Category: Books

For the Weekend 8

This weekend I am offering a bit of a smorgasbord for your reading pleasure. A little something for everybody.

MACABRE

If the weird is your thing, or the paranormal, or horror, if you will, then look no further. One of my favorite authors, Crispian Thurlborn, has what you’re looking for!

Exit by Crispian Thurlborn is a fine tale of the bizarre, the uncanny, the weird, and, yes, horror. The slow burn and subtle kind of horror that doesn’t fully hit you until sometime after you’re done reading the book.

You can get Exit on Amazon.

I’ve become a big fan of occult detectives over the past year or so. And guess what? There is a magazine devoted to the occult detective. Its former name is The Occult Detective Quarterly, and the new name is Occult Detective Magazine.

If you’re into the occult, the paranormal, the weird — and you like mysteries as well — then Occult Detective Magazine is for you.

It’s available at Amazon.

CHRISTIAN FICTION

Do you like YA? Strong female characters? A faith that produces tough, resilient people? Then give CJ Peterson’s Strength From Within a try. Once again, you can find it at Amazon.

ROMANCE

Perhaps you’re looking for romance with a dash of mystery and angsty stuff dealing with PTSD, then NE Brown’s Carson Chance, PI series just might be your cup of tea. Check it out on Amazon.

POST-APOCALYPTIC

I’m a big fan of the cozy catastrophe — that version of the post-apocalyptic novel where the survivors try to create a better world than the one that was destroyed.

One of the finest writers of the cozy catastrophe today is Matthew Cormack.

Ganbaru is set in his Piranha Pandemic world. It’s a classic tale of good vs evil. The characters are dynamic and the situation he paints is totally realistic.

Get Ganbaru on Amazon.

SCIENCE FANTASY

Erik Ga Bean writes books that border on the surreal, with a delightful touch of whimsy.

You really shouldn’t ignore his Trifle Airship. It’s a delight and you can get it on Smashwords.

That ought to keep you going until next time.

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

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For the Weekend 6

Fifty-Seven Years and Fifty-Seven More

From the guy who blew the whistle on the Watercolor-Industrial Complex, and exposed the monsters roaming Canada and the Caribbean, comes Fifty-Seven Years and Fifty-Seven More.

Yes, Richard Schwindt tells us about his travels through time past and time future. For Fifty-Seven Years and Fifty-Seven More is a memoir like no other.

After all, who but Schwindt was given the chance twice to live 57 years, starting at age 20, as a millionaire. And knowing all about his 60-something life, would he be able to do life better starting out as a 20 year old? No spoilers from me. You’ll have to read the book and see for yourself if he was successful or not.

Fifty-Seven Years and Fifty-Seven More will make you laugh, and make you cry. But most of all, the book will make you think about life — your life — and how you can live it better. And that’s very much worth the cost of admission.

But then all of Richard Schwindt’s books are worth the money and the time to read them. His fiction is top drawer entertainment, and his self-help non-fiction is drawn from his many years of experience as a social worker and therapist.

Fifty-Seven Years and Fifty-Seven More is another great addition to his oeuvre. So don’t wait. Spend a few bucks. The price is less than a Starbuck’s. 

You won’t regret it! Pick it up at Amazon!

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The Ebook

The Evolution of the Ebook

I have something of a love-hate relationship with ebooks. And while I do think they are the future, I’m not sure I like that. At the very least, I feel a bit of remorse at the passing of paper books.

After all, the present form (the codex) of the paper book has been with us for approximately 1900 years. The codex replaced the scroll by the fourth century AD and was in use as early as the first century AD.

Now, I don’t think the paper book will disappear as did the scroll. I think paper books will survive. Although, I believe they will become rarer and rarer. Eventually, as bookstores disappear, and the older generations that grew up with paper books disappear, the ebook will become the standard form of the book.

We have moved from clay tablets to scrolls, to codices, to tablets once again. And the e-ink tablet is here to stay.

Although the majority of my reading is done on my laptop and iPad, I still love the feel and touch and smell of a book made from paper. I grew up with paper books. So I suppose my love for them is at least somewhat driven by nostalgia.

The Ebook — We Hates It!

