There are moments I’ve curated lists rooted in the official topics of this meme as shared by the host whereas at other times, I’ve gone a bit rogue like other book bloggers wherein we curate our own topics to respond to during the weekly share of #TopTenTuesday. I’ve also re-spun this meme to participate in blog tours and/or featured events within the blogosphere which are as follows:
Top Ten Reasons Why “Pride and Prejudice”
never fails to win a reader’s heart even as its respun by Elizabeth Adams
Top Ten Secrets Behind the Tobacconist’s Wife by AnneMarie Brear
Boldly reading Indie and Small Press Speculative Fiction
during the 10 years of #SciFiMonth or outside of it | Hostess List
Image Credit: SciFiMonth artwork is by the amazingly talented Simon Fetscher.
The JOY for me as a book blogger has been seeking out
Indie publishers & Press as well as Small Trade:
Ever since I first started blogging my journey into books and stories in [2013], I’ve taken a slightly different route than most book bloggers. My focus was keenly invested into the world of Indie publishers, Small Press and Small Trade whilst also embracing Hybrid authors and Self-Published authors as well. This is why a LOT of my top favourite stories in the Speculative realms have been rooted in this section of publishing and why a lot of my bookish joy originates through the stories being published through these portals of publishing.
It doesn’t mean I don’t read traditionally published stories of Speculative Fiction — it just means odds are in favour I might soak into an Indie story moreso than a mainstream release. I’m quite particularly particular about the stories I read and what I tend to gravitate towards leans itself more on the Indie side of the ledger — at least by what I’ve noticed as I’ve travelled through the Speculative realms these past nine years.
This week I am going to focus on the stories by Indie and Small Press publishers who are wickedly publishing Science Fiction stories I cannot wait to read! Some of the authors I love reading are independently published but they own their own publishing imprint and are in theory Self-Published authors. I will withhold mentioning their stories from this list but if you know me through my blog, you’ll know which of those authors I consistently read and love to follow as they continue to publish stories I devour as soon as I read them.
Image Credit: SciFiMonth artwork is by the amazingly talented Simon Fetscher.
Top tens for our tenth year
We loved having weekly Favourite Fives for Wyrd & Wonder’s fifth birthday, so it’s only right to go full Top Tens for SciFiMonth’s tenth! But what are those weekly topics?
Previously, On SciFiMonth: SFnal books / films / shows / games you enjoyed or were introduced to during SciFiMonth in the past
Turn Back Time: feature tales about time travel or shout about classic SF titles
To Boldly Go: contribute to RunalongWomble’s (@runalongwomble) excellent #SmallPressBigStories initiative with a top ten focusing on stories published by independent and small presses
One Small Step: sure we love a sprawling space opera, but this week is for celebrating short stories, novellas and novelettes
Can’t Stop The Signal: SciFiMonth is all about the community – share your favourite SF blogs we should follow
Your eyes are not deceiving you – I decided to kick-off the 2024 #SciFiMonth by finishing a post I began in (2022) and had meant to feature it closer to when I released my previous two Sci Fi Top Ten featured posts. For reasons lost to me now a full two years on – I never was able to release it – oh, wait. Two years ago. Suddenly I do remember – two years ago my Dad entered the hospital in November and exited into long term care. Somehow I still find myself at a loss to connect time and space and dates and the gap of hours between then and now. I felt that gap during Wyrd And Wonder this year and again during #SpooktasticReads. Time is fickle and ironic – where I think I’ve started reading a story a short time ago turns out to be *years!* ago and not mere months ago. Okay. Right. Onward and upward, eh? Let’s just say I was so happy to write this post, it feels weird to keep it static in my Drafts and needs to be shared. Towards that end, I did minor edits to this post and left it as a time capsule of my thoughts and words as they were written originally in 2022.
And, yes, I will be reading boldly this year and many of these lovelies will be my #nextreads!
I decided to take a different spin on how I wanted to assemble this Top Ten List for #SciFiMonth this week. As previously I would oft talk about the stories I’ve already read and have loved reading — going back to my roots of focusing on stories I haven’t yet read (or in some instances on this list in particular, stories or series I haven’t yet finished) and choosing to highlight what appealled to me about these stories and why I am still motivated to read them.
These are stories which are on my backlogue and were meant to be reviewed closer to the times they originally arrived through the #bookpost. Except to say, over the years – due to my chronic migraines, life as it evolves forward and/or the medical emergencies or hospitalisations of my parents (including but not limited to my father’s stroke in 2016) — you could say, there were quite a few reasons why I found myself taken away from stories at different intervals of time over the years. I will attempt to chronicle what disengaged me from reading each particular story but I’m unsure if I will remember exactly what took me away from them. Time and memory sometimes can become lost whilst life has moved forward.
