Writers | CW Hawes

#IndieApril

Today’s the last day of April. A third of the year is over. Wasn’t yesterday New Year’s? At least while time’s flying, I’m having fun! Hope you are too!

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I’m a reader. I prefer reading to TV, movies, video games, boardgames, you name it. Reading takes you to a million different worlds without leaving the comfort of your own home. Reading’s my favorite way to travel. Reading also stimulates the imagination like nothing else. And that’s a good thing.

Earlier this month, on Twitter, someone started the hashtag #IndieApril. The goal was to get people to buy, read, and review books written by independent author/publishers.

Being an independent author/publisher and reader, I was excited to jump on the bandwagon. After all, reading is a good wagon to jump on.

I ended up buying 7 books. Here they are:

The Tainted Dollar by Chris Derrick

Hotel Obscure by Lisette Brodey

Voyager by Carl Rackman

The Monkey Idol by KD McNiven

A Brother’s Secret by Andy Graham

Connor’s Gambit by Z Gottlieb

Into Armageddon by Jeff DeMarco

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is a good book in the eye of the reader. And just as there is a lot of beauty out there, there are a heck of a lot of good books that just don’t get the press.

The editors who work for publishers are mere mortals. They put their shoes on the same way you and I do. They are biased and opinionated individuals whose job is to make money for the publisher, the businessman, they work for.

The stories are legion of editors who passed on the eventual bestseller. The stories are legion of editors who thought book X was the next Gone With the Wind — and it didn’t even sell 10 copies.

Why is this? It’s because publishers aren’t interested in art. They’re interested in money. How many bucks will they make on Book X versus Book Y? This makes sense if we understand that publishing is a business. The publishing house’s sole purpose is to make money for the owners.

Businesses exist to make money. It’s why Jeff Bezos started Amazon — to make money. To get rich if possible. It’s why Random House exists — to make money for their German and British owners. Publishers only see books as dollar signs.

For the last 50 plus years I’ve read in writing magazines and now on the internet, that bestsellers keep publishers afloat. On virtually all of their other books they lose money. The likes of Patterson and Rowling and King, enable publishers to publish the likes of you and me — if we can get past the gatekeepers (editors). And there were other bestsellers who allowed the publishers to gamble on Patterson, Rowling, and King.

As much as I don’t like the monopolistic mindset of Amazon, I’m forced to say that it was the Kindle that changed publishing forever.

Suddenly, overnight, not a single writer needed an agent or a publisher. Writers were free at last. There were no more gatekeepers to prevent our voices from being heard.

Publishing had suddenly become a true democracy. Publishing became as easy as buttering a slice of toast.

Of course, people have this proclivity to make easy things difficult. And so now we see indies themselves setting up all manner of roadblocks to prevent the newbies from entering the ranks of the august.

I hear constantly that one has to have an editor, maybe several! I was told by one nobody author that if I didn’t have money to hire an editor, I should hold a garage sale to raise the money to hire one. What idiocy! As if I have enough stuff I don’t want to make even $10.

Here are more must haves. One has to have a professionally made book cover. That one has to pay a formatter for a professionally formatted book. And one has to pay for lots of marketing.

What’s going on is simple. In the first place, all those editors that publishers have let go in the last 30 years are seeking to feed off of the indie revolution. Quite honestly, indies don’t need professional editors. We are our own publishing house of our own books. We don’t need someone who doesn’t know us to tell us what our books should or shouldn’t be.

In the second place, indies themselves — to eliminate competition — set up barriers to new writers. Of course there are no barriers to publishing today, so these people play the traditional publishing mind game and make gullible newbies think they need all the above mentioned crap.

The indie publishing waters are filled with sharks and piranha — let the newbie beware. I say ignore those naysayers and shysters. Just write and publish your book. Then learn how to market it.

Every day I’m amazed at the good indie writers I discover. Writers who’s books languish at the 500,000 or one million rank in the paid Kindle Store. Writers who are usually better than the indie bestsellers — most of whom are of no better quality than the traditionally published crowd.

