Free (Kindle DRM-free) Literary Remains by R.B. Russell [Fantasy & Horror Collection]

[ATDrake]

A surprising proportion of actual backlist and speculative-related fiction in the KDP exclusive or else slushpile today. And for some reason we've got a lot of UK writers and/or UK-related historical dramas. Anyway, it's nice to see some variety (and stuff in categories I have a decent chance of actually reading someday).

Today's sf/fantasy backlist treat is what appears to be a collection of fantasy/horror and/or speculative literary fiction short stories by an author I've never heard of, courtesy of PS Publishing's commitment to republishing works by low-profile speculative fiction authors who might otherwise get lost amidst all the steampunk/paranormal/milSF/epic bestseller subgenre stuff.

Literary Remains by R.B. Russell (ISFDB entry) is actually a mostly original collection of newly written stuff which sounds like literary fantasy/magical realism, but contains one short story which was included in a Datlow-edited Best Horror of the Year anthology. This originally came out in hardcover from PS Publishing in 2010.

Free without DRM for probably the next two days, courtesy of PS Publishing @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
In this collection love and loss tear at the fabric of everyday life and distort reality. What was once objectively familiar is tainted by uncertainty, and soon everything becomes subtly and terrifyingly altered. In "Loup-garou" a young man watches his own past re-enacted as an avante garde French film. In "Llanfihangel" memories of the past are shown to be incorrect and misinterpreted. In Russell's stories even the present appears to be open to misunderstanding.

When those around you insist that they see they world differently at least you can argue with them. But when you realise that you cannot rely on your own senses then the world becomes a terrifying place indeed

Fellow MR member author Synamon pointed out yesterday that Iain Rowan (ISFDB entry)'s award-winning collection of mystery/crime shorts out from Infinity Plus is free, so if you haven't looked at the updates to the previous thread: Nowhere to Go

The rest of the interesting parts of the slushpile, to which authors have apparently made a special point of loading up for the holidays.

UK writer Tim Vicary returns with an historical family drama/suspense with pre-WWI suffragettes in it, originally out from Simon & Schuster in 1993, with quoted praise from UK newspapers in the blurb: Cat and Mouse

Elizabeth Lord also has an historical family drama (at least, that's what Amazon categorizes it as) which was originally 2000-Severn House hardcovered: Butterfly Summers (Twenties saga of high-class London oyster restaurant: Letts)

Previously-included John Noone, who was some sort of joint prize-winner for a vintage 1960s UK pressed litfic novel which looked very shouty with the title in allcaps, IIRC, returns to offer a collection of his presumably also litfic shorts which the blurb says includes stories which were published in specific outlets and are a mix of contemporary and historical: LIKE AS NOT

UK writer Ian St. James returns with a 1987 HarperCollins-published uncovering a mysterious family feud thriller and repeats his financial district thriller: Linkage for them both

Newbie ISFDBed horror small press Dark Continents offers Dave Jeffery's collection of shorts: Campfire Chillers

UK writer Gretta Curran Browne offers a 1991-Headline hardcovered historical drama with some romance in it, set amongst 18th century Irish rebels, which has quoted UK newspaper praise in the blurb: FIRE ON THE HILL (Book One of FIRE ON THE HILL)

Steven Savile, who has now had a story published by Phoenix Pick Press as part of their Stellar Guild sf series pairing an established old pro with a newbie writer offers a collection of multi-genre speculative shorts: The Complete Incomplete Steven Savile (The Incomplete Steven Savile)

Minor ISFDBed Derek Clendening returns with a family drama psychological suspense/maybe-supernatural thriller novel which now includes two bonus shorts: The Between Years

Stoker/Edgar award-nominee and fellow MR member author Billie Sue Mosiman returns with an omnibus edition containing some previously-freebied: DARK THRILLERS-A Box Set of Suspense Novels

Oceanview-published David Bishop offers his Washington D.C.-set ex-CIA-turned-PI: The Blackmail Club, a Jack McCall Mystery

Kim Wright has a chick-lit/women's fiction novel out from Grand Central Publishing in 2010, for which she quotes praise from newspapers in this totally unrelated self-pub historical about a Scotland Yard forensics team vs Jack the Ripper: City of Darkness (City of Mystery)

For those of you who wanted some kind of supernatural thriller involving chefs, know that you have summoned it into existence via whatever the non-porny version of Rule 34 is, assuming this is not actually porn. Although this actually has aliens in it, and I am refraining from making a "To Serve Man" joke: Southern Fried Monster (Tales of Kilterless Kulinary) Be sure to use your powers for good, or at least not too much evil, from now on.

Speaking of aliens, this self-pub novel is set locally and involves local interest mentions and a quick skim of the sample doesn't make me clutch my eyes and scream, so I therefore include: Spaceship Over Vancouver

Despite its apparent target market, this is probably not a book you want to read to the kiddies. But it's festive! Kind of... : DOOMBUNNY: A Tale Of Easter Terror

I spotted repeats from Valerie Douglas, David Bain, David Bischoff, and Scott Nicholson, Alexandra Solokoff, if you're missing any series stuff/short stories for your collection.

