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Review Archive

Featured Author: Scott Carss

At 17 years old, Scott Carss has to be the youngest author I’ve met in the Inkshares community. His story, The Adventures of MONOMAN, turned heads when it first hit the site, demonstrating a clever wit with its simple pitch that offers a new perspective on a classic super-villain trope: the dramatic monologue. His participation in the recent Draftshares event earned him an interview on this blog. Read about Scott and his approach to the craft, then head over to the page for The Adventures of MONOMAN to stay up to date on Scott’s work. About The Adventures of  MONOMAN: Gordon Anyen is your average everyday college student-except he’s not at all-because at night he roams the streets of a lonely southern Florida city as MONOMAN, a hero with the ability to force others to monologue. What he lacks in skill he makes up for in determination; which he will need if he’s to survive when a

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Author Interview: Landon Crutcher

We’ve cooked up something really special for you this time, friend. Landon Crutcher, author of Monkey Business, the first book published under Inkshares’s Quill imprint, chatted with me about his book, the Quill experience, and more in our very first audio interview. Give it a listen below, then check out Monkey Business on Inkshares or Amazon. You’ll have to pardon our several mentions of things you can’t see, dear reader. We tried to make this one a video interview, but technology got in the way. Enjoy!  

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Draftshares: Fantasy & Historical

Today’s the last day of The Warbler’s Draftshares coverage, after which we’ll be back to our scheduled programming. For now, these great Fantasy and Historical Fiction drafts ought to sate your thirst for book reviews. Makhaira: (Fantasy) Once a generation, a dragon slayer is sent off to save his people. None have returned. Now it’s Balfour’s turn. The Edge of the World: (Fantasy) A pirate captain abandons his crew to explore the edge of the world. Clockwork Charlie: (Dark Fantasy) Charlie just wants to work on cars in peace. Until a stranger arrives with news about her father’s death. He says she has a Gift, and she’s needed in a war that’s been hidden from the world for ages. Charlene has to find the truth-and make a choice. Electric Messiah – Lore of the Aos Sí: (Historical Fantasy) We were told it was man that was cast out of the garden of Eden. As mankind hurtles into the

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Draftshares: Mystery, Thriller, and Horror

Today’s a two-fer, friend! We’re continuing our Draftshares coverage with Mystery, Thriller, and Horror drafts that are worth a gander. Take a look! A Cup for the Dead: (Mystery) The Great War is over and young widow Hattie Moncrieffe hopes Paris will help her forget. But when an Egyptian curse strikes, can Hattie outwit a cunning murderer while persuading the police she’s not guilty? The Darkest Places: (Horror) The discovery of an ancient artifact buried deep beneath the sands of Cairo brings three individuals together in a race against time to stop an eldritch evil from awakening. Detective Diaries: (Mystery) Amani Marshall is searching for her father’s killer in a crime-filled city known as Rochester as a rookie detective; however, she ends up training under a veteran detective called Carbine that is following a murder mystery around Twilight District. Off the Grid: (Thriller) A case of mistaken identity forces an office drone to go

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Draftshares: Young Adult Fiction

Draftshares continues with YA novels as today’s focus. Take a look at these drafts and, as always, help out by offering feedback! Project Human: I, Robot meets Divergent meets Real Steel as a rogue android prototype joins forces with a human girl in a brewing political war. First in a YA speculative fiction/dystopian duology set in the year 2120. Sparked: What happens when mean girls get superpowers and have to save the world? The Artist and the Automaton: The fate of an automaton-inhabited utopia for artists ties to an unsuspecting, frustrated young woman and her mouthy assistant. At the same time, their tale is told to a young girl whose future ties to the story itself. Star Light, Star Bright: A falling mech. A comet. A thief wielding lightning. A team of teens with attitude. A dragon’s fury. A destiny that was never yours to have… Moving’s fun, right? The Sally Forth Intrigue: Janie’s a ghost, stuck quoting GHOSTBUSTERS, and

