Indie April Suggestions – Part 4

RH Hale

Today, I’m showcasing my fourth author for Indie April: the incomparable and supremely talented RH Hale.

Twitter has been a good source for finding talented writers of truly amazing books. My reading life has been enhanced many-fold by these wonderfully creative people.

RH Hale is one of the most talented of the literary finds I’ve come across. And I’m so thankful I did.

Her two books

Church Mouse: Memoir of a vampire’s servant
and
Church Mouse (Book 2): The Change

elevate the vampire novel to a new height. Yet these books are more than just vampire novels. For Rona Dean, the human servant, the watch dog for these supremely deadly creatures, tells us her story. And by doing so, we are given an insight into what it’s like to live on the knife-edge of terror day in and day out; and, through this daily exposure to terror and incredible horror, we see Rona, the church mouse, change, grow, and eventually earn the respect of the monsters she serves.

Gothic novel? Or are these books a coming of age story? A tale of macabre terror? Or a philosophical treatise on what it truly means to be human?

Perhaps Church Mouse is all of these, and more.

Ms Hale’s storytelling is superb throughout. We are given atmospheric descriptions of places, and mood evoking pictures of settings. Her characters are alive, real. You can touch them, feel with them, feel for them.

Her command of the novel form is equal to that of the most mature of writers. Her words mesmerize us, evoke deep feelings in us, touch all of our senses — they let us see and experience Rona’s world.

These two novels are simply brilliant. They are gothic masterpieces. They are among the finest horror literature being written today. They rightly belong next to the classics: “Dracula”, “Carmilla”, and “The Vampyre”.

Simply put, Ms Hale is one of the finest indie authors writing today. She is nonpareil.

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon US

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon US

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon UK

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon UK

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon Canada

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon Canada

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon Australia

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon Australia

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon Germany

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon Germany

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

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For the Weekend 9

This weekend is Halloween and I thought it appropriate to recommend something horribly spooky for your entertainment.

Crispian Thurlborn

Crispian is one of my favorite authors. If he writes it, I’ll read it. For this weekend, I recommend:

Exit. This is a slow burn chiller. Something like the twilight zone. Mysterious, with a shocking revelation at the end. Get the book at Amazon!

01134. We’ve never been so connected, yet we’ve never been so alone. We crave companionship and when we get it we’re on top of the world. When we lose it… A superb tale of psychological horror. On Amazon!

Cinder. Jill is a college student, and like all college students she needs money. Which means she takes the occasional babysitting job. And the job of watching the Comptons’s kid seems to be like any other. That is until those things desiring to ward of the chill of the coming winter make themselves known. Get it on Amazon!

Sign up for Crispian’s mailing list and get the terrifying short story “Wednesday’s Girl”.

Richard Schwindt

Richard is another author who writes outstanding fiction. If he writes it, I buy it. For this weekend, I want to draw your attention to:

Herkimer’s Nose. This was the first book I read by Richard and it’s still my favorite. A fabulous cast of characters, with lots of humor, terror, monsters, ghosts, and spies. A delightfully spooky tale, that’s at Amazon!

Tony Price: Confidential. Tony is a social worker and an amateur occult detective. If you like mysteries and monsters, this trilogy is for you. I loved it. Get it at Amazon!

Ottawa Confidential. This story is the Tony Price prequel. And very appropriate for Halloween. It’s about dogs. Well, not really. More like wolves. Well, not really that either. Just read it. You won’t regret it. At Amazon.

A Killing in Samana. Murder mystery meets occult detective. And we discover Richard’s other amateur sleuth, Chris Allard, knows Tony. Together, they solve an eerie murder case. Pick it up at Amazon.

R.H. Hale. Hale’s Church Mouse duo is an incredible work of fiction. The writing is literary, and some of the finest I’ve read. I don’t care for a lot of description, yet Hale’s descriptions mesmerize me. They set the mood and atmosphere, and establish the eerie Gothic quality that makes these books work so well.

Rona, the main character and narrator of the story, is exceedingly well-drawn. She is truly lifelike.

Sergei, the vampire and antagonist, is also very well-drawn. His character is richly complex. We hate him and we love him.

The Church Mouse duo easily makes my top ten list of recommended horror reads. They are novels you truly do want to read before you die.

Get Church Mouse: Memoir of a vampire’s servant at Amazon, along with Church Mouse – Book 2: The Change, also at Amazon.

