Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2022, Day Two: Non-Traditionally Published Books

Posted on November 29, 2022    Posted by      165 Comments

Today is Day Two of the Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2022, 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. Hey, I put my first novel up on this very Web site years ago and told people to send me a dollar if they liked it. Look where it got me. 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 and audiobooks. 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. If your book is only available in the UK or some other country, please let people know!

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 or URL. 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!

Tomorrow (11/30): Other creators (musicians, artists, crafters, etc!)

Category: Uncategorized    

165 Comments on “Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2022, Day Two: Non-Traditionally Published Books”

  1. Did you ever suspect that cats want to take over the world? Well, it’s true! Have you heard of the Cat Board? No? Well, that’s not surprising, since it’s the super-secret organization of cats that plan world domination.

    In The Cat Board and the Cardboard Caper, The Cat Board makes plots to take over the world. The world needs boxes and what better way to control the world than to control the production of cardboard boxes?

    Boxes are important to commerce. Control the flow of cardboard and boxes and you control the world, or at least that’s the Cat Board’s plan.

    The Cat Board takes over a box factory and gets strange water creatures to do all the work. Will there be cardboard chaos?

    Cats will one day rule the world. Will this be the day? Read about the adventures of the Cat Board and find out for yourself.

  2. My just-released (October 20) epic fantasy, part of the Chronicles of Xax series.

    The magic of the Spire of Peace has banished evil from the Known Lands for more than twelve hundred years. When a dragon destroys the spire and murders the king, the realm is thrown into turmoil. As civil war looms, can the royal Kaldarion family regain control over the kingdom and restore peace?

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BCK87TM9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

  3. For the reader who enjoys fast-paced, gritty science fiction, consider “A Togahan’s Debt.” As the feratus plague spreads over the planet Earn, Major Calamandar and Vanguard Kanisara hope to find the means to a cure on the savage desert planet Parak. With any operation, “the enemy gets a vote,” and things don’t quite go as planned. Gunfighter Dance Nissomo joins them, hoping to aid his friends, relieve his own burdened mind, and settle past debts in this fast-paced, harrowing fourth installment of the Togahan series.
    A Togahan’s Debt is available on Kindle and Nook. Please check out http://petehollmer.com/books/ , and thank you for reading.

  4. Where Weavers Daire is a sci-fi/fantasy mash-up with Star Wars, Babylon 5, Farscape and Firefly stylings. It’s the first in an ongoing series and is available through all ebook sellers, Amazon, B&N and Ingram Spark.

    Brief synopsis: On a world where ancient magic and technology exist, the skeletons of the past never stay buried for long. Melinda Scott should know. She just found a big one.

    Books2Read Link

  6. “The Bond Trilogy” envisions a world where women rule, men fight to survive, and mutants must choose sides to fight for their own freedom. The Bond (1) won a Foreward Indies Bronze for a young adult work in 2018 and The Mother’s Wheel (3) won the Indie YA book award for North Carolina in 2022. One reviewer writes, “This series brings us on an incredible adventure with amazing characters in an often cruel world while tackling such big themes as what it means to be human, to experience love (of all kinds), and to be truly free.”

    https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-bond-bond-trilogy-1-robin-kirk/18374320?aid=1842&ean=9798985584103&listref=my-books-0740e5b6-fc0a-4f98-8ba3-06053c5450e7

  7. Hi there! I just want to remind everybody that my new novel One of Our Spaceships is Missing is for sale on all the usual spots! Published by Space Wizard Science Fantasy, the tagline for the novel is “in the 23rd century, spaceships don’t just go missing.”

    It’s an LBGQT military space opera, available at the link in the post or here: https://www.amazon.com/One-Our-Spaceships-Missing-Military/dp/1735076848/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1E6OGGHSLSWXG&keywords=one+of+our+spaceships+is+missing&qid=1669729892&sprefix=%2Caps%2C225&sr=8-1

  8. From mystery and adventure in a post apocalyptic Scotland to a classic space opera, complete with rocket ships and magnets in the soles of your space boots, with a planetary romance, a SF mystery series, a fantasy story, a tropical sea quest and more in between, you’re certain to find just the right lighthearted, character driven adventure story to read and share this holiday season in the imaginary worlds of C. Litka.

    Paperback editions are available from Amazon. Visit C. Litka’s Amazon home page to choose from 10 novels and 2 novellas.
    https://www.amazon.com/C-Litka/e/B00X2OB7G2/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

    Ebook versions of all C. Litka books are available for free in your favorite ebook store; Apple, Google, B & N, Smashwords, and Kobo, and most are free on Amazon.

    Audiobook versions can be found on the Google Play Store. They’re free as well.
    https://play.google.com/store/search?q=c.%20litka&c=books&hl=en

    Happy Holidays to everyone!

  9. Everything you know is wrong. Now what?

    That’s the theme running through the stories in the Woman in Red, whether horror, fantasy, crime, or children’s. Imagine meeting someone who, simply by existing, makes you think that everything you know might be wrong. Would you kill them? How would you react if pieces of your life were disappearing from the world and from everyone’s memory? Except yours.

    The Woman in Red is available at Amazon.

    https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Red-Selim-Ulug/dp/B0BMJGLF5N/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1669730524&sr=8-2

  10. I recently self-published The Last Peanut and Other Amusements. Free on Kindle Unlimited. Paperback might be a good stocking-stuffer for readers who like satire and puns. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BGRBR4P9/

    “This slim volume collects the short fictional satires and stories published by Scott Stein. What catastrophe awaits when all the world’s peanuts disappear? Is a pill that makes people think they’re taller going to wreck society? Can the economy be fixed with a word’s redefinition? Why is the SWAT team surrounding that daycare center? Is the Stacker the greatest artist to ever live? Do you know enough animal idioms to understand a story that contains almost nothing else? These early published comedic pieces by the author of The Great American Deception display the wit and wordplay readers of his novels have come to expect. There are seven brief stories in this collection: “The Last Peanut,” “The Stacker,” “Garghibition,” “Kangaroo Court,” “Zero Tolerance,” “When Up Was Down,” and “The Most Amazing Place in Existence.” The last of these is narrated by Arjay, the coffee machine robot from Scott Stein’s Great American novel series, after the excitable fellow clearly had a bit of a caffeine overload. The collection also contains brief notes from the author about the creation and publication of each piece.”

  11. My first novel, THE SPHERE: A JOURNEY IN TIME is a quarter-finalist in the Self Published Science Fiction Competition. The story follows Adelaide, who works for a secret lab that sends people back in time to solve mysteries from the past. When one of her coworkers returns from a trip decades older than he should be, her next mission becomes her most important one- to find out what happened and rescue her best friend. She travels back, but ends up getting thrown into the future and…well, time travel- it’s complicated.

    Reviewers have described it as “a fun sci-fi read” and “super cool.” Available in print, and the e-book is on sale for $.99 at Amazon now:
    https://www.amazon.com/Sphere-Journey-Time-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B00RM1MMDS/

    Also check out my website for more information about me, the rest of my books, and some short stories: http://www.michellemcbeth.com/

  12. Thanks for the opportunity to post.

    ONLY BAD OPTIONS is book #1 in my Galactic Bonds series: https://geni.us/OnlyBadOptions

    ONLY BAD OPTIONS is a mix of science fiction and fantasy with a touch of historical romance so it’s perfect for fans of Star Wars, Reylo, Bridgerton, and Pride and Prejudice. It also features:

    — Space opera

    — Enemies to lovers

    — Slow burn romance

    — Pew! Pew! Pew! action scenes

    — A boiling lava planet of doom

    Happy reading! 😀

  15. Duckett & Dyer: Dicks for Hire is an award-winning (somehow) novel series that blends together Douglas Adams, Bill & Ted, Doctor Who, and a whole bunch of other pop culture sci-fi in a big jug and then smashes the jug – and it gets EVERYWHERE.

    Michael Duckett and Stephanie Dyer aren’t detectives, but they have to become detectives, in order to figure out who’s telling people they’re detectives. And if they don’t play the part, the entire concept of existence. . . might just cease to exist.

    Check out all three books (so far) in the series! (or don’t, I’m not the boss of you):

    Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire
    The One-Hundred Percent Solution
    The Mystery of the Murdered Guy

    Available here – or wherever else books are sold these days: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087H3N8QK

  16. “The Fermi is the Earth’s first and last faster-than-light spaceship. The last, because it turns out its engine vaporises entire star systems in its wake. And nobody knows how to turn it off.”

    Fermi’s Progress is a collection of four planet-of-the-week style adventures with genocidal after-effects.

    A Dyson sphere, a philosophical zombie apocalypse, a giant airborne beehive and a galactic telesales scam. Each world brings new wonders, new dangers, and a planetary scale genocide. The Fermi crew must survive by what little wits they have as they bounce a trail of destruction across the galaxy.

    Described as “Simultaneously hilarious and tragic, a unique and fast-paced ride into new science fiction territory” by Adrian Tchaikovsky, while Ken MacLeod has said it is “fresh, fun SF with a dark conceit, dangerous thought experiments, thrilling action adventures, and lots of wit and warmth”, and Aaron J. Waltke, Co-Executive Producer of Star Trek: Prodigy has called it “A mindbending meditation on human (and inhuman) nature”.
    This is the perfect gift for your friend who likes old fashioned space adventures with a couple of heaped teaspoons of dark humour mixed in.

    You can buy the paperback edition of the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fermis-Progress-Omnibus-Chris-Farnell/dp/1739976207/

    Or if you have a friend who prefers ebooks, you can buy the special edition, including all four separate novellas and the combined addition, as well as a heap of bonus extras, at the indie bookstore Scarlet Ferret: https://scarletferret.com/books/fermis-progress-season-pass

  17. ASTRAL FALL

    Great timing! Holiday giveaway for Astral Fall available now on Goodreads curtesy of my patreon patrons with TWO DAYS left…

    https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/356774-astral-fall

    Astral Fall just nabbed a top ten spot in the SPSFC best covers listing. Take a look!

    “The first thing to note about this military sci-fi read is that Jessica Mae Stover goes beyond capturing military strategy and hierarchies, including psychological details and tension designed to attract non-military buffs with a thrilling adventure story.” – Midwest Book Review

    IMPRESS OF THE SEVENTH SURGE

    New, political, pandemic, insurrection, scifi, literary fiction, near-future survival… and on the reading list for the Nebulas and Hugos in its category!

    Apple
    https://books.apple.com/us/author/jessica-mae-stover/id1067636734

    Kindle
    https://www.amazon.com/Astral-Fall-1-ebook/dp/B01D30K6AW

    Style: Astral Fall is like the feminist scifi you’d read from the Nebula Awards and Impress of the Seventh Surge is more like the scifi that lands on the long list for the Booker Prize.

    Vibes: I dig that John’s latest has been described as a great summer pop song because that makes it possible to further draw on music to book match you. Impress of the Seventh Surge is like the Vitamin String Quartet covering Rage Against the Machine while Astral Fall is like the score of The Fountain mixed with Bear McCreary doing BSG.

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  18. In the two centuries since the fall of the deities, only a score of city-states have risen from the ashes of their destruction. Foremost amongst them is Vasini — a city divided by politics, class, and philosophies. A city with a threat in every shadow.

    A flintlock fantasy and murder mystery, The Theatre of Shadows is the second part of The Vasini Chronicles. Drs Marcus Fox and Elizabeth Reid get embroiled in finding an ambassador’s assassin. Available here: https://www.amazon.com/Theatre-Shadows-Vasini-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B095XDCFF7/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1USAP3I9PC5FV&keywords=The+Theatre+of+Shadows+Christian+Ellingsen&qid=1669730805&sprefix=the+theatre+of+shadows+christian+ellingsen%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1

    If you’re after part one, that’s The Silver Mask.

    You can also find on Amazon A Divided River, book one of Tales From Vasini (a companion series to The Vasini Chronicles). It contains The Winter Fayre — a more seasonal story (by virtue of their being snow).

    If you’re after a shorter read and/or portal fantasy is of greater interest, then The City Between the Books and The Cities Beyond the Signal are available on Kindle.

    Amazon author page – with links to all books – can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Ellingsen/e/B01IVK2K1M/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

  19. Happy holidays, all! I’m KB Spangler, and I have multiple series in both scifi and fantasy genres. Links to all books are on my website at https://kbspangler.com/books/

    The DEEP WITCHES (“Stoneskin” and “Blackwing War”) is science fiction touched with enough magic to move an entire galaxy. “Blackwing War” was featured in a SFWA’s indie authors’ story bundle and was on the shortlist for the 2022 Wellman Award.

    RACHEL PENG (“Digital Divide,” “Maker Space,” State Machine,” and “Brute Force”) is urban science fiction about Agent Rachel Peng, the first cyborg liaison to the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police.

    HOPE BLACKWELL (“Greek Key” and “Spanish Mission”) follows the misadventures of the world’s second-worst psychic. It is chaos incarnate, plus history.

  20. My short story collection ENTRY LEVEL: STORIES will appeal to fans of magical realism, or “uncanny” realism as some reviewers are calling it.

