Wednesday, October 15, 2025

40 Indie Authors and their Book Titles

 

  1. City of Shards, Steve Rodgers

  2. Elementals of Mythicos Book 1: Forged in Fire, Lillian Brinker

  3. Blood on the Sand, Brian J. Smith

  4. Spire City Season 1: Infected, Daniel Ausema

  5. Allison Tears, Thomas Stewart

  6. Secret After Sunset, Jessica Lynn Sorensen

  7. A Twist of Fate, Becky Lee Whitehouse

  8. Wrathburn, Hayley Bernard Ryan

  9. Gcod, Sandra Bassett

  10. Somewhere Quiet Fall of Light, Henry Corrigan

  11. A Perfect Blindness, Lance Hunt

  12. Valley of the Dire Wolf, JP Ward

  13. Symbiote Wars, Chris Kennedy

  14. Rules of Supervillainy, CT Phillips

  15. Pangea Online, SL Roward

  16. Demon Squad Series, Tim Marquitz

  17. Final Reverie, Essel Pratt

  18. Blessed with a Curse, Katie Cherry

  19. Tales of the Orisha, Jiba Molei Anderson

  20. Ahzna Maidn Voyage, Jiralax Azon

  21. One Groovy Summer: Adventure from 1968, Rocky Gregory

  22. Isolation, Jared Grace

  23. Not a hero, Rick Christianson

  24. Biter Honey, Sharon Rose Mierke

  25. A Monster Named Jane, Steve Kachovec

  26. The Chaos Gate, Jeff Pantanella

  27. Survived the Lion’s Den, Matt Scott

  28. Citadel of Seven Sword, Erik Waag

  29. Janitor 51, Richard Griffith

  30. Stone Warrior (The Wander), Avery Christy

  31. Illusions of Paradise, Pat McKanic

  32. The Splitting Edge: Sid’s Story, Jaydee Dinan

  33. Fingers in the Fan, Judge Santiago Burdon

  34. The Halloween Realm, Parrish Hall

  35. Dragon Slayer, Kevin Wright

  36. Exiled on Unium, James Michael Moody

  37. Quest for the Hope Box, John Gorman

  38. Rise of the Ancients, T.H. McEvoy

  39. The Blood of the Dragon, Jack Adkins

  40. The Scorched Hunter, Andrew Johnston

Monday, October 6, 2025

A Fresh Review on Fellowship of the Ring, By J.R.R. Tolkien

 A Fresh Review

on

Fellowship of the Ring

By

J.R.R. Tolkien

5 Stars

This book will forever speak to the adventurer in us all. It's the one book I will always call my favorite. It takes the most unlikely of hero and launches him into a journey. One possessing no shortage of dangers. Fellowship of the Ring is out of the whole trilogy the best. This review comes from my fifth reading of the book. It most certainly won't be the last.

IT WENT SOUTH: What Went Wrong With Books

 IT WENT SOUTH

What Went Wrong With Books


The biggest factor by far is instant gratification. It has made authors rush what would otherwise be a fantastic book. It has convinced authors to focus more on the wow factor, than the quality of prose, character development, and powerful themes. Thus, the person writing the books eagerly launches them in quick succession.

I believe all of this has pulled the author away from their craft. It has created unnecessary pressure and an obligation to remain relevant. Your relevance as an author should depend on the quality of your books. The obligation to be relevant has lead to an immense distraction. Social media. I can say from experience that I spend more time on my phone than at the keyboard. It has influenced me to include subject matter in my books that isn't who I am as a person. None of it appeals to my actual interests. These two factors may affect other authors as well, especially those starting out.

Authors ultimately need to focus more on the craft and what's in their heart. We can't allow rapid launch dates and what is popular to interfere. I know we live in a different world than forty years ago, but the mission remains the same. Write a good story. And with that an understanding of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and how we want to tell the story must be considered. This here isn't my best sentence, but my excuse is one of passion.

Passion is what fueled the legends of the past. From Ursula K. Le Guin to J.R.R. Tolkien. These legends wrote with passion and devoted their efforts to the craft. They allowed their writing to speak for them. I can't imagine my life as an author without the influence of Tolkien.

All of this leads to another problem that has affected readers on a global scale. The ability to read and comprehend. Our education system is the largest factor. The second is how we go about writing books. There is too much reliance on computer programs to fix our mistakes. An author needs to have a strong familiarity with sentence structure and word use. They need to stop overexplaining parts of their story such as a magic systems. I will admit my familiarity with sentence structure, grammar, and word use is lacking. I'm pulling from lessons in high school that are over twenty years old at this point. This leaves room for improvement. We all want to improve, and if we do, perhaps in time it will help our readers.