Moirai - Ruth Silver

Publisher: LazyDay Publishing (eBook), Patchwork Press (print)
Pages: 246
Genre: YA, Dystopian, Sci-Fi
Source:  I received a review copy from the author.  The opinions expressed here are my own.

Ruth Silver is the author of the wonderful book Aberrant.  You can find my review of that book here.  I will give you a quick heads up about the book before we move on to the main topic.  Cabal is a dystopian society.  Women have not been able to conceive and give birth for many generations.  The government selects couple to be married when they turn eighteen and then later they give them a child that was created in a lab.  Olivia and Joshua are ready for all of this when Olivia is thrown in prison.  Her crime was that she was born naturally, not created in a lab.  She escapes with the help of Joshua and that is the beginning of their story.



  (paperback cover)                    Here is an excerpt from the second book:
My feet crunched on weeds as I pushed my way through the waist-high grasses towards the river. It was rare anyone ventured outside of Shadow. In most cases leaving wasn't permitted. Was I breaking the rules by being here? I didn't know the answer to that questions and hoped I wouldn't find out. Bending down, my body hid among the grasses as I dipped my bare feet into the water. I shivered and grimaced scrunching my nose from the sensation. As quick as my feet had dipped into the icy cold water, I pulled them out. With a slight splash I heard  a rustling in the distance.

"Who's there?" My voice echoed as I stood. I wasn't afraid. Shadow was my home. Although I'd ventured from the town, it wasn't far. I glanced in the direction of Shadow and could barely make out the community. Perhaps I'd traveled further than I thought.

The grass shifted in the distance and I felt my heart skip a beat. My eyes widened as I quickly took off for town. I ran as fast as my legs would take me. Gasping for breath, I refused to slow down. Whether it was an animal or an outlaw, I wasn't waiting around to find out. Swiftly, I headed for Shadow. My knees lifted higher off the ground with each bare step I took. I didn't turn around but I could hear the pounding of weight against grass. Whoever or whatever was behind me wasn't small or light and they were gaining on me. I didn't have time to scream as i felt a large body coming down hard on top of me. My face slammed into the grass, scratching my cheek as I gasped for breath. "Help!" The words barely left my lips as my head lolled up from the ground; someone ripped at my hair and slammed me fast back into the grass. I bit my bottom lip, tasting dirt as I jammed my elbow behind me. I had to think fast. I'd spent months in Shadow training and now was the time to use it!

"Having fun yet?" the voice echoed into my ear. The whispered breath made me shudder. I didn't recognize the voice. Was I supposed to? I couldn't turn my head around, no matter how hard I tried.


(ebook cover)

My Thoughts:
Joshua and Olivia have left Cabal and joined one of the rebel cities known as Shadow. Here they begin to grow and mature.  Mindonsiphon gives Olivia special powers. While in Shadow she trains to prepare for a war she know will happen.  She will have to face Genesis.  Olivia and Joshua journey to another rebel city called Torv.  Olivia becomes friends with a doctor named Elsa from Shadow. She has been working with the women in Torv.  Olivia is working with her for two reasons.  One she is trying to learn more about her body and why she is capable of giving birth and why others are not.  Torv has been working on this problem for a while and had some success.  Unfortunately there is a nasty side effect.  The mothers die shortly after giving birth.

There are several things to really like about this book.  One is that it is a dystopian society.  Although I would not ever want to live in it.  It is scary to see how much of it could possibly happen to us.  That is one of the things that make it so good.  The world building is once again awesome. Like most great dystopians it has the ability to make you feel like you are right there with the characters.  It is so realistic a feeling you feel the dread the characters must feel.  Like so many young adult novels today there is a love interest going on.  Unlike so many of them today it is not a love story where they met one day and knew in a matter of minutes they belonged together.  These two characters grew up together as best friends and grew into their love for each other.  It is not rushed or mushy.  It develops naturally.  This is one thing that Ruth Silver has on other authors.  She is not concerned about rushing her characters into the love scene.  Her whole book develops naturally.  We know there is more to come.  We know that they must face this brewing battle and yet we must wait for the next book in the series.  Oh, my gosh.  It seems almost too painful to have to wait.  But wait we will for the next wonderful installment.

About the Author
        Ruth Silver attended Northern Illinois University and graduated with a Bachelor's in Communication in the spring of 2005.  While in college, she spent much of her free time writing with friends she met online and penning her first novel, Deuces are Wild, which she self-published in 2004.  Silver enjoys reading, photography, traveling and most of all writing.  She loves dystopian and fantasy young adult stories. She currently resides in Plainfield, Illinois. You can find Ruth at http://writeawaybliss.com. 


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INDIE AUTHOR SURVIVAL GUIDE - Susan Kaye Quinn

Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Goodreads TBR

This book is for every author who's thinking about indie publishing, or has already taken the leap, and wonders why no one told them about the sharks, the life-sucking social media quicksand, or the best way to avoid sales-checking, yellow-spotted fever. This is a guide for the heart as much as the head. And because I promised myself that I wouldn't write a book about how I made a gazillion dollars publishing ebooks, I would write about the fear: owning it, overcoming it, facing it. From a person who didn't pursue a creative life for a long time, and then discovered creativity can set you free. Note: gazillion is a technical term, which in this case means something less than a million and more than the average income in my state.

