Charlie Bray's Blog, page 21

A Christmas Showcase of Indie Books

White Jade by Alex Lukeman

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 intelligence unit. Alex lives in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. You can contact him through his website at

http://www.alexlukeman.com.

WHITE JADE spins a web of deceit and murder across the globe, against the backdrop of a deadly international power game.

Former Recon Marine Nick Carter is a man with a dark history of emotional and physical scars. He works for the PROJECT, a covert counter-terrorism unit reporting to the President. Selena Connor is a beautiful, strong and skilled linguist. When her wealthy uncle is murdered by someone looking for an ancient book about the elixir of immortality, she’s thrown into Nick’s dangerous world.

Nick is assigned to protect Selena and help her recover the missing text. It’s the beginning of a life and death adventure reaching from San Francisco to Beijing, from Washington to the hidden chambers of Tibet. Someone is determined to take over China and attack America–and Nick and Selena are right in the line of fire.

International intrigue, terrorist acts and the threat of nuclear war form the core of this fast-paced thriller, the first volume in a series featuring Nick, Selena and the PROJECT.

Buy White Jade now at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007FIR01M/?tag=funboo04-21 or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007FIR01M/?tag=wwwtheindietr-20

The Death of Carthage by Robin E. Levin

The author 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. Her website is http://thedeathofcarthage.com

The Death of Carthage is an historical fiction novel of the Second and Third Punic wars, fought between Rome and Carthage during the third and second centuries B.C. The events are narrated by four fictional characters, Lucius, a Roman cavalryman, his cousin Enneus, a cavalryman take prisoner at the battle of Trasimene and sold into slavery in Greece, Enneus’s son, Hector, AKA Ectorius, who becomes a translator for the Roman army, and Gillimas, a survivor of the destruction of Carthage. The fictional characters interact with real historical personages such as Scipio Africanus, Fabius Maximus, Cato the elder, Aemilius Paullus and his son, Scipio Aemilianus, and the historian Polybius. The book spans about seventy years, from the invasion of Italy by Hannibal in 218 B.C. to the destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War in 146 B.C. A review by Russell Roberts in The U.S. Review of Books states: “Superbly researched and deftly written, The Death of Carthage is a treat not just for the history lover, but for anyone who enjoys a terrific book.”

Buy The Death of Carthage now at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006WQFLPU/?tag=funboo04-21 or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006WQFLPU/?tag=wwwtheindietr-20

Poems of Living, Loving and Lore by J C Edwards

J C Edwards (Julie Catherine)  is a writer from British Columbia, Canada. Her poems have been published in various anthologies throughout North America, and her debut poetry book, Poems of Living, Loving & Lore, was released in August 2012 under J C Edwards. She is a member of the Society of Classical Poets, Affiliate member of the Association of Independent Authors, participates regularly in online open mic poetry readings and writes the monthly Poetry Corner in AWESOME! Online Magazine, featuring poets from around the world. Julie Catherine is currently working on her first YA novel set in Georgian Bay, Ontario.

This book is a journey through the seasons of life. Living explores the simple beauty of nature, a child’s rapturous delight in rain showers and the beginning of summer; the tragic plight of the homeless, forgotten souls, and our struggles to overcome obstacles and finally have the courage to stand in our own personal power. Loving guides us through deep wells of emotion; the seductive lure of deception, heart-breaking moments of love lost, and glorious heights of passion in love that transcends all. The collection’s finale, Lore, delights the senses in poetic tales of fantasy, myths, legends and fairies. Classical and traditional writing forms impart a haunting, melodic quality that affirms the depth of feelings reflected in the words, engaging us intimately in the sheer beauty of poetry.

Buy Poems of Living, Loving and Lore at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008VQ1PPO/?tag=funboo04-21 or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008VQ1PPO/?tag=wwwtheindietr-20

E-learning 101: It’s Not As Tough As It Looks by Dr Liz Hardy

Dr Liz Hardy is an e-learning specialist who’s helped around 3,000 online learners, from beginners to graduates.

Liz knows that online learning looks pretty tough – especially when you’re just getting started. But she believes a few simple strategies can make all the difference to your learning experience.

Liz shares her passion for learning by offering practical e-learning answers in her book “E-learning 101″ and on her website, ElearningTrainer.com

E-learning 101 is a short, upbeat e-book that presents simple strategies for new adult online learners. It makes e-learning fun instead of terrifying – with the help of lots of pictures of friendly dogs.

Buy E-learning 101 at  http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008E0P1NO/?tag=funboo04-21

or http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008E0P1NO/?tag=wwwtheindietr-20

Sharper Security: A Sovereign Security Company Novel by Thomas Sewell

Thomas Sewell grew up in southern California. He plays, coaches and referees soccer. When he was 13 years old, he graduated from high school and started taking computer electronics courses in college. He was already 6 ft. tall, so no one seemed to notice he was a little young. He had to bum rides to school because he was too young for a driver’s license.

Along the way, he’s founded a private security company, an Internet Service Provider and a K-8 Charter School. He’s served as the National Secretary and been a multi-state founder for the Republican Liberty Caucus. He’s read over ten thousand books. He currently resides south of Phoenix, Arizona, just past the Reservation. Look for the place with the autocab wreckage.

In a near future alternate history, America has split. Sovereign security companies compete in the booming Arizona Zone.
Evie retired as an anti-terrorist detective sergeant and emigrated to escape from Britain. Who is hunting her for revenge?
Evie hires Sam Harper, from Sharper Security, to protect her. Who is her mysterious attacker, plotting from a distance?
How will Sam defeat the soldiers, intrigue and legal maneuvers of his competitors to capture Evie’s nemesis and deliver justice for what really happened in Paris 18 years ago? Answers involving forgiveness and redemption are revealed during a week of mystery, intrigue, technology, heroes, villains, action and adventure in the Sonoran desert.
Oh, and humor. The book definitely has humor. Also some interesting characters. I especially like…. well, just go read the book.

The book has elements of action, adventure, mystery and suspense in the tradition of Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, and Louis L’Amour. It’s set a couple of decades into the near-future with a liberty view of society based on individual choice and free market economics, taken to enough of an extreme to make you consider what’s really possible.

Buy Sharper Security at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A9CI3GM/?tag=funboo04-21 or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A9CI3GM/?tag=wwwtheindietr-20

Silk Legacy by Richard Brawer

Always an avid reader, Richard began writing mystery, suspense and historical fiction novels in 1994.  When not writing, he spends his time sailing and growing roses.  He has two married daughters and lives in New Jersey with his wife. Silk Legacy is the result of Richard’s researching his youth in Paterson, NJ, the silk city, and his years of experience in the textile industry.

In early twentieth century Paterson, New Jersey, dashing twenty-nine year old Abraham Bressler charms naïve nineteen year old Sarah Singer into marriage by making her believe he feels the same way she does about the new calling of a modern woman.  He then turns around and gives her little more respect than he would a servant, demanding she stay home to care for “his” house and “his” children.

Feeling betrayed Sarah defies him and joins women’s groups, actively participating in rallies for woman suffrage, child welfare and reproductive freedom.  For a while she succeeds in treading delicately between the demands of her husband and her desire to be an independent woman.  Her balancing act falters when a strike shuts down Paterson’s 300 silk mills.  With many friends working in the mills, Sarah is forced to choose sides in the battle between her Capitalist husband and his Socialist brother, a union leader who happens to be her best friend’s husband.

Jealousy, infidelity, arrogance, greed—the characters’ titanic struggles will catapult you into the heights of their euphoria and the depths of their despair.  Who will triumph and who will be humbled is not certain until the last page

Readers have said: “His characters are magnificent” “A deft story teller with a knack for plot twists.”  “The Bressler family was made up of flesh-and-blood characters. They laughed, loved, argued, fought, and had adulterous affairs.”  “Dialogues are realistic and serve to emphasize the enormity of the conflict and the high stakes involved.”