On this last day of #IndieApril, I encourage you to pick up a book or two written by an independent author/publisher. Here are 10 suggestions:

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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A Fabulous Find

Thousands of books are published every day. Fiction and nonfiction books are flooding the ebook stores, brick and mortar bookstores, and even sites like Wattpad.

We live in an era where there is more reading material available than there has ever been in the history of the world.

The question begs to be asked, How do you find the good stuff? And further we must ask, How do you define “good stuff”? Because beauty, as we all know, is in the eye of the beholder.

As for the first question, I’ve found social media to be a good source of reading material. In particular, Twitter has been a fabulous resource for connecting with writers and their books.

Concerning the second question, that one is more difficult to answer. Because what I like you may not.

IMO, most books and stories are not memorable. They are as disposable as cheap ballpoint pens. They serve the purpose of providing us with a bit of diversion. That’s all.

However, every now and again I run across a true craftsman. A writer who is a true artist with the written word. Recently, on Twitter, I discovered such a find. That writer is Brian Fatah Steele.

Steele writes weird fiction that is heavily scented with Lovecraft, yet is not a pastiche in the hack manner of Derleth and the others who attempt to be Lovecraftian.

Recently, I finished Your Arms Around Entropy and other stories. Every single story Collection was imaginative, original, and awesome. Each story was thought-provoking and powerful. I’m currently reading Steele’s novel There is Darkness in Every Room. Thus far the book is deliciously weird, with well-drawn characters and loads macabre atmosphere, plus being incredibly imaginative.

What I’ve read thus far has made such an impression on me, I bought all of Steele’s books. He is an incredible find. Take a look at his Amazon page.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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Don’t Dream It’s Over

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of – Part 12

Don’t Dream It’s Over by Matthew Cormack

Every now and then we all come across a stellar book. One that grabs us and resonates with us like few others have.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is a hefty post-apocalyptic novel, coming in at over 700 pages. Such a length is not my normal cup of tea. I don’t particularly like long books. Inevitably there are parts that are just plain old boring and others that are tedious at best.

So imagine my surprise when I didn’t encounter any of those negatives in Mr Cormack’s book, and it grabbed me as few others have. It was a very pleasant and welcomed surprise.

There are many types of post-apocalyptic novels. There’s the very popular zombie apocalypse and it’s aftermath. There are the prepper PA novels. The EMP novels. The pandemics. Alien invasions. Cozy catastrophes (my favorite). And the list goes on.

However, Mr Cormack’s novel isn’t so easy to categorize. It comes closest to being a cozy catastrophe. A cozy is a PA novel that focuses on rebuilding the world to make it a better place than it was before the disaster. They are essentially utopian in character.

Classic examples of the cozy catastrophe are Earth Abides and The Day of the Triffids. Terry Nation’s BBC TV series, Survivors, and the book he wrote later on, also titled Survivors, fit nicely into the cozy catastrophe category, as well.

Yet, Don’t Dream It’s Over isn’t 100% cozy catastrophe either, because there isn’t a lot of focus placed on rebuilding the world. In fact, there is an interesting section where a wise old thinker postulates that the visionaries will die out and it will be the ones who think of nothing but expansion that will survive. A touch of dystopia there.

What Don’t Dream It’s Over primarily is, is an extended character study. A character study of the narrator as he goes about his business of day-to-day survival and trying to figure out what to do with his life. Don’t Dream It’s Over is primarily a novel of self-discovery and personal growth.

Mr Cormack’s book is an engaging story. He grabs your attention, holds it, and doesn’t let it go.

The format is that of the epistolary novel, using journal entries instead of letters. What can be a difficult format, Mr Cormack handles exceedingly well. He knows how to pace the story and knows when to introduce thrills and spills to keep the narrative from getting boring.

I’ve read the book twice, and I don’t usually re-read novels. And I thoroughly enjoyed it both times.

I encourage you to buy a copy (it’s only 99¢ as of this writing and is in Kindle Unlimited). Support this fabulously talented indie author. He has another novel set in the same universe: Ganbaru. It is on my reading list.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is very highly recommended. Don’t miss this one.

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My 2018 Reading Recap

Today begins a new year. So I thought I’d recap some of the excellent books and stories I read in 2018.

