Note Worthy Releases: June 2012

June 29, 2012

Looking for a Bit Of Horror? Find It With This Weeks Featured Indie


Brandon Hale

Day Soldiers



For ten years now, humanity has been at war with the creatures of darkness. The war has changed the world. The day now belongs to humanity and the night belongs to things once thought to exist only in myths and legends... but there is hope. This new enemy has united humanity and an army has stepped forward to protect the light from the darkness. An army of heroes.

Eighteen year old Lily Baxter always knew the Day Soldiers would be a major part of her life. She had been preparing for it since she was eight. She was ready to go to war. The one thing she wasn't prepared for was the day the war came to her. 

Part horror, part comedy, part adventure, Day Soldiers will take you on an exciting ride through a world where monsters are monsters and the only thing they fall in love with is the taste of human blood.

Also available in paperback.












Bio

 Brandon Hale is an author from Southwest Virginia who writes a genre he likes to call "Quriky Horror." His books have classic horror elements, but focus on fun and adventure more than excessive gore.
A huge fan of movies, one of Brandon's goals as a writer is to write books that appeal to the modern movie-going audience. His hope is to show them that books can be just as much of a roller coaster ride as a great film.

June 13, 2012

This Weeks Featured Indies Will Take You on a Thrill Ride You Wont Forget


 

 

R.S. Payne

Wulfwaru and the Hag Child







Wulfwaru and the Hag Child is the second of a fantasy trilogy set on the Island of the Mighty – an alternative Britain where the Roman invasion failed, and Old Gods still influence events.

It all begins with an untimely death, as things often do in an uncertain world of Gods, monsters and men. Dark forces seek to use the Hag Child’s power to bring about a new age of fire and blood. The fate of the Island of the Mighty hangs in the balance once again, and all the omens are bad.


Sister Wulfwaru of the House of the One Goddess at Escafeld soon finds herself involved in a dangerous game, guided by a Silver Branch anruth who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gwythyr Cenedr swore a sacred oath to protect her, but can he protect himself?




Bio



Rebecca Siân Pyne lives in rural Ceredigion (where the only traffic jams are sheep) and shares a two hundred year old Mine Captain’s cottage with three dogs and a cat. The countryside and rich folklore traditions of West Wales are a constant inspiration and Wulfwaru and the Hag Child draws on Celtic legend and history.Born in Congleton, Cheshire, she was educated in South Yorkshire, before a BSc in Geological Oceanography at Bangor University (1991-1994) and an MSc in Micropalaeontology (Aberystwyth University, 1994-95). After nine months as a research assistant at the Geologisches Institut, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETHZ, Zürich, Switzerland, R. S. Pyne returnedto the UK to begin a Micropalaeontology PhD at the University of Aberystwyth (1996-99,awarded 2002). After employment as a museum curator and natural history gallery assistant at Sheffield City Museum and a scientific recruitment consultant, she spent two years as a Research Technician at Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences.

She has been writing for ten years and is a member of The Fictioneers, a writer’s organization promoting speculative fiction. Working in the fantasy, horror, historical and science fiction genres, 60 short stories have appeared in print and electronic publications. Credits include:Albedo One, Aurora Wolf, Bards & Sages Quarterly, Dark Dispatches, Lisette’s Tales of the imagination, Medieval Nightmares, A-Z Cities of Death, Lacuna, Neo-opsis, Undead of Winterand others. Stories are in press with Bête Noire and Weird Tales.Wulfwaru and the Hag Child is the second in the Island of the Mighty trilogy. The first The Sword of the Horse Chieftain was published on Amazon Kindle in December 2011. In addition to two novels, R. S. Pyne’s catalogue includes four novelettes and fourteen short stories and story collections. You can visit her Amazon Author page  to find more of her works.

don't forget to follow her on twitter @DrPyne











Micheal Meyer

Covert Dreams









Life is good for B.J. He has a great job and a loving wife. But all of a sudden he begins experiencing a series of lifelike nightmares, where he knows intimate details of Munich, a city in which he has never been. He can speak German in his dream, a language he does not know. Everybody thinks he is losing it. Is he going crazy? To save himself, he knows that he has but one option: he must go to Munich to uncover the truth behind his dreams.



