Charlie Bray's Blog, page 19

NEWSFLASH – The Sity is Free for Two Days Only

INDIETRIBE member Curran Geist is excited to announce that his novel, The Sity, will be available free of charge on Amazon.com on Sunday (March 3rd) and Monday (March 4th).

The Sity is a SciFi Fantasy adventure that follows the ordeals of a pair of teenagers named Victor and Carina. These two protagonists are blessed with mysterious supernatural powers, which they channel to fight back against the oppression of the Kuljik, an alien race enslaving humans in an extraterrestrial city of sin. This novel is packed with action, sprinkled with romance, and topped with horrific revelations.

If you like tales of survival and vengeance with a paranormal twist, then you should download your free e-copy from http://www.amazon.com/The-Sity-ebook/dp/B008MNR49W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362020651&sr=8-2&keywords=the+sity

Curran Geist grew up in a quaint town in Pennsylvania. As a home-educated student, Curran often lived within books and his vibrant imagination allowed him to escape to fictional worlds beyond the tiny town where he was raised. Writing is and has always been Curran’s passion. By the age of 12, he had already begun writing novels. Human rights has also always been very important to Curran as evidenced through his experience in the Americorps, with Amnesty International, and at the Museum of Tolerance New York. In writing his first self-published novel THE SITY, Curran Geist has merged his love of science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres with his belief in combatting social injustice. Curran is currently getting his Master’s Degree in New York City. His gritty, violent, and stylized first novel is available for free for two days. Make sure you pick up a copy!

If you’d like to spread your news, join INDIETRIBE now and send us your news release.

Seven Indie Books Reviewed

A very warm welcome to Indie Book Reviews. If you wish to buy any of these books, click on the front cover to buy from Amazon.com or the link following the description to buy from Amazon.co.uk

HOW TO IMPLEMENT DEBT MANAGEMENT THAT WORKS by Nico Kleynhans

The first part of this book is likely to make most people feel better about their debt mountain, because the saying, ‘There’s always someone worse off than you’, is evidenced here. I can hear sighs of relief emitting as they read the misfortunes of others and begin to put their own problems in perspective.

But the most re-assuring statement comes a third of the way through the book with the words, “The fact that you may have difficulties now does not mean that the rest of your life is laid out in concrete.”

Using this statement as a catalyst, the second half of the book starts to build the solutions to your debt problems from the ground up. By this stage, readers will be desperate for the help process to begin, and I’d wager that Nico designed his book this way for that very reason. Perhaps this is not the type of book to mention having a wager though.

Written exercises and tasks, many of which will involve soul searching as well as basic accountancy will ensure that the reader has a firm grasp of his problems. This actually forma a firm foundation for something to be done about them.

The final part of the book is devoted to just that – doing something about the now crystallised problem. Real solutions are offered, and the reader is set well and truly on the road to recovery. It’s just as if Nico grabbed your hand early on in the book and led you gently along this road.

For any one really struggling with debt, this book could arm you with the wherewithal to escape. Buy it and try it.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

HOW TO IMPLEMENT A BUDJET THAT WORKS by Nico Kleynhams

This book is just as clear, concise and helpful as its sister above.

But this time the intention is to help structure your finances in such a way that  you’ll never need to buy that book.

The basis of any budget is to balance income and expenditure so that you’r not spending more than you earn. It’s never as simple as that though, as most people do. We spend more than we earn by borrowing, and then , hopefully, manage our repayments to fit in comfortably within our income and expenditure.

And here lies the modern day problem. Borrowing can run away with you. Budgeting can become a balancing act that would challenge the best tightrope artist. A gravity defying juggling act. And that’s where Nico’s book comes into its own.

It comprehensively covers how to design a budget, how to run it, how to reduce outgoings, and even how to increase income.

It explains how to deal with the potential horrors of credit cards and how to use the cards effectively whilst extricating yourself from difficulties.

Nico even shows us you how an effective  budget can  reduce arguments with your partner.

All in all a very helpful guide that should help you avoid the financial pitfalls life can throw at you.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

 

BEYOND BELIEF by Mark Lingane

Joshua Richards, a private detective, was a frustrated soul. He looked carefully at life around him, at how the population was controlled, at how they were happy with life as long as every day was the same. And it was. They loved it. He hated it.

A mass of people living a pre-destined life. An automatic life. A life free of decision making. Joshua found himself reluctantly inhabiting this life.

But there were others, sinister figures inhabiting a twilight world. And there was the engine. A broken, dying engine that was unable to operate effectively after the exile of the last leader. An engine that directed the fate of all. An engine that seemed incapable of serving two leaders. An engine that could not be allowed to die. That was the problem that faced the sinister figures.

Joshua gets on with his job of detecting, whilst the sinister men get on with trying to sort out the malfunctioning engine.

Two parallel worlds operating on the same star, drawing closer and closer together until they collide. Will that lead to total devastation – or a status quo restored.

This is a complex plot which evolves in a form that emulates both The Prisoner and Dick Tracy. It maintains good measures of humour and horror throughout and provides an excellent read.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk.

LIVING BY EAR by Mary Rowen

Christine Daly knows what she wants and thinks she knows how to get it.

After a sixteen year career break to raise a family, she wants to resurrect her singing/songwriting career and shed her family ties.

The only trouble is, family ties are tied stronger than she envisaged, and the music industry has changed beyond recognition.

A really enjoyable romp through a watershed in Christine’s life. The descriptions of the characters she meets along the way are quite superb. You can picture them in your minds eye and be there for all the pathos and humour.

I particularly liked the reaction of one observer whilst she was busking. She decides to try a reggae version of John Lennon’s Imagine.  ‘But just as I got to the line about imagining no hell below us, pain seized my arm, and my eyes flew open. A large veiny nose was just inches from my face. “Quit shittin’ on the sacred, lady,” the guy hissed, a drop of warm saliva landing on my lower lip.

Mary Rowen’s style is just right for this genre and I hope this book is the first of many.

Written very much in the style of Wendy Holden, this is a glorious read which I really enjoyed.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

EARTH’S BLOOD by Ethan Holmes

Why is a a massive cruise liner being tossed around like a toy in a bathtub?

Why is an unstoppable black monstrosity looming towards a Japanese resort hotel?

Why is a fully blown snow blizzard falling in a desert?

Is this just Mother Nature expressing her displeasure at how naughty the human race is being?

No need to ask for answers on a postcard. Niles Havoc would know. He has an amazing ability to feel things about Earth. Problem is, people didn’t ask him. They have him down as a ‘fruitcake’. And that is a big mistake for the world at large to make.

For reasons known very well to Niles Havoc and his small team, a series of major catastrophes take place within the pages of Earth’s Blood which threten the very existence of mankind. The reader is treated to the unleashed fury of nature and the flimsy attempts of the human race to combat them.

And there’s still time to explore more light-hearted frailties like guilty fumblings in an elevator.

An action packed thriller based on certain, indisputable facts, Earth’s Blood is a captivating read. A true page turner and not a book you should ignore.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

PAULA’S PLACE, A TRIO OF BOOKS by James Wood - SEDUCTION, SURRENDER and SUBMISSION 

Paula’s Place is an erotic trilogy which treats the reader to the intimate delights of seduction, surrender and submission.

Paula’s story is uncovered, please pardon the pun, during her relationship with her attractive neighbour,Max, who has his own secrets to share. She finds herself through the attention she gives him.

Paula finds she has never given herself so completely to anyone, nor received so much.

The trilogy climaxes, again pardon the pun, with the unanswered questions regarding Paula’s future and Max’s past.

These books contain material which is not suitable for minors, but is majorly arousing for consenting adults.

If you’re likely to be offended by such material, do not click on these images. i did, but it’s my job and somebody has to do it.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

IT’S SHOWTIME! Get your books under our spotlight

If you’ve not yet arranged for your book to appear in our regular Showcase feature, don’t lose anymore time. Do it now. All you have to do is join INDIETRIBE for free and then let us showcase one of your books – also for free.