I’m loathe to rank the books I read, and I definitely don’t like to single one out as the Best of the Year. Mostly because tastes change and what I put on top today, I might put in the middle tomorrow.

That being written, 2018 was a banner year because I discovered many wonderful writers and even more truly fabulous books and stories.

What I thought I’d do is look over the 43 novels and novellas, the 5 short story collections and 37 individual short stories, and the 8 books of non-fiction I read and give some a shoutout. Good reads with which to load up your ereader for 2019.

Quite a few of the books I read in 2018 I’ve already promoted on Twitter, featured as my Book of the Week on Facebook, or written reviews for this blog. The rest are waiting for their turn in the limelight.

As a reader, I don’t usually finish a book that isn’t holding my attention. I’m 66 and there are too many good books out there to waste time on the bad ones. After all the actuarial tables aren’t on my side.

I also don’t bother with books touted as bestsellers or award winners. Mostly because the disappointment factor is very high with those books. I’ve discovered true gems amongst the books that are not bestsellers and amongst those that have garnered no awards.

Success is largely a matter of luck, and generally has nothing to do with talent. In writing, as in life, persistence is the key.

Now on to the books!

Secrets of the World’s Best-Selling Writer by Francis L and Roberta B Fugate. This is the best book on writing I’ve ever read. And I’ve read quite a few. The book is about the writing career of Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason. The Fugates had access to the vast archive of Gardner’s notebooks, letters, and papers. The writing advice comes straight from Gardner himself — and the book is full of wisdom. Every writer who is serious about selling his or her work should have this book. And readers interested in the creative process, should also have this book. It’s a treasure trove.

I love short stories and short novels. Too often long works are filled with unnecessary padding — stuff that doesn’t contribute much, if anything, to the story.

However, I did read a couple of hefty tomes in 2018. And neither one had any flab. They were:

Church Mouse by RH Hale

Don’t Dream It’s Over by Matthew Cormack

I’ve previously extolled (and will continue to do so) the virtues of Church Mouse. It’s a powerful novel with exceedingly well-drawn characters. A very memorable read. A modern day classic.

Note: Due to Amazon’s anti-small author policies, Church Mouse is not available in the Amazon US store. The links take you to Ms Hale’s website and from there you can purchase the book at the vendor of your choice.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is one of the best post-apocalyptic novels I’ve ever read. Matthew Cormack, with a deft hand, paints us a world that is not nice — but wherein lies much hope. Hope for a better future than what we might have gotten in the old world.

The book is also one of the most in depth character studies I’ve ever read. You have to read Kazuo Ishiguro to find something similar. An excellent, excellent read.

Now on to the shorter stuff!

In 2018 I made the acquaintance of quite a number of new (to me) writers. Some of these were:

Richard Schwindt

Joe Congel

Seabury Quinn

Stephen A Howells

Ernestine Marsh

Ray Zacek

Simon Osborne

Andy Graham

Zara Altair

Mark Carnelley

John Paul Catton

These men and women will provide you with many hours of great reading pleasure. So let’s look a bit further and see what kind of pleasure they will bring.

Richard Schwindt has 10 works of fiction (by my count) and I’ve read 8 of those works. He’s an entertaining writer, who delivers good mysteries and occult detective tales, along with imaginative fantasy and paranormal reads. His books are infused with humor, and always give me food for thought.

To start, check out Herkimer’s Nose and Fifty-Seven Years (written under his Will Swift byline). Great reads by a great author!

Joe Congel writes traditional private detective mysteries. His books and stories give a nod to the Golden Era of the mystery, while at the same time being very modern reads. If you like the old school mystery, you’ll like Joe Congel’s Tony Razzolito!

The late Seabury Quinn was a very prolific writer during the pulp magazine era. His first published story was in 1918 and his last (I believe) was in the early 1950s. He wrote across many genres, but is best known for his stories in Weird Tales magazine. He was that magazine’s most popular author, and I can see why. The occult detective Jules de Grandin is his most well-known character.

Stephen A Howells has one book published to date, and in my opinion it is a big time winner. The Garden of Jane Pengelly is part ghost story, part love story, part fantasy, and part magical realism. And it is all wonderful! Mr Howells can tug at your heart strings, so have the tissue box handy. You will love this book.

