To all those indie authors out there working full time jobs and/or raising kids (fur babies count) while pursuing your passions as writers. You inspire me every 👏 single 👏 day 👏
G’day team,
The time has come for me to step down from my reviewer role over at Epic.
A little note on why below.
The about us page bought to my attention from some very sweet authors checking in on me will be in the next thread.
1/2
Gearing up to film this vlog and I just … have no words.
Thank you indie and self pub community. I friggin love you.
98 books donated and ready to go out into Brisbane tomorrow.
What is something you absolutely love in books no matter how many times you read it? Tropes, animal companions, settings etc
I’ll go first - I love me a retired warrior turned tavern keep who has to get back in the game to kick some a**.
It’s been bought to my attention that the owner of EPIC is in the process of taking my name off the reviews I’ve written for the site and replacing it with their own.
It’s an unfortunate repercussion but at the end of the day, I want these reviews to exist for the authors.
A HUGE thank you to the authors, readers and reviewers who have already gotten involved in the SFF community project.
Already over 60 books have been donated! 🤯
Here is an update on where we are at so far!
I am so thankful for the online book community.
I discovered booktube during the year that was 2020 and was thrown into a world I used to love.
2021 I started reading again and created a bookstagram account. In 2022 I started a channel and opened myself up to betas.
1/5
Sometimes there are things that you can’t help but think “only in Australia”.
Today’s hilarious nonsense, there is a 600kg seal, named Neil who comes ashore in Tasmania a few times a year to cause havoc. Here he is in all his glory.
Thanks for the smile Neil.
I know no one actually cares but I FINALLY hit the 22kg dumbbells on a seated shoulder press.
I’ve been sitting at 20kg for MONTHS.
Ima take it as a win 💅
Alright indie and self pub friends, what books are coming out in 2024 that I should know about?
What are you anticipating?
What are you writing?
Shout it out!
Personally, I can't wait for The Blood Curse by
@jessicaamcminn
and Carved on Flawed Dreams by
@MT_Fontaine
!
My father in law loves fantasy, but before we met he was very much just into the well known 70/80’s authors and stuck to them.
Here are some of the indies he’s loved since I’ve come along (and the quotes that have come with them).
He has a heavy Lancashire accent.
1/2
Just a quick note to say a humble thank you for the love and support over the last two days.
To anyone caught in the crossfire, please accept my apology.
1/2
It is my absolute honor to be part of the
#coverreveal
team for
@bshgarcia
!
Check out this ✨BEAUTY!✨
From the Depths is a prequel novella that takes place roughly 1000 years prior to the events in Of Thieves and Shadows.
ARC sign ups and pre order links below!
✨COVER REVEAL✨
It is an honor to showcase
@Camhammer4144
’s absolute stunner of a cover today.
Welcome to Kraven, a dark fantasy world full of danger and secrets.
Book two of the Kraven Kronicles, Echoes of the Storm will be hitting shelves before you know it!
G’day Fellow Escapists!
The Little Libraries Project is LIVE!
If you’ve been curious to see what the heck I’ve been banging on about the last few weeks, check it out and share it around!
Let’s flood Brisbane with indie 🥰
With all the negative energy in the world right now (particularly in the booktube community) let’s shine a light on something positive.
The indie SFF community made this project very real and I’m still floored by the response.
Coming out midnight AEST tonight!
One of the people who we are staying with is a reader .. who likes fantasy.
I don’t know if he is ready for me to open up all my book boxes and talk to him endlessly about how cool self pub is and hit his TBR up with 1000 recommendations 🥰
These wonderful books are still coming in hot 🔥
Thank you so much to the authors, readers and reviewers of the world sending these in! This is the latest batch!
Closing date for project donations will be Nov 6th
Want to know what I’m on about??
All books have been donated!
This has been one of the most incredible experiences of my lifetime and I cannot believe how lucky I am to be apart of such a wonderful indie SFF loving community!
1/2
“is there goin to be another one of them Iron Crown Books?”
@_LLMacRae
“That’s good is that” - Seeds of War
@JoaoSilvaWrites
“You friends with
@Stevedwall
? I liked his book” - The Way of Renegades
“That’s a bloody good book, is this one” Sword of Kaigen
@M_L_Wang
2/2
🔥 🔥 COVER REVEAL 🔥 🔥
It is my absolute honor to present the cover for Helen Rygh-Pedersen’s The Bastard Heirs! Book two in the Riverda Rising series!
It was a pleasure to alpha read this one! I can’t wait for you all to experience the heat!
I have an idea.
A community library idea to help get some more indie SFF books out in the real world.
For this idea to work, I’ll need your help.
Watch this space! Channel announcement coming soon 🔥
This sale is awesome! If you’ve ever wanted to crash your TBR the time is now!
