#IndieApril

April on Twitter is #IndieApril month. All month long we celebrate independent authors/publishers — indies. It is a self-publishing extravaganza.

I regularly read self-published books. In fact, the majority of my reading is of self-published authors. In this day and age democracy reigns in the publishing world. The artificial gatekeepers of editors and agents and publishing house rules are dinosaurs on the evolutionary path to extinction.

Two thousand and many more years ago there were no agents, no editors, no publishers. If Sophocles wanted to write a play, he wrote one. The audience was the only arbiter. If Seneca, wanted to write a book on moral philosophy, he wrote one. Only the audience mattered.

When the printing press was invented, self-publishing — which was the only kind of publishing there was — could reach much larger audiences with the new printed books than it ever could with the old handwritten manuscripts of previous generations. A win for publishing democracy.

Today, with ebooks, there are no limits. Not selling enough on Amazon? BookFunnel can create a code for your ebook that allows you to give it away or sell it. The reader then redeems the code on the BookFunnel site and gets the book.

You can literally stand on a street corner and give away or sell your ebook to any number of takers. All you do is give them a card with your book code on it.

You’re on the bus or an airplane. The person next to you is interested in your book — you can make a sale right then and there.

I haven’t used BookFunnel’s new program yet (it’s not offered on my current plan), but I’ve been thinking of ways I could use it. Because it sure beats the heck out of hauling around cartons of paperbacks.

Democracy has returned to writers and readers in a way, Aeschylus, Plato, Seneca, Plotinus, and other ancients never dreamed of. And I, for one, love it.

Each #IndieApril I try to read several brand new authors. So far this month I’ve read two new to me authors: Caleb Pirtle III and Lex Allen.

Lonely Night To Die by Caleb Pirtle III is a collection of three noir thrillers. I prefer to see them as three episodes in the life of the Quiet Assassin, Roland Sand. Lonely Night To Die is a thrilling, suspenseful read by international bestselling and award winning author Caleb Pirtle III. Do add it to your reading list.

Lovably Dead is a collection of tales of terror by Lex Allen. Awesomely scary reads by a superb writer. If you love being scared to death, get Lovably Dead. Just make sure your life insurance is paid up.

I also like to revisit favorite authors during #IndieApril. So far I’ve revisited Ray Zacek and Andy Graham.

Cosecha by Ray Zacek is a novella of terror you won’t soon forget. A monster is prowling the US-Mexico border. A monster that only catches — never releases. If Zacek writes it, you need to buy it.

Andy Graham is a writer who is quite literary in his style. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t scare the bejesus out of you. Because he will. I’m currently reading A Crow’s Game. And, yes, all the lights are on. And I do mean all.

Indie writers are turning out fabulous books and stories. There are so many talented people out there that the gatekeepers would have denied an audience. And that ain’t right.

April isn’t over. I urge you to buy, read, and review a self-published book. Let me know in the comments if you need suggestions.

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

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Investigators of the Paranormal

Fear is one of our oldest emotions — if not the oldest. And fear of the unknown is one of our greatest fears.

I don’t know what I don’t know, and that lack of knowing scares us. It is primal, that fear of the unknown.

Fear, playing on our fears, is the stock in trade of the writer of the macabre. Those spinners of stories that parade our fears before us and scare us to death —  and we love it.

For all of our façade of sophistication, biologically speaking we are no different than our ancestors from 300,000 years ago. We may no longer be afraid of thunder and lightning, and we may have outgrown our fear of what’s under our beds — we are, however, still controlled by our fears.

Just look at the nightly news. Listen to David Muir’s tone of voice. He’s playing into our fears. And how often do we say, “I’m afraid…” — no matter the context?

Is it any wonder that the tale of terror, the horror story, has never lost its appeal with readers?

Today, interest in the paranormal — our modern term for what used to be called the supernatural and the occult — is hot. Genre fiction has pretty much a paranormal version of every genre. Some of it’s silly, and some of it is pretty doggone scary.

Paranormal fiction has made quite a few of its writers a boatload of money. And while much of the paranormal genre fiction is formulaic trope-filled tripe, some of it is quite good.

When I conceived of my Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations series, I wanted something that moved in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos and also appealed to viewers of The X-Files.

From comments I’ve received and from the reviews of the books, I believe I’ve succeeded.

What’s more, since his introduction, Pierce Mostyn has been my top selling series. Therefore, it’s only natural to revisit the paranormal as I contemplate starting a new series.