Ernestine Marsh is the queen of the bitingly satirical comedy novel. Agonising is a look at our foibles and how ridiculous we as a species are at times. Ms Marsh wades in with no holds barred and pulls no punches. I laughed with every page I read. I can’t wait to read the sequel, In Agony Again. Voltaire move over.

The work of Ray Zacek can be darkly humorous, or satirical, or just plain dark. I like his stories very much. My favorite to date is Daguerreotype. The tale is a haunting exploration of our dark side and the risk of indulging it. Treat yourself to Mr Zacek’s work. You won’t regret it.

Simon Osborne’s post-apocalyptic novel, Off Grid, begins with an alien invasion — and the aliens don’t want us around. The rest of the book is a story of survival, planning for the future, and deciding how to get rid of the aliens so we have a future. Off Grid is well-written and just plain good.

In the two works by Andy Graham that I’ve read, he gives us wonderfully dark tales. Stories that explore the unseemly part of our psyche and of our soul. An Angel Fallen is especially powerful and memorable. Do check out his work. You won’t be sorry.

Zara Altair writes mysteries set in Ostrogoth Italy a couple decades after the fall of the western Roman Empire. Argolicus is a retired Roman bureaucrat who gets involved in solving murders — in a culture where murder is not a crime! Give the Argolicus mysteries a try. Start with The Peach Widow.

Mark Carnelley has written an intriguing post-apocalyptic book, The Omega Chronicles, where only one person survives the disaster. What would you do if the survivor was you? Definitely worth your time.

John Paul Catton’s work is remarkable for its inventiveness. Tales from Beyond Tomorrow, Vol 1 is a short story collection that explores a variety of themes. A writer decidedly outside the norm. Take a read!

Now on to a few authors who are no stranger to this blog.

If you have a penchant for stories that have the qualities of a fairy tale, then Sarah Zama’s The Frozen Maze is for you. Quite good!

Jack Tyler’s work makes a strong contribution to the good old-fashioned adventure yarn. However, the book that has impressed me the most is his epic fantasy novel, The Stone Seekers. Mostly because it isn’t a Tolkien ripoff. It’s fresh and creative. The book breathes new life into a sub-genre that is filled with hack writing. Do check out The Stone Seekers.

Mannegishi by Ben Willoughby is an inventively dark take on a Native American legend. If you like horror, you’ll like Mannegishi. And all of Willoughby’s other horror tales.

It is no secret that I am very fond of the work of Crispian Thurlborn. And his latest story, Exit, does not disappoint. Thurlborn’s work is imaginative and at times difficult to categorize. It’s often darkly humorous, and written in a style that would make Dickens envious.

Exit is a story that would have made a stunning episode on The Twilight Zone. It’s a good example of dreampunk (you know, Alice in Wonderland) — and it is simply fabulous. Can we actually change our lives? Or are we doomed to live them forever on repeat? Read Exit and then try to answer those questions.

So that’s my reading recap for 2018. Now on to 2019. I’m currently reading Frank Belknap Long’s early Cthulhu Mythos novel The Horror from the Hills. And I’m looking for some good writers to explore this year. If you have suggestions, let me know.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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Seabury Quinn

In March of 1918 a story appeared in the pages of Detective Story Magazine and the author of the story was Seabury Quinn. The title of the story was “Demons of the Night”.

As near as we can tell, “Demons of the Night” was Quinn’s first fiction sale. That sale began a fiction writing career that spanned over half a century, and saw the production of over 500 short stories and 2 novels. And those numbers don’t include his many non-fiction writings.

Seabury Quinn was the quintessential pulp fiction master, along with such greats as H. Bedford-Jones, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Robert E Howard. He knew how to craft a story that would sell and he wasn’t shy about going where the money was to be found.

In his day, Quinn was an exceedingly popular author. A Weird Tales poll of the magazine’s readers put Quinn as their number one favorite author — ahead of such luminaries as HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, and August Derleth. More Seabury Quinn stories received cover art than any other writer for Weird Tales. As I noted in another post, it was Quinn and his creation, Jules de Grandin, who saved Weird Tales from folding in the early ‘30s, which would have possibly denied us the best of Lovecraft’s work, and such talents as Robert Bloch.

