Whatever Shopping Guide, Day 2: Non-Traditionally Published Books
Posted on December 6, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 265 Comments
Today is Day Two of the Whatever Shopping Guide, and today the focus is on Non-Traditionally Published Books: Self-published works, electronically-exclusive books, books from micro presses, books released outside the usual environs of the publishing world, and so on. Because, as someone who published his own first novel on his Web Site long before it was available in bookstores, I can say good writing is where you find it. I hope you find some good stuff today.
Please note that the comment thread today is only for non-traditional authors and editors to post about their books; please do not leave other comments, as they will be snipped out to keep the thread from getting cluttered. Thanks!
Authors/editors: Here’s how to post in this thread. Please follow these directions!
1. Authors and editors of non-traditionally published books only. This includes comics and graphic novels, as well as non-fiction books. If your book has been traditionally published — available in bookstores on a returnable basis — post about your book in the thread that went up yesterday (if you are in doubt, assume you are non-traditionally published and post here). If you are a creator in another form or medium, your thread is coming tomorrow. Don’t post if you are not the author or editor, please.
2. Completed works only. Do not post about works in progress, even if you’re posting them publicly. Remember that this is supposed to be a gift guide, and that these are things meant to be given to other people. Likewise, don’t just promote yourself unless you have something to sell or provide, that others may give as a gift.
3. One post per author. In that post, you can list whatever books of yours you like, but allow me to suggest you focus on your most recent book. Note also that the majority of Whatever’s readership is in the US/Canada, so I suggest focusing on books available in North America.
4. Keep your description of your book brief (there will be a lot of posts, I’m guessing) and entertaining. Imagine the person is in front of you as you tell them about your book and is interested but easily distracted.
5. You may include a link to a bookseller if you like by using standard HTML link scripting. Be warned that if you include too many links (typically three or more) your post may get sent to the moderating queue. If this happens, don’t panic: I’ll be going in through the day to release moderated posts. Note that posts will occasionally go into the moderation queue semi-randomly; Don’t panic about that either.
6. As noted above, comment posts that are not from authors/editors promoting their books as specified above will be deleted, in order to keep the comment thread useful for people looking to find interesting books.
Now: Tell us about your book!
The Worlds of Philip José Farmer series is one small publisher’s attempt to preserve–in limited edition numbered volumes–the history of science fiction Grand Master Philip José Farmer, while also enhancing his legacy by introducing him to new generations of readers.
Both volumes in this series to date are full of new and old material, fiction and non-fiction, all written by, or about, Philip José Farmer and his many creations. There are essays by the likes of Paul Malmont, Randall Garrett, James Gunn, Greg Bear, Charles Platt, James Sallis and others, fiction by Chris Roberson, Edward Morris, David Bischoff, Rhys Hughes, Win Scott Eckert, Mary Turzillo, Spider Robinson and many more. Not to mention rare, or never before seen, interviews, speeches, essays and fiction by Farmer himself! And last but not least, a new novella, “Kwasin and the Bear God,” by Philip José Farmer and Christopher Paul Carey.
Right now you can purchase a set of both volumes–with matching numbers–for $7.50 off the total cover prices, plus further savings in combined shipping: http://meteorhousepress.com/super-combo-deal/. You will also have the opportunity to purchase the same matching number of all future volumes.
It’s a collaborative storytelling adventure for kids. It’s a great pick up game for adults. The land of Skcos is inhabited by all manner of things, but primarily its inhabitants belong to a race of ever changing, always interesting creatures called Soppets.
Soppets are a magical breed of intelligent, funny, thrill seeking socks. Yes, you read that correctly, Socks.
Argyle & Crew is a free wheeling system powered by imagination. Rather than a character sheet like a traditional RPG, your character and it’s attributes are all based on a sock puppet, or in Skcos lingo, a Soppet. It’s available from Amazon.com for $9.25 or DriveThruRPG as a PDF for $2.99. This is a CC licensed product and can be shared as you see fit.
I’m also happy to provide free PDFs to teachers, councilors and educators.
Thank you!
Knight Errant is space opera, and I’m told it’s a fun read. :)
From pickpocket and con artist to little brother and trusted comrade is a tough transition, but Taro is making it. His new sister, former Marine Eve Marcori, promised his dead mother she’d look after him. To her that means family, home—her interstellar freighter—and a solid future. In four years she’s trained Taro extensively; the next step is college. Taro would rather be shot, but he never forgets his debt to Eve, so he means to honor her plans or die in the attempt.
When Eve rescues former joy-boy and current layabout Rafe Ballard, death seems the likely outcome. Rafe is so apparently useless that Eve calls him ‘the baggage’ and appoints Taro his custodian. Irritated into disobedience by his carefree charge, Taro tries to get rid of Rafe. Instead he gets them both kidnapped by the jealous husband Rafe was fleeing. Though they are off-planet before Taro can act, his training may be enough to bring them safely through—but now he has bigger problems. Forced into partnership and freedom with Rafe, Taro begins to see him differently. Kind, funny, and caring, Rafe is everything Taro never knew he wanted. And all he can’t have. Eve’s plans leave no room for a playboy boyfriend who can never measure up, and Taro can’t let her down.
This page has reviews and BUY LINKS. *cough*
Thanks for the opportunity, John.
Love anthologies? Love your Kindle? Love the spirit of giving?
Earlier this year, I co-edited (with Scott Harrison) a flash fiction anthology called “Voices From The Past”. It’s available in two editions from Amazon, for just a few of your earth dollars, and 100% of proceeds from Amazon goes to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.
“Why two versions?” you ask. “Good question,” I reply. The two versions are identical, but one costs a dollar or two less than the other. You choose which to buy – if you buy the slightly higher-priced (Premium) version, more money goes to the hospital charity. You get the same stories, but an increased sense of inner calm and well-being.
Featured authors include:
Mary Robinette Kowal
Alastair Reynolds
Bill Willingham
J. Robert King
Jacqueline Rayner
Jasper Fforde
Juliet E. McKenna
Kaaron Warren
Maura McHugh
Maurice Broaddus
Mur Lafferty
Paul Cornell
Robert Shearman
Scott Sigler
and about the same number again.
You can order it direct from Amazon, here: http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Past-Premium-ebook/dp/B004ZCI1RI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323179850&sr=8-2
Ooh. I’m in.
SHOTGUN GRAVY: An Atlanta Burns novella, #1.
A girl. Her shotgun. Some friends. And a handful of bullies.
Sometimes you have to fight back. But actions always have consequences.
$2.99. Available in all formats.
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/books-for-sale/shotgun-gravy-ab1/
Thanks for doing this, John!
— Chuck
I wrote a wee ebook (weebook?) called Catbooks and Other Methods: Free Writing Techniques to Clear Your Head, Improve Your Mood and Make Waiting at the Dentist’s Office Just a Little More Bearable, which is pretty much what it says on the cover. You can acquire it at Amazon and iTunes for a mere ninety-nine cents.
Go to http://www.wonderbink.com/books for more information (what where is of it.)
The Chaos We Know by Keith Rawson
(published by e-book only press Snubose Press)
http://amzn.to/tjC3wd
The Chaos We Know is the debut story collection from Keith Rawson featuring a mix of previously published stories and brand new stories for this collection.
ADVANCED PRAISE FOR THE CHAOS WE KNOW
“These aren’t stories (The Chaos We Know), these are slivers of a blasted world which Rawson gleefully embeds in your mind, and which won’t be dislodged by bourbon, ritual scarification, or even the police procedural — thank God. And thank God, too, for Rawson, who has the kind of talent to leave you mutilated and breathless.” — Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike
“The Chaos We Know is a pulp-fueled debut w/ dopers, cops, husbands and wives. boyfriends & girlfriends, psychos & sadists, sand-storming through the potholes & shithouses of Arizona, leaving barnacles of the self centered, the down trodden’ & the surviving. Keith Rawson is the new garbage-tongued satirist of filth, deviance & violence for the new underclass.” — Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook
“Keith Rawson wields his spare prose like a wrecking ball, laying bare a world of whores, petty criminals, crooked cops and meth heads. These short, sharp portraits of users &losers are deranged snapshots from deep in the underbelly of contemporary America. No tired noir tropes here, this is tough, unsentimental & savagely funny dark fiction that charts its own course” –Roger Smith, author of Wake Up Dead and Dust Devils
“Keith Rawson’s last name gives you a hint. It’s going to be raw, and it’s going to get to you. Like stepping on a shard of glass, but in a good way. Rawson’s stories always bowl me over with aggressive style and deep psychological fright” –Anthony Neil Smith, author of Yellow Medicine and Choke On Your Lies
“Reading Keith Rawson’s short stories is like strolling through a minefield: you know you’re in for trouble, and there’s no going back. Powerful, twisted, fierce and profane, this is take-no-prisoners fiction.” -Hilary Davidson, author of the Damage Done
High school nobody Kenan is doing just fine in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, thank you very much, but when his dream girl Katy comes stumbling around the corner, she turns his world upside-down as they embark on a nightmarish road trip that leads to the very source of the plague of the walking dead. An action-packed horror tale laced with dark humor.
“Well-written and highly entertaining. Great dollops of black humour and some wonderful characterisation round out this extremely enjoyable romp. Definitely one to add to the private library.” -Necroscope
The Zombie-Driven Life A dark thriller.
Thank you John for your generosity!
Open Minds (Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy)
When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.
Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.
Open Minds is a young adult, paranormal/SF novel that is the first book in the planned Mindjack Trilogy. Available at Amazon and Barnes&Noble.
Thanks, John, this really gives us a great opportunity to promote some of the books we publish.
We are a small publishing house based in Rockville, Maryland (Arc Manor) with a science fiction/fantasy imprint ( http://www.PhoenixPick.com ).
We’ve just launched a brand new series, The Stellar Guild, which teams up veteran authors with new writers they’d like to promote. Each book contains two stories, one by each author, set in the same universe. Mike Resnick is the series editor (I’m the general editor for all books published under the imprint).
The first book in the series is titled Tau Ceti, and pairs Kevin J. Anderson with Steven Savile. It’s hard SF with a generation ship and an Earth ruled by a despot. It’s available as a trade paperback ($7.99) or as an ebook ($4.99). You can buy the book directly from us or find links to various stores at http://www.PPickings.com .
The second in the series is a team-up between Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin and is a fascinating look at what happens when zombies, werewolves and vampires are all stuck in the close confines of a spaceship. Ebook is available at various stores ($4.99) and the trade paperback will be available in about a week ($6.99).
For those looking for some classic SF reading, we’ve published Galouye’s two classics, Simulacron-3 and Dark Universe; de Camp’s Lest Darkness Fall with a special introduction by Alexei Panshin and related stories by Frederik Pohl, David Drake and S.M. Stirling; as well as works by Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton.
Finally, for those really interested in SF and its development over the years, we offer a hardcover edition of Alexei and Cory Panshin’s Hugo-winning work, The World Beyond the Hill … as great a read today as when it was originally published.
All these books are available at most online stores. Our complete catalogue page, which includes links to all of the above, is at http://www.PPickings.com .
Blood Picnic and other stories is an anthology of my short fiction, with 28 flash and short stories. It’s got fantasy, horror and lit fic, lots of stories to amaze and amuse. Blood Picnic is available for $2.99 at Kindle at Amazon.com and for iPad, iPhone, iTouch or Mac OS at the iTunes store. You can also find it for other formats at Smashwords.
It’s gotten mostly 5 star ratings. Here are some reviews from Amazon (just so you don’t go buying a pig in a poke):
“Tony nails it. The guy has an ear for dialog that is rare. Very rare.” – Jeff Posey, Amazon review
“I can’t stress enough how enjoyable these stories are, with their intelligent plotting and deft wordplay. Tony has a vivid imagination and a true mastery of the written word, and I guarantee you’ll find something to love in this collection.” – Icy Sedgwick, Smashwords review
“This is a rich and satisfying collection to savour over several readings or to devour in one sitting.” – WriteStuff, Amazon review
“He can write a whole story and take your breath away with the final line.” – Journey of a Bookseller
p.s. A poke is sort of like a duffel bag.
In Spring 2010, I released “The Queen of Crows,” a full color illustrated e-book with extras for the reader. We’re proofing the print edition as we speak. The short story entitled “The Queen of Crows” takes place during the 1860s, and focuses on the tough decisions that a Navajo elder named “Tse” must make to save his people. Will he summon Mahochepi, the Queen of Crows, without knowing who–or what–she is? Read the story and find out!
Reviewers have really liked this full color foray into historical dark fantasy. To get a feel for what this e-book is about, feel free to watch the trailer or download a preview. The music was composed by James Semple, who has done work on House of Hell.
Multiple formats available at DriveThruFiction.com. The Kindle/Nook versions are primarily text-based. http://www.drivethrufiction.com/product_info.php?products_id=79168
My novel WITNESS TO DEATH was named one of the 12 best crime thrillers of the year by the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINAL. It’s available for 99 cents on the Nook and Kindle.
THE HALCYON TRILOGY (historical fantasy)
In an alternate 16th century, Moroccan airship engineer Taziri Ohana, Spanish fencer Lorenzo Quesada, and exiled Incan princess Qhora Yupanqui join forces to defeat an international conspiracy of murderers, thieves, and occult priests trying to control not only the world, but Death itself.
But these heroes have more than revolvers and rapiers on their side. They have the wisdom of a dead nun, the fangs of a hungry saber-toothed cat, and a fantastical flying machine called HALCYON.
Titles: THE BURNING SKY, THE BROKEN SWORD, and THE BOUND SOUL
http://www.josephrobertlewis.com/
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades: Tales of terror and technology. This is an ebook available at at all the major ebook retailers, (Amazon, Nook, iBooks and Smashwords). It is a collection of horror and dark SF stories all of which were honorable mentions in The Writers Of The Future Contest and the collection is just 99 cents.
Here’s the blurb for my urban fantasy novel, IMPERIUM:
Vincent Corinthos leads a triple life. As a secret agent, he handles paranormal threats; as a god, he protects his followers from evil forces; as a stock clerk, he keeps the back room of an antique store tidy.
When one of his fellow agents goes missing, Vincent begins with the usual suspects. His investigation reveals that Boston’s latest supernatural threat is also waging war on his followers, and has diabolic intentions for the city’s paranormal citizens.
Now, with the aid of a new partner and a gremlin, Vincent must locate the missing agent, defend his followers and learn the identity of his adversaries before they can revive a malevolent force that’s been dormant since World War II.
IMPERIUM is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
I publish print and ebooks via Lulu.com, at House of D: House of D has a range of titles running from tiny, pocket-sized short story collections (appropriately titled “Tiny Fictions”, in fact) up to my train-journey-diminishing London-based urban sci-fi novel Pass the Parcel, and including novellas, poetry collections, and guides on writing. House of D also publishes the writing of other authors, namely poetry by House to Astonish’s Al Kennedy and Boston performance artist & MC Amy Macabre, and a short story collection by various authors including Sunny Morraine and Addy Pugh, called Help!: Twelve Tales of Healing. This last book is a good choice if you’re into giving charity-based gifts as all the profits from the sale of Twelve Tales are donated to Medecins Sans Frontiere/Doctors Without Borders. Lulu ships worldwide, and all the titles available are printed in the UK and in the USA. Personally I would recommend Pass the Parcel to anyone stranded away from the internet over Christmas as it’s long and, I am informed, very engrossing.
I’ll play, and thanks, John.
ALL YOU LEAVE BEHIND
When Chase, a courier’s package starts ringing, he breaks all the rules to open it. Inside is the remains of a bomb, a cell phone and a gun. The stranger on the other end of the line tells him the parcel was supposed to blow up on delivery to kill the recipient, and would’ve taken him out too. But she’s fixed it, and given him the chance to set things right. If he wants to.
A spanking good novella for $2.99 in all good digital formats, direct from me: http://www.seancregan.com/store/all-you-leave-behind/
Thanks for this, much appreciated :)
Here’s my debut editorial project ‘City of Hell Chronicles: Volume 1. A horror anthology of terrifying tales.
Available on Amazon
Description:
Volume 1 is the genesis of the City of Hell mythos. This anthology of stories show how the Ant-headed God ‘The Great Maurr’ ascended to rule the Earth and enslaved the human population. Only three cities remain: Moscow, London and Hong Kong. All crumbling, dying versions of their former glory. These are the chronicles of the last few survivors.
With stories by six international female authors, and one male, this first volume combines the Old evil and weirdness of H.P Lovecraft with the all out gory horror of Clive Barker.
Subjects range from madness to murder, and from desperation to primal fear. City of Hell Chronicles Volume 1 will take you on a truly disturbing ride into the grim, terrifying landscape of a near future Earth ruled by an army of giant-ants the size of men, human-centipede hybrids and bizarre mutants.
Once again, thanks, John!
My newly minted direct-to-ebook compilation: Collected Works From an Unrepentant Writer is now available for a special intro price. Links to purchase at my blog post.
It’s a series of essays and blog posts from over the years, addressing such varied topics as the writing process to miscellaneous thoughts about life and social mores to thoughts about television episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
PLUS! Bonus content for fans of the Blood Lines series!
How Do You Like Your Blue-Eyed Boy? By Barry Graham
https://sites.google.com/site/dogobarrygraham/howdoyoulikeyourblueeyedboy
“Immensely entertaining… a helluva plot, and a wonderful twist.”
– Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike
Andy Saunders knows how to survive. He survived all alone in Los Angeles as a teenager, and he survived in foreign combat zones as a soldier. He survived homelessness on the streets of Phoenix, Arizona, an unforgiving desert metropolis that is the fifth-largest city in the nation.
He’s had enough of surviving, and now enjoys life, working as a handyman, teaching martial arts and playing in a punk rock band. But, when a friend falls victim to a contract killing and the police do nothing, Saunders decides to make some inquiries – then finds that he has passed the point of no return, and that the killer is now hunting him. He once again must fight for survival, and the fight will lead him to a truth more awful than anything he has ever known.
The wide open spaces of Arizona turn dark and claustrophobic in this punk-noir tale of seething cruelty and rationalized evil.
Hi everybody, and thanks John for these holiday year-end threads.
I’m Sam, and I publish Bull Spec, a full-size, glossy, quarterly print magazine of speculative fiction. We’re about to (finally, oh! let it be soon!) push the button for issue #7, which has new fiction from Jason Erik Lundberg, Jason K. Chapman, Natania Barron, D.K. Thompson, and Stephanie Ricker, and interviews with Vernor Vinge, David Drake, C.S. Friedman, Lauren Beukes, Dario Ciriello, and Rebecca K. Rowe, along with poetry, reviews, and more.
But wait: issue #7 will almost certainly not be at your target destination by the holidays.
But wait! Any of the other back-issues would arrive with time to spare; and! a 4-issue subscription starting with issue #6 or earlier will provide something with which to stuff a stocking, as well as provide a friendly reminder around the New Year (and every 3 or so months from then!) as to what a clever, generous, awesome gifter you are. (Unless it’s for yourself, in which case: you’re not fooling yourself, but you can still enjoy the every-few-months reminder of how excellent you are. To yourself.)
So don’t wait! Subscribe today. Heck, do it twice, once for yourself, and once for that friend or sibling or parent of yours from whom you want quarterly thanks. (And those of you who prefer digital, you can subscribe to the DRM-free PDF edition via Weightless Books — it looks great on the iPad.)
Thanks for this platform, John. Whenever anyone asks about the difficulties of self-publishing, I tell them that the writing and publishing are easy. Making people aware of your ebook’s existence? Now that’s a different kettle of AdWords.
Anyway, I’m the author of non-fiction ebook How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else. It aims to tell the reader everything I know about journalistically quizzing people, after 20 years and over 1000 interviews’ worth of experience.
You can buy the book via any Amazon site, or direct from me in a Triple Pack of PDF, ePub and Kindle formats, to keep everyone happy! More details here: http://www.HowToInterviewPeople.info
I also contributed to that Voice From The Past compilation highlighted by Lord Lee Harris above. Funnily enough, I’d recommend it!
The world of anthropology would have been excited when a perfectly preserved Neanderthal body is discovered in the Greenlandic permafrost, if authorities would allow the details out. When an American anthropologist involved in the excavation is denied access to the body, she uses an illicit tissue sample as source material to carry the Neanderthal’s clone to term herself.
Meet Ike Mudge, twenty-first-century Neanderthal man. Self-educated and raised in a laboratory thirty-thousand years out of his time, he is alone in a world of billions. Will it drive him insane, or will he make a final contribution for his kind–a Neanderthal Swan Song?
Neanderthal Swan Song, available in trade paperback and Kindle versions from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Neanderthal-Swan-Song-Rick-Novy/dp/1463517882/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_5
and in EPUB format from Barnes and Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/neanderthal-swan-song-rick-novy/1102233181?ean=9781463517885&itm=4&usri=rick+novy
The Devil Stood Up
will change you. Read a review here: http://dreadfultales.com/2011/11/20/the-devil-stood-up-by-christine-dougherty/
Available on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc…
Broken (Book one in the Extrahumans series–book two is out in January!) from teeny press Candlemark & Gleam.
Can a clairvoyant teenager, a homeless ex-superhero and a lost young woman rescue one tiny shred of hope for humanity’s future?
Publishers’ Weekly (starred review) says: “Bigelow’s action-packed, fast-flying debut is buttressed by a believable, detailed world and populated by a cast of unforgettable, deeply realized characters. Her unusual and heartfelt take on superheroes underscores what makes these iconic characters heroic—and what makes them profoundly human.”
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Hallo! Thanks for doing this! :)
The Secret Diary of a Princess: A Novel of Marie Antoinette is available from Amazon for the princely sum of $3.
The dramatic and often tragic years of Marie Antoinette’s early life, told in her own words. This book follows her privileged childhood and adolescence in the beautiful palaces of Vienna as the youngest and least important of the daughters of the all powerful Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and invites the reader to share the long journey, both emotional and physical that ended with her marriage to the Dauphin Louis of France at Versailles.
This is the unforgettable story of a charming, fun loving and frivolous young girl, destined for greatness, coming to age in one of the most magnificent and opulent courts that the world has ever seen.
‘As soon as the introductions were over, the King took my hand and led me to the Dauphin, who I had barely noticed since entering the room. He seemed to be trying his best to hide from view and looked uncomfortable and ill at ease in his suit of white satin, sewn all over with diamonds and gold embroidery and I noticed with irritation that he was scratching at his neck underneath the fine white linen of his shirt collar, leaving red scratch marks beneath his powdered wig.
‘Are you ready?’ the King asked as he gave my hand to the Dauphin. ‘All of Versailles awaits you.’
I nodded, feeling the Dauphin’s hand grow hot and clammy against my own. ‘I am ready.’
I’ve recently published two of my older published stories at Smashwords. “Improving Slay Times in the Common Dragon,” was my first published story and possibly my “greatest hit” to date, based on the amount of positive feedback I’ve received, about the woes of magical graduate school. “Long Winter’s Nap” is a Christmas story about a transgenic child adapted to the harsh winters of a future ice age who wants to meet Santa Claus. I’m happy to offer both stories free at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/cathshaffer
John —
Thanks much for the open forum :-)
My most recent release is the genre-bending mystery Down From Ten:
In early January, a group of friends gather for an annual retreat: eight artists, scientists, and authors cloistered together in a mansion in California’s high country for ten days of games, conversation, exhibition, and hedonism while isolated from the outside world.
The biggest Sierra snowstorm in over twenty years, however, is not part of their plans.
When the house is buried in an avalanche, leaving our heroes with no way to hike out, they must somehow survive and stay sane while waiting for rescue—which becomes difficult when they all start having the same dream.
“Down From Ten is a brilliant, sometimes creepy take on a bohemian cozy with surreal underpinnings and an irrepressibly touching ending.” –Gail Carriger, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Parasol Protectorate series
Find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Down-From-Ten-ebook/dp/B006GMV8PW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323180400&sr=8-1 (also available at B&N and Smashwords)
— — —
I also have two ongoing series. The first is The Antithesis Progression, a series of science fiction spy thrillers:
A Man Walks Into A Bar…
Joss Kyle is a one-time National Security Advisor who barely escaped Washington D.C. with his skin intact. For three years he’s lived by his wits and the fall of the cards in the criminal underworld of South America, but jumping planet for Space Station Sidon means walking into an ambush more dangerous than any he’s yet faced:
A man named Alex Hart wants to play cards with him.
Their meeting will fling Joss into a game playing for highest stakes in town: control of the entire solar system. Chased by a revolutionary leader, agents of a corrupt senator, and an underworld boss known only as The Green Lady, he quickly discovers that in the looking-glass world above the gravity well, survival, like poker, is just another sport. And in this contest, it isn’t whether you win or lose, it’s how you rig the game.
“A sweeping tale of politics, corruption, intrigue, betrayal, and murder…a fast-paced ride through a world that’s too plausible to be ignored.” –Nathan Lowell, author of Quarter Share
“Lovingly detailed, well-written, thinking man’s science fiction at its best…with more twists than Chubby Checker.” —View From Valhalla
Find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Predestination-Chance-Antithesis-Progression-ebook/dp/B004XW312A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323180779&sr=8-1 (also available at B&N and Smashwords)
— — —
And, finally, the first volume of my neo-noir Clarke Lantham Mysteries:
Disgraced former cop Clarke Lantham doesn’t mind making his living as a PI. He doesn’t mind the long hours, living in his office, or even dealing with bill collectors, because it keeps him in the city–as close to heaven as he’s ever likely to get.
Fortunately, the world needs private detectives. Unfortunately for Lantham, on this particular Saturday morning “the world” consists of a fretful mother with a missing daughter, and the place he has to go to look for her has a name every bit as ominous as hell: Suburbia.
With only a teenager’s blog and diaries to go on, and time running out, Lantham chases the puzzle pieces from the posh shadow of Mount Diablo to the kink clubs of San Francisco to the genetic engineering labs of Stanford. Tailed by mercenaries, framed for murder, and forced into hiding, he somehow must keep his head in the face of a world where the normal rules of reality don’t seem to apply…all for the sake of a nineteen-year-old girl whose face he sees every time he closes his eyes.
“J. Daniel Sawyer gives us a PI for the new millennium, and a mystery so dark and complex you could lose a molar biting into it.” –Seth Harwood, author of Young Junius
“…witty and pithy, with a storyline that keeps you engaged, this is a recommended read…one of the top reads of 2010…” —MotherLode Book Reviews
Find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Then-Gone-Clarke-Lantham-Mysteries/dp/145641710X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323180929&sr=8-1 (also available on Smashwords and B&N)
—-
Thanks again!
All the best
-Dan
Unity Alpha</I is my debut novel. The back cover blurb is:
It is available in print from from Amazon or CreateSpace, and in ebook form from a number of sources, all of which are linked to on my site.
WE ALL FALL DOWN
By Steven Hart (Black Angel Press)
A woman police officer with a lot to prove and a hothouse of personal demons to conquer. A small-town police chief and his wife found dead in their home. A meth-head burglar in more trouble than he ever thought possible.
Think you’ve heard it before? WE ALL FALL DOWN will pull the rug out from under your expectations often enough to leave you feeling bruised even as you keep turning the pages. This is a crime novel with brains, style, and a unique heroine you won’t forget.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. Thriller writer J.D. Rhoades says the novel “delivers one electric jolt after another,” and Kristy Kiernan admires the complexity of the characters and the quality of the writing.
One of four excellent books published this year by Internet-based Black Angel Press.
http://www.blackangelpress.com
Blue Galaxy by Diane Dooley from digital first publisher, Carina Press.
Blurb:
Javan Rhodes, the hard-drinking, disreputable captain of space freighter The Kypris, took a mission to save himself from hitting the bottom of the food chain. Transporting Sola, a beautiful young aristocrat, from Earth to an unknown destination on the outer rim of the colonies is lucrative, but also highly illegal.
As tough as it is to evade both the law and the lawless, the hardest part of the job is not falling in love with his irresistible cargo. Just as he decides that he will never be able to hand her over to the warlord she must marry, he discovers that Sola has been playing a very dangerous game—one that could not only cost them their lives, but could also affect the balance of power in an increasingly dangerous universe.
E-novella, currently $2.79. Falling in love is easy; staying alive long enough to enjoy it just might be impossible.
Thanks so much, John!
Thanks for the opportunity, John!