What is it that I don’t like about ebooks? Here are some random thoughts, in no particular order:

      • I don’t own my ebooks. I simply have a license to use them. And that really bugs me. Because it’s always possible that at some point I just might have a book I love disappear.
      • I can’t resell my ebooks because I don’t own them. Which means if I “buy” a dud, I’m stuck with it. I’ve lost the money and have no chance to re-coup even a portion. At one point, Amazon was working on a re-sale agreement. But used ebooks are stuck in legal limbo. For now, the publisher owns the book and just lets you have the use of it. Too bad for you.
      • There is no tactile pleasure associated with ebooks. They are cold and sterile.
      • They are far more fragile than paper books. Because they are digital data, they’re open to corruption. They can also become unreadable when technology changes. Just like all the ancient writings that were lost that didn’t get copied from scrolls to codices.
      • If my ereader dies, I can’t read or even access my books. Until I get my ereader fixed or get a new one.

The Ebook — We Loves It!

What do I love about ebooks? Here are a few random thoughts:

      • They are so easy to store! I have hundreds of books on my iPad. If they were paper books I’d need another room in my house to shelve them, or even just to keep them in boxes.
      • I never break a spine or have pages fall out of an ebook.
      • I can adjust the text size. As I get older that is a very important feature. I can also adjust the font to find one that’s easier for me to read.
      • It’s easy to search for a word or line in an ebook. Highlighting, or removing highlighting is easy. And you can’t remove highlighting in a paper book. Writing notes in the books is also easy, and I can even write lengthy notes that won’t obscure the text.
      • I tend to read a book faster, because I find it easier to scan the boring parts.
      • It’s also easier for me to carry my iPad than it is a book — especially a big book. And my phone is even easier to carry than a mass market paperback (which publishers are replacing with ebooks).

The Bottom Line

The proof is in the pudding (or, for the purists, the proof of the pudding is in the eating), as they say.

While I don’t know how many hundreds of books (probably thousands all told) I have in paper — I read more ebooks than paper books. It’s just easier for me to hold my iPad than it is a physical book. And it’s often easier for me to see the text on my iPad than it is the text in a physical book.

I used to be able to read tiny print. Not anymore.

Ebooks will probably enable me to read at a much older age then if all I had were paper books. And since reading is my favorite form of entertainment, I love ebooks. I do hate them as well. But maybe, just maybe, I love them more than I hate them. Then, again, maybe it depends on what day you ask me.

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

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For the Weekend 4

A delightfully zany slice of life!

Evelyn & Company by Chad (CM) Muller is a comic novel that will tickle your funny bone and have you holding your sides with laughter.

Muller’s humor is at times very sophisticated and erudite, and at other times it is laugh out loud hilarious. There are puns, slapstick episodes, and black comedy as well. And that is one of the charms of this book: the range of humor with which he is able to tell the story.

He calls the book a revenge comedy, and I can go along with that description. I also see it as social satire, at times bitingly so, in the tradition of Voltaire’s Candide.

The storyline is simple, and in truth the book could be called a plotless novel, or a slice of life. Evelyn Portobello, feeling she’s been cheated by the purveyor of a weight loss miracle drink — seen on TV — decides to get revenge. And from there the laughs just keep on coming.

Does Evelyn get her revenge? You will have to read Mr. Muller’s marvelous book to find out. And I certainly encourage you to do so.

It’s not a long book, but you might want to give your funny bone a rest and take the entire weekend to read Evelyn & Company.

Pick up a copy at Amazon. You won’t regret it.

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For the Weekend 3

One of my all time favorite authors is Robert E Howard. I think the general quality of Howard’s writing is superior to that of HP Lovecraft’s. At the very best I think they are about equal. It all depends on which style you prefer. At their worst, I think I would take Howard story over Lovecraft.

And of all the characters Howard created, my favorite is Solomon Kane. IMO, he is more intelligent than Conan, and the atmosphere of the stories is far more dark and spooky.

Why there hasn’t been a movie series or a television series based on Kane is beyond me. The original stories themselves would make for rousing dark fantasy action/adventure with a splash of horror video viewing, and would be a great base for other writers to build on.

There was a movie some years ago entitled Solomon Kane, but it was at best mediocre. I can understand why whoever produced the movie was reluctant to continue the saga. However a better writer would’ve done the movie justice. Hopefully some producer will get the idea to reboot the series and actually base it on Howard, at least to begin with, and then they might see some bang for their buck.

A marvelous one volume edition of all of the Solomon Kane stories was published by Del Rey some years ago, and is still in print.

