My Favorite Indie Contemporaries

Soooooo ... it came to my attention, as I finished filming my show-off the other night ... I don't own any indie contemporary.

Therefore, I'm going to feature contemporary over here. What little I've read. *sigh*

I have nothing against the genre ... just, when you've led as difficult a life as I have, the cutesy Contemporary seems too superficial, and the feelsy Contemporary must be taken in small doses. Spoiler alert: Almost every book below is a feelsy.

So, in no particular order:

First off, we have The Brother I Remember, a book which I did a critique swap on and the only critique I had for it was "You need a better title." The author, regretfully, did not heed my advice. Nevertheless, it's a touching story about a girl's repaired relationship with her brother after tragedy strikes. Also, ice dancing. p="">

Second off ... Okay, I will confess, this book DOES have fantasy elements. But the main story is contemporary and the "fantasy" part of it is the book that the main character is writing. Which may or may not be creeping into reality. A ... cousin? of mine wrote this book, and it's only available in paperback, but it's really good.

This is a suspense romance that is written by another cousin of mine - to be specific, the cousin who did the original covers for the Bookania Quests. It's really fun, and I enjoyed my read of it even though I was still deep within my hoyden stage. I'd probably rate it higher now than I did then. Also, it's only available on kindle. (these cousins of mine)
(And, yes, her last name is Ingalls. Her husband is descended from Laura Ingalls Wilder's aunt and uncle)

Probably the only "cutsey" story on here. I read this on-whim towards the end of last year in a mad-dash to reach my reading goal for the year. It's a fun take on Cinderella, and very twisty. I quite liked it.

One of the books that I read for Indie e-Con this year, this was a lovely modernization of the Good Samaritan. Very well done and realistic - my only complaint is that the book climaxed in the middle, so the second half kind of dragged. Still a lovely story.

Ugh. My poor heart on this one. While it needs a better cover, and there was some editing that made me wince, this story utterly tore out my heart and crushed it on the floor in a million pieces. 

Fun fact: My grandparents used to be foster parents. As such, this was another touching story that very much pulled at my heartstrings and felt very personal. Ugh.

And, finally ... well, this is a stretch of the term "Indie." The author is traditionally published, but this particular short story is her newsletter subscription story, so Imma gonna make it count. I've not read the main series that it goes with, but this story ... and I was actually babysitting the son of a single-mother coworker when I read it, so ... yeah, it got personal.

Annnnnd there we go. My shelf of Indie Contemporary. How about you, what's the best indie contemporary that you've ever read? Read any of these?

Top Ten Purple Books!

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is "Books with My Favorite Color on the Cover." I'm a huge fan intense, saturated colors - reds, blues, hot pinks, and purple. Purple's my favorite, though, so let's go with that.

1. Of course, we're going to start with my own purple book, the cover I designed myself. While this isn't my favorite of the Bookania Quests, it is my favorite of the covers - although my current plans for Honor's cover might give it a run for its money.

2. Okay, just to warn you all now - there's going to be a LOT of fairy tale retellings on this list. This book is, to me, the high point of the series ... book three I was meh about (though it wasn't bad), and thereafter, other authors have handled the world/characters, and I really preferred Hale's treatment of the characters. But ... let me just say. Maddie Hatter.

3. This was a book I read back in the dark ages. And I really don't remember much about it except that there were orphans, storytelling, and I rather liked it. 

 

4&5. These books were interesting. I need to continue the series. But orphan princesses!

6. Back to the fairy tale retellings! This is an adorable little series that I'm quite in love with. This isn't my favorite of the collection, but it's delightful nonetheless.

7. This is a series I read for the sole reason of the main character sharing my name. And it's quite a good little series, too. Highly recommend. And this particular volume is my favorite (though please don't read them out of order). Time travel awesomeness is always awesome.

8. Now, THIS is a book from the dark ages. I devoured this series back when I was little and squishy ... although, confession, I don't think I ever read this particular one. I ... uh ... lost the copy that we borrowed from the library. (We did find it, eventually, but I never actually read it) Rose (Beauty) was never my favorite character (she had had the unfortunate honor of being the NoTP of my first Love Triangle), but I otherwise quite loved these books.

9. Here's a book I just read this year. Lovely story. The author will be taking part in Indie e-Con this year, so please stay tuned.

10. And, finally, we abandon fantasy and Kingdom fiction for a sci-fi. I'm thoroughly in love with Pennington's Firmamant series. Highly recommend. 

What's your favorite purple book?

On Other Blogs: Publishing

There's so much awesome information about publication that we couldn't fit it all onto my blog. So I let the other blogger share some stuff, too.

First off, a video by Alea Harper, this one about trends in covers. 

If art and graphic design escapes you, Sarah Holman's here to talk about how to find a good cover designer.

Now to the blog posts:

First off, we have Rachel Rossano here to talk about Creating a Unique Cover for your book.

Rebekah A. Morris has a bit to say about Audiobooks.

Though she posted this yesterday, I'm sharing it today. Julie C. Gilbert has tips for Writing a Good Description.

Are you looking for Stock Photography for your covers? Jesseca Wheaton has you covered!

Interested in writing books for other authors' series? Julie C. Gilbert would also like to talk about Kindle Worlds.

And, finally, Hope Ann is here to talk about Formatting Ebooks.

Match the Cover Art

Email Entry is now Closed. I'm now editing this post to include answers.

I'd like to thank everyone who took part in this game! I've added answers below so you can see how many you got right!

Don't forget yesterday's game!

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Which covers do you find the most intriguing?