Light Boxes
-Shane Jones
5 stars
As I read this I felt transported from the unrelenting heat of summer in Phoenix to a forever gray and snowy February in a small cut-off town. I remembered cold and dreary and why the last months of winter are the hardest to bare. The summer months in Phoenix are similar to this, unforgiving sun and heat cause abandoned streets and playgrounds. I felt connected in a mirrored way.
The inhabitants of one closely-knit town are experiencing perpetual February. It turns out that a god-like spirit who lives in the sky, named February, is punishing the town for flying, and bans flight of all kind, including hot air balloons and even children's kites. It's February who makes the sun nothing but a faint memory, who blankets the ground with snow, who freezes the rivers and the lakes. As endless February continues, children go missing and more and more adults become nearly catatonic with depression. But others find the strength to fight back, waging war on February.
This fairytale for all ages reads in chopped up narrative and character thoughts. Tiny moments from every perspective pieced together to create a fantastical story that will run you through the gamut of emotions; sadness, depressions, heartache, frustration, hope, joy, and happiness. A small book with a big heart. This is one of the best books I have read, ever.
Hearers of the Constant Hum
-William Pauley III
4 Stars
Ashok burn right hand of men. To Neptune, rebirth in blue fire.
This is the phrase the ultimately brought my attention to this book. As a fan of bizarro, surrealism, and the just plain strange, things like this catch my eye and draw me in. Add that with an amazing cover and you've got my money.
Bill Krang records insect conversations onto cassette tapes and labels them THE CONSTANT HUM. Others cannot hear insects in the same way, so he has dedicated his life to discovering how to share their message with others.
Years pass and now Krang notices the peculiar phrase graffitied on the sides of buildings and written on mysterious tiles half-buried in asphalt. What does it mean? Are the insects trying to warn him? Is it a threat? Are there other hearers of the constant hum? Where are they?
In his search for answers, he manages to dismantle all he ever thought he knew about everything.
Collapsing disease, drugs created from dead, poisoned insects, half human/half robot scientists, and of course the constant hum. Add in William Pauley III's carryover characters, The Crunk Brothers, and you've got a peculiar tale that's as weird and out of place as it is completely relevant to today's world.
At times the message gets a little preachy, but the storyline and characters are strong enough to balance it out. I highly recommend checking this book out.
I have a new novella coming out soon!
This book was unexpected. I was in-between writing drafts for my upcoming dark fantasy trilogy and had an idea pop into my head that wouldn't go away. Like most authors I get ideas all the time, most of them never get far but this one was writing itself so I had to put it to paper. In just a couple of weeks last summer I wrote the first draft, a couple of months later I rewrote the ending and then did a final draft.
I sat on it for several months not sure what to do with it. I created a few different cover ideas until I finally had a great one. From there I knew I wanted to release it.
So if you have a few hours to kill and want a quick, fun read. Check out my new book.
There is a new fetish sweeping the country: a sexual interest in severed limbs.
The market has become so large that "limb-snatching" has become the number one violent crime in the nation. A man dubbed The Phantom by the media has become the most successful snatcher, but when he returns home with the latest pair of limbs, things start to get strange.
The limbs are still alive, moving on their own, and desperate to get back to their body.