Happy reading, if you manage to spot something you think you might like, and neither the Southern Fried Monster nor the DOOMBUNNY gets you.

[mitford13]

Thanks! I picked up both Edwardian-era books. One beautiful cover, one....not so beautiful.

[Dr. Drib]

Got about 5 or 6.

Thank you!



Don

[Blue Tyson]

Now up to 661.

Blimey.

[Blue Tyson]

Also notable

Vivisepulture edited by Andy Remic

http://www.amazon.com/Vivisepulture-ebook/dp/B006O4V03W

With a nice lineup headlined by Neal Asher :-

"edited by Andy Remic & Wayne Simmons

5 STAR REVIEW: "The 22 stories themselves celebrate the weird in all its disturbing glory, some will shock while others may make you laugh but each one is a work of art and celebrates this often ignored sub-genre. There is quite an eclectic, quirky mix as you may expect from the range of differing styles and voices that make up the contributing authors; this keeps the interest level pretty much stratospheric throughout the collection." - SF Book.com


Welcome to our anthology, a collection of weird and bizarre tales of twisted imagination by Neal Asher, Tony Ballantyne, Eric Brown, Richard Ford, Ian Graham, Lee Harris, Colin Harvey, Vincent Holland-Keen, James Lovegrove, Gary McMahon, Stan Nicholls, Andy Remic, Jordan Reyne, Ian Sales, Steven Savile, Wayne Simmons, Guy N. Smith, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Jeffrey Thomas, Danie Ware, Ian Watson and Ian Whates. Artwork by Vincent Chong.

The anthology is dedicated to the late Colin Harvey, with great affection.

In the tradition of Poe, Kafka, Borges and H. G. Wells, this collection of weird stories are written with the primary drive of presenting twisted deviations of normality. Whether it's the deviant factory workers of Neal Asher's Plastipak™ Limited, the pus-oozing anti-cherub of Ian Graham's Rotten Cupid, the acid-snot disgorging freak of Andy Remic's SNOT, or Ian Watson's alternate zombie-crucifixion, each story will drag your organs up through your oesophagus and give your brain a chilli-fired beating."

[caleb72]

Thanks - picked up a few of those.

[ATDrake]

Pro-tip for KDP Select exclusivising authors/publishers using up their free days: don't dump your entire catalogue of two-dozen-plus works into the slushpile all on the same day. I will get sick of seeing your name/imprint over and over and over again and I'm sure so will everyone else. You get 5 free days out of 90. Use them wisely and space accordingly, because there is such a thing as bad (and badly-considered) publicity.

We've got more Commonwealth stuff (even some Canadiana!), and a few very promising sf/fantasy/horror offerings as well.

Ray Banks is a Scottish writer who is currently published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and has a number of stories reprinted in those Mammoth Book of Best British Crime anthologies. He offers a noir-ish thriller which seems to have been previously published (quotes a lot of specific newspaper praise in the blurb) but is not linked to a paperback and I'm not going to dig: Dead Money

UK writer Simon Cheshire has written YA fiction novels for Delacorte, which IIRC is owned by Random House now, and offers his self-explanatory: You've Got To Read This: A Beginner's Guide To Great Writers And The History Of Books

Fellow MR member author Joan Hall Hovey, who's been previously published by one of the Big 6 crime imprints which I can't recall, returns with divorcee vs stalker/killer thriller: Chill Waters Her new publisher Books We Love/BWLPP again have a mix of new and repeats, if you care to do a keyword search on their imprint names.

New American Library-published Jessica Barksdale Inclan returns with a literary suspense/family drama/women's fiction which comes with an explanation for why she was inspired to write it: Forgotten

It turns out that what Donald Newlove writes, or at least used to write, was some sort of experimental literary fiction which got reviewed in Time Magazine (along with his somehow-theatre-related autobiography), according to a Google search. Anyway, he returns with some sort of omnibus edition of novels based around film stars: STARLITE PHOTOPLAYS and some poetry, also about film and literature personalities: THE THREE-HEADED PET DOG

Another ImagineThat! Studios-backed sexy sf/fantasy short from Riley Owens for your collection: The Sins of Princes (Erotic Flights of Fantasy) and : Airship Desire (Erotic Flights of Fantasy), which puts the steamy in steampunk.