Seems quite painless really. And if you’ve got more than one book and you’re looking to give them all the same opportunity, you can do that too. Send them all in! We charge a very modest fee to cover our expenses and the extra internet space we have to pay for. So what is this modest fee?

Wait for it…A £10 one-off fee for each book. And for that, your books stay in our Showcase archives indefinitely.

And let me assure you, the thousands of visitors to our site have a really good browse during each visit. They don’t just read the current Showcase edition and throw it away like an old magazine. They browse all the Showcase editions again and again and again.

And they buy too. We enable this by allowing them to click straight through to your Amazon detail page from your book cover in Showcase. To either Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

So please don’t miss out any longer. Send those books across to me and I’ll feature them in our  forthcoming Showcase editions. Your first Showcase entry is free – you may already have done that – but don’t stop there. Get all your books on.

So how do you go about it? Couldn’t be easier:

Please use our Contact Page to submit your INDIE BOOK SHOWCASE entry for each book on a word document split into the following sections:

Title and author’s name;

Brief biography written in the third person (only one of these required, regardless of number of books)

Blurb; Your chance to attract readers to your book.

Your entry will be subject to minor editing. Don’t worry about enclosing a photo. I’ll locate that on Amazon.

I’ll send you a Paypal invoice for £10 per book. Your  first Showcase entry is free. Upon receipt, I’ll include your book(s) in the Showcase roster.

Then sit back, safe in the knowledge that you’re giving your books the shot they need to help you up the best-sellers list.

Showcase 10: Seven Indiebooks Under the Spotlight

Welcome to the tenth Showcase. If you would like to buy any of these books, click on the image to buy from Amazon.com, or the link in each book’s description to buy from Amazon.co.uk

If you’d like to see your book featured, simply join INDIETRIBE for free, and we’ll showcase your book for free.

The Melody in Our Hearts by Roberta Capizzi

Doctor Valerie Fogarty studied hard to become a competent surgeon, but losing a patient during an operation made her throw everything out the window and now she can’t set foot into an operating room anymore. Until her best friend Ryan is brought into the ER on a stretcher, fighting for his life after a terrible car accident and she’s the only one who can save him. Meeting him as a teenager in their hometown in Ireland was the turning point in her life and she knows she will never be able to live without him. Will her determination and skills be enough to save Ryan’s life?

Jazz Star Ryan Wyler grew up in Dublin, with a dream of becoming a professional pianist and continuing the legacy of his musical hero, Frank Sinatra. When opportunity knocks and he’s offered the chance to pursue a real music career, he’s happy to accept it, unaware that what he’s actually accepting is a package deal he will have no control over. But when success keeps him away from Valerie, his best friend since adolescence, Ryan will have to question his choices.

The author, Roberta Capizzi lives in Italy, but her dream is to move out of her country and live either in a thatched cottage in the Irish countryside or in a country house with a swing on the back porch, somewhere in the United States, where she would love to spend her days writing novels as a full-time job, and maybe one day even get as far as writing a screenplay for a movie.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

Mumma Shana by Dana Wolf

As a young woman struggling to recover from a series of heartbreaking events, Dorie is haunted by a sense that her grandmother’s spirit is guiding her. Her tale is then recounted from childhood where, as a young Jewish girl, she is confused about her religious background and pained from the hardships she is forced to endure at the hands of her parents and step-parents.

Tormented by difficult relationships, she discovers a spirituality that takes her on a journey of self-awareness and finds that faith, though often tested, gives her the strength to endure.

Dana resides in Northwestern Pennsylvania with her husband and her fur babies. She is a second degree Usui Reiki practitioner and intuitive tarot reader who loves the company of nature. She is currently writing her second novel but is using a laptop this time!

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

Journey to the Hills and Other Stories by Debu Bhatnagar

Set in Mussoorie (an Indian Hill Station) in the 60’s, the stories evoke a strong feeling of nostalgia. The British had left India by then but many of their traditions and institutions still lingered. An army band played at the Library and ‘Miss Mussoorie’ contests were still the highlight of the season. The schools, St. Georges, Waverly Convent, Woodstock and many others were thriving. Families took long leisurely summer holidays and enjoyed an unhurried pace of life. Enjoy the gentle charms of a forgotten time!

Debu lives in New Delhi, India. After working in the corporate sector for over 35 years in Marketing and as a CEO, he now runs his own consultancy company focused on consumer products. Debu loves travelling, golf and reading.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

 

Leading Without Authority by Aditi Chopra

Many professionals such as Project managers or Product managers are tasked with enormous responsibility while they have no authority over others. Leading in such situations is tough. This book will reveal the skills and know-how that a leader needs to excel.

Aditi Chopra, author of “Ten Mistakes a Manager Should Avoid” is an experienced leader in the software industry. She took on the challenge and drove initiatives where she hardly had any authority and succeeded solely based on her ability to influence others. She has a passion for helping others succeed in their career.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

 

The Clouds Still Hang by Patrick C. Notchtree

A trilogy telling a story of love and loyalty, betrothal and betrayal, triumph  and tragedy; novels that chart one man’s attempts to rise above the legacy of a traumatic childhood.

Many professionals such as Project managers or Product managers are tasked with enormous responsibility while they have no authority over others. Leading in such situations is tough. This book will reveal the skills and know-how that a leader needs to excel.

 

The first book deals with Simon’s childhood friendship and eventual love affair with an older boy, the second the trauma of his teenage years and early adulthood, the third his struggle to maintain equilibrium and the consequences of his failure at one point to achieve that.

It is not suitable for those under 18 years or who find explicit sexual narrative, including sexual violence, offensive.

Patrick now lives in the north of England with his wife and has his son and granddaughters nearby. Much of his life is reflected in this biographical trilogy.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

Discovering Pride by Jill Sanders

Lacey Jordan was a woman who knew what she wanted…and she wanted nothing to do with the new doctor in town. He had the perfect smile, perfectly tan muscles, and a way with people—her people. This was her town, her family, and her life. He’d come into town and shaken everything up including her heart.

Aaron was running away from a hard breakup where more than his heart had been broken. At this point all he wanted to do was take over his grandfather’s medical practice, work on his new house and turn it into the first place he could call home. He liked the town of Pride; in fact, he’d spent the only good parts of his childhood here. What he hadn’t expected was to bump into a fairy goddess.

Then, the town gets a visit that will change their lives forever, if they can survive.

Jill Sanders grew up in a large family on a farm in Washington state. She started wanting to write young adult or romance books when she was a teenager. She lives in Texas now and loves spending time outdoors with her family and dogs.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

 The Vase With the Many Coloured Marbles by Jacob Singer

This is a story I have lived with. It took many years to write, and going back in my thoughts and memories was not easy. Today I live in Vancouver Canada, having left South Africa because I was threatened by the South African Security Police in 1985. I first encouraged my children to leave, and once they were settled, my wife and I followed them.

Living in South Africa during the years of Apartheid, was not easy, and in my Pharmacy i made many enemies by thumbing my nose at Apartheid, and employing African, Indian and Coloured staff on the floor, dressed in their traditional dress, to serve customers.

With the change in South African Government, it is tragic to see the decay that is occurring throughout the country. As my heroine, Emily Kleintjies says, ‘It will take at least 3 generation of education for the country to move from ‘Africanized to Westernized,’

Jacob  married  Evelyn Jackson in 1960. He has three wonderful children and seven even more wonderful grandchildren.

He emigrated to Vancouver, Canada in 1992.

Also available from Amazon.co.uk

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Showcase, and I look forward to publishing another one soon, with books from Rebekkah Ford, Lisa Gordon, Claire Coult, Mary Rowen, J.P.McLean, Ellis Shuman, and Steven Lyle Jordan

Until then, enjoy your reading, Charlie

All Writers Should Read More – Ask Stephen King

All writers should read more. The great man is quite adamant about this.

Stephen King

” If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.

