Hey, internet, guess what?
PURITY is on sale until the end of August!
Head on over to the book page on Smashwords, and use the code FV24T to get 30% off.
Wait, how much?
That’s right, 30% off.
Tell yo neighbours, tell yo friends.
wow.
ebook
Finally, an update
Hey, interwebz.
Sorry I’ve been missing for the past month or so. It’s been a crazy few weeks. First, James came home from work after a month in Nunavut, and I usually miss the internet for a while when he’s home. Plus, while he was home, I moved. Jumped from my amazing basement suite with my amazing landlords, into the townhouse where James lives. So now we’re living together! How thrilling.
Now that he’s back to work, I’ve been busy working and organizing the house. On top of that, my best friend is getting married on Saturday and I’m a bridesmaid. Last minute preparations are insane.
I’ve also been rereading my favourite series, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, in preparation to read the eighth book in the series that came out earlier in June. In the past few weeks I’ve read five and a half monster sized books. Maybe I’ll do a review of the first, just to stick something in here.
And! I’m holding another contest on my Facebook page for a free copy of my book, PURITY. Pop on over and check it out 😀
POD and Twitter
I’m working on getting ready a print on demand template for my novel, PURITY, so people can have it in their hands as well as on their electronics. I don’t know exactly how long this will take or how much it will end up costing to buy these, but it will be an option in the future, nonetheless. I’m very excited about it, and I’ll keep you all updated 😀
As well, just a reminder that my Twitter contest is still going. The person who is my one hundredth follower will get a free copy of my book, PURITY.
@jpmarshman
Through the Door, a book review
Celtic mythology and the modern world collide in Through the Door, the first book in the new urban fantasy series The Thin Veil.
Cedar McLeod lives an ordinary but lonely life, raising her six-year-old daughter Eden on her own while trying to balance the demands of her career and the expectations of her mother. Everything seems normal until the day Eden opens her bedroom door and finds herself half a world away – and then goes missing. Suddenly, Cedar realizes her daughter is anything but normal.
In a desperate search for answers, Cedar tries to track down Eden’s father, who mysteriously disappeared from her life before Eden was born. What she discovers is far beyond anything she could have imagined. As she joins unlikely allies in the hunt for her daughter, Cedar finds herself torn between two worlds: the one she thought she knew, and one where ancient myths are real, the stakes are impossibly high, and only the deepest love will survive.
Facebook was actually the one to recommend this book to me, by advertising along the sidebar telling me that it was similar to my favourite book in the whole world and beyond, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. High praise indeed, so I clicked the link and decided to wait until the day came that I would own a Kindle. Then I would buy it and revel in Celtic lore. This is something that has always fascinated me, partially because of my love for history, partially from Outlander, and partially because I’m Celtic (my father was born in Wales). The other day, in order to test how Purity looked in format, I downloaded the free Kindle app to my smartphone. I remembered how I wanted to read Through the Door, and here we are. I read it in about two days.
Through the Door follows the story of Cedar McLeod, who is an ordinary woman from Halifax only trying to be happy. When she finds out she’s pregnant, she is anxious to tell her baby daddy, Finn, the good news. But before she can even get the words out, he vanishes from her life without a word. Fast forward seven years, and their daughter, Eden, is coming into some very strange powers, and these powers get her into trouble when she vanishes. In order to explain the inexplicable, Cedar hunts down Finn’s family and finds herself in a world beyond imagining. Continue reading
Dominant Race: a book review
Lilia is a genetically altered human – a modified – with special animal instincts and abilities. She is half wolf and half human under the microscope, and it shows in her territorial pack mentality.
When Lilia learns about a growing threat against all modified, she leaves home for the first time to join a militia that, like her and her family, survive in the fragmented remnants of the United States, the Old People country.
Their enemies? The Eighth General of the Greater Cities and the ever-expanding devolved, degenerate modified that are mindless killers, blind instinct and rage in human form. When a coup occurs in the First City, Lilia and the other defenders must choose: help reinstate a government in the business of killing their kind, or defend a radical modified in the business of killing everyone else?
Dominant Race is a novella by Elisa Nuckle, available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords, with Apple to come. It’s only $2.99, and it’s a steal for something so enjoyable.