Buy Silk Legacy at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003BVJFJW/?tag=funboo04-21 or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003BVJFJW/?tag=wwwtheindietr-20

Guises of Desire by Hilda Reilly

Vienna 1880. A wealthy young Jewish woman, Bertha Pappenheim, falls ill, manifesting a series of bizarre symptoms. Diagnosis hysteria.

Her doctor, Josef Breuer, treats her with hypnosis and a new form of therapy called the ‘talking cure’.

Some of her symptoms abate. At the same time the treatment arouses in Bertha a turmoil of primal emotions which spiral out of control and ultimately lead to the breakdown of her relationship with her doctor.

A vividly imagined account of the case of Bertha Pappenheim –  the ‘Anna O’ whose treatment formed the basis of Freudian psychoanalysis –  Guises of Desire presents the story of a young woman’s struggle to survive a repressive upbringing, neurological disorders, drug addiction and a pathological attachment to the doctor who misdiagnosed her.

Buy Guises of Desire at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A6T0CN0/?tag=funboo04-21 or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A6T0CN0/?tag=wwwtheindietr-20

The Man Who Never Was by Olga Nunez Miret

Olga Núñez Miret is from Barcelona but has lived in the UK for over 20 years.

She is a doctor and her day job is as a Forensic Psychiatrist (not exactly like the profilers in the movies, or anything to do with CSI either). Olga has loved reading and writing since she was a child. She has written a variety of things over the years: short stories (some now disappeared), novels, novellas and plays, in English, Spanish and Catalan.

Her main love is fiction; she has written in a variety of genres (crime, family saga, para-normal, science-fiction…) and she is currently working on a series for young adults.

The first of her books to be published as an e-book was ‘The Man Who Wasn’t There’ also available in Spanish version: ‘El hombre que nunca existió’.

The protagonist, Jesús, is ugly. Extraordinarily ugly. He is so ugly that his friends and relatives are convinced that behind that ugliness there must be something else. A malefic power or possibly a momentous fate. The truth is that fairly special things happen wherever Jesús is. His biological father is a mystery. He only manages to discover that he seems to have fathered quite a few other extremely ugly boys like him during his career. His sister (half-sister) is a child-prodigy who excels at everything she does (writing, career in foreign relations, acting…), his mother becomes the president of the country, his own bank is successful, his best-friend Vero is a computer tycoon, his brother-in-law also makes it in politics…But for all the success and money around him he still feels unsettled. He tries sports, banking, cinema but nothing provides the answers he wants. Who was his father? This is a family saga where everything goes: from politics to retirement homes, from sport to cinema, from adultery to incest but nothing is taken too seriously.

Buy The Man Who Never Was at http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009TWRT22/?tag=funboo04-21 or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009TWRT22/?tag=wwwtheindietr-20

Well, I hope you enjoyed this stunning Christmas Showcase. The next Showcase, to be published in the new year, features work by Christoph Fischer, Starr Gardiner Reina, Michayla Roth, Steven D Malone and Harold Kasselman.

In the meanwhile, I wish you all a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Charlie Bray

Treat yourself to INDIETRIBE GOLD this Christmas

Since I launched INDIETRIBE a few months ago, the tribe has grown and grown. More and more Indie writers join our ranks daily and all are taking advantage of the promotional push we are able to give them.

Writers who saw a tremendous opportunity open up with the advent of ePublishing, quite rightly grabbed the opportunity with both hands. At last they were free from the the lottery of conventional publishing. No more being ignored, no more waiting years whilst their beloved manuscript gathered dust in a gigantic slush pile, only to be rejected cruelly with no explanation. Now they were free to publish their own work as an eBook, at minimal expense.

And so Amazon and their counterparts slowly became flooded by a tidal wave of new eBooks. The reader has never had it so good. He has suddenly been presented with so many affordable books, many of them priced at less than a dollar, that he is overwhelmed, spoilt for choice. He no longer needs to seek out  affordable books – he stumbles across them hourly.

Now this legion of writers who have unwittingly flooded the market, finds that most of these beautiful new books sit on eBookshop shelves unnoticed, unheralded, and certainly not sold.

Unchartered waters these. Nobody made it clear how hard it was going to be to sell an eBook, or even, quite often, how difficult it was going to be to give one away. I, for one, remember feeling ecstatic that my lovely new eBook had found itself 2,000 new homes, all of which had cheerfully downloaded it for nothing. It was never total ecstasy. Something in the back of my mind was rebelling, shrieking, “What’s the point?” Well, of course, ‘they’ would have you believe that the point is that sales would dramatically take off as soon as the free promotion was over. Really? I’m still holding my breath, actually.

This feeling of doom is what inspired me to launch INDIETRIBE. Indie writers clearly needed to find a way for their book to be one of the books that today’s spoilt reader stumbled across hourly. But how do we make readers stumble across books of our choice? Well, by promoting them and their authors effectively. We need to showcase them, to blog about them to find and reach an audience. And that is what INDIETRIBE does. And the early signs are that we are doing so effectively. The premise hinges entirely on the need to attract readers to our website as well as writers. We have been working extremely hard at doing this so that we can promote our members books within our own hub, a hub that is reached by well laid avenues from all the social networking sites. I know that you, our members see the relevance of this hub and all we are trying to achieve for you within it.

Readers are responding to our promotion and marketing, but we need to shout louder, to take it to another level.

And that’s where INDIETRIBE GOLD comes in. We want to make sure that these readers are tripping over your books and I am confident that INDIETRIBE GOLD will achieve this.

How does this sound? What if we were to independently review your book and publish our review not only to the INDIETRIBE pages, but also to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Goodreads, Linkedin and Facebook. What if we were to review your website or blog each quarter and make sure that review was published on the same social media sites? What if we were to offer you a guest blog post on INDIETRIBE once a quarter so you could promote whatever was important to you at the time? Again this would also be covered on Goodreads, Linkedin and Facebook. What if we were to offer you the chance to be interviewed on the INDIETRIBE pages, so that you could get any point across that you liked?

Well we can offer you all this and much more through our new INDIETRIBE GOLD membership. Now I can’t do this for free. I’ve just relinquished all other employment to concentrate on making INDIETRIBE a major force in the eBook revolution. I need a small revenue stream to survive. But the annual subscription of £30 (approx $48 US Dollars) shouldn’t break too many budgets and you should recoup far more than that during the course of your twelve months subscription.

So think about signing up now so I can start all these benefits rolling for you. Simply click on this link and you’re on the way to becoming an INDIETRIBE GOLD MEMBER

Let me make it quite clear to any members who simply want to  retain their free membership. You will continue to enjoy the benefits of your membership and we will continue to work unstintingly for you to ensure that your book(s) enjoys great success.

Well thanks everyone for bearing with me during this diatribe and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and an extremely prosperous new year.

Seven More Indie Books Showcased

Indie publishing continues to flourish and INDIETRIBE is proud to showcase the work of all the hard working self-published authors throughout the English speaking world. Here are seven more Indie books for you to read and enjoy.

The Wampum Exchange by Rosemary Mckinley

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Rosemary McKinley began writing to both entertain and inspire others. Her book, 101 Glimpses of the North Fork and Islands was released in 2009. Her short stories, essays and poems have been published online by the Visiting Nurse Association of Long Island and in Lucidity, LI Sounds, Clarity, canvasli.com, Peconic Bay Shopper, Fate Magazine, Examination Anthology, Wormwood Press, Newsday, and The Poet’s Arts.

Her Y/A historical novella, The Wampum Exchange has just been released on amazon.com.

Blog–http://dreamlady-rosemarymckinley.blo...

