Continuing our month of romance and intrigue, It Starts with a Kiss by J.L. Peridot is out today!
We acquired this steamy, science fiction romance back in the summer of 2018. A year may seem like a long time for book production, but we used every day of it to create and market the final result. Now we’re launching it, and we need your help!
If you have a social media presence or blog, you can contact us for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
We appreciate your help more than we can possibly say. We’re a small business and we’re still growing-thanks to you! Every single act of support enables us to continue to bring wildly entertaining, thought-provoking titles to readers who will love them. Stories transform lives.
We have four books releasing in August, and all of them are exceptional in their own way. Check out the schedule below for more information!
August 2nd, 2019: After by John Prescott
Alex heard the reports on the nightly news. Threats of nuclear Armageddon were becoming ominously commonplace. Still, he never thought he’d live to see the day that the rhetoric became reality.
He thought wrong.
He and his father raced for the military cryofacility as descriptions poured in from England and the US of nuclear missile launches from both sides.
Alex’s father tried to reassure him that his mother would make it to safety. There was still time. Alex closed his eyes in his cryopod and said a silent prayer.
He awoke to blaring klaxons and flashing lights. The people in the pods beside him were dead. He was completely alone. Fifty-two years had passed.
Now Alex ventures into a world he does not know. He will try to find his father, who might yet live, and his mother, who surely couldn’t have survived, in the After.
Read more here, or find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound or through your local bookstore. Search with the book and author name or the ISBNS: eBook: 978-1-949645-66-8; Paperback: 978-1-949645-65-1; Hardcover: 978-1-949645-59-0
August 9th, 2019: Parting the Veil by B.K. Bass
American socialite Richard Jericho is a world-renowned treasure hunter.
British professor of archaeology Wilkins Chapman is his stoic compatriot.
Together, the two have uncovered antiquities from South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. On their most recent trip to the jungles of Peru, they discover something more than they expected.
As the fabric of reality comes apart, the two must journey across the globe chasing clues. As one answer leads to more questions, they begin to piece together a puzzle older than primal memory itself.
And the more they part the veil, the more of what lies beyond the veil spills into our reality.
Read more here, or find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound or through your local bookstore. Search with the book and author name or the ISBNs: eBook: 978-1-949645-40-8; Paperback: 978-1-949645-37-8.
August 13th, 2019: Loved Mars, Hated the Food by Willie Handler
Dix Jenner, a self-proclaimed slacker, is the first chef to live—and maybe die—on Mars. After an explosion kills his colony companions and leaves him with nothing but his spacesuit, his time on the faraway planet is about to expire… until he’s rescued by friendly Martians Bleeker and Seepa, who smuggle him into their vast underground civilization.
Despite an unfamiliar world of telepathy, strange class dynamics, and really bad food, Dix sets out to make his mark. After opening a cafe—who knew Martians loved espresso?—he starts to notice that responsibility can feel good. Not only that, but he’s got a new romance, and for the first time he actually cares.
Unfortunately, his success attracts the attention of the corrupt and narcissistic Martian Grand Leader. Forced to run to avoid being imprisoned, Dix gets lucky: a NASA rescue mission lands on Mars. But seeing it brings back the dark secret he’s been keeping from himself about the colony’s explosion, and now Dix must choose between returning to Earth or spending the rest of his life in a cell on the dusty red planet where he belongs.
Read more here, or find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound or through your local bookstore. Search with the book and author name or the ISBNS: eBook: 978-1-949645-48-4; Paperback: 978-1-949645-46-0; Hardcover: 978-1-949645-47-7.
August 23rd, 2019: Preservation Protocol by John Prescott
In the far future, robots and human-like Synthetics have become a part of everyday life for the citizens of New Wave City. Detective Max Kincaid’s okay with the robots, but the Synthetics? Not so much.
That becomes a problem after a meeting with Daryl Marston propels him into a murder conspiracy directly involving the artificial humans, something that should be impossible. Max soon finds himself working with the machines he despises to discover who wants Daryl dead. In the process, he learns Synthetics can be as unique as the humans they emulate.
Digging deeper, Max finds an ever-widening conspiracy that involves two warring factions of enhanced Synthetics and the company that created them. What he discovers brings into question whether he even truly knows who he has been working with.
Who is real, who is Synthetic, and who is the next target? Max finds himself in a race to sort it all out before Daryl, and possibly humanity runs out of time.
Read more here, or find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound or through your local bookstore. Search with the book and author name or the ISBNS: eBook: 978-1-949645-69-9; Paperback: 978-1-949645-68-2 ; Hardcover: 978-1-949645-67-5.
