Here’s what unfolded in July… and what’s on the horizon:

📘 Author Spotlights

This month, we featured two incredible indie voices:

✨ Seeing Sunny Again by Paul Clayton

Seeing Sunny Again contains stories about childhood written for adult readers, stories about teenagers coming to terms with their desires in the wider world, stories about young men at war in a foreign land, stories about young adults and the reality of love, mixed-cultural relationships, marriage, divorce, and single parenting. And stories about older people preparing for the final stage in their lives. These are American stories, but universal in theme and appeal. By → Read the Feature

✨ Unfolding Origami by Loren Galese, LPC, ACS

A trauma memoir from a therapist who survived coercion, sexual assault, and cult-like hazing during college. Years later, after sobriety and intensive therapy, Loren reclaimed her voice and wrote this story—part survival narrative, part psychological insight. A book about how easily we lose ourselves and what it takes to find our way back. By () Loren Galese → Read the Feature

📚 July Indie Picks

Our shelves keep growing with exceptional indie reads that deserve your attention, here’s our picks for July:

Giselle and Mr Memphis by Jerry Simcock — This is the journal of Ignatz Himmelsputz, survivor, dwarf and entertainer. It is 1974 and Ignatz lives in Frankfurt with Giselle, who is the singer in his band, his teacher and a trans survivor of the Vietnam War. A chance meeting with Hermann, the son of Von Bühler, an SS Officer under whose control he was kept in the Nazi period, triggers in Ignatz a desire to get his story down: how he was ordered to be the companion to Von Bühler’s sister who had Down’s Syndrome and how he witnessed the sister’s descent into the hell of the Nazi euthanasia programmes. He writes down his story interspersed with the detail of his struggles in helping Giselle to cope with her own past. He befriends Hermann and finally reconnects with the man who caused him so much suffering and is now a successful Child Psychologist. Together they are forced to confront their pasts…

This compelling story of man’s inhumanity to man and the liberating elation of forgiveness is a worthy parable for the twenty-first century. By → Buy it Here

Black Yeii: The Evil One by Joseph Lewis— The police fabricated a story about the night four MS-13 members died. George Tokay and his friends were supposed to keep it secret. But someone talked, and now MS-13 is back for revenge. Detectives Graff, O’Connor, and Eiselmann race to find the killers before more people die. An epic battle between good and evil, loyalty and justice. By → Buy it Here

Featured Book Review

The Way of Salmon Moon by

★★★★☆

A darkly beautiful elegy and retelling of the Irish An Bradán Feasa that bends literary horror into a Paleolithic saga between a man and a horse that will delight fans of Stephen Graham Jones, Cormac McCarthy, and Clive Barker, from the award-winning author of the “mastery of mythology” (Independent Book Review) and the Fantasy Book of the Year (Independent Press) The Plain of Pillars. The Way of Salmon Moon is a Paleolithic literary horror novel of a man named Cairbre, who finds himself at the end of his people with a horse that is more than she seems and a heart rife with stories that are trying to kill him. Hunted by invaders who sup on warm wet flesh, together they cross the Rim of the World and enter a menacing and often dreamlike journey into a land where rivers fight like gods and spirits dance like wolves and violence strikes as suddenly as silence, a land where ceremony is paid for in blood, dreams too.

The Way of Salmon Moon is Irish Mythology’s An Bradán Feasa interwoven with Ovid’s Metamorphoses in all its chilling brutality and beauty presenting a provoking and lyrical journey through the stars of the Irish sacred wheel of the year. It is a story about the price of love and the fluidity of being, told with bold and primordial prose. A blend of the weird, the crass, the germinal, and the tender, Griffith’s tale offers, with uncanny and chilling clarity, the portrait of the Irish cosmic nexus and creation’s unsettled faculties, asking what does it mean to migrate, to take too much, for a shape to be made new in form?

→ Read the Full Review

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Indie Lit Journal: Volume 3 Coming September

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Fresh indie author spotlights. More picks from the directory. A deeper look at what goes into building a space for indie voices.

