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Devil of the Deep

Falencia Jean-Francois

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Sep 23 2024

Here is the Ad that will hang in Time Square!

As you guys know, I will have an ad in Time Square next month, which I will be using to advertise for this community! Here is the finished ad!

5 books

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Sep 17 2024

FALENCIA JEAN-FRANCOIS\ \ Falencia is a hatian woman who speaks freely about her intersecting identities and fights to bring the world stories that not only represent her, but teach the world something. Her debut book, Devil of the Deep, follows a mermaid who is forced to flee her home in order to escape an underwater cult and ends up partnering with a notoroius pirate and an unwilling navy captain to protect an ancienty artifact from nefarious forces who want to use it to end the world.\ \ This book is filled with intersecting marginalized identities and big conversations about things like Blackness, trans identity, queerness, what it means to be "othered" and even the need to deconstruct colonial religion. This book was masterfully written and, in my opinion, is one of the greatest pieces of literature to be written in modern times.\ \ NATALIA HERNANDEZ\ \ Natalia is a rising (already risen, let's be honest) star in the indie space. Her debut, The Namebearer, came out late 2022, and she has already become one of the most well-known and celebrated authors in many bookish spaces. The Namebearer follows a young girl who was taken from her home and stripped of her name and identity so that she could be raised by the royal family with one specific purpose: so that when the Queen eventually gives birth to the next monarch, she can go to the flowers of prophesy and receive his name. However, when the Prince is born, she goes to the flowers and is told that he will not be king. In fact, if she wants to save the kingdom, she must rebel against the royal family and go find The Promised Prince so that he can take his throne and usher the realm into peace.\ \ In the Namebearer, we primarily follow this nameless girl as she hides among a group of warrior women and trains for this important mission. And throughout the rest of the series ( Follower of Flowers, Daughter of Danray & unnamed final installment), we follow her as she fights for her own identity in the midst of sacrificing everything to save a kingdom that considers her a traitor. This story speaks to every little girl and every brown person who has been raised to believe that they only exist in the context of a people who want to both rule them and erase them.\ \ She is also the author of Asiri and the Amaru, which follows a woman who has the rare gift of being able to talk to animals. She has spent her entire life being exploited by her father to build his own reputation. But when she runs away, she decides that she isn't going to tell anyone about her gift. She wants to live a normal life. But when a mythical Amaru gets hurt and a very attractive vet needs her help to save it... well... you know where the story goes from there. This story is a beautiful peak into Peruvian mythology with a cozy, warm setting.\ \ Natalia writes unapologetically Latine storys filled with beautiful imagery, fantastical magic and beautifully orchestrated plots. Couldn't recommend her work more!!!\ \ AMANDA WEAVER\ \ Amanda is one of the best writers I know. Her first book I came across was In the House of Transcendence, which follows a Black woman who can see and interact with ghosts. As a child, her father exploited her gifts and denied her community with people who could help her understand and grow in her gifts. She lived her life in isolation and seperated from her community. But when she stumbles accross another witch and is invited to be a part of a real community, she jumps at the opportunity. Even when it comes with its own set of challenges and difficulties. Including a murder that only she can solve. Working closely with one of the communities elders, our main character must investigate the death of the elder's lover, while building community with her new found-family and working at a local burlesque club. Yes, you read that right. This book is about a burlesque dancing necromancer. Need I say more?\ \ I also read her most recent novel, No One's Gonna Take Her Soul Away, which follows a Black woman who is brutally murdered and unjustly sent to the seventh level of Pandemonium (hell). But she knows she doesn't deserve to be there, so with the help of a vampire and a werewolf, she must battle her way through seven levels of hell so that she can confront the god who banished her there and find justice for herself. This book has strong conversations about the plight of Black women who are forced to fight for, and to save, themselves. It is an incredible story filled with gore, big conversations, and a dash of spice.\ \ ​\ \ ​\ \ ​\ \ ​

Sapphic September!

Here is a short list of a few of my favorite sapphic indies to read this September!

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Aug 21 2024

BLACK indie author day!

Today is BLACK indie author day and I want you to spend today fighting for Black authors! Here are some ways you can do just that! (1) go buy at least one of the books I am linking to this post (2) promote a Black author on your social media or recommend a Black author to a fiend and (3) invite a friend to subscribe to this Bindery so they can join the fight for authors in the margins! The work we are doing MATTERS and it can’t happen without a thriving community. So help me build it! Love you all!