However, I wanted something a bit different from the Cosmic Horror, Cthulhu Mythos, focus of Mostyn. And since my first love as a reader is detective fiction (ever since discovering Nero Wolfe in the early 80s), what would be more natural than to blend detective fiction with the paranormal?

Thank goodness I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The occult detective has a long and time-honored lineage and is alive and well today.

Therefore, my new series, which will most likely debut next year, will be a brother and sister team of occult detectives, or, in contemporary parlance, paranormal investigators.

Taking a page from the exploits of Flaxman Low, Thomas Carnacki, and Jules de Grandin, my investigators will explore those things that go bump in the night and scare the bejeebers out of people.

Haunted houses, demons, assorted monsters, arcane and occult magic. Twisted tales about two normal (well, mostly normal) young adults battling the ageless fears that underlie the veneer of our contemporary scientific sophistication.

As all good occult detectives have done, my hero and heroine will allay our fears of the unknown. Of course, such fears can never truly be put to rest. Can they?

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

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The Piranha Pandemic

Matthew Cormack is one in a legion of virtually unknown writers who are producing excellent fiction. Much of it better than what the big corporate publishers are giving the public to read. 

These independent author/publishers, indies for short, publish some doggone good stuff. Fiction that truly deserves a much wider audience. Fiction that is frequently far better than the best selling drivel being forced upon readers’s eyeballs.

Last week I introduced you to one such writer: Matthew Cormack. This week, I’d like to tell you a bit about two of his three books. Only two, because I haven’t read the third one yet.

The Piranha Pandemic Universe

Mr. Cormack has created a fictional universe that is incredibly believable. Starting with a mysterious and fast-acting virus that eventually wipes out most of humanity, Cormack then extrapolates what the world would be like for those who survived the pandemic — and, more importantly, how they would deal with being a survivor.

This form of the post-apocalyptic sub-genre is called a cozy catastrophe.

The term was coined by Brian Aldiss as a pejorative to describe the plot of Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids.

In spite of Aldiss, the point of the cozy catastrophe is not a celebration of bourgeois values — it’s a celebration of hope in the indomitable human spirit.

Not dystopian in tone, the cozy catastrophe is utopian. Given the chance, we can indeed fix the mess we ourselves made of society and culture. At last, at long last, a broken world gets to be fixed.

The “fix”, of course, depends on the worldview of the writer of the story.

In my own cozy catastrophe, The Rocheport Saga, the protagonist, Bill Arthur, pursues his anarcho-capitalist libertarian dream. Very utopian indeed!

On the other hand, Matthew Cormack takes a much more realistic view of things: nothing will change, because people are people.

Don’t Dream It’s Over

The first novel set in the Piranha Pandemic universe is Don’t Dream It’s Over. It’s the story of Peter, who is not the most savory of protagonists. He’s pretty much like everyone we know: he has good points and bad points and sometimes the bad points do outnumber the good points. Although, through the course of the story, we see the dross slowly burned away to reveal a pretty doggone good guy. A good guy who’d been corrupted by modern society.

Peter decides to leave London, leave England. At first, his only goal is to reach the Mediterranean. However, as he meets other survivors along the way, and sees how they are coping or not coping with the aftermath of the plague, his own goal begins to change. And by the end of the book, Peter truly is the hero of the story.

Cormack is a cracker jack writer. He makes the epistolary novel form come alive. And he does this by giving us real people in very lifelike situations. That is Cormack’s gift: an eye for people. He’s a canny observer of life and puts those observations into his books.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is a long book: over 250,000 words. Long books aren’t my cup of tea. Yet once I started Don’t Dream, I was hooked. The story was compelling and the book didn’t lag as so many long novels do.

Perhaps what I enjoyed most about Don’t Dream was the realism. No dystopia or utopia here. Although there are dystopian and utopian groups encountered by Peter on his journey to find himself. Which is just another way of saying that we find here real people in real situations.

As one reviewer wrote: “…boy does this book stay with you long after you have finally put it down.” And it does.

Ganbaru

Ganbaru is the second book set in the Piranha Pandemic universe. The story revolves around a completely different set of characters then we encountered in Don’t Dream.

The setting is England. Rural England. And here we have utopia meets dystopia. A small group of survivors intent on making the world a better place, collide with a much larger group led by a real bad egg named Baz. The story line revolves around how the small group can become free from the large group, after Baz’s group takes them over.

