Comox Valley author J.P. McLean is set to fly in through one of those windows when her debut novel, The Gift: Awakening, is released by Friesen Press later this month.

Just as there are listeners who want indie music and filmgoers dedicated to indie movies, so too are there readers seeking books that are published independently and online.

“I’m thrilled to be a part of this movement,” says McLean. “Some readers will continue to seek out the books that have been vetted by traditional publishers, but I like the fact that there’s a choice out there.”

Growing interest in indie books and e-books is providing that choice.

“It was never my intention to become part of the Fifty Shades of Grey print-on-demand or self-publishing phenomenon, but if it’s good enough for E.L. James and recently J.K. Rowling, it’s good enough for me.”

Authors today have a myriad of new publishing avenues open to them.

“The rules have changed,” says McLean. “I’d have been foolish not to investigate my options.”

The Gift: Awakening, the first in a trilogy of novels, is an urban fantasy thriller set in coastal British Columbia. McLean calls the book “a getaway vehicle.”

“Everyone needs an escape,” she says. “I wanted to write a story that transported readers to a place so familiar they would not only believe the impossible, but they might even believe themselves to be entangled in it.”

Thank you Comox Valley Record! I’m thrilled that Awakening has hit the local press