pptechnochief

Pitching a book to Punto Press

Punto Press will soon publish more precise guidelines for manuscript submissions covering all pertinent topics, from subjects of interest to matters of style, formatting, etc. Meantime, the following information may be of interest to authors.

Our main areas of interest cover a wide range of topics. At this time they comprise:

medical science, doctors & patients, healthcare systems;
society & social studies;science;
Legal & judiciary
the humanities;
politics, revolutionary change;
capitalism, capitalism studies & criticism;
socialism, socialism studies & criticism:
biography;
culture (music, cinema, pop culture, literature, theater plays);
media (from social media to corporate and alternative);
history;
propaganda, advertising and public relations;
democracy & tyranny, dictatorship, plutocracy;
environmental threats and ecological defense;
animal defense and abuse, animal rights;
war and peace

READ MORE DETAILS

And, do note, both fiction and non-fiction works are considered. The above is not an exhaustive list.

Send all queries to: ThePublishers@puntopress.com

You will receive a reply within 48 hours. Please do not send whole manuscripts or plots, only a summary. Use email for your submission. Do not send physical manuscripts, as we cannot be responsible for lost materials. As a matter of precaution, be sure to make a copy of all your materials before sending any to any parties, including Punto Press, of course.

(Mug image courtesy of Cranky Beagle, Inc.)

Lily Pad Roll
Journeys to the Outposts of the Empire
By Gaither Stewart
Scheduled for publication by Punto Press, Fall 2012

PREFACE
By Paul Carline

1980: Massacre in Bologna, 85 dead. Like in the attacks in Madrid, the target of the bomb that exploded on August 2nd, 1980, in the train station of Bologna (Italy) was the railroad. On that occasion the attack left 85 people dead and 150 wounded. The bomb was planted in the waiting room of the second-class passengers. It was August and it was an important intersection point of the national railroad traffic. The objective was to kill as many passengers as possible. The target was the common people: Bologna was a bastion of the Italian Communist party. By targeting people at random, the terrorists hoped to stampede the public toward a chronic “state of maximum security.” Sounds familiar?

Lily Pad Roll is the second part of Gaither Stewart’s Europe Trilogy. It was born, so to speak, out of the characters of the first novel, The Trojan Spy. According to its author, there was, to begin with, no intention of writing a trilogy. The Trojan Spy was completed and first published as a stand-alone ‘spy’ novel in 2010, but it seems that both the characters – and the evolving political background – presented cases of “unfinished business” for the author. Although the central character of The Trojan Spy – the Russian double-agent Anatoly Nikitin – was no longer around, having met a violent death on a mountain road in Italy, his ghost hovers over Lily Pad Roll, and his intimate connection with later events continues in the destinies of Elizaveta and Masha.

In his review of The Trojan Spy, Australian novelist Desmond O’Grady writes of Nikitin’s self-appointed mission “to uncover the deadliest of spy rings, the organizers of terrorism”. He observes that “the brutality and menace of terrorism has only increased since spies were supposed to have disappeared with the end of the Cold War, and that much of the world is hostage to a strategy of tension in which terrorism provides the pretext for creations like Homeland Security in the USA”. Continue reading »

To our purchasers:
If you just bought one of our books, we thank you for your payment. Your transaction has been completed, and a receipt for your purchase has been emailed to you. You may log into your account at www.paypal.com/us to view details of this transaction.
If you’re here to check out titles on offer, see below.
______________________________________________________________________

The Punto Press Bookstore

You can acquire here any of our titles, in any format, print or digital, at excellent prices.

THE TROJAN SPY
Gaither Stewart
Paperback, 424 pp
(Special Revised Edition, 2012)

USD $9.45 + S/h

Interview with Gaither Stewart, March 5, 2012
Conducted by Paul Carline.
The Trojan Spy was published by Punto Press Publishing in March of 2012

GAITHER STEWART / Photo: A. Krynsky

P.C. I’m curious about the man behind the stories – especially the three great stories which make up the “Europe Trilogy”. Great not just because they’re superbly accomplished as stories, with wonderfully interesting and engaging characters; but great – and also important – because they’re supremely relevant to the bizarre and dangerous world we’re living in. But to start on a lighter note: you have two most unusual first names: Gaither and Gwaltney, neither of which I’d ever come across before. What possessed your parents to give you such exotic names – and can you tell us where they come from? Continue reading »

Gaither Stewart:
A weaver of tales based on uncomfortable truths

A COSMOPOLITAN SOUL, Gaither Stewart, the author of the Europe Trilogy is originally from Asheville, NC. After studies at the UC at Berkeley, other American universities and Munich University, he has lived most of his adult life abroad, first in Germany, then in Italy, alternated with residences in The Netherlands, France, Mexico, Argentina and Russia.

