Counting Words Release

Today, October 25 2024, marks the release of a new collection of poems from Stephen Brooke, "Counting Words." The book is  available from Arachis Press (arachispress.com) in print or as free ebooks (PDF and EPUB). Stop by and get your copy!

Free Books

For every one of our print books, we also create a downloadable PDF version. This is in most respects identical to the print edition, the main difference being equal margins throughout (no need for gutters), and the removal of a few unnecessary blank pages and the ISBN. We also add a color cover at the beginning.

These are all available free on the download page at the Arachis Press site (arachispress.com), as are EPUB versions of many. No strings attached—if one wishes to support us, the print editions can be purchased and there is also a merchandise shop, the Peanut Road Emporium (https://www.cafepress.com/peanutroad). And, of course, reviews are welcome, wherever they appear.

Most of all, we wish you to enjoy the books.

Amazon

We have (again) contacted Amazon asking them to take down our Kindle books, as we no longer have control of the account and have been giving our ebooks away for some time now. We remind you once again not to buy from Amazon but get the books free at our site (and actually 'own' the digital files on your device of choice).

Site Update and Free Books

We (at last?) have a completely up to date and finished website (arachispress.com). The latest books are up, every print book we offer is directly linked to our own store (though they may be purchased elsewhere), and all the ebooks are now free to download. Yes, there is a page with them all listed, in PDF and EPUB format.

We had given the free thing thought for quite a long time and finally decided we would prefer to have the books read than to hope to make a few dollars now and again. Especially in that we do not deal with Amazon and no longer create Kindle editions. This includes every book by Stephen Brooke, Sienna Santerre, and Oliver Davis Pike.

Celebrate

2023 marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of Stephen Brooke’s first fantasy novels (or one novel in four parts, if one prefers), the books of Donzalo’s Destiny. We have gone to new typography for the books, and the new versions are now up at the Arachis Press store. It may take a while for the revised editions to show up at other book retailers. Here are links to the print novels:

I. THE SONG OF THE SWORD: https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/the-song-of-the-sword/paperback/product-14mjeen6.html

II. THE SHADOW OF ASAK: https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/the-shadow-of-asak/paperback/product-18kdndrz.html

III. THE SIGN OF THE ARROW: https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/the-sign-of-the-arrow/paperback/product-1mwvn86k.html

IV. THE HAND OF THE SORCERER: https://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-brooke/the-hand-of-the-sorcerer/paperback/product-1yn2v8g7.html

We are also making downloads of the novels completely free in EPUB and PDF ebook formats:

songofthesword.pdf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KP0_Dr573gIjI1rxVIY2KTYJcN581L9O/view?usp=drive_link

songofthesword.epub: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AEyY-UfmVvV-xYQHN2cv84noqHSWnAc_/view?usp=drive_link

shadowofasak.pdf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fv7by4kPs8kJ_rPlSnLtcOSIOgA4_aM7/view?usp=drive_link

shadowofasak.epub: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j0nfvuiHpwY_USuTB6HX8bd5rcNHwP_N/view?usp=drive_link

signofthearrow.pdf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V44VZN7atpZiUKGFHK6_RTtC7Gzotqeg/view?usp=drive_link

signofthearrow.epub: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WXqWsSoIc21LGtG8vRVzAb4drDaGGC5R/view?usp=drive_link

handofthesorcerer.pdf: https://drive.google.com/file/d/159FymrABprMoPW9cXNX4gmY0s9rRZO28/view?usp=drive_link

handofthesorcerer.epub: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rgK_quwem-nxPZiTMdsD7GmLldsXZMjl/view?usp=drive_link

 

New Editions

This summer, we undertook the somewhat ambitious (or at least time-consuming) project of new typesetting for almost all of our books (only one remained untouched). This involved both using a new program and, for most, new fonts. And, of course, each book needed to be proofread, which added considerable time to the process.