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July was about celebrating the depth of indie literature—from memoir to short stories to literary mythology. Thank you for being part of this community.

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The Way of Salmon Moon opens with Cairbre, the last surviving son of a people wiped out by conquest, stranded on a frozen mountainside with little reason to keep going. He’s cold, grieving, and alone with what he remembers. From the opening pages, D. Firth Griffith establishes a story rooted in loss, survival, and the fragile thread between history and myth, set against a Paleolithic world that feels raw and entirely its own.

Though this is the third installment in Griffith’s Rimwalker series, following The Plain of Pillars and Bloodless We Go Buried, it reads as a self-contained story. New readers won’t need the earlier books to find their footing here.

Griffith’s prose is dense and deliberate, closer to incantation than conventional narrative pacing, and it asks real patience of the reader in exchange for its rewards.

A Myth Retold From the Ground Up

Drawing on An Bradán Feasa, the ancient Irish legend of the Salmon of Knowledge, Griffith doesn’t simply retell a familiar tale. He builds a world where the past survives less in record than in what people carry forward and tell each other. The result is a novel that feels fully inhabited, where every detail, from the landscape to the language, helps create the sense of an older world.

A Horse, a Bond, and a Bit of Warmth

At the heart of the novel is Cairbre’s relationship with Rykati, the white mare who becomes his companion. Their bond provides moments of warmth in an otherwise sombre story, and their conversations offer welcome relief from the novel’s heavier themes. Rykati is wise, stubborn, and occasionally humorous, making her one of the book’s most memorable characters.

The Footnotes Do Real Work

Griffith builds much of the novel out of language itself. Reconstructed Proto-Celtic runs through the book, backed by etymological notes that trace words across centuries. Rather than feeling like decoration, the language reflects one of the novel’s central ideas: that words, stories, and memory are ways cultures survive long after the people themselves have disappeared. Readers with an interest in mythology, linguistics, or ancient history will likely appreciate the depth of research behind these choices.

That said, the sheer density of footnotes occasionally pulls focus away from the story itself. Flipping between narrative and etymology breaks the spell more than once. It reads like a choice, not an oversight. Griffith clearly wants readers to slow down and sit with the language, not just move past it.

Where Myth Turns to Horror

As the story progresses, the atmosphere gradually shifts. What begins as mythological fantasy moves into psychological horror; and memory, dream, and reality start to blur into each other. The novel relies less on graphic imagery than on mounting unease, allowing its most unsettling moments to grow naturally from the mythology it has carefully established.

The appearance of Bradán near the novel’s conclusion is one of its strongest scenes. Griffith recasts the legendary Salmon of Knowledge in a way that is both recognisable and deeply unsettling, transforming an age-old symbol of wisdom into something far stranger.

Readers sensitive to body horror should know this sequence gets viscerally graphic. This isn’t a gentle metaphorical shift into darker territory; it earns its horror classification. What follows is emotionally intense, drawing Cairbre, and the reader, into the full weight of personal and cultural loss.

A Story That Stays With You

This isn’t a novel driven by fast-paced action. Its strengths lie in its atmosphere, careful world-building, and willingness to explore larger questions about identity, grief, memory, and survival. Readers looking for a straightforward fantasy adventure may find its unhurried pace challenging, but those who enjoy literary fiction grounded in folklore and mythology will find much to admire.

Griffith has written something hard to place alongside anything else on shelves right now. Ancient myth, historical imagination, and psychological horror, held together in one book. You’ll still be thinking about Cairbre’s stories, the ones he inherited, the ones he lost, and the ones he manages to carry forward, well after you’ve put the book down.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review by: Adrian Lowe for Indie Lit Lounge

Who Should Read This

Readers who love myth retellings that go somewhere unexpected, especially fans of An Bradán Feasa and other Irish legends reimagined for a new form. If you’re drawn to constructed languages, deep etymology, and world building that rewards slowing down, Griffith’s Proto-Celtic footnotes will feel like a gift rather than a distraction. Fans of animal companionship stories with real bite (Rykati is one of the most memorable parts of the book) will find plenty to love here too.