Help Us Spread the Word
There are several ways you can help us spread the word about these awesome authors and scintillating stories! If you have a moment, please add these books to your list(s) on Goodreads, share our posts on social media, pick up a copy as a gift, request that your local library and bookstore(s) carry them, and leave reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble!
What if we lived in a world where the government could assess your mental health, without any criminal activity or precursor, and commit you to a facility against your will? That’s the future Majanka Verstraete explores in Murder in Mind, led by a protagonist who’s been institutionalized after watching her parents murder. If you’re interested in science fiction, psychological thrillers, and/or dystopian futures, you may find yourself devouring this phenomenal story in one sitting.
You can purchase Murder in Mind directly from us, or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other online retailers. You can also request a copy at your local bookstore, you’ll just need the International Standard Book Number (ISBN). The hardcover ISBN is 978-1-949645-50-7 and the paperback ISBN is 978-1-949645-49-1.
You can support the author by adding the book to your list(s) on Goodreads, sharing it with your friends and family, and amplifying our posts on social media!
*Note, if you sign up for the Kyanite Collector’s Pass, you’ll get access to the eBook as well as all the eBooks we’ve published so far and every eBook we have yet to publish in your membership term. Read more about it here!
If you’d like to interact with the author, join us on Twitter on Monday, July 22nd for an interview about Murder in Mind and her other books!
Today also marks the publication of our last issue of the Kyanite Press Volume One! We can’t believe an entire year has passed, either. Thank you for supporting all our independent authors and small business by purchasing individual copies or the Volume Two subscription!
*Note, author Michael D. Nadeau will be at Barnes and Noble in Manchester, NH on July 12th from 5-7 PM signing copies! Support his efforts by attending or sharing the event with local friends and family! The address for the event is 1741 S Willow St, Manchester, NH 03103, and it’ll also feature a book drive for the Manchester Bookmobile, run by the Manchester library!
We now have a web page dedicated to our upcoming releases. You’ll be able to see what we have on the calendar for the rest of the year AND 2020 and 2021! We’ll be adding to the calendar as we finalize production schedules, so check it frequently for updates!
Our Book Club
As you may have read earlier this month, we have a book club starting up this month! July’s featured books are Citizen of Earth by Joseph Kassabian and River by Ryen Lesli! Both books are 30% off with the coupon code, which is hiding in the book club channel for each book inside our Discord server. The book club is a casual, interactive way to chat with other readers AND the authors about the books! We’re excited to be able to offer this.
As noted above, the Kyanite Collector’s Pass is on sale for $39/year through the 7th of July! The Collector’s pass grants you membership through the Kyanite Publishing website and access to EVERY eBook we’ve published so far, along with every eBook we’ll publish throughout your membership term. All our books come out as eBooks, so you can see what you’ll get and will be getting by browsing our shop and upcoming releases page. This is a great value and we hope it’ll connect our readers with even more of our authors and stories!
Volume 1, Issue 6 of the Kyanite Press is now available for pre order! CLICK HERE to be sure to get a copy from the first print run!
Returning to the feel of the first ever issue back in September of 2018; rather than having a single theme, we have assembled here a mixture of fantasy, science fiction, and weird tales. Everything from space travel to sword-wielding heroics can be found within these pages. One of the most wonderful outcomes of publishing the journal has been discovering a variety of stories with styles and themes we might have never otherwise dreamed of, and this issue showcases that.
The Kyanite Press is a journal of speculative fiction. Inside this homage to the pulp magazines of the last century you will find tales of science fiction, fantasy, and horror from some of the most imaginative authors in the genre. Every issue is packed with fiction and NO commercial advertising, just information about Kyanite Publishing books and authors! Explore amazing new worlds, travel to exotic realms, and delve inside the human mind in ways you will never see anywhere else!
This fall, we’re publishing three novels by author John Prescott. He’s a talented storyteller and all three are worth adding to your collection. We’ll kick off his trio with Afteron August 2nd.
And last but not least, we’ll publish Something Deeperon October 4th. (Cover to be revealed at 5:30PM CT on 5/17.)
Pre-orders will be open on all three novels starting this Friday, May 17th. We encourage you to order then, as we’ll be offering 20% off through the weekend with code FALLOFJP at checkout!
Thank you for supporting our mission to bring more entertaining and thought-provoking stories to readers!
We’re excited to offer a preview of the July/August issue of the Kyanite Press! This is our last issue in Volume 1 featuring stories across all sub-genres of science fiction and fantasy, just like the first issue (Sept/Oct 2018)!
