September 2022: We’ve opened up to submissions again!

Take a look at our submissions page, and send us your books. We look forward to reading them.

More news to come from your friends at Chickadee Prince Books.

New York, NY, MAY 2022 – Pomegranate Pictures has optioned the film rights to Steven S. Drachman’s Watt O’Hughtrilogy of historical-fantasy, weird-western novels, which tells the picaresque  story of the life, loves and battles of a time-roaming 19^th-century gunman on the lam from the law.

Pomegranate Pictures, which produced the acclaimed feature film, The White Goddess, currently streaming on Amazon Prime, will produce a full-length film adaptation of the first novel for theatrical distribution or a streaming platform, with adaptations of the second and third novels in the series to follow.

The novels, which are set in the old West, New York City and China in the 1870s and 1880s, have received significant acclaim; Kirkus Reviews named the first novel, The Ghosts of Watt O’Hugh, to its list of the best books of the year in 2011, raving, “Fast-paced, energetic and fun; a dime novel for modern intellectuals”; the Boston Phoenix called Ghosts, which was named Best Fantasy Novel by the Indie Excellence Book Awards in 2012, a “rip-snorting, mind boggling novel … [T]here’s a lot going on in this teeming tome!” 

Nicolle Wallace, New York Times best-selling author and host of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House”, calls herself “an instant fan,” and the acclaimed novelist David David Katzman, the author of A Greater Monster, says of the new book, “Touching tragedy, dead-pan comedy and a time-roaming cowboy? Part three of Drachman’s epic fantasy series is indeed fantastic!” 

The novels have hit the Amazon bestseller lists several times and are the inspiration for a popular new podcast adaptation. 

“Films based on the Watt O’Hugh novels would have the potential to appeal to all ages and genders, with their combination of romance, action, time-travel, history and dark philosophical attitude,” says PomFilms’ Eugina Gelbelman. “Steven’s books are tailor-made for an exciting, groundbreaking and visually beautiful series of films. And PomFilms is nimble, ambitious and openminded: the ideal company to bring Steven’s expansive, sweeping vision fully to life.”

More news to come from your friends at CPB!! Till then, keep reading, and please tell your friends about us.

CPB continues to engage with new prospective partners to move our vision to the next level, but we have been anything but idle. Our online webzine, Audere Magazine, is lively and informative and continues to engage new readers, our podcast is drawing new subscribers daily, and, of course, our books continue to sell, sometimes hitting the Amazon bestseller lists.

The international news is dispiriting, and we stand with the people of Ukraine. Recent events reminded us of the prescience of our friend, the late novelist Alan N. Levy, author of The Tenth Plague, who predicted many of the events we are seeing play out today on the world stage. Audere Magazine recently published an analysis of the book’s themes, by novelist Mark Laporta, including Alan’s prediction of Putin’s decline and invasion of Eastern Europe. The article received much attention, and the book hit the charts once again.

More news to come from your friends at CPB!! Till then, keep reading, and please tell your friends about us.

In 2021, we cautiously emerged from the coronavirus lockdown, and at the end of the year, several CPB authors (Donna Levin, Steven S. Drachman, Mark Laporta and Aaron Leibel) joined bestselling novelist Joanna Herson for a discussion of trends in Jewish literature at the Institute for Living Judaism in Brooklyn, an in-person event that was also Zoom-streamed, which attracted nearly a hundred attendees.

In-person events are in question again, but CPB still has a lot of plans for 2022!

Our online webzine, Audere Magazine, is going strong, drawing new readers every week. Audere features fiction, nonfiction, entertainment reviews, politics and a new technology focus.

Our podcast is currently gearing up for a full season, beginning with a continuation of our successful dramatization of Drachman’s Watt O’Hugh weird western trilogy.

And we have new books in the pipeline from some old favorites: Alon Preiss’s latest Thirtover novel is being edited, and Mark Laporta’s final book in his Against the Glare of Darkness science fiction series is ready to go.

More to come from your friends at CPB!

We are happy — but not surprised — at the great reviews for our upcoming Spring books: Figs and Alligators, the new memoir from veteran journalist, and Entropy Refraction, the science fiction epic from acclaimed novelist Mark Laporta! Congratulations to Mark and Aaron, and more to come we are sure.

“[Entropy Refraction] is a sense of wonder story and although the author has taken pains to give his characters some depth, most readers are going to be far more interested in the imaginative plot elements, the aliens, and the mystery involving the reticent race. This strikes me as a good book for a hot summer day, but you might enjoy it just as much during the winter.” — Don D’Ammassa, editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, writing on the Critical Mass wesite

“Laporta’s solid second Against the Glare of Darkness novel sees an old threat reawakened…. [T]he ancient Quishik aliens, who threaten all sentient life by manipulating probabilities and stealing mental energy, have been imprisoned beyond the normal limits of space-time. But now they’re working to break free, evidenced by destructive signs such as gravity distortions and an obliterated planet. The “distinguished crustacean” diplomat Ungent Draaf and his streetwise ward, Shol — a member of a race of oppressed and genetically engineered humans — offer hope by searching for a mysterious lost race called the Ootray, who fought and defeated the Quishiks millennia before…. Ungent, Shol, and the other defenders against the Quishiks remain engaging, with Shol’s discovery of Ootray tech driving the story forward. Fans of the previous book will appreciate the series’s direction.” — Publishers Weekly

“[In Figs and Alligators,] an American recounts the years he spent living in Israel with his family and the evolution of the country…. Leibel recalls his eventful experiences there — he lived in Jerusalem as well as on a kibbutz, where he worked at an apple orchard, and eventually became a journalist. He served in the Israel Defense Forces for 14 years and at one point was recruited to become a spy by Israeli intelligence. The author leads readers on an astute tour of Israel’s metamorphosis from a “Third World country with a First World military establishment” to a “start-up nation” that was the “most important technological center in the Middle East.” Leibel’s story is brief … but brimming with historical drama. He lived in Israel during the Yom Kippur War, the nation’s peace with Egypt, and the first intifada. This is a remarkable introduction to a complex country, personally charming and historically edifying. A thoughtful and thorough explication of a turbulent nation.” — Kirkus Reviews

When I first heard about Aaron Leibel’s Figs and Alligators, I was very anxious to read it since it coincides with many of the years I lived in Israel. I did not, however, think that I would be as affected by it as I was. All the memories of my years in Israel came rushing back and I laughed and I wept as I read. Simply written and conversational in tone, I could have been sitting in the same room with author Leibel and comparing notes…. It is very difficult to put into words what is  to be  “a stranger in a strange land” yet Aaron Leibel succeeds in doing so beautifully. Unlike the Israel of today, arriving in the first quarter of the state was very different. I went to build a nation, the home of my people and so I was willing to live with the sacrifices I had to make to be part of a new and vibrant society…. There is humor and pathos on every page but above all else is the author’s honest retelling of a time that is now gone; a time when idealism ruled and was often fulfilled. — Reviews by Amos Lassen