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A Veritable Smorgasbord(Kilmeny Giveaway at the end)
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Well hello peoples and friends. Tis I, Gil. That tired and mythical beast from days past who tarried far too long between this article and his last. I hope this is a treat for you... Despite said wait time I dragged yourselves through. Why a Smorgasbord you may ask? WELL. Today I have half a dozen things to speak to you about and... little time to do so... So without further ado... the first order of Business.(And yes, you should expect a giveaway to break my stream of thought) I WAS INVITED TO BE APART OF THE STREET TEAM FOR ONE OF THE BEST AUTHORS OF THE MODERN AGE. If you asked Gil at least. Heh. Brigitte Cromey. Yes, the final book in the aftermath trilogy is finally hitting the press. The books you guys have heard me comparing to things and screaming about for months on end and all the day long, namely-The Shattered Ones and In The Unbreaking-Is finally being released... *BREATH-SCREAMING* AND THE NEW BOOK HAS A GORGEOUS TITLE. HEARTS INVINCIBLE And finally... Today is our cover reveal and... All that. I adore the story and you all can expect a Goodreads review and perhaps an article in the not-so-distant future on said book. For all you poor unfortunates who lack Goodreads. And-well, cause I have a lot of thoughts. As a Gil does. *shameless grinning* *** Simply cause I have not the time, I must continue on. The Second thing of importance Gil must share with you all. Was the result of my Genesis Contest experiece! As some of you remember due to me pointing it out time and time again, and others of you are clueless to because I am just the singing monkey on the side of the road... I am a semifinalist for the Genesis contest as of 2026! I was shocked and awed and felt completely unworthy and... yeah. I still feel that way-\ And spoiler alert! I did not move on from Semi-finalist status. As I suspected. But just getting to there fills me with hope and excitement for future years and projects. And now, Im just waiting for the judges feedback from my last rounds. At this point I feel fully justified in the achievement, I am more than excited to get some meaningful feedback on my story and to make improvements accordingly. And now, I shall give thee the title reveal for what hath vanquished this Semi-Finalist status... And for all of you judging my graphic designing skills. Your critiques are warranted, desired, welcome and I could really use some isntruction and/or help on making a few of these. There was someone I knew a while back who made me some gorgeous picture boards that I still can't get over... but I lost track of said person. I believe I need new graphic designer friends.... *Sighs* Anyways. This story was a huge concern for me and had me terrified with myself for a while cause... Well. Eileen is a 16 year old slave... To a disgusting 40 year old war-lord and you can probably guess whats happening there. Ultimately she gets freed and of course, like any good human, I portrayed that in a negative light... but still. Sometimes I terrify myself with the weight and breadth of the concepts and themes and situations I try to tackle. The Authors making their characters as miserable as possible is no joke... Gil just took that as less of a joke and more as a reality. I put my characters through the wringer in every way. Theyre battered, theyre broken, theyre shattered... but... they always get back up and survive and... live. And... thats something I wish more books had to say. Really what defines my taste in books. What made me adore The Shattered Ones, Fates Defiant, Calculated.... all those things. They went through the furnace and came out pure... Like Red would say, "True Gold does not fear the fire." *Sighs* Anyways. The absolute relief when I was told this story dealt well with its emotions and situations... And more-so that God saw fit to honor it.... in whatever small measure said award(semi-award XD) provides. *** Thing three. GIL HAS BEEN ARC READING RECENTLY! AND READING A SERIES THAT... WELL... ITS RATHER SAD YOU FOLKS CANT HAVE IT. But.... Lets do Arc read #2 for today. Ill have to run another article on the whole thing once I read Memento and The Expended.... But Gil Arc Read "Cognito: Zapata's Memoirs" By Gabrielle Marie Kozak. A fellow substackian and Christian Dystopian writer. https://substack.com/@gabriellemariekozak As many of you may know, Gil has been on a dystopian high(stay tuned cause Im about to kick into my dystopian list big time if I can go to the library thursday), and Gabrielle exposed herself to my scruples when I posted an article