Sullivan St Press on the Road and at Work

June 24, 2017 ~ deborahemin ~ Leave a comment

Our Itinerant Book Show will be going live soon, which means we’re leaving town. For several weeks (from 7/11-9/25), we’ll be away. We’ll be in our Prius filled with all our gear and hitting many KOAs across the country (as far west as the western entrance to Yellowstone National Park). We will visit as many indie bookstores and public libraries as possible during this summer road trip. We want to learn what goes on there and share with them our books and plans for the future.

Here’s A Sneak Peek

SSP, as I fondly call my company, has lots of big plans going forward.

Currently, SSP publishes novels, the Scags Series, and vegan books, the Vegan City Guides. In the works now are two different but ambitious projects based on these two series. What will be worked through over the next months, both while we are on the road and when we return, is a renewed commitment to make SSP an e-book only company.

What Does E-Book Only Mean?

We’ll stop all Print on Demand. Based on the talks I gave at the NYC Green Festival in June, I worked very hard to lay out the reasons for “Why Publishing’s Future is Green Publishing.” I’ll be sharing those ideas in a series of blog posts soon. The short message is that The publishing industry needs to cut down its carbon footprint and learn to love the e-book.

Going Forward

The Scags Series will be completed in 2018. Scags at 45 is the final volume. But Scags herself is a new writer for SSP and her first book, also coming out in 2018, Born Loser, Born Lucky will be about the exploits of her character, Sophie, and her work to kill the cancer in our global heart’s soul. We’ll be launching Scags’ books as e-books only. And we’re working on a way to put the entire Scags Series into an app. So, lots to do but all of it will offer much more interconnection with other writers and their books.

The Vegan City Guides series is also plodding forward. We are talking to and looking for more partners. We want to go 50-state wide. We want to show the entire nation’s vegan footprint well beyond a focus on food but to encompass every aspect of what it means to be vegan. Thus for the animals, for our environment, for our health and for the spiritual well being of those who seek to live compassionately.

Our goals are ambitious but should even a part of this new work bear fruit, there will be much more of interest to offer readers and writers for years to come.

#GoVegan #ReadBooks

#Vegan Thanksgiving: More Thanks

November 24, 2015 ~ deborahemin ~ Leave a comment

We are a mere two days away from Thanksgiving and it appears that there is way too much for Sullivan Street Press to be thankful for to be expressed all in one blog post. I am definitely thankful that the press has had the opportunity to publish books on being vegan, Eating Vegan in Vegas, and that we are working on its third edition, due to launch in Las Vegas during the Vegas VegFest.

Authors Teaching Publisher

I am grateful to the authors who entrust their books to Sullivan Street Press and want to share with the world their ideas whether they are about what it is like to be a vegan in Las Vegas, meaning a big shout out to Paul Graham. Or an also big hug of gratitude to Mickey Z. for his two books, Occupy this Book and Occupy These Photos. Working on Mickey’s books has been a joy and the look of each book has made me very proud of the quality of the books Sullivan Street Press publishes. I have learned a great deal from both these authors. Paul, in a way, led me to being a vegan and that led me to search out vegans in NYC and see what they were up to which led directly to Mickey and his fascinating talks at cafes, at rallies and that led to the books.

Publisher Meets Incredible Chef

As a publisher, I walk into all kinds of situations to meet new people and learn from them what they are doing. In a similar fashion, I met Laura Theodore, to many known as the Jazzy Vegetarian. Laura has graciously supplied recipes from her new book, Vegan-Ease to this #vegan blog. I am thankful for the ways in which Laura supports the work Sullivan Street Press does and so, I share with you a favorite recipe of hers:

Spinach-Tomato Vegan Omelet
Makes 2 servings / Ease Factor 3

I tried for years to create a tasty vegan omelet, so I was super excited when I came up with this oven-baked version. Because a tofu-based omelet is more delicate than the classic egg version, I have developed a jazzy method for helping it to stay together when serving. It takes a little bit of extra fuss, but is well worth the effort.
TOMATO LAYER
2 medium tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch thick slices
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Several grinds of freshly ground pepper
SPINACH LAYER
5 to 6 cups very lightly packed baby spinach, washed and dried
TOFU “EGG” LAYER
1 block (14 to 16 ounces) firm regular tofu
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
1⁄8 teaspoon smoked paprika
1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS
¼ teaspoon smoked paprika (for dusting top)
¼ cup shredded vegan cheese (optional)
Sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat with vegan margarine a heavy, ovenproof 10-inch round sauté pan or skillet with tight fitting lid.
Arrange the tomatoes in the prepared skillet by overlapping them slightly. Sprinkle the thyme, 1⁄4 teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper evenly over the top of the tomatoes. Top the tomato layer with all of the baby spinach, pressing it down slightly.
Put all of the tofu “egg” layer ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Spread the tofu mixture evenly over the spinach, smoothing the top as you go.

