Closing: Firedrake's Weyr

"Due to unfortunate family matters, Firedrakes Weyr Publishing is closed at this time. Hopefully circumstances might be worked around to allow it it reopen in the future. Thanks to all for your support." [website]

Once around the blogs before dinner--veinglory

I'm bad I know. When I saw Firedrake's Weyr had tarted up their website some I had to look for one thing. As I was, evil snarkling that I am, very amused to see that in their initial guidelines the misspelled the name of Anne McCaffrey (who coined the term 'weyr') as Anne McCafferty. They now misspell it Anne McCaffery. Third time lucky?

In the news I see a couple have been denied access to the great British bus service because the gal likes to be walked on a leash [pictured]. On a personal level seeing a 19 year old girl in a leash is on my list of oh-please-don't above muffin tops but below old ladies who let their dogs lick their open mouths. But I think the bus driver is being a leetle disingenuous in suggesting the leash is a safety issue because "other passengers could be put at risk if the bus braked sharply". But I kinda like where the goth guy says he "does everything" for his 'pet' girlfriend, because "You wouldn't expect your cat or dog to do the washing up or cleaning round the house."

I wonder if we are entering a new age of truth in epublisher names? Ocean's Mist has evaporated away without a trace, after all. And now we have an art trading site setting up as an epublisher, going by the astounding name of "Whiffy Skunk". Their professionalism may be showing in statements such as: "The copyright of any work entered in its original format remains the property of the author at all times but the copyright of the Whiffyskunk.com published and edited manuscript will remain the property of Whiffyskunk.com, with all relevant copyright restrictions attached." WTF?

NEW EPRESS: Firedrake's Weyr

Opening Jan 31. All genre but apparently implicitly not seeking m/m, or haven't thought about it much which is curious given that it tends to substantially outsell m/f.

"Romance: Boy meets girl, they fall in love. Sometimes they have sex sometimes they don't. but all the time they end up happily ever after. The sub-genres are as stated above, but with the Romantic Elements..

Erotic Romance: Same as the romance category, but the sex is more descriptive. Cruder language may be used where necessary, and multiple partner relationships may be explored."

p.s. Dragons are the new Rose when it comes to naming your press?

p.p.s. How is this a contest?

p.p.p.s. The about us page doesn't say who 'us' are.

p.p.p.p.s. 'Weyr' is a word invented by Anne McCaffrey. I don't know if that is significant but it doesn't strike me as wise to use the word without authorisation (as is secured by the 'Weyr' fanzines). But who knows. I am easily confused by things as small as the domain being "Firedrakes Weyr" and the title just "Firedrake Weyr" [the domain for this name is not taken].

p.p.p.p.p.s They suggest a main reason other epresses fail is "Failure to diversify their product selection". I disagree. Many fail for not having a specifc niche where there is an unserved or poorly served readership. All genre epublishers are already common just as all romance epresses are (e.g. Bareback Angels, currently being scaled back to an imprint of Torquere).