Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Wilk, an Historical Adventure

“Wilk,” the latest adventure from Stephen Brooke (coming  June 6) and its predecessor, “The Dictator’s Children,” would have to be considered, in the broad sense, historical fiction. We prefer to label them as historical adventure, which might be seen as a sub-genre.

The emphasis is on adventure. The narratives attempt to be period-accurate but there is no pretense that the events in the story could actually have happened, as in strict historical fiction. There is even a completely invented (meaning it is not a disguised version of a real place) Central American nation in “The Dictator’s Children,” in the tradition of such countries as Graustark or Ruritania.

“Wilk” takes place against the backdrop of Russia and China shortly after the end of the First World War, periods of revolution in both nations. Broadly, they are accurately portrayed, as are the logistics of Wilk’s trip across Asia. There is nothing that will jar ones perception of the reality of the setting.


Here is the official blurb for “Wilk”:

A connecting flight — as the aging Wilk returns to his native Poland he reminisces how, in the aftermath of the Great War, a young Jan Patrowski finds himself adrift. From the Russian Revolution to a China torn apart by factions and warlords, he strives to learn who he is. The decorated war hero and pilot? The clever mechanic and engineer? Or maybe a man in love who would throw away the rest of the world and lose himself in the heart of Asia.

Join him as he travels across a continent in a novel of adventure and a journey of discovery by Stephen Brooke, WILK.

Friday, November 29, 2019

2020 Visions

We have added another title to those we added in our post on coming releases, 'Wilk,' an adventure novel, tentatively set for June release. Here are covers for all three expected book launches in the first half of 2020:


Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Smoke Out

The official release date for Stephen Brooke's new crime-and-surf novel, Smoke (Cully Beach mystery #3) is on Saturday, Nov 30. However, one can buy it right now at the Arachis Press store at our distributor (Lulu). Here are the links:

Smoke print: http://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/smoke/paperback/product-24318155.html

Smoke epub: http://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/smoke/ebook/product-24318242.html

Smoke  will show up 'everywhere' soon (if it has not already). Yes, even at Amazon.

Friday, November 15, 2019

2020 Spring Releases

We have set the dates for our next two releases, both by Stephen Brooke. The fantasy adventure novel, “Warrior of the Moon,” is set for February 15, 2020. This is the seventh book set in the world of the Mora and the first of a new trilogy.

April 21 is the release date for the poetry collection, “A Poet’s Day.” As with Brooke’s other poetry books, the ebook version will be a free download. Beyond these two, we have no set dates for any other releases but the second Wilk adventure is likely to appear by summer. That will be announced when it is set.

And of course "Smoke," the third Cully Beach mystery will be out shortly, the official release date being November 30.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Disruption

For reasons of no great interest nor importance, we were without internet for about eight weeks. This inevitably disrupts our book release schedule a tad but SMOKE should be available by the official release date of Nov 30 none the less—though perhaps only at our own store. We shall see how that goes.

More on SMOKE and future releases in time.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Crocodile God Release

This Saturday, September 7 2019 is the official release date for Stephen Brooke's new fantasy novel, THE CROCODILE GOD (Crocodile Chronicles #2). It is available now at many online retailers in print and ebook formats, as well as at our own store.

Print at the Arachis Press store:
Ebook at the Arachis Press store:

Here is the official blurb for the novel:

Caring for her estate and her two-year-old son was quite enough for Qala, once Queen of Pirates. Gladly had she left the excitement of her former life behind. So what if she had never found the love she had once been promised?

Now the boy was beginning to show his heritage as child of the Crocodile God, disappearing to visit other worlds and bringing home little monster playmates. There were important political negotiations going on practically on her doorstep, negotiations involving kings and empires, pirates and wizards, and try though she might, Qala was going to be swept up in them.

Then Zedos’s father shows up and the gods get involved. Would Qala ever be able to live the simple life she desired and maybe, just maybe, find love? Join her as she searches in The Crocodile God, a fantasy adventure by Stephen Brooke.

