C. Litka's Blog, page 16

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 75)

 

On an idle Saturday afternoon, YouTube in its infinite wisdom showed me the Jack Lemon movie The Wackiest Ship in the Army, and I decided to watch it, seeing that it was set in the South Pacific in WWII. Not a classic, but enjoyable enough, that I went on to watch half of In Harm's Way staring John Wayne and Kurt Douglas, also set that time period, but is a more sweeping and a little more serious movie, but John Wayne sort a annoys me, so I've not returned to it yet. Now I read James A Michener's Tales of the South Seas years ago, which our library doesn't have as an ebook, but they did have his Return to Paradise, so I downloaded it. 

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

Return to Paradise by James A Michener  DNF  28%
James A Michener says in his introduction that he felt that "what happened in Asia was of sovereign importance to my country" and wanted to go back to study it. In that he was probably right. But he didn't want to "merely to grind out another batch of stories upon the old theme" and because it had been done before by Conrad, Melville Maugham and Hall, he simply refused to waste his time sailing after fresh Pacific yarns. What he did instead was to write ten essays on the islands, Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea and then write ten stories based on those essays.
If this sounds like an exercise in a creative writing class - here's a description of an island, write a story using the setting - it is, or at least reads like one. Nothing wrong with it, except that 1.) the places he describes are now seventy four years in the past, as this book was first published in 1951 and much has changed. If you are interested in the history of the islands and what they were like in 1950, then you will enjoy this book - for Mr Michener is a very good writer. The short stories might, or might not interest you as well.
Unfortunately, I found the essays that I read to be rather tedious, and hopelessly out of date. I also found his attitude a bit out of date as well. And the two short stories were perhaps a little too literary for my taste, i.e. pointless, without any characters to make them interesting to me, giving me little hope that just skipping the essays would improve the reading experience for me. As a result by the time I got to Fiji, I decided that the south sea of the book wasn't going captivate me, so I called it quits and sailed away.

My Library Shelf - the Little Black Book

It's been a while since I talked about any book or books from my wall of books. So it's about time. The book I selected this time was not actually on my book shelves, but on one of the side shelves in my desk. I just happened to pick it up recently and was paging through it and as always, I'm delighted just doing so. So here it is.

The rather old and battered ring-bound little black book pictured above is one of my favorite books for a number of reasons - its authenticity, what it is, and what it says about a lost age - America about a hundred years ago. It brings to mind the bygone age of the Gasoline Alley comic strip, the Penrod stories of Booth Tarkington, and even more so those old movies based on the Penrod stories, On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of Silvery Moon, and the songs those movies were titled after. In short, a vision of an idyllic, it mostly imagined past. 

Its title is "Handy" and it is "A Manual for Leaders of Social Recreation." Edited by Lynn Rohrbough.  The first copyright date is 1924, so it is a hundred years old. My copy is the Ninth Edition, No. 33343, March 1928, originally priced at $2.50. It is published by the Social Recreation Union "Church Centered Recreation." And what it actually is is a collection of a dozen 20 to 40-some page how-to-do brochures on various subjects ranging from Leadership for Social Recreation, to program planning, along with lists and directions for all sorts of activities. It is designed to be used as resources for church social programs and their leaders in planning their programs. 

The first short brochure sets out its goals and that of the programs it envisions, the second practical advice on how to prepare these programs and what to offer in the way of food and such. And then there's a guide to leadership - who and how to do it. And finally how to fund and plan a year-long recreational program, before getting into the suggested activities.

On section describes activities to do out-of-doors, such as  Mystery Hikes, Progressive Supper Hikes, Hobo Hikes, or at night, a Flashlight Hunt, just to name a few. Other sections have lists of various types of games, Mixing Games, Active Games, Quiet Games, and Mental Games. Plus things like "Dramatic Stunts" and a collection of Group Songs, tunes and lyrics. 

I forget where and why I picked it up. I certainly didn't pau $5.00 for it. But I'm glad I did pick it up, if only because reading through it takes you back in time to a simpler, slower paced age - which is probably and illusion - but nevertheless you can't help thinking it was as you read through all the activities and games it describes in detail for all ages, from children to young adults. 

The best way to give you the flavor of this book is with a small selection of photos of the pages, which, if you click on, I think it will be large enough for you to be able to read the pages yourself. 

