...last I knew, Stephe Pagel had a close relationship with some local bookstore.

That would have been the SF and Mystery Bookstore, which closed this year. My experiences there in recent years had not been great, but I still lament the passing of a specialty store for SF. One reason I made the rounds of a few of the big chain stores was a faint hope that they'd stock a little more of a "local" publisher <slaps face> Silly me!

I've been seeing comments about this year's chapbook on rolanni's journal...just must wait until it can be ordered...