The program we used was nothing more than LibreOffice, which is generally known as a word processing app but is also more than adequate for typesetting. Definitely better than Word or anything of that sort, as it was originally designed along the lines of a desktop publishing program. No, it won’t do all the things InDesign or Scribus can but it is completely acceptable for a typical novel.

We also moved away from the Bitstream typefaces in which the majority of our books were set. These were included with the Corel programs we own and use, but the licensing was always a bit nebulous. No one, Corel included, seemed to know whether it was acceptable to use them in print books. Be that as it may, they were also becoming a bit outdated, being all in truetype format; nothing wrong with that, to be sure, but we do appreciate the options offered by opentype.

Not that all the opentype fonts we are using provide those options. Some of our titles now use typefaces from SoftMaker. These are definitely licensed for print books and most, as with Bitstream, are clones of fonts that have been around a while. In many cases, we simply plugged in the SoftMaker alternative to what we had originally used. To be sure, they are never quite the same size and formatting must be adjusted.

But we are definitely moving toward open license fonts for future offerings. These days, there are plenty of perfectly good typefaces available for free, and free to use for anything. One can find quite a few at Google Fonts but it should be recognized the majority of offerings there are geared toward online use, not print. This includes the latest versions of fonts that have been around a while, such as EB Garamond and Crimson—we recommend going to the original projects, rather than the redesigns done specifically for Google.

We have finished this redesign and now comes the process of getting all the new versions up. This is not high priority, as the old versions are (mostly, anyway) well-enough done. But we will replace them over the next few months. More importantly, perhaps, we are also going to put all the ebooks (EPUB and PDF) up on our own site as free downloads. Getting those up should take some time too, as well as removing them from the store (at Lulu). Print will continue to be for sale and distributed to pretty much all booksellers, Amazon included.

Incidentally, we would recommend not buying the Kindle versions we had up at Amazon. It is to be assumed those will disappear eventually.

Lands Far Away Release

Saturday, August 7 2021, is the official release day for Stephen Brooke's collection of (mostly) fantasy short stories titled Lands Far Away. Here's the back cover blurb:

Away! Beyond the hills, beyond the seas, lie kingdoms unknown. This book of stories is for all who would seek them at the edges of the world, for all who would journey to Lands Far Away ~ tales of fantasy by Stephen Brooke.

Lands Far Away is available right now. It's a fairly short book, around 30,000 words, with seventeen stories and two poem/songs included. And, as with Brooke's poetry collections, the ebook version is a free download. Print may be purchased at the Arachis Press store or at Amazon or, in theory anyway, 'everywhere.' The download, in both EPUB and PDF formats, is here (along with several other free books).

Some of the stories included in the book have appeared in magazines and many—but not all—are on the humorous side. 

 

 

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!).

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.

Free Sampler

We created a little ebook sampler (epub) of Stephen Brooke's adult fantasy novels, one chapter each for all thirteen of them. Free to download, give away, whatever. And, of course, if you like them, you can always buy copies!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=19M4-z0IwN5C7cn-Sf9SCjtnNl4LOOPG0

We made this, by the way, with the Open Office add-on, writer2epub. Does quite well, but for our commercial releases it's probably safer to stick with the converter at our distributor's site.

Book Release and Giveaway

To mark the release of the final novel in Stephen Brooke's Mora Trilogy, WOMAN OF THE SKY (officially out on March 10), we are giving away the first book in the series, GOD OF RAIN, for three days only. Download it in EPUB and/or MOBI, depending on your e-reader of choice. The events in GOD OF RAIN follow after those in my Malvern Trilogy, but those novels need not be read to enjoy the adventures of warrior-turned-trader Hito through encounters with crocodiles, head-hunters, cannibalistic fairies, and a certain dancing girl.

The book may be found HERE

No strings attached, nothing to sign up for, but a review somewhere might be nice (assuming you like the story!). And do consider purchasing WOMAN OF THE SKY and the second Mora book, ARROWS OF HEAVEN.