 

Lastly, a bit of shameless self-promotion. Aside from my Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations series, I’ve published the following stories:

Do One Thing For Me. George is old and going senile. Beth isn’t what she appears to be, but George isn’t sure she’s even real. And then she makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Or can he? Get it at the Zon.

Ancient History. Two brothers with a history, and not a good history at that. But they’re getting older and maybe it’s time to mend things. Put things right. But the ghosts think otherwise. And as one reviewer wrote: “…the ending was a shocking twist I never saw coming!” On Amazon.

Metamorphosis. I love vampire stories. And this is my contribution, to date. Devon is sick and having a mid-life crisis. His solution? Become a vampire and leave the problems behind. But his minister, who is a vampire, convinces him otherwise. Or does he? At Amazon!

What the Next Day Brings. A tale of the Cthulhu Mythos, set in 1920s Vienna. Everyone of us makes choices. Sometimes out of desperation. And starving to death, that’s what Franz does. However, as we all know, such choices often hand us more than we bargained for. Also at Amazon.

Plenty of good reading for your Halloween weekend. Enjoy!

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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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Interview with RH Hale

Today it is my great pleasure to talk with RH Hale, who is the author of Church Mouse: Memoir of a vampire’s servant. Which is one of the best indie authored novels I’ve read, and is right up there with the best of the traditionally published novels I’ve read.

I think it is unusual for a debut novel to have the gripping power that is in Church Mouse. The book is truly a Gothic tour-de-force.

But I’m sure you all want to learn a bit about the author of this fabulous novel. So without further ado, let’s meet RH Hale!

CW: Tell us a little about yourself.

RH: I was born in Scotland, where I currently reside. I lived in England for a while where I got my science degree from Kingston University in lovely Surrey. I’ve been a ghost tour guide and performed in several small-scale theatre productions including the Edinburgh Fringe. I can’t make up a tune to save my life but love music and have written dozens of lyrics, poems and two screenplays, all unpublished. Church Mouse is my first complete novel, published in October 2017.

CW: Aside from writing, how do you spend your free time?

RH: Reading when I can. I live on the coast near the countryside and love a good walk, especially if someone’s friendly dog says hello, which makes my day! But being an indie author, I’d be lying if I denied a lot of my time is taken up with promoting my book on Twitter. It may be a slow climb but very worth it. 

CW: Very much worth it, indeed! What did you read as a child?

RH: I read a lot of Roald Dahl and proudly kept his complete collection on my shelf. I realise he’s a bit controversial now, but I was just a kid. Matilda, Boy and The Witches were my favourites.

CW: Might I just say here that if we were to eliminate all the controversial authors, I doubt there would be much left worth reading. But go on.

RH: Some other childhood favourites were The Queen’s Nose by Dick-King Smith, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis; and I loved Beyond The Firelight, a collection of short tales by Ann Lawrence, which I believe is still on my shelf.

And I was absolutely hooked on a major weekly series called Storyteller: hundreds of illustrated stories and poems, each issue coming with an audio cassette tape (we’re back in the 80s here) narrated by great actors including Derek Jacobi and Miriam Margoyles. Truly terrific stories of infinite variety, old, new, and mythical from all cultures with beautiful illustrations! Some tales very scary for kids. 

The Christmas issue was my first introduction to Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, narrated by the great Joss Ackland …I was TERRIFIED! They may currently be stored in boxes but that’s one childhood collection I’m not parting with.

CW: Very much so. Those books of childhood are some of my most cherished possessions. Please tell us about a book that has influenced you as a person.

RH: Oooh, that’s a tricky one to answer without cheating and naming several.

As a child of seven or eight, in school we read What Difference Does It Make Danny? by Helen Young. It’s the story of a young boy, Danny, who is the gym teacher’s pet for being a top swimmer. Swimming is his passion. Unknown to this teacher, Danny is also epileptic. Furious when he finds out, this teacher forbids Danny to swim again. It’s essentially a story about overcoming prejudice and discrimination. I knew next to nothing about epilepsy at that age, and I think it taught me a lot.

More recently, I’d say Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story by Debbie Tung, published last year I think. It’s actually a graphic novel, practically a comic but wonderfully done, about what it’s like growing up different and the bravery of self-acceptance in a world of people braying at you to “fit in”. It’s brilliant, funny and there’s so much I familiarised with it was ridiculous.

At the risk of sounding cliché, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and George Orwell’s Animal Farm (a book everyone needs to read!) and 1984, shocked and really opened my eyes to the ever-present human demon lurking beneath the skin, often too close for comfort.

