Neon City - 99p all week

 

Now 99p - Join Xi as he dives into the mysteries of Neon CIty

Free book! Your new favourite horror/thriller author. Misfit teenagers face a sinister red fog. Coming-of-age adventure horror - with a dash of rock & roll

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What Happens When You Cause Paradoxical Chaos in Time?! Your New Favorite Futuristic Adventure in Time Travel

Within the dark expanse of space, something sinister waits for him, ready to devour… Fans of The Twilight Zone series will not want to miss this space opera horror short.

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Promos & giveaways a-plenty

Free Books (reader magnets)

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Welcome to August! Who knows what's still to come this year?   To keep you going, or keep you distracted, or perhaps you're lucky enough to be relaxing on a beach somewhere, check out the plethora of promos and giveaways here. Sci-fi, horror, and cyberpunk.  On the Audible front, Flames of Apathy will shortly be with ACX awaiting for their approval. About a million emails later and STILL waiting on Neon Sands. I'm beyond frustration now, just waiting for them to get their arse into gear. Maybe next week!

Hire A Muse, Get A Nobel Prize Ex Machina meets A Beautiful Mind in this mind-bending sci-fi thriller. On the verge of abandoning his life-long project, an obsessive physicist hires the innovative service of an android Muse to help him finish his work. But when things start to go missing from his life, he must learn that not all is worth sacrificing on the altar of science before he has nothing left to live for.

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Deal of the week: 33% off Plains of Ion - Plus other giveaways

DEAL OF THE WEEK 33% OFF Click here to connect to Goodreads to review. Please also consider Amazon! Why am I watching Guga on YouTube? It just makes me so hungry. Why is he turning Wagyu beef into burgers? Must... stop... now... Another week of ACX not approving Neon Sands for Audible. Sorry, readers! No codes yet :( However, I have enough titles now that I should be able to offer a freebie or discount on at least one of them each week now, so click the cover above to grab Plains of Ion for 33% off, running until the end of Wednesday. And don't forget, all my titles are in Kindle Unlimited. Hope you are all keeping safe and well.  Yaro Anatoly commands the most feared regiment on the continent. His loyalty to the king has seen him wage war in the savage wilderness of Vorgar, the lawless free cities, and in Akasha, the domain of the southern princes. But when the death of a saint triggers a revolution at home, Yaro finds his own loyalties divided. Can he really serve a king who hates his own people? And who are these new gods? 'The Haydock Haunting: A Short Story' is a stand-alone story which also forms a chapter of my novel 'Fitful Head: A Ghost Story'. Imagine you lose your mind... and something’s waiting to take its place. Bereaved Isobel believes she’s haunted and thinks she knows who’s doing it. But if she’s wrong, her mistake could cost more than her life. Listen on Audible Click on your country below to link to this title on Audible. US, UK, FR, DE Explore my worlds, click the banner below

THE BIG ONE! NEON SANDS BOXSET FREE!

As forewarned last week, the Neon Sands trilogy is free from 24-28 February! So what are you waiting for? GRAB IT NOW! Even if you already have it, or have read the books individually, I would love it if you could add the boxset to your list, as it would help bump it up the ranks. The higher it gets, the more eyes see it! And as mentioned before, I'd love to get this boxset into a bookbub advertisement ASAP! And for that, I need reviews. So, how about a little Quid Pro Quo? Eh? Love ya!

!ALL THREE FREE!

What's that? You want more? Well, I don't want to share all the other promos, because only the above one matters this week... BUT, a lot of last week's are still active if you want to check them out.

***

On Mars, blood is the same color as dirt. And dirt can hide an awful lot of sins.

When Allison Jiang wins a ticket to be a reality show contestant on the first manned trip to Mars, she’s certain all her dreams have come true. As she steps into the rust bucket spaceship complete with flashing lights and televised social media centers, she suddenly realizes this isn’t quite her dream; but then fear and anxiety are what the drugs in the sleeping compartments are for. In the high-stakes game of reality show TV where never-ending drama is a requirement, it’s possible to pay the ultimate price. Be careful what you wish for. Fame never comes without a cost. NOVELETTE. GENRE: Science Fiction.

PROLOGUE: The Risen Part II

I first menstruated when I was nine years old; waking in bed to a small puddle of dampness, the morning light warming through the heavy curtains. When I felt the wetness there was shame, making itself known in the tears that came. It had been years since I wet the bed. I sat up slowly, and it felt as though I’d tipped something over, such was the gushing. The emptying. I squeezed as hard as I could and finally it stopped coming. It was too cold in the winter air and too warm beneath the layer of blankets to get up, so I guessed it was still real early, and figured it would dry. Two hours later and the day at full bloom was pressing into my bedroom, up the peeled wallpaper and the cracks of plaster, black mould spots in the corners of the ceiling. I wriggled my hips. It felt sticky. It would smell bad, I thought, wary of lifting the blanket. Mother would not be happy. I tentatively put a hand down there, feeling for the damp. Instead it was tacky, like wet cornbread dough, and when I brought my fingers to the light they were the colour of the mould.

