Indie urban fantasy - good stories, rough edges and all
/This week's featured author on the Goodreads PFDR forum is Canadian author Jennifer R. McDonald. She's an example of one of the many hardworking independent authors out there, not only writing as authors used to be expected to but dealing with cover design, editing, formatting and marketing of books all at the same time. McDonald does it all but writing a good yarn is still probably her stronger suit. The covers of her Vielwalker trilogy look like self-published covers. The reviews are enthusiastic for the meat of the stories, while conceding that the books could be more professionally presented.
The question here is what your priorities are as a reader. If what you primarily want is an endless supply of the good reading, then you can find that with independent authors, rough edges and all.
Here is a quote from a review by Heather Blair for Into the Veil, the first book in McDonald's trilogy featuring a teenage girl who possesses a rare and dangerous ability to walk betweent he worlds of the living and the dead: "I am getting hooked on indie books, and Into the Veil is a perfect example of why. The book starts out engaging, but just a little rough, a little awkward, mirroring the teenager it portrays... This book gets better and better as it moves along and the last third is guaranteed to keep your nose glued to your Kindle. Lyric is one of the absolutely best female characters I have ever read. She is strong and fragile, stubborn and full of heart. In other words, completely real and you will be completely absorbed in her story. Yes, there are grammatical errors scattered liberally through the book, but they are no more than a small irritation once the story gets going."
You can find Jennifer R. McDonald's books at the following links:
Into the Veil (Veilwalker Trilogy #1)