    The fifteen short stories center around people who are overeducated and underemployed, in a universe that is antagonistic or at best, indifferent to their struggles, and yet, they find ways to survive and in some cases triumph despite those forces. The book was chosen by author Deesha Philyaw to win the Autumn House Fiction Prize. It has had rave reviews in Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, People Magazine and was mentioned in the Washington Post as one of the short story collections worth reading this year, all of which is just incredible for a book coming from a tiny independent press out of Pittsburgh.

    The book is available wherever you buy new titles, but if you purchase from my local independent bookstore and make a note when you check out, I can go down and sign and personalize it for you before they ship it out.

    https://lionsmouthbookstore.com/item/Oz7LbGTIpIgASJ7Lv5AvFw

  21. I have three picture books available on Amazon and multiple other online retailers, and which bookstores can order from their standard distributors. The most recent is WIND, OCEAN, GRASS, illustrated by painter Tomasz Mikutel. Its “characters” are features of nature: the wind talks with a field of tall grass about how the grass is like and unlike the ocean, and how the wind appreciates them both. One review calls the book “a wonderful textual and visual piece of art.” Amazon has marked the hardcover way down at the moment — and if it’s sold out, the paperback is also discounted. https://www.amazon.com/Wind-Ocean-Grass-Karen-Wyle/dp/1735558699

  22. My first short ebook: mini-biographies of women who officially held the top spot, around the world and throughout history. Warriors, administrators, collaborators, rulers with an iron first, terrifyingly good to just terrifying: a quick stroll through history shows that there is no one way to be a woman in charge.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pharaohs-Emperors-Other-Women-Ruled-ebook/dp/B0BLCT783Q/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1J2HWKH5AUR3M&keywords=pharaohs+emperors&qid=1668116701&sprefix=pharaohs+emperors%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-1

  23. Thanks so much for doing this, John!

    Good Neighbors is a spooky-cozy rom-com starring a grumpy inventor heroine and the notorious necromancer in the big black castle down the road. Midnight balls, fake dating, metal magic, and found family feature heavily throughout – and BookRiot recommended it in their list of cozy fantasies to curl up with this fall!

    You can find it here in ebook or paperback (and an audiobook edition will be out next year, narrated by Emma Newman).

  24. Meet the Steerswomen.

    If you ask, she must answer. A steerswoman’s knowledge is shared any who request it; she cannot refuse to answer, and must answer only with the truth.  And if she asks, you must answer—if you refuse, or lie, no steerswoman will ever again answer even your most casual question.

    But one kind of knowledge has always been denied the Steerswomen: magic.

    There are four books in the series so far: The Steerswoman, The Outskirter’s Secret, The Lost Steersman, and The Language of Power.   SF?  Fantasy?  Good question.

    Hugo and Nebula winner Jo Walton: “If you haven’t read Kirstein’s Steerswoman books I envy you the chance to read them now for the first time… If you like science, and if you like watching someone work out mysteries, and if you like detailed weird alien worlds and human cultures, if really good prose appeals…you’re really in luck.”

    Actual physicist Chad Orzel (Eureka! and How to Teach Physics to Your Dog): “Maybe the best depiction of the process of science I’ve encountered in fiction is the Steerswoman series.”

    Damien Broderick & Paul Di Filippo, in Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010: “[Kirstein] walks the tightrope between fantasy and science fiction with precision and grace… [her] compassion for even minor characters is evident on every page, and her prose is measured and alluring without being overworked.”

    And noted online reviewer James Davis Nicoll: “These books are what SF should aspire to be; it is a shame they are not more widely known.”

     Here’s the Amazon link again— but the ebooks are also available from all sellers, and paperbacks can be ordered from your favorite bookstore.

  25. HE WILL SAVE THE UNIVERSE.
    OR DAMN US ALL.
    OR BOTH.

    PROBABLY BOTH.

    “like postmodern Douglas Adams”
    -Publishers Weekly

    “equal parts goofiness and grandeur”
    -Kirkus Magazine

    A 2022 SPSFC Quarterfinalist

    PERCIVAL GYNT AND THE CONSPIRACY OF DAYS

    An epic sci-fi fantasy comedy adventure for fans of DOCTOR WHO, HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, SPACE OPERA and REDSHIRTS.

    [And if you happen to be reading this today, November 29th, you can pick up a free copy for Kindle.]

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07D94XGSX

  26. The Night They Unleashed Hell by Ryan Bevan

    “”It was late June in the year 1958 when Dr. Charles Bradford received a letter from Dr. Arthur Cane…”

    Two world renowned scientists with clashing reputations meet in the mountains of Switzerland to conduct a potentially paradigm shifting experiment. However, there is a catch. This experiment threatens to open the door to Hell itself. Can the brilliant but naive Dr. Bradford stop the evil Dr. Cane from bringing about the end of the world?

    In a tale which combines aspects of classic 1950s drive-in horror with the modern violence inherent in grindhouse, author Ryan Bevan sets the foundation for a new genre of horror. The Night They Unleashed Hell is a story about faith, redemption, and violence in the face of ignorance.””

  27. City of Roses! —It’s been called the baby Twin Peaks and Once Upon a Time never knew they had; like a cross between Little, Big and Revolutionary Girl Utena; War for the Oaks plus Portlandia, with a smattering of Chinatown—what urban fantasy might be now, if it’d gone in different directions. A wicked mix of urban pastoral and the incantatory fantastic, episodically serialized in novelette-sized installments, collected in three handsomely designed paperbacks:

    https://bookshop.org/lists/city-of-roses-a3634058-51d8-4eeb-92fe-5d2cb16f1cd2

    Or hand-assembled ebooks, available direct from yours truly:

    http://thecityofroses.com/book

    Or also and as well, Smashwords, DriveTrhu Fiction, or just about anywhere book-shaped objects are sold. Thanks!

  29. There are two books: Flying with Dad and Dying with Dad.

    In Flying With Dad, Yvonne Caputo charts her journey to her father through the re-telling of why he went from repairing planes to being a B-24 navigator in WWII, how heavy German flak led to post-war nightmares, and why he suffered years of guilt after one particular bombing run over Unterschlauersbach, Germany.

    Listening to those stories gave Yvonne the father she always wanted, and he received the daughter he didn’t know he had.

    Those stories led to the second book, Dying with Dad.

    In Dying with Dad, Yvonne’s goal is to share the joy she felt when her father died. Not because he died, but because at the end of his life he was treated exactly the way he’d wanted. It was possible because she dared to have a heart-to-heart conversation with him about his wishes for end-of-life experiences before it was too late.

  30. Twelve: A Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses

    His love is locked inside an enigma. Can he solve the mystery to make himself a home?

    A hidden kingdom. The 18th century. Alden grew weary of battle long ago. And now the honorable soldier seeks to put the horrors of war behind him to settle in a land of peace and start a family. And while an attractive shopkeeper catches his eye, he finds himself caught up in the kingdom’s greatest riddle: the twelve daughters of the king and queen vanish every night and reappear in the morning with their shoes worn out.

    Drawn to a shared passion for dancing as he spends more time with the woman of his dreams, Alden can’t avoid a growing involvement with the land’s enchanted magic. And as he does so, he starts to realize that the alluring woman he’s falling for may hold the key to answering the perplexing mystery.

    Can Alden unravel a magical entanglement and find his way to happily ever after?

    Twelve is a charming fairy tale retelling. If you like upstanding heroes, picturesque romance, and delightful surprises, then you’ll adore Joan Marie Verba’s heartwarming story.

    Buy Twelve to expose the realm’s enchanting secrets today!

    Read chapter 1 and find ordering information at: http://twelvefairytale.com

  32. For my popular non-fiction books on technical and scientific writing and editing, look here:
    http://geoff-hart.com/books/index.htm

    For my fiction, look here:
    http://geoff-hart.com/fiction/novels/index.htm
    Note that “Jester” is available for 2 more days via the SFWA Story Bundle, along with a batch of other great titles:
    https://storybundle.com/sfwa

    If you want to get a feel for my writing style before you buy, there’s a ton of free articles and free fiction on my site. Try before you buy!

  33. A son murdered. A planet destroyed. Can Palia survive long enough to uncover the truth?

    Find out in my debut space opera The Empyrean, a quarterfinalist in this year’s SPSFC.

    It’s available as an ebook, paperback, hardcover and audiobook (with excellent narration from James Alper). You can find it in your preferred store here: https://books2read.com/the-empyrean

    (Thanks for the opportunity to share!)

  34. THE ALIEN COMMANDER’S FAKE PRINCESS
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09F6WLQBX

    Are you bored of life on Earth?
    Looking for adventure? Excitement? Romance?
    Then welcome to the Intergalactic Placement Agency!
    Where your new life will be out of this world.

    Commander Tahsin has a royal-sized problem. Princess Myra has gone missing a month before she’s set to marry Prince Renatar, son their former enemy. Tahsin must find a stand-in princess while he looks for Myra.

    Lela Bauer’s acting career is in flames. When the Intergalactic Placement Agency offers her the role of fake princess, Lela is overjoyed to get away from her problems on Earth.

    As Tahsin teaches Lela the ropes of what it means to be royalty, Lela wants nothing more than to put a smile on the grumpy commander’s face. Tahsin wants nothing more than to strip Lela naked and wipe the smile from hers.

    With the countdown to the wedding drawing near, Tahsin frantically looks for the missing princess, all while fighting his attraction to the woman whose true identity could destroy them all.

  35. SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD launches a snarky fantasy mystery series.

    It was only supposed to be one little job – a simple curse-breaking for Mennik Thorn to pay back a favor to his oldest friend. But then it all blew up in his face. Now he’s wanted for murder, his witnesses keep dying, and a new, dark power is rising in the city. So what’s a second-rate mage supposed to do when everyone thinks he’s guilty?

    Find the full series here in paperback, hardcover, or ebook:

    Book 1: SHADOW OF A DEAD GOD
    Book 2: NECTAR FOR THE GOD
    Book 3: STRANGE CARGO

    Thank you for doing this, John!

  36. I look forward to these lists every year–a great way to get my holiday shopping done! Thank you!

    After house-call veterinarian Ginny Reese finds the the body of a client face down in a swimming pool, her day goes from bad to worse when the new sheriff turns out to be her ex. Suddenly she’s the number one suspect in a murder and it’s up to her and her trusty German Shepherd, Remington, to prove her innocence.

    If you like cozy mysteries, An Embarrassment of Itches by M.K. Dean is Diagnosis Murder meets All Creatures Great and Small.

    Kirkus Reviews says Itches is a “well-paced and entertaining series opener with an appealing protagonist.

    Here is the Amazon link, but An Embarrassment of Itches is available from all sellers, and is coming to audiobook format this week.

  37. She is a prisoner who can alter reality. He is a dead soldier brought back to life as a sentient machine. A forbidden love affair that transcends time, the end of the world, and what it means to be human.

    Honorable Mention – Writer’s Digest 9th Annual Self-Published e-Book Awards 2021

    In a world divided between a protected zone for the superrich and the billions left to survive in a dying world, Cassandra’s ability to alter reality marks her as a valuable asset to Global Command. Lost in a terrorist attack to the United Freedom Fighters, she is discovered in the seedy underworld of London by an elite soldier who does not learn who she is until far too late, and he too becomes an asset owned by faceless powers.

    Resurrected as a near immortal machine, his first mission is to extract her from London and return her to the ones intent to use her gift to give the rich a second chance at life in a new world.

    As the world around them collapses from the greed of humanity, he fights to protect the one he loves, to save her from what is to come, and to give her a second chance . . . no matter the cost or how long he has to wait.

    “Stunning SF on a mythic scale…” — Kirkus Reviews

    https://payhip.com/b/2Elsj

  38. If Harry Dresden and Thor had a baby, there would be a lot of questions (Hey, Loki had a baby, I’m sure Thor could manage it)! This is one of the answers.
    A space opera that’s been compared to Firefly, Invincible, and many others!
    Check out the Goodreads, Amazon reviews, or search YouTube for “Wistful Ascending” – the booktubers are pitching this book better than I can.
    https://a.co/d/iz5ldbX

  39. Death at a Distance: An Erick Anderssen Novel RUNNING A MARATHON IS TOUGH ENOUGH. IT’S EVEN HARDER TO OUTRUN DEATH.

    Erick Anderssen is the best-selling author of a series of how-to books for baby boomers seeking inner knowledge and strong thighs. Now Erick’s next book is due, and his agent, for mysterious reasons, is pushing hard for him to write about the experience of training to run the GrandHotel Chicago Marathon—where his egotistical ex-wife is the race director. But before he can even begin work on the book, a shocking and violent death derails his research.

    Before he knows it, Erick is racing to uncover the secrets of the marathon—all while fending off assaults, bomb threats, international fraud, and strange disappearances. Along the way, Erick encounters a wide and fascinating cast of
    characters—fading Olympians, international singing sensations, aggressive Chicago cops, and a photographer who he believes is hiding a terrible secret—running steadily toward what may be a tragic outcome at the finish line.

    Paperback or Kindle @ Amazon

    https://a.co/d/0sGZQnd

  40. Deputy Mildred Berry is down to her last four bullets, which is a problem when you live in dragon territory.

    Mildred has run from a violent past and started a new life on the frontier, but when a train robbery goes wrong, figures from her past start showing up in her town. What lengths is Millie willing to go to protect her family and town, and how much of herself will she lose in the process?