So why is Seabury Quinn denied his claim to fame and basically relegated to a footnote? The answer lies with the politics of the Lovecraft Circle, specifically the machinations of August Derleth.

In order to elevate Lovecraft, Seabury Quinn became the whipping boy. Quinn was a hack and the epitome of what was bad in pulp magazine fiction. Lovecraft, on the other hand, was a genius and represented the highest ideals and possibilities of the pulp magazines. Derleth’s hero worship put the knife in Quinn’s back. And why Quinn, and not someone else? Probably because Lovecraft didn’t like Quinn’s fiction, making him an easy target.

For a long time I held to the common, albeit unfair, assessment that Quinn was a hack. I held that view until I actually read some of his stories. Much to my surprise, his stories are no worse than Lovecraft’s, or Howard’s, or Frank Belknap Long’s, to name three, and in some cases better.

Seabury Quinn was a decent, prolific, and inventive writer, much like Robert E Howard. Quinn was paid more than the other writers for Weird Tales because the magazine’s readers wanted his stories.

Now, thanks in large part to ebooks, publishers are republishing the work of Seabury Quinn, and I am very pleased to see him regaining the recognition he is due.

Yesterday, for Christmas, I received two volumes of Quinn’s work: Demons of the Night and Other Early Tales, edited by Gene Christie and published by Black Dog Books; and A Rival from the Grave, The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume 4, edited by George A Vanderburgh and published by Nightshade Books. Santa was indeed good!

In short order, Seabury Quinn has become one of my favorite authors. His books stand right next to the works of Lovecraft and Howard. He’s easily their equal. Sure, he’s different from them. But that doesn’t make him a lesser writer. Seabury Quinn’s stories have immense entertainment value. What more can one ask from a writer?

As always, comments are welcome; and, until next time, happy reading!

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Tony Price: Confidential

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of – Part 11

Tony Price: Confidential by Richard Schwindt

https://www.amazon.com/Tony-Price-Confidential-Richard-Schwindt-ebook/dp/B01MSYGO6F

Richard Schwindt is a phenomenally innovative and creative writer. His storytelling is nonpareil. His characters are amazingly realistic and his word paintings put you on location with them.

Tony Price is one of Schwindt’s wonderfully delightful characters. He’s a chain smoking, vodka drinking, burnt out social worker with a knack for finding and fighting monsters. Yep, you read that right. A monster fighting social worker. Right out of Paranormal Land. Only Schwindt makes it all seem as real and ordinary as crossing a street.

Tony Price: Confidential is the collection of all three Tony Price novellas. Below is a brief synopsis of each tale.

Scarborough: Confidential takes place in 1987. To Tony’s dismay, his clients are being brutally murdered one by one. Who or what is doing this? To find the answer, Tony ends up not only scouring the dark corners of Scarborough, but winds up traveling to the Venezuelan back country. And there he finds that only he can defeat the evil killing his clients.

Sioux Lookout: Confidential sees Tony taking a vacation at the urging of his girlfriend. What was supposed to be a time of fishing, drinking, smoking, and relaxing, suddenly vanishes when something evil comes to the little town of Sioux Lookout. And it is upon Tony to send the monster back to the hell it came from.

Kingston: Confidential finds our hero forced into retirement all because he was being a good Samaritan and rescued a woman and her child from a notorious hardcore druggie who was armed and threatening their lives.

So he and wife Brenda move to Kingston to be closer to their twins who are attending college there. As often happens to those forced into retirement, Tony is bored. He has too much time on his hands. That is until a monster comes to town.

This time Tony is aided in his battle with the homicidal maniac ravaging Kingston by his daughter, Ashley, who’s inherited her father’s gift and much of his personality.

Schwindt’s books are filled with humor, horror, fascinating people, and scary monsters. If you’re into the paranormal or urban fantasy, Tony Price: Confidential is for you.

Very Highly Recommended!!

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A Bump In The Night

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of – Part 9

A Bump in the Night by Crispian Thurlborn
https://amzn.to/2KBx666

We think life can be difficult. But being dead has its own problems.