Friday, June 28, 2019

Smoke Release Announcement

We are pleased to announce that Stephen Brooke's third Cully Beach mystery, SMOKE, is scheduled for release on November 30, 2019. Here is the official blurb for the novel:

A dry Florida spring. Wildfires burn across the state, blanketing it with smoke. In sleepy Cully Beach, the sands reveal a long-buried body — the body of a woman Ted ‘Shaper’ Carrol knew in another life. Soon, he is involved in puzzling out what happened to her and how it ties into an unsolved jewel theft of a decade previous. The clues she left him carry Ted to danger at the smoke-wreathed Florida Folk Festival and back again to the beaches of home, while both police and criminals shadow his moves.

Ted would much rather be busy preparing for his wedding through these slow months leading into the summer, but crime has once again reared its inconvenient head in the third Cully Beach mystery from Stephen Brooke, SMOKE.

Remember also, just one week to the official release of Oliver Davis Pike's science fiction novel, ALIENESE. Already available in print and ebook from most online sources and our own shop.

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Alienese Links

Although it is a couple weeks yet to the official release of Oliver Davis Pike's science fiction novel ALIENESE, it has shown up here and there on the internet, as well as being available directly from our store. Here are some links.

Alienese print, from Arachis Press (via Lulu)
Alienese ebook, from Arachis Press (via Lulu)
Alienese at Amazon

And here's the Alienese page at GoodReads

Monday, June 10, 2019

Final approval for the print version of the new science fiction novel ALIENESE from Oliver Davis Pike has been given. All is on track for the July 6 release date in both ebook and print form. As usual, expect it to show up here and there online before the official release.

Also, it may be purchased right now at our own store!

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Summer 2019 Publishing Schedule

Our planned releases for this summer (dates should be good, but thing do happen, y'know?). THE DICTATOR'S CHILDREN, the espionage adventure by Stephen Brooke, is still set for its official release on May 4.

Next up will be ALIENESE, a humorous but thoughtful sci-fi title from Oliver Davis Pike, on July 6. Here is the blurb:

Dave Ladd, has-been musician, didn’t mind being abducted by aliens. Especially when those aliens had plenty of cash to compensate him. Let them keep whatever secret they seemed to have learned about Earth.

So he thought when he was returned to his home in rural Alabama. But he was already too involved in that secret — a secret that involved the survival of humanity — and soon was on the run with an alien girlfriend, first on Earth and then ‘out there.’ A solution must be found by the motley band of humans and aliens thrown together in ALIENESE, a science fiction novel by Oliver Davis Pike.

This will be our first title by Mr. Pike. It will be followed on September 7 by a new fantasy novel from Stephen Brooke, THE CROCODILE GOD (the sequel to The Crocodile's Son). The blurb:

Caring for her estate and her two-year-old son was quite enough for Qala, once Queen of Pirates. Gladly had she left the excitement of her former life behind. So what if she had never found the love she had once been promised?

Now the boy was beginning to show his heritage as child of the Crocodile God, disappearing to visit other worlds and bringing home little monster playmates. There were important political negotiations going on practically on her doorstep, negotiations involving kings and empires, pirates and wizards, and try though she might, Qala was going to be swept up in them.

Then Zedos’s father shows up and the gods get involved. Would Qala ever be able to live the simple life she desired and maybe, just maybe, find love? Join her as she searches in The Crocodile God, a fantasy adventure by Stephen Brooke.

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Upcoming Titles in 2019

Perhaps the title should read possibly upcoming in 2019. Things can go wrong, after all. But here are the likely covers:



Stephen Brooke's THE  CROCODILE GOD is for certain later this year. This is the sequel to his fantasy novel THE CROCODILE'S SON, continuing the adventures of Qala the (former) Pirate Queen. The science fiction title, ALIENESE by Oliver Davis Pike is less certain when it comes to release date. That depends on edits and all the other typical concerns.

We should have the final proof print version of THE DICTATOR'S CHILDREN in our hands shortly. If there are no problems (and we anticiapte none but one never knows) it will be available 'immediately' in our own store and everywhere (it is to be hoped) by the official May 4 release date.

Monday, March 11, 2019

Shiny New Site

We finally got around to a complete redesign of our website, to be found at (of course) http://arachispress.com. Still need to dig into revising the Eggshell Boats site  (our poetry imprint) but that is lower priority than some other projects.

And we will upgrade the AP site as we can; it is admittedly still a tad bare-bones but completely functional. All the books are there! It looks better, we think, or at least more 'modern'—not that there was anything wrong with it before. :)

addendum, several hours later: We had some problems with things synching/linking quite right so repairs were necessary—and, of course, in the midst of FTPing the changes, our internet went out for most of the day.  But it all looks good now, and we even updated the parent site (Insolent Lad) a bit.