I’m a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, mostly fiction.

Every book you pick up has its own lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.

Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life.

The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.”

On Writing by Stephen King

These words were taken from the best book I have ever read on writing, Stephen King’s very own, ‘On Writing’. Whether or not you are a fan of King, or a fan of his specialised genre, ‘horror’, is unimportant. This is a book no aspiring or experienced writer should be without.

But I’d like to refine his advice and apply it to something more specific. Ooooh, look at me, I’m refining Stephen King’s words! I’d like to apply them to the world of self-published Indie books.

If you write, or intend to write, and self-publish your work, you should study as many Indie books as possible. Get a handle on what’s out there. How does the style fit with what you write? Are they good, are they bad, and why?

It’s actually not always that easy to do that,not always easy to locate a collection of  Indie eBooks in one place. I found that, having decided that I ought to read as many of these books as possible. The good news was that I could probably buy half a dozen or so for the price of one conventionally published hardback book. The bad news was that I didn’t know where they were all hiding.

So, I set about creating a corner where I could bring Indie authors, Indie books and Indie readers together. If you’re reading this, you’re sitting in that corner right now.It’s called INDIETRIBE.

And that worked pretty well. But what it lacked was a place within that corner for as many Indie books as possible, an ever growing collection, if you like.

So, I’ve created one, the Indie Book Store.

It’s new, it’s developing and growing, but my mission is to make it a one-stop base for all lovers of Indie books. Please give it your support and treat yourself to a browse now.

Then follow Stephen King’s advice. Get reading and hone your writing skills.

I guarantee you’ll have lots of fun along the way.

Showcase 9 : Eight More Great Indie Books Reviewed

Welcome to the ninth Showcase, where we shine the spotlight on another selection of self-published books. If you’d like to see your book featured, simply join INDIETRIBE for free, and see your book showcased for free.

The War Across the Stars by Alex Pennington

Ten revolutions ago the Elonian colonies of Vorga, Enphuerzo, Sontonos, and Hothonos fought a bloody war of independence from their government. Their victory left the two factions with lasting feelings of hostility, though despite this, they largely ignored each other. All of this changes when Vorgian agent Rigel Korth assassinates the Elonian delegates to a peace conference, igniting the conflict once more. When civilian James Ross is placed on the Elonian Special Ops team known as the Rangers, he couldn’t have been more excited to serve his people. Though as he gains his first experiences of real war, he quickly realizes it isn’t as easy as he had once perceived. Forced into situations his team is not sufficiently trained for, James and the Rangers must grow as a squad to overcome their Vorgian foes. Though even when the dust settles, an even greater force awaits. One so mysterious they could not have hoped to see it coming.

Alex is 19 years old and a Freshman at Wichita State University, in Wichita, Kansas. Toward the middle of his senior year he created an outline of The War Across trhe Stars, the first one for the otherwise organically created story, and suddenly burst forth with a solid 90 pages of additional content by the end of the year.  He finished the last page while sitting beside his girlfriend, out of a desire to share that moment with her.

Buy The War Across the Stars now by clicking on the image above, or from Amazon.com

Beyond Belief by Mark Lingane

Joshua Richards, P.I., has a problem. His clients are dying. What’s even more worrying is that they appear to be planning to kill him first. As he delves deeper into the cases he’s confronted with a past he never knew he had. In a desperate and dying alternate Earth, Joshua is in a race to uncover who he once was, and to make one single, simple decision that will either wipe out an entire race or destroy Earth and the very fabric of time and space itself. No pressure.

Mark Lingane was the editor of two independent technology magazines before evolving into a freelance technical writer within technology and resource companies. This led to his current occupation of a report specialist, which has allowed him to work in many exotic and far flung places.

Buy Beyond Belief now by clicking on the image above, or from Amazon.com

For I am Zeus by Crystal Smith-Connelly

For I Am Zeus: A Collection of Plays About Greek Mythology contains six short plays about the most entertaining of the Greek gods. Join Zeus as he suffers through marriage counseling, makes an indecent proposal to his sisters, and tries to sleep with anything that moves.

Crystal Smith-Connelly has written more than fifty plays, some of which have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Maryland, and France. Known for her twisted sense of humor, she counts Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Conan O’Brien, Sarah Silverman, and Tina Fey among her influences and hopes that someday Will Ferrell will star as Zeus in one of her plays.

Buy For I Am Zeus now by clicking on the image above, or from Amazon.com

The Danfians Prophecy by L. Sengul

Chloe Rose discovers that not only is she a human but also a Danfian and a Sofayan…spirits from another planet. She must leave everything she knows as her life is in danger.

Chloe is being pursued as she is the one prophesied to destroy Ivan, the leader of Sofayans who control this world.

Chloe is captured by Alexander, a Sofayan who is a bounty hunter. She ignites a passion within his heart, that lay dormant for centuries. And Chloe feels as if she has been cast under his spell. Will they stay loyal to their cause or will they give in to their hearts?

L. Sengul started to imagine the first scene of the book and after much encouragement from her husband, she decided to put pen to paper and wrote The Danfians Prophecy. The Danfians prophecy is Sci-fi/Fantasy Novel. She thoroughly enjoyed creating this story and hopes that the readers will enjoy it too.

Buy The Danfians Prophecy now by clicking on the image above, or from Amazon.com

Reckless Abandon by Jenn Flynn-Shon

Shaw McLeary, a YA fiction Author returns from the grocery store to discover her husband, Danny, has taken off in a hurry. On his way out the door he grabbed their cash and Shaw’s wedding rings. She’s devastated and calls the cops but just when she thinks she can get some help in tracking him down for answers, she witnesses a cop’s murder in her home and has to flee. Desperate for answers, Shaw turns to the one person she knows isn’t involved, JJ Anderson. Both her ex-fiancé and Private Investigator, JJ agrees to help with the search even though he’s still bitter about how their relationship ended two decades ago.

Jenn is a two-time winning participant in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) (2009, 2010) and also an active member of the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers. She regularly writes guest blog for Team EcoEtsy.

Buy Reckless Abandon now by clicking on the image above, or from Amazon.com

The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap by Paulette Mahurin

The year 1895 was filled with memorable historical events, not least the fact that Oscar Wilde was tried and convicted for gross indecency under Britain’s recently passed law that made sex between males a criminal offence. When news of Wilde’s conviction went out over telegraphs worldwide, it threw a small Nevada town into chaos. This is the story of what happened when the lives of its citizens were impacted by the news of Oscar Wilde’s imprisonment. It is a chronicle of hatred and prejudice with all its unintended and devastating consequences, and how love and friendship bring strength and healing.

Paulette Mahurin, an award-winning best selling author, is a Nurse Practitioner who lives in Ojai, California with her husband Terry and their two dogs–Max and Bella. She practices women’s health in a rural clinic and writes in her spare time. All profits from her book, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, are going to the Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center (the first and only no-kill shelter in Ventura County, CA).

Buy The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap now by clicking on the image above, or from Amazon.com

Avenging Amethyst by Kaitlyn Price

Avery and her mother have always been on the run. After her mother is murdered by something supernatural, she is left to fend for herself, alone and filled with questions. She receives a note by a stranger, giving her the opportunity to get some answers, and Avery warily accepts. She would rather face the truth than continue to be on the run.

She finds her family is doomed to insanity, and nearly all of them lose their minds in their early twenties. The only way to be saved from the curse is for her to find their Dimidium, the one creature that can calm the darkness.

Kaitlyn is a lover of all things vampires and most things fantasy. She lives in Colorado with her boyfriend and thirteen animals.

Buy Avenging Amethyst now by clicking on the image above, or from Amazon.com

Incidental Daughter by Valerie Stasik

Incidental Daughter, a deeply moving family drama interwoven with romance, mystery, and a touch of the paranormal, is a must read.

Successful editor and publisher, Liz Michaels, is done with the past, but the past is not done with her.

