Devil’s Lettuce by Mary-Jane (pseudonym)
Length: 86pp
Publisher: Independently through Amazon
ISBN: 979-8666-285-206
August 30th marks the paperback release of Devil’s Lettuce at a fixed price of £4.50 – I get £1 for every copy sold.
August 31st the eBook drops! This is more affordable at £0.99, of which I get £0.35 per copy. The .PDF version, which I am selling directly, is £0.50 – and I get all of it! So if you would rather not give money to Amazon (completely understandable), but would still like to purchase, you can!
I’m stating these prices for transparency reasons; Devil’s Lettuce contains lots of volunteer submitted pieces that I have taken and anonymised, and to profit off of other people’s work would be unethical. If your work appears in this book you are, of course, entitled to claim it; however, the anonymity has been done to protect you from any potential legal issues – for example, an employer seeing your contribution, and then requesting a random drug test on your next shift. A name is not worth the potential loss of employment, especially in the current climate.
I have been working on this project since January; Devil’s Lettuce is my final project for my MA in Publishing with the University of Derby – which, now, I have technically finished. Which is crazy. I’m not sure when I officially stop being a student – is it now, is it at the deadline (Aug. 31st, 11.59PM – a mere minute before my twenty-third birthday), or is it once I receive feedback and ergo my graduating grade? Is it when I graduate – virtually – ? I don’t know. But let’s get back to the matter at hand.
The phrases ‘Devil’s Lettuce’ and ‘Mary-Jane’ are both nicknames for marijuana, which is why I felt compelled to use at least one of them, purely for humorous intent. The working title was ‘The Diary of Mary-Jane’, or ‘Mary-Jane’s Diary’, taking inspiration from such works as Bridget Jones’ Diary and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but in all honesty that type of title felt too derivative.
Devil’s Lettuce contains short stories, poems, and stream of consciousness writings, so I’m confident you will find something in there that you absolutely adore. And for those unsure on the latter term, stream of consciousness writings are ‘a narrative technique where the thoughts and emotions of a narrator or character are written out such that a reader can track the fluid mental state of these characters’ (source). What better way to showcase the effects of marijuana on one’s mind by having them literally write down their thoughts as they come?
The cover was designed by Birmingham based illustrator, Emily Birch – go and check her out at www.emilybirch.co.uk. Sadly I had to change it last minute for the paperback and add my own name underneath (Metadata reasons), but the eBook is still the unchanged version (which is infinitely preferably – I didn’t have my name on the cover for a reason, Amazon!)
Paperback Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08GV9NFMY/
Paige Briscoe 