Daily Archives: January 14, 2016
Cover Reveal ~ Her Australian Hero
Inside the Book:
Meet the Author
Book Tour – OBSIDIAN WORLDS
Obsidian Worlds
by Jason Werbeloff
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GENRE: Sci-Fi
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BLURB:
Jason Werbeloff’s short stories have been downloaded over 20,000 times. Obsidian Worlds brings together his 11 best-selling sci-fi shorts into a mind-bending philosophical anthology.
In Your Averaged Joe, a man’s headache is large enough to hold the multiverse. Q46F is an obsessive-compulsive android who finds love in a zombie-embroiled apocalypse. The end of the world isn’t all that bad – The Experience Machine will fulfil your every desire (and some you hadn’t considered). A sex bot dares to dream of freedom in Dinner with Flexi. But mind what you eat, because The Photons in the Cheese Are Lost. Don’t fret though: The Cryo Killer guarantees that your death will be painless, or your money back when you’re thawed. Unless, that is, you’re The Man with Two Legs.
Plug into Obsidian Worlds for these and other immersive stories, including the hilarious Time-Traveling Chicken Sexer. Your brain will never be the same again.
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Book Excerpt:
(from Your Averaged Joe):
“Sorry, this is a bit overwhelming. Let me introduce myself.” Then all three men spoke in unison, extending their hands, “I’m Thursday.” They each chewed a piece of gum, their masticating movements simultaneous.
Joe eyed the identical hands. Long, frosty fingers. Whitest skin. He shook hands with each. Their grips were firm. All three.
Thursday continued, “This is the Chamber.” He waved his arm around the room proudly. Joe considered the space. The rows of beds seemed to stretch forever. He couldn’t see the end of the room. And no pillars. Nothing to support the pink ceiling that extended in all directions. Joe scrunched his feet at the enormity of the Chamber, and the floor squeezed between his toes. But the floor wasn’t smooth – it was … hairy? He glanced down, and yup, fine dark hairs covered its surface. It was like standing on a forearm. Goose bumps erupted along his arms, down his legs, Joe shifted his weight to his heels, trying to avoid the hairs from scratching between his toes. And as the goose bumps spread across his back, down his chest, the ground beneath his feet changed. Between the silky black hairs, the fleshy floor lumped in places. Lumps the size of fists. Bumps, goose bumps. On the ground. He shivered.
Trying not to think about it, and resisting the urge to jump, to get his feet anywhere but on the fleshy floor, he stared at the beds. Each held a single occupant, each with brown hair, each wearing the same pale blue nightgown he was wearing. Joe looked to the bed beside his, and his heart stopped.
The man in the bed was him.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jason Werbeloff is a novelist and philosopher. He loves chocolate and his Labrador, Sunny.
He’s interested in the nature of social groups, personal identity, freedom, and the nature of the mind. His passion is translating philosophical debate around these topics into works of science fiction, while gorging himself on chocolate.
Amazon Author Page – download all of Werbeloff’s fiction from Amazon.
http://smarturl.it/AuthWerbeloff
Newsletter – subscribe to get ‘The Solace Pill’ free, as well as VIP access to Werbeloff’s latest fiction.
Goodreads – read reviews of Werbeloff’s fiction.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7340789
Facebook and Twitter – follow Werbeloff for release date information on upcoming shorts and novels.
http://www.facebook.com/solaceseries
https://twitter.com/JasonWerbeloff
Website – read about the author, and the philosophy behind his fiction.
http://www.jasonwerbeloff.com/
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GIVEAWAY
Jason will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Enter to win a $15 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Author Interview
Jason, thanks for being here. Tell us about you
Human, male, 31. From an obscure planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Likes chocolates, Labradors, and zombies (not necessarily in that order). I’m a philosopher by training, a programmer in a previous life, and a novelist by profession. I’ve written two novels, ‘Hedon’ and ‘The Solace Pill’, and the short story anthology, ‘Obsidian Worlds’.
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
Guilt. And the occasional stray positive thought. I do get excited occasionally. On a full moon.
Really, I love my lifestyle. I get to write every day about bizarre, previously untapped worlds. What could possibly be better than living this way?
If you could hang out with one famous person for one day, who would it be and why?
Probably Oscar Wilde. Love his acerbic wit and effortless paradoxes. My favorite (partly misattributed) quote of his … On his deathbed, he remarked: “Either this wallpaper goes or I do.”
There’s something about a personality that runs against the grain … people like Wilde make the world a more dynamic place. Without them – well, we’d all be sheep.
What’s the story behind your latest book?