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the bestselling Mindajck Trilogy and Debt Collector serial and has been indie publishing since 2011. She’s not an indie rockstar or a breakout success: she’s one of thousands of solidly midlist indie authors making a living with their works. This book is a compilation of her four years of blogging through changes in the publishing industry—updated, revised, and supplemented to be relevant in 2013. It’s a guide to help her writer-friends take their own leaps into the wild (and wonderful) world of indie publishing... and not only survive, but thrive. You can friend her on Facebook or follow her on twitter or check out her blog where she'll be doing who knows what next.

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link: http://www.susankayequinn.com/p/for-writers.html

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FAQ About the Guide

Q: What prompted you to write the Guide? I resisted a long time in putting this together. I had this silly idea I was a fiction writer (which is also true), in spite of spending the last four years blogging consistently about the industry, and especially the changes wrought by indie publishing. It took the goading of several friends, over a period of time, before I realized that the blog was actually non-fiction writing (I can be excessively slow for Ph.D. engineer sometimes). The trigger for blogging the book - revising and updating old posts as well as organizing the content - was seeing writer friend after writer friend take the leap, often after reading something I had posted. And I realized there wasn't a book out there that addressed the fears as well as the nuts-and-bolts about going indie. I could have just left the Guide on my rinky-dink blog, but I knew the power of Amazon (and other retailers) to connect people to books, and I figured it would help more people this way. Q: Why should I read a book about indie publishing by Susan Kaye Quinn? I'm pretty sure she's not a NY Times Bestseller. I'm not an indie rockstar. I haven't made the news as one of those "exceptional" breakout indie authors. I'm a solidly midlist indie author, which means I make a living off my works. I'm one of thousands of invisible indie midlist authors who, I believe, are the core of indie publishing, and why it's changing the industry. The rockstars of indie publishing can inspire and lead, they can use their leverage to break barriers, but they can't transform the industry on their own. The true change has to come, as it always has, from the grass-roots. I'm part of that grass-roots movement. Q: Will this Guide help me get rich quick from ebooks? No. Q: Will this Guide help me decide if indie publishing is right for me? Yes. Q: What if I'm afraid? We're all afraid. Fear is an integral part of being vulnerable in the world by daring to do brave things. Fear stops many people from becoming the full expression of who they are. I won't tell you not to be afraid in this book - I'll help you see the fear for what it is, manage it, and not let it stop you from reaching for the amazing things you have ahead of you. Q: What if I don't have the first clue how to start with self-publishing? The Guide is designed to take a first-time-publishing author from the decision to go indie through to writing that second book (and starting the whole process over again). It's also designed to help indie authors who have already published, but are struggling: either with keeping perspective for the long-term, trying to scale up their businesses from the first book, or just trying not to drown in social media quicksand. My hope is that all my indie author friends will find something worthwhile in it, or pass it on to someone who will. The culture in indie publishing of sharing information is part of what inspired this book in the first place.

Student Saturday: Dead Man's Hand - Eddie Jon

This weeks student reviewer is Riffat

This book really was a good read because of its amazing suspense, cliff-hanging chapters, and western at its best! I would really recommend this book to people ages ten and up because some of the content in the book containing blood (describing or talking about blood) and violence. Also, to people (ages ten and up) who love a good mystery, or a straight-out western lover!

Dead Man's Hand is a book based on a real-life murder in the 1800's, but in a different perspective. Nick Caden is just an everyday teenager who loves music and can be bored easily, but is also a kid-detective. Sadly, for him, his boredom will continue to go over him when he visits Deadwood Canyon Ghost Town for summer vacation with his family, instead of going to Disney World or some other fun-filled place. When Nick and his family finally arrive in Deadwood, strange things start to occur. A yellow Doge Charger was parked outside a barn and a man quickly got out of the car and vanished. Nick was bewildered by this so he went into the barn. Just as his mom called him, Nick discovered something peculiar. He saw red liquid o the sawdust in the barn and just as he looked up he smelled the odor of crimson, and just then knew it was blood. What was dying in the barn? Was it human or animal? What is Nick's criminal list about Also, most importantly, will Nick have a blast at Deadwood with a great murder-case to solve?

The main characters of this book is Nick Caden (main antagonist), a teenager who loves music and is a detective fanatic! Marshal Walt Buckleberry, is the marshal of Deadwood, and is a very strict and noble man. Annie, is the niece of the marshal and a tom-boyish girl (I mean she can hurl a gun out of nowhere!). Lastly Nick's criminal list mainly comprised of Wyatt Earp, and elderly guard, Pat Garret, a deputy and a friend of the marshal.

This book really reminds me of how Nick Caden solves mysteries as a detective in relation to how detectives in the real world solve mysteries. So please read Dead Man's Hand and uncover many secrets with Nick Caden!