Dust the top of the tofu layer with the additional 1⁄4 teaspoon smoked paprika. Cover tightly and bake for 45 minutes. Put the pan on a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes.
Carefully cut the omelet into two servings, by slicing down the middle. Gently lift one-half of the omelet out of the pan, using two very large, flat spatulas. Place it tomato side down onto a rimmed dinner plate. Place a second rimmed dinner plate of the same size firmly over top of the omelet and quickly flip it over to invert the omelet so the tomatoes will now be facing upward. Sprinkle the tomatoes with 2 tablespoons of the vegan cheese, if desired. Then, use the spatula to gently fold the omelet over. Proceed plating up the second half of the omelet in the same manner.
Spoon the sauce that remains in the bottom of the pan over each omelet. Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste. Serve warm.

Amount per serving, based on 2 servings: 188 Calories; 11g Fat; 2g Saturated fat; 21g Protein; 107mg Sodium; 7g Total Carbohydrate; 2g Sugars; 4g Fiber

E-Books, Print Books and Giving

November 23, 2015 ~ deborahemin ~ Leave a comment

Ah, it is that time of year again, no, not quite Christmas, but almost my birthday and Chanukah. Now my thoughts turn to snow, the cold and how you can support this publishing company I run, Sullivan Street Press.

Hear my prayers

First I pray that most of you will take it into your hearts to love and to read e-books. Whether you buy them for yourself, buy gift cards for your friends and family, ask your libraries to buy our books, there are so many ways you can both show your support for our e-books while at the same time helping the authors I publish get their stories into a wider world of readers. (To learn more about e-books, here is a recent blog post about e-books.)

Know our mission

I was talking to a new author today and I realized that I don’t outline our mission clearly enough. It is a lofty one, full of the need for more stories being told that will help our readers understand the life around us better. The authors I publish have all helped me to gain things I might not have even known I needed. Paul Graham’s book, Eating Vegan in Vegas helped me to become a vegan. Mickey Z.’s first book with us, Occupy this Book helped me to understand how to be an advocate and activist while his second book, Occupy These Photos was an eye opening series of photos showing activists at work from OWS to the #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations in NYC.

Coming Attractions

It is not seemly, some say, for a publisher to sell her own books through her company. My answer to that is simple: Who cares? The latest volume of the Scags Series, Scags at 30, will be out in May. (You can learn more about the earlier volumes here.)

Look to April for the Third Edition of Eating Vegan in Vegas. This latest edition will be a guide to vegan restaurants in Las Vegas but more than that it will be a resource for all visitors to Las Vegas who want to know what is going on in the Animal Rights community, how the environmental movement is shaping up in Las Vegas, where to go to find the artists and those working to help spread the word about a plant-based life in Las Vegas.

Starting a new poetry series, too

I had a vision in West Virginia of the sort of poetry books that SSP could publish. I know we now have the capacity, through our distributor, INScribe Digital, to make available both e-books and bound books that could have text as well as full-color photos in them. I had been thinking about Liza Charlesworth’s poetry and her photographs for a long time.

Out of these visions and memories, a new hybrid poetry book was born. Liza’s book, Why Happiness Makes Me Nervous, uses text as a trunk for her lyrical narrative of a girl growing into the world and uses photographs as visual poems that expose another set of emotional experiences similar to leaves on a tree that come out of the trunk, her poems. This will be a book to linger within for hours. Whether bought as an e-book or a bound book, it will be a beautiful addition to what we refer to as poetry but as a new hybrid form.Liza’s book will be out in April, in time for National Poetry Month.