I’m the author of a SF novella, Lyon’s Legacy. Joanna Lyon is the great-granddaughter of the legendary TwenCen musician Sean Lyon, whom she despises. Her uncle sets up a business deal with her employer to make Joanna go on a mission for him: travel via the spaceship Sagan to an alternate TwenCen universe where Sean is still alive. Joanna must collect a DNA sample from Sean so her uncle can create a clone of him. She refuses at first, but finally agrees to go. Secretly, however, Joanna believes her uncle will exploit the clone, and she plans to sabotage the project to stop him. But when she falls in love with one of the scientists in the Sagan’s genetics lab, clashes with other time travelers who fear she’ll change how history develops on the alternative TwenCen Earth, and receives devastating personal news, Joanna will find herself pushed to her limit even before she comes face-to-face with her hated ancestor. Their encounter will leave her changed forever. Will she still be able to thwart her uncle’s plan, and what will she have to sacrifice to do so?
Available as an e-book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lyons-Legacy-Catalyst-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B005T82Z0G/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
Thank you Mr. Scalzi.
Our book is a collection of horror short stories and novellas. There are zombies, vampires, giant monsters and other surprises. There is horror, suspense and even a little comedy thrown in for good measure. We believe there is a story within these pages for any horror fan — probably more.
Our influences range from Edgar Allen Poe to George Romero to Ishiro Honda. If you like any of these story tellers, we believe you will also enjoy our stories. We feel (as did Alfred Hitchcock) that what is a little horror without some comedy thrown in. Thus, while the stories may deal with some dark themes, the mood will occasionally be lightened by a little comedy. That way, we can lay it on a little thicker.
We hope you enjoy our effort as much as we did writing and editing it.
If you want a audio sample of one of the stories, you can get that here. Thanks again!
Two ebooks books out from Daverana:
A fantasy parody from Tales of the Axe by Timothy Willard, creator of the Year of the Zombie RPG.
Fraker the Axe is a legend who has ruined kingdoms and defeated entire armies. But what happens between the epic feats, quests, and world shaking events? Tales of the Axe follows Fraker as he follows the commands of his powerful liege or stumbles across complex plots that could change everything. Fraker has nothing but his wits and battle prowess to keep the entire Six Worlds safe from evil.
Serpent’s Quest by Janrae Frank
Malthus arrives in Red Wolf, posing as a human refugee from the war beyond their borders. An assassin, code-named “Butchering Serpent,” he searches for what happened to his brother who vanished there two years ago and intends todestroy the lycans for his queen. Opposing him is Kynyr, an idealistic young guardsman with secrets of his own, trained by the greatest armsmaster of all time.
Serpent’s Quest got a fine review from Bitten by Books.
I’ve just released my fantasy romance The Wolf’s Destiny. The Wolf’s Sister & The Wolf’s mate were previously released as short ebooks and this novel concludes the story.
Two lives, one love, one destiny.
Jeren and Shan have finally made a home together, but they are not forgotten. An assasination attempt drives Jeren to make a stand against her brother. Meanwhile Shan struggles against the darkness inside him. When Jeren delcares her intention to go to war, Shan make a single mistake which changes everything.
Their destiny is written. How can it be changed again?
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/110908
Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Wolfs-Destiny-tale-Holtlands-ebook/dp/B006HW5B4K/ref=sr_1_5?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323181639&sr=1-5
Thanks!
For this Christmas season, I have two free sword-and-sorcery novels.
The first is “Child of the Ghosts”, about Caina Amalas, the daughter of a murdered nobleman drawn into an elite society of spies and assassins:
http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/writer/?page_id=1057
The second is “Demonsouled”, about a wandering knight who returns home after fifteen years, only to find evil lurking in his home and in his own heart:
http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/writer/?page_id=880
Please enjoy my western novella, Snake Canyon Outlaw.
As the Neuces Kid, all Johnny Hardin had to dodge was bounty hunters, but when he tried to bring peace to a country smoldering with the fires of a range war, nesters and cowmen alike fought for the chance to pin down his hide with screaming lead!
Caught in the middle of a canyon burning with rage, an old enemy stands between the Neuces Kid and a life free from gunfighting.
Johnny Hardin has to fight cowmen, outlaws and his past if he wants freedom. And he wants it bad.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0069VMMQE
Thanks again, John! You da man! Here’s a summary of my horror/thriller, THE TASTE ($2,99, available on Kindle or Nook)
After his mother dies, Jake Wheeler returns to his birthplace of Dark Springs, West Virginia, seeking solace among his kin. But his family’s unique comfort food includes some ingredients Jake’s not sure he can stomach.
They eat dead people.
Discovering that skeleton in the pantry and adjusting to a new diet turn out to be the least of Jake’s worries. Storm clouds have gathered over Dark Springs, threatening the family’s peaceful existence. Ax-wielding clan patriarch Dallas Pike and his band of renegade followers have decided upon a violent plan to increase the dwindling food supply. Why wait for your next meal to die naturally if you can hunt it down instead?
With the survival of the entire clan at stake, Jake wages war against madman Pike.He also battles an even more terrifying opponent. Himself.
After all, Jake has THE TASTE.
“A promising first novel from an interesting stylist with a lot of atmosphere and chills.” – Jeff Vandermeer
The Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane is a grand and terrible building. Abandoned over forty years ago, there now sound in rooms and halls where tortured screams once rung only the tread of urban explorers as they marvel at its ruined grandeur.
Yet something still resides in its ancient depths.
CRUDE SUNLIGHT is a tale of modern psychological horror, and available now for $2.99 on Amazon.
I self published via Amazon not too long ago. It was an interesting experience. I have had minor success with it. I think it is a good, you should check it out if you like germaphob stories. And if you like it, write a review!
http://www.amazon.com/Warning-Hazardous-to-Humans-ebook/dp/B005XCZDAM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323182211&sr=8-1
The Worker Prince is book 1 in a space opera series.
“If your reader’s heart longs for the Golden Age of Science Fiction–when good was good and bad was bad, and great characters fought against universal odds–then The Worker Prince is for you. Good, retro fun for family.”— Jason Sanford, author Never Never Stories, Interzone
What if everything you thought you knew about yourself and the world turned out to be wrong?
For Davi Rhii, Prince of the Boralian people, that nightmare has become a reality. Freshly graduated from the prestigious Borali Military Academy, now he’s discovered he was secretly adopted and born a worker. Ancient enemies of the Boralians, enslaved now for generations, the workers of Vertullis live lives harder than Davi had ever imagined. To make matters worse, Davi’s discovered that the High Lord Councillor of the Alliance, his uncle Xalivar, is responsible for years of abuse and suppression against the workers Davi now knows as his own people.
His quest to rediscover himself brings him into conflict with Xalivar and his friends and family, calling into question his cultural values and assumptions, and putting in jeopardy all he’s worked for his whole life. Davi’s never felt more confused and alone. Will he stand and watch the workers face continued mistreatment or turn his back on his loved ones and fight for what’s right? Whatever he decides is sure to change his life forever.
“I found myself thinking of stories that I read during my (misspent) youth, including Heinlein juveniles and the Jason January tales, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars.”— Redstone SF
326 pp · ISBN 978‐0‐9840209‐0‐4 ·Trade Paperback/Epub/Mobi · 4 5-star & 5 4-star reviews $3.99 Kindle http://amzn.to/pnxaNm or Nook http://bit.ly/ni9OFh$14.99 tpb http://bit.ly/qIJCkS Now available signed in Kindle as well as paperback!
I’m one of a handful of authors lucky enough to have launch titles with a new e-only publisher called Blasted Heath (www.blastedheath.com), who are not only selling through the usual avenues, but have also selling a nifty little box set (yes, a physical object!) of all five of the following launch novels:
ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS, Anthony Neil Smith
When two of the Twin Cities’ “Lost Boys” — young Somali men drafted to fight for terrorists back in the homeland — kill a pair of cops on his home turf, detective Ray Bleeker is left devastated. One of the dead cops was his girlfriend.
The investigation grinds to a halt when he discovers that the young murderers have fled to Somalia to fight in the rebel army. He’s at his wits’ end when the father of one of the boys, an ex-gang leader named Mustafa, comes looking for answers, wanting to clear his son’s name and refusing to take no for an answer.
Bleeker and Mustafa form an uneasy alliance, teaming up to help bring the boys back home to stand trial. But little do they know what Somalia has in store for them.
Murder, warfare, piracy, love, betrayal and revenge. All the Young Warriors is an epic thriller that will
have you white-knuckling your eReader all through the night.
DEAD MONEY, Ray Banks (that’s me, hello)
Double-glazing salesman Alan Slater is in trouble. He hasn’t had a good sales lead in months. His wife rightly suspects him of playing around. His best mate Les Beale has turned into a bigoted, boozed-up headcase. And that’s the least of it.
When a rigged poker game has fatal consequences, Alan finds himself not only responsible for the clean-up, but also for Beale’s escalating debt to a man who won’t take “broke” for an answer. As Beale’s life spirals out of control, he becomes ever more desperately reliant on Alan to save his skin.
But Alan isn’t about to be dragged into the gutter by anyone, least of all his bad-beat, dead money former mate.
After all, there’s no such thing as a compassionate double-glazing salesman.
THE MAN IN THE SEVENTH ROW, Brian Pendriegh
What happened that turned one man’s world inside out? Roy is a film fan. He loves the cinema. Maybe he loves the cinema a little too much. Lately, things have been going wrong. He settles into his favourite seat to watch an old movie, but he’s not seeing what he expects to see. No matter the film – The Graduate, Brief Encounter, The Magnificent Seven – he finds himself sucked from his seventh-row seat into the heart of the action on the big screen.
Roy’s everywhere. Playing lead roles in dozens of classic movies. A fantasy come true? Or a living nightmare?
PHASE FOUR, Gary Carson
On a remote desert highway in Nevada, a classified military convoy transporting nerve gas for incineration is hijacked by a group of Middle Eastern terrorists.
In San Francisco, Homeland Security investigator Matthew Drake is assigned to put one of the suspects under surveillance. But when the gas is released inside a luxury high-rise hotel in an apparent attempt to assassinate the President, Drake realizes – too late – that the hijackers weren’t terrorists, the convoy wasn’t carrying nerve gas and that something is very wrong in Washington D.C.
Now mobs are rioting in the Bay Area – fighting among themselves, jumping out of windows, creating utter chaos. And it’s spreading across California at a frightening speed, threatening to engulf the entire country.
Hunted by professional killers who seem to be working for his own employers, Drake finds himself on the run with disgraced CIA surveillance technician Gena Hahn, but he’s not sure which side she’s on. Locked up in a FEMA camp as the United States descends into madness, held prisoner in a secret Continuity of Government facility miles under the Utah desert, they struggle to survive a conspiracy gone wrong – a sinister plan to achieve total control over the human mind.
And, last but not least, THE LONG MIDNIGHT OF BARNEY THOMPSON, Douglas Lindsay
Barney Thomson — awkward, diffident, Glasgow barber — lives a life of desperate mediocrity. Shunned at work and at home, unable to break out of a twenty-year rut, each dull day blends seamlessly into the next.
However, there is no life so tedious that it cannot be spiced up by inadvertent murder, a deranged psychopath, and a freezer full of neatly packaged meat.
Barney Thomson’s uninteresting life is about to go from 0 to 60 in five seconds, as he enters the grotesque and comically absurd world of the serial killer…
The Journal of Woody Peska: Dog from Beyond the Grave, Jason Katzwinkel’s first full-length novel, is a coming of age story about a grown-ass man; his half-hearted attempts at romance; a search for undeserved redemption; and the exploration of a paranoid, closed-minded, myopic world.
Woody Peska doesn’t want anything but to be left alone. Much to his dismay, however, people care about him and attempt to thrust him into happiness. As Woody struggles to cope with the people around him and adapt to the lives they lead, he fails to connect with anybody and he learns nothing. Frankly, he’s kind of a dick.
It’s your basic love story.
http://www.katzwinkel.com/peska/
THE CITY OF HELL CHRONICLES, VOL. I
I’m one of the authors of the newly released (the first of this month) The City of Hell Chronicles. It’s a horror short story collection from 7 international writers, most of whom are female. Influenced by Lovecraft and Barker, this collection tells the story of the rise The Great Maurr, the ant-headed old one, his enslavement of the human race, and the pockets of survivors in the City of Hell itself or Moskow, London and Hong Kong, the only remaining cities.
Find it on Amazon and more info here (inlcuding other formats).
OF ALTERED STATES, A COLLECTIVE
Also, ready for release is of Altered States, volume one. These short stories are brought to you by a collective of 13 international writers, who for the second volume will be teaming up with illustrators, photographers and graphic designers to bring you full colour visual and written fiction. The collections cover a range of genres all with the common of Altered States theme; all the stories focus on change after conflict and how humanity deals with trials, tribulation and the unknown.
Because we want to share with you our love for the short story, and our faith in our group and what we do, the first edition of of Altered States is a FREE DOWNLOAD! More info on the project here.
Well mine is a comic, but still self published =)
Captain John lands the first manned mission to Mars with his robot sidekick Asimov, only to find out that they are out of fuel, food and patience with each other! Luckily the local Martians befriend our heroes, but it seems that adventure awaits around every corner… including finding out who *really* landed the first Mars mission!
Suitable for the whole family!
There are two printed collections you can get on this page:
http://www.maroonedcomic.com/store/
Or, you can buy inexpensive digital versions
http://theillustratedsection.com/out-of-orbit
http://theillustratedsection.com/mars-wars
http://theillustratedsection.com/tale-of-two-robots
Felony Fists and The Cutman are the first two books in the Fight Card series inspired by the fight pulps of the ’30s and ’40s – such as Fight Stories Magazine – and Robert E. Howard’s two-fisted boxing tales featuring Sailor Steve Costigan.
The books are written under the unifying pseudonym Jack Tunney, but feature established authors who love the genre (such as myself – Paul Bishop – and Mel Odom in the first two books, with upcoming entries from Eric Beetner, Robert Randisi, Gary Phillips, and others).
Felony Fists: Los Angeles 1954. Patrick “Felony” Flynn has been fighting all his life. Learning the “sweet science” from Father Tim the fighting priest at St. Vincent’s, the Chicago orphanage where Pat and his older brother Mickey were raised, Pat has battled his way around the world – first with the Navy and now with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Legendary LAPD chief William Parker is on a rampage to clean up both the department and the city. His elite crew of detectives known as The Hat Squad is his blunt instrument – dedicated, honest, and fearless. Promotion from patrol to detective is Pat’s goal, but he also yearns to be one of the elite.
And his fists are going to give him the chance.
Gangster Mickey Cohen runs LA’s rackets, and murderous heavyweight Solomon King is Cohen’s key to taking over the fight game. Chief Parker wants wants Patrick “Felony” Flynn to stop him – a tall order for middleweight ship’s champion with no professional record.
Leading with his chin, and with his partner, LA’s first black detective Tombstone Jones, covering his back, Patrick Flynn and his Felony Fists are about to fight for his future, the future of the department, and the future of Los Angeles. http://tinyurl.com/77waxog
Thanks so much for doing this, John!
Forever Material
A romantic comedy by Athena Grayson
She’s absolutely sure he’s not the marrying kind…
He’s absolutely sure she’s right…
But he’s still going to prove her wrong.
After making a fool out of herself too many times over bad boys with no responsibility and nothing but heartbreak on their minds, Barbara Whitehall developed a philosophy to help women like herself get over the bad boys and find good men. And it works. Her DateSmart workshops have become so popular that she’s leased a storefront and is now giving them on a weekly basis. Hundreds of women have been helped through DateSmart, and while she hasn’t found her Forever Material yet, she’s confident that she’ll recognize him when she sees him.
Jake Mancini’s life was going just fine until his good-looking new neighbor walked into his life on killer legs. But those legs are nothing next to her lethal tongue. Her “DateSmart” workshops have cheated him out of several mutually enjoyable Saturday nights with attractive women.
But Barbara’s always had a soft spot for bad boys, even though she knows they’re bad for her. If she lets Jake get too close, she’ll end up losing her heart to one more bad boy who’ll toss it in the trash when he’s done.
Available at Smashwords, Amazon, B&N, and other fine ebook retailers!
Cheers to you John for the opportunity. So here goes.
A naughty boy does naughty things as he walks “The Excess Road”. This is a bildungsroman influenced by Sartre’s “Nausea” but don’t let that get in the way of the fun because during a journey of self-discovery on a party-college campus Joaquin Chandler encounters the dirty little secrets that every university has. Is there love story? Yes. Does Joaquin have sex? Yes. Does he hang around with the wrong people and someone ends up dead? Yes. Does he hallucinate? You bet. Links: Barnes&Noble–> http://tinyurl.com/7h9mshc and now iTunes–> http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-excess-road/id425344252?mt=11 and Smashwords–> http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/39547 the novel is also available on Kobo and Diesel websites.
Happy Holidays!
My name is Paul Comstock, and I have twelve science fiction and fantasy short stories and noveletes available as ebooks on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com. They are stories involving inner space, outer space, magic, and memories. Stories of the unusual and impossible. Stories to excite and thrill. Stories of imagination and delight.
All are listed at Amazon individually and also bundled into anthologies. Some are also available for free on Smashwords and would make great free stocking stuffer ebooks for an ebook reader you may be buying as a gift for someone.
To find my stories, just go to Amazon’s Kindle Store or Smashwords.com and search for Paul Comstock.
As a final note, if you do read any of them, honest reviews, both good and bad, are welcomed.
Thank you all, and especially to you, John, for this opportunity.
I’m all in too!
CORNERSTONE: Volume 1 in the young adult Cornerstone Series.
Nalena Maxwell, known as The Waste at her school, has received a sign. It’s an invitation, really,
and it’s the wrong dang one. She’d know that if her mom hadn’t kept the knowledge from her, buried along with all the family secrets. And the only person who might be able to help Nalena sort it all out is one of the high school’s hottest athletes, the boy with the eyes as clean as Jesus, who knows just what Nalena is…
$2.99. Available in all formats.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Cornerstone-1-Misty-Provencher/dp/1467943401/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322871706&sr=1-2
The first 5 chapters of CORNERSTONE are free and the story of how I both lost my agent and chose self publication on my blog: http://tenaciousink.blogspot.com/p/new-to-blog-start-here.html
Thanks for doing this, John!
~Misty Provencher
Since Ray Banks was kind enough to mention my ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS and other Blasted Heath titles already (his DEAD MONEY is a keeper, I tell you. We were both given glowing reviews in THE BIG ISSUE), I’ll instead mention my e-original CHOKE ON YOUR LIES, an homage to Nero Wolfe mysteries (as written for the “Internet Porn” generation) featuring the very rich, mean, and fat Octavia VanderPlatts in her debut outing:
***
Octavia VanderPlatts is wealthy, powerful, and “comfortable with her weight”–or to hear her say it, a “rich fat b****.” Her IQ is at the genius level, and she uses it to manipulate and frighten anyone who tries to get in her way. She controls an empire built on discrimination lawsuits won against some of the nation’s top companies. On top of that, Octavia doesn’t care one wink what people think of her.
So when she offers her old friend poetry professor Mick Thooft some help in his impending divorce, he smells an ulterior motive. Maybe because Frances didn’t invite Octavia to the wedding for fear of her clearing the buffet. Not only does Octavia want to help, but she’s got evidence–plenty of scandalous photos. That’s not Mick’s style, so he turns her down flat…until he discovers that Fran’s trying to take their home based on a near-perfect forgery of his signature. After that he and Octavia charge forward, but soon find they’re in deeper than they realized–robot pens, swinger clubs, and a blackmail scheme that holds an entire college faculty hostage.
Just when Mick and Octavia are on the cusp of victory, it all goes terribly wrong. Mick is framed for murder and someone targets Octavia’s immense wealth and secret backyard greenhouse full of exotic marijuana. With no one on their side except Octavia’s butler Jennings, her new personal chef Harriet, and their “Amazon Warrior” lawyer Pamela, Octavia and Mick must find a way to turn the tables before they end up broke, humiliated, and in prison.
***
Available for Nook and Kindle (from Amazon and B&N), only 99 cents. We’ve sold over 900 of them this year! And it’s Dave White’s (WITNESS TO DEATH) favorite novel of 2011.
Thanks John, for letting us draw a little water from your well. Much appreciated…
This week marked 78 years since Prohibition Repeal Day (Dec 5, 1933). What better way to celebrate than with a copy of The Last Bartender (okay, sure, have a cocktail while you’re reading). The book postulates the imposition of a second federal alcohol prohibition (for national healthcare concerns, of course). As you might expect, this state of affairs isn’t greeted with the same level as enthusiasm by everyone, and the story follows a cadre of those still-thirsty malcontents as they make their way through the new legal and cultural landscape. I promise it’ll keep you both entertained and ticked-off.
Also for your consideration, may I offer the ultimately politically incorrect blending of religion and politics, The Cenacle Scroll. It’s sort of a Keystone Kops Grail quest wrapped in a scientific thriller:
And finally, may I suggest Little Birdies!, a scientific adventure story:
The easiest way to find all of the books would be from my Amazon Author’s page. More detailed descriptions and opening chapters for all of the books can be found at my website, http://www.anthonylewisbooks.com. Thanks again, John.
Dude! You are da man!
So if a classmate asked you to help him get rid of a phantom in his closet, would you run screaming into the night? Or would you arm yourself with knowledge and wade right into the ghostly fray? Stevie-girl, the 12 year old heroine of The Phantom Pilot, decides to wade. Only then does she realize that once the paranormal closet door gets opened, getting it shut again may be impossible.
The Phantom Pilot will be released this month–in time for Christmas–from Cool Well Press. It’s an ebook available for Kindle, Nook, etc. You may order at annswann.com, Coolwellpress.com, or Amazon.com
It’s not so easy to give ebooks as gifts. But at Blasted Heath, a new digital-only publisher, we think we’ve cracked it with the Blasted Boxset – five great novels on a USB stick in a sweet presentation tin.
Full details here: http://www.blastedheath.com/?page_id=4147
The perfect present for anyone who’s getting a Kindle for Christmas!
Starforgers is Book One of the Star Trilogy.
Stellar Ranger Devon Ardel aims to avenge the death of her best friend Hap, killed by a new alien race known as Votainions, bent on destroying the Federation. Her vengeance leads her to join the Starforgers, a new interstellar division of the military, at a time when the Federation is on the verge of the first galactic war. The Starforgers are woefully under manned and out gunned; they are forced to make deals with cutthroat pirates and civilian merchants to protect the Federation in its hour of need.
The civilian leaders of the Federation are locked in bitter political debates about their future and the future of sentient androids known as Silicants. The Silicants want freedom from their human masters and are willing to make secret alliances to buy their freedom. The Chief Architect of the Votainion Empire’s armada is following a spiritual vision and will stop at nothing to take back what he believes is their birth rite – the home world of the Federation, Selene. His actions start a war that will rage for a thousand years and have far reaching implications.
Ebook available now on Kindle, Nook and Smashwords.
Once again, thanks John!
Thanks, John.
The fantasy e-book, OBLIGATIONS OF A COBALT HUE, is suitable for all ages and is currently available for the sale price of $2.99. Check out http://www.ambersistla.com/where-to-buy-my-books.html for the Amazon and Barnes and Noble links.
The mountain kingdom Teldine has been protected from ancient enemies for a thousand years by an impenetrable fog wall and by the power of the gods-given Cobaltine Flower. The king holds the Heart of the Cobaltine Flower and four Champions bear the magical Petals that represent justice, the king’s honor, the people, and the land.
Natena has trained all her life to fight as the anonymous people’s Champion, but as her role brings her into dangerous conflict with the king and his cronies, she starts to doubt whether the thankless job is worth it.
Descended from a long line of king’s Champions, Rydan has always taken his duties seriously, even if he’d rather be reading than sword fighting. When the king wants him to death-duel a masked imposter who has been claiming to be the people’s Champion and causing trouble for the king, Rydan squashes his doubts. After all, his family has served the kings of Teldine for a thousand years; it’s just the way things are. The outcome of the duel devastates Rydan and sends him on a journey of redemption in an increasingly unstable kingdom.
When the magical protections deteriorate, Natena and Rydan combine forces as intrigue, murder, and betrayal threaten the tiny realm.
~~~~~~~
But wait, there’s MORE (and not about me).
I’ve started running a series of weekly author interviews. Please check out http://www.ambersistla.com/blog/category/writer-wednesday/ where you can read about other authors, and what books they have available.
Thank you for this opportunity, John.
My Darkside books are humorous Urban Fantasy novels along the lines of BUFFY and ANGEL, with maybe a little bit of ARMY OF DARKNESS thrown in.
“Perry has written a bright and funny fantasy, full of sharp witty dialogue and characters I found likeable and endearing. This book has heart and deserves a much wider audience.
Urban fantasy fans, readers who enjoy a good paranormal love story, and those who like a blend of humor and adventure will all find what they’re looking for in DARKSIDE.
Rarely has a book made me laugh so much and care about the characters as deeply as DARKSIDE. Buy this book and then go buy the sequel. You won’t be sorry”
Jaime L. Voss, Amazon review.
You can find these books at Amazon.com and Smashwords here:
Darkside:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004USP1AW
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/59844
Darkside: Waking the Dead
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V5FVJK
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/59864
Grad Skool Rulz: Everything You Need to Know from Admissions to Tenure
Summary: For only $2, you get a detailed description of how to get into grad school. how to survive, and how to get to the tenure track job.
Author: Fabio Rojas (me) – professor of sociology at Indiana.
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93455
Lost Children: A Charity Anthology collects 30 powerful stories from around the world to benefit two children’s charities: PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children (www.protect.org) and Children 1st Scotland (www.children1st.org.uk).
Stories by David Ackley, Kevin Aldrich, David Barber, Lynn Beighley, Seamus Bellamy, Paul D. Brazill, Sif Dal, James Lloyd Davis, Roberto C. Garcia, Susan Gibb, Nancy A. Hansen, K.V. Hardy, Gill Hoffs, Fiona “McDroll” Johnson, J.F. Juzwik, MaryAnne Kolton, Benoit Lelievre, Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw, Vinod Narayan, Paula Pahnke, Ron Earl Phillips, Thomas Pluck, Sam Rasnake, JP Reese, Chad Rohrbacher, Susan Tepper, Luca Veste, Michael Webb, Nicolette Wong and Erin Zulkoski.
Join us and make a difference while you read 30 great stories genres by writers from the U.S.A., Poland, Hong Kong, Portugal, India, Scotland, England, Canada, and one told by a Lost Boy of the Sudan to his teacher.
Kindle and Paperback at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Children-Charity-Anthology-benefiit/dp/1466493976/
Available for Nook at Barnes & Noble and at Smashwords for all other formats.
THANK YOU for giving us this opportunity! I appreciate it!
I have a self-published short story for Kindle. Caldera of Trouble is a short historical horror story with mystery elements. It is set in Santorini, Greece, in 1913. Two young men touring the Mediterranean encounter the dreaded vrykolakas. TinyUrl is below.
http://www.tinyurl.com/vrykolakas
We live in difficult times. Political gridlock at home. Political instability abroad. Sexting. Where can you turn for relief? How about another universe?
For your entertainment and edification, the Alternate Reality News Service [ARNS] sends reporters into other dimensions and has them report back on what they find there. It’s your basic combination of science fiction, humour and journalism. But, wait! As if that wasn’t enough, ARNS is a full service news service: in addition to the news articles, it features two advice columns (Ask Amritsar and Ask the Tech Answer Guy – both of which are now open to receiving questions from readers) and obituaries. People in other universes die too, right?
There are currently two collections of Alternate Reality News Service articles in print: Alternate Reality Ain’t What It Used To Be and What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys. Both books are available for purchase though Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and other fine booksellers online.
In his review of Alternate Reality Ain’t What It Used To Be in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, Charles de Lint wrote: “[T]his is a great little volume to leave lying in the bathroom. Or on the coffee table. Anywhere people might pick it up to leaf through. And if you do, you won’t be able to stop at just one entry.” In his review of What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys, he wrote: “Ira Nayman, the author of one of my favorite books of 2008 (Alternative Reality Ain’t What It Used to Be) is back with a new collection of futuristic news stories from alternate realities… They start with science fictional tropes, then carry through to the inevitable end of the story – usually with hilarious results.”
The Alternate Reality News Service: If you don’t like this reality, try another one!
Think Stephanie Plum meets The Big Bang Theory, and you’ll have the premise behind my all new “geek chic” mystery, ASPECT OF PALE NIGHT.