I don’t want to spoil the story. You’ll have to read it on your own — and I definitely encourage you to do so.

Once again, Cormack gives us real people in realistic settings which results in a very believable story. A story so believable you tend to forget you’re reading a novel.

Ganbaru is a cozy catastrophe that is largely a thriller laced with a heaping helping of suspense. In my opinion, Cormack has taken the cozy catastrophe and made it a genre for today, yet keeping true to the sub-genre’s roots.

Here’s my review from Amazon:

Matthew Cormack’s Piranha Pandemic Universe is a scary place. The survivors are fighting nature, dwindling resources, and themselves.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is the first book set in this universe. The story is superbly told, for Mr Cormack is a superb storyteller.

Ganbaru gives us a look at a different part of the Piranha Pandemic Universe. A small group of survivors, who are principled persons, want to start rebuilding a better world, and have begun their project in an old abandoned priory.

As fate would have it, they meet a larger group that is pragmatically ruthless. The clash of civilizations, as it were, makes for exciting reading.

Ganbaru is a realistic post-apocalyptic tale. There are no zombies or aliens or monsters — unless we, ourselves, qualify as the monsters.

The story is told well and peopled with real-life characters in real-life situations who must make difficult decisions.

A fabulous story by a fabulous writer.

A fabulous writer indeed.

In these days of pandemic, I encourage you to read Matthew Cormack’s books. Because, at the end of the day, he’ll give you hope — and that’s exactly what we need.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is available from Amazon US and UK.

Ganbaru is available from Amazon US and UK.

The Piranha Pandemic: From Small Acorns… is available from Amazon US and UK.

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

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After the Apocalypse

With Coronavirus cases now over 750,000 worldwide, deaths over 36,000, and many areas of the US and the world under stay at home orders or lockdown, it might seem like we are experiencing the Apocalypse.

Of course, as I pointed out last week, the Coronavirus while dangerous is nowhere near as deadly as the Spanish Flu of 1918. That bug was killing a million people a week and did so for 25 straight weeks.

But no one today remembers the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 102 years ago.

For that matter, no one remembers the Hong Kong Flu Pandemic of 1968, which killed from one to four million people worldwide. Nor does anyone remember the Asian Flu Pandemic of 1957, which also originated in China, and went on to kill from one to four million people worldwide.

Will Coronavirus be as bad as those flu pandemics? At this stage, we don’t know. Sure experts make guesses — and I emphasize guesses — but even the experts don’t really know. No one will until it’s all over.

Pandemics are a staple in the post-apocalyptic writer’s arsenal of weapons available to wipe out humanity.

However, will a pandemic actually do so? That’s debatable. The Black Death, the most deadly disease to hit the Western world, wiped out 60% of Europe’s population — yet civilization marched on.

Personally, I don’t think a pandemic will be the end of the world as we know it. Not unless the bug that causes it is so foreign and fast acting that we won’t be able to respond in time. Something like the Andromeda Strain.

Be that as it may, pandemics have wiped out humanity in fiction many times over. There are those classics such as Earth Abides by George R Stewart, Empty World by John Christopher, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, Terry Nation’s TV series and book Survivors, Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, and The Stand by Stephen King.

Indie authors have also jumped on the pandemic bandwagon. Authors such as AJ Newman, Ryan Casey, and AG Riddle.

But as you know, if you are a reader of this blog, I eschew bestsellers. IMO, they usually fail to live up to the hype.

Thus far, I’d have to say the most realistic post-apocalyptic pandemic novels I’ve read are those from the pen of Matthew Cormack.

If you’ve never heard of Matthew Cormack, that’s not surprising. He rather avoids the limelight. He labels himself a “Sunday writer”.

I ran across Mr Cormack in a Facebook writer’s group, where I was looking for some books to read. He offered his book Don’t Dream It’s Over. I read it and loved it. I mean I LOVED IT!!!

Matthew Cormack’s superb world building and very human characters and very realistic situations are what won the day for me.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is the initial novel set in the post-apocalyptic world of the Piranha Pandemic. Don’t Dream was followed by Ganbaru, and the just released The Piranha Pandemic: From Small Acorns… (which I’m very much looking forward to reading).

While the 3 novels are set in the same universe, each one is a standalone work.

Cormack writes about people. His books aren’t prepper manuals, or EMP exercises. They are books about people and how they act under extreme duress. His characters and the situations they get into are very real. These are people who could be your next door neighbor or your relatives.