of irritations and critiques on Substack about the Dystopian genre. This was a major tirade focusing on things like Divergent, Animal Farm, The Shattered Ones, The Giver, among others. And she told me she would be a solid addition to my dystopian to-read list. Now about six months later I am here participating in my own small way to the launch and release of Cognito. And I want to say. The book was solid and is spared my major critiques of the Dystopian trash stories that we are presented with in todays market. I have some stylistic critiques of course, but that is to be expected of everyone except Dumas and Tolstoy... and even they could stand a roughing up on occasion. Anyways. Today, Cognito releases... and I am here to share the link and ask that you check it out! I enjoyed it all the way through and for those of you following this group who are Catholic, as is Gabrielle and that may assist your appreciation of her work. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GL4L3V4F?lv=shuf&bestFormat=true&channelId=704&plpRedirect=mhFallback Theres the link. Please please please check it out and sometime this week my official reveiw will go out on Goodreads and possibly here... though Ive committed to a lot of book reviews for just one article... I may need to do a series.... Maybe when I get my other newsletter more functional I can write a hall of fame series... eh... Im getting distracted. Sorry. Heh. ONWARDS AND YONWARDS! *** The last order of business is my giveaway. KILMENY OF THE ORCHARD. I adored this book with my entire soul when I read it. Twas my first taste of L. M. Montgomery and has been on my mind and on my shelf since I read it... I even went so far as to commission a pretty new cover for it... Just for my republishing enterprise and also for my shelf. And uhh... well. The republishing enterprise is waiting for further funds to expand... ISBNS ARE EXPENSIVE. But I still have a few books, this being the best of the bunch as far as graphic design goes... And I want to give y'all a copy and offer, that if anyone would like one, that I am selling them now... Just email me at conspiracygeekmga@gmail.com and Ill get you set up with a copy(physical or ebook. I have hardcovers too) Anyhow. Before you go pay me for a copy... Try winning one. https://kingsumo.com/g/3zjore1/kilmeny-of-the-orchard-giveaway Its a softcover, its gorgeous and its waiting to be put on your shelf. Id love for you to have it. Thank you for reading Thank you for sticking around and being here through all my caffeinated and decaf tirades about and against literature... Y'all mean a lot to me. So for the time being... Farewell... And for you substackians, as this is getting copy-pasted in my usual time-crunch fashion... I apologize for any and all things mentioned that you were unaware of due to not being on the Collective. XD. SO LONG, FAREWELL, AUF WEIDERSHIEN GOODBYEEE!(I PROLLY SPELLED THAT WRONG) |
AUTHORS COLLECTIVE
Anyone looking for good clean reads from various genres, or looking to support young authors will enjoy this platform! Be sure to share with your friends and family to help support the authors you love! Subscribe to access out posts and receive our emails!
Megan smiled as she pinned up her latest snippet onto the board, unraveling the thin but lengthy paper to make sure the full text could be seen. It almost looked like a receipt, a receipt of torture! Megan laughed to herself with a scoffing breath and pulled a chair from the meeting table to the side of the board. She wasn’t just going to wait around for people to barge into her office, she wanted to see their faces! Faces get very twisty and distorted when they’re showing shock, or horror,...
“Nicole! Hurry!” Giana hissed, gesturing for the author to scurry into her office. Nicole glanced over. That wasn’t a good sign. Her eyes flicked down and up the halls. No Megan or Gil in sight— “Now!” Giana urged. Okay, no Megan or Gil that she could see. She rushed into the office and Giana shut the door behind her, locked it, and then Kylie shoved a chair under the handle. Kaitlin and Lorelai let out a breath from where they sat in what seemed to be a broken up circle in the back corner of...
Nicole squinted, biting at the inside of her lips as she aligned the stick-on laminate over the bookmark-in-the-making. The drawing that was a translated version of one of the Collective’s book covers already sketched, colored, and shaded. She was not going to mess up now. She did not have time or the want to have to do this whole thing over. Art couldn’t be replicated perfectly in any volume or amount. She’d never be able to draw it the exact same way again! She took in a breath and pinned...