New Publishing Venture Focuses on Regional Writers

Blank Slate Press is a newly formed independent small publisher that focuses exclusively on discovering, nurturing, publishing and promoting writers from the greater Saint Louis area--including southeast Missouri. Recently we announced that we had signed our first two authors: Fred Venturini of Carlyle, IL and Anene Tressler-Hauschultz of Kirkwood, MO.

Blank Slate Press is a totally new animal in the world of publishing. Not only do we focus exclusively on writers from our area, but the writers are selected through an application process in which writers fill out an online application and submit a writing sample. All applications and samples are then reviewed by an editorial review board of area readers. During our first selection process, the applicant field was narrowed to five authors. The board met, discussed the applications, reviewed the writing samples and then made recommendations to the founders.

One of our two finalists submitted part of her novel-in-progress, but the other submitted only a short story. The team was so "wowed" by the quality of writing that, although we were originally determined to pick only one "flagship" author, we couldn't let Anene or Fred slip through our fingers. Note that most agents or publishing companies will not represent an author until their manuscript is complete and polished. Our authors have not even finished their manuscripts!

We're now providing support to help Anene and Fred complete their novels. We are in the process of helping them to "build their platforms"--visit our website to read their blogs--and build their audiences. BSP's goal is to launch their careers as authors by focusing on the local market and then spreading the word out from there. Both Anene and Fred have already had success publishing short stories and it's now our job to build on that success.

Fred's novel, The Samaritan, is a searing look at the dark side of human nature, The Samaritan follows a bright but outcast young man who, after he discovers his limbs and organs spontaneously regenerate after injury, becomes the star of a television reality show on which injured or dying patients literally win a piece of him. The Samaritan lays bare the raw emotions and disappointments of small town life and best friends, of school bullies and first loves, of ruthless profiteers and self-aggrandizing promoters--and of having everything you know about human worth and frailty questioned under the harsh klieg lights of fame.

Anene's novel, The Circus of the Little Flower, follows the "misadventures" of Father Whiting, a St. Louis priest who's life is a mess. As the head of pastoral counseling at a local teaching hospital, he's already on edge wondering if he's up to the job and wondering how far his predecessor's--and now his-- secretary will go to sabotage him. He fears he is incapable of ministering to an old friend and fellow priest stricken with cancer, and he secretly longs to share everything about his confused, mixed up life with Sarah James, the hospital's head of public relations. When he overhears a heated argument between the Chairman of the Board and the Abbess who runs the hospital, he fears his job will soon be history. Instead, he finds himself tapped to minister to a small South American circus bequeathed to an order of aging nuns in St. Louis. And that's when his already beleaguered life begins to unravel.

Additionally, we have launched "On Tap," an online forum for emerging writers to showcase their short stories and essays. (On Tap: proudly serving the freshest fiction from the Saint Louis region--which, as mentioned above, includes South east Missouri!)

You can visit http://www.blankslatepress.com to learn more about Fred and Anene and to read excerpts of their novels as well as to read our latest short story servings from On Tap.