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Beautiful: An Urban Fantasy
Hi. I'm Dan. I'm all snarky and stuff. I've always thought life was exactly what it appeared to be. Normal. Routine. Dull. Safe. I've worked to get by, paid my bills, and made sure the mortgage was (usually) in on time. That's how I've lived from day to day, enjoying the small wonders in life and being happy with what I had. Until one winter night when the universe pointed a finger at me and laughed at my stupidity. Without word or warning I found myself in the middle of a struggle older than human civilization between warring factions of vampires. At every turn I discovered new horizons, both horrific and lovely. A hidden world opened up in front of me, full of magic and mayhem, vampires, faeries, dragons, even unicorns. UNICORNS. I know, right? Uh, anyway...I've chronicled the struggle to save my friends, family, loved ones, and maybe even myself. It's a tale full of comedy and fear, adventure and sex. Like life itself, every moment has the potential to be beautiful.
196 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 19, 2011
4 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Guess
50 books364 followersJoshua Guess (who goes by Josh most of the time, but Joshua professionally because his mom insists) is originally from southern Illinois, but moved to central Kentucky at an early age.
Always a storyteller, his interest in creating began with art. He loved to draw and come up with stories about his pictures.
Then he discovered comic books and novels, and things...took a turn.
Devouring everything from superboy to Stephen King, Josh started to gain a greater interest in writing, making it a hobby during high school and achieving distinguished marks in his portfolio.
Then, life got in the way. College and the struggle to start a life of his own away from home took up most of his time. His love of telling stories took a back seat to the needs of daily life for many years, with the occasional foray into working on one project or another.
In late 2009, Josh buckled down and started work on an idea for a fantasy novel that had been stuck in his head since those halcyon days back in high school. Struggling to find a voice, Josh realized months later after many false starts that he needed to stretch his brain a little, strengthen his writing muscles. So he began another project that had been simmering in the back of his mind, a continuing serialized zombie story, told in the form of a daily blog.
Living With the Dead has given him a measure of success, but more important has imparted new skills at wordsmithing and the drive to complete. 'Bound to Silence', his debut novel, has been released and is available now, as are many collections and versions of Living With the Dead.
Once that tipping point was reached, there was no choice for him but to keep on writing. Much more of Josh's work will be released in the coming months.
I hate writing in the third person about myself. I live an average life and work a full time job. I have three cats, two dogs, two ferrets, and a wife that I'm so in love with it hurts. My goal is to some day have enough success to write full time, and to manage a level of long term financial security that I don't have to worry about money. It's my dream to make a good living doing what I love--telling stories. I hope you enjoy my work. That's why I do it.
Always a storyteller, his interest in creating began with art. He loved to draw and come up with stories about his pictures.
Then he discovered comic books and novels, and things...took a turn.
Devouring everything from superboy to Stephen King, Josh started to gain a greater interest in writing, making it a hobby during high school and achieving distinguished marks in his portfolio.
Then, life got in the way. College and the struggle to start a life of his own away from home took up most of his time. His love of telling stories took a back seat to the needs of daily life for many years, with the occasional foray into working on one project or another.
In late 2009, Josh buckled down and started work on an idea for a fantasy novel that had been stuck in his head since those halcyon days back in high school. Struggling to find a voice, Josh realized months later after many false starts that he needed to stretch his brain a little, strengthen his writing muscles. So he began another project that had been simmering in the back of his mind, a continuing serialized zombie story, told in the form of a daily blog.
Living With the Dead has given him a measure of success, but more important has imparted new skills at wordsmithing and the drive to complete. 'Bound to Silence', his debut novel, has been released and is available now, as are many collections and versions of Living With the Dead.
Once that tipping point was reached, there was no choice for him but to keep on writing. Much more of Josh's work will be released in the coming months.
I hate writing in the third person about myself. I live an average life and work a full time job. I have three cats, two dogs, two ferrets, and a wife that I'm so in love with it hurts. My goal is to some day have enough success to write full time, and to manage a level of long term financial security that I don't have to worry about money. It's my dream to make a good living doing what I love--telling stories. I hope you enjoy my work. That's why I do it.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 19, 2012
Dan leads a pretty normal life: he works in a nursing home, makes nice with his coworkers, and cherishes his wife, Anna. Dan and Anna have an open relationship; with Anna's permission, he persues Gabrielle, his sexy coworker.
As a result of their dalliance, Gabrielle feels protective towards him and his wife. The following day, during what was supposed to be a routine morning at work, a gunman tries to rob the nursing home. Dan enters into the scene and Gabrielle goes into a protective vampiric rage that ends in a cold-blooded killing which changes Dan's life forever.
From then on Dan must learn what he means to a society of vampires at war with one another and what, exactly, is his place in a community full of beings that could crush him with like a bug. He must understand who he is, become who he is supposed to be, and move into his destiny.
I purchased Beautiful: An Urban Legend on Amazon during it's free download period. I was a little bit skeptical- I've come across alot of junk lately- but I was pleasantly surprised. I was originally going to give this story three stars: it does alot of over-explaining of Dan's thought process- a technique which I found a little irritating as I had figured out most of the reasons why he took certain actions without his needing to explain it to me. There were also some typos and a few strange sentence structure issues as well.
But by the end of the book- I was smiling. Now, this is my own personal reaction to the story. Anyone else might find they enjoyed it less or more than I did. But I couldn't bring myself to give it three stars just based on grammar when I enjoyed it so much that I was smiling at the end.
Dan's character was likeable, his interactions with his wife were endearing, and although I was a little skeptical about the open relationship- it was tastefully done. His excursions into the paranormal world were believable, the climax to the story was satisfying and I'm actually looking forward to the next tale with Dan, Anna, and Gabrielle.
Go figure.
As a result of their dalliance, Gabrielle feels protective towards him and his wife. The following day, during what was supposed to be a routine morning at work, a gunman tries to rob the nursing home. Dan enters into the scene and Gabrielle goes into a protective vampiric rage that ends in a cold-blooded killing which changes Dan's life forever.
From then on Dan must learn what he means to a society of vampires at war with one another and what, exactly, is his place in a community full of beings that could crush him with like a bug. He must understand who he is, become who he is supposed to be, and move into his destiny.
I purchased Beautiful: An Urban Legend on Amazon during it's free download period. I was a little bit skeptical- I've come across alot of junk lately- but I was pleasantly surprised. I was originally going to give this story three stars: it does alot of over-explaining of Dan's thought process- a technique which I found a little irritating as I had figured out most of the reasons why he took certain actions without his needing to explain it to me. There were also some typos and a few strange sentence structure issues as well.
But by the end of the book- I was smiling. Now, this is my own personal reaction to the story. Anyone else might find they enjoyed it less or more than I did. But I couldn't bring myself to give it three stars just based on grammar when I enjoyed it so much that I was smiling at the end.
Dan's character was likeable, his interactions with his wife were endearing, and although I was a little skeptical about the open relationship- it was tastefully done. His excursions into the paranormal world were believable, the climax to the story was satisfying and I'm actually looking forward to the next tale with Dan, Anna, and Gabrielle.
Go figure.
January 16, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed Joshua Guess's paranormal book, he kept the action going at a cracking pace and I enjoyed the first person narrative from the man's point of view. Great writing, an interesting group of characters and the main character was both likeable and very believable. He wasn't a superhero, which made me like him all the more. This author is thoroughly recommended, and I'll be seeking out his other works soon.
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September 23, 2011Grabbed from a Goodreads ad
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews