The Indie Books & Authors Newsletter #6
Happy New Year! Indie book releases and author news - subscribe and share to spread the word!
Editor’s Note
Welcome to the 6th edition of the Newsletter. Our New Year’s Resolutions are to promote more indie books and to reach as many subscribers as possible! Would you like to support the Newsletter and get your books/website/services into the Featured Promotions? Then please consider the (low-cost) paid subscription option. For more information, check out the About and T&Cs sections. For all enquiries and submissions, please contact the Editor.
New Releases
Hunted (The Dhampyr Series Book 1) by V M Nelson
Tasi, an eighteen-year-old, head-strong, blood-drinking, dhampyr, has been hidden away in a small town in Maine since the death of her parents. Though she had trained to fight and kill vampires, she never believed those skills would be useful in her mundane life. That’s where she’s wrong.
In one moment, her life changes forever, and her aunt’s final words ring in her head.
They want your blood.
Now orphaned and charged with protecting her sister, Emily—a sister who doesn’t know what they are or that she’s about to endure a life-threatening change—Tasi has no other choice but to follow directions left for her. She is to find an ally who lives in New York City. This is the only way Tasi will figure out why she and Emily are being hunted before they end up drained of their blood.
Weeds Are Pretty Too: Dandy’s Story by Alisa M Garvey
This tale of happily every after features some really beautiful garden flowers! Meet the cast:
•The Snapdragons;
• Gerbera Daisy Princess;
• Tiger Lily; and
• Black-eyed Susie.
Also in the garden are Dandy and his twin sister Danella Dandelion.
Will the garden flowers appreciate Dandy's beauty once his flower has bloomed?
Well, sadly no, BUT with the encouragement of Danella, Dandy ignores the garden flowers and is happy with his bloom. That is, until Dandy has his second bloom and all chaos ensues. An amazing event occurs and ....
Children will fall in love with Dandy and his colorful companions at the pond, all delightfully illustrated for the young reader/audience. This is a story of self-discovery, kindness, forgiveness, and friendship.
Has the Lady Been Yet? by Kit Derrick
No-one knows what to expect when a parent or loved one is diagnosed with dementia. Kit Derrick’s Has The Lady Been Yet? follows his own journey down this path, from the initial diagnosis to the ultimate loss of his mother. The book traces the practicalities of caring, but also quite openly discusses the emotions, guilt and helplessness of finding yourself in that role. But as the book points out, there are moments of joy in the darkest of times, and there is always hope for the good days. And there will be good days, as well as bad.
In Winter’s Garden by Mark Hurst
There are worse things than growing old.
They live in Winter’s Garden….
Bernard C. McMasters spent his lifetime writing horror fiction, peddling terror to the masses. He lived high on the fat rendered from his typewriter, spending fortunes, behaving terribly, enjoying the notoriety that came with being horror’s enfant terrible.
But time passes, creativity withers, and Bernard’s assumption that old age was just something that happened to everyone else, has finally caught up with him.
An accident sees him moved into residential care, the luxurious retreat known as Winter’s Garden. A place for the rich and famous to convalesce, to pass the withering hours in idle comfort, to be waited on hand and foot by attentive staff.
But there’s something odd about Winter’s Garden. All is not what it seems. Why do the care team insist on taking so much of his blood for testing? What do the night staff get up to after lights out? And why does Bernard feel as though he has stepped between the pages of one of his own novels?
Time is a river. It flows onwards regardless of preference or privilege. Sometimes it flows blood red…
It’s Me You’re Looking For by Elise Kenny
Monica Roche started a new job in a new city to escape her old life and her horrible ex but so far, she feels invisible, especially to people like Samson Okiro, her inarticulate and miserable co-worker. When Monica begins a month of challenges, with the first being: Do something unexpected, her life takes an interesting new turn.
Receiving an anonymous email asking for a single friend of his to answer 36 questions, Samson’s first impulse is to delete it and forget about. Since his life changed drastically after a car crash two years before, he’s been stuck, but on an uncharacteristic whim, he decides to write back.
With neither knowing who’s on the other end of the emails, they can be new people. Yet as the emails fly, Samson and Monica begin to talk in real life, but can their email aliases ever match up to what’s standing in front of them?