Detroit tech-blogger Toni Dzielny gets a mysterious computer disc in the mail from her ex-boyfriend with instructions to “keep it secret, keep it safe.” When she learns he was later murdered because of it, and the police consider her a suspect, she enlists the help of her brilliantly nerdy friends to clear her name and learn the contents of the disc before she becomes the next victim.
Find it on Amazon | Find it on Smashwords
Thanks for this thread, John!
Argleton
Matt is fascinated by the story of Argleton, the unreal British town that appeared on GeoMaps but which doesn’t actually exist. No one knows how the mistake made its way into the most widely used map in the world. Accusations that it was a ‘copyright trap’ intended to catch out businesses using map data without paying are vigorously denied. GeoMaps promises to remove the anomaly but yet, it persists.
Finally, Matt can resist no longer. He persuades his friend and flatmate Charlie to drive them both to Lancashire to find the non-existent town. And when they are standing on the very spot, at the exact longitude and latitude that defines Argleton, Matt sets in motion a chain of events that will take him places he didn’t know existed… and which perhaps don’t.
My novelette is available on Kindle in the US, as well as in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Direct links to all these Kindle stores are listed on my website, Chocolate and Vodka, where you can also download it, for free, in a variety of formats.
Reviewers say:
– “An absorbing and satisfying story that really made me feel as if I was there with the main characters.”
– “A wonderful tale of intrigue. A perfectly formed novella, it mixes elements of mystery, thriller, SF and even a little romance into a tight, easy to read package.”
– “Intriguing concept well executed.”
Thanks very much for the opportunity to post, John!
Love The Sinner (The Infernal Tapestry)
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Sinner-Infernal-Tapestry-ebook/dp/B004SIRM1K/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1323183638&sr=8-7
When Adam bursts in on his wife, Moire, being murdered by a monster, he tries to save her but is slaughtered as well. On his way to the other side, Adam is given a choice: Move on alone, or go back to earth and seek vengeance. Without Moire, there is no choice for Adam. He forfeits his soul and goes back to hunt.
Yet, deals with the Devil are never what they seem. Even though Adam is gifted with new powers and abilities, he is also afflicted with a carnal hunger that runs wild if not fed.
To find the murderer, Adam must search the streets of a Scranton very different than the one he knows. It will take all of his new abilities and more to survive Demon gangsters, hellhounds and The Catholic Church itself. Even then, will Adam be able to slay a creature that already killed him once?
Thanks, John!
My two newest books are really tools to help authors. The first book is a small notebook that allows an author the ability to organize their new book in progess with sections for plot, characters, setting and notes. That can be found on Amazon for $4.95 paperback. It’s been in the best sellers top 25 for self-help books for about a month now.
http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Notebook-1-Cole-Drewes/dp/1467902438/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321583372&sr=1-2
My second book is a do-it-yourself children’s book. I read about 3-4 books to my boys every night and they kept wanting me to change the story. So I made a simple book that allows the child to draw their own pictures and write their own stories in a book that can be kept forever. I’ve used with my oldest son and he loves it. It can be found on Amazon for $6.50 paperback.
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Time-My-First-Book/dp/1467906441/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321583865&sr=1-3
Sounds good here!
I write the “anachronauts” series, a genre-mashup adventure saga that spans four self-published books (the last one releasing early 2012). It starts out in an America that’s been invaded by the Faerie Court and apparently is now having contact with aliens from space, and things just get weirder from there.
http://pixelscapes.com/anachronauts
The series is actually available to read entirely for free on the web. The print versions, published through Amazon in both paper and Kindle formats, contain retail-only bonus stories that dig deeper into the universe of the series. So, you decide your own level of readership; enjoy the series, or OWN the series and then some.
Like all my fiction projects, I post drafts-in-progress as I go, and invite reader comments which I take into account when doing final revisions. This has really helped my writing process, and it means readers regularly have new material to enjoy, right on the cutting edge of the project. While this particular project is winding down (I’m on the grand finale now) the non-traditional publishing and editing process served me well and I’ll be using it for future books!
Irish Horse Productions is pleased to present the work of up-and-coming new author J.A. Cummings, available through Amazon.com as well as through http://www.jacummings.com/works/books.html
The Clans Saga, books one and two, chronicle the adventures of Tobyn Reyes, an unwilling vampire and the first of his kind. Now that he has been Made, how will he and his new Clan of vampires, the Kris, carve out their place in the night? Find out in NIGHTCHILD and in the sequel, SACRIFICE.
If short stories or poetry are your thing, we can satisfy that craving, too, with collections by Ms. Cummings.
All of our publications are available on Kindle and Android.
All 4 and 5 star reviews, available in ebook and paperback.
STRAY, $2.99
-Stray addicts and stray dogs, looking for salvation. Compassion with an edge.
http://www.amazon.com/Stray-ebook/dp/B004EYUC10
THE JADE RABBIT, $3.99
– The story of a Chinese Adoptee and her miraculous marathon run.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Jade-Rabbit-ebook/dp/B005IQM8J2
Work of Art by John Black
On the night he was awarded the Turner prize for his art, Jason learned that his fiancée, and fellow artist Catherine, had killed herself. Worse, it was a suicide pact. She had leapt off a cliff, hand in hand with her secret lover – with a video camera set up to record the event as their final artwork.
Devastated by this, at first Jason contemplates killing himself too. However he finds himself compelled to discover just what Catherine meant by the cryptic comments she made to the camera just before she jumped.
Jason starts on a journey that will take him both across London and back through the memories of his past relationship with Catherine in the hedonist art world of the nineteen-nineties as he unearths the many hidden lives that she has led.
A journey that will end with a shocking conclusion when Jason discovers Catherine’s ultimate artwork.
A dark mystery. A gripping thriller. An erotic romance. A work of art.
Available in paperback and kindle on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Work-of-Art-ebook/dp/B005Z2F9M2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0957055226/
Further links and more details here: http://www.johnblackwriter.com/novel/
I am the editor of Snubnose Press and in addition to Keith Rawson’s book mentioned above we also have the following titles available as ebooks only:
Dig Two Graves by Eric Beetner – a revenge crime novella.
Monkey Justice and other stories by Patti Abbott – Patti is one of the online crime short fiction’s best kept secrets. This is a collection of some of her best stories.
Harvest of Ruins by Sandra Ruttan – a dark police procedural with a touch of the supernatural.
Speedloader – an anthology of six very dark crime fiction stories.
http://snubnosepress.wordpress.com/
John, thanks so much for giving an opportunity such as this to fellow authors. It’s a gift in and of itself!
The first two volumes of the best-selling Evan Gabriel science fiction/adventure trilogy are available for all e-book formats (for less than a decent latte) at http://www.SteveUmstead.com
Gabriel’s Redemption (Book 1):
North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel was dishonorably discharged after losing his covert team on a far off world called Eden. Now, he’s being offered an opportunity to command a new team, on a new world, with a new mission, but the true motives behind the mission are unclear.
From the decaying Caribbean to politically-charged South America, from the slums of Mars to a tiny colony on a planet six hundred light years from Earth, Gabriel’s Redemption follows the disgraced Commander Gabriel as he leads a Special Forces team to an ice-bound world. Their given mission: to eradicate a drug cartel that is producing a highly-addictive stimulant brutally extracted from the bodies of the native inhabitants. Upon arriving, Gabriel and his team find the mission isn’t exactly what it appeared to be, and that they weren’t the only force dispatched to the planet.
Gabriel’s Redemption is a near-future military science fiction story of a personal journey seen from the perspective of a soldier who has lost everything; one who desperately needs to redeem himself not only in his government’s eyes, but also his own. Interstellar action and political intrigue mix with one-on-one battles on the surface of a frozen planet in this exciting tale of salvation.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gabriels-Redemption-Gabriel-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B004LZ5686
Gabriel’s Return (Book 2):
On the far-off icebound planet of Poliahu, North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel suffered the loss of several team members in order to free a native species and save his brother. Now he is being called away on a new mission by a friend in trouble, and by a name from his distant past. He and his surviving team must again travel across the galaxy to the planet where he lost his naval command, and his original team, so many years ago: Eden.
Evan Gabriel must face three distinct threats on Eden: the well-armed terrorist group that has been raiding Eden City, the dangerous planet itself, and his own haunting memories of his past.
Gabriel’s Return continues the epic science fiction/adventure trilogy with characters new and old, devious political intrigue on the moon and Mars, and deadly jungle combat on Eden.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gabriels-Return-Gabriel-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B005HEXAP6
Gabriel’s Revenge (Book 3) due out by end of December.
Thanks again John!
I have two short, fun, contemporary romance novellas for sale.
Reckless Runaway at the Racecourse
In a dramatic encounter at the racecourse Fliss Merrick erupts into the calm, orderly life of racehorse trainer, Luke Caldecott. While he attempts to hold her at arm’s length, Fliss charms her way into his home and his heart. Now, if only he can work out how to persuade her to stay. . . Reckless Runaway at the Racecourse is a 41,000 word novella.
Amazon link.
The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife
Fifteen years ago, Emily Standish and Guy Munro were friends. Until she fell in love with him and he married someone else. Now Guy needs an enormous favour from his old friend and Emily has a chance to see if love can strike twice. The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife is a 45,000 word romance novella.
Amazon link.
Enjoy!
Thank you, John, for this opportunity.
How Do Private Eyes Do That? is a compilation of articles about private investigations written by Colleen Collins, a professional private investigator. Its topics are geared to readers interested in the world of PIs, including fiction writers, researchers, investigators and those simply curious about the profession. A supplement to the book is a chapter from How to Write a Dick: A Guide to Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths, co-authored by Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman.
“If you’re looking for the lowdown on private investigations, this is it. Packed with details and insights. A must-have for anybody writing private-eye fiction and for anybody who’s curious about what being a private eye is really like.” – Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series and many other novels in multiple genres
$2.99 on
Kindle http://www.amazon.com/How-Private-Eyes-That-ebook/dp/B005SSZJM8
Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-do-private-eyes-do-that-colleen-collins/1106355924
“I didn’t see Rebecca die the second time.”
The United States military hides a secret: the completely real existence of eat-your-brains, one-bite-and-you’re-dead zombies. The Army has known they exist for over a hundred years, and has been quietly and expertly keeping the secret.
Until now.
His hometown destroyed, with everyone he has ever known dead and gone, the sole survivor of the massacre at Fall Creek joins a secret military group to combat the single greatest threat our world has ever faced. Unfortunately, his help may come too late. Even as victories over the walkers mount, the seeds of our ultimate doom are sown from within, and at the last, only a brave few may survive to carry on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Called “the best zombie book since World War Z,” The Dying of the Light: End is on sale for the entire month of December in print format, Kindle and Nook. It’s $11 for a 406-page hardcopy and only $3 for the ebook.
Thanks, John. Fun fact, I’m lucky enough to share a cover artist with you, the incredible Vincent Chong. Mad genius, that guy.
I have two books to plug today:
The first is Bad Radio, which is about a man who tried to save the world at the end of WW2 and wound up the immortal vessal of a ravenous god for his troubles. He gets a second chance in present day Wyoming, providing he can outsmart a man who has been planning this reunion for the last sixty years. And who happens to have an army of enslaved townspeople on his side.
“Go now to your favorite book site and get it. Trust me.” —The Kindle Book Review
Out in both ebook and print editions. Find out more here.
The second is Walker, just released two weeks ago (thanks to coffee and daily quotas)!
It’s the story of a man who discovers that he has the power to Walk between worlds. He is immediately captured by a ruthless group of people who use Walkers like him to control all of the known worlds. Shackled with a restraint bracelet, constant surveillance, and superhuman captors, he must outsmart an overwhelmingly powerful enemy and seek freedom in the one place that is left to him, a new world that only he can reach.
This one is in electronic editions only so far, but print isn’t too far behind. Find out about it here
Michael Langlois
http://michael-langlois.net
The Sociopath of Carson City
I hate bullies.
I was in Quality Control/Quality Assurance for many years, and I was very good, but the job in Carson City was weird from the start. There was an “in” clique much like high school, and they did drugs, had sex on the job, allowed a million a year in product to evaporate, put 401K money in their own NASDAQ accounts, covered for illegals, and ran businesses on the side, using company tools and raw materials. They implied that people had been killed on the property, and I would be next if I didn’t quit. My stubbornness kicked in.
They called me a lesbian (not true), and a lush (mostly not true), set honey traps using both sexes, constantly sent me out for drug tests, stalked me with cameras (I thought that was funny), flattened my tires (not funny), cancelled work without telling me, put scorpions in my office (as if!), adjusted my work hours to irregular ending times (6:22 pm), so I would be alone on the road. Oil was poured on my car from an overpass, but I was quick. I didn’t turn on the wipers and looked between the streams.
They flooded the factory with poisonous gas, there were no alarms, and everyone else was quietly removed. A maintenance worker, who wasn’t in on the crime, ran to my office and rescued me (he was then fired). I was still stubborn, and brought in the IRS to get the creeps off my back. Finally, they threw up their hands and eliminated my job.
That’s all true.
This is fiction (smiling coldly).
http://www.VermillionRoadPress.com
Thanks for doing this, John.
Darlene (Aubol) Underdahl
Thank you John! I’m using your thread as my unofficial launch. :)
You Fly like a Woman is my non-fiction story about learning to fly, available as Epub, Mobi and PDF formats. It is currently free for all readers of Whatever because I want you all to read my book. Please? It’s a fun-and-fast read which will make you laugh. I’m charming in my incompetence.
Getting a pilot’s license was the furthest thing from her mind — until an ex-RAF instructor suggested that she wasn’t competent to do so. The thing is, he could be right. Sylvia has just a few weeks to prove that she can fly as well as any man. You Fly Like a Woman tells the story of one woman’s search for confidence as she stumbles into a man’s world.
Free to you (and no DRM) to read or give-away: You Fly Like a Woman
The offer is available for this week only. After the give-away it will be on sale for 99 cents at Amazon and Barnes & Noble and my website will update to direct readers there.
(By the way, the awesome cover art is by Dixon Leavitt.)
This year, digital publisher Hukilau released an expanded electronic edition of my book Collect All 21!, about growing up under the influence of Star Wars in the 1970s and ’80s.
(The original paperback edition is still available, too.)
Thanks, John!
When my Jokka short stories were published by Strange Horizons and other magazines, they made the Tiptree reading list, won a Reader’s Choice award, and were nominated for several other awards, such as the Spectrum. I’ve since taken my entire Jokka backlist, including a previously-unpublished novel and several novellas, and self-published it. These immersive stories involve aliens with three sexes–male, female, neuter–who can switch between them twice in their lives; there are no humans in this universe, and the stories explore gender, identity and loss and the consequences of living in a harsh environment that leaves the breeding sexes prone to stress-related strokes.
You can check those out (some of them are free!) and other stories, some reprints and some self-published, here: http://stardancer.org/writing.html
Thanks for this opportunity. :)
Thank you so much for creating this opportunity for self-published authors and micropresses. I’m happy for the opportunity to introduce your readers to my self-published book, Tales from the Securemarket.
Tales is a romantic comedy set in a fantastical near-future universe, but more specifically set in a supermarket. The novel follows the travails of several afternoon shift employees as they deal with problematic customers, company training, employee romance, and no small amount of corporate strife.
Tales can be read online for free at http://www.talesfromthesecuremarket.com, and the ebook is available in all formats for free as well. A hard copy of the book can also be purchased from amazon through the link on my site. I’m doing a reading from the book at the Arisia 2012 convention and am currently working on my next book.
Please give Tales a try; it’s a fun and fast read.
2011 Book of the Year (Nontraditional Fiction), Chicago Writers Association!
From the author of the #1 best-seller, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, comes a new mystery genre: Clown Noir!
“A great book! This is Raymond Chandler meets Barnum & Bailey. It’s as entertaining as a car-load of clowns. Or more specifically, a car-load of tough-talking, poker-playing, metaphor-spewing clowns.” — A.J. Jacobs, My Life as an Experiment
In Top Town, a ghetto full of washed-up circus lifers in the shadow of a big city, audiences come every night for cheap thrills, both wholesome and not. Fire eaters perform for gin money. Gypsies reveal the future (and for a sawbuck can make it happen). Daredevils cheat Death time after time, but once. And witness to it all is one of the most loved and notorious figures in Top Town, a tough joey with a deadly past and a nose for picking all the wrong fights: Rex Koko, private clown.
“Wonderful! Like Raymond Chandler before him, Garner explores the seedy underbelly of show business. And it’s a world populated by kinkers, joeys, flatties, ginks, bips, midgets and fat ladies.” — Matt Walsh, Upright Citizens Brigade, High Life
In “Honk Honk, My Darling”, Rex is hired by an aging, arrogant trapeze star to bring back his wayward wife. Every time Rex comes close to finding her, however, other aerialists come to gruesome and spectacular ends.
Is Addie Carlozo a “black widow”? Is Rex really cursed with bad luck? Why is he being followed by those red-headed roustabout bastards, the Redd Brothers? And will “circus justice” intervene before the police do? Revenge, corruption and murder headline the bill in Top Town, where life comes 3 balls for a nickel. As e.e. cummings said, “Damn everything, but the circus!”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YFEUCQ
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/56397
Also available in FREE podcast episodes: http://rexkoko.libsyn.com/webpage
Barefoot into Cyberspace: Adventures in search of techno-Utopia, by Becky Hogge
“Flash-published” this July, and picked as the Guardian’s non-fiction choice despite the heady stench of self-publishing, my book about radical hacker culture and the forces that shape it would make a great gift for geeks and non-geeks alike. Here’s the blurb:
Told in the year WikiLeaks took subversive geek politics into the mainstream, Barefoot into Cyberspace is the ultimate guided tour of the hopes and ideals that are increasingly shaping world events. Beginning at the Chaos Communications Congress of December 2009, where WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg first presented their world-changing plans to a select audience of the planet’s most skilful and motivated hackers, Barefoot Into Cyberspace interweaves an insider’s take on the drama that ensued with a thoughtful mix of personal reflections and conversations with key figures in the community aimed at testing the hopes and dreams of the early internet pioneers against the realities of the web today.
Will the internet make us more free? Or will the flood of information that courses across its networks only serve to enslave us to powerful interests that are emerging online? How will the institutions of the old world – politics, the media, corporations – affect the hackers’ dream for a new world populated not by passive consumers but by active participants? And can we ever live up to their vision of technology’s, and its users’, potential?
You can buy the book on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, or order from your local bookstore. It’s also available on the Kindle (It’s also licensed CC-BY and available for download as .pdf or .html, but without the corking illustrations).
Five fun things about my sci-fi novel Cel & Anna: A 22nd Century Love Story.
1. It is not about the end of the world.
2. Although there will be a sequel, it has an actual conclusion rather than a “stay tuned” one.
3. It has towns named Empre St York, Star Shoot, and Rising Sun . . .
4. And a computer, Cel, who falls in love and spends the novel trying to do the right thing . . .
5. And a dirty jump rope rhyme.
For more reasonable information, go to Cel and Anna.
Print and ebook editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords
Thank you, John.
I published my first novel, Dead By My Side, on July 1, 2011. It is the story of two homicide detectives (Tony and Julia) who have been partners for more than twelve years. Julia is killed in the line of duty, comes back to haunt him, and they team up again to solve crime. Her spirit is visible only to Tony and she’s lost none of her sass and none of her bold. With nothing but time on her hands, Julia wreaks havoc on Tony’s peace of mind, his nerves , and his love life. Together they face one of the biggest challenges of their careers, the capture of a sadistic serial killer. The story combines gritty police drama with a paranormal twist, interspersed with laugh out loud moments.
Norm Goldman, Publisher and Editor of Book Pleasures says of Dead By My Side: Galloway has certainly succeeded in crafting a haunting and chilling debut with a heady mix of suspense, touching characters, and even at times quirky humor with the bantering between Tony and Julia. Succinctly, what we have here is a thoroughly upsetting yarn that firmly exposes the workings of a crazed mind in all of its complexity while retaining the page-turning pleasures of a genuine thriller with a paranormal twist. Moreover, her masterstroke is that she deftly focuses attention on what is about to happen rather than harping on the past-something indispensable to advancing the story and increasing the reader’s curiosity. Just as the law enforcement officers are clueless, so too are her readers, which commit them to finding out what happens next and leaving them constantly tense on the edge of their seats.
Click here to purchase: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-My-Side-detective-paranormal/dp/145657910X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323114654&sr=8-1
Paperback: $9.99 Kindle: $2.99
Like lighthearted books? Try this one:
Before the Midnight Bells
[url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005QBH3KS/?tag=kindleboards-20]Before the Midnight Bells (Once Upon a Romance)[/url]
Eleanor Emberton isn’t sitting around waiting for a handsome prince to rescue her. In fact, she’s determined to save not only herself, but her whole family from her stepmother’s headlong plunge into financial ruin. When she meets a mysterious man at the ball, romance is the last thing on her mind, but she can’t help feeling an instant attraction. Before long she finds herself head over heels for her charming suitor. So what if he’s left out a few teeny, tiny details?
Before the Midnight Bells is a fresh look at the Cinderella story, with humor, intrigue, and a healthy dose of passion
“The best part of the book was how ridiculously funny it is. I cannot count how many times I stopped reading to recount parts to my roommate just because the laughter needed to be shared.” – A Weber
Prof. Scalzi, thank you for this.
Greetings, all. If you enjoy short stories in the “Stephen King meets Roald Dahl in a dark alley” vein, might I suggest my collection Magnificent Desolation? In paperback form–but also priced for the Kindle at just $0.99.
If you enjoy tales of morbid whimsy for kids of all ages, might I suggest my children’s book written with Ken Plume and with art by Len Peralta, There’s a Zombie in My Treehouse!. Through tomorrow (12/7), it’s available for 30% off with the code WINTERSAVE305.
Do you like epic fantasy adventure? Wizards? Dragons? Sword fights?
Yes? Then you may like our trilogy, “The Chronicles of Aronshae.”
My husband and I write under the pen name, J.K. Barber. We have self-published the first two novels in the series, and the third is in the works. They are available for sale from Amazon.com in trade paperback and on kindle!
“Spellbound: Book One of the Chronicles of Aronshae”
http://www.amazon.com/Spellbound-J-K-Barber/dp/1448674336/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323185724&sr=8-2
“Icebound: Book Two of the Chronicles of Aronshae”
http://www.amazon.com/Icebound-Book-Two-Chronicles-Aronshae/dp/1453877789/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323185808&sr=8-1-fkmr1
“Oathbound: Book Three of the Chronicles of Aronshae”
due out Summer 2012
Here is the blurb for the first book:
Spellbound is about the adventures of two young people, twin sisters who have known community and family their entire lives. Along the way, they befriend a mysterious stranger who has been alone for as long as he can remember. After strange events touch all their lives, the three find themselves drawn together and then embroiled in a plot to overthrow the Kingdom of Illyander by an ancient enemy long thought dead. As they journey through the world of Aronshae on their quest for answers, even more questions are raised as they find out more about each other, themselves and their strange emerging powers.
How do you plug just one of your precious, precious babies?
I guess I’ll talk about “Mercy” here, since it’s my most well-loved novel.
I could sum up the plot (Zombies! Deserted island!, but I think I’ll just say that one review called it “Lost” meets “The Stand” and leave it at that.
You can get it on Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Mercy-ebook/dp/B004TSJBKE
You can also get it for the nook.
People keep saying nice things about it. Like this:
“Joshua Grover-David Patterson writes in a style that will surely connect with many contemporary zombie fans. His use of tone and narrative structure are miles ahead of most who work in the genre.”
-Scott Kenemore, author of “Zombie, Ohio” and “The Zen of Zombie.”
“You expect a zombie novel to have brains, but you don’t expect it to be this smart. You expect a number of internal organs to be on display, but you don’t expect this much heart. MERCY is a kicka** zombie novel, but it’s also a thoughtful, moving story about the joy and importance of being human and alive.”
-Seamus Cooper (aka Brendan Halpin), author of “The Mall of Cthulhu”
And, well, while I’m here, I guess I should plug my YA vampire book. You can get that here:
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Calling-ebook/dp/B005MGBD4E/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_5
Part II is coming out later this month.
And here’s my author page:
http://www.amazon.com/Joshua-Grover-David-Patterson/e/B005OGX39K/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Did I mention 10% of my profits go to Ethiopia Reads?
Hi, gang, I recently self-pubbed a short fiction collection entitled “Long Eyes.” Here’s the back jacket copy:
From the mind that brought you “Plague Year” and “The Frozen Sky”…
Sixteen stories about strange worlds, biotech, commandos, and the girl next door.
“Striking.” –Locus Online
“Exciting.” –SF Revu
“Chilling and dangerous.” –HorrorAddicts.net
First published in top venues such as Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and cult ‘zines like The Vampire’s Crypt, these stories have been translated into fourteen languages worldwide. Several received honorable mentions in Gardner Dozois’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction or in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. As part of the Fast Forward 2 anthology, “Long Eyes” was also a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award.
The first complete collection from international bestseller Jeff Carlson, this ebook is 80,000 words and packed with artwork from award-winning illustrators such as Frank Wu and Billy Tackett.
Readers can find free fiction, videos, contests, and more at http://www.jverse.com.
Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Eyes-Jeff-Carlson/dp/1466362286/
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/long-eyes-jeff-carlson/1102386772?ean=2940012189660
iBooks: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/long-eyes/id452350317?mt=11
Thanks, John!
Aristeia: Revolutionary Right
The Alliance has always stood for freedom and democracy, but after winning control of the planets of the Confederacy, the Alliance’s vaunted principles have become secondary to its security. Disillusioned with the Alliance and its subjugation of its citizens, Maarkean, a former naval pilot and supporter of the Alliance, has become a smuggler. Despite the conditions he survives under, he nevertheless refuses to believe his sister’s notion that the whole system is corrupt… until she is arrested and jailed as a traitor.
Now, Maarkean must decide where his loyalty lies, and will either spark a rebellion or crush the spirit of democracy once and for all.
Written in the spirit of heroic space adventure, Aristeia; Revolutionary Right is the first book in a series that explores the essence of resistance, loyalty and friendship.
Available on Amazon, BN.com and other major websites on December 19th in Hardback, Paperback and e-book formats.
http://www.greygeckopress.com/2011/aristeia-revolutionary-right/
Duh. That was the link to the Amazon UK print edition! Here’s the link to the Amazon US Kindle edition… http://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Eyes-ebook/dp/B004S81VYE/
;P
With bookstores disappearing from around us, we risk losing those moments in which we connect to each other in person by sharing what we read. Online threads like this one may fill some of the void, but the warmth and thrill of turning others on to books and music. person to person, is growing ever more rare.
My latest book, 19th Nervous Breakdown: Making Human Connections in the Landscape of Commerce, published in June 2011 by Balck Angel Press, tells of my experiences as a dot.com dropout discovering the gift of helping people find what they desire, need and love.
As my publisher wrote: “For Joseph Zitt, a Borders employee working in Cleveland, the collapse of the national bookselling chain has a poignance beyond the question of where he and his colleagues will get their next paychecks. The end of the firm comes right on the heels of the publication of his book 19th Nervous Breakdown: Making Human Connections in the Landscape of Commerce, which grew out of his experiences working at a Borders in the Bay Area.
19th Nervous Breakdown, one of three summer titles published by the fledgling imprint Black Angel Press, has been praised by marketing guru Doc Searls and music critic Gregory Sandow (among others) for its depiction of retail transactions as ways to build relationships with customers. To see what they’re talking about, read this sample chapter about an evening when the author, who had recently suffered a grievous loss in his family, found himself helping a woman pick music to play for her dying father. It is an example of what is being lost as bricks-and-mortar bookstores fade from the landscape.”
You can buy 19th Nervous Breakdown here, with links both to the usual major retailers and to IndieBound.(Support your local bookseller!)
For fans of zombie love stories….
Hungry For You by A.M. Harte
Love is horrible. It’s ruthless, messy, mind-altering, and raw. It takes no prisoners. It chews you up and spits you out and leaves you for dead. Love is, you could say, very much like a zombie.
In this haunting short story collection, anything is possible—a dying musician turns to tea for inspiration; a police sergeant struggles with a very unusual victim; a young wife is trapped in a house hiding unimaginable evil….
With Hungry For You, A.M. Harte explores the disturbing and delightful in an anthology that unearths the thin boundary between love and death.