Send good wishes, support and your money

SSP is in need of your support as we begin this new year with new books, new authors, new ways of producing books (which I will describe more fully in another blog post) and our continued commitment to see publishing as a creative act.

GoFundMe will gladly take your payments for next year’s work. Thanks in advance.

#Vegan Thanksgiving: New Recipe and a Reminder

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 ~ deborahemin ~ Leave a comment

Paul Graham advises his readers in Eating Vegan in Vegas to pay attention to the health reasons for becoming #vegan. Among the many resources he offers in his book is the website, Forks Over Knives. Here, one can find recipes and a supportive community of people also in the process of transitioning to a plant-based life. Thus, another thing to be thankful for at Thanksgiving time.

Being Vegan in an Omnivore’s World

It may seem crazy to many who are beginning this journey into a plant-based life that you even when traveling you can find travel all that you need. But you can and with some planning it can be a rather stress-free adventure. Having just returned from a trip that included the cities Niagara Falls, Toronto, Dublin, London and Reykjavik, I can report that with good planning and preparation of food to bring with us, we ate well and had all the nutrition we needed. Yes, the world is changing but there are always those holidays, Thanksgiving, unfortunately, is one of them, when the consumption of an animal is all that most people are thinking about no matter what city in the US you find yourself this season.

Not all vegans venturing out on Thanksgiving are going to find what it is they want to eat. So, these blog postings are offered in the spirit of trying to ease the journey while sharing resources and recipes.

Paul Graham’s groundbreaking experiment in Las Vegas, to blog for 365 days straight and to write about each vegan meal he ate, allowed many people to realize that even in a city that is known for its excesses, one can be in a major vegan destination.

The third edition of Eating Vegan in Vegas will be launched in April, 2016 to coincide with the Vegas VegFest. The new edition will focus on the needs of a traveler–where to eat, what to do and what other community activities are happening in Las Vegas that may align with one’s own interests at home. For example, we will be including a chapter on the Animal Rights community in Las Vegas and the environmental activities that occur there. And much, much more. Paul Graham’s book has been an inspiration to me, his publisher, and I hope to carry this vision into other cities and areas of the US and beyond to help vegan travelers find the best places to eat, to buy food and to shop along with showing what the communities they are visiting are doing in the arts, what spiritual groups are up to and so on, so that if this is a place they travel to frequently, they can form relationships within these towns and cities and build the bridges Paul mentions we need to bring about a plant-based world.

Recipe for the Day from Laura Theodore

And now, as promised, here is a recipe from Laura Theodore’s kitchen, shared specifically with readers of this blog.

Seitan Marinara with Bow Tie Pasta
Makes 4 to 6 Servings

Big chunks of hearty seitan combined with meaty mushrooms makes this sauce a super satisfying choice for topping pasta of any kind. Celery adds delicious flavor without overwhelming this chunky sauce.

3 cups sliced celery, with leaves
1 onion, chopped
8 ounces cremini or white button mushrooms, chopped
2/3 cup filtered or spring water
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend
½ teaspoon reduced-sodium tamari
1/8 heaping teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
8 ounces seitan, chopped or 8 ounces ground seitan
20 to 22 ounces vegan, low fat marinara sauce
1 pound tri-color or whole grain bow tie, fusilli or penne pasta

Put the celery, onion, 1/3 cup water, Italian seasoning, tamari, and crushed red pepper in a large skillet. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat for 16 to 18 minutes, or until the celery and onions have softened. Add the seitan, marinara and 1/3 cup water, Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the pasta. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but firm. Drain the pasta well.

Divide the pasta into each of four to six pasta bowls. Top with a generous portion of the seitan sauce. Serve hot.

Chef’s Note: Need to keep it gluten free? Just substitute your favorite variety of canned beans (drained and rinsed) for the seitan and use gluten free pasta.

Recipe is not from any of Laura Theodore’s books. However, I do recommend you check out her new book, Vegan-Ease, . And visit Laura on Facebook and follow her on Twitter for daily recipes and tips for serving delicious, plant-based meals.

#Vegan Thanksgiving: Visiting Portland, OR

November 11, 2015 ~ deborahemin ~ Leave a comment

One of the incredible lessons I have learned is that we can change the world one plate, one person, one city at a time.

