Barnes & Noble – Gerry Mooney Illustrating Dickens

Happy Anniversary, Charles Dickens!

Today, March 19, is the anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’s epic BLEAK HOUSE, the brilliant novel that of course is the subject of this entire blog for the last four+ years.

Published in 1853, I’ve learned from Compulsive Historian and legendary Disney animator Tom Sito (this is a Facebook link) that BLEAK HOUSE was the very first novel to mention dinosaurs (on the first page!)

It is strictly a happy coincidence that I chose to have these beautiful T-shirts printed with my linoleum cut portrait of “The Inimitable”, in fact I just picked them up from the screen printer yesterday.

They’re available in S, M, L, and XL. Wear one and people will instantly know how smart you are! They are available directly from me for the great price of $25.95 + $7.50 shipping, for a total of $33.45.

I can accept checks, money orders, Venmo, or, if you prefer PayPal, I can send an invoice so they don’t take a percentage. I have Square on my phone and can probably accept money that way. Email me with your preference at the link below.

There’s a limited supply, but if there’s a demand I can always print more.

Email me at dickens@mooneyart.com for questions or to place an order, and thanks once again for stopping by!

Barnes & Noble Lino Demonstration – VIDEO

The B&N store on 71st St. in Tulsa was kind enough to allow me to hold my second book signing/lino printing demonstration on Saturday, Sept. 11 and it went just fine!

Several friends showed up and I even snagged a couple of new fans among the passing customers. Special big thanks to Vicki’s longtime friend Marty Sikes for handling the camera duties on the spur of the moment.

Going to London!

Well, lots going on this Fall with BLEAK HOUSE. This Saturday, Sept. 13, at 1PM Central Time, I’ll be hopefully livestreaming my book signing/linoprint demonstration at the 71st Street Tulsa Barnes & Noble, opposite from Woodland Hills Mall. The staff there has been extremely helpful and welcoming, and have offered to help with the streaming. If you’re on Facebook stop by if you can, should be entertaining.

I’ve been saying for a couple of years now that in creating an illustrated novel I’ve been working in an obsolete form. AFAIK, there hasn’t been an adult illustrated novel in like 50 years (give or take!) and I consoled myself by saying I’ll have the field to myself, ha ha. But the joke’s on me. Check this out…!

Book signing and Linoleum Printing Demonstration

Promotional poster for a book signing event with Gerry Mooney, illustrator of Charles Dickens' Bleak House, featuring details about a linoleum block printing demonstration at Barnes & Noble, Tulsa, on September 13, 2025.

If you’re in the Tulsa area it would be great to see you at my second book signing and lino print demonstration, 1PM on Saturday, Sept. 13.

The Barnes & Noble Store is across from Woodland Hills Mall on 71st St., and the store staff has offered to help me live-stream the event on Facebook, so there’s an opportunity to watch right from your couch!

In other news, I expect to be traveling to London in October to speak at Dickens Day at the University of London. I’ll have more info about this soon.

My Journey to Speak on BLEAK HOUSE at Dickens Day 2025

Every year the University of London hosts “Dickens Day”, a prestigious event that features speakers on a chosen topic of interest to fans and students of Charles Dickens. It was exciting to see that this year, the topic is “Dickens and Art”, and in a flash it seemed all my efforts were suddenly coming into focus and timed perfectly for the stage my project is currently at.

Of course I could say I’m speaking at the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, but come on, “The Dickens Society” just sounds cooler!

Distribution beyond Amazon

Things always appear easier before you actually do them. It appeared that using the “Expanded Distribution” option for a book published on Amazon would make BLEAK HOUSE more widely available, and it did, sort of.

I’ve been operating under the belief that I could do book signings in Barnes & Noble stores. There are two in Tulsa, and of course there are other, smaller bookstores in most of the bigger small towns in the region. As it turns out, I could indeed have book signings in these B&N stores, as long as I was in the correct distribution channels that would allow these stores to order my book. If they can’t get the book on their shelves, there’s no reason for them to host the event. No matter how nicely you ask, there’s no way around this logic.

Which leads to the obvious question: WHAT are “correct distribution channels”?