In the Mood for Some Relevant Science Fiction? Read My Book!

An endless war

A repressive regime

A land where people can't trust their neighbors

A "free election" fixed by computers

A rumor of underground resistance

A radical preacher

A simmering hope of liberation

A handful of disaffected teenagers

A stolen cache of weapons

These are the explosive ingredients of the new urban science-fiction thriller DISCARDED FACES.

And I, Kimball Cross, one of your fellow Kossacks, wrote it.

Discarded Faces has a long history. I began writing it at the start of the 1980's, as a response to the violent attacks on people who looked "foreign" during the Iranian hostage crisis, and also numerous acts of violence against gays and Lesbians whom I knew through friends in Atlanta.

However, I didn't know much about fiction, especially such important elements as exposition and characterization. After many rewrites during the Reagan years, I put it aside.

During the Clinton administration, I resumed the work and finally finished it on the evening of Labor Day 1997. Shopping around for a publisher proved so difficult that finally in 2000 I decided on self-publication, with the help of some friends in the SF & F writing community. In the fall of 2003 I received my first copies.

Discarded Faces was not written with George W. Bush's horrendous administration in mind. The government uses the spectre of terrorist attacks to keep the people frightened and submissive. The computer-rigged elections seem to prefigure the Diebold controversy, without any intetion on my part. I was a far better prophet that I would have preferred to be. OTOH, the current political crisis may be good for sales.

Self-publication is a bitch. I'm here to tell you. You have to do all the publicity and distribution yourself. I'm still learning how to do it. Fortunately, the Internet (which didn't exist when I started writing) is a big help.

Who is this guy Steve Cross who's mentioned on the cover? That's me, actually, Steve Cross being a bit closer to my birth certificate name.

For more information about my book, link here.

You can buy my book online at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. Both of them sell it at a discount in the $17-18 range, but Amazon gives you a better discount.

It's also available at two independent bookstores in North Carolina: Regulator Books in Durham, and Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill.

Or, you can buy it from me personally in the Dealers' Rooms of science-fiction conventions scattered up and down the east coast. I charge $20 at cons, but that's about the same as an on-line sale once you factor in the cost of shipping. I also through a really cool black Periodic Table T-shirt, available in three sizes. Plus, you get to meet me in persona and enjoy my sparkling wit and vast erudition firsthand.

I'll be at Capclave in Washington, DC this October 20-22, at the Hilton Washington Silver Spring hotel in Silver Spring MD.

I'll be at Philcon in Philadelphia PA on November 17-19.

Anyway, read my book while it's still legal.