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Draftshares: Humor, Nonfiction, Other

For the next batch of noteworthy drafts, we turn to the humor and nonfiction genres. Take a look, and offer feedback if you can! So You Might Be a Vampire: (Humor) Nobody told Bob when he became a vampire he’d have to keep his shitty job. He’s average looking, not rich, not pale and blood is a drug, not a food. There are over 101 ways to suck at being a vampire, and Bob is living proof. Presenting Complaints: (Humor) A disastrously run NHS hospital is threatened with takeover by an amoral private health concern.  Dr Tom Rysarian – shallow, selfish, and monumentally lazy – becomes embroiled in a last-ditch effort to save his place of work from privatization. Try not to fall off the Long Gray Line: An autobiography by David Howard on “[his]” progression from Plebe to graduate at West Point.” Holding Their Ground: (Romance) When no one is watching, history repeats

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Draftshares: Science Fiction

Greetings, friend of the Warbler! There’s a fun thing going on in the Inkshares community this week, wherein projects in the “draft” phase are being highlighted. I’m joining in this endeavor, and throughout the week you’ll see a few posts showcasing some of the exciting drafts on the platform. Today’s focus is Science Fiction. Part of the philosophy of Draftshares is to offer feedback on these drafts, so check out these drafts and let the authors know what you think One: I’d be remiss not to mention my own draft in the science fiction genre. A little boy in Gaza and a little girl in Sderot share a single consciousness. Military experiments, corporate greed, and religious extremism will permeate this novel. The Seventh Aspect: A compassionate alien scientist must prove humans are worthy of learning the truth about God – or be forced to exterminate us. The Cora Chronicles: Genesis:

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Octavia’s Brood – Walida Imarisha & Adrienne Marie Brown

A few weeks ago, I attended a rally in support of Bernie Sanders just north of Oakland, in Vallejo, California. At the rally, I heard a sentence that struck a deep chord within me: An idea does not have to be radical to be revolutionary. It’s a simple statement, sure, but it has legs. I imagine that, during the height of the civil rights movement, there was a portion of the American population that felt the idea of racial equality was radical. But thinking about it, were people asking for anything completely new? No. They were asking to have the rights of protection, access, and representation that already existed for a majority of Americans. I don’t mean to say that radical action wasn’t taken in the name of revolution. Rather, that the desires of the movement were not radical, though they were certainly revolutionary. I think that our current politics are

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Featured Author: Elayna Mae Darcy

Happy Monday to you, friend of the Warbler! We start of the week by featured Elayna Mae Darcy, whose book, They are the Last, is currently funding on Inkshares. I want to find a single piece of the summary to point out as awesome, but I can’t beat Elayna at her own game. Take a look at her fantastic synopsis and tell me, with a straight face, that you don’t want to read this book. You can find Elayna on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and read more about her book at theyarethelast.com. About They are the Last: Piper Anderson thinks she’s alone in the world: she is forgotten and left to lose herself at Edgemont, a juvenile detention center seeking to jolt the humanity from its children, leaving them as emotionless – but obedient – shades of their former selves. All hope seems lost. Until Kath, her godmother who mysteriously disappeared years before,

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Central Station – Lavie Tidhar

I thought it would be difficult to find a book at good as Hannu Rajaniemi’s Collected Fiction this year, but Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station, also published by Tachyon, has overtaken it for the top spot in my list this year. By a tiny margin. For me, Central Station was more than a good—or even great—book. It was an important book, for several reasons. The first is that it is some advanced science fiction that breaks through a number of barriers in the genre, which I’ll dig into below. The second is that it was written by an Israeli author and takes place in Tel Aviv. Representation in speculative fiction has been a hot topic for the last few years, and I’ve been rather appalled by the backlash in some areas of the community at the idea of  diversity in sci-fi and fantasy. I love reading fiction precisely because of the extraordinary opportunity

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