Tag Archives: ebook

Far and Away – A Modern Fantasy Anthology

I put up a new anthology today. Three of the four are available elsewhere. I thought I’d see if anthologies go down a little easier so here you are. If you’ve already bough one of the stories contained herein, let me know and I will hook you up with a coupon for this. As of right now it’s available at Smashwords. Amazon is still cranking away. It’ll be there in a day or so.

Have you ever wanted to escape the world for just a little bit? Of course you have. You’re reading a fantasy anthology, and what fan of the mysterious and mystical hasn’t wanted to do just that? Well I hope that this little group of stories about beings in that very situation help you along the road.

“Bitter Release” is set in the trench wars of World War One. A young soldier finds himself the sole survivor of a German attack and buried under tons of mud and stone. His only way out seems to be a case of spirits, but there’s more to the mix of absinthe and brandy helping him to escape.

“Hole Card” gives us a glimpse into a poker game on the edge of the apocalypse. The forces that run the universe are taking a little time out to see how the other half lives. For just a few hours their only cares are the riffling of cards and time with family. That is, until someone comes along who has a surprise up their sleeve.

In the third story an art student has an encounter with a spirit who can’t seem to move on. In an effort to help her, he builds “The Music Box”. Will the ethereal music free the little girl?

Finally, in “Bobby and Spinel” a little boy sets out to capture a dragon. As these sort of things generally go, he ends up with quite a bit of trouble on his hands. Both the boy and the creature want to escape the bonds of their entanglement and neither leaves unchanged.

Stark – An Illustrated Novella

We interrupt this free book fest to ask you, my beloved audience, to get up, go out, and buy Stark by Jake Bible (no actual going out required, just click the link). Jake is a fellow North Carolinian (though we’re both transplants), a talented author, and a complete jerk face for coming up with this idea!

Okay, perhaps it’s nothing brand new, but an e-book with illustrations isn’t something I see every day. He got a talented illustrator in Scott E. Pond and they’ve put out a product that looks like it’ll be bloody brilliant. I put the emphasis there for a reason. I haven’t read it yet, but the first few illustrations are black and white and red all over. Not surprising considering Jake’s previous works are soaked in gore.

If that turns you off, buy the book and gift it to someone who’s supercharged by it (and then back away slowly). Heck, buy it just to support such a brilliantly done work of fiction (again, I haven’t read it, but if it’s not brilliant I’ll rid the world of this hack once and for all). I plunked down fifteen bones myself sight unseen, and I’m a cheapskate.

So, your mission today is to support an indie author and an indie artist with your hard earned beer voucher. Lift one less pint this week and buy this book, your waistline will thank you!

Snow – E-book Giveaway

First of all, congratulations to Mark, the winner of “The Gift”. I generated a random number thanks to Random.Org and he was the winner. Mark, the email has been sent with your gift copy. Enjoy!

This week I’ll be giving away “Snow” by Val Ford. I love her work and she’s a great person. This story takes place in her Dark Horseman universe and is a sort of “what if”.

Here’s a description:

During the ten days surrounding the Solstices, no magic can be used to kill. This puts a serious cramp in Nikki Jeffries’ (aka the Horseman Death) style, since a lot of her magic is based in death. Breaking the Covenant isn’t an option. So when the StarChild sends her to the North Pole to find a missing Earth Lord, Nikki isn’t quite sure what she’s going to do. The North Pole isn’t what she expected; her illusions are destroyed, and she doesn’t know who to trust. Except for her Horse, and a sexy Jack Frost who may be her best ally yet.

So how do you win this one? I love it when people support independent authors. One of the best ways to do that is to review our works. Include a comment on this post with a link to a review or rating you gave an e-book by an independent author and your name will be put in the hat. It doesn’t have to be a new review and it can be a blog post review as well.

So go check out the sample and come back with your link!

I plan on giving away a book a week this year, but none of them will be my own. Why? Well, I believe in helping introduce people to new authors and nothing does that like FREE! The contests will be as simple as leaving a comment on the blog, or showing me that you’ve left a review on Amazon or Smashwords of books you’ve picked up in the past. I’ll try and change things up to keep them interesting, but by and large you won’t have to work hard.

If you’re an author and you’d like to pitch your hat into the ring, let me know. I’m not asking you to give me anything for free. I plan on buying your e-book from Amazon/Smashwords as a gift for the winner. So in addition to you getting your name out there, you’ll also get a sale for the contest. The most I can budget per week is $2.99, so if you have a book in the $.99-$2.99 price range let me know. I reserve the right to turn you down, but I will try and do so gently. I’d like to have a variety of genres represented.

If you have a free book and would like me to just get the word out I can do that, but you won’t be part of my contest. If your book is more expensive and you would like to donate a copy, that works too.

Shoot me an e-mail, a DM, or leave me a comment to enter your book.

The Gift – E-book giveaway.

I can think of no better way to start this voyage into giving away fifty two e-books then to start with one called “The Gift”. This story, by good friend and excellent stow away Doc Coleman, is available for purchase via Smashwords and Amazon, but one of you lucky people can get it for free! Read the sample for free here and if it floats your boat, drop a comment below to be entered in the drawing. I will make the call on January 8th and email you the story from Smashwords so that you can have the format of your choosing!