    No Land for heroes makes an excellent gift and is available worldwide in print and ebook:
    books2read.com/NoLandForHeroes

  41. A famous hero is undercover in the training camp. Can the young trainees find him and claim their prize before their time runs out? Find out in Testing Grounds: https://bit.ly/3E9xnIB

    When a selkie’s sealskin goes missing, she goes to her best friend for help. In order to recover it, they must face down their oldest fears and enemies.
    Create My Own Perfection: https://bit.ly/3Gd7xaE

  42. Thanks for the opportunity to let actual human beings (and a few cats) know this book exists. It’s my first novel, published three months ago.

    On a road extraordinaire, I met a deer who wasn’t there.

    Emily Charron is only a few weeks from getting her Ph.D., but getting the final parts of her dissertation done in time for the graduation deadline is becoming increasingly hampered by academic power struggles. Chris Rodriguez, her best friend since kindergarten, is doing all he can to keep her from being overwhelmed.

    Hampering both is the fact that Emily is one of a small number of people born with what some might call superpowers. But super is the last adjective Emily would use to describe her totally useless ability. The ability to travel in time is considered one of the iconic powers, but Emily can only use it to go back and keep animals from getting killed on the road. She’s managed to keep it a secret from everyone, until now, and its revelation is going to change everything in her life, including her relationship with Chris.

    Together, Chris and Emily need to find out what’s happening at the university as well as what’s happening between them. They’ve never lied to each other, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that they haven’t been entirely honest either.

    Road Kill: A humorous, geeky, urban fantasy, romance, mystery with quirky time travel superpowers, academic skullduggery, a sarcastic Eurasian lynx, and two childhood friends that seriously need to sit down and talk to each other.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BB67WBJM

  43. What if those little gray aliens of our nightmares were real? Slavers, stealing us from our homes in the dead of night. We might pray for Rescue, for someone brave enough to fight for our lives across space and time. That’s the premise of my award-winning INTERSTELLAR RESCUE series of science fiction romance novels, the first of which, UNCHAINED MEMORY, Kirkus Reviews calls “a suspenseful and steamy otherworldly tale.” Here’s more about the series:
    In a hidden war between alien slavers and Earth’s defenders,
    love is the ultimate weapon.

    There’s a battle going on in the skies above our heads. Between humans and aliens.

    Between those who would take our lives to exploit us, and those who would give their lives to protect us.

    Between what the heart wants and what the universe sometimes demands.

    THE INTERSTELLAR RESCUE SERIES,
    by Donna S. Frelick
    UNCHAINED MEMORY
    TROUBLE IN MIND
    FOOLS RUSH IN
    NOT FADE AWAY
    KING OF PAIN

    Buy NOW on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Interstellar-Rescue-4-Book/dp/B07S9SLZGJ/

  45. Hi, everyone, the fifth and final book of my Sci Fi series was just released, so this is the perfect time to dive into the series!!

    Featuring a morally grey protagonist, an AI with snark, a rebellion, a tyrannical regime, immortals and found family and a plethora of LGBT characters including the MC.

    https://authorniranjan.in/the-elite-and-the-rogues/

  46. The Infernal Contracts is a completed YA paranormal romance bordering on contemporary fantasy as the series progresses.

    Follow Nora and her friends as they discover the supernatural world, meet angels and demons, and prepare to take on the biggest battle of their lives.

    Devil’s Deal ~ Book one
    Lucifer’s Favour ~ Book two
    Beelzebub’s Bargain ~ Book three

    Available as ebook and paperback on Amazon and other retailers.

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08R8Z9M4J

    https://books2read.com/devilsdeal

  47. For the discerning post-apocalypse fan cum movie geek on your shopping list, I humbly present my novel Apocalypse Pictures Presents. Just your typical ragtag-band-of-misfits-trying-to-shoot-a-movie-in-the-ruins-of-Hollywood-after-the-fall-of-civilization story. With nanotechnically reanimated corpses. And a deranged, rodent-garbed gang from Anaheim. And a power mad former movie mogul backed by a private army.

    You know. The usual.

    Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHBYLCJG/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

    Other buy links at my website: https://matthewsrotundo.com/

  49. “The Eye Above the Keepers”
    A GOSRO Fantasy Adventure

    This is the first book in my GOSRO series. An open ended series combining the undersea action of a Clive Cussler novel with the endless possibilities of a secondary world fantasy setting.

    For unknown centuries the Skykeepers, large, silent beings that hover above various stretches of land, have controlled the world. Each one makes their own rules for their territories, making a world filled with countries whose environments and physical laws vary widely.

    Now one man is attempting to take over the Skykeepers and with them the world.

    It’s up to GOSRO, a team with advanced magic technology who’ve taken it upon themselves to patrol the world’s oceans, to put a stop to him.

  50. If you’re looking for a space opera series–now at four books and more to come!–with space Princesses, plucky star pilots, talking spaceships, lost galactic empires, mysterious planets, ancient prophecies, six-legged bear-cats, and more, THE SONG OF FORGOTTEN STARS may be for you! Details at my website. Volume 5 to come in late 2023! https://forgottenstars.net/my-books/

  54. Are you a fan of Hammett and Chandler? How about with a female point of view and a strong dose of comedy? If your answer is “Yes, please!” consider my 1940s era mystery thriller Murder Ballad and its sequel, Manhattan Confidential. Follow hard-boiled secretary Allison Malloy, her P.I. boss Danny Russell, and a cast of colorful supporting characters in a post-WW2 world where nothing is as it seems and the bodies pile up like dirty snow on a New York sidewalk…

  55. I just want to say how nice it is to see this blog. I am an independent writer who took a chance for my forty fifth birthday to release my first work a science fiction novel. I was unsure of how to go about sharing my work when someone dear to me DM’ed me about this blog site. I think I missed the opportunity to showcase my story but it is okay. It is just nice to see people sharing their work.

  56. A collection of 72 political statements in poetic form, 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒆?, examines the wide spectrum of ways our society marginalizes people. Although many people on society’s fringes still have some privilege, society maligns, excludes, and abuses them because of their skin color, religion, disabilities, neurodivergence, sex, sexual orientation, gender, immigration status, age, financial position, housing arrangements, etc.

    “Serving a truth serum for hate and hypocrisy, F.I. Goldhaber is writing with a hammer and speaking with a tongue of fire. In 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒆?, they sing a book-length blues song decrying racial, gender, religious, and sexual intolerance in America.” — John Warner Smith, Louisiana State Poet Laureate 2019-2021.

    http://leftforkbooks.com/books/What-color/

  57. Origin of Pietas by Kayelle Allen (Bringer of Chaos series #1) Sci-Fi, Space Opera. Exiled on a planet with no one but Six, the human who guarded him, the immortal king Pietas faces the ordeal of survival. Transformed from superman to a man who cannot even feed himself, Pietas must surrender his pride and accept help. Like Mandela and his guard, Pietas and Six come to respect one another. But saving his people means depending on the one thing Pietas swears does not exist — the honor of a human… https://books2read.com/origin-pietas

  58. Morning gang, I’m Lancelot. Couple quick ideas from my world:

    Publisher’s Weekly said this about Bell Hammers:

    “Schaubert recounts a mischievous man’s eight decades in Illinois’s Little Egypt region in his picaresque debut. Remmy’s life of constant schemes and pranks and a lifelong feud with classmate Jim Johnstone and the local oil drilling company proves consequential. This is a hoot.”

    Available in book form now here, and audiobook landing depends on retailer.

    I edit the Sci Fi / Fantasy anthology series Of Gods and Globes

    Of Gods and Globes is not an astrology series, but rather a “what-if” series: Sci Fi writers play with large tidal realities and Fantasy authors with demonic/muse possession and influence.

    Juliet Marillier’s story was nominated for an Aurelius, Kaaron Warren’s won the Ditmar, also features stories from Howard Andrew Jones, Anne Greenwood Brown, LJ Cohen, many others.

    The Vale Short Stories are polygenre tales from my megacosm.

    The name of my megacosm is The Vale. The Vale Short Stories are stories that didn’t really fit anywhere else. Some literary, some mystery, some originally published in zines, some self, all short and from various stages of my career. Read: some much better than others, but you can buy the whole set pretty cheap.

    Album, etc. tomorrow.

  59. Book One of the Masters of Zelannor trilogy. An epic fantasy following Reez, apprenticed to the Master of green magic as he struggles to grasp the intricacies of his craft.
    News from the east, however, brings the possibility of an even greater threat. Reez and Wicton, suspect that the Master of Anima magic covets greater power and is seeking to learn another’s craft, forbidden since the division. Such an act could destroy the peace and prosperity that has existed for more than 4,000 years.

  60. IN THE ORBIT OF SIRENS
    Book 1 of the Song of Kamaria trilogy
    written by T. A. Bruno
    Link: https://tinyurl.com/SirensKamaria1
    .

    THE LAST FRAGMENTS OF THE HUMAN RACE ARE FORCED TO ADAPT TO A DANGEROUS NEW WORLD OR FACE EXTINCTION.
    When starship mechanic, Denton Castus, is caught in the destructive path of a devastating war, he abandons his home and seeks refuge on a distant planet. However, this new safe haven has undiscovered threats of its own. Eliana Veston, a scout preparing the planet for the refugees, struggles with a deadly pandemic that is killing off colonists. The hunt for a cure unleashes a new threat to humanity—the Sirens—mysterious beings with incredible powers and a deep hatred for invaders.
    .

    The perfect gift for the scifi-fantasy lover in your life!
    Each novel contains beautiful artwork by Jason Michael Hall, with covers designed by Daniel Schmelling. The Song of Kamaria trilogy is complete, and available in all formats, including Kindle Unlimited.

  61. Summer 1994. The Great Console War rages between the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo.

    Twelve-year-old Tommy Guggenbiller, desperate to buy the Sega CD, takes a job as a paperboy in the tiny town of Williamsburg, Indiana.

    Juggling his newspaper responsibilities with summer baseball season, and his father’s obsession with America’s Pastime, Tommy must overcome deadbeat customers, an ex-best-friend-turned-baseball-rival, and the indomitable prankster known as Mr. James Glad.

    Sega CD Summer is a celebration of ‘90s video games, small-town life, and baseball–a button-mashing tale in the spirit of 8-Bit Christmas and The Sandlot.

    https://segacdsummer.com/

  62. Hi all,
    I’m an aerospace engineer and the author of TRACKER220, a Young Adult SciFi.

    In a world where the government tracks every move through brain-interfacing chips, one glitch threatens the network. Sixteen-year-old Kaya Weiss is that glitch. With the government controlling every aspect of her life, from her freedom to her observance of a tech-free Shabbat, Kaya seeks refuge with the rebel Ghosts. But trusting them means betraying the only tech she’s ever known.

    For buy links, a book trailer, and to read the first chapter visit my blog: https://jamiekrakover.blogspot.com/p/tracker220.html

    Signed copies available at my local indie bookstore Main Street Books in St. Charles, Missouri: https://mainstreetbooks.indielite.org/search/site/tracker220

    Happy Holidays!
    Jamie Krakover

  63. The Crafting of Chess

    Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
    ☆☆☆☆☆
    Nate wants more to life than moving from town to town, hustling chess with his con-man grandfather or wagering pick-up games online. A new immersive game opens up the chance to bring in a steady paycheck. Maybe enough to convince his grandfather to stay straight. Little does he know how his actions will change his life.

    A GameLit coming of age story.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M96LZ26?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_awt_sb_pc_tukn

  64. Hi!

    On Halloween, I self-published my collection of 7 previously published (by markets like Escape Pod and Electric Velocipede, markets that I used for SFWA pro membership) and 5 previously unpublished short stories. They’re loosely centered around a theme of “love,” but this is an SF/F collection.

    Here’s my official blurb:

    What is love? What can love drive us to do?

    In these stories, love pushes us to revenge, to reach beyond the boundaries of life and death. To rescue a family member. To fight the good fight without even knowing it, or to risk everyone and everything to save someone who may or may not be worthy. To make the wrong decisions and walk into hell. To transcend who we are.

    Love can make us both the best and worst versions of ourselves.

    Right now the ebook is still Black Friday/Cyber Monday priced at 99 cents, so impulse-buy a copy for yourself, but for gift giving purposes, check out my ASTONISHINGLY GORGEOUS cover and give someone the paperback!

    https://books2read.com/kvlovestories

    (And of course, my website has a page dedicated to the book, with an EVEN BIGGER picture of that gorgeous cover and some collected reviews: https://www.katherinevillyard.com/love-stories/ )

    You KNOW you want it!

  65. Looking for something out of the ordinary to read this holiday season? My menopausal werewolf series, the Wolves of Wolf’s Point, is available direct from my small press, Queen of Swords, or wherever you buy your books. https://queenofswordspress.com/shop/

    Queen of Swords also publishes my short story collections Out of This World and Unfinished Business, if you’re in the mood for short queer fiction! We also publish other authors and are your home for dapper lesbian capybara pirate stories, urban fantasy set in Minneapolis, fantastical pirates and more! Thanks for checking us out!