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Aug 4 2024

TAVERN by Deston Munden: This book follows Xel, a tavern owner and leader of a notorious mercenary group. He is an ORC, but unlike the Orcs that are typically portrayed in fantasy, he is not a violent, savage brute. Munden works to unravel decades of anti-Black stereotypes that are attached to this fantasy race by giving us an Orc who is soft, loveable, and kind while still being every bit as powerful as every other member of his race we've met. In this story, Xel heals a group of people who are suffering, which puts him on the radar of a group of assassins who are working to destabalize Xel's city. In order to survive, he must get to the bottom of their evil plan and unite his community in standing against them. This book is classic high fantasy with a strong pro-Black undertone. I knew I wanted to be a part of this project the moment I read it, and so, together with the author, I helped to get the book a new cover and to relaunch it with a strong media campaign. I am very proud of this project and would love to see it grow even bigger with the next two books in the already finished series!\ _**Devil of the Deep by Falencia Jean-Francois: **_This book is a high-fantasy queer pirate mermaid story that follows a young mermaid who is forced to flee from an underwater cult that has taken firm control of her community. She flees to the above sea world with an artifact her uncle entrusts to her and ends up partnering with a notorious pirate and a navy-captian who is struggling to deconstruct the colonial religion that has a grip on his organization in order to protect the artifact and hopefully save the world from utter destruction. I did not have a part in publishing this book but I have spent the last few months strongly championing this book and fighting to get Falencia's name into every corner of BookTok. And I think I have been pretty successful in helping to make sure everyone heard about this book. It is one of the best books I have ever read, and if you haven't read it...fix that, friend.\ \ MAY A DIVINE AWAKEN by Michael Tinsley: This book is another fantasy. It is about a young boy who is struggling to find his place in the world. Due to a skin condition (vitiligo), he has been partially ostracized from his community. And on top of that, he lives in a world that is devastatingly divided by things like gender, class, and power, which further isolates him. In his world, an order of people with supernatural power work together to protect eight sacred keys. If those keys are combined they can be used to unleash an unbelievable power. And of course, our main character finds himself caught right in the middle as the world's major players decide its time to make their bid for that power. After a team of mercenaries destroy his town, he ends up on the run, fighting to find answers and to unleash a power he has always dreamed of so that he can save his people from unfit rulers and powerful tyrants. I did not help publish this, but I have been taking a very special interest in promoting it as far and wide as I possibly can and have played a huge role in getting this book into hundreds of hands. And I fully intent to continue championing it until Tinsley is a household name.\ \ Why am I telling you this?\ \ Two reasons... first, because I want you to be aware of these books adn to buy them if they speak to you. And two, because I want you to see that our goals are acheivable! Fighting for indies is not hopeless. Here are three examples of authors I have been able to partner with to bring ACTUAL change to people's careers. And TOGETHER as a community, we can do that same thing for soooo many more authors.\ \ This community is giving me so much hope. This work has been so lonely! And I am so thrilled by the chance to do all of this at a much larger level, and it is all thanks to you!\ \ Thank you for being here!!\ \ (Also, if you want to be a part of choosing and championing whatever book we will publish together as Left Unread Books, make sure you are subscribed at the $5 tier or higher so you have access to the publishing content!)\ \ ​

Here are some indie books I have helped with in the past!

Our Bindery community may be new, but this vision is not new. I have been in this work, and here are just a few projects that I have helped to either publish or market in the past year or two! Check them out and give them some love if they sound interesting to you!

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Jul 28 2024

[**Amanda Weaver: **Amanda writes a range of Fantasy and Horror. I have read two of her books:\ \

• _In The House of Transcendence, _which follows a necromancer who works as a burlesque dancer and helps her new boss solve the murder of her dead lover while cproving herself to the community of witches her boss oversees. This book has strong conversations about identity, found family, Blackness and belonging, and has plenty of Black and queer representation. Low spice, but plenty of romantic themes.\
• _No One's Gonna Take Her Soul Away, _a book about a Black woman who is murdered and unjustly sent to the seventh level of Pandemonia (hell). Unwilling to spend eternity suffering, she partners with a werewolf and a vamp, who help her fight her way through all seven levels of Pandemonia so she can confront the pretentious goddess who condemned her in the first place. This story has moderate spice, an enemy to lovers storyline, and PLENTY of violence, gore and hard-to-stomach torture. It also has conversations about found family, redemption, Blackness and the Black woman's worth.\ \ Natalia Hernandez: Natalia is in the middle of a high fantasy series and a series of interconnected cozy fantasy stand-alones. I have read all four of her books, including her most recent, which releases in two months.\ \
• Flowers of Prophesy Series is a high fantasy series about a young woman who is on a quest to find the rightful prince of her nation so that she can stop a war that has been raging for centuries and stop the bloodshed. The first book, _The Name Bearer, _introduces us to the Name Bearer, who was taken from her family as a baby and raised in the royal castle with no name or identity of her own. Her only purpose was to wait for the Queen to have a son and to then go to the flowers of prophesy to receive his name. Only, when the Queen finally has a son, she goes to the flowers...and they tell her that the Queen's son will not be the next King. Armed with that knowledge, she must go on a quest to find the Prince that was Promised and to bring him back for his naming ceremony. Which leads the Name Bearer on a decade long quest, where she is raised and trained in combat by a society of reveered warrior women. The following books follow her quest to discover her identity, carve out space for herself, and...well...FIND THE PRINCE. The third book in this series (of four planned books) comes out October 17th! This series is filled with magic, self-discovery, fighting, bloodshed, political intrigue, and a very slow burn romance.\
• _Asiri and the Amaru _is the first in a five-book interconnected series of stand-alone romantasy stories. This one follows Asiri, a young Peruvian woman who has the rare ability to speak with animals. After a lifetime of her father exploiting her abilities to amplify his prestige in their community, she runs away from home and resettles in a beautiful seaside village, where she is determined not to tell anyone about her gift...until she runs into a Veterinarian who needs her help to nurse a mythical Amaru back to health. This one has a bit of spice, but only one scene.\ \ Falencia Jean Francois writes high fantasy better than almost anyone I know! I have read her debut, which was one of the best books I've ever written!!\ \
• _Devil of the Deep _is a high fantasy following a pirate, a mermaid and an officer as their stories converge at the end of the world. When our main character realizes she is a part of an underwater cult, she must swim to the surface world to escape their clutches, only to find her path crossing with a notorious pirate who is at war with a navy that is secretly working toward the same aim as the cult she has just escaped from. This story has massive conversations about identity, found family, colonization and resisting colonial religion. It has plenty of Black, queer, trans and neurodivergent representation. And it is by far, one of the best books I have EVER read in my life. Couldn't recommend this story more highly! Very mild spice.\ \ Deston Munden writes high fantasy with the intention of representing Black people and challenging the racist notions that often exist in fantasy circles. I have read several of Deston's books and I loved them so much that I am currently working with him to republish them and hopefully push them to a wider market!\ \
• _Dusk Mountain Blues _is a sci-fi story about a Black family that are the descendants of humans who were experiemented on by the government before developing powers and escaping to a mostly abandoned planet, where they now battle against the invading forces of the intergallactic government that captured them to begin with. This is a story that speaks to making space for Black people in every space, drawing inspiration from a lot of stories that often speak primarily to white audiences. Our main characters are deniably country, poor, uneducated and rough around the edges. But also...they are undeniably BLACK. We watch them navigate hard relationships, family fueds, tension with the native inhabitants of the planet they were forced onto, and incredible displays of power, love and solidarity against oppression. This is the first of a series. I honestly don't remember if there was any spice, but I don't believe there was.\
• Tavern is also the first book in a series. It follows an Orc who owns a tavern and leads a group of mercenaries. When he helps heal the wrong people, he ends up on the wrong side of a group of assassins, who are determined to make him pay. This story sees him fight for his freedom, and fight to protect his home and city from an insurmountable threat. This book fights to combat many of the racist tropes that are often written into Orc characters in fantasy stories. And despite having no humans, this book reads as undeniably BLACK.\ \ Michael Tinsley put out his debut last year, which I read and LOVED.\ \
• _May a Divine Awaken _is about a young Black boy who has been ostracized from his community because of a skin condition (vitiligo). His world takes the divisions that exist in our world to the extreme. So far that their eight nations are not only split by ethnic identity, but also by gender. Men and women are seperated as dramatically as possible, as are the rich from the poor and the powerful from the powerless. Our main character has always thought himself to be weak, not having supernatural power of his own, but when his town is attacked by assassins, and he ends up on a journey in search of help, he finds out that the power he SHOULD have has been locked away and if he wants to save the world from an attempted coup from two of their world's highest leaders, he will have to awaken his power and fight for everyone's lives. This book was one of my favorite reads of 2023, and I recently received a package from the author with a copy of the second edition, which has been released with an all new (and incredible) cover!](https://leftunreadbooks.binderybooks.com/item/QUSvW8OLyzenCMlxHfFl/)

Five Black/brown Authors You Should Know

If you like reading Black and brown books (which, if you don't...why are you here?), here are a list of five authors you should be intimately familiar with!

