APB-SAL is a blog about education, science, science education, fiction, science fiction, literature, literary stories, poetry, and anything else that strikes the blogger's fancy. NOTE: This blog interrogates art. It rarely make moral proclamations. For that attend the church or politician of your choice. This blog concerns aesthetics, not propaganda. Consider this as interviews with books where the interviewer presents interviewees, so you get what you need to do your own thinking.
Ebook just released yesterday, reduced 90% to 99 cents.
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 37
I have a story in here.
At the time of posting: #114 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Kindle Store)
Update:
The highest I saw:
![L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 37 by [L. Ron Hubbard, Orson Scott Card, Jody Lynn Nye, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Craig Elliott, Christopher Bowthorpe, John M. Campbell, Elizabeth Chatsworth, Ryan Cole, Anj Dockrey, K. D. Julicher, Erik Lynd, Barbara Lund, Sara Fox, Elaine Midcoh, Brittany Rainsdon, Trent Walters, Emma Washburn, Luke Wildman, Echo Chernik, Daniel Bitton, Jennifer Bruce, Isabel Gibney, Rupam Grimoeuvre, Will Knight, Madolyn Locke, André Mata, Sethe Nguyen, Mariah Salinas, Stephen Spinas, Dan Watson, Jeff Weiner, Shiyi Yu, David Farland]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51RTCGMt+1L.jpg)
Reminder: Ben Farthing's ebook, The Piper's Graveyard: A Small-Town Cult Horror Thriller Suspense, is on sale at 99 cents. I haven't yet read it.
Ben Farthing demonstrated his worth as a writer by having a story come in second in the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award.
She breathed in deep gasps. Not crying--hyperventilating.
"Hey, are you all right?" A stupid question.
He spotted a scrap of paper next to her that she must have dropped. He picked it up and touched her shoulder. She looked up. Her expression wasn't panic, but exhaustion, like she'd just run a marathon. Sweat beaded on her skin and glistened in her hair. She was slender, slightly older than Everard--probably mid-thirties--and gorgeous despite the blemishes across her cheek....
It wasn't acne, or age spots, or scars. It was a swarm of holes, moving both together and independently like a school of fish. Each deep enough to show teeth or bone, but instead only revealing pink flesh descending into shadow....
The holes glided over her face, over--oh, God--over her eyes, her open eyes, tiny fleshy pits slipping along whites and blues and irises. He should run. That what he should do, and he would, as soon as he could figure out what was going on with her skin.
It's interesting the author slapped a lot of labels on to clue readers into what they'd be in for: Lovecratian, thriller, urban fantasy, horror. He removed the label, but it did have a super-hero label as well. They are all useful guide posts to what's inside, but still inadequate. If you like non-stop break-neck thrillers that make it hard for you to catch your breath, this could be a good fit.
I'd offer Roger Zelazny as a stronger comparison, more so than Lovecraft (though the design of the creatures that populate this realm share something of the Lovecraftian spirit). We have a protagonist who has forgotten, had his memory wiped, or somehow never knew of his connection to the strange inner world that operates beneath our own.
Because of its pacing, I almost failed to notice the deeper political significance of the work, situated as it is in the Washington D.C. vicinity. So it also offers some intellectual entertainment for those who like that sort of thing, but obviously without overbearing or overwhelming the work--subtly done.
Ben Farthing's ebook, The Piper's Graveyard: A Small-Town Cult Horror Thriller Suspense, is on sale at 99 cents. It seems an intriguing premise, taking off from The Pied Piper.
I read Farthing's first book, Boom, last year, which I'll report on shortly--a strangely tinctured fast-paced genre work that seems impossible to define yet fits within the field. If you like weird, you'll probably like it. Definitely, read the excerpt first to see if you'd like it. You have to be into its strangeness, which doesn't take long to appear. Its speculative invention doesn't end there.
Anyway, I thought I'd post the ebook sale first so potential readers have more time to take advantage of the sale.
#3 in Occult Horror
#4 in Occult Fiction
#5 in Horror Suspense
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