Free (Kindle KDP) Oh Lay and Story Minute sampler by Carol Lay [Newspaper Comics]

[ATDrake]

Nothing significant from an sf/fantasy backlist viewpoint in the KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile (though horror people get more shorts and the romance readers should be really happy today).

But we do have a nice offering of Carol Lay's Story Minute newspaper comics, which I really enjoyed when they were on Salon.com and would have bought the collections of had they not been out of print at the time.

I still hope for paper reprints, because one of the drawbacks of the Mobi format is that it's got a strict 128kb limit on images and will downgrade anything larger than that, which usually kills the quality in a nastily noticeable manner on many included maps in fantasy novels that I've gotten from other sources and converted for my Kindle. And I happen to be using the good settings for doing that, which is supposed to yield a relatively high-quality output.

With that in mind, I would not personally pay for a Kindle version graphic novel e-book, but it's rather nice that artist Lay has been offering freebies and I hope she finds another print publisher or does quality print-on-demand for collections of her comics soon.

OH, LAY!: A Story Minute Selection (Reformatted) by Carol Lay is exactly what it says in the title, centred around her more autobiographical comics (the newspaper SMs were usually humorous self-contained shorts with no particular continuing storylines).

Free for probably not much longer (this popped up late yesterday) @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
In OH, LAY!, Carol explores her Los Angeles neighborhood, recounts trips to Burning Man, and shares memories of beloved cats and a helpful shark. Throughout this selection runs a thread that reflects on a deep personal loss and the recovery that came with time and growth.

SAMPLER: Quick Tastes of Our Story Minute Selections (reformatted) is a selection of the more typically representative comics which have been compiled into the other Kindle-available collections.

Free for probably a little longer (just popped up this morning) @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
WAYLAY COMICS offers Kindle users thirteen collections of Carol Lay's STORY MINUTE comic strips. They come in a variety of sizes and flavors, all hand-made to intrigue the eye and engage the mind.

SAMPLER offers quick tastes of all thirteen STORY MINUTE selections. It contains two stories from each collection, plus previews of the 50-page graphic novelettes NOW, ENDSVILLE and the 80-page graphic novella INVISIBLE CITY.

STORY MINUTE told twelve-paneled tales designed to be read in about a minute.

It told fables; stories about relationships and the foibles of the media; twisty tales of crime and consequences; peeks at the competitive undercurrents within families; arched-eyebrow looks at humanity's self-destructive impulses; and scenes of the skirmishes between fortune teller Madame Asgar and that less-than-competent devil, Nick.

The later more-loosely-formatted WAYLAY strip continued Story Minute's tropes allowed Carol to comment on 9/11 (and the subsequent Bush Era), and to offer glimpses into her own world and life.

The rest of it unsorted and repeats-mostly-skipped. Enjoy.

Avon-published Karen Ranney writing as Katherine Storm returns with another murder mystery: What About Alice?

ISFDBed Bruce Memblatt returns with another horror short: Victim Number Thirteen

Harlequin-published Carol Grace returns with a contemporary romance (may be a repeat; the title looks familiar): Cinderella in Overalls

New Zealand author Kate Silver returns with two romances, one of them a contemporary which seems to have been released under the penname Kate Adair, the other a Cavalier-era historical which she says was previously published by Zebra under the title Abide With Me: Linkage for them both

ISFDBed Carole Gill offers another horror short which she says was story of the month for a particular magazine: Prey

UK writer Ian St. James offers a thriller which seems to have been originaly published by some other publisher in 1982 and picked up by HarperCollins in 1989: Winner Harris

Speaking of UK thriller writers, Ken McClure returns with a 2006 Allison & Busby-hardcovered medical thriller which also seems to have some Da Vinci Code-esque conspiracy elements: PAST LIVES

Catherine Kean returns with a 2006 Medallion Press paperbacked medieval historical romance (looks kind of familiar and may be a repeat, but I think some people missed it last time): A Knight's Vengeance (Knight's Series Book 1)

Denise Domning returns with two more historical romances; one a 1999-Onyx paperbacked Elizabethan supernatural, another a medieval adventure which may be self-pub: Linkage for them both and her earlier book still free

Harlequin-published Stephanie Bond returns with a romantic comedy murder mystery 2003 Avon-published: Kill the Competition

Chastity Bush, whom I can only hope is pseudonymous because that certainly sounds like a puntastic stripper stage name which seems like it would have been rather cruel for parents to inflict upon their child, has an historical western romance offering out from Decadent Publishing Company, LLC. A reader review says this is "a perfect blend sweet and spicy", so that may mean only minor erotic content (if any): Tumbleweeds

Harlequin Intrigue writer Rita Herron offers what looks like a contemporary romantic comedy: Here Comes the Bride

I forget which minor specialty romance press released a couple of Keta Diablo's works and I'm not looking it up again. If you've been enjoying her writing, here's a paranormal historical werewolf western romance to add to your collection (may be a sequel to a previous freebie): Dark NIght of the Moon

Minor ISFDBed horror writer Lee Allen Howard offers something different. Apparently he's an out-and-devout gay Christian and has written some sort of Bible-based guide to this particular religious practice: Speaking In Tongues

Byrne Fone, editor of Columbia University Press' Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature and author of several sociocultural academic pressed nonfic books, offers another in his historical/literary fiction saga: Trojan Women: A Novel of the Fall of Troy

Signet-published mystery writer L.T. Fawkes returns with the 3rd in what looks like some kind of zany comedy adventure series: FILLMORE RIDES AGAIN (THE FILLMORE CHRONICLES)

