The Free

Hi,
I'm not in the least surprised you're at number 7 with this.

It's powerful, raw writing at its best. it's emotional and precise in the POV.

A very professional bit of wrting.

I have no complaints and feel you don't need a critique, just support.

Backed with no hesitation.

E Book OUT NOW as a Free Download, from the Blog and ''selling well''.

Also available on Gooogle Boooks, Scribd, Issuu and the Anarchist Library
and publicized via its blog and FarseBook pages.

I'm finally updating this 'authonomy edition' so in a few days there will
be an amazing improvement, at least in my dubious opinion

Thanks everyone for your help and support with this project.
**********************************************

...............After reaching Rank 7 again the book has been neglected for over a year on this shite.
........................................I'm now hoping to get more active again here
...................I'm still happy to review or comment on your book, but just for fun.. ON REQUEST.

.......................I do try to return all shelvings, unless your book is fascist, sexist or racist.
...............This is complicated, as there's no point backing for less than a few days it seems, so
.....................................................please let me know if I screw up!
............. .The BLOG/site is now worth checking out....http://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/
Plus it has a super page on Farcebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001284179241&sk=wall

..........I'm also using the book to promote CO2-Free fuel, now integrated into the text, as I'm now convinced
............................that the whole planet is being ever more rapidly and irrevocably trashed.
..............check it out here: http://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/category/ammonia-nh3-co2-free-fuel/

.............................................Thanx a trillion to all supporters of The Free

Mike, The start of your book is incontestable, the first chapters make shivers run down your spine and provoke intense sympathy for the MC. Next to that, your humour, your control of language, your powers of observation are eviably correct, powerful, authentic. There is no other writer like you and that makes you stand out. I think that the dropping of your book in the ranks may have something to do with the fact that it portrays a view on Western life that people may find "amusing", interesting, unusual but are not ready for. You're a head of your time but because you believe in your philosophy with all your heart and make no attempt to disguise it, it loses part of the cheerful lightness that your writing absolutely has. Maybe you should write in your profile that you are a successful CEO and let the book tell it's own story. It's just a matter of finding what is more effective. I currently am rewriting a true-life story in a fiction-like way, which wasn't my original idea. Anyway, to me you are an exceptionally gifted writer whose book deserves 6 stars and a place on my shelf right now. Hannah

Hello Mike,
What a ride for me to revisit the illustrious Linda and the land of the free - I remember this as one of the first books I read on Authonomy--way back when--and thinking how I wished I could write with such flair. I'm so happy The Free is being published. You first chapter is a great example of hooking through both characterization and your dark comic voice. Your choice of words are priceless from the bleeding yellow volcano (such a visual, that scene) to a zombie late for lunch. And has their ever been an antagonist more perfect than Sister Bernie. Not that I can remember. You've got the antics, and the adolescent rationale behind the antics, down pat. It's a great story and I'm so happy I came back.
Lizzi
(Out of Sync)

The Free is a story with a serious message, and the real joy of it is how author M.Gilliland disguises that within a very good story. Almost every other “message” book I’ve ever read has been a bit ham-handed and clunky, but The Free is, well, Free of all that.

Based on the somewhat disjointed pitch, I was expecting a fairly wacky tale, but The Free has many serious moments that could give literary fiction tales a run for their money. Dialog is spot on perfect and it’s easy to emphasize with the main character as either Linda or Maxie. In fact, in a lot of ways, Linda/Maxie and to some extent Macker are the normal ones, the straight-man role for the crazy world Gilliland has created.

It’s also interesting to note that The Free is quite a timely tale given what is happening in the world. We’re killing our climate and our economy is going down with it, making The Free an admirable anecdote to represent our somewhat lost generation.

John Breeden II
Old Number Seven

Great! Virile and aggressive, honest and funny. I like it, I like it a lot. I've only read a little so far, but you sure pack a punch with it! Good show!

I don't have any critisism to give you, just praise for a very strong and emotional story. This is a very well executed and powerful story with very well drawn out characters and vivid descriptions.

Best Wishes,

Roy Earle, "Bad Men and Bad Odds"

you are on my shelf. Dystopias rule!

Love this. Love your world and your wacky protagonist. Can I put it on my [free] Kindle app from your blogsite? I've read 7 chapters so far. What we need is a Dystopia Press that specialises in weird worlds. Love the comedy - and the Irishness. Fair play. Go maith!