If Coronavirus were to wipe out most of us who are breathing today, I think the world left behind would be very much like the one Matthew Cormack has created.

Next week, I’ll go into a bit more detail about the books themselves.

In the meantime, they’re only 99¢ each. Surely 3 bucks isn’t too much for some truly top-notch experiences in a world that might be. Experiences that will make you sit back and say, “Thank God I live in this world and not that one.”

Here are the links to the books:

Don’t Dream It’s Over

Ganbaru

The Piranha Pandemic: From Small Acorns…

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

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Panic

I’ve been watching the current panic, and in some quarters, hysteria, over the coronavirus pandemic. Being retired and a homebody, the quarantine measures don’t affect me much at all. I do what I’ve done now for years: write, read, manage my book marketing, watch a little TV, play a game. Oh, I mustn’t forget eating and sleeping — I do those, as well.

That we are in the midst of a pandemic is evident from the more or less worldwide spread of this new virus strain from China.

But, then, we must consider flu — the ordinary flu — a pandemic that occurs every year and we don’t get into much of a flap about it, do we now? And in any given year the flu affects a billion people worldwide, and kills anywhere from 290,000 to 650,000 people. In spite of the flu shot. Granted that isn’t a high mortality rate, but I wouldn’t want to be one of the death numbers.

Thus far (8 am, 23 March 2020), we have 351,083 reported cases worldwide, with 15,337 deaths. And lest we forget, 100,569 have recovered from the disease. The current mortality rate (subject to change, up or down) is 4.4%. That is much higher than the flu, but not as high as some other diseases.

The Ebola outbreak of 2014-16 had a 40% mortality rate. Now THAT is bad. Just imagine if that genie had gotten out of the bottle. What saved the world then, was the fact that the West African nations reported the outbreak right away. Just think if the Chinese had been as honest with the Coronavirus.

SARS is a relative of the Coronavirus, and originated in China. In the SARS pandemic, the mortality rate was 15%. Thank goodness SARS affected far fewer people than Coronavirus.

MERS, originating in Arabia, had a 34% mortality rate. And again, thank goodness, it affected only a small number of people. Otherwise we could have had a genuine catastrophe on our hands.

Of course the 800 pound disease gorilla of modern times was the Spanish Flu of 1918. That affected a third of the world’s population at the time, and killed anywhere from 50 million to 100 million people. At its height, it killed 1 million people a week for 25 weeks running. The Coronavirus stats aren’t anywhere near approaching those numbers. Thank goodness.

The Coronavirus originated in China and so far has affected the Chinese most severely, followed by the Italians, and the Iranians (who were also hard hit by the Spanish Flu). The vast majority of deaths are in those 3 countries. Do keep that in mind.

At present, the percentage of the world’s population that has contracted Coronavirus is .00004%. That is a pretty doggone tiny percentage. The death rate is similarly minuscule.

The Coronavirus is not good, no doubt about it. I don’t want to get it. However, we need to look at this rationally and not emotionally. We aren’t experiencing 40% death rates. Nor are we seeing a million people dying every week.

The actions of the world’s governments may, and I emphasize may, help contain the disease. There’s no reliable data, though, that quarantine is working. The numbers from China’s Communist government can’t be fully trusted because the history of Communist governments shows that they cook the numbers to make themselves look good. And even if quarantine Chinese-style worked, who in the West would want the government imposing those draconian measures? I doubt very many would.

To my mind, though, the greater risk from quarantine measures is shattered economies across the globe. That just might be a bigger issue than the disease itself — affecting far more lives for a far longer period of time.

Every day, around the world, 3,700 people are killed in road traffic accidents. In the 4 months while the Coronavirus has been with us, 447,700 people have died on the world’s roads. Somehow, fifteen thousand deaths doesn’t really compare to nearly half a million. And we do very little to stop the slaughter on our roads. No one has yet to propose we ban motor vehicles. Even the consideration would be considered ludicrous.

Perspective my friends. Reasoned and rational perspective. Coronavirus is bad. There is no cure. But there are many things that have been and are far worse.

Take the same precautions as you would with the flu. The means of spreading are essentially the same. And remember, this disease primarily kills old people. Like me. Don’t panic. Use common sense.

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

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The Indie Movement

In December 2012 I bought my first book by an indie author. The book was The Emperor’s Edge by Lindsay Buroker. I was favorably impressed. So much so, I went on and bought the series.