Some ideas on different types of outdoor activities, for day and night. Wieners roasted at the end.

Above and below are some games you can use for breaking the ice in social gatherings where everyone doesn't already know each other.

The how to do of races and relays for children and young people, are described above. And below are some ideas for some more quiet games. And some mentally challenging games and puzzles. 

 And finally we end up with a selections of songs and rounds.

I am far from an expert on church based social activity these days, or even if there is any, but I have a feeling that it, along with the the Model T and penny candy are pretty much the things of history and museums. I certainly can't see my grandchildren participating in the activities described in this book. And to be honest, I couldn't see myself when I was their age eagerly participating as well. Perhaps there were still programs like this in my youth, maybe Scouting comes close. Still, if they ever existed in real life, and I'd like to believe somewhere they did, some young people, a boy and a girl, attending a church social, were hand-cuffed together with two strings and had to figure out how to escape from each other. And that they fell in love, got married and lived happily ever. 

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 74)

Well last week I read and reviewed a book on a year in the American Revolution. I decided to stay with that theme, but look across the water for my next revolution.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

A New World Begins by Jeremy D Popkin  C+

I will say right from the beginning, the C+ grade is mine, not Mr Popkins, as this is a very comprehensive book on the French Revolution with a great deal of information within 561 pages of text, not counting footnotes & such, which is far too much information for me to fully grasp more than a C+'s worth of it.

This is not to say that I didn't learn a lot about the French Revolution, because I did. It is rather that there is so much to learn about it. It has many actors, many twists and turns, many crises, and many achievements. While this book, I believe does a wonderful job of telling a decade long story in a single book, it would require much more time and effort for me to claim that I know more than a general overview of the revolution. All the leading characters, all the various factions that rose and fell, are pretty much a muddle in my mind after reading it. But then, I was mostly going for a general overview and I got that. If a reader really wants to really get deep into the events, politics, policies, and personalities of the period, I believe this book would be a good place to start. Mr Popkins has been studying this period all his professional life, and sets out the history of this turbulent period with just enough details to make it come to life, without becoming too dry and academic. On the other hand, if you want just an overview of the events, there might be shorter, more concise books.

Once again, knowing next to nothing about the French Revolution, It was interesting to see how turbulently it unfolded. Seen through the lens of life in the 21st century, it seems clear that people will never all agree on anything, and that, as the Taoists noted, there is a cycle, a circle to everything. Ideas rise, the fall, perhaps to be replaces with something somewhat the opposite, which intern falls to be replaced by something similar to what it had itself replaced... rinse and repeat.

This has some application in these days as well.

It was also interesting to see the role of the environment in the French Revolution. Several bad harvest during that period drove up the price of bread that led to unrest and uprisings in Paris that had direct consequences during the revolutionary period. Everything is connected. 

And lastly, in my recent readings about the American Civil War, the American Revolution, and now the French Revolution, it is clear both how cruel people can be to each other, and how bad things can, and often do, get. We are very lucky today, here in America, and the developed world in general that however bad they may seem, they can be and have been far, far worse. That may the the lasting takeaway of all these books on wars and revolutions, long after the details fade.

A New Word Begins is a good book about the French Revolution, that will get you into the weeds, but not get you lost in them. Much.

Nine-and-a-half Years in Publishing - 6 Month Sales

 

My "2025" Novel

As is tradition around here, I'm posting my sales for the first half of my fiscal year, May thru October. The purpose is to chronical my experiment in publishing. I decided from the onset on three things. First to reach, and hopefully, entertain as many readers as possible. Second to do so without losing money, but also without any concern for making money. And thirdly, to only do the things I enjoyed - writing - and the things I found interesting, challenging, and didn't mind doing like making paperback books, tinkering with covers, and different formats, while avoiding doing all the things I hated, which is to say self-promotion. The key to these goals was, and is, producing my books in-house, with the help of volunteer beta readers, and to then sell the ebook versions at cost, which to say, for free. I let their free price and wide and easy access do my promoting for me. I've published 20 books over the course of the last 9 1/2 years. The sales numbers are below. And according to Amazon, I've made $1002.51 so far. I've spent less that that, mostly on paper books, some of which I send to my beta readers for their efforts. I'll leave it up to you to decide how successful I've been.