‘Obsidian Worlds’ is a collection of eleven short stories. Underlying them all is this idea: insert protagonist (and reader) into bizarre, harrowing world; see how protagonist (and reader) flail about to survive; and then resolve, usually through a further disaster, but sometimes through a wonderful surprise.
I named the collection ‘Obsidian’, because it’s a glassy, multi-layered, pitch-black, phenomenally sharp volcanic glass. It’s so sharp that it separates cells, rather than tears them as a conventional blade would. The stories in the book are meant to do the same: slice between your concepts and ideas, bifurcating them into dark configurations you couldn’t have imagined beforehand.
Tell us your writing process
Step 1: Eureka moment! Idea forms in brain.
Step 2: Reject idea. Couldn’t possibly work.
Step 3: Play with idea guiltily. This can’t possibly result in anything useful.
Step 4: There might just be a story here.
Step 5: Begin writing.
Step 6: Assume the story will never be finished.
Step 7: Shock and panic as middle of the story approaches.
Step 8: Eureka moment for next story.
Step 9: Finish story.
Step 10: Return to step 2.
Do you have any tips for other writers who want to spread the word about their book?
I’ve heard this said elsewhere, but I’ll reiterate it here. There are two sure-fire ways to build your author platform: write more, and grow your email newsletter. (Shamelessly, here’s the link to mine: http://smarturl.it/werbeloff).
The more you write, the more products you’ll have in your store, the better your writing becomes, and the more cross-advertising you’ll have at your disposal. The more your email list grows, the more reviews you’ll get for your work. The more reviews you have, the better your advertising potential is – sites like Bookbub will only look at authors with lots of reviews.
When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
Quite late, actually. I was 28, and disillusioned with my job as a software developer and management consultant. I’d studied philosophy to PhD level, but didn’t really want to pursue it as a career. So I played with the idea of writing a short story, which turned into a novel (The Solace Pill). What convinced me to continue with it was the enormous release I felt each time I finished a story. It felt, and still feels, like something new has been birthed into the world. Something that breathes and converses and taunts without any further input from me. I love being an author.
Tell us about your main character:
Each of the 11 stories has a different protagonist, in a distinct world. They range from androids, to a smelly goat farmer, to a killer for hire, to a bottle of silicone lube. All of them took their stories in directions I hadn’t initially planned. All of them are strong-willed, vibrant, and unique.
My favorite is Barker, a killer for hire in a peculiar world. Barker is hired by his victims, because they want to appear to have died of natural causes, so they can be cryogenically frozen – cryogenic freezing only happens to those who die of natural causes in this world. Barker is level-headed, old-fashioned and reliable. But everything changes when a young client with a smile he can’t refuse, walks into his life.
What are you working on next?
I’m about half-way through a sci-fi biopunk gore novel. I’ve pulled out all the checks on violence and explicit gore on this one. It’s going to hurt your teeth to read it. More than that I can’t say, other than it’s scheduled for release mid-2016.
Do you have any special/extraordinary talents?
I love plumbing. There’s nothing quite like sealing a leaking pipe. It doesn’t talk back. Doesn’t complain or request revisions. It either works or it doesn’t.
Plumbing goes along with a love of renovation more generally. Tiling, painting, knocking through walls – all of it makes me genuinely happy, in a way I just can’t reproduce any other way.
Who are your favorite authors?
I love the sci-fi greats, especially Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Margaret Atwood. Anything dystopian, space-based, cyberpunk or mind-bending gets my vote.
What do you like to do with your free time?
I try (and fail) to gym. Love yoga. Listening to podcasts. Binge-watching ‘The Walking Dead’, and eating out.
Tell us about your plans for upcoming books.
The biopunk novel is set for release mid-2016. Between now and then, I’ll probably release a bunch of sci-fi short stories. Really interested at the moment in gory sci-fi. Been watching too much David Cronenberg. Have you seen ‘The Fly’? Woah. If you haven’t, do yourself a favor. And Stuart Gordon’s ‘Re-Animator’ is insanely good. I challenge you to watch them, and see if you can ever sit through another romantic comedy without wishing the characters significant bodily harm.
Needless to say, my upcoming work will have plenty of body horror.
Any final thoughts?
Thank you so much for the opportunity to appear on your blog! I enjoyed answering the questions, and hope to engage further with your readers. Comment below! I’m always happy to respond. And don’t forget … join my newsletter for a free novel, and a lifetime of free and discounted stories: http://smarturl.it/werbeloff
Book Tour ~ The X Factor: Confession of a Naïve Fashion Model
The X Factor: Confession of a Naïve Fashion Model
by Ivan Sivec
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GENRE: Young Adult
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BLURB:
It takes three mistakes to be swallowed up and spat out by the fashion industry.