I plan on giving away a book a week this year, but none of them will be my own. Why? Well, I believe in helping introduce people to new authors and nothing does that like FREE! The contests will be as simple as leaving a comment on the blog, or showing me that you’ve left a review on Amazon or Smashwords of books you’ve picked up in the past. I’ll try and change things up to keep them interesting, but by and large you won’t have to work hard.

If you’re an author and you’d like to pitch your hat into the ring, let me know. I’m not asking you to give me anything for free. I plan on buying your e-book from Amazon/Smashwords as a gift for the winner. So in addition to you getting your name out there, you’ll also get a sale for the contest. The most I can budget per week is $2.99, so if you have a book in the $.99-$2.99 price range let me know. I reserve the right to turn you down, but I will try and do so gently. I’d like to have a variety of genres represented.

If you have a free book and would like me to just get the word out I can do that, but you won’t be part of my contest. If your book is more expensive and you would like to donate a copy, that works too.

Shoot me an e-mail, a DM, or leave me a comment to enter your book.

Little Brother – A Review

I’ve long been a fan of Cory Doctorow’s work. I think it discovered him through Escape Pod, but I can’t be entirely certain. In 2008 he released a book called Little Brother and for some reason it has taken me this long to sit down and read it.

Well when I say “sit down and read it” that makes it sound like I bought a copy. I didn’t (though now I want to). Instead I opted to read it for free through Daily Lit. They’re a site that distributes books legitimately through an email subscription service. They break books up into chunks and you set how large these chunks are and how often you get them.

This is one of those books that is likely to divide readers. There are a lot of controversial things that he deals with, everything from “ethical” hacking to government mis-use of power. The book starts with you getting to know Marcus Yallow, a 17 year old High School student, who is constantly in and out of trouble thanks to his tendency to try and circumvent the many electronic security measures that are placed in his day to day life. He and his friends are cutting school to play an alternate reality game when a terrorist attack occurs nearby. They’re picked up and taken to a detention center and things go downhill rapidly from there. Ultimately, and because one of his friends remains in detention, Marcus ends up trying to take on the Department of Homeland Security using every trick in the book and quite a few he invents along the way.

I can see where this book and the things that Marcus and the DHS do to one another would hit too close to home. It talks about things like secret prisons and racial profiling and it is arguably a teaching tool for anyone who wants to learn a thing or two about the tricks Marcus uses. I got into a lively Twitter discussion about this very thing. More on that in a ‘graph or two. Strictly speaking this is a very well written science fiction piece. The characters are believable. The pacing is TIGHT, at least for the most part. Interestingly, the places where it falters are where Doctorow uses Marcus to explain some bit of tech speak for the non-techie adults in the room. That’s forgiven though to a large part because the rest of it is so well done.

I highly recommend that you check it out. You can download it for free here or buy it here. Prepare for it to change how you look at some things around you, particularly if you read the afterwords (and you should). It might also offend you, particularly if you’re like some of the characters in the books who believe that the government should go to (nearly) any lengths to capture the terrorists in our midst. I will say that’s one area that this book failed in. As I said to someone on Twitter, every techno thriller needs a boogeyman, and Doctorow uses the DHS without tweaking them too much. I’ll say that he paints the DHS agents a little too starkly, to the point where I’m surprised they aren’t wearing actual jack boots. I’m willing to cut a little slack since this is written in first person and we are getting everything filtered through the eyes of a seventeen year old.

Now on to that Twitter discussion. The question raised by that discussion was, are the methods the kids used (which caused havoc in public, on mass transit, and in other ways) justified? In spite of the fact that the intent of these kids was nothing more than peaceful protest and to point out the flaws in the system, innocent people were inconvenienced (arguably harmed) and systems that they relied on in day to day life were brought to their knees. As a result the kids were branded as terrorists and actively sought by the authorities. I suppose the question I ask myself is, if the government became like the government portrayed in this book, and depending on your POV we aren’t that far off, what would I be justified in doing to fight that government?

Three times this quote is brought up:

‘Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.’ – Declaration of Independence

That’s Marcus’ reasoning behind his willingness to do what he does. He is attempting to overthrow a form of government that has become destructive. I’d like to think that I’d be willing to do the same thing. It would inconvenience people, sure. But if the government is abusing us then that would be my right, correct?

Then I think about a website that I saw recently where someone is calling people to arms since they believe that our current government is being run by a man who isn’t even a citizen and that this could only come to pass as a part of a massive government conspiracy. I recognize the difference between open armed rebellion and kids cloning and swapping RFID cards on people, but it makes me pause none the less. I would have to be completely certain that there was no other way of dealing with the problem at hand before I took a step like that.

On a lighter note, I am certainly in support of ethical hacking. If you notice a weakness in a lock or a website or some other piece of hardware or software, I think it’s the right thing to do to bring it to the attention of the manufacturer. If they don’t do anything to fix it in a reasonable amount of time and you have some way of taking it to the next level then go for it. People will be mad at you. There will be repercussions. Those are things you need to be aware of. But it’s the right thing.

So what do you think? How far is too far when it comes to civil disobedience? Is some called for these days? I’m thinking here about those that elected to wear kilts commando/regimental style at airline checkpoints, but there are other examples. Is there some CD called for against corporations these days too?