KDP backlist round-up for the triskadekaphobic (also some Smashwords)

[ATDrake]

Nothing significant in the KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile trawl. This may or may not have something to do with today's date, if you are feeling superstitious.

Nevertheless, there is some reasonably decent minor sf/fantasy, mystery/thriller, horror, historical/memoir, and romance stuff for you to pick up if you're interested.

I'll start with some late additions to yesterday's list which you might have missed; some of which are non-KDP available at Smashwords as well.

Patty Jansen, Australian sf/fantasy writer, offers a collection of her short stories printed in various magazines and other outlets, which is playing pricing catchup with Smashwords: Out Of Here. This does not appear to be free in all regions at Amazon, but it is also available along with other works via Kobo, B&N, Sony. She has a number of short stories still free to download directly at Smashwords.

J. Kathleen Cheney's short stories are also in a similar transitional state. Her fantasy novella Iron Shoes was a Nebula finalist, and you can try picking it up along with several other shorts in various venues while it lasts: Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Sony, Smashwords.

On to the KDP Select exclusive-or-else-but-you-get-5-days-free-out-of-90 stuff:

Award-winning sf writer Eric James Stone is re-offering the short story: In Memory

Fergus Bannon has had stories printed in pro sf/fantasy/horror magazine Interzone, and offers an sf novel edited by fellow MR member editor garygibsonsf : Judgement

Previously featured Simon Kewin offers a short story that looks like fantasy/horror about a rock band saving the world from some summoned thing: Guitar Heroes

Newbie writer Graham Storr has 2 published stories listed in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. He offers a time-travel thriller: TimeSplash

Previously featured fantasy writer Andy Remic offers a magazine issue containing stories and interviews: Ultimate Adventure Anthology

Joseph Nassisse offers the 1st in the formerly Pocket-printed Templar Chronicles urban fantasy series: The Heretic It may be a little on the dark side. His blurb quotes praise from horror outlets.

Late add from yesterday, still free as I type this: Aaron Polson, who's been published in small-press print magazines you can see the details of in his Internet Science Fiction Database entry, offers a free story collection of zombie and ghoul tales: Dead Lands: 13 Stories

Previously featured Robert W. Walker offers the 4th in the Dean Grant series, a serial killer medical thriller: Dying Breath

UK author Ken McClure offers a 1993 Penguin-published medical thriller: Crisis

David Scott Milton, who says he is a playwright and screenwriter who has contributed to several well-known movies (and does in fact have one hardcover novel printed well before I was born by Atheneum, if indeed it's the same person), offers a more recently written ex-cop vs. conspiracy and internal insecurity thriller: Iron City

Ellis Vidler offers a 2002 small-press published debut novel, a psychic mystery/thriller which has reviews from Publisher's Weekly and praise from Romantic Times (this does not necessarily mean it is a romantic suspense; Romantic Times has given praise to Lois McMaster Bujold's decidedly sf space operas) in the blurb: Haunting Refrain

Deadly Niche Press seems to be a small imprint which produces paper books as well, and some of their authors have Kirkus/Publisher's Weekly/Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and local newspaper reviews listed in their blurbs.: Linkage to pull up the 4 mystery/thrillers they offer.

Previously featured Canadian mystery writer Mobashar Qureshi offers a short story: Corner Store

UK writer Nigel Bird says he's been published in small mystery/crime magazines and had a story selected for inclusion in one of those Mammoth reprint anthologies. I'm not bothering to google and you can decide for yourself whether to pick up the short story collection he offers: With Love and Squalor

Maria Hudgins offers a Five Star-published cozy-looking mystery: Death of an Obnoxious Tourist (Dotsy Lamb Travel Mysteries)

Gemma Halliday offers a formerly Dorchester-published chick-lit mystery, 1st in the Hollywood Headline series. I think this is a new version with a new ASIN, as I recall this being free a couple of times before when it was still on Smashwords: Hollywood Scandals

Popular Sourcebooks & Carina-published Marie Force offers a contemporary romance: The Fall

Samhain-published Kristen Painter offers romance involving a magical cookbook: The Perfect Dish

Anne Bruce offers an possibly-paranormal erotic suspense previously published by Ellora's Cave and revised by the author: Before Dawn

South African playwright and comedian Ian Fraser offers a 1993 Penguin-published memoir: My Own Private Orchestra: (Adults Only) From his author page, apparently he has won a number of awards.

