Genre: Speculative Fiction/Horror/Short Story
Approximate word count: 45-50,000 words
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Author:
An avid outdoorsman, Daniel Powell takes advantage of the natural wonders of Northeast Florida, where he lives with his family. Powell teaches at a small college in the same area. In addition to this collection, he has a novel, An Autumn Harvest, and a dystopian thriller, Survival, available. For more, visit Powell’s blog.
Description:
Fourteen short stories that could be pegged to a variety of genres. What each has in common is that they are dark and (thankfully) not true. At least not yet.
Appraisal:
The stories in These Strange Worlds are varied. They are all speculative fiction, since they take place in a world that doesn’t currently exist, but some are horror or something else. Each has a dark side, yet some also have humorous moments. What they all have in common is Powell’s ability to draw you into a new, strange world he’s imagined and force you to care about the characters he’s created.
My favorite story is Raising Tom Chambers. From the title, I wondered what, if anything, this story had to do with the former NBA star and I was amused when I found out. This story also says a lot about the human condition – how we need companionship, and how far we might go to meet that need.
Format/Typo Issues:
No significant typo or proofreading issues. No active table of contents, which makes it difficult to jump to any specific story if desired.
Rating: **** Four stars
Genre: Literary Fiction
Approximate word count: 100-105,000 words
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Author:
A writer and photographer, Caryn Rose writes about baseball and music. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her boyfriend and Jackie Wilson, her cat. For more, visit her website.
Description:
The email said, “Joey Ramone is dead.”
At thirty-seven, Lisa Simon is still passionate about music. When one of her teenage heroes dies, she re-evaluates the direction her life is headed.
Appraisal:
B-Sides and Broken Hearts should have universal appeal for its main story line, with the protagonist, Lisa, faced with a major life decision, and forced to decide what is important to her. While the specifics may be different, the struggle is one most of us have faced.
However, for me, the most significant message is the power of music. If you’re like me, there are songs that can lift you up and those that will put you into a funk, while others take you back to a specific time, place, or person. An idea epitomized midway through the book by this paragraph.
How can this happen? How can a song that meant so much to me when I first heard it at fourteen, a song about dreams and hope, suddenly mean just as much right now, suddenly the words apply exactly to my life twenty-two years later? And how can it affect me in the same way, how can it lift me up, transport me, elevate me, inspire me, give me meaning and, well, hope?
On her website Rose says her goal was to “write the woman’s version of High Fidelity.” (A book by Nick Hornby, later made into a movie starring John Cusack.) Rose said she, “wanted to read a book where a woman could like music as much as a guy and not be called a groupie or be told that she sure knew a lot about music for a girl.” I think she did it. Rose knows a lot about music for anyone, regardless of gender, and this knowledge permeates the pages of B-Sides and Broken Hearts. The music geek will love this book for that reason as it smoothly integrates mentions of songs and bands from big (The Rolling Stones) to relatively obscure (I’ve heard of Eddie Spaghetti and his band, The Supersuckers, have you?) If you’re not a music fan, B-Sides and Broken Hearts is still a good story, but if you are, it is a can’t miss.
FYI:
Some adult language. Limited and mild sexual situations.
Format/Typo Issues:
A small number of typos and other proofreading issues.
Rating: ***** Five stars
Genre: Mystery/Romantic Suspense
Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words
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Author:
Nancy Brophy lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, two dogs, and forty chickens. She says she writes what she loves to read, books with “a strong man who believes he’s in charge until he meets a feisty female who’s not taking a backseat to anybody.” This is her fourth novel. For more, visit Brophy’s website.
Description:
Zack Pritchard is a Navy SEAL, home on leave for his sister’s wedding with one goal: avoid Chloe, his brother’s girlfriend, who has fueled his fantasies since the first time he saw her. Zack finds more than he bargained for as his dysfunctional family experiences several crises and that plan to avoid Chloe doesn’t work out at all.
Appraisal:
I’ve experienced this too much lately, although I’m chalking it up to the way apparent patterns happen in samples that are completely random. In this case, I’ve had a spate of books with serious copyediting problems. While they vary, many of the stories were good, with no serious problems that I saw. That was the case here.