Cutting to the chase, the first half of my 10th year in publishing was solid, but not spectacular. Below are my monthly sales totals, including ebooks, print books, and audiobooks. Nearly half of my sales now come from audiobook sales.

May     June     July     August    September    October    Six Month total

1014    844     1637    1544       1356            1,406        7,801*

This total compares to 9,177 in the same period last year, a decline of 16%

Headlines For This First Half of My Fiscal Year

I released my "2025" novel, Chateau Clare, early - on October 17 and the 24th, so it's initial bump in sales is reflected in the October sales. It's 470 copies sold kept sales for October at September's level. I have muted expectations for this title. It represents a different direction in my writing. Still, I can't kick about either its sales or its initial reception. I'm hoping that it will find new readers, but that might take some time.

All but three of my titles have been finally released as Apple audiobooks. The Lost Star's Sea shows it was accepted, but it's not currently available for some reason. Who knowns with Apple? A possible explanation for the unreleased three is that they did not have a proper table of contents. That was fixed a month ago, but they've yet to make their appearance. That said, Apple's audiobook version of Chateau Clare appeared only a week after the ebook version. You just never know with Apple. As for audiobook sales on Apple - I'm happy with them - not Google level, but good enough. It was worth the hassle. 

In June I pulled my books on Smashwords and now sell them there via Draft2Digital. The move revitalized sales on Smashwords for several months, likely because the books appeared as new releases on Smashwords' home page, making them far easier to come across. Visibility, visibility, visibility is the key to sales. Sales have since settled down, but this move explains July's bump in sales.

My two bestselling books, The Bright Black Sea and The Lost Star's Sea were too long for Amazon's auto-narrated audiobook program, so I broke them up into a six book series; The Lost Star Stories -- The Captain, Enemies, Ghosts, Castaways, Islands. and Secrets of the Lost Star. While I've sold only a modest number of the new versions, I wasn't selling any of the two omnibus versions since they went full price on Amazon, so the move was a minor win. I've reformatted The Bright Black Sea and The Lost Star's Sea to reflect their omnibus status, and will continue to sell them via Google and D2D - since they are audiobooks on Google and Apple.

On the other hand, I pulled distributing  from Draft2Digital for my titles to Kobo in October because I could not find my titles, or my my name, when I searched the Kobo site.  It seems that Kobo doesn't want to sell free books. I hoped that by listing them myself with Kobo they would actually turn up in the search results. They now do, sometimes. Early sales are modest - 40 in the first month. I can't say if listing them directly made any difference, since Kobo never reported free sales to Smashwords or D2D. Now I'll know. I took the opportunity to list the six book Lost Star Stories series instead of The Bright Black Sea and The Lost Star's Sea when doing this. I will review my Kobo free sales before the end of the year and if they are fairly insignificant, I may raise their prices to match my Amazon prices in the hope that this might make them more visible and appealing to users of Kobo's version of the Kindle Unlimited lending library. 

The Numbers

Below is the complete breakdown of sales by book and format for the period May 2024 thru October 2024.  

Book Title/ Release Date

Ebook Sales

Audiobook Sales

Paper Back Sales

Total

Total to Date

SALES PERIOD

May 2024 – October 2024

A Summer in Amber

23 April 2015

224

245

1

469

10,573

Some Day Days

9 July 2015

153

207

360

6,935

The Bright Black Sea

17 Sept 2015

358

502

2

860

19,093

Castaways of the Lost Star (Initial Release -withdrawn)

4 Aug 2016

----------

withdrawn

-------

----------

2,176

(one year)

The Lost Star’s Sea

13 July 2017

269

231

1

500

11,143

Beneath the Lanterns

13 Sept 2018

176

150

326

5,748

Sailing to Redoubt

15 March 2019

207

190

2

397

5,385

Prisoner of Cimlye

2 April 2020

155

156

2

311

4,048

Lines in the Lawn

8 June 2020     Withdrawn

----------

------------

-------

---------

174

Keiree

18 Sept 2020

150

186

336

3,659

The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon

11 Nov 2020

230

296

2

526

5,011

The Secrets of Valsummer House

18 March 2021

230

265

1

495

4,130

Shadows of an Iron Kingdom

15 July 2021

271

418

1

689

5,019

The Aerie of a Pirate Prince

29 Sept 2022

207

228

435

2,503

The Girl on the Kerb

6 April 2023

480

174

654

6,358

A Night on Isvalar

15 July 2021

277

167

444

537

Passage to Jarpara

16 March 2024

217

183

6

400

583

Chateau Clare

17 Oct 2024

357

113

470

470

Captain of the Lost Star

22 July 2024

9

--------

9

9

Enemies of the Lost Star

22 July 2024

5

--------

5

5

Ghosts of the Lost Star

22 July 2024

5

-------

5

5

Castaways of the Lost Star

(New Re-Release version)

