Uly Quits His Job in audiobook format is in production. The narrator has a great Southern accent. He is an actor living in Charleston, South Carolina, which is also a location in the book.
The audiobook will be released on 45 different platforms—who knew there are so many? Sign up to receive updates to be notified when it’s available.
A trade paperback the same size as the hardcover, 6×9 inches, is now available. You can buy it on Amazon here, Uly Quits His Job. Other retail outlets may have it as well.
Travis
“My reading of Uly Quits His Job took me on a journey through the South, making me feel like I was really there. Each introduction of the characters involved made me feel like I had made a new friend. This is not just about Uly’s personal journey to becoming a better version of himself, but all about the infamous Southern hospitality…the kind of hospitality which makes for a better world.” —Tammy B.
Travis Williams earns sales commissions from qualifying purchases made by following links on this webpage to Apple Books and Amazon.
Buy the hardcover format of Uly Quits His Job from Amazon.com. Practically all online booksellers carry it.
Also, any local bookstore can order Uly for you using the ISBN: 978-1-988983-42-4
“Williams is a master at observing the inner life of unlikely elements. He is an alchemist when he brings them together to shine the light on our extraordinary within our ordinary.” —Nicola MacCameron, Author of the Leoshine series.
Travis Williams earns sales commissions from qualifying purchases made by following links on this webpage to Apple Books and Amazon.
Authors look forward to getting good reviews from readers and promos from influencers.
Last year I worked on the cover of Nicola MacCameron’s Leoshine: Princess Oracle, Book 1. She’s a friend I met through the Nestbuilders community at Siretona Creative, my publisher.
For the cover, I developed the RAW photo of the painting by Anna Pederson used in the background, and I designed the fantasy font that is used on the cover as well as in a number of places in the manuscript. Finally, I proofread the book.
So there’s a good possibility that I’m biased.
That’s okay. Write what you want when reviewing a book. Here’s the text of the review I posted online for Nicola.
Travis
Few books stick with me from the opening scene to the final pages the way Leoshine: Princess Oracle has (her name is pronounced “Leo-sheen”). That’s probably because MacCameron’s words manipulate every sense and emotion. The emotions run high and are just as real as the visuals and smells.
Her rich prose weaves a story that consistently denies any information other than that which the character’s themselves can know. If you’ve been wondering what is meant by the advice to writers, “show don’t tell,” this book is a masterclass in showing without telling.
Every character, and every moment in the book is a study in contrasts. Advanced technology mixes with a something like medieval feudalism. Tenderness and generosity are contrasted against violence and greed. Characters with great philosophical understanding contrast with those having dull incapacity. MacCameron can zoom in on a single drop of sweat or describe vast vistas.
The world building is so complete, the reader is dropped into a far future environment with its own technology, customs, architecture, multiple conlangs, and even an alphabet with its own orthography. Dog ear the map and glossary at the front of the book, you’re going to need it little Tassanara.
It’s science fiction, and while there aren’t any aliens, the humans are all too real—full of fears and angst, anger, vengeance, and love and mercy. If you like your protagonists heroic and your antagonists villainous, remember the old saying, “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” You think you know who the bad guys are, but don’t ask Leoshine. Perhaps the horse knows. He seems to have figured things out.
And then there’s Iliana, or should I say, ao Kenan Iliana, she whose arrival is greatly anticipated.
MacCameron manages to keep Leoshine’s name on the cover of the book, but she only does so by not introducing Iliana into the story until it’s almost half done.
And it is a show stopper.
Cleopatra’s cinematic entrance into the Roman forum has nothing on Iliana’s arrival. Tens of thousands of soldiers arrayed on their horses welcome her “shuttle.” No spoilers here, but it is one of the most epic depictions of a grand entrance in all of literature.
True to style, in this scene MacCameron contrasts Leoshine’s individual experience with the massive crowd’s collective welcome.
Leoshine: Princess Oracle, Book 1 is the prologue to a six-book epic science fiction fantasy that you have to see to believe.
Buy Leoshine: Princess Oracle, Book 1
Travis Williams earns sales commissions from qualifying purchases made by following links on this webpage to Apple Books and Amazon.
One unanticipated joy I have experienced as an author is having my book professionally printed.
I’ve seen the digital document on screen as Word docs, PDFs, a Kindle ebook, the manuscript in my writing app, and in the Adobe InDesign layout online as my publisher was prepping it for printing.
But for some reason I hadn’t anticipated what it would be like to have a printed book in hand.
I have printed the manuscript on copier paper, hole-punched it, and dropped it into a binder more than once for proofing, but that wasn’t the same.
The other weekend I read my hardcover proof the way a reader would.
And that was so much fun. It’s a joy to see my book printed. I’m currently letting it simply sit on my desk just because I like looking at it (as in the not-at-all-staged cover photo for this post).
If digital versions of a book are incorporeal, the real book is a type of incarnation. The digital “spirit” has been made into paper “flesh” through printing.
I don’t have much appreciation for hardcover or paperback books anymore. First of all, they’re typically too heavy for my liking; much heavier than my Kindle.
The font is usually tiny, I need to turn on more light to read than I want, the dust cover is in the way, and when I touch a word in the text, the dictionary definition doesn’t magically pop-up! A hard-to-break habit like flipping a light switch when the power has gone out.
I’m amazed at my response to the hardcover edition of my own book, though.
It isn’t too heavy, the text is big enough to read easily, the dust cover works nicely as a bookmark, and the size is substantial without being bulky. Since I wrote it, I also don’t need to look up any of the words.
In 2011, my parents gave me a Kindle for Christmas, back before they were backlit. Nevertheless, I easily switched to it for all my reading.
The device was small, the font size was adjustable, it held a ton of books in six ounces, and it allowed me to look up any word with a few button clicks. The first thing I read on my new Kindle was The Hunger Games trilogy.
Except for a few collectibles and reference books, I’ve avoided hardcover and paperback books for over a decade.
Today, I read on a nice, backlit Kindle Voyage my friends gave me as a gift in 2016. Six years later, I still love it.
If you prefer digital books, obviously I get it. Uly looks great in the Apple Books app and is also available on the Nook, Kobo, and Kindle devices.
That said, I hope anyone who buys Uly Quits His Job in the hardcover format enjoys it as much as I have.
Travis
Travis Williams earns sales commissions from qualifying purchases made by following links on this webpage to Apple Books and Amazon.
