Every Wednesday ALLi will tell the world about our members' latest book launches, news, awards, freebies, workshops and updates on the writing life and take a look at the projects and businesses of our partner members.
SilverWood Books
We are having two events in January, in Bristol at Foyles bookstore. One is a slightly more intimate event where writers will have more opportunity to ask questions specific to them and their publishing project. The second is a busier Open Day with guest speakers on a range of topics related to Writing and Self-Publishing.
Publish That Book is a free session for writers and aspiring indie authors that offers a wealth of information about self-publishing to a high standard, avoiding expensive pitfalls, and generally setting yourself up for success. Writers will leave with an understanding of the journey before them, and practical tips to help them avoid spending money in the wrong places. Q&A scheduled. Weds 15 January 2014 from 6pm.
To book, please contact the Foyles events team by email [email protected] or telephone 0117 376 3975. Find out more here.
Kira Kenley
I am delighted to announce that All The Way Back To Here is now available as an ebook on Amazon.
The print version will be available in 2014.
All The Way Back To Here is a book about relationship and love, and a young man's journey to understand what has become a concept rather than a felt experience. Sid Harris leaves his native London, running away from a job, home and relationship and escapes to Ibiza.
On his chosen ‘desert island', he meets a wild companion, Denzel, who introduces him to the best and worst of his new surroundings. It is a book for anyone who has ever fantasised about escaping from one life in the hope of living the ‘life of their dreams'.
Here is a little more background information…
http://youtu.be/_KbKv3jOlJU
Rohan Quine
I’m happy to receive Jane Dixon-Smith’s peachy cover design for my upcoming novella Apricot Eyes.
Her design style for it follows on from the cover of its sister novellas The Platinum Raven and The Host in the Attic, which were revealed here in Showcase bulletins #40 and #45.
The four novellas will be published early in the new year, first as separate ebooks and then within a paperback comprising all four together.
Continuing the visual theme of glitzy skyscrapers at night, as established in those previous two tales’ cover images of Dubai and London, this cover for Apricot Eyes shows the towers of Manhattan seen from across the East River, on a seedy part of whose shoreline a good amount of this novella’s action is set.
In Apricot Eyes, a cat-and-mouse pursuit through the New York City night involves a preacher, a psychic and a dominatrix, broadcast live on air—until a horror is unearthed, bringing two of them together and the third to a sticky end. More info soon, but meanwhile a few tasters are on my website.
Kevin Booth
Kevin Booth, writing as K. Eastkott, presents the second instalment of this fantasy series:
Flung through the whirlpool passage into a strange new world, Kreh-ursh meets the girl Jade. Together they must act to save those whom they love.
Jade’s brother Kyle lies in a coma while the mysterious stain of death continues to spread its destruction through the sea. Kaar-oh’s spirit presence has grown in power, bringing him into direct conflict with Jade in her attempts to save her brother. She and Kreh-ursh investigate the mysterious laboratory that Dr. Hagues has installed at Mauri Cove, with explosive consequences.
Will Geh-meer, in a desperate bid to save her friend Kreh-ursh, risk the whirlpool passage? Yet whoever crosses through the worlds is forever hurzjh-faadaw-oh, a twilight crosser, and cannot return unchanged to their former life.
As the fight against horrific destruction intensifies, passions flare. If they are to save their worlds, Jade, Kreh-ursh and Geh-meer must unlock the secret of the mythical jewel fish itself.
Twilight Crosser, Book II in The Jewel Fish Chronicles resumes the story begun in Through the Whirlpool and to be continued in Lake of Stone. Through the Whirlpool is now free at most online retailers while Twilight Crosser is available from Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Smashwords and Nook. More information at www.poblesecbooks.com.
JJ Toner
Could you tell people about my new cover and Chapter 1 reveal on my blog.
The cover design was done by Anya Kelleye.
The Wings of the Eagle is a WW2 spy thriller and a sequel to The Black Orchestra.
Watch out for it in January 2014.
CompletelyNovel
We’re giving FREE typesetting (worth £50) to the the next 10 authors who subscribe to a PLUS or PRO publishing plan .
What’s included?
As part of this offer, we’ll:
- Resize one manuscript to print specifications
- Add page numbers
- Add title and copyright pages
- Alter your font type and justification to conform to norms of genre/audience
- Add chapter headings
- Make your book look as good as it reads!
This is a limited offer – and only available to the next 10 PLUS or PRO publishing plan plan authors to signup to CompletelyNovel. Remember, all CompletelyNovel paid plan authors get ISBNs to sell their book worldwide, 100% royalties, the best POD printing prices and access to our wonderful author community and advice centre. Find out more on our ‘Publish Page’.
Helen Hollick
Historical novelist Helen Hollick, who recently joined ALLi, will be hosting a blog hop on Saturday 21st December to mark the winter solstice – the longest night in the northern hemisphere (where Helen is based), the shortest in the southern hemisphere.
