 1% solution of sulfuric acid is added and stirred for an hour, the product of the cell is 98% yield of the same glycol by the formic acid and peroxide method.” That is from page 72.

Now, I submit that if we had a fourth grader who could actually understand that passage, what we ought to do is give that kid a state-of-the-art laboratory and get the hell out of his way. A guy like that might discover a cure for cancer, or something. A phenom like that ought to be encouraged to study chemistry. And furthermore, the passage demonstrates that a goodly part of any illegal drug manufacture book is going to rely heavily on mainstream chemistry – because life itself is chemistry.

Q: The “Drugs” Section in your current Catalog contains more than 70 titles. Are you encouraging people to use drugs?

I'm encouraging people to think about drugs. There is more absolute horseshit and just plain lies being put out about “drugs” than any other subject. “Just say no” makes exactly as much sense as “Just say yes.” My position is “Just say know.” Drugs have been demonized in this country to provide an excuse to trample on our civil liberties and make us so scared and dumb that we cannot think. The fact of the matter is that we humans (and many other species, too!) have been getting high on one substance or another ever since we first stood up on our hind legs. Esteemed scientists such as Dr. Ronald K. Siegel have postulated that the desire for intoxication is actually a fourth drive, as unstoppable as hunger, thirst, and sex. I think that drugs are a positive force in our society, and it is evil to prohibit our access to them.

To give only one example, just think of the economic miracle that would result from the legalization of cannabis - not just "hemp” or “medical marijuana” but pot for getting high, too. It's already one of the most lucrative cash crops in the USA - why not recognize that fact, and all of us benefit from it? It's an ideal crop for small farmers. Why should someone have his life destroyed by being sent to prison for helping people? Just so some lifelong parasitic pigs can continue to slurp at the public trough? That's not enough reason for me. Legalize it all, and let people be.

Q: You have a number of anarchist books in your Catalog. Are you an anarchist?

Pretty much so, although I am too much of an anarchist to be an anarchist – I have found that the organized anarchists have too many rules and too many leaders for me. I am so much of an anarchist that I have gone beyond anarchy &$8211 I am agnostic about anarchism. I guess I would call myself a political solipsist. I don't much know how “society should be organized,” but I want everybody to be able to live the way they want. I would like to see everyone create his own reality. I think that any large institution, not just government, is likely to be dangerous to individuals. That is where I part company with the “Libertarians” – they actually seem to think that large corporations are rivals of the government. My view is that they have become interchangeable with the government. In fact, corporations now wield even more power than governments – look at what is going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, for Chrissakes. The U.S. Government is serving the “oil” and “defense” industries.

Q: So, if a person can't trust the government, and can't trust private corporations, what do you think people should do in order to be more free?

Well, I don't have a one-size-fits-all platform that I want everybody to all cluster-fuck together on. I just want people to give their heads a good spring cleaning, and start looking for things they can do to help themselves. I sell a lot of books on things like starting up little businesses, making money on the side, breaking free of the work/consumer economy. What might be swell for one person might not be a good idea at all for another. But if your mind is closed to the possibility of doing anything except traditional work, you will not be able to recognize an opportunity, even if it bites you on the ass.

I sell books on increasing your intelligence, both by raising your “I.Q.” and by expanding the boundaries of your thinking. Books such as How to Start Your Own Country, or The Last Frontiers on Earth might sound “crazy,” but they get you thinking about questions such as “What is sovereignty?” and “How far off the beaten path can someone actually go?”

Plus, it is just plain fun to think about the off-trail possibility, the overlooked alternative - and freedom should be fun, above all else. If it ain't fun, then it ain't really freedom.

Q: What is the Loompanics logo? Is that some kind of space ship or something?

Yes, what that is, is it's an orbiting space colony of the type proposed by Gerard K. O'Neil in his 1976 book The High Frontier. I was very impressed by the idea that a relatively small group of people could get off this planet and out by themselves, and literally have their own world. Unfortunately for just about everybody, the idea has been co-opted by the government, in order to militarize outer space (“Star Wars”) and right now it doesn't look like we, the people, are ever going to be able to live like that. But I like the idea, so I have kept it as the company logo.

Q: The Loompanics Catalog and Supplements contain features and articles as well as book write-ups.

