The Big Squirm is coming soon. For those of you who haven't heard, it's a hard boiled detective adventure for Troika! by the rightfully lauded Luke Gearing, author of Acid Death Fantasy among other things. We will be talking to Luke another time but today we're looking at the unusually traditional design of the book itself.
When you open the book you are greeted by this vast, white, familiar space. Imagine the page on the left will be glued to the inside cover, securing the inlay to the case. On the right is the half tittle. You've probably seen this a thousand times before in novels and text books and the like, it's almost invisible. Almost. It's like breathing, you only notice it when it's not there.
Following the half tittle is the frontispiece and tittle page. Our expectations are being set.
Next the biblio and the fact tittle. They tell us a lot.
The Big Squirm is a huge book, our second biggest yet, and we love every bit of it dearly. Luke has worked his magic, and the designers have served that magic up to you on a handsome plate. What good does it do, to have the best book in the whole history of books, if it is obscured by poor design? To that end we have let the work breathe. The book is paced, there are moments of intensity and density and then, ah, clear skies where we can catch our breath and refocus. With luck we will let the words speak that little bit louder by letting them stand tall and free. We've read the book countless times, we've seen it's guts out on the table, and we still are all comfortably in love with it and have full confidence you will be too.
The Big Squirm is out in November.