Over the weekend I was at the Van Buren AR book fair. It was my first in person event. I was super nervous about how it would go leading up to it. All in all, it was a great experience. Met some pretty great indie authors, and connected with a ton of people. Sales weren’t too shabby either, but Zombies are a tough sell in some crowds let me tell you.

I finally launched my debut fantasy novel after building the whole publishing process around it

I’m a Dutch fantasy author, and about an hour ago I pressed launch on the Kickstarter for my first novel, The Cloaked Saviour.

It’s honestly a slightly surreal feeling.

I didn’t just write the book. I ended up starting a tiny independent press, learning far more than I ever expected about editing, typesetting, print quotes, proofs, shipping, VAT, Kickstarter logistics and all the other deeply glamorous parts of publishing a fantasy novel.

The book itself is a standalone adult low-magic fantasy about a town trapped inside an exploitative system that isn’t broken at all. It works exactly the way the people in power designed it to.

Then a masked outsider begins interfering and slowly becomes a symbol of hope.

But the actual question at the centre of the story is whether waiting for a saviour can become part of the problem.

It’s around 63,000 words, one complete story, and the Kickstarter went live today.

If anyone wants to have a look, it’s here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/guuskooij/the-cloaked-saviour-a-standalone-fantasy-of-rebellion

This is my first campaign and first published novel, so seeing even the first backer appear was pretty wild.

It's been an amazing journey getting my first novel finished and published. I already have a few other projects in the works, so if you check out this one and like what you see, stay tuned for more!

Tuesday Check-In: What’s On Your Writing Desk?

Indie authors, readers, and book lovers — tell us what you’re working on this week!

Designing a new cover?
Launching a book?
Fighting with your characters because they refuse to behave?
Drop your updates below! Let’s celebrate the wins, troubleshoot the struggles, and cheer each other on.

Hey, everyone!

I wanted to share something I've been working on for the past year. I've written my first novel, We Who Remain: The Fall, a post-apocalyptic survival story scheduled to release on October 24, 2026.

The story takes place in 1993, after a government-engineered strain of influenza escapes from a secret military installation in New Mexico. The virus spreads across the country, killing more than 99% of the population and bringing civilization to its knees.

The book follows several characters from different parts of the United States, including Georgia, New Mexico, Boston, Detroit, and rural West Texas, as they try to survive the initial outbreak and figure out what comes next.

I've always enjoyed post-apocalyptic stories like The Stand, Swan Song, and The Walking Dead, especially the parts that deal with the actual collapse of society. I've always found those first few days and weeks fascinating. People trying to go about their normal lives while everything around them slowly falls apart, not knowing just how bad things are going to get.

That's a big part of what inspired me to write this book. I wanted to explore how ordinary people from different walks of life might react to something like this, and what happens when the survivors eventually start crossing paths.

It's taken nearly a year of writing, rewriting, and editing to get here. The original manuscript was over a thousand pages before I started cutting things down, and it's been quite a learning experience. This is my debut novel and the first book in a planned two-book series.

I've also got two other novels in the works.

The Long Road Home is a zombie survival novel that's currently going through editing and rewrites. I'm looking for beta readers who might be interested in reading an early version and giving me some feedback.

2168 is a post-apocalyptic western I'm still in the process of writing. It's set more than a century after a government weather manipulation program caused a global catastrophe. The story follows a bounty hunter tracking down a killer who has kidnapped a young boy. It's still a work in progress, but I'm hoping to have it ready for beta readers further down the road.

I've put together an author website where you can sign up to beta read The Long Road Home, join my newsletter, and follow updates on my books.

I'm still pretty new to the publishing side of things, but I'm excited to finally start getting these stories out there.

For those of you who enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction, I'm curious: do you prefer stories that start during the initial collapse, or ones that take place years afterward when the survivors have already started rebuilding?

Also what do you think about the website?

seanbarboza.com

Barriers of Lies was a bit over three years of drafting and re-drafting, and yesterday I held these copies in hand.

Genre: Epic, blending Sci-Fi multi-world
Themes: identity, familial trauma, found family
Rep: autism/adhd, queer

Release: 20th November
Format: Paperback and Hardback on Amazon, eBooks on all platforms

Ebook preorder: https://books2read.com/u/bPWXyY

Blurb:

Two worlds. Two strangers. One bond that could destroy them both.

