Catharsis by Indie Author Jonathan Face

Indie Author Jonathan Face delivers a suspenseful, mysteriously, unfolding tale of a condemned town. As the story slowly progresses, the reader is left with a feeling of dread, a feeling that something bad is going to happen in Spring City. The inhabitants of this small town seem like good enough people, but they all have secrets. Unfortunately, you can't hide your secrets from unknown forces hell bent on bringing justice upon town's occupants.

Throughout the story, you learn a little bit about each character until you have a picture in your head that leaves you knowing that this isn't a good person, despite the warm and fuzzy facade.  Jonathan Face does a good job building the characters into real people, giving away only a little about their pasts.

As a snow storm moves through the town, the inhabitants bear down for a bad storm. Slowly, things draw the residents out (or for some, into their homes) to their deaths. The innocent are pulled away to be saved.

Jonathan Face's writing style is enjoyable to read, and the book was pretty well edited and proofed. The only annoyance that I found was the use of the word 'presently'. Of course, this is only my opinion, if you say that someone did something, I assume that, in the story, they are doing it then. I don't need to know that 'Presently, he walked down the street' or whatever action was taken. In this instance, the story was in the past tense, so no one actually did anything presently. There, my rant is done.

There were a few, I won't call them plot holes, but a few places where I wanted to know more information about the characters. For instance, we get to know the town librarian Kathy. She has a tainted past and moves to Spring City to hide and probably escape consequences. I have no idea what she did, but I want to know. At one point in the story, near the end, she is almost forced to tell her story to another deranged citizen, but their chat is interrupted and Kathy's story is never told. I'm still left wondering what she did.

Overall, an excellent, suspenseful, compelling story. I'll be on the lookout for more novels by Jonathan Face.

Right now, Catharsis is free for Nook and Kindle.

Paranormal Month at eFiction Magazine

Authors, have you submitted to eFiction yet? Well, even if you have, you can still submit another story for our October issue. The theme is Paranormal/Horror. We aren't too picky about what goes on in your story, just as long as it is scary, creepy, and blood chilling.

So what are you waiting for? The process is simple:

• Go to Submit a Story on our main website.
• Click on "Submit" under the short story heading.
• Upload your file (doc, docx, txt, or rtf).
• Enter the title of your story.
• Write a cover letter (one or two sentences about yourself, and a short (200 word) bio on yourself.
• Click the button that says "Submit to eFiction Magazine.

That is it. Nothing to it. The process is painless, I promise. Even if your story isn't picked for the issue, you have the opportunity to get amazing feedback and even workshop your piece if you join our online authors community (which is awesome).

So go, pick a story, and submit. I'll be waiting to read them!

Indie Author Sarah Kernochan - Jane Was Here

It seems that every time I read a new book I'm saying, "Wow, this was the best book that I've read in a LONG time." Jane Was Here was no different. I read it just after finishing up with Night Machines by Kia Heavey, and I was a little apprehensive because I didn't think I'd be able to get into a new book and new characters after getting to know Heavey's characters so well. (I generally have that problem after reading a really good, well written book.) Jane Was Here did not give me this problem.

When I began reading, I didn't understand the shape the story was taking, and I got a little annoyed. But I soon came to know the characters, even if I felt that, at first, they were thrown at me in quick succession. I had to keep flipping back to remember who some of the characters were.

After figuring out which characters were important, I was able to start truly enjoying this book. This book is so well worked together that I can't say too much about it without giving away some serious plot points.

A young woman shows up in a small town with no real memory of it, but she knows that she once lived there. She walks down the street and to a house. Knocking on the door, she tells the man Brett renting the house that she lives there. Brett is perplexed, but allows the woman in. Immediately, he is drawn to her, wants to comfort her, wants to protect her. His feelings for this woman are stronger than his feelings for his own son Collin who is with him for the summer.

Brett and his son are spending the summer in this small town on a whim. Brett doesn't know why he picked this town, but he cannot bring himself to leave. Over the course of the summer, he allows his son to spend all of his free time with a girl he met at the motel in town. His intentions were to use the summer to forge a relationship with Collin but falters at every attempt. Jane soon takes over his whole existence.

As Jane works to recover her memory, her recent past begins to catch up with her. Her family sends out a private detective to look for her. As she tries to dodge the PI, Jane is forced to tell Brett about her past.

***This next paragraph will be a bit spoiler-ish*** Jane finally confides in Brett that her family had her institutionalized for autism when she was a young child. She claims that she was born knowing that she wasn't in the right life and that these were not her parents; so, she did everything in her power to get them to not love her or bond with her. Eventually, she was placed in an institution. As a parent of a child with autism, I was a bit un-pleased with this explanation. Perhaps I'm over reacting, but it seems that autism is a trigger word and blanket explanation and excuse. Everyone uses it for everything. Brett's son, Collin, is also a bit of an odd ball, and I was drawn to thinking that he was meant to also be autistic. I find that autism is over used in all forms of media, and it perpetuates a stereotype that I wish would die.

This book was incredibly well written and edited. The one thing that I found that got under my skin, perhaps a bit too much, was a misquoted song. An excerpt from Smashing Pumpkins, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings", was misquoted. We all know that the song goes, "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage". This bothered me so much because I was able to type "despite" into a Google search bar and the rest was auto-completed for me. Easy to check, bothersome to miss.

I had a hard time really liking or connecting with the characters in the book because their faults were so prominent. I didn't dislike them, I cared where the story went, but there wasn't any one character that I said, "Oh, I want her to be okay" or "I want everything to work out for him". The characters were what they were and they all deserved whatever it was that was coming to them. Somehow, you knew while you were reading, there was no stopping where this story was going, no matter what choices the characters made.

I feel that I'm not doing the characters or story justice because I don't want to give anything away. Reading the book was like making a mosaic. Each piece was important and without the proper placement, the story just wouldn't have come out right. The reader is left to discover each piece when the time is right.

Sarah Kernochan writes a well woven tale of a woman who cannot explain her past and how her past is shaping the future of a small town.

Authors - Submit a Story and appear in eFiction Magazine!

Hey Authors! As most of you know I've been working over at eFiction Magazine for a while now, and things there are absolutely booming! Of course, we are always looking for new authors to submit stories for upcoming issues of the magazine.

Now that eFiction Magazine is being sold for the Kindle, we are reaching more readers than ever. Hopefully soon more issues will also be available on Smashwords and other online retailers so that those of you with other ereaders (like myself) can enjoy the mag each month. Of course, you can always visit the site on your browser to see what's new.

As new, upcoming indie authors, getting your name out there only helps you. I'll be honest, it can also help us. Submit a short story that you've written to the mag. If your story appears in the magazine your bio will also appear, so write a good one and be sure to include your previously published works, and perhaps a link to your page.

Sounds easy, right? It is. I did it, in fact I still do each month with all of the wonderful, expertly (ha) written book reviews that you guys see here.

October is paranormal month, November is un-themed, and December is a focus on family. So get your stories ready and start submitting. I look forward to reading them.