Cody C. Engdahl's Blog, page 7

Malinville: A Novel by Loyd Elmore Jr.My rating: 5 of 5 s...

Malinville: A Novel by Loyd Elmore Jr.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A fun and fascinating little urban fantasy

I really enjoyed this. It gave me all the nostalgia of an 80s sci-fi/fantasy flick and my boyish adolescent fantasies. Imagine, in your darkest hour, discovering that you were never alone but instead surrounded by friends and the love of your life, friendship and a love you’d be willing to fight for. Malinville is great escapist fun and a great start to what promises to be a wonderful series.



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Heroes of Chaos by Baptiste Pinson Wu

Heroes of Chaos by Baptiste Pinson Wu

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A fascinating look through the misty veils of ancient Chinese history and legend.

I’m really enjoying this series. Pinson Wu brings us a great story from a time and place rarely covered in English by historical novelists. This series tells the story of the War of Three Kingdoms through Liao Chun (Liao Hua), an actual historical figure. Although his life is shrouded in mystery and legend, Pinson Wu masterfully colors him in to create a compelling voice from China’s ancient past.

Liao Chun was just a boy in the Yellow Turban Revolt. We find him on the precipice of manhood in the Heroes of Chaos. Although he blossoms as a warrior, he still wrestles with impetuousness and immaturity as he learns the lessons of loyalty and leadership.

This novel tracks the rise of the real historical figure Cao Cao, whom Liao Chun serves, as Cao Cao consolidates power in the north. There are plenty of great fight scenes from historical battles. I like Pinson Wu’s attention to weapons and tactics. I was particularly drawn to the gou-rang, or hook shield, that Liao Chun carries, so much so that I had to look it up and read more about it. Pinson Wu uses its silhouette to denote new sections in his narrative, which I thought was clever.

It’s a great book. I’m enjoying the series. I suggest you read The Yellow Turban Revolt first, but you won’t be lost if you start with this book.



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Templar Steel by K.M. Ashman

Templar Steel by K.M. Ashman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


K.M. Ashman continues to be one of my favorite authors.

This is a great start to a promising series. Ashman does a masterful job of weaving the stories of multiple characters into the real history of the Crusades culminating with the Battle of Montgisard. There’s a great deal of suspense as the characters frantically try to deduce the true intentions of Saladin and his overwhelming army before it’s too late. I was particularly taken by the true story of King Baldwin, a mere teenager stricken with leprosy who must stand and fight against incredible odds despite his constant pain and torment.

The final battle is breathtaking in true Ashman fashion. There are satisfying conclusions to several storylines and a great setup for the next novel. If this series is anything like his Roman Chronicles, Medival Sagas, or Blood of Kings series; all of which I have read, The Brotherhood looks to be another fantastic series.



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Muses of Roma by Rob Steiner

Muses of Roma by Rob Steiner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


On Concept alone, you should be reading this!

I bought this immediately when I saw the ad on Facebook. Romans in space: what could be better? As a fan of both Roman historical fiction and space opera, I was all in. I bought it immediately. I’m glad I did. Not only did Steiner come up with a great concept, but he paid it off with a great story with compelling characters that you care about. Dang it, I even got weepy at the end.

The concept is great. Imagine the dark ages never happened. Instead, with a bump in technology from a mysterious source, Mark Anthony was able to defeat Caesar Augustus with black powder muskets and cannons. From there, Rome has a thousand years of growth and technological advances that propel them into space.

Now Rome battles with rival empires for control of the universe. Thrown into the middle of this clash is a captain with a secret past and his plucky crew who will learn the dark secret of humanity’s true overlords and the war that has been churning for millions of years across the universe.

This is a fantastic read. Steiner does a great job of giving you just enough to understand the story in the beginning, but then slowly reveals the mysteries of this world as you progress through the book. I highly recommend it. This is the Star Wars we deserve!



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Muses of Roma by Rob SteinerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsOn Con...

Muses of Roma by Rob Steiner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


On Concept alone, you should be reading this!