Oct 2024

4

--------

4

4

Islands of the Lost Star

Oct 2024

3

-------

3

3

Secrets of the Lost Start

Oct 2024

6

-------

6

6

Omnibus Editions (withdrawn)

----------

-------------

--------

----------

30

TOTALS THIS PERIOD

3,993

3,711

18 (yr)

7,671

1H 2023

6,049

3,130

9,177

1H 2022 4,480

4,574

9,054

LIFETIME TOTAL SALES

93, 607

1 H Revenue $139.59, Expenses Approx. $20.00 Profit Approx. $120

Paperback sales were for the entire year. I don't pay any attention to them. 

Almost all audiobook sales come from Google and Apple. Amazon's contribution is insignificant at this point.

Passage to Jarpara, as the third book in a series is doing about as I expected - so-so, but Chateau Clare is off to a promising start. We'll see. Otherwise, this chart serves to illustrate just how important an author's back catalog is. The more books you have to offer, the more you can sell, since new books won't keep you afloat.

Looking Ahead

Steady as she goes for now. I will do my big re-think this spring, if I feel one is necessary. Currently changing Kobo to full price sales if free books aren't contributing much is my only ongoing experiment. I think I've done all I can to promote sales without actually going out, spending money, and promoting them. Ain't doin' that.

*As I mentioned in a previous report, you would not want me as your bookkeeper. We'd find ourselves in jail. Attention to details is not my strong suite. While the two totals are based on the same raw numbers, for some mysterious reason they never quite agree when it comes to making out this report. The  7,801 six month total at the top comes from my monthly composite tally. This is based on counting book sales each month, month by month. The 7,671 at the bottom of the chart, while based on those same numbers, are generated by adding up the six months total for each title for ebooks and audio at the end of the six month period. Clearly errors occur. Somewhere. However, since all this is just for my amusement, I'm not going to try to reconcile them. Take the numbers as a range only, the actual number is likely somewhere in between the two of them. Indeed, my grand total on the monthly composite tally is 94,494. I like that number better than the one at the bottom of the chart above. I have, however introduced a new, simplified accounting system for myself, so I'm hoping to improve my accuracy going forward.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 73)

 

Several weeks ago I read Fusilier, a book about a certain British regiment in the American Revolutionary War. I remarked that I found that I was very unfamiliar with that war or indeed that period of history. And feeling that you, dear reader, might like a break from Cadfael mystery stories, I went to the on-line library catalog to see what they had to offer in ebooks on the American Revolution. I'd have to drive 10 minutes to the library if I wanted a paper book... In any event I found one that covers 1776, which was a pivotal year in those events, with the colonies deciding to declare their independence and King George III deciding to bring them back in line with a large force sent to capture New York and show the colonialist who was King.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

Revolutionary Summer  by Joseph J Ellis  B+
This book covers the events of 1776 from two aspects. On the American side, the political activity in America leading up to the colonies' declaration of independence from Great Britain, plus the military aspect of General George Washington's Continental Army's defense of the City of New York. On the British side, the focus is on the two brothers Howe, one the admiral of the British fleet sent to America to suppress the revolt, and his brother, General Howe, the general in overall command of the British army sent to do the job on land.

History is filled with "what ifs", especially at critical moments when vast events turn on a handful of decisions made in the moment. 1776 may have been one such moment. Or maybe not. The central issue in play here is that Washington's Continental Army was very much an amateur affair made up of militia of almost useless value, while the British had both command of the sea, and a professional army several times the size of the Continental Army. They could do what they wanted, but didn't do as much as they could because the Howe brothers hoped that merely inflicting a stunning defeat on that army would have the effect of demonstrating that rebellion was hopeless, and that after hanging the leaders of the rebellion, King George would pardon them, and things would revert to normal.