Valerie Stasik spent many years as a writing teacher, helping other writers find their voice and tell their stories, and is a consultant for the Northern Virginia Writing Project. Incidental Daughter is Stasik’s debut novel.

Buy Incidental Daughter now by clicking on the image above, or from Amazon.com

I hope you’ve enjoyed browsing this, our ninth Showcase, and that you’re tempted to dig deep and support our marvellous Indie authors. If you do, please buy whilst you’re still linked through to Amazon from us. This will help us detray our costs and continue supporting self-published writers.

Another Showcase will be along soon with books from Roberta Capizza, Dana Wolf, Debu Bhatnagar, Aditi Chopra, Patrick Notchtree, Jill Sanders and Jacob Singer

Until then, Happy Reading, Charlie

GUIDE and PRICES

1.  FREE INDIETRIBE MEMBERSHIP

INDIETRIBE Membership is totally free of charge and open to all self-published authors of both eBooks, hardbacks and paper-backs. INDIETRIBE’s mission is to continually ‘wave the flag’ for Indie authors and ensure that their books are brought to the attention of as many readers as possible.

Readers are also encouraged to join INDIETRIBE and membership is open to them too. We spend a lot of time and effort encouraging readers to visit the INDIETRIBE Blog, the hub of everything we do.

So what, exactly do writers get by joining INDIETRIBE

ONE BOOK FEATURED IN OUR INDIEBOOK SHOWCASE

The member effectively reviews his/her own book and we publish the book’s front page, together with the blurb and author’s bio in a regular post on INDIETRIBE.

It is then filed in the Showcase category and is available forever for readers to view.

A great way to bring your book to the attention of readers.

YOUR WEBSITE/BLOG LINKED TO OUR BLOGROLL

More and more people are sisiting our Blogroll, anxious to explore a plethora of blogs and websites that relate to the Indie world of publishing.

Your blog/website will be there for all to see.

It will always be current in that our Blogroll will link to your site as it is  at that point in time

IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO OUR NEWSPAGE

Offering your book for free? Launching a new book? Got news to share?

Send it in to Charlie, with a photo if you like and he will publish an urgent News Flash proclaiming your news

CONSTANT LINKS TO SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

We constantly flag our Showcase on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Goodreads to ensure that the number of visits to these pages grows and grows. The bigger the audience, the more people will view your showcase and blog.

So that, in a nutshell is what Standard INDIETRIBE MEMBERSHIP is all about. If you’re not already a member join now, by clicking this link  JOIN INDIETRIBE HERE  We will acknowledge your application and tell you what to submit to us to get the promotional wheels underway

2.  PROMOTIONAL PACKAGES

FEATURE YOUR BOOKS IN OUR INDY BOOK STORE FOR £5 PER BOOK PER YEAR

Let us sell your book for you via Amazon on our heavily visited Book Store. We charge a nominal annual fee of £5 per book for this service (approx $8), and royalties on any sales will be paid direct to you by Amazon. This represents a great way to feature your book for less than 2p per day. Just use the contact page to email us and let us know which books you would like featuring, and we’ll send you a Paypal invoice. Upon payment we will add your books to our stock within 48 hours.

 

ENHANCE YOUR BLOGROLL ENTRY FOR £10 PER YEAR

If you would like to stand out from the crowd and  enhance the free Blogroll entry, which is part of your INDIETRIBE entitlement, you can do just that.

For a modest fee of £10 (approx $15 U.S.Dollars) per year you can promote your website/blog with a comprehensive, illustrated entry.

 

SHOWCASE MORE BOOKS ON INDIETRIBE FOR £10 EACH (ONE-OFF FEE)

You are entitled to one showcase entry as part of your free INDIETRIBE subscription, but for some authors, that is not enough.

They have lots more books that they want to shout about.

Well, here is your chance. For a one-off £10 fee for each book, you can now showcase as many books as you like, and they will remain on our site as long as you want them to

 

 

 

 

SHOWCASE YOUR BLOG/WEBSITE IN OUR WEB WATCH SERIES FOR A £10 ONE OFF FEE

Just as you can showcase your books, now you can showcase your blog or website.

Tell the world how great you site is, what they can expect from it and why they should visit it.

A great chance to attract more and more hits to your site.

A one-off £10 fee will ensure your site is showcased for as long as you want it to be.

 

 

 

INDIETRIBE GOLD MARKETING PACKAGE – £50 per year

If you have a number of books to promote, this Gold bundle could be the one for you.

It entitles you to:

Place 4 books in the Indie Book Store

Enhance your Blogroll

Showcase 4 of your books

Showcase your blog/website

All this for £50 per year, representing an annual saving of £30

To take advantage of any of these packages, simply email Charlie and let him know your requirements. He will then send you a Paypal invoice, and upon payment, he will set the wheels in motion.

3.  EDITING PACKAGES

£150 PROOF READING

I’m guessing your novel will be a minimum of 40,000 words long, possibly double that. That’s an awful lot of words and there will be mistakes in there – no matter how many times you have read it. I read recently that:

After reading the the sentence, you are now aware that the the human brain often does not inform you that the the word ‘the’ has been repeated twice every time.

You can avoid this scenario so easily. Let INDIETRIBE proof-read your manuscript. Our totally accurate proof-reading service will ensure that your manuscript is free of any spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or typos.You will then be able to publish with confidence.

Style guides are used and the necessary distinction between UK English and American English is applied.

We study every line of your text twice, correcting errors as we go along. Our tracked changes will enable you to accept or discard every suggestion, so that you remain entirely in control.

 £150 MANUSCRIPT CRITIQUE

We’ll assess your story’s strengths and weaknesses, and show you how to improve plot structure, scene development, characterization, dialogue, physical setting, narrative style, and other elements.

We’ll use examples from your manuscript to illustrate problems, and check to ensure you’re using the correct viewpoint in each scene.

Effectively the critique will be a macro edit, or an assessment of the wide picture. Are there holes in the plot? Are there loose ends? Is there continuity throughout? Is there enough tension? Does the story reach a satisfactory climax? Are the characters believable and has each one got a distinctive voice?

 £150 PLOT PLANNER

If you’ve thought of a terrific idea for a book, the plot and characters are in your head, but you’re not sure how to develop it, we can help.

Submit the general synopsis to us and, within twenty one working days, we will provide you with an intricate  scene by scene, chapter by chapter, story plan for you to follow, including necessary ingredients such as quest, problems escalating in intensity, climax, resolution etc. We will also indicate the point of view that should be used in each scene. You will then have a road map to follow and can get on with writing your complete story.

£75 UPLOAD TO AMAZON

Quite simply, you send us your book in word format, together with a jpg of your front cover, and we will convert it to digital  format and upload it straight to Kindle Direct Publishing for you. We will optimise your book’s blurb, add relevant keywords and advise on the most appropriate categories for your book. We will liaise with you on the most effective price for the book and dates for free promotions, and manage all that for you. We will place your book on Amazon sites worldwide.

To take advantage of any of these packages, simply email Charlie and let him know your requirements. He will then send you a Paypal invoice, and upon payment, he will set the wheels in motion.

A Walk-through Guide to INDIETRIBE Membership

INDIETRIBE membership has grown and grown since its formation in October last year, and members seem to be delighted with the promotional advantages that membership affords them. Others have felt they are ready to take their book marketing to a higher level, and have opted to upgrade to INDIETRIBE GOLD, which offers remarkable value at £30 per year (approximately $48 US Dollars). They are delighted too, and over the course of the twelve months can anticipate phenomenal promotion.

Somewhere along the way though, boundaries between the two forms of membership have become a little faded, and it is obvious that some members are a little confused as to what they can expect from each level of membership.

To clarify matters for all members and potential members, I have devised this Guide, which, hopefully, will clarify the distinction between INDIETRIBE membership and its big sister, INDIETRIBE GOLD.

INDIETRIBE MEMBERSHIP

INDIETRIBE Membership is totally free of charge and open to all self-published authors of both eBooks, hardbacks and paper-backs. INDIETRIBE’s mission is to continually ‘wave the flag’ for Indie authors and ensure that their books are brought to the attention of as many readers as possible.