Set in 1650, Southold, New York, a twelve-year-old boy has a chance meeting with a Native American boy from Fort Corchaug and their worlds connect in a most interesting way. The tale is told through their daily lives, giving the reader a glimpse into the culture of early America. Middle grade readers, as well as adults would enjoy reading this story.

This is a short, fun little story about life in 1650 in Southold, New York. It looks like Ms. McKinley put a lot of time into researching life in that area and in that time period, and it shows in this story. There are some fun facts about the time period woven into the storyline, and I think it’s a great way to teach children history. They are learning and they don’t know it! I didn’t know much about the wampum and so it was fun for me to learn as well. The story is written in a very simple style, but that makes it easy to read. The characters are fairly well developed, and the setting is well described. There are some really good descriptions in the story.

I enjoyed reading this story and will most likely read it to my kids. I have it in e-reader format, so it’s not one I can just hand

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over to them to read. It will be a good time to talk about life during that time period and discuss our country’s history, which I definitely enjoy doing. This would be a really good story for elementary school children to read in class, or have read to them. You get a fun story and history included! Of course, it is historical fiction, but it’s based on as much fact as Ms. McKinley could find. I liked this story and recommend it, especially to teachers and younger readers.

Rating: G Clean!

Recommendation: Third grade and up.  This would be a great silent read or read-aloud book.

The Man With the Green Suitcase by Dee Doanes

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This is the first fiction novel by Dee Doanes. She has previously published short stories and poetry. She has a deep passion for writing and has been writing since the age of five.

Doanes has a background in copywriting, communications, and social media. She’s active in several charities and conducts a youth poetry workshop for the Atlanta Writers Club Youth Writing Camp, and is the former co-chair of the Writing in the Schools Program for Georgia Writers.

Doanes lives in Atlanta, Georgia and enjoys spending time with her daughter and parents. Her mother encouraged her to read and to be creative while growing up. In her spare time she enjoys attending writing events and workshops, fitness training, collecting art, world travel, and gourmet cooking.

What does a prostitute, a corrupt businessman, and a disfigured young woman have in common with a mysterious, old

homeless man who carries a green suitcase?

The old man comes into people’s lives because it is important for them to experience the visions that he is somehow able to

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show them—visions that even he doesn’t understand. But whoever he connects with will go through a transformation that will change the course of their life, for better or worse. The old man has no memory of who he is or even what the suitcase holds.

This story is magical realism, realistic with paranormal elements, a mystery that needs to be solved, and a man and woman who will finally realise that they were meant to come into each other’s lives and remain forever.

Road Kill by CM Spencer

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Always a voracious reader, I cut my teeth on Nancy Drew mysteries before moving on to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Jane Austen. I met my husband, a singer/actor/university professor, while working as an administrative assistant at a university. He didn’t actually say “Marry me and see Canada,” but that’s practically what happened. We have lived on the west coast in Vancouver, on the east coast in St. John’s Newfoundland, and we’re currently living in Calgary, Alberta with our two daughters.

I’ve written a cozy mystery with an amateur sleuth set in the Rocky Mountain Foothills of Alberta. It’s the first in the Anna Nolan series, entitled ROAD KILL, coming in October 2012. I’m currently working on the sequel, TOWN HAUNTS. I’ve also written two historical romances set in England after the Napoleonic wars which I intend to publish in December 2012.

After breaking free of her philandering ex-husband, former stage actress Anna Nolan had to rebuild her entire life. It just

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figures that now that she’s gotten her son off to university and settled into a low-drama life in the Alberta Foothills, the philanderer’s turned up again. But even knowing Jack’s flair for drama, she never expected to trip over him starring as a corpse on a country road!

Anna becomes the principal suspect in the murder investigation when RCMP Sergeant Charles Tremaine – tall, blond, cool, and nine years her junior – discovers that she’s the beneficiary of a fat insurance policy. With Tremaine hot on her heels and too suspicious of her son’s alibi by half, Anna tracks down the three very different women Jack was romancing on a local movie set: a kind-hearted but intellectually-challenged extra, an egocentric leading lady with a jealous husband, and a strong-willed stunt woman. But Anna had better step on it because there’s more danger careening around the bend.

 Puppeteer, Troubles, and Red Gold. Three books by Ian J Miller

I am a semi-retired chemist, PhD from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and during this PhD my results came out on the wrong side of a scientific debate that was going on at the time. This story is being told on my scientific blog http://my.rsc.org/blogs/84  from October, 2012 onwards.

About 1990, with spare time, thanks to the financial crisis, I began rewriting a future history, and this is now being self-published as ebooks, three of which are currently available. More details from http://www.ianmiller.co.nz

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Puppeteer.    With oil running out, society faces a new threat: terrorists deploying genuinely advanced technology. A raid sent to neutralize such terrorists goes horribly wrong, and when Lieutenant-Colonel John Maxwell failed to cover up the incompetence from his commanding General he knew he was facing trouble. When was given a totally ridiculous counterterrorism assignment, in which he was to pretend to be a terrorist, he felt his reward was to be sent out to graze. He was wrong. His General planned to eliminate the dangerous terrorist he was ordered to become. When Garry Sutherland saves a woman from terror-thieves, and when the thieves are captured, a sniper who has already hit a 1-inch pipe dead centre lightly wounds him. Little does he know that the subsequent offer to search for undersea mineral deposits on remote Kerguelen is also

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part of a plan that could destroy trillions of dollars of infrastructure and possibly kill tens of millions of people. Maxwell, however, begins to realize that he is being manipulated. He kept arriving “just in time” to deal with terrorists. Military men sent to assassinate him were killed “just in time”.  As he realizes he is being led closer to a technological genius set on a most terrifying path, he has to ask himself why, and what can he do to prevent the disaster?

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Troubles.  The invention of fusion power in 2151 permits economic recovery from decades of anarchy where law and order has been privatized and either totally corrupted, or, as happened in the Green Zone, locally enforced by an expert sniper, Lawrence Foster. David Sheldon sees this as an opportunity to acquire wealth and power by any means. Lawrence’s daughter, Suzie, leaves the Green Zone and becomes part of a movement to have all the economy incorporated in a few giant corporations, and she uses a machine pistol to help her. Henry Adams had an ill-fated crush on Suzie, and when Lawrence dies, he has become a

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capable sniper, but he remains in the Green Zone and attempts to return it to free enterprise and proper law and order. When David and Suzie focus their attention on the Green Zone, only one can survive.

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Red Gold.   David Gill has trouble selling food to the hungry, but when, in the early summer of 2075, he arrives in Los Angeles to seal a deal, he realizes his troubles are getting very much worse, very quickly. His business associates, Moonbeam Enterprises, have registered him for the first settlement of Mars, largely to get themselves out of difficulties with a giant corporation, who will finance him. He is shot at more than once, but perhaps his biggest problem involves a mercurial Jacqui Tennant, a Space Corps pilot, who desperately wants to keep the large corporations off Mars. When on Mars, David’s troubled marriage disintegrates when his wife takes up with Robbie, encounters with Jacqui become increasingly unpredictable, then David becomes aware that Robbie’s objective is to create a Mars bubble through stock floats of little value on Earth. Then, when David makes a totally unexpected discovery that guarantees the settlement will be successful, he also learns that Moonbeam is floating his discovery. David must stop this fraud, but there is a problem: Newall has smuggled the only guns on

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Mars and men to use them.

The story is full of action in unusual environments, but it also shows the anatomy of a particular type of fraud, and shows some of the signs of what to look for.  An appendix outlines an alternative theory of planetary formation that explains the discovery in simple language for those interested.

