Brand Gamblin's Blog, page 11

My Short Story Collection "The Danny" is now online!

I just published "The Danny" for $2.99 USD on Amazon and Smashwords, which means it's available on the Kindle, Nook, PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, or e-reader of your choice.

The Danny is the story of a creature unstuck from time, which bounces between realities, looking for an anchor to the world it calls home. Along the way, it runs into several "cusps", moments of extreme joy and pain. Moments where the world changes. The Danny encounters zombies, time travelers, nanites, alien invasion, mechanized infantry, and magical heroes.

Some of these stories have been previously published. Others have never been seen before. For those familiar with my work, here is a list of stories in "The Danny":

Worse Than The Disease
The Rogue Prince and the Newborn Threat
A Moments Pause
Firebugs
Snake Skin
Howdy's Revenge
Sandys

Sample from my short story collection.

[image error]I decided to put some of my short stories together and release them on SmashWords. Some of them you may have seen, others have never been published anywhere.

Here's a small sample of the book:

The Danny had lost his anchor, his body, and most of his memories. He was bombarded on all sides by lights, pieces of images, parts of sounds. The pieces of reality from different times and dimensions pushed him further downstream.

He had panicked at first when he lost his anchor, when he felt the stream pop him out of his life like a cork from a child's gun. His child had a gun like that. His child.

The Danny wondered whether he was male. Could a thing with no body have a gender? He remembered some of his life still, but his memories were in his brain, and his brain was in his body. Whatever part of him survived, swimming against a tide of unreality, it was slowly losing touch with the life he'd had. He fought it, clinging to his life. He had a child, there was a woman waiting for him. Cindy.

The Danny decided he was male. It helped him remember his life. He was a man, a researcher, an explorer. He travelled in dangerous waters to places others wouldn't believe existed. But he had lost his anchor, and the waters that had once taken him between worlds now dragged him further and further from home.

The place between times was undefined. Nothing could happen without time, and so The Danny knew that none of what he was seeing was real. None of it could happen until he observed it. He remembered that rule, but could not remember why.

The Danny knew he needed to find a shore. He needed a place, any solid ground, from which he could travel back to his own time. He had to find a cusp.

Bright flashes in the distance called out to him. Hard decisions, painful sacrifices, they shone out as anchors before him. One of them would lead him home. The Danny fought against the tide and pushed for one close to him. It shone with pain and loss. The power of the emotion kept it steady when all other potentialities swam around it. The Danny grabbed at it, and saw it. He experienced it from outside, waiting for the point where he could re-enter the world.

Show your love for The Hidden Institute!

If you are a fan of podiobooks, you know that there is a link on each story's webpage that allows readers to donate money to the author. This is because some listeners feel indebted to the authors for giving them full, unabridged, professionally-developed audiobooks. It's a nice policy that has been much appreciated by both listeners and producers.

As I finished the last episode of my podiobook this morning, I realized that I would not be listed on Podiobooks for another three weeks. So, while listeners can come to my site to find the free audiobook, they didn't have that same outlet for donation.

So, I've added the following button. There is no set amount, and no one is required to pay for this story. All the same, any donations you can afford will be appreciated.

Episode 15 of The Hidden Institute is now up!

I just finished building the fifteenth and last episode of my novel "The Hidden Institute." You can listen to it here:

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For a direct download, use this link

Thanks for listening!

Episode 14 of The Hidden Institute is now up!

I just finished building the fourteenth episode of the podiobook for my new novel "The Hidden Institute." You can listen to it here:

Get the Mp3 Player Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)

For a direct download, use this link

Thanks for listening!

Episode 13 of The Hidden Institute is now up!

I just finished building the thirteenth episode of the podiobook for my new novel "The Hidden Institute." You can listen to it here:

Get the Mp3 Player Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)

For a direct download, use this link

Thanks for listening!

Episode 12 of The Hidden Institute is now up!

I just finished building the twelth episode of the podiobook for my new novel "The Hidden Institute." You can listen to it here:

Get the Mp3 Player Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)

For a direct download, use this link

Thanks for listening!

Episode 11 of The Hidden Institute is now up!

I just finished building the eleventh episode of the podiobook for my new novel "The Hidden Institute." You can listen to it here:

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For a direct download, use this link

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Dramatic reading of a truly great blog post

I came across a really wonderful blog post from Levi Montgomery, and as soon as I read it, I thought it should have a dramatic reading. So, being a busybody, I got permission to do a reading of the post. Hope you like it.

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Direct Download here

Episode 10 of The Hidden Institute is now up!

I just finished building the tenth episode of the podiobook for my new novel "The Hidden Institute." You can listen to it here:

Get the Mp3 Player Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)

For a direct download, use this link

Thanks for listening!