James Alexander's Blog

Check out the Q&A that my publisher hosted for me with the release of my latest story, “Lost in Transit“. I’m not a movie star yet, but I’m on my way.

Conduit: The Surge – 5/11/22

I can’t believe that the release date for my latest book in the Conduit series is so close now!

This book has been a marathon for me to produce. I first released Conduit: The Beginning in 2012. It was my first book and my baby that helped me to discover that writing is something I enjoyed doing and wanted to continue doing. Life got in the way for me and I had to shelve my project for awhile – but the idea didn’t die. I laid out my plans at the time and came back to my series in 2019 with a goal to push my project forward. Here we are, 2022, and my book is finally shipping out to the world.

Conduit: The Surge is a fast paced and fun walk on the dark side. I’m psyched to see one of my first reviews:

“This book was amazing. It had many plot twists and turns and kept me on the edge of my seat. I read it in one sitting and couldn’t put it down. The characters were interesting and well fleshed out and he made you care about them. They were very intriguing. The plot was unique and original and I haven’t read a book like this before. It was well written and I totally recommend it if you want an exciting read that will keep you turning the pages. ” – Amazon Reader

This truly encapsulates what I was aiming for. I am so happy to find others gain enjoyment from the time and effort I put into this story. It was a fun story to write and the series will continue.

As celebration of my release of this story, I am discounting Conduit: The Beginning on 5/11 to .99.

I’m also psyched to say that my discount of Conduit: The Beginning will be featured in my first Bookbub promotion on 5/11.

 

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REVIEW

Scorched Flesh (Vine of the Earth Book 1)

By Ian Woodward

 

I received this book as a promotion by the author. It was a fun and fast paced read that I thoroughly enjoyed. The author provided a new take on an alien invasion that was believable and ominous to envision. While there were some mechanics that could have been cleaned a little further, it was not distracting to the story and I found myself wondering what turns the story would take me through. I loved the use of human beings to further the alien cause. All in all, a great read that I would recommend. 4 out of 5 stars from me!

 

 

Buy

 

 

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REVIEW

Horrors of the Night

By Ian Woodward

 

I received this book as a promotion by the author. It was an enjoyable and quick read. I found some of the mechanics of the writing to need some improvement and some of the story line in each of the three stories that are included to be a little simplistic. I think with some minor adjustments and more showing vs. telling, this could be a really good set of stories. If you can work past the points I listed previous, I would recommend this as a fun read.

 

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From the Desk of James Alexander – Issue 14

 

As summer continues, all I can think about is how fast it is flying by. Soon I’ll be ramping up for fall and all the fun that comes along with getting the kids ready for their school to begin.

For this issue, here is another set of scifi, mystery, or suspense books. These are all free and a great way to find another favorite author: Free Books. I have one picked for review which I’ll include in my next issue.

Amazon Vella is now live and I have posted my first ten chapters of the next book in the Conduit series (The Surge) which is available to read today: Conduit: The Surge.

This is an action packed story and picks right up from where the first book left off. The first three chapters are free.

READ NOW

New Facebook Group

For those that love to talk about sci-fi books or fantasy of the darker nature, I have established a new group. Please stop by and join the group: dark science fiction and fantasy .

Conduit Update

Conduit: The Beginning
Available now on Amazon in both ebook and print!

Conduit: The Surge (Book 2)
Available now on Vella! Ten chapters are available for reading: Conduit: The Surge.

The Choice

The Choice : Available in all formats on Amazon, and now many other retailers including Barnes & Noble.

Future Work

New Young Adult Series: Planning.

Beautiful People Revisions: In Queue.

Conduit: The Surge

While the second book in the Conduit series is available now on Kindle Vella in serial format, a full book version is planned for May, 2022 and is available for pre-order today!

Purchase

 

 

 

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From the Desk of James Alexander – Issue 13

I hope you are enjoying the summer weather. In Maine, it has been a great spring and early summer. Hopefully the weather continues to behave. As the saying goes about Maine: if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. Unfortunately, the opposite is true as well.

