Leslie Garland's Blog - Posts Tagged "she-devil"

It was pleasing to see how many of you were interested in downloading The Blue Horse at the beginning of this month and nice to see that the ratings and reviews are starting to come in.
Like all authors, I can't stress how much these mean to us. a) they let us know that you like our work and so that we are not wasting our time writing something that no one has an interest in! and b) your opinion is far more valuable to a curious reader than ever the author's will be. There is no need to wax lyrical if you don't wish to; a simple "great story," "couldn't put it down," etc., will do just fine. And please, please, post your review on Amazon if you can. I know Goodreads gives the impression that it is home for the world's readers, but it isn't. We are a pretty select band when compared to the readers of the world. So please post on Amazon if you can. Thanks.

This brings me on to The Ghost Moth which appears to be going down very well - I even have 27 likes for my review of my own book! Terrific! Keep them coming - and ratings and reviews are continuing to pour in. I am so glad that so many of you like this book as I was a little concerned that perhaps it was a touch too contoversial.

As a special one-off I am putting The Ghost Moth on a FREE DOWNLOAD on Monday 31 August. When you have read it, please spread the word and review it.

Thanks for your interest in my books and thanks for all your ratings and reviews.

All are FREE on Kindle Unlimited and many are available at only £0.99 as ebooks.
Leslie Garland Goodreads; https://www.goodreads.com/auth…/show/...
Web site; http://www.lesliegarland.com

Things have been absolutely chaotic in September and this has drifted into October. Not only have we been moving house, but right at the same time some personal issues hit us as well. The result is that instead of making our planned move, we are having to make a temporary one; namely to rent a place for a few months and try again next year. Books have had to take a back seat, as has writing. So if you don't hear much from me, I have not gone away, but am just taking some time out until life gets back to something like normality.

All eight Red Grouse Tale books remain FREE on Kindle Unlimited - so hopefully there is something for everyone! Reviews of any will be most welcome, particularly Amazon reviews. I hope you enjoy them and that it won't be too long before I can get round to completing and publishing the next one.

Well, we have moved and from the fact that you can read this posting you'll know that my Internet connection is now up and running. I won't try and pretend that all is 'back to normal' because it isn't. There are still an awful lot of boxes of 'stuff' piled up for that to be so! However, we are making progress.

A plus point of taking a bit of time out from writing is that it allows one to think. This break has allowed me to come up with an idea for a trilogy of books. The general themes of the first two are now in my head, but the third is eluding me at present. However, as I expect all three will be novels, with any luck I'll have sorted out 'Number 3' whilst writing 'Numbers 1 & 2' I've also got a novella to finish and another one at the planning stage. So more than enough to keep me busy!

The Ghost Moth continues to make steady sales and attract favourable ratings, which is gratifying.

Thanks to Wanda B. for her lovely five star review of The Red Grouse Tales

All eight Red Grouse Tale books remain FREE on Kindle Unlimited - so hopefully there is something for everyone! I hope you enjoy them and, as just said, that it won't be too long before I can get round to completing and publishing the next one.

Oh goodness! What a year 2020 has been? I am sure that most of us will be hard-pushed to think of anything positive to have come out of it, but, as unlikely as it seems, there is always something positive to be found in every situation. I hope you can find something.

In my case I published The Ghost Moth , which seems to have gone down a storm with many of you as it now has over 4000 ratings with an average of 4.3 stars. My thanks to all who have read, rated and reviewed. And these ‘thanks’ are not just for the rating and reviewing of my books, but to all of you who rate and review others author’s work as well. What use would Goodreads be to any of us if you did not rate and review the books you’ve read? So please, keep doing it – and don’t forget Amazon as well, because not all in the reading community are members of Goodreads; compared to the readers in the entire world, we are quite a select group!

I appreciate that many of you reading this don’t live in the UK and so will not know what living through the madness of Brexit has been like. The whole of the UK has been almost paralysed for the past three years, and it looks as if this madness is due to continue. Even a government ardent Brexiteer, Michael Gove, when asked on the radio to name an advantage to British business, could only come up with, and I paraphrase, “they will get used to filling in reams of paperwork and dealing with all the additional hassle necessary for trading with the rest of the world!” What a fantastic advantage? No wonder we ordinary folk wonder what planet politicians live on.

However, in spite of all this business of ‘Britain shooting itself in the foot’, on a personal note, my wife and I did manage, at last, to sell our house. Unfortunately, other events overtook us and we were still unable to make our desired move last year, so we had to rent and now hope to complete our move later this year. So, we have had a topsy-turvy year which I hope explains why I have been and still am unable to publish The Ghost Moth and The Bat in paperback. I intend to get on with both as soon as we are settled and not ‘living out of suitcases’.

Rest assured however, I am not sitting twiddling my thumbs and am getting on with what I can. Work on another Red Grouse Tale, The Frog, is continuing. It is going a little slowly at present as I have made a fairly serious start on a new, what I hope will be, trilogy; The Tunnel, The Road and The Bridge. These three stories will be drawing on my civil engineering past and so I hope the engineering element will be factually correct even if the actual stories themselves will be complete works of fiction! I am currently working on the opening chapters of the first two, as I am hoping that by writing both at the same time I will establish the same tone in each and hence a continuity between them. I might well get going on the third fairly soon, for exactly the same reason. When will they be finished? I have no idea, though I strongly suspect it will not be this year. I will try to finish The Frog, and so hopefully will be able to let you have that later this year.

That’s enough from me. I wish you all the best for 2021. Let’s hope it is a much better one than the one just gone.

With Best Wishes,
Leslie Garland


All my books are available in ebook form from Amazon and can be read for free on Kindle Unlimited. Enjoy!

Although this blog has seen little action over the past couple of months, that doesn’t mean nothing has been going on - I only have one pair of hands and a set amount of time! Unfortunately, I am still struggling with the after effects of my wife’s death in May of last year (see November posting). Yes, all the official bodies are oh so sympathetic, but they are also oh so totally useless at actually getting on with anything. So I am still fighting red tape and regrettably this is both taking my time and is demoralising to boot, which is impacting on my writing. However, in spite of the foregoing, I have managed to finish the first drafts of The Tunnel and The Road; the first two parts of my modern adaption of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Both will require a fair amount of editing of course. I have also made a tentative start on the third part of this project, The Bridge.

My thanks to Laura at The Bookish Hermit for a lovely 5 star review of The Red Grouse Tales and to all who left ratings for this and other tales.

Although some recent promotions did fairly well, bringing in both sales and reviews, I am still looking for serious reviewers, those who will post a review on Amazon. So if any serious reviewers are reading this and would like to review any of my books, please get in touch and we’ll get something arranged.

I’ll probably get another promotion going before too long, so keep watching, particularly Twitter, as it is so much more reliable than FaceBook. Unfortunately, while all the stuff mentioned above is still hanging over me, it is difficult to make plans.

Thanks for your continued support and enjoy your reading.
Leslie Garland