Its October, the leaves are falling, the witches are abroad, and I’ve opened the blog up to guest writers again. Yes its Indie October. Throughout October some old favorites among my guests will be returning along with some new voices. Today’s Guest Post is from…. Erm… Well actually its just from me, but its about Craig Hallam, a man who is wrong about few things.

Craig Hallam, who is trying to win the ‘most prolific Indie Author Mark knows of the year’ award, has a new book out. I would love to tell you all about it, but I haven’t read it yet. (its on the nightstand pile of books waiting to be read, about three down from the top.) It does however have a really nice cover, which is about all I can tell you at the moment. However he did recently ask the internet for questions on write and his new book and recorded a video answering almost all the questions he was asked… Its a fun, interesting and insightful watch, and there were lost of very interesting questions.

For reasons, I would like to point out two things,

1/ His answer to the final question is clearly incorrect, A marathon will always be a marathon, the Americanization of chocolate bar names has to stop now. Its a slippery slope, and if we continue down this road one day soon a mars bar will be called a milky way, and god only knows what a milky way will then be called. Sometimes you just have to pick a hill to die on, this is mine!!!

2/ The other question of mine was perfectly reasonable…

Given the ever greater expansiveness of the universal id that speaks to individuality in an uncaring, cold, cosmos, of which the individual is merely the most insignificant of all things imaginable; and the vibrancy of metaphysical thought that can supplant the void to bring light and colour to an otherwise grey and meaningless existence, as well as the intrinsic beauty of the fragile and obtuse; what would you say is the fundamental lesson we can learn from the visualization of impossibility from what would seem the most prosaic of art forms, a collection of twenty six figures rearranged in seemingly random patterns to convey meaning: by observation of those patterns as they are first visualized them laid down in prosaic fashion so that they can be visualized once more by others through the medium of imagination?

Clearly the answer is art is good for the soul and people should read more books like Oshibana Complex, written by the wonderful imagination of authors like Craig Hallam (no matter how wrong he is when it comes to chocolate bars)

All, joking aside, while I haven’t read it yet, I have read everything else Craig has written and I know without turning a page this will be a great read and also one that will cause its readers to have to think a little, Craig has a habit of being a little deep, often without realizing it, like all the best writers. He’s also a fellow Harvey writer, and likes unleashing waves of fire on Space Marines, which is always to be encouraged..

Welcome to Shika-One City, humanity’s final home.

Nations have come together. Gender and race are petty concerns of the past. But not everything is well in Shika-One.

Humanity can no longer procreate and has to synthesize future generations. But there aren’t many genetic templates to go around and meeting yourself on the street is a daily occurrence. With so many people wearing the same face, the synths of Shika-One strive for individuality in a world where stepping out of line can lead to the shredder.

In this pulsing neon world lives Xev and eir friends, all hard-working synths who maintain their designations to earn the XP to live and hope to afford the holographic shams that cover up their similarities. That is, until a new synth makes Xev start to ask big questions that might upset the status quo.

In Shika-One, life is cheap.

Xev is about to discover what e’s worth.

Oshibana Complex is out now, in paperback and on a variety of EBook platforms. read it, and remember, a marathon is a marathon…