I’m mouldy! It was a silly thought, but I was a child. I let in the ice of the air and there was the meconium stain on my faded-blue pyjama bottoms, black-red and the size of a newborn kitten. Shuffling backwards, the stain on the sheet was much larger, as black and as wide as Rhodri’s well. It looked like blood! I stifled a scream but the creaking springs of the mattress betrayed my consciousness and Father came in to make sure I was quick with the chores, as he always did. He took one look at the sheets, then back to me, and said; “So you are a girl, after all. Mother!”

I made myself as small as I could, backing up against the wall, while Father left to get Mother to deal with my problem. That he hadn’t acted much surprised settled what frightened nerves were needling in my stomach. It couldn’t be that bad. Quiet, I listened to the footsteps of the house; my brothers showed their heads around the edge of the door and laughed when they saw the blood on the bed. I quickly reached forward and covered it over, but it was too late. They ran off giggling, screaming “Raggedy Anne, raggedy Anne!” as though I was meant to know what that meant.

Mother finally entered, shutting the door behind her. She was the only woman in the house, and, I guess, after today I became the second, though it would be another five years until I menstruated again. She pulled the bedcover away and then sat on the bed, asking if I was scared. I told her there was nothing to be scared about, and she nodded in agreement, going on to tell me about the way of things with that resigned sadness she had about her, as though she was constantly experiencing something in the past. She told me to get up and then she pulled the cover from the bed. “Go to the bathroom,” she said, locking my bedroom door. I had my own bathroom, you see.

There, she told me to strip and poured some freezing water into the plugged sink. I sometimes made wee in the bathtub, which was green and black with dirt, so I didn’t much want to stand in it, but I did as I was told. The pyjama bottoms peeled away with some difficulty, much redder than the sheets, and stuck to my thick, matted hair. My skin was already hard with goosebumps by then, the lighter hair across my body prickled to attention, so the water made little difference. It stung a little over my nub, as sensitive as the end was, but I was used to that by now. Mother lathered soap into the hair on my inner thighs and up to my belly button and cleaned away as much blood as she could. I couldn’t help but notice how she averted her gaze from it, and wouldn’t touch it. “There you go,” she said, “you can do the rest yourself. I’ll leave a towel on your bed, and get you clean sheets.”

Alone, I finished washing and then dried and clothed, while my belly ached, hammering blows bouncing around my abdomen. A little cramp. I always wore long trouser legs and sleeves in those days, to cover all the hair. Even then little wisps crept beyond the hem of my sleeves, so I wore gloves whenever we left the farm, just in case we bumped into anyone. And a scarf for my neck.

Whenever I think back to my early childhood, I always come back to this day, for so much seemed to change for me from here on out. Father had it right: I was a girl. Not long after, I began to malt, waking up in the mornings not to blood, or urine, but body hair. A little later and my breasts began to grow sore, my nipples turning from pennies to old tuppences. I grew my hair long, because that was what girls did. My brothers stopped mocking and Mother even began to take me between her knees with a comb, and brush and brush for minutes at a time. She’d always wanted a daughter, and I was close enough, I guess. I don’t blame her, how do you treat an orphan baby covered head to toe in hair and with seemingly both sets of genitals? It can’t have been easy.

They named me Ffion, and Father’s surname was Adie, as in A-D, so that was how the locals knew me. Not that there were many locals to be had up here on the hill. Us Adies liked to keep to ourselves most of the time, anyway, tending to our farm and keeping the borders secure. If my family were muntjacs, then I was a vole, or perhaps a mole, my own sect within a sect, the outsider within.

Father and Jack did the heaviest work; they both had the arms to show for it too. Up early to count the sheep and pigs and chickens, while I and Dylan fed them, and then it was the two hour walk, checking that the border was secure. Where the wind – for it blew a gale up here in the hills just north of Aberffrwd – had dislodged one of the giant tree trunks or bent a section of barbed wire, they were on it, fixing it in a jiffy. Aled was the youngest, though still older than me, and his morning routine was to collect all the water for the day from the nearby stream. When I was done feeding the animals, sometimes I might help Mother in the kitchen, but most often I went off by myself, and always had, ever since I was little. They never stopped me; if anything ever happened to me then I would be a mouth less to feed. Chances were slim – mostly – because that perimeter wall was sturdy. I saw them sometimes, prowling on the other side, testing the barbs and drawing blood. Licking their wounds. One sight of Father’s shotgun and they ran.