A YA fantasy short by Emma St. John also via ImagineThat! Studios: Elysium (Chronicles of the Last Herald)

UK writer Katherine Roberts ( ISFDB) also offers a YA fantasy adventure set in ancient Egypt, originally out from Harper in 2005 and with quoted blurb praise not only from UK newspapers, but also the late UK grand fantasy dame Diana Wynne Jones: The Great Pyramid Robbery (Seven Fabulous Wonders

ISFDBed William King returns another pseudo-Conan-ish sword & sorcery short: The Wolves of War ( A Kormak Novelette)

Minor ISFDBed newbie writer Glen R. Krisch returns to offer another horror thriller: The Nightmare Within

John Zakour (ISFDB entry), who co-writes the intensely funny and recommended Zach Johnson Last PI near-future sci-fi satirical comedy mystery series for DAW, teams up with Shannnon Duffy to write what seems to be an also humourously-inclined: The Couples Guide to Pregnancy & Beyond: He Says, She Says

Cameron Conaway lists a bunch of stuff in his bio, the most relevant of which seems to be that he writes articles for a particular ESPN affiliate and was the University of Arizona's Poet-In-Residence for a specified period of time, both of which seem to check out upon search. He claims to be a "Warrior Poet", which I suppose harks back to the last days of the samurai and this is his book about that: Caged: Memoirs of a Cage-Fighting Poet

Avon-published Miriam Minger, who normally writes historical romances, offers a suspense thriller about a kidnapped kid with possibly conspiracy behind it (may turn out to be a romantic suspense, but maybe not, from what I see in the blurb). This is not KDP Select, but playing pricing catch-up with Smashwords or elsewhere: Ripped Apart

Ben Rehder returns with another installment in his apparently-comedic series, this one out from Minotaur in 2005: Guilt Trip (Blanco County Mysteries)

Prominent 80s era AIDS-epidemic journalist/activist Charles Ortleb returns with an omnibus edition of his LGBT-related works: Silence, Exile, and Cunning:Three works of fiction that turn everything you know about the epidemic upside down

Matthew Ismail has written one academic non-fiction biography of prominent Victorian Egyptologist Sir E.A. Wallis Budge out from a small press which actually looks like it mainly publishes chess strategy books, but it's nonetheless eligible for Amazon's textbook credit program. He offers an archaeological antiquities-based treasure-smuggling mystery/thriller novel: Lord of Light

Brendan Connell (ISFDB entry) offers his 2005 Prime-published Vatican-set dark fantasy/conspiracy thriller: The Translation of Father Torturo

Nicola Furlong is a Canadian author who quotes specific praise for her work from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the CBC, which is our national broadcaster. She offers a 1998 Salah small-pressed mystery/suspense novel set around a private girl's school and opera on Vancouver Island. This may possibly have inspirational elements, as her author bio says she's also written some inspirational cozies, but has had the aforementioned praise from the aforementioned secular reviewers: A Hemorrhaging of Souls

Gayle Ann Williams offers an action/adventure post-apocalyptic romance originally published by Dorchester/Love Spell in 2010: Tsunami Blue (The Tsunami Blue Series)

Randy Chandler (ISFDB entry) offers his 2003 small-pressed debut novel: Bad Juju: A Novel of Raw Terror

Daniel I. Russell (ISFDB entry) has only a few small press short story credits thus far, but his debut novel quotes specific blurb praise from prominent horror writer Gord Rollo and Shroud Magazine: Samhane

Sebastian Michael is a Swiss-born playwright who is now UK resident. He offers some sort of self-pub possibly-satirical literary fiction novel which has quoted blurb praise from prominent UK multimedia personality Stephen Fry, and is likened to some of John Irving's early works by the sole Amazon customer reviewer: Angel

If you like sci-fi erotica, this is your lucky day, as Kris Cook, who has some stuff out from small specialty erotic romance imprint BookStrand, offers you a sci-fi f/m/m menage to add to the stuff you probably picked up above: A Perfect World: An Erotic Science Fiction Short Story

Even in the KDP Select let's-throw-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink-into-the-exclusive-or-else slushpile, I don't often see steampunk westerns with dinosaur-riders instead of cowboys, and thus I include: Rexrider (First World's End)

And speaking of "steampunk", or at least heating systems, and dinosaurs, this is the most awesome radiator ever, and I want one even though I live in a temperate climate which gets like 5cms of snow during the coldest part of most years which all melts in the afternoon anyway.

I noticed sf/fantasy, mystery, & litfic specific backlist repeats from Lee Killough, A.A. Attanasio, David B. Riley, M. Ruth Meyers, Jennifer Malin, David Fulmer, Adrian White, and stuff from newbie small press imprints Coffeetown Press and Camel Press if you're missing anything from your collection of such.

Happy reading, if indeed you manage to spot something you think you might like and/or managed to score yourself an awesome Thermosaurus radiator to keep you warm.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Nicola Furlong is a Canadian author who quotes specific praise for her work from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the CBC, which is our national broadcaster. She offers a 1998 Salah small-pressed mystery/suspense novel set around a private girl's school and opera on Vancouver Island. This may possibly have inspirational elements, as her author bio says she's also written some inspirational cozies, but has had the aforementioned praise from the aforementioned secular reviewers: A Hemorrhaging of Souls

Sounds interesting.

Here's another opera themed mystery freebie: Ding Dong the Diva's Dead by Cat Melodia (paper version published by Camel Press).

[Dr. Drib]

Picked up 2 or 3 more.

Thanks.



Don

[AppDreamer]

I am the author of Southern Fried Monster, and I really appreciate the mention in your blog above. If I can ever help out, drop me a line. Love hearing your input.

=Jay

[Synamon]

Nevermind, ATDrake has this in the new thread posted at the same time I posted this.