11 books

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Apr 27 2024

Topic: Book Club: Devil of the Deep\ \ Date/Time: Monday Apr 29 | 05:00 PM CST\ \ Location: ZOOM\ \ https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82236820031?pwd=18y00SCWc3UdbVIN0d4PHalQbNIcei.1\ \ Meeting ID: 822 3682 0031\ \ Passcode: 368400

Book Club

Here is the info and link for book club this month!

1 book

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Apr 19 2024

Break the Binary Friday: Falencia Jean-Francois

Celebrating non-binary authors of color every Friday!

1 book

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Apr 2 2024

April Book Club Pick!

Announcing our book for April and some insight on how Book club will look!

1 book

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 29 2024

Earlier this week, I made a post on Tiktok promoting Devil of the Deep, which I will link below, and I asked my following to help me sell the author out of her tiktok shop. And a few hours later, she was completely sold out. And loving the reaction, I put more books in front of my audience (books by Natalia Hernandez and Michael Tinsley), and they continued to show up and buy Black and brown books and help me in my goal of making Black and brown indie's famous.... and I am feeling so encouraged.\ \ This journey... content creation... has never been just about building an audience or monetization or anything like that. It has always been about making CHANGE... and I cannot tell you how exciting it has been to me over the last year to watch as my audience shows up time and time again to join me in that mission.\ \ And I am especially grateful for each and every one of you because you are here because you share that visison with me. You care about making change. And I appreciate you more than you will ever know.\ \ ​\ \ ​

A week of selling Black books.

I spent the last few days working toward selling Black books on Tiktok and I wanna talk about!

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Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 20 2024

One of the best books I've ever read!

Im so serious. Get a copy now. #BookTok #blackbooktok #readwithmichael #writewithmichael #readingispolitical #writingispolitical #bipocauthors #indieauthors #devilofthedeep

2 books

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 12 2024

Black mermaids and an exploration of colonial religion?

Anyway, i’m reading your book right bow @Falencia J-F 🤣🤣 #booktok #blackbooktok #readwithmichael #writewithmichael #readingispolitical #writingispolitical #bipocauthors #indiebooks

1 book

Posts about this book from across Bindery

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Sep 23 2024

Here is the Ad that will hang in Time Square!

As you guys know, I will have an ad in Time Square next month, which I will be using to advertise for this community! Here is the finished ad!

5 books

6

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Sep 17 2024

Sapphic September!

Here is a short list of a few of my favorite sapphic indies to read this September!

7 books

3

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Aug 21 2024

BLACK indie author day!

19 books

9

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Aug 4 2024

Here are some indie books I have helped with in the past!

4 books

10

2

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Jul 28 2024

Five Black/brown Authors You Should Know

If you like reading Black and brown books (which, if you don't...why are you here?), here are a list of five authors you should be intimately familiar with!

11 books

7

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Apr 27 2024

Topic: Book Club: Devil of the Deep\ \ Date/Time: Monday Apr 29 | 05:00 PM CST\ \ Location: ZOOM\ \ https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82236820031?pwd=18y00SCWc3UdbVIN0d4PHalQbNIcei.1\ \ Meeting ID: 822 3682 0031\ \ Passcode: 368400\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login

Book Club

Here is the info and link for book club this month!

1 book

2

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Apr 19 2024

Break the Binary Friday: Falencia Jean-Francois

Celebrating non-binary authors of color every Friday!

1 book

8

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Apr 2 2024

April Book Club Pick!

Announcing our book for April and some insight on how Book club will look!

1 book

14

7

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 29 2024

A week of selling Black books.

I spent the last few days working toward selling Black books on Tiktok and I wanna talk about!

5 books

2

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 20 2024

One of the best books I've ever read!

2 books

Left Unread Books\ \ Michael LaBorn\ \ • Feb 12 2024

Black mermaids and an exploration of colonial religion?

1 book