Success In the Press: The Felserpent Chronicles by Katie Keridan

2023 National Indie Excellence Award Finalist in YA Fiction ★ 2022 Foreword INDIES Finalist in Young Adult Fiction ★ 2022 Best Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Young Adult ★ 2022 American Book Fest Best Book Awards YA Fiction Finalist ★ 2023 Reader Views Literary Awards Bronze Award Winner in Young Adult

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2023 National Indie Excellence Award Finalist in YA Fiction ★ 2022 Foreword INDIES Finalist in Young Adult Fiction ★ 2022 Best Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Young Adult ★ 2022 American Book Fest Best Book Awards YA Fiction Finalist ★ 2023 Reader Views Literary Awards Bronze Award Winner in Young Adult ★

““𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐛𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲,” 𝐈 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝. “𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐛𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫.””

From the Author:

Kyra Valorian is the most gifted Astral healer the golden-blooded realm of Aeles has seen in ages. When tragedy strikes, Kyra discovers a life-altering truth: she’s a Recovrancer, able to reach into the realm of the dead and bring back those who’ve died before their time. But recovrancy is outlawed, and desperate for answers, Kyra forms an unlikely alliance with Sebastian Sayre—a silver-blooded Pyromancer and feared Daeval assassin chasing a legendary sword lost to his people. As the two navigate forbidden magic, fractured history, and the dangerous tension between their realms, their fates begin to entwine in ways neither expected. What starts as a tactical partnership soon becomes something far more powerful.

This epic fantasy trilogy blends enemies-to-allies tension, slow-burn romance, magical warfare, and a sweeping sense of destiny across all three books. With high stakes and emotional payoff, it’s a perfect fit for readers who love a strong magical system and a romance that grows in the shadow of war.

Our Take:

This award-winning trilogy blends forbidden magic, richly imagined realms, and a high-stakes magical conflict that deepens with every book. The pacing balances action with atmosphere, offering immersive lore, vivid elemental magic, and a central mystery that gradually unravels across the series. With themes of legacy, power, and the cost of rewriting fate, it’s a satisfying read for fans of romantasy and fantasy politics alike—especially those looking for a completed series with strong payoff and a cohesive, sweeping arc.

From A Reader:

“Magical worlds, love that endures throughout time and space, dragons, spells, animal familiars, and the fate of worlds hanging in the balance. This is a truly delightful addition to the fantasy genre. I’m eager for this series to continue so I can find out what happens next.”

Bragging Rights:

★ 2023 National Indie Excellence Award Finalist in YA Fiction

★ 2022 Foreword INDIES Finalist in Young Adult Fiction

★ 2022 Best Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Young Adult

★ 2022 American Book Fest Best Book Awards YA Fiction Finalist

★ 2023 Reader Views Literary Awards Bronze Award Winner in Young Adult

Additionally, all three novels received excellent write-ups from Kirkus Reviews, and Blood Divided was selected to be featured in their July 2023 issue. Less than 25% of indie authors are featured! Here are some of our favorite quotes from each Kirkus review:

Reign Returned: “…excellently crafted…A fine questing adventure and a promising start to a series.”

Blood Divided: “…sharply etched characters, a chilling portrayal of social prejudice, and powerful, emotionally fraught prose.”

Realm United: “A fantasy novel full of romance, politics, and the quest for identity, sure to appeal to young adults.”

Get your copy today at the links below!

Amazon | Goodreads | Author Site

Success In the Press: Sunchaser by Shannon Lynn

#1 Amazon NEW RELEASE in Children's Dystopian Science Fiction

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Amazon TOP TEN BESTSELLER

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#1 Amazon NEW RELEASE in Children's Dystopian Science Fiction ☀ Amazon TOP TEN BESTSELLER ☀

Illustrated by Ruth Ann McCombs

From the author:
Tom Raynor spent every hour of every day wishing he was somewhere else—anywhere else that was outside the interplanetary city-ship that he had called home for all eleven years of his life. When Tom accidentally initiates the autopilot of a commissioned light sail ship, he finds himself careening through space toward a planet thought to be uninhabitable for generations. Once the runaway ship lands, Tom fumbles through misadventures and near-death experiences instigated mainly by his increasingly-becoming-a-problem curiosity and impatience.

Our take:
This energetic middle-grade sci-fi adventure launches readers into a richly imagined universe with a hero who’s equal parts impulsive and endearing. With classic space exploration vibes and a steady stream of near-misses, The Vesta Chronicles: Sunchaser strikes a smart balance between high-stakes survival and heartfelt growth. A great fit for young readers who love scrappy protagonists, crash landings, and stories that blend action with just the right touch of humor.