This is one reason why I’ve been developing a new feature on Sundays outside of #SciFiMonth called #SciFiSundays which similar in vein to my new feature of #WyrdAndWonder Wednesdays it is to encourage me to re-enter into either Science Fiction or Fantasy stories outside of the two concentrated months I read both annually. For a girl who loves reading different genres sometimes it helps to nudge herself back into the folds of the stories she eagerly awaits to read! Plus, of course, I think we all have issues sometimes deciding which is the best story to read for the mood where currently in and which would best suit us to wait a bit longer to read instead.
Ahead of full reviews, I’m chosen to share snippets of insight about the stories or series I have already started to experience whilst giving new thoughts and impressions on behalf of the stories I haven’t yet begun. Or, more readily do not yield a memory of having read previously and thus, have chosen to feature those stories within the context of my #25PagePreview showcases in-line with this discussional challenge.
Let’s get started and see which Indie and/or Small Press Science Fiction stories are on my radar and shelves awaiting me to soak into their stories!
NOTE: All the stories featured on this post were received for review consideration with the exception of two: “The Unintentional Time Traveller” and “The Time Key”. The latter because I cannot remember how I received the novel and at this point I’m considering it was either a self-purchase or a gift. Whichever way these stories were received originally – all thoughts and opinions about them are honest and true to my readerly reactions as I am now reading them.
No. 1 | Heaven’s Edge by Jennifer Silverwood
a novella series told in 3 distinct stories tethered together!
When our paths first crossed, Ms Silverwood and I shared a mutual interest and connection; however, our friendship did not form for awhile afterwards. It was truly after the interview went live and after I noticed I was reading her blog as much as she was reading mine – where I realised we shared a lot of commonalities in our reading lives as well as our writely lives! We decided to stay in touch and it is an honour to find someone who understands the bridge between reader, blogger and writer.
I am disclosing this, to assure you that I can formulate an honest opinion, even though I have interacted with Ms Silverwood through our respective love & passion of reading inside the twitterverse whilst I hosted her Silver Hollow blog tour and privately as well. I treat each book as a ‘new experience’, whether I personally know the author OR whether I am reading a book by them for the first time or continuing to read their releases as they are available. This also applies to hosting a guest feature by the author I share a connection.
A few years ago [2019], when I was assembling the stories, I wanted to read and/or listen for #SciFiMonth, I came across this collection of novellas by a writer who is also a dear personal friend. I mentioned to her I wanted to read this collection for the event, and she surprised me by sending me a copy in the post which arrived in time to read but I wasn’t able to finish it that year. It is my intention to re-read through the collection and finish it this November alongside my readings and listenings of E. Chris Garrison’s stories I outlined a bit via #BookishNotBookish.
I did host a #SciFiMonth chat featuring Silverwood (see also Post) and discussed this series. I was grateful to be able to chat about the series even as I was evolving through the stories themselves. I’ve had a particular interest to read stories set on the Rims and/or intergalactically hop through Space and fully explore the Spacer lifestyle or an independent pilot’s life as well. When it comes to generational ships or ships which have long hauls and ultimately have family or children on board – I’m a bit more underread than I would like to be and it’s a continuing Quest of mine to seek more of those kinds of stories out to read.
Five years ago, in 2013 I created Jorie Loves A Story in March; launched my blog LIVE to the book blogosphere by August and took a leap of faith to join the twitterverse right before the year closed in November. And, guess what that meant? It meant my first Sci Fi November was in 2013 – the year it began!
All these years later, my admiration for this sci fi geekery community has grown to be one of my favourites which happily resides this year next to the community Lisa & Imyril and I are growing with #WyrdAndWonder.
When it comes to November, Jorie’s favourite bookish month out of the year (save May & July, since 2018) – the cosy comfort of returning back inside a devouring period of Science Fiction (esp Hard SciFi) is one of tremendous JOY & curates a lightness in my spirit. I truly love travelling through hyperspace seeking my next beloved #mustread selection! Brownie points to the extreme if a favourite hugs itself into the niche of #SpaceOpera!
Which is why for the month of NOVEMBER, I shall be treating my readers & visitors with a gush fest of love for #ScienceFiction & Speculative worlds which inter-knit themselves through a lens of Science. Predominately focused on Fiction with a few insertions of Non-Fiction to keep things interesting!
Each November, I attempt to right the short-comings of the prior year – I’ve had a few interesting Novembers celebrating #RRSciFiMonth (@SciFiMonth) but the hardest of all was not getting into the books I’m about to reference on this post. These are top priority this year as I would love to finally say, I not only read them but I could finally articulate my ruminations on their behalf! Giving me a clean slate for Sci Fi November, 2019!
