I had a longer intro written for this series of posts, but it ended up too long. (If you’re curious, it makes up a couple of paragraphs in my Welcome to Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week post). Here’s the compressed version:
One of the things that’s impressed me over the years is seeing the way that Self-Published Authors all tend to support each other. They don’t come across as competitors, you’re colleagues—teammates, almost. Once again this year for SPAAW, I’m exploiting that.
As an expression of that, I’ve asked some authors to promote 1-3 self-published works by someone else—to just give me a quick elevator pitch for them to help get the word out. Several of them replied with those lists (a few have resisted the call for particular titles and have just talked about some other authors–which is close enough for me). Naturally, I’ve asked them all for a quick bit about one of their books/series, too—they should get some attention as well, don’t you think?
Shannon Knight couldn’t limit herself to an elevator pitch (there’s always one)–unless you want to think of this as a lumbering frieght-elevator pitch in a very tall-building. But hey…I can roll with that.
Other-Promotion:
The Seaglass Blade
by J.C. Snow
For fantasy lovers, I suggest J.C. Snow’s The Seaglass Blade, which uses a cultivation-style (xianxia) magical system in a setting reminiscent of the California coast.
Lush and lyrical, The Seaglass Blade tells a layered tale of love, family, and fighting for what you believe in.
The Seaglass Blade is somewhat of a departure from Snow’s previous duology, and, therefore, Snow fittingly wrote it as an entry book for new readers. There is a large cast of characters, and everyone has goals and backstories–some of those backstories are available in the prequels. The Seaglass Blade opens with an older woman, the First Master of the Crane Moon cultivation sect, preparing to meet her love, whom she has been living separately from for several years. We establish that the two women are not human and neither are their two adult children. In fact, none of these family members are the same type of fantasy entity, and the children are adopted. The Crane Moon sect is a school full of live-in students, and the other masters are also a couple (M/M). So, on one layer we have a love story dealing with all different types of love. On the romantic front, we have a long-established F/F couple with some relationship issues, but we also have the younger generation experiencing first love (M/M and F/F) and, a bit in the background, the other long-established couple (M/M). There’s also family responsibilities in all different directions and mentor-mentee relationships. A core theme is the concept of starting over represented by sea glass, which begins as one thing and becomes another. You can also see how the idea of being broken relates to this metaphor.
Aside from the emotional layers focused on interpersonal relationships, there is a great big adventure with attacking demons, demonic corruption, mysterious spells, and life-and-death consequences threatening our heroes at both the personal level and at a much more epic degree. Phoenixes, dragons, demons, and cultivational magic collide. The Seaglass Blade delivers many memorable characters to care for as they strive to reach their goals on personal and epic scales. After reading, you can carry this story in your heart as a reminder that we, too, are like seaglass.
Website ~ Facebook ~ Buy the book on Bookshop.org
A Bit of Other-Promotion on behalf of Shannon Knight
(okay, Knight didn’t want to do this part “There’s no need to advertise any of my books alongside it. I don’t want to water it down. Everything does not have to be about me. 🙂 You can drop a link to my website and call it good.” Which is awfully nice of her, but…)
Wish Givers
I haven’t read this one yet–which is odd, as it’s been at the top of my list longer than books by her that I have read. It’s a Fantasy title, summed up on her website as: “Wish Givers is an epic fantasy with a tropical island setting and themes of freedom, found family, and the pursuit of dreams.” This one looks good–as do all of her non-horror books (and probably those are good, too. But I’ll likely never know).
Website ~ Bluesky ~ Universal Book Link
Be sure to check out these books and show these Self-Published Authors some appreciation! They’re available at the links above or at the retailer of your choice!
Feel free to head over to my Bookshop.org page to see all the books I’m featuring this week (this may spoil some of the other lists, you’ve been warned). At least as many of them that Bookshop.org sells, anyway.
Visit the SPAAW 2026 Hub to see what other Self-Published Appreciation Posts are out there.
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The 2026 Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week Logo was made by Witty and Sarcastic Book Club
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