Book Recommendation: 6 Seconds Of Life

Being a writer is hard enough. Being an indie author is even tougher because we have to market ourselves. We don't have a publishing house behind us to arrange book tours and interviews, etc. And, as I'm learning, many book review blogs ignore indie authors and will only do write-ups on novels that are published the old-fashioned way.

In some ways, I can understand this. It's so easy to publish on Kindle that anyone can do it -- which inevitably means that there will be some terrible indie books out there. Hell, you may even think that BAND GEEK is one of them, but trust me, there's worse!

Anyway, I'm attempting to start a little project called "Project Pay It Forward." What I intend to do is select and read promising-sounding indie YA books. If I think they're must-reads, I'll post reviews on this site and Amazon. This way, I can help give some publicity to those talented authors who've decided to go solo. I may be only one person and I'm a tiny fish in a huge pond, but I'd like to do what I can. I'm hoping that other indie authors will join me and will help pay it forward by reading and reviewing other great indie books. I'm not asking them to necessarily take a look at mine -- though it would be nice!

The first book that I'd like to share with you is called 6 SECONDS OF LIFE and is by Tonya Fitzharris. In short, it's about a suicidal teen who flashes back on her life while jumping off a bridge. Before she takes that fateful last step, a stranger muses that it takes about six seconds until one hits the water ... hence the intriguing title.

This book blew me away. It was honest, raw and you really felt for the narrator, Maura. In a short time, she deals with her parents' marriage crumbling, a shaky relationship with her first boyfriend and a disastrous freshman year at college. All at lot to take in, especially for someone so young. At times, she was very unlikeable and many of her decisions were questionable. However, she was REAL. Though she was flawed, she was ultimately a good person and I rooted for her to finally come to her senses and look to the future. I really wanted her to succeed.

I especially liked the realistic way in which the author portrayed teen relationships and a not-so-great start to college. Personally, my freshman year at Binghamton sucked. In high school I was always told that things would "get better" in college and I longed for those years. When they didn't get better, and in fact got worse, it was hard to deal with. Fitzharris ably conveys how lost one can feel during this time.

My one minor quibble with the book is that there were a few typos and grammatical mistakes ... but that's another issue that indie writers have to deal with: not always having a professional editor on hand unless you want to shell out big bucks. Overall, thought, I was impressed with this story and encourage you to check it out!

Meantime, please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now on sale for only 99 cents!