Come One, Come All

Hear ye, hear ye, readers of the Mad Ones. It is the 5th Friday of the month. That means Promotion Day is here. We’re all in the middle of various projects, work, family, etc. So here’s your chance to tell us what you’re reading or to promote one–ONE–of your own books. The only rules are you have to link to Amazon (and no Amazon Associate links, please) and if you are linking to your own work or to an author you act as agent/editor/etc for, you may only link one title.

This is not a curated list. That means the MGC bloggers make no guarantees about the books listed in the comments.

The floor is now yours.

63 thoughts on “Come One, Come All”

  1. I’ll get us started with Fire from Ashes

    At war with an old enemy, betrayed by a supposed ally, Fuercon is a system on the brink of disaster. All that stands between it and defeat are its Space Navy and Marines – and the fact the betrayer does not yet know its secret plans have been discovered. But will that be enough to turn the tide of war?

    Honor and duty.

    Honor and duty have guided Colonel Ashlyn Shaw’s life for as long as she can remember. Honor kept her sane when she was betrayed by those she had fought beside. Duty gave her reason to trust again once the betrayal came to light and her name, as well as the names of her fellow Devil Dogs, was cleared. Now she and the Marines under her command are once again asked to risk their lives to protect Fuercon from its enemies.

    Family and the Corps.

    They are why she fights. She knows what will happen to them should Fuercon fall to the Callusians. Their lives are worth any sacrifice she must make to help keep their homeworld safe.

    Betrayal.

    The not-so-secret driving force of Ashlyn’s life. Four years ago, someone betrayed her and her command. That person now works to betray Fuercon. Ashlyn is determined to discover who – and why – and bring them to justice.

    The storm clouds of war gather and time is running out. Will Ashlyn and the Devil Dogs be able to turn back the enemy and unmask the betrayer before all is lost?

  2. Reading Book 1 of “The Thorn Chronicles” by Kimberly Loth (Amazon Prime Reading. Kind of glad I didn’t spend money on it but not glad enough to dump it outright)

    Listening to Applied Economics by Thomas Sowell on Audible. Highly recommended follow-on to his “Basic Economics”.

    Promo of one book, “Alchemy of Shadows” https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CV4VWTT

    1. Forgot to include the description of mine:

      I was born in the year 1215, in a small town in Westphalia. As a boy, my parents apprenticed me to the famed alchemist Albertus Magnus. Under his tutelage I grew to adulthood and learned the mystical secrets of alchemy, including the manufacture of the Elixir of Life. I have gone by many names through the centuries.

      I was already centuries old when I encountered the creatures of darkness made manifest that I know only as Shadows. They have chased me down through the years for reasons I have never understood.

      Light was the only weapon I had against these Shadows, light that could drive them back but not harm them. And so I ran. Every time the Shadows caught up with me I fled to a new identity, a new life, until inevitably they found me again. At long last, with nowhere left to run, I had to find some way to fight the Shadows, not just for myself, but for the people I had come to care about.

      My name is Adrian Jaeger. This is my story

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  5. I’ve been reading Dune thanks to Dave Freer’s post Monday. Not sure about is so far but so many people recommended it I want to read farther and give it a fair shake.

      1. Yeah, I agree. The first book is absolutely amazing, but I’ve never lost interest faster in a series. I couldn’t even finish Dune Messiah. I’ve thought of trying it again, since it’s been decades, but I’ve a fear that doing so would probably just lower my opinion of the first book. Some things are best left as good memories.

  6. It’s that time of year, so here’s a story about three kids heading for the University, and the School of Directorate Studies that will prepare them to explore parallel worlds.

  7. Currently Reading: Cyn Bagley’s Hilda’s Inn, and Frank Herbert’s Heretics of Dune, depending on whether I’m reading Kindle or dead tree.

    1. This one’s one of my favorites (or at least, has some of my favorite stories/characters…like Quetzl my dragon) of the books I’ve written: https://www.amazon.com/Normalcy-Bias-closer-things-always-ebook/dp/B07B4S7JMM/

      From the back cover:

      Look closer. The things that you’re assuming you’re seeing? May not be what you think. Is that really a mouse, or is it a Brownie? Is that really an owl? Is that polished gemstone a stone…or an egg?

