The Indie Books & Authors Newsletter #79
A festive special of new indie releases!
Editor’s Note
Starting from January 2025, the Newsletter will be monthly, releasing on the 1st of the month. This is to allow the Editor more time to gather content and schedule the Newsletter consistently. All the usual features will remain, except for the Free Book section; authors wishing to promote their free books may be included in the News section or the Featured Promotions.
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New Releases
The Christmas Pact by Hayley Anderton
There's no place like home... until your world is turned upside down and you're left alone.
Liv usually loves Christmas, but now her boyfriend has left her and it just won't be the same. With her parents away for the festive season, it looks like she'll be on her own.
Enter Natalie, her best friend and the master of making the best of a bad situation. She comes up with the Christmas Pact - an agreement that forces the pair of them to cram their days with fun and festivity together. But with Liv's emotions on a rollercoaster ride and Natalie hiding secrets of her own, can they keep to their promises?
A festive tale about mending broken hearts and the power of female friendship.
Festive Fears by Lex Young
Are you ready to face your fears this Christmas?
Prepare for another chilling collection of Christmas short stories this festive season from Lex Young, the writer of Silent Fright, which reached #1 and #4 in the Amazon Kindle charts* (wedged between a couple of Stephen King novels).
This collection features stories such as:
All of the Other Reindeer - Chantelle is desperate to impress the girls and grab those Insta likes this Christmas. But she's missing the perfect Christmas tree. This year, she'll discover exactly what she's willing to sacrifice to reach social media acclaim.
Once Bitten - Santa Claus is coming to town, along with his team of charity collectors. But Harriet is skint this year. However, there's one collector who may accept a special donation that she can provide. A donation that's definitely not on the menu...
(S)he Sees You When You're Sleeping - Mario, the manager of a local independent cinema, has a grand marketing plan this Christmas. He's convinced his bosses to show a horror film called Crone, blacklisted by the major cinema corporations due to its satanic nature. But before the big premiere, he wants to watch it himself. After all, it's just a film - how bad could it be?
Add Festive Fears to your Christmas collection today - perfect for fans of Stephen King, The Twilight Zone, Inside Number 9 and Black Mirror.
AWOL at Christmas by Chloё L Blyth
The Plan: Find Mike. Convince him to come home. Live happily ever after.
When Charlotte’s husband disappears the night after an argument, she is left hurt, confused, and terrified she has been abandoned.
She enlists her sister to look after her young children and embarks on an adventure to track him down, bring him home, and save Christmas.
But how well does she really know her husband?
Is she prepared for what she may uncover?
Driven by fear, she’s about to find out.
An Icelandic Adventure by S Bavey
Join the Bavey family in the Land of Ice and Fire. Experience 24-hour daylight, waterfalls galore, a nail-biting super jeep trip up a mountain onto the largest glacier in Europe, a duck boat tour on an iceberg lagoon and many wildlife encounters.
The outpouring of lava from the recent volcanic eruption threatens to stop them from reaching the famous Blue Lagoon. Will they make it? And will they see any puffins before it’s time for them to depart?
Yuletide Offerings by C S Jones
Deep in the woods, a door has been opened.
Hayley and Clara, two young friends, inseparable since nursery, dream of playing with their favourite Disney ice queen. A childish desire that will set in motion a series of events that will prove that things beyond our world are best left well alone, all while pushing the limits of what a parent would actually do to see their child again.
A Christmas with the Carols by Mary Lay
Elspeth Scobie is not a happy woman. Her tenants are late with their rents, and her assistant is leaving to go home to the islands and get married. For Elspeth, money is not to be spent on wasteful things such as repairs, coal, weddings and certainly not Christmas! Will a night of disturbed sleep change her mind?
This re-telling of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, set in Glasgow in the 1930s, brings a refreshing twist to a familiar tale.
News Round-Up
Read Indie Fantasy have an indie advent calendar, featuring an underrated indie author every day.
Submissions for the next Indieverse Awards open in January, with paid and free categories to enter.
Indie Visible are starting a theme of the month for book promotions - January will be fairytale retellings.
Vicky Ball, author of Powerless and Abandoned, went viral last week and became a bestseller on Amazon!
Free Book
Hell for the Holidays by Marika Ray
Free on Amazon US and UK at the time of composing this edition of the Newsletter.
The Indie Books & Authors Newsletter is compiled and edited by N S Ford, indie author and book blogger.