Readers are also encouraged to join INDIETRIBE and membership is open to them too. We spend a lot of time and effort encouraging readers to visit the INDIETRIBE Blog, the hub of everything we do.

So what, exactly do writers get by joining INDIETRIBE:

ONE BOOK FEATURED IN OUR INDIEBOOK SHOWCASE

The member effectively reviews his/her own book and we publish the book’s front page, together with the blurb and author’s bio in a regular post on INDIETRIBE.

It is then filed in the Showcase category and is available forever for readers to view.

A great way to bring your book to the attention of readers.

YOUR WEBSITE/BLOG LINKED TO OUR BLOGROLL

ACCESS TO EVERY SERVICE THAT IS AVAILABLE ON OUR NOVEL WRITING BUS

Such services include our Plot Planner, Manuscript Critique, Proof-reading and uploading your book to Amazon Kindle

So that, in a nutshell is what membership of INDIETRIBE is all about. If you’re not already a member join now, by clicking this link  JOIN INDIETRIBE HERE  We will acknowledge your application and tell you what to submit to us to get the promotional wheels underway

Many of our members reach a stage where they are looking for more and more promotion for their books. It is then that they turn to INDIETRIBE GOLD to fulfill their aspirations. Some writers bypass the basic INDIETRIBE membership entirely and jump straight into INDIETRIBE GOLD. So what is it and how does it work?

INDIETRIBE GOLD Membership

INDIETRIBE GOLD Member

INDIETRIBE GOLD provides a higher level of promotion for all Indie authors and, whilst a benefit to every writer, is of particular benefit to those with more than one book to promote. There is an annual subscription fee of £30 (approx $48 U.S. Dollars), but value for money wise, the services provided are pretty staggering.

Firstly each INDIETRIBE GOLD member continues to benefit from all the benefits of the basic membership, but there is more, much more:

UP TO FOUR BOOKS REVIEWED BY CHARLIE BRAY

Each book review includes a large photo of the front cover, a smaller photo of the artist, the review itself and a fairly comprehensive biography of the artist.

The review is not only published on INDIETRIBE, but also on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk. and Goodreads.

A copy of the review post will also appear on Facebook and Linkedin.

The review will regularly be tweeted on twitter to ensure that as many readers as possible view it.

YOUR WEBSITE/BLOG WILL FEATURE IN OUR WEBWATCH SERIES ONCE PER QUARTER

This should ensure that everyone is aware of what is hot and current in your world.

It should seriously boost the number of visitors and page visits to your site.

Again, Webwatch is promoted heavily by us to ensure that as many people as possible are aware of it.

Featuring your site each quarter will ensure that people’s perception of it are never out of date.

AN AUTHOR INTERVIEW AND GUEST BLOG ARE AVAILABLE TO YOU

This will enable you to get whatever you like across to the reading public at large.

As far as the interview is concerned, you will have full control of the questions asked.

You can reproduce whichever of your posts you like in our guest blog.

A NEWS FLASH PAGE HAS BEEN DEDICATED TO INDIETRIBE GOLD MEMBERS

Any news you wish to share, regarding your site, your books or yourself will be warmly received into this page.

Use it as you will and promote yourself as often as you like.

Jump aboard the INDIETRIBE bus

AN EXTRA 10% DISCOUNT ON ALL SERVICES OFFERED ON INDIETRIBE’S NOVEL WRITING BUS 

These services include our Plot Planner, Manuscript Critique, Proof-reading and uploading your book to Amazon Kindle

So that, again in a nutshell, is what membership of INDIETRIBE GOLD is all about. If you wish to upgrade to it, or join from scratch, click this link now and you will be a member within seconds. Join INDIETRIBE GOLD here. We will acknowledge your application and tell you what to submit to get the promotional wheels underway.

I hope this Walk-Through Guide to both INDIETRIBE and INDIETRIBE GOLD is useful to you, and I look forward to promoting you avidly as a member of either or both categories.

We will always wave the flag for Indie authors,

Best regards,

Charlie Bray

INDIEBOOK REVIEWS Seven Indie Books For You To Browse

A very warm welcome to Indie Book Reviews

 

ICEJACKED by Adrian Hawkes

Having been born before the end of the second world war, I often think I’ve seen it, done it and bought the tee-shirt. But what I’ve got to offer by way of nostalgia is small beer compared to a man of 2,030 years.

Leddicus could not possibly be ‘wise beyond his years’. You’d have to be pretty wise to achieve that at such an age, but he’s certainly been around the block a few times and able to put everything in perspective.

At least he would be if he were not dead. His body found encased in ice, he was transferred to a morgue where scientists could pore over him and investigate the corpse of a perfectly formed Roman. A real authentic gent this one, he even smelt of pee, which fits, seeing as the Romans used to wash their clothes in it.

Now he wasn’t  to inhabit his new home for long, because, as he slowly thawed, his heart was found to be still beating. On the premise that a mortician’s slab is not a suitable habitat for a healthy, if rather old Roman, he was quickly transfered to a hospital bed, and Adrian’s story came to life, terrible pun I know.

The story is told through the eyes of Gerhardt Shynder, a Swiss student, who is gutted when he realises the Roman find is alive and well. Gutted because he now has him down as a modern day tourist, weirdly clad in a fancy dress costume, who had suffered a mishap on a Tyrolean mountain. His dreams of working on the investigation of a 2,030 year old Roman as part of his doctorate evaporated as quickly as Leddicus had melted.

Gerhardt visits Leddicus in hospital anyway and slowly realises that he is,indeed, a Roman of some 2.000 year stature. The relationship which becomes forged by the two men forms the background of the story, as each one becomes a phenomenal

Adrian Hawkes

source of information to the other.

Leddicus’s bemusement with modern day society, the logistics of introducing a man of such years into today’s society, and the incredible history lessons that Gerhardt is treated to make this a must read for most.

Having dreamed up an incredible story, Adrian Hawkes deals with it really well. He is a very talented writer and it is refreshing that within Leddicus’s life span, we never cease to be amazed by increasingly bizarre plots.

Adrian Hawkes lives in Multi Racial North London and has spent his life travelling to every continent. His entrepreneurial philanthropy has left a trail of schools, orphanages, refugee havens and foster care support, from as far afield as Sri Lanka, Kenya and continental Europe. Icejacked is his first work of fiction.

THE LUCK OF THE WEISSENSTEINERS by Christoph Fischer

The story is set in three European countries, each affected by war and political intrigue.

It starts in Bratislave in 1933, when the heroine, Greta Weissensteiner meets and is immediately attracted to a young bookseller. The writer’s skill is evident this early on when he successfully depicts the difference in these two lovers. Two quite different characters, she a serious, quite old fashioned young lady, he a  mischievous, devil may care romantic. Christoph Fischer captures the differences beautifully, together with the internal battles of each character to overcome them.

But such minor conflicts pale into insignificance as the full story takes over. It is, effectively, an incredibly powerful holocaust story, a tale which throws two families, one Jewish, one catholic, into turmoil.

Enduring love is challenged by the horrors of war, and the writer makes you care about each and every character.

It is not so much about the victims of the holocaust itself, as those on the edge of it, experiencing the heartache of it all, without the actual physical contact.

The Luck of the Weissensteiners is the first of a planned trilogy, the complete work looking set to become a classic of our time.

This is not a book that you will read and immediately forget. The effects of it will linger on, and that is the mark of a truly talented author.

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany in 1970 as the son of a Sudeten-German father and a Bavarian mother. Not a full local in the eyes and ears of his peers he developed an ambiguous sense of belonging and home in Bavaria.

He moved to Hamburg in pursuit of his studies and to lead a life of literary indulgence. After a few years he moved on to the UK where he is still resident today. ‘The Luck of The Weissensteiners’ is his first published work.

He has written several other novels which are in the later stages of editing and finalisation.

