New Mycelium Parish News

The new Mycelium Parish News has been released, documenting Discordian doings, mostly in Great Britain. I plan to order my copy soon. 

Ben Graham, in his latest newsletter:

"Then just after Christmas I received my copy of the 2024 Mycelium Parish News, put together by James Burt and Dan Sumption at Peakrill Press and documenting the activities of our extended creative circles, plus related interesting things, over the previous 12 months. in some ways, the MPN makes me think of the regular Whole Earth Catalog that provided a valuable link to physical, spiritual and artistic resources for the hippy counterculture of late 60s/early 70s America and beyond.

"The MPN includes capsule reviews and links for books, zines, newsletters like this one, blogs, websites, podcasts, films and music. There are also pieces on recurring events in the physical world, and a look back at some key countercultural happenings of the past year. If this risks triggering FOMO, there are short articles by guest contributors suggesting ways to get involved with such things in 2025, or start your own. So the Parish News is equally a valuable historical document, a list of exciting things to catch up with, and a spur to future activity. Long may it continue!"

True Clown Stories succeeds with Kickstarter

 The Kickstarter for the Peakrill Press publication of  True Clown Stories, featuring James Burt and other writers, has succeeded, raising £972 versus a goal of £900. I publicized the launch of the campaign in March. 

I participated in the campaign with a small pledge, so I'll be getting a digital copy of the book (estimated delivery June) while others will be getting a variety of prizes, including a physical copy of the book (estimated delivery July). 

It's interesting to click on Community, and see who backed Peakrill Press publisher Dan Sumption. While most of the backers, 41, came from the United Kingdom, there were nine from the United States, and one apiece from Australia, Finland, Guatemala, Malaysia, Portugal and Switzerland.

Burt and Sumption collaborated on the Mycelium Parish News.   You can sign up to get very short stories by email from Mr. Burt.   

I enjoyed one of the recent stories, "Lovecraft in Brighton."  I had never heard of Ann Quin, referenced in the story, but she was a real writer, formerly more prominent. 

Big sale at Peakrill Press

 This just in: Peakrill Press, mentioned in yesterday's blog post, is holding a January sale. Prices are 20% off when you buy two or more books or zines.

Or use MYC10 for a 10% discount at the Peakrill Press shop. 

Dan Sumption is literally snowed in, so you can cheer him up if you buy something. 

I can certainly recommend the Mycelium Parish News 2023. James Burt kindly sent me a copy. It's a handsome zine with a great deal of information about Discordian news, events, publications, podcasts and music. As John Higgs wrote, "It’s a yearly compendium of books, events, podcasts, interviews, music etc that originated from, or is of interest to, the Discordian-adjacent counterculture. If you’ve missed any great stuff, basically, you’ll find it listed here." It's £2.30. but if you grab it now, you can take advantage of the discount.

One  nice feature of the Mycelium Parish News 2023, and an example of the care that Sumption and Burt put into the publication: For each of the items that is online, the URL is listed, but the zine also lists an easy to type URL using the URL shortener eris.oribific.com. This blog, for example, is available at https://eris.orbific.com/09. "RAWIllumination.net" is not really a very long URL, but in many cases, this is a real convenience.

I like to think I cover a lot of ground this blog, but when I finish this post, I'll be signing up for a couple of email newsletters I've missed. There's quite a bit in the zine I did not know about; the Discordian/RAW fandom movement is doing a lot. 

Check out Peakrill Press

King Arthur and Merlin bravely confront a terrifying kitten. 

Here is a publisher worth checking out: Peakrill Press, which puts out Discordian books and books that in general would be of interest to RAW fans; please check out the website, where you can get more information about publications such as Mycelium Parish News 2023 and The Lost Doctor Annual. There's an upcoming project called True Clown Stories.  It is by James Burt, and it is "a collection of abhorrent short stories about the real lives of clowns." 

Peakrill Press is owned and run by Dan Sumption, about whom I can provide this: "Dan Sumption is a writer, publisher and rambler based on a remote moor in the far North of England. Dan runs Peakrill Press, and his interests include everything."

Mr. Sumption has a nice piece up at his publishing site about some of the 80 books he read last year, including works by John Higgs and Robert K.G. Temple, and he also has a Substack newsletter, Mycoleum Mind.

I have mentioned some of Peakrill Press' publications on this blog, but this one was new to me: King Arthur vs. Devil Kitty, "a whimsical illustrated retelling of a 12th Century tale in which King Arthur battles a giant kitten."