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Publishing is full of milestones that often go unnoticed, so this is your place to share them.

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Featured Listing

Unfolding Origami: A Memoir by Loren Galese, LPC, ACS

A candid memoir that traces coercive control, trauma and addiction, and the long, nonlinear work of healing that follows. Galese writes as both a therapist and a survivor, and that dual lens is what sets the book apart: it never turns clinical, even as it maps how manipulation and groupthink can quietly reshape a person’s sense of self.

The story moves from a coercive dynamic in her first year of university, through a sorority experience that mirrored the same powerlessness, into years of numbing the fallout before sobriety opened the door to real therapy. What emerges is less a recounting of what happened and more a study in rebuilding trust in yourself afterward. Recommended for readers drawn to memoirs that are difficult in subject matter but ultimately hopeful in shape.

Buy it here · Follow Loren on Substack

Unfolding Origami holds a permanent featured spot in the Indie Lit Directory.

Upgrade to a featured listing here

Mystery & Thriller

Black Yé'ii (The Evil One) by Joseph Lewis A high-octane thriller set in small-town Wisconsin, mixing family loyalty, gang violence and a personal vendetta in the author's tenth book. Buy it here

Black Hole Sun by Jan Koberg A tense entry in the mystery/thriller shelf, built for readers who like their plots wound tight. Buy it here

The Last Saboteur by Martin Roy Hill A WWII-set spy thriller anchored by a morally conflicted impostor plot and a strong sense of period atmosphere. Buy it here

Target Pool: A Novel by S. A. Black Dark, fast-moving suspense where intellect and adrenaline drive the plot as much as the danger does. Buy it here

Poetry

Dreaming of North Beach (from Corporate America) by Deno Gell A sharp, entertaining collection that takes aim at corporate culture and the daily grind. Buy it here

NO LABEL AUTHENTIC by Christen Foster A collection built around one throughline: refusing to be defined by anyone else’s terms. Buy it here

Fiction

Giselle and Mr Memphis by Jerry Simcock A gripping novel that builds from an unsettled start to a genuinely harrowing climax. Buy it here

Young Adult

Key of the Darkhouse by Deborah Zelasny An island-set YA adventure following two young leads fighting for justice against a darker backdrop. Buy it here

Fantasy

Wolf and Crown by Joshua Bader A character-driven epic fantasy with tabletop role-playing roots, where even the smallest characters get their due. Buy it here

If you’re interested in cross-promotions, newsletter swaps or reader magnet exchanges, introduce yourself in the comments.

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Genre: Memoir

Book Description:

During the first few months of my freshman year in college, I became entangled in a coercive, cult-like dynamic with my suitemates, which led to being sexually assaulted by someone connected to a roommate. But the trauma didn’t end there. Seeking escape, safety, and belonging, I pledged a sorority—only to find that the hazing rituals eerily mirrored the powerlessness I had just survived. The lines between fear, loyalty, and identity blurred, leaving my 19-year-old self dissociated and questioning my own reality. To cope, I turned to alcohol and pills, trying to numb the confusion and pain that no one seemed to see or validate. Years later, after failing to outrun the ghosts of my past, sobriety opened a door to deeper healing.

Becoming a therapist myself, I began the difficult work of confronting my own trauma, engaging in intensive therapy to unravel the psychological programming that had kept me trapped in fear, shame, and disconnected from my intuition. This memoir reveals how easily someone can lose touch with themselves when surrounded by groupthink and gaslighting. It is a story of reclaiming self-trust, recognizing coercion in unexpected places, and the long, nonlinear journey of healing.

