August 2022
Marketing
Mari Angulo of Angulo Marketing, now in Madrid, Spain, and her sister Janet Angulo in South Korea are reading The Horse in the Kitchen and the Spanish version El caballo en la cocina to prepare a marketing plan for both books as a pair. Maybe now these books will get international exposure and an international audience.
Font
A note about the Curlz font that appears on the covers of most of Ralph’s books: UNM Press used Curlz on the cover of The Horse in the Kitchen, and like the snail petroglyph that appears as the logo of Tomé Lane Books, Curlz is a sort of trademark that I want to keep, even though to some it may appear a little quirky. Out of deference to the preference of Bob Christensen who designed the front cover of Doing Nothing, I used his Gothic font there.
Audiobooks
The audiobook for The Illustrated Fractured Fables is now available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Narrated by Laurie Bower, the fables, even without the illustrations, take on an animated life. Paired with the book or kindle version, being able to listen is almost as good as reading aloud yourself. Maybe even better! Laurie is also recording selected poems from Ralph’s Doing Nothing: Poems before the Pandemic. That audiobook will be available by mid-October 2022.
April 2022
Reissue of The Horse in the Kitchen: Stories of a Mexican-American Family available now on Amazon as a companion to the Spanish translation El caballo en la cocina with the award-winning cover by 1106 Deslign
For Kindle version, see Ralph’s author page here: https://www.amazon.com/Ralph-M.-Flores/e/B001KI4MTQ?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000
January 2022
October 2021
The Illustrated Fractured Fables tied with Getting New Mexico by Rhenna St. Clair as winners in the Fiction/Other category in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards 2021, and the cover of El caballo en la cocina, showing Pancho Villa’s saddle and designed by 1106 Design, was a finalist. You can see a full list of winners and finalists here: http://nmbookcoop.com/
The Illustrated Fractured Fables is available on Amazon.com, as are most of Ralph’s other books, although Tales from La Perla has run into formatting snags and hasn’t yet satisfied Amazon’s KDP Publishing criteria.
April 2021
Making Ralph’s books more easily available
Check Amazon’s Author Central page for Ralph M. Flores for updates on books published there: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B001KI4MTQ
El caballo en la cocina
Last year Patricia Padilla and Andrea Padilla completed Spanish translations of stories in Horse in the Kitchen. El caballo en la cocina is now available on Ingram Spark and Amazon’s KDP, and I have copies I can mail if you’ll order here by emailing me at geriraf@nmia.com. The translators have discovered new errors which I hope to correct in a later edition.
It is difficult during the pandemic to distribute El caballo en la cocina, but eventually I hope Spanish classes will add El caballo, along with the English version, to their reading list. Thanks to 1106Design for helping me ready the manuscript for publication, for uploading both paperback ($12) and hardcover ($27) to Amazon and IngramSpark, and for preparing the e-book for Amazon Kindle ($1.99). The front cover shows a detail of Pancho Villa’s silver saddle photographed by High Noon Western Americana, owned by Ernie Davis, and on permanent display at the Briscoe Museum in Austin.
Graphic Design for and publication of Fractured Fables
Ella Brown designed front and back covers and the interior layout for The Illustrated Fractured Fables. ABQ Press was publishing the book until Judith Van Gieson, sole proprietor and author, died January 12, 2021. Here is what Irene Marcuse Silver, her personal representative, said on Facebook:
Dear Friends of Judith ~ I wish there was a better way to say this ~ Judith was found dead in her home in Albuquerque on Jan. 12, 2021. There is as yet no determination of cause of death; best theory is that she had a sudden stroke or heart attack, and died instantly. I’m her friend Irene Marcuse Silver in NYC, and her Personal Representative as per her will. There may be some sort of memorial gathering in Albuquerque in the spring — I don’t really know most of you, and am unable to organize anything from this distance, but I will be glad to provide whatever support I can. Judith and I were friends for more than 40 years, and I feel her loss deeply. I’ve been unable to access her email or fb accounts, so I hope that you her friends will reach out to spread the word. Thank you.
As you can imagine, many folks are processing this loss.
When I learn, I’ll announce here when and where the memorial gathering is happening.
Production and distribution of copies of The Illustrated Fractured Fables have been slowed during the pandemic, but now in late 2021 you’ll find them at the Tomé Gallery, the Los Lunas Public Library, and Organic Books in Albuquerque.
Here’s a sample of some of the creative illustrations for Fractured Fables–and there are more.
More on Contributions by Ella Friedman Brown
Ella’s graphics and illustrations make Ralph’s books special. She designed the cover of The Illustrated Fractured Fables and the back cover of Doing Nothing: Poems before the Pandemic, not to mention providing her original drawings that illustrate Ralph’s poems, including the one on the cover. Ella is a long-time family friend whose comments about Ralph can be heard in the introduction to the audiobook of Doing Nothing and read in the published version. Thank you, Ella!
Ralph M. Flores books 