Stan Halsey, a professor in Saudi Arabia, sends for his wife to join him, but she suddenly disappears soon after her arrival, along with every trace of her very existence. There is absolutely nothing, not one single detail in any records anywhere, to prove that she is indeed a living person and that her spouse is not crazy for thinking so. Both the American government officials and the Saudi Arabian authorities insist that she does not exist. Stan Halsey, all alone in his quest, must act fast before he is forced out of the country.



What is real, and what is not? Who is really who, and why? The mounting suspense moves from Munich, to London, to Rome, and to the burning sands of Saudi Arabia with a horrifying swiftness.









 

Bio



I have resided in and have visited many places in the world, all of which have contributed in some way to my own published writing. I have literally traveled throughout the world, on numerous occasions. I have lived in Finland, Germany,Thailand, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Saudi Arabia, where COVERT DREAMS is set.I gained the wanderlust to see the world, to experience other cultures, at an early age,and this desire has never left me. If anything, it has only gained in intensity as I have aged. I try to travel internationally at least once a year. In the interim, I spend lots of time traveling around both my home state of California and other nearby states.I spent my early years in the small town of Lone Pine, California, the home of almost every western movie, in addition to a wide variety of other genres, made in the30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. In fact, Hollywood still films parts of big-time movies there today. My dad, the town’s lifeguard at the time, personally knew John Wayne, Lloyd Bridges, and Lee Marvin, all of whom came to the town’s pool, the Memorial Plunge, at times to cool off after a hectic day of working in the sun. I was even an extra in a movie filmed there in 1957, MONOLITH MONSTERS, a B-cult favorite even today. I was ten years old at the time. Even though I resided in a small town hours from the big city, I was exposed to the excitement of action and heroes at a formative age, and, thus, my interest in writing novels of suspense such as COVERT DREAMS was born. As a recent retiree from a forty-year career as a professor of writing, I now live in Southern California wine country with my wife, Kitty, and our two other cats.

June 3, 2012

Note Worthy Splashes into June With Some Fantasy and a Few Bitchy Thoughts

 

 

     David A Lindsay  

Gaspar The Thief

 



Follow the adventures of Gaspar, a freelance thief who stubbornly refuses to swear fealty to the Thieves' Guild. Finding himself entangled in a series of mishaps and misfortunes mostly of his own making, and facing looming retribution from every quarter, he finally departs his native city.>Aided by Hubris, a seller of spells who similarly declines to pay his dues to Wizards' Hall, and Marna, a feisty thiefess with a quick tongue and a quicker temper, Gaspar hopes to lie low for a while, but events continue to go awry,leading from one catastrophe to the next in quick succession. Brigands, sells-swords, goblin warlords, scheming mages and even a tricksy wight all seem to have it in for him as he travels across the world of Lindor,blundering from one calamity to the next, and yet somehow always surviving to tell the tale. Told with humour, this is an exciting romp based in a fantasy world where anything can, and usually does, happen!




Author Bio 

 

The back story to 'Gaspar The Thief' may be a little different to many other current e-book releases in that it was actually written in the 1980s, when I was in my twenties. I had previously succeeded in having a few short stories published in arts magazines in the mid to late 1970s, a couple of them commercially. Thereafter, I wrote two full-length novels, Gaspar The Thief being the second one, but never did anything with them, and did not make even one submission to a publisher. Looking back now, I think there were two reasons for this. Firstly, I got married, had three children, and was very busy as a young court lawyer building a career. Secondly, and this was perhaps the main obstacle, I think I was too much of a perfectionist, and was never content that either novel was finished satisfactorily. This all changed when my wife bought me a Kindle recently, and I realised that this offered a new opportunity to share what I had written. Fortunately I had taken steps over the years to preserve the original word-processed files. However, these had been created on an old Amstrad green-screen 8256 (does anyone else remember these?). I had at one point had the files transferred to floppy disks, which had been very difficult, but at least they were now held on floppy disks. I still had to buy an external floppy drive to access these, of course, but I was much relieved to discover that they were still intact. That's when I sat down to read what I had written almost thirty years ago. This meant that I was able to read 'Gaspar The Thief' almost totally afresh. I had actually forgotten large parts of it. And that's when I discovered that it was much better than I had thought when I wrote it. I am still a perfectionist, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the standard of writing. Moreover, I did not think it had dated at all. Nevertheless, I still revised it twice from beginning to end and re-wrote a few parts before publication. Another aspect that some may find interesting is that it was not influenced at all by Sir Terry Prachett's Discworld novels, as I only started to read his books much later, in the 1990s, long after my book was finished. The greatest influence in my writing was probably Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and The Gray ouser stories. Finally, here's a little personal background. I was born and brought up in Dundee, Scotland, but have lived in North East Fife, near St Andrews, for nearly 30 years now. I am married with three children, all of whom have now left home. I was a lawyer for 20 years, but for the last 12 years have owned and run a web design agency in the UK. My interests are Rotary, reading, gardening, music and travel.










