SPR | Self-Publishing Review

Raptor Ray by Brent Reilly

Raptor Ray by Brent Reilly is an eccentric show of imagination. It opens on the strange birth of Ray, the poor scaly dino-kid doomed to ridicule, and it gets stranger and stranger from there on out, telling a story that blends together a huge number of sci-fi tropes (time travel, space travel, dinosaurs, cataclysms, the list goes on), as well as non-fictional elements, for a completely inventive read.

The book is rich in information, with facts from the real world and the author’s imaginative fictional world giving the atmosphere of the novel a wholly unique texture. This strange pastiche of […]

SPR2018-04-30T11:01:14+02:00March 15th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

An Interview with Mario Kfoury: Author of Coffee Shop University

Mario Kfoury is a private investor with credentials in martial arts, physical education, real estate, aviation and Technical Analysis. Self-taught in the streets of Beirut, Brussels, London, LA and New York, he synthesizes his views on life through different disciplinary and cultural prisms in favor of a peaceful/secular agnostic Deism. The story he shares appeals for democratic-socialism founded on sensible educational and healthcare systems, rigorous tax regulations; and cautions against the perils of religious beliefs, demography, and the reckless attitude towards the planet and its ecology.

Tell us about your book.

Coffee Shop University is mainly a book about cross-cultural […]

SPR2018-02-06T06:40:51+02:00January 28th, 2018|Categories: Interviews|

An Interview with Nathaniel Schmeling: Author of Timing the Infinite

I am a graduate from Illinois Wesleyan, where I majored in Creative Writing and Computer Science, who now works as a software engineer, not merely because it affords me the freedom to spend my nights writing.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

After hearing back promising no’s from agents, I became sick of playing the submit and wait game. I also figured that even if I were to go through the process of someone else handling the publishing, the marketing would still fall on my shoulders. (And that’s really the hard part anyways). There is, too, a sort of pride […]

SPR2018-01-23T12:22:44+02:00January 23rd, 2018|Categories: Interviews|

An Interview with RD Meyer: Author of Salvation Day

RD Meyer is a military officer stationed in Kansas, and he has two published novels – Akeldama and Salvation Day. He lives with his wife, two daughters, a dog, and some chickens on a country farm, where he continues to write and enjoy life.

Tell us about your book.

Salvation Day is about one person’s journey through grief and questions about why life can sometimes be so cruel. The main character, Mike Faulkner, lost his baby girl to a childhood illness, and his wife, consumed by grief, committed suicide. Because she chose to kill herself, her soul was sent […]

SPR2018-01-16T08:03:18+02:00January 16th, 2018|Categories: Interviews|

Lower World by Eloise Harmann

For fans of science-fiction fantasy, author Eloise Harmann delivers a list of classic touches that include a hugely diverse cast of characters, quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson, and a weighty page-count, in this unusual underwater saga.

In Lower World, author Harmann writes a corporate tech-political murder-mystery that sees an underwater community, the tetrapeds, threatened by a landlubbing world. Teeming with information on marine life and geological features of the ocean’s floor, the premise explains that the Great Unexplored is not Deep Space at all, but the oceans of our own planet, offering a highly inventive world that skirts the […]

SPR2018-01-12T08:24:35+02:00January 12th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Mr. Wonderful by Daniel Blake Smith

Mr. Wonderful by Daniel Blake Smith delves into the life of an academic, juggling family and his teaching career. Concerned about his aging father who is dealing with medical issues, Brian is faced with an adopted adult son who just can’t seem to find his way in life and inevitably ends up returning home while on the run from a dangerous situation. The sudden arrival of his son adds to the upheaval and adds further strain to what seems like an already threadbare marriage.

Between the phone calls from his younger brother about their father, the wishes of his father’s […]

SPR2019-01-11T14:51:54+02:00January 10th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Contemporary Fiction Book Reviews, Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: It’s All Coming Back: On Love After the War by Jon Kahn

★★★★

When Anne-Marie and Helmut marry in London just a year after World War II, they are young, in love, and glad to be finally free of the deep tragedy Hitler had brought to Europe. Swedish Anne-Marie is sweet, educated, and emancipated, but Helmut is from Germany, and Jewish. He has lived through many terrible family losses, and there are many divides in their knowledge of world events recently passed.

Through their love, they must now get to know each other, and heal the rifts in understanding between their families, both culturally and emotionally. The awful truth is almost to […]

SPR2018-02-16T10:10:26+02:00January 9th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Historical Fiction Book Reviews, World War II Book Reviews|

An Interview with Tom Durwood: Author of The Colonials

Tom Durwood is a teacher, writer and editor with an interest in history. Tom most recently taught English Composition and Empire and Literature at Valley Forge Military College, where he won the Teacher of the Year Award five times. Tom has taught Public Speaking and Basic Communications as guest lecturer for the Naval Special Warfare Development Group at the Dam’s Neck Annex of the Naval War College.