From there, I discovered other indie authors who were very good writers. And somewhere in the reading of those authors, my choice of authors shifted from traditionally published to a majority being indie published.

The independent author/publisher movement confirmed all the stories I’d heard for decades — that the big corporate publishers rejected thousands of good manuscripts every year.

Why do they do that? Because big corporations are by nature conservative. Sure they had to take risks to get to be big. That’s when they’re innovative — when they’re small. But once a corporation is huge, they become much more concerned about the bottom line. And innovation takes a back seat to profits.

Random House/Penguin and their behemoth German owners, aren’t going to take the risks that small press publishers might (although even those can be quite conservative). There is always risk with business. More fail than succeed. So the successful eventually begin to conserve their gains. That’s just how it is.

The sole entrepreneur, however, has only himself to be concerned about. 

If I self-publish a book and it doesn’t make money, that only affects me. 

If Macmillan (now a German company) publishes a flop, they are out the advance to the author, the salaries of the acquisition editors, the copy editors, the advertising people, the office rent, the cover artist salaries, the warehouse space, etc, etc. And the shareholders don’t get their dividends — which puts the CEO’s job at risk. And that’s something that just isn’t tolerated.

If I publish a book that goes nowhere, I can leave it on Amazon, and Kobo, and Apple, and wherever else I choose, essentially forever. And let the royalties dribble in. Simon and Schuster (owned by ViacomCBS) can’t afford to do that.

Thus you see the big corporate boys declaring for many years now that vampires are dead. But on the indie scene, dozens upon dozens of those bloodsuckers can be found. And some are making their creators a lot of money.

The big boys don’t want to continue a fad because they don’t want to be left holding the bag when the fad fizzles out. Or can no longer make enough money to meet their bloated bottom lines when the fad tapers off.

What is significant is that James Patterson has now discovered money can be made at the indie price point and has convinced his publisher to take on his BookShots line. The blurb on Patterson’s website reads in part:

Life moves fast—books should too. Pulse-pounding reads under $5 and 150 pages or less. Impossible to put down.

This comes at a time when many indies are moving to longer books and higher prices — in an attempt to look like the big corporate publishers, and thereby make themselves look more legitimate. A bad move, in my opinion.

Patterson, though, realizes money can be made for him and his publisher at the indie price point. And with shorter books. This is truly a return to the ethos of the 1950s. And I think forecasts good things for indies who can, for the most part, turn out shorter works faster.

Back in the pulp magazine era, many of the magazines cost a dime. Today, depending on what standard you use, that dime would be equal to anywhere between $1.50 and $6. In the 1950s, paperback books could be bought for a quarter. Or $2.50 to $4 in today’s money. Essentially the price range of most indie books today.

I’ve said for quite awhile now, that the indie movement is essentially a return to the Pulp Fiction Era. To be successful, a writer has to turn out a good story in a popular genre that is exciting and generally fast-paced. The writer must also write lots and publish often. To be sure, as an indie, there are more factors involved than what faced the average pulp fictioneer, because today’s indie author is also a publisher. But the basic formula remains the same.

Today is a good day to be a writer. A self-published writer. An independent author/publisher. It’s also a good day to be a reader, because there are many excellent self-published books available to read.

Thars gold in them thar books! So get crackin’!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading! (and writing!)

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Books: What Price Value?

Okay, folks, today I’m ranting. Just letting you know!

Recently, my 4800 word story, Ancient History: A Modern Ghost Story, received a 1 star review on Amazon. Here is the review in its entirety:

23 pages long

The story was going along great. Then it just stopped! I wish I had looked at the length of the story before I bought it. Even .99 is too much for a book that’s only 23 pages!

My immediate takeaway was:

      • He liked the story
      • He didn’t like that it was a short story
      • He thinks short stories should be given to people for free
      • He admitted that it was his own fault he didn’t look at the length before he bought

Yet, reviewer Thomas thinks it’s totally fair to punish me for his oversight and dislike of short stories! An interesting approach to life that. Blame others for your own mistakes.

Our reviewer thinks 99¢ is too much to pay for a short story — and he is certainly entitled to his opinion. However, by way of comparison, Lawrence Block charges $2.99 for his short stories.

Now granted, I’m not Lawrence Block and I certainly don’t pretend to be in his league. But then I don’t charge $2.99 for my short stories or five bucks for my novels either.