      We take so many things for granted. Some of them may be harmless, but many are a lot less so. I wonder how many people ignore red flags every day, because they only see what they expect to see?

      This collection takes what’s “normal” and asks “What if it’s something more?”

  8. I have the worst timing- the first part of the Hartington series is coming out next week, but until then I have no link for y’all. It’s a three-part space opera; I’ll put up a promo when it comes out.

    In the meantime, if you like medieval fantasy/adventure, try In Pursuit of Justice, which is the second part of the Garia Cycle. Cover art by our very own Sarah A. Hoyt.

  9. I’m currently reading the second book of Stephanie Osborn’s Division One chronicles, Division One: A Small Medium at Large. The concept is a riff on Men in Black, but leaning more toward drama, and less toward comedy. So far, the first two books are very good.

  10. EJ Hunter book # 2

    Owen Wulfe has a vendetta and he needs Mari Cantor to lead him to the man who kidnapped his nephew and killed his sister and her husband. Mari wants nothing to do with Owen or his revenge. In the meantime EJ is sent on a diplomatic mission to the werecat clowder as the Alpha’s representative. Of course nothing goes right.

    Instead of cowboys, this Western world is filled with shapeshifters, trying to live in a world of humans.

  11. Currently reading Michael Moorcock’s Sword of the Dawn, the webnovel A Practical Guide to Evil, and Sanderson’s Oathbringer (from the one series I will still buy from Tor) when I don’t have a baby in my lap. Oh, and at bedtime we’ve moved from classic children’s tales to Olivia Coolidge’s telling of Greek myths.

    As for my one, this is the collection of the first book of my webnovel, a pirate swashbuckler that happens to be Viking-flavored:
    Einarr Stigandersen and the Jotunhall (The Adventures of Einarr Stigandersen Book 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079WPTG6Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_9ovIBbRF96XE4
    Once upon a time, Stigander Raenson had been heir to a thanedom. Then a curse drove him and his family and crew out of their home. Dispossessed, the crew of the Vidofnir wanders the cold seas in search of treasure, glory, and a way to end the curse.

    Einarr, son of Stigander, lives a vagabond’s life on the Vidofnir, never giving much thought to the home he barely remembers. That is, until an unexpected squall and the attack of a demon-headed ship send them to winter at the Hall of his father’s childhood friend.

    Now Einarr has just a single season to convince the Jarl that he would be a worthy match for the Lady Runa, the Jarl’s only child. Will he return in one piece, or will the Jarl’s impossible quest be Einarr’s undoing?

  12. Currently reading Sara’s and Kevin J. Anderson’s alt-history Lewis and Clark. Fun! Also a summary history of early Islam and what we don’t know, and some books about the development of metallurgy and mining (for the next plus one Merchant book). Should have the next Merchant book out early next week.

    1. Aaand because life happened to throw a great cover at me a lot earlier than planned, I will be releasing a stand-alone Chinese fantasy novel early next week. _Daughter of the Pearl_. Dragons, magic, bad cooking, and a river gone bad.

  13. I can, with a clear conscience, promote the entirety of my output here:

    ’cause it’s the only thing I’ve gotten published to date.

    From the description: Kestrel’s land is scarred in ways its inhabitants cannot begin to understand, built on long-poisoned earth and menaced by twisted plants and animals. Farmers, hunters, and magic-users fight a long battle to create safe havens and reclaim lost ground, but their casualties mount over generations.

    Kestrel knows little and cares less about the patterns that shape her world. She’s a shapechanger and healer who has spent the handful of years since reaching womanhood cleansing the wildlife of her blighted land with medicine and magic. Sure of her place and confident in her skills, she takes care of her own and doesn’t poke at things that don’t concern her. But when she returns from a routine journey with her brother to find her home ransacked and empty, Kestrel must gather her remaining family and search for new allies before old magic and older hatred rob her kin of their freedom, their lives, and possibly their souls.

