Awesome RPC-person writes awesome spec fiction!

[Naunet]

What better place to talk about books than a community dedicated to creative output? I can think of few others!

 

Some of y'all may know me as "that annoying person who complains about FFXIV a lot", a few as "that Hipparion tribe whacko". What y'all may not know is that my other half, this community's Twinflame, is more than a roleplayer - he's an honest-to-god author! He primarily writes speculative fiction - sci-fi, fantasy, horror - but with a very literary touch that regularly explores themes of religion, gender, sexuality, and identity in general. And, I think a lot of this stuff may be right up you folks' alleys.

 

So I'm posting here to do a bit of cheerleading. The indie pub world is pretty cutthroat, and making a career out of it as he's chosen is extremely difficult. The most important part is finding an audience, accruing... dare I say... fans. People who will buy your stuff, and then tell their friends to buy your stuff, and then have their friends tell their friends. We don't have TOR or Ace or whathaveyou (yet) to do mass-marketing for us, so it's all on our own efforts. Anyway, enough rambling.

 

So, what are these books, you're probably not asking?

 

 

Summary:

As the Eastern hemisphere slept, the mind of God awoke from a deep slumber. Invading the minds of all humanity, His awareness overwhelmed the waking West and rendered it void of life in an instant. Then as they slept, those in the East felt God die. His death emptied Hell onto Earth, unleashing demonic armies that drove mankind to the brink of extinction. Beijing rose as a final bastion, its military bolstered by ingenious technologies but driven to desperation by faltering supplies and the constant threat of invasion. 

 

And the one weapon that could save them has just been stolen... 

 

In the wastelands of Korea, a stranger covered in dust visits a lonely town of Buddhists and Christians living in an odd state of peace. He catches the eye of Seo Ha-Neul. The stranger brings lies, warnings, and violence. Rather than stop him, Seo tries to understand his motivations, even as supernatural forces threaten devastation.

 

Pre-orders for the Kindle edition are set up, releasing on May 15th (print will be available then, too)! Will be available on Nook, etc in the future, since I know not everyone has a Kindle. "The Dusty Man" is the first volume in the "Ruin of the Fifth World" series, so keep an eye out for more later this year. :3 The pre-order price is $0.99, but that will be bumping up to $2.99 on the 15th; paperback will be $12.95.

 

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Summary:

A GODDESS STIRS IN THE DEEP... 

 

The underwater city of Atargatis is the only bastion of the last humans, a genderless population of nearly identical clones. They share their ocean world with a sea-faring species, the Scorps, who have prophesied human extinction. As the day of that prophecy nears, Atargatis fearfully blocks the Scorp pilgrimage to their goddess in the deep ocean. 

 

The Scorps' only advocate among the humans, Senator Edessa, is convinced that the Scorps' true intention is to save humanity from the prophecy. But when Edessa's last ally is assassinated in a coup by his nemesis, all political pretense falls away and Edessa is no longer safe in Atargatis. 

 

This is a novella, so good for an excellent one to two-sitting read. I honestly adore the metaphor in this story and how poetic his prose is. It's up on Amazon in e-book or print format. The cover looks awesome in print, by the way! *stares at it on her shelf*

 

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Summary:

For the past seven days, Aksel has witness the destruction of the world and pulled it back from oblivion. But she cannot stop what is coming. She has seen it before on countless worlds. With a cheerful university student and a fatalistic mother-to-be as her companions, Aksel counts the days until her celestial enemy overcomes her will and leaves the Earth in ruins. A work of romance and tragedy, K.J. Russell's three-chapter novella illuminates parts of the human heart we would rather pretend do not exist.

 

Woo another novella! If you like world-ending tension set against a contrast of coffee shop talks, this one is awesome. It's up in e-book and print form in all formats. I do have one request, though. If you buy this book, make sure you're getting the copy with the above cover. Previously, this novella won an award with the publishing house Zharmae, which was awesome! But Zharmae turned out to be an extremely predatory publisher. Luckily, he made sure the contract returned rights to him, but Zharmae is still selling "Absolute Tenacity" on Amazon. We don't want to support predatory publishers, so please make sure you only purchase directly from K.J. Russell.

 

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The two books above are an anthology series edited by K.J. Russell (and the Writers of the Future award-winner C. Stuart Hardwick, in the case of ToI) and put together with the help of the Houston Writers Guild and SkipJack Publishing. "Tides of Possibility" is the science fiction half, while "Tides of Impossibility" is the fantasy half. Both anthologies contain a wide range of really excellent short stories (and even some poetry - yes, sci-fi poetry!) that cover things from military to humorous to aliens to sword and sorcery to horror and... well, a heck of a lot more. A lot of the authors are local Houston writers, many are award-winning, and all are fantastically skilled.

 

Tides of Possibility and Tides of Impossibility are available in all formats (kindle, nook, pdf, print, etc), to suit any of your reading needs!

 

You may also have noticed the incredible cover art of several of these books... the covers of ToP, ToI, and The Dusty Man are credit to the amazing David Sidebotham, whose visual style was actually a huge inspiration to the imagery found in The Dusty Man.

 

Aaaand that's pretty much it (for now). As I am privy to mister K.J. Russell's publishing schedule, I do know that a number of books are set to release later this year. :3 I can't yet share those, though! I sincerely hope some of you decide to check these out - I'm not just speaking as a biased party. He really is just that good! If you do, I cannot, cannot, cannot encourage it enough that you please leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. It is not an exaggeration to state that indie pub books live and die based on review counts; they are massively important!

 

Of course, even if you aren't in a position to buy one for yourself (and your family, and friends, and neighbors, and acquaintances...), it's always great to follow him on tumblr or Twitter, and he's got a website to keep you updated on things, too!

[FreelanceWizard]

Just making a post here to say that I was asked about this post and, given that it was an RPC member doing the writing, I opted to give permission for it.

 

#magicAdminHat

[Naunet]

And I thank you for it! :3 Even if it spurs just one person to buy a book (reading is for cool kids, folks) or follow on tumblr/twitter/whatever... then that's a win in the indie world!

[Naunet]

I just wanted to let everyone know that The Dusty Man is officially released today!!!

 

Seriously, if you like post-apoc sci-fi with angels and demons (but not at all presented in the way you usually see such things) and influenced by themes of gender and sexual identity, then I honestly think you'd love this book. I'm super proud of K.J. Russell and couldn't be happier to see it in-print.

 

Alternatively, if you're going to be at Comicpalooza in Houston in a couple weeks, you can swing by and get it signed. :3