Independent Canadian publishing house
Stories that bridge worlds, eras, and lives.
Plantin, Defoe & Franklin Publishing is a Québec-based independent publisher dedicated to richly crafted fiction and carefully designed digital and physical editions. Our flagship world, Ash & Iron, traces the lives of the Varn family across twin river towns linked by a single bridge.
Current focus
Ash & Iron: The Foundry Boys
Book One of the Ash & Iron saga — a river, a bridge, and a community surviving the aftershocks of war.
Lost Chapters – Volume One
Companion stories from Ironmouth & Saint Brigid: fragments, minutes, and river legends that deepen the main novel.
What we publish
Historical & literary fiction
Our current catalogue centres on the Ash & Iron universe — character-driven stories rooted in early industrial life, twin river towns, and the quiet rebellions of ordinary people. The Foundry Boys and the Lost Chapters explore what happens when law, hunger, and loyalty intersect across a single bridge. More are in the work, so visit us often for the latest development.
Ash & Iron: The Foundry Boys
Two towns. Two countries. One bridge. In the shadow of the Varn & Sons foundry, Elias and Maeve Varn will cross every line to keep their people alive after war and mismanagement hollow out both banks of the river.
Ash & Iron: The lost chapters Volume I
There are places in this world where stories do not vanish. They settle—quiet as coal dust—into the cracks of old floorboards and ledger spines, into the margins of parish books and the backs of photographs.
These stories sit alongside the Ashes and Iron novels rather than inside them: side doors into the same valley, stories you don’t need to know to follow the saga… only to feel it more deeply.
Insights
Explore our blog for exclusive articles, author interviews, and behind-the-scenes stories that bring history and literature to life.
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The Long Way Home — A Lost Chapter from Ashes & Iron
This fragment belongs to the world of Ashes & Iron, where survival is less about…
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The Enemies — A Lost Chapter from Ashes & Iron
This fragment belongs to the world of Ashes & Iron, where opposition rarely arrives as…
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The Ones Who Make It Work — A Lost Chapter from Ashes & Iron
This fragment belongs to the world of Ashes & Iron, where systems endure not because…
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