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.

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.

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:

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.

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.