Tag Archives: Sam2

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 28

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Patrick Miles

11 February 2024 Do not be put off trying an ‘Escape Room’ because you fear claustrophobia: you aren’t actually locked into it, you simply have to solve a series of problems (often involving locks) in order to complete a narrative … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Aleksei Navalnyi, androconia, Armageddon, asteroids, birds of prey, Brimstone butterflies, butterflies, catacomb Christians, Christ's Harrowing of Hell, counterpoint, Dmitrii Medvedev, Dmitrii Peskov, drones, E.B. Ford, escape rooms, games, German language, Green-Veined White, Hölderlin, icons, Ivan Turgenev, metres, Petr Tchaikovsky, puzzles, resurrection, Sam&Sam, Sam2, scents, science fiction, space station, The Cleopatra, The Myrrh-Bearing Women, The White Bow:Ghoune, Twitter, verse translation, Vladimir Putin, Vlamiri Nabokov, Wenn aus der Ferne | 1 Comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 20

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Patrick Miles

16 December 2022 The Times has a long piece today entitled ‘Putin’s absence fuels rumours of Noah’s Ark plot’. It reports Putin cancelling his annual ice hockey match on Red Square, his annual press conference, and his annual ‘conversation with … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged 20 July 1944 Plot, Adolf Hitler, Alexander II, Argentina, Christmas, Crimea, Crimean War, Donetsk, Erwin Rommel, Field Marshal Rommel, iconography, James Miles, Japan, Jim Miles, John Polkinghorne, Joseph Brodsky, Luhansk, Nativity, Nicholas I, Noah's Ark Plot, Odessa, Paul Dirac, professors, Russian Army, Russian language, Russian poetry, Sam1, Sam2, Seamus Heaney, The Quantum World, The Times, translation, translations, Ukraine, Venezuela, verse translation, Vladimir Putin, What Can We Hope For? | Leave a comment

‘Chekhov’s Gun’ (To be continued)

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Patrick Miles

Sam2 has persuaded me to make four short videos about my recently published short biography of Chekhov and my ra-ther longer 2018 biography of George Calderon. I am completely new to the genre, therefore you should not expect a slick … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Anton Chekhov, Anton Chekhov: A Short Life, biographies, biography, Chekhov's Gun, comments, dramatic principles, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Ivanov, Moscow Art Theatre, Moscow Arts, Sam2, The Seagull, videos, Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko, Wikipedia | Leave a comment

‘These magnificent metal beasts’

Posted on November 15, 2021 by Patrick Miles

Sam2 gave me this book last Christmas and it’s been a source of endless delight ever since. At 8.5 x 12.0 inches and beautifully produced, it may seem like a coffee table book, but it is much more. I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged aesthetics, balance, cigarettes, cold drinks, comments, design, hot drinks, Japan, Japanese art, Japanese poetry, Japanese technology, machines, photographs, Sam2, semiotics, souvenirs, T-shirts, Tim Easley, Tokyo, vending machines | 3 Comments

‘Another culture’ (A series of seven posts)

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Patrick Miles

Sam2, aka our son James Miles, worked in Japan as a teacher from 2011 to 2014 (his first job when he got back to England was to set up Calderonia!). My wife Alison visited Jim in Japan in 2013. Jim … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alison Miles, Blithe Spirit, Calderonia, chrysanthemums, comments, culture, foreign cultures, guest posts, haiku, honesty pods, HQ Poetry Magazine, James Miles, Japan, Japanese literature, koi carp, Masaoka Shiki, Pleiades, saké, Sam2, senryu, sushi, tea, wasabi | 1 Comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 14

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Patrick Miles

1 February I received an email from Sam1 (Russia) in a Moscow hospital. His whole family has gone down with COVID. The others are coping with it at home, but he was rapidly losing lung capacity and had to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Amazon, Andrew Tatham, Anton Chekhov, aphasia, Aphasia Awareness Month, Barack Obama, biographies, Black Crow, Calderonia, comments, coronavirus, COVID-19, D.H. Lawrence, diaries, Edna Miles, Edna's Diary, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Harvey Pitcher, high blood pressure, John Pym, Ken Russell, language therapy, NHS, Russia, Sam&Sam, Sam1, Sam2, Sputnik, Stroke, Stroke Association UK, strokes, William Blake, Women in Love | 4 Comments

Guest Post: James Miles, ‘TLS Adverts A and B’

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Jim D G Miles

Last December we put an advert for George Calderon: Edwardian Genius in the Times Literary Supplement and, naturally, as the resident typesetter and “designer-ey” type on the Sam&Sam team, I was the one who made it. It was a lot … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged advertising, design, drop shadow, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, GNU Image Manipulation Program, Photoshop, Sam&Sam, Sam2, Times Literary Supplement, TLS | 3 Comments

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 12

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Patrick Miles

26 September Today I suddenly realised what life under Black Crow reminds me of: living in the Soviet Union. It would be unfair to compare Britain at the moment to the view from a window in Moscow University’s Stalinist hostel … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged advertisements, Andrew Tatham, Bashō, chrysanthemums, comments, coronavirus, COVID-19, dahlias, depression, freedom, garden gnomes, indie publishing, John Dewey, mental health, Moscow, Moscow State University, pandemic, psychosis, Reaktion Books, Rose Tremaine, Sam&Sam, Sam2, self-publishing, Times Literary Supplement, Twigs Way, USSR | Leave a comment