Now it Begins by Gary Markwick

“As the world is changing fast, a great shift of universal energy is taking place. Some of us are aware of this and are ready to move forward and leave behind an old world that has suffered from greed, selfishness, anger, blame and hatred. This means, raising our vibration of energy from within and connecting with one another on a higher and faster frequency that is happening now on this planet. For some this is inconceivable and for others the transformation has already begun.” (Gary Markwick – ‘Now it Begins’)

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Gary is an international professional Palmist, Psychic, Usui Reiki & Karuna Reiki Master / Teacher and Spiritual Healer. He holds qualifications in Hypnotherapy, NLP, Past Life Regression, smoking cessation and Trauma Therapy and is a trainer in the Law of Attraction

Gary’s aim is to help and show people how to find positive resources and intentions, by using one’s own skills in obtaining the full potentiality that exists within our life. He believes that through positive thinking and the Laws of Attraction we can bring forward endless possibilities into our lives.

Gary has appeared on Sky TV (your Destiny) and on BBC Radio 4 live with a studio audience,

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hosted by Marcus Brigstocke of ‘Have I Got News For You’ and reading the hands of celebrity and comedian Phil Jupitus of; ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks and QI fame’. Gary has also had write ups in local and national newspapers (News of The World – reading Barack Obama`s hand print before his electoral campaign), and has given many readings at various corporate events. In the realms of palmistry, many have described Gary as being very accurate. He has read the hands of thousands of people from around the world and from all occupations, backgrounds and nationalities.

In 2010 Gary wrote and completed his first book – called ‘NOW IT BEGINS’ – Available to order from Waterstones, W H Smiths, Amazon and bookshops throughout the UK. Now it Begins is also available in ebook worldwide.

See: http://www.garymarkwick.com

Now It Begins is a comprehensive self-help book that draws upon personal testimony, professional guidance and the best of New Age thinking to empower people to fully take control of their lives.

Split into 10 distinct “phases” it systematically tackles some of life’s biggest and most personal questions about identity and interconnectivity, love and fear, and choice and destiny. Arguing that most of us are trapped in a harmful illusionary world of our own subconscious creation, Gary urges readers to break the mental chains holding them back and by exercising the gift of choice take responsibility for their own future happiness.

The author is there every step of the way to provide a clear and accessible path through the clutter of negative thoughts and day-to-day distractions on to the end goal of self-realisation. At the heart of the title is the simple assertion that once you can let go of illusion and draw upon a more fundamental, universal source of motivation, then you will reconnect with your true purpose on earth.

Illustrated throughout with ancient learning and pithy stories that gently bring home the important points being made, Now It Begins will consistently inspire and encourage people on their exciting journey to freedom and fulfilment.

The world is now on the verge of a great spiritual awakening and everybody owes it to themselves, and their neighbours, to tap into the limitless energy of the moment and bring about a lasting change for the better.

So, that’s this week’s showcase selction. I think you’ll agree that it represents  quite a variety. Still, they say variety is the spice of life.

Apologies to J.C.Edwards and Dr Liz Hardy for running out of space this week. Their books will be included next week, together with books by Thomas Sewell, Richard Brawer, Hilda Reilly, Robert E Levin and Olga Nunez Miret.

Please keep visiting INDIETRIBE and happy  reading!

Hop on, Hop off INDIETRIBE’s Novel Writing Bus

Jump aboard the INDIETRIBE bus

Writing a novel from start to finish is a long, complicated process. It’s a brave, and perhaps deluded, writer who believes no help is required along the way.

Some writers seek help at the very outset, some all the way through and some at the very end, because  the novel writing journey is laced with problems to be overcome. Rather like a good novel itself really.

To help Indie writers in their quest to be successful novelists, INDIETRIBE has provided a bus to travel the entire journey, a bus which you are free to hop on and off, in line with your requirements. Ticket prices vary depending which bus stops you decide to use, but one thing is for sure – all prices are exceptionally competitive.

So let’s study the route the INDIETRIBE bus takes, together with the bus stops available to you:

Bus stop 1 – Getting the journey underway

You have thought of a brilliant idea for a novel, have the characters and plot worked out in your head, but, for whatever reason, have stalled and do not know how to progress your book from that point on.

Take your ticket here: http://theindietribe.wordpress.com/150-plot-planner/  Jump aboard and let INDIETRIBE provide you with a scene by scene, chapter by chapter, detailed synopsis of how your story should unfold.

Bus stop 2 – Making sure you’re equipped for the journey

You have completed the first draft of your novel, and, despite friends and beta readers assuring you that the book is flawless and ready to go, you have doubts. Is the plot strong enough, are the characters rounded enough, does the story sag in the middle, are there holes in the plot, do loose ends need tying up, is there a lack of continuity?

Thank goodness you’re at an INDIETRIBE bus stop. Hold tight and trust us to polish your book until it can hold its own in the company of best sellers. Here is your ticket: http://theindietribe.wordpress.com/story-analysis/

Bus stop 3 – Dot those i’s and cross those t’s

Your second draft is now complete, but even though you’ve read it until the words have faded on the page, you are not certain that your spelling, grammar and punctuation will stand up to scrutiny. You can read those negative Amazon reviews now and hear your colleagues chuckling at how anyone could publish a book with so many mistakes in it.

Don’t take the risk, jump on the bus now and get them all corrected. Here’s your ticket: http://theindietribe.wordpress.com/story-proof-reader/

Bus stop 4 – Press the button and publish your book

Oh were it that simple.

You’ve written your book, had it edited, and proof read, and amended it accordingly. You’ve also got a completed front cover you’d like to use. It’s now perfect and ready to upload to Amazon so you can start reaping the benefits.

It is this final piece of the jigsaw that often presents the writer with a problem. The uploading of your masterpiece to Amazon kindle can be a pain, either because writers have too little time available to undertake this process, or because they don’t feel confident to tackle it alone.

But get on that bus and the problem will become an ex-problem. A deceased irritant. A painless pain.

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.

Grab your ticket here and let the INDIETRIBE bus take the strain. http://theindietribe.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/upload-to-amazon-the-last-piece-of-the-jigsaw/

Bus stop 5 – Flaunt it, don’t hide it

You’re reaching the end of the journey, but this last stage is the most important of all. Catch the bus here and make sure your book is viewed by as many eyes as possible. And the good news is you don’t need to buy a ticket at this bus stop. As long as you’ve purchased at least one ticket from INDIETRIBE during the journey, you can have this one on us.

Here’s what we’ll do for you and your book: As soon as your book is published, we will promote it avidly via INDIETRIBE and our social media sites such as Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, and review your book positively under a Brand New Indie Books section on INDIETRIBE.  If you decide to take advantage of the five day free promotion facility offered by Kindle Direct Publishing, we will heavily promote your book on each day it is offered free.

The biggest disappointment in a new author’s writing career is watching his book just sit on Amazon with no sales and no interest. This is usually because no-one even knows it’s there. We will make sure that does not happen, so get on our bus now.

So that’s it, folks. That’s the magical mystery tour that the INDIETRIBE bus takes. Hop on and off as you will, but please make sure you join us on some part of the journey and ensure that your book joins the greats!

A Sparkling Showcase of Indie Books

Welcome to our second showcase of Indie talent. More wonderful books for you to enjoy.

Live Your Life in a Crap Free Zone by Ethan Holmes

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Ethan Holmes is a rural Pennsylvania-bred author currently residing in Northern Arizona. Ethan realized in his mid-teens that people enjoyed his writing enough for him to see poetry and songs published. This graduated into short story writing, advertising production, article writing and later magazine features. Approximately ten years ago Ethan took on the challenge of his first novel, Earth’s Blood. Ethan Holmes has since written and published his second novel, titled The Keystone. It is a murder mystery centered in a dilapidated hotel in North Scranton, Pennsylvania; a place the late Harry Chapin once politely described as “that coal scarred city”. Ethan Holmes just released a new title, Live Your Life in a Crap Free Zone. It gives the reader a revealing and often humorous look at the relationships in our lives.