Pedro L. Alvarez

Dragon Fire




At nineteen, Delcan wants nothing more than to break the bonds of what the world expects of him; winning the tournament at the Flarian Festival and earning a place as a squire is the only way he knows how. When he discovers his own father's secret past and his role in the kingdom's history, Delcan's life as a squire suddenly becomes complicated; when he falls in love with the princess, Aria, it turns deadly.

Dragon Fire is the story of a farmer's son and a princess who dreamed of becoming a knight. It is a coming-of-age tale set in a world where the young have no hope and the old no longer believe in magic. With compelling characters and vivid language, it is an action-packed story of romance, hope, sacrifice, and the most unlikely of heroes.




Author Bio 


Pedro L. Alvarez was born in Cuba and immigrated with his parents to the United States at the age of 8. He grew up in West New York, NJ and has been writing short stories since the age of 14.

Pedro has a degree in English and in Journalism from Rutgers University and works for a large transportation and logistics company. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children.
Dragon Fire is his first novel.

  • Dragon Fire Can also be found at the following retailers:  
  • Kobo
Don't forget to follow Pedro On twitter  @DragonFireNovel












Elizabeth Fairlight

The Little Book Of Bitchy Thoughts

 

 


The Little Book of Bitchy of Thoughts is medicine for the Modern Age,

straight from the cauldron of Elizabeth Fairlight. The author serves up a stinging philtre of pithy observations, acrid humor, and even the occasional honest aphorism. 

 Quotes from the book: 

If your child says, “Hey, lady,” to get the attention of a salesclerk, you're lower-class. If your child says, “Excuse me, Ma'am,” then you're middle-class, or higher. This is an infallible indicator. 

'Washington, D.C. is the third-world capital of a first-world country.'

 'Opera is only vaudeville with attitude.'

 'I'm always amazed by admonitions to love thy neighbor. Once God wises up to the fact that not everything on this Earth is worth loving, he would become a smarter God. It would be better to say, 'love thy neighbor, if thy neighbor is worthy of it.



Author Bio 

 

Elizabeth Fairlight has not worked on a fishing trawler, as a bullfighter, or shot big game.  She cannot net a purse, play the spinet, or paint flowers on china, though she has one very remarkable drawing-room talent, namely, keeping an open ear for the unwary pourer-outer.


Reviews


A review from LL Book Reviewer Shannon Yarbrough:

Anyone who has enjoyed the wit and sarcasm of such greats as Oscar Wilde or Groucho Marx will definitely enjoy Elizabeth Fairlight's The Little Book of Bitchy Thoughts. It takes a certain intellect and, of course, a smart sense of humor to be able to read it and appreciate it the way it was intended.

There are numerous quotes divided by such subjects as youth, class, fools, adulthood, marriage, children, lawyers, arguing, the arts, places, makeup, science, sports, drugs, and age. Enough to keep your toasts at parties witty or your email signatures baffling.
Rather than being rude and untactful, almost all of the quotes make you stop and really think about it, long enough to want to reread it a few times or even commit it to memory.
My favorite is a longer quote about writing: Writers who do what they're expected to do-namely get their MFA, then stay in the university system to teach and produce literary fiction-will always write timidly. If you're a writer, supporting yourself with odd jobs is better for you, but not just because you acquire more interesting source material. It's important because what it indicates about your personality. Independent writers live and write with greater courage, and they create greater works of art because of that courage.
Only available on Kindle at the time of this review, Fairlight's Bitchy Thoughts is worthy of a look if you need some laughs or even some enlightenment.