Mr Snaggle and Mr Snuffle, those Arbitrators of the Quick and the Dead, have a new problem on their hands: their good friend, Mr Bump (that fellow who ferries folks across the river to the realm of the dead), is fading. Fading from being a ghost to being truly dead. And if Mr Bump goes, who’s going to do the ferrying?

This is a ginormous problem and Mr Snaggle and Mr Snuffle are doing their darnedest to help their friend. Seemingly, though, without success. That is, until little Penny shows up.

Crispian Thurlborn’s A Bump in the Night is a ghost story. It’s an urban fantasy tale. It’s a literary think about the meaning of life — and death. It’s a book that is at once humorous and serious.

In a style that would make Dickens envious, Thurlborn tells us a story we won’t soon forget. The tale lingers there on the edge of your mind, just like… Well, just like a ghost.

And while A Bump in the Night isn’t a Christmas story, it does have ghosts and the themes in the book go very well with “peace on earth, goodwill towards men”.

Crispian Thurlborn is one of my favorite authors. If you haven’t read anything by him, let me say his writing is on par with that of the best writers writing today.

Do yourself a favor and get a copy of A Bump in the Night. You won’t be sorry, and you may just find yourself putting the book in your pile to read again.

Comments are always welcome; and, until next time, happy reading!

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Van Dyne’s Vampires

A writer is a little bit like a god. Gods in all religions are creators. They are responsible for the world as we know it, and for the world we cannot see.

Writers create worlds, both seen and unseen, every day, along with myriads of people. Like gods, writers are creators.

The act of creating is, for me, exhilarating. It is the most exciting part of writing. Someday I hope to have enough money so I can hire someone to do all the other aspects of the writing business so I can just write.

The first audience of a writer is himself. If the story doesn’t interest him, it won’t see the light of day. And it might not even see completion. After all, writers basically write about what they know and they write a story they find interesting. That’s what keeps them going. I suppose the same can be said of deities: they do what pleases them.

Yesterday was supposed to be the official launch day of Van Dyne’s Vampires (Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations, Book 4). However, Amazon is having hiccups in their KDP processing. Consequently, Van Dyne isn’t showing up on the Pierce Mostyn series page and the price (as of this writing) is still listed at 99 cents, which is what I offer as a special deal to my reading list folks. However, since the book is still 99 cents — grab a copy before the Zon finally gets its act together and raises the price to $2.99.

The Pierce Mostyn stories have been a joy to write. More and more I’m growing to truly love Mostyn and company. I’m anticipating a long relationship with him and his world.

Van Dyne’s Vampires is a bit of a departure from the previous three stories, where I riffed on a story by HP Lovecraft. Van Dyne is my own creation. Although characters of his ilk abound. Van Dyne is the Moriarity, the Zeck, the Fu Manchu of Pierce Mostyn’s world. The human evil genius. Never mind that Mostyn also has Cthulhu and his buddies to contend with.

Cthulhu and friends, however, don’t care about us. We are to them as ants on a sidewalk are to us. That is the horror of the Mythos: in the vastness of the universe, we don’t matter. We are nothing. Whether human beings and our little world continue to exist doesn’t even register in the minds of entities greater than ourselves.

The true horror of our quest to meet other intelligent life is that they will be superior to us and not care if we live or die. And maybe for them, things would be better off if we were dead. Be careful what you wish for.

However, for some, the fear of the Mythos might be a bit remote. So I created someone we all can relate to: namely, the bully; the person who uses others to satisfy his or her own needs. Valdis Damien van Dyne is that bully on a mega-scale. He is that egotist who thinks nothing of others — other than how they can best serve his needs.

We’ve all been bullied. We’ve all dealt with users. And when that bully or user has power over us, there is fear we feel deep in our gut. It is far more visceral than the fear of being nothing.

And just as we hope someone will come to our rescue, there is Pierce Mostyn and the OUP. A little bit of the cavalry coming over the hill just in the nick of time. And we like that.

You can get Van Dyne’s Vampires at Amazon, or read it for free if you are a KU member. Enjoy!