Ghosted by Kate Dulson
When Kate Dulson meets the mercurial inmate Dean in her writing class, she quickly learns that there is more to prison teaching than exam results. Confronted by the revolving population which whirls around her, Kate is torn between their growing, unspoken friendship and the very real dangers it masks. People are disappeared for less and the ghosted are the lucky ones. Based on the very real, raw experiences of a prison teacher, GHOSTED changes only the names of the participants. Everything else is true.
Pre-Order Now
Hell Hath No Fury by Geoff Major - publication date 19th January
They changed her life forever. Did they really think they could get away with it?
Evie Perry was a high-class escort whose way of life was abruptly and cruelly shattered by two drunken men. Stella Kendrick's husband committed suicide and left her with a legal battle and a debt of £6m, but he leaves her a message with the names of three men on it. Daniella Maddox is a world-class barrister, assigned to an indefensible case for a corrupt client, but one she must win to save her own life. Unbeknownst to them, fate has woven their lives into a twisted web.
Detective Sergeant Alan Armitage is mystified when he attends the scene of a triple murder, but he is very quickly joined in his hunt for the killer by Detective Sergeant Steve Denton from The Met, and Detective Sergeant Bob Williams from North Yorkshire CID. Along with Detective Constable Rachael Jones, they have to uncover who the murderer is and why they are killing people across the country. Their task is made even more difficult because a criminal known to most simply as The Broker gets closer to banking millions every time his team commits another murder.
Featured Promotions
D Ellis Overttun is the author of several science fiction books (including Mirror in Time, pictured) and is a well-known contributor of guest posts and interviews to book blogs. His social media is run by his wife Natasha and can be followed here on Twitter.
They Lie Here: a gripping mystery thriller with a sci-fi twist by N S Ford - on sale for only 99p / 99c until 8th January! Grab a thrilling bargain for your Kindle!
News Round-Up
Congratulations to indie author Lee Hall who has passed 40k followers on Twitter! The paperback of his book Consistent Creative Content is now also half-price on Amazon US.
The BBNYA (Book Bloggers Novel of the Year Awards) finalists were announced. 1st place was won by Toby and the Silver Blood Witches by Sally Doherty. Congratulations to all of the finalists and the winner!
*** News wanted! Awards, interviews, sales milestones, blog tours, giveaways, etc. If you have indie book related news, send it in! ***
Book Review
Magissa by Kassandra Flamouri, reviewed by Jamedi
Magissa is a great novel about grief and dealing with pain, a really well-written tribute to the Greek traditions, while also constituting an entertaining urban fantasy book. We are directly thrown into the funeral of Chrysa’s parents, who died in America in strange circumstances, being this funeral hosted in Greece, their homeland, to where Chrysa has returned after fourteen years out, as she has been raised as an American.
Chrysa is an excellent main character, who is experiencing so many confusing sensations, and having to deal with grief at the same time she’s becoming conscious of her own powers as magissa, and how she is part of a bigger scheme of things. Themes such as LGTBI+ discrimination and xenophobia are treated exquisitely, using the set-up of a traditional Greek community as the perfect place to explore them. Some of the scenes derivated from these themes are kinda hard to read, especially the ones that are seen from Chrysa’s perspective, as again, she’s on the worst side of things multiple times, being the outsider on Pyrha.
Worldbuilding is one of my favourite aspects of this book, despite I think I couldn’t grasp it as well as a Greek native could do, as many of the creatures and forces that appear are derivated from their folklore, like lykanthropos and nereidas. The relative isolation of the community helps make this mix not detune on the current world; I think it wouldn’t have worked as well if it was situated in a more crowded town.
In summary, Magissa is an ode to Greek folklore and traditions, while at the same time representing in a great way how a person has to deal with grief and pain. A really entertaining young adult novel, which I devoured in a few days, and that I can recommend to YA enjoyers, and those who are more curious about the folklore and traditions of Greece.
*** Book Reviews wanted! Send in a short review of an indie book you enjoyed and get a FREE promotional ad for your books/website/services in an edition of the Newsletter! ***