From a Reader:

“Absolutely awesome and adventurous sci-fi with a captivating storyline and interesting characters you just want to get to know! Excellently written book than is great entertainment for all ages; and a book that you won’t want to put down. Can’t recommend it enough and am already looking forward to the next installment!!”

(ALT REVIEW) “This book was perfect for my 8 and 11 year old boys! This was a great sci fi-dystopian series set between space and the Texas hill country. We were all drawn in from the beginning (…) My boys love dressing up as cowboys and astronauts so this book had them gearing up for both!”

Amazon | Goodreads | Author Site

Writing With AI: Editorial Sidekick or Genre-Mannequin? You Decide.

By Eliana Fulton

Introduction: A Bit of a Disclaimer

In the early days of fiddling around with ChatGPT, I once asked AI to rewrite a sample passage as if Amy Tan had written it. The result was a soulless amalgamation of metaphors she had used in previous works thrown together into mediocre mush. Although it was cool that the AI could make something with an aftertaste of such a fantastic writer, I would’ve rather reread “Fish Cheeks” or The Joy Luck Club. Only a human being can conjure up a world through art that is vivid and real enough to feel as though you are seeing it through their eyes. That is my disclaimer for why this post focuses on using AI as a tool for advancement and efficacy and not for large scale generation.

Last year I personally wrote a more extensive analysis of AI’s role in the publishing field at large, and YellowBird’s founder, Sara Kocek, provided a very insightful interview. One comment she made that really stuck with me was:

“What makes writing good is that it reminds us what it is to be human, and right now, AI can’t do that.”

Since then AI technology has advanced, and the broad conversation on how people in the publishing industry might use it has increased. While ChatGPT still can’t write with the emotion that a human being can, it gets a lot more convincing with every update. In fact, there is a social media trend of comparing the outrageous and easily spotted AI videos from a year ago to the scarily convincing deep fakes that are not circling the internet.

Don’t fret. AI is not going to replace creative minds any time soon because 1) AI can never be as inventive as real people who are influenced by their unique cultures and experiences and 2) there have been enough adverse reactions to the “uncanny valley” feel of AI to keep it from mainstream media.

In every evolving industry, successful people need to adapt to changes, and publishing is no different. By keeping an eye on the standard that larger publishing houses set for their editors and writers, those looking to publish in the future can stay ahead of the game. For example, Yellow Bird Editors do not submit unpublished works from clients into public AI chats to prevent risk of copyright infringement. Copyrighting literature from AI’s training programs is already a firm standard Penguin Random House has put forward.

Many people in creative fields are scared of AI, and while I would personally prefer that we aim to use human creativity, it’s becoming an important part of this field. If we ignore it disdainfully, it will overwhelm us in the near future, so we should learn how to manage it as a tool.

Things to consider before using AI

1. AI is using other people’s recycled ideas, so remember that you are already 100 times more creative than it is.

2. Every 20-50 queries you submit to a chatbot costs data centers about 500 ml of fresh water to cool down their server—so there is a significant environmental impact.

3. The information you are putting into this chat to ask a question can be used to train the large language model to answer other users' questions.

4. The large language model that trains accessible models like Chat GPT uses the entirety of the internet. This can lead to false information and/or unintentional biases (racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, etc.).

5. Most media literate readers can spot AI’s writing.

Writing is Hard. Grab Some Training Wheels!

Despite what some poets may say, writing doesn’t come naturally to most people. It is a skill that you have to develop through study and practice. English is full of inane idiosyncrasies, so think of AI as your free writing tutor— a grammar and craft know-it-all that is happy to correct you at any time. Additionally, AI can give you introductory advice on how to improve the quality of your writing.

The most obvious use for AI in writing is checking grammar and mechanics. I recommend using programs that are designed specifically for that because chatbots are not very good at taking and changing long blocks of text. They can give you general feedback but cannot replace an editor!

I’m sure most of us already know, love, and appreciate Grammarly, so now for the good stuff: How can AI help me while I’m writing?

When it comes to drafting, the best quality of AI is that it can do a lot of grunt work really quickly. For example, take a look at this sentence I wrote:

“Townes laid sleeping on my purple comforter as he cuddled my cardigan, his backside on top of my black pleather purse.”

Now, there’s a lot I don’t particularly like about this sentence, but I’m not sure how I want to change it. Instead, I’ll see if my good friend Copilot has any bright ideas.

I showed the AI the sentence that I wrote, but I didn’t make it very clear what I was unhappy about. Let’s try again:

Now I have around 15 versions of this sentence with different descriptors and details, but none of them quite feel like my voice. To remedy this, I’ll combine a few that I really like:

”Townes, the ever purring Maine Coon, lay fast asleep against my plush purple comforter, his paws wrapped around my cardigan and his back pressed into my black pleather purse.”

