Category Archives: Flow

This week, Flow is FREE on Kindle (even if you don’t own a Kindle, you can download it to the Kindle app on your iPhone/iPad/smart phone). After this week, the Kindle price goes back up to only 99 cents. There’s also a paperback edition for 8 bucks– what a bargain! Flow is also part of Amazon’s Lending Library, so it can always be borrowed for free for Amazon Prime members.

Don’t take my word for it– Kirkus, the well-regarded independent book reviewer, says:

Benaroch’s tightly plotted novel presents an expertly crafted world that avid fantasy readers should find rewarding, and its blend of suspense and humor will attract neophytes, as well.

So check it out! Even if you don’t own a Kindle, just “buy” the thing– it’ll help my numbers, propel Flow to the top ranks, and maybe catching me some new eyeballs. Come to think of it, you probably want to buy a whole mess of copies. At this price, you can’t go wrong!

Flow has been reviewed by Kirkus Reviews!  Pasted below. Very cool!

Benaroch, Roy
FLOW
CreateSpace (182 pp.)
January 19, 2012

A city ruled by a large number of powerful magical guilds is nearly tornapart from within due to the actions of a corrupt mayor in Benaroch’s (A Guide to Getting the Best Health Care for Your Child, 2007, etc.) debut work of fiction.
Not simply the title, “Flow” is also the word the characters in Benaroch’s story use to define magic itself. Not unlike the concept of “The Force” in Star Wars, Flow refers to invisible strings of power that ripple throughout the world and bind it together. Representatives of the magical academies test all young children for the ability to interact with and manipulate Flow. Those who test positive are taken from their parents to be trained in sorcery, which is known as “woodcraft.” After years of arduous training, those who don’t flunk out must choose a Guild that best complements their particular strengths. Meanwhile, the mayor is trying to secretly consolidate power into her own hands by setting the Guilds against one another. Her plan is threatened by the unprecedented emergence of a number of people who discover that they can work magic on their own, outside of the Guilds. Benaroch’s fantasy is rich with imaginative detail and strong prose, and a number of creative characteristics (such as
magical, anthropomorphized boxes known as “kitties,” and the mayor’s imposing security force, the Tinies) distinguish this novel from other similar tales. The author makes liberal use of satire and dark comedy, as the absurdities of this fictional society humorously comment on our own world’s impenetrable bureaucracies. Unfortunately, the characters aren’t nearly as well developed as the world they inhabit. The villain’s
motivations remain murky at best. Benaroch does, however, manage to capture the alienation the magical characters experience quite beautifully, instilling the narrative with a thoughtful and much-needed human touch.
Benaroch’s tightly plotted novel presents an expertly crafted world that avid fantasy readers should find rewarding, and its blend of suspense and humor will attract neophytes, as well.

Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Rd., Austin, TX 78744
indie@kirkusreviews.com

The masses have spoken! The good news is that Flow will shortly be available from the Kindle Lending Library, which should lead to better exposure, more readers, and, eventually, that Nobel Prize in literature I’ve been coveting. (BTW, did you know Nobel Prize winners get to ceremoniously rub the King of Sweden’s head? A lot of people don’t know that.)

The bad news is that by making this deal with Amazon, I can’t offer free PDFs of chapters here any more. So they’re all gone, zipped, into the ether. Sorry, but that’s the wheels of progress. One can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs, adding them to a pan of butter with some aged Gruyere, spinach, maybe a few mushrooms… sorry, lost my train of thought. Anyway: I’m going to eat an omelet, and you’re not going to get to read Flow, at least not for free, at least for the time being.

But: you can always buy Flow! Which really would help the moribund American economy! Your 99 cents (Kindle) or 12 clams (hey, paper’s expensive) will help keep our beloved omelet industry busy and industrious! And who wouldn’t support that?

This is the deal: the fine folks at Amazon have offered to make Flow a borrow-able book in the Kindle Lending Library (I think this is a perk for Amazon Prime customers, plus a few other close friends of Jeff Bezos.) That would be kind of cool, and other first-time authors on their bulletin boards say it’s a great way for me to get some exposure over there through borrowing and promotional opportunities. The downside, though, is I have to double-pinky-promise that I can’t distribute Flow electronically in any other way. So the free PDFs here on Benawrite would be a n0-no.

So I’ll leave it up to you folks here: do I toss my six or so loyal Benawrite readers under the bus, so to speak, to join the Amazon juggernaut, propelling me to Fame and Fortune? Or do I dance with them that brought me, and keep dribbling out the chapters here for free?

PS. You can buy the whole dang thing on Kindle for 99 cents anyway. So by “Fortune” I meant, “enough money to buy the Grande instead of the Tall coffee”.

Ahh… nothing quite like the smell of a nice new book. Sure, the recently typo-expunged Kindle edition is great, but some people just prefer the heft and taste of a real genuine book, like Gutenberg intended.

So now you’ve got a choice!

Buy Flow on Kindle for only 99 cents– hurry, before they run out of electrons!

Buy Flow in a shatterproof paperback edition direct from the publisher for $8– a little more expensive, yes, but remember you can always burn it for warmth or use it to prop up the edge of a coffee table. Plus, your grandchildren will stare in amazement someday– “Wow! Is that from a museum?”

Buy Flow directly from me, complete with signature, for $10– that includes $2 for shipping and “handling”– whatever that’s supposed to mean. It’s not like I’m going to wear cotton gloves or anything. But I promise to try not to sneeze on it. For a signed copy or two or six, contact me.

The craziness of Guildfayre is over, and it’s time to take a breath. Or at least you’d think. But it’s not that kind of book! Violette has escaped with Sal and Cabrese, but the Mayor is fuming, and she’s likely to try to strike back quickly. What’s her deal, anyway?

Flow chapter 8

Thanks to Norman and Vicki Pollack, several evil typos have been expunged. Yay! The Kindle Edition has been updated. It’s still only 99 cents– what a bargain! At that price, you can’t afford not to buy it!*

For those of you who already bought Flow on Kindle, you ought to get an email from Kindle support in next few days offering to upload the latest version at no charge. You’ll lose your bookmarks if you do this, but ooo it’s worth it.

*It’s a figure of speech. Please don’t correct my math.

This is a long chapter and the first big turning point. The guilds are trying to recruit the top talent– but the most talented girl of all really doesn’t seem very interested in the traditional guilds. What does that have to do with dog breeding? Read on to find out!

Flow chapter 7

We’re well into the meat of things– things that may not be as they seem. What’s up with that crazy mayor? Who’s killing off the Wands, and how? And what happens when a Staff tries to fly? Questions, questions…

Flow chapter 6

There’s been a spike in visitors here, (not sure why, maybe just good karma, or maybe Google confused Benawrite with JKRowling.com. Yay!

Panic at the docks– churning Flow, a Wand is attacked, and suspicions fly. Back at school, tossing stones to pass the time. That guy Vix is a real jerk (he was named before the Falcons quarterback was arrested for torturing dogs, that’s just an eerie coincidence.) I’ll have fun messing with him later!

Flow chapter 5