CW: Yes, 1984 was one of the most terrifying books I’ve ever read. More so than many “horror” novels! Would you tell us how many fiction books you read a year?

RH: It’s a rather boring answer, but I don’t keep count. Into double figures, though not as many as I’d like. One of my dreams is to swing through the double doors of Waterstones bookstore with a small fortune in my pocket. There are also a lot of indie books I want to read on my Kindle, plus a stack of paperbacks on my bedside table. A healthy sight I think. ☺

CW: Yes, indeed. We like those stacks of books waiting to be read! Tell us about a book that’s influenced you as a writer.

RH: Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca whetted my appetite for finally committing to writing properly. Du Maurier’s incredibly atmospheric storytelling is intoxicating, seductive, and just possessed me with an irresistible hunger to do so.

May I cheat again and add another? Or two?

CW: By all means, go ahead.

RH: Well, then, Burning Your Boats: a complete collection of all short stories from one of my all-time favourite authors, Angela Carter. It’s an absolute feast for the eyes.

In terms of writing horror, one of the most terrifying books I ever read was Ghost Story by Peter Straub. I like to consider myself a toughie, but that novel literally had me repeatedly looking over my shoulder whilst reading, alone.

CW: Now I have some books to add to my ever growing list to read! Okay, you are being exiled to a small island in the Pacific. You can take 3 books with you. What books would you take and why?

RH: Only three? Ouch. Well they’d have to be long books to keep me occupied.

  1. Probably something I haven’t read yet, so as I don’t already know what’s coming. Either The Complete Works of Sheridan Le Fanu; or The Necronomicon, a painfully bulky hardback of the complete works of H.P Lovecraft, which I’m still getting through. Short story collections are great because of the variety – Don’t like that story? No problem, here’s another.
  2. The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, one of the greatest books I ever read. Probably three times now and never tired of it.
  3. For practical purposes, non-fiction: SAS Survival Handbook by John Lofty Wiseman. Packed with info about how/what to eat and finding shelter in the wild in all climates, land, sea, desert, etc. Handy and potentially lifesaving material if I’m gonna be stuck on this here island a while…

CW: Those sound like great choices. More to add to my list! Please tell us what was the genesis of Church Mouse?

RH: Two stages really. It started as a slow burner, a drawn-out daydream lingering at the back of my mind. In fact, it was initially going to be set in a house.

Precisely why I started thinking about the protagonist Rona hiding in a church gallery, I honestly can’t remember, except that one day I imagined the initial moments where she sees her immortal employers for the first time – and it played out seamlessly as if I were watching a film, spoken to me word for word. That scene, written exactly as I imagined it, was so uncannily concrete and three-dimensional that I thought, ‘This is ridiculous’, and had to get it down on paper. The rest of the book grew from there. Church Mouse was really born out of a bunch of scenes scribbled in notes that gradually came together.

CW: Very interesting. I always like to hear how writers write. So, how much research did you put into your book?

RH: No excuse for not getting the terminology right, so I did as much research as possible on the nomenclature of Gothic and church architecture, double and triple-checking it, bookmarking glossaries, etc. The same for antique jewellery, arson, old furniture, and medieval weaponry. All fascinating stuff. 

Seton Collegiate Church, a small tourist attraction in East Lothian, partly influenced the atmosphere for St Patrick’s in the book. It’s owned by Historic Scotland and bare as a bone, but has a cold, comforting loneliness inside. As for the church vaults, I knew what I was talking about because I was a ghost tour guide in Edinburgh’s underground vaults for over three years. I’ve made people scream in there, filmed in there, changed flashlight batteries, felt my way along walls, and locked them up hundreds of times, often in darkness. The mention of mould in the book is taken from first-hand experience, and it’s no picnic to breathe in.

I haven’t read many vampire novels apart from Stoker’s Dracula and Ann Rice’s Interview With The Vampire many years ago. But whenever I saw them in film, the scientist in me always reared its head and questioned how is it technically possible for hard incisor enamel to spontaneously expand and sharpen like that? I know fiction is fiction, but it just…bugged me. That’s why I made them a little different in Church Mouse, but no less savage or animalistic.

CW: Yes, I wondered about the teeth thing in your book. Now I know! Now, aside from Rona’s saga, who else is clamoring to have his or her story told?