    It’s very much a “write what you want to read” project for me; I love shapeshifters and have a limited tolerance for paranormal romances, where most of them seem to congregate. So I wrote what I wanted to see, with a reason for the fancy powers and a moderate amount of derring-do. Now I’m hooked on the world and have to write more so I can figure it out. 🙂

    1. Okay, I haven’t done this before, so let’s try!

      Blood Creek Witch – a tale of magic, monsters, and mayhem set in modern-day Appalachia.

      https://read.amazon.com/kp/card?asin=B07B293JT9&preview=inline&linkCode=kpe&width=

      Grieving and lost after the death of her parents, Jenny Morgan is sent to West Virginia to live with an aunt she’s never met. It’s there that Jenny is confronted with an unbelievable family heritage of witchcraft and magic – something she immediately dismisses as old-fashioned superstitions. However, once her new home is threatened by deadly horrors straight out of myth and folklore, her aunt’s stories become impossible to ignore.

  14. Hey, I’ll go for it. “Blood Creek Witch” – a story of magic, monsters, and mayhem set deep in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia.

    Grieving and lost after the death of her parents, Jenny Morgan is sent to West Virginia to live with an aunt she’s never met. It’s there that Jenny is confronted with an unbelievable family heritage of witchcraft and magic – something she immediately dismisses as old-fashioned superstitions. However, once her new home is threatened by deadly horrors straight out of myth and folklore, her aunt’s stories become impossible to ignore.

  15. Not reading anything atm, been a … bit busy.

    Promo of one book: https://www.amazon.com/Affs-Diary-Blessed-C-Extarian/dp/0244072574/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535729198&sr=8-1&keywords=aff%27s+diary

    Nestled deep in the forest, all is as it should be in the village of Blessed Hope – and that’s how chief hunter Dari Finbarr likes it. Then one stormy night the embodiment of death for Humans stumbles into their home: a Szari girl.
    The Szari! A race of powerful beings who sought the extinction of Humankind, and were only stopped by the Tzaro people in a brutal war that is still whispered about in hushed voices. A sole Szari warrior is capable of wiping out entire Human settlements by themselves.
    The strange, silent Szari is nothing like how the tales describe however; and though it risks his life, Dari is given the task of guarding her until the wise Tzaro are brought to decide her fate. Until then many questions arise, but no answers can be found in the girl’s sad green eyes. Without knowing it, the Humans of Blessed Hope have found themselves on a path that will change the future of all the races on their world…

  16. I’m going to throw in a promo for my friend Stacy. She writes paranormal romance and fantasy romance, and her latest book is the first of an epic fantasy romance series entitled The Two Kingdoms. (And I love her disclaimer: “Any resemblance to any persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental. Unless you’re friends with the author. Nothing is sacred when you’re friends with a writer.”)

    1. Egad… I might just have a… Rich Fantasy Life… maybe.

      I’ve told people in “real life” that I don’t mind if they make up stuff about me, but PLEASE make it interesting lies, at least. And I’ve had people stunned to discover what I related as simple history… actually happened. I do not go out of my to encounter strangeness, it Just Happens. Defaults? Boring. Useful, I admit, but generally dull. Minor example: I set up wireless streaming at home for the very first time… state (well, close) of the art, high-tech, etc. and what *randomly* plays of all the stored music? Digitized…. cylinders. Note: *RANDOM*. I did not set out to to do that. The Universe just seems to naturally be a bit strange/perverse at me. (It’s to the point that I am convinced should there be a Heaven and a Hell and perhaps even a Purgatory… that I will end up “walking the earth” for some time rather than deal with any of them – and somehow, that will be a Best-Fit…. for me… and maybe even some others will benefit from that. I cannot explain it. I just… deal with it. I do NOT work miracles – at best I can manage, here and there, now and again, a minor tweak. Occasionally, it even pays off – for someone else.)

  17. Minutegirls

    “If the Minutegirls come to get you, write your will IMMEDIATELY.”…Pat Patterson

    Massive space battles! Desperate hand-to-hand combat! Politics! Hot babes with guns!

    Minutegirls… Nice young women who just want some good clean fun with power armor, plenty of high explosives, and a few cute Minuteboys.

    It is 2174. From the hills of American Manchuria to the depths of Outer Space. America’s Girl Militia battles Franco-German treachery to shield the American Stellar Republic.

