Publisher's Weekly features Insanity By Increments

Please check out Publisher's Weekly February 22, 2016 edition of their newsletter.  They are featuring Insanity By Increments in the Self-Publishers' section.  If you have never checked out PW, subscribe to their newsletter.  There are tons of helpful articles and great titles!

My Review of Emma Straub's Other People We Married

Emma Straub is a fine author, and Other People We Married is rich with her subtle but persuasive talent.  There's humor in every turn.  Every detail is almost alarmingly perceptible through her keen observation of everyday life.  She's articulate without sounding like a textbook, or a medical dictionary.

The language is hardly spare, drifting between everyday ease and profound articulacy.  Her characters are richly depicted and her scenes are so vivid, only a picture would prove to be better.  Somehow reading her prose gives a more thorough, complete existence than immersing yourself in actual experience.

Announcement

Author Alaric Cabiling will soon have his second collection of short fiction entitled Redefining Darkness available for pre-order in eBook format in March 2016.  Stay tuned for the official blog and more announcements, excerpts and updates.

Enjoy Reading This Excerpt From Insanity By Increments

I smiled at the boy, and he just looked at me. His mother tapped him on the arm and asked him to come with her towards my direction to sit at a nearby table, and then it happened.

He yelled, ”I don’t want to! Leave me alone, damn it!”

So, I thought, he isn’t a particularly nice boy. So what? The discrepancy sometimes shocks me. In comparison to my own childhood upbringing, it was a great dissimilarity that left me wondering what exactly could have been done about something that was doomed from its incendiary beginning. What went wrong from that point on? Everything.

But I had come to blame myself for not being strong enough to fight a man I was never meant to fight, never expected to stand up to, rise up against … so what was the glaring truth of the present moment that I tried hard to deny?

That nothing could have been done then, any more that can be done now that everything was gone.

My Review of Junot Diaz' This Is How You Lose Her

Junot Diaz was a new name to me when I discovered his enticing collection of short stories, This Is How You Lose Her.  I immediately thought that the stories would have been heartbreaking based on the title, but don't think for a minute that failed relationships is all there is to this book.

This Is How You Lose Her was vastly entertaining, and I was really intrigued with Junot Diaz' colorful, poetic but confident prose.  The first story, The Sun, The Moon, The Stars, immediately drew me in, and Diaz doesn't disappoint in this collection.  One by one, the stories enthralled, sending me rolling on the floor laughing while feeling deeply empathic for the characters at the same time.

One More Review for Critically-Acclaimed Insanity By Increments

It was a great book to curl up with in front of the fireplace with and just get lost in! I’ve read several short story collections in the past and while I usually enjoy them as I like the shorter length and the tighter focus on a singular plot, I enjoyed this book as a whole, and thought each story was as good as (if not better than) the one before! It’s hard to pick a favorite from the collection, as each was good and unique in its own right, but it was probably “Return to Desolation”. Great writing and characterizations, and I will definitely be checking out works from Mr. Cabiling in the future. (4 stars) - Stacy, Indie Book Reviewers

More High Praise for Insanity By Increments!

This was a lovely read that I got through in the course of a few hours. I like reading short stories on occasion to switch it up from my normal routine, and because I feel that when done right they can affect you in a different way than a long book or novel can. Overall I found the writing quality to be superb, and I was truly impressed with the amount of amazing word choices Cabiling managed to utilize in such a short amount of space. I really enjoyed the writing and the atmosphere of each one, even though they are a bit on the darker side. I really liked the stories “The Illusion of Progress” and Frailty” because to me those spoke to me the most.  An interesting and eclectic collection, but all unified with strong, beautiful writing and a sense of deeper emotion. Highly recommend. (4 stars) - Steph Coleman