MAXIMUS, WARTS AND ALL  by ROBIN LEVIN

This could be described as a fictional book without fictional characters. Everyone in it was real once, everything they did is gleaned from what was written down at the time. Whether what was written down at the time was true or not is another matter, and that’s what probably pulls Maximus, Warts and All towards fiction. That and the fact that Robin Levin puts such a glorious spin upon the book, which is a sort of pseudo-autobiography. But there are still enough facts to ensure that history is not too distorted.

It is the story of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucossus Cunctator as he would have told it, but I doubt he could have told it as well as Robin Levin.Its a story in which we get to know Maximus intimately. What sort of person he is, how he developed as a person from tender yerars to his ‘current’ senior status of sevent seven years.

Maximus was given a scarab beetle by his grandfather at the age of six as a good luck charm and it seems  to have served its purpose well over the years.

Throughout his years Maximus was a great soldier and leader of men, who always gave his all. . He was a key player in the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. To him this was an obvious thing to do. Indeed, he identified that the difference between Rome and Carthage at war, was that the Romans put their hearts and souls into the war effort and the Carthaginians did not.

Maximus did not deem himself ready to retire from the front line until the grand old age of seventy three when he decided he was no longer in any condition to lead an army.

Readers with an interest in Roman history are going to love the chance to listen to the life story of a significant Roman by listening to the man himself. Those with no such interest may try this book to whet their appetite, but could well find it a bit heavy going.

Robin Levin was born in Baltimore MD in 1949. She and her family moved to California in 1957. Her father was a chemical engineer and her mother was a technical editor. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1971 with an A.B. degree in anthropology and zoology, and completed training as a medical technologist in 1974. She is divorced with one adult daughter. She recently retired and spends much of her time reading and writing. She has had a strong interest in ancient history from childhood and her historical fiction works specialize in ancient Greece and Rome

THE PISACHAS RETRIBUTION by LEE CUSHING

Taking the law into your own hands is not without its consequences. If the boys in blue are called in, they start off a process where justice is, hopefully, eventually dispensed. If you decide on the D.I.Y. version, the baddies will come looking for you.

Forrest King prefers the ‘Do It Yourself” route. He dispenses with the need for restraint, trial and imprisonment, and bundles it all up in one gory package. He does the lot and it makes him feel good. It makes the reader, who may feel that society goes a bit easy on baddies, feel good too. But, a word of warning, King’s methods are not really for the squeamish. His accomplice, Catherine Jordan, is a bit more reasonable, and, in that sense, does try to apply brakes to him occasionally.

His wrath is incensed when henchmen working for an evil Mr Big, Stefano Balesi take an evening off and rape and abuse two innocent young ladies for fun. Step over Forrest King’s line and you die.

King and Jordan invade Balesi’s private Greek Island, see off the rapists and escape by speedboat. Job done! I’ve covered this scene in sixteen words, but it deserves more. It certainly gets more in the book and reminds me very much of an action packed Xbox game.

This whole scenario incenses Balesi who turns his attentions to  King and his accomplice and, in the words of George W. Bush, decides to “smoke ‘em out”.

But that’s just the start of this action packed story. King, an all action hero, and Balesi, so ruthless that his employees commit suicide if they fail him, lock horns. What makes it worse for King is that Balesi is part of a weird cult whose choice of weapon is a chain saw, and whose dietary requirements are quite unusual. Also, they’re rather unpleasant individuals who are not easy to kill. King becomes inadvertently involved in the death of one of these disciples and if you thought Balesi was upset before, watch out now, it’s red mist time!

I won’t spoil things by divulging more. needless to say this is a fast-moving page turner that I really enjoyed. Short, but not so sweet.

Go on, try it.

Lee Cushing is a pen name that is a combination of the great Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

He is an amateur student of the occult, folklore, witchcraft and anything else that is unexplained.

GRIM REAPING by ANTHONY LUND

This is a wonderfully funny story about Grim Alfonso Reaper , who has been in the business of collecting souls since the days of creation. He has always had a pretty steady life in that respect, but just as people in comfortable careers often become aware of knife-sharpeneers behind them, Grim has to start looking behind his back.

He was made aware of the need to do this by Boris, a deceased arthritis-ridden gravedigger. Grim often needs to talk to the Dead you see. It’s his job. On this occasion, he  probably wished he hadn’t. Boris told Grim that he had dug a grave for him. He wasn’t very specific as to why, but he did start Grim on a journey of discovery – to discover who was out to get him. Who was trying to kill death itself.

The journey starts when he visits the recently deceased Mr Bones, the ex Boris’s ex boss. This is an exceptionally funny passage that shows the extent of Anthony Lund’s humour. Mr Bones, having died by way of  chainsaw, literally lies in bits when approached by Grim, who asks, “Which part of you would you like me to speak to”? Priceless. And the conversation gets better. Having ascertained from Mr Bones that the gang out to get him are simply called the Wee, Grim has to grapple really hard with this. “How can it just be the Wee? I may not be fluent in the tongue of Scotland, but I have often heard of the wee one, wee Jimmy and the wee Bastard. so what wee are they?” Humour not dissimilar to Terry Pratchett’ Disc World here.

The conversational humour in this book is exquisite and you would have to be a pretty miserable reader not to find it ‘laugh out loud’ funny. I enjoyed it that much that, despite my onerous workload reviewing lots and lots of books, I’m going to read it again very soon. Loved it!

Anthony has a personal library of over 1000 books in every genre from humour to horror to fantasy to thriller.

His hobbies include cinema, rock music, playing guitar (almost) and writing songs and slumping in front of the TV. His true TV loves are every crime drama from “Wire in the Blood” to “Midsomer Murders”, every comedy from “Only Fools and Horses” to “The Simpsons”, and not so secretly “Eastenders”.

Anthony also has something of an acquired taste in collectibles. His wide array of oddities include a large collection of Gremlin replicas, eight Grim Reapers, two Homer Simpsons, a collection of Roland Rat soft toys and a self-made life-sized working puppet of Animal from The Muppets.

He lives in a rural village with his wife and daughter.

PIE: An Old Brown Horse (That knows What He’s Doing) by Kandy Kay Scaramuzzo

Pie narrates this story, a true story about his very full and varied life, an autobiography if you like.

Pie would not be out of place as a guest on one of Piers Morgan Life Stories, and would certainly be more interesting than some who have trodden that hallowed path.

We are treated to all aspects of the horse’s personality. We are there with him when he firmly trains a young horse in the art of wrangling. We are there when he gets into a gory battle with an enraged bull.

We share his joy as he makes a new friend, Dusty, and finds a new owner, a young girl who he refers to as ‘the little one’. We share his grief when he loses his best pal to a brain tumour.

Pie introduces us to many other horses during this tale, all different, all interesting in their own way, some having pet hates, pardon the pun, such as snakes, some suffering from mishaps they had encountered in the past. Often their owners did nor realise the problems that their horses were suffering from, and it was left to the horses and their friends to assert themselves.

All in all, an interesting introduction to a horse’s world. A book which horse lovers of all ages, and there are lots of them, will enjoy.

For me, who can take or leave a horse (don’t tell Tesco that),  an easy going romp, which whilst leaving me with a pretty decent feel good factor, did not tax my emotions as much as I would have liked.

Kandy Kay Scaramuzzo is a seventh generation Texan. She has taught in alternative education for over twenty years. Ms. Scaramuzzo is a member of the 2012 Strathmore’s Who’s Who. She has a BA in Criminology and a MAedCT. She works in horse,dog, cat and snake rescues.

Ms. Scaramuzzo has been a tester observer for therapy dogs for nine years. She ran a therapy horse program for autistic children for five years. She has been a recognized animal behaviorist for over twenty years. This is her first book about an exceptional horse.

She feels it is important to give back to maintain the balance of a civilized society.

THE LANCE by ALEX LUKEMAN

Nick Carter is the hero of this thriller, a member of the Project, a clandestine group that answers only to the President of the United States.