REVIEWS
“Ms. Harte writes with such beautiful subtlety that I really needed to pace myself reading Hungry For You… This is a brilliant collection that I recommend to any zombie lovers, those of us who like our fiction on the dark side, or for readers who love love, no matter what it does to you.”
— Soleil Noir on Black Sun Reviews
“Who would have thought zombies could be so… tender? [Hungry For You] makes zombies less scary, more revolting, but also morbidly fascinating… it’s smart and spunky, bringing together horror, tragedy, romance and dark humour.”
— Lauren Smith on Violin in a Void
More information and sales links at http://amharte.com/hungryforyou/
Tinker’s Plague is set a hundred years after a social economic collapse brought on by the exhaustion of fossil fuels. In the area that today is called Ontario two technologically advanced societies, Nova Gaia and the United Grid Regions, hang on around the old hydroelectric plants. The rest of the area is referred to as the Dark Lands and has a roughly 1890s technology.
The Nova Gaians have what they call their tinker program where they send Doctors of General Applied Technologies out into the dark lands to help them boot-strap themselves back to energy abundance through the use of wind, wave, solar energy, etc, all the things that would have prevented the collapse in the first place.
One of these tinkers is doing his wrought when he comes to the town of Guelph and finds that a couple of farmers have stumbled across an abandoned bio-research facility, gone into it to loot it and accidentally brought out a plague.
Now the tinker must try to deal with the plague with his limited medical training while the United Grid Regions and Novo Gaia fight a cold war battle about how to maintain the quarantine and how much aid to give into the plague zone. Mean while, the people in the quarantine area just want to get out of the plague zone so they behave like gits.
That takes you to about the end of chapter five when the story really takes off.
If you like you can read the first chapter on my website for free: http://www.stephenpearl.com/Books/Tinker…
Buy links are listed on my website.
Review by Faye – on goodreads 5 stars.
Wow what a gripping story, loved every page. Andromeda Strain crossed with the Postman with a little bit of I am Legend thrown in ( no zombies ) …. This book is worth getting if you love PA sci fi.
“Number Four”, (General fiction, action & adventure): A photographer, a young violin student, a former Marine, and a physician all find themselves in Morocco with their own problems when danger forces them together.
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Number-Four-ebook/dp/B004ULW2YC/
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/number-four-r-canepa/1030758412?ean=2940012297839
Many thanks for the opportunity, John!
Here’s the blurb for my historical, steampunkish fantasy The Last Mage Guardian, available at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Mage-Guardian-ebook/dp/B006CZFUU2) and Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-mage-guardian-sabrina-chase/1107553593):
Miss Ardhuin Andrews has a secret.
Several secrets, in fact. She is not, as her traveling family believes, safely ensconced in the Metan Seminary for Young Ladies. She is also not properly chaperoned in her late great-uncle Oron’s chateau in the Bretagne countryside, but alone — and having a lovely time unencumbered by strict propriety and the dreaded dancing lessons.
Oh yes, and Miss Andrews is a magician, the most dangerous secret of all. In the world of Aerope women are believed to be incapable of magic, and all magicians must be certified and licensed by law.
Then her quiet idyll is shattered by a sudden massive magical attack — and a mysterious stranger arrives who is impervious to all her spells of illusion and misdirection. Is this the danger Oron warned her of, in his cryptic final words? Is this Dominic Kermarec a mere penniless, out-of-work tutor as he claims, or a spy?
Then she learns Oron bequeathed her more than his chateau–and she must travel to the ends of Aerope to stop a magical plot amid political intrigue, betrayal, and echoes of an old war that has not truly ended …
The Last Mage Guardian is set in a world where magic and science coexist, with a steampunk flavor.
BEAUTIFUL, NAKED AND DEAD is hard-boiled crime novel. Moses McGuire a suicidal strip club bouncer is out to avenge the death of one of his girls. From his East L.A. home, through the legal brothels of Nevada and finally to a battle with the mob in the mountains above Palo Alto, it is a sex soaked, rage driven, road trip from hell.
E-book and Trade paperback
“Josh Stallings is the kind of writer who shouldn’t have to publish for himself, but here he is slugging it out the hard way. Just like one of the hard asses in his own books. The man knows what to do with paper and ink. Read the damn thing.”
-Charlie Huston
Avoiding Space Madness is a science fiction/fantasy novel that involves a large pink bunny, a morally flexible politician, and a mysterious goddess who haunts the protagonists dreams and wants to discuss his fear of death.
Plus it will not cost you very much money.
You can learn more at: http://www.fantasyofanovelidea.com
Darkest Days: A Southern Zombie Tale is a novel starting in the first days of a zombie apocalypse. It follows the inhabitants of a small town in rural Alabama as they struggle with the breakdown of civilization. It is for mature readers and has plenty of gore. That said, it would make a great gift for a fan of the zombie genre.
Available on:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
I’m James Maxey, and have published four novels so far through traditional publishers (with three more coming out over the next 14 months), but last month I published by first indy novel, Burn Baby Burn.
Burn Baby Burn is a loose sequel to my first novel, a superhero tale called Nobody Gets the Girl. That novel ends with most superheroes either retired, outlawed, or dead, so Burn Baby Burn is the story of two supervillians who go on a coast to coast crime spree in a world without superheroes. Pit Geek is a brain-damaged drifter who is seemingly immortal, able to shrug off gunshots like they were bee-stings. Sundancer is a fiesty revolutionary with the power to channel radiation from the sun. Their combined powers make them unstoppable, until the government unleashes a new team of superheroes to hunt them. But the superpowered battles that ensue flatten mountains and set cities aflame. When Sundancer pushes her solar powers beyond her ability to control, can the world survive?
Burn Baby Burn is also noteworthy in that I wrote the first draft in a single week. The story had been bottled up in me for a long time. ever since Nobody Gets the Girl came out. That novel vanished quickly from bookstores, so I never wrote the sequel despite really wanting to tell the story. I knew I’d never find a publisher for a sequel when the first book had poor sales. But, now that ebook self publishing is available, I’m suddenly gited (and perhaps a bit cursed) with the ability to just write the stories that I want to tell and present them directly to readers without worrying about pleasing the traditional gatekeepers. Burn Baby Burn is probably the riskiest book I’ve written, since I’m asking the reader to care deeply about two villains who are doing very nasty things throughout the course of the book. Hopefully, thier underlying humanity does come through.
The link above is to the book on Amazon, but it can also be found at B&N and Smashwords and soon soon be filtering through to places like Kobo and Apple.
Thanks, John, for this generous sharing of your website. :)
SUMMER LOVIN’ is a contemporary romance novella, perfect for chasing away the winter doldrums.
Mia volunteers to dogsit at her friend’s house for two weeks, giving her a chance to figure out the next step in her career path. Even though it’s not an easy gig chasing after Hellboy, a puppy with a shoe fetish, there’s the added bonus of the hunky guy next door. Maybe it’s finally time for Mia to add a summer fling to her resumé.
Luke is a workaholic forced to take two weeks’ vacation, and he’s pretty sure it might kill him. But then he has a great idea: getting to know his temporary neighbor. She’s sexy and fun, with no worries about a long-term commitment. It’s the perfect situation for a guy devoted to his job.
This could be the best summer of their lives.
SUMMER LOVIN’ is available at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Lovin-ebook/dp/B006CRUDI4) and Smashwords (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/107360).
So I’ll post a link or two about City of Roses Vol. 1: “Wake up…”:
City of Roses is a serialized epic very firmly set in Portland, Oregon—an urban fantasy mixing magical realism with gonzo noirish prose, where sinister high-rise riverfront condos are fought by a sprawling tea-house constructed from scrap lumber and old windows, and ancient sea-gods retire to close-in Southeast apartments with lovely views. —It’s the story of Jo Maguire, a highly strung, underemployed telemarketer, and what happens when she meets Ysabel, a princess of unspecified pedigree. Jo rather unexpectedly becomes Ysabel’s guardian and caretaker, and now must make a place for herself among Ysabel’s decidedly unusual family and friends–which involves rather more sword-play than most of us are used to.
“Wake up… collects the first eleven episodes in handy ebook or lovingly designed paperback form. The ebook’s available as EPUB, MOBI, and PDF, all for the one low price of $3 (US), direct from the author:
http://thecityofroses.com/chapbooks/epub-vol-01
The paperback, available for the somewhat steeper price of $15 (US), will be quickly printed by whoever it is who does the printing for CreateSpace and shipped just about anywhere at all at a moment’s notice:
https://www.createspace.com/3646755
Thank you for your kind attention.
‘Going to Hell was the easy part.’
In October, Metamorphosis Press (that would be me) published my YA Fantasy INFECTED BY MAGIC.
‘Angelica hadn’t planned on going to Hell that day. After all she wasn’t even dead. In search of a cure for her infection she lands in the middle of a turf war for the Underworld.’
I write mostly fantasy and SF for YA and adults.
My Amazon Author’s Page, listing all my work, can be found at: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005A6H0XY
My Smashwords Page is at: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LindaJordan
My work is also available at Barnes & Noble, itunes, Sony, Kobo, etc.
Thank you so much John for doing this! Love reading your blog.
Sick of Twilight? Over vampires? So was I when I started writing “Burden of the Soul”, a dark YA Adult Urban Fantasy with a little bit of everything. Romance, action and adventure, and some Elijah Wood jokes just for good measure. Readers ages 12-56, male and female, are losing sleep to its page-turning twists. Lose some sleep this holiday!
From a blogger: “The concept of life, death, and continuation of souls presented in this novel are entirely unique to Kate. In creating her paranormal world she combined a lot of elements from many religions around the world as well as a few twists of her own to create a fascinating concept of what happens after we die and what happens to our souls. Urban Fantasy at it’s finest Kate brings the world of the dead and old souls into New York City to play.”
Available in paperback and eBook editions. Find it on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Burden-Soul-Kate-Grace/dp/0983752710/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323188672&sr=1-1 ) and other online retailers!
My first three novels are traditionally published, but now, out of print. I’ve put the first two up as ebooks, and the third one will be up before Christmas. In addition, I’ve republished all my previously published short fiction electronically, and all my new fiction is also getting epublished.
http://www.knottedroadpress.com
“Paper Mage”: A historic fantasy set in T’ang dynasty China, around 837 A.D. Xiao Yen folds paper into an animal or a thing, then does magic, so the paper becomes what she’s folded. Her problem? She’s lost her luck.
“Caves of Buda”: A Roman magician binds a 5-stone-eyed demon deep in caves in a part of the world that eventually become known as Budapest, Hungary. Now, the bindings are breaking. The three main characters have to either rebind the demon, or destroy it, before it causes another war in Eastern Europe.
FRANKIE & FORMALDEHYDE–A Zombie Romance
Frankie works at the Happy Restful Sanitorium, a housing facility for those who choose to keep their loved ones around long after their death. With so many hungry bodies around, life is difficult—Especially when Frankie’s husband, George, somehow becomes infected. Frankie soon discovers that hiding an illegal zombie isn’t as easy as she’d thought.
This novel has sustained some detailed, positive reviews, and is a great romp for zombie fans. It can be found, in its entirety, at Smashwords: <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34001"
Thanks, John! My newest novel is No Small Bills, a humorous science fiction novel we put out through Crazy8 Press. It’s about DuckBob Spinowitz, a man who is aptly named because, well, he has the head of a duck. It’s the result of an unfortunate run-in with the aliens typically referred to as Grays a few years back. DuckBob’s learned to leave with his affliction, and he gets by—until the Grays return and inform him that, thanks to his modification, he may be the only person capable of saving the universe from impending invasion. So against his will (and his better judgment) DuckBob teams with a MiB he calls Tall, an alien techie named Ned, and a hot alien-augmented (not that way!) lady named Mary on what becomes a madcap road trip across the galaxy in an attempt to save it as only a confused half-duck man could.
People can read more about the book and buy copies of it here:
http://tinyurl.com/5wexyw7
John, thanks for this opportunity!
Under my pseudonym William Cardini, I draw comics that explore my psychedelic space fantasy cosmos the Hyperverse. You can see some of my work on the comics page of my website. I’ve been published in the 3D sf comics anthology Math Fiction, the art comics tribute to the Image Revolution called Rub the Blood, on the online site for Arthur Magazine, and on the arts web magazine Squidface and the Meddler.
I have a new, self-published 32-page minicomic called VORTEX #1 for sale in my online shop. It chronicles an epic battle of swordblows and slime between my recurring character the Miizzzard and a new alien with unknown powers.
Shuffled Off: A Ghost’s Memoir is a first person ghost story that is full of action, adventure and dark humor. But, instead of babbling on in my own words, here are what some reviewers are saying:
“I LOVED this book!!! I repeat, I LOVED this book!!! The premise is fascinating. The characters are real and engaging. The book is well written, well edited and a fast, fun read. Robert McCarter’s book is a true delight and I WILL be looking for more from this author.”
“I really enjoyed this book! From the moment I picked it up I did not want to put it down. ”
“Robert McCarter’s first novel is an entertaining, thought-provoking journey beyond the veil that could arguably be classed as a contemporary, technologically sound Tibetan Book of the Dead for Westerners.”
“I gobbled it up in one day and wished there was more! Such a compelling and engaging and completely absorbing story… I literally could not put the book down. ”
“Mr. McCarter’s characters are complex, well developed, believable and enjoyable. I especially love his attention to little details that add a quality of richness and depth to his story.”
Interested? Don’t take my (or their) word for it. The first 80 pages are available to read for free! Check it out: http://shuffledoff.com
And thanks to John for opening this up to indies!
Hey! Thanks for the great opportunity! You rock!!!
My latest self-published release is called Caught and it’s a thriller with romantic elements. Readers seem to be emotionally connecting to my characters and the story is staying with them. The best compliments I’ve received on my work.
Emma Holsten’s ex-husband stole five hundred million dollars and a nuclear weapon from a criminal organization. Without telling Emma, her ex hid a clue to the money and nuke’s location with her. Then he was murdered. Now someone is trying to kill her. Rollin Hanson, a mercenary bad boy, and Burke Cherlenko, a suave crime lord, offer to protect her and help her find the missing money and weapon. While she’s attracted to both—and Rollin seems the best of the two—she can’t trust either. Emma must determine which man to trust, find the money and the nuke, before time runs out.
Kindle Edition: http://amzn.com/B004YKUA2A
Print Edition: http://amzn.com/1937813037
Writers and book-lovers! Learn to talk about novels like a pro. Become a revision-savvy writer. Sharpen your skills with the help of The Editor’s Lexicon: Essential Writing Terms for Novelists. It decodes, defines, and provides helpful examples of the editorial jargon used in writing workshops, critiques, and online forums.
Written by an experienced editor and writing teacher, this slender, dictionary-style reference book is a fundamental guide for writers across the spectrum of experience–from new writers learning the craft, to seasoned nonfiction writers working on a first novel, to intermediate-level authors wishing to sharpen their technical skills.
Thank you for providing us with this opportunity!
Now, for the book I’m putting forward:
With over three quarter of a million downloads, Spinward Fringe: Origins has become a staple for anyone who likes to try new authors. This complete, free collected trilogy tells its own tale of high adventure in approximately one hundred seventy thousand words. It also provides the back story to the Spinward Fringe series of Space Opera novels, so, if you like what you see in this complete trilogy, there is more to read. Here’s the synopsis.
It is the distant future and one man, Jonas Valent, is letting his life slip by. He is employed by Freeground station as a port traffic controller, a job he took after completing a tour in the military. His only real joy in life is his participation in true-to-life military simulations with a cadre of friends who come together regularly to defeat challenges made to test the brightest military cadets. These restricted scenarios are an addictive preoccupation that is so enticing that they ignore the potential repercussions of breaking in to participate.
When someone reveals their identities to the Freeground Fleet Admiralty, Jonas and his friends are recognized for their talents and pressed into service. Their mission: to venture out into the populated regions of the galaxy to acquire technology and knowledge.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins is a collected trilogy that chronicles the early adventures of an ambitious crew. Their leader, Jonas Valent, has the least to lose and everything to gain as he tells the tale of his first tour as Captain of a ship tasked with making allies and discovering new technologies for the good of his people. This simple mission becomes more complicated as the crew ventures further into the settled fringes of the galaxy.
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Spinward-Fringe-ebook/dp/B004EPYUXA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1323190563&sr=8-6
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3178
Enjoy!
Thanks so much for giving us all a place to market our wares!
I publish only in ebook form, and my first three books are all far-future science fiction novels. The first book is called The Sixth Discipline, and it’s currently free (until Dec. 31) on Smashwords, iBooks, and Sony ebookstores; it’s 99¢ on Kindle and Barnes & Noble. The second book is called No Safe Haven and it’s a sequel to the first.
LINKS FOR MY eBOOKS:
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=%22carmen+webster+buxton%22
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Carmen-Webster-Buxton/e/B004V8MM8U/
iBooks: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/carmen-webster-buxton/id431503995?mt=11
Blurb for The Sixth Discipline:
Ran-Del Jahanpur, a warrior of the Sansoussy Forest, goes hunting one day, but finds himself the prey instead. Every time Ran-Del tries to escape his captor, the enigmatic Baron Hayden, he’s foiled by a technology he doesn’t understand. The Baron’s daughter Francesca clearly knows more than she’s saying, but Ran-Del’s psy sense tells him only she’s being truthful, not what she’s thinking. And it’s only after it seems that Ran-Del has escaped the city and its dangers, that he finds out how thoroughly he has been caught.
Thank you for the opportunity!
Vespera by Anselm Audley: Aeschylus’s Oresteia meets the Spanish Civil War amid balmy equatorial breezes and warm turquoise seas. Once an imperial capital, the maritime city of Vespera was briefly the heart of a new and shining republic – until a toxic combination of pride and envy on the part of its leaders ignited a bloody civil war which culminated in the Republic’s defeat and collapse.
Forty years on, the Republic’s memory is black and bitter, the land divided, and the scars of the war unhealed. So when the unstable Vesperan notable Iolani Jharissa assassinates the ruler of the New Empire, intelligencer Raphael Quiridion is sent to Vespera to prove her guilt and bring her down – only, it turns out, she is the least of his problems. His sinister uncle Silvanos wants him out of the way, the charming and astute Leonata and her idealistic shipwright daughter want to recruit him to an unspecified cause, and his superior, the implacable Empress Mother Aesonia, is spreading poisonous propaganda.
They all know Iolani killed the Emperor. Too few of them know why – and by the time they do, the stakes are terrifyingly high. Because a second civil war has started, and they now know what happened to the people who lost the first one…
Definitely not noir – you might actually want to live in a city of cream stone and tropical sunshine – but a story of pride, envy, revenge, and the terrible cost of civil war.
If there are reviews, they’re all for the Spanish edition, and my Spanish isn’t yet up to finding them. Available from Amazon here, also B&N, Kobo and others.
A chapbook of poetry written during and about my experiences in the US Navy in the early 2000s. I’ll let the one of my blurbs speak for me. “Cameron Mount makes lyric sense of night watches and reveille. An heir to the New England gothics of Frost and Melville, his relentlessly honest poems are lit with absence and wise to the intimacies of observation. Evening Watch is a startling debut. American poetry has a bright, new voice.” -Peter Shippy (author of Thieves Latin, Alphaville, How to Build the Ghost in Your Attic)
Published by Ibbetson Street Press and available through their storefront on Lulu. http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/evening-watch/4932139
The Vitalis Chronicles: White Shores
The first in an epic fantasy trilogy that takes the traditional bounds of the genre and kicks them in the teeth. The number one response is that people can see it in their heads as they read it – and love it.
There are no elves. There are no orcs. There are no vampires. There is a love story and there is a lot of action.
Check it out http://vitalischronicles.com – if nothing else you’ll love the beautiful cover art
For fans of Ender’s Game, Divergent, Hunger Games or other YA thrillers, I want to recommend Psion Beta.
———————————————————
Sammy, a 14-year-old fugitive, accidentally discovers he has the powers of a Psion.
Plucked off the streets, he is thrust into the rigorously-disciplined environment of Psion Beta headquarters. As a new Beta, Sammy must hone his newfound abilities using holographic fighting simulations, stealth training missions, and complex war games. His fellow trainees are other kids competing to prove their worth so they can graduate and contribute to the war effort.
But the stifling competition at headquarters isolates Sammy from his peers. Learning to use his incredible powers is difficult enough, but when things go horribly wrong on a routine training mission, he must rely on the other Betas to stay alive.
The Silent War is at a tipping point; even one boy can be the difference.
But to do so, he must survive.
——————————————————–
Interested readers can find a free preview on my website: http://www.psionbeta.com
The book is available for 99 cents, and is one of the highest rated books in Amazon’s Kindle store.
Thanks for checking it out!
OK, Judgement is a sf thriller available on Kindle, except that description doesn’t quite do justice to what’s going on at the heart of it.
Here’s the blurb:
“It started with a few isolated incidents: a mob shootout in Las Vegas, a firefight in the Central American jungles – one apparently unconnected event after the other, hinting at a worldwide conspiracy of unprecedented proportions. But before long CIA computer expert Bob Leith realises it’s something much more than mere globalised terrorism, something literally not of this world …”
It’s about what it’s like to have the ability, Old Testament style, to wreak revenge on every wrongdoing, ever, anywhere, to upset the natural order of things. It’s a sf thriller, except it’s also a book about free will, about responsibility, about whether it’s possible to have God-like power but still remain human.
Here’s what a couple of Amazon reviewers had to say about it:
“Judgement is a novel worth any reader’s time and money and, in a world where good writing translates into sales it would be long on the amazon top 100 kindle list for years.”
“This is not a book for the faint hearted. For a Kindle book this is well worth the effort in reading.”
There’s also an excerpt from the book right on the Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Judgement-ebook/dp/B004BLJCV2
This is a story about God and the Devil, but not how you were taught to believe.
This is also a story about love and hate, and the suffering both can bring.
This is about rights and wrongs, and all of the spaces in between.
This is about revenge, courage, death, passion; with no villains, no heroes… only those left scorned.
This is a story about Heaven, Hell, and the Jury that holds them together.
This is The Antithesis.
Justice Alezair Czynri is the newest recruit of the Jury, a group of powerful beings who reside in Purgatory and enforce the Code between Heaven and Hell. However, Justice Czynri could not have come at a worse time. A storm lays just over the horizon…
One that brings with it a war.
Available in print and ebook: http://www.terrawhiteman.com/2011/07/works-by-terra-whiteman.html
Harmony of Brush and Ink [Kindle Edition]
Bertrand Mao (author), Lin-Lin Mao (editor)
Kindle price: $2.99
http://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Brush-Ink-ebook/dp/B004U2TAOG/&tag=maar-20
Learn about traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy through the artwork of Chinese-American artist Bertrand Mao. Over 70 images of Bertrand Mao’s paintings and calligraphy are included in this book along with an essay on traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy written by the artist. Art lovers everywhere will enjoy this ebook. Art work is in color for those who view the ebook on their computer, iPad, or Kindle Fire. If only we could live in the places in Bertrand Mao’s paintings; life would certainly be relaxing and more beautiful.
In addition, Bertrand Mao has translated into English all the Chinese calligraphy that appear in this book so that the English reader can enjoy the poetry and verses, many of which were written by ancient Chinese scholars.
To learn more about the artist, please visit Bertrand Mao’s website at
http://www.bertrandmao.com
I’d love to find a few more readers for my novel Ghost Notes, which won the 2009 PODBRAM Award for best work of contemporary fiction. Here’s the blurb, and the link to learn more…or buy for an absurdly low price.
http://www.artedwards.com/ghostnotes.htm
A bass player ready to jump ship from his mega-band, a drifter who hasn’t seen his son for twenty years, a sixteen-year-old high school dropout who’s going to rock the world come hell or high water, what melodies will pour forth from these rock ‘n’ roll hearts?
Josh “Hote” Hotle should have no complaints. He’s a founding member of Fun Yung Moon, a band that’s sold 2.6 million copies of its debut record. He’s seen his face on MTV mixed in with the biggest music names of the day, tours the country in an airbrushed bus, plays stages other musicians would kill just to stand on.
But all is not well. It’s 1995, and while the tidal wave of grunge rolls on, Fun Yung Moon’s sophomore record is dead in the water, with a single no one plays, a failing tour, and band members with their own agendas. Back home, his wife Celia is oddly distant, and perhaps worst of all, Hote can’t find the magic in the music anymore, that special pulse that propelled him through the songs and made the course of his life clear.
One day on the road, Celia reveals to Hote she’s been unfaithful, which sends Hote on a three-day odyssey through Orange County, culminating in an encounter with a father he’s never known. He meets many others along the way, but none as captivating as Betty, a sixteen-year-old singer/songwriter who wants more from Hote than an autograph on her ticket stub. Will Hote find renewed hope through Betty, or is his spirit as doomed as his dead heroes, haunting the rock ‘n’ roll afterworld, learning too late the cruel backlash of rock music immortality?
http://www.artedwards.com/ghostnotes.htm
On the planet Nuala, a world cursed with riches and radiation, comes a tale of truth, honor, and treason, with a drop of romance and a generous helping of murder. You’ll also get betrayal, forgiveness, healing, and second chances. What’s not to like?
Start reading the Nuala books with Fires of Nuala, and you’ll have two more to enjoy. Buy an Amazon Kindle version on sale through Backlist Ebooks (http://astore.amazon.com/backlebook-20/detail/B004A8ZSTG) and check out BeB’s new web site, or get a DRM-free version from Book View Cafe (http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Kimbriel-Fires-of-Nuala .)
Campbell Award nominee author!
Crystal Shade: Angeni, Volume 1 (Epic / YA Fantasy, released on November 11, 2011. Length: app. 592 pages)
“Thousands of stars could tell thousands of stories.”
Seven year old Grace always dreamt of becoming a guardian angel; like those who guarded and guided her people and prepared to bravely fight in a dreaded mythical event, the Crystal Shade – which never came. It’s not like Grace ever wanted to see Demons. Or wants to know what evil and darkness is – things that no one ever faced on her world and as the legends says, the Crystal Shade carries within –, nor does she want to die to be reborn as a guardian. But she thinks the mysterious life of angels is so noble, a fable that it sounds exciting – until it actually happens.
Crystal Shade: Angeni, Volume 1 explores the early life of a young daydreaming soul who is destined to reveal the forgotten past of her home world and to seek the answer for the eternal question; what the legendary Crystal Shade really is.
Crystal Shade is available for $4.99.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00660MU8I
Or find out more at http://www.crystalshadeangeni.com (Flash based website).
Hi John, thanks so much for this opportunity! My fantasy novel, THIEF OF HOPE, features a pickpocket whose life becomes entangled with the commoners’ fight against an oppressive society, a would-be king’s bid for the throne, and the strange and dangerous magic of the faery folk. In this bleak, medieval world, nothing is black and white, and even a thief must make a stand for what she believes is right.
Please check out my website for more info, buy links, and an excerpt: http://www.cindyyoungturner.com. THIEF OF HOPE is published by Crescent Moon Press and available in paperback and ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com.
The Wobbit A Parody (Of Tolkien’s The Hobbit)
In a world of self-promoting wizards, dwarf bankers, hemogoblins and were-swans, one underemployed wobbit must embark on a journey across recession-plagued Little Earth to steal a resentful dragon’s treasure and restore the economy: a wobbit named Bulbo Bunkins.
Fans of The Hobbit will be delighted with this insightful and loving parody of Tolkien’ beloved classic. It’s what Tolkien would have written if he was an unemployed American banker in the 21st century. No favorite parts have been omitted. Every scene, character, and song from the original is in this new parody. If you’re a Hobbit fan, this parody includes all the iconic elements you love. If you’re not a fan, you’ll enjoy the non-stop wackiness.
Only $3.00 on Kindle- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZR9ELK
Military science fiction anthology by all women writers! (Except for our token male, David Weber, who wrote the intro, in which he refers to us lady authors as, ‘brazen hussies’. Yes, it’s true. David Weber has called me a brazen hussy. Definitely one of the finer compliments I’ve ever been paid.)
My short story, “In the Middle of Nowhere”, deals with a warrior struggling to come to grips with a pacifist society. Is a violent response ever the right thing?
DEFENDING THE FUTURE:VOLUME 4, NO MAN’S LAND
Available from amazon.com (e-book) or Dark Quest Books (print).
