A few days ago, I featured five projects from the Inkshares/Nerdist contest, in which I’m currently competing. That book just to the right? That’s my book! You can preorder it, if you’d like. Odds are you already have, so thank you.
I’m under no illusions about the odds of my getting some 200+ preorders in the next two weeks, which would put me back in the winners’ circle. I’m glad to have participated, honored to have gotten so much support, and even gladder to have joined a wonderful community of writers in the process. There are some excellent books out there, waiting to be read. There are people out there, waiting to read them. Inkshares provides a place where that magic can take place on a grassroots level. Check out these books, and support the authors if you’re so inclined.
John Robin – Blood Dawn
A god-king’s empire has crumbled. His dream of immortality, faded. A weaver discovers her skill with cloth is more than it seems, for she is the god-king’s long lost daughter. Now she must master her gift to win back her father’s stolen thone.
Wamuhu Mwaura – The Northern Divide
Small town Florida born and bred, New York City embraced, Wamuhu Maura is a Kenyan American who has been in love with all things mythical since the sunset of her formative years. Hence, speculative poetry and fiction are her chosen avenues. She simply loves a good mash-up.
The Northern Divide is set in a world known as the Elemental Realm and centers around a group of diverse characters (nine in total) that are descended of the elder gods of Maura’s invented divine set, of elemental and primordial beings (e.g. Elves, Sylphs, Harpies, stone made men who Maura calls the ‘Colossals’) and those conferred magic by the Dragons who once dwelt in the realm.
Come, journey with the “Anodecum” across the three Divides, but bear in mind… Destiny, as some call Fate, rarely walks her chosen upon a straight path.
C.D. Gallant-King – Hell Comes to Hogtown
Fitz is the broke, sad-sack night manager for a grubby comic book store. His only friend, Dee, is a narcissistic, womanizing, drug-addicted professional wrestler. Together they are lowest, most pathetic losers on the face of the planet. Their lives cannot possibly get any worse.
And then they are implicated in the kidnapping of the Prime Minister’s wife.
On the run from the cops, Fitz and Dee discover there is something far worse than than the RCMP stalking the streets of Toronto, hunting them – an ancient demon of unspeakable evil with an insatiable taste for blood… and booze.
Life in prison would actually be much better than whatever the creepy filthy hobo has in store for them…
Writer, tabletop gamer, pro-wrestling aficionado. Dad. C.D. Gallant-King‘s first book, Ten Thousand Days is available on Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords and other fine digital retailers.
Kade Madsen – Silver Eyes
Raised by adopted parents, Elwyn discovers a surprising event on her sixteenth birthday that changes her whole world. Wanting to find out who she really is, Elwyn leaves home to go on a adventure.
Kate Madsen grew up loving reading and writing. Currently she’s working towards an Associate of Arts at Kirkwood Community College. Kate has been featured in her high school art magazine for poetry and several drawings. She grew up in Iowa and has lived there most of her life.
Rick Heinz – The Seventh Age: Dawn
The Seventh Age: Dawn is the first book in a series of urban fantasy. Set in the modern age, it follows a global conspiracy as heretics work in the shadows to tear down the barrier that keeps humanity ignorant of demons, forgotten myths, and magic. Will everything go according to plan?
Inspired by works such as Neverwhere and American Gods, this tale explores the ramifications of ancient creatures waging war in the shadows – and specifically, what happens as that war begins to spread into the public view.
Enter a world of moral grey areas, ancient myths, and Illuminati-style conspiracy. A world of diverse factions and powerful beings who blithely step into the most mundane circumstances of everyday life. Where your favorite street-taco vendor could at any moment have his sales interrupted by a scuttling imp, and where being a multi-century-old warlock with a grand agenda doesn’t help you file building permits.
Paul Robinson – Ghosts of War
Six months following the death of his mentor and leader, Cole Traske is returning to work for the 42nd Purifying Force. Now leading Shadow Point, the squad he’d been a part of for ten years, Cole must balance the responsibility of leadership, the squabbling of his pilot and demolitions man and the inexperience of the young new squad member fresh from the academy.