Sunday, March 10, 2019

One Summer

We are pleased to announce that we will be publishing Sienna Santerre's new novel, "One Summer in the Sun." We are still far from announcing a release date but here is a tentative cover:


This novel is set in 1968 in Naples FL and follows three young women, close friends recently graduated from high school, through the summer before they all go their separate ways. Set against the turmoil of that time, which reached even to sleepy Gulf Coast towns.

Saturday, March 2, 2019

Revisions and Releases

We have completed the process of revising all our books that needed a little tweaking. We did hold off a bit on the last of the ebooks because of the online converter at our distributor (Lulu) not working properly for the past few months.

But that was a good thing, in the long run. We took the time to properly create our own epub files, with more control over the finished product. And we shall continue to roll our own in the future. Speaking of the future—

Stephen Brooke's new adventure tale of espionage, "The Dictator's Children," is on schedule for its official release on May 4. Here's the cover. More details as we draw closer to the big day.


Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Stores

Our distributor, Lulu Enterprises (via POD print and ebooks), recently introduced an integration of their fulfillment service with Spotify, and have promised to do the same for WooCommerce soon. Both are attractive in their way but, for us, are pretty much a solution to a problem that does not exist.

And an added expense. The Arachis Press Store at Lulu's site works perfectly well and all our books are distributed to the various online retailers (including, of course, Amazon for those who prefer it). At least in theory, one can order print copies at local bookstores. So there are no plans to open up any other sort of store anytime soon.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Jewels Release

This Saturday, February 2, is the official release date for THE JEWELS OF THE ELEMENTS. One may already find the book in most online stores, Amazon included, or at our own Arachis Press store in both print and ebook formats.

JEWELS is the sequel to THE EYES OF THE WIND, but one need not read that novel to enjoy or understand this one. EYES is one of our most popular titles and also one of the shortest (at 50,000 words), though I doubt those two facts are related! JEWELS comes in a little longer, at 64,000 words, which is fairly typical of a Stephen Brooke adventure tale.

THE JEWELS OF THE THE ELEMENTS is a fantasy novel and related to some degree to the author’s other fantasy novels. That is, they are all set in the same world. However, Stephen also has turned out several mainstream (or at least non-fantasy) novels. His next is the espionage adventure THE DICTATOR’S CHILDREN, set in 1948 Cuba, Florida, and Central America. Stay tuned!



Sunday, January 20, 2019

Free Books

As we promised a couple posts back, all of Stephen Brookes poetry collections are now free to read and/or download in ebook format. These are EPUBs, which most should be able to read on computers or devices, and all have been revised a bit from the versions previously for sale. They may be found at here.

Of course, the print editions continue to be sold at our store and at retailers 'everywhere.' If you like the electronic versions, consider buying the print (or any other of our titles!).

Monday, January 7, 2019

Coming Attractions

A promo for The Dictator's Children, out May 4


Into 2019

Some announcements for the start of a new year:

First, all is on schedule for the official February 2 release of Stephen Brooke’s latest fantasy adventure, “The Jewels of the Elements.” This is the sequel to “The Eyes of the Wind” and the second book of the Sajam Saga. Print and ebook versions are with our distributor and should become available pretty much everywhere by the release date (assuming one ebook vendor or another doesn’t find a problem — it does happen). The books can be purchased right now at our own store.

Second, we have finished (at least for now) revising all the print editions of our catalog. The last titles should undergo final approval over the next couple weeks or so. We are not hurrying quite so much on the ebook versions primarily because we would like to use our distributor’s conversion software and it has become unreliable. A new and better converter is promised so we shall see — we can do it ourselves and just might if it takes much longer.

Third, we are no longer going to offer any of Stephen Brooke’s poetry ebooks for sale. The print versions will continue but it has been decided to give the ebooks away from now on. There will be announcements about downloading or reading them online shortly.

And fourth, the brand new action espionage novel by Stephen Brooke, “The Dictator’s Children,” will be out on May 4, 2019. This is a tale set in 1948, in Cuba, Florida, and Central America. Lots more on that as we get nearer to the release day.