Uh-huh, I always like to have a couple features that reflect the Catalog's general orientation: individual freedom. Over the years, I have collected the best of these articles into four anthologies: Loompanics' Greatest Hits, Loompanics' Golden Records, Loompanics Unlimited Live! In Las Vegas, and Loompanics Unlimited Conquers the Universe. There's some really good writing in there.

Q: What do you look for in a book to publish or sell?

What I really like to see is for someone who knows what he's talking about to take a subject that is little-known, or even abhorrent, and then write a straightforward how-to-do-it book about it. Books such as The Art & Science of Dumpster Diving, Methods of Disguise, Making Crime Pay, Rancho Costa Nada: The Dirt Cheap Desert Homestead, If We Can Keep a Severed Head Alive…, How to Start Your Own Country, Did Jesus Exist?, Practical LSD Manufacture, Combat Knife Throwing, The $51 Fantasy, etc., etc. I love this sort of thing, and I always have, and I always will.

I like challenging books, funny books, exciting books, crazy books. Sometimes reporters have asked me “What kind of people would buy books like these, Mike?” I always answer, people like me. When I am putting together the Catalog, or a Supplement, I always imagine what books I would like to see for sale, what books I would buy, and I look for those kinds of books. Useful books, outrageous books, beyond-the-pale books, over-the-top books. How to Build Your Own Log Home for Less Than $15,000, Stealth Juror, Home Workshop Professional Lock Tools, How to Make Driver's Licenses and Other ID on Your Home Computer, They Were White and They Were Slaves, Everything You Know is Wrong, How to Be an Ass-Whipping Boxer, Guns Save Lives, etc., etc. I literally cannot get enough of this stuff.

Q: How do you get your manuscripts? Do people just send them in, or what?

Well, by now, as little-known as we are, Loompanics is well-known enough that we do get a lot of manuscripts that just come in over the transom. But I will also think of ideas for books I'd like to see, and then look for an author to write the book. I am very proud to be the publisher of writers like Ace Backwords, eddie the wire, Jon Fisher, Claire Wolfe, John Q. Newman, Uncle Fester, and many others whose first books were published by Loompanics. These are all intelligent writers, with great senses of humor, who have a lot to say that is important, and I think it says a lot for my company that we are their publisher.

And sometimes one of our regular authors will refer another author to us. Sometimes, other small press publishers will refer an author to us who has a project that isn't quite right for them. And we run listings in Writer's Market, and other standard references soliciting authors. Lots of times, our customers will become authors. When I was first getting Loompanics going, and was operating it out of my basement, eddie the wire (before he was “eddie the wire”) would stop over to the house to buy books, and we would shoot the shit, and he looked over all my lock picking titles (which were from other publishers), and told me that he could write better stuff. So, I said go ahead - make my day, and thus was born The Complete Guide to Lock Picking. We get our manuscripts wherever we can.

Q: Where do you get your customers? None of your books will ever be available on the paperback rack at Safeway.

Well, like our authors, we get our customers wherever we can. We have advertised in magazines such as High Times, Reason, The Nation, and other alternative periodicals. We have also advertised in mainstream intellectual mags like Harper's, The Atlantic, even Popular Science. The Wall Street Journal has always refused to allow us to advertise, which demonstrates a large lack of faith on their part in the self-correcting mechanism of the free market. Sometimes we will set up at shows and conventions, such as anarchist book fairs, the Northwest Book Fair in Seattle, the American Library Association's convention, Defcon, gun shows, survival shows, libertarian conventions, comix conventions, and even the big ABA convention a couple of times. And we mail Samplers and Supplements to bookbuyer lists of other small publishers, and magazine subscribers. Wherever we think there might be literate people who like unusual books, we will try to let them know about us.

I also do newspaper and magazine and radio interviews, and we set them up for our authors, too. I've even been on TV a few times, as have some of our authors. I enjoy talking about freedom of the press and why it is so necessary. Sometimes, I will get an interviewer who wants to do a hatchet job on Loompanics, and portray us as a bunch of Communist child molesters, or something. A couple months ago, I did an NPR interview in which the host (Bob somebody) became so disoriented with my mocking of the “War on Terrorism” that he cut me off in the middle of a sentence, sneering, “Worst of luck!”

When you're in business at the level we're at, there is really no such thing as bad publicity. I'm not looking for people who are afraid to question what their television sets tell them. If I wasn't pissing off assholes like that NPR guy, I wouldn't have much to offer anyone with brains.

