Debut Author Offers Free Novel During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Five Colored Mountains is a fantasy thriller by Norman Y. Balston, aka NYB. It’s about the thrilling adventures of Helga Erman, a doctoral student, accused of killing the priest allegedly to get the formula. So, she’ll face the firing squad unless she can prove her innocence. To find the killer, she’s heading the secret Soviet compound, but she has no idea that the greatest calamity menacing the world is about to arrive.

Ismat Khushev, the chief editor of Dunyo Uzbeklari, was busy working with his connections in Uzbekistan to get this novel published and distributed. He was also talking to producers interested in its screenplay adaptation. But by the end of February, as the COVID-19 threats grew, invading countries east and west, he didn’t think it was the right time to be selling the book. He had to do something else.

So, Khushev called the author, Norman Y. Balston, in the last week of February, to ask about giving away copies of the novel to quarantined men and women, especially those in Wuhan, China, and those repatriated from there. But, NYB, who had gone the Death Valley and Nevada to see the Red Rock and Rainbow Mountains, was impossible to reach due to poor cell phone connections in those national parks.

Then, Khushev contacted the publisher who advised against releasing a copy of the book on youtube. Nevertheless, standing form on his idea, he tried to sway the author to his side. Soon enough, he was able to reach NYB and convince him, and then the two pervaded the press house to let the novel be broadcast online for free. As global nuclear threats described in the book so closely resembled the COVID-19 pandemic, he was impatient to see the readers enjoying this fantastical thriller.

Judges in many literary competitions had reviewed and praised the book. Many writers from the US and Europe had told him the novel was fast-paced, sci-fi suspense story rich in meaning. NYB had placed the great effort and care in writing this brilliant prose.