In a not-so-distant future, scientists and experiments have created a race of modified humans, those who have animal DNA mixed in with human. The main character, Lilia, is a wolf modified, living a sheltered life with her family in the ruins of North America. Although the strength of the animal DNA varies with each individual, Lilia’s wolflike characteristics are strong, and it shows in the way she behaves with others.
Throughout the course of the story, she has to learn the hardships of leaving home, discover a whole new world she never expected – and all the joys and difficulties that come with it – and doing what is right in the face of oppression and prejudice. It isn’t an easy path – when is it ever? – but the style of writing and the emotion evoked will leave you laughing, in tears, and desperately wanting more.
Dominant Race is dystopian science-fiction like nothing else; completely unique, with a cast of characters readers will fall in love with – and love to hate. I’m not just saying this because I’m friends with the author: Dominant Race is well worth the read, and since it’s only $2.99, how can you possibly go wrong?
I can feel her fingers spread to the beat of a kick drum
From here out, forgive any spelling mistakes in Changeling teasers and short stories. MS Word decided to shut off spellcheck due to so many errors – made up words like country names and foreign words like unusual names (Nallis, Gabal, Lacramioara, and Zdenek are key examples of these) – and I don’t feel like fixing it right now. Or ever, even. We’ll see how I’m feeling about it at a later date.
And while we’re on the topic of big announcements, I’ve got something to tell you all Changeling, I had a thought the other day, while discussing publishing with my mother and grandmother. Turns out my grandmother knows someone who has been published, and this woman seems like a downer and basically said I wouldn’t get traditionally published because my manuscript is unsolicited. Well, thank you, random lady I don’t know, but I’m sending it to publishers to take unsolicited manuscripts. I’m not an idiot.
Anyways, I’m going to, once I get stamps, cling to the dream of having OtArb traditionally published. However, I’m thinking for Changeling – which hit the 100 000 word mark today; I’m so proud of her! – I might just format it for ebook and sell it for cheap, plug it on the internet? We’ll see how I’m feeling when I’m actually finished writing and editing it, which could take a while, considering how far into the future plot I’ve considered. I’ll probably have to break it into sequels. A ginormous ebook seems like a bad choice right off the bat.
But yes, there’s that idea. Because OtArb is my baby, I still want to go the traditional publishing route. But I’ve never been averse to self-publishing, so long as it’s done right. Working in a bookstore, I see a lot of self-publishing done poorly. The most recent example of this was a local woman who wrote a story and put out her novel with unjustified paragraphs, no indent, double-spaced, numbers instead of letters/words (ex; … 2 pots of coffee…), improper use of punctuation, et cetera.
If you actually know how to use a word processing system and write a story, this shouldn’t be too hard. Being that I’m a grammar Nazi, I’m not too concerned about it. Self-publishing can be an excellent tool, if used properly. Like anything, really.
I need to get better at updating regularly, so you don’t get swamped with posts.
I’ve been on a bit of an iwrestledabearonce bender lately, hence the title. Lyrics to the song I’m Gonna Shoot, off their 2011 album Ruining It For Everybody. I highly recommend it, as with all of their albums. Super talented. Super fun. Super hot?
Also, the Civil Wars are very good. Bethany and I did a trade-off for music, after she learned that iwrestledabearonce isn’t all just angry screamo metal. So she gets all three iwabo albums, which I own, and I get the Civil Wars’ Barton Hollow. Its classified genre is folk-rock, which I think is cute. I enjoy both folk and rock. Perfect. Their harmonizing is what got me, in the end.
I’m getting sick of this layout. Someone design me a new one!
Here, have some Changeling. Happy hump-day!
Normally the very phrase would have pierced my heart with horror and memories of my dark childhood would have flooded my mind, but his soft touch against my cheek dispelled all sinister thoughts. Though my rational mind fought back, I found myself yielding, allowing him to charm me into something I had been terrified of throughout my entire life.
In the dark of night, before a dancing fire, I was shown for the first time that not all men were evil, and not all men wanted only to hurt the women around them. For the first time in my life, I was shown such unconditional tenderness that I wept, overcome with conflicting emotion.
I had never allowed myself happiness, thinking myself undeserving of it. I was proven wrong.
JP Marshman 