Buy 'Unfolding Origami' on Amazon

Follow Loren on Substack

Buy it Here | Category: Fantasy

Buy it Here | Category: Mystery/Thriller

Buy it Here | Category: Poetry

Buy it Here | Category: Mystery/Thriller

Buy it Here | Category: Y/A

Buy it Here | Category: Fiction

Buy it Here | Category: Poetry

Buy it Here | Category: Mystery/Thriller

Buy it Here | Category: Mystery/Thriller

💬 What It’s About

During the first few months of my freshman year in college, I became entangled in a coercive, cult-like dynamic with my suitemates, which led to being sexually assaulted by someone connected to a roommate. But the trauma didn’t end there. Seeking escape, safety, and belonging, I pledged a sorority—only to find that the hazing rituals eerily mirrored the powerlessness I had just survived. The lines between fear, loyalty, and identity blurred, leaving my 19-year-old self dissociated and questioning my own reality. To cope, I turned to alcohol and pills, trying to numb the confusion and pain that no one seemed to see or validate. Years later, after failing to outrun the ghosts of my past, sobriety opened a door to deeper healing.

Becoming a therapist myself, I began the difficult work of confronting my own trauma, engaging in intensive therapy to unravel the psychological programming that had kept me trapped in fear, shame, and disconnected from my intuition. This memoir reveals how easily someone can lose touch with themselves when surrounded by groupthink and gaslighting. It is a story of reclaiming self-trust, recognizing coercion in unexpected places, and the long, nonlinear journey of healing.

💖 Why You’ll Love It

Galese writes from both sides, the person who survived and the therapist who understands the mechanisms behind what happened. That double vision means this isn’t just a painful story; it’s an education. She shows you how manipulation works, how it looks from the inside when you’re losing yourself, and what reclaiming yourself actually takes.

If you’ve read trauma memoirs that leave you heartbroken but confused, this one gives you the framework to understand not just what happened, but how it happened. It’s for readers who want the story and the substance.

✍🏼 About the Author

Loren is a trauma-informed therapist with over twelve years of experience specializing in relationship dynamics, couples work, and the long arc of healing through Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and IFS (Internal Family Systems). Encouraged by her father to use writing as a tool for truth-telling, Loren discovered her voice after intensive trauma therapy and research that helped her realize her own college experience through the lens of psychological manipulation and coercion. Blending poetic reflection with clinical insight, her writing explores the hidden terrain of survival, intuition, and the emotional cost of being silenced.

Loren’s work invites readers to explore questions about power, connection, and healing, whether they see themselves in her story or simply want to understand the complexity of trauma more deeply. This is her first book, but not her last. She is driven by a passion for justice, the healing power of storytelling, and the belief that truth—once spoken—can change everything.

Submit your book here

🌟 Why We Spotlight Authors Like Paul

Paul Clayton has the career most indie authors are working toward. Decades of writing, a Frankfurt eBook Awards nomination and a perspective on craft that only comes from time and experience. We spotlight authors like Paul because this kind of longevity in indie publishing doesn’t happen by accident—it takes conviction, a genuine point of view, and the willingness to keep going.

Q: What inspired you to write Seeing Sunny Again? Was there a moment or idea that sparked the story?

Paul: Life inspired me. With all its inequity, beauty and horror.

Q: What has been the most surprising or rewarding part of your indie publishing journey so far?

Paul: Having access to readers, being able to get my work out there, and getting some critical, but positive reviews and press. Like being named one of twelve finalists at the 2001 Frankfurt eBook Awards with authors like David McCullough, Amitav Ghosh, Allen Furst and Joyce Carol Oates, or my book, Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam.

Q: Do you have a favorite line or passage from your book you’d love to share? Why does it stand out to you?

Paul: I jabbed my fork into a big chicken leg I’d had my eyes on and put it on my plate. Then I took some macaroni salad and beans. I had turned to pour some iced tea in my glass when a skinny, sickly pale arm appeared just under my own. The hand was smallish, with dirty fingernails; it grabbed the chicken leg off my plate. Tommy cackled like a leprechaun and ran off into the living room. I looked around the table in shock. Aunt Martha laughed heartily. “Oh, Tommy,” she called out into the other room, “what are you doing to Carl?” Leaning across the table, she stabbed a big piece of chicken with her fork and put it on my plate. She got up and went into the next room. Uncle got to his feet, saying, “Don’t worry about it, Carl. Just eat and we’ll look after Tommy.” My father and I ate in silence.

Good writing is, I believe, all about pulling your readers into your fictive dream, not calling attention to yourself with a clever turn of phrase.

