Daisy Days

 

A release date of November 28, 2020 (yes, that's 'Cyber Saturday') has been set for Stephen Brooke's DAISY DAYS. This is a children's title, a chapter book, and set in the same 'meadow' as his THE CONTRARY FAIRY. The book will be available in print at our store and retailers 'everywhere.'

It will not be released as an ebook (EPUB or Kindle) and the ebook edition of THE  CONTRARY FAIRY has been removed from publication. It does not seem a good format for books of this sort. We do  intend to make both both titles available as FREE PDF downloads for anyone who wants a copy. We also hope you'll buy the print version!

The fantasy novel CITY OF WIZARDRY remains set for an October 10 release, print and ebook. This assumes  a hurricane doesn't come through and knock us offline for nearly a month  like Michael did the year before last.

City of Wizardry Release Set

‘City of Wizardry,’ the new fantasy novel by Stephen Brooke, is now set for an official release on October 10. That date is still slightly tentative but we expect it to hold. This is the sequel to his popular ‘The Ways of Wizardry.’

Here’s the probable back cover blurb:

The greatness of Tesra, City of Wizardry, is only legend now. At its height, it was the largest and richest metropolis the world had ever known, the center of a great empire. There is yet a city by its name, but it is not truly Tesra. That city died long ago and only its ruins, its broken bones, lie beside the inland sea, haunted by a sparse impoverished population. Little of the blood of the city’s founders flows in their veins.

But when Na and Im first spied it from the hills, with the sea sparkling behind, it was not far fallen from its days of greatest glory. Ships laden with the riches of an empire plied the waters, bringing wealth to the harbors of Tesra, and luxury to its people. A golden age it seemed yet. Few noted its fading.

Beyond the Greater Sea lay fabled Tesra, the City of Wizardry. A golden city it was, the greatest the world had ever seen. Could the sorceress Na, a refugee, a wanderer, find her place there? Could she help defend its people against the mad, malevolent Wizard-Lord, a mighty sorcerer who had his own dark plans for her future?

Travel with Na and her young companion Im across the sea and the hills, to seek their fate in the City of Wizardry.

Wilk Release

Today, June 6, 2020, is the official release date of the new adventure novel from  Stephen Brooke, WILK. This is a the 'origin story' for Jean Wilk (aka Jan Patrokowski aka John Wilkings) and a prequel of sorts to THE DICTATOR'S CHILDREN. Here is the blurb:

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

And here is the cover:

This book is available right now in both print and ebook from our store at our distributor's site. However, between the recent slowdown of things due to the pandemic, and revamping of said distributor's (Lulu) site, distribution has been held up some. The ebook should be available 'everywhere' soon, if not right now. The print version may take a while yet.

print ISBN 978-1-937745-71-4

epub ISBN 978-1-937745-72-1

A Poet's Day Release

Tomorrow, April 21 2020, is the official release date for Stephen Brooke's  new poetry collection, A POET'S DAY. Thanks to the coronavirus, none of you are invited to attend the party!

However, the print edition can be purchased at our own store (at our distributor's site):

http://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/a-poets-day/paperback/product-24464298.html

It is also available from book vendors both on line and off, including Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937745708/

And the free ebook (and all of Stephen Brooke's published poetry collections) may be downloaded at: http://insolentlad.com/ebooks/

 Our next release will be from the same author, Stephen Brooke's historical adventure, WILK, on June 6.

A Poet's Day

Here's a promotional graphic for Stephen Brooke's poetry collection, A Poet's Day, coming on April 21. Print and ebook (with the ebook as a free download).

Stay tuned for more releases. The novel WILK is set to come out on June 6.  More on that to come.

Warrior of the Moon Release

All is ready for the February 15 official release of Stephen Brooke's latest fantasy adventure novel, 'Warrior of the Moon.' This will be his seventh book set among the Mora and the first of a new trilogy. The book should show up in both print and ebook editions at retailers shortly, including Amazon, but is available right now from our own shop.

Here is the official blurb:

Since he was small, Maratoa had held one desire above all others: to become a warrior as great as his heroic father. Yes, he knew he had inherited sorcerous powers and, yes, he been trained in their use. But there was no place for a man with such abilities in Mora society, in the Land of the Sleeping Sky.

Now the greatest of all wizards had traveled across the ocean, on a mission that might decide the fate of their world. Does the fate of Maratoa also hang in the balance? A voyage into the unknown brings answers but asks new questions.

Headhunters, lost aviators, a secret submarine, sea monsters — all these Maratoa encounters on his quest in WARRIOR OF THE MOON, a fantasy novel by Stephen Brooke.

On Chapbooks

In this age, we are not sure there is much point in the traditional printed chapbook, except for distribution to a small and local readership. There is little advantage, from a cost perspective, to printing a smaller book (usually poetry) via either a commercial print shop or a POD site.

When copiers or mimeographs were pretty much the only (or at least easiest) route for tiny, low-budget presses, the chapbook made sense. In fact, our very first book, Stephen Brooke’s poetry collection ‘Pieces of the Moon,’ had its original run as a small book produced with a laser printer. It was not quite a chapbook, strictly speaking, at forty-eight pages. Close enough for our discussion.

Within a couple years, we had moved to a POD model and have used that since. To be sure, most of the books from Arachis Press are also available in ebook form. Perhaps chapbook-length books are better suited to a digital format in this day and print should be reserved for longer works. This is not to say we absolutely would not offer a chapbook of poetry in print; however, we would not allot one of our somewhat expensive ISBN numbers to it for wider distribution. It would have to be offered directly from our store, only (or sold at readings, etc).

And with shipping costs, base price of a POD book, etc, it would still be perhaps too pricey. This is also the reason the idea of a print ‘literary’ magazine went on hold (permanently, maybe).

The poetry titles we currently offer (under the Eggshell Boats imprint now, and not including children’s books) run from that original forty-eight page book up to one twice that length. That seems a good range. ‘A Poet’s Day,’ due to be released April 21, 2020, has seventy-four pages and ninety-one pieces. We try to keep the cost of such books at under ten dollars (with discounts) direct from our store but some are a little higher when purchased from other retailers (Amazon et al).

Incidentally, all of Stephen Brooke’s collections are free as ebooks (at http://insolentlad.com/ebooks/) but otherwise we feel $1.99 is a good price for a digital book of this sort.