ANDREW BISS

Well, here we are, almost two weeks into the New Year, and I'm finally making my first blog entry of 2013. And I'm happy to report that the year's started with some very positive news. Firstly, the alarmingly talented narrator Wayne Farrell and I recently received a terrific review of the audiobook edition of my BrokenWorld short story collection. It was so good to see Wayne getting the kudos he deserves for his work, as he really is that good. And, of course, it was lovely to see that someone enjoyed and "got" those stories as much as the reviewer seemed to. All in all a very gratifying response to our efforts, and I'm very grateful to the Narrator Reviews blog site.  I was also thrilled to find the cover for The End of theWorld has been nominated on a Pinterest page for Awesome Self-published Book Covers . The page was set up as an antidote to a very mean-spirited blog site that was ridiculing what it considered to be the worst self-publi...

The Joneses. Yes, the third and final story in my "Broken World" trilogy will soon be completed, so in the meantime here's a peek at the book cover. Think of the tree as representing the tree of life...but in a broken world. This one is all about the travails of parenting. The Joneses, you see, didn't have much of a clue about just what they were taking on in their rush to "adopt" Ali and Omar. And mistakes, as we all know, almost always have to be paid for. More to come...

It may not be the most romantic gift for an anniversary - although The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills would probably disagree - but that's what I've given The End of the World . Yes, it's been almost a year (on Monday, to be exact) since it was published, and I decided to celebrate it by giving it a makeover. That book's cover has never been a simple thing for me. When I first started out I really didn't have any idea what I was doing. Then I learned the rules of what you were "supposed" to do. Then I threw out the rules and did what I wanted to do, which is what you see here. The difficulty in trying to find the right cover for the book is as difficult as trying to categorize it. I generally list it as a contemporary fantasy, which, by strict definition of the genre, it essentially is. However, most books in that genre are nothing like The End of the World. But trying to place it somewhere else is nigh impossible, as it simply doesn't fit anywhere ...

Ah...as soon as I wrote that title, I of course thought of the great Etta James and the terrible news this week of her now terminal condition. In the news reports this week, they naturally mentioned a couple of her most popular songs, but in the reports I read, at least, not the one I'd consider my favourite of hers - "I'd Rather Go Blind." If you're not familiar with it, I'd strongly encourage you to check it out. Is there a more gut-wrenching lyric than "I'd rather go blind than see you walk away from me"? And sadly today, we learned of the passing of Cesaria Evora. I got into her music back in the early 90s and it really sort of defined much of that time for me. Check out this song if you're not familiar with her. Such beautiful melancholy. Rest in peace, Cesaria, and thank you. But the "At Last" in the title of this post refers to the fact that at last I have a cover for my upcoming short story A Stunning Confession. It's be...

I realized I haven't blogged in a while, so I thought I'd give a quick update at this most wonderful (and busy) time of the year. I'm currently working feverishly at completing my next short story, A Stunning Confession , from my upcoming and as yet untitled short story anthology. This "untitled" business is currently the bane of my existence, as I'm very particular about titles and I can't seem to settle on one for this collection. It could be simple or it could be rather more thought out and crafted - it really doesn't matter as long as it feels right to me. But so far nothing has felt right. So I'll keep going back to that drawing board in my head until something clicks. Don't forget, the first tale from this anthology, A Familiar Face , is now available from an Amazon or Nook store near you. In the meantime, look out for the upcoming release of #2 of "Untitled" in the next few weeks, which fortunately does have a title - the afore...

This is the cover for my upcoming new short story release A Familiar Face . It’s the first in a collection of short stories based around ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. I’ll be releasing another stand alone story from the collection early next year, with the entire collection following a little later. Here’s a little about A Familiar Face : Two elderly women, old friends, meet up in a London café shortly after one them – Dora – has been widowed. As Dora's grief and anger grows increasingly vehement, her good friend Eydie begins to suspect there may be more to her angst than the loss of a loved one. When Dora calmly removes from her shopping bag a large glass jar containing a human head, discussions over its mysterious identity and how it came to be lodged in the cupboard under her stairs lead to some startling revelations. Nothing odd in that, right? Hopefully it’ll be out in the next couple of weeks or so. In the meantime…don’t touch that dial!

My mystery novelette The One-Eyed Guru is now live and on sale in Amazon's Kindle store in both the US and the UK (and Germany , should you happen to reside there), as well as Barnes & Noble's Nook Books . I'm hoping it does well and that people will enjoy reading it. It's around 30 printed pages (were it made from dead trees) so I think it could be a great quick summer read for the beach or relaxing in the garden. I'm doing a giveaway for it on LibraryThing , which is a great way to get a book out there, as well as test reader interest in what you're offering. My only concern is that the cover doesn't scare people off - I've been told it looks kind of creepy - which I guess it is. But I like the artwork and I think it certainly gets your attention, which is half the battle in marketing. And anyway, there is a creepy element to the story, so it's not out of place in that sense. Next up is my collection of first person short stories entitled The...