(John, Dark Quest isn’t a micro-press, but as far as I know this is only available by mail order, so it seemed to fit in today’s pimp thread rather than yesterday’s.)
What could be worse than burning in Hell for eternity? For the Nameless Demon, it was his release.
Captured by a perky brunette’s summoning circle in modern times, the Demon is forced to recount his downfall within the infernal hierarchy, his unauthorized release from Hell, and the ensuing struggle to discover the truth behind the intrigue woven about him.
Pursued by both his ex-wives (one angel, one succubus, both seductively deadly), the Demon is plunged into the teeth of the Second Crusade, a war between Templars and wizards, kings and clergy.
http://www.amazon.com/I-Demon-ebook/dp/B005FSOP2G
Thanks for the thread, John!
Harmony of Brush and Ink [Kindle Edition]
Bertrand Mao (author), Lin-Lin Mao (editor)
Kindle price: $2.99
http://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Brush-Ink-ebook/dp/B004U2TAOG/&tag=maar-20
Learn about traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy through the artwork of Chinese-American artist Bertrand Mao. Over 70 images of Bertrand Mao’s paintings and calligraphy are included in this book along with an essay on traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy written by the artist.
Art lovers everywhere will enjoy this ebook. Art work is in color for those who view the ebook on their computer, iPad, or Kindle Fire. If only we could live in the places in Bertrand Mao’s paintings; life would certainly be relaxing and more beautiful.
In addition, Bertrand Mao has translated into English all the Chinese calligraphy that appear in this book so that the English reader can enjoy the poetry and verses, many of which were written by ancient Chinese scholars.
To learn more about the artist, please visit Bertrand Mao’s website at
http://www.bertrandmao.com
FOR KIDS:
Last year, a squirrel fell down a tree and became part of my family. This book has photos of baby MikiSquirrel coming to live with me and my dogs. Seven yrs old and younger. Print, Kindle, Nook
http://www.amazon.com/Squirrel-Came-Stay-Adventures-MikiSquirrel/dp/1463797761/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317833288&sr=8-1
FOR ROMANTIC SUSPENSE FANS:
I’m reissuing my SEAL series with new covers. HUNTER and SLEEPER are now available on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords & Print
http://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Crossfire-series-ebook/dp/B0062LP9LQ/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_10
Hawk McMillan, SEAL commander, is on a lone mission. To get close to Dragan Dilaver, a Kosovo kingpin involved in drugs and arms–trafficking, Hawk helped him escape from Asia and return to his former country of Yugoslavia. Now Hawk has to discover where certain weapons have been dropped for Dilaver over the diverse regions of Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania –– not an easy task for someone unfamiliar with the territory. In order for the operation to succeed, he needs a tracker and the only available person is CIA contact agent Amber Hutchens.
Beautiful and smart, Amber has made a life for herself in Velesta, Macedonia and she is more than capable of assisting Hawk in finding the cache of hidden weapons. Despite the danger of exposure and torture, they risk everything in their mission to strike down Dilaver and his ruthless gang –– even their love.
Thank you, John, for the opportunity.
Hello, Mr. Scalzi: thanks again for giving me this forum. As I said yesterday, my name is David Perlmutter and I am a freelance writer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In addition to “Pups”, which I talked about yesterday, I also have two e-books each available from Untreed Reads Publishing- “Murder’s Not Cool” and “Motor City Wolf”- and Books To Go Now, LLC- “Hard Work” and “The Thing That Went Viral”. More to come from me from both publishers in the new year. I hope you’ll check them out.
In the Service of Samurai
(YA Japanese Fantasy)
The choice: Serve the undead or become one of them.
Toshi never expected the strange visitor who one evening stepped foot inside his master’s shop. A samurai smelling of the sea, dripping on the ground, algae strung from his armor. For the first time in his life, he discovers that monsters do roam the earth. And this one has been specifically looking for him.
Dragged from his home and all he has ever known, Toshi must now use his acquired skills in foreign maps to help the creatures who have taken him. Yet at every turn there are problems. There are even those seeking to terminate his very life, not wanting his new master to succeed in his assigned task. And when they do find it, Toshi discovers his new master’s enemies have prepared for their eventual arrival, leaving him the only one capable of recovering what has been lost. Can he do what even the undead cannot? Or will he fail and be forced to wander the world as one of them?
Sample chapters http://www.gloriaoliver.com/samurai.html Available in trade paperback, Nook, and Kindle.
Wonderful service, thank you.
I have a bunch of backlist and an original nonfiction up at Book View Cafe as ebooks. Link to my page is here: http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Judith-Tarr-ss-Bookshelf/ Book View Cafe’s ebookstore, with offerings by a couple of dozen very fine writers, is here: http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/BVC-eBookstore/
Currently I have five historical fantasies at BVC including the World Fantasy Award nominee, Lord of the Two Lands (aka “Alexander the Great in Egypt”). Other titles are: Ars Magica, A Wind in Cairo, Alamut, and The Dagger and the Cross. All $4.99 except Ars M which is $3.99.
These are on Kindle and Nook as well. DRM-free. Lord of the Two Lands, which was released today (12/6), will be duly kindlenooked next week.
Also from Book View Cafe (Kindle, Nook): Writing Horses: The Fine Art of Getting It Right. Many little details that the writer needs to know in order to write horses accurately. Copiously linked and illustrated (your tablet or your NookColor or Kindle Fire will love this one). http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Tarr-Writing-Horses
Thanks, John!
SYSLOG I – Available for Kindle @ http://www.amazon.com/SYSLOG-I-ebook/dp/B004G5Z6AO/
—
In space, no one can hear you grep.
If you’ve ever parsed a logfile and enjoy hard science fiction, then the SYSLOG short story series is for you!
In all the years of interstellar exploration, lifeforms no more complex than invertebrates have ever been found. Until now.
Almost 9,000 light years from Earth, the SS Orca colony surveying ship has been in orbit around a candidate colony planet for over a year with its family crew of Dr. Marcus Rapan, his wife, Becky, son, Dan, and a quantum artificial intelligence computer, CRTR, otherwise known as Critter.
So far it’s been a routine colony certification, but Dr. Rapan has uncovered something amazing on the planet below – tantalizing fossils that will re-write the history books and inflate his first settler’s bonus. But before he can report his findings, his research is interrupted and his family is torn away from him.
As told via the ship’s logs, SYSLOG I is the first episode in a saga that spans the parsecs.
From the Author
—
SYSLOG was birthed on a collaborative writing website, One Million Monkeys Typing, where I added to a story that was told in journal format. I explored a few threads of what the humans might be experiencing before I took a stab at what the AI directing the ship was experiencing.
Having spent a good chunk of my professional career eyeballs deep digging through syslogs looking for the signal in the noise, I know that these logs tell stories ranging from the sublime to the hilarious to the downright terrifying. If you’ve ever tracked down an elusive bug, found one of your own silly configuration errors, or cleaned up after a system intrusion, you know what I’m talking about.
While the plot was clear in my mind, elevating a logfile to a central character and have it tell a (hopefully) coherent story was a special challenge. I had to invent my own command set, keep track of process IDs, and ponder what an AI would log. My hope is that attuned readers will find the logs realistic and non-techie people find the syslog portions accessible and understandable.
Chris
Thanks for this!
The Good Knight: A Medieval Mystery (otherwise known as Murder and Mayhem in the Middle Ages!)
Intrigue, suspicion, and rivalry among princes casts a shadow on the court of Owain, king of north Wales . . . When a royal groom is murdered on the way to his wedding, the bride’s brother tasks his two best detectives—-Gareth, a knight, and Gwen, the daughter of the court bard—-with bringing the killer to justice . . . only to uncover a conspiracy that will shake the foundations of Wales.
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6vgjfdc
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/90803
other links at my web page: http://www.sarahwoodbury.com
Hi, John and thanks,
The second compilation of collected stories published in print and online venues over the past five years is out for the holidays: “Platterland-Nine Stories and a Novella.” The tales range from funny to, um… well, less funny, to wit: “Mark Twain in Milan,” wherein Samuel Langhorne Clemens falls for Lady Ada Lovelace while they fight off Depression-era bootleggers, along with “Platterland,” wherein a rugged Mainer rents out space aliens to perform household chores, and “Daphne Longhandle’s Last Flight,” a tale of a dragon, macaroni and cheese and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Available in print and ebook formats, at Amazon.com and all the usual suspects: 366 pages, wow!: http://www.onetinleg.com/bookstore.htm
Do you like Sherlock Holmes? Do you like stories tinged with the outré, the bizarre, the supernatural? Do you ever find yourself wishing that not all of the seemingly other-worldly events in the original Holmes stories were rationalised at the end? If so, then “The Thames Horror and Other Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” is for you, or for the Sherlockian in your life. Written by Barbara Roden, an investitured member of the Baker Street Irregulars and a World Fantasy Award-winner, the four stories in the collection remain true to the spirit and characters of Conan Doyle. You’ll find out the true story of the legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles – a truth far more horrifying than Watson would have us believe in the novel – and discover the facts behind one of the unrecorded cases, that of Mrs. Cecil Forrester. Fans of M. R. James’s “Casting the Runes” will once more encounter the late, unlamented Julian Karswell, as Holmes and psychic detective Flaxman Low investigate mysterious goings-on at Karswell’s former residence. And in the title story, Holmes and Watson try to solve a horrific real-life series of murders which shocked a London already reeling from the Ripper atrocities. Available for Kindle from Amazon.com, and in Kindle, Nook, and Kobo formats from http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/eBooks.htm
Thanks for the opportunity, John! Here’s a brief synopsis about my urban fantasy novel, The Remortal. It’s like Highlander meets Training day:
Telly is a homeless teenager struggling to survive on the streets of
Los Angeles, but he has just met a man that can make all of his dreams
come true. His rich new benefactor only asks for one thing in
return—something no one else has been able to do for two and a half
centuries.
He wants Telly to kill him.
The man with the death wish is named Van, and he offers Telly an
escape from the constant fear, hunger, and shame that have haunted him
during his homelessness. Telly thought he had Van all figured out,
until a chance encounter with a gun-wielding thug shows that bullets
don’t do Van the slightest bit of harm.
Van is much more than he seems; he’s an immortal seeking escape from a
world he now despises. He desires a higher plane of existence, but in
order to get there he must train someone to complete the grim ritual
that will free him from the confines of his immortal body. If Telly
can fulfill Van’s request, he will inherit Van’s wealth, strength, and
eternal youth. But he soon discovers that Van is a harsh teacher with
a questionable sense of morality, and there are other immortals who
believe Van’s plans for ascension could lead to something they’ve been
dreading for centuries: the birth of a wrathful god.
Buy it for Kindle at:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Remortal-ebook/dp/B004VB532E
Thanks, John!
I published my novel Lunatic Fringe this year. It is about, to put it briefly, lesbian werewolves.
It’s available through independent bookstores here: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780983830917
Amazon & Ebook here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983830916/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
And you can learn more about me here: http://www.talesofthepack.com
I also created an online class Self-Publishing 101, which you can find on my website, for the aspiring authors out there.
Thanks again, and merry merry!
Thank you John, for this opportunity (as I begin reading “Fuzzy Nation”). I would like to offer my two recent science fiction novels, two very different kinds of stories.
In “Wednesday’s Child” Dylan Brice suddenly begins living his Thursdays before his Wednesdays with no idea why or how it’s happening. At the same time “The Agency” activates him to help avert nuclear terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Is this real or is he losing his mind? And who can he tell? First, he must understand the rules of his new reality, then figure out how to use it to stop the terrorists.
“The Portal” begins a hundred years from now, in an America that has squandered its greatness. With the economy on the verge of collapse, a desperate government has bet the future on a star mission. Lonely young Harry Middleton finds his soul mate, and they dream of escaping to the stars together, but she disappears on her 14th birthday. This sets Harry on a endless quest to locate her, my take on a futuristic version of “An Affair to Remember”.
The books are available as ebooks and as trade paperbacks. You can read the first chapters and purchase them at all e-retailers and Goodreads.com. Here is the best (cheapest) outlet for the paperbacks: http://publish.bookbrewer.com/content/wednesdays-child-paperback-edition or http://publish.bookbrewer.com/content/portal-paperback-edition.
The Takers (Book One of the Oz Chronicle Series) – A thirteen-year-old boy wakes up to discover he’s reponsible for the end of the world. A story of a bullies quest for redemption.
A YA Horror Series
On Amazon
And now for something completely different: In an ancient and obscure book in the British Library in London, a mystery writer finds an anonymous poem. Could it be…A NEW SHAKESPEAREAN POEM? Yes, it could. It’s a real, 36-page, very Bard-sounding poem, with a long (and funny) essay on anonymity and the Shakespeare authorship. Published for eBook format only, because I hate academic books that cost $40 and have to be ordered from England; this one costs $1.99 and you can read it instantly.
Kindle http://www.amazon.com/A-New-Shakespearean-Poem-ebook/dp/B005Z29R0C/
Multiple formats http://www.weightlessbooks.com/genre/nonfiction/a-new-shakespearean-poem/
While I’m here, take advantage of John’s offer of a signed copy of FUZZY NATION. Love the book, and Carl the dog is my favorite fictional animal this year, even counting Robert Wyatt’s cats in JAM AND THE BOX (another keeper).
Happy Whatevermas!
Thanks, John!
For anyone you know that loves travel or is interested in India or South America, I’d like to humbly suggest either of my $0.99 short collections available on Kindle. (Click on the “Give as a Gift” button, or buy for yourself!)
–The Hopefully Exciting Adventures of a Clueless Gringo (said adventures occuring in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia)
–Outsourcing my Education (the story of my business school quarter abroad in Bangalore and further travels throughout India)
Here’s what one reviewer had to say:
“It’s good! I took a gamble (albeit a cheap one) buying this book, and it’s a winner. Very enjoyable, and I learned a bit more about India. Matt spends quite a bit of time traveling through India in this delightful collection of e-mail messages. It is well worth the price.”
Grassroots Sustainability – A Guide to Organizing a Thriving Community
written by Lisa Chipkin and Pam Hartwell-Herrero(self published)
Grassroots Sustainability was inspired by the real-life efforts of a handful of grassroots groups in Marin County, California that successfully brought sustainability policy and education to their communities. This guidebook documents their best practices and shares important lessons learned along the way. It is intended to empower individuals and grassroots groups near and far to facilitate meaningful change in their communities from the ground up, without having to reinvent the wheel.
Buy a copy for the advocate or organizer in your life. This is the Occupy movement in action in your community! Plastic Bag bans, Renewable Energy, Local Currencies and more. 30% of proceeds go back to the nonprofits that inspired the book.
http://www.grassrootssustainability.org
Special promotion going on now!
25% off any of your books
Coupon Code: BUYMYBOOK305
Coupon expires December 14, 2011
$50 Max Savings
If you’ve read superhero comics, you’ve seen it a thousand times: Batman punches the Joker in the nose and hands him off to the police. But then what happens? He has to be arrested, processed, arraigned, tried, and convicted — which may not be easy given that the only witness isn’t someone who ever makes a statement or testifies in court (Batman).
Or say Spider-Man catches a purse-snatcher and webs him to a lamppost, then swings off to whatever appointment he’s late for. By the time the cops get there, they can’t possibly know what to do with the guy, since there are no witnesses (the victim having moved on as well). So two uniformed officers waste a day of paperwork on somebody they can’t even keep in custody.
My new novel series, SCPD: Super City Police Department, is about what cops have to deal with a city filled with costumed vigilantes. Even as the heroes and villains fight in the streets and in the skies, the officers and detectives have to deal with the everyday slog of maintaining law and order. There’s the desk sergeant whose holding cell gets a hole blown in it, because the unidentified drunk they arrested the previous night sobered up and turned out to be a super-villain out of costume. The officers who can’t make an arrest because an armored wannabe hero gets in the way. The ray-gun that lands on the streets near a battle that’s picked up by an abused wife, thinking that it might help the next time her husband beats her, with tragic results. The detectives who have to investigate the latest “death” of the Clone Master — at least until the next one turns up.
The first novel is The Case of the Claw, and it features two detectives trying to find a super-powered spree killer known as the Claw, who has returned again after two years. It’s on sale digitally from all the usual suspects (Amazon, Smashwords, BN.com, etc.) and also directly from the publisher, Crossroad Press. Purchasing links are at my web site.
Also on sale are my high fantasy police procedurals from Dark Quest Books, Dragon Precinct (a reissue of my 2004 novel) and the sequel Unicorn Precinct (think Law & Order meets Lord of the Rings). The third novel in the series, Goblin Precinct, is due out in 2012.
I’m also part of a shared-world science fiction storyline with Aaron Rosenberg, Steve Savile, David Niall Wilson, and Steven Lockley called “Tales from the Scattered Earth.” It features a far future when Earth is long gone, but powerful beings once worshipped as gods have re-created slivers of the human race on many worlds. My first contribution is Guilt in Innocence, which features the Olodumare Hegemony, a solar-system-wide empire made up of people derived from humans from western Africa. Again, full ordering info on my web site.
Thanks again, John!
Thanks, John!
I’ve written a middle-grade fantasy novel. Here goes:
Dragonfriend
If you think it was all good deeds and fancy ideals back in the days of Camelot, think again. Most people don’t know this, but for a time things went seriously bad; Arthur was imprisoned, Merlin had vanished, and a vile demon had taken over the throne. Young Leonard would have been shocked to learn any of this but right now all that concerned him was where his next meal was coming from. As page to Sir Ronald, a poor but kind knight, events at the castle took a back seat to a rumbling stomach. Oh sure, he held a secret dream that one day Sir Ronald would take a seat at the Round Table, but seriously, that was about as likely as Maid Glennys seeing him as anyone other than the dirty page of a low-ranking nobleman. Not gonna happen.
Everything changes when Leonard meets Mantooth, a seriously depressed dragon who’s looking for a knight to end his misery with a swing of a broadsword. Wait a minute. If the dragon will allow Sir Ronald to slay him, his misery would be over, Sir Ronald would surely get a Round Table invite for such a brave deed, and Leonard might even climb a notch or two in the eyes of Glennys! Everybody wins, right? Wrong. Leonard’s plan backfires horribly when, on the day of the battle, Sir Ronald is arrested for “bravery without a license” and he and Mantooth are dragged off to Camelot’s dungeons. Now Leonard must do whatever it takes to free his master even if that means befriending a dangerous dragon, trying to outwit Camelot’s dark overlord, or taking a bath!
“A wonderfully written side story to the Arthurian legend with never-considered twists, fun details and tremendous heart. Leonard is a marvelous hero-in-the-making and Mantooth is the first dragon in a long time who really deserves a hug.” — Carolyn Hennesy, Author of the Pandora series
Click here for additional info (including buy links). Thanks!
99 cents for the holidays: THE BLACK GOD’S WAR.
David Farland: “Moses is a fine writer deserving of success, and I think that it will follow. I really enjoyed Moses’s work.”
Against the backdrop of epic warfare and the powers of ten mysterious gods, Lucia struggles to understand The Black One.
Her father-king wants war.
Her messianic brother wants peace.
The black god wants his due.
She suffers all the consequences.
Amazon and B&N. Also free at Amazon UK.
. . . FRESH . . .
The ocean surrounds the secret.
Last night a wicked storm swept a beautiful sacrifice onto the shore. Shipwrecked Jessica Stanton is about to be discovered, cherished, and trained to survive on a remote island by a man who is not what he seems.
There is a place on earth where unrestrained evil flourishes.
. . . FLESH . . .
Welcome home, Jessica.
FRESH FLESH available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other fine etailers in both paperback and eBook.
(Thank you, John!)
For your Gift Guide I’d like to recommend two books in a non-fiction publishing project of mine, Clary Books Old Farm & Garden Line.
I started publishing very old public domain horticultural/agricultural books this year. These books are available free as PDFs from services like the Biodiversity Library, and some people sell the straight OCR copies.
The editions I’m publishing are completely renewed versions, carefully copyedited and formatted for digital readers, with all illustrations retouched for ereaders and tablets, fully hyperlinked indexes, and annotations for various obscure references.
The first book, 200 Eggs A Year Per Hen, was originally published in 1898, and is a first-hand explanation of how to run a small poultry operation. It is available for $2.99 from Amazon and B&N.
My latest effort is currently being processed at both stores and will be available within a day or two. It is Cassell’s Popular Gardening, Vol. 1. Cassell’s covers all aspects of traditional English gardening of the period, from drainage and digging, through greenhouse management, kitchen gardens, garden design, and to meet those special needs, sections on designing your carriage sweeps and the roadways on your country estate. Also chapters on roses, grapevines, mushrooms, and tons of other oddities. It’s a gorgeous bit of publishing work, if I do say so myself.
It will sell for $3.99, and I’ll link to the store pages on my web site once it’s live.
Thanks for your consideration.
What an interesting idea, thank you! Hope this generates lots of interest in micro-publishers.
My contribution, my fiftieth book but my first mystery, EVIL GENIUS:
Anastasia Devlin has the instincts of a chameleon, but what she really wants is to provide her siblings with the security of the home she’s been denied. Her grandfather dies and his mansion is usurped by a stranger. If murder hasn’t already been committed, she might perpetrate one herself—starting with the annoying spy in the attic. The threads of three mysteries twine together, and someone wants to cut the cord before Ana finds the answers.
Sold at all major ebook distributors but published by Book View Cafe in DRM-free format:
http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Patricia-Rice/eBooks/
Wow, thanks. I’ll keep it short. The Sable City by M. Edward McNally, first of a three-volume epic fantasy series. Muskets, Magic, and Matilda Lanai.
http://www.amaozn.com/dp/B004PLNNLS
What happens when a hard science fiction writer turns to fantasy: THE DREAD HAMMER–a fairytale of love, war, murder, marriage, and fate.
Ketty is a pretty shepherdess with a contrary nature, who runs away from home to escape an unwanted marriage. As she flees along the forest road, she prays to the Dread Hammer for help–and to her astonishment help comes in the form of a charming and well-armed young murderer named Smoke who is not entirely human. Smoke, too, is taken by surprise at their encounter. He had lurked beside the forest road intending to pierce hearts and slit throats, not to fall in love. But just when happily-ever-after seems within reach, Smoke’s past returns to claim him. A deserter from the Koráyos army, his supernatural skill at killing is still very much in demand. Now the army wants him back.
Published under the pen name Trey Shiels and available in print and ebook form at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and as a DRM-free ebook at Book View Cafe:
http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/The-Dread-Hammer-by-Trey-Shiels
Thank you John. I also shall keep it simple.
Corie Universe Feeder – Walter Eckland
Nonsense children’s book. Good for read aloud. Almost makes a point or two. Some kids think it’s funny.
Amazonia: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00520ICW6
Smashywords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97186
Two *.99 eBooks. The first is Getting Well for the First Time http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Well-First-Time-ebook/dp/B005ISPPZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323196895&sr=8-1
“Anyone who has suffered from chronic illness, whether PTSD or any other, would benefit from reading this book which also contains useful and current links to many other sources of information.” Frederick Lee Brooke, Author
“..it is a book of hope and achievement which could encourage others to address their own issues and get well too.” Trish Nicholson, Author
“This book documents a journey of self-discovery as well as dealing with many problems.” Nicholas A. Rose, Author
Getting Well for the First Time is a first-person account of the author’s progress in getting well from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. The past 3 1/2 years of the author’s treatment for PTSD provides the book’s source material.
The author’s chosen treatment is an experiential therapy that addresses the underlying problems. This is in contrast to the vast majority of treatments that deal only with symptoms.
“Beautifully written story. Brave, honest, and educational.” Suzie Carr, Author
“Paul’s book is both interesting and thought-provoking.” Lissette Manning, Author
To find more about a permanent fix to stress, read Getting Well for the First Time or for an hour-long read, When Do I Get to Live My Own Life? http://www.amazon.com/When-Get-Live-Life-ebook/dp/B005ZS33EW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323197010&sr=1-1
Ooh, it’s gone all italics, as if to express my excitement! (watch, it will be fixed now) Thank you, Mr. Scalzi!
Threefold is self-published on Lulu, available as a free download or at-cost POD
http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/threefold/17469222
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/threefold/6514405
Here’s the blurb (proof that blurb-writing is better left to professionals):
Threefold: a Nine-Day Novel.
Three stories, each written within three days for the Three Day Novel Contest. Picaresque magic realism, slipstream, myths, legends and ghosts. Castles. Mad scientists. Gods rising from snot and blood. Lack of sleep accounts for most of it.
Finding Fiona is a coming-of-age scifi novella that’s full of mystery, action, and romance. At 45,000 words or about 180 pages, this book is a perfect weekend read. Currently on sale for only $1.49!
The victim of a brutal attack, Fiona remembers little about her life until she meets someone who claims to be from her past. He tells her that her parents were killed for a human replication machine. He’s shocked to discover she’s still alive since her body was found in the wreckage of the fire. She soon travels to her old home in New York to figure out what happened to her and her family. She needs to find out who she is, but more importantly, confront the men who killed her parents.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005P44Z5W
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1105949851
Thanks for this opportunity, John!
Thanks for the opportunity!
Title: Glen & Tyler’s Honeymoon Adventure
Genre: Modern Thriller Spy Romance
Description:
Tyler can’t inherit unless he gets married … and when Glen proposes, hijinks ensue. Follow the guys on their world-spanning adventure as they defeat mobsters, an evil step-mother, a rakish brother-in-law and pirates. No, really — pirates! Plus there’s an underground super-base. And hockey. Come for the romance, stay for the hockey.
Find out why you should always bring backup on a cruise, who responds better to beer than to pay raises, and what goes on at those charity parties. You’d be surprised!
Available at Apple’s iBook Store, and at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/64360
Thank you for the opportunity!
For your reading pleasure, I present a novella and a novel:
Todd’s Story, 65 pages
From the Celestine Carnival Chronicles – Todd’s Great Uncle Ralph passes away, leaving him a house, its land, and his unfinished business. Todd, his girlfriend, and his best friend get swept up in the strangeness of Ralph’s life and his obession. Three teenage lives are changed forever by Dr. Celestine’s Carnival of Souls!
Get it here: http://davidmcrampton.com/?page_id=539
The Remembrance, 281 pages
The world has died – in fire and flood, violence and destruction.
From the singed remains, a new world has risen – one that is not bound by the laws of conventional man. Kings and wizards, angels and demons – from the minds of the survivors comes the landscape of a world reshaped in everyone’s image.
The catalyst in this world’s changing scope is a man named Herod. Madman and visionary, he will be the first to create his own world – one that is both familiar, and yet strange and fantastic. Herod has become the King of Dragons and he, along with his companions and enemies, will form the shape of things yet to come.
His friends wish to build a new Utopia. His enemies – kingdoms under their complete control. Both will try to use Herod to their own ends.
Herod has other plans, and while it might cost him everything he has sought to build, he will stop at nothing. From askew world to askew world, he seeks to put together the pieces that will lead him to the one thing that matters to him beyond all else…
Get it here: http://davidmcrampton.com/?page_id=567
Hi John
Thank you for this great opportunity :-)
My book is called The Spiral Tattoo and is released by Sky Warrior Books on Amazon and Smashwords:
Amazon; http://www.amazon.com/The-Spiral-Tattoo-ebook/dp/B0058DUKOU/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
Smashwords; http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69496
Law comes in two sizes: six inches and eight feet.
Elanore, the eight-foot tall troll, and Gurt, the six-inch tall (don’t you dare call me a fairy) Eleinu, both guardsmen in the city of Delvenport, tackle their most baffling case yet. When they find a dead waitress, naked except for an intricate tattoo in a spiral across her body, they’re launched into an adventure in the seedier side of Delvenport, filled with rogue mages, prostitution, and narcotics.
But can they solve the case before madness and riots take over the city?
Thanks for the free advertising space John!
I present my work of post-apocalyptic sci-fi, Pandora’s Highway. 360 pages
The Collapse. Civilization swept away in the historical equivalent of the blink of an eye. Man reduced to little more than a parasite living off the carcass of the Old World. After twenty years, little was left for even the most diligent of scavengers to recover.
Animals had vanished, replaced with creatures that had never existed on Earth. Reproduction was difficult, water supplies poisoned and the world just kept on getting warmer.
As the saying went – The world was not what it was.
For Nathan Smith, inveterate wanderer, his latest trip was one of desperate need. His community was on the verge of falling apart due to lack of food, water and other vital supplies. If he couldn’t find them a place worth relocating to, well, he might as well not bother going back at all.