I do however put a price tag on my work that is, I think, fair given my writing ability and the entertainment value of the stories.

After all, reviewer Thomas, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch — in spite of what you think. Everything has a cost. Everything.

For an indie author to put a book in your hands, Mr Thomas, that writer has to spend time writing the story. And who wants to work for free? I don’t and I doubt you do either.

Then there is the cost of getting a cover for the book. There is the cost of editing and proofreading the book. There is the cost of formatting the book. And there is the cost of marketing the finished product.

From that 99¢, I get a mere 35¢. Amazon gets the rest. 

Ancient History was published 1 July 2016. I have yet to even make back the cost of the cover — let alone all of the other costs associated with the book.

I’m not grousing about the 1 star. Win some, lose some. What I find insulting is Thomas’s attitude that I should give my stuff away for free. How about this, Mr Thomas, tomorrow you tell your boss you don’t want to get paid. You’ll put in your 8 hours for free. Bet you my pension you’ll never do that in a million years. Yet, you would deprive me of a lousy 35¢. Thanks, pal.

I don’t believe in free. I think the laborer is worthy of his hire. When authors want to give me a free book to review, I tell them it’s my policy to buy the book. If I like the book, I’ll review it and promote it. In spite of that, sometimes I get free books. But my policy still holds. Because if I like the freebie, I will buy a copy — so the author gets his money. The money he is due for entertaining me.

At the end of the day, I think we indie authors are our own worst enemy. We have trained readers, like Thomas, to expect something for nothing due to all the freebies we give out. And I admit, I used to be in that camp. But I ain’t no longer.

Hear ye, hear ye! I am not giving out free books or free anything except to those who sign up for my mailing list or are on my mailing list. Because a mailing list is like a club, and with club membership comes benefits.

You want free stuff, Thomas? Join my mailing list.

Okay. Rant over.

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

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A Free Justinia Wright Mystery

Yes, Virginia, a free Justinia Wright mystery is coming to readers everywhere — but only if they’re signed up for my mailing list. It’s something like Henry Ford’s “You can have any color you want, as long as it’s black.”

I don’t do free very often. So this is a great opportunity to get a Justinia Wright novelette simply by joining my mailing list. Which you can do here.

The Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mystery series has been getting positive attention of late. I was named among the Top 25 Mystery Writers You Need to be Reading by international bestselling mystery and thriller writers Caleb and Linda Pirtle.

Of the latest Tina and Harry adventure, Death Makes a House Call, readers are saying:

First rate entry in a great series.

…if you like well-drawn, fascinating, and believable characters…not to mention clever writing (with lots of laugh-out-loud moments), give this author a try!

This book is highly entertaining…

…well-written and worthy of all five stars.

If you haven’t read any of the Justinia Wright mysteries, you can find them on Amazon.

I will start serializing the novelette to my mailing list on Friday, March 13th — so don’t wait to sign up! The game is afoot!

Sign up here — today!

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

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George Frideric Handel

This past Sunday was the 335th birthday of German/British composer George Frideric Handel, according to the old Julian calendar. March 5th is his birthday according to our current calendar.

In my opinion, Handel was one of the greatest composers ever. His music was impressionistic before there was any Impressionism movement. In an age of patronage, Handel was a businessman and his own boss for most of his career. In the course of his life he made and lost several fortunes, and died a millionaire by today’s standards.

David Vickers has given us a colorful synopsis of the great composer’s life and you can read it here: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/the-mysteries-myths-and-truths-about-mr-handel

However, what is not generally known about Handel is that he was a consummate philosopher. He wrote one philosophical treatise: his last oratorio, Jephthah. The musical drama was a rebuttal to Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man.

An Essay on Man, published 1733-34, is a poetic philosophical treatise vindicating the ways of God vis-a-vis His interactions with humans (line 16). The poem presents the natural order of things that God has decreed for human beings.

Pope goes on to argue that since it is impossible for finite humans to know the purposes of the infinite God, human beings have no right to complain about their lot in the Great Chain of Being (lines 33-34). Instead of complaining, people should simply accept the premise that “Whatever is, is right.” (line 292)

An Essay on Man found great acceptance and admiration throughout Europe. Among it’s admirers were Rousseau, Voltaire, and Kant. In fact, Kant used to read the poem to his students; and Pope’s philosophy was an important contributor to Kant’s own philosophy of religion.

While an early admirer, Voltaire later rejected Pope’s deterministic optimism and lampooned it in his book Candide.

