Dec 6, 2015

A bit later in the day than I intended, but it is still Sunday and thus time for some funding book recommendations from me. I'll keep my own thoughts on them short, and let you just check out the books' pages themselves if I've piqued your interest.

First I'll quickly cover the 3 main criteria I use to decide which books to recommend each week: 1.) I have to enjoy reading it, simple enough;  (2.) it must currently be in the funding stage, with particular preference given to those who have not hit the Quill goal of 250 orders yet(there's plenty of great books that have already reached the funding goal, but I'm mainly trying to help out other authors of good books to get said books published here); (3.) the books that meet criteria 1 with the earliest end dates get chosen first, also simple enough. With that covered on to the recommendations(links embedded to both book and author pages here).

"The Defeated" by Joseph G. Calcagno:  I can't wait to read more of this one really. What bit of it is already posted has the perfect mixture of grit and wit to appeal to my tastes, plus I can't help but admire a book that drops this tidbit of narcissistic wisdom right in its first paragraph, "At his most ragged he'd never been in short supply of admirers, but if you're going to kill a man, you should damn well look your best."

"Seven Devils" by E.B. Mathews:  I'll admit to preferring my horror stories, whether watched or read, to have either a strong supernatural or psychological aspect to them. This book definitely fulfills the supernatural from what is seen in its opening possession/exorcism scene. Easily one of the most powerful opening scenes I've read in a long time, but not just because of the demonic aspect of it. The psychological influence that it has on the main character is obvious from the way the scene is painted, and is clearly still a defining moment for Ezra when the next scene picks up seven years later. Horror fans definitely need to check this out, and keep an eye on E.B. Mathews in general.

"Terminal Magic" by B. Riggs:  The premise alone would have been enough to hook me, but my love of the diary-style dated entry technique of storytelling this employs just keeps me reading. I think I gained that particularly stylistic love in my teenage years, about the same time I was also cutting my teeth on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. That last bit could explain my overly excited meeps of joy at the references to Lovecraftian lore. Beyond that there's so much to love about this one: the dual character narrative gained by having diary entries from two characters, the subtle social commentary woven into the narrative smoothly so as not to try to beat you over the head with it, and for me its portrayal of something closer to a real-world style of magic without sacrificing the truly supernatural elements.

Well, that's all for me. If I've done my math correctly, funding on "The Defeated" and "Seven Devils" ends 12/11, and on 12/15 for "Terminal Magics". Be sure to check them out, and hopefully you'll join me in ordering them so that we can get their numbers up enough for me to get copies of these books. Because that's what its all about really: getting me more reading material.