RH: There’s a character in Church Mouse called Dudley Flotterstone who only appears briefly in one scene, but whilst writing it I felt a bud forming. I saw him very clearly and decided I wanted him as the protagonist for another horror story in the works, Krellingsgait, a place also mentioned in the book.

CW: Where we can find your books?

RH: They are currently available as an eBook on Amazon Kindle, Goodreads, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, GooglePlay and other online bookstores worldwide.

Hopefully available in hard copy within the next few months.

CW: Well, this has been delightful! Thank you for taking the time to share with us today a bit about yourself and your writing.

And I encourage you all to buy a copy of Church Mouse. It is a truly fabulous novel. Anne Rice, move over. The book is available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

You can get in touch with RH Hale at the following places:

R.H.Hale was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. After gaining a first class honours degree in science at Kingston University in Surrey, she went on to explore the arts and has worked in theatre, ghost tours and writing. She currently lives in East Lothian. Church Mouse is her first novel.

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Some Very Good Reads

Last week I talked about being a reader. I love reading and can’t talk enough about the joy of books. They truly are fab friends.

This week, I thought I’d talk a bit about some of the great books and stories I’ve been reading of late. I’m an advocate for the underdog. For those writers who are good and just can’t seem to get any traction for their books. I like to promote those writers whenever possible.

Two of my recent reads I mentioned last week: Mark Carnelley’s The Omega Chronicles and RH Hale’s Church Mouse: Memoir of a vampire’s servant. So let’s take a look at what else I’ve been reading over the past couple months.

Entangled by J. Evan Stuart

This one I’ve started re-reading: Entangled by J. Evan Stuart. The book is part police procedural mystery, part coming of age novel, and partly a YA/NA read. 

The novel is Stuart’s debut work and it is a real winner. Exceptionally well-written, with characters you’ll fall in love with (well, there are one or two you won’t; but then you aren’t supposed to), and mucho suspense. I’m very much surprised this one isn’t jumping off the charts. But it isn’t. It’s in Amazon’s sub-basement. Which is too bad.

And Stuart has seemingly disappeared as well, which is also too bad. I hope he returns to bring us more Detective Sonya Reisler adventures. And who knows? Maybe a few sales and reviews would do the trick. I hope so.

Don’t pass this one up. It’s a keeper and exclusive to Amazon, so KU folks read for free.

The Stone Seekers by Jack Tyler

I just finished Tyler’s foray into epic fantasy. And it is amazing. Tyler is normally a steampunk writer, which makes this work a surprise — and a very pleasant one.

There is no hint of Tolkien in The Stone Seekers. And I like that. This work is plowing fresh territory. The Tolkien pastiches put me off of epic fantasy. Tyler, if he writes more, could bring me back.

This one is only 99¢ at Amazon. Snarf it up today!

Off Grid by Simon Osborne

A fabulous post-apocalyptic novel that made me sit up and take notice was Off Grid by Simon Osborne. It’s a great survival story. And aside from the aliens, is very realistic. Harry Lennard survives the initial invasion and now he has to survive day to day. A well-written adventure. Part Earth Abides and part Day of the Triffids.

Given the rising prices of indie authored books, this one is a steal at $2.99 on Amazon. Get it today!

The Anuvi Incident by James Vincett

James Vincett is another writer who’s seemingly disappeared — and that’s too bad for us. Nevertheless, his The Anuvi Incident is excellent. If you like military sci-fi, you don’t want to miss this. And if you don’t, that’s okay because The Anuvi Incident is also about what it means to be human. A fast-paced sci-fi war story that is also a little philosophy. A dynamite combo.

Give The Anuvi Incident a try. Vincett has created a fabulous universe.

Tales of Horror: Macabre Monsters of Michigan by Bryan C Laesch

I like horror. Not the blood and guts, hack and slash, splatter punk kind, but the slow burn psychological kind.

Bryan C Laesch’s Tales of Horror: Macabre Monsters of Michigan is a collection of three stories that are a bit slow burn and a bit on the violent side. But there is no gratuitous violence for the sake of violence. Which for me is good storytelling.

Laesch has succeeded in giving us monster stories (and who doesn’t like monster stories?) that are a touch out of the ordinary, perhaps even a touch unique. There is no reason his book should be gracing Amazon’s sub-basement. It is too good for that.

So do yourself and the author a favor and pick up a copy.

The Argolicus Mystery Series by Zara Altair

Argolicus, that Roman public servant living in Ostrogoth Italy, was a delightful find. Sometime ago I asked in a Facebook group for books to read that were not in the top 300,000 on Amazon. Zara Altair stepped forward and volunteered her mysteries — and I’m glad she did.