Q: If you could give one piece of advice to a new indie author, what would it be?

Paul: It would be to live life to the fullest and subject yourself to all it offers. Good writers need to have 'lived' life and felt and seen its essence, not watched a thin anemic rendering of it on the TV screen or on their 'smart' phone.

Q: What’s one book (indie or not) you wish more people would read—and why?

Paul: From Here to Eternity, by James Jones. I go back to writers having 'lived' a life, and the more interesting (as in the Chinese curse, 'May you live in interesting times) the better. Jones happened to be in the right (or wrong) place at the right time--Pearl Harbor when out of nowhere, 300 Japanese planes attacked, sinking dozens of ships and killing about 3,000 Americans. In that book, and the two that continue the story (The Thin Red Line, and Whistle), Jones makes us live that experience, or makes us almost believe we lived it. It's a fantastic book (trilogy).

🔗 Follow Paul:
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📘 Buy: Seeing Sunny Again

We love how Paul…

We love how Paul doesn’t dress his advice up. Go live, he says. Feel deeply. Pay attention. Stop watching life through a screen and go be in it, because that’s what great writing draws from. His chosen passage backs that up completely: a stolen chicken leg, a cackle, a table gone quiet. No flourish, just a scene that lands because it feels true. That’s what decades of paying attention look like on the page, and we love it.

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💬 What It’s About

Seeing Sunny Again contains stories about childhood written for adult readers, stories about teenagers coming to terms with their desires in the wider world, stories about young men at war in a foreign land, stories about young adults and the reality of love, mixed-cultural relationships, marriage, divorce, and single parenting. And stories about older people preparing for the final stage in their lives. These are American stories, but universal in theme and appeal.

💖 Why You’ll Love It

Seeing Sunny Again explores ordinary lives through moments that are heartbreaking, hopeful, and deeply human. From childhood to old age, each story offers a different glimpse into the relationships, choices, and turning points that shape a life. If you enjoy reflective short fiction, this collection deserves a place on your reading list.

✍🏼 About the Author

Paul Clayton’s fictionalized memoir, Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam, was a finalist at the 2001 Frankfurt eBook Awards. Paul Clayton authored a historical fiction series on the Spanish conquest of the Floridas—Calling Crow, Flight of the Crow, and Calling Crow Nation. He self-published his best-selling historical, White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

📅 Mark Your Calendar
Loved this spotlight? Come back Wednesday for our Q&A interview with author where we’ll dive deeper into the story behind Seeing Sunny Again. You won’t want to miss it.

🔗 Connect with Paul

📘 Book: Seeing Sunny Again

Read it Here!

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About the Book: Seeing Sunny Again contains stories about childhood written for adult readers, stories about teenagers coming to terms with their desires in the wider world, stories about young men at war in a foreign land, stories about young adults and the reality of love, mixed-cultural relationships, marriage, divorce, and single parenting. And stories about older people preparing for the final stage in their lives. These are American stories, but universal in theme and appeal.

Release Date: 07/10/2026

Book Genre: Short Stories

Order: Available here

About the Author: Paul Clayton’s fictionalized memoir, Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam, was a finalist at the 2001 Frankfurt eBook Awards. Paul Clayton authored a historical fiction series on the Spanish conquest of the Floridas—Calling Crow, Flight of the Crow, and Calling Crow Nation. He self-published his best-selling historical, White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

Follow Paul on Goodreads

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• You’re writing the book.

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Indie Lit Lounge was created to change that. Not just as another newsletter, but as a place where independent authors can learn from one another, celebrate one another and grow together.

Starting this month, we’re introducing a series of recurring member events exclusively for paid subscribers. Each one has a different purpose, making it easier to connect, collaborate and celebrate one another throughout the month.

Inside the Members' Lounge 📚

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Use this monthly event to find newsletter swaps, cross-promotions, reader magnet exchanges and collaborative opportunities with other indie authors.

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Every publishing journey is made up of moments worth celebrating. At the end of each month, we’ll gather to share our wins, big or small and cheer one another on.

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