In Praise of the Indies
In Praise of the Indies
Over the past few weeks I’ve made an effort to read more indie self-published books, every other book I read now is self-published at this point, and I have to say, some of them are better than the traditionally published books I’ve read as well. Indie authors are people who just want to get their stories out there and not have to deal with the politicking of traditional publishers, it’s a rather liberating field. I know for sure that The Novel Killer would never have a shot to be published traditionally and like many indies I took it upon myself to get it out there in the best way possible.
Over the past few weeks I’ve read books about National Treasure / Dan Brown levels of conspiracy and mystery, stories about crossing over to another world where humans never evolved, and trippy tales of people finding peace laying under a carpet (more on that book in a future edition once I finish reading it). Now that’s not to rag on traditional published books, it’s just that I’ve opened myself to a whole new world of books that I would have never been aware of if it wasn’t for delving into the world myself. I recommend you do the same, you never know what you’re going to get, and that’s a good thing.
Flash Fiction & Short Stories
Three new stories this week exploring ideas suburban sprawl, unlikely friendships, and immortality created from bureaucratic incompetence.
The Twenty-Niners
Who knew that bureaucratic incompetence could lead to a group of people destined to die on February 29th becoming immortal? Four hundred years later they’re wondering the same thing.
Vines
My mother’s favorite place was the nature sanctuary far past the reach of the urban sprawl. Once they took that away from her they took everything. Now, sprouting from her grave is an endless outgrowth of vines crushing the artificial world into nothing but gravel.
Abinmo & David
Sometimes life on Earth ain’t easy and all you hope for is an alien to abduct you and take you on a journey across the cosmos. Unfortunately life in space isn’t so exciting either.
Recommendations
What I've Read
The Cave to Another World by Tobias Malm
Some of you might know of Tobias Malm, I had not when I picked up this book. Malm is a well known contributor over on Reddit’s defacto subreddit for horror stories, /r/NoSleep to which he has made quite a name for himself there. Despite my love of horror I don’t really go to No Sleep so my run in with Malm was in the indie author subreddits. Anyways, The Cave to Another World is not horror, although you can see his horror roots with how he weaves an underlying sense of dread into this story, especially the first half. In The Cave to Another World we follow two characters as they find themselves in a world in which Homo sapiens went extinct back in the Stone Age and the Neanderthals rose up and filled in their niche. When two humans crossover they find themselves in one horrific situation after another while being experimented upon. If you’re looking for a tense book, then I recommend this one to you.
What I’ve Listened To
Societas x Tape by Boards of Canada
I’m nearly four years late to this party, but better late than never. Boards of Canada is one of my favorite musical acts of all time, I love their weird mysterious avant-garde yet nostalgic style of music, there’s really nothing else like them. Although not an album, Societas x Tape is a mixtape made by the duo for celebrating the thirty year anniversary of Warp Records, their label. The mixtape is a collection of old, weird, and obscure synth music. Definitely recommend for all my experimental music fans out there.
What I’ve Learned
“How this font became the face of Chinese food in America” by Linus Boman
This was an interesting look into the history of the Chop Suey font that became synonymous with Chinese-American food, definitely a good watch if you’re curious about the history of Chinese-American food and fonts, and how culture is slowly leaving behind those stereotypical fonts.
That's it!
Thank you for reading this edition of Dispatches from Quadrant Nine. See you in two weeks for another edition! For more, you can follow me on Substack, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit. I also have a small subreddit dedicated to discussing all my writing over at /r/QuadrantNine that you can subscribe to. There's also my writing website where I post writing updates and short stories, and my personal blog where I share my own musings occasionally.
See you in two weeks!