Joshua Graham has an upcoming paperback thriller out from Howard Books, which is apparently a Simon & Schuster imprint (according to the author's blurb; but the book does exist in catalogue as a pre-order and given the regular sort of paperback discount which self-pub print-on-demand books don't normally get). He offers an historical drama/romance set around WWI: FOUR GIFTS FOR ARIA (Historical Romance)

Matt Cutugno says that among other things, he has had some of his plays performed in small theatres, which a google search does bear out with a newspaper mention of a local performance. He offers some kind of fictionalized semibiographical literary novel/memoir: THE WINTER BARBEQUE

Scottish Dundee Prize-nominated UK writer Catherine Czerkawska's literary fiction novel is a repeat, but in case you missed it last time: Bird of Passage

Canadian writer of economics articles Alex Carrick and Donna Carrick return with some more probably self-pub offerings to add to your collection of such: The Whipper Snapper Side-Swipe Caper and The First Excellence ~ Fa-ling's Map (Li Fa-ling mystery series)

Ellora's Cave-published Mona Risk returns with a contemporary romance that she says has been nominated for a specified indie award: No More Risk

Amanda P. Grange's historical maybe-mystery/suspense novel seems to have been originally paperbacked in 1980, and then definitely picked up for reprint by Severn House in 2004: Titanic Affair

I suppose one of the perks of electronic self-publishing is that one can devote one's entire book to describing the writing implements used by an historical figure and that's exactly what this guy does in: The Pens that Made Lincoln The author, it seems, is a professional antique pen dealer and restorer, and offers tips on how experts use Lincoln's handwriting quirks to spot forgeries, which does sound kind of interesting.

If you've ever wondered how old stories would have worked out had their characters had access to modern technology, then this may be the book for you: 66 Plots Updated - Part 1 (Updating Classic Literature with Modern Technology)

ETA: Probably-self-pub-but-with-local-newspaper-acclaim Irish writer T. S. O'Rourke returns with an Alabama-set novelette: Candy Says Kill: A Shot of Modern Noir

ETA 2: While the most praiseful review on Gary K. Cowart's historical adventure novel looks suspiciously fake, it does seem to have been small-/possibly-vanity-pressed in 1992 and it's set on Vancouver Island during the early fur trading/settlement proto-BC period, so: White Clam

[Dr. Drib]

Thanks.

I picked up the Matt Cutugno book, which looks very interesting to me.




Don

[ATDrake]

Feature still free, and only minor non-repeat stuff in the slushpile today, although there was 17 pages of it to wade through until I started hitting yesterday's stuff. But we do have at least 3 verifiable backlist reprints amidst the usual established author self-pubs.

Jessica Barksdale Inclan who writes contemporary/women's fiction novels for New American Library offers her debut novel, which seems to have also been published by them (not linked to paper version and I'm not bothering to dig: Her Daughter's Eyes

Jeannette Angell, who's written a non-fiction book about the sex industry which has a Publisher's Weekly review and a German translation, offers an historical maybe-conspiracy-thriller set in 14th century France: The Crown and the Kingdom

Fellow MR member author Paul Levine returns with a quartet of his thriller shorts, including one involving his print-published Solomon & Lord characters: The Road to Hell

Steven Torres returns with a 2007-Leisure/Dorchester hard-boiled noir. I kind of wonder what happened to make him so strongly emphasize in the blurb that the author of this is "Stephen [sic] Torres, NOT Schorr": The Concrete Maze

Minor ISFDBed Melissa L. Webb offers a paranormal high school set thriller/maybe-romance: Weaver of Darkness

Normally we just get het and gay erotic/romance, so in the interests of balance, Alison Laleche says that she has been nominated for a Gaylactic award and offers a mini-collection of: Lesbians Ahoy! (Lesbian Erotica)

And speaking of erotic/romance, Riley Owens returns with a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy erotic shorts, out from ImagineThat Studios which has been releasing HarperCollins-published Pip Ballantine's shorts: Linkage for the lot and another one free to all via Smashwords.

Bill Myers offers his 2003-Zondervan-published Christian fiction sci-fi/medical thriller: Blood of Heaven (Fire of Heaven Trilogy)

Donna Fletcher Crow has had many books out from Moody and Crossway, the latter of whom is a Christian publisher who sometimes gives us freebies. She offers a 1930s set murder mystery (may be inspirational and/or romantic suspense): Shadow of Reality (Book One in the Elizabeth and Richard Mystery Series)

Kathy Cecala had some sort of romance paperbacked by Onyx back in the 80s. She offers a YA adventure series set in 4th century Ireland, for which you can pick up both volumes written thus far as a holiday special: Linkage for the lot

Valerie Douglas who writes as V.J. Deveraux for Ellora's Cave offers a repeat romance, but it's a festively-themed repeat, so: Irish Fling (The Millersburg Quartet)

This book is self-pub (although the author claims to be an award-winning writer like they all do), but I'm kind of morbidly curious about something which starts off with the first victim being crushed by a life-sized replica whale at the Smithsonian Museum, so: Murder in Ocean Hall

Less morbidity and more curiosity for the following self-pub historical novel in a setting I like but don't get to see all that often: Birkbeiner, set in 13th century Norway.

Happy reading, if indeed you manage to spot something you think you might like (and remember not to stand directly underneath life-sized replica whales, just in case).

[scrapking]

Thanks again, as always!

[Dr. Drib]

Found one.

Thank you.



Don