Q: One last question. Why “Loompanics?” Does that mean something?

The first booklet I ever published (in early 1974) was an index to the first four years of National Lampoon magazine. I was in awe of NatLamp as it was before the original founders sold their stakes. I still think that those issues were the single finest examples of satire and social criticism that have ever been published in America. My favorites were Henry Beard and, especially, the late Michael O'Donahue. Nothing was sacred with those guys, and that makes for good writing! I liked NatLamp so much in those days that I even had a couple of small jokes published in there, something I still like to brag about whenever I get the chance (such as now).

My theory was that if I named my publishing company something that sounded like “Lampoon” that it would help the sales of the Index when I advertised it in NatLamp. Then, when I started to publish other stuff, I already had stationery, etc., printed up, and I got so I liked the name (it has a nice ring to it, I think), and I just kept it for all my publishing projects, and for my bookselling Catalog, too.

I know, it's anticlimactic.

Q: For many of the people reading this interview, this will be their first introduction to Loompanics Unlimited. Is there anything special you would like to say to these people?

Yes. Have fun, think for yourself, and buy some books.

Copyleft Books

2010-05-13T00:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a shout out to Copyleft Books in Portland, another vigilant sentry in this war of words waged against the dominant paradigm of our modern times. They're good folk, aside from being booksellers and all. Though we've often disagreed about the specifics of individual realities we respect them and wish them well.

www.copyleftbooks.org

An Obligatory Message from the Editor

2010-04-30T01:15:00.000-07:00

Well, after a few (or not so few) harsh words and threats of firing everyone the presses seem to be up and running. As god is my witness, the first Last Word Press edition of the Principia Discordia should be printed and bound in about three weeks. That good-for-nothing tech wizard of ours should have the website fine tuned. Our bookbinder is still in the wilds of...wherever it is. The assistant editor is breathing down our collective necks. El Goonie has disappeared again. The cat is hungry. Time is late. Sleep, must sleep. NO! No sleep for the wicked.

The Radical Sticker Project

2010-04-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

We've been slowly gathering images of iconic, radical poets and malcontents for some time now, and would like to announce the birth of the Radical Sticker Project (RSP). Some of the iconic figures you might find affixed to surfaces near you include Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsburg, William S. Burroughs, not to mention Hunter Thompson and a gaggle of your favorite radical writers. We will also soon be introducing stickers of Angela Davis, Emma Goldman, Che Guevara, Malcolm X and other socio-political, radical activists who fought the good fight and never lost hope for a better world.

For the moment, the best place to purchase stickers is at Last Word Books located in beautiful downtown Olympia, WA. But you might also check out our eBay page if you don't live in the vicinity. Follow link here: http://stores.ebay.com/Last-Word-Books-and-Press

If you have any suggestions for stickers or comments on our choices let us know. Also, if you just want to email us and buy stickers, we'll gladly oblige you.

Another Damn Day in the Trenches

2010-04-27T22:48:00.000-07:00

It's another month and we're still treading water with the vim and vigor of a dead rat. All the naysayers and malcontents hiding in the cave of our thoughts tell us we're behind schedule, but we like to think of it as a necessary delay. As we slowly gather resources and knowledge of the intricacies of publishing in the modern age, we move another step closer to completing our long overdue Principia Discordia project.

Just when we thought we had everything done and set to go to press, that freakin' editor decided to alter the layout on us.

"This should help us keep our asses out of the fire for a little while" he says to us one afternoon. We all look at him with thinly disguised contempt. Here we go again.

"No good perfectionist son-of-a-bitch" someone mutters under their breath.

"What was that?!" thundered the Editor. We all looked at the floor for a while as his gaze shifted over each of us, lingering longer than comfort allows.

After a few pointless attempts to negotiate a ceasefire the EIC (editor-in-chief) threatened to fire us all and start over with monkeys. While his threats seemed hollow, we couldn't be sure. We blinked. He laughed.

"Back to the drawing boards, monkeys!" he shouted and left, slamming the door behind him.

So, we started over and are once again nearing completion. For the love of god, someone save us. We need better jobs, more pay. Anything is better than working for that evil man. All he cares about is the sound of the presses rolling and the smell of ink.

