I had originally emailed this to my friends and family on 062609 under the title: Summer Reading Ideas / Family Update. Because I’m such a whore for my favorite podcast authors I wanted to post it here for all to see. I hope you enjoy. Dear family and friends, I wanted to send out an email pimping my favorite podcast authors and their mass publication books. Combined they offer a little bit for everyone. The genre’s run from Fantasy to Horror and I’ve included links for you to look at their work on Amazon. Why am I sending you this? Because I believe in each these authors. Most, if not all, have freely podcasted their work, including most of the novels below, to the public. I have also had personal relationships with nearly all of these great people. My hope is that you will look at their work and buy. In buying their novels you are helping them to reach their goal of being a well sold author and spreading their stories. They each want to make it big and I want to help. If you get one of the books below, tell a friend or pass along this email. Here you are, in no particular order, 16 books for you to consider. (Family news at the bottom.)(1) Seth Harwood – Crime Nior, Crime (website) Jack Wakes Up - In the three years since Jack Palms went clean: no drugs, no drinking,no life, he’s added fourteen pounds of muscle, read 83 books, and played it as straight as anyone can ask him. Now, when an old friend from L.A. calls, he hits the streets of San Francisco to help a group of Czech drug buyers make one big score, a single drug deal that he hopes will set him up for life.But when people start turning up dead, and an old nemesis on the police force calls, Jack finds himself with just 24 hours to track down San Francisco’s biggest drug supplier or face charges that will put him behind bars. Only an Oscar-caliber performance will get him through this alive. J.C. Hutchins – Thriller/Horror (website) Personal Effects: Dark Art - Dark Art combines the experience of a traditional thriller novel with a multimedia-fueled “out of book” narrative. Clues in the novel — and items that come with the novel, such as ID cards and photos — propel readers into an online experience where they become protagonists themselves. Personal Effects: Dark Art follows the extensive notes of art therapist Zach Taylor’s investigation into the life and madness of Martin Grace, an accused serial killer who claims to have foreseen, but not caused, his victims’ deaths.Zach’s investigations start with interviews and art sessions, but then take him far from the hospital grounds — and often very far from the reality that we know. The items among Grace’s personal effects are the keys to understanding his haunted past, and finding the terrifying truth Grace hoped to keep buried…
Call the phone numbers: You’ll get a character’s voicemail. Google the characters and institutions in the text: You’ll find real websites. Examine the art and other printed artifacts included inside the cover: If you pay attention, you’ll find more information than the characters themselves discover.
Personal Effects: Dark Art is the ultimate in voyeuristic storytelling, representing a revolutionary step forward in changing the way people interact with novels. Scott Sigler – Horror (website) Infected - Perry Dawsey is 6-foot-5, 265 pounds of angry ex-linebacker. He knows all too well that if he doesn’t control his quick temper, people get hurt. Through constant focus, he has locked his violent past away in the deep dungeons of his mind.The infection changes everything. Strange microscopic parasites tap into Perry’s bloodstream like tiny little vampires. They start as bright orange blisters, but soon take the shape of triangular growths just beneath his skin. The “Triangles,” as Perry calls them, try to control their host by manipulating hormone levels and flooding his body with neurotransmitters — imbalances of which cause paranoia, schizophrenia and excessive aggression. As Perry begins a desperate battle to cut the Triangles out of his body before it’s too late, his self-control dissolves into raging, murderous madness. the follow up Contagious - Across America, a mysterious pathogen transforms ordinary people into raging killers, psychopaths driven by a terrifying, alien agenda. The human race fights back, yet after every battle the disease responds, adapts, using sophisticated strategies and brilliant ruses to fool its pursuers. The only possible explanation: the epidemic is driven not by evolution but by some malevolent intelligence. Standing against this unimaginable threat is a small group, assembled under the strictest secrecy. Their best weapon is hulking former football star Perry Dawsey, left psychologically shattered by his own struggles with this terrible enemy, who possesses an unexplainable ability to locate the disease’s hosts. Violent and unpredictable, Perry is both the nation’s best hope and a terrifying liability. Hardened CIA veteran Dew Phillips must somehow forge a connection with him if they’re going to stand a chance against this maddeningly adaptable opponent. Alongside them is Margaret Montoya, a brilliant epidemiologist who fights for a cure even as she reels under the weight of endless horrors. These three and their team have kept humanity in the game, but that’s not good enough anymore, not when the disease turns contagious, triggering a fast countdown to Armageddon. Meanwhile, other enemies join the battle, and a new threat — one that comes from a most unexpected source — may ultimately prove the most dangerous of all. Tee Morris , Fantasy, Fantasy/Crime (for the Billibub books) (website) Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana - In a time when a kingdom hangs in the balance, her most trusted ally is a pirate from a far-off land…Across a mysterious rift in the space-time continuum exists a world called Naruihm. In this world is a realm called Morevi, a landlocked kingdom ruled by Askana Moldarin, crowned “First Queen” following a swift and bloody rise to the Throne of a Thousand Suns. Yet hidden traitors are already at work to destroy everything that she has won. Enter