However, Handel beat Voltaire’s rebuttal by 8 years — publishing, in 1751, his own rejection in the form of the magnificent oratorio, Jephthah.

In Jephthah, Handel questions, with biting sarcasm, that is brilliantly portrayed in the musical interpretation of the text, Pope’s assertion that “Whatever is, is right.”

The Biblical account of Jephthah is fairly short. He sets out to fight Israel’s enemies and vows to God that if God honors him with victory he will sacrifice to God the first thing he sees upon his return from the battlefield.

Foreshadowing is nothing new, writers and readers. And low and behold, what is the first thing Jephthah sees? Why, of course, his only daughter. The Biblical account clearly implies Jephthah kept his vow, after allowing his daughter a year’s reprieve.

However, such an interpretation wouldn’t fly in 18th century London. So the librettist, the Reverend Thomas Morell, took a page from the story of Abraham and Isaac and had an angel spare Iphis, Jephthah’s daughter, from death — but to honor the vow, she could not marry and had to remain a virgin her entire life.

And of course, Iphis has a lover, Hamor. Talk about star-crossed lovers!

Through the musical interpretation of the text, Handel roundly damns Pope’s sentiment, “Whatever is, is right.”

Whatever is, is not always right. The punishment for Jephthah’s misguided and witless vow falls squarely on two  innocents: Iphis and Hamor, the young lovers who have their whole lives ahead of them. And according to Handel, that is definitely not right. Those two should not have to suffer for Jephthah’s misguided zeal.

It’s as if Handel was saying, no loving and fair God would ever commit such a travesty of justice. Spare Iphis from death, but commit her to the lifelong death of separation from the one she loves? Bah! Humbug! And no father should have to honor such a vow based on belief in religious duty that flies in the face of religious common sense. Jephthah had just defeated the followers of Moloch who practiced human sacrifice!

Yes, indeed, Pope and his absurd position be damned!

You can listen to the oratorio here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N0N-o3KAsk

The performance is 2 hours and 40 minutes of some of the most poignant and sublime music you will ever hear. Never has philosophy been so easy to enjoy!

George Frideric Handel was and is a giant among composers. He wrote French music better then the French, Italian music better than the Italians, and German music better than the Germans (although some would cite JS Bach as the exception). No British composer until Ralph Vaughan Williams could even come close to Handel.

Handel was a great musician and a great philosopher. Happy birthday, George!

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

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Bookmans

Tucson has the most wonderful used bookstore. It’s called Bookmans, and this privately owned company is amazing. It’s a used book superstore. 

In fact Bookmans is an Arizona treasure, with 3 locations in Tucson, 2 in Flagstaff, and 1 each in Phoenix and Mesa. The company’s been in business since 1976. Check them out at bookmans.com!

The other week I was visiting my dad who lives in Tucson, and set aside one morning to go to Bookmans. Of course I came away with some exciting new gems to add to the library.

The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I like Burroughs. He knew how to write a rousing adventure yarn. In fact, he was the model many editors pointed to when advising new writers on how to write.

The Mad King is new to me and I’m looking forward to the read.

Prisoner’s Base and The Black Mountain by Rex Stout

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout. In fact, the books are among the very few I re-read. Once upon a time I had the entire series. Today I’m in the process of rebuilding my collection. These two are very welcome. Very welcome indeed!

The Lost Wagon Train by Zane Grey

When a kid, I used to watch Westerns on TV. Shows such as Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Bonanza, The Lone Ranger, Have Gun — Will Travel, and many others. But I didn’t read Westerns until recently.

Zane Grey is still considered one of the kings among Western writers. So I added this one to my growing Western collection.

The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes by Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block is an incredibly amazing and versatile writer. I very much like his fiction, and his books for writers are nonpareil. Block can entertain you like few others, and teach you everything you need to know about the writing game. Block delivers, so this one I added to my collection and have already started reading it.

Those were my Bookmans “purchases”. I put that in quotes because that day was my very lucky day. I was one of two winners to get my books for free! How can you not love a bookstore that gives away books?

Reading is the best entertainment. Books are portable storytellers who are always with you. I have many hundreds of physical books and over a thousand on my iPad. Plenty of stories to take me to places and times I could never visit in person.

To me, the person who does not read fiction can only experience the here and now. And as wonderful as that can be, it’s a life devoid of imagination — and that’s only half a life.

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

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