He is pitted against a motley crew that wields the Lance, an ancient weapon which chills the blood of the modern world.

It may be an ancient weapon, but we’re not talking battering rams or slings and arrows here. The Lance is in fact the spear that pierced Christ’s side when he was crucified. It is not so much the physical power of the weapon which people dread, more the belief that simply owning this weapon would render the holder unstoppableallow the owner total destiny of the world. This is certainly a theory subscribed to by Himmler in the second world war.

That’s why it was hidden by the Nazis in the frozen wastelands of Antartica.

It is found by the bad guys, who discover what it can do and all hell is let loose.

The action starts as Carter is enjoying a morning coffee in Jerusalem. Let battle commence! The whole square erupts in smoke and flames.

The action rarely abates from thereon, as a group of nazis try to kill the President and irrevocably upset the equilibrium in the Middle East by bombing the most sacred Mosque of Muslims.

Alex Lukeman’s writing style is sharp, punchy and easy to read.His powers of description are immense and succeed with the minimum of words. This brief extract illustrates what I mean:

‘Broken glass and smashed furniture littered the plaza. There was blood on him, but it wasn’t his. Carter took a step and tripped. He looked down at a child’s foot in a blue shoe. It was just a small foot. A piece of white bone stuck out of a pink sock. He bent over and threw up the espresso in a yellow brown stream. The acrid, coppery stench of blood poisoned the clean night air.’

He has you hooked early on and it’s then difficult to put the book down. I enjoyed every minute of it and can’t wait to explore the other books in the Project series:  White Jade, The Seventh Pillar, Black Harvest and The Tesla Secret.

Alex Lukeman is a former Marine and professional musician.

He likes riding old, fast motorcycles, sipping Barbados rum and playing guitar, usually not at the same time.

He writes Action/Adventure Thrillers featuring the PROJECT, a covert Presidential counter-terrorism unit.

Alex lives in the Sierra foothills of Northern California.

INDIETRIBE GOLD REVIEWS Seven Indie Books For You To Browse

A very warm welcome to INDIETRIBE GOLD Book Reviews.

Each of these books will also be reviewed on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Goodreads

JOIN INDIETRIBE GOLD NOW AND GET YOUR BOOKS REVIEWED ON THESE PAGES

ICEJACKED by Adrian Hawkes

Having been born before the end of the second world war, I often think I’ve seen it, done it and bought the tee-shirt. But what I’ve got to offer by way of nostalgia is small beer compared to a man of 2,030 years.

Leddicus could not possibly be ‘wise beyond his years’. You’d have to be pretty wise to achieve that at such an age, but he’s certainly been around the block a few times and able to put everything in perspective.

At least he would be if he were not dead. His body found encased in ice, he was transferred to a morgue where scientists could pore over him and investigate the corpse of a perfectly formed Roman. A real authentic gent this one, he even smelt of pee, which fits, seeing as the Romans used to wash their clothes in it.

Now he wasn’t  to inhabit his new home for long, because, as he slowly thawed, his heart was found to be still beating. On the premise that a mortician’s slab is not a suitable habitat for a healthy, if rather old Roman, he was quickly transfered to a hospital bed, and Adrian’s story came to life, terrible pun I know.

The story is told through the eyes of Gerhardt Shynder, a Swiss student, who is gutted when he realises the Roman find is alive and well. Gutted because he now has him down as a modern day tourist, weirdly clad in a fancy dress costume, who had suffered a mishap on a Tyrolean mountain. His dreams of working on the investigation of a 2,030 year old Roman as part of his doctorate evaporated as quickly as Leddicus had melted.

Gerhardt visits Leddicus in hospital anyway and slowly realises that he is,indeed, a Roman of some 2.000 year stature. The relationship which becomes forged by the two men forms the background of the story, as each one becomes a phenomenal

Adrian Hawkes

source of information to the other.

Leddicus’s bemusement with modern day society, the logistics of introducing a man of such years into today’s society, and the incredible history lessons that Gerhardt is treated to make this a must read for most.

Having dreamed up an incredible story, Adrian Hawkes deals with it really well. He is a very talented writer and it is refreshing that within Leddicus’s life span, we never cease to be amazed by increasingly bizarre plots.

Adrian Hawkes lives in Multi Racial North London and has spent his life travelling to every continent. His entrepreneurial philanthropy has left a trail of schools, orphanages, refugee havens and foster care support, from as far afield as Sri Lanka, Kenya and continental Europe. Icejacked is his first work of fiction.

THE LUCK OF THE WEISSENSTEINERS by Christoph Fischer

The story is set in three European countries, each affected by war and political intrigue.

It starts in Bratislave in 1933, when the heroine, Greta Weissensteiner meets and is immediately attracted to a young bookseller. The writer’s skill is evident this early on when he successfully depicts the difference in these two lovers. Two quite different characters, she a serious, quite old fashioned young lady, he a  mischievous, devil may care romantic. Christoph Fischer captures the differences beautifully, together with the internal battles of each character to overcome them.

But such minor conflicts pale into insignificance as the full story takes over. It is, effectively, an incredibly powerful holocaust story, a tale which throws two families, one Jewish, one catholic, into turmoil.

Enduring love is challenged by the horrors of war, and the writer makes you care about each and every character.

It is not so much about the victims of the holocaust itself, as those on the edge of it, experiencing the heartache of it all, without the actual physical contact.

The Luck of the Weissensteiners is the first of a planned trilogy, the complete work looking set to become a classic of our time.

This is not a book that you will read and immediately forget. The effects of it will linger on, and that is the mark of a truly talented author.

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany in 1970 as the son of a Sudeten-German father and a Bavarian mother. Not a full local in the eyes and ears of his peers he developed an ambiguous sense of belonging and home in Bavaria.

He moved to Hamburg in pursuit of his studies and to lead a life of literary indulgence. After a few years he moved on to the UK where he is still resident today. ‘The Luck of The Weissensteiners’ is his first published work.

He has written several other novels which are in the later stages of editing and finalisation.

MAXIMUS, WARTS AND ALL  by ROBIN LEVIN

This could be described as a fictional book without fictional characters. Everyone in it was real once, everything they did is gleaned from what was written down at the time. Whether what was written down at the time was true or not is another matter, and that’s what probably pulls Maximus, Warts and All towards fiction. That and the fact that Robin Levin puts such a glorious spin upon the book, which is a sort of pseudo-autobiography. But there are still enough facts to ensure that history is not too distorted.

It is the story of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucossus Cunctator as he would have told it, but I doubt he could have told it as well as Robin Levin.Its a story in which we get to know Maximus intimately. What sort of person he is, how he developed as a person from tender yerars to his ‘current’ senior status of sevent seven years.

Maximus was given a scarab beetle by his grandfather at the age of six as a good luck charm and it seems  to have served its purpose well over the years.

Throughout his years Maximus was a great soldier and leader of men, who always gave his all. . He was a key player in the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. To him this was an obvious thing to do. Indeed, he identified that the difference between Rome and Carthage at war, was that the Romans put their hearts and souls into the war effort and the Carthaginians did not.

Maximus did not deem himself ready to retire from the front line until the grand old age of seventy three when he decided he was no longer in any condition to lead an army.

Readers with an interest in Roman history are going to love the chance to listen to the life story of a significant Roman by listening to the man himself. Those with no such interest may try this book to whet their appetite, but could well find it a bit heavy going.

Robin Levin was born in Baltimore MD in 1949. She and her family moved to California in 1957. Her father was a chemical engineer and her mother was a technical editor. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1971 with an A.B. degree in anthropology and zoology, and completed training as a medical technologist in 1974. She is divorced with one adult daughter. She recently retired and spends much of her time reading and writing. She has had a strong interest in ancient history from childhood and her historical fiction works specialize in ancient Greece and Rome

THE PISACHAS RETRIBUTION by LEE CUSHING

Taking the law into your own hands is not without its consequences. If the boys in blue are called in, they start off a process where justice is, hopefully, eventually dispensed. If you decide on the D.I.Y. version, the baddies will come looking for you.

