We love following the work of indie authors on Twitter’s writing community and have been spotlighting indie books for the past year. There is such a wide variety of work across genres, there really is something for everyone! Here is another look at 3 of the books/authors that we have spotlighted.

Shadow Game
by A.M. Adair

“Shadow Game focuses on the world of covert operations. It centers on a CIA field operative named Elle Anderson, who along with her small but elite team, deal with missions and targets that prove impossible for everyone else. In this debut, Elle and her team have been tasked to destroy the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization. Starting in Iraq, they start a chain of events that will go well beyond anything they could have anticipated. For Elle, the end justifies the means. And this is just the beginning.” -A.M Adair
• Purchase on Amazon | Learn more about Shadow Game

The Curse of Odin
by Jo Kutya

The Curse of Odin is “a steampunk adventure, set in an alternative version of Victorian London, and revolves around a teenage pickpocket named Blink, an inventist (not inventor) named Thaddeus Q Abernathy, and a 2,000 year old woman by the name of Lady Talány. An anarchist called Legren plans to attack the city as part of a nefarious plot. Blink, while attempting to steal from Abernathy one night, but gets caught up in the hunt for the terrorist, and in doing so, uncovers a secret world of myth and monster hidden beneath the London of man and machine.” -Jo Kutya
• Purchase on Amazon | Learn more about The Curse of Odin

Heart of Stone
by I. D. Russell

“Heart of Stone is about teenager Samantha Abraham, a picked on outcast at school who falls in love with a strange new foreign exchange student named Joshua. He’s great at hockey, gorgeous, and might just be a golem. Together with her equally unpopular best friend Duckie, they navigate the social hierarchy, dodge the mean girls, and try to uncover the truth about Joshua’s origins.” -I.D. Russell
• Purchase on Amazon | Learn more about Heart of Stone

And don’t forget, you can follow all of our Indie Book Spotlights here!

What is your book about? 
Heart of Stone is about teenager Samantha Abraham, a picked on outcast at school who falls in love  with a strange new foreign exchange student named Joshua. He’s great at hockey, gorgeous, and might just be a golem. Together with her equally unpopular best friend Duckie, they navigate the social  hierarchy, dodge the mean girls, and try to uncover the truth about Joshua’s origins. The book is a little bit Sixteen Candles and a dash of Young Frankenstein with some paranormal/horror elements. 

What inspired this story?
I wanted to write an 80’s inspired teenage horror story that was both current and offbeat. Initially I was trying to write the most out there version of the Twilight style YA trend, taking the logical  progression of Dracula -> Werewolf -> Frankenstein. I thought, those kind of stories usually have fairly shell-like characters designed for the reader to imagine themselves in the role, so what’s more shell-like than a golem? I wanted this to be a parody, but loose enough that it can still work in a serious way.  The series builds as it progresses into more comedic areas, easing in more appearances from the crazy cop Frank Malone, who appeared in my movie The Killing Death, which Heart of Stone is set in the same  universe. 

Tell us a little about you, who is I. D. Russell?
I’m a bit of a jack of all trades kind of guy. Film buff, martial artist, Dad, indie filmmaker, author, gamer, retro pro-wrestling enthusiast, reader, collector, and YouTuber. I can’t sit still and I’m always either working on another book (I’ve got 25 more written in various stages of editing), writing a screenplay (lots on the go that will hopefully be up on screen in the future), reading five or more books at once, training in BJJ or Hapkido… you get the idea. I’m an 80’s child and that’s where my sensibilities come in terms of action movies, horror movies, comedies, etc. Everything I make blends a bit of what I came up with, like The Monster Squad, Police Academy, The Naked Gun, Bruce Lee movies, video games, and schlocky pulp books. Eventually I hope someone notices. 

How can we read Heart of Stone?
Heart of Stone is Book 1 of the “High School Hell” series. You can find the whole series on Amazon: 

• High School Hell Book 1: Heart of Stone
• High School Hell Book 2: Heart of Clay
• High School Hell Book 3: Heart of Flesh

The series is also available on the Ringo Jones website and in select stores in Winnipeg.