I bought this immediately when I saw the ad on Facebook. Romans in space: what could be better? As a fan of both Roman historical fiction and space opera, I was all in. I bought it immediately. I’m glad I did. Not only did Steiner come up with a great concept, but he paid it off with a great story with compelling characters that you care about. Dang it, I even got weepy at the end.

The concept is great. Imagine the dark ages never happened. Instead, with a bump in technology from a mysterious source, Mark Anthony was able to defeat Caesar Augustus with black powder muskets and cannons. From there, Rome has a thousand years of growth and technological advances that propel them into space.

Now Rome battles with rival empires for control of the universe. Thrown into the middle of this clash is a captain with a secret past and his plucky crew who will learn the dark secret of humanity’s true overlords and the war that has been churning for millions of years across the universe.

This is a fantastic read. Steiner does a great job of giving you just enough to understand the story in the beginning, but then slowly reveals the mysteries of this world as you progress through the book. I highly recommend it. This is the Star Wars we deserve!



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Cometh the Hour by Annie Whitehead

Cometh the Hour by Annie Whitehead

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A fantastic read about one of Britain’s forgotten heroes.

This is a fantastic book about King Penda, the last Pagan King of Mercia. I’ve been fascinated with his story ever since I heard about him on the British History Podcast. I wanted more and Whitehead delivered. This is a well-researched and very readable book. Whitehead is on her way to being one of my new favorite authors.



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Review of Blood’s Campaign by Angus Donald

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Can be read as a stand-alone as well as the conclusion to a trilogy.

Admittedly, I did not read the first two books of this series. I picked up Blood’s Campaign because it was on special. Boy, am I glad I did! It was thoroughly entertaining and deeply informative about an era rarely touched on by today’s historical novelists. I’m sure the first two novels are just as good, but I didn’t need to read them to enjoy and understand this one. Donald did an excellent job of explaining just enough background of the hero and villain so I could understand and empathize with their mutual animosities.

The villains are great! They’re well-fleshed out with human motivations that make sense. I found myself even cheering for them, especially in the beginning where an interesting game of cat-and-mouse and intrigue arises between the hero and his adversary.

There’s great action right away. I loved the dueling artillery game. Donald not only does a great job describing action but also explains the weapons and tactics of the time and how they work. I was so fascinated with the hero’s repeating Lorenzoni pistol that I had to look it up.

There’s plenty of real history woven into the story. I was surprised to find that the Holcroft Blood and Michael “Galloping” Hogan were based off of real men that Donald fleshed out for the story. The battles are very real too; like the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, which pitted James II directly against William of Orange for the thrones of Ireland and Britain. Many of the surprising events in the story actually happened in real life as well.

I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot of fascinating history along the way. I definitely recommend it.




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Blood’s Campaign by Angus DonaldMy rating: 5 of 5 starsCa...

Blood’s Campaign by Angus Donald

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Can be read as a stand-alone as well as the conclusion to a trilogy.

Admittedly, I did not read the first two books of this series. I picked up Blood’s Campaign because it was on special. Boy, am I glad I did! It was thoroughly entertaining and deeply informative about an era rarely touched on by today’s historical novelists. I’m sure the first two novels are just as good, but I didn’t need to read them to enjoy and understand this one. Donald did an excellent job of explaining just enough background of the hero and villain so I could understand and empathize with their mutual animosities.

The villains are great! They’re well-fleshed out with human motivations that make sense. I found myself even cheering for them, especially in the beginning where an interesting game of cat-and-mouse and intrigue arises between the hero and his adversary.

There’s great action right away. I loved the dueling artillery game. Donald not only does a great job describing action but also explains the weapons and tactics of the time and how they work. I was so fascinated with the hero’s repeating Lorenzoni pistol that I had to look it up.

There’s plenty of real history woven into the story. I was surprised to find that the Holcroft Blood and Michael “Galloping” Hogan were based off of real men that Donald fleshed out for the story. The battles are very real too; like the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, which pitted James II directly against William of Orange for the thrones of Ireland and Britain. Many of the surprising events in the story actually happened in real life as well.