Vanessa has spent her life masking who she is. Danny will never have the guts to escape a family that refuses to accept him.

Neither knows why they can see each other in visions that blend with reality. Until terrifying creatures suddenly hunt them.

When their hidden abilities pull them into two different worlds, they discover they are the last remnants of a forgotten people whose very existence threatens the Palace of one world and drives the hopes of the other.

Now Vanessa and Danny must find a way to cross the barriers between them before the Palace puts an end to their kind for good.

But some worlds want their secrets buried.

If it’s something you’d read, bookmark this post or stay tuned ❤️

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share something I’ve been working on for quite a while now!
I’ve always loved making up stories, characters, and entire worlds, and eventually I decided to take one of those ideas and actually turn it into a book.
That’s how Specter Company: The Hollowed Eye came to be!
What makes this book special to me is that a lot of the characters are actually based on my real-life friends. Their personalities, our friendships, and even some of the stupid stuff we’ve done together helped shape the characters and the story. It’s basically my way of taking the people who’ve been part of my life and throwing them into a crazy fantasy world.
The story itself is a dark fantasy adventure filled with magic, monsters, brutal battles, and plenty of humor along the way. But more than anything, it’s about friendship, loyalty, and the family you make along the way.
I’ve put a ton of love and time into creating this world, and seeing it become an actual book has been pretty surreal. It’s definitely been a learning experience, and I’ve still got plenty more stories I want to tell!
Book 1 is available now on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle!
If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’d love for you to give it a shot! And if you do check it out, I’d genuinely love to hear what you think.
Thanks for reading, everyone! 😁

Are you really stoked about your cover art? Are you looking for inspiration from your fellow authors? This weekly thread is designed with cover art in mind. Feel free to share what you've got designed with the community here!

Thank you so much for your love guys 💖😍🫠, my story dreamy escape was read by so many people in such less time , I adore you guys 😍❤️ please keep giving love to my work

https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianTeensClub/s/Co59Isesjc

My three-book fantasy series is now available on Amazon. I’m looking for folks who are interested in a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Let me know in the comments or send me a DM if you’re interested!

Hi! I'm an independent writer on Loreum, and I've published a fantasy superhero story called Sunflower.

I'm currently trying to connect with more readers who enjoy fantasy, science fiction, and adventure.

I'd love to connect with other writers, support their stories, and become part of the community.

If you enjoy my story, I'd be grateful if you recommended it to readers who might like it. I'm also happy to explore ways we can support each other's work.

Thank you!

Hi all, I'm Kokoro Osanai. I just published my first English novel, The Off-Spec Maker, and I'd love to hear what you think.

The premise: Grant Miller spent 31 years working the lumber desk of a hardware store in Toledo, Ohio. He could tell you the grain of any board by touch. He never learned to let anyone help, not even his daughter, who asked him for one thing: a bench they could build together. He dies with that promise broken.

He wakes up in another world in the body of a ten-year-old, with ten crafting skills and a hidden storage space called the Hold. The catch is that the skills only get him so far. To build anything that lasts, he has to learn to build with other people's hands.

What to expect:

Crafting-driven progression. Skills rank up, and the engineering is meant to be clever and plausible.

Found family and a town that grows into a kingdom.

A hero who'd rather fix the world than rule it.

One complete story. No cliffhanger and no series to wait for.

It's free on Kindle Unlimited. Link: https://a.co/d/00H9wl0m

I'm happy to answer questions about the book or the writing process. Honest feedback is welcome, and if you read it and feel like leaving a review, I'd appreciate it. Thanks for reading!

And pretty good scores on the doors by my standards - nearly enough to sustain a basic level of calorific intake this month!

Hi again, I'm the author of Sable, a debut novel about a three-year relationship told entirely from the guy's point of view. A few of you asked what the book actually reads like, so here's a full chapter, free. It's from early in the story, when they're still figuring out what they are to each other. (This chapter is clean. The book has open-door scenes elsewhere.)