The Wrong Brother is a romantic suspense with elements of a few other genres. You’ll see a little police procedural and one scene that could have come from an action adventure. The main characters are fun, with a man who thinks he is in charge and a woman who knows she is. The plot includes intrigue, mystery, dealing with a dysfunctional family, and uncovering a villain whose identity I would have never guessed.
If you’re tolerant of copyediting errors (I found one every three to four pages) and like romantic suspense, this book has a lot to offer. If a typo, whether a misspelling, missing or extra word, or homonym error, is going to throw you out of the story, this isn’t the book for you.
FYI:
Some adult situations and one instance of a word some people get bent out of shape over.
Format/Typo Issues:
A large number of typos and other proofreading errors.
Rating: *** Three stars
Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words
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Author:
Born in small town Texas, Gregory Allen grew up in a suburb of Dallas where he first became interested in theatre as a teen, writing three musicals, all produced on stage while still in high school. Leaving Texas, Allen went to New York to study acting and has written, acted in, directed, and produced several musicals. He currently lives with his partner in New Jersey where he manages a college art center. Allen has written one other novel, Proud Pants. For more, visit the author’s website.
Description:
The story of two brothers who grew up in small town Tennessee: Jacob, a liberal gay man, and Noah, a southern conservative.
Appraisal:
I have a belief that the best way of explaining almost anything is through contrast. It’s like this, but not like that. This is why my reviews overuse words like but, yet, and however. Well With My Soul is a story of contrasts, which lead the reader to a better understanding of many facets of the human condition. Contrast figures into the time the book takes place, from the hedonistic late ‘70s into the conservative Reagan years, and the geography, from a small, backwoods southern town to New York, the center of the universe.
Most important of all is the contrast between the two brothers who are the dual narrators and protagonists. Through these contrasts, Well With My Soul gives plenty of opportunity to consider such subjects as religion and family, but its most powerful message is to be true to who you are.
FYI:
Contains a small amount of adult language and some sexual situations.
Format/Typo Issues:
A small number of typos and other proofreading issues.
Rating: **** Four stars
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words
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Author:
A freelance writer, Catherine Durkin Robinson has written columns and articles for several magazines and newspapers including The Tampa Tribune, The Washington Post, and Creative Loafing. She has one other novel, Learning Curves. For more, visit Robinson’s website.
Description:
After fatally shooting her abusive father in the head in her teens, Olivia realized she had a talent that could also make the world a better place. She is making a living, ridding the world of men like her father, but when Max, her longtime love, proposes marriage, Olivia is faced with a choice.
Appraisal:
While some fiction takes a look at domestic abuse from a realistic viewpoint, Olivia’s Kiss goes beyond that. In the protagonist, Olivia, we have someone bigger than life. A character not unlike a paid killer we might find in a thriller. She’s a serial killer, but also a hero, built on a Robin Hood archetype of a character doing what is considered bad by some standards with a good result.
But more than domestic abuse and a Robin Hood story, Olivia’s Kiss is a story about making choices. How most decisions have tradeoffs. How a path taken early can set a direction that will become harder and harder to change. With a combination of excitement, do-gooding, and introspection, Olivia takes the reader on a unique journey.
FYI:
Contains adult language and some mild sexual situations.
Format/Typo Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: **** Four stars
Genre: Literary/Humor
Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words
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Author:
Jay Barry’s literary leanings turned entrepreneurial at an early age when he went door-to-door selling the comic books he had written and illustrated. He is currently working on his next novel. For more, see Barry’s website.
Description:
Summoned from Las Vegas, where he teaches college English, to the headquarters of the Great Basin Student Loan association to explain some irregularities, Dr. Don Vendicarsi and graduate student Quentin Mann set off on motorcycles through the Nevada desert in a tale reminiscent of many literary road trip adventures.
Appraisal:
Throttling the Bard both embraces and pokes good-natured fun at literature and academia. For example, English Professor Don Vendicarsi, one of the two main characters, never goes anywhere without his red pen and will edit anything, anywhere. Even on the wall of the men’s room.