I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot of fascinating history along the way. I definitely recommend it.




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I just had my best month of Amazon royalties

I just had my best month of Amazon royalties in my publishing career. It was five times my normal monthly average. It’s quite simply because I started advertising on Facebook. I did so well that it flattened out a lot of my other bumps and increments along the way. I created this graph to show how each book release and event affected my royalties.

It started with my nonfiction book about the cause of the American Civil war. My royalties were just a trickle after that. The first bump came from my first novel Rampage on the River.

There’s a little bump from my writing book and then a spike when I released The Perils of Perryville. That came out in 2020 just as the pandemic shut everything done. After a few good months, things plummeted back to where they were before.

It makes me wonder how it would have been if it hadn’t been such a bad year for business because things really took off when I published Blood for Blood at Nashville. My monthly average pretty much doubled after the initial spike. I think that was because a lot of people just bought the whole trilogy outright once it was done. All the books started selling well. I learned later from the experts that readers like to see a finished series and are leery of starting something that has no end.

It’s hard to see on this graph because last month was so big that it makes all the other increments seem small but I doubled my monthly average in royalties once I took Bryan Cohen’s “5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge” where I learned how to effectively create and manage Amazon ads. I highly recommend it. He does it every three months. It’s free but there is some low-pressure pitching of his Author Ad School, which I’m sure is well worth the time and money.

Mexico my Love came out the day after Thanksgiving and to be honest, I was a little disappointed in the response. After the initial round of friends and family buying it (Thank you very much!), sales fell flat. The trilogy was still selling well but I went weeks without any sales on the new book.

I wondered if it was because it was not about the American Civil War or maybe because it was the Christmas season and nobody was buying books for themselves nor were they buying books from relatively unknown authors as presents for others.

I decided I’d go after the after-Chistmas gift card market. It also happened that I took a free webinar called the Successful Writers FaceBook Ad Seminar through one of Cohen’s partners. I created and ran an ad for Rampage, as I am told it is best to advertise the first book of a series and then hope they come back for the rest. It did so well that I created ads for Mexico, My Love in both the US and the UK. That book is a prequel so it functions as another entry point into my series.

From there my sales exploded. Since then, I had a consultation call with Meta. They recommended that I run an ad for the whole trilogy that features my fiddle playing. I started running that yesterday and am still waiting for the results. Hopefully, January was a sign of things to come! Thanks if you’ve bought any of my books. Please give me a review if you did!

Preview of Mexico, My Love!

My latest novel, Mexico, My Love, will be out by the end of November, 2022. The pre-order is just 99¢ until the book comes out, then it’ll go up to its regular $4.99. The paperback will be $13.99. I’m still waiting to hear about the hardcover price. Below is the preview that will be in all future copies of Blood for Blood at Nashville.

Chapter One: The Prophecy

Summer 1838: Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France

The open window didn’t help. Claudette threw off her bedsheets in frustration. It was impossible to sleep in the stifling heat. She fanned herself in the darkness, wondering if it was worth lighting a candle to try to read herself back to sleep. Moonlight spilled into her room which was nestled at the very top of her family’s countryside home. Perhaps, she thought, if she pulled the chair from her writing desk to the window, she could use the moonlight to read. 

She was careful not to bump her head against the steeply vaulted ceiling as she slipped out of bed and softly shuffled across the floor, careful not to cause any creaks that could wake everyone below. She placed her hands on the sill and leaned out into the night air. Below, the moonlight fell on the neatly lined rows of grapevines, giving them an eerie glow. The vineyard rolled out before her and then disappeared over the hills. Somewhere on the other side was Marseille with its cafés, book shops, and life. 

She sighed softly. A light breeze rolled in through the window, rustling her simple white shift. It brought a welcomed cooling to her body. It smelled of the sea and the world outside, full of adventure, just outside the harbor. There was life out there, but she was stuck here in this endless maze of grapevines and boredom with only a handful of books that she had already read over and over again. She was hidden away from the rest of the world. 