The Risen Part II on preorder, special 0.99 price

The Risen Part I available now

The time for audiobooks is here...

As the title gives away, I discovered ACX this week! I've been wanting to convert my titles to audiobooks for ages, but the cost has always been prohibitive. If you're a writer wishing to do the same, you should check them out if you haven't already - narrators audition FOR YOU! If you're a reader, than my books will all be added to Audible throughout the year. I anticipate Neon Sands being ready in March. So watch this space!

Some oddity this week - Neon Zero, the FREE Neon prequel - shot up in the charts. I'm not sure who shared it or where it was posted, but if it was you - THANK YOU! Or if you downloaded a copy - I HOPE YOU ENJOY! Don't forget to leave a review!

I've also begun The Risen Part 2 and have a very tasty Prologue, which I may well share next week. It has already gone in an unexpected direction, with a narrator protagonist who will be very challenging to write, but not boring! It'll be a big change from writing in the Neon world, set in middle England and Wales, blood waterfalling down the hills.


NYC Midnight Short Story Competition

I've entered this year's NYC Midnight Short Story Competition, so wish me luck! There are 4 rounds of writing (if you get through) and the first round is open now. I have about 6 days left to write a 2,500 word short story, and I've been given Fantasy, an Obsession, and a Mason as my keywords. I'm currently at a loss, but I'm sure something will come to mind. Once submitted I'll share it here. If I get through then I'll be given a new assignment and a smaller word count (and shorted timeframe). All good fun and practice!

The Outsider

I haven't read Stephen King's book yet, it took forever to finish A Clash of Swords 1, and my reading time is being eaten by other things at the moment, so I thought I'd give The Outsider TV show a go. While I did enjoy the first 2 episodes (great directing and acting) it does take its time. It's not told with the experienced viewer in mind, so there's a lot of slow reveals that we could have figured out already in the first ten minutes, in the Body Snatchers vein. That 2 hours have already gone and we're still doing these 'surprise' reveals slows the pace, but I expect the mystery to return going forward. It can't be as straightforward as it so far seems...

Bookfunnel & Story Origin

As promised last week, I've rejoined these two sites and will have a raft of promos going forward. Check out the first one with a variety of genre choices!

Recommended!

Everything is on the table when survival's at stake.

Captain James Henry is caught between a rock and a hard place – again. Merchant ships operating in neutral space near the Terran Coalition and the League of Sol are disappearing without a trace. The latest report has something the others didn’t.

A survivor.

In a far corner of the galaxy, the seven systems of the Fire Quarter face a terrible threat from a dangerous warlord.

On the fire planet of Abalon 3, evil Raylan Climlee threatens to unleash a wave of destruction in order to take control of the planet's valuable source of trioxyglobin, a dangerous but valuable liquid used for starship fuel. The only person who can stop him is Lianetta Jansen, a disgraced former Galactic Military Policewoman now turned smuggler, who is haunted by a terrible tragedy in her past. Along with her ragtag, wisecracking crew—the one-armed pilot Caladan, and the malfunctioning droid, Harlan5—Lia must confront her own demons, while trying to stop another.

Fire Fight is the beginning of the Fire Planets Saga, an epic new space opera series.

It's 2350. Cold Fusion, AI nanotech cops, and the SkyLine between a dying Earth and a developing Mars are parts of life. 

Major General Christopher Droan has survived a crisis. It left him with trauma and a deeper understanding of his dad’s distrust for technology.

Now all he wants is to focus on the love of his life, Sheeba.

It’s a turbulent time to be a Major General, even one resigned to desk work. But the calm can only last so long. When tragedy strikes Precinct 117 in Shanghai, Chris and his unit are forced to gear up again.

What waits for them in the heart of a robot with a beta personality matrix will change the planets on both ends of the SkyLine, mankind, and Major General Christopher Droan, forever.

No-one comes in peace. Every being in the galaxy wants something, and is willing to take it by force.

The Hedalt were no different. They came from the distant reaches of the galaxy to wage war. Their fleet wanted to take Earth for its prize, but we were ready. We were stronger.

For years, we fought them, ship-to-ship, until we scattered their forces and drove them back. Pursuing the Hedalt fleet to their home world, we delivered the decisive blow. We nuked their planet and wiped them out for good.

Or so we thought.

For decades, Earth Fleet sent out Deep Space Recon missions to scour the galaxy and clean up the remnants of the Hedalt Empire. Eventually, we found only ghosts – empty outposts and long-dead colonies. But, close to the edge of known space, I – Captain Taylor Ray – and my crew are about to make a discovery that will change everything.

The war isn’t over. The war has yet to begin.