Indie Spotlight and New Release: 19 Doors by Rob Roy O’Keefe #Release Day

It’s Release Day for 19 Doors, a short story collection featuring a wide variety of genres. A book description, purchase link, and author bio are all below. I will provide a review at a later date.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

From the author of Small Stories: A Perfectly Absurd Novel, shortlisted by the Chanticleer International Book Awards, 19 Doors ranges far and wide, diving into magical realism and science fiction, then adding a dash of steampunk and surrealism for extra flavor. The collection ricochets from the poignant to the comically absurd, each short story a work of imaginative fiction.

• A community remembers the lives they have yet to live.
• An intergalactic tour bus arrives in Hollywood … Montana.
• A shopping network super-fan relives every infomercial scenario he watches.
• The first sentient being in the universe applies for a job as a sous chef.
• A preternatural wind comes to collect a long-owed debt.

Through 19 Doors, we are immersed in the unraveling lives of characters who are just like us and nothing like us. Whether they succeed or succumb, conform or rebel, we are treated to a compilation of stories that are frequently fraught, often fun, and always fantastic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

**The author’s bios are so funny that I found two and added them both:

The story of Rob Roy O’Keefe’s birth goes that he was born in the same Irish cottage as his grandfather and in the same year, which led to a time paradox so cataclysmic that he would never finish th–Fortunately, the truth is much different. Turns out he was not born in a cottage or in Ireland, but in a Howard Johnson’s in Bayonne, which may explain his lifelong habit of ending each day with 28 flavors of ice cream.

In his twenties, he went through a period of crisis and self-doubt upon learning he was not named after a Scottish folk hero, but rather a mixed drink featuring scotch whisky and sweet vermouth. Years of counseling eventually enabled him to resume his place in society. That, and the realization that his siblings, Mojito, Daiquiri, and Gimlet, had it much worse than he did.

Rob made his way in the world as the inventor of several nonexistent colors and is living a life of leisure thanks to the royalty checks he receives for creating the descriptive names found on garden hose nozzles. His favorite is “Mist.”

________________________________________________________________________

Rob Roy O’Keefe was raised in the Antarctic by a colony of emperor penguins, which explains both his love of fish and his intense anxiety when in the company of sea lions. At the age of 12 he left to go on walkabout, but upon learning that Australia was over 3,000 miles away, he took the more expedient route from Cape Melville, Antarctica to South America’s Cape Horn.

He wandered north through the Andes, accumulated an abundance of practical knowledge, such as how to convince a hungry condor that you are not carrion. He eventually stumbled upon the hut of an Incan shaman who took him on as an apprentice. After a decade of immersion into the mysteries of the unseen world, Rob departed, fully prepared for his eventual success in the fields of pizza delivery, local politics, and brand consulting.

Today, Rob resides in New England’s Merrimack Valley, where he lives in a tree house made of Good Humor popsicle sticks held together by the discarded dreams of retired sailors.

PURCHASE LINK

*Click on the cover below for the link to Amazon.

Top Ten Tuesday: Quick Reads: Books to Read When Time is Short

Top Ten Tuesday is run by That Artsy Reader Girl. There is a different topic every week. This week’s topic is: Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short. Click on the covers to learn more about the books.

This is the prequel novella to Gail Meath’s Jax Diamond Mysteries series and tells us how it all got started when Jax met his German Shepherd partner, Ace. It’s only 112 pages.

This is one of many novellas in Jodi Taylor’s The Chronicles of St. Mary’s series. She always releases a short story on Christmas and this is the latest. 100 pages.

A classic. What more do I need to say? It’s only 128 pages.

This is a short story in the St. Mary’s Universe about how it all got started. 76 pages.

This is a short story from The Frogmorton Farm series, which couldn’t be more different than St. Mary’s. There’s no time travel, but there is a magical golden horse. 44 pages.

This is a heartbreaking novel of Soviet Russia. It’s 194 pages, but that’s still pretty short. My review is here.

In this one, I was in awe of the author’s talent and deeply affected by the story. And it’s only 82 pages. My review is here.

Can you believe it’s only 108 pages? 

This is a lesser-known story of the Titanic, and it’s only 66 pages.

Ok, book bloggers. This is the story of a woman whose book collection has gotten so big it’s threatening to collapse. We can all relate. It’s only 40 pages.

Can you think of any shorter books that you love or want to read?

Self-Published Saturday: Tales of the Romanov Empire #Russia #Russianhistory #RussianJews

Self-Published Saturday is my effort to help indie/self-published authors with the huge task of marketing their books. Self-published authors have to do it all, and if I can help even a little, I’m happy to do so. Below is my review of Tales of the Romanov Empire, a selection of fictionalized stories about important characters in the Romanov family.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Stories you’ve never heard about the Romanovs….

Tales of the Romanov Empire is a novel in short stories that examines one of history’s most successful dynasties. The Romanovs were Russia’s absolute monarchs from 1613 until 1917. Yet, beyond the glittering wealth and tragic love story of Nicholas and Alexandra, much of the dynasty remains shrouded in mystery.

Tales of The Romanov Empire sheds light on the Romanovs’ unknown figures, from the election of Mikhail Feodorovich, the first Romanov tsar, to the bride shows that were staged to help Tsar Alexei find a wife. Grand Duke Konstantin, the Romanovs’ famous poet, comes to life as he and his favorite cousin, Grand Duke Sergei, examine their ideals and their sexuality in a world that is hostile to them. All the while, as the empire’s Jews struggle amidst the Romanovs’ pogroms, many make the decision to flee to the freedom of the United States- these stories in particular are based on the author’s own family history.

This novel contains stories of war, stories of personal gifts and choices bent to an autocratic ideal. In their telling, the vast human cost of absolute power- on both the oppressors and on the oppressed- becomes clear.

This is a collection of fictionalized short stories that outline the history of the Romanov dynasty from the first Czar in 1613 until the deaths of Czar Nicholas and his family at the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1917. The research is impeccable and the number of short stories–39–is impressive, as they are all woven together so well. The stories are short-shorts and dip into significant periods in the history of the Romanovs.

I learned so much about Russian history during that period. These stories really take you right into those times and places and make them come alive. We see deceit, treachery, determination, death, and more. We see the persecution, slaughter, and forced removal of the Jews. We see the Romanovs’ beginning, as well as their bloody end, and watch their reign with fascination and horror.

The commitment of the author is admirable, as she takes on fictionalizing and developing so many characters from history and succeeds in transporting us back to their time and their situations. The story of a Jewish family’s escape to America is her family story, and that makes it even more personal and compelling. I can’t stress enough how well this is written. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Russian history in a fascinating way.

I downloaded a copy of this book on Kindle Unlimited, where subscribers can read it for free.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tamar Anolic

Tamar is a writer who specializes in historical fiction and military fiction. Her short stories have been published in The Copperfield Review, The Sandy River Review, The Helix, Foliate Oak, Frontier Tales, Pen In Hand, Evening Street Review, Every Day Fiction and The Magazine of History and Fiction.

Her historical books focus on the Romanovs and include The Russian Riddle, a nonfiction biography, and the novels Triumph of a Tsar, Through the Fire, and The Imperial Spy. Her military fiction includes the novel The Last Battle, about a female veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and The Fledgling’s Inferno, science fiction about a gene that runs in military families and causes superpowers.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON
AMAZON UK

*Kindle Unlimited subscribers can read this for free.

*If you read the book, please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books.  Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.

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