A Semi-Not-Horribly-Regular Newsletter #8
In this issue: Beneath Gehenna, Updates on Sunshine and Shadow: Exodus, or the Second Transit, A New Kindle Vella Serial, New Posts, An Indie Author Program Review Selection (a review).
One world preys on trauma. Another creates it. Choose wisely.
Released on April 19th! Available now!
When an alert goes out to the paying members of the disaster bunker known as New Eden, recently wealthy yet highly dysfunctional Geoffrey and Portia Thompson grab their survival bag, let the staff of their palatial Plymouth Commonwealth estate go, and make the short journey to the rest of their lives. Joining them are one thousand additional souls, destined to repopulate the Earth and rebuild their once great world. Shortly after arriving and securing the hatch for good, communications to the outside world are cut off.
Everyone is convinced this is the end, to include Portia who has vowed to divorce Geoffrey and destroy everything he holds dear. With rations implemented and nerves shot, Geoffrey and his new friends volunteer to travel to the surface to gather information and see if they can leave New Eden. When they exit the shelter, however, they find a vastly different world.
Gone is their reality, and in its place their worst nightmare. With no choice but to escape, they make a run back to New Eden where yet another nightmare awaits…beneath Gehenna.
Coming July 12, 2022: Sunshine and Shadow: Exodus, or the Second Transit
The Journey will continue in 78 days! After Elijah Jonas managed to get to a new world, things didn’t go as planned. Find out how Sunshine and Shadow: Exodus, or The Second Transit.
Book 2 in the Transit series – Preorder for $0.99 Now
On a cold and rainy September afternoon, Father Elijah Jonas convinced his followers to abandon the purgatory that was Earth and travel on faith to a new world. Now, forty years after the most important event in human history no one left on Earth witnessed, the descendants of those who followed Elijah have built a remarkable life. From farms to stables to the mundane of the day, life has been fruitful. But, like many things in life and society, what lies under the surface threatens the future.
As natural disasters and wild dangers claim the human residents on the planet Tishbe, relationships strain, families are torn apart and allegiances are tested. For Miriam Michaels, granddaughter of the eldest elder and man responsible for the societal mores and traditions the community follows, the future is found in the unknown. For young Micah, a scribe-in-training, the present is a confusing array of love and hate with few answers to the myriad of questions which emerge daily. And for Miriam’s cousin, Joel, an engineer determined to follow in the footsteps of his mentors, it is the past which holds answers.
For all of them, the journey from their normal life into the unknown will test the strength and resolve of the community and strain relationships, threatening to destroy the grand vision Father Elijah and his followers had for the future of mankind. In sunshine they were born and in shadow they will pass, but not until they can build the life each of them imagine on a planet far from paradise.
The Beans of Anafi: A Vella Serial
Not one to rest, there is a new Kindle Vella serial that started on April 21st! Episodes will be released on Sundays and Thursdays, with the first 9 now available!
If you haven’t read a Kindle Vella serial yet, now’s your chance! You get 200 tokens free up front!
Alexandros Iraklidis, a timid farm boy on the Greek island of Anafi, yearns for adventure and a new life away from his family farm and the routine in which he feels trapped. While those around him do not understand his desire to leave, he does not understand their desire to stay.
At the prompting of his friend and the gift of a stranger, the boy flees to discover a new life in Crete. When a storm at sea robs him of the chance, Alexandros finds himself stranded on a neighboring island with no way to return home. Gone is the safety of routine and in its place is the terror of the unknown.
Through the kindness of strangers and a chance encounter with a beautiful woman who seeks to change her own life, Alexandros finds shelter, food and a way to eke out a meager living. Dreams of home still haunt him, however, and when tragic news of his family arrives from Anafi, Alexandros is forced to choose between the new love he has found and the family he left behind on Anafi.
As Alexandros is to learn, life is not found where you are but in what you do.
New Posts
- A New Anthology by the Pikes Peak Writers
- Dream: Tales from the Pikes Peak Writers, a new anthology, is now available! I’m really excited about this publication, not only because I’m in it, but because I am humbled by the caliber of writers who also appear.
- On Wind & Emotion
- Just like clouds and emotion go hand-in-hand (with respect to literature, anyway), so does wind and emotion.
- Psychological Injunctions & Your Characters
- In legal terms, injunctions are authoritative warnings or orders, typically given in the court system. Drivers are quite the opposite. They are the things you should do. So how can we relate these to your characters?
An Indie Author Program Review Selection
Squid Face Girl and A Wretched Little Book of Poems
I’ve always enjoyed books about books, that is books which take both the reader and the characters through a magical world between the covers. Two examples of this I can think of right off the top of my head are The Neverending Story by Michael Ende and The Princess Bride by William Goldman. These books are fun and exemplify what it means to really “get into a good book.”
Squid Face Girl: & A Wretched Little Book of Poems by Allen Isom is, perhaps, one of the strangest books I’ve read in a long time. Kali, a girl with tentacles on her face, is bullied by her classmates and emotionally abused by her parents. While looking for escape, she find a book of poems (the Wretched Book from the title) in a mysterious book store, and like most people looking for escape, she returns to her room to read through it.
Each poem in A Wretched Little Book of Poems creates a world in itself, which Kali then finds herself in. From a haunted house to zombies to creepy alleys, Kali becomes trapped and must fight to get back to her rather unfortunate reality. Along the way, she meets several characters of the poems who help or hinder her adventures.
Squid Face Girl: & A Wretched Little Book of Poems is horror, with a side of wit and magical realism. This is definitely a Young Adult novel, and one that is written to please high school readers. There is message of hope within the pages, one with which the target audience would identify. From bullies to facing fears to overcoming the obstacles of life, there are definitely messages that resonate.
You do not need to read A Wretched Little Book of Poems first in order to enjoy this novel, although doing so would help. Written in the style of Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, Isom’s A Wretched Little Book of Poems is a great read by itself with some fascinating artwork. But the poems which make up the focal points for Kali are embedded within the novel, and provide a glimpse of things to come. If you like books about books or novels that combine elements of magical realism and horror into one of pure escapism, then Squid Face Girl: & A Wretched Little Book of Poems is quite the find.
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That does it for this issue of the newsletter. I’ll see you back here next time!
— Ben