A signing

Posted on December 17, 2019 by Patrick Miles

Alison baked a perfect Victoria sponge and last Wednesday we took it along for tea with John Polkinghorne and his carer. He likes a nice cake (foregrounded in the photograph below). The five of us had a very lively conversation … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Alison Miles, Amazon, book launch, Jim Miles, John Polkinghorne, sales, Sam&Sam, Sam2, signing, tea, typesetting, Victoria sponge, What Can We Hope For? | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Sam2 on… ‘How to Typeset A Second Book’

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Jim D G Miles

The final act of Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev concerns a boy and a bell. In this hour-long conclusion to the film, the son of a deceased bellmaker persuades his village that the father bequeathed to him a secret bellmaking recipe. He … Continue reading →

Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary, Uncategorized | Tagged Amazon, Amazon KDP, Andrei Rublev, Andrei Tarkovsky, biographies, Chris Johnson, Church Times, comments, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, James Miles, John Polkinghorne, Kindle Direct Publishing, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Patrick Miles, PDF, publishers, Sam&Sam, Sam1, Sam2, TeX, TeXWorks, typesetting, What Can We Hope For? | 6 Comments

A tale of two front covers

Posted on September 9, 2019 by Patrick Miles

By the time you read this, Sam&Sam’s new book should be available through Amazon. I say ‘should’ because publishing a book through Amazon has been yet another fresh learning curve for us and sometimes we just had to wait to … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Amazon, book covers, Clays Ltd, Dante, design, eschatology, Gabo Trust, James Miles, John Polkinghorne, Kettle's Yard, Kindle Direct Publishing, Naum Gabo, publishing, Sam&Sam, Sam1, Sam2, Tate Gallery, typesetting, typography, What Can We Hope For? | 2 Comments

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 3

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Patrick Miles

14 May I gather, from a reliable source, that access to Calderonia has been blocked in Russia (I nearly said ‘the Soviet Union’). This would explain why no Russian viewers have featured in the stats for months. One can only … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Akala, Amazon, biographies, biography, British Council, Calderonia, Clays Ltd, comments, cyber warfare, Earlham, Edward Lear, eschatology, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, haiku, James Tait Black Prize, Jenny Uglow, John Dewey, John Polkinghorne, Kittie Calderon, Leonid Brezhnev, Marie Colvin, paradise, Percy Lubbock, plastic, pollution, ravens, Russia, Sam&Sam, Sam2, self-publishing, Shetland, Simon Cooke, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Vladimir Putin, wokefulness, World War I, Yell | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 2

Posted on May 16, 2019 by Patrick Miles

18 April The shortlist for this year’s James Tait Black Memorial Prize (biography) has been announced. Strong contenders are hip-hop artist Akala’s debut Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire and Susannah Walker’s The Life of Stuff: A … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Personal commentary | Tagged Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries, Andrew Tatham, biographies, biography, Calderón, Calderonia, comments, copyright libraries, Dardanelles, doorstops, Gallipoli, George Calderon, James Tait Black Prize, legal deposits, marketing, owls, publishers, quangos, Sam&Sam, Sam2, Spanish Ambassador, The Great War, Tinker, Victor Meldrew, World War I | 2 Comments

Guest post: Sam2 on… ‘How to Typeset a Book’ (Part 2)

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Jim D G Miles

“Pages… Pages EVERYWHERE!” ————— In the previous entry I went over some fundamentals of self typesetting. I want to point out that those techniques were merely what I had used myself…that is, how it appeared logical to me to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Adobe Acrobat Pro, Adobe InDesign, Ashitaka, biographies, biography, bottom justification, bugs, captions, Clays Ltd, comments, crop marks, Dante MT, fonts, formatting, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, GIMP, glitches, hair leads, hair lines, image trials, images, indie publishing, inset images, Jiro Horikoshi, Johannes Gutenberg, LibreOffice, orphans, PDF files, Prince Ashitaka, Princess Mononoke, printers, publishers, publishing, resolution, Sam&Sam, Sam1, Sam2, self-publishing, software, spacing, Studio Ghibli, The Wind Rises, tilting, trim marks, typefaces, typesetting, typesetting a book, typesetting styles, widows | 1 Comment

Guest post: Sam2 on… ‘How to Typeset a Book’ (Part 1)

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Jim D G Miles

She shuffled forward. “I would…” “Speak up!” “I would like you to…” “Yeeeeeesssss?” “I would like you to typeset this.” A messy wad of pages; some in different colours, some upside down, some not in any recognisable language. “You would … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged biographies, bleeds, Character style, Chihiro, Clays Ltd, comments, fonts, formatting, Frame style, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Ghibli, guest post, headers, indie publiishing, James Miles, Kamaji, layout, LibreOffice Writer, List style, margins, page numbers, Page style, paper formats, Paragraph style, PDF files, printers, publishers, running heads, Sam&Sam, Sam1, Sam2, self-publishing, Sen, Spirited Away, Studio Ghibli, trims, typefaces, typesetting, typesetting a book, typesetting styles | 5 Comments

Does computer typesetting produce a ‘chaotic system’?

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Patrick Miles

Like me, I expect you have wondered why a modern commercially published book that is to all appearances superbly produced can neverthless have typographical garbage and weird other phenomena in it, or why odd entries in its Index are consistently … Continue reading →