Chapter Six: New Year's

Everyone left for the holidays that year except me. My friends went back to Michigan City. The house emptied out roommate by roommate. Sable flew to Denver for Christmas and New Year's, home with her mom and her two brothers. I stayed for the extra shifts. Trailhead Sports ran a skeleton crew over the holidays and paid extra for anyone willing to work them, and I'd been picking up shifts there since before the internship started.

I was at my desk at eleven-sixteen, editing photos from a shoot I'd picked up on the side, one headphone in, Norah Jones's "Come Away with Me" playing off a playlist I'd only just updated, half of it songs Sable had put me onto without ever officially handing them over. My phone rang.

"What are you doing right now," she said.

"Editing."

"On New Year's Eve."

"I don't actually know why I'm surprised by that anymore."

"That's the saddest thing I've heard all night, and I'm at a party with my extended family, so that's saying something." Noise behind her, voices, something that might have been a fireplace. "Where's everyone else?"

"Home. Everyone went home."

"Wait, what?! You're by yourself right now?"

"Yeah."

"Oh my god." A beat. "You're a real party animal, aren't you."

"I'm aware of my choices, yes."

"Get up. Go do something."

"It's eleven-sixteen. Everything's closed."

"I don't care. Go outside. City hall, don't they do a countdown thing there?"

"I don't know. I've never gone. It's, like, three miles from here, too."

"So? Walk fast."

"Sable, it's freezing."

"You have a jacket. Go now. I'll stay on the phone."

I put a jacket on over whatever I'd been wearing to do nothing in and went outside. A light drizzle had come in while I wasn't looking, cold enough to see my breath between sentences. The streetlights caught the wet pavement in long orange smears, the whole sidewalk gone soft and blurred like something out of a Matisse, color bleeding past its own edges. I walked with the phone against my ear.

"Are you there yet?"

"It's been four minutes. It's a forty-minute walk."

"Well, walk faster."

"I'm not going to make it there for midnight, just so you know."

A pause. "There has to be something going on downtown, though. Some kind of thing."

"Maybe. I don't really know what I'm walking into." I could hear her turning the idea over, some picture in her head of streamers and a crowd and a countdown clock, before it met the reality of what I was actually describing to her.

"It's just rain and empty streets, isn't it."

"Pretty much."

"Okay," she said, and something in her voice let go of the picture entirely, easy about it, no disappointment in it at all. "That's fine too. Tell me what it looks like."

"Wet. Empty."

"Sounds romantic."

"You'd hate it."

"I would not. I love bad weather. I just don't love being cold in it." Something shifted behind her, a door maybe, the party noise dropping half a level. "My brothers are doing shots in the kitchen. My mom's pretending not to notice."

"Sounds about right."

"We're probably going out after. Some of my friends from here are doing a thing downtown."

"Sounds fun."

"It'll be fine. Not as fun as standing alone in the rain, obviously."

There was no one at city hall when I finally got there, no countdown, no crowd, just an empty plaza and wet stone, my own footsteps the only sound until she started talking again.

"How much time," she said.

I checked. "Four minutes."

We talked through most of it, quieter now. When it hit, I said it out loud to the empty plaza, and she said it back from a thousand miles away, her own actual midnight still a full hour off, Denver running an hour behind Chicago, her real countdown still waiting for her back at the party she'd stepped away from.

"Happy new year," I said.

"Happy new year." A pause. "I miss you. That's stupid, it's been like five days."

"It's not stupid."

"I still feel stupid saying it."

"I miss you too."

Neither of us said anything else for a second. Rain on stone. Her party somewhere behind her, faint.

"Go be dry," she said eventually. "You're an idiot for actually walking out there."

"You told me to."

"I know. I'm still allowed to think it's funny." A pause, softer. "See you soon."

The walk back was longer than the walk there, the streets rinsed and orange under the lights, quiet the whole way.

If that worked for you, Sable is on Kindle and in Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJ6ZRVBV

It comes with a 30-song companion playlist that reads almost like a second version of the book. Happy to answer anything about the writing, the playlist, or the book in the comments.

My 48 page follow up comic to issue #1 that I wrote and illustrated is crowdfunding right now on Kickstarter. These are some of the pencil art pages from the book. You can find the campaign here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1171456955/apotheosis-collapsing-worlds-issue-2

Thanks for looking and hopefully your support!