Paul Graham is one of the great advocates for a plant-based life, not just changing a person’s diet but changing all aspects of life–the animals, our health, the environmental and the spiritual comprise what Paul deems the four pillars of the shift that will change the world.

Paul has inspired lots of people based on his blog that we then turned into the book, Eating Vegan in Vegas: If It Can Happen Here . . . It Can Happen Anywhere which you can learn more about here. Others are taking the message and the blogging to other cities and today we look at our colleague in Portland, Oregon, Kim Miles, who has sent us a recipe as well as a recommendation for a restaurant for Thanksgiving in her town. (You can follow Kim’s blog here.)

#Vegan Thanksgiving in Portland, OR

Kim reports, “When asked to suggest a great place to enjoy a fabulous vegan Thanksgiving dinner in Portland, I instantly thought of Portobello Vegan Trattoria. This well known and popular Portland restaurant will be offering a four course prix fixe Thanksgiving feast for $45 per person. (You can also call ahead and order take-home dinners for $25 per person.)

“The Thanksgiving Menu is on their website, and I’m hungry just looking at it. Start with Corn Bread with Maple Butter, Warm Olives with Citrus, Roast Pepper Stuffed Mushrooms, and then make your choices from the elegant options created just for this meal.

“Soup is Heirloom Squash Soup with Fried Parsnip and Pumpkin Seed Cracker. If you prefer salad, choose the Warm Roast Beet and Carrot with Hazelnuts, Maple Mustard Vinaigrette, Mixed Baby Greens, and Crouton.

“The main course offerings are Confit Delicata Squash with Chanterelles, Roast Chestnut, and Cannellini Cassoulet, or Roast Portobello with Fried Shallots, Savory Stuffing, Brussel Sprouts with Trumpet Mushroom Bacon and Cranberry Chutney.

“For dessert… Pumpkin Cheesecake with Chocolate Chili Crust, Candied Pepitas, and Chocolate Chili Sauce, or Apple Pie Crostada with Bourbon Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Salted Caramel Sauce and Candied Rosemary. They also serve beer, wine, and cocktails, and offer wine pairing, which I really appreciate. I love wine, but know nothing about it.

As I’ve written about Portobello in the past, it’s absolutely one of my favorite places in Portland (or anywhere) for a truly extraordinary meal. If you can’t make it for Thanksgiving, visit them any time for dinner or Sunday Brunch. The vibe is special without being stuffy, and the food is always incredible. The menu changes seasonally, so there will be surprises every time you go.”

Kim Miles’ Roasted Red Pepper Bisque

Kim dreamed up this tasty soup that is great for Thanksgiving (or anytime at all) and I suggest you follow this link to get the full recipe and also to sign up to follow her blog. One of the most dedicated adherents to a plant-based life, her blog is full of more than just food. It is a wonderful place to visit and to learn from. Thank you, Kim Miles for sharing in our #Vegan Thanksgiving blog postings.

#VeganThanksgiving–It’s November!

November 6, 2015November 6, 2015 ~ deborahemin ~ Leave a comment

“When you think of Las Vegas, the first image you have in your mind is that of the Strip. . . The Strip is the main focus for over 38 million people who visit Las Vegas each year to see the town for business or pleasure.”

Sounds like the start of a thriller, doesn’t it? But it isn’t, it’s the beginning of Paul Graham’s excellent book, Eating Vegan in Vegas. The thrill has been publishing this book and sharing with millions of people the possibilities of vegan meals in a town no one ever thought would be one of the top ten destinations for vegan food in the US.

Now we are in November and looking at our next major holiday with all the attendant family, travel and food issues rolled into one. This is a time that can drive a vegan to despair or at least to questioning how to make it through this time of year with one’s vegan needs truly met.

Search no further for support, ideas and more.

Over the next few weeks, until it is Thanksgiving Day, we are going to make sure that you have some options, some recipes and some wise words from the man who began for Sullivan Street Press the Vegan Journey.

We’ve enlisted some other folks also working on making sure that these location-focused blogs can help you to find what you need to walk away from your Thanksgiving Dinner feeling “proteinated,” as a friend of mine said after leaving one of the vegan feasts my wife, Suzanne Pyrch, had cooked.

