White Sun Press

White Sun Press is a new, independent press designed to publish fiction and nonfiction books.

Website: http://jcandrijeski.com/
Twitter: @jcandrijeski
Facebook: Facebook profile
Blog: http://jcandrijeski.com/blog/

http://amazon.com

Hunter T. Castle

JC Andrijeski

Jules Okapi

Back to profile overview

absurdist humor    adventure    alien contact    alternative history    apocalyptic    beige    business    chapter book    childrens    childrens fiction    childrens mystery    childrens spy adventure    coach    conventions    corporate america    corporatism    cult    cyberpunk    dystopian    espionage    fantasy    humor    improvement    kids    life coach    london    manipulation    middle grade    military    motivation    mystery    portal fantasy    presentation    psychic    quirky    scam    self help    self improvement    seminar    sex trafficking    speech    spies    spy    spy adventure    spy kids    suit    supernatural    systems   

• Crow's Nest on Jan. 30, 2011
  
  Irene Watts' writing always seems to transport me into a mythical world, with odd and neurotic creatures somehow endearing in their vulnerabilities and inherent humanity. Fragments of a whole, her Appetite and Sentiment in the Crow's Nest seem to make up the primary characters of a single being lurching through the vast ocean of a wider consciousness, occasionally boarded by a blind and malicious being like Montag, or watched carefully by the more compassionate birds. I find her work charming...and the visual accompaniment only lends to the poetry.
  
• To Inhabit on Feb. 06, 2011
  
  Irene Watts' writing is more like entering a state of mind, an existential moment. There is an element of being lost inside a deconstructive haze. And, if you're anything like me, there's humor there, in the dark corners. Kind of Edward Goreyish, "To Inhabit" is like the Doubtful Guest only with the protagonist as her own suspicious intruder.
  
• The Bizarre Tongue on Feb. 06, 2011
  
  Irene Watts' "The Bizarre Tongue" takes the reader on a journey through the birth, cycles of life and discovery and realization (or ideation) of a consciousness to a form of enlightenment...but it seems to me that is not the crux of the story. Instead, it is how the world responds to different forms of beauty, missing the core of experience living inside that transformation as they try to make it manageable, marketable, attainable, material...classifiable. Written as a bird-filled poem, rich with imagery and quirks of humor covering over a deeper sadness at the blind groping of most "seekers" and marketers of seeking, this story stays with you, poignant and haunting.
  
• The Sun Shone on Feb. 06, 2011
  
  A quirky, odd, disjointed tale, "The Sun Shone" features homicidal yet sympathetic bulls, back braces, snot, gods and goddesses, vitamin packs, angry pharmacists, Jesus and GI Joe. The images are difficult and visceral. The humor jabs out of nowhere, at times making me laugh aloud. Makes Woody Allen's tales of neurosis in New York seem tame in comparison.
  
• Cold Comfort on Feb. 06, 2011
  
  Interesting story, more about the changing of consciousness and its vessel, combined with an almost humorous view of the randomness of coincidence than about cryogenics per se. Some interesting ideas in here (the image of robots "cavorting in caves" will stick with me for some time), and moves quickly, almost Asminov-fashion in terms of style and sparse, dialog-heavy style. A very good read.
  
• Dead Letters on Feb. 06, 2011
  
  A dark, twisted tale of death, office fires and spam from beyond the grave. Eerie tone, well-written. Brilliant.
  
• After on Feb. 07, 2011
  
  A sweet, well-written pondering around death from the perspective of an artist and free spirit.
  
• Firebug on Feb. 07, 2011
  
  Great story - very well written with a visual, in the moment style, believable dialogue and characters. It's also extremely creepy (in a good way). Has a bit of the Butcher Boy vibe to me, only with a great twist at the end. Definitely worth a read!
  
• The Taste of Shrimp on July 04, 2011
  
  Very sweet short story, with a lot of heart like all of Laura Ware's work. I'll read pretty much anything by her, because there's always such a sincerity to her characters and situations. This is about the compromises one has to sometimes make to keep a marriage intact.
  
• The Bikini Wedding on July 04, 2011
  
  I don't normally read a lot of Christian fiction, but I enjoyed this. It's a sweet story and the characters and situation were well drawn and touching, with a quirky yet uplifting ending.
  
• Fires of Alexandria on Aug. 10, 2011
  
  Really fantastic alternate history/historical novel with an excellent lead character in the form of Heron, a mathematician and "miracle inventor" in the time of the Roman occupation of Alexandria. Heron, a real historical figure, is portrayed with a twist in Carpenter's book as a woman (the twin brother to the male Heron, who takes his identity when he dies, as she is the real mastermind of the pair, as portrayed in this novel). The main premise surrounds the mystery surrounding the cause of the fires that burned down the Library of Alexandria...but the novel takes us through numerous other political intrigues happening at the time, as well as other historical figures Heron interacts with. There is also an interesting (fictional) character in the form of "the barbarian" from the North, who hires Heron to fashion for him a mechanical army from her "miracle" technologies, and in the process she prematurely invents the steam engine. Speaking of steam, in terms of the miracles themselves, there's a bit of a steampunk flavor the book at times, even without the actual steam power. Overall, a huge recommend for strong characters, a believable alternate history (and interpretation of real history) that is completely fascinating and compelling. Add to that strong action, mystery and intrigue throughout the course of the novel, and it's a tough one to put down.
  
• Nate Rocks the World on Jan. 22, 2012
  
  A cute middle grade story about a boy named Nate who lives in his own world, at least part of the time. He struggles with school, a bratty older sister, and the daughter of his mom's best friend, who rats him out on everything and takes credit for their partnered projects at school...and ends on a sweet note where a lot of those struggles are (mostly) resolved. A cute, light read, fun for kids...it almost reminded more of books that were around when I was a kid, without a lot of modern bite to it at all.
  
