New this week
The latest additions to The Library's collection
If you have a complete or in-progress work you’d like added to The Library or an indie-published book to include in the Buy Indie section, follow this guide, and we’ll help spread the word.
And thanks again to everyone for helping us support indie authors!
In the stacks
Romance
Don't Move Your Desk | Rhiannon D'Averc | LGBTQIA+/gay romance (N) (I) (F)→($)
First 3 chapters free, following chapters published free then behind paywall after 60 days
Don't Move Your Desk is a gay romance, featuring a stoic CEO and his secretary who may or may not be an undercover documentary filmmaker trying to make a name for himself. The slow burn will make you scream. The mystery plot of who is trying to undermine the company and their star client will drive you in circles. And when it finally comes after all that waiting, the spicy heat will burn you alive.
Speculative
Down in the Holler | Bridget Riley | Mystery (NA) (I) (F)
Judith Temple, a software developer, feels most at home with theories and cold, hard facts. But she also experiences seemingly psychic visions. When Judith finds herself drawn into a missing person cold case in rural Kentucky, she must learn to use both her hyper-analytical, logical mind and her newfound ability (skill? gift? curse? delusion?) to find the mysterious woman reaching out to her.
Tidelands | Gareth Southwell | Sci-fi/Fantasy (N) (I) (F)→($)
Currently free, but in the future, switching to paid beyond a certain point
In a flooded city battling environmental and societal collapse, the arcology provides a high-tech haven – for those who can afford it. Here, sequestered from the world, Eva lives in pampered but closely surveilled confinement. And while each day she longs for escape, each day she is made to play The Game, a curious virtual environment that seems more designed to monitor and test than to entertain. Outside the arcology, Squirrel is a memory thief, eking out a fraught existence in service to the criminal gangs that trade in illicit gene hacks, blackmarket tech and purloined secrets. But skills that Squirrel should not possess uncover a secret she doesn’t understand, attracting the attentions of those she’d rather avoid, and she is forced into a game of her own, where the stakes are nothing less than her own survival. And as she fights to outwit the shadowy forces vying for control of her embattled world, her only path out leads to the arcology itself, at the dark heart of which sit answers that will upend all their lives.
Are you publishing a book, comic, or story/poetry collection on Substack that you’d like to add to The Library? Send it our way!
Buy Indie
Nonfiction
Depression; Sucks - How to turn the Depression Demon into a Creature of F#@king Beauty | Fiona Tate | Health and Wellbeing (B)
Depression; Sucks is about how to create a fulfilling life with depression rather than chasing an elusive and unrealistic recovery. It includes worksheets, personal stories, celebrity inspiration and general advice on many ways to manage Depression. It should be used in conjunction with other successful treatments.
Short Fiction Collection
The First 100 (A Collection of One Hundred Word Stories) | Erica L. Drayton | Short Stories (S)
On May 1, 2023, I challenged myself to write a 100-word story every single day. This collection brings together the first hundred of those stories.
Nothing Sacred: Outspoken Voices in Contemporary Fiction | Bernard Schweizer & James Morrow | Literary (S)
Exploring uncharted literary territory, Nothing Sacred: Outspoken Voices in Contemporary Fiction offers the reading public a compilation of spellbinding stories on topics as diverse as crumbling male privilege, moonshine whiskey brewing, language policing, immigrant experience, sexual transgression, and plain heresy. The book features Lukas Tallent, Michael Robert Liska, T.N. Eyer, Alex Perez, Lou Perez, Jonathan Stone, Tia Ja’nae, Mikra Namani, Miguel Syjuco, James Morrow, Joshua Wilson, and Steven Fromm.
Can readers buy your indie book from your author's website or favorite online bookseller? Provide us a link and some details about your book, and we’ll help get the word out!
From the Archive
Featuring a different, randomly-selected book every week
Underland and the Forehidden Kingdom | Stephen A. Davis | Fantasy, Young Adult (N) (I) (F)
Underland and the Forehidden Kingdom is a serialised, young adult, fantasy novel about an overconfident bookworm who finds himself in a parallel world where words are weapons, ideologies form fortresses, and intelligence without integrity may just cost you everything. When his inner turmoil manifests outwardly, he must literally face his demons in order to find his way home. What you think . . . What you believe . . . How you feel . . . It all matters in Underland—it all has consequences.
Some great additions this week. I like the sound of that Flash Fiction Collection, where the stories are all 100 words. That's a very clever idea... 😎
Congratulations Bridget! Enjoy the rest of day.