All My Books Are Free (On Kindle)

Waiting for all the promotions to align was the hard part

Hey! Have you bought my books yet?

Well, if you’ve been waiting for the right time or the price has been too high, they are all available for free on Kindle until this Friday.

With my birthday on Saturday, I seem to be in the giving mood.

🗡️ Rhean - An adventure across a continent

☕ Maneus - Coffee, conversations, and chaos

❄️ Besnowed - The warmth of winter

☄️ Revification - Falling into a wormhole

Even if you aren’t sure you’d want to read it, you should still get a free copy. At worst, it will help make the ol’ graph look a little better.

Quick Rundown

I know, I know.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times.

But if there’s anything I’ve learned about promoting myself, it’s that you need to be comfortable saying the same thing over and over and over and over.

Now, I’ve already given you the one liners in the introduction, but I thought it’d be worth digging into the blurbs.

So, let’s do just that.

Rhean is my latest novel and focuses on a long awaited journey—in both the physical and spiritual senses of the word. Isolated and often introspective, Rhean Eyadu is an immortal demigoddess who lives life at her own pace—the events of the book included.

She can choose to ignore the cries of humanity.

She has learned to accept we will eventually always work toward our own demise.

And so when Dorus Chatahyuk meets her and attempts to convert her to his cause, he needs a very good reason to convince her to do anything at all.

Get your Kindle copy of Rhean for free!

"From beginningless time to the age of man, Gardener-Sage Rhean and her living sword, Nox Aeterna, roam the earth. Haunted by the past and tempted by the future, this book asks what it means to be loyal: obedience, blind faith, companionship, or protection?"

Maneus falls after Rhean in the timeline of their world, but was written well before the prequel. The style and structure is very different, mimicking ancient epics as an homage to our shared human histories.

Beyond that structural separation, the book itself is split into three sections that follow different generations.

Maneus — Mundane monotony in a corner store obscuring the evils just past the front door, and inviting the sparks for love and more.

Lithan — Abandoned in a countryside valley, the son struggles to find stability in his own skin. Lithan is torn between the call of the mountain and the drag of his destiny.

Thamboken — Born into a broken family, the grandson is forever haunted by the idea of his identity being forged more from nurture than nature.

All three battle against a primordial evil known as Dwolmarik. The tragedies met along the way forge a steel will that may just be strong enough to finally find catharsis.

Get your Kindle copy of Maneus for free!

"This story will take you on a journey of truly epic proportions by examining the threads of generational trauma woven into us, our children, and everyone around us. The world is fantastical and surreal, but every reader will find a bit of themselves in this tapestry of magic, chaos, and heroism."

The first novel I officially published, Besnowed is an idea that was planted in my head after years of jumping between festivals in different cultures.

Everything begins with Swefen Kumri returning to his hometown for the biggest holiday of the year. The circumstances of the in-universe recent past limited travel between the modern city of Veranum—where he and his family live—and the small village of Besniwod—where he and his wife, Lumi, grew up.

Swefen then spends the generous week reconnecting with his family and showing his children, Rwen and Zori, why the little snowy town is so important and close to his heart.

The stakes are low and the book is written to feel like a cozy read more than an epic adventure. The pages provide enough room to explore the ideas of how we celebrate and how we share a common love across continents and cultures.

Get your Kindle copy of Besnowed for free!

"While the story is very much about family, it brings out deep issues concerning nationality, the environment, economics, and perhaps even points the way to how we can all enjoy a more fulfilling life."

Revification is a a frantic experience that bounced around my head for a good while before I put it down on proper pages. From the name to the fractured structure, I wanted to capture the odd atmosphere that comes with surviving a living nightmare.

What seemingly begins with nothing but the troubled protagonist, Shahin, hiding information from his psychiatrist, Kabosha, quickly devolves into shifting dimensions and altered realities.

The story has Shahin jumping around from setting to setting and interacting with characters that adapt and change between sections of dialogue.

The perfect way to really explore how existing in a foreign universe would have to feel.

Get your Kindle copy of Revification for free!

"A wild ride in the uncanniest of valleys. It’s like an entire book spent in the mirror realm, or several dreams deep a la Inception. An absolute mind bender in a quick, easy read. I can assure you you’ve never read anything like this before!"

Submissions, Submissions

This is already a longer newsletter, but there’s one more topic I need to bring up—the upcoming deadline for Sidereal Times.

While there are still two weeks to send me something, the inbox is looking quite quiet and could use a little love. I was never going to be very surprised if there were few to no people who submitted, but I will need at least a handful in order to have something to judge!

To help ease the process and perhaps inspire someone, I thought I’d share my own battle here. Of course, it wouldn’t make much sense for me to enter my own competition, but I also am always looking for new ways to get people to read my writing.

This seems like the perfect opportunity and a decent compromise.

So here is my example of what I would submit to Sidereal Times, Issue One:

Heavy Hands, Heavier Hearts

“I pity you. I truly do.” My thoughts echoed as I watched you cry into your sleeve, legs bent up to your chest as you tried to hide the pain in your stomach. We all abandoned you and turned the other cheek when you offered an open hand.

“Please, John! We can go together!” You pleaded between gasps, trying to say something reasonable – you thought we would feel sympathy or any emotion at all. My response was callus, less calculated and more malice. We were kin and yet I only let the distance grow.

The inaction of a coward wounds the heart more than any blade.

Piercing.

Bleeding.

Draining.

It fucking hurts.

Seeing the shadows for what they really are, the ones who should be closest to you caring the least about how you feel. Your lowest point, nothing but another opportunity to stand strong on holy ground – only to kick you down again. As if there’s a lesson to be learned beyond the shame of opening up.

At least that is how it is for us.

“We’re all going home. Stop this already. Read the room, come on!” I shouted at you. If not with my words, then with my eyes. I was disappointed in you – your decision, your life. Every superficial mistake bore the weight and the burden of a cardinal sin.

“John… Please!” You begged me to stay. You thought I would listen. I proved you wrong.

We left you there to cry alone. To feel the worst of the silence with no one but your own regret. No shoulder to lean on.

Our family has never been defined by solidarity.

Inexact and inexistent loyalties only serving to remind us of a guilt none of us could hope to understand.

“Really?” I scoffed at your tears. You buried your face. We laughed at your suffering. And that was the official contract signed.

Recognition.

Resignation.

I left you where you lied. You lied about where you were. Relationships never scar, never heal – at least not for us. We ignore each other and the harm our prayers caused.

But deep down inside, somewhere in that space closest to the heart, I still love you.

We still love each other.

I can only hope we one day celebrate instead of reciprocate in the days we have yet to draw breath.

Another Day

More than anything, I hope you find something worthwhile in these weekly emails. The silence of the eternal void can make the echochamber seem extra quiet.

Hopefully, the ink I’ve bled and the blood I’ve spilled is not completely in vain. I think you all understand how the many pages of all my stories have a lot of my soul soaked into the paper.

And if nothing else, just remember that all my books are free on Kindle until Friday.

Until next time.

—JMB