• Gamers on Jan. 25, 2012
  
  I loved this book...to me it was one of those books where you think it's going to be about the premise (which was cool in and of itself), but it really ends up being so much more than that, not only in terms of plot but in the people. The characters really got under my skin and felt very realistic to me, which isn't always the case in books of this kind. In terms of the premise, Gabby's world is pretty much of the logical extension of where we are heading now. It's a virtual reality type landscape, where instead of attending school the way children do now, they essentially are playing one giant video game in order to earn point thresholds that might allow them to make it into university. Carpenter does a great job setting up the world in the first part of the book, and establishing the main character, Gabby, as one of the ambitious overachievers in her class...yet also hinting she's not above a little hacking and game manipulation to help out her friends...especially those who struggle to maintain the high scores that come so easily to her, due to her high thoughts per second (TPS) scores. But then the story goes into a totally different direction, with a mystery thrown Gabby's way about the true purpose of the game, and what's really at stake for those who don't make it to "university." Wrapped into all of this is a lot of action and quirky characters, especially the frags who live outside the society, and the surprising depth behind one of the "mean girl" characters who seems totally different when you first meet her in the book. A really great read, and I'll definitely be looking for the sequel. There is still so much I want to know about the world. While it resolved well for a book one, a ton of mysteries remain as to who really runs the world and what will happen with the frags and the other kids who don't make it into university (and those who do). There are also a lot of great villains and potential villains...one character in particular who could go either way...so really left on a highly suspenseful note.
  
• Blind Veil on Jan. 29, 2012
  
  I really enjoyed this book, and it is a fast read. It starts out with a very likeable character, Emmett, an older, African-American man who owns a farm in a time and a place where that didn't happen very often. When a crime is committed on his land, he is forced to cover it up because of who and what he is to the other ranchers, but it haunts him until the day he dies, and pretty much tears his family apart. The story starts there, but then fast-forwards about forty-odd years to his nephew, who is a NYC beat cop and a lot more affected by those past events than he knows. What follows from there is one of the most intriguing plot lines I've read in a long time...it reminded me of "They Live," a movie I really loved when I was younger, only without the dark humor of that movie. Instead it carries a far more serious tone, one somewhere between the X-Files and a police procedural. Simms, the main character, has a pretty normal life for a cop, until one day he is kidnapped by a bizarre and seemingly scientist who tells him a fantastical story about a conspiracy threatening to annihilate the human race. In the process of his kidnapping, the scientist shoots Simms up with a substance that he claims will allow him to see the "truth." After that, Simms' life is never the same...as a reader you're put through the wringer with him as he starts seeing things he can't explain, ends up in a mental institution and then on the run, all the while caught up in a conspiracy whose players he can only guess at, some of whom appear to be friends he's known and trusted for years. If I had any gripe at all (and it's a small one), it was only that it ended a little abruptly, and I would have liked more regarding the final payoff where the reader finally learns the true extent of what's going on and Simms' connection to all of it. But I really hope Lorde is planning a sequel, because I definitely want to read that book! Strong recommend.
  
• The Very Thought of Him on March 01, 2012
  
  A fun, erotic short story about an older businesswoman and a tryst she has with a younger man she meets online. Better written than most in this genre, with a lot of hot scenes and an interesting glimpse into the character's motivations more at the end. Well worth it if you like short erotic fiction.
  
• The Goat and the Heathen, 2nd ed. on March 01, 2012
  
  I really liked this story...really well-rounded characters, and I liked the relationship between the two college roommates as much as I did the relationship between the main character, Aja, and Hayden, the boy with whom her roommate arranges the tryst. Kind of a sweet romance meets erotica, which I wish there was more of, frankly. Well written and hot, sensual scenes. Well worth the read!
  
• Family Care, 4th ed. on March 01, 2012
  
  While this is a story premise I've seen a lot of, I thought the author did a really good job of making it fresh, mainly by giving the characters and the situations more depth. It's as much a coming of age story as it is erotica, and while there are definitely lots of steamy sex scenes, there's also an ending that makes it feel a lot more about how all three of the main characters figure out what's missing in their lives. The main character is really likable, and the couple she babysits for is really sympathetic too...you really want their marriage to work, which to me, added a lot to the overall story. Well written and executed, and actually almost a novellette, rather than a short story.
  
• Jeremiah Quick on March 04, 2014
  
  Wow. What to say about this novel. It's...intense. I highly doubt people will have a "neutral" reaction to this book. Personally, I loved it. It felt real on a deep level, even if that reality was in part symbolic. It also totally resonated with relationships I had in my own high school years, in particular with a very close friend who struggled with a lot of the same issues, in terms of feeling forever out of step with the world, and needing an intensity of feeling and connection with others to counteract that in some way, or maybe just to bear it. Flirting with the dark but loving and being drawn to the light was a component in our relationship, as well. I don't want to say too much about the plot itself, because 1) I don't want to spoil it, and 2) more than anything, it served for me as a psychological journey and deconstruction. Primarily among the latter, it was like witnessing the systematic removal of all of the social "niceties" to reveal a kernel of raw truth underneath. Or, it was a highly skilled exercise in brainwashing by an incredibly brilliant and manipulative sociopath...you decide. Of course, I'm somewhat biased because I absolutely love this writer, and pretty much love everything of hers that I read. She captures spaces with her words like no other writer I know, and makes her characters so real I feel almost like I know them. Moreover, she has that gift of making sympathetic those situations and people who, on their face, might seem like they shouldn't be...which is a particular weakness of mine anyway. Not for the faint of heart, however...or for those who like their morality in neat, succinct, black and white boxes where some things are always "good" and some people are always "bad" regardless of their life situations and the depth of feeling inside their hearts.