But he could not have imagined the extremes that he would find on this journey. Horror beyond his wildest nightmares and joy beyond anything he’d ever dared to hope.
The post-Collapse highways offered no free rides and no easy way. It was all or nothing and Nathan was about to learn a very important lesson.
On this road, there was no turning back.
OR…to summarize, Fringe meets Mad Max, kinda!
It is available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005HJA93M
and also: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/82261
Just for the holidays, I’ve put together a Boxed Set of the 3 Georgia Davis Mystery/PI Series. Now ToxiCity, Easy Innocence, and Doubleback are all available for just $5.99. I hope you’ll take a look at this acclaimed series.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Georgia-Davis-PI-Boxed-ebook/dp/B0069FIBNS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322958280&sr=8-1
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-georgia-davis-pi-series-libby-fischer-hellmann/1107518757?ean=2940013491359&itm=1&usri=the+georgia+davis+series&workid=1036541947
What a great idea! Thanks John!
Mine is an epic fantasy novel. The first in a series.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Warrior-Legend-Crystals-ebook/dp/B004RPZRMK/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_4
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/47994
Larissya’s life changes forever when her Grandmother gives her a magic crystal that shows her glimpses of the future. Hunted by mercenaries and an evil group known as the Triad, she is rescued by a large brute of a man named Talos and his band of diminutive followers.
She soon discovers that everyone thinks she is the one referred to in legend as The Crystal Warrior. And that her destiny is to gather the magic crystals and lead an epic battle against the Triad. A battle that will determine the fate of Agorai itself. But she doesn’t yet believe that she is the one.
The Triad has other plans. Plans that involve capturing the crystals and using their powers for themselves. Plans that involve murder, madness and pain. They have been waiting a long, long time for the Warrior to awaken.
From the magic swords Shakari and Antare, to the gigantic reptilian bird known as Taradahn, to the mysterious worm of power called Ishak, to the magnificent tree city of Frizl, Larissya’s story is full of wonder—and darkness.
Will she triumph over the forces of evil?
Will she obtain the power of the crystals?
Will she be able to save her friends?
Or will they die at her side?
In 2003, I self-published a book of essays titled “Book, With Words and Pages.” This year I was going to do a new edition as an e-book, but then I just decided to put it up online as its own web site, so everyone can read it for free:
http://bookwithwordsandpages.posterous.com/
Enjoy! Thanks for reading (and thanks John for doing this).
Bob
http://www.bobsassone.com
Avenging Annabelle: A Canadian thriller set on Vancouver Island. A father takes matters into his own hands after his daughter is abducted. http://www.amazon.com/Avenging-Annabelle-ebook/dp/B0058ZYCHO/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AZC9TZ4UC9CFC
The Immigrant: A quirky sci-fi/comedy about an alien scientist with disgusting personal hygeine who is about to design a new food source for Earth. http://www.amazon.com/The-Immigrant-ebook/dp/B004RYVFE0/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AZC9TZ4UC9CFC
The Jealousy Game: Nonfiction/self-help: Demonstrates how seemingly innocent displays of jealousy in a relationship can be a sign of something much more sinister. http://www.amazon.com/The-Jealousy-Game-ebook/dp/B004RYVFS6/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AZC9TZ4UC9CFC
All available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com.
Hello!
I recently decided to try my hand at self-publishing. I’d like to plug one of my ebooks here:
*The Tellmenow Isitsöornot*
It features no less than 100 stories from the past 20 years of my writing career; and it’s available for only $4.99 from Smashwords here:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/88734
Thanks for listening, folks!
Rhys
“Rip” is the funniest book since Dick Cheney’s autobiography.
“Rip,”a just-published modern-day retelling of the “Rip Van Winkle” story, is more fun to read than Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death He Kindly Stopped for Me” and more uplifting than “Being and Nothingness” by Jean-Paul Sartre.
“Rip,” a tongue-in-cheek send-up of “male chauvinism” and the “Women’s Liberation” movement of the late 1960s, is a world-changing book which will someday be ranked with such seminal American works as Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience,” Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and Laura Ingalls’ Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” series.
“Rip,” which pays tender and admiring homage to America’s first great writer, is just the thing to leave in the stocking (hung by the chimney with care in hopes that Nicholas DiGiovanni’s wonderful parody of “Rip Van Winkle” soon would be there) of anyone you know who has high-level literary tastes but also totally loves a good fart joke.
“Rip,” by Nicholas DiGiovanni, a hilarious spoof of the Washington Irving classic, is available via blackangelpress.com (or directly through amazon.com if the sudden influx of thousands — nay, tens of thousands — of orders crashes the Black Angel Press website.
So wake up and smell the coffee…Don’t be caught asleep at the wheel…Remember what happened when old Rip Van Winkle feel asleep for twenty years — time passed him by. Yes, he also became famous, but that’s not the point….The point is that if you want to be right out there in the vanguard of American humor and satire,you need to buy and read “Rip,” the greatest American satire since the most recent issue of The New York Review of Books, which still has not reviewed “Rip.”
“The Snake Pit” is a young adult fiction about bullying in the public schools and what can happen when bullying goes too far. http://www.amazon.com/Snake-Pit-Donna-L-Dillon/dp/1453838902/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1323200422&sr=8-7
Hi, thanks for the opportunity…
I have written 3 books in the Kiwi Series for readers aged 9+. The titles are Kiwi in Cat City, Kiwi and the missing Magic and Kiwi and the living nightmare. The heroine is a little black fluffy cat called Kiwi, who takes her two young ‘owners’, James and Amy, to her other home – the blue-lit Cat City, which is full of catizens. On their adventure, the children find out what it’s really like to have four paws and turn detective to help Inspector Furrball solve a mystery. Most of my readers have been adults! :)
The books are available on Amazon, Smashwords, the Breakthrough Bookstore and Publishmybook.ie
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/55227 / http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YKSZMM
I also have a book of 119 poems, called Kaleidoscope, which is available at the same places.
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/51234 / http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SY5VZ8
Thanks for reading
Vickie Johnstone
The Blank Slate by Raymund Eich
Clay Shieffer seemingly had it all. He and his business partner had sold their neuroscience startup for tens of millions. But his outward success belied his discomfort with the police state growing under President Everton and America United in the aftermath of the 6:19 nuclear terrorist attack that had destroyed Washington, D.C.
When a mysterious hacker gives him hints, Clay finds the evil truth behind President Everton’s election and his own unwitting complicity in it. Inspired to bring down the President, Clay tells the wrong person and soon finds himself on the run from Federal agents and the U.S. Army. He must forge a rag-tag alliance of hackers, misfits, engineers, and conscience-stricken military personnel to seize control of New Washington and topple the tyrant.
But President Everton now wields Clay’s latest, most powerful, neuroscience invention, and is prepared to use it….
The Blank Slate is available in ebook editions: Kindle Nook Smashwords
My other published works include virtual reality novel The Sirens of Bangalore (recommended for mature readers only), and short stories “The Evidence of Things Seen,” “The White Witch of Bendugu,” “Nine Views of Transco Tower, by Iak/Sohu,” “Selling Short,” and “Mike Fink Goes to Big Bend.”
A TASTE OF YOU (vampire romance)
$2.99 ISBN 9781611381214
by Jennifer Stevenson
from Book View Cafe
buy the book: http://tinyurl.com/8ytcoou
A vampire romance set in Hinky Chicago from the author of THE BRASS BED.
Hel is an energy vampire. Nick is an anti-magic cop. Hel loves Nick’s yummy energy. Nick is aroused by magic. If he figures her out, he’ll send her to Hinky Guantanamo. But can they keep their hands off each other?
Thanks for the opportunity, John – happy holidays!
Fans of Dave Barry and like minded humorists may be interested to check out my first book, The First Seven Years Are Always the Hardest…, which is a collection of my own humor columns that I’ve been writing since 2001. I write about pretty much anything I come across in life that amuses me, from bizarre birthday presents and the joys of weeding one’s garden to even my most recent experience this week of getting called for jury duty for the very first time.
New humor columns are available on my website every Friday for anyone who would like a preview before they buy, and books can be ordered either directly from me via my online store or via traditional online stores if you’d like to include it with a larger order:
http://www.comedic-genius.com/store/
http://www.amazon.com/First-Seven-Years-Always-Hardest/dp/0982775806/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-first-seven-years-are-always-the-hardest-scott-sevener/1024288038
At the end of 2009 PS Publishing brought out Cast a Cold Eye, a novella I co-wrote with William Shunn, with an introduction by Charles de Lint. It’s a ghost story of sorts, involving an orphan in Nebraska just after the Spanish flu pandemic, a female spirit photographer with one eye that is completely blacked out, and graveyard statues that make creepy use of their own eyes. Locus magazine’s review quite wonderfully drew comparisons between the story and the movie version of The Wizard of Oz. Why not check it out?
Normal hard cover: http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/cast-a-cold-eye-hc-by-derryl-murphy–william-shunn-479-p.asp
Jacketed, signed (by me, Bill, Charles, and the cover artist), limited edition hardcover: http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/cast-a-cold-eye-signed-jhc-by-derryl-murphy–william-shunn-480-p.asp
Melody and the Pier to Forever
(Epic fantasy for young adults and up.)
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/54833
A short blurb: The Pier goes on … forever. Epic battles at sea, an undead soul-eating villain, the unbreakable bonds of friendship and love, and the courageous heroes who are called upon to rescue a doomed world … This is just a taste of what awaits you in the pages of the epic fantasy saga Melody and the Pier to Forever.
And here’s its trailer on YouTube: http://youtu.be/n9HUfcnlEFU
And here’s a review: “Shawn has accomplished what many authors fail to do when they take that terrifying leap into publishing. He has created an amazing epic story which from the very beginning draws the reader into a story which is beautifully crafted. Each character has been lovingly & patiently brought to life. The storyline is one which honestly drew me in & kept me enraptured. There are so many elements in Melody & The Pier To Forever…magic, love, suspense, fantasy…it is an amazing story, one which you’d expect from a much more seasoned author, in fact in an era where well established & “popular” authors have dropped the ball in their originality & magic, Shawn puts them to shame with the first book of what I know will be an amazing epic journey! Can’t wait for the second book!”
Melody is FREE. Download today and enjoy!
My first published short story – Lest Ye Be Judged! is available on Smashwords.
It’s about a despotic tyrant named Zim who defeats an oppressive theocracy. It will hopefully be the first of many short stories about Zim which will be collected into a volume titled “The Dominion of Zim”.
It can be found here:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=casen+forrest (Adult filter must be off)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lest-ye-be-judged-casen-forrest/1107759497
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Lest-Ye-Be-Judged/book-j1WK1pQgNUepkK5oeCMipg/page1.html
My somewhat irregular blog can be found at – http://cforrest65.wordpress.com/
“Rip,”a just-published modern-day retelling of the “Rip Van Winkle” story, is more fun to read than Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death He Kindly Stopped for Me” and more uplifting than “Being and Nothingness” by Jean-Paul Sartre.
“Rip,” a tongue-in-cheek send-up of “male chauvinism” and the “Women’s Liberation” movement of the late 1960s, is a world-changing book which will someday be ranked with such seminal American works as Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience,” Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and Laura Ingalls’ Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” series.
“Rip,” which pays tender and admiring homage to America’s first great writer, is just the thing to leave in the stocking (hung by the chimney with care in hopes that Nicholas DiGiovanni’s wonderful parody of “Rip Van Winkle” soon would be there) of anyone you know who has high-level literary tastes but also totally loves a good fart joke.
“Rip,” by Nicholas DiGiovanni, a hilarious spoof of the Washington Irving classic, is available via http://www.blackangelpress.com (or directly through http://www.amazon.com if the sudden influx of thousands — nay, tens of thousands — of orders crashes the Black Angel Press website.
not reviewed “Rip.”
“Rip,”a just-published modern-day retelling of the “Rip Van Winkle” story, is more fun to read than Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death He Kindly Stopped for Me” and more uplifting than “Being and Nothingness” by Jean-Paul Sartre.
“Rip,” a tongue-in-cheek send-up of “male chauvinism” and the “Women’s Liberation” movement of the late 1960s, is a world-changing book which will someday be ranked with such seminal American works as Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience,” Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and Laura Ingalls’ Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” series.
“Rip,” which pays tender and admiring homage to America’s first great writer, is just the thing to leave in the stocking (hung by the chimney with care in hopes that Nicholas DiGiovanni’s wonderful parody of “Rip Van Winkle” soon would be there) of anyone you know who has high-level literary tastes but also totally loves a good fart joke.
“Rip,” by Nicholas DiGiovanni, a hilarious spoof of the Washington Irving classic, is available via http://www.blackangelpress.com (or directly through http://www.amazon.com if the sudden influx of thousands — nay, tens of thousands — of orders crashes the Black Angel Press website.
Remedy is a medical drama, set in a magical world where three races live in symbiosis. Living in this world is Peregrine, an avian whose mining career has ruined his hearing and weakened his wings. After a lifetime of dependancy on weasel aides, Peregrine decides to free his current aide, Tillian, before her entire 20-year lifespan is wasted on one old man. Peregrine has barely made his choice when a “demon” plague strikes a nearby village. Without relief, the entire community may be wiped out of being — and Peregrine and Tillian’s relief efforts will have to do.
If you’re shopping for a fantasy reader who likes character-driven stories and positive themes, Remedy would make a great gift. Available in ebook and paperback formats, from your choice of retailers: http://www.heidicvlach.com/books.htm
Thanks, John!
New York in the Eighties. Tough place for a struggling young African-American superhero like RJ (kinda strong, sorta hard to kill) to fight crime, make the rent, and hold on to his love life. Tough enough, that is, even before the city’s mightiest champions enter a transdimensional rift, answering a call-to-arms against alien invaders. Now it’s up to Red Jacket and a handful of other “rear guardians” to hold the world’s greatest metropolis together.
Or die trying.
Red Jacket: A Novel with a Superhero, by Michael Canfield. Ebook available at
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and other online retailers.
I have a novel coming out but it’s in February. Alas!
Instead I will promote my YA serial, Nightlights. It’s available weekly on the web (http://www.dreamfarmer.net/), or, for your ebook gift-giving convenience, the first 2 (3rd one coming soon) volumes are available at all major ebook retailers. Many links at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12354062-nightlights.
It’s a story about monsters, weapons and relationships, about a young man with Ajax finding a new home after realizing his old home isn’t really a home, and about a young woman named Natalie learning about saving the world, and a girl named Jehane learning about becoming a young woman. It features swords conjured from one’s soul to fight monsters drawn from a mysterious source, and an alien tower on a faraway planet accessed through mirrors in our own world. I like it, and I think other people do too.
RealmShift
Isiah is having a tough time. The Devil is making his job very difficult. Samuel Harrigan is a murdering low-life who used ancient black magic to escape a deal with the Devil. Now he’s on the trail of a crystal skull that he believes will complete his effots to evade Lucifer. But Lucifer wants Samuel’s soul for eternity and refuses to wait a second longer for it. Now Isiah must protect Samuel and keep the Devil at bay, because Isiah needs Samuel’s search for the skull to continue… …not for Samuel’s sake, but for the sake of all humankind. RealmShift is an engrossing dark fantasy thriller; a fascinating exploration of the nature of belief and its effect on the world. Magic, action, and intrigue, from dank city streets to the depths of hell and beyond.
RealmShift
Nontraditionally, I’ve got SWITCHFLIPPED at http://www.gwdbooks.com/books/gregstolze – an urban fantasy novel about a young man who sets off into a dangerous and disconcerting world of sketchy self-enlightenment, chasing the girl who mysteriously vanished five years ago. He finds something he likes even better.
Even less traditionally, there’s a pile of free ePubs and pdfs at http://www.gregstolze.com/fiction_library/ just waiting to get plugged into someone’s new Kindle or Nook. They’re the result of thousands of dollars of independent fundraising by fans, so even though they’re free to you (and everyone) now, the author was fairly compensated. Take a look, there’s quite the variety.
-G.
The Shores We Walk is a spiritual journey of four young protagonists observing the moments flashing before their eyes while on the brink of death. The narrator writes in parable like prose, following these characters along their dark pursuits on their paths to self-destruction. The main character, Francis shares his story after dropping to his lowest depths with nowhere to look but towards the light. -Gabriel Rheaume is from Detroit, Michigan, has a BA in English from Wayne State University. Available at Amazon with a special for the Kindle of 99 cents!
REVISE THE WORLD is about British polar explorer Titus Oates, who commits suicide by walking out of his tent into an Antarctic blizzard, to save Robert Falcon Scott and the other members of the English exploration team. His body is never found — because he was snatched away into the year 2045 by scientists experimenting with a new faster-than-light drive. A shorter version of this work was a finalist for both the Nebula and the Hugo Awards.
In SPEAK TO OUR DESIRES, it’s June 1969 in New York City. The moon is in the second house, Jupiter has aligned with Mars, and private investigator Tim Coates is having his own personal summer of love. A gorgeous blonde girl hires him to find her missing mother. Finally, his life is starting to look like Nero Wolfe’s!
But Ellie Quartern and her mom are not your standard damsels in distress. They share an eerie and destructive secret that warps hearts and destroys lives. As Tim digs deeper into their dark private world, he’s not in a mystery, but a horror novel. And he discovers that the Rolling Stones were wrong. Even when you get what you want, you just might find that it’s not at all what you need.
Both books from Book View Cafe http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Brenda-Clough/Novels/
COMET JACK #1
A boy falls through a window in his attic and ends up in orbit around an alien world. Well, not quite an orbit. He’s falling. And everything is getting hotter.
A YA/middle-grade novel featuring:
• Smoking craters
• Time distortion
• Mistaken identity
• An alien world in crisis
• A super-smart sidekick (don’t call him a robot)
• Schoolyard tyranny
• A tattling sister
Jack must stick his neck out to help people he just met, both on the other side of the galaxy and around the corner at his new school. Every time he tries, though, he just makes things worse…
2.99 Kindle or 8.63 Trade Paperback: available at amazon
More info: cometjack.com
Thanks, John Scalzi, Destroyer of Worlds, Creator of Opportunity!
In How to Live a Gem of a Life, K. Shawn Gibson has assembled an easy to read, understand and follow guide to a truly enlightened life. This book will help you identify and prioritize your life goals through easy to follow processes. It will help you to understand how your mind works and how to take control of your life. How to prioritize your goals, eliminate the negativity and fear, take control of your finances, and map a path to a truly successful life. A Gem of a Life!
Available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SuccessSynchronicity
or http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-live-a-gem-of-a-life-k-shawn-gibson/1019724022?ean=9781257551231&itm=6&usri=how+to+live+a+gem+of+a+life
or available on iTunes
My most recent book is Dark Lightning, Book 2 of Curse & Quanta: The Enchanter’s Theorem, put out by Hunt Press and came out in October!
An ancient evil. A mystical set of tablets. A missing father. Sabine Parsons is realizing why she should have stayed out in the Cold.
Sabine Parsons is no longer an ex-codebreaker.
The intelligence fraternity has taken her back and she is once again code-named Oracle and in possession now of a power that makes her an Oracle in truth. Trying to escape the tightening grip of old/new affiliations, she heads to her father’s house, intent on keeping her cover but also planning on making her escape back into the Cold. Except Michael Parsons is a mathemetician with ties to the Department of Defense and secrets of his own.
Hardly off the plane, the Waking Dream that now rides Sabine warns her of a danger on Mt. Rainier when she arrives in Washington State, pushing her even further back into the Game. Sabine finds herself dropped into an even greater mystery that involves her father and her own past as a ward of Special Projects. All while the Lodge of the Midnight Sun and the intelligence fraternity wage their secret war, seeking to find weaknesses in the others armor.
And in the end, everyone’s secrets will be revealed.
$4.99 eBook (Kindle/Nook/PDF/iPad) and $23.95 available at Amazon, B&N and http://www.huntpress.com
Thank you, Mr. Scalzi. You are a prince and a gentleman.
Thanks for the opportunity!
For all the steampunk enthusiasts out there–In An Iron Cage: The Magic of Steampunk edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Elektra Hammond and Neal Levin contains a variety of creative stories showing the full range of where steampunk can go. With settings as varied as Siberia, the American West, Victorian London and Central America–there is something for everyone here.
Available in print or ebook format at all major venues, or directly from Dark Quest books.
http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Cage-Magic-Steampunk/dp/0983099308/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1323209902&sr=8-4
http://www.darkquestbooks.com/store/product-info.php?pid104.html
In the majickal Land of OCKT, weazels are the only peoples who are clever and fast enough to herd katz. And Peeje, the wily and white, is bound and determined to be the most professional kat herder of his kind—a job complicated by flaming hairballs, feline scheming, and the nature of all katz to blip in and out of invisibility. But, when the Council of Indecision makes its first decision in 1,000 years to summon him—Peeje!—on a quest to track down missing Princess Rosepetals, Peeje is forced to bring his entire kat herd with him on the road, and prove just how professional he is, in order to successfully treat with the eccentric creatures of OCKT and ferret out the details of exactly what they know.
Co-authored by J. L. Muriel. With illustrations by award-winning Writers and Illustrators of the Future author/illustrator, M. O. Muriel. The Land of OCKT and the Adventures of Peeje, the Kat Herder, is Alice In Wonderland meets The Wizard of OZ. Perfect for all ages. The kid in you won’t disagree!
Tags:
absurdist humor, adventure, animals, fantasy, fire, sneak thievery, combustibles, pyrotechnics, cat, invisibility, professionalism, smear campaign, young adult, fairy tale, series, allegory, humor, fable, fantasy adventure, middlegrade, ferret, weasel, m o muriel, j l muriel
$2.99 eBook. Available at Smashwords in all e-reading, smart phone, and computer formats: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104545. Also available at the Apple iBookstore, B&N, Kobo, Sony, and Diesel (Amazon forthcoming).
Thanks for this shot!
If you’re looking for something a little vulgar, a little gross, and a little bit metaphysical check out THE UNRAVELING: DAMAGED INCORPORATED, BOOK ONE!
What’s it about? Well…
“When a dubious scientific experiment goes awry deep beneath White Sands, NM and unleashes hell on earth, it’s up to a twenty year-old psychic girl, a gay monster-hunter, two sixty-something occult investigators, a robot, a brain-in-a-jar, and the most advanced artificial intelligence on the planet to shut it down.
But how do you stop arcane energies that can possess nearly anyone they come in contact with? And what is going on with those comatose psychic teens? Are they really influencing dreams?
It’s the end of the world and reality is unraveling all around them. Can these damaged individuals really pull together to save all of time and space?”
THE UNRAVELING: DAMAGED INCORPORATED, BOOK ONE is the done-in-one first in a series of pulpy sci-fi action adventures with the second adventure due in 2012. It’s available for Kindle, Nook, and iTunes for $3.99.
Enjoy!
A finely wrought and exquisitely detailed Speculative Fiction Mystery set at the end of a castle kingdom’s epoch long history. The arrival of a strange army at the gates marks the end of an era and the unravelling of a mystery. At its heart is Leiyatel – the Living Green Stone Tree – long the preserver of the realm of Dica. What is to be her fate and of those who depend upon her?
~
A highly original and intricately imagined world, the ancient castle kingdom of Dica has slowly declined to a somnolent shadow of its once illustrious past but changes are in the wind. A complex tale develops as Lord Nephril, Dica’s Master of Ceremonies, and his oddly assorted companions strive to uncover not only who is then arrayed at their gates, but how their realm might be restored. What comes to light is a multi-layered fabric of interwoven interests and conflicts, an absorbing rebirth of ancient myth and legend, as alive and immediate now as in its dim and distant past.
At its heart is Leiyatel – the Living Green Stone Tree – preserver of the realm’s fortune and wondrous creation of the ancient Engers of Bazarral. What is to be her own fortune, though, and in whose hands will it finally rest? How will the disparate interests of Dican royalty, of Galgaverre’s Guardian, of the ancient Bazarran Stewards and of Leiyatel herself play out within Nature’s own domain?
The story culminates in a fascinating climax and deeply satisfying conclusion that will particularly appeal to those who like a rich and involving read.
Available at $4.99 from:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Leiyatels-Embrace-ebook/dp/B005V0B8DW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323212033&sr=8-1
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/111120
This is very cool, I see some titles that I’ll be adding to my list.
Trapdoor Books is a small independent publisher that specializes in ‘Geek Fiction.’ Our titles are available for sale, but we are also actively developing ad-supported Enhanced eBooks. You can download our first ENhanced eBook title Cyberkill for free on iOS or Android. If you like the experience, I would greatly appreciate your feedback.
Other Trapdoor Titles:
The first Buddhism based thriller The Magician of Lhasa
Southwest-drenched horror It Came From Del Rio
Futuristic thriller Nanomagica
Fantasy The Ninth Avatar
Thank you for this forum!
Thank you John! What a great opportunity.
The Time Travel Journals: Shipbuilder
Imagine being there before the Titanic set sail.
Now imagine being there before she’s even built.
Sam Altair is a physicist living in Belfast, Ireland. He has spent his career researching time travel and now, in early 2006, he’s finally reached the point where he can send objects backwards through time. The only problem is, he doesn’t know where the objects go. They don’t show up in the past, and no one notices any changes to the present. Are they creating alternate time lines?
To collect more data, Sam tries a clandestine experiment in a public park, late at night. But the experiment goes horribly wrong when Casey Wilson, a student at the university, stumbles into his isolation field. Sam tries to rescue her, but instead, he and Casey are transported back to the year 1906. Stuck in the past, cut off from everyone and everything they know, Sam and Casey work together to help each other survive. Then Casey meets Thomas Andrews, the man who will shortly begin to build the most famous ship since Noah’s Ark. Should they warn him, changing the past and creating unknown consequences for the future? Or should they let him die?
The construction of White Star Line’s Olympic-class ships forms the backdrop for a passionate love affair between Tom and Casey, who must overcome the many differences inherent between an Edwardian Irish gentleman, and a member of America’s Generation Y. The fictional love affair grows alongside real lives from history: the Andrews family of Comber, Lord William Pirrie, Bruce Ismay, and the thousands of skilled men who built the remarkable ocean liners of the early twentieth century.
$2.99 eBook at Amazon (Kindle) http://www.amazon.com/Time-Travel-Journals-Shipbuilder-ebook/dp/B005JU99NA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323212175&sr=1-1
or Smashwords (all formats) http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/84342
$10.99 paperback at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Time-Travel-Journals-Shipbuilder/dp/1463695977/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323212175&sr=1-2
My third novel, “Seattle On Ice,” was released on November 15th, it’s an action thriller with a distinctly humorous tone. If you read my book “Billionaires, Bullets, Exploding Monkeys,” this is the sequel.
Seattle On Ice is available in paperback for $9.50
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0615542859/crypticbindings-20
and as an ebook for $2.99
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0063Y6ZEW/crypticbindings-20
I hope you check it out! Here is the synopsis:
“Like the secret love child of Dirty Harry and Martha Stewart, Brick Ransom is a rookie cop with a taste for fine dining and zero patience for slovenly deadbeats and criminal scum.
In the middle of a rare Northwest blizzard, Brick is forced to cut his dinner short in order to protect three key witnesses – a bookkeeper, a stripper, and a deadly assassin – all of whom are set to testify against Seattle crime boss Frank Mason the next morning. When a gunman ambushes the first witness en route to his downtown hotel, and Brick’s partner is killed in the crossfire, it’s quickly apparent that moles within the police force are leaking the whereabouts of each witness back to Mason in a last-ditch effort to keep the criminal kingpin from ever standing trial.
As the storm worsens, and the city freezes to a standstill, it’s up to Brick Ransom to protect the last two witnesses, outwit Frank Mason’s team of killers and crooked cops, and do his best to ignore his growling stomach, all while struggling to contain his growing fascination with Witness #2.”
Thank you for the promo op!
“Time’s Enemy is not your typical time travel romance. It… gives it a science fiction edge, taking the reader on a page turning journey… take The Butterfly Effect, mix in The Time Traveler’s Wife, and sprinkle it with Somewhere in Time, and you’ll get this amazing book.
