Free (Kindle DRM-free) Dreams of the Compass Rose by Vera Nazarian [Fantasy] + KDP

[ATDrake]

A mixed bag of stuff in this morning's KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile. And I mean mixed, because I'm on a time crunch and will not be sorting them into grouped-by-genre due to having to eat and catch a bus, preferably not concurrently.

Anyway, a nice fantasy offering, and the usual mystery/thriller/romance mix, with some non-fic and a few Smashwords freebies available to all. Writers without stated credentials should be assumed to be self-pubs that looked interesting to me, so YMMV.

Dreams of the Compass Rose by Vera Nazarian, a former Marion Zimmer Bradley protegee who went on to establish her own sf/fantasy small-press imprint Norilana Books (which re-publishes Tanith Lee, among others), offers a fantasy novel which Publisher's Weekly does in fact compare favourably with Tanith Lee's Flat Earth cycle (incidentally reprinted by Norilana Books in a new illustrated paper edition).

Free without DRM for who knows how long (Nazarian's KDP freebies have generally been for just one or two days, but sometimes she repeats shortly afterwards) @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Nazarian also offers a "humourous and heartwarming" fantasy novelette free to all via Smashwords: The Witch Who Made Adjustments

Description
The Compass Rose universe -- an ancient milieu where places have no names, cities spring forth like bouquets in the desert, gods and dreams walk the scorching sands in the South, ice floats like mirror shards upon the Northern sea, islands that do not exist are found in the East, death chases a thief on the rooftops of a Western city, immortal love spans time, and directions are intertwined into one road we all travel....

You come to this place when you wonder, and sometimes, only when you dream.

What is the nature of evil?

When a young warrior of a dark race finds himself bound in servitude to a beautiful cruel princess, his loyalty becomes entwined with something more horrifying and mysterious than endless night falling over the ancient desert.

When a courageous young servant reveals her hidden wisdom to the madman conqueror of the world, her fate is joined to a nightmare suspended beyond death and outside the universe.

Two souls from different times -- their destinies connected through hundreds of other lives and generations, through soft whispers of the wind, through ancient truths that lie buried in an island between worlds.

Both souls enslaved through dream and desire in an endless conflict between truth and illusion.

They can only be set free by the wonder of the Compass Rose.

The following are basically in the order that I came across them or remembered to add them from what I found and forgot to include yesterday. I've done a cursory check for dead/non-free links, but caveat 1-clicker if I missed something that was only a 1-day freebie special.

Candice Hern offers a novella originally published in The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance: Desperate Measures

Baker or Tyndale-published (I forget which) Christian fiction author Robin Lee Hatcher offers the 1st in her Hart's Crossing inspirational romance series free to all via Smashwords (and thence to any other price-matching outlets): Legacy Lane It seems the re-publisher StoneHouse Ink offers a number of other popular backlist Christian fiction authors such as Melody Carlson at reasonably low prices if you are interested in keeping an eye out for any Read an E-book Week coupons.

Theresa Ragan says she has been nominated for the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart Award. This may well be true, since IIRC the RWA allowed unpublished works to win a particular category of their Daphne Du Maurier Award. She offers a sports/fitness-based contemporary romance: Taming Mad Max This is probably not one of those love triangle romances, since obviously they don't need another hero (they just need to find a way home).

Ryne Douglas Pearson is a screenwriter who has worked on a few recent-ish movies (IMDB entry). He offers what he calls four tales of suspense and horror: Dark and Darker: A Collection Of Stories

Erik Williams, if he is the same as the homonymous author who has had a few print-published stories (ISFDB entry), offers a collection of horror tales: Rough Beasts - Seven Short Monster Stories I like how his author blurb says he "has three daughters and is undergoing testosterone treatments to continue to feel like a man." Who knew estrogen had airborne transmissibility?

The writing team of Chris and Janet Morris, who've individually contributed to C.J. Cherryh and Thieves' World anthologies and co-written stuff with David Drake, offer a joint short story printed in the anthology Lawyers from Hell: Interview with the Devil

Previously featured Bob Mayer, print-published by one of the Big 6 in paperback with that apocalyptic thriller which had the entertainingly horrible reviews, offers: 102 SOLUTIONS TO COMMON WRITING MISTAKES He does seem to have gotten a lot of books published.