  66. Do you like airships, steampunk, talking cats, and Pratchett-esque murder mysteries, then you need Dexter & Sinister: Detecting Agents.

    John Sinister is an over-educated layabout conman, hired to find a murderer. Dexter is the talking mechanical cat who’s going to make sure this lazy sack of meat does the job he was hired for if it’s the last thing he does.

    A YA-friendly tale of murder and mayhem, Dexter & Sinister: Detecting Agents, and it’s follow up, The Dragonfly Delivery Company, are both easy reads full of intrigue and humour, sure to delight seasoned steamheads and those new to the genre alike.

    https://mybook.to/dexter2

  68. After consulting with John and getting his go-ahead, let’s try popping the linguistic bubble here, shall we?

    Do you have a special someone who speaks Portuguese? Or that would like to try and learn the language? Or even that knows Spanish, as the two languages are mutually intelligible to a high degree in written form? If so, I’ve got a suggestion for you!

    Ratazanas e Outros Acepipes, which could be translated as Rats and Other Delicacies is a short story collection by myself and four friends of mine, featuring mostly science fiction stories, both hard and soft, and a bunch of stories of various genres in which rats jump out of ministerial mouths. Other genres are also represented beyond the rat tales. They range from 1-page ultrashorts to a rather lenghty novella, bringing the book very close to the 400 pages mark.

    It’s available worldwide from the Lulu website.

    A free ebook is also available here, under the title of Ratazanas e Outros Petiscos (same translation) featuring a number of complete stories and excerpts from the rest, although that would make a bad Christmas gift as it is… well… free.

  69. When Nigel gets chucked off a dam, he thinks his time is up.

    Vivian – an alien from an ancient race that uses Earth’s deep oceans as a retirement home – rescues him and convinces him to join the Consensus.

    Now all he has to do is give up his life on Earth.

    But he can’t abandon his birth planet when he learns that the Menace plans to attack. To stop the apocalypse, he must find his high school crush, rescue the daughter he never knew he had, and make the case to the Consensus that humanity is worth saving.

    It would be a lot easier if he didn’t have amnesia.

    If you like found family, unlikely heroes, and unique alien technology, you’ll love Eclipsing the Aurora, the latest sci-fi adventure from author Peter J. Foote.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHPB4XJT

  70. A looming Pyramid. A Sacrifice who doesn’t die.

    A new life, a new family, and a new challenge. Can South adjust when her life unexpectedly continues? And can she defend her new-found family against the evil Priests who wanted to slaughter her?

    First book in a new, fast-paced epic fantasy series (books 1-3 out, book 4 coming in February). Available as ebook in all stores, print through Amazon.

    https://books2read.com/SouthWindsofDestiny

  71. The Only Game In Town

    For people who loved A League of Their Own (the movie and the TV show), a novel about women stepping up to the plate during WWI! The book follows the premiere season for the Chicago Shrikes baseball team, as well as romances that blossom between the players.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/1952150361

  73. Top #30 in Sci-Fi Mystery on amazon as we speak!

    https://www.amazon.com/Rim-City-Blues-Spectrum-Lathe-ebook/dp/B08R92J763

    They want Felix Lasko to solve a murder while getting chased by coyotes, one-eyed assassins, and killer robots. He’d say no, but that’s not an option—since they’ll kill him outright if he refuses.

    Felix had always dreamed of becoming a detective: just not at gunpoint. Besides the hot lead motivation, solving the murder of Jeff Hense will get him a ticket into Neotopia. It’s the last city on the planet with power, and he’s run hundreds of miles only to get stuck outside its blue forcefield dome.

    He’ll need to get through a brothel-ship wedged into a cliffside, and a gang of violent criminals called the Mayors. All while avoiding instant death by a deadly piece of Tek known only as the Scream Ray.

    Whatever the odds, he’s done running. He’ll get into Neotopia even if it kills him.

  74. Thank John for the opportunity!

    Superheroes are big business. Imagine not being able to afford them.

    Kit Baldwin can’t afford trouble, not in a city where superhuman Empowered offer their help only for a fee. But rent doesn’t wait so she scavenges the ruins for valuable artifacts from a crashed alien ship. When Kit discovers a powerful alien object, it pays off more than she ever hoped.

    Publisher’s Weekly called Ever The Hero “entertaining debut uses super powers as a metaphor to delve into class politics in an alternate America.”

    The entire (ongoing) Eververse series is on sale for 88 cents this month, so if you get a chance, please check them out. Thanks again.

    https://www.amazon.com/Darby-Harn/e/B005EUWMAW/

  75. In Best Foot Forward Carillon needs to get an alchemist out of Germany in 1935, forcing him to cooperate with Alexander, a feared member of Albion’s Council. Blackmail, dangerous magic, current politics and their own pasts keep changing the ground under their feet.

    (Or as my editor, Kiya, put it, a “M/M aroace/bi-allo-(incidentally polyam) enemies-to-it’s-complicated there-was-only-one-bed espionage and WWI trauma-healing romp”.)

    Contains:
    – Vienna and Berlin in 1935
    – The power of spring
    – Healing and becoming who we were meant to be
    – Love of music
    – Land magic and the good it can do
    – Chosen family

    Learn more at https://celialake.com/books/best-foot-forward,

  76. Falstaff Books published all three of the COPPER ROAD books, a portal trilogy featuring elemental magic and strong women fighting both a magical villain and the tired expectations of their society. I linked to the second book, Copper Road, because it was the most fun to write, (is it okay to say that?) with magic, elemental beings, bandits, queer romance, double-crosses, horses, and chocolate.

    http://falstaffbooks.com/catalog/shattered-queen/aluminum-leaves-a-broken-cities-novella/copper-road-a-broken-cities-novel/

  78. CherryPop McGee is the daughter of Desmond and Charlotte McGee, a famous Resurrection Man and a powerful witch. That fact alone makes her a desirable target for the seedier elements in the world.

    With the help of her father’s Living Dead companion, Liam, the McGee family does their best to eke out a life in the settlement that has sprung up outside of Dreadtown after a war ravaged the area. But an unscrupulous man has risen in the criminal ranks and he is fixated on CherryPop.

    When Desmond goes missing, CherryPop, her Mother, and Liam must make their way through the perils of Dreadtown to try and find him.

    This book is a steampunk-ish zombie-palooza filled with heartache, joy, and friendship. And lots of zombies.

    https://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Man-S-M-Romanski-ebook/dp/B00DTNV07W/ref=sr_1_1

  79. Hey all! I published my first book, Along the Perimeter, in June 2021. It’s the first entry in my sci-fi epic with a fantasy twist. Here’s what readers have to say!

    “A fascinating dystopian novel set in a complex, futuristic world.” – The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

    “The world-building is the star in this story, which uses science fiction to pull [off] a science fantasy feel that I absolutely adored.” J.W. Wartick, sci-fi/fantasy reviewer

    “The best parts are the fight scenes. Healt doesn’t hold back with hand-to-hand, weapons, or android technology…Extra kudos for including serious women in warrior roles.” – D.W. (Amazon review)

    Thank you for giving us indies the chance to promote our work! I look forward to pursuing the comments for new reads!

  80. Pale Boundaries is a (currently) four-book Space Opera series following the adventures of Terson Reilly, a young refugee from a frontier colony who unwittingly runs afoul of the Intergalactic Mob and sets out to teach the underworld that a backwoods hick can punch above his weight!

    Available on Amazon and Amazon KU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084BSXRP9/

  81. Thanks for the opportunity! If you’re tired of grim and gritty SF, check out my light-hearted reads, available as ebooks and in print.

    The Diamond Device is a steampunk romp where mismatched buddies race to foil a bomb plot. (It’s also currently an SPSFC quarterfinalist.)

    Or for social SF with a paranormal flavour, there’s my A Quiet Rebellion trilogy.

    Book list at: https://mhthaung.com/books

  82. The promised cyberpunk future hasn’t come to pass, with implants stagnating at glorified contacts and hearing aids. Until now. Following a police officer with a death wish, a soldier atoning for his birth, and a savant who wants to see the next sunrise, The Last 0-Day is an action-packed adventure about the start of the cybernetics revolution. It’s Black Mirror meets Malazan Book of the Fallen with a dash of cli-fi.

    Free digital copies of The Last 0-Day are available here:

    https://www.amazon.com/Last-0-Day-Banned-Algorithm-Library-ebook/dp/B09ZK3KBZJ
    https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-0-day-b-r-russell/1142550466

    Paperbacks are available on Amazon and the audiobook is on Audible.

    The second book in the series, Adephon’s Rise, is coming in December and there’s a preview on my website http://www.brrussell.com

    Hope you all enjoy :)

  83. Evolution Device, a novel of music and magic.
    It’s the story of rock guitarist Eddie Edmunds’ selling of his soul — not on the crossroad but in an underground club in London in the 1970s. The devil’s name is The Lady, and she is a guitar with a black heart. The tale is told by Eddie’s muse who, in another story, might have been named Galatea but in Eddie’s is called Lilith. And the band, Evolution Device, is the means to an end — or maybe just The End for Eddie.
    I worked with the wonderful voice actor (as well as film writer, producer, and director), Naomi Rose-Mock, to self-publish the Audible version of Evolution Device. The book is also available in printed and eBook form.
    https://www.audible.com/pd/Evolution-Device-Audiobook/B08QSMCTG7

  84. Like a little fantasy in your steampunk? Galessel’s Tale is a trilogy following an elven princess as she travels to the mortal realm and discovers that Queen Victoria is the villain. Book 1: Dien-Vek, Book 2: Sikevra, Book 3: Fallana Sian

  85. John, thanks for the promo opp. Here’s my offering- and they’re selling the paperback for about the price of a fancy coffee:
    Welcome to Resurrection, a former mining company town with too many dark secrets, where science and religion form a shady alliance. Sixteen-year-old Judy Winstead is forced to move there with her recently widowed mother, but finds few allies among the tight-lipped townsfolk. People who stand out or speak out endanger themselves, while dreadful experiments and worse take place in the caverns and tunnels beneath the town.
    https://www.amazon.com/Locust-Time-Suspense-Dale-Phillips/dp/B096TN9KRS/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1669742435&sr=1-1

  86. THE INFINET is a dystopian thriller that takes place just a few short years from now. The world-famous inventor Oreste Pax is working on a brain-computer interface he believes will revolutionize human cognition. But when a rogue genius named the Mechanic infects the Internet of Things with a terrible virus, Pax is asked to join the fight to stop it.

    https://www.amazon.com/Infinet-Trivial-Game-Book-ebook/dp/B076F5WFVL

    Amazon: 4.3 stars, 79 ratings, 72 reviews
    Goodreads: 4.1 stars, 138 ratings, 49 reviews
    Chirpbooks: 4.0 stars, 98 ratings, 15 reviews
    B.R.A.G. Medallion winner
    Wishing Shelf Book Awards finalist

    Available on audiobook and Kindle Unlimited.

    “Creating the perfect blend of thriller and science fiction, The Infinet is a brilliant novel that covers very large ground, yet nothing is muddled…This is truly a gripping tale of the near future that is scarily real and enticing at the same time.”
    Rabia Tanveer, Readers’ Favorite

    Thank you, John, for the opportunity to share our stories!

  87. WHAT PRICE DO YOU PAY FOR HAPPILY EVER AFTER?
    EBOOKS ON SALE THOUGH DECEMBER–$2.99
    Want to read something completely different in science fiction? The Enduring Legacy has biobots, relationships, a wee bit of the Old West, horses, and a reunited older couple. Fourth book in the series, can be read as a standalone.

    Ruby Barkley and Gabriel Martiniere have made it. They’ve defeated Philip Martiniere, and Philip’s suicide leaves them an opening to reform the Martiniere Group as well as the Martiniere Family. To create their own, positive legacy.

    But. The legacy of the Martinieres isn’t so easily repaired.

    New foes arise—including the specters of age and health. The mysterious worm that interferes with digital and living memories, and glitches their newest biobot designs.

    Can Gabe keep his legacy safe? Or is he doomed to lose his second family, only in a slower manner than the plane crash that killed his first family?

    What will it take for Gabe to guarantee that his legacy endures?

    Available at Amazon, Apple, Kobo, and Nook. Orderable from your favorite indie bookstore through Ingram.
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BBBWSHCZ
    https://books2read.com/u/38PDLw
    https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-enduring-legacy-joyce-reynolds-ward/1142038520

  88. Love science fiction? Better yet, do you love the community and diversity stylings of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers stories, the pulp feel of Michael Stackpole’s BattleTech epics, the military grit of Matt Forbeck’s HALO arcs, and the empire-spanning drama of John Scalzi’s Interdependency series?

    Dive into the Renegade Legion Universe’s Voices of Varuna, a 10-story anthology I edited last year. Explore this newly re-imagined version of the old game universe through tales penned by several well-known writers from the scifi, gaming, mystery, horror, RPG, and comics genres.