You trust the wrong people.
You think you know everything there is to know about life.
You abuse drugs.
The almost 18-year-old Maja is a regular high-school kid, who at the threshold of adulthood thinks she knows everything there is to know about life. As she enters the world of fashion modelling she gets completely enchanted.
However, the more her career thrives she’s less able to see the danger lurking around fashion industry. Maja starts falling in a downward spiral of drug addiction and is torn between the tempting dream of becoming a world famous model and the horrendous thought of destroying her body beyond the point of no salvation.
At a yacht party Maja gets drugged, assaulted and tossed overboard. She’s found the next day. Barely alive. Only a shade of her former self, in a gray space between life and death, she realises the fashion industry sucked everything out of her – except one thing – the will to live. Maja wants to be her old self again.
Ironically, it means losing the only thing that made her special. She has to give up on her hidden X Factor.
The X Factor:
Confession of a Naïve Fashion Model
is a psychological YA novel showing the glamorous fashion world behind its less glamorous scenes.
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BOOK EXCERPT
“Please, Klemen, stop talking about fashion agencies and such!”
“And us?” he held her hand. He was surprised to see she was wearing the bracelet he had given her for Valentines.
“What do you mean, have you forgotten everything?” she smiled at him.
Reminiscence.
An element of an art work that revives memories of past events.
The memory of Bled.
“It’s all in your, my, our hands. Don’t fake ignorance and use Mr. Egon as an excuse!”
“Just say what you want!”
“I want things between us to stay exactly the same as they are right now. I want us to always tell each other the honest truth, even if I ever become as famous as… Claudia Schiffer.”
“Okay,” they shook hands. “Whoever breaks the promise shall be damned, a hundred times!”
“A thousand times! Damned for life! Okay?”
“Are you thinking of the curse that will strike the one who breaks the promise?” he looked at her from the side.
“Yes, exactly that one!”
“But will you be able to accept me back after all the bad things I’ve done to you? I feel like a hustler of the worst kind.”
They were quiet for a long time, staring through the window.
Two turtledoves were sitting on a branch, showing affection to each other.
“I’m sorry,” Klemen said, absorbed in thoughts. “I’m asking you to forgive me if you can.”
“I’m asking you to forgive me as well. It’s all up to you, Klemen,” Maja said softly.
He squeezed her hand strongly, as if he wanted to say that everything was back to normal.
That they were back to where they had started before Valentine’s Day 2004.
Now they could finally feel free, independent, free from evil people.
They were able to find anchor in their haven because their love was above all the filth.
And the end is always the beginning of something new.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Ivan Sivec is a writer, poet and publicist from Slovenia, Europe. People say he is ‘a man with a hundred stories’ and he has been sharing them with his audience, both young and mature, for over four decades now. He is listed under the top five Slovenian bestselling authors.
In his rich and thriving career he has written in many genres. As a poet he has written more than 2,500 lyrics for ethnic and entertaining music for which he received several awards. His broad prosaic ‘repertoire’ includes biographies, historical, psychological and adventure novels, travelogues, youth book series, picture books as well as humorous stories. To this date he published over 130 books and is considered to be one of the most popular Slovenian authors.
His particular interest goes to psychological novels on issues teenagers face today, especially topics like suicide, drug addiction, adoption, AIDS… He shares true stories to let the young reader know they’re not alone.
Sivec devotes his free time to his wife of 44 years, their two children and three grandchildren. Since his retirement a decade ago he enjoys his days hiking the Alpine peaks (he is especially proud to have conquered the tallest mountain in Europe, the French Mont Blanc (4,810 m/ 15,771 ft), together with his daughter-in-law Tina). When he is not gathering inspiration from the mountains he is soaking in the tranquility of the Mediterranean Sea with his wife. Nature is his source of creativity. It allows Ivan to gather his thoughts and pour them onto paper.
Official Webpage: http://ivan.sivec.net/en/
Facebook: facebook.com/ivan.sivec.en
facebook.com/the.X.factor.the.book
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ivan_Sivec
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/ISivec
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1RJz7d9
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1ZKSE29
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This book is free on Amazon on January 13 and 14.
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RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY
Ivan will be awarding a free e-copy of the X Factor or a signed greeting card from Slovenia (international) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a free e-copy of the X Factor or a signed greeting card from Slovenia (international) to a randomly drawn host.
Enter to win a copy of the book or a signed greeting card from Slovenia – a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-blast-x-factor-by-ivan-sivec.html
C.A. Milson 