When a ghost from the past unexpectedly appears during a routine assassination mission, Cole’s life is thrown into turmoil. This ghost, Tobias Navarr, was thought to have been killed 15 years ago and arrives hell-bent on tearing Cole’s life down to it’s foundations.
Ghosts of War is the first in a planned trilogy and is a planet hopping tale of revenge and retribution. Full of action and adventure, twists and turns, and a good side of fun it’s like a summer blockbuster in a book.
Paul Robinson is a 28 year old, first time author from Australia.
Austin Lugo – Infinite
Austin Lugo: “I’m a kid on quest for knowledge with a hankering for writing. I’ve been writing for about ten years, though only for four serious years, and am of the ripe old age of 19. Clearly, I’ve got a lot of work to go, but hope to one day make the world a better place through beautiful storytelling.
As for the book, I’ve always been inspired by the work of Joseph Heller and Quentin Tarintino (I know, a very weird combination). Nonetheless, inspired by their work, I delved deep into the field of non-linear storytelling, with 11 unique stories following the life of an immortal man in a totalitarian society. Perhaps not as science fictiony as my fellow writers, I delve more into the raw human emotions which grasp at each an every one of us. In the words of Hemingway ‘all stories are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened’.”
Jay Lockwood – A Beast Requires
When conspiracies threaten to plunge Aurum into civil war, the city’s only hope is Deputy Constable Albicon Pine. Unfortunately, it’s his first week on the job.
A comedy with a body count, A BEAST REQUIRES has a bit of everything: riots, royal plots, forensic gastronomy, interspecies politics, and a collection of historically significant chamberpots.
Urban life isn’t what Albicon imagined: his landlord is a huckster, the constables are as shady as the criminals, and the sprawling, ancient city overflows with garbage. But when bodies start dropping, Albicon and the constabulary must unravel a mess of grisly deaths, pointy shoes, and a forgotten sewer system before the city burns.
Jay Lockwood has been called many things: Dyslexic, Queer, Nerd. Hell yes, he is. A former retail manager and convention organizer, he now aspires to live a stress free existence. His deep love of storytelling has prevented this endeavor, and he now battles word counts alongside D20’s and dragons.
Aitor Ibarra – Oculus
Oculus is a science fiction book which starts in 1635. Johannes, a veteran of the early battles of the Thirty Years’ War, enters the Pantheon in Rome looking for answers, but needing redemption. He is cursed (or gifted) with the ability to see into the future – and the future he sees, and feels responsible for – our recent past, our future apocalypse – is horrific. Pietro, a young priest, takes it upon himself to grant Johannes absolution of his sins. Johannes meets Ilaria, a five year old girl who will change the course of history.
In the 21st century huge strides are being made in physics and genetics. Driven by his desire to leave an everlasting impression on human history, a powerful industrialist is pulling all the strings. Unknown to each other, yet drawn together, the female-line descendants of Ilaria are critical to his plans yet are also the biggest threat to him.
Cory Wyszynski – U-Turn At Next Synapse
From Cory: “Greetings one and most certainly all. I am living in Studio City, CA. and I drive a SmartCar. Am I one of those actors working in a restaurant to pay the bills, you ask? No! I am a storyteller who works at a French Bistro that brews its own beers to make a living. Alright, I am an actor, but I also write, play trumpet, do improv, and I host a terrible podcast, which is the lure of it really. Too many successful ones out there.
In college, I had two sleep deprived dreams, weeks apart in the same world. I went crazy with this world in 2009 and created the first draft of The Mind’s Journey. It was too self help sounding.
Two stories combined into one, John Howard is recollecting the events of the present by reliving a dream that takes place in the future–The Zerseck 6,000, a race that will decide the survival of human kind, is about to begin. Trapped on the dangerous road of his crumbling psyche with hazards up ahead, its time for John to make a U-Turn At the Next Synapse.”