Hi Mike
Finally got to reading the first three chapters of The Free and wow! what a brilliant, sassy, voice you have created for Linda. I fell in love with her right away and though not surprised was very sad to see the truth of her life in chapter 2. Very moving, gritty and real. Enjoyed your turns of phrase , e.g. 'like a bee in a jar' and 'Janice had smashed the nice aquarium' - find the dialogue very fluent and it's a hard-to-put down read. well starred and on my bookshelf for the first week of January. Best, Coloratura

Backed the book - feel free to back mine :) I saw you wrote to me over a year ago, sorry, had a long hiatus from the site!

E Book OUT NOW as a Free Download, from the Blog and ''selling well''.

Also available on Gooogle Boooks, Scribd, Issuu and the Anarchist Library
and publicized via its blog and FarseBook pages.

I'm finally updating this 'authonomy edition' so in a few days there will
be an amazing improvement, at least in my dubious opinion

Thanks everyone for your help and support with this project.
**********************************************

...............After reaching Rank 7 again the book has been neglected for over a year on this shite.
........................................I'm now hoping to get more active again here
...................I'm still happy to review or comment on your book, but just for fun.. ON REQUEST.

.......................I do try to return all shelvings, unless your book is fascist, sexist or racist.
...............This is complicated, as there's no point backing for less than a few days it seems, so
.....................................................please let me know if I screw up!
............. .The BLOG/site is now worth checking out....http://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/
Plus it has a super page on Farcebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001284179241&sk=wall

..........I'm also using the book to promote CO2-Free fuel, now integrated into the text, as I'm now convinced
............................that the whole planet is being ever more rapidly and irrevocably trashed.
..............check it out here: http://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/category/ammonia-nh3-co2-free-fuel/

.............................................Thanx a trillion to all supporters of The Free

Your pitch drew me in and i'm glad it did. It was a great read and I hope it goes far.
Leslie
"Love has no borders"

Hi Mike,
I love this storyline, and I love your description and the use of similes. It rolls off the tongue very easily and flows. Your characters are strong and believable. A great read so far. I gave it six stars.

I now have several books on my list, feel free to have a look and give them a view.
All the best with this novel.

Keith.

A well written story with nicely drawn characters and a unique voice. I loved some of your descriptions (for example the one of Sister Bernice - a short, shriveled woman) and you certainly made me care about Linda. I have no choice but to read on to make sure she's ok in the end.
Good luck with publishing your story. I'm sure it'll do brilliantly.
Kim
St Viper's School for Super Villains

Hi, I have read your blurb and provisionally given you a 5 star rating. I will get to read some of your book asap. Keep in touch. Keith.

The Free.
Act 1 - Linda.
Poor Linda, discovering her father having an affair with awful Janice in front of an audience. This passage works really well, oscillating between Linda's horrified embarrassment and her friends hilarity at what's going on. I could not only visualise this but hear the girls squeals and jeering comments.
'Oh my god... Maybe I'd killed a saint!' Really amusing, shows the uncertainty Linda has about religion despite the sister being a right harridan. Daddy's behaviour towards her isn't right as Linda is just beginning to understand, thanks to Janice. No wonder she's so angry.
Vibrant prose with realistic dialogue. Teenaged Linda's thoughts and actions are nicely observed and come across really well. Who couldn't like her or fail to empathise with her?

Nanty - Chrys!

Not my thing - but it is very well done and written with a sassy verve that allows the reader to relate to the central character. I read the first two chapters and could find no real errors of note and I wish you all the best with it.

Best wishes
Linton Wood

Hello,
I have just rated your book 6 stars!

Hello Mike, This is not my favourtie genre or style of writing, but I can see as obviously a lot of other people can see, that your writing is very good. Your characters are rounded and appear real. I wish you the very best with this story. I would like to read more than the three chapters, so it is going on to my Watchlist for a spell.
Perhaps you would like to read some of my story PAPER DREAMS.
Best wishes to you

Phyllis
A PASSING STORM & PAPER DREAMS

What a book. This is quite the unexpected gem you have found here. I'm glad this made it into English.

Brian
Mute

I truly enjoyed reading Linda's story and her thoughts and feelings believable as a teenage girl. The narrative has a great tone and lends a wonderful flair of humor. The organization is a little confusing at first and I was not sure if we were reading Linda looking back to the past or telling things as they happen.

I suggest you may want to separated the chapter outline from the preface and the first chapter onto a different tab on the site. I didn't want to read the chapter outlines because I wanted to dive right into the story without spoilers. I jumped ahead to avoid this and had to go back to scan until I reached the narrative.

The scene that really grabbed me is Linda with her school friends seeing Janice kissing Linda's father in the car. That is a great hook and propels the story forward. You have a great style and I enjoyed the read.