Rafe Rafton, privateer captain of the Defiant. Arrogant. Overconfident. Dangerous and cunning enough to pillage the Queen’s own ships and survive. As a man, he is the embodiment of everything she has fought against, and the perfect instrument in a last desperate bid to save her kingdom. With the sum agreed upon, Rafe and Askana embark on an epic adventure spanning the kingdoms of Naruihm and King Henry VIII’s England. Two souls are drawn together in the battle for a kingdom… Welcome to M O R E V I. BILLIBUB BADDINGS and the Case of the Singing Sword – “Chicago, 1929. There are a thousand stories in the naked city; and when you’re a dwarf at four-foot-one, they all look that much taller.” It is The Era of Prohibition, where crime runs rampant in the streets and a city divided into territories serves as the ultimate prize. Somewhere in this Underworld of Chicago, an enchanted weapon holds the key to ending The Gangland Wars. In the wake of The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, only one is man enough to stand up against Al Capone… …a four-foot-one dwarf named Billibub Baddings. The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant: A Billibub Baddings Mystery – Chicago, 1930, and following the financial calamity of Black Thursday, Billi is doing everything he can to keep his business afloat. The change in seasons, though, brings him a case that appears to be a true blessing from The Fates. Chicago Cubs Manager Joe McCarthy suspects something fishy with the Baltimore Mariners, a new team in the league, and he’s hiring Billi to look into it. What appears to be the dream job – being paid to research and attend baseball games – turns out to be a nightmare as he discovers one of the Nine Talismans of Acryonis somewhere in play at Wrigley. And wouldn’t you know it – with two outs and bases loaded, the heavy hitter of the Underworld “Big Al” gets early parole from The Big Dugout and is swinging two in the Batter’s Circle. Mark Eller – Sci-Fi, Fiction (website) Traitor Last Chance – a small town set on the edge of the far frontier. It is a place of gentle manners and common civility. After all, it should be since more than three quarters of its residents are women. However times change when a Talent Master runs rampant, savages threaten war, and an illegal militia from an alternate universe plans invasion and empire. A hero is needed. A Savior. Meet Aaron Turner, the small unassuming man who runs the Last Chance General Store. He is this town’s–this world’s–only hope. Unfortunately for the town, Aaron also happens to be a soldier and Militia spy whose job is to prepare the ground for the Militia’s invasion. To help him with this task, he has a cellar filled with advanced weaponry and the unique ability to teleport between the two worlds. However after a year of living within Last Chance, Aaron is no longer sure in which direction his loyalties lie. Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff – Action, Drama, Spy,Thriller (website) Number One with a Bullet – When the world’s top ten hit men compete in a last man standing, winner-take-all contest for one hundred million dollars, the only rule is to stay alive. And for retired assassin Johnny Dane, getting out of the business doesn’t mean getting out of the game. Welcome to the world of high-priced contract killers and the sport they’ve been thrust into. However, to the dismay of the wealthy men and women betting on him to win, Dane has been notoriously absent from the contest. Having left the life, he’s disappeared to an oceanfront hideaway and has vowed never to return. But when the game finds him and threatens the only woman he’s ever loved, this killer quickly realizes the only way out is to get back in.
Mur Lafferty - Fantasy, Super Hero, Sci-Fi (website) Playing for Keeps - The shining metropolis of Seventh City is the birthplace of super powers. The First Wave heroes are jerks, but they have the best gifts: flight, super strength, telepathy, genius, fire. The Third Wavers are stuck with the leftovers: the ability to instantly make someone sober, the power to smell the past, the grace to carry a tray and never drop its contents, the power to produce high-powered excrement blasts, absolute control. over elevators. Bar owner Keepsie Branson is a Third Waver with a power that prevents anything in her possession from being stolen. Keepsie and her friends just aren’t powerful enough to make a difference. at least that’s what they’ve always been told. But when the villain Doodad slips Keepsie a mysterious metal sphere, the Third Wavers become caught in the middle of a battle between the egotistical heroes and the manipulative villains. As Seventh City begins to melt down, it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad, and even harder to tell who may become the true heroes. Christiana Ellis- Fantasy (website) Nina Kimberly the Merciless - She’s on a mission to kill the man who loves her. Why? Because he’s an idiot. Ten years ago, Nina Kimberly the Merciless was cheated out of the life of adventure that she truly deserves. Her father, the fearsome barbarian conqueror Marcus the Merciless, met his first and only defeat at the hands of, well… a gopher hole. Ever since this epic humiliation, she and the rest of the horde have been stuck in the rural backwater kingdom of Langia. Now Francis IX, the idiotic king, has decided that he and Nina should be married. She can’t kill him without starting a succession war, but the alternatives? Eww! Nina has long yearned for a hero to sweep her up on a glorious quest, but Francis’ unwanted affections have forced her hand. No more waiting for a quest to find her, it’s time to get proactive. She sets off into the big wide world, but the King decides to tag along, complete with a security spell to alert the Kingdom if he’s killed. Nina is forced to swallow her pride and keep him safe… at least until she can find a way to break the spell. But nothing is ever simple in the life of a barbarian princess, and nothing is ever quite what it appears. The dragon is a pacifist (sometimes). The handsome rogue is a con-artist, but who