To showcase just how awesome this sale is, here is just one page of my kindle after the sale dropped yesterday 😳
My wife and I did NOT like each other for years. But, we had mutual friends. Every time we were in a room together we would gravitate towards the other enjoying the challenging conversation.
She turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.
The first time my now wife bought me a coffee, I had a panic attack. It would take me years to be able to accept a gift without one. Throughout those years she patiently held my hand and taught me I deserved to be loved.
I will be forever grateful to this wonderful woman.
For everyone following along on the community project, I’ll be filming and posting an update in mid October!
The response has been incredible thus far! Here are some of the books donated and received over the first week! I pick up the second weeks full box today!
If you are looking for a fast paced, character driven, gritty, multi POV fantasy that somehow shines a light on the stories less listened to in our own society, you’re going to want to pick up Seeds of War by
@JoaoSilvaWrites
!
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I have another community project idea brewing … 🤔
It won’t be for a while and I need to engage the services of a lovely local SFF bookstore.
But … watch this space 2024.
It’s both amusing and frustrating that any time I mention I’m part of the LGBTQIA+ community in relation to my channel I lose subs.
I’ll be here. Still being queer af 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏴☠️
Full disclosure, I’m not a pirate, I just like that the flag was an option.
The next 4 weeks of content has been filmed.
The next 2.5 weeks of content has been edited, uploaded and scheduled.
The house is almost packed.
Guess it’s time to move across the country … well in a week. I still have to work and vacuum.
Happy New Years Folks!
It’s finally here!
Thank you all so much for getting involved in the little libraries project indie family!
This was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. Take a look at all the cool mailboxes here!
Not sure why I waited so long to pick up Malazan…besides the crushing dread of intimidation that the 10,000 page series caused.
Gardens of the Moon is 🔥 so far!
I’ll be here. Fan boying forever.
It's taken a while, but I've learnt that it's much easier to fuel a fire than to take a step back and let it burn in honour of what you stand for.
See you tomorrow for some regular bookish nonsense.
2/2
I’ve just made the first of many book indie SFF book purchases for my little libraries community project being announced this week 🤔
Count of indie books being donated coast to coast so far - 4
Interested? Want to see how you can help?
Watch this space.
@thecmcaplan
delivers one of the most unique fantasy books I’ve had the pleasure of reading!
This is one of those books I wish I could experience again for the first time.
After 7 days of driving Rach, Ari and I have arrived safe in Perth!
Excuse me while I find some fresh fruit and veg and then catch up on some zzz’s
… Ari was over it towards the end. Photo for ✨ dramatics ✨
I’ve just hit 30k words in my WIP.
It might seem small but this is the most words, time and effort I’ve put into any writing project ever.
The story is taking shape, we’re about halfway through book one before the edits and it feels kinda neat.
1/3
I love the reading in bed lottery.
Will I read for 3 minutes before a book falls on my face as I fall asleep?
Will I keep myself up for 3 hours?
What a wild ride.
P.S. this morning was the former and it was a laptop 🤕
A little spotlight on some of the great reads of 2023!
I realise I’ve forgotten one of the categories in this video, so if you’re wondering what my most recommended book of the year was .. check out the next tweet 1/2 😉
My toxic trait is continually walking into book shops, purchasing trad pub series I would like to read one day … then ignoring them forever because I love indie SFF so dang much.
Anyway, I got new books.
Kris earlier this year: I don’t really get the appeal of special editions, I don’t need them. I’m happy when an ebook or paperback.
@binding_broken
: we’ll see about that.
Kris: …
BB: …
Kris: “The Broken Binding ruined that”
Indie release video is LIVE! For those who like the video format.
Indie Releases April 2023
Once again a huge thank you to
@RoboftheHayes
and
@EPICIND1E
for putting these lists together each month.
While the last 3 days off work hasn’t been fruitful in the reading or writing department, we are ready to haul our car and dog across the country.
Big send off today, hitting the road tomorrow.
✌️ for the next week my folks!
It’s always fairly humbling to see this number grow bit by bit as I do very little promotion.
Thank you to everyone who has stopped by, commented, liked, subbed and interacted with my indie focused channel. It’s been a blast so far.
To the people (and the bots) you rule!
I’ve just finished the ARC for The Rest to the Gods by
@JWalkerWrites
.
Can I just say, holy 👏 heckin 👏 intrigue 👏
I’m so excited to see what Josh can do, this first taste of his work was fantastic. Sign up to that newsletter folks!
No he didn’t pay me to say this.
I just need to take a second .. to shout about
@lahollandauthor
’s debut!
This well thought out world, excellent character work and intriguing dnd style plot is so freaking good! I’m 65% of the way through and I cannot wait to get to the end.
Also, check out this cover!!!!