Stay tuned for more details, including who will be contributing and who won the feature spot!
We are very excited to reveal the cover of What Once Was Home, the first full-length novel from our very own B.K. Bass!
When his world is torn apart, one man must learn to survive in What Once Was Home.
Jace Cox’s life is changed when an overwhelming alien force invades the Earth with no warning or provocation. In the years that follow, he must not only fight to survive; but also learn what it means to be a man and a leader. As the situation grows more dire, he realizes that his greatest challenge isn’t the alien invaders or even his fellow man; it is holding onto his own humanity despite living in a world gone mad.
What Once Was Home will be launching on October 25, 2019, and pre-orders are available now! Click HERE for more!
Genres: Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Alien Encounters, Military Science Fiction Length: Novel – Approx 300 pages Release Date: October 25, 2019
It’s been an amazing year at the Kyanite Press. We discovered fantastic stories, picked up traction with retailers, and made many new friends along the way. The journal far exceeded any expectations we had regarding the incredible fiction within it and the support we’ve received from the writing and reading communities.
This year has also been a learning experience. As we reflect on what worked and what didn’t, we’ve come up with some great ideas for how to make next year even more exciting! With Issue 6 wrapping up and ready to come out this July, it’s time to start work on Volume 2 of the journal. We have been working behind-the-scenes for the last few months coming up with a plan with several goals in mind:
Quality: We want to ensure that enough time is devoted to each issue to make sure that everything from the selection process through final editing and formatting is executed as near to perfection as possible. Value: They say that you “get what you pay for,” and we want to make sure we are living up to our end of that bargain. We want to pack each issue full of high-value content and ensure that the experience of reading the Kyanite Press is a premium experience. Sustainability: The journal was a project born of the love of the art form, but until we unearth the city of gold, we need to make sure we can pay for the production costs. Author Compensation: Nobody wants to work for free, and that includes authors. While we have always offered a cash prize for our featured story, we want to be able to compensate everybody who submits to us.
Those are all very important goals, and balancing those plus keeping the gears greased inside the machine has shaped up to be quite an endeavor! Volume 2 of the Kyanite Press is going to look a little different, and here’s the big things to note about the journal itself:
Quarterly Issues: This biggest change is that we are transitioning from a bi-monthly format to a quarterly format. There will now be an Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer issue. These will be released in November, February, May, and August. The first issue of Volume 2 will be in November 2019. Larger Issues: We are increasing the target page count from 80-110 pages to a whopping 200-250 pages! We are shooting for our average word counts per issue to be 225% of what they were in Volume 1. This means that even with two less issues, we will have around 150% of the total content in the regular run! Pricing Changes: As each issue will be larger, they will naturally cost more to produce. In the interest of balancing value with sustainability, we have set the price of the new issues at $24.85 in print and $14.85 for eBook versions. Savvy shoppers might note that these price increases are less than the content volume increase of each issue!
What does this mean for our authors? What do the goals of quality, value, sustainability, and – most importantly – author compensation, mean to you?
Submission and Production Cycles: One of the reasons for the transition to quarterly issues is to ensure ample time is provided for both our authors to submit to and for our staff to produce each issue. There will be a three-month submission window for each issue followed by a three-month production timeline. This is why the first issue is starting in November. Author Copies: We will provide for each contributor a complimentary PDF copy of any issue they contribute to. There will still be an opportunity to order up to five print copies at a discount of 60% off the cover price plus shipping and handling. Royalties: Yes, that’s right! All of the licensing agreements for contributions to the Kyanite Press starting in Volume 2 will include terms for royalties. Each issue will have a set royalty pool which is a percentage of our gross revenue, and this will be divided between the contributors with a pro-rata system based on the contributor’s word count percentage of the total issue’s word count. There will no longer be a feature story prize. Rather, everybody will get a fair share!
What about special issues and the annual anthology? We still hope to produce our Halloween Horror special this fall, and are batting around ideas for another Winter Digest in December. Both of these are on the discussion table at the moment, but their eventual fates are still to be determined. The annual anthology for Volume 1 is definitely being put together and hopefully will launch before the holiday season this year, and we plan to continue producing Kyanite Press Annual Anthologies every year!
New to the Kyanite Press? Wondering what all the fuss is about? Be sure to visit the Kyanite Press homepage!
Interested in submitting a story for the Kyanite Press? Have you been biting your nails to the nub just waiting for this announcement? Head over to our submissions page to find out the details of submitting for Volume 2, Issue 1 of the Kyanite Press!
