rough cuts

Season of the Serpent

Season of the Serpent
Title: Season of the Serpent
ASIN: B0080RDHVO
Published: December 1, 2012
Author:
The year is 1982. Paul Venturi is just an average, socially awkward college freshman hiding his extraterrestrial genesis in the closet, hoping to start a brand new life on campus. Unfortunately, his reemerging telepathy and the shadow of covert government surveillance make fitting in a daunting task. But when an enigmatic Serpent in the guise of a college stoner pressures him to smoke the forbidden weed, Paul is thrust into a mind-bending world of government cover-ups, Gnostic revelations, and dark conspiracies. Catapulted over the rainbow, Paul lands in the Astral realm of Yin'Dru where competing factions of immortals are locked in a bitter cosmic stalemate waging their own secret Cold War over the destiny of the human race. A reluctant Paul is cast in the starring role of Adam - a higher sentient human groomed to become their celebrity-messiah. However, a sinister faction sees him as the perfect pawn to steer the United States and Soviet Union toward a nuclear Apocalypse. Compelling and original, "Season of the Serpent" is a thought provoking, multi-layered mix of history, mythology, science fiction, and Synchronicity. (Book One of Two)

Assessed for 

Listed on the previous Awesome Indies Website in the “Rough Cuts” Category.

This was a special page for fiction in the rough and included uncut diamonds found during the assessment process. These books did not receive “Awesome Indies Approval”  but were considered to have a spark of brilliance, perhaps in their ideas, world-building, or some new approach. The issues that kept them from the “Approved” list are things that most readers would not notice as the good qualities overshadow any inadequacies. Awesome Indies stated: (quote) “Rough Cuts are here because the author cannot afford the cost of the line editor needed to tidy it up, and we don’t want genius to be missed because the author hasn’t a huge budget.”

The Pleasure of Memory

The Pleasure of Memory
Title: The Pleasure of Memory
ASIN: B00GG61IYO
Published: November 4, 2013
Author:
Beam is a smuggler, a murderer, and a rogue, who lives by the age-old rules of "Finders, keepers" and "To thy own self be true". Abandoned by his family and raised in a run-down priory by an old monk, he is consumed by his anger. He measures the worth of the world's citizens less by the character of their hearts than the gold he can pick from their pockets. However, when he receives a mysterious message from his long dead mother, his carefully constructed rules of priority and self-interest are changed forever. Wrapped within that message is an ancient map that leads him far south to the reservations of the Vaemyn, a race of savages forcefully sequestered from the world by the civilized Allied Nations. Once there, he searches through a burial ground the size of a small city where he finds an ancient artifact called the Blood Caeyl, a rare red crystal carved in the image of a sensuous eye that he believes will make him rich beyond his dreams. In his flight, he crosses paths with Chance Gnoman, a powerful Water Caeyl Mage. When Chance recognizes the Blood Caeyl, he explains the importance of the artifact in the war that is about to ensue. The artifact begins to change Beam, awakening the memories of a thousand lifetimes, and with those memories, the powers of a god.

Assessed for 

Listed on the previous Awesome Indies Website in the “Rough Cuts” Category.

This was a special page for fiction in the rough and included uncut diamonds found during the assessment process. These books did not receive “Awesome Indies Approval”  but were considered to have a spark of brilliance, perhaps in their ideas, world-building, or some new approach. The issues that kept them from the “Approved” list are things that most readers would not notice as the good qualities overshadow any inadequacies. Awesome Indies stated: (quote) “Rough Cuts are here because the author cannot afford the cost of the line editor needed to tidy it up, and we don’t want genius to be missed because the author hasn’t a huge budget.”