The Right Kind of Shouting
As the latest internet storm settles involving a self-published author, one comment has stuck in my mind from Chuck Wendig’s post regarding authors who don’t have the best online manners in the world: “Don’t let them be the loudest voices in your community.”
I couldn’t agree more, so I thought I should speak up for a couple of self-published works that I’ve read and loved. The authors are great people to know online and don’t shout all the time, so I wanted to lend my voice to shout-out for them.
The first is a zombie novel. I like apocalypse tales, as you may already know, and I’ve watched a lot of films and read a lot of books in this sub-genre. For something to feel fresh is an achievement and that’s what this one felt like:
Breaking News: An Autozombiography by NJ Hallard (@NJHallard)
It doesn’t do anything new in that there are zombies and people trying to survive, what felt fresh to me was the voice. It was so British, so light in the right places and full of pop culture references that made me feel right at home. It also has illustrations, something that made me particularly happy to see in a Kindle e-book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope you will too.
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Breaking-News-an-Autozombiography-ebook/dp/B00466HRXM
US: http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-News-an-Autozombiography-ebook/dp/B00466HRXM
A brief aside
Whilst I’m in the post-apocalypse vein, there’s an anthology of post-apocalyptic love stories called Nothing But Flowers in which I have a story called ‘The Gift’ (one of my favourites actually) which is, at the time of writing, free on Kindle. Go grab a copy, I’ll still be here afterwards…
Nothing But Flowers
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nothing-But-Flowers-Post-Apocalyptic-ebook/dp/B0073G2FRU
US: http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-But-Flowers-Post-Apocalyptic-ebook/dp/B0073G2FRU/
The Copper Promise by Jennifer Williams (@Sennydreadful)
This is a fantasy novella written by Jennifer Williams and, quite simply, it rocks. It’s well written with tight prose, fantastic pace and characters that I dare you not to fall in love with. Team Frith! Ahem. It’s the first of four, I’m waiting (impatiently) for the second instalment. Go and get it. Please. If you’ve ever roleplayed, if you’ve ever enjoyed fantasy of any form, I implore you to give it a try.
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Copper-Promise-Citadel-ebook/dp/B006OMPZM6
US: http://www.amazon.com/The-Copper-Promise-Citadel-ebook/dp/B006OMPZM6
So there you go, two self-publishers doing great stuff and not behaving badly in the process, and a free anthology. To the Kindle Machine and don’t spare the horses!