It is part of my overall goal of removing my *backlogue* of reviews before I move into my sixth year as a book blogger in March, 2019.
This year, I also wanted to have light duties officially as I love doing something behind the scenes to assist our lovely hostesses: Lisa (@deergeekplace) + Imyril (@imyril) who give us wicked good celebrations through the years as we all come together to champion the stories of Science Fiction (and their sub-genres/niches) which happily alight in our lives. We’re always reading similar stories – either together in tandem (such as we are this year with our RAL/readalong “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet”) or on opposite years.
A lot of us DISCOVER new authors by browsing through the feeds on Twitter on our tag: #RRSciFiMonth (or jumping into convo on #smallangryplanet) – sometimes we host themed chats like last year’s #SpaceOpera discussion (one of two we had in 2017). I admit, I love hosting the Twitter chats as I do love being bubbly chatty and the joy of connecting with like-minded readers is true bliss.
I am also participating with a special round robin guest interview series Lisa is putting together this year. In the past, I have responded to essay questions by Sci Fi November hosts and this year, I equally will be overjoyed to see the results once I submit my responses.Read More
Each of us who joyfully blogs about books will find at times, even our best laid plans to host concurrent blog events can sometimes become a bit hard to juggle when our personal lives intercede on the time we had scheduled to devout to the events themselves. I found myself in this particular pickle last Sci Fi November, but this year, I felt I had shifted a few things around to where I had more hours to give and thereby could redeem myself from what I could not put together last year. Suffice to say, a few unexpected issues arose the least of which were a knock-out of my internet connection by a severe lightning storm and a broken toe of which looked far worse than the injury itself yet gave me enough wincing pain to forestall my blogging.
I was able to jump dive into the #RRSciFiMonth chat at the very tail-end of the conversation, whereupon I happily enjoyed speaking with Ms. Czerneda, Asti, Ana, and Rachel Noel (@Silelda & Purple Owl Reviews)! It was during this part of the convo, I expressed my desire to carry forward into December the posts I was unable to contribute during the last fortnight of SFN: 2014! I was happily surprised to find others were in agreement; November for whichever reason had become a bit of a quagmire for a lot of us, and I was not the only one wanting to extend the celebrations!
*I received a bit of a surprise whilst getting the link for Rachel Noel’s blog! (read: 2014 Thanks) I have always appreciated the randomness to my conversations with Rachel Noel on Twitter & I had always meant to expand our connection by visiting her blog. To see my name listed as a part of a note of gratitude of whom gave her the most joy and support in 2014 was simply an unexpected blessing to discover. Our lives touch each other in ways we do not always realise have an impact that gives us all a boost when we need it most. I can attest the same in return!Read More
Published By: Wanderlust Publishing Official Author Websites:Site | Blog | @AuthorCAGray | Facebook | GoodReads Available Formats: Trade Paperback, E-book
Acquired Book By: I worked with Ms. Bauer (of Royal Social Media) whilst hosting Ms. Krupa (author of the debut novel “Safe & Sound”) and I always left the door open to work with her again as hosting T.S. Krupa was quite lovely and I considered myself blessed to be able to cross paths with both Ms. Bauer and Ms. Krupa at the same time. A writer I am highlighting in November Glynis Astie also shares a connection to Ms. Bauer (as she is her publicist) but this time around, Ms. Bauer approached me to host Ms. Gray and her Young Adult Fantasy series Piercing the Veil. I immediately fell in love with the series premise and the layering effect of the story overall out of the vision Ms. Gray had for her series. Therefore I received a complimentary copy of “Invincible” direct from the author C.A. Gray in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
The Afterword is a true gift:
Ms. Gray did a wonderful job at describing the finer points of the science included in the first two installments of the Piercing the Veil series as much as she went on to describe in broad terms what can be found throughout the trilogy. You can drink in information about the following: Penumbra, Nimbus, the Taijitu; including how the Penumbra can cross between worlds; why alchemy plays a part in the back-stories; further explanation on the Philosopher’s Stone and the role of the Arthurian legends. The layers of quantum physics, super-string theories, and the role of each of the extraordinary events etched out of theoretical science and chaos theory are given a special area of notation to break down the basics in layman’s terms to how everything provided the gateway for grounding the Piercing the Veil series in known science.
I appreciate seeing how the author’s research not only heightened the enjoyment of reading a Sci-Fantasy novel, but how each piece of her research went to building the structure of not only the world within the series but the elemental moments of where metaphysics meets the quantum realms of conceptability. It is a strong series for those readers who enjoy a compelling series wrought out of keeping science a forefront of merit within science fiction & fantasy.
Invincible
Peter Stewart is a dead ringer for the legendary King Arthur, and because of that, everyone in Carlion believes that he is the Child of the Prophecy, destined to destroy the Shadow Lord. But Peter doesn’t want to be a hero; all he wants to be is left alone.
