Cody C. Engdahl's Blog, page 8

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.



View all my reviews

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.




View all my reviews

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.




View all my reviews

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.”

Click the link below to pre-order your digital copy for only 99¢ before the price goes up!

Mexico, My Love: Full Print Cover and Blurb Reveal

Here’s the blurb:

A tragic love story and a sweeping swashbuckling epic that’ll take you from the streets of Marseilles, through the deserts of Africa, across the pirate-infested seas, to the hills of California, and ultimately the walls of Mexico City.

Claudette is a French girl who dreams of true love and adventure. Diego is a brash young Mexican patriot who strives to live up to his grandfather’s sword-fighting legend. Together they’ll fight to keep their dreams alive while facing French smugglers, Algerian resistance fighters, bloodthirsty pirates, and the American invasion of Mexico.

Mexico, my Love is a romantic historical novel that brings to life the real history of the Franco-Moroccan War, the Conquest of California, and the Mexican American War. It is a prequel to Rampage on the River: The Battle for Island 10, Book One of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry Chronicles.

However, YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ ANY OF THE PREVIOUS BOOKS TO ENJOY THIS ONE!

Here’s the Digital Book cover:

The first draft is finished. We are now putting it through its editing paces. Currently, it sits at 123,989 words, but that will fluctuate as we edit. For a reference, Blood for Blood at Nashville was about 119,000 words.

Mexico, My Love was going to be 501 pages if I went with the same printing specs as my other novels. The print cost was just too high and I didn’t want my readers to have to bear it. So I decided to switch to the 6X9 format. That dropped it down to 362 pages and significantly lowered the price. I hope that’ll entice some new readers into my literary world and also keep my current readers happy.

We’re also going with creme paper now too! I hope that also makes my current readers happy as well. I actually wanted to do that with Blood for Blood at Nashville, but because it was part of the trilogy, I was stuck with the choices I made for the first book.

So, what does creme paper do? It makes it much easier on the eye. It doesn’t have the glare that white paper has and provides a more pleasing contrast with the black ink. It also just looks more authentic for historical novels.

This book is a new entry point into my overall story. This is a prequel to the 2nd Michigan Cavalry Chronicles trilogy. Ultimately, I think it’s best to read them all in the order that I wrote them. There’s a big reveal at the end of book two that is explored in this new book. However, I’m fine with people beginning with Mexico, My Love, and then perhaps reading the trilogy.

Mexico, My Love is also a bit of a departure from my first three novels. It still has all the battles, sword fights, and high adventure that I hope you’ve come to enjoy from me, but it’s my first novel outside of the American Civil War. I also leaned into the historical romance genre quite a bit and wrote most of it from my female character’s perspective. I really hope it has a wide appeal to both women and people who love historical fiction but may not be into the Civil War.

Okay, so, timetable: I hate giving dates because then I have to live up to them. This is the longest book I’ve written. It took me fifteen months and ten days to write. Surprisingly, I only missed my projected first draft finish date by four days. This was a deadline I had set for myself at the beginning, so not bad!

Anyway, I like to get all the editing done in two months. That includes my work and the other two people on my team. I don’t want to rush anybody and I want to get it right. Right now, we’re hoping to get it out by Black Friday to take advantage of the holiday shopping season. I should be able to pull that off but if not, I’ll launch at the beginning of the new year to soak up some of that gift card money. We’ll see.

What’s next? I’m going to be putting out a preview that will go into the back of Blood for Blood at Nashville. Right now, I’m debating what I’m going to use. I think it’s either going to be the introduction to young Claudette or the introduction of Carl’s father. I’m still debating.

After that? No promises, but the next book should pick up where we left Carl and bring him to Europe, where he’ll have a grand adventure along the Wars of German Unification. I have a general outline and a lot of great ideas that I think are going to excite those who have read all my previous books and are up to date on the story. The working title at the moment is The Prussian Prince, but that could change.

The book after that will be a character novel based on a person whom I hinted at throughout the trilogy and will now introduce in Mexico, My Love. You’re going to love this character, and they will have a fascinating adventure. I hope you stick around for it.