Comments are always welcome; and, until next time, happy reading!

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Entangled

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of – Part 2

My purpose in writing this new blog series is to

Share books I’ve read and liked, and
Promote those books to a wider audience

I’m not a “professional” reviewer. I’m simply a reader who appreciates good books. Reviewing isn’t my job. Writing is. However, when I come across well-written and entertaining books I will share them with you. Mostly, if not exclusively, these will be books that aren’t selling, or aren’t selling well. Books that, in my opinion, deserve a much wider audience. Books that truly should be bestsellers.

And, now, on with the show!

Entangled

The novel Entangled by J. Evan Stuart, as of this writing, sits at number 2,420,293 in the paid Kindle store. That essentially means no one is buying or reading this book. And that is too bad, because the novel is very well written and the story is one that you don’t want to end.

Supposedly, Entangled is the first in the Sonya Reisler series. However, the author has apparently disappeared. His blog hasn’t been updated since 2016, and his Twitter account hasn’t seen any activity since May 2017.

A very good writer, now apparently lost to the reading community. Just this one gem left behind. A shame. A very sad shame.

Entangled is, loosely, a police procedural mystery. I use the term “loosely” because the story does not focus on the procedure, but on the characters.

Connor is being framed for killing his parents and almost killing his sister, who he adores. Detective Sonya Reisler, a newbie on the detective squad, is supposed to look over the evidence and rubber-stamp the local sheriff’s decision. When she does, however, something doesn’t sit right with her and the more she digs, the more things don’t look right. Is Connor being framed? Is he the easy out?

Then to complicate things even more, Connor meets Sonya to tell her his side of the story. And as fate would have it, they like each other and Sonya finds herself protecting the fugitive.

Stuart brings the book to a very exciting and satisfying conclusion that easily leaves the door open for a sequel, or several sequels.

Let’s get this author some buys, KU reads, and reviews. Maybe, just maybe we will find out what happens in the rest of the series.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

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From Reader to Writer

Readers become writers when at some point they say to themselves, “I can do that.”

Or they just know the writing life is for them. An intuitive sort of thing.

With the advent of viable e-books, a new breed has risen up. I call them the gold rush writers. They see writing as a get rich quick scheme. And there are quite a few who are making significant piles of money. But as with most prospectors in the gold rush, most writers aren’t making those piles of money. In fact, it’s the middle man who is: the man who sold shovels to prospectors, and the ones selling covers, and formatting and editorial services to writers.

For myself, I cannot remember a time when I didn’t read. My mother read to me when I was young, and, even though she wasn’t a very good reader herself, she instilled in me a love for reading that has never left me.

Along with never remembering a time I wasn’t reading, I don’t remember a time when I wanted to be anything but a writer.

Unfortunately, my parents were of a practical bent and writing was just too dreamy and artsy-fartsy for their tastes. I got no encouragement from them to write.

However, a person who truly wants to write can’t be held back and I did write some during my school years, got one or two things published in the school lit mags, had a play produced in high school, a poem published in a fanzine, and that was about it.

After school, life and family responsibilities took over and the writing got pushed to the back burner.

The bug, though, had bitten and in 1989 I wrote my first novel, a mystery, Festival of Death. The book took me a year to write, but I wrote it. When finished, I sent it out, got a rejection slip, took another look at it, and decided it needed work, as most first novels do, and put it in the drawer.

I made a few more attempts at fiction. Had one or two pieces accepted in fanzines. And then switched to poetry.

Never in a million years would I have thought of myself as a poet, but it was via poetry that I found my initial writing success.

During the 1990s, and into the new century, I wrote several thousand poems, had hundreds published (mostly in e-zines), and eventually became a “name” in the small world of English language Japanese-forms (we’re talking about haiku, tanka, and renga).

The Internet is fragile and its content ephemeral. What is here today, is gone tomorrow. And most of my published poetry is no longer extant. The myriad of pixels have vanished. The e-zines are gone.

As I approached retirement age the fiction bug bit me again, but this time very hard. Poetry didn’t provide a big enough canvas anymore. I wanted the space a short story or novel provided. I wanted to create interesting characters and saddle them with impossible problems.