He zipped his pants, then pulled out his red pen and circled the phrase that read, “For a good time call,” and wrote above it, “cliché. ‘ Good time’ is vague. Try something fresh, something new, i.e. for an eternity spent in the safe and non-judging arms of an inanimate blow-up doll call….”
Quentin Mann, the other main character, is a graduate student who, when he is nervous or uncertain about a situation, imagines a narration of the scene in his head where, in the guise of a character he calls “tall, dark, and handsome,” he gets through the situation.
There are references to classic literature throughout, with Shakespeare, Chaucer, Cervantes, and others making cameos. If your reading diet doesn’t include these, don’t be put off by that. I scanned the bibliography at the end and found I’ve read only one of the books listed, yet never felt I wasn’t getting the references. Barry gives the reader enough context to do so without, plus many of these books are those that most reasonably literate readers are likely to have a clue about, even if they’ve never read them. For example, I know Don Quixote was prone to “tilting at windmills,” even though I haven’t read Cervantes’ classic. Those who have actually read the book might notice subtleties I didn’t, but not doing so will not prevent enjoying the book.
Throttling the Bard has all the adventure you’d expect of a road trip tale. This is enhanced by the protagonist’s travels through an area with lots of, by most standards, strange people and places. Vendicarsi and Quentin encounter book-burning religious cults, legal brothels, and put in an appearance at The Burning Man festival in this trip off the beaten path through the heart of Nevada. I found Throttling the Bard a smart and literate read that still had me rolling on the floor.
FYI:
Some adult language and situations.
Format/Typo Issues:
A small number of typos and other proofing errors. The most frequent are extra/missing words and a problem with the homophones past and passed.
Rating: **** Four stars
Reviewed by: JA Gill
Genre: YA Horror
Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words
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Author:
Six Moon Summer is the first installment in SM Reine’s Seasons of the Moon series. Reine resides with her husband, child and many black pets in sunny Las Vegas. You can follow SM Reine on Twitter @smreine and visit her website to watch the latest book trailer.
Description:
When Rylie’s dad insists she spend the summer at camp to get out of the city and run wild through the woods, and maybe make new friends, she begrudgingly goes but she doesn’t have to like it. That is until she meets a boy with a dark secret. Maybe he’ll understand what she’s going through…and what she’s growing into.
Appraisal:
Blame it on “Pop Americana,” but it is impossible to not worry while reading YA dark fantasy whether what you’re reading will be the “new Twilight.” On level, the concern seems to be just as inescapable for the writer, and suddenly the question changes from expectation to one of intention.
Certainly, werewolves can be just as awkward and self-conscious (the snarly, shaggy werewolf better represents this state of affairs than any Dorian Gray of a bloodsucker). Fans of Stephanie Meyer will in turn recognize the main character’s oft-stated wish to be normal while concurrently reveling in the curse of superhuman powers. Falling head over heels for a sexless Adonis hardly needs mentioning.
So while there are many origin myths of the werewolf ready for metaphorical repurposing, Six Moon Summer is a furrier, slightly more brutal, less plodding Twilight. When raging hormones slam into societies firm yet vague mores, in novels as so often in life, biology wins, except in popular fiction promiscuity gets reimagined away from STDs and unplanned pregnancies into something more manageable and less icky: violence and gore.
For that matter, where boys and girls are forced segregated at a summer camp, can it end any other way than in senseless killing?
While it makes perfect genre sense, the view that a society that sexually represses its teens risks turning them into blood-thirsty monsters is no less cynical of its target audience.
Format/Typo Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ** Two stars
Instead of a review today we invite you to visit the A Moose Walked into a Bar blog where BigAl is the guest blogger.
For those not familiar with this blog, it is hosted by three Indie authors - Barbara Silkstone, L.C. Evans, and Karen Cantwell. Each Wednesday one of these three or a guest tells a story that is supposed to be both funny and true. Past guests have included Sibel Hodge, Suzanne Tyrpak (both authors we've reviewed here), and the first Indie author to sell over a million Kindle copies of his books, John Locke. Why they asked BigAl if he'd like to be a guest blogger is unclear, but it did teach him a good lesson. There is reason these people are successful novelists, and he will never be. Read BigAl's Guest Post, and you'll understand too.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words
Availability
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Author:
Raven West is the author of another novel, First Class Male. Under the pen name Firebird, she also has a collection of erotica short stories, Journey to Dimension Nine. For more, visit West’s website.