Thanks,
Athena
The Raven and the Wolf

Wow! You really have something to say! Your characters are original and rich, but disturbing. I only read a few chapters was impressed by your victim's perspective. Your book kind of reminds me of It. You've tackled a real problem with major style. 6 stars and hope you get published.

Hi Mike!

What a wonderful narrative voice you have adopted. Linda is a fantastic, realistic fifteen-year-old girl. The opening of the story is gripping. The time setting is a hook in itself, set at a time when society begins to crumble as the government cannot pay its employees, somewhat like Russia not so long ago. Sister Bernadette is another well sketched personality.

Try to use the sense of smell a little to help the reader feel they’re there with Linda. When she passes the other schoolgirls, are some of them wearing the latest ‘Britney’ perfume, their parents showing off their wealth while everyone else has nothing? What about the lads? Do they stink of bo, or too much cheap deodorant? Since the school is so rundown and lacking staff, do the corridors stink of urine?

Use a few less exclamation marks, and those you must use will become more powerful.

The initial quote, a sentence from later in the story, means nothing to the virgin reader looking at this for the first time. Me? I read the quote three times, trying to understand what I was missing. ‘Was it a famous line?’ I wondered. Imho, lose it, mate.

The first few paragraphs are misleading. They don’t introduce the character very well (I assumed she was an adult to begin with because she says ‘men are all like that’ rather than boys) and don’t hook. About a page later, you have a fantastic scene outside a shop where the mc sees her father kissing a girl her own age. If you begin the whole story with that scene, you can very easily draw the reader immediately into your mc’s world.

Imagine an opening to your book something like this:

***

Well, I was passing the corner shop on my way back to school when a large group of other girls started giggling and pointing at me. What the fuck?

I stormed over to the tallest, a fourteen-year-old lass I vaguely recognised from the year below me, and shoved her. “Whatcha laughin’ at? You think I’m funny?” I thrust my fist against her chin and pushed her head up. “I’ll show you funny.”

To my shock, the smirk didn’t slip from her ugly gob. Was she brave, or just plain simple? She glanced at a car parked nearby, a familiar grey Volvo. My dad’s car. Why wasn’t he at work?

I let go of the bitch and wandered over to ask my dad what was going on. What I saw through that steamed up window stopped me in my tracks. What was Janice doing in our car? What happened next made me want to puke something chronic.

***

Also, consider making her just one year older. It makes a big difference legally, and will help readers to identify with her a little better. If you wish Janice to be fifteen to make Dad's actions illegal, fine.

But, having mentioned how wonderful the actual story is, I have to say that all the stuff up front, the contents page and introduction, is distracting. I felt obliged to read the introduction, thinking it might be important to understanding the beginning of the story, but it wasn’t. I suspect there will be people on this site who give up during the first section before sampling your actual story, because they think the whole book is going to be like that. I strongly suggest you abandon the contents page and place the historical notes at the end of the story, so that your wonderful, natural narrative hooks the reader from the very first sentence.

Anyway, as I said in the beginning, this is a wonderfully crafted story with a great first person narrative voice. I’m going to find room for it on my shelf, and wish you all the best with this!

Chris :)
Sally & Jack

i have rated for you but i'm sorry its just not my kind of book but not every book is to every persons taste, i'm sure its well written though and other people seem to be enjoying it so good luck! jules x

I like your style . Good luck :)
Maria

Mike,

You've uploaded a very aesthetic looking book here, my friend. Oh............and the story's not too bad. Exciting stuff..................

;)

LL Su ~}¡{~ WONDERFLIES~}¡{~

(If only I had your skills to make colorful butterflies. Mine are the poor man's version.) ~}¡{~ ..................

Your style is unique and the story hooked me from the start. I'm no judge of grammar or punctuation but I loved what I've read of the story and hope to return to read more. Your characters leap out from the page (or should I say screen) and the imagery you use is subtle and very descriptive.
I'm highly star-rating this and backing it too.
Gill

Original, funny and well-written.

Best of luck-starred

I have backed your book
Have a lovely Christmas
Laila Bevan

Greetings, Orlando Furioso suggested I shelve you ... should you be able to give said Orlando's WATCHING SWIFTS a 24-bask in the sun on your shelf I wld be hugely appreciative ... and keep you on mine awhile.
Clancy

i enjoyed the pace and the cadence; you paint an extremely vivid picture with marveloously broad brishstrokes. behind the humor there's a definite pathos that is all the more moving for not being maudlin....high stars and on my watchlist to read more. good luck !!
mala

I was curious about this, but I'm not quite sure I "get it." Maybe I'm having a bad hair day?

