Well, something different from the KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile today, and definitely worth a feature post. It's not often we get non-fiction, and reasonably interesting non-fiction by people with decent credentials as well (as opposed to people's amateur college essays and paranoid delusional political manifestos and totally untested cookbooks and such).
The late Doc Watson, whom I freely admit I've never heard of before now, was apparently a highly influential Appalachian/bluegrass musician who is in the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and has about a dozen Grammy Awards alongside a National Medal of Arts from for US president Bill Clinton, according to his
Wikipedia entry.
Blind But Now I See: The Biography of Music Legend Doc Watson by Kent Gustavson, who says that he himself is a PhD over at Stony Brook University, is exactly what it says in the title, originally out from small press Blooming Twig in 2010.
The blurb for this quotes favourable reviews from specialty bluegrass outlets.
Free with DRM for who knows how long @ Amazon
main UK DE ES FR IT
Description
Before his death at the age of 89, Doc Watson was the true voice of Appalachian music. After being discovered in 1960 by folklorist Ralph Rinzler, the blind guitarist graced thousands of American stages with his down-home wit, deep knowledge of traditional songs, and his blistering flatpicking guitar. Over 52 years in the music business, Doc influenced every musician with a pulse, from Bob Dylan to Jerry Garcia, and from Gillian Welch to Pete Seeger.
The interesting bits from the slushpile which happen to still be free until at least midnight tonight, one hopes:
Fellow MR member author Libby Fischer Hellman returns with a 1st in series mystery, originally out from our freebie and 99-cent-deal-giving friends Poisoned Pen Press in 2002 and now yanked from their own e-catalogue to become a KDP Select exclusived thing, sigh.:
AN EYE FOR MURDER (The Ellie Foreman Suspense Mysteries) A short story which apparently leads into this novel is however free to all via Smashwords (and you can pick up the sequels cheapest at Books on Board for $2.32 each, while they're still available in DRM-free ePub under the PPP imprint for who knows how much longer, vs. $5.99 on Smashwords after having been put through the Meatgrinder):
The Day Miriam Hirsch Disappeared.
Stoker & Edgar award nominee and fellow MR member author Billie Sue Mosiman returns with a sci-fi novella with suspense/maybe-horror overtones:
Prison Planet
Baen-published Sarah A. Hoyt returns with a sci-fi short:
After the Sabines
Betty Cloer Wallace has written a public education analysis book for St. Martin's Press and offers an historical US settlement novella for which she quotes a Publisher's Weekly review:
BITTERSWEET FREEDOM IN A FAR LAND: Book One of the Tuckaseegee Chronicles
Star Trek tie-in writer Della Van Hise returns with some kind of mystical new age journey litfic novel originally out from small press Eye Scry in 2005:
Quantum Shaman: Diary of a Nagual Woman
Paul D. Marks has had several short stories printed in small press mystery/crime anthologies that have been reviewed by Booklist. Accordingly, he offers:
Born Under A Bad Sign - A Noir Story
Shelley Weiner has had several novels published over the decades by small UK imprints, and her bio says that she has had short stories appear on BBC Radio. She offers a comedic-looking literary fiction relationship drama originally out from Constable in 1992, which quotes praise from UK newspapers in the blurb:
The Last Honeymoon
Much-published Robert W. Walker returns with a new-looking short story and some writing advice (probably a repeat, but old enough I don't have it in the newer KDP-auxiliary account) and repeats some of his suspense/horror novels:
Linkage for the lot
JS Holloway offers an historical-to-modern day adventure thriller which apparently switches between 14th century Africa & 1970s Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, originally out from very small press Sunpenny (which does have a handful of different authors, although maybe they're all just the same author under different names) in 2007:
Dance of Eagles
Small press Siren/Bookstrand-published Lisa Greer returns with another of her gothic romance stories:
Whispers beneath the Waves (Delia Daugherty Serials)
Christian fiction writer Robert Elmer returns with another installment in his WWII-set YA historical Danish Resistance adventure/thriller series, originally out from Bethany House in 2007:
Follow the Star (Young Underground #7)
Lori Ann Stephen's literary fiction novel was originally out from small press Blooming Tree in 2010 and comes with a favourable-sounding Publisher's Weekly review and quote from Pulitzer prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler:
Song of the Orange Moons
Jane Peart of the Ten Talents Press author consortium returns with contemporary romance originally out from Christian publisher Thomas Nelson in 1985:
Autumn Encore (International Romance Series)
Barbara Bretton returns with a 1992-Harlequin time travel romance novel which she says won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award:
Somewhere in Time (The Crosse Harbor Time Travel Trilogy)
Well, if you've been collecting the comics of these, the novelization based upon them is now released and free, and ISFDBed horror writer Stefan Petrucha contributes to Jazan Wild's :
CARNIVAL OF SOULS (The Novel)
And if you've ever wanted to build yourself a custom delivery van out of LEGO bricks, well, this title probably "delivers" and has photos of the finished model under user-submitted pictures in the Amazon listing:
Delivery Van: Custom instructions to build with your own LEGO bricks (Lions Gate Models Custom LEGO Instructions)
Some new titles among the repeats from our friends at
Books We Love (assorted genre fiction & new age-y stuff),
Audio Digest (medical stuff), and Xcite Books, as pointed out in kg3's thread.
Happy reading, if you happen to spot something you think you might like, or discover some interesting new music that might have influenced the music you already enjoyed.