The case can be made, at least, that if the Howes had felt the need to destroy the Continental Army, they could easily have done so - Washington was defending something - New York City on Manhattan Island that was indefensible, since the British could easily seal the island, surround, and destroy the Continental Army. And then, after doing so, strike up the Hudson River to link up with an army marching down from Canada, and so divide the colonies into two, dealing with each half if necessary to bring about the end of the rebellion. The fact that the Howes moved slowly, not seeking to destroy the Continental Army, but to simply demonstrate the power of the King, so as to settle the rebellion without a great deal of bloodshed, can be viewed, in this light, as a fatal blunder or a commendable folly.

However, in view of the history of unconventional wars since 1776 and indeed, in the view of the leaders of the Continental Congress and the revolution, the destruction of their army would not defeat them. They would simply raise another one. They felt that they not only had a vast land to fight on - when and where they wanted to - but the rapidly growing population to maintain an army long after Great Britain exhausted its resources and its will to fight the war. In short, as history has largely proven, a guerilla war, supported by the population, will always win. So that whatever the Howes did, would not have mattered, in the end, save, perhaps affecting the duration of the war.

I found the book to be easy to read, and interesting. It is a history from the American point of view, which is an interesting contrast to the previous book I read which was written from the British point of view. You see the differences in the details. While this book does mention the Loyalists, the conservative Americans who remained loyal to King George, they, and their fate, play a larger role in the British version of the story. This book mentions that wounded American soldiers were bayoneted by the British, i.e. no quarter given, though in relatively small numbers. While the other book mentions how loyalist were hung by the revolutionaries, and how the Continental Army had to shoot far more of its deserters to prevent mass desertion than the British Army. In short, there was a great deal of unpleasantness in this war, as in all of them, and writers can choose what they care to turn a blind eye to or shine a spotlight on what they care to, in order to tell the story that they choose to tell.

The Sunsets of the Summer of 2024

May 28th (A Really Big Bird)
As it has become a tradition around here, I'm posting the best sunsets of the summer of 2024. I make it a point to watch the sunset every day from my rocking chair in the garage - when there's a sunset to see. I photograph the best of them, though I walk fifty feet to keep the photograph clear of the power pole and lines. Otherwise, these are the views I see from the top of the hill.

Going through my photos, it actually was a fairly good year for sunsets. Nothing too gaudy, but enough good ones to fill this post.

June 5th A Curtain of rain
June 16th

June 25th
Here the sun is setting as far north as it's going to get. Even now, its started it trek back to the south. I guess I didn't get out of my rocking chair for this pic.


August 1st
August 17th
I probably should have cropped out that sliver of the water tower we share the hill with on the right, but oh, well... You can tell that I don't use AI to edit out the powerlines. These photos are the real deal.

August 16th 
Sept 5th 
By the the first week or two in September, the sun is setting nearly directly to the west, and it gets harder to see the sunset from my vantage pint.so I call it a summer.

Chateau Clare is a #1 Best Seller on Amazon!

 

I've made it. I've written an #1 Amazon best seller! Chateau Clare is, at press time, the best selling book in the "low fantasy" category on Amazon, which is to say, fantasy with little or no magic, also known as "mundane fantasy."

Now, of course this doesn't mean anything. It is a well known fact that if you find an obscure enough category to place your book, you too can become an Amazon Best Seller. I will say this, I didn't place my book in this category, Amazon did. They've placed it in a number of categories that I assume they draw from the my suggested search terms and the blub, including low fantasy. I don't believe that was even an option in selecting listing categories. 

I'm sure you're wondering how many books do you have to sell to become a best selling low fantasy author. That number appears to be 15 US sales, and 17 free sales, which I can only presume come from Amazon's UK store. (Amazon UK won't show me the price, since I can't buy it from them with my US browser setting.) Amazon usually price matches my free sales on other stores for one of my titles in Amazon.uk and Chateau Clare appears to be the current one. 

Anyways, Fun and games! Just something to grab a screen shot while the getting's good.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 72)

 

Yes, another Cadfael mystery for this week. What can I say?  I'm lazy, and this is the second story in the omnibus version I read these stories out of, and well, it was on hand. I didn't have to scour my brain, or the library ebook collection to find something to read next. It was the course of least resistance. And well, why deny myself a good book?