Gordon Ryan has been small-press published since 1994 and offers a 5-novel omnibus of his 19th/20th century immigrant drama: The Callahans: The Complete Series

Some borderline to definite self-pub stuff which looked interesting that I include on the basis of that:

Indian writer Mainak Dhar says two of his novels have been picked up for paper-publication by local imprints: Hindustaan: An Epic Adventure of the Mughal Empire a historical by Vitasta in 2011 and Heroes R Us: A Superhero Novel a contemporary starring a librarian bitten by a radioactive spider who acquires superpowers somehow by Random House India in 2010. His blurbs include praise from local newspapers where applicable.

D.A. Greystone says he has a degree in English literature and offers two of his novels free for the next two days. Maybe he's good, maybe he's bad, but he happens to be Canadian and his blurbs looked decent, so: The Schliemann Legacy spy thriller with Nazis and Trojan treasure, Two Graves yet another cop vs. serial killer crime thriller. Doesn't anyone ever deal with single isolated homicides anymore?

Cindy Bouchard, also Canadian, offers one volume of what looks like some sort of multi-book historical family drama set in BC, this one centering around the events and effects of WWI and the completetion of the Grand Trunk Pacific Highway: For All We Have and Are 1914 (Princes of the North) I hope she put more line spaces in the actual novel than she did in the blurb, but otherwise it looks promising.

Well, that's everything I could easily spot, backlist-wise. Happy reading, if indeed you manage to pick up something you think you might like.

[Dr. Drib]

Got another trunk-load of books thanks to you.

All are now being put in Kindle's Archive, as I read some more established fiction. Perhaps in a few years (but no more than 15 years from now), I plan to pull one out and see if it's formatted correctly.

Thank you!




Don

[koland]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Got another trunk-load of books thanks to you.

All are now being put in Kindle's Archive, as I read some more established fiction. Perhaps in a few years (but no more than 15 years from now), I plan to pull one out and see if it's formatted correctly.

Good plan. I've had several of these already updated by the author, so my archive now has "better" formatted versions (yet to be read).

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by koland

I've had several of these already updated by the author, so my archive now has "better" formatted versions (yet to be read).

If we've been getting roughly the same KDP-Selected freebies over the past few weeks, then clearly Amazon does not love me enough to send update notices.

Could just be Conservation of Customer Service at work, since I haven't even bothered to download the latest few batches yet and will probably never even open most of them.

BTW, thanks for the heads up on the Douglas Smith freebie in the other thread. He's an Aurora Award winner and fellow Canadian Robert J. Sawyer has praised him a couple of times. Every so often he freebies a random story on Smashwords (and thence eventually to the other price-matching outlets), but I haven't been keeping up lately.

For anyone else who wants to experience award-winning Canadian sf writing (disclaimer: this does not seem to be one of the stories which won an award, though it's hard to tell with all the excerpted praise going on the blurb, which exists in a 10:1 ratio to the actual story description), Memories of the Dead Man, available to all via Smashwords

[Blue Tyson]

I'd agree on Douglas Smith. Have read a few stories and liked them.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

I'd agree on Douglas Smith. Have read a few stories and liked them.

He's got a short story collection you can request as your one free e-book publisher ChiZine are giving away today for the next couple of hours.

Of course, you may prefer to get something more interesting and less readily available through other outlets.

Myself, I finally decided on Gemma Files' magic + steampunk + historical + multicultural + mythological + quest + western mashup, although I am still terribly tempted by the Lovecraftian Tel Aviv book which I'll have to see if the library has, because stuff that looks like Charles Stross' Laundry series and Tim Powers' Declare is exactly the kind of thing I like to read.

But the Files book turns out to be 70 cents more expensive than the rest of the print catalogue if I end up doing the buy-the-TPB-get-the-ebook-free route, and I notice they've had deep discount sales for Black Friday and Boxing Week, which makes the deal even more attractive, in addition to their being Canadian.

[koland]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

BTW, thanks for the heads up on the Douglas Smith freebie in the other thread. He's an Aurora Award winner and fellow Canadian Robert J. Sawyer has praised him a couple of times. Every so often he freebies a random story on Smashwords (and thence eventually to the other price-matching outlets), but I haven't been keeping up lately.

For anyone else who wants to experience award-winning Canadian sf writing (disclaimer: this does not seem to be one of the stories which won an award, though it's hard to tell with all the excerpted praise going on the blurb, which exists in a 10:1 ratio to the actual story description), Memories of the Dead Man, available to all via Smashwords

You're welcome and thanks for the SM title. I saw his collection on ChiZine and was researching his works at Amazon, when I found the freebie. I knew you kept an eye out for Canadian authors and had no seen it mentioned here (since it wasn't in my library!).