“Coloth” Series Launches With Arcbeatle Press’s 2023 Winter Anthology, “The Book of the Snowstorm”!

For years, readers of Arcbeatle Press’s releases relating to the Doctor Who universe and beyond have caught frequent glimpses of Coloth, lovable dimension-travelling cactus-boy and unwilling denizen of an infinite Library outside Time and Space. Now, at last, his very own spin-off series — seven years in the making — comes to fruition as the Library plays host to an anthology of winter tales from the worlds of Arcbeatle Press…

The overarching story of The Book of the Snowstorm, written by Aristide Twain (The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, Faction Paradox, Auteur), begins when a mysterious, unceasing Snowstorm traps five strangers in a reading room in the biggest Library in all reality, with naught else to do but read. Among these people are Coloth’s inseparable companions Callum and Maritsa, Novices of the posthuman Bookkeepers, while Coloth himself flies out into the Multiverse with Rich the Birdhemoth to try and save them. The central tale introduces twenty other, all-original stories of varying relevance to the characters’ predicament, spanning such series as Lady Aesculapius, Auteur, The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, Cwej: The Series, Dionus, SIGNET, Starlight Endeavours, Starlight Ranger, and many more.

The story of Coloth began as a subplot in War Crimes, a Doctor Who short story by Simon Bucher-Jones printed in the legendary original 1998 Short Trips anthology. In 2017, Nate Bumber (Faction Paradox) and Tyche McPhee Letts (Cwej: The Series, How to Survive the Winter) began to develop the notion of bringing the character in a whole new form, creating a spin-off unlike any other. Last Halloween saw Twain’s own The Cactus and the Corpse, printed in Arcbeatle Press’s Horrors of Arcbeatle (ed. Sean Dillon), formally introduce the world to the new adventures of Coloth, Callum and Maritsa, with fellow Doctor Who universe escapee Auteur guest-starring as main antagonist.

“This book was a mad, exhilarating experience,” says editor Aristide Twain. “Coloth: The Book of the Snowstorm is as high-concept as it gets — an infinite Library full of magic and metafiction, and two dozen sci-fi and fantasy tales spanning series and dimensions alike — which is precisely what makes the human element essential. I had to trust in my writers, and the writers, myself included, had to believe in the character. Both exceeded my expectations by far, and I am so excited for people to find out what we’ve all worked so hard to create.”

“Coloth: The Book of the Snowstorm” is now available to purchase from Amazon in paperback and ebook formats, from Barnes and Noble in digital format and from the Arcbeatle Press digital store in ​epub format.

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