You can get The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane in e-book from Amazon or Apple, or in paperback, or as an audiobook. The cost of the e-book is $13.99. I refused to pay that money to the German conglomerate that owns Del Rey, and bought a used paperback instead. But you might not have my hangups.

If you like action/adventure stories, or dark fantasy, or horror, then you will like Solomon Kane — and I encourage you to pick up a copy of The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. A great way to spend your weekend!

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

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For the Weekend 2

I’m not a fan of social media. For the most part, IMO, it is a massive, non-productive time suck. Having written that, I want to qualify the statement by saying, every cloud has a silver lining — and that includes social media.

I’ve met some fantastic writers on Facebook and Twitter — people I’d never have otherwise met.

And many, if not most, of those writers are in the same position I am: their book sales are so low they are invisible on Amazon and elsewhere.

So I do my part to help promote my fellow writers. To promote good books that aren’t going to show in the first few pages of Amazon search results. Books that live somewhere below the top 300,000 in the paid Kindle store.

Today, I want to draw your attention to Don’t Dream It’s Over by Matthew Cormack.

If my memory serves me right, I met Matthew on Facebook. He refers to himself as a weekend writer. A hobbyist who is nevertheless serious about crafting a memorable story.

The world of the post-apocalyptic Piranha Pandemic is terrifyingly real. It is exactly how I see the survivors of a worldwide disaster coping — both the positive and negative, the good and the bad. The worldbuilding is stunningly realistic.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is the first book set in the Piranha Pandemic world. I don’t want to gush, so I’ll simply say — I love this book.

Cormack has the ability to create characters so complexly real you think you’ve met them before. They are flesh and bones, meat and potatoes real.

He has uncanny psychological insight into how people act under stress and imparts that realism to his characters.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is told in a diary format that Cormack handles with aplomb. The narrative is natural. The narrator, Peter, draws you into his tale. It’s as if he is writing to you. Telling you his story.

Don’t Dream It’s Over has all the makings of a classic. The writing is better than that found in S. Fowler Wright’s classics Deluge and Dawn. The world is more realistic than that of George R  Stewart’s Earth Abides and John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids.

Don’t Dream It’s Over is an amazing book by an amazing storyteller. Take a trip to a world that doesn’t exist, but very well could, all while sitting in your easy chair. And if you do, you’ll be prepared should COVID become truly terrifying.

You can get Don’t Dream It’s Over on Amazon for only 99¢, or for free on KU!

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For the Weekend

I’m starting a new feature. On Fridays (although perhaps not every Friday) I’m going to recommend books for your weekend reading pleasure.

As regular readers of this blog know, reading is my favorite form of entertainment. And I’d like it to become yours. Movies and TV shows are okay, but there is nothing like a book or short story to get the imagination firing on all cylinders. And family reading time is absolutely magical. You don’t have to read all on your own!

Today, I want to draw your attention to a series and a short story.

The Boom Town Saga by Caleb Pirtle III

I’m currently reading Book 3 of this fantastic historical saga that focuses on finding oil in the 1930s and how the discovery changes, or doesn’t change, lives.

The central characters of the series are con-man/miracle worker Doc Bannister and Eudora Durant, once hometown beauty queen, now wife of a good for nothing husband who beats her and cheats on her.

In Doc and Eudora, Pirtle gives us people who are very real, yet larger-than-life. And their precarious love story adds spice to an already exciting series.

Couple the fabulous characters with Pirtle’s nearly magical writing that makes the past come alive, and you have the ingredients for powerful storytelling. And The Boom Town Saga is powerful story telling at its finest.

You can find the series at Amazon. And for a limited time, Book 3 is only 99¢.

The Boom Town Saga is a very satisfying way to while away the weekend.

Love’s Enigma by Breakfield and Burkey

Charles V Breakfield and Roxanne E Burkey are new to me writers. They are the authors of the 11 book Techno-Thriller Enigma series.

I haven’t read the series. I picked up the short story “Love’s Enigma” on a recommendation and from reading the reviews it seems the story provides background information on a couple of the characters from the series.

However, you don’t need to read the series to enjoy the story, which is the tale of Zara and Buzz: a romance that begs the caution, be careful what you ask for.

Zara and Buzz have a good thing going, but Buzz wants more. Will Zara give in and give him what he wants? Or would it be better if Buzz was satisfied with what he has?

I can’t say more without giving away the surprise ending. If romance is your thing, give this short story a try. You can find it on Amazon.

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#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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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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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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