Notice that there are certain details that the AI can’t accurately expand on, such as the exact breed of my cat or the quality of my comforter. However, AI can recommend synonyms, adjectives, or help you find that one word that’s just on the tip of your tongue. The more specific you make your request, the better.

A lot of word processors already have AI writing tools built into their software, but those tools simply offer suggestions. A chatbot, on the other hand, can help explain why your writing is too drawn out, not engaging, or at the wrong reading level. Understanding the “why” is what improves your skills as a writer.

As you’re reviewing your draft, AI can help you bulk up frail ideas or themes, adjust your tone to set a certain mood, and suggest structure or organizational styles. For example, if you’re working on a different type of project than you’re used to, you could ask the bot to give you an example outline. I always find it best to ask for several variations on answers, like I did with my cat query.

In fact, when I asked my favorite chatbot, Copilot, what it could do for my writing, it responded, “Think of me as an editorial guide rather than a ghostwriter—I help shape your words rather than replace them.” (By the way, this is not a plug for Copilot–I just like that it’s free, big, and links its information to real websites.)

Creative Projects

One thing most creative writers have in common is that you can find really weird stuff in our search history. Now AI can answer all of those strange hypothetical questions for you! It can explain how someone with certain psychological conditions might react to an event, or how someone with a rare ailment might be cured. I remember one of the first fiction writer questions I had to ask the internet was, “If you hit someone over the head, how long would they be unconscious for?” I’m glad my parents never found that in my search history. They would have been very concerned.

The good news is, you no longer have to turn to weird subreddits or Quora, because AI can probably tell you the answer. However, I recommend fact-checking most of what it tells you, which is why any AI that links its sources (like Copilot) is preferable.

If you need a setting, have your AI list out five different environments and see if any of those spark an idea. From there, the chatbot could tell you what animals live in those habitats, what adaptations humans would have to survive in those habitats, or what kind of weather would be the most common. At this point, you could probably turn to the internet, and return to your AI conversation whenever Google fails to answer the more niche queries.

If you don’t know where to start your creative writing project, AI can remind you what elements you need to consider. Tell your chatbot about what you’re writing and what your concerns are. It can give you an itemized list of ideas for a solution, but it’s up to you to apply them effectively.

Throughout this process, it’s important to remember that writing is supposed to be hard. Practicing creativity is important, so try to use AI as a moving walkway rather than a crutch for idea generation.

Final Thoughts

There is a certain book—I won’t say the title—rounding out some best sellers lists, that I am convinced was at least partially written by AI. I refuse to read it after reading several reviews that describe the extremely generic world building and passages that eerily resemble other popular books. However, the book is popular online because it is an echo chamber of its genre, and there are many young readers who cannot yet discern the unoriginality of this story within the genre.

I don’t know for a fact whether this author used any AI to generate their writing, but the book's existence paints a grim picture of what the future of literature will look like if we let AI do the writing.

Let’s think of literature as we do the Met Gala red carpet. When you’re writing, you want your product to be like Zendaya or Bad Bunny. Your book is unique to you and stands out while still fitting within the theme or genre you’re writing in. You might make stylistic choices that remind us of other books or even add small accessories that reference specific icons, but the outfit altogether is distinct, and how you wear it makes it yours. You could ask AI to help you come up with color combinations or explain the theme in more detail, but if it designs the outfit for you, you’ll be a black suit with a fun pocket square that you threw in for a pop of color.

As writers continue to experiment with AI, I want to encourage you to not let robotic writing outputs make you self-conscious of imperfections in your own writing.  When we write, we make mistakes, and that’s OK. Comparing your first draft to AI’s writing would be like comparing Michelangelo’s “David” to a mannequin. One of them is cleaner, more uniform, and made faster, but no one is lining up to see a mannequin.

The Art of Promise-Keeping: Paratextual Clues and the Reader Experience

By Jack Kaulfus

We all know that books are more than just words: they’re little worlds between covers. As writers, we’re often mostly concerned with getting our stories to reflect the visions we’ve been working out for months on end. We’re hoping to keep our reader so engaged on the page that by the end of the book, they’ve had a highly curated experience with our specific little world. We want our characters to be perfectly rendered through dialogue and action, our settings to be expansive and meaningful, our themes to emerge with beauty and grace. 

However, if you’re only thinking about words, you might miss opportunities to create a more fully realized experience of story for your reader. Readers have been trained, over the course of their reading lives, to expect certain aspects of books to reveal information about the story inside. This means you have a unique storytelling opportunity to meet, enhance, or completely subvert their expectations. 

