One thing we are certain of for the coming year is the release of Stephen Brooke's poetry collection, Shallow Poet, on April 21, 2024. The book largely (but not entirely) focuses on the poet's lighter and more humorous work. Here's the cover. More soon on what's coming next year.
We have set the official release date for Stephen Brooke's new fantasy novel, "Stones in the Sea," for July 15, 2023. It will be available in print, PDF, and EPUB. Here is the cover:
And the rear cover blurb:
Where to sail but west after escaping his Chilean prison? Into the depths of the Pacific voyaged Yankee seaman Dick Brown, seeking refuge and rest beyond the horizon. What he found was another world, one where his coming had been prophesied, where his destiny was tied to the mystic gems known as the Jewels of the Elements. On lost islands, in mountain fastnesses, Dick discovers that destiny and his place in a new world.
STONES IN THE SEA, a novel by Stephen Brooke
We are less that two weeks away from the official release on February 25 2023 of the second Jack Mack science fiction novel from Oliver Davis Pike. The cover and a blurb:
Young Jack McFee’s prowess as a jump
ship pilot has earned him the nickname Jumping Jack. He is only the
second person to leap through the Wall, the great cloud of dust and
gas bordering Scotian space. Jack would as soon continue patrolling
deep space with his almost-too-smart ship’s AI, but he won’t be
permitted. A drawn-out war that is not going well, attempts on his
powerful grandfather’s life, and the duty of protecting a
princess—whom he rather likes—draw him back into action in
JUMPING JACK, the second Jack Mack science fiction novel by Oliver
Davis Pike
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!
For the typefaces used in the interior of our Arachis Press books, we are scrupulous about using only fonts for which we have a license. This means—in our case—the Bitstream typefaces licensed via our software and an assortment of ‘free’ fonts. There are free faces that are quite satisfactory and entirely professional; we have mentioned before the free pack donated by URW++ to the Ghostscript project and that one could do a perfectly good job with nothing else.
But then there are covers. If one converts ones cover file to a graphic (as we do—we upload high definition PNGs to our printer), one can get away with using unlicensed fonts. It is when we embed those typefaces in PDFs (or other file formats) that we run into legal questions.
Now we’ll admit that a small publisher (or self-publisher) probably won’t be called out for this but it is best to be safe. And legal! Therefor, we do keep a number of fonts on hand (or on computer, we should say) that we would not use for interior layout but can be handy for cover design. These are, of course, primarily ‘display’ fonts that one might not use for interior text anyway.
The self-publisher who uses Canva (or a similar cover generator) needn’t worry about any of that. Any licensing is taken care of already. Similarly, ebooks (other than PDFs) should not be problematic; we simply specify ‘serif’ for the type in our EPUBs and allow the reader to choose the font they prefer.
Incidentally, we should mention that Microsoft’s fonts are not free to use in your books, even if they are included in your copy of Windows. And Times New Roman should not be used in a commercial release without paying for it—though we don’t know why anyone would want to.
So we have used Dutch 766, Bitstream’s copy of Imprint, in our books but we would not use the Imprint MT Shadow that came with Windows. Not as part of the interior text. On a cover? Maybe someday, if it is needed.
We are pleased to announce that the latest fantasy novel by Stephen Brooke, THE WALLS BETWEEN THE WORLDS, is scheduled for publication on October 2, 2021. Here's the rear cover blurb and the cover (probably in final form):
Hurasu, the greatest sorcerer his world had ever known, was dead. To his son he left his sword, four mystic jewels, a realm in ruin, and many enemies. Urtu was not at all sure he wanted that realm. A wide unknown world lay beyond it; for a lad skilled with both weapons and spells, the path lay away for the great valley of his birth, across the mountains and into the tropical empire of the Molu.
Urtu realized that a mission had been given him along with his father’s jewels, for they were the Eyes of the Wind, too powerful to allow their misuse. To a place of safety he must carry them, with the aid of a shaman and a god and sometimes his mother, while other powerful wizards pursued. But first, a sojourn amid the politics and the women of the Molu—and a certain amount of learning about both the world and himself. Join Urtu as he begins his journey across The Walls Between the Worlds.
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.
