(updated 7/28/23)
From the first moment that people did the strange thing of asking me to talk about their books on my blog, I’ve been impressed by the quality of a lot of what’s been published by authors going out on their own, taking all the risks, shouldering all the responsibility and doing all the work to get their words, their dreams, their blood, sweat, and tears. This should be celebrated—it’s definitely appreciated, as we’re trying to show this week.
In addition to the Q&As and Guest Posts I have this week, I’m also continuing my habit of highlighting the self-published works that I’ve blogged about over the last few years—just a sentence or two. Hopefully, this’ll be enough to make you click on the link to the full post. Beyond that, it’d be great if I inspired you to add a few of these to your TBR. Also, be sure you check out the other posts over at the SPAAW Hub.
Today we’re going to be looking at Self-Published Urban Fantasy. Magic-users of various stripes, creatures that’ll push your imagination, and more dragons than show up on my Self-Published Fantasy list, believe it or not. There’s a lot to dig into here.
Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron—A nice-guy dragon learns how to get by in a dragon-eat-dragon world with the help of a human mage on the lamb from the mob. (my post about it)
Justice Calling by Annie Bellet—a magic user on the run, living among a bunch of shape-shifters, is accused of killing some. She works to clear her name, save her friends, and stay off the radar of those hunting for her. (my post about it)
Hostile Takeover by Cristelle Comby—a P.I. who is the emissary of Hades’ daughter on Earth investigates some mysterious deaths. (my post about it)
Bad Little Girls Die Horrible Deaths and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy by Harry Connolly—a collection of short stories that I still think about. (my post about it)
Twenty Palaces by Harry Connolly—I loved this UF series, but sadly was one of the few who read it. After the publisher declined to keep going with it Connolly has published a prequel and a sequel—with more on the way.
Twenty Palaces—the prequel to the whole thing (my post about it)
The Twisted Path (my post about it)
The Iron Gate—catches up with our heroes and throws them into a life-changing situation (even for people in their…circumstances), a great way to resume the series. (my post about it)
Ella Grey Series by Jayne Faith. A minor demon hunter in a slightly-futuristic Boise finds herself tangling with some major powers.
Stone Cold Magic (my post about it)
Dark Harvest Magic (my post about it)
Demon Born Magic (my post about it)
Blood Storm Magic (my post about it)
Bloodlines by Peter Hartog—an Urban Fantasy/Science Fiction/Detective mashup in a world that looks not dissimilar from Scott’s Blade Runner, powered by magic, and that has pan-dimensional aliens walking around. (my post about it)
Pieces of Eight by Peter Hartog—the sequel to Bloodlines and continues to expand our understanding of this world while delivering a great story. I haven’t finished my post on this, so I can’t link to it. But you’re going to want to read this book.
Fred, The Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes. The misadventures of a vampire accountant and his increasingly diverse and lethal band of friends trying to make their way in the world.
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant (my post about it)
Undeath & Taxes (my post about it)
Bloody Acquisitions (my post about it)
The Fangs of Freelance (my post about it)
Deadly Assessments (my post about it)
Undeading Bells (my post about it)
Out of House and Home (my post about it)
Terra Chronicles by JC Jackson. Another SF/Urban Fantasy mix (I didn’t realize how many of these I read until I did this post) about the adventures of an Elven arcanist and her paladin partner working for a Law Enforcement agency.
Twisted Magics (my post about it)
Shattered Illusions (my post about it)
Twice Cursed (my post about it)
Conjured Defense (my post about it)
Mortgaged Mortality (my post about it)
Divine and Conquer (my post about it)
These next three series are hard to talk about, they’re sort of one series, sort of separate (actually, there are four threads, but I haven’t gotten to the last one yet)…
The Guild Codex: Demonized by Annette Marie. A woman with plenty of theoretical and no practical magical knowledge finds herself bound to a rare and very powerful demon.
Taming Demons for Beginners (my post about it)
Slaying Monsters for the Feeble (my post about it)
Hunting Fiends for the Ill-Equipped (my post about it)
The Guild Codex: Spellbound by Annette Marie. A bartender with an anger-management (and therefore staying employed) problem finds herself working for a Mage Guild.
Three Mages and a Margarita (my post about it)
Dark Arts and a Daiquiri (my post about it)
Two Witches and a Whiskey (my post about it)
Demon Magic and a Martini (my post about it)
The Alchemist and an Amaretto (my post about it)
Druid Vices and a Vodka (my post about it)
The Guild Codex: Warped by Annette Marie, Rob Jacobsen. A former two-bit criminal gets pulled into helping the MPD police magic users.
Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors (my post about it)
Hellbound Guilds & Other Misdirections (my post about it)
Pure of Heart by Danielle Parker—a sole werewolf and her family try to keep her secret under wraps and keep her wolf side from hurting anyone in this small Colorado town. (my post about it)
Ree Reyes series by Michael R. Underwood. Ree’s a barista and comic shop worker with ambitions of becoming a screenwriter. She inadvertently finds herself in a world of magic powered by Geekomancy “A style of magic where your love of pop culture becomes the source for amazing abilities – from bringing props to life to borrowing amazing skills from your favorite movies.” These were originally published by others, but Underwood has the rights back and is putting them out in new editions.
Geekomancy (This came out before the blog, so check out my Goodreads review)
Celebromancy (This came out before the blog, and I apparently didn’t write anything about it)
Attack the Geek (my post about it)
Hexomancy (my post about it)
Arcane Casebook series by Dan Willis—This series is set in the 1930s about a P.I. who practices rune magic. Think Depression-era Harry Dresden mixed with Al MacBharrais.
In Plain Sight (my post about it)
Ghost of a Chance (my post about it)
If you're a self-published author that I've featured on this blog and I didn't mention you in this post and should have. I'm sorry (unless you're this guy). Please drop me a line, and I'll fix this. I want to keep this regularly updated so I keep talking about Self-Published Authors.
The 2023 Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week Logo was made by Witty and Sarcastic Book Club
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