Lily Portman also fits the prophecy. Having spent her entire life as an orphan and a misfit, Lily would love nothing more than to be the Child of the Prophecy, so she envies Peter… but she’s also developing a crush on him. And it seems to her that he couldn’t care less.
Isdemus and the Watchersbelieve that it is only a matter of time before Peter’s twin brother Kane betrays them all and frees the Shadow Lord. The winner of the war to come depends on who has the legendary Philosopher's Stone—the only problem is, it has been lost since the days of Arthur. With the help of a skeptical anthropologist, the Watchers attempt to decode the ancient treasure maps that lead them to the heart of Egypt and the dawn of time. Meanwhile, Lily and Peter discover that Peter holds the real key to the mystery... but will they be too late?
to expand in proportion to the hunt for Excalibur:
Gray doesn’t allow her readers to take too much of a breath between installments in her Piercing the Veil series, as the opening Prologue of Invincible directly picks up where Intangible leaves off. A mortal wounding battle between the Light and Dark combatants forged in the ending of the first installment are not only attempting to make sense of what happened but the truer revelation of what was revealed by the disappearance of Kane. Kane from the moment he stepped into Peter’s life was a bane of his existence; always pushing Peter towards self-discovery in a near destructive way to pit Peter’s life against the knowledge of who Peter is within the Prophecy itself. Kane instinctively acts impulsively to further his own curious mind towards discovering the true meaning of all of their lives. He grew up with the stories of their worlds colliding into legend and prophecy but he is not entirely on the side of the Light; his heart became embittered by the fact he considered Peter’s role in his life to be a nuisance rather than a gift.
Kane is a character whose foundation of his spirit is hinged to a pursuit of glory whereas Peter’s heart was always tethered to his father and his mother. His parents grounded him even if he had a bit of growth to undertake as far as how to live without bitterness and how to grasp a hold of patience in the face of repetitive structure he felt was beneath him. Each of the young boys had a glimmer of insight towards what is right and what is inherently wrong, but one of them is closer to aligning themselves with a true darkness that could effectively worsen their lot in the life they were meant to ascend inside.
Kane pursued Excalibur for personal vindication and the glorified success finding it secure in his hands would afford him within the boundaries of his world and the laws therein. He was seeking a self-righteous path to outwit and outstep Peter; whereas Peter was merely trying to sort out how the logical side of his brain needed to start to accept what exists outside of science and tangible wisdom.
The Book Blitz includes an Excerpt of the novel Impossible. I discussed my joy in discovering this is a ‘clean read’ for all ages. You can view the book trailer as well.
SPECIAL SHOWCASE:Piercing the Veil Serial Overview (24 Nov)
I encourage everyone who is dropping by for the LIVE Author Q&A with Ms. Gray tonight, to take a moment to go through the links I’ve provided on the calendar of events above where I am featuring her novels & collective works in order to get a proper introduction to the author’s writing style, voice, and her commitment to writing rock solid world-building narrative arcs within the fantasy genre. To me, she embodies the purist essence of a genre-bending author, as her YA Fantasy series is most definitely fantasy driven, yet there are incredible elements knitted into the heart of the characters and the story’s foundation which are rooted on science fact. I felt a better way of describing her works might be to add the attribution of “Sci-Fantasy” as she has found a way to bridge both worlds of Speculative Fiction quite brilliantly.
Welcoming C.A. Gray to Jorie Loves A Story,
featuring an Interview & *LIVE!* Author Q&A!
FULL DETAILS:
Jorie interviews Ms. Gray ahead of the 8:00pm (EST) live commenting blog event which will take place in the comment threads of this post! IF you are unable to drop back during the time in which Ms. Gray will be responding to reader comments, questions, and compliments please make sure to leave your response *early!* in order for her to respond! All comments are still moderated by Jorie, who will be on hand during the live event making sure all comments get through! Once approved you will have the ability to post a direct response without waiting.
Readers and visitors of Jorie Loves A Story can easily leave a comment by using Email, WP, Google+, Facebook & Twitter interfaces without the stress of captcha as I do not use that service! *Remember!* return back to this page in the mid evening hour of 8 o’ clock to make sure you do not miss Ms. Gray! I do recommend subscribing to the comments in order to keep in the loop! The author will be on hand to respond LIVE for a block of two hours!
Remember to continue to leave comments, questions, & thoughts to share with Ms. Gray throughout the month of November during the Sci Fi November event! I will be updating her when new commentary is arriving & she will respond as soon as she can to your enquiries! I consider this a Sci-Fantasy genrebender novel as it has firm grounding in science as much as in fantasy!
Invincible
