Thursday, June 19, 2014

Free fiction sampler takes reader to familiar, yet different territory

The New Voices in Fiction Sampler: Summer Selection
by Joshilyn Jackson, Hazel Gaynor, Mary McNear, Nadia Hashimi, Emmi Itäranta, CJ Hauser, Katherine Harbour, Rebecca Rotert, Holly Brown, M. P. Cooley, Carrie La Seur
9780062348791, 0062348795
$0.00
Electronic book text

This selection of new fiction has been compiled by a New York Times bestselling novelist, Joshilyn Jackson.

The book comes in the form of a free e-book sampler as a "curated volume" of excerpts from "new and upcoming titles by debut fiction authors you'll want to get familiar with early on”.

The book starts with an introduction from Jackson and ends with an excerpt from her latest novel, Someone Else's Love Story, on sale now.

A certain sameness exists in some of the stories but others look at the world from a different angle. The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor, for example, takes a look at a group of Irish passengers before they board The Titanic and the aftermath of their devastating experience.

Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta has the kind of mystical and lyrical elements a reader might expect of the Finnish writer. The twist here is that this coming of age story is wound around the futuristic impacts of climate change and global warming. 

A more cynical might be tempted to suggest a compilation such as this is a wonderful way to get free publicity for your new book.  If it is, it works, because Jackson’s excerpt is probably the best read in the book.

It is a good idea and has is plenty to tantalise readers looking for a new writer to get stuck into, if not in the summer at least the winter time.