The idea for Coral Press came when I began to write a novel, Pink Cadillac, set in Memphis in 1955–56, at the time that blues and country music came together to create rock and roll. The writing of Pink Cadillac, a dramatic fable about the creation of and search for a lost 45 record, allowed me to spend years back in that time, inside a magical roadhouse with a swirl of strong characters—and I loved it.
Pink Cadillac turned out well enough that I decided to turn my fictional forays into musical history into a trilogy. The blues scene in Chicago in early 1963 is the backdrop for the second book Cutting Time; Detroit and the Deep South in 1964 informs the third, Soul Cavalcade. What I discovered is that writing about the music I loved, either early rock, electric blues, or mid-’60s soul, allowed me to live imaginatively in that world in a way that augmented my love of the music itself, as well as work with themes of race and musical liberation that ring deep in the American soul.
It was an easy leap to thinking that I could publish Pink Cadillac myself, via the Web initially, in a way that let me do it right, meaning, reaching a special audience interested in music and avoiding the inefficiencies of the traditional book business. I also realized there were other fine books, both out of print and not yet published, that could add to the pleasures of the music by telling stories set around the music itself. Two out-of-print novels are worthy of being back in print: Nighthawk Blues by the author of the definite Elvis biography, Peter Guralnick; and Glimpses by Lewis Shiner, a brilliant fable about a man who goes back to help artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Brian Wilson with legendary unfinished masterworks. More are being written every day.
It’s Coral Press’s belief that a great record always takes us to the singular place and time of its creation, and that it’s a simple jump from listening to the music to desiring to read about that time in a well-told story. Thus Coral Press was born. (The name comes from Buddy Holly’s record label.)
Coral Press will specifically appeal to music lovers who also love to read—and it will be able to reach them directly and in unconventional ways, through ads in music publications, for instance, a presence at large music festivals, and Internet link exchanges as well as Web rings devoted to the music. But because Coral Press intends to publish only top-quality fiction, with strong stories, a vivid sense of place, and solid characters, the appeal to anyone who loves to read novels is clear. World War II buffs would seem to be a good target for a novel set in World War II, but make the book good enough, the characters and story vital and intriguing, and the readership expands exponentially. Same with Coral Press.
Coral Press’s slogan is simple: We Love Rock & Roll. We Love a Good Story. Put the records and the stories together and we don’t just enjoy the music, we live in its world. That’s where Coral Press will take readers: into and beyond the music itself.