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When he is not writing Ethan pursues such varied interests as twelve string guitar, Civil War history, most sports, reading and fitness. Ethan Holmes also pursues his passion for Nature photography as well as organic baking and cooking.

More of Ethan Holmes, his interests, background and examples of his work may be found at his website: http://www.ethanholmes.com or at his podcast/blog site, http://podcast.ethanholmes.com

Life is full of choices which set us upon a certain path in every single category of our existence whether it is what we do for a living, what we own or want to own and who our friends and family are. Everything from media advertising to your upbringing as a child invites you to come over and sit in a warm tub of crap to help you make those choices. Want, need, should have and must have live right next door to inadequacy, perceptions of self-worth and what others think of you. What would your life be like if you started making different choices? What would happen if you stopped accepting invitations to sit in other people’s tubs of crap and stopped issuing them to others?

Read the well-received Live Your Life in a Crap Free Zone by Ethan Holmes to see if it’s time for you to make different choices and travel a different path.

Seeking Samiel by Catherine Jordan

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Catherine Jordan is a wife and mother of five children.  Born in Indiana, she lived many years in the South, and was raised in Northeastern PA.  As graduate of Penn State University with a BS in Finance and Statistics, she has been writing stories since she learned to hold a pencil.  Catherine writes in different genres, and strives to write thought-provoking, consequential stories.   She loves family, traveling, good food, great stories, and writing.  She does what she loves.

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From the very beginning the format is quite interesting, taking us carefully step by step into the web of false luxury, the evil perception of comfort. Never talking of religion or Gods, Catherine Jordan gives a home to Satan in South Africa. We are abused lands, Africa and America, two continents away from the conception of demons, but suffering Satan’s effects. Eva recovers the concept of Reincarnation from Dionysius and Zoroaster, the elevation of Buddha.  She takes the battle from London to South Africa.  The anti-Christ moves away from the human horrors in Europe, because they will come to her. Satan is a good host, and Eva will reincarnate and never have old blood.  She will always have a new incomer in need of pleasure and the weak facing temptations. Too much to see, too much to learn, and too much to laugh, reading Mrs. Jordan.

I can see the lady walking up and down wearing only one shoe; I understand the concern about the Ozone during the exorcism. I love green eyes, and I am weak and easily tempted.

The William S Club by Riley Banks 

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With over fifteen years in journalism, Riley Banks knows how to tell a tale or two, and can hook an audience and keep them hooked to the very last word. Her sexy contemporary novels are similar in style and pace to Jackie Collins and Sidney Sheldon and are full of passion, scandals, drama, corruption, affairs, murders, glamor, suspense, raunchy sex, heartache, secrets, blackmail, exotic locations and occasionally, true love. Her characters are big, bold and so real, they will feel like they are there, in the room with you as you read her stories.

For more information on Riley and her books, go to http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B009BDA8IG
Or visit Riley’s website, http://www.rileybanks.net

The William S Club tells the story of Charlotte Burke, who changed her name and fled Australia, swearing never to return. Now in London, working as a journalist for The Daily Telegraph, Charlotte has put her old life behind her; a life scarred by memories of her mother’s suicide and her father’s criminal history. When the Harvey Corporation invites Charlotte to take part in an exclusive press trip, she has no idea her past is about to come crashing into her present.

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The William S Club, the shadowy power brokers at the helm of the Harvey Empire, will use Charlotte to draw out her father, who worked for Harvey Incorporated before being imprisoned. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, plunging Charlotte into a dangerous cat and mouse game played across three continents, leading Charlotte ever closer to Sydney and their ultimate showdown.

With a dangerous psychopath on the loose and the bodies piling up, Charlotte turns to Damon Harvey, hoping he is nothing like his dangerous relatives. Can she trust him or is he just another cog in The William S Club’s deadly game?

Headwind by Christopher Hudson

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I was born and raised in Michigan. I have been an “on-and-off denizen of cubeville, ” working for several major training and marketing firms, producing scores of industrial films and training programs. Mercifully released into the wild, I’ve devoted my time to creative writing, resulting in two novels, two feature screenplays, several short stories and video scripts.

To learn more about HEADWIND, and me, visit www.northerncrossonline.com

If you’re on vacation, fly coach. If you’re on business, fly first-class. If you’re on a mission, fly with Mickey.

Tony Boccaccio is after a bag of cash that he believes is his. Max Burke thinks otherwise and has hired two couriers to take the money to California.

Mickey Soto is a commercial pilot hauling freight and instructing students from a small, Florida airport. Tony hires Mickey and his airplane to go after the couriers. Mickey thought his days of flying illegal cargo were behind him, but the lure of easy money and his policy of ‘don’t ask/don’t tell’ cause him to add to his history of poor decisions.

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Tony’s cousin, Gina, jumps in to help, and the three of the end up in a desperate cross-crountry race that leads to a West Coast pier and a fateful decision by Tony that impacts their lives in ways that none of them could have foreseen.

Headwind is about crime and double-crosses and narrow escapes, but at it’s core it is about the choices that are made and  relationships that form when people from vastly different backgrounds experience the stress of extraordinary experiences.”

Lessons: The Wisdom Within Each Moment by Teresa Sue McAdams

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Teresa Sue McAdams’ articles have appeared in various newsletters, publications and blogs. She teaches classes on meditation, spirituality and tai chi and has been an intuitive counselor for over thirty years. Teresa’s undergraduate work was in journalism and psychology and she earned a doctorate in 2006. She has sought answers all of her life and sometimes sees them in every ordinary moment. Teresa lives across the river from Louisville, Kentucky, USA with her husband, Ben and two cat friends, Thai and Lily.

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In this inspiring account life is seen as a series of serendipitous events that prove everything does happen for a reason. The Universe offers each of us unlimited opportunities to learn and grow. Unfortunately most of us are unable or unwilling to perceive this wealth of information available to us. In “Lessons, The Wisdom within Each Moment”, author Teresa Sue McAdams draws on her own experiences and illuminates how ordinary moments in everyday life can be extraordinary. Over one hundred stories about growing up, family, friends, and the wisdom of mischievous cats.  These enlightening stories are tender and poignant yet laced with humorous wit that makes it impossible to choose a favorite. The truths they contain will stir within you your own memories and reveal the powerful, previously unnoticed lessons that those events have to teach you.

Colour of Lemon Surrender 1940 by Geoff Howe

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Some years ago, I was asked to write a series of newspaper articles about a former police officer from Wales who was a British spy during WW2. I had opened a Welsh Pandora’s Box, reading about the Druid, a German agent who was never caught. What other black secrets were to be uncovered in the Principality?

Knowing too many secrets is a dangerous game. One of my family, who served in army intelligence, died young.

Is this the last black secret of World War Two? A surrender treaty is on its way to London in 1940. Prime Minister Churchill hires an ex-Blackshirt and gangster to stop his wavering ministers from signing. Or is the treaty a feint to distract attention from a Nazi-inspired uprising in Wales?

Jimmy Sowerbutt has his hands full, running a lucrative black market operation in east London. Now the clock is ticking to get hold of the peace treaty and find the Welsh ringleaders as the Germans across the Channel stand ready to invade.

Tiny beads of blood stood out as milestones along the hair’s-breadth trail across the white throat as the ex-Blackshirt begins work with his trusty knife … read on.

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One reviewer said: “’Colour of Lemon smacks of the old spy novels of the Len Deighton and John le Carre era with a refreshing modern tone. A very dry, witty and intelligent must-read.”

The Lambsridge Wolves by Chrissie Parkes

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Chrissie Parkes writes real stories for young adults. Inspirations come from nature, families and, of course, wolves.

Even though you think you can spot them, wolves are masters of disguise. They use stealth and camouflage to pass undetected through our world.  Although they choose to avoid humans at all costs, beware. Sometimes they take an interest in one or two special people.