    Encounter the wonders of the 75th century today.

    https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Varuna-Renegade-Universe-Anthology-ebook/dp/B096DJNQMY

  89. Hi. I’m Carrie Vaughn, and I wrote the bestselling, traditionally published Kitty Norville werewolf series.

    And now I’ve self pubbed a spin-off from that series: THE CORMAC AND AMELIA CASE FILES.

    Cormac is an ex-con supernatural bounty hunter!

    Amelia is the disembodied spirit of a Victorian wizard!

    Together, they solve crimes!

    Here’s a link to my newsletter with all the info:
    https://mailchi.mp/b446d96482de/new-release-the-cormac-and-amelia-case-files

    Available in print and ebook!

    Thank you!!!

  90. Hey everyone!

    Want your fantasy, SF, romance, or crime in small bites?

    The Mermaid of Ellis Prime (with 7 additional short stories): SF, ranging from here & close to future & far, from funny to dark. https://books2read.com/ellis-prime

    Gates of Wonder: The Agents of BIS mixes SF & science fantasy, depending on the world the intrepid agents travel to! https://books2read.com/gatesofwonder

    One Plus One Equals More: crime and mystery. https://books2read.com/oneplusone

    A Snowman Made Of Sand, seven short sweet romances. https://books2read.com/snowman

  92. Since John Scalzi has been so gracious and generous as to provide us all with this platform, let me start by acknowledging that a point I make at page 101 of my new book is a point that John made first, and possibly more eloquently! The book is TEN: Rules for Being a Good Person in the 21st Century (Amazon), and it argues that in a time when humanity has gained the ability to destroy itself, our old rules about ethics and morality are insufficient, and that we need ten new rules to guide our personal conduct. While most of the rules cover matters ranging from energy use to religious violence, Rule #10 says that it’s wrong to support governments that violate the other nine rules, and here’s where I have to tip my hat to John: if you vote for a government that is committed to some position that is morally and ethically wrong, then although you might say that that isn’t why you voted for them, it doesn’t matter, because you’re showing that you’re okay with that bad thing.

    Maybe this doesn’t sound like a book that would make a good present at the holidays, but you probably know two kinds of people for whom it would be just right. The first is that person who belongs to the Sierra Club and goes in all the marches and bought the first Leaf you ever saw, who will read it and exclaim, “That’s what I’ve been saying all along!” The second is that relative who gets under your skin every Thanksgiving, the one who apparently doesn’t believe that science is a real thing, and for whom the gift tag could read, “I thought you mind find this interesting.”

    Anyway, please take a look: https://www.amazon.ca/TEN-Rules-Being-Person-Century/dp/098114571X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RARF02SKJHA1&keywords=ten%3A+rules+for+being+a+good+person+in+the+21st+century&qid=1653512746&s=books&sprefix=%2Cstripbooks%2C227&sr=1-1

  93. Hi all,

    If gritty, character-driven space opera with a spy thriller twist strikes your fancy, I invite you to check out my Ziva Payvan series. It all starts when an interstellar operative is forced to team up with the brother of a man she killed in order to stop a threat to their world…

    The series consists of five books: a main trilogy, and a sequel duology. All five books are available in paperback and at all major ebook retailers. The first three are also available in hardcover and would make wonderful gifts!

    Find retailer links, excerpts from each book, concept art, and much more at https://www.ejfisch.com!

  94. Greetings! My non-traditionally published book is SANITY CHECK: THE DOG ATE MY LIPSTICK AND MY HOUSEPLANTS HAVE FLEAS, a collection of 100 reader-favorites of my Sanity Check humor column which ran in the Dayton Daily News for ten years. It’s by turns funny and poignant, if I do say so myself.

    You can find SANITY CHECK in print, e-book and audio online:
    Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/88268/9780615642635
    Amazon.com: https://a.co/d/8jyVreV
    Barnesandnoble.com: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sanity-check-sharon-short/1111784286?ean=9780615642635

    If you would like autographed book stickers and bookmarks, email me at jessmontgomeryauthor@gmail.com

    To learn more about my books, please visit: http://www.sharonshort.com or http://www.jessmontgomeryauthor.com

    Thank you, and Happy Holidays!

    Jess

  95. “Star Wars Memories: My Time in the (Death Star) Trenches” is my anecdotal memoir about my years working on “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back”. Amazon has it listed with 95% 5-star and 4-star reviews.

    In the words of Gary Kurtz, producer of “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back”, “’Star Wars Memories’ gives a look at the original Star Wars films and Lucasfilm from Craig Miller’s unique perspective. This isn’t another ‘making of’ book with the same stories and information that have appeared in other books and countless magazine articles. It’s a book of stories you haven’t heard before; an insider’s look from someone who, himself, is a fan and found the whole experience joyful and exciting. These stories are told in a way that brings you in and makes you feel like you were there.”

    While my title was Director of Fan Relations, I was a publicist, a writer, a producer working on “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back”. In those days, the company was so small, everyone got involved with everything. “Star Wars Memories” talks about the behind the scenes world at Lucasfilm and at the studio outside of London. About working with the press and introducing science fiction and comics fans to “Star Wars”. The Official Star Wars Fan Club. Licensing and Licensees. A telephone publicity stunt that accidentally shut down the state of Illinois’ phone system. And experiences as producer on projects ranging from episodes of “Sesame Street” to commercials for Underoos (“underwear that’s fun to wear”). Operating R2-D for television appearances. A weeks spent hanging out on the set of “The Empire Strikes Back”.

    As it says in the Amazon listing: In “Star Wars Memories” Craig Miller talks about all of that and more, including Mark Hamill barbecuing him a burger in London, having lunch in a Sunset Strip restaurant with Harrison Ford while he rolled and smoked a joint, and watching Carrie Fisher introduce “The Empire Strikes Back”’s British production crew to tacos.

    “Star Wars Memories” is available online from Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble and Walmart.

  96. Hi, all – let me present two of my books.

    One is DAROS, a space opera. A smuggler’s daughter must evacuate from her ship during an alien invasion carrying precious (and illegal) cargo. Within the alien fleet, a secret rebel plots against her vicious commanders. Will either survive the onslaught? A SPSFC semi-finalist in 2021.

    https://books2read.com/u/braoA7

    The other is FLAMES OVER FROSTHELM, a fantasy detective story. Two provisional inspectors, fresh out of training, are assigned the mundane task of tracking down stolen jewels. Instead, they uncover a mysterious cult set on destroying the city. In a race against prophecy, they face terrible forces long buried. Think CSI meets Princess Bride. An ISFAB finalist in 2021.

    https://books2read.com/u/bOJaOK

    Both are funny, rollicking, heroic adventures, and both are available in print, ebook, and audiobook with wonderful narrators. I hope you enjoy.

  99. Welcome to the afterlife of Denver—where phantom buffalo roam and ghost factions wage war.

    Seventeen-year-old Ashen Deming is dead, but she can’t move on. Not with the soul of her best friend on the line. He is stuck in a horrific curse—a curse no spirit knows how to break.

    Ashen is determined to find a cure, but at every turn opposing factions try to snatch her for themselves. As the menacing specters close in, a new threat is exposed—one that looms over the dead and the living—and Ashen and her posse of ghosts have one brief chance to stop them. If they fail, the entire world will be lost to darkness forever.

    But Ashen’s time is running out. If she doesn’t cross over soon, she will be damned to roam the haunted city for eternity.

    Dead Remnants is a YA urban fantasy, filled with dark humor and spliced with historical flashback stories, revealing real ghosts of America’s ugly past. Perfect for older teens and fans of NEIL GAIMAN, STEPHEN KING, and GUILLERMO DEL TORO.

    ** Trigger Warning **
    This book contains five flashback chapters – vignettes of American history that show the nation’s darkest moments, including torture and genocide. If they are triggering for the reader, please be aware that they can be skipped without impacting the main story arc.

    https://mybook.to/DeadRemnants

  100. Do you like living underground, like your ancestors, and their ancestors before them, so long that you’ve forgotten the surface? Do you like moving ever downward when you mine out the resources or run out of space? Do you like your interred ancestors above you returning to life as monstrous abominations?

    Of course you don’t! Join the gravediggers and dig your way out of this hole! The Well is an RPG by veteran game designer Peter Schaefer (me!) with a lightweight spin on a classic genre: the dungeon delve against undead monsters!

    https://www.shoelesspetegames.com/the-well

  101. BASED ON ‘A TRUE HISTORY’*

    The Moon is on the brink of war.

    Alexander Dio, an officer of the Vulture Dragoons, flies in defence of the Lunar people against the monstrous armies of the Sun. He is ready for war – or at least he thinks he is.

    But when Dio’s patrol finds a crashed ship out in the Sea of Tranquility, his life is turned upside-down. Because the ship is not from the Moon, and its captain is unlike anyone he’s ever known.

    His name is Lucian, and he comes from the Earth.

    Based on the ancient Greek story by Lucian of Samosata, this voyage of fantastic discovery goes back to the very beginning of science-fiction.

    *Yes, this is genuinely a 2nd-century space opera, and it’s brilliant.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BX6131X

  102. Hello, everybody!

    If you’re a fan of fast-paced urban fantasy, allow me to direct your attention to my debut novel: The Flaws of Gravity.

    A former lackey. A faerie plot to end the world. The existence of tequila is at stake. Oh, and humanity too.

    Available in ebook and paperback on all major outlets. Thanks!

  103. I’ve got three series in the same urban-fantasy universe:

    The Alastair Stone Chronicles: British expat, mage, and Occult Studies professor Dr. Alastair Stone tries to keep the mundane part of his life separate from the increasingly nasty magical threats he has to deal with. 31 books and counting. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CF8SJY
    Calanar: Set on an alternate dimension with a connection to the Stone Chronicles world, this trilogy is complete and can be enjoyed without reading any of the Stone books. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1RM9ZK3
    Happenstance and Bron: A buddy series featuring a fake fortune-teller to the stars with a mysterious magical past, an asexual witch who’s given up magic, and the collection of magical mob bosses who run the Los Angeles area. A complete trilogy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08519NQ5H

  104. A tsunami on a space station.
    An explosion with no trace of the bomber.

    Cyber-security expert Sebastian knows evidence doesn’t magically disappear, yet when he and his colleague Aryx, a disabled ex-marine, travel the galaxy to find the cause, there seems to be no other explanation.

    Can they unravel the mystery before his family, home, and an entire race succumbs to an ancient foe?

    Synthesis:Weave is the first book in the Synthesis:Weave trilogy (complete)

    Perfect for fans of Mass Effect, Babylon 5 and Star wars
    Sci-Fi/Space Opera/Science Fantasy

    Available on Amazon and other booksellers in all formats.

  105. Rules Concerning Earthlight is a tribute to a friendship, and the influences writers can have on one another.

    https://books2read.com/links/ubl/boyyV9

    Dale Ivan Smith met K.C. Ball in 2009, when she was an editor guest at an online writing school. That led to Dale’s first sales to K.C.’s online magazine 10Flash Quarterly, a lasting friendship, and a writing partnership. They co-wrote three stories, all of which are included in this collection, including the novella “Silver City,” published here for the first time. Four of the other stories, written by Dale, were published by K.C. in 10Flash, while K.C. read and influenced “Persisting” and “Nullified.”

    K.C. Ball was the author of the novel Lifting Up Veronica and Snapshots From a Blackhole and Other Oddities. She passed away in 2018.

  106. For the past seven years, writers from Fark.com have gotten together and made an anthology of fantastic short stories.

    Buy it for the title, the squirrel on the cover, the proceeds donated to a good cause – and because the stories are damn good.

    That’s right, the seventh annual Fark Fiction Anthology is now live on Amazon!

    The editors have brought us twenty-six of the best new short stories written by Farkers, including science fiction, fantasy, humor, horror, and suspense! With more fiction than an Elon Musk business plan, more mystery then what the mods get up to after dark, and definitely funnier than the politics tab, it’s over three hundred pages of the best of the best of what Fark can come up with! And even better, all proceeds from this anthology will once again go to St. Jude Children’s Cancer Research Hospital, so even if you can’t read you can support a good cause!

    As always, huge thanks to everyone who helped out this year, from editors to every submitter, even those who didn’t make it in! Without you all, none of this would be possible. Thanks!

  107. Title: The Duchess’s Bodyguard
     Genre: Fantasy Romance
    Content Warning: This book contains adult themed and open door spicy scenes.
    In a world with realms divided by species, Faeries and Werewolves held an age old feud very few still upheld.

    In search of get-rich-quick schemes, Robin LaFleur’s job as a huntress to the pack held no upward movement towards financial stability. When Yashona Hartwell, a faerie Duchess in need of reprieve from stuffy guards propositions the wolf, the two make a mutually beneficial agreement to satisfy the Duchess’s need for freedom and the huntress’s financial worries.

    What started as a mutually beneficial scheme could be exactly what they both need.
    Read The Duchess’s Bodyguard Here!

  108. THE WAYSTATIONS TRILOGY is a space opera perfect for fans of Mass Effect and The Expanse, with ancient alien mysteries, a large cast of characters and galaxy-spanning stakes.

    Time is running out for the people of New Pallas. Nobody knows that better than Alvera Renata, a tenacious captain determined to scout past the stars with nothing but a handpicked crew and a promise: to find a new home for humanity.