Very powerful stuff. Five stars and a backing as soon as is decent.

OK, hopefully you go all the way this time. The change-over hit a lot of us, myself included. Hope things will be better for all of us in the future.

FEL

BTW: Fascinating first 3 chapters.

This first chapter was simply delightful. I found myself chuckling all the way through. The depictions were vivid and believable, right down to the fight with the nun. This was .. delightful. I alaready said that, I know, but I am still feeling amused and entertained. And yet, the author has set things up in such a way that I am expecting to encounter a variety of ways that people can be subversive. I think this book is going to be a real find.

FEL

The Free: OH yes, this is good writing, the kind of story I love to read myself. The author takes me inside the colorful, if sometimes depressing, worlds of governments, schools an family, and makes them really come live. I will be starring this heavily and place it on my wachlist to come back to soon. FEL

Mike,
The Free is a one of a kind story with an enthralling plot. It reminds me of nothing I've ever seen before so it must have come out of your brilliant imagination. Backed with six stars.

Walden Carrington
Titanic: Rose Dawson's Story

hi mike -- i like linda moon -- i can't believe she decked a nun. iheart-wrenching and funny simultaenously. starred with pleasure!! k x

Hi Mike,
I really enjoyed reading your story and have given you six stars!
Unfortunatly I am having problems re- backing books, but will keep trying

Good luck
Dawn
Sammy and the Wise Willow

Hi Mike,

I wish I had time to read more of this. From what I have read so far, it's an excellent story and I'm not surprised that it's so high in the ratings. I found no errors.
Good luck with it.

Ron

M. Gilliland,

Didn't have to read much to see we see life through two completely opposite prisms. While you seek out the next great social revolution, I'm enjoying the greatest one in the history of mankind, the United States of America. We've been going strong for 234 years and counting. So I have less interest in reading about the fall of "Predatory Capitalism" but more in learning why you hate it so much.
The opening of your story highlights the greatest problem in your dream. You talk of one revolution going bad, replaced by another, seeking yet another. Good luck with that, and your book.

Steve Kemp

Great imaginative writing... beautiful story

Getty Ambau, author of DESTA.

Hey Mike, happy to re back your work. Placing on WL for now, as its in line with a few others. What I really wonder about - is - one should be writing about YOUR life and making it into a movie. Sounds fascinating. See, that's what you get when you ask a scriptwriter what he thinks...

heh heh heh
jim

I've read the first chapter and liked what I saw. Have you considered Create Space, it has all the publishing needs.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but I thought it might help for you to take a look. I'm going through with it with one of my unpublished books, and they have treated me with all due respect. I've written six books but only two of them have been published so far.

I'm just getting to overdue reads. I'm happy to hear you are progressing with the manuscript. It is deserving of serious consideration.

Jedah Mayberry

hullo mIke you are shelved for a good read!
Already shelved and backed and soon to be starred.
Please take a look at my book and thanks for that if you have.
Linda Lou Long
Southern dis-Comfort
http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=11421

A re-backing and a six-starring from me - this is another original piece of work, the pitch is striking, the form us unusual, the characters are great and Linda's metamorphosis is well-handled. Glad this is moving on up; all the best to you

P

This is my second reading of your excellent story, and I went for Chapter 2. I found it so good that I read 3 as well. The writing flows, and I found the young girls' voice charming and believable. Everything she experienced seemed real to me and the actions and thoughts flowed well.

I'm pleased to shelf your book again, and star rate it as promised and would love you to do the same for me.

Francene. still Rock Water.

Looks fascinating and very unique. The chapters are hugely thought provoking and there is a lot of energy. Skimming through it all felt a bit too 'in your face', possibly because of the colours, large font, etc. Probably it would look good like that in a book but on screen is a little offputting (just my opinion, ignore it if no one else has said it!).
Well done!
Karen Rosario

Only at the beginning of this wonderfully told story, I can relate to the rebelliousness of sweet little Linda Moon. She seems to do all those things many of us would have if we could have at some point in our adolescent growth spurt. Excellent work, happily backed!

Justis Call
Prestidigitations

Added The Free to our watchlist. We liked it the first time and will be happy to rate and back as soon as we rotate a few books. Good luck!
CC Brown

Hi Mike,
I'm sorry about your rank.
But because of that, more people here have a chance to read your brilliant work.
Nature writing style, as colourful as your cover, no any dull moment so far (Chapter 7).
I especial like the sentence "Waterfalls of laughter, wahing my traumas down the drain."
All the best,
Jane