But then again, as we’re all finding out, it’s not the wolves you need to be afraid of…

“The girl stares at the church door, unsure how she has ended up in this place.  Above, the clear night sky is black as fear, while pale mist curls between the trees, low and sinister.  It snakes around her ankles, as if to pull her back into the darkness from whichthey are coming.

Clouds gather overhead to hide the awful truth of what is to come.  Turning slowly, the girl’s mind empties as she prepares for their arrival.” 

Hazel’s family history is firmly rooted in the tiny, Welsh farming village of Lambsridge.  She dreams of a life of excitement in the outside world, but when the old traditions begin to threaten the lives of her family, she can no longer deny the dark and menacing danger waiting for her in the woods at the top of the hill.

It’s called ‘The Reservation’ – a place where wolves roam wild behind a secure wire fence.  Shunned by the town kids and bullied at school, Hazel desperately tries to uncover the secrets lurking within and save her family.  But will she get to the truth before it destroys them all?

The Lambsridge Wolves chronicles the first dramatic episode in Hazel’s life, revealing the family heritage that will forever alter her future.  Fans of suspense, mystery or paranormal stories will love this tale of secret traditions, loyalty and betrayal, all set against the realistic day-to-day backdrop of secondary school life.

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So that’s it for another week, folks. I hope you enjoyed reading about this current crop of Indie Books and decide to spend a couple of quid treating yourself. Next week look forward to more books, this time from Rosemary McKinley, Dee Doanes, CM Spencer, Ian J Miller, Gary Markwick, JC Edwards and Dr Liz Hardy

Happy reading, Charlie

Upload to Amazon – the last piece of the jigsaw

You’ve written your book, had it edited, and proof read, and amended it accordingly. You’ve also got a completed front cover you’d like to use. It’s now perfect and  ready to upload to Amazon so you can start reaping the benefits.

By talking to many writers, I have learned that it is the final piece of the jigsaw that often presents the writer with a problem. The uploading of your masterpiece to Amazon kindle can be a pain, either because writers have too little time available to undertake this process, or because they don’t feel confident to tackle it alone.

As a response to this need, INDIETRIBE has launched its Upload to Amazon service to members. 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.

And INDIETRIBE  being INDIETRIBE, we won’t stop there. As soon as your book is published, we will promote it avidly via INDIETRIBE and our social media sites such as Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, and review your book positively under a Brand New Indie Books section on INDIETRIBE.  If you decide to take advantage of the five day free promotion facility offered by Kindle Direct Publishing, we will heavily promote your book on each day it is offered free.

And what do we charge INDIETRIBE members for all this?  A very modest £65 ($99) one off payment.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this comprehensive offer, which is designed not only to publish your book for you, but also to promote it avidly, please email Charlie Bray at  c_bray1@sky.com  with details of your book and any queries. Charlie would love to talk to any member interested in INDIETRIBE’s major new service.

SHOWCASE – 7 Great Indie Books Now Available

Welcome to a new regular feature which showcases Indie books published by INDIETRIBE members. What a great way to uncover those hidden diamonds and treat yourself to a great read or two. Each front cover links directly to Amazon so you can buy straight away with no fuss.

First off, four great books by:

Barbara Griffin Villemez, Author, Psychotherapist, Clinical Hypnotherapist, University Instructor, now living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA

Dreaming Dark – Fiction Novel: Romantic Suspense with a paranormal twist

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Dreaming Dark is an exciting suspense tale and romantic love story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The story takes place both in Minoan Crete in the 1500’s BCE and in present day Dallas. Catelyn O’Connor, psychologist has flashbacks to an ancient era. She meets Mitch Stafford, paranormal investigator and he convinces her that she is having episodes from a past life. They feel they know each other and become involved in a passionate love affair. People close to Cate are murdered and the police believe that Cate is next.  Someone from Cate’s ancient past is determined to kill her. The last chapter is a heart stopper with a twist as Cate fights for her life. This is a story that one will have a hard time putting down until the last page is turned. Wonderful and exciting read. Enjoy this book on Kindle, Nook, Apple and other electronic devices. It is also in a print edition on Amazon.com.

The Dead Cry for Justice- Fiction Novel: Romantic Suspense with a paranormal twist.

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The Dead Cry for Justice is the second book in this series. Exciting and fast paced this story takes place in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, USA. Cate and Mitch are on their honeymoon camping, hiking and fishing. They stumble across old bones of an execution when they hike through the woods on an animal trail. After alerting the authorities they move to a historic hotel in the tourist town of Spenser. Then the trouble starts, first one then another die as the killers believe that Cate and her friend Essie Gray Eagle know more than they should about the execution. Cate and Essie may be next on the list as the killers try to maintain their hold on the situation. But the departed have other ideas and show up in spirit form to warn both women.

As the bodies mount up the dead wreak their own vengeance on the killers and exact their own brand of justice.  Excellent fast paced story with an exciting ending. Enjoy this second in the series on Kindle, Nook, Apple and other electronic devices. It is also in print on Amazon.com.

The Angel Who Fell to Earth – Fiction Novella

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An Angel in Heaven, Saraquel is curious about the streams of emotions she sees streaming from the

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earth. She questions her mentor and in a blink of an eye finds herself on earth as a beautiful blond female. The only problem is she knows nothing of what it means to be a human and only speaks ancient Aramaic. After being brought to a hospital, naked and crying, she is taken to live with a rabbi who understands and speaks ancient Semitic languages. Here she learns the tools she needs to survive in this world. She becomes attached to the rabbi and his housekeeper. In the meantime the young doctor who took care of her in the hospital falls in love with her. Saraquel learns about grief when the old rabbi dies and learns about deception and evil when she is confronted by a dark angel, Azazel in the guise of a rare book dealer. Azazel will kill to acquire the rabbi’s rare books. The confrontation between Azazel and Saraquel is exciting. There is interesting information from the Book of Enoch that gives the story historical accuracy, at least biblical accuracy. Excellent read and one will enjoy the unusual twist at the end of the story.  One can find this on Kindle, Nook, Apple and other electronic devices as well as in print on Amazon.com.

Fifty, Female and Fabulous: A Holistic Guide to Love, Sex & Relationships

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A self-help book for every woman not just the ones who are turning fifty or older. The author

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explores techniques for improving one’s relationships, self-esteem and love life. The information in the book is practical and spiritual. The visualizations are easy and the author encourages the reader to tape the visualizations to make it easier to follow them. The author, a psychotherapist has examples from patient files as well as examples from her life. At times it has a memoir feel as the author shares her story. Excellent and easy to follow, one can share the exercises with a partner or do them alone. This book can be bought in print on Amazon.com and is available in Kindle, Nook, Apple and other electronic devices.

Next, we have Anthony Lund’s first original novel, Grim Reaping. Anthony lives in a small village in the North-East of England with his family, which he considers to include a growing number of puppets and movie replicas. Having bothered with the real world for too many years, the pull of odd characters, unbelievable plotlines and more than a little childishness proved too much to resist at the start of a premature mid-life crisis. Some people buy expensive cars; he decided to dress his hand up in fabric and talk to it.

Grim Reaping

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The life of Death is never simple, but when little green men are rumoured to be plotting his demise

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things can get so complicated. Welcome to the Business of Life, the company responsible for Existence, run exquisitely under the ever watchful, all-seeing-eye of Johnny B God.

In the grand scheme of all things Immortal, Grim Alfonzo Reaper has been the collector of souls since the Days of Creation, which followed many millennia of brainstorming and graph analysis, but he has never come across a situation where a soul he collects apparently died while digging his grave. Who would want to kill Death? Men in green Lycra apparently which would suggest a lack of both common and dress sense. Aided and hindered in equal measure by a verbally-challenged demon, the Devil himself, and a multitude of vapourous but colourful collected souls, Grim finds that his life was much simpler when all humans had to say was “Ug”.