And so it was, I gave up poetry and returned to fiction. I had many false starts. Mostly because I thought I had to outline my novel. And I can’t outline worth a darn. When I finally learned there was such an animal as the “plotless” novel, and such a creature as the pantser — I knew I could finally write fiction. After all, I never planned my poems. I was a pantser poet. Why not a pantser novelist?

I never looked back. My first novel as a pantser was a monster of 2000+ pages. A sprawling cozy catastrophe completely un-publishable as originally written — it nevertheless broke the ice.

I’m now revising and publishing The Rocheport Saga as a series. There are currently seven volumes, with more to come.

Next was Festival of Death. I love Tina and Harry and couldn’t let them languish. I hauled the original manuscript out of the drawer, kept the first chapter and the ending, and rewrote everything else. A much, much better novel the second time around, I went ahead and self-published it. And have chronicled many more adventures of Tina and Harry, Tina being Minneapolis’s most unusual private eye.

The life of Lady Grace Hay Drummond-Hay is every feminist’s dream. I don’t understand why no one has written her biography. A fascinating woman who lived in fascinating times: the period between the two world wars. A prominent and well-known journalist in her day, it’s sad to see she is virtually unknown today.

She became the inspiration for my own Lady Dru alternative history novels. Of which I currently have two.

I’ve always loved horror and have several short stories and the Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation series published.

And as long as I have breath there will be more ideas coming from my pen, and that makes me want to jump out of bed every morning and get to work.

The e-book revolution has allowed me to realize my dream. I’ve had enough rejection slips in my day to know I don’t like them — and to know they come from the subjective whim of another person, a person who just so happens to have the title “editor”. But a person who puts his or her shoes on the same way I do.

Editors aren’t infallible, nor are they omniscient. They make mistakes and their knowledge of the marketplace is limited. Most are in fact simply buyers for their publishing houses. And as such tend to be very conservative and not willing to take any chances.

Today’s e-book revolution puts the work of writers before readers — and lets us readers make the decision concerning a book’s future.

However, while writing is easy for me, marketing is a nightmare. And no writer hoping to get his or her work read can avoid marketing. Somehow we writers have to get our books before readers. And we readers will never know a book is out there unless someone tells us it is. There are just too many books for us readers to possibly know them all.

I once read that 3000 new books appear each day on Amazon. Amazon, however, only promotes those books on which it can make money. In the end, those are darn few. Most books, therefore, languish in Amazon’s dusty book basement. And many good books, sad to say, are sitting on those dusty shelves.

Why are good books not seen? Mostly because the author isn’t marketing them, or isn’t marketing them effectively.

Some authors believe in the magic wand. They say, “I’m a good writer and my friends like my book. It’ll sell.” Then they’re disappointed when it doesn’t. And it doesn’t sell because too few people even know it’s out there. One book in a sea of millions is the same as one needle in a haystack. There are no magic wands.

Marketing is difficult. It has few established rules, involves a lot of guesswork, and many years of experience. It also takes money. Maybe not a lot. But if a writer doesn’t have the money, then any amount is a lot.

I’m in that category. I don’t have a lot of disposable income. Therefore, I have to think harder and smarter about marketing. I just can’t throw money at the problem in the hopes of finding a solution. And I know there are no magic wands. I am going to have to do something to get people to find my books. And I want them to find my books. I want more readers. I think my books are good reads. Others think so, too. Those that have found them, that is.

IMO, Patty Jansen has laid out the best course for indie authors to follow if they want readers and would like to make a living from telling stories. It’s my plan to get more readers and hopefully make a few bucks while I’m at it. Art for art’s sake is fine. But it’s better if lots of people can appreciate it — and that takes marketing. And while I’m at it, you can find all my books here.

Even though I’ve moved from reader to writer I’m still a reader. Reading is my favorite form of entertainment. The number of books is endless, they’re fairly easy to find, and one can read anywhere and at anytime.

Currently, I’m reading the delightful Flaxman Low occult detective tales and Seabury Quinn’s Jules de Grandin stories.

Let me know what you’re reading. And the more obscure the book, the better! If the book is by an indie author, and I like it, I’ll give the author a little free publicity.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

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