A guest post from Ben Jackson.

I’m often asked how we came up with the idea for our children’s book series. Well, maybe before I explain how we came up with the idea I should explain a bit about who I am and what my books are about!

I started off writing a few non-fiction books with my wife. Divorce Recovery, Long Distance Relationships, etc. but it wasn’t what we wanted to be focusing on. I wrote a book How To Survive The Zombie Apocalypse which was meant to be a joke but ended up semi-serious. Well, as serious as a zombie apocalypse survival book could be!

My wife and I met online and started a very long distance relationship, Canada to Australia to be exact. That was almost four years ago, and we are now married and going strong.

Now, back to our series of children’s books. Our children’s books center around a young boy Timmy and his imaginary friend, the Little Fart. We wanted to create a book that would make kids laugh and want to read, draw them in. Kids think that farts are funny, there’s no denying that.

We didn’t just want to make silly books, though. We also wanted to include a subtle message about different issues which kids would face growing up. The first was the Day My Fart Followed Me Home which was more about kids accepting other kids as their friends even though they might be a little different. The next book was the Day My Fart Followed Me To Hockey which teaches kids that no matter what happens in sports and competition it’s all about having a go and having fun. The last one was a Christmas book, The Day My Fart Followed Santa Up The Chimney.

We are looking at our next book in the series now. Throughout these books, we have constantly been learning about writing, illustration, covers, formatting and most importantly of all, marketing. If I had one piece of advice for any author looking at getting their books published it would be just to keep trying, don’t give up!

You can check out our books on Amazon.

Amazon Author Page

Goodreads Page

Facebook The Little Fart

Indie Book Showcase 2017

The group I’m part of on Goodreads is having their first showcase of the year, it’s an event featuring books by the many members of SIA (Support for Indie Authors) a wonderful group that is incredibly supportive and filled with great people who write in just about every genre you can think of.

I’ve read and enjoyed several, and got more on my TBR list.

If you’re looking for books to fill up your kindle/tablet or other e-reader, or maybe you’re after some paperbacks to use your Christmas money on, look no further. Whatever you like to read, and whatever your budget, you’re bound to find something to suit you, just follow the link below and see what we have to offer

Support Indie Authors Event

Funny, flippin’ good and free

You all like things are funny, good and free, don’t you? Of course you do, who doesn’t, nobody I want to know, that’s who.

Well if funny, flippin’ good and free and three things you look for in a book, then look no further because I have what you’re after, Mirth Defects by Clint Forgy.

I read and reviewed this book a while ago (the review is currently my most popular post, by a long margin and can be read here) and consider it the best indie book I’ve read all year; it’s filled with the funniest anecdotes you’ll find.

It’s not on sale yet, but if you’re interested in getting your hands on a copy, just nip on over to http://clintforgy.com/books/ where the author is very kindly offering up free copies to visitors.

A newborn boy begins the search for his soul mate.

From the day he was born, JD Ferguson knew what was missing: his soul mate. Mirth Defects, the prequel to The Seduction of Granny, is a fiction novel about the early years of JD Ferguson, his brother Bob, their buddies Gasser Jameson and Tiny Steele, and the adventures they experience growing up in the fictional town of Roadapple Ridge, Iowa.

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I heartily recommend you pop on over to http://clintforgy.com/books/ and take advantage of Clint’s generosity, especially if you like reading about tales of childhood and growing up, trains, and boys with more interest in having fun than behaving.

Mirth Defects

Clint Forgy

I was given an advanced copy of this book for review and I’m glad I was. I like comedy but as a visual medium, it’s not a genre I usually read because it’s very hard to get right, so I was a little nervous about this book; my uncertainty disappeared by the end of the first page. This is exactly my sense of humour; it’s a little anarchic, a little crazy, a little cringe-inducing, a little bit of everything really, and a lot of good.
This is the tale of JD, growing up amongst his family and friends; he is a massively confident young man, who’s not afraid of a challenge, knows what he wants, and is determined to get it – at no time, though, does he cross the line into being cocky or unpleasant, and that’s difficult to manage.
JD is well-written, his personality lends itself to caricature but Clint Forgy manages to avoid that and keep him as a very realistic, if slightly over the top, character, the sort you would have a great time with if you were mates. The same can be said for his friends and family, they are all believable (I’ve known a few people in my time who would have fitted right in with them, myself included for the sense of humour) and that is important because one or two of the scenes and situations descriptions are a little too madcap – if it wasn’t for the writing and the believable characters they might ruin the book.
There are a few pop-culture references that I felt were unnecessary, but that’s just my opinion.

If you enjoy a humorous tale, then this is almost certainly going to tickle your funny bone and I recommend you give it a go.

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If you’d like to know more about the author, look him up on his site and see more of his humour, which will probably make you laugh out loud.