We’ll begin this blogging holiday adventure with a recipe from the Jazzy Vegetarian, Laura Theodore, taken from her new book, Vegan-Ease. Bringing a dish to your family or friends for Thanksgiving? Why not start thinking first about the dessert? After all, that is what I certainly make space for at these scrumptious meals.

Dessert, Please!

Pumpkin Spice Cheeze-Cake
Makes 8 to 10 servings

This delicate yet rich-tasting cake makes the perfect dessert for your festive Thanksgiving table or any winter holiday event. Creamy, smooth and oh-so-pumpkiny, this pie will surely become a tradition, year after year!

CRUST
1¾ cups cookie crumbs (ginger cookies work well)
¼ cup vegan margarine, melted

FILLING
2 tablespoons rolled oats
14 to 16 ounces firm regular tofu
1 can (about 16 ounces) unsweetened pumpkin purée
2⁄3 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon allspice

TOPPING
3 tablespoons cookie crumbs
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Liberally coat a 10-inch round springform pan with vegan margarine.

To make the crust, put 13⁄4 cups cookie crumbs and the melted margarine in a medium-sized bowl and mix with a fork until well combined. Pat the crumbs firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake the crust for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes.
To make the filling, put the rolled oats in a blender and process into coarse crumbs. Add the tofu, pumpkin purée, brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon and allspice and process until smooth and creamy.
Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Remove the cake from the oven and place it on a wire rack. Cool for 15 minutes, then carefully run a table knife around the perimeter of the cake to ensure it does not stick to the side of the pan.
Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of cookie crumbs evenly over the top of the cake, gently pressing them into the top, so the crumbs adhere. Release the side of the springform pan to unmold.
Cover the cake very loosely and refrigerate 3 to 24 hours before serving. Covered tightly and stored in the refrigerator, leftover cheeze-cake will keep for about 2 days.

Recipe taken from Laura Theodore’s Vegan-Ease. Reproduced by kind permission of Laura Theodore. Visit Laura on Facebook and follow her on Twitter for daily recipes and tips for serving delicious, plant-based meals.

Amount per serving, based on 10 servings: 154 Calories; 7g Fat; 1g Saturated fat; 5g Protein; 62mg Sodium; 20g Total Carbohydrate; 15g Sugars; 2g Fiber

Road Trip in Fall–Books at a Discount

October 9, 2015 ~ deborahemin ~ Leave a comment

We are leaving for Toronto, Dublin, London and Reyjavik and will be gone for 3 weeks. I feel grateful as hell to be able to travel as much as we do. (Don’t ask me where we will be going next because it is really a goodly amount over the next year.)

While we are away, Sullivan Street Press carries on its mission by sharing with you a number of promotions to help get the books out to more and more readers.

I often think of the books we publish as events, events that keep on going, whether the books are being created, produced, launched or available. No matter where they appear on that time line, they are alive, living happenings of ideas, words, pictures and responses that can’t be stopped. The real perpetual motion machines of our lives–books.

This weekend we are having an e-book promotion of our 4 books that were published before 2015–Scags at 7, Scags at 18, Eating Vegan in Vegas and Occupy this Book. They are on sale at Kobo for $4.99. I urge you to download the Kobo free reading app and put it on your device. That way you can take advantage of this sale. (Plus, to me, Kobo is the one e-tailer who understands the value of the independent bookstore and works with them as much as possible. This is another way to read e-books and not undercut the bookstores.)

Over the month of November, all our e-books will be discounted by 35% to libraries in the US. That means that if you go to your library and request our e-books, and please tell the library that the e-books are being discounted, we can take advantage of having more of our e-books filter through the library systems all across the country. You will be fostering more events that will help others to discover what Sullivan Street Press publishes.

Finally, we just launched a new book, Occupy These Photos. Another addition to the growing body of work by Mickey Z. This new title is a photo collection of Mickey’s eye roaming the city from the time of #OccupyWallStreet to #BlackLivesMatter. With a moving Foreword by Cecily MacMillan on the power of the witnessing eye to those harassed and targeted by the police during times of political actions, Mickey’s book should be essential reading and meditating for those who want to both understand and participate in the changes we need to see at all levels of our shared lives right now.

This post calls attention to the work we have done so far and doesn’t speak to the work that will be happening. More events, more ways to connect with readers and to share visions and ideas and photos and stories in ways we intend to be indispensable to the community. Thanks for all the support you show us.