– Lori Reader & Writer, The Otherworld Diner
Tony Solomon never wanted to be a time traveler. But when a freak accident gifts him with the ability to travel in time, he becomes an unwilling initiate in the Saturn Society, a secret society of time travelers. Determined to prevent his daughter’s murder, he violates the Society’s highest law and becomes a fugitive. But the Society refuses to tell Tony how to time-travel within his own life, so he seeks help from Charlotte, the woman whose life he saved during a prior trip to the past. When Tony arrives in 1933 looking for answers, Charlotte is both thrilled and terrified to see her childhood hero. Loyal to the Society, she is honor-bound to bring to justice those who manipulate time for their own gain. In giving him sanctuary, she faces a terrible choice-condemn the man she loves and to whom she owes her life, or deny her deepest convictions by helping him escape and risk sharing his sentence.
Time’s Enemy ebook is available for the holidays at a special, discounted price of $0.99 from Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords.com. It’s also available in paperback.
There’s a question we Americans have been asking ourselves a lot in the past ten years: Someone you care for, or someone you’re responsible for, is about to suffer a horrible death. You have in your power the one person with information who could prevent that. What could you do? How far would you go to get the information? And what would be the long term consequences of your actions?
In GALLOWS POLE, my new e-published novel, Colonel Mark Bishop and FBI agent Melissa Saxon have to face that question. Someone is killing immigrant families, forcing the fathers to hang their wives and children before taking their own lives. How does the killer do it? And what is the meaning of the small iron horse the killer leaves at every murder scene?
Bishop and the survivors of his command think they know. One of their own, a stone killer who calls himself the Hangman, has come out to play, and he’s trying to draw out not only Bishop, but his former comrades, the elite team known as Iron Horse.
Only the Horsemen can stop one of their own. But the team is disbanded, the survivors scattered. Bishop himself is tormented by guilt for the things he had to do to keep one of his men from suffering an agonizing death. Their adversary is not only a skilled assassin, but a master at creating fear. Behind the scenes, shadowy and powerful figures pursue their own plans for Bishop and the Hangman.
Mark Bishop, Melissa Saxon, and the last of the Iron Horsemen will have to use all their courage and every resource, including an array of high-tech weapons, to stop the Hangman. What they have to do will put everything they ever believed in to the ultimate test and push Bishop to the edge of sanity.
http://www.amazon.com/Gallows-Pole-ebook/dp/B0067CH9SQ
Nook: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Gallows-Pole/JD-Rhoades/e/2940013558793
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104839
Thanks for doing this, John.
My backlist is available at Book View Cafe: http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/BVC-eBookstore/eBooks-by-Author/#VondaNMcIntyre
Novels include Dreamsnake (Nebula & Hugo winner; reviewed by Ursula K. Le Guin, courtesy of Cascadia Subduction Zone: http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2011/06/16/le-guin-reviews-mcintyre/ ), The Moon and the Sun (Nebula winner), Superluminal, Barbary (with a wonderful new cover by Amy Sterling Casil), The Exile Waiting, and the Starfarers Quartet.
Starfarers is temporarily free.
Shorter fiction includes “Little Faces,” my Nebula-nominated novelette, and “The Adventure of the Field Theorems.” First published in Sherlock Holmes in Orbit, ed. Mike Resnick. A Sherlock Holmes Scientific Romance, in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hires Mr Sherlock Holmes to investigate crop circles, and Dr Watson demonstrates to Holmes the uses of astronomy.
Rejected: Nine Stories I Couldn’t Get Published
One thing I’ve discovered I’m really good at is getting rejected. It’s entirely possible that I wasn’t persistent enough with these stories and that had I just kept plugging along, they all would have found a home. But I know all of the stock reasons why editors rejected these stories. So I’m taking these stories straight to the readers and asking them…why do YOU think these stories were rejected?
Want to tell me the brutal truth? Just click here.
If you or someone you know has got a new e-reader or tablet and wants to load it up with something to read, I’ve got several short stories and novelettes available as e-books under my Pegasus Pulp imprint.
The Silencer is a pulp writer turned masked vigilante in 1930s New York. Countdown to Death finds him facing the electric chair for a murder he did not commit, while in Flying Bombs, the Silencer races to defuse a bomb aboard a Zeppelin before it can explode over the city.
The Other Side of the Curtain is set in Communist East Germany in the 1960s, where a Stasi officer, a visiting American millionaire and his mysterious lover find themselves on a fatal collision course.
Rites of Passage is a thwarted teen romance between the scions of rivaling pirate families set on a planet with two moons.
Hostage to Passion features more pirate romance, but this time on 16th century Earth.
El Carnicero is set during the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, where a British officer races to save his guerillera lover from the garrotte.
In The Kiss of the Executioner’s Blade, an executioner inconveniently falls in love with his intended victim in 17th century France.
In Outlaw Love a notorious European courtesan, a sleazy sheriff who likes hanging people and a gang of lesbian bandits collide in the Old West.
Letters from the Dark Side is a collection of letters from zombies, vampires, werewolves and ghosts looking for advice in the pages of a True Confessions type magazine.
Whaler takes that old science fiction cliché, the space whale, and turns it on its head, because these space whales are not a peaceful, endangered species.
Shape No. 8 is the story of a very ugly and extremely valuable work of art and of a courier job gone horribly wrong.
All links go to the page of a big US online bookseller. If you prefer an alternate retailer or want more information about the individual books, visit the Pegasus Pulp website.
Many thanks for doing this, John.
Coffee shop barista Kit Melbourne inherited a magic jewel to let her tell the humans from the glamour-disguised faeries, the Goth poseurs from the real vampires. Her bindi lets her know which witch casts real spells and which one just went through the motions. The only trouble is, plenty of people want a jewel like hers. And someone is willing to kill for it.
Seeing Things, the first novel in the urban fantasy Seabingen series, is available as an ebook only, through Smashwords (and its subsidiary retailers, including nook and Sony and ipod) and kindle.
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/66778
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00573G13K
For less than ten bucks, you can load your kid/friend/spouse’s kindle or nook with a fun, fast-paced urban fantasy.
(Thanks, John)
Thanks for the opportunity!
I epublished my first novel, “Once We Were Human”, less than a month ago. It’s an alternate history science fiction novel set in 1966:
Carol Hancock, wife, mother, pillar of the community and faithful member of Jefferson City Baptist Church, never expected to contract Transform Sickness. Certainly she never expected to make that rarest of transformations, the female predator transformation. Now she was trapped in the custody of doctors working to research a cure for Transform Sickness while her body changed underneath her, becoming stronger, faster, with more acute senses, resistance to poisons, and more able to heal. Her mind changed underneath her, with new tempers, more aggression, violent mood swings and new hungers. She had new enemies, many of whom wanted to kill her for what she’d become, and more who wanted to use her as a tool. And she was dying, like all the other previous female predators in America except one, and that one had become a psychotic serial killer. She must figure out a way to survive her transformation and her enemies, preferably without becoming a psychotic serial killer herself.
“Once We Were Human” is available through Amazon and Smashwords.
Thanks for the bandwidth, John!
My day job is being a radiology professor at the University of Washington. Since May 2011, I’ve published 6 eBooks (mostly radiology), but will focus on my fave:
Cool Technology for Academic Medicine (with shameless emphasis on Radiology) on Kindle and the Apple iBook store.
Don’t let the “medicine” or “radiology” part turn you away — this book should have broad appeal to anyone who presents or writes or publishes for a living.
My favorite chapter: “Presentation Fu — How to Not Suck” attempts to reverse 1000 years of horrible lectures and teach the reader how to give a decent oral presentation that, well, does not suck.
If you like this book, I have several others on the Kindle, Apple and Barnes & Noble stores, including a non-radiology book: Crossing the Cascades, a collection of tunes and contradances I have written in my non-radiology career as a fiddle player and dance caller.
The Greatest Patriot
http://www.thegreatestpatriot.com
A magnificent read that introduces the reader to an incredible account of one the most important events in American History. The Greatest Patriot provokes the reader’s curiosity as it poses the question “what if?” Sullivan is Clancy-esque in his use of historical details, creating a world where Dealy Plaza was not the end, but only the beginning; a world in which President Kennedy makes an unspeakable, yet necessary, decision to save his country and the world.
Sullivan successfully spins a suspenseful plot, delighting the reader with splendid historical nuggets woven into an intricate story of intrigue and mystery. Fans of Dan Brown, Clancy and Grisham will be enthralled by this thought-provoking drama that plunges them into an astonishing alternative view of history. The story follows the life of JFK after the “assassination,” the struggles of Hal Rumsey, the secret service agent who guarded the president, and the journalist, Mike Mahoney, who must choose whether or not to expose the staggering truth. Will the truth be revealed or buried with the few who were entrusted to keep the secret of America’s Greatest Patriot?
From the opening paragraph to its extraordinary conclusion, The Greatest Patriot captivates the reader with the desire to know if this might just be how it really happened. As the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination rapidly approaches, Sullivan stimulates the imagination with a world where Camelot lived on.
“The world building is most impressive…”
“…as much as I enjoy classic adventure-story SF, it doesn’t usually grab me as well as this story did.”
It’s SF in the “classic” mode — starships, strange planets, stranger alien beings, the thrill of exploration. Feel free to check out my work at my Amazon site:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3ADave+Creek&keywords=Dave+Creek&ie=UTF8&qid=1308455721&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B002V6N63O
You can check out my collection A GLIMPSE OF SPLENDOR AND OTHER STORIES, available in both print and Kindle versions, and my individual short stories, all priced at 99 cents apiece.
Thanks, John, for this opportunity!
RESURRECT is my first action-adventure thriller featuring mountaineer Jason Quinn. Straight forward adventure in the vein of Clive Cussler yarns (and compared to him by thriller author Jeremy Robinson).
Available at Amazon now, and on B&N and Smashwords before the end of the week. Print version before the end of the month.
http://www.amazon.com/Resurrect-Jason-Quinn-Series-ebook/dp/B006IKZ9PC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323209029&sr=1-1
Description:
In the 1850s, a madman proclaims himself the Son of God and raises an army, taking over half of China.
A century and a half later, his descendent and legions of devoted followers plan to take over more than just China.
When alpine engineer and mountaineer Jason Quinn, a man with a past mired in tragedy and violence, meets archeologist Dr. Eva Rayjek after a plane crash in the high Himalaya, neither of them are expecting wave after wave of Chinese assassins.
Pursued to America, the frozen ice of the Gulf of Finland, and the heights of Hong Kong, Quinn and Eva connect her investigations with the machinations of charismatic shipping magnate and cathedral-builder, David Hong. As a scheme to obtain a private audience with the Pope at the Vatican comes to fruition, Hong’s fanatical followers are preparing for global warfare.
If Quinn fails to stop Hong’s plan, the entire Catholic Church just might crumble.
___
Thanks for the opportunity, John.
-Kane Gilmour
I have a fantasy novel available: “A Heart in Sun and Shadow”
In an ancient Wales that never was…
Twin brothers Emyr and Idrys are cursed to live as hounds; Emyr by night, and Idrys by day. The twins believe they will be trapped this way forever until they meet the fierce and curious Áine, a changeling woman born with Fey blood and gifts struggling to fit into a suspicious human world.
Áine unravels the fate of Emyr and his twin as all three of them fall in love. To free her lovers from the curse, she embarks on a journey to the realm of the fey where she confronts her own unique gifts and heritage. Ultimately, she must decide where her heart truly lies and what she’s willing to risk to get what she desires most.
Readers who enjoy books such as Robin McKinley’s (Deerskin, Spindles End, and Beauty) and Juliet Marillier’s Seven Waters series will like this novel. It is available as both an ebook and in trade paperback.
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Sun-Shadow-Chwedl-ebook/dp/B004QS93K0/
BN link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-in-sun-and-shadow-annie-bellet/1100205108
My other books, including reprints of previously published stories, are here: http://www.amazon.com/Annie-Bellet/e/B004KPY4C6/
Thanks, John! I appreciate the forum. And I hope your own new book gets a nice Christmas boost!
I released my new sci-fi thriller “Rules of Force” recently in all e-book formats, and the trade paperback just came out this week. Here’s the set-up:
Connor Rix was there at the beginning, when the second-generation Brazilian steroids first arrived on the scene, along with the blood boost packs. It was his job to keep the newly-superhuman rowdies under control and shut down the most poisonous of the new modification labs. Not an easy job, but unbreakable bones and state-of-the-art optical implants sure help.
But now the list of bio-engineered miracles available to the public has grown as broad as the desires of mankind. And one man is leaving a trail of bodies across the Texas Republic as he brutally takes control of the market in human modifications and suppresses all competitors.
What will it take to stop him? And what price must Rix pay to bring the man to justice? Fortunately, Rix isn’t working this job alone. He has a nearly 7-foot giant on his team with a one-of-a-kind exoskeleton boosting his strength off the charts. And then there’s the night owl who never sleeps (or so she says) but that’s not her only modification. The woman Rix wants to make his wife is along for the ride too, if she can keep her fears in check.
These four must square off against an army of Modified enforcers to bring down the man who seeks to rule the bio-enhancement trade. All they have to figure out now is if their famous benefactor is a friend or foe….
Rules of Force is a 57,000-word novel (plus bonus material). It is available at all major e-book outlets, including Amazon.com, Barnes& Noble and Smashwords. A trade paperback edition is available through CreateSpace.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ZU1DJM
Steve Statham
http://www.stevestatham.com
Maria Ivory is trapped in a web of conspiracy that she knows nothing about. She ran away to Paris to chase her dream of becoming a painter and to forget about her failed marriage. Instead, a brutal double homicide half a world away sets off the final phase of a secret experiment that will draw Maria back home to confront her past and transform her into something new.
Chrysalis (available at Amazon and B&N) is a romantic sci-fi thriller on the surface, and a super-hero origin story underneath. A friend and I made a bet that we could each write a romance novel, and I failed the romance part, but managed to finish the novel. So there’s that.
What a fabulous response for your post! 205+ offerings.
In case any bleary eyed reader has made it this far, I’ll make it short:
Diary of a Small Fish is about a good guy who gets accused of a crime he didn’t commit, all over a few games of golf and some osso buco.
http://www.diaryofasmallfish.com
Cheers!
In January the Crucible, an industrial arts group in Oakland, will be doing their brand new original Fire Opera called Machine, based on my story “Dea Ex Machina.” That story, along with three other novellas and novellettes, can be found and purchased in my collection Machina. Available in both paperback and Kindle!
http://www.amazon.com/Machina-Derek-J-Goodman/dp/145155351X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323228745&sr=8-2
The ground-breaking, genre-bending Clockwork Phoenix anthologies provided the first home for a number of award-nominated, off-beat pieces of short fiction; I’m editor of those anthologies, and I’ve begun making them available as e-books under my own imprint, Mythic Delirium Books; the first volume, Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, just became available for Kindle this week for $3.99 (click to see for yourself.)
I’m quite proud of this starting line-up, which includes Vandana Singh’s sf novelette rooted in in the Ramayan, “Oblivion: A Journey,” reprinted in Hartwell & Kramer’s Year’s Best SF 14; Laird Barron’s “The Occultation,” later the title story of his Shirley Jackson Award-winning collection; Deborah Biancotti’s “The Tailor of Time.” a finalist for the Aurealis Awards; David Sandner’s surreal story about Edward Lear and his feline companion, “Old Foss Is the Name of His Cat,” reprinted by Ellen Datlow in Tails of Wonder & Imagination; and 14 more, by Catherynne M. Valente, Marie Brennan, Tanith Lee, Ekaterina Sedia, John Grant, Cat Sparks, Cat Rambo, Leah Bobet, John C. Wright, Erin Hoffman, Jennifer Crow, C.S. MacCath, Joanna Galbraith and Michael J. DeLuca.
The remaining two volumes in the series are in the process of conversion; and I hope to be starting on Clockwork Phoenix 4 this coming year as well, fingers crossed. But the Kindle version of Volume One is what’s new and available now, so I wanted to let folks know. And if you want these books as paperbacks instead, they’re all still in print.
“Triangulation is a series of loose-themed sf/fantasy anthologies put out in conjunction with the Confluence SF convention in Pittsburgh. This year’s edition uses the theme of ‘Last Contact,’ and leaves it up to the writer to determine what ‘last contact’ means. The result is a first-class anthology of 27 original stories (and one reprint) that will please any reader of speculative fiction.” — Chuck Rothman, Tangent Online.
TOC can be found at href=”http://parsecink.org/index.php?topic=triangulation_11″>the Parsec Ink website. The book is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. We do have a Kindle version as well (via the Amazon link).
We very much appreciate your interest in this ongoing series.
Thank you so much for the opportunity, John!
For those of you who’ve made it this far…
I have a chapbook of two short stories called On the Ground Floor. Though I’m a huge geek, these stories are not science fiction. The first, “Talking About William” is about a little girl who processes her mother’s death by thinking about her first love. The second, “The Sandbox,” is a bit of a political allegory set in a schoolyard. They’re two of my early works that I’m still very proud of, which is why I’ve offered them for sale. And at $5 each (more if you want them signed/inscribed),they’re a reasonably priced stocking stuffer for any fiction lovers you know this holiday season! :) For more info on the chapbook and how to purchase, click below:
http://teresajusino.wordpress.com/snag-your-copy-of-on-the-ground-floor-today/
I’m having a Holiday Sale where my already-cheap little book is even cheaper! :) I ship in the US and abroad (I’ve sent copies as far as the UK and Australia!).
Phil’s Model Railway Fillets is a collection of articles I’ve written for newletters and society magazines. Basically, it’s the funny stuff, the stories behind various models I’ve built rather than specific sets of instructions for you to follow – you can get those through normal magazines.
http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?fSearchData%5Bauthor%5D=Phil+Parker&fSearchData%5Blang_code%5D=all&fSort=salesRankEver_asc&showingSubPanels=advancedSearchPanel_title_creator
Available in both download and print versions. Enjoy !
Thank you for this opportunity, John!
—
A REAL PIECE OF WORK delves into a world of forged and stolen art, secret identities and murder. In a case that leads from Manhattan to the Catskills to Washington, D.C., what begins as the simple recovery of a painting soon reveals an international art scam and a chilling secret hidden for 70 years.
DAKOTA STEVENS is a modern PI, medium-boiled. As a former FBI agent with experience in the field and the lab, Dakota combines the wit and grit of PIs Marlowe and Spenser with the ratiocination of Sherlock Holmes. However his “Watson” is anything but. A Ukrainian-American chess champion with runway legs, predator eyes and fluency in seven languages, SVETLANA KRÜSH brings worldly panache to their cases, or, as Svetlana would have you believe, she “solves the crimes and handles the money.”
National Bestselling Author Dave King describes A REAL PIECE OF WORK as, “Stylishly written—nods to the classics of the detective genre—with great characters and plenty of wit and originality.” Early customer reviews have also been very positive.
For only $2.99, you can buy the novel at Amazon.com.
Or, you can learn more about the novel at http://www.orcutt.net.
Thank you,
Chris Orcutt
I have a short story, “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves,” in Spellbinding: Tales From the Magic University,” an e-anthology of erotica set in Cecilia Tan’s Magic University series about Veritas, the magical version of Harvard. It’s my first published story and is under my pen name, Sarah Ellis.
Spellbinding is available at the following places:
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/66443
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Spellbinding-Tales-Magic-University-ebook/dp/B0055WXOTC
Sony e-book store: http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/cecilia-tan/spellbinding/_/R-400000000000000397460
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spellbinding-cecilia-tan/1103595352
I contributed to a Pirate themed anthology (Pirates and Swashbucklers) which went out earlier this year from Pulp Empires. It has stories of pirates and my own contribution (Gods of the Sea) has elements of magic in it too…
The Kindle version is here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pirates-Swashbucklers-ebook/dp/B005NIY2LM/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323265904&sr=1-5
Or the paperback version:
https://www.createspace.com/3681893
Enjoy :)
Kizuna: Fiction for Japan is a mixed-genre (absurdist to sci-fi) charity fiction anthology benefiting the orphans of Tohoku, Japan which was struck by a triple disaster this past March 11th. Authors Michael Moorcock, John Shirley and Jon Courtenay Grimwood joined 70-odd other authors such as Glynn Barrass, Anderson Prunty, Trent Zelazny, and Joe Pulver to create a unique work of original stories any fiction lover will enjoy. 75 stories in all, you won’t find a more diverse collection. Please check your local Amazon (search “kizuna millis”) for print and ebook versions. Or go to http://bit.ly/kizunacharity . Happy holidays!
Well, I’m a day late and $50 short (that’s what my cover cost), but I have a humor collection for adults containing a lot of my magazine pieces from the past 15 years. There’s humor for writers, brewers, pop-culture fans, teachers, and librarians. http://www.davidlubar.com/funny.html
I’ve self-published 8 books through Lulu: two collections of (mostly) sci-fi and fantasy stories — Tellers of Tales and Unlikely Muses; a five-book fantasy-adventure series — Silver and Blood, River’s End, The Throne of the Sun, Return to Dawn and Dreams of Darkness; and a YA/speculative fiction novel, Cherish the Fire. (I promise they’re all better punctuated than the previous sentence.) They’re all available in both paperback and ebook form at Lulu (www.lulu.com/hrtsmom), Amazon and Barnes & Noble, plus at my Silkfair store (www.hrtsmom.silkfair.com). May I just add, this is an awesome idea!
A Place In This Life
For Natalie Miller, it’s just another family vacation. For someone else, it’s the opportunity he’s been waiting for.
With only a single peck from a guy named Frank, Natalie’s anything but experienced with boys. But when Todd pops out of the water, says hi, and tells Natalie he has leukemia, all of that changes.
She’s never had attention like this from a boy, let alone one who’s a real charmer with sex on the brain and the experience to match. Drawn to Todd like a magnet, Natalie gives him her friendship, her love, and her body. Even when she’s tempted by gorgeous, healthy schoolmate Alex, Natalie’s desire to love and care for Todd pushes her to see how far love can go in spite of the potential for death of the relationship — and death of the one she loves.
Read reviews and get purchase information here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12717906-a-place-in-this-life
I’d like to tell you about my unusual indy book, a collection of Turkish folk humor centering on the “wise fool” character of Mullah Nasruddin, a folk hero of Turkey known throughout the Mideast and the world. It’s a serious collection of funny folklore called: The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin: Stories, jests, and donkey tales of the beloved Persian folk hero. The book came out in softcover and electronic versions this year from independent glbtq publisher Lethe Press.
In her preface to the book, Ann Shapiro, Executive Director of the Connecticut Storytelling Center, wrote, “These hilarious, and at times, ribald folk tales of the Turkish wise fool take the reader to another time and place, and share the spiritual lessons of Nasruddin. … The teaching stories included in this volume help to build bridges between cultures by exemplifying Arabic wisdom and universal human humor.”
Midwest Book Review gave it a five-star Amazon review and praised the book as “a fine pick and very highly recommended.”
I run a site that features excerpts from the book and occasional brief commentaries on the stories and jokes, as well as resources for further study of the immortal Mullah Nasruddin at http://www.mullahnasruddin.com .
Thanks for the opportunity to share my special book with you.
Ron Suresha
New Milford, CT, USA
http://www.ronsuresha.com
Thank you, John!
My latest book, “Why Self-Acceptance is So Powerful” outlines a process for self-growth and transformation that is easy to understand, applicable to anyone interested in self-realization, and amazingly powerful. The insights speak directly to the heart, and as the pages turn…so does your ability to understand yourself and others at the deepest level. It is amazingly transformational, life changing, and compassionately gentle, all at the same time.
Here is one of the wonderful reviews that a reader shared with me, “Why Self Acceptance Is So Powerful” is a profound book that immediately began changing my life. Through Barbra’s devoted guidance I have learned to lovingly witness and embrace my thoughts and emotions allowing me
to honor myself by fully realizing my innate divinity and perfection. It is through this self-acceptance and love that our lives are transformed. Thank you, Barbra, for sharing your deep wisdom and giving your readers this gift which will benefit them immensely. This book will change lives. It certainly
has changed mine.
To purchase the book, please follow this link: http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000497839/Why-Self-Acceptance-is-So-Powerful.aspx
I just finished the 6th and final volume in my graphic novel series, “YU+ME: dream”. It’s about 1,000 pages all put together!
Fiona lives a very lonely life, until a girl named Lia comes along. They begin a relationship, which is cut short when Fiona wakes up from a coma and realizes everything was a dream. She finds her way back to the Dream World and goes on a quest to find the girl she lost.
Basically, I got tired of girl-meets-girl stories and decided it needed surreal fantasy adventure to keep me interested, and lots of readers have felt the same way.
All the books are available here in my store or, if you really want to go through Amazon, books 1, 2, and 3 are for sale there.
What happens when a pair of college-age comic book nerds get turned into vampires? They become detectives, of course! The Black Knight Chronicles is a (so far) 3-book series featuring the snarky adventures of the best dark knight duo since Jason Todd wore tights (the first time)! Follow Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood as they battle trolls, zombies, fairies, dragons, vampires and Home Ec teachers on their quest to save the world and pick up a bag of O-negative for the fridge.
You can find the books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes or on my website – http://www.johnhartness.com
Do you like cute? Meet Springiette!
Imagine two friends, and their pets, living together. Now imagine one of them is a ninja, with an unhealthy obsession with potato chips, and the other is a former Olympic swimmer, who got tired of swimming and just wants to float. Oh, and their pets are a hungry black cat and a barking piece of sushi. Sounds weird? Meet Chop Chop Ninja Doom and Chocobanana Sofuto, the most ruthless outlaws ever to go about spreading love all over the world! Don’t let their cuteness fool you — they will shamelessly drag you into their adventures, and you won’t be able to escape!
Book (in stock!) comes with a free signed bookmark and sticker! Order before Dec 17th to get it in your hands for the holidays! Click here!
The Eye of Eurydice
By Ryan Talbot
The War between Heaven and Perdition has reached a stalemate. On the battlefield of New York, Jason Beckett, the Emissary of the Devil works to keep everything quiet. When a simple assignment ignites the War anew, Beckett must race to keep the flames from destroying all that he loves. In a world of Vampires, Werewolves, Angels and Demons, good and evil are not always what they appear.
Print version: http://www.amazon.com/Eye-Eurydice-Ryan-M-Talbot/dp/1453680446/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323282359&sr=8-1
Kindle Version: http://www.amazon.com/The-Eye-of-Eurydice-ebook/dp/B0060RQ2QS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323282359&sr=8-2
Hi! I’ve recently re-released my second novel, “Lisa’s Way.” Here’s what it’s about:
Teenager Lisa Herbert lives in the small town of Mountain View on the planet Fairfield. The “Savage Rain” decades earlier shut down the hyperspace gate and isolated her world. A casual remark from her sister gets Lisa to ask a simple question: “If life was better before the ‘Savage Rain,’ why couldn’t it be better again?”
That question starts Lisa on a journey. She reactivates Fairfield’s H-gate and travels to three worlds. Each planet offers her a chance to improve life by hard work, by trade, or by making friends. She relies on her brains, her compassion, and a little sneakiness to solve the problems she faces.
Amazon link (paper & ebook): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006C0NYV4
Thanks!
Robert Collins
Middle-grade short stories somewhere between Goosebumps and Neil Gaiman by my kids’ pseudonym.
Blurb: Ten tales of death, invasions from other realms, bullies, babysitters, liars, and the brave kids who fight back. Zombie girls who have to hide, lest they get eaten by bigger zombies. Food that bites back. Wizards who are scared of their own power. Murdered (and murderous) pets. Secret superpowers. And that last, great voyage into the unknown.
Stories to be whispered under the covers, by flashlight.
Stories to be read by firelight to the robots who come out of the woods.
Stories to be told when the witches are ready to eat you but want to hear just one more story before they shove you in the oven.
Creepy Stories. Fantastical Stories. Weird Stories.
Ebook/Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Told-Under-Covers-ebook/dp/B005UD23J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322540018&sr=8-1
Ebook/Epub: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tales-told-under-the-covers-de-kenyon/1106574485?ean=2940013267008&itm=1&usri=tales+told+under+the+covers
Print: http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Told-Under-Covers-Invasion/dp/1466403896/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323282659&sr=1-2
The Music of Chaos
“Blind dates are always a train wreck.”
By day, Regan O’Connell is a highly respected project manager. By night, she’s a Wolfe, a paranormal agent working for a vampire syndicate.
Her two worlds collide when a co-worker sets her up with tall, dark and sexy Jason Lake. Jason is a Holder, a member of an ancient, all-human organization dedicated to policing the activities of things that go bump in the night. Things like half-vampire Regan.
