E. Bard

About six years ago I began working on a few stories that I could customize for my children, their friends and a couple of relatives. I had it in mind that I could occasionally produce these customized paperbacks as a small, experimental business. It never fully took shape, but my children and the friends and parents who read the novels enjoyed them. They encouraged me. The books here are the original self published editions so I've priced them for a quick cheap read.

Please feel free to leave your honest review. I would really like to know what you thought of the books. They're just meant to be enjoyed - they're not literature. So a great big thank you to all you readers out there who took the time to download them. And please remember... Your reviews will help me decide whether or not to turn these novels into series.

Check out my website if you want info on the customized paperback versions. (Yes customizing these novels is still an option. It's just not a full throttle gig. Examples are shown on the website and blog).

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/makeityournovel/
Facebook: Facebook profile
Blog: http://makeityournovel.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Cape-Ingenue-Bard/dp/1461005825/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324391241&sr=1-22

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• Scruffy the Christmas Bear on Dec. 16, 2011
  (no rating)
  A lovely story for a parent to read to their young child. Well written and the perfect length for a bedtime story. Great for Christmas.
  
• Shooting Stars on March 20, 2012
  
  Shooting Stars was a pleasant surprise. I found the creativity behind the story to be a wonderful change from the more common selection of supernatural beings and creatures in some of the YA/MG literature I've read. As the title suggests, this is an exciting adventure that takes place in the stars. It begins with Stella, a teenage girl, awakening at the scene of a car crash involving her parents and brother. She is confused an doesn't know what is going on. At first I thought that the story would be told from this girl's point of view, but as the story progresses, the reader is treated to different perspectives from several different characters. That too was a nice change from a lot of my recent reading material. The idea that Stella and Isaac (the main characters) aren't your average teens raised in moderate seclusion on a mountaintop but are really descendants from humans with extraordinary abilities doesn't seem that original at first. That is until the reader discovers just what those abilities are and where in the universe they come from. One of those abilities was delightful to read about. After all, who wouldn't want want to be able to travel through space in a stream of atoms that looks just like a shooting star? It really was an exciting tale and I can see it appealing to many middle graders and their parents. It has a good story, an evil tyrant with his minions, and constellation creatures. What more can the reader ask for? The main characters, Stella and Isaac, were quite innocent for teens but that makes sense within the framework of the story. In fact I thought it was refreshing. I strongly recommend it.
  
• Spear Bearer on Feb. 02, 2014
  
  A very pleasant surprise! This story is a quick read with likeable characters and an interesting plot. It's a middle grade fantasy, has a steady pace and will easily appeal to a reading audience taken with books like the Spiderwick Chronicles or the Narnia series. Very few mistakes for an ebook. Recommended.
  
• Into the Wasteland - A Dystopian Journey on Sep. 29, 2014
  
  I completely forgot I had downloaded this - but I'm glad I did. It really is quite good and it is not at all what I thought it would be (which is a pleasant surprise). Although the story is exactly as the title claims - a dystopian journey - my first impression is that the story is really more of a western. From the grubby clothed, gun toting heroine right down to her companionship with a horse named Blaze, the story is a straight shooter. The writing is very clean. There are no superfluous words, added subplots, annoying characters or meandering thought processes. It's a journey survival story and the author sticks to it. Yes the reader is thrown into the story without any clues about the world it takes place in, or who the main character is (other than a young woman with solid instincts who adopts the name Hawk). But sometimes more questions than answers can be a good thing. It keeps the reader reading. And because, when I reached the end of the novella, I learned that the proceeds from the sale of this author's books would benefit a women's shelter - I decided to buy the next one.
  
• Underdead with a Vengeance on Jan. 12, 2015
  
  Biting into that third book in a series means you have expectations. And sometimes those expectations can be pretty big. Well, thrill of thrills, Underdead with a Vengeance met all my expectations. Jo is is every bit the humourous heroine she was in the first two books. Even one of her friends and her love interest Gavin shine a little more as Jo creeps a little deeper into undeadness. Yes, Jo does experience a few more... talents in this book. I recommend the series. Highly enjoyable and at only $2.99 per book it's well worth it. It's every bit as good as many of the super hyped books I've read from traditional publishers - without the atrocious price tag.
  
• Fabled Kingdom [Part 1of10] on Jan. 26, 2015
  
  If you're an avid reader who also enjoys Comics, Cartoons, Manga or Anime (or any of those), this could be an opportunity to satisfy a couple of those hobbies at once. Fabled Kingdom is an adventure filled with fairytale characters and settings. At first glance it may look a little like Red Riding Hood - but it's not - even if it does share many similarities (like grandmothers, a huge wolf, huntsmen and a girl in a red cloak). It's an original adventure that takes place in more than one fairytale setting, with more than one set of fairytale beings. The characters are engaging and the artwork is great. I found the comic style to be very appealing and a wonderful compliment to the story telling. There's even a little humour. I can see it being popular with teenagers, particularly those who take in a fair amount of YA and love an adventure that pulls up all sorts of things from fairy lore. Fabled Kingdom (Part 1) was a very polished product - professional from start to finish. So I have to admit, I was very surprised to find it on Smashwords as a freebie. The only difficulty I encountered was that I couldn't get the epub to work properly (possibly because I was trying to read it with Digital Editions). The pages never fully loaded (to the bottom - the ends were always cut off) so I ended up reading the book online. In a way it reminded me of reading some of my favorite sort-of-web-comics (the ones that are a mix of prose, great artwork and comics) - but it was easier to read with the online reader than it is reading post after post on the web. If you download the book, the story looks like it's only six or so pages long - but keep in mind those are very long pages. I do recommend giving it a try and look forward to Part 2.