    But when a perilous journey across dark space leads to first contact with a galactic civilisation on the brink of war, Alvera soon realises keeping her word might not be as easy as she thought.

    Her only hope lies with the secrets of the ancient alien waystations scattered across the galaxy. The mysterious technology could be the key to humanity’s survival—or bring unwanted attention from the long-forgotten beings who built them…

    Available in paperback, on Kindle, and on Kindle Unlimited!

    THOSE LEFT BEHIND
    THOSE ONCE FORGOTTEN
    THOSE WHO RESIST

    https://mybook.to/TheWaystationsTrilogy

  109. NSFW 18+ erotic space opera

    As shadows of a repressive piety movement spread across the system’s free worlds, the Lady Cassandra and her slaves must flee their home. Exiled to the desert, the Dominatrix contacts her only hope for salvation—Spyder, captain of the spaceship Trouble.

    Spyder ignores threats from the powerful criminal whose cargo fills Trouble’s hold, as well as the anger of his influential and overdue passenger. Risking his life, his spaceship, and his crew he rescues his owner, the Lady Cassandra from imminent danger.

    Book One of the The Lady & The Spyder series, Spyder’s Trouble releases Thursday

    https://transgressivewriter.com/spyder.php#trouble

  111. Here’s my book…series….that I co-authored.
    Bangkok Warlock
    From Book 1: Why sell your soul when you can rent it?
    Meet Mark Vedis. He’s just been cursed with becoming a warlock. Meet Bert. He’s a decent enough guy, for a spoiled demon prince.

    They have a problem.

    Mark needs to bond with a demon in order to release his full potential, and Bert has no interest in becoming a magical battery for an inferior human.

    They’re not starting out as the best of pals. I mean, what fun would that be?

    Too bad Bert’s mom, the demon queen, isn’t giving either one of them a choice…

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JMKH1XC

  112. For fans of Science Fiction and character driven narratives, I have a treat.

    Star of Ashor is set in the calm before the proverbial storm swells once more; a war between two powerful alien nations has been at a stalemate for years. A pair of covert operatives, dedicated to the security of their nation, are thrust into a plot that threatens to destabilize one of their former enemies and draw their country into an unwinnable war.

    In order to secure peace for their people, they make the difficult choice to help one whom they would so recently have called an enemy, and in the process, are forced to confront the realities of being drawn into a political conflict that could spell the end of their nation.

    The narrative mixes action and strong character building with an extensively developed world and setting to create a novel that was years in the making. It’s a fresh, unique science fiction setting that will host a number of planned entries.

    The writing style is articulate without being overly verbose and the content of the book is suitable for non-adult readers as well.

    You can find Star of Ashor at amazon in physical or digital formats (drm free):

    https://www.amazon.com/Star-Ashor-T-Niven-ebook/dp/B07ZPJQ8P6

    As a bonus for anyone who enjoys the book, the second installment is already on the way! (Unfortunately my book website is down at this time)

  113. What do you do when the worst thing in the world actually happens?
    Run.

    What do you do when you can’t face the truth?
    Hide.

    What if there’s no escape?
    Break everything and start over.

    Kirsten Madsen’s sister, Astrid, is the victim of a school shooter. As the town rages and grieves, Kirsten just wants to escape… to a world where Astrid never died. Where they can grow up as sisters. Where they can both watch the willow tree they planted together reach its full potential. But there are some things you can’t outrun.

    This gripping and powerful novel about love and grief-and the lengths our psyches go to when protecting us from trauma-will have readers gasping with each twist, and rooting for Kirsten to become whole again.

    Debut author Wendy M. McDonald explores the lives we are dealt, the lives we wish we had, and how we can face the truth in this searing psychological drama.

    “I felt Kirsten’s grief alongside her in this heartfelt, timely, and deeply moving novel.” – Nancy Werlin, New York Times best-selling author

    https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-willow-wendy-m-mcdonald/18708941

  114. I self-published my first novel, Questionable Minds this month (not counting those novels that never saw the light of day). It’s 1888, psychic powers work and Jack the Ripper and Professor Moriarty are both busy wreaking evil. Can a baronet with impenetrable mental shields stop the bad guys? Available as a paperback and here as an ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BM97Y7XR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31Y0E6TDBEFJN&keywords=Questionable%20minds%20fraser%20sherman&qid=1668417951&sprefix=questionable%20minds%20fraser%20sherman%2Caps%2C60&sr=8-1&fbclid=IwAR3R454JmHVLl-e1repqfxjPpZArJF7sjPzb7Xqko9RfCPk_S3LIpf51K6c

  116. My bestselling space opera series, Trystero, has book six coming out in December! It’s been one helluva ride and you can pick up the first book, Broken Ascension, free as an ebook from your favorite retailer.

    Broken Ascension is a semi-finalist in Hugh Howey’s SPSFC 2021! A story about humans in the far-flung future cohabitating a galaxy alongside a race of aliens, when a young artist and his salvage crew discover an alien baby on a derelict ship, and are forced to make tough decisions to avoid another bloody war with the aliens.

    https://books2read.com/brokenascension

    Released earlier this year was a wild cyberpunk romp called INTERGALACTIC BASTARD. Humans have discovered the rest of the galaxy (or, mind you, aliens discovered them) and they’re the weakest of the races involved in the galactic bloodsport.

    … except Coop Sabre, a former bouncer from Earth, and his exploding barbed wire bat has found himself as the first human worthy to challenge for the galactic crown.

    He’s just gotta sort out his personal issues first.

    https://books2read.com/intergalacticbastard

  118. Alice Gailsone was Dyspell, the most dangerous and feared woman in the world. She was infamous for being the second in command of the Purge, the most vile terrorist organization on the planet. At least she was, until she abruptly retired for reasons unknown…
    ​
    Alice Gailsone is now a buyer and trader of rare gemstones with the help of her adopted niece, Allison. She lives a boring, low-key life and does her best to stay out of trouble.

    …At least she did, until she was approached by Alan Tanner, powerful business tycoon by day and dangerous vigilante Blackthorne by night, with an offer she cannot refuse: Put together a team of former super villain- turned-heroes in exchange for access to the one thing on the planet that could save her mother’s life.

    Her first assignment is the Lotus, a deadly assassin for Japan’s premiere criminal empire, the Dead Talon. In her way is a powerful corporate giant, an army of trained soldiers, a cult of murderous Kitsune and an unknown force moving in the shadows.

    She is out of practice, out of her element, and running out of time…

    Big In Japan is the first in a series of Action/Adventure Urban Fantasy novels about the Gailsone family. Join Alice as she deals with mob bosses, mercenaries, magic-related problems, golems, Kitsune, grumpy fortune tellers and the occasional firefight. Follow along as secret plots and sinister forces worm their way out of the shadows to test not only Alice, but the other ‘heroes’ of the Gailsone universe. A larger plan is unfolding with terrifying implications for the world, and Alice, whether she likes it or not, is stuck smack dab in the middle.

    The first novel, Big In Japan, can be purchased through http://www.gailsone.com, or on amazon. Thank you!

  119. Left Is Also Right – Reconsidering design from a left-handed perspective

    Left-handers are routinely excluded from participating easily in daily life through designs that favour the right-handed majority. The result of failure to consider all users is a plethora of equipment, practices and public spaces that range from awkward to use to impossible to use to downright deadly.

    This slim book explains the range of designed-in impediments to use by left-handers, the history of societal demonisation against us, and options to rethink design and assumptions so as to make tools and spaces easy for all to use, not just the majority.

    Available from Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/shop/m-l-stevens/left-is-also-right/paperback/product-876eq7.html?page=1&pageSize=4

  120. At the link below, you will find 15 novellas. (Called ‘one-hour reads’ by amazon.)

    The first 3 are aimed at middle-grade readers and the rest are young adult novellas.

    Some of them are original stories, and the rest are updated editions of anthology stories I have brought back as novellas.

    They range from sci fi to fantasy to contemporary. The fabulous covers were created by my illustrator partner, Doug Cushman, who lives in France.

    Have a look!:
    https://diancurtisregan.com/books/novellas/?fbclid=IwAR1OEMUAg7cvCoQjNdxjAzbhvLN196qiZvhx7MhH_Wd307dHrkTWOgR_lpE

  121. From the author who has the audacity to peddle her debut novel as The Interdependency meets Hyperion meets Red Rising – this is The Imaginators by M. K. Valley:

    When the past came back to haunt her, Andria set out to kill it.

    °A dark & twisty space opera;
    °Badass lead & assassins;
    °Superpowers & some steam;
    °Free on #KindleUnlimited;

    °SelfPub & proud!

    A novella available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09235XGH2

    Also in hardcover because of course. (:

  122. FROM THE GRAVE OF THE GODS: THE AUGMENT SAGA BOOK ONE

    Near-future character driven first contact hard SF with romance and suspense.

    Commander James Fowler is an astronaut and the first officer of the Magnum Opus, the largest spacecraft ever built, on the first crewed expedition to Mars. The mission: to investigate the mysterious extrasolar object that went down on the Red Planet five years ago. James is living the dream: he gets to go to space and be one of the first to set foot on another world, with his girlfriend, Angela cheering him on at home. Maybe after the mission, when he’s returned a hero, he’ll find the perfect moment to finally propose.

    But his dreams shatter as the mission ends in disaster.

    Returning to a world reeling from the revelation of what they found out there, James works to piece his life back together and come to terms with what happened. But the mission left him changed, and now he must fight to protect everything he holds dear from those who seek advancement at any cost; a process that makes him question his identity, his place in the world, and what it means to be human.

    Available in ebook from Amazon, and paperback from all retailers.

    Amazon link:
    http://getbook.at/augment1

  123. What if the Video Game Civilization were real?

    Felan’s Rescue, Book 1 of the Galactic Civilizations Series, is Available in all formats, blending Medieval Fantasy with action-packed, Galaxy-Spanning Science Fiction. FREE on Kindle Unlimited.

    Sequel will be out early next year.

    https://www.amazon.com/Felans-Rescue-Galactic-Science-Civilizations-ebook/dp/B0B33SH9D8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=325R4EXTIR5K7&keywords=Felan%27s+Rescue&qid=1669761298&sprefix=felan%27s+rescu%2Caps%2C212&sr=8-1

  124. Do you have former theatre/er kids on your wishlist? My Center Stage series features theater and television professionals.

    Do you have people who like fishing? DIY? Then my All for You series might appeal.

    All of those books are available in e- and paper.

    The Wedding Bait is a novella – e-only, but if you have someone who wants to see what would result if the Hannah Waddingham and Tony Head characters on Ted Lasso had an adult daughter getting married and also fell into the plot of the 2004 movie The Wedding Date… Well.

    https://adelebuck.com/books-3/

  125. The VATICAN ASSASSIN Trilogy (Third Edition)
    by Mike Luoma

    BC isn’t much of a priest. Didn’t go to Seminary. Doesn’t like to be called “Father”. Never said a Mass in his life. Though he wears the collar, BC serves in a different way – as an Assassin for The Pope of the New catholic Church (NcC)! He’ll soon kill Governor Meredith McEntyre of Lunar Prime, the independent city-state on the Moon. The NcC is allied with the Universal Trade Zone (UTZ) of Earth and its Orbital Stations in the war against the Mars-based Universal Islamic Nation (UIN). McEntyre has become too friendly with the UIN. Can’t let the Governor give the UIN the Moon! Includes the tuned-up 15th Anniversary Edition of Mike Luoma’s original science fiction novel VATICAN ASSASSIN, VATICAN AMBASSADOR (2nd Edition) and VATICAN ABDICATOR under one cover.

    Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/138767384X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i19

    B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-vatican-assassin-trilogy-mike-luoma/1142042740?ean=9781387673841

  126. Very kind of you, John.

    MILLER KNEW
    Deep in the Appalachian hills of Virginia, a brother and sister are in trouble.

    Miller’s ma is gone. His pa is gone. What else can be taken before he fights back?

    Miller knows the kind of men who inhabit these hills. He doesn’t want to become one of them. How can he protect himself and his sister without losing his soul?

    A new voice in Appalachian noir.
    Mysterious, suspenseful, intense, and yearning for redemption and hope.
    https://www.amazon.com/Scott-Geisel/e/B0882N4RHR

  128. THE GOLDEN DAUGHTER, first in a bitesize epic fantasy trilogy, sapphic and stabby

    ALL GOOD CHILDREN, alien invasion novel, depressing and dark but also really rad

    EAT YOUR HEART OUT, queer women vs zombies, ‘nuff said!

    Links at thedingram.com (available everywhere online)

  129. As a dog parent, the end-of-life decision is one of the hardest things we have to face. After the death of our first dog, Kali, my wife wrote out all the things she wished we’d known when we had to make this decision. It was excruciating. It didn’t help that we were receiving mixed signals from the vet, from Kali, and from friends and family.

    My wife writing down the lessons we learned prompted some additional research. We did some interviews and documented those stories. Eventually this labor of love turned into a guidebook that others can use to make this decision easier: “Saying Goodbye to Your Dear Dog: 10 Questions to Help You Decide When it’s Time to Euthanize”

    The book is packed with all kinds of helpful resources and personal stories, as well as guidesheets that help you have some level of objectivity with such a difficult decision. Beautifully and thoughtfully illustrated, this book provides everything you may need to know to make the most loving decision for your dear dog.