Enter The Paratext

According to Allison Parrish, French literary theorist Gérard Genette introduced the term "paratext" to describe elements like prefaces, introductions, dedications, and epigraphs. These can also take hypertextual forms, such as footnotes, tables of contents, indices, and bibliographies.

Think about your own habits when choosing a new book to read. Where do you look first? Despite the adage, a lot of us do judge books by their covers. We’re all aware that cover trends exist, and that the artwork often relays both genre and tone. Where do you look next? I’m in the habit of reading the summary on the back (or inside flap), glancing over the names of writers who have offered blurbs, finding the picture of the author (or noticing when there is none), and taking note of the publisher. All this before I even open it to see what the writing is like. 

Once I open the book, I flip through the pages to see if there’s anything interesting happening formally. I love to see footnotes in a fictional work, or what looks like a random illustration in what otherwise seems like a traditional narrative. These little details build readerly anticipation in me, and pique my curiosity about what the writer has in store.

Table of Contents + Chapter Titles

Your reader may not be consciously aware of it, but the table of contents plays a big part in setting expectations around narrative structure, tone, and pacing. Many novels don’t include a table of contents and don’t necessarily need one, but because the table of contents are at the beginning of the book, and are likely one of the first pages your reader will see. You can use those first couple of pages to your creative advantage if you like.

Consider The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Her table of contents provides insight into genre-defying, generational themes in the book. Each section is an unnamed song, and each chapter title reveals information about the family structure at the heart of the narrative.

You can also make decisions about pacing by separating your book into parts. Most readers have been primed for traditional narratives with three acts: the setup, the confrontation (challenges, etc), and the resolution. Your book does not need to follow the traditional narrative structure – plenty of fantastic books don’t – but you have an opportunity to either effectively telegraph Checkov’s gun, or pleasantly surprise your readers by upending their expectations about what comes when. 

Prologues, Epilogues, and Epigraphs

Framing devices fall in and out of favor, and they fit some narratives better than others. They tend to show up in sprawling novels with a lot of world-building, and provide a formal sense of structure. Prologues are not useful when they’re used as an expositional catch-all or a gimmicky hook. Most readers want to get started right away, and may skip the prologue altogether if it is overly long or seems to have nothing to do with the story. However, if your book has some experimental elements in it – if it slides into meta-territory or follows a nonlinear timeline – the prologue is a good place to creatively introduce some of those elements. 

Epigraphs are those quotes that show up at the beginning of the book (or sometimes at the beginning of chapters). They’re usually from familiar or historical works, and the aim is to provide allusive weight to whatever’s coming next in the book. Epigraphs can provide context, frame your book as part of an ongoing literary conversation, or prepare the reader to look out for upcoming themes. If you’re thinking about including epigraphs in your book, consider what you’re imparting the reader. Are you communicating something personal you want your reader to know about you as an author? Are you aligning your work with the one in the quote? Are you adding depth to character? Courtney Maum has some interesting viewpoints on why and how some epigraphs work better than others on her substack.

Footnotes and In-Story Artifacts

The first time I came into contact with footnotes in a semi-fictional work, I was enthralled. I found an airport read in the early 90s, and as my plane took off, I dove head-first into David Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Since then, I’ve been partial to works that use this conceit. Fictional indexes provide a similar thrill for me. The reason is simple: though obviously a work of popular literature, I begin to employ some of the same critical reading practices that I use with scholarly works. I’m no longer a passive reader – I’m entering into a kind of collaboration with the writer, and it feels like we have a tacit agreement that I’m going to find more inside this book than I expected. Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir In the Dream House brought footnotes to a whole new level – one that rewards readers who revisit the book.

I feel similarly about other artifacts that pop up in unexpected places: random-seeming illustrations, a harried-looking grocery list, or text thread between side characters. Though N.K. Jemisin doesn’t love maps in fantasy novels (they’re basically spoilers), she did end up posting one for The Fifth Season series online, and now the maps are included in all her books. 

Doug Dorst’s and JJ Abrams’s novel “S” uses paratextual elements to create a story within a story – an alternative narrative between characters who are only communicating through margin notes. As their relationship deepens, so does the reader’s understanding of both stories. And because we’re living in a time when our access to media allows for stories to  develop both in-universe and on virtual platforms, paratexts may now easily jump from page to screen to headphones. Plenty of books, especially in the romance genre, now include song playlists so readers can create story-specific ambience each time they crack open the book. 

So it's not just about what's on the page, it's about everything around it too. As writers, embracing the power of paratext offers a fantastic opportunity to deepen our connection with our audience and craft an immersive literary experience. While our primary focus will always be on crafting compelling narratives with well-wrought prose, paratextual elements offer us subtle and meaningful ways to actively shape the reader’s journey through each little world.