Thanks as always for your love and support. If you’d like to read the trilogy before Mexico, My Love comes out, here is the link to the first book, Rampage on the River: The Battle For Island No.10.

My Two Fiddles

Someone asked “How much is a high-quality violin?” on Quora. This is my answer:

After a few years with my $259 Chinese student model, I felt I was ready for an upgrade. I thought I’d spend $800 to $1,200 on a new instrument. My teacher told me to wait until I could afford $3,000 or up because the quality jump from $259 to $1,200 wouldn’t be enough to make it worth it. I ended up buying a 1986 Belgian-made fiddle for $3,200. I love it and still play it today. 

But here’s the rest of the story:

My $259 Chinese fiddle is still a great instrument. I’ve played it so much that it’s really well broken-in. As I started gigging professionally, I realized that not only did it serve me just as well, but I preferred to bring it to a lot of these outdoor events and smokey bars where I didn’t have to worry about it so much. It took a spill onstage in Florida once. The fingerboard popped off. I took it to my luthier and she fixed it, no problem. If that had been my Belgian, I would have died.

I can say that my Belgian fiddle has a sweeter sound, rich with complex overtones that carry well across the room. My Chinese fiddle is brash and loud (like me). I have my Belgian set up to be my “violin.” The action is higher, the bridge radius is rounder so I can isolate strings better, and I use medium tension synthetic gut strings.

My Chinese instrument is set up to be my “fiddle.” It’s got light tension steel-core strings, low action, and a flatter bridge which makes playing drones and double stops a breeze. My Belgian never comes out of my house. My Chinese is my workhorse that I travel with. I play mostly old-time, blues, jazz, and “cocktail” fiddle.

Below are some samples of my two violins:

This is my $259 Chinese workhorse:

And here is my $3,200 Belgian angel:

Hey, check out my latest novel!

Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All

Interview with Cody C. Engdahl on the American Civil War & UK History Podcast

I was interviewed by Darren Rawlings on the American Civil War & UK History Podcast. Here it is in YouTube form below.

Here’s the link to the podcast link. Give him a follow! Interview with Cody C. Engdahl

Here are the previews to all the books we spoke about:

__ATA.cmd.push(function() { __ATA.initDynamicSlot({ id: 'atatags-26942-61b0d55bdf38d', location: 120, formFactor: '001', label: { text: 'Advertisements', }, creative: { reportAd: { text: 'Report this ad', }, privacySettings: { text: 'Privacy', onClick: function() { window.__tcfapi && window.__tcfapi( 'showUi' ); }, } } }); });

Finished Part I of my next novel: Mexico, My Love

I finished Part I of my latest novel: Mexico, My Love, last night. Sixteen chapters so far and a little over 48,000 words. Part One could almost be a novel in itself. It has its own story arc in three acts and a climactic conclusion.

The novel is a sweeping and tragic romantic adventure about Carl’s parents, chronicling how they met, fell in love, and found their fate at the walls of Mexico City during the final battle of the Mexican-American War. I’m really excited about it and happy with what I’ve written so far.

I’m a bit scared too. I’m stepping away from the comfort and built-in audience of the American Civil War. I’m also dipping into the historical romance genre. Trust me, there’ll be plenty of swordfights, battle scenes, and even pirates to make this an action-packed adventure, but I’m also trying to lure in some new readers with my romance writing.

I hate to give estimates of when it’ll be done, but certainly in the next calendar year. It’ll probably be in three parts. It was not my intention to write another long book like Blood for Blood at Nashville, but it’s beginning to look that way. It’s a great story, though, and I think it’ll keep you turning pages.

Once this is out, I’m planning on picking up Carl’s story after the war in a novel that I’m currently calling “The Prussian Prince.” We’ll see if I stick with that title.

I have several books planned after that, but I want to wait to see how things go before I commit to them. The next book after the Prussian Prince will deal with a character that I have mentioned several times in the Civil War trilogy. You’ll finally get to meet him in Mexico, My Love. It’s not Carl’s father, who is one of the main characters of Mexico, My Love, but another character whom I’ve also built an enigma around. He’ll have a great introduction in the second part of Mexico, My Love, and make for a great sweeping novel of his own.

Anyway, thanks for following me, and stay tuned! Check out my latest novel below.