If you like mysteries, good ol’ Whodunits and not these repetitively boring thrillers, and you like history — than Argolicus is for you.

The stories are set in Ostrogoth Italy 20 years after the fall of Rome, which is a period of time rather neglected by historians. Argolicus has retired and finds himself involved in solving murder after murder — in a time when murder wasn’t a crime!

These are well-written and interesting books. Take a look at Zara’s Amazon page. All are good. Pick one. Any one! You won’t be disappointed.

Next week I’m going to take a look at the man who saved Weird Tales magazine and what that means for us readers today.

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

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Vampire House and Other Early Cases

vampire-house-and-short-stories2-web

 

Justinia Wright and her brother, Harry, are my favorite creations. They weren’t the first of my imaginings to spring to life on paper, but they are the ones who have been in my mind the longest.

Tina and Harry sprang to life shortly after I read Raleigh Bond’s short story “Meet Athalia Goode” in an issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine way back in 1982. However, it took seven more years before I chronicled their first adventure: Festival of Death.

What I realized in writing my first novel is that I wasn’t ready to write a novel. The manuscript went into a filing cabinet drawer and stayed there for 25 years. When I pulled it out in 2014, the book was hopelessly out of date. I kept the first chapter, with modifications, and rewrote the novel; sticking more or less to the original idea.

The result was a much better story. Sometimes, one simply isn’t ready. Sometimes, one needs to learn more. And sometimes, one must simply wait and experience life.

Vampire House and Other Early Cases of Justinia Wright, PI is now available for pre-pub purchase for a mere 99 cents. Do get a copy before the price goes up on Halloween.

This new addition to Tina and Harry’s oeuvre is a collection seven cases that chronologically pre-date Festival of Death and form a prequel of sorts. Hence my numbering of the volume as Book 0.

I enjoy short stories and short novels very much. Prefer them, in fact, to the massively thick tomes that seemed to be popular today.

The reasons I enjoy short works, I think, are two: I grew up with them and I often find I don’t have the time to do a larger work justice.

Think about it. Books for kids are short. In many cases they are actually short stories or novellas. One of my favorite books is Wingman, a YA “novel” by Daniel Pinkwater. It is a mere 73 pages of large print text and pictures. Yet, it is one of the most moving stories I’ve ever read. Good things do come in small packages. Which is why I’m baffled when I read or hear of folks who don’t like short stories because they don’t contain enough character development or the storyline is too skimpy. Some of the most powerful pieces of fiction I have ever read are short stories. Stories such as “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” by Conrad Aiken, and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway are merely three among many.

The other reason is time. A 500, 600, 700 page novel a major time investment. Especially if I want to keep all the characters and story lines clear in my mind. That takes a degree of concentration, which if I’m busy is sometimes difficult to muster. Reading a hefty novel is something that requires, for me anyway, more than one or two sittings and sometimes reading a book of substantial length may take me upwards of a month. I’m not the world’s speediest reader. A short book, on the other hand, I can knock off in an hour or a couple days at the most.

As the average age of the fiction buying public gets younger, I think the demand for shorter works will increase. The Millennials and Gen Z folks have never known a world without computers. Statistics reveal a different pattern of reading for these people. Information and entertainment is consumed via their smart phones. They are used to short presentations which are often video. Presentations and attention spans are shorter. Think YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook, and one minute vids on Snapchat or other social media. Short is in. And considering half of all books are read on a smart phone, there is a compelling case for short fiction. I think there is a real danger that fiction as we know it might just wander off into oblivion under the onslaught of other entertainment forms. That’s something to think about.

Short is in. In spite of what Amazon and the Big 5 want to believe. Amazon’s penalty in KDP select for short works by switching to payment by the page read. The Big 5’s insistence on mandatory long page lengths for novels, so they can justify printing. That kind of thinking reveals those folks to be dinosaurs catering to us Baby Boomers and older folks, who unfortunately are facing the end of our days. Short is in, whether we older folks like it or not.

Vampire House and Other Early Cases of Justinia Wright, PI is a collection of short stories and a short novel. They were fun to write and are hopefully fun to read. They’re packed with humor, sibling rivalry, dastardly villains, a touch of love, and puzzles to solve.

I love Tina and Harry and I hope you do too. Vampire House and Other Early Cases is only 99 cents until Halloween. Take the treat now! A mere buck for a rollicking good time.

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

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