For her event, entitled “Casting Light Upon the Darkness”, she's enlisted guest posts from 30 other writers, including many familiar names from ALLi such as Alison Morton, David Ebsworth, Richard Denning and Debbie Young.
Their posts will include both fiction and non-fiction, all unified by the theme.
Helen kicks off the hop with her own piece, “A little light relief on those dark reviews”
You'll find the link to the blog hop, and much more, on her author blog, “Of History and Kings”.
Please note that the hop is set to go live first thing on Saturday 21st December, the day of the solstice, so if you're reading this news item before then, visit the blog now and bookmark it for a return visit on the solstice!
Debbie Young
In a last-minute bit of pre-Christmas planning, Debbie Young has just published as a minimum-price Kindle e-book her short story The Owl and the Turkey.
This light-hearted tale was featured last year under the title The Real Reason Why We Eat Turkey at Christmas behind one of the online Advent Calendar at Mumsnet, the leading British parenting website.
It's a frivolous flight of fantasy that sprang into her head after she misheard a news story on the radio, mistaking “Turkey ” for “turkey”. “Cute, delightfully random and funny” was how one of last year's readers summed it up.
Providing a fun coffee-break read, it's a foretaste of a collection of short stories due for publication in 2014, all triggered by her addiction to BBC Radio 4.
Roz Morris
I'm finally able to unveil the cover for my second novel, Lifeform Three.
I'd like to thank all the ALLI members who looked at wildly different concepts and interpreted them for me, which helped me narrow down this one.
Publishing soon!
Jessica Bell
Jessica Bell was interviewed on CT Style about her latest release, Bitter Like Orange Peel.
Bette Lee Crosby
Jubilee's Journey, the sequel to the USA Today Bestseller, Spare Change, made Amazon's #1 Hot New Releases of the week.
I also just released the Wyattsville Boxed Set: Spare Change, Jubilee's Journey, and Home and Hopeful.
When tragedy strikes a West Virginia coal mining family, two children start out on a trek that they hope will lead them to a new life. Before a day passes, the children are separated and the boy is caught up in a robbery not of his making. If his sister can find him, she may be able to save him. The problem is she’s only seven years old, and who’s going to believe a kid?
Jubilee’s Journey is Book Two in the Wyattsville Series. This story of discovering lost family and finding love reconnects readers with Ethan Allen and the other heart-warming characters of the bestselling novel Spare Change.
USA Today Bestselling and Award-winning novelist Bette Lee Crosby brings the wit and wisdom of her Southern Mama to works of fiction–the result is a delightful blend of humor, mystery and romance along with a cast of quirky charters who will steal your heart away.
Born in Detroit and raised in a plethora of states scattered across the South and Northeast, Crosby originally studied art and began her career as a packaging designer.
When asked to write a few lines of copy for the back of a pantyhose package, she discovered a love for words that was irrepressible. After years of writing for business, she turned to works of fiction and never looked back. “Storytelling is in my blood,” Crosby laughingly admits, “My mom was not a writer, but she was a captivating storyteller, so I find myself using bits and pieces of her voice in most everything I write.”
Crosby's work was first recognized in 2006 when she received The National League of American Pen Women Award for a then unpublished manuscript. Since that, she has gone on to win several more awards, including another NLAPW award, Royal Palm Literary Awards, the FPA President's Book Award Gold Medal and Reviewer's Choice Award and Reader's View Southeast Fiction Literary Award.
Orna Ross
The mid-winter holiday provides the perfect space to indulge the pleasure of poetry and in this pamphlet, you’ll find a poem in Poetry for Christmas for each of the twelve days of that holiday season.
All these Christmas poems circle around the story we’ve been telling for 2000 years about what happened in Bethlehem on a certain 25th December. Some of them reassert that story, some challenge it, some see it as purely symbolic — but all are engaged with the deeper questions that underwrite it.
The poets included in this slim volume Poetry For Christmas: Twelve Inspirational Poems For the Holiday Season. (Occasional Poetry Chosen & Introduced by Orna Ross) are: WH Auden, John Betjeman, TS Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Dan Holloway, Patrick Kavanagh, Mary Oliver, Anne Porter, Adrienne Rich, Anne Sexton, Christopher Smart, WB Yeats — and there's a “bonus” poem from Orna Ross.
A perfect stocking filler — or gift to self. Indulge and enjoy.
If you are a member of The Alliance of Independent Authors and you would like to showcase your work on our ALLi Showcase, please send it to [email protected] to reach me no later than the Friday preceding the Wednesday you would like it published.
All of these books have excellent covers. It makes such a difference to a professional and inviting appearance.
Thank you!
Thanks for including the link to my blog featuring the cover of my new eBook. The book will be released on Jan 8.