12 Days of Christmas with Jeffery Anderson

12 Days of Christmas Extravaganza is being brought to you by Peggy at Pawing Through Books, Jennifer at Books and Barks, and myself. 
Each day for the next 12 days each of our blogs will feature a different author. There will be guest posts, interviews and giveaways! So be sure to stop at each blog to join in the fun!


A special thank you to all the authors who are participating and those who have donated prizes!

Merry Christmas!

Today's guest is:

If I Never Make the Big Time

Jeffery Anderson

We’re moving through the holiday season and reflecting on the past year, giving thanks, appreciating the people that matter to us. It is too bad that life would corner giving thanks into a particular season. For so many, including myself, it often does. Swept up the minutiae of daily business, work and family, it is very easy to forget to stop and think about how good life is. – even when it isn’t so good.

In the last weekend in October, a poignant reminder arrived in the form of the now famous and over reported October snowstorm that crushed the forests and utility lines of the northeast. I was lucky to only go three days without power and other utilities. Friends went a week or more. But the blackening of the television and the computer, the silencing of the phone, brought some seriously needed pause and contemplation time. It was a silence for thought and what came to me was not how cold and boring the house had become. I did not lament my inability to turn on the stove or take a shower.

Profoundly enough, the focus shifted to how lucky I was to have a great family, full of love, to be with. I felt lucky to have a car to travel to a restaurant, and money to buy a meal for my family when we could not cook at home. I was grateful to have friends to check on and offer help to. I have a bed and blankets to bundle into with my family and keep warm.

No matter what our problems, whoever we are, there is likely someone else out there who has bigger problems, who lives with less, who survives a harder life. Some of them even manage to be happy some of the time.

So, I, for one, am making it a point, starting now, to pause a little more often and be appreciative. I’ll take inventory and sum up the great things that make life sweet, a list of the important things. I’ll also offer a few more well wishes for those who need them more than I do.

For the entirety of my life I’ve wanted to write novels and have a lot of people read them. For the past three years, I’ve worked tirelessly for that to become a reality. I will continue to work tirelessly to that end. But, I will continue to pause. If I never make the big time, I know I’ll still have that list of invaluable joys to peruse in my mind. If my goal is never achieved, I’ve still lived a great life. I have the list to prove it. That list may change. It may grow or shrink. But that list will always be there, and, it does not include any of the things lost in the storm.

About the book:

Ephemera is not cookie-cutter science fiction. It is not a 1984, knock off dystopian novel. It is dark, gritty and satirical future fiction, performed by a cast of the strangest characters you will have encountered in a recent novel. This is future fiction in the hands of a talented literary writer. 

In the near future, Nester Cab, a second rate magazine writer, goes about his mundane life, disenfranchised and hiding from the roaring city he lives in. But, a mysterious note left in his office awakens his ravenous curiosity and sets him on a journey to find a missing soldier. In his travels, he becomes entangled with a clandestine anti-government organization, witnesses a delusional and violent American society and stumbles ever deeper into unfathomable government conspiracies.

Taking inspiration from internet conspiracy theorists, talk radio and the media, Anderson has created an edgy and frightening world where no one and nothing are as they appear. It is a world where the extreme is the every day, where the preoccupation with the meaningless novelty has consumed society. Meanwhile, the government conducts its business behind the curtain, with ominous intentions, All of it will feel uncomfortably familiar to the modern reader. Darkly humorous and palpably real, Ephemera is an epic journey that will have you believing even the most outrageous conspiracies just might happen.

Other people's reviews, (provided by the author):

“Anderson is particularly adept at character description and the dialogue rings true…Your interest will be grabbed from the beginning to the end of this novel.” – Bookviews

“…Ephemera is a workmanlike dystopian set piece that finds a credible basis in modern America…an entertaining read…” – Blog Critics

“Reminding me of Blade Runner and Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano: A Novel, the sophisticated literary voice and postmodern antihero require more of the reader. This is the gritty, dark, unpleasant side of life…” – Wordsmithpages

“Ever since I read it, I keep thinking, could something like that really happen? It’s strange to watch the news now because I keep wondering what’s really behind the stories we are shown. You made me paranoid!” – A stay at home mom I know

“I really enjoyed it. Your dad will get around to reading it when fishing season is over.” – My mom

About the Author:

Jeffery Anderson is a graduate of the University of Iowa and the former Senior Publicity Director for the publicity firm FSB Associates. He lives with his wife and son in a subterranean complex in New Jersey. Learn more at www.theephemera.com

If you would like to receive a Kindle copy of Ephemera please leave a comment below. One comment will be selected. Please remember to leave your email address to be contacted in case you are selected!

When you finished here please stop by and see Jenn at http://www.booksandbarks.com/and Peggy at http://www.pawingthroughbooks.com


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