Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Garamond

Garamond—yes, the typeface for your fiction book. You’re always safe using some version of Garamond to print that novel or short story collection.

Well, maybe not every version. I would advise against using the one that comes installed with Windows for two reasons. One, it is an ‘American’ Garamond, on the spiky and aggressive side, and based on the designs of Jannon rather than Garamond himself. Two, you do not actually own the rights to use it in a print book. Not that anyone is going to come after you if you send a book set in it off to a print-on-demand company, but you should recognize that you really are supposed to pay for a license to use it.

The same, of course, is true of today’s industry standard, Adobe Garamond. If you intend to pay for a typeface, you might as well go with the Adobe. It’s pretty authentic to the original fonts with just the right bit of modernization.

If you would prefer a free alternative, go for EB Garamond. It is practically identical to Adobe’s version, being based on the same original samples, and may be downloaded free. I would suggest the EB Garamond 12 that was the original version, not the EB Garamond that has recently shown up on Google Fonts; that newer take on the typeface has some changes that may make it better for online use but not so good for print. Not that it couldn’t be used, to be sure. One gives up small caps and old style numerals for more weights—most unneeded—and lining figures.

Before Adobe’s offering came along, perhaps the most authentic Garamond was that from the Stempel foundry—and its many clones. The URW++ version is totally free and open license, having been donated to the Ghostscript project decades ago. I’ve used it for several novels, more than any other typeface, I suspect (and I’m not going to stop and count right now). It looks good, it looks professional. It and the EB are the two top choices for free Garamonds.

Yet I shall mention another: Cormorant or, more precisely, Cormorant Garamond, the latter being a slightly altered version to make it a little more suited to body text. Incidentally, I would recommend the ‘book’ weight, not the regular, which looks a bit spindly. Cormorant, on the whole, veers closer to that American style of Garamond mentioned earlier. It is actually a quite attractive typeface, but perhaps not as readable for long stretches of text.

I shall also mention a couple free Garamond-adjacent typefaces, both of which tend toward the Granjon style (Granjon being one of Garamond’s assistants and successors). Excellent commercial fonts have been created in that Granjon mode, notably Plantin and Matthew Carter’s Galliard.

Plantin is a solid, workmanlike face that has been dependable for book text for a century. A pretty good replacement for it is Crimson. Do make sure you get the latest iteration of the design, Crimson Pro. It has finally made it to the totally professional level with this version. Crimson is one of those typefaces I could see using for pretty much anything but it may not have quite the sense of elegance one gets from Adobe or EB Garamond.

Alegreya is elegant, and makes a decent alternative to Galliard. It seems definitely inspired by Carter’s design; not a clone by any means but very much with the same light-hearted and adventurous feel. This is particularly evident in the italics. I do love Galliard but I think Alegreya may just replace it.

I mentioned the added weights in the newest version of EB Garamond. I find all those bolds and blacks and so on largely pointless, and generally not all that attractive (and bold italics can be an abomination). Good italics are more important—essential even—than a variety of weights, and I really prefer to have small caps available too. EB Garamond 12, Cormorant, and Alegreya do all include small caps.

Alegreya and Cormorant also have another point in their favor, and that is a matching sans typeface. I’ll readily admit I like Ysabeau, the sans companion to Cormorant, more than Cormorant itself. It and Alegreya Sans can both be useful for titling in a book set in any flavor of Garamond.

So, we have no excuse for not using Garamond in our next novel. Unless, of course, we prefer Caslon. I’ll have to talk about that some other time.


 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Amazon

We have had it with trying to deal with Amazon. There will be no new Kindle editions of our books (including the about to be released THESE REMEMBERED HILLS). The old ones, we assume, will linger on their site, and, of course, our print books will continue to be distributed to Amazon, as they are to pretty much all book sellers.

Those who wish to purchase ebook versions of our title will find both EPUB and PDF editions at our store: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/arachispress

Incidentally, THESE REMEMBERED HILLS is up at our store in every format right now, in advance of our official release. Print should show up at retailers by the January 7 date we have set.

Thursday, December 15, 2022

These Remembered Hills

Stephen Brooke's newest novel, a 'Hocking Hills Mystery' (the first, with a promise of more to come) will be officially released on January 7 2023. Titled 'These Remembered Hills,' the story is set in the Hocking Hills of southeastern Ohio in 1962, and will be available in print, epub, PDF, and Kindle formats. Here is the official blurb:

Yes, he loved these hills, these remembered hills of his youth.

Jim Fry had returned from his four years in the navy, returned to the family farm where his sister had died, broken at the foot of a cliff. An accident. So most believed.

Not her friend, artist Rick Myers. A few days later, Myers is also dead and no one mistakes this for an accident. Through farmland and forest, the cliffs and creeks of the Hocking Hills of southern Ohio, Jim pursues the truth—and the murderers.

And here is the cover:


 

Friday, December 9, 2022

Winter/Spring Releases

 

These titles will be appearing after the new year (These Remembered Hills is set for a Jan 7 release) and into spring and maybe early summer (exact release dates yet to be set). Expect more later in the year!

Saturday, December 3, 2022

2023

The coming year, 2023, will mark our twentieth year as a publisher (though we used a different name the first couple of those years). It will also mark the release of our fiftieth title. That will be Stephen Brooke's Hocking Hills mystery, 'These Remembered Hills.' More on that as we draw nearer the release date, which we have set for January 7.

Beyond that, we will be publishing Oliver Davis Pikes's second Jack Mack science fiction adventure, 'Jumping Jack.' Tentative release date is late February, or March 4 at the latest. More to come on that one, too.

And by late spring or early summer, the latest poetry collection from Stephen Brooke, titled 'Islanders.' We have nothing set further than that but be assured there will be more books released in the coming year. And for years to come!