  18. Bad Dog

    In 2071, Sergeant Tachikoma leads a Marine combat armor squad. She knows the Corps never promised her a rose garden, only the chance to fight for her country.

    Now, she faces her greatest challenge, two terrifying alien pillars that trapped her into reliving the same day again. The day she dies.

    Today, she needs every ounce of courage to save her people from annihilation.

    Based on cutting-edge theories on the nature of the universe, this white knuckle military SF thriller contains drama and mystery.

    First line: “It’s Big Dog’s fault we all died under a mountain in Afghanistan yesterday, and it’s my fault we ended up dying again today…”

  20. “Vigil For The Longest Night”, appearing in Enigma Front Onward.

    On a long-lost Earth colony fallen into pre-industrial barbarism, young Tomas’s village is visited by a mysterious trader who brings hope and danger.

  21. I’ve got a short story in Superversive’s “Planetary: Earth” anthology, available since June. And Mad Genius Pam Uphoff graciously previewed it for me.

    “Under a Wayward Sun,” by Josh Griffing.

    The star we call Epsilon Aurigae is orbited every 27 years by an enormous wheel of stone and debris called Alzalaam, the Darkness, and the hub of that wheel is a white dwarf system. The star’s second planet is temperate and hospitable, but it’s been twenty-five years since the Terran Fleet last came here.

  22. Dragon Assassins by Stephen Swan

    A pair of incompetent, eighteen-year-old, supernatural assassins accidentally kill a real girl and when her body doesn’t dissolve into dust like expected have to drag her corpse around with them as they face an ancient evil.

    Steve

    1. Heh, I just spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to post a picture like everyone else was doing. Couldn’t find the answer so just posted the link and bang-o; cover added. Those guys at Amazon are pretty dang clever.

      Steve

  23. Just finished Darker Nights by Eric S Brown.
    The second book on an excellent horror/Mil Sci-fi series.

  24. Thanks for the promo space, folks!

    Here’s a Sci-Fi Space Adventure Anthology with three related universe stories, one of which is novella length.

    HORIZONS UNLIMITED

    Matter conversion technology—Matt-Con—has broadened the scope of mankind’s existence. It has opened up the real possibility of viable colonies on other planets in our solar system, and even space itself. Anywhere matter can be captured or energy from the sun can be felt, the possibility of expanding human habitation exists.

    In this volume:

    Quicksilver

    The space station Chariot of Helios—on its way to Mercury to become a power collection station for Earth’s growing need for energy to power matt-con tech—encounters a strange anomaly that threatens ship and crew.

    Escaping Aurora

    The sudden destruction of mankind’s first atmospheric terraforming platform leaves three unlucky exonauts struggling to survive in the skies of Venus aboard a cobbled-together airship. Meanwhile, the commander of the space station above battles obstacles that might keep her from rescuing her stranded husband and crew in time.

  25. Thanks for sharing the promo room, Amanda.

    I’m currently reading Michael Edelson’s thriller Theft of Fire. I’m really liking it. I’m also reading Nourishing Diets: How Paelo, Ancestral, and Traditional Peoples Really Ate by Sally Fallon. Fallon’s books led me to bone broth and other goodies.

    Mercenary Calling is in my Ground Based Universe of bourgeois, legal science fiction:

    Exoplanets. Terrorists. Lawyers…

    Calvin Tondini has his first client, but he may be in over his head.

    It’s the twenty-second century. Humanity’s first and only interstellar starship returns safely. Its mission to discover a habitable planet succeeded beyond all hopes, but there’s one problem. Captain Paolina Nigmatullin of the USS Aeneid left an unsanctioned human colony behind and now stands charged with mutiny.

    Despite a somewhat spontaneous approach to his own career, life, and limb, Calvin intends to map a more cautious path for his new client. Captain Nigmatullin, however, shows an unnerving penchant for talk shows—appearing on them, that is—and otherwise ignoring her attorney’s sober counsel.

    How can Calvin ensure his client’s freedom when death stalks the Aeneid’s crew, and Nigmatullin herself hides secrets from everyone, even her lawyer?