A surreal comic fantasy about death, life, love, annoyance, violence, depravity, green Lycra and just a little Grim Reaping.

Finally, welcome to two novels by Diana J. Febry, an accidental British writer trying to make sense of the world. Also a mother, wife, sister, friend and animal lover .

Skeletons of Birkbury

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A classic English mystery set in the English Cotswolds. “The story snakes around quiet country

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lanes with a surprise round every corner.”

Debts & Druids

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Set in the rural countryside of England, two couples are brought together by chance circumstances

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with deadly consequences.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the first of many showcases. If you would like your book(s) showcased in this section, and you are an INDIETRIBE member, send us your bio and book blurb and we will include it it a forthcoming showcase. Happy reading.

Guest Blog – Adam Yamey talks of Albania

I am proud to publish INDIETRIBE’s first ever Guest Blog in the form of Adam Yamey’s memories of Albania.

I am delighted that he has agreed to share these fond memories with us, and I for one will certainly buy his new book, Albania on My Mind to learn more.

When I became a dentist in 1982, the idea of ever treating a patient from Albania would have seemed almost as unlikely as meeting someone from Mongolia. Both were places that hardly anyone visited from the West, and from which visitors to the West were few and far between. Well, 30 years later, everything has changed. Almost daily I treat Mongolians and Albanians (both from Albania itself and also from Kosovo). Whilst I have never set foot in Mongolia, I have visited Albania.

I visited the country in 1984 when it was even more isolated from the rest of the world than North Korea is today. In those days, Albania was firmly under the control of Enver Hoxha, a dictator who counted Josef Stalin as his friend and inspirer.

Occasionally, when chatting to my patients from Albania (in English), I relate curious incidents that I recall from my short, but illuminating visit to Hoxha’s heavily guarded stronghold. Some of my audience are too young to remember life under the dictatorship, but those who are old enough say that what I relate is only too painfully true. One gentleman, aged about 45 and brought up in Albania, said after hearing one or two of my anecdotes:

“You must write these things down. No one believes me when I tell about how terrible it was living in Albania in those times, but they will believe you, an observer from the outside world.”

And, that is exactly what I’ve done in my book Albania on my Mind.

My book Albania on my Mind is divided into two main sections. The first deals with how I became obsessed with Albania, and the second contains a collection of memories of the trip I made there in 1984.

My interest in the country began when I used to spend,

“…much of my spare time during my mid-teens haunting second-hand bookshops.

In the second half of the 1960s, Hampstead Village, which was in easy walking distance of my family home, had at least 5 such establishments. My favourite store… was run by a scholarly old man. He sat reading in his untidy shop, surrounded by books, which were scattered disorderly on every available surface including the floor. Every now and then, he used to burst out laughing and would then read aloud, often in Latin, to whoever was in his shop. …I found and bought a number of old world atlases in his shop. Most of them were published between the two World Wars. I used to spend hours leafing through them, admiring their beautifully drawn maps. …One day, whilst examining one of my atlases, I saw a country, which I had not noticed before. It was Albania.”

My curiosity about Albania was aroused. I needed to know more about this place, about which so little information was available in the 1960s. Even today, not many people know much about it.

As the years passed, I made numerous trips to places in the Balkans from where I could catch a glimpse of the country which was beginning to tantalise me. On one trip, I took a bus over the Cakor Pass which links Kosovo with Montenegro, and traverses the mountains shared by these places and Albania. When the bus stopped at the top of the pass,

“…a grubby little boy approached me. He said something to me in a language, which I did not recognise as being Serbo-Croat. It was probably Albanian. Somehow, he made it clear to me that he wanted foreign coins. I thought that he was either a beggar, or more likely, just a curious youngster pleased to have chanced upon a foreigner. I gave him a few British coins, and then he rummaged around in his pocket.  After a moment, he handed me a few Yugoslav Dinar coins, and left. He was no beggar, after all, but simply a young fellow with a well-developed sense of fairness.”

Although it was impossible to speak with Albanians in Albania – contact between them and foreigners was strictly discouraged by the authorities – I did manage to discover how friendly they are when I stayed in Kosovo, the part of Serbia, which has an enormous Albanian population. When I disembarked at the bus station in the Kosovan town of Prizren sometime in the 1970s,

“…I was immediately surrounded by people, mostly young men. Everyone wanted to know my name, rather than my nationality or where I had come from. When I said it was ‘Adam’, they then asked me whether I was a Moslem. The answer did not seem to matter to them; they were just pleased to meet a stranger.”

Contrast this with what happened within 12 hours of my arrival in Albania in 1984:

“After lunch, the Australian, who was travelling with us, called me aside, looking shocked.  He told me that when he was in the hotel’s lift, an Albanian couple began to strike up a conversation with him, but stopped abruptly mid-sentence. It was, he felt, as if they were keen to speak to an outsider, but became scared of the consequences of being caught doing so. Maybe, they had been worried, not without reason, that the lift might have been fitted with a hidden microphone.”

In fact, whenever anyone wanted to try to talk to us in the country, they were warned against doing so by others standing nearby. Even our Albanian guides were wary of what they said to us. We, the foreign tourists, were regarded not only as guests (the guest is held sacred by traditional Albanians), but also as potentially dangerous intruders from the hostile world beyond Albania’s hermetically sealed borders. They were constantly keeping an eye on each other as well as us.

My trip to Albania was a truly remarkable experience. I am certain,

“…that the Albanians did not regard us as being simple tourists, but rather as potential messengers. We were being shown the country with a view, so our hosts hoped, to providing us with information that we could use to broadcast to the world how well Albania was progressing along the isolationist path it had chosen to take.”

I am not sure that the message we took home was quite what the Albanians had hoped. We were taken around a factory, of which our hosts were very proud. It purported to make precision instruments, but,

“… the sliding (Vernier) calliper, which had been made in the factory… was a crude object, whose jaw slid jerkily rather than smoothly. The markings were badly scored and looked a little irregular.” ‘Precision’ it was not!

And, although the Albanian-built tractor on display at an exhibition of Albanian industrial products in Tirana,

“… differed in design from the Chinese tractors that we had seen on our travels, we had not seen even one of these home-made machines anywhere outside the exhibition.”

Nor, could I find outside the exhibition any samples of the

“…yellow plastic bunny rabbit holding a rifle in exactly the same pose as the soldier, who had watched our arrival at the Albanian frontier.”

I would have loved to have bought one of these to protect my garden.

It is easy to criticise, but one must not forget to praise. Even if I was unable to meet many Albanians on the tour I made in 1984, I cannot fault our hosts on the care that they took to make sure that we were comfortable and well-fed. Although their main interest appeared to be to ply us with propaganda and to show us what they wanted us to see, they showed us a great cross-section of their beautiful country.

I have not revisited Albania since 1984, but would like to do so. Never in my wildest dreams in my younger days did I imagine that I would now be able to slip out of my surgery, enter a neighbourhood café, and then order a cappuccino from an Albanian barista. And, the smile of gratitude, which I receive when I thank him by saying ‘faleminderit’ and shout ‘mir u pafshim’ when I leave, melts my heart. Even as I write this piece, I  realise that although many years have passed, I still have Albania on my mind.

I hope you enjoyed this, our first ever Guest Blog, and if you have something you would like to share with INDIETRIBE members, please submit it for consideration in further editions

Best regards, Charlie

Three Books Reviewed – War, Ducks and Skiing

Beyond Birkie Fever by Walter Rhein

The Birkebeiner is America’s greatest cross-country ski race and to read Walter Rhein’s book is to participate in the race and experience the fun, drama and heartache that invariably comes with it. If, like me, you were oblivious to this event, an early interview with David Langdgraf’s on the first Birkie will leave you wanting more. They say a good hook is essential at the start of any book, and The First Birkie hooks you in good and proper.