Description:
Jenny Reed has it all. She is the DJ on the top rated morning radio show in Los Angeles. Brian, her boss, is also her lover and has a wife that prevents him from getting too serious – exactly the way Jenny wants it. A strong willed native of New York, Jenny has the left coast under control. At least she does until the day Johnny King enters her life. Johnny is going to be her co-host, which is bad enough, but he’s also the brother of Brian’s wife. That is only the beginning.
Appraisal:
I liked Jenny, the lead character in Red Wine for Breakfast, although at first I questioned the affair she was having with her boss. Other than this, she seemed like a strong woman and, with a top rated radio show, appeared to be in control. As another character tells her in the book, “How fifties, Jen. Hasn’t the feminist movement taught you girls anything? You don’t have to sleep with the boss anymore.” But as I got to know Jenny more this became less of a sticking point. The setting and story, at least at a high level, was good. The suspense in this romantic suspense, which comes from a few happenings at the station, which I won’t spoil, fit the story well. The romance is well done. At a high level, everything worked.
But the devil is in the details, and this book fell short in that area. A large number of typo and proofreading errors, each minor but in large numbers, were a problem. There were also issues of continuity and consistency. For example, two characters are sitting at the bar in the watering hole across from the radio station. Another character comes in the door and walks up to their table. How they moved from the bar to a table is unclear and doesn’t fit what was happening.
Another example is that one character who had appeared to be sensitive and caring turned into a grade-A asshole. Although there had been a change in his situation, this was too drastic a change in too short a time to be credible.
At another point, there was talk of the Los Angeles radio market as if there were many larger markets, saying other station owners had tempted Jenny, “with bigger salary, bigger markets, better benefits.” This struck me as strange at the time, thinking there couldn’t be many “bigger markets” with which they could tempt her. It turns out New York is the only one.
Over the course of eighty thousand words, the little things added up to a big problem.
FYI:
Some adult themes and language.
Format/Typo Issues:
There were formatting issues, with fonts changing for no apparent reason and missing spaces between words and sentences. The latter, while possibly a typo, is often related to a problem in the conversion process from a word processing document to an e-book. My review copy was from Smashwords, which might not be representative of what would be found at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
In addition to the formatting issues, there were a large number of typos and proofreading issues, the most common being missing words, typically articles and prepositions.
Rating: ** Two star
Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Suspense/Literary Fiction
Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words
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Author:
The author of one other novel, A Matrix of Angels, <link our review> Christopher Conlon lives in Maryland. He has written numerous short stories and poetry collections. Conlon also edits books, most notably the Bram Stoker Award-winning He Is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating Richard Matheson. For more, visit Conlon’s website.
Description:
Reed Waters is a non-descript middle-aged man with some skeletons in his closet. Teenager Mauri Dyson is a runaway who does what she must to survive with secrets of her own. What happens when they meet and each discovers the secrets of the other?
Appraisal:
If the two novels I’ve read written by Christopher Conlon, this one and A Matrix of Angels, are any indication, he likes characters who had childhood experiences that have haunted them as adults. While not exactly the same, it appears from the description of Conlon’s book of poetry, Starkweather Dreams, that it is told from the viewpoint of serial killer Charles Starkweather, and delves into the same psychological neighborhood.
If done right, this combination is the recipe for an intense, satisfying story. The conflict in such a tale comes from the character’s own mind as they attempt working out their issues. In this instance, the fact that the path one character is taking to accomplish this is on a collision course to disrupt that of the other, adds additional conflict. I love stories where it doesn’t appear that there is a way for characters we identify with to all meet their apparent goals. This makes the story unpredictable and keeps us interested. Will one of the characters realize their goal is wrong and change it? Or maybe the happy ending we’re hoping for isn’t in the cards. The only way to find out is to read to the end. With Midnight on Mourn Street, Christopher Conlon gives us one of those intense, satisfying stories, done right.
FYI:
Some adult language and content.
Format/Typo Issues:
A small number of typos and other proofing errors.
Rating: ***** Five stars