The Ides of March

2010-03-07T09:05:00.000-08:00

As March marches on we've been busy delving into the intricacies of layout. Who knew it could be so difficult to jump from point A to B? Nevertheless, we've mastered the fine art of imposition and have been busy laying out several projects for printing soon.

We've been up to all kinds of deviltry in the meantime, which we feel quite proud to have produced.

Our friends up at Epic Ales in Seattle just celebrated the release of their first beer, Simple Ale, and Last Word Press was proud to print the labels for them. We have another batch of labels to print soon, too. Check out their website and let them know you care...about beer...and stuff. Here's the link: epicales.com

We also had the proud honor of printing and binding a book of poetry for the kindergarten/first grade class of Wendy Frankel-Reed at Lincoln Elementary in Olympia. The book was featured in the Lincoln Auction on Saturday March 6th and garnered funds for the continuing operation of the school. We'll upload photos of the book in a few days for everyone's perusal.

The Principia Discordia project is nearing completion and will be going to press in a week or so. After printing, we'll begin collating and binding the finished manuscript into book format. We're still up in the air on the cover, whether to letterpress it or create a new template for the offset press.

Meanwhile, we've been working under cover of national security on a book you'll either love or hate. We won't go into the details just yet, but you'll definitely hear about it. In the meantime, let us know of any strange, suited men asking questions they shouldn't be.

Beware the Fnords!

The Wolves Are Hungry

2010-01-07T12:16:00.000-08:00

Already a week into the new year and the wolves are circling. We've barely gotten off our feet and learned to walk in a passingly good imitation of a drunkard stumbling home from the bar and the bastards want money, money, MONEY! Well, have we a thing or two for them (although not money, per se) to shove down their pie holes.

When you don't have any money, stall the bastards. This plan works for a while, and often makes you feel good about having done something proactive. However, the caveat here is that it only works for a while and then they actually want to see some of the green stuff, or at the very least, a card carrying that wonderful symbol of freedom and the American Way of Life: VISA. Remember: "Life takes VISA!" It doesn't take fortitude and a naïve belief in hope in order to survive; it doesn't even take much more than cunning and the ability to stay ahead of the wolves. Life takes a little plastic card with a holographic symbol of an eagle on it and a good credit score to qualify for more loans and more credit cards.

The new mantra of Life is: MORE, MORE, MORE!!!

And so, being fleet of foot (like swift Achilles) and quick of wit (Odysseus), we're scrambling to find a way to pay the bills and keep the presses running without selling our souls to the devils of Greed. Here are a few of the get-rich-quick schemes we cooked up in our feverish little brains.

The biggest project, by far, is the expansion of our printed catalogue (which doesn't really exist yet in the physical world). We're always looking for new titles to put under the Last Word Press banner and we think we might have found the perfect one to start that Sisphysian rock rolling: The Principia Discordia. Long believed to be nothing more than the product of twisted, deviant minds, we've discovered that the Principia Discordia is, in fact, the product of twisted, deviant minds. Sure, you can find this title everywhere (under rocks, in trash bins, on the internet), but how would you like your very own handbound copy? For inquiries and orders, drop us a line and we'll send you a copy for the absurdly low price of just $9.95 w/ shipping and handling.

We've also begun working on the incorporation of The Olympia Zine Library into our super-secret lair and giving anyone a chance to peruse the shelves to find zines and DIY manuals for personal consumption. We'll gladly take your donations and give you a nice, clean copy bound with the finest zinc alloy staples this side of the Pecos to take on your merry way. Or you can always check 'em out, read 'em and return 'em, but just remember that we've hired the ugliest thug in town to keep track of who checked what out when. Take your pick: broken bones or small donations.

Do you have one of those black-market businesses you don't want to tell the IRS about? Still need suckers (oops! customers, customers!) to believe you know what you're doing? Want to look professional while you do it? We'll print your business cards tailored to your liking (minus the holographic decals and bells and whistles).

Sure, you can go online and get a hundred business cards from one of those sites with cheesy graphics and full color bullshit, but we'll work with you to craft a piece of art you can carry around in your pocket to give people informing them that you (the one and only) are a real, bona fide snake oil salesthing. We'll give you a 1000 (yes, a 1000) business cards for fifty bucks. We'll even throw in a box to hold 'em.