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

The Hermit of Eyton Forest by Ellis Peters   A (#14 in the Brother Chadfael Series)
Yes, once again, a wonderfully written story. If you've read all of my reviews, and haven't gone off to the library to pick one of her Cadfael stories up, this one won't likely push you over the edge. Clearly, you're just not interested. Fine. Be that way.
As I have said in the past, what bugs me most about mysteries, is that they almost always involve murder, as if that's the only mystery that warrants a book. And I've admitted that, for the most part, death, often murder, is a feature of these stories as well. However, one of her tricks is to postpones that death for several chapters as she introduces the new characters. This builds tension in the reader, since you don't know who's going to get it in the neck, much less why. Another thing she does is to sometimes give the reader a wider view of things than our "detective" monk Cadfael knows. As a result, we might know more than he does - usually about the innocent party suspected of the crime - so we, the readers, are on tender hooks, waiting to see just how Cadfael pulls the innocents out of the fire.
Also, as I have noted in the past, Peters often ties the death, or deaths, involved in the story to the greater events of the time - the English Civil War of 1140's  - so that you don't have the villager murdering villager other every other week, like you might in some mystery series. 
However, in this case, while there is some hints of this more far reaching  threads, most of mystery involves a grandmother intent on marrying her 10 year old grandson - a ward of the Abbey - in an arranged marriage upon the death of his father, in order to add several estates to her grandson's holding, as well as bring him back to his estate, so that she can keep him under her thumb, and rule the roost through him. The story is very much in the mold of all the others, with your innocents, the romance, and Cadfael helping the good sheriff Hugh solve the mystery, and turn a blind eye to some things for the sake of justice.
All these stories fallow one after the other in chronological order - several each year - but can be read out of order without too many spoilers, though there are references in some of them to previous incidents. That said, I am really enjoying reading them in order. I recommend it if you can swing it.

Chateau Clare is Out

 

Chateau Clare, my 2025 novel is now out and available at your favorite online bookshop.

The 413 page paperback edition is available on Amazon for $12.99 here Amazon also offers the $3.99 ebook here, and the $3.99 audiobook will be out shortly.

Both the ebook and audiobook are available for FREE in the online bookshops that sell free books, which is to say, Google here, Apple here, Kobo here,(Kobo seems to hide free books in the general search. I had to go to "Free Books" and then search for my name to find my books.) Barnes & Noble here, Smashwords here, and a host of other European sites. The FREE audiobook version of Chateau Clare is currently available on Google here, and will be coming to Apple likely sometime within this decade, or maybe even sooner. Hard to tell with Apple.

And so, with the release of my project 2025 novel, it is on to Project 2026. And with 26 months to get it out the door, I'm cautiously optimistic that there may be yet another C Litka novel out someday.

The Saturday Morning Post (No.71) Extra! Extra!

 

I currently have 81 reviews in "the can" so I'm going to have to post more than one a week unless I want to be talking about my 2024 books in March of 2025. Here's the first of the extra reviews.

Another Brother Cadfael Mystery this week. Well, it has been several weeks now since the last one. All I have to do is go to the book shelf to pick out the next one. So when I've nothing else on hand I do.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

The Rose Rent  by Ellis Peters   A-

In this mystery, the 13th Brother Cadfael Mystery, we have a grief stricken young widow who donated the use of her house to the Abby for the rent of one white rose from its garden every year. She comes from a wealthy craftsman family, and the house is of some value. As a result, she had many suitors, young and old, who would not only want to win her - but reclaim the house as well. Which could be done if the rose was not delivered on the specified day...

Some of those suitors may be willing to go far beyond asking her for her hand in marriage.

This is the 13th book in the series, and I've gone on and on about them, so if I haven't convinced you to give the series a try by now, well, you probably aren't interested in this book. And if you are reading them, I won't spoil this book for you, hence the short review. Still, if I care to play the critic...

This story was quite up to standard. However, it earned its "-" because, as in at least one other story in this series, I am  not convinced that the culprit would have had enough of a motive do what they did. And thus, the mystery element of the story is not as convincing as some of the other ones in the series. Now this is just my opinion as a writer, and as a lukewarm mystery reader. It doesn't bother me too much, since I read these books more for spending time with the characters, and their historic flavor, not for the mystery. As far as I'm concerned, they were written as mysteries for marketing purposes only.