CityLife Books

This is not your father’s book launch party. Sorry, no wine and cheese, and no harpist in the corner.

“Blue Vegas,” the second title from CityLife Books, will debut on Tuesday, March 2, at the famous Double Down Saloon in Las Vegas.

The Double Down happens to be owned by the author of “Blue Vegas,” P Moss. It’s an internationally known watering hole, famous for its signature drink, Ass Juice, as well as for kick-ass punk rock music and a general vibe that is completely at odds — on purpose — with the schmaltz and glitz of the Las Vegas Strip.

The setting for the launch party is consistent with the mission of “Blue Vegas,” a short story collection that cuts through the public image of Las Vegas and delivers the straight story, the dark realities of life outside the neon glare.

The event will run from 8 to 10 p.m., and will include freak show performances, a reading by the author and other blow-your-mind experiences.

This promises to be the literary event of the year in Las Vegas and beyond.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Book Nook blog posted a positive review of the CityLife Books title “Restless City” today.

Reviewer Sharon Galligar Chance praised the serial novel for taking her inside the “glitz and glamour, the muck and filth that make up Sin City. There’s nowhere else like it in the world, and these seven diverse authors capture the mystery of Las Vegas beautifully.”

Find her review here.

The Borders store at Town Square now has “Restless City” on sale. If you’re a person who likes to get a firsthand look at a book before you hand over your hard-earned cash, Borders Town Square is the place to go.

The first title published by CityLife Books will be available for purchase on Saturday at the Vegas Valley Book Festival. It’s $14.95.

Restless City is a serial novel written by seven respected Las Vegas authors, each of whom contributed a chapter. The novel, set in Las Vegas falls into the crime noir category, but the writers are not necessarily practitioners in that genre.

The writers are, in order of appearance, H. Lee Barnes, John H. Irsfeld, Brian Rouff, Leah Bailly, John L. Smith, Constance Ford and Vu Tran. Barnes and Irsfeld are members of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. Tran recently won a Whiting Writer’s Award. Smith is a respected newspaper columnist and nonfiction author, while Rouff is a successful novelist and public relations executive. Bailly and Ford are award-winning fiction writers. Geoff Schumacher, editor of CityLife Books, served as coordinator and editor of Restless City.

If you would like to buy a copy of Restless City, drop by the Stephens Press (parent of CityLife Books) booth Saturday or Sunday at the Fifth Street School in downtown Las Vegas. The book also is available for purchase online at Amazon and restlesscity.com.

ALSO:

The authors of Restless City will be assembling at 4 p.m. Saturday at the festival for a panel discussion about the writing of the novel and for a debut reading of the seventh and final chapter.

The short story collection “Blue Vegas,” by P Moss, has a great cover designed by Sue Campbell. The book debuts Feb. 1.

“Blue Vegas,” a short story collection by P Moss, will be the first title published under the CityLife Books imprint. The cover is done, the text has been proofed and the whole shebang will be headed to the printer in the next couple of days.

This is the first step in fulfilling a long-running dream of creating a CityLife book publishing entity. In a few weeks, we will receive a box of “advanced reader copies,” which will be sent out to select individuals who might be kind enough to dash off a positive blurb to go on the back cover of the actual book.

We fully expect readers to be impressed with this book. Moss has captured the essence of Las Vegas in these 17 stories. His characters feel like real people, real Las Vegans. The writing is crisp and vibrant, and the narratives grab you by the neck. Moss focuses on sad, dark stories, but it’s not all doom and gloom. What it is, most of all, is true, not some sanitized version of this place.

The book is scheduled for releae in February. We probably could release it a little sooner, but we want to get all our marketing ducks in a row first to give the book the best publicity boost we can.

Come February, look out, because “Blue Vegas” is going to be the subject of an intense marketing blitz in which Moss’ two local bars — the Double Down Saloon and Frankie’s Tiki Room — will play key roles.

From CityLife 07/09/09

By Andrew Kiraly

PHOTO BY BILL HUGHES P Moss in his office. Okay, it's actually the Double Down bathroom.

Chances are you know P Moss as the affable, low-key owner of the Double Down Saloon, the sweatbox punk rock dive that sits west of the UNLV campus as it peters out into strip malls and convenience stores. Turns out you’ll soon get to know the goateed bar impresario as an author, too. His debut short story collection, Blue Vegas, will be published this fall by CityLife Books. (CityLife Books is an imprint of Stephens Press, a division of Stephens Media LLC.)

“It’s called Blue Vegas because the stories are sad, or built around sadness, some of which is unique to Las Vegas, some of which is universal,” says Moss.

Read entire article . . .

P Moss, well-known Las Vegas cultural figure, pens dynamic short story collection.

CityLife Books, the new imprint of Stephens Press, has signed its first author, P Moss, a fiction writer and owner of the famous Double Down Saloon. His short story collection, Blue Vegas, will be released this fall.

“Blue Vegas is the perfect book to launch the CityLife Books imprint,” says Geoff Schumacher, editor of CityLife Books and publisher of the Las Vegas CityLife newspaper. “Moss has produced an incredible collection exploring the dark, human stories lurking in the shadows of the neon sheen of Las Vegas.”

The stories, Schumacher says, represent the work of a writer who knows Las Vegas and is a keen observer of its diverse population.

“Moss’ stories are a visceral exploration of the clash between old and new Las Vegas,” Schumacher says. “They shine a light on the hard luck and lingering anguish faced by Las Vegans who’ve been trampled by this single-minded city.”

After working as a screenwriter in Los Angeles, Moss came to Las Vegas in 1992 and opened the Double Down Saloon on Paradise Road. Dubbed a “clubhouse
for the lunatic fringe,” the Double Down soon became internationally famous, drawing a lively mix of tourists and locals. A second Double Down opened in New York’s East Village in 2006, and Moss recently opened a new Las Vegas establishment, Frankie’s Tiki Room, on West Charleston Boulevard.

Despite his success in the bar business, Moss has always envisioned a second career as a writer. “No quality Las Vegas fiction has ever been written,” Moss says. “The soul of the city has never been captured on the printed page. This can be attributed in large part to the fact that writers try to sensationalize the obvious, rather than focusing on the raw human emotions unique to the people who live and work in this unique place. I believe I have done a good job of reversing this trend.”

CityLife Books plans to publish up to four titles per year in a trade paperback format. The books will be available directly to CityLife newspaper readers and at area bookstores and online retailers.

Stephens Press is a division of Stephens Media LLC, and a sister company to CityLife and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Established in 2003, the press publishes primarily regional nonfiction.

“The imprint provides a vehicle to publish quality Vegas-centric fiction with a unique CityLife vibe,” says Carolyn Hayes Uber, president of Stephens Press, “and we’re especially excited to have P Moss’ stories set a high bar for our fiction offerings.”

CityLife Books accepts nonfiction and fiction proposals and manuscripts that speak to regular readers of the alternative weekly newspaper. For submission guidelines and more information, check out the imprint’s website at www.lvcitylifebooks.com.

It’s official! Stephens Press has created a CityLife Books imprint which will publish both fiction and non-fiction works. Geoff Schumacher has been named editor of the imprint and will follow CityLife titles from acquisition through production and book launch.

Press Release Announcing CityLife Books