We're continuously searching for ways to make ends meet, and if you have any suggestions or ideas we haven't thought of let us know. And always, "Hail Eris!"

Current Projects

2010-01-02T11:50:00.001-08:00

The Olympia Review: That perennial favorite of starving artists and writers, the literary quarterly, should arrive on your doorsteps just in time for Spring. Sifting through the layers of pretentious screeds and irritating rants, we’ve decided to present the finest shit we could find in one fantastic publication easily perused while you, yourself, are on the shitter. Afterwards, please feel free to use our fine rag as an instrument for removing the shit from your ass. And please stop sending us manuscripts written in bodily fluids as the Editor-in-Chief is growing weary of surgical gloves and reciting incantations to protect himself from wayward demons. For proper submissions, subscriptions or letters of protest, please write to:

The Olympia Review c/o
Last Word Press
211 1/2 4th Ave East
Olympia, WA 98501

Or email:

theolympiareview@gmail.com.

The Hater: We’ve given our colleague, El Goonie, the means to spew his rabid diatribes on life in a weekly format rivaling the Federalist in it’s prime. Watch for them littering the sidewalks and alleyways of our fair city. Also useful as liner for bird cages! For subscriptions, blah blah blah, etc:

The Hater c/o
Last Word Press
211 1/2 4th Ave East
Olympia, WA 98501

Or email:

hater360@gmail.com
Twitter: @olylifecoach

The Pick-Pocket Poets Series: We’re gathering bits of napkins and coasters strewn across the floor to give you a taste of the pretentiousness of modern poets. Never ones to be overdramatic and self-centered, we’re presenting to you a collection of verse devoid of bird feeders. We hate bird feeder poetry! Submissions accepted (previous rules apply) at:

Last Word Press
2111/2 4th Ave East
Olympia, WA 98501

The Broadside Project: Have you ever tried to read upside down and backwards?
We’ll tell you how wonderful it is right after we chew a couple more of these painkillers. Moveable type, a lot of places to lose your fucking fingers and a whole lot of time and goddamned effort, that’s what it is. But we’ll do it, just for you. If we think it’s good enough.

The Olympia Zine Library Project (OZLP): After years of languishing unloved and unused in the back of Last Word Books, we started combing through the archives for useful, worthwhile zines to print. And, surprise! We found all kinds of shit you’ll probably be embarrassed about writing all these years later. Still, we’re out to make a buck, so we’ll print it and you can buy it. Now, don’t get your panties in a huff if we use one of your zines to make a profit. All proceeds after the cost of printing and distribution go to the OZLP fund. For questions about submissions and copyrights (ha ha), or monetary donations, please write to:

The Olympia Zine Library Project c/o
Last Word Press
211 1/2 4th Ave East
Olympia, WA 98501

Those Goddamn Imprints Again!: Here’s the deal. We hate the fucking New York Times Bestseller List because it represents everything wrong with the publishing industry. Sure, we read a lot of those books, we even recommend them to other people occasionally, but we refuse to print something under our own imprint we, ourselves, can’t stand to read. In order to deal with this issue, we’ve decided to (“…shut up, Goonie!”) create a different imprint for each genre of book we publish. Hence, you might find these categories useful, or you’ll think they’re trite. We don’t care:

Desiderata Press: Remember what we said about bird feeder poetry? Same goes. We’ve painstakingly tread our way through the most excruciating rhyming couplets and more blank verse than you can shake a stick at. We’ve printed the best, new poems from the most perverse, lyrical lunatics gathered under one roof since Allen Ginsberg gave Walt Whitman a hand-job in the produce aisle.

First Word Books: We’ve never really grown up and can’t understand why anyone else would either. Children’s stories should teach us something, but they should also entertain us. We’re always looking for the reincarnation of Dr. Seuss, or the friend of a friend of the brother of Shel Silverstein to inspire a whole new generation of degenerates.

Labyrinth Books: The finest novels and short stories this side of mountains. We’re constantly looking for that farthest shore, a new way of viewing the world. If you really care about fame and fortune so much, why don’t you submit your manuscript to one of those corporate jobs and get rich already.

Last Word Comix: Duh! Pictures! With the occasional word thrown in for good effect. Thus, the graphic ‘novel’ is born.

Lost World Books: Cutting edge stories about alien sex, centaur porn and exotic locales you can’t visit in the Army.