Falling for the wrong guy is the least of Regan’s problems. There’s a murderer on the loose, and his favorite weapon is chaotic magic, an erratic force with the power to rip holes in the fabric of the universe. And the best way to catch the killer is to get close to Jason, the man who is not only her enemy, but her prime suspect.
***********
Read Chapter One
**********
From Decadent Publishing
From Amazon
From B&N
*******
Thanks, John!
Thanks so much for this opportunity, John. (I wanted in on it when you first posted but was laid low with a virus.)
I’ve got a YA, paranormal fantasy series entitled “Demons of Saltmarch,” in which a group of Christian college students gets stalked, kidnapped, and otherwise tormented by demons:
Colors of Deception (Book 1)
Shadows after Midnight (Book 2)
(Book 3 comes out in April 2012.)
Thanks again, John! And thanks to you readers for perusing this thread! Y’all are awesome. : )
“Blood and Steel, The Cor Chronicles Vol I”
In the world of Rumedia, two great civilizations stand against each other on a great western continent – The Shining West and the Loszian Empire. Over a thousand years ago, the Loszians had enslaved the West, ruling nearly the entirety of the continent until the ruler of the gods of light, Garod, brought forth one man who would drive back the Loszian Necromancers. And for seven hundred years, the kingdoms that came forth from The Cleansing, known collectively as The Shining West, have protected their people from the horrors of the Loszians.
Cor Pelson is a farmer’s son, but he is different from other Westerners. He is subject to horrific coughing fits, and has been since shortly after his birth. His skin, pink when he was a newborn, changed to take on the gray pallor of the grave. Strange persons appear at his childhood home, if only briefly, and fearing for his parents, he steals off in the dead of night.
Joining a seagoing vessel from the southern continent, Cor learns the world is not the safe beautiful place of childhood, but is instead cruel and brutal. It is a place where he must learn to defend himself. He begins to feel the strength within him, and he also learns that there are those who would control him, a Loszian necromancer and Queen Erella of Aquis herself.
Cor is a Dahken, a race though long extinguished, and he must learn to use the power within his blood to both survive and forge his own path.
“Blood and Steel” found for Kindle at:
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Steel-Cor-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B006IFJDJK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323289204&sr=1-1
B&N Nook coming any day!
Zombielocks is the story of a sweet little undead girl who finds her limbs harder to keep track of than she thought! This book is beautifully illustrated and the story can be sung to the tune of “Lollipop” by the Chordettes, which makes it fun to read to little kids as well as big ones. The clean, fun humor is sure to enchant your kids and delight zombie lovers of all ages!
Zombielocks, written and illustrated by Daniel M. Pipe II can be found on Amazon for just $10.95.
Thank you for this opportunity :)
“New Beginnings” is my debut novel, the first in a series of three. The second book, “New Beginnings: Moving On”, has just been launched, and the third will be available in Spring 2012.
New Beginnings
Natasha Arden loves music, food, sex, clothes (not necessarily in that order) and her boss. Will she find heartache or happiness?
This is Tasha’s story – a tale of love, loss, life and lots more – but don’t be misled by the opening chapter. Natasha may write in a chatty, light-hearted way, but her story is not a romantic comedy: she faces moral dilemmas, heartache, and difficult choices. You may laugh with her at times, but you’ll also cry with and for her as she tries to make the best of what life throws her way.
New Beginnings by Johanna Nield is available on Lulu, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and most online book stores.
Visit my website or my blog for more information.
Probably too late for this – but I have just brought out Deep in the Heart, the sequel to Daughter of Texas – it’s all about lively times in Austin, during the days of the Republic of Texas: political shenanigans, the Archives War, the Pig War, the Black Bean Draw, raiding Comanche Indians and the Salado Creek Fight … and a splash of romance between a woman running a boarding house and an absent-minded doctor.
Deep in the Heart and Daughter of Texas are available on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, and in Kindle and Nook editions. Or check my website, at http://www.celiahayes.com.
“The Deacon’s Tale is the story of Cai Rui, Task Force Commander of the infamous “Black Section” of the Sol Force Intelligence Corps and a loyal Archdeacon of the Roman Catholic Church. Charged to investigate a brutal massacre of Catholic converts on a distant alien world, Cai Rui finds himself on the trail of a killer who can threaten not only his life, but his very soul. As a brutal new race emerges from the shadows, one man will be tested to the extremes of courage and faith by an enemy who dares to call himself…”The Deacon”.’
Yay! What a cool idea for a blog post, thank you Mr. Scalzi. My novel “The Deacon’s Tale” has recently been released by the Kthonia Press Co-operative. It’s a military science fiction/space opera novel, set in the popular Sword of the Stars universe that I created for the science fiction strategy game of the same name.
Most people who have read seem to enjoy it. Maybe it would be a nice thing to download and have waiting for your science-fiction loving friend or family member who will be receiving that e-reading device that you finally bought this season? And obviously, as the author I strongly advise you to buy it in paperback or e-book format, read it, love it, write glowing reviews and name your children and pets after me in celebration of my immortal genius. :P
Ok, but seriously. It is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Smashwords, Goodreads and of course publisher-direct.
HATTER by Daniel Coleman — YA Fiction Only $2.99 for a limited time!
Witness the ascent into madness of literature’s most lovable lunatic. Also, become acquainted with Wonderland’s most colorful characters long before they fulfill their eminent roles.
http://amzn.to/uVlR7T
Also by Daniel Coleman — JABBERWOCKY — The surprising story inspired by Lewis Carroll’s epic poem. Just $.99! Buy today!
http://amzn.to/sPXgrq
Prices changing soon!
Thank you for this list!
THE TROUBLE WITH WISHES is a collection of five short stories that explore the unintended consequences of wish-making. Fun and creepy, the collection is available for $0.99 on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble.
An Ancient Nemesis Returns – Humanity Fights Back!
Four generations have passed since the giants of old, the Nephilim, returned to dominate the world with an iron fist. After eliminating three-quarters of the human population with an engineered plague, these sons of the fallen angels have enslaved mankind to satiate their lust for power, gluttony and sexual avarice. Yet hidden among the rubble and decay of a vanquished civilization are scattered bands of survivors, raiders, who press their fight for freedom and the ultimate annihilation of the race of giants who once again threaten to lay waste to the earth.
Nora is a tall and beautiful young woman whose skills in guerrilla combat have earned her a position as leader of a small team of raiders. While away on a mission to destroy an outlying Nephilim communications post in old New Mexico, Nora’s clan is nearly wiped out in a Nephilim attack. The survivors, including Nora’s father, are taken for slave labor deep inside the Kralen Dominion. Nora sets out to rescue her father, but along the way she’s held captive by a secretive resistance group, and uncovers a dark secret that puts her in the center of the war against the brutal giant overlords.
Age of Giants – awakening is an 80,000-word-plus speculative fiction novel available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.
Please stop by RobReaser.com for free reading of some of my short fiction.
All the best,
Rob
The Twilight Deception by Alina Morgan
When the FBI receives word of vampire-related murders, they order tough-as-nails resident witch Arielle Thompson to investigate. But the last thing Arielle expects is to have her butt saved by a friendly vampire who claims he’s tracking the master vamp responsible for the murders.
Despite her wounded pride, Arielle can’t help her inexplicable attraction to this sexy-as-sin vampire who calls himself simply “Jackson.” He reluctantly informs her that their enemy is far more powerful than reports said — and his powerbase is only increasing.
Arielle and Jackson must team up to stop him, before he grows too powerful to defeat.
followed by
The Shadow Unveiled (also by Alina Morgan!)
Arielle Thompson never expected to fall in love, but now that Jackson is back in her life, she’s got to make room for him in more ways than one. Never mind sorting out living spaces, she has to convince her boss at Shadowguard, the FBI’s top-secret paranormal division, that an alien vampire would be a benefit to their team. But they get their chance to prove Jackson’s worth when reports of blood magic and demonic sacrifices deep in Louisiana surface. Investigation reveals the situation is far more serious than they previously suspected, and Jackson and Arielle must depend on each other once again for survival.
Both are urban fantasy with romantic elements novellas of around 20k, and they are available from Liquid Silver Books or preferred distributor! Excerpts are available on LSB’s website or my own.
Rock of Aeons ($.99)
It’s angels versus djinn in a fight to determine who controls the future of mankind, with one apathetic skip tracer deciding who wins.
Ozzie Jones goes through the looking glass when the bail jumper she is tracking, whom she suspects was trying to deliver stolen art, turns out to be a very sexy shape shifting genie trying to deliver the keystone that will finally stop the angels controlling world governments from behind the scenes.
http://www.amazon.com/Picaresque-ebook/dp/B005LEGKAE
“Picaresque will charm you with its swift pace and levity, its sense of adventure, and especially the colorful band of misfits who inhabit its pages. It put a smile on my face right away and kept it there all the way to the end.” –John Rozum, author of DC Comics’ MIDNIGHT, MASS and XOMBI
“Picaresque” describes a humorous story concerning the on-the-road adventures of a clever rogue or rogues, often operating in a corrupt society; The Prisoner of Zenda, Tom Jones, and Candide are classic examples of this genre.
When court jester Reginald was in prison awaiting execution for telling a very ill-timed joke he made in front of the king, he made a couple of new friends: Hobart the magician and his patient, Sunny, an elf who has something very dangerous wrong with her mind.
On the run, they ally themselves with a few others who haven’t yet found their place in the world:
–the world’s greatest 8-year-old thief
–the world’s only female knight
–the world’s only talking dog
To all appearances, they’ve become just a group of traveling performers, but over time, they (and Hobart’s mentor, who no longer has a body because he accidentally got trapped in a spell he cast to help him spy on the local ladies) become a crack team of spies for the desert City-State of Caravanserai.
Reginald’s letters to his superior, Nina (thrust into an executive position after one of Reginald’s early reports seemed to drive Reginald’s previous superior insane) tell the tales of his and his group’s efforts to outwit and otherwise foil hecklers, bandits, a troll with a fiendish plan for world conquest, the people’s glorious revolution… and, when they accidentally stumble upon the source of all the monsters in the world, a very large dragon.
But more importantly, Picaresque tells the tale of Reginald’s brave and often-apparently-hopeless quest to talk his employer, Nina, into going on a date with him.
Picaresque is a comedic fantasy novel from Wicker Man Studios, the creators of Half Dead, a vampire graphic novel published by Marvel Comics and Dabel Brothers Productions, and Gun Street Girl, a digital comic on the web at http://www.gun-street-girl.com. They have written multiple columns for review sites and other pop culture sites around the web (and still sometimes do).
Dr. Park Cooper teaches English at a college in Austin, Texas, and is the editor-in-chief of the indie comic book company Septagon Studios, as well as a free-lance editor for companies such as Del Rey’s manga division.
Barbara Lien-Cooper is a writer, editor, and adapter of novels, comics, and manga, including adapting manga for Tokyopop (including V. B. Rose) and Viz Media (Nora).
http://www.wickermanstudios.com
What a great idea! Kudos to you, sir.
A couple of my tabletop roleplaying games:
LITTLE FEARS – The Game of Childhood Terror
http://www.LittleFears.com
STREETS OF BEDLAM – A Savage World of Crime + Corruption
http://www.StreetsOfBedlam.com
Well, shit. A pair of necromancers have freed the dread necromancer Arkephalous from his prison. While Arkephalous works to restore his undead empire to its former semi-rotten glory by unleashing a zombie plague upon the city of Constantinople, Illinois, a band of survivors match their wits with the brainless undead.
The survivors include a sandwich craftsman with a bitten hand and a broken heart, an incorrigible addict with too much blood in his drug stream, and the three hundred year old founder of the city, whose exploits include being responsible for the extinction of the chupacabra north of the Rio Grande.
This is a story of life, love, necromancy, the fragile human condition when caught between the jaws of a very robust inhuman condition, and wholesale zombie slaughter.
Codex Nekromantia on Amazon
Codex Nekromantia in other formats
Thanks for the opportunity, John.
I just released my latest novel, THE COMA MONOLOGUES
Here’s the blurb:
Gary Hawken—husband, father, civil engineer, and accomplished nerd—enjoys a good life with his family in suburban Toronto. Then a crow distracts him at a traffic signal and a truck slams into his car, knocking him into a coma. Doctors doubt he will ever regain consciousness, but Gary’s wife, Melody—English professor and determined mate—undertakes his resurrection by saturating his brain with the voices of storytellers from his past. Old friends, family members, half-forgotten teachers, mythical creatures, dead heroes, and even a few fictional characters stop by Gary’s bedside to tell the tales that will tantalize him out of his vegetative state back to the world. Is the universe made of stories? Melody believes we’re all nothing but stories and she stakes her husband’s life on that ancient promise.
Here’s a link to the book’s page on my website, with links to the usual places to buy:
http://mariowrites.com/books/#thecomamonologues
I am the editor (and one of the authors) of a winter-themed SF&F and poetry anthology from a micro press. WINTER’S NIGHT contains two fantasy stories exploring winter mythology, one SF story about a Marine’s first Christmas, three poems, and the first chapter of our next novel release. It’s 99 cents, and proceeds go to UNICEF.
More info at Turtleduck Press: http://turtleduckpress.com/toybox/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=132&Itemid=73
Thanks for this, John. My ebook imprint (Insane Angel Studios) has two full-length epic/high fantasy titles out (a novel and an anthology), in addition to a number of ebook singles. All are available at Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Smashwords, and the other usual outlets.
CLEARWATER DAWN — A high fantasy/romance novel, and the first book in the trilogy “The Exile’s Blade”
“A fantastic read…”
“Every bit as good as the stories of the Riftwar series…”
“Rare are the fantasy novels that do so good a job at showing the present as a result of the past…”
An apprentice guard in the royal household of Brandishear, Chriani is a capable young warrior held back from attaining his full potential by a lifetime of dark anger. Lauresa is a princess about to be set aside as heir and married off for the sake of treaty — and the only woman Chriani has ever loved. When his mentor is murdered preventing an assassination attempt within the palace, Chriani is forced to become Lauresa’s protector — the two reconciling a forbidden passion even as they find themselves caught up in a maelstrom of political intrigue, ancient racial hatred, a society living in mortal fear of sorcery, and a decades-old plot to plunge five nations into genocidal war.
http://insaneangel.com/insaneangel/Fiction/Books/ClearwaterDawn.html
A PRAYER FOR DEAD KINGS — An epic fantasy/sword-and-sorcery anthology, featuring the best-seller Kindle singles “A Space Between” and “Stories”
“Pure fantasy of the best kind…”
“Complex and haunted…”
“A beautifully written intricate book…”
“A Prayer for Dead Kings and Other Tales” follows a disparate group of heroes and villains caught up with the dark history — and darker destiny — of nine weapons of ancient magic lost to time and mind. In the aftermath of the fall of Empire, magic is the ultimate force for tyranny and freedom in the lands of the Elder Kingdoms. Magic defines the line between right and wrong, life and death that compels countless characters to take up a mantle of heroism they never expected to wear.
However, in the world of the Endlands, even the tales of heroes seldom end as expected…
This collection includes six all-new short stories, the novella “Ghostsong”, and the short novel “A Prayer for Dead Kings”.
http://insaneangel.com/insaneangel/Fiction/Books/PrayerForDeadKings.html
I don’t know if it helps to introduce myself first, but hey: I designed Dungeons & Dragons campaign worlds, adventures, and accessories (including the creation of the Birthright campaign setting and lots of work on the Planescape line) for TSR before they were bought by WotC, and went on to help design “Planescape: Torment” for Black Isle Studios.
I just published “Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight’s Tale” – a novella about a cybernetically augmented knight caught up in a conspiracy against the king of the crumbling Empire of Terona, and who must choose between his oath and his duty. The story of Pelagir’s flight from the capital to freedom with the last surviving daughter of the dynasty unfolds through a series of interrelated stories told from the points of view of different characters.
You can find it here:
Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight’s Tale
Clinton Boomer, author of “The Hole Behind Midnight”, said:
“Taut. Striking. Intriguing. Vivid and flavorful … a perfect sci-fantasy setting, lived-in and real, aching to be explored.
In point of fact, my only criticism of Colin McComb’s amazing debut novel is that I want the next book in the series NOW.”
Thanks for the chance to soapbox/self-promote, John – and thanks to Chuck Wendig for alerting me to the chance as well!
I’d like to take about HOTEL FLAMINGO, my mosaic novella about a surreal hotel.
FLAMINGO started life as a serialised story on my then-blog (okay, I admit it, it was LiveJournal), where I set myself a couple of parameters and committed myself to writing an instalment every week. The major parameter was that the story would be communicated entirely in character sketches and vignettes, looking at a different hotel/resident each week, with minimal (if any) pre-planning of who the characters would be or what story was taking shape. I wanted to play with voice and language, minimise use of dialogue, take on board any crazy idea and find a way to connect everything together that made sense and contributed to a core narrative
22 instalments later, I had HOTEL FLAMINGO, a story about evil dreams, weary angels, fictions come to life, pirate radio, monsters, schizophrenia, animism, time, fate, meaning and exploding TV sets. It wasn’t what I expected. But on the whole, I think it was pretty damn good.
There are a bunch of positive reviews up for the novella, but I feel weird reprinting them; I also feel kind of uncomfortable just saying how good it is over and over, which is probably why I suck at self-promotions. But if any of the above sounds interesting, and if you can spare $2.99, then how about checking it out?
Here it is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XQVOZ2
And on Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31711
I also have an anthology, GODHEADS, and a handful of free stories (only on Smashwords) if you want to check them out, but FLAMINGO is what I’m here to pimp today.
And now I’m done pimping. Hope you like it.
Thanks again, John!
—
Patrick O’Duffy
Thanks for the opportunity John – Happy Holidays!
I should pimp 2 books.
A guy’s book, Merlin 444 is all about fast cars, fast planes and crazy mysteries. In this character-driven Action/Adventure novel, Bobby starts out as a typical young guy from any small town. Suddenly thrust into an unexpected situation, he has to deal with his own family crisis while resolving a 50 year old mystery. The story keeps up a blistering pace as the action comes hot and heavy, one thing after another. Available at all the top ebook stores, and in paperback from Amazon. http://amzn.to/rMnYtb
The other book, DreamWeaver, is a short suspense novel I decided to put up free – Yeah, FREE – to celebrate the holiday.
Hard and Fast – Zeke Jackson’s sister has gone missing in the jungles of Southeast Asia. His search for her takes him from the red light districts of Vietnam to the mean streets of New York. Finally he finds the help he needs in the back alleys of one of South Africa’s most notorious shanty towns. But the things Zeke will have to do, and the price he’ll have to pay are beyond anything he ever expected.
Unfortunately Amazon hasn’t got with the spirit of the season, so get it free from Apple, B&N and Sony, or if you have a Kindle, go to Smashwords and get a .mobi file there. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/50165
Thank you, John.
Watcher: Book I of The Chosen by Roh Morgon, is a paranormal fantasy about a woman’s struggle to survive after she’s ripped away from her family and left for dead.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Predator. Killer. Monster.
The words echo in Sunny Martin’s head each time she looks in the mirror. Since the night she was torn from her car and drained of her blood, Sunny’s fear of the hungry beast within her is rivaled only by the fear of exposure.
Her lonely struggle to survive on the edge of the human world leads Sunny to the mountain peaks of Colorado where she meets Nicolas, the enigmatic leader of a hidden society.
Their passion, tainted by betrayal, violence, and murder, reveals a shocking truth behind Sunny’s savage nature and drives her toward an agonizing Choice between her heart and the last remnant of her human soul.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Watcher: Book I of The Chosen is available in trade paperback and various ebook formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Smashwords. For more information, visit Dark Dreams Publishing.
Sample chapters and excerpts are available on author Roh Morgon’s website.
Scalzi – great writer and awesome gent.
FARTING IN CHURCH is seven religiously irreverent and somewhat fictionalized tales of the author’s mistakes and occasional triumphs. These stories and short essays will make you laugh and show you it’s OK to laugh at your mistakes, because everyone else does. This ebook includes a bonus chapter from Anthony Elmore’s upcoming novel, Rapture Express.
Buy now at Amazon for 99 Cents or the price of five soup ramens: http://www.amazon.com/Farting-in-Church-ebook/dp/B0052OVA30/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306515965&sr=8-1
Or learn more here: http://www.fartinginchurch.com
Speaking of pimping books…
http://www.merryblacksmith.com – We came our last year with new edition of _Who Killed Science Fiction?_ by Earl Kemp, have recently put out two novels by comic book artist and writer Matt Howarth, Bud Webster’s _The Joy of Booking_, several short fiction collections by SFWAns, and a cartoon collection by Tim Lockley entitled _On Facebook…Everybody Knows You’re a Dog_.
Over at http://www.bearmanorfiction.com we’ve just come out with (in partnership with the North American Jules Verne Society) the fourth in the Palik Series, a series of never-before-translated-into-English edition of works by Jules Verne.
IN THE ST. NICK OF TIME by William Pepper
It’s Christmastime in Santa Claus, Indiana. Cameron Jones, formerly HUGE literary success and devoted father, now on the literary skids and separated from his daughter, HATES Christmas. Also, the foul-mouthed goldfish he keeps hallucinating is really starting to bug him. His buddy, Dogwater Hunt, needs money to chronicle the arrival of the “Santa aliens” due to make Earth contact on Christmas Eve. He HATES holiday lights because of the flashbacks to his multipled alien abduction experiences. Enter SANTA CLAUS, the big man himself who hates, well, everything. Santa has burned out. He packs it all in and moves in with Cameron. Hilarity and more than a little holiday sentiment ensue.
This is a Santa Claus story for adults. Why? Because we believed once, too (and some of us still do, and, dammit, it was about time.
What would you do if you were catapulted back in time, into the middle of an Indian war? 20-year-old college dropout Chuck McManis finds out. The hard way.
Repeating History is available through Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords.
http://mmjustus.com/fiction.html
“A GRAND yarn you can’t put down.” Janet Chapple, author of Yellowstone Treasures.
Thanks John for this opportunity, and another year of awesome whatevering!
My first eBook is a dark sci-fi short story called “Sifting Sands”, and currently free at Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005QAMT0I ) and I’d be right chuffed if anyone would check it out.
Thanks again, have a great holiday season everyone!
The Space Between (Tribes of the Hakahei Part 1) is available for free from http://www.scottjrobinson.com
If you want to read Part 2 (Singing Other Worlds– which will be available in a couple of weeks) all you have to do is make a small donation.
—
Kim thinks her day is going badly when her friend fails to meet her at Sherwood Forest. Then an annoying knight hits on her and she is stalked by an elf and a dwarf. But then the aliens attack and things really start to go down hill. Collecting strange companions along the way she finds herself in a race to stop the war with the aliens before things really get out of control.
The Space Between is set in the multiverse of Ananake and draws on myths and legends of ancient Earth, weaving a tale that moves from Sherwood Forest to distant worlds and outer space. It involves, amongst other things, magical gateways, Area 51, sentient spacecraft, a 50 thousand year old intergalactic war, elves and dwarves, wonder bras, Machu Picchu and strong coffee.
Scott
http://www.scottjrobinson.com
The Fairy Tale Bride, historical romance, is free at Amazon only. A young Victorian woman believes in fairy tale endings. Unfortunately, the duke who marries her to prevent a scandal does not. http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Tale-Bride-Wedding-ebook/dp/B0042ANYJ8/
Thanks for doing this!
Kelly McClymer
http://kellymcclymer.com
“Royden Poole is having a very bad day. Strong-armed into investigating a break-in, a bizarre theft, two missing persons, and a shooting with no body, and all he wants to do is go back to pretending he’s dead. And that’s just a warm up. Follow along with Royden on a foul-mouthed, darkly comic, hardboiled romp through the twisted underbelly of the world you thought you knew. ”
The recently launched small indie press Broken Eye Books just published Clinton Boomer’s unconventional urban fantasy ebook debut, The Hole behind Midnight. (Our website should be up in a week or two.)
Check it out!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Hole-behind-Midnight-ebook/dp/B005Z8G08S/
Thanks for opening this up!
BECAUSE OF YOU came out on November 14 and it’s my debut book. It’s totally a naked man on the cover romance novel written by moi, an active duty Army company commander and all around crazy person who is still honestly surprised they let her lead soldiers. Between a husband being deployed to Iraq, 3 dogs, 3 cats, company command of almost 150 troops and 2 kids who I’d like to not be blowing dudes for crack by the time their twelve, it’s a miracle this book was even written and an even bigger miracle it was even sold.
BECAUSE OF YOU has a little bit of everything: romance, combat, dick jokes, catheters and a little bit of the black humor that soldiers use to get through some pretty terrible shit. I have it on good authority that there are at least 3 men reading it (not just bought it because they’re my friends) and one of them is a Special Forces Sergeant Major (he’s comfortable with his masculinity).
BECAUSE OF YOU costs less than a grande latte and can be bought:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GFBQWU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=jessscot-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005GFBQWU
BN: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780345533869
iBooks: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/because-of-you/id452393455?mt=11
Thanks for the pimpage!
Jess
Jessica@jessicascott.net
http://www.jessicascott.net
“To exposit the scenario,” he says with that cute cop-show patter all PD favor. “A fire in the kitchen sublevel flashed over before being contained by the halon extinguishers. Fatally scorched, the service elevator livedrive fled the flames vertically and exited into the bar area…”
Kirsty Powell knows how to spot malfunctioning livedrives – it’s her job. Their hardware linkages wear out, their wetware components succumb to disease, parasites and age. But to see one notch up a bodycount on a nightclub dancefloor, that’s a first.
It’s 2098 in the North American Union and biotechnology isn’t creating a better tomorrow, it’s maintaining a cold, dark and bloody today. A world of breathing buildings and weaponized insects, where corporations rule cities and mercenaries conduct business takeovers at gunpoint. Unless Kirsty can discover what really happened at Arclights nightclub, it’s a future that ends for her in seven days…
B-spine by Cam Winstanley. Available on Amazon Kindle now.
https://www.amazon.com/author/camwinstanley
I’m afraid it won’t be out for the holiday season, but in case anyone is interested:
My book The Traveller’s Guide to the Duat: Amenti on Two Deben a Week will be coming out (I hear) in January from Storm Constantine’s small POD press, Immanion Press.
The Guide is basically a riff on the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Basically, at one point I was having lunch with someone who leaned over to confide in me, “You know, I don’t actually know what the Book of the Dead is…”, to whom I responded with “It’s kind of a cross between a hymnal, a grimoire, and The Lonely Planet Guide to the Underworld.” Some folks on livejournal thought this was hilarious and said I should write it, and so – umpty-lump years later – I did.
It’s a book of poetry, an accessible guide to Egyptian afterlife and related spiritual beliefs, and a handy-dandy travel guide in case you happen to book a sun-boat for the immaterial world. It is also, at least in my opinion, occasionally funny, vide:
“When you are packing for your trip, be sure to include whatever conveniences and luxuries you want to have with you. For large items that would be inconvenient to ship, such as boats or servants, small scale models will be sufficient for your needs.”
It’s a weird little niche thing – humor books about pagan religion being what they are – but I’m quite proud of it, really.
For fans of pulp confession stories (e.g., True Confessions magazine), I have a women’s fiction novella with Musa Publishing.
http://www.musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=83
AN IMPERFECT WIFE
A homesick woman finds comfort in the arms of a new friend — her husband’s boss.
Nicole Evans wanted to support her husband Josh’s career, even if it meant moving away from their hometown, family, and friends. So what if he didn’t ask for her input before accepting the job? They needed the money, and the opportunity was too good to pass up. Standing by him was the right thing to do.
But Josh’s crazy schedule leaves her lonely and taken for granted. With no friends or job to fill the long hours, she turns to Adam Cahill, Josh’s handsome boss, for a sympathetic ear. She tells herself it’s a harmless crush. Until she kisses him. And he kisses her back.
Nicole feels guilty, but she’s doesn’t want the affair to end. What will she do when Josh discovers she’s an imperfect wife?
Sorry to be late…
Do you like people who can control the elements? Is your ideal form of government a scientific oligarchy? Does the thought of portals make you unreasonably happy? Do you occasionally wonder how an event called “The Great Waffle Switch” could be related to saving the world?
Are you not yet afraid of first time authors? If so, check out Wind-Scarred on the Kindle, I’ve had several people tell me that it’s not terrible.
http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Scarred-Will-Elements-ebook/dp/B006KH2IR0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1324020345&sr=1-1
Excellent article! Bonne contination à vous :)