Looking for writing-related posts? Check out my new writing blog, www.larrykollar.com!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

October Horror Spotlight #3

I didn’t post last week because I was having way too much fun last Thursday. I ended up attending the Red Iris Books launch party on Twitter, conducted under the hashtag #TrickOrTweet. There was much swag and prizes — I got eBook copies — and the authors, S.M. Reine (@smreine) and Angela Kulig (@angelakulig), both ended up in the birdcage that is known as Twitter jail for excessive tweeting. As one of the other attendees put it, “it’s not a party unless someone goes to jail!”

And thus, I dedicate this week’s spotlight to the new indie imprint, Red Iris Books. Both books are available as eBooks (Kindle and Nook), and in paperback. As always, clicking a link will take you to the Amazon page for each book.


Let’s start with S.M. Reine’s Death's Hand (The Descent Series) since, as she puts it there’s more boobage on the cover. (She knows how to attract eyeballs.) 99¢ (Kindle eBook) or $12.99 (paperback), rated 5 stars on one review.

The blurb:

Policing relations between Heaven, Hell, and Earth is messy and violent, but Elise Kavanagh and James Faulkner excelled at it — until coming across a job so brutal that even they couldn't stand to see one more dead body. Now they've been pretending to be normal for five years, leaving their horrific history a dark secret. Elise works in an office. James owns a business. None of their friends realize they used to be one of the world's best killing teams.

After years of hiding, something stirs. Bodies are vanishing. Demons scurry in the shadows of the night. A child has been possessed. Some enemies aren't willing to let the secrets of the past stay dead…

And I have a feeling the former partners will be dragged out of retirement. This looks like an adult-oriented series; younger readers might enjoy her novel Six Moon Summer.


Angela Kulig’s Skeleton Lake is $2.99 for the Kindle edition. A paperback edition is available at B&N if you’re shopping the Nook Store. It’s rated 5 stars on two reviews.

The blurb:

Unsure if she's drowning or being saved, all Marlow wants to do is run away. Ensnared in a haunting love triangle, she realizes both boys have holes in their hearts—scars from loving the same girl, a girl who managed to stay dead.

Now she is being hunted for what she has become and what she never asked to be. Even as a Skeleton Marlow isn’t the worst thing in the night—she isn’t even close.


I hope you’ll support indie authors. There’s a lot of great stuff out there for not a whole lot of money — and yes, there’s not so great stuff, but it’s up to us to highlight the good stories out there.

There’s going to be one more Spotlight post, on Monday (Hallowe’en itself). If you know of a good story that needs spotlighting (even yours!), leave me a comment or email.

8 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a lot of fun - I assume this all took place while I was sleeping on the other side of the world?

    The books sound interesting, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Helen! I guess it was sleeping hours in your time zone. It sure was a blast though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am glad that you're helping to highlight some of the good indie stories out there. Death's Hand sounds interesting. Would you be posting review of this book at some point ? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Kiri, welcome to the free-range insane asylum!

    Yes, I do plan to review both books since I do have them on my Kindle. If all goes well, I'll post a review of some other (horror and non-horror) books here on the blog this weekend — here's hoping you'll come back.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Of course, I will be back. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unfortunately, Skeleton Lake was terrible. Flat with so many cliches and grammatical errors, the book was painful to read. I couldn't muster the energy to finish it. This book needs serious revision and very heavy editing. It's a shame because the premise had promise, but the poor writing just wears the reader down.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Jennifer, welcome to the free-range insane asylum!

    I liked the story itself, but the editing really broke down in the last third of the book. It was like the first third was nice & tight, the middle saw issues creeping in & the end just blew sky-high.

    I mentioned it to Angela; she said they were planning to edit & re-release this month but I haven't seen a revision notice yet. But there's still a few days left…

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi FARfetched. Thanks for responding. Wow…I find your analysis strangely exact on the editing issues, etc. I just gave up reading the last third of the book exactly because the writing progressively worsened. I am glad to hear about the re-release. I’ll keep a lookout for it and maybe give it another try to see how the story ends. Have a nice holiday season.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome, and they don't have to be complimentary. I delete spam on sight, but that's pretty much it for moderation. Long off-topic rants or unconstructive flamage are also candidates for deletion but I haven’t seen any of that so far.

I have comment moderation on for posts over a week old, but that’s so I’ll see them.

Include your Twitter handle if you want a shout-out.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...