is he conning? And even the wizard has a few surprises in store. While seeking the answer to all her problems, Miss the Merciless discovers that what she’s always wanted may not actually be what she wants. Nina Kimberly the Merciless is a comic coming of age story filled with magic, mayhem and mercenaries, but mercy? Never. Philippa Ballantine – Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Fiction (website) Chasing the Bard – Born into the human world with a gift; a gift that brings him to the attention of powers both dark and light from the World of the Fey, it is his burden to defend all the world.Sive, the goddess of battle, hopes that he may be able to change the fate of her people.The Fey are dying, killed by something beyond the boundaries of worlds, and Sive will do anything to save them. So she enlists the help of her trickster cousin Puck to guard the child, and watch him grow into his gift. But a dark power imprisoned by human and Fey, plots to destroy both worlds, and unmake all that they have created. Can one boy stop the destruction, even if he is William Shakespeare? Matthew Wayne Selznick – Sci-Fi, Super Hero, Fantasy (website) Brave Men Run – April 18, 1985-Into a world already wound tight with the desperate tensions of the Cold War comes Dr. William Donner with a startling declaration: superhumans exist, they demand autonomy, and he has the reality-bending power to enforce their status. The traditional balance of power is thrown askew by the addition of not one super-powered human, but six thousand. Before the Donner Declaration, high school sophomore Nate Charters was just an outsider and self-proclaimed freak. His unusual appearance, hair-trigger reflexes, and overactive metabolism should have made him something special, but his differences and low self-esteem have long since marked him as a target for the jocks and popular kids. Now, just as his unique nature brings him the attention of a self-assured older girl, Nate must find his place in the world. Why is he the way he is? What really happened to his long dead father? Why is his biggest rival suddenly interested in a private meeting? Is he part of a remarkable, powerful new minority… or just a misfit among misfits? Nate must discover the answers to these questions quickly, because those in power know more about him than he could ever imagine. And they’re closing in… Matt Wallace – Horror, Thriller, Action, Crime, Anthology (website) The Next Fix – Two-time Parsec Award-winning author teams with Apex Publications for a new collection of 12 short stories and one novella. With characters as gritty as Sam Spade but as real as your next-door neighbor, The Next Fix cooks up a cocktail of futuristic trips that range from haunting to comedic to don’t-turn-out-the-lights. From Wallace’s introduction to The Next Fix: You’re in my own little chimerical sphere now, but I’m no different than you. I don’t shoot, snort, or roll, but I’m my own kind of fiend with my own kind of jones. You can simplify it, call it a fiction addiction. It’s much more than that. Part of it’s that whole “art is not a mirror, it’s a hammer” thing. It’s powerful. Wallace’s quest for the next great high of the imagination takes the reader through the cannibalistic noir of “The End of Flesh,” the haunting beauty of endless seekers in “The Losting Corridor,” and on an action packed ride-along with offworld postal workers in “Another Man’s Run.” If you like a chaser of tech with your horror, humor with your darkness, and beauty with your grit, The Next Fix is your next high. Cory Doctorow – Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action, Technology (website) Little Brother - Seventeen-year-old techno-geek “w1n5t0n” (aka Marcus) bypasses the school’s gait-recognition system by placing pebbles in his shoes, chats secretly with friends on his IMParanoid messaging program, and routinely evades school security with his laptop, cell, WifFnder, and ingenuity. While skipping school, Markus is caught near the site of a terrorist attack on San Francisco and held by the Department of Homeland Security for six days of intensive interrogation. After his release, he vows to use his skills to fight back against an increasingly frightening system of surveillance. Set in the near future, Doctorow’s novel blurs the lines between current and potential technologies, and readers will delight in the details of how Markus attempts to stage a techno-revolution. Obvious parallels to Orwellian warnings and post-9/11 policies, such as the Patriot Act, will provide opportunity for classroom discussion and raise questions about our enthusiasm for technology, who monitors our school library collections, and how we contribute to our own lack of privacy. An extensive Web and print bibliography will build knowledge and make adults nervous. Phil Rossi – Sci-Fi, Space, Drama, Action (website) Crescent - Darkness has inspired fear since mankind first watched the sun go down. Bad things hide in the dark feral beasts with mouths full of razors waiting for a taste of flesh. But now, the darkness is stirring with a life of its own. Crescent Station is the last bastion of civilization, floating in the cold, outer systems where colonized space gives way to the sparser settlements of the Frontier. Like the boom towns of distant Earth s Old American West, Crescent Station is a gateway to power, wealth, and opportunity for anyone who isn t afraid to get his or her hands dirty. But deep within the station s bowels, in Crescent s darkest and most secret places, an ancient evil is awakening and hungry, and it threatens the very fabric of space and time. Will the residents of Crescent Station find a way to stop it before the terror drives them insane? Or is it already too late? Family news -(1) All footnotes are for reference only. These have no bearing on the information presented above and may include: side thoughts, more links or just more scattered information. Read at your own risk.
This post has been edited from the original email. To wit I have removed the family update section.
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