    You can find our book on our website, or at Amazon:

    https://goodbyedeardog.com/

    https://www.amazon.com/Saying-Goodbye-Your-Dear-Dog/dp/0692115765/ref=sr_1_1?crid=U1QAYWTVTTR8&keywords=saying+goodbye+to+your+dear+dog&qid=1669763073&sprefix=saying+goodbye+to+your+dear+do%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-1

  130. Thanks for the opportunity!

    If you’re looking for a rather different ‘magic school’ book, try Fountain Girl (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B17GJSLP/) . Paio leaves her remote village to learn magic and find her brother’s lost child. Travel across the high plateau with her, navigate the University of Selanto’s sewage system and a brewing war between the university and the king, track down the stolen river, and see how she finally solves the problem in a story studded with magic spells, goblins, mermaids, family curses, bee-witches, and folk tales from every turn of her journey.

    No explicit sex, and I made up all the foul language. One of the folk tales is scary and one refers to infidelity.

  131. After fleeing River City with a body full of hardware he doesn’t own, Miles Kim seeks refuge from Meridian Corporation in the wasteland town of Seraph.

    Discover a new favorite series in this post-apocalyptic cyberpunk adventure.

  132. We have a Kickstarter for the first print of a project we have been working on for some years:

    The Prince in the Garden. A diverse comic, most queer and distinct. Where handsome princes, valiant knights, damsels in distress, and evil sorceresses reveal the profound meaning of the kiss of true love. But beware! In this fairy tale not everyone is sincere, and not everything that shines is gold.

    We tell the story of Remi, an innocent servant. That in order to break the mysterious curse that will bring him to his death, Remi must obtain the kiss of true love from the most narcissistic person in the kingdom, the King.

    Will Remi be able to break the curse without losing himself?

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coffeshere-liliwood/the-prince-in-the-garden-bl-queer-comic

  133. Three books are currently available for Presence Unknown, Paranormal Investigators, and a fourth will be out in January 2023.

    Links at: https://www.maiastrong.com/books/presence-unknown-series

    Midnight Jones: Coffee and witches and ghosts, oh my! A coffee shop owner finds three hauntings to be one too many–especially when that one attacks him.

    The Fifth Door: What do you do when the one person you most want haunting you isn’t? A woman’s search for her mother’s ghost turns up more reunions than she bargained for.

    Espresso Mojo: It’s tough getting the band back together when your lead singer is a ghost. The spirit of a grunge musician haunts a new coffee shop. It’s a race to find out what she needs in order to move on before it’s time for the grand opening.

    Spooky, queer, magical, caffeinated stories set in Seattle.

  135. Thanks for inviting us to post here! I have a zine and three book titles to share: two are part of an urban fantasy series, and one is poetry. They were published through a very small indie press and are available at all major book retailers (including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop — https://bookshop.org/books?keywords=ang%C3%A9lique+jamail) and can be ordered through Ingram by your favorite local/indie bookshop (if they’re out of stock). Two indie bookshops which I know have them on the shelves now are Blue Willow in Houston (https://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/event/angelique-jamail-homecoming) and The Twig in San Antonio (https://www.thetwig.com/search/author/%22Jamail%2C%20Ang%C3%A9lique%22).

    my zine:

    SONIC CHIHUAHUA — I restarted this zine back in May 2021 after a 29-year hiatus and have been publishing it periodically. It contains poetry, memoir, fiction, art, interviews, recipes, and other fun-and-games. SONIC CHIHUAHUA can be ordered directly from me via my blog or by emailing SonicChihuahuaZine@gmail.com. Click here to see the covers and tables of contents for all the issues so far: https://sapphostorque.com/sonic-chihuahua/

    urban fantasy novellas:

    FINIS. (Book 1 of the Animal Affinities series) — Elsa’s family grows more unkind by the week. Her boss, a seven-foot-tall rage demon, has control of everything but his anger. And her cat wants to eat her. Things could be better. In a world where one’s Animal Affinity is a sign of maturity and worth, Elsa’s inability to demonstrate hers is becoming more than a disappointing nuisance; it’s becoming a danger. How far will she go to evolve? Click here to read the first two chapters: https://sapphostorque.com/published-works/finis-book-1-in-the-animal-affinities-series/

    HOMECOMING (book 2 of the Animal Affinities series) — Raqia and her two best friends, Anabelle and Eddie, navigate homecoming at their high school while the threatening undercurrent of wolf packs encroaches around their city. Complicating all of this are two things: first, charismatic Eddie himself is a wolf–though not, he claims, associated with one of the gangs engaging in violent criminal behavior; second, Anabelle’s emotional swings grow more wild as one of the girls begins to evince her Animal Affinity. The balance between this trio–and the friendships which matter in Raqia’s life–are on the cusp of an irrevocable shift. Click here to read the first two chapters: https://sapphostorque.com/published-works/homecoming-book-2-of-the-animal-affinities-series/

    poetry collection:

    THE SHARP EDGES OF WATER — This is a book of stories as much as a collection of poems. In it, the characters swerve between the rain-drenched, tree-lined, concrete plains of Houston and the voluptuous, dynamic terrain of Los Angeles. They face multiple realities, and though they’re earnestly grounded, they sometimes swim in the waters of magic realism. Their story is both relatable and a little bit surreal. One of the characters may or may not be a mermaid. Click here to see one of the poems from the collection: https://sapphostorque.com/2013/09/12/ekphrasis-1/

  136. Dragons Walk Among Us: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy

    Shutterbug Allison Lee is trying to survive high school while suffering the popular girl’s abuse. Her life is often abysmal, but at least her green hair is savage. Her talent for photography is recognized by the school paper and the judges of a photo contest. While visiting her friend Joe, a homeless vet, Allison’s life irrevocably changes after an attack leaves her blind. All her dreams as a photojournalist are dashed as she realizes she’ll never see again. Despair sets in until she is offered an experimental procedure to restore her vision. But there are side effects, or are they hallucinations? She now sees dragons accompanying some of the people she meets. Can she trust her eyes, or has the procedure affected her more than she can see?

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0951NLKCK

  138. Monstre: Volume One

    Blurb:

    THERE IS NO STOPPING IT.

    THE CLOUD IS ARMAGEDDON, STEAMROLLING THE WORLD AT A WALKING PACE.

    Day 0. From the wreckage of a research facility in Switzerland, a plume of toxic smoke and ash pours into the sky, forming an impenetrable cloud that is slowly smothering the world in darkness. As Europe disappears beneath the Cloud, a squad of United States marines are sent on a desperate mission to find out what went wrong, and how to undo it before it’s too late. Venturing into a cold, dark world, the marines must travel deep under the Cloud, with no comms, no backup, and no idea of what they will face.

    Day 89. Half a world away, the Cloud has reached the East Coast of the US. With nowhere to run and no hope of survival, the American people have descended into madness, turning on themselves and each other. From the sidelines, an old Tennessee sheriff watches as his country unravels. But he can’t bring himself to take the easy way out. Quitting isn’t in his DNA. So when one of his deputies asks him to help protect her family, he leads them west, chasing a miracle—a rumor of an old nuclear bunker that just may be their only hope for survival. Because if the Cloud doesn’t kill them, what’s hiding in the dark will.

    In his thrilling debut novel MONSTRE, author Duncan Swan crafts a relentless, terrifying, genre-bending tale of courage, desperation, and redemption that shows just how fragile our civilization is, and how far we will go to survive.

  139. Title – Monstre: Volume One

    Link – https://www.amazon.com/MONSTRE-One-Duncan-Swan-ebook/dp/B087N5SW3M

    Blurb –
    THERE IS NO STOPPING IT.

    THE CLOUD IS ARMAGEDDON, STEAMROLLING THE WORLD AT A WALKING PACE.

    Day 0. From the wreckage of a research facility in Switzerland, a plume of toxic smoke and ash pours into the sky, forming an impenetrable cloud that is slowly smothering the world in darkness. As Europe disappears beneath the Cloud, a squad of United States marines are sent on a desperate mission to find out what went wrong, and how to undo it before it’s too late. Venturing into a cold, dark world, the marines must travel deep under the Cloud, with no comms, no backup, and no idea of what they will face.

    Day 89. Half a world away, the Cloud has reached the East Coast of the US. With nowhere to run and no hope of survival, the American people have descended into madness, turning on themselves and each other. From the sidelines, an old Tennessee sheriff watches as his country unravels. But he can’t bring himself to take the easy way out. Quitting isn’t in his DNA. So when one of his deputies asks him to help protect her family, he leads them west, chasing a miracle—a rumor of an old nuclear bunker that just may be their only hope for survival. Because if the Cloud doesn’t kill them, what’s hiding in the dark will.

    In his thrilling debut novel MONSTRE, author Duncan Swan crafts a relentless, terrifying, genre-bending tale of courage, desperation, and redemption that shows just how fragile our civilization is, and how far we will go to survive.

  140. A first-hand account of the human who was pressed into service into the Terran Mobile Infantry in the year minus 1 and the odd team of irregulars he fought beside — including a telepathic alien cat, a witch, a xenomorphic alien, and a combat android.

    About the Author
    Andrew Bellware was inducted in June of the year -1 out of the Jersey City Android Command Depot and assigned to the interplanetary spacecraft the Jeanne Lewis. After being abandoned by their officers, he helped establish a resistance cell but also ended up personally destroying Sol 3 or “Earth,” the human homeworld.

    [five star Amazon review:] A great, quick read for true science-fiction nerds. Earthkiller is unique and very enjoyable for its combination of serious, complex ideas with an utterly flawed narrator protagonist and dry-yet-accessible humor. Just more fun with a dark future than you could reasonably ask for.

  141. Kerry Sheridan has been living in Horizon for three years, haunted by gaps in her memory and blood-soaked nightmares she isn’t sure are real. She’s one of the gifted — telepathic, telekinetic — and always looking over her shoulder.

    Someone has taken an interest in her, a Tracker who is determined to make a lot of money from her capture. It’s just a job, right?

    Right?

  142. A Rose by Any Other Name by Jamie Lackey

    A Romeo and Juliet bodyswap comedy retelling –

    Juliet is the perfect daughter to her cold parents. She’s devoted to her magic studies, studious and serious, and she even spends her weekends at home.

    If she’s a little lonely, well, that hardly matters.

    Romeo writes poems, collects fancy pens, makes wine, and is, according to everyone who cares about him, a romantic disaster. He does his best to ignore their knowing looks and disregard their entirely-too-practical advice.

    Juliet hates the upstart, uncivilized Montagues because they’re her family’s enemies. Romeo does his best not to think about the wretched and pompous Capulets because he doesn’t need that kind of negativity in his life.

    But then one morning they wake up in each other’s bodies, and everything changes.

    https://www.amazon.com/Rose-Any-Other-Name/dp/B09KN9V9FN/

  143. On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination by Anne E.G. Nydam

    In the style of medieval bestiaries, this beautifully illuminated volume provides a well-stocked alphabet of mythical, magical creatures including both fantasy favorites and lesser-known beasts hailing from a wide variety of times and places. With decorative borders on every page and myriad block print illustrations both large and small, every letter of the alphabet is represented by at least one fantastical creature. Charming and warm-hearted descriptions and illustrations urge all who love magic to take inspiration from these fantastical creatures and consider what they can tell us about the magic in our own lives. (Includes notes on background and sources.)

    https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0982276680
    http://nydamprints.com/virtues-of-beasts.html

  144. Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations On Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature In A Pandemic is a Pan-African, pandemic non-fiction anthology.

    It contains 18 pieces of speculative non-fiction, by 19 creatives aimed at documenting the experiences we had as speculative creators during that very challenging year.

    It contains essays, interviews, narrative non-fiction pieces, etc. It’s currently free to download and you can get it here.

    https://odekpeki.com/2022/09/10/bridging-worlds-global-conversations-on-creating-pan-african-speculative-literature-in-a-pandemic/

  145. For readers who love archaeology adventure stories – The Lost Metal Library

    Deep within Ecuador’s rainforest lies a vast subterranean world, and an incredible, yet dangerous secret…

    The Tayos Caves System in Ecuador is one of the most astonishing, yet mysterious places on earth. It hides wondrous secrets, both ancient and deadly.

    Rick Braeden has heard rumors of what treasure these hidden caves might hold, potentially one of the greatest discoveries of all time. Driven by a desire to prove himself and write his name into the history books, he hopes to uncover the truth of The Lost Metal Library and bring this discovery to light.

    However, a shadowy enemy also seeks to possess this discovery and will let nothing, and no one, stand in their way.

    Seeking this place of untold wonder may give Rick everything he ever hoped for, or cost him everything, even his life…

    Find it at your favorite retailer:
    https://books2read.com/u/4El1Wg

  146. Farris has the misfortune of being an elemental: born human but host to barely contained primal energies. He wants what any young person wants—the chance to live his own life. Yet the fiery forces within him make him a danger to those around him and a target for capture and study by the Science Guild. On the Lone Continent, humans thrive in their cities through the Guild’s revolutionary technology while the forests are home to powerful wild magic. Farris must confront his fears—fear of capture, fear of the wild Fey in the woods, and above all, fear of his abilities—if he’s to remain free.

