Indie Love the First and the Latest

Giveaways at the end!

Here is where it all began, for me and for many others interested in the "new" world of independent publishing, the one that doesn't involve paying your own printing costs and stockpiling inventory in your garage or the back of your car, Wool, the story of a tiny community living underground in a silo because all the rest of the world lies decimated by disaster. Or does it? I think about Holston, the sheriff of the silo, sitting at the "window" looking at the remains he believes are his wife every time I pass a silo. I got this tiny book, almost a pamphlet really, from the library after I heard about it in an article I can't find again about the rise of dystopian literature. Dystopian literature isn't new at all, of course, just ask George Orwell or Aldous Huxley or Ray Bradbury or the current slew of best-selling women dystopian authors, but it has exploded in recent years, excuse the pun, perhaps in the face of recent and ever-mounting real-world environmental disaster scenarios. These beg the question of how to survive, and dystopian literature offers one route for doing just that, usually dominated by the individual. Similarly, independent publishing offers the individual author a route to survival and empowerment in an time increasingly controlled by the mass-market, celebrity mindset. Sometimes, even today, the "little guy" wins.

http://www.hughhowey.com/

For my latest indie read, Everett, author Jenifer Ruff takes the small press route, in this day and age nearly as independent as self-publishing, since World Castle Publishing, LLC is not a part of the Big Five, the five publishing conglomerates left in the US who effectively rule "mainstream traditional" publishing. As my title states in my Amazon review, this main character is One Dark Chick. You can read the full Goodreads review here. I'll be reading the sequel Rothaker shortly. Go Indies!

http://jenruff.com/

If you want to see my ratings once I finish, you can follow me on Goodreads. I rate every book I read.

I'll be selecting one random winner for a signed copy of my first YA novel, No Alligators in Sight, AND one random winner for a signed copy of Everett from those who comment below. When I select the winners on February 21, I'll reply to their comments, asking them to let me know their preferred mailing address via email.