Her family had been hiding for centuries now. They had once been noble, but her line came from a long succession of second and third sons who married into wealthy merchant families instead of seeking titles and peerage. They hid their wealth as they found themselves on the wrong side of politics time and time again. They had backed the Huguenots against Cardinal Richelieu and lost. They had resisted the summons of the Sun King to live in his pampered prison of Versailles, then fell into obscurity in his shadow. 

They finally found victory in the revolution and then rode high on the Bonapartist wave. Her grandfather and great uncles had fought in La Grande Armée, bringing liberty and republicanism to the rest of Europe. But the Emperor was gone now. He died a prisoner on a lonely island far from France. Those who prospered with him retreated back into the shadows under the return of the monarchy. 

So the Moreaus hid, sold their wine, and stashed their money. But most annoyingly, they hid their daughter. “You are too pretty for the eyes of men,” her mom warned her. “They will be driven mad with temptation and try to drag you down in their sin.” Her mother insisted Claudette be kept away from the eyes of the world until they could marry her into a family that could lift the Moreaus from hiding and into the restoration of nobility under the King. 

She sighed again, gazing at the dark hills and imagining the grand life hidden beyond them. Then she heard it. It was thin and bright, too rhythmic to be natural, too melodic. It was dark and lively…it was music! 

“Where is that coming from…?” she mumbled. She leaned out further, cocking her head to the side to hear better. It seemed to ride on the sea breeze that swirled around her ears. It was a violin and it couldn’t be far! “Who in the world…?” she wondered out loud.

She looked at her bedroom door. Walking across the floor and turning the knob would surely wake the entire house. She looked back into the nightscape outside. There’s no way she could sleep now. There was a mystery out there and she was going to get to the bottom of it. She grabbed onto the ivy and swung her body out of the window, clutching the vines with her bare toes. 

“Huh…!” she gasped as she slid down the wall, dragging her nails through the vine as she tried to grab onto something to stop her fall. Needles of pain sparkled through her bare feet as they smacked against the ground. She fell flat on her butt, hissing in pain as she shook her hands in agony. Her fingernails felt like they’d been nearly ripped out. She sucked in her breath and listened carefully. Surely all of France had heard her fall. She waited until she was sure that all she could hear were crickets and the lonely violin. 

The sound got louder as she crept around the house. The window in the detached kitchen flickered and glowed. She approached carefully. There were stories of wraiths and souls that haunted these hills. They played tricks on the living, enticing them into sharing their damnation. Claudette clutched the sill. She propped herself onto her toes and peered inside. A dark form was playing a fiddle. It sat at the table next to a candle. Its hair was long with wild brown curls. Claudette found herself mesmerized by the music. The phantom has captured me! she thought, trying to will herself to turn away before it was too late, but she was unable to break the spell.

The creature stopped abruptly. “Huh…!” Claudette drew in a breath. She could see a single green eye appear over the top of the instrument. It was looking at her. Icy chills ran down her back. The creature set the fiddle down and waved her in. Claudette wanted to run, but she was trapped in the ghoul’s spell. 

“You should be in bed, Mademoiselle.” The creature spoke French with an accent spiced with Eastern European flavors as Claudette entered the room.  She sighed with relief. It was merely a woman, a kitchen servant. 

“It is too hot for sleeping,” Claudette said, “and I had to know where the music was coming from.”

“My apologies, Mademoiselle,” the woman said fearfully, “I did not mean to disturb anyone.”

“No, not at all,” Claudette was quick to assure her. “It was wonderful!” Claudette looked her over with fascination. The woman had olive skin, wild hair, and striking green eyes that reflected the flickering candlelight. “Are you a Gypsy?” she asked.

“I am merely a woman who needs this job, child. My breeding has no bearing on the quality of my work.”

Claudette gazed at the woman for a moment, “I think you’re beautiful, whatever you are. Please, put yourself at ease.”