    Fantasy is so often the realm of epics; stories of kings, saviors, wizards, armies, and prophecies. But those are not the only stories worth telling. Written by lifelong geek Nathaniel Wayne, with the philosophy of telling a small story in a big world, Dreams of Fire is available at your local retailers through Ingram, or through Amazon.
    Mass Market Edition: https://amzn.to/3ucsBqs
    Illustrated Edition: https://amzn.to/3ucsBqs
    eBook Illustrated Edition: https://amzn.to/3AVbGwe

  147. Ryan Frost returns home to a London scarred by orbital weapons fire. A young child competes in VR games that cause permanent nerve damage. And an ageing grandpa wonders if you really can teach an old dog new tricks.

    London Calling is an anthology of thirteen short stories, each a separate tale from the future. Discover what the human spirit is truly capable of overcoming.

    https://www.lukelanchester.com/london-calling-and-other-stories/

  148. Every town has its Mysteries.
    Every town has its Secrets.
    Every town has its Ghosts.

    This town…

    Has MORE.

    Tales From Badgers Crossing, written by Paul Childs (Den of Geek, Film Stories) and published by Greenteeth Press is a collection of short stories all set in, near or featuring characters with links to the most haunted town in Britain.

    Stories include folk horror, ghosts, a werewolf, a haunted action figure, sci-fi, romance, even superheroes, and more.

    Peter Laws (Fortean Times columnist and author of the Matt Hunter crime series) described it as ‘Spooky Nostalgia’.

    Visit GreenteethPress.com for paperback (UK only) or eBook (worldwide) copies.

  150. It’s 1910 and England is on the brink of collapse. After a mysterious plague ravaged the world during the American Civil War, the Crown imposed decades of isolation. The King now turns once again to colonization, and to save what little family he has left, James Barlow, an imprisoned resistance leader, is forced to join an expedition across the Atlantic to America. Waiting for them, however, is a scorched land ruled by a brutal cult. Hunted relentlessly, the expedition is split up, and James is captured. But the cult will soon learn that James is more than a mere prisoner. He is a born rebel.
    THE ASHEN WAR is a raucous action-packed journey through a re-imagined America changed by an apocalyptic event during the country’s most fragile period that speculates what cultures, religions, languages, and societies might have emerged. Follow the adventure of smart-mouthed rebel James Barlow and the well-read but untested Liz Stillman, whose journeys will take them through ruined cities, crumbling mining towns, and the fiery, smoke-filled lands of a vicious cult as they try to come to terms with their past while saving what they can of the future. The Ashen War is the cinematic debut novel by Dan Le Fever and the first of a planned trilogy.
    https://books2read.com/u/md1Pe5

  151. My fantasy novel Mud and Glass, available at https://www.odysseybooks.com.au/titles/9781922200860/ or from Amazon, combines riotous adventure, a fond satire of academic life, and a stirring manifesto of resistance against a nascent totalitarian regime.

    “Mud and Glass is a glorious comedic romp, scything through the sententiousness of the academic world while showcasing modesty, courage and cleverness as virtues. I’ve not read comedy this clever since Jasper Fforde.” — Russell Kirkpatrick, author of the acclaimed science-fiction trilogies Fire of Heaven and Husk

    Critics have called my rip-snorting adventure After the Bloodwood Staff, available at https://www.odysseybooks.com.au/titles/9781922200723/ or on Amazon, "a rousing, rollicking adventure", "a great Christmas read", and "utter respite from all the doom and gloom bombarding us all from the interwebs in recent months".

  152. Where did magic go?

    Our world is defined by science, but history tells us that the world was once a much more magical place. Every culture has tales of when the gods walked among us, when strange magical creatures dwelt in the dark, and when users of magic were respected and feared.

    We tell ourselves that these stories are myth and superstition. But what if they aren’t?

    What if magic were to return? And what does it have to do with a ten year old boy and his imaginary friend?

    Daniel and Sophia Fitzroy are worried that their son Tony is being bullied in his new school and is struggling to cope.

    Leo Schafer is reporting on a new and powerful particle accelerator experiment and the protestors who want it stopped.

    FBI Special Agent Debra Kazdin is investigating the protests and trying to keep things from escalating.

    Brian Cooke is being inducted into a secret society that knows the truth about magic and will stop at nothing to keep it from returning.

    They will be drawn together in an extraordinary confrontation that will change the world forever.

    The Garden Gnome: Theory of Magic Book 1 is a contemporary fantasy with a heaping of mythology and a side of sci-fi. It’s now available at Amazon on e-book, paperback, and hardcover. It’s also currently free for Kindle Unlimited users.

    https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Gnome-Theory-Magic-Book-ebook/dp/B0BGJ9H8T1/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

  153. Andromeda Syndrome x Day of the Triffids, but with the heart and character of modern fiction.

    After an asteroid strike on the moon, a strange blue dust began to flow down through Earth’s atmosphere. It’s harmful to breathe, but at least the microscopic creatures within the dust are dormant. Or so we thought.

    Tahira made a childhood promise to a friend that the crisis would bring their people together… before a violent riot tore their lives apart. Now, as an adult, Tahira works as a biologist for a corporation constructing experimental towers to force the spores—known as riebeckites—to germinate into harmless colonies.

    Except they’re about to learn everything they think they know about the dust is wrong, a discovery that will plunge Tahira into unimaginable danger. The real threat isn’t the asteroid that struck the moon and by the time humanity figures it out, it might be too late.

  154. The Hundred-Acre Wood stinks like a bad fish.

    Something has gone horribly wrong. Eeyore is dead. And Winnie The Pooh is called upon to figure out how and why. But the only two things Winnie the Pooh can count on is betrayal and his crippling honey addiction. Everything else is just window dressing. Pooh must piece together the clues and uncover the killer before the bodies begin to pile up. And everyone in the Hundred-Acre Wood is a suspect

    Can Winnie The Pooh solve one last case before the world as he knows it changes forever?

  155. Thanks, John.

    Looking for a MG book?

    Jody Burns borrows her brother Peter’s silvery bracelet because it looks good with her outfit. She doesn’t remember it’s the key to another world—until a green-haired girl steps out of nowhere in the mall and asks Jody’s help rescuing her grandmother from a great evil.

    Jody ignores Peter’s warning about the land on the other side of the Watcher—until the haunted tree pulls her inside. Suddenly, she’s trapped in a place where no one listens to her. And then her jacket starts sprouting leaves.

    Return to the world where horses can be wizards, and trees talk, and an ancient evil is planning to destroy every last living thing.

    Talking to Trees by Kathryn Sullivan

  156. A book, soon to be outdated should student loans get forgiven. Own a piece of soon-to-be antiquated history then! This is the comedic story of an English professor and his grad student on a motorcycle adventure trying to rid the world of the evils of student loans. A must for anyone still paying off their student loan! I mean, what else are you gonna spend your hard earned money on? Bills?

  157. A blend of humor and emotion, Flirting with a New Life is women’s fiction that was independently published through Amazon on October 15. Kelly is a newly single mom and writer struggling with writIt’s nearing the one-year anniversary of her husband leaving her, and Kelly (a fiction writer and single mom) is currently experiencing writer’s block. She’s received a grant for writing, and (according to her sister) she needs to finish her latest writing project in six months or risk running out of money. Kelly needs to focus on writing, but she feels stuck and distracted. And the writer’s block is causing her to worry that she won’t finish her project in time. Does she really want to deal with this new life? She’s not sure, so she does everything in her power to avoid actually writing. In the process, Kelly finds herself flirting with random strangers and getting herself into wacky situations. Her two best friends and sister are her sounding boards as she tries to figure out how to heal her heart so that she can find her confidence, remember that she’s still her old self, and write. But will that happen before time (and money) runs out?

    Includes Questions for Discussion at the end of the book.

    https://www.amazon.com/Flirting-New-Life-Jill-Cullen/dp/B0BJB23FPY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BV51851DGY09&keywords=flirting+with+a+new+life+jill+cullen&qid=1669855558&sprefix=flirting+with+a+new+life%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-1

  158. As the leaves began to turn, two sisters, Leonarda and Olivia, return to live with their grandmother in the quiet Midwestern town of Saddie. For years, after the mysterious disappearance of their parents, they were raised by their aunt and uncle, but after the passing of Grandpa Leo, they decided to move in with their grandmother in the Midwest.

    Catching up with extended family, settling in to a school that was nearing the end of the semester, the two sisters do what they can to flow with the path of life in front of them. Leonarda feels a bit lost, and isolated, unsure of what lies ahead of graduation, while Olivia seems more comfortable in her new surroundings.

    But things take an unusual turn, when an odd item brings forth a visitor, and a local legend may prove to be more than they expected.

  159. Thanks, John!

    Mongols, Monks and Magic!

    1257 CE, Kaifeng, China

    The Mongol army sweeps across Song Dynasty China. A captured bellmaker, the Mongol warrior who enslaved him, a monk, a dancer and a spy race to uncover a legendary doomsday weapon which could turn the tide of battle–or destroy the world with the power of the stars!

    Drakemaster: Epic historical fantasy from E. C. Ambrose. Find the book on the publisher’s website, https://bit.ly/Drakemaster

  160. Gods, myths, magic and history: the Elsehere is an urban fantasy series that spans the globe (with books set in England, Finland and Cuba so far) with historical mysteries and contemporary action.
    Book 1 – Sekhmet
    Book 2 – Valkyrie
    Book 3 – Cambiante

    And for younger readers, the story of Gresley, the newest cat at Railway Cottage

    https://graceandfiction.com/books/

    All available from Amazon and all good eBook retailers.

  161. Probably too late commenting, but I somehow missed the original tweet. Thank you for doing this!

    Nihilian Effect is a science fantasy saga spanning 8 books and stories so far. Influenced by many scifi and fantasy novels and games, I consider it somewhere between Wheel of Time and Discworld, but more serious and heavier on the scifi elements, like one story is about magic on the moon!

    Many of my works can be obtained for free, and all are available at http://kalsdavian.com

  162. ROBBER BARRONS is a military science fiction trilogy about a reluctant supersoldier on the run and all the characters pursuing her, both friend and foe. It shares DNA with Star Wars, Firefly, and Captain America.

    Elevator pitch: Genetically-enhanced Victoria joins her uncle’s salvage crew to uncover the truth about her supersoldier father’s disappearance. But solving the mystery could spark interstellar war—with Victoria & her estranged mother fighting on opposite sides.

    The Amazon bestselling trilogy is available now in ebook and paperback, and available for preorder in audiobook. Check out https://linktr.ee/nancipants to get your copy!

  163. Your Writing Matters: 34 Quick Essays to Get Unstuck and Stay Inspired

    For anyone who wants to write.

    Why gift this book?

    — Beautiful, uplifting cover
    — Encouragement and practical tips
    — Fun and insightful references to literature, poetry, and science fiction pop culture

    I wrote this book to help writers get unstuck and stay inspired so that they can create what’s in them to create. Show your support of your friend’s creativity by giving them Your Writing Matters.

    books2read.com/your-writing-matters

  164. Book 2 of the Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery series finds Johnny Ly, Dianne Cortez, and JD Thompson trying to celebrate their first year in business in a small Central Texas town. The weather outside is frightful, and indoors isn’t looking too good either, not when a crazed hairless cat invades their Christmas party and leaves a trail of destruction in his wake.

    The murder in the backyard doesn’t help, but Johnny and Dianne are more worried about the cat. After the police reduce the suspect list from the entire town of Beauchamp, Texas, to just the Black Orchids’ friends and family, Attorney JD Thompson springs into action to clear them all, preferably before Monday night’s concert. Life’s hard for a veterinarian, accountant, lawyer, and ABBA tribute band.

    Check out the book giveaway–not just my books!–on my website:
    https://dimond.me/

  165. Four years after the discovery that the universe designated as Earth Prime 4-6-4-0-8-9 dash Omega was going to collapse, over a million of the sentient beings from there have emigrated to other universes. How is that working out for them? As befits a race of four foot tall blue beings with exaggeratedly round features and no hair who wear exquisite three piece suits, goofily.

    THE UGLY TRUTH is the final instalment of the Multiverse Refugees Trilogy, which began with GOOD INTENTIONS and continued with BAD ACTORS. The trilogy is a satirical take on the refugee experience, looking at the good, the bad and…you know.

    “The name of the game here is wordplay. Non-stop, unrestrained, groan-worthy … inspired wordplay.” – Alex Good, Toronto Star

    https://www.amazon.com/Ugly-Truth-Multiverse-REPETITION-Transdimensional/dp/1915304040/

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Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2023!

Need gifts for the holidays? The Whatever gift guide has you covered! Click on the links below for books, crafts, art and other cool stuff!
11/27: Traditionally Published Books
11/28: Non-Traditionally Published Books
11/29: Crafts, Art, Music and More
11/30: Fan Recommendations (Books and more)
12/1: Charities
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