Walter’s introduction to skiing as a seven year old carries with it shades of Richard Branson’s introduction to the world of independence at a similar age. Branson was dumped by the roadside in the middle of nowhere by his mother, and told to make his way home. Walter was effectively dumped in the middle of a snowy field by his mother and told to ski home. Tough love eh? But it lit the fuse for Walter Rhein and he never looked back.

Birkie fever took hold of him. Sure, it relaxed its grip for periods of time whilst other interests pushed for attention, but it was never far beneath the surface.

It’s interesting to view his lack of self-esteem during his first Birkie. Compared to the faster skiers who danced up hills, floating over the terrain like mystical beings free from the pull of the earth, Walter described himself as a lumbering beast with motor oil on his jeans and gnarled scratch hair on his face. Oh the mountain a novice has to climb!

But climb it he did, and he takes you with him every slippery step of the way. And you’re treated to an awful lot of laughs, many of them emanating from his mischievous grandfather.

The saying, ‘It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part’, is most relevant when used in the context of the Birkie. Just finishing this marathon is a major achievement.

Walter Rhein’s book gives you a wonderful feel for this great event, and the passion in which he holds it. He’s about to complete the circle soon because he’s now a father who can’t wait for his daughter to become seven so he can share the delights of skiing. I wonder if he’ll adopt the same inspirational tactics that his mother used on him at that age.

The Great Promise by Frederick L Coxon

Rick Coxon’s grandfather, Frederick, fought in the Great War. He and his three closest mates agreed that in the event of one of them surviving, that survivor would visit the families of the fallen and tell them exactly what happened. For a variety of reasons, all dealt with in this book, his grandfather never honoured that promise. Whilst reading through Frederick’s war diary, Rick Coxon learned of this and decided that he would try to make good his grandfather’s promise.

Before he can do this, Rick has to learn what did in fact happen and he lets us into the secret by cleverly interspersing the diary entries with his own commentary.

The book contains vivid fictionalized details of the first battle of Mons, the first battle of Marne, the first battle of Aisne, the first and second battles of Ypres, and the battle of Neuve Chapelle. Each chapter in the book represents a battle and reflects true life in the early years of the First World War. Many scenes are harrowing and Rick Coxon’s descriptive powers are immense.

But there is far more to Rick Coxon’s book than that. He discovered the real man behind his grandfather’s stoic exterior. A tender, loving man with an intense sense of humour. A man that once ate a cheese sandwich whilst sitting on the Throne of England.

The second part of the book revolves around the research and tracking down of the families that needed to be told the truth so that Frederick Coxon’s great promise could at last be honoured.

I suspect that writing this book evoked a lot of memories, lay to rest a few misconceptions and brought a lot of pleasure to Rick Coxon. I hope so, because it’s certainly brought me a lot of pleasure reading it and I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested in this period of our great history.

The Great Promise helps to keep alive the cherished memories of our fallen heroes and I am proud to release this review on Armistice Day, Remembrance Sunday

Maria’s Duck Tales by Maria Daddino

This is a collection of short stories based on the ducks that lived in Maria’s garden. And quacking good stories they are too. I’m so sorry, I just couldn’t resist it.

The book offers escapism from the harsher realities of life and, after all, why shouldn’t we get to know the names, foibles and personalities of ducks. It’s no more bizarre than reading Watership Down and getting obsessed with rabbits, or Animal Farm and being frightened by pigs.

A garden is not just a garden to Maria. A garden is a wildlife habitat to be enjoyed by all creatures, furry or feathered. Ducks, geese and swans have put smiles on her face and stories in her heart that will last her a lifetime. And, thanks to Maria’s Duck Tales, we can now benefit too.

This book really is an enjoyable little read, but don’t just take my word for it. Maria’s Duck Tales has picked up many prestigious awards from the likes of:

IndieReader Discovery Awards; Global eBook Awards; Green Book Festival; New York Book Festival; International Book Awards; San Francisco Book Festival; Los Angeles Book Festival; and many many more.

In many ways Maria and her book epitimise what we’re trying to do at INDIETRIBE. Her achievements are an inspiration to all of us and her tenacity a fine example to follow. So come on, let’s give her our support by buying the book.

Well, there we are for another week. To all of you still waiting for a book review, thanks for your patience. There is an ever-growing waiting list but in keeping with the great British tradition of queuing, I am covering each request in order. I can only do three a week, given everything else happening at INDIETRIBE, but I will get around to you. Keep visiting and keep enjoying. And keep recommending us to your friends.

Happy Reading, Charlie

Launching WEBWATCH, a regular review of our members’ blogs

Welcome to WEBWATCH, the first of a regular surf through the websites of our members. We have three choice blogs to tell you about in this, the inaugural feature:

THE SUPERSPUD ADVENTURES at www.superspudtrilogy.blogspot.co.uk

Michael Diack, is the author of The Superspud Trilogy, which was reviewed by us a while back, and can be seen on INDIETRIBE’s Book Reviews page.

His blog is designed to engender and retain interest in Superspuds and attract  more and more loyal fans to what is already a cult following.

Michael’s latest post links an actual news item, covered by the BBC, to a short tale, created by him to ‘reveal the real story of what happened when a hedgehog was trapped in a crisp packet in Weston Super Mare’. And an exciting little story it is too.

His blog also carries competitions and prizes based around the original concept of the Superspud and he successfully uses the whole thing as a vehicle to ensure more and more of us are hooked into the on-going series. Michael is even devising an App, which will enable us to play a Superspud game.

Clearly not one to sit back and wait for sales, Michael Diack, through this blog, provides an object lesson to us on how to market a novel. Well done, Sir!

SARA SHRIEVES at www.sarashrieves.com

Sara has chosen to use her website to promote her book, Who is Audrey Wickersham? and reveals the whole of Chapter One for our delectation. It is set out beautifully, in the same style you would expect to read on eBook readers and does actually leave you wanting more. A simple click through allows you to get more by transporting you through to Amazon.

On the Who is Audrey Wickersham? page, Sara treats us to a delightful monotone photo of the Magick Eye Bookshop, cleverly adapted to click you through to twitter, facebook or amazon. The Magick Eye Bookshop is very much part of Sara’s novel and is based on a real shop, Psychic Eye, in Orange County, which she frequents regularly.

I’ll reveal details of the book in a future book review, but for now, I recommend you visit Sara’s very well designed website, and read the first chapter to whet your appetite.

DIEM BURDEN at www.diemburden.com

Diem Burden has got a pretty firm grasp on the realities of self-publishing and, sensibly, views his future as a novelist as a long term project. His theory on this subject and the way he plans out his stategy on his website, makes it compulsive viewing for self-published authors.

Diem, by his own admission is on a steep learning curve, and I think he is climbing the mountain admirably. What I really respect is the selfless manner in which he willingly shares everything he has learned so far. The guy is refreshingly transparent, and there is all manner of stuff to be learned from visiting his site. Once you click on it, you’ll stay there a good while, and you’ll return – often.

He willingly shares information on the things he has painstakingly learned: how to create your own newsletter; how to get to grips with Scriviner, the advantages of Dropbox and Mailchimp; why to give your first book away and much, much more.

A lot of inexperienced writers would pay good money for the things to be gleaned from Diem Burden’s website, and I feel privileged to be able to point INDIETRIBE members in his direction, because to do so is to provide them with a service.

A Five Star Website to inspire fellow writers if ever there was one.

I hope our INDIETRIBE members find this new feature useful. It will become a regular series, just as the Book Reviews page has. For those of you still waiting for book reviews, and now Blog reviews, please continue to be patient. I will get around to you all, but I’m currently working my way through a rather large pile.

And I’m loving it!

Happy Reading and Writing

Charlie