A Semi-Not-Horribly-Regular Newsletter #12
In this issue: Beans of Anafi–Sneak Preview, Oodles of Sci-Fi, New Posts, An Indie Author Program Review Selection (a review).
First! Thank you to all who entered my August giveaway for 2 books, a custom pen and a gift card. If you didn’t win, don’t run away yet! In October, I’ll be giving away 6 books and more. Stay tuned.
Beans of Anafi–Sneak Preview
A new adult literary novel, Beans of Anafi, will come out on September 6th. This is vastly different from anything I’ve done before. It was also my NaNoWriMo ’21 project.
Beans of Anafi is a hero’s journey, and one you might find yourself in at times. Think of it as The Alchemist x Percy Jackson x Life of Pi.
Here’s a sneak preview from roughly the middle of the book. (I was going to write it out in Greek, but I’m still learning.)
In his dream, Alexandros stood in a field. It was not his own, the crops not beans. Instead, it was a field of barley, much like a part of the Ludharos farm. The plants were high, their golden color a sign they were due to be harvested any day. He looked around in every direction. The sun was high, the temperature warm with a soft breeze that tousled the spikes where the seeds grew. There were no hills, no gentle rises even. It was a flat field of gold, but his dream-self felt there was an ocean nearby.
A building stood in the distance, shaded by a large olive tree, and standing outside was a woman. Alexandros felt the need to run to her but soon realized he could not move. He looked down. His feet were embedded in the soil and around them he saw tiny sprouts. He bent closer to examine them only to pull back with the realization that they were the beginnings of bean stalks.
The stalks grew rapidly, first wrapping around his feet until he could no longer see the straps of his sandals. They grew higher and higher, engulfing his legs. It was only when the stalks reached his waist that they stopped.
Clouds moved over the sun, much like they did in the dream of the fields on fire and his parents burning alive. Shadows deepened. He looked around, saw the stalks of barley bend in an increased wind, and saw the woman again. She was still outside the house, but maybe a little closer. She seemed to call out to someone, but Alexandros could not hear the words.
The wind picked up. As Alexandros struggled to free himself from the beans wrapped around his legs, he noticed the barley was not haphazardly being blown about but blown in his direction, as if a billion stalks were bowing to him in reverence.
Then there was Kyamites, not as Seth had last seen the man with the petasos on his head, or even as Alexandros remembered him from the taverna. He was dressed in a white wrap over a tunic falling to the ground, like the old man on Kalamos who traded the beans for the ticket. His hands stretched out, reached down and picked something up from ground. As the barley bowed further toward Alexandros, Kyamites held two beans in his hands.
“Plant these,” he said. His voice carried in the wind, like an echo in a cave but strong, confident. He dropped them and he was gone.
In his place stood a woman, her back to Alexandros. She had long dark hair that fell in loose braids to the middle of her back. Her clothes were that of a worker, the brown dress of someone who might toil away in the fields. Alexandros saw familiarity in her form even as she looked away from him. He knew—with no doubt—this was Eleni.
“Eleni,” Alexandros said, his throat constricting with sadness. “I am sorry.”
–From Beans of Anafi, a novel by Benjamin X. Wretlind
Oodles of Science Fiction Short Stories
If you’re like me, you love keeping up with your favorite genre, but you don’t always want to read 500 pages a day. That’s where short stories come in!
Check out these short science fiction reads by oodles of different authors! Some are free, some are pennies, all are awesome.
New Posts
- Dream Vacations (for This Writer)
- We all have dream vacations, places we want to go that fit firmly into our bucket lists with permanent ink. Writers have them, too.
- Kindle Vella Thoughts
- After completing my second serial on Amazon’s platform, I have some Kindle Vella thoughts…mostly for writers.
- Avoiding Series Burnout
- This post on avoiding series burnout is meant to be both something for other writers to consider and personally therapeutic.
An Indie Author Program Review Selection
The Anuvi Incident
I read The Anuvi Incident by James Vincett in a relatively short period of time. Why is that? Most likely because the action is nearly nonstop after a necessary build up to the cast of characters and establishment of the “world” inside the covers. If you could take the largest space battles of any science fiction story, you would only fill up a portion of the action in this book.
Lieutenant Joshua McFinn is new to the Imperial Navy, and in his first command, he uncovers a hard truth about those around him. Trust is not easy, and there are very few characters in this book who couldn’t play both sides of the fence. Add in an alien race called the Naati and a very large cast of characters for a 340-page book, and you’ve got a well-done novel.
I’m a stickler for military formality, and The Anuvi Incident did not let down. With moments that reminded me of Starship Troopers, Vincett’s writing is quick and eager to please. He sets up situations well in order to create suspense. As I said before, this is a quick read and one that deserves much more attention than it has over the past few years since it came out.
Additionally, I am appreciative of the appendices in the back of the book. With such a large cast of characters, a book–and series–like this can get confusing, but Vincett’s detail is welcome. I look forward to the second book in the series, The Borrega Test.
Available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UN7DAYI/
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That does it for this issue of the newsletter. I’ll see you back here next time!
— Ben