I continue to collaborate with other authors and have brought to you a curated list of fun fantasy and sci-fi reads: Fantasy and SciFi Bargains. I admittedly have been slacking on reviewing books. I will be picking one out of this list to review for my next issue.

 

Thank you! .

Check out the books

Conduit: The Surge

Over the past month I’ve been working hard on my upcoming release of Conduit: The Surge on Amazon Vella. This will be a new venture for me and I hope you will follow me as I post my book in serial form.

I also updated my website design. It had become a bit clunky of the years and was in need of a facelift. Check it out here and let me know what you think.

New Facebook Group

Lastly, I am trying to get a new Facebook group off the ground for dark science fiction and fantasy. I found that there are a lot of standard fantasy and sci-fi groups, but nothing related to darker stories in the genres. This group is dedicated to connecting authors and readers to discuss books and anything related to writing. I hope for it to be a fun place to connect and share great reads.

Conduit: The Beginning

Available now on Amazon in both ebook and print!

The Choice

Available in all formats on Amazon. Soon to add availability in stores outside of Amazon including Barnes & Noble.

Future Plans

New Young Adult Series: Planning.

Beautiful People Revisions: In Queue.

Sign up to my Mailing List

Sign up

 

 

 

 

I have established a new group on Facebook for readers and authors who enjoy reading and/or writing dark Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

This group is dedicated to discuss great books and for connecting authors and readers. I hope this to be a fun and engaging group with little promotion. There’s nothing worse than a bunch of spammy ads which I will work to keep limited.

Let’s connect and start some fun discussions about books we love that are on the darker side!

Please sign up here: Dark Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

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“James Alexander does an excellent job of depicting Marc’s changing life, his uncertain progression through childhood into an adulthood that itself suffers a sea change, and the motivations and psychology of characters around him, who also evolve in different directions as they age.

Tension is well done and the story’s unexpected progression places it above and beyond most (too-predictable) alien invasion scenarios.

The result is a sci-fi read covering the ends of some worlds and the beginnings of others. Conduit: The Beginning‘s ability to draw readers with a fine anti-hero flawed by his own mystery and uncertainties, yet able to step up to an unbelievable role, creates a read that’s hard to put down.” – D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

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The post Review of Conduit: The Beginning from Midwest Book Review first appeared on James Alexander.

Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Thomas Zman’s “From Whence They Came”, a second installment of a series, is a new take on the alien sci/fi topic. Aliens have lived with us since the beginning of time, deep underground. Lieutenant Steve Coleman, an air force pilot, is abducted and enslaved to learn the ways of the Neuphobes, an advanced alien race.

I was excited to read this book as I love a good alien story. The book started well and I was engaged at the start. As I read further, the author turned the story into more of a philosophical route which the main character battles internal demons and realizes his life of sin. He ultimately turns away from searching for an escape to reconnect with his family to instead form a new family in the alien created world under the surface of the ocean.

I can see the draw this book may have for those with aliens and their connections to God. I, myself, prefer the good old aliens come and demolish everyone or we kick their behinds back to their own planet kind of story – this wasn’t it.

Writing was good and for those that want a very philosophical and religious focus, this is the story for them.

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The post Review: From Whence They Came first appeared on James Alexander.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy at Amazon

$5.99

 

Margret A. Treiber’s Sleepy Time for Captain Eris was an interesting take on superheroes. Set in the future, Captain Eris is the result of genetic modification. Her power is the ability to come back from death and in part of doing so, inherits different abilities to protect her from what killed her in the first place.

Unlike traditional super hero stories, Sleepy Time for Captain Eris is no campy story. There is a good amount of blood, gore, and violence. While others may be offended by this, I think there are necessary components to help tell the story and move it forward. I appreciate the author not detracting from the story she wants to tell for fear of bothering others appetites for watered down material.

Set as first person, much of the story is filled with sassy dialogue and the characters picking on each other. While I found the interactions fun, at times I felt like I wanted more detail in the story. There seems to be a fine line of too much detail or too little. In this story’s case, I felt it bordered on the too little detail category.

All in all, I think this was a fun read and I hope the author continues delving into Captain Eris’ adventures!

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