    1. Laura, I think you have a really neat premise for this book. Thank you for posting this–I look forward to reading it.

  26. I’m currently reading Space Force book 13. I don’t recommend it and I’m getting sick of it. “Why, then, are you still reading it?” you may ask. It’s very light – a bit over a book per day – and I want to know how it ends. Not sure if I want to know badly enough to read 12 more.

    Now I have lots of new stuff to try! Good thing it’s a three-day weekend.

  27. Not going to post my own here – maybe the next Fifth Friday, when I’ll hopefully have something I’m a lot happier with to tout.

    For fiction, I’m currently bingeing on Mackey Chandler. So that would be way too many links, I’d be in moderation forever…

    For non-fiction:

    So far, appears to be a decent analysis of the issues.

  28. My first (and thus far only) published work:

    Charlie Rasczak swore he’d never go back to Mars. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so when the man he hates more than anything else in the solar system makes him a job offer he’d have to be crazy to refuse, the private investigator finds himself on the first liner back to the formerly-red planet.

    The job seems simple enough at first, but Rasczak soon discovers that the stakes are far higher than he could have ever imagined. With fanatical terrorists on one side, trigger happy contractors on the other, and a paranoid corporate oligarch breathing down his neck every step of the way, Rasczak quickly finds himself alone and outgunned. Too bad for them, because when he’s alone and outgunned, Charlie Rasczak is in his element. But with the lifeblood of Mars itself at stake, he’ll need to be.

  30. First in the SDF paranormal mystery series if you haven’t checked it out yet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4OCJE5/ The audiobook just came out too!

    Vampires aren’t the only things that go bump in the night…

    Singers are a dime a dozen in Nashville, so despite her mama’s urging, psychic Ariana Ryder’s working her way towards a career in law enforcement at the FBI, one tray of fetched coffee at a time, instead. She’s got an extremely handsome boss, a dancing partner among the lab techs, and a solid year as the team rookie under her belt…

    Right until the director gives her a big break, working undercover as a singer at a club to investigate why it’s being targeted by a serial killer. This might have worked better if the club didn’t happen to be a vampire nest.

    Now, with the vampires’ investigator, Quil, on her case, the sparks are flying and the jurisdictional battle isn’t the only thing heating up as they race to solve the case before the killer strikes again!

  31. Here’s my latest attempt at storming the bastions of literature, just released on Kindle with the print version to follow soon. Reading comic books about a certain famous iconic super-hero put ideas in my head when I was a young lad, and this is where I wring them back out. It’s a parody of the character at a time in his publishing history when he was at his most endearingly silly (circa 1963), but also written fairly straight as a prose novel with a light touch. While all the names are changed, of course, maybe you can figure who the target is.

  34. I don’t have anything new, thanks to life having thrown me one curveball after another over the past year (a death in the family, computer problems, cash flow problems). But here’s the last thing I managed to get up before all my writing started bogging down on me.

    Vengeance Is Mine

    Chance spared Bina when the Sand Locusts destroyed the village of her birth. Determination kept her alive in the years that followed.

    But survival has come at a price. Each day she lives among her captors, she must ignore the signs that their nameless god is not a force of law and justice.

    Will she continue to turn a blind eye? Or will she put an end to the scourge that is the Unspeakable, once and for all?

  35. Thanks for the promo opportunity. This is my one book so far – spooky dark fantasy, trying for something along the lines of Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus or Joseph Delaney’s Spook’s Apprentice series.

    Niko can see the scarpies, sinister little shadow creatures who live in darkness and feed on black magic. Most people can see one or two, here or there, but Niko sees them everywhere, scuttling along the streets and hiding in shadows.

    No one takes the scarpies seriously. Niko’s cousin calls them “spectral rats.” But when a powerful figure at the royal court is murdered by black sorcery, Niko begins to think the scarpies are connected. While court factions scheme for power, Niko may be the only one who can stop a magical assassin before someone else is murdered, and a killer takes control of the kingdom.

  36. This gives me the utterly insane idea I ought to write something. BUT.. nothing is in my head screaming that it must be written. Why, nothing is even mildly suggesting such. And yes, there is something in there – despite how hollow it must seem at times. Alright, most times.