Gregory Galloway, an Iowa writer/poet who has had a Putnam-published 2005 YA novel which apparently won some sort of award, offers a literary short fiction collection: Careful & Other Stories

David Gaughran is another blogger/journalist trying his hand at fiction, having previously written a few articles for Huffington Post and elsewhere. He offers a set of creepy stories and an sf biomedical short: Linkage to both.

Harlequin-published Nicola Marsh offers an action/adventure romance story previously published in The Mammoth Book of Special Ops: Tag Team

Another minor media personality trying her hand at fiction is Kiexiza Rodriquez, who says she has written articles for a number of magazines and appears to be part of a blogtalk radio show. She offers an inspirational romance, 1st in her Beautiful Mess series: Beautiful

Cynthia Justin is another unpublished author who claims an RWA Golden Heart Award nomination. Maybe that's their special newbie-with-promising-manuscript trophy. Anyway, she offers a tie-in novella to her romantic suspense Remnants series if you're interested: Separation Anxiety

Jody Wallace offers a fairy-tale-looking fantasy romance, prequel to her Samhain-published novel A Spell for Susannah, free to all on Smashwords: A Wintertide Spell

Bell Bridge Books-published Janice Daugharty offer the self-explanatory: Dumdum (Featured story in the anthology "New Stories from the South: the year's best of 2005")

Previously-featured Big-6-paperbacked Jeremy Robinson who also had some entertainingly horrible reviews on his apocalyptic thriller offers a an sf law enforcement thriller novella: From Above

Kate Rothwell, who's written for Kensington's Zebra under that name and as Summer Devon for Ellora's Cave and others, offers a Victorian historical romance novel which she warns has brief graphic sex: Seducing Miss Dunaway (a Victorian Romance)

Sean Patrick Doles, yet another journalist-turned-novelist, offers the possibly inspirational: All Saints Day: A New Orleans Football Mystery where the "mystery" seems to be in the mysterious ways of deity rather than escalating murder attempts (though mind you, someone could still be offing his teammates, from the wording used).

Berkley-published Carolyn Jewel offers what looks like a novella from the now-defunct Dorchester shared-universe paranormal romance series Crimson City: DX

Previously Harlequin-published Patricia Watters offers a 2-book omnibus of romantic suspense: Love on the Run

Scott Gordon blurbs his children's picture book as having incredible artwork. If that cover image of a dragon on a skateboard is representative of the contents, then I have no arguments against: My Little Pet Dragon

Previously featured fellow MR member author and TV show tie-in writer Lee Goldberg returns with a collection of mystery/thriller stories: Three Ways to Die

His cooler and funnier brother Tod, who also writes and is not an MR member, also offers a collection of literary-fiction-looking stories with author's commentary: Where You Lived: Stories I admit to having been curious about his writing because there's a story which goes with this which accounts exactly how I recognize both their names, but I don't think I can link it directly due to a non-family-friendly domain name which is entirely tangential to the content of the actual site, but anyway you can work your way backward from the write-up on Tod Goldberg's blog if you want to read it. The context for the entire thing, by the way, can be found by going to the first link brought up by this Google search.

David Waller, who's written previous print-published biographies which appear to have some newspaper praise, offers the following: The Perfect Man: The Muscular Life and Times of Eugen Sandow, Victorian Strongman

John McKenzie says that he's written some stories which have been adapted for BBC Radio. I don't care enough to Google. He offers a short children's story: In the Land of the Demon Masters

Big Sky Publishing looks quite new, but they print-publish and offer titles from a variety of authors, including two non-fiction war experience books and some sort of cartoon thing: Link to pull up all 3.

Similarly-situated Sunbury Press offers two literary/mystery/thrillers: Both their freebie titles.

Jude Pittman has been picked up by BWLPP, an e-book imprint which seems to offer a mix of backlist and newbie author titles. This one is a mystery set in Vancouver with First Nations people in it, so I'm giving it a chance: The Medicine Card Murders

That's everyone whose names I recognized for whatever reason or who had author creds which weren't brazen lies about being dictated to by their invisible angel wives (though maybe that guy really does have invisible angel wives) or who just looked kind of interesting to me.

Happy reading, if indeed you spot something you think you might like.

[Dr. Drib]

Picked up another load of books. - THANK YOU!

Note: The book by Jude Pittman is not available for sale in the. U.S.A.



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