Book Promotion and Soul Identity

First of all I want to announce the premier of my first ever promotional video. I created it for The Old Mermaid's Tale and it is now on the web: The Old Mermaid's Tale Video. This is a promotional venue that a lot of authors have been using but which is all new to me. It was great fun to create and I hope people like it. The people who have previewed it all ask "what did you use to do that? Well..... a lot of stuff. I assembled the images in Photoshop, put them together in Flash, and edited the sound in InAudio. The video you now see is a Flash movie and my next challenge is going to be converting the Flash movie to video format --- an MPEG or other video format --- so it can be uploaded to video servers like Google Video and YouTube. I'm still not sure how that is going to work but I'll let you know!

Now on to another matter. Some time back I started reviewing independently published books here. That proved to be a daunting task because the simple truth is there aren't a lot of independently published works of fiction that I consider to be of sufficient quality for me to promote them. These days I am much more in sympathy with literary agents and publishers because the simple truth is lots of the independent books I've tried to read are just awful Fortunately there are some shining exceptions. Dennis Batchelder's Soul Identity is one of them.

Soul Identity by Dennis Batchelder

When it comes to pure creativity, Soul Identity is worth reading for that alone but there is a lot more to it. The premise of the novel is that a powerful but secretive business, Soul Identity, has developed a method whereby the progress of one's soul from one lifetime to the next can be tracked and identified. This allows people to save their acquisitions from lifetime to lifetime thus amassing a considerable fortune over lifetimes and also creating "collections" of tools that will give them advantages from one lifetime to the next. A fascinating possibility. And Batchelder has done an amazing job of defining the technique for doing this. But now Soul Identity is being threatened by a possible competitor and there are mysterious internal issues too. Into the situation comes Scott Waverly, a non-believer who earns his living detecting security holes. His job: to find out what is going on and how to stop it. The rest of the book is a mixture of adventure, forays into the philosophy that forms the basis of Soul Identity's business, and a touch of romance.

Batchelder writes well with a quick, light touch, a dry sense of humor, and a remarkable authority of technical knowledge. His characters are not only multi-dimensional and interesting but, in many cases, highly entertaining. Waverly himself is a likeable hero who hovers on the brink of being a smart-mouth but never quite slips into that trap. He is funny, droll, sure of himself in his work but not quite as confident when romance appears --- a pleasant combination. He is assisted in his business by his parents, two very charming and engaging characters. Along the way we are introduced to a number of other intriguing characters including Scott's neighbor Berry, a Santa Claus look-alike with an interesting past, Madam Flora the fortuneteller who works for Soul Identity and her daffy twin granddaughters, and a host of Soul Identity employees with unique personalities and roles to play.

The story moves quickly as Scott and Val, the beautiful computer genius and Soul Identity employee he is falling in love with, travel around the globe in search of the information they need to lead them to the book's final confrontation.

Not only is Soul Identity an entertaining read but it explores some intriguing questions about life, death and what the hereafter means. Batchelder has created a remarkable world that draws you in and keeps you entertained from beginning to end.

Thanks for reading.