After a career in journalism as a correspondent for the Rotterdam daily newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad, and contributor to the press, radio and TV in various European countries, he today writes fiction and journalism. He is a senior editor and European correspondent for the major American online publication, The Greanville Post.

His works are published in venues throughout the world. His collections of short stories, Icy Current Compulsive Course, To Be A Stranger and Once In Berlin are published by Wind River Press (www.windriverpress.com). His novel, Asheville, is published by www.Wastelandrunes.com.

He lives with his wife, Milena, in Rome, Italy. Being a lucky fellow (at least where it counts) his cat Nina often keeps him company as he works into the wee hours. Punto Press is publishing his entire Europe Trilogy, of which The Trojan Spy is the first volume.

∞
Critical acclaim
____________

Not since John Le Carré gave us Alec Leamas, the tormented antihero of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, have we seen a master spy with the character complexities of Anatoly Nikitin, the formidable former Soviet agent whose ultimate target is nothing less than the organizers of present-day terrorism, embedded in western intelligence. In The Trojan Spy, Gaither Stewart weaves not only a classic espionage thriller, but a compelling moral tale whose central questions resonate long after we put down the volume.

—Patrice Greanville 
Editor in Chief 
The Greanville Post

∞
In continuous action from the early period of the Cold War to today’s war on terror, Gaither Stewart knits together in elegant style a tale of murder and intrigue, told with an insider’s knowledge of duplicity and set with authentic detail in places like Moscow and Munich, St. Moritz and Perugia, and the Middle East. The Trojan Spy is for thoughtful readers who take time to savor the style, the exotic locales, and the psychological nuances.

—James Critchlow
 Senior Soviet Analyst 
U.S. Government International Communications
 Author , Nationalism in Uzbekistan

∞
A highly readable spy novel refreshingly different from the “standard” in the espionage genre. As a work of mainstream literature reaching beyond the spy novel conceptually, The Trojan Spy stands side by side with classics by Le Carré. Stewart’s characters are multi-dimensional, his descriptions convincing, his details live and rich. As a psychological novel, The Trojan Spy delves into the complexities of the human psyche, while socio-politically breaching the uncomfortable issues of the terrorism hype and concomitant tension strategy. Unlike many of his counterparts in the genre, Gaither Stewart knows the countries and socio-cultural realities he speaks of.
—Michael Korovkin 
Russian-born Social Anthropologist and author:  Terms of Estrangement: Diaries of a Paratrooper 
(Dedicated to the Soviet military)

∞
Like Graham Greene, Gaither Stewart has always remained a journalist; an observer with a remarkably keen eye for the absurdity of conflict, human behavior and politics. Like John Le Carré, Stewart is a superb storyteller, dissecting the soul with the precision of a neurosurgeon and the kindness of a seasoned psychotherapist.
—Bernard Hammelburg 
TV Producer , Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent 
BNR News Radio and Radio Netherlands

•

∞

By GAITHER STEWART

WHEN I began The Trojan Spy in 2007, I intended writing a story about an extraordinary man, a Russian spy, who at the end of World War II was sent from Moscow to Berlin to become a sleeper and a future secret agent for the victorious Soviet Union. During the Cold War he became a double or, perhaps, a triple agent. The fictional figure of cosmopolitan, polyglot Anatoly Nikitin had been developing in my mind long before I wrote the first words about him. At the time I did not realize where Nikitin would eventually lead me. For during his long career extending from post-war Berlin well into the twentieth century he acquired many admirers and imitators on both sides of the conflict and gave birth to a series of characters who followed in his footsteps and ultimately fought wars far different from his. Continue reading »