  37. Thanks for the opportunity to pitch. Here’s a contemporary action novel available on Kindle Unlimited:

    Action! Martial Arts! Romance! Anime Cons!

    Her boss told her it was a simple job…

    Now Valerie is on the run from a gang of ruthless thugs who want her dead. And she has not choice but to depend on a mysterious stranger with no past.

    Together, they must dodge assassins, unmask a powerful conspiracy, and defeat a deadly plot as they race across Los Angeles. Time is running out, and the stakes are enormous. If they fail, the largest anime convention in North America will become a raging inferno of death and destruction.

      1. The spam trap was hungry today! Sorry about that, both comments now cleaned out an on proper display.

  38. One work? Hmm, have my superhero tale, Through A MIrror, Darkly:

    What lies behind a reflection?

    Powers have filled the world with both heroes and villains. Helen, despite her own powers, had acquired the name Sanddollar but stayed out of the fights.

    When the enigmatic chess masters create a mirrored world reflecting her own home and the world about it, it’s not so easy to escape. All the more in that the people of that world are a dark reflection of all those she knows.

  39. Here’s the start of an Adventure/Mystery series set in Victorian Japan. (And available for $0.99)

    http://a.co/94B0VmU

    A samurai-cowboy seeking revenge.
    A secret society with a propensity for murder.
    An exciting adventure in Victorian Japan.

    When Mori Makoto returned to Yokohama after fifteen years of exile, he did not expect to be accused of murder. But when he comes across a dead body, Makoto is unwittingly thrust into a murderous plot involving killers from his painful past. Together, with a boisterous policeman, a thrill-seeking American actress, and a beautiful and mysterious shrine maiden, Makoto will find himself up against a dark conspiracy that could threaten the very survival of the new Japanese government.

  41. As for promoting one of my own pieces, here goes…

    After four hundred years, isolated from the rest of the world, the Elven Nation has finally reestablished a presence on the mainland of Allasea. With their return, the elves have built the city of Second Home, a place of learning, open to all who would come to study.

    For Raven, a young Shadow Elf historian, and one of the few elves born on the mainland, it’s an opportunity for her to research the truth about the first child born to the elves, Umbral K’hul, a god-like boy whose attempted patricide and subsequent banishment triggered a civil war that fractured the Elven Nation.

    A more sinister presence sees the elves’ return as a chance to strike, filling the beautiful city with an army of chaos and death. But along with the demons, strides another: after ten thousand years of exile, Umbral K’hul has escaped his prison.

    Now, the elves’ greatest pariah and an untested heroine must face an enemy bent on genocide. In the process they will discover secrets their people have kept since the elves established the island nation of First Home. Secrets which could prove even more devastating than the demons.

  43. Oooh, oooh! I just saw this today (well, yesterday, Sunday). Having just made a dog’s dinner of the August 24 launch of my first book, The Single Eye, I’m happy this thread is still open so I can give it a little boost here.

    It’s not SciFi or fantasy, so I hope I’m not out of order. Anyway, here she is:

    For what would you sell your soul? For what are you willing to die?
    ​​
    Practicing architecture to the glory of God: That’s what Sandy Beichten has set her sights on since she was a little girl. Now, as right-hand woman to brilliant young architect Eric Baumann, she’s in the perfect position to live out that call.

    ​If only she hadn’t fallen in love with him too. He’s beautiful, he’s dedicated, he’d fit her image of the ideal husband– if he weren’t dead-set against Christianity and against marriage itself. Eric’s focus is on Architecture alone, and Sandy fears he’d make a deal with the devil if it would sustain his struggling business and make his vision of doing innovative design come true.

    ​Then a stranger with uncanny eyes offers Eric what seems to be the commission of a lifetime. To Sandy’s relief, he turns it down. But the sinister would-be client refuses to take no for an answer, and before his plans are complete he will force Sandy and Eric to make a Faustian choice that will pit what they love most on earth against their lives, their humanity, and their very souls.

    ​

  44. Many thanks for the chance to get the word out!
    Book one of the Division One series (book 8 comes out in October, book 9 in Winter 2019), available in Kindle, Nook, and dead tree:

      1. Reading it now and it is causing problems for me. Darn hard to put down and go to sleep. No higher praise can I give!

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