A fun part of starting your writing journey while being an avid reader is discovering authors and thinking “holy shit, I could learn something here”.
Yes, well.
That’s how you write a first chapter! Hot damn, I’m in.
What a day! Saw the edge of Australia, made it to the WA border (2 more driving days to go!) and backed a couple of incredible kickstarters.
Hope y’all are having a fantastic week.
Started packing up for the move across the country and re-discovered the bookmark and handwritten
@JoaoSilvaWrites
note sent early this year.
Yes, I ran across the house to put that beautiful bookmark in the correct book only to be told the book needs to be packed today too!
Happy
#Spfbo
day and congratulations to all the entrants! I was curious how many books I would recognize after being tuned in to the indie scene for a full year.
Books I recognized 2021-2022
18
Books I recognized 2022-2023
67
Aiming to know about at least 100 in 2024!
Kris to world: I’ll be donating up to 10 books to the little libraries project.
@lunaruinam
: hahahahaha I’ll be donating 16 😈
Seriously, indie authors, readers and reviewers are the best. I expect about 45 new SFF booktubers from the Aussies after this project finishes!
What’s everyone hoping to finish before the end of the month? I have about 3.5 hours left in The Bonehunters then I am jumping into a beta of
@L_R_Schulz
’s insane new fantasy novel Soul Cage!
Another fantastic, thought provoking read by
@JamesLDulin
!
This little novella can be devoured in one sitting!
James is shaping up to be one of my most important author discoveries of the last 12 months!
Pre-order for Jan 24th!
I thought entering middle age would be more subtle.
Instead I caught myself texting a friend in outrage last night, telling her that a good fruit market had closed, after 20 years. This was while I was at the theatre.
Whelp 👴🏼
An odd shift of perception has happened since Rach and I moved.
My hobbies have become hobbies again. I didn’t know how freeing .. reading when I wanted to rather than reading because I felt like I had to was.
This .. could be an interesting year.
🔥 TBR 🔥
STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND READ THIS REVIEW RIGHT NOW 😭😭😭
What better feedback could an author hope to achieve?! Thank you SO much to
@kristheescapist
for this incredible feedback!
ARCS are coming soon!
This morning I thought I would practice what I preach.
Backpack on, lead on the dog, I headed to a small library to borrow my last read of the year.
I’d say it was a success team. It took me 3 tries to borrow a copy of Renia by
@lunaruinam
! Your books are being borrowed!!! 🤩
Author friends, if I’ve reviewed your book(s) on any platform but not one that would be genuinely helpful I.e Amazon, this is an open invitation to remind me to do so.
You are not and never will be annoying to me by requesting this.
I’ve very likely just forgotten sorry! ✌️
Aim for the week.
- Actually write a damn review or two.
- Start writing the ol WIP again.
- Crack into an EPIC fantasy beta read for not one, but two fantastic authors
- Prep some written author interviews
- Eat (and I cannot stress this enough) cheese 🧀
✨ GIVEAWAY ✨
Storybundle and 10 lovely authors have teamed up to produce a sapphic set!
I have one code containing all 10 entries which could be yours in the next 36 hours!
To enter, let me know your favorite LGBTQIA+ read of 2023!
Competition running over insta and X!
Vlog day 1 stats!
Hours in car 7
Street libraries visited 20
Books donated 65
Here was our favourite little library of the day.
I’ll be finishing up the donations tomorrow!
The response to the Little Libraries project has been so wonderful that I had an emotion.
I guess everyone is getting a bookmark when they pick up a book from their suburb libraries!
What should we put on them? Indie focused blogs 🤔
I’ve recently graduated to needing glasses to read.
I’ve just looked for the damn things while wearing them.
I’ve made it folks. The biggest moment of my nerd life.
🔥 🔥 COVER REVEAL 🔥 🔥
Check out
@jessicaamcminn
’s cover for book two of the Gardens of War and Wasteland! This thing is spectacular 🤩
I’ve got my pre order in! Do you?
Releasing 30th March 2024!
I’m gobsmacked at how
@HCNewell1
kept me on the edge of my seat for 450 pages. Seriously, I don’t think I sat properly once while reading this! From immersive imagery to the character interactions to the pulse accelerating action.
Check out the Fallen Light Series!
A huge thank you to
@RoboftheHayes
and
@EPICIND1E
for allowing me to share these lists in video format. Check out what’s releasing this month in the indie world!
Been cruising in the 500’s for most of 2023.
Hitting the 6 is neat-o!
Thanks everyone for your indie love and support along the way 🙏
If anyone wants to make it 602 (no pressure) you can! Just click this!
Video review for ICEBREAKER by
@SWHannahAuthor
is now live! 🧊 ❄️ 🧊
Sci-Fi cosmic horror that knocked my socks off? More like TBR breaker.
Icebreaker - Rapid Review