Forrest King prefers the ‘Do It Yourself” route. He dispenses with the need for restraint, trial and imprisonment, and bundles it all up in one gory package. He does the lot and it makes him feel good. It makes the reader, who may feel that society goes a bit easy on baddies, feel good too. But, a word of warning, King’s methods are not really for the squeamish. His accomplice, Catherine Jordan, is a bit more reasonable, and, in that sense, does try to apply brakes to him occasionally.

His wrath is incensed when henchmen working for an evil Mr Big, Stefano Balesi take an evening off and rape and abuse two innocent young ladies for fun. Step over Forrest King’s line and you die.

King and Jordan invade Balesi’s private Greek Island, see off the rapists and escape by speedboat. Job done! I’ve covered this scene in sixteen words, but it deserves more. It certainly gets more in the book and reminds me very much of an action packed Xbox game.

This whole scenario incenses Balesi who turns his attentions to  King and his accomplice and, in the words of George W. Bush, decides to “smoke ‘em out”.

But that’s just the start of this action packed story. King, an all action hero, and Balesi, so ruthless that his employees commit suicide if they fail him, lock horns. What makes it worse for King is that Balesi is part of a weird cult whose choice of weapon is a chain saw, and whose dietary requirements are quite unusual. Also, they’re rather unpleasant individuals who are not easy to kill. King becomes inadvertently involved in the death of one of these disciples and if you thought Balesi was upset before, watch out now, it’s red mist time!

I won’t spoil things by divulging more. needless to say this is a fast-moving page turner that I really enjoyed. Short, but not so sweet.

Go on, try it.

Lee Cushing is a pen name that is a combination of the great Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

He is an amateur student of the occult, folklore, witchcraft and anything else that is unexplained.

GRIM REAPING by ANTHONY LUND

This is a wonderfully funny story about Grim Alfonso Reaper , who has been in the business of collecting souls since the days of creation. He has always had a pretty steady life in that respect, but just as people in comfortable careers often become aware of knife-sharpeneers behind them, Grim has to start looking behind his back.

He was made aware of the need to do this by Boris, a deceased arthritis-ridden gravedigger. Grim often needs to talk to the Dead you see. It’s his job. On this occasion, he  probably wished he hadn’t. Boris told Grim that he had dug a grave for him. He wasn’t very specific as to why, but he did start Grim on a journey of discovery – to discover who was out to get him. Who was trying to kill death itself.

The journey starts when he visits the recently deceased Mr Bones, the ex Boris’s ex boss. This is an exceptionally funny passage that shows the extent of Anthony Lund’s humour. Mr Bones, having died by way of  chainsaw, literally lies in bits when approached by Grim, who asks, “Which part of you would you like me to speak to”? Priceless. And the conversation gets better. Having ascertained from Mr Bones that the gang out to get him are simply called the Wee, Grim has to grapple really hard with this. “How can it just be the Wee? I may not be fluent in the tongue of Scotland, but I have often heard of the wee one, wee Jimmy and the wee Bastard. so what wee are they?” Humour not dissimilar to Terry Pratchett’ Disc World here.

The conversational humour in this book is exquisite and you would have to be a pretty miserable reader not to find it ‘laugh out loud’ funny. I enjoyed it that much that, despite my onerous workload reviewing lots and lots of books, I’m going to read it again very soon. Loved it!

Anthony has a personal library of over 1000 books in every genre from humour to horror to fantasy to thriller.

His hobbies include cinema, rock music, playing guitar (almost) and writing songs and slumping in front of the TV. His true TV loves are every crime drama from “Wire in the Blood” to “Midsomer Murders”, every comedy from “Only Fools and Horses” to “The Simpsons”, and not so secretly “Eastenders”.

Anthony also has something of an acquired taste in collectibles. His wide array of oddities include a large collection of Gremlin replicas, eight Grim Reapers, two Homer Simpsons, a collection of Roland Rat soft toys and a self-made life-sized working puppet of Animal from The Muppets.

He lives in a rural village with his wife and daughter.

PIE: An Old Brown Horse (That knows What He’s Doing) by Kandy Kay Scaramuzzo

Pie narrates this story, a true story about his very full and varied life, an autobiography if you like.

Pie would not be out of place as a guest on one of Piers Morgan Life Stories, and would certainly be more interesting than some who have trodden that hallowed path.

We are treated to all aspects of the horse’s personality. We are there with him when he firmly trains a young horse in the art of wrangling. We are there when he gets into a gory battle with an enraged bull.

We share his joy as he makes a new friend, Dusty, and finds a new owner, a young girl who he refers to as ‘the little one’. We share his grief when he loses his best pal to a brain tumour.

Pie introduces us to many other horses during this tale, all different, all interesting in their own way, some having pet hates, pardon the pun, such as snakes, some suffering from mishaps they had encountered in the past. Often their owners did nor realise the problems that their horses were suffering from, and it was left to the horses and their friends to assert themselves.

All in all, an interesting introduction to a horse’s world. A book which horse lovers of all ages, and there are lots of them, will enjoy.

For me, who can take or leave a horse (don’t tell Tesco that),  an easy going romp, which whilst leaving me with a pretty decent feel good factor, did not tax my emotions as much as I would have liked.

Kandy Kay Scaramuzzo is a seventh generation Texan. She has taught in alternative education for over twenty years. Ms. Scaramuzzo is a member of the 2012 Strathmore’s Who’s Who. She has a BA in Criminology and a MAedCT. She works in horse,dog, cat and snake rescues.

Ms. Scaramuzzo has been a tester observer for therapy dogs for nine years. She ran a therapy horse program for autistic children for five years. She has been a recognized animal behaviorist for over twenty years. This is her first book about an exceptional horse.

She feels it is important to give back to maintain the balance of a civilized society.

THE LANCE by ALEX LUKEMAN

Nick Carter is the hero of this thriller, a member of the Project, a clandestine group that answers only to the President of the United States.

He is pitted against a motley crew that wields the Lance, an ancient weapon which chills the blood of the modern world.

It may be an ancient weapon, but we’re not talking battering rams or slings and arrows here. The Lance is in fact the spear that pierced Christ’s side when he was crucified. It is not so much the physical power of the weapon which people dread, more the belief that simply owning this weapon would render the holder unstoppableallow the owner total destiny of the world. This is certainly a theory subscribed to by Himmler in the second world war.

That’s why it was hidden by the Nazis in the frozen wastelands of Antartica.

It is found by the bad guys, who discover what it can do and all hell is let loose.

The action starts as Carter is enjoying a morning coffee in Jerusalem. Let battle commence! The whole square erupts in smoke and flames.

The action rarely abates from thereon, as a group of nazis try to kill the President and irrevocably upset the equilibrium in the Middle East by bombing the most sacred Mosque of Muslims.

Alex Lukeman’s writing style is sharp, punchy and easy to read.His powers of description are immense and succeed with the minimum of words. This brief extract illustrates what I mean:

‘Broken glass and smashed furniture littered the plaza. There was blood on him, but it wasn’t his. Carter took a step and tripped. He looked down at a child’s foot in a blue shoe. It was just a small foot. A piece of white bone stuck out of a pink sock. He bent over and threw up the espresso in a yellow brown stream. The acrid, coppery stench of blood poisoned the clean night air.’

He has you hooked early on and it’s then difficult to put the book down. I enjoyed every minute of it and can’t wait to explore the other books in the Project series:  White Jade, The Seventh Pillar, Black Harvest and The Tesla Secret.

Alex Lukeman is a former Marine and professional musician.

He likes riding old, fast motorcycles, sipping Barbados rum and playing guitar, usually not at the same time.

He writes Action/Adventure Thrillers featuring the PROJECT, a covert Presidential counter-terrorism unit.

Alex lives in the Sierra foothills of Northern California.