The woman stared at her for a moment. The fear slipped away and turned into a broad smile that enthralled Claudette with wild mystery. “Thank you, my child. Yes, my people are Romani, but I must be careful. We are not always welcomed in the houses of the French.”

Claudette sparkled with happiness. “Well, you are welcome here. I am Claudette,” she said offering her hand. “I don’t have any friends. It’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

The woman looked around nervously for a moment, then took her hand, “You’re going to get me fired, child. It’s not permitted to talk to the masters of the house.”

“No, I won’t,” Claudette protested. “We’re friends!”

The woman closed her eyes and sighed with a laugh. She opened and focused them intensely on the girl in front of her. “Okay, my little friend. You can call me Lavinia.”

Claudette beamed with excitement. “Is it true that the Gypsies can talk to the spirit world? Can you tell fortunes?”

“That is a myth, child.”

“Please, tell me my fortune. Will I ever know love?” Claudette leaned forward in her chair, grasping her hands together in pleading anticipation.

“You are going to get me burned at the stake.” Lavinia leaned back in her chair, putting space between her and the girl.

“Oh, pooh! They don’t do that anymore!” Claudette scoffed.

“You’d be surprised at man’s capacity for violence and cruelty when he fears,” she said flatly. Claudette fell silent, blinking her dark eyes at the woman in disappointment. Lavinia blinked back then let out a sigh, “Alright, child, give me your hand.”

“I knew it!” Claudette bubbled over with excitement as she thrust her hand forward.

“Careful, my passionate little friend,” Lavinia warned as she took the little girl’s hand. “There are some things in one’s fortune that are best left unknown. Things that only become true because you’re expecting them. Be careful not to force the hand of destiny. The spirits are always swirling around our decisions. They’re constantly writing and rewriting our destinies.” With that, she began to examine Claudette’s palm. A wave of concern washed over her face but was quickly replaced by a smile. “Just as I suspected!”

“What?!”

Lavinia looked up from the open palm to the little girl’s eyes with a sly grin. “You have a very strong head line, perhaps too strong for your own good!”

“Mamá always says I’m stubborn,” Claudette admitted.

“Perhaps you should listen to her.”

Claudette rolled her eyes then returned them to Lavinia with renewed excitement. “What else?”

“Let’s see…” Lavinia mumbled, looking over the child’s palm. “I see a strong life line. You can expect good health and a long life, child.”

“I see…” Claudette answered, then with mischief in her eyes asked, “What about love? Will I know great love in my life?”

“Yes, it looks fine,” Lavinia said quickly then looked away.

Claudette eyed her for a moment suspiciously. “You’re not being honest with me.”

Lavinia returned her eyes to the girl, “Chiromancy is not a science, child. It’s a game we play to fool the gadje out of their money.”

“Tell me!” Claudette protested impatiently.

Lavinia stared at her for a moment then sighed. “You have great passion and a capacity to love deeply. Look at how strong this line is as it swoops down from your index finger.”

“Huh!” Claudette gasped with excitement. “But then it stops here,” she said.

“It does, child, right where it intersects with this vertical line that descends from between your middle and ring finger. That line is fate.”

“What does it mean?” Claudette asked with fear creeping into her voice.

“It only means what you make it mean, child. Like I said, chiromancy is a mere game to play on fools.”

“Will I have my heart broken?” she asked.

“Child, you must not close your heart, no matter your loss. Let me look again. Ah!” she said. “This line here! It seems your heart line starts again, but later, and it is strong!”

“So there’s hope?” Claudette asked feebly.

“So long as you live and you keep your heart young, there is always hope, my sweet little friend.”

Claudette looked at her palm in wonderment, looking at the line interrupted by a gap on her palm. “How long must I suffer?”

“It is unclear. Time in the spirit world expands and contracts like the accordion. Remember, you are still in charge of your destiny. The spirit world can only give you hints along the way.”

Claudette blinked at her for a moment, her mind running wild with enchantment. “Teach me!” she said at last. “Teach me how to find the spirit world and to read its hints!”

“The spirit world is all around you. You just have to learn how to open your eyes and see it in front of you.”

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