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And for my next book...

This week saw the launch of The Weapon and the Fruit: Any Body Can Murder - now available in eBook and Paperback from all of the usual online booksellers.

Both books in this series can still be ordered directly from the Aneurysm Cupcake website, though they will be shipped directly from Lightening Source without passing through my hands. This means I won't be a able to sign them or include any bookmarks or other extras in with them. It also means I have no control of the shipling costs, and unfortunately they currently are only available in two countries: The UK and the The US.

The reason for this is an exciting one for me - in a few weeks I will be moving permanently to India. From there it won't make sense for me to have stock shipped to me internally only to send it out internationally again just to be able to sign the books. But it also does mean I will have plenty more time to write in the extremely conducive environment that brought you this newest release.

I have three more books planned so far - one of which will be the third outing for Lance Pomegranate, but before I get to that I am making a foray into another genre. At the moment I am very close to completing the first draft of a tongue-in-cheek fantasy for younger readers. All of the same humour but magical creatures instead of murderers. Here is a preliminary version of what could eventually become the book's blurb text:

Melisma Gat had put any ideas of a career in magic and adventure behind her long ago. Now all
she wants is to run her inn, entertain locals and tourists, and provide that one final decent night’s
sleep for adventurers (whether seasoned pros or hopeful trainees) before they head off into the
forest for whatever ridiculously dangerous quest some rich idiot from the nearby city of Twunhorm
has decided to fund.

But Melisma’s modest and reasonable ambitions suddenly become a lot less realistic when her
nightly performance is interrupted by two large creatures bursting into her inn. The city has declared
emergency lockdown and it falls upon her to lead a party of trainees off the script of
their final examination quest and halfway up an imposing mountain, so that she can get back to her
simple life, and if it’s not too much to ask, save most of the city’s population from being devoured,
torn to shreds, or whatever the unleashed magical hybrid creatures have in mind.

Why half way up a mountain? They’ll just have to ask the villain when they get there. Maybe she
doesn’t believe you can have high fantasy at sea level. To find out, Melisma is first going to have to
lead her inexperienced team to overcome obstacles, defeat henchmen, solve riddles and avoid being
eaten. All she has at her disposal are distant memories of her incomplete training, knowledge of a
few simple spells, a couple of books she barely remembers buying and the unreliable translation
skills of her pampered pet cat.

Beyond this I have a portal fantasy planned, and of course the next book in The Weapon and the Fruit series, which I am setting myself a soft target to have out by this time next year.

That's all I have to offer as far as updates are concerned. Thank you so much for all the amazing feedback I've had for both Lance Pomegranate books - especially the new release. If by chance you've stumbled upon this blog without first having heard of these novels, I encourage you to read the reviews on Goodreads and see if it might be your thing too.

Reviews, Release and another In Person Event

Perhaps I should have just said "Retail" to complete an alliteration trio, but I opted for clarity instead. Clarity, being part of another trio that's important to me, namely the only three things I believe are important in a review, gives me a neat segue from title into what I actually want to talk about today.

I've mentioned before that a review should have just three things: Honesty (covering the reviewer's genuine opinion in its entirety, including all of the positives and the negatives); Clarity (making it easy for anyone reading the review to map the reviewer's subjective reactions onto their own personal tastes, which could be vastly different from the reviewer's; and lastly a conscious effort to avoid spoilers.

That was it and off I went, patting myself on the back for summing up the essence of a good and helpful review in three neat little points. Until someone came along recently and caused a big stir on twitter with her contrasting views on how reviews should work. Some of is tried to warn her to keep things private. Others fought back rather nastily, leading her to double down further and disregard the warnings. It wasn't pretty. So I have added a couple of extra criteria in light of this (admittedly entertaining) car crash.

A review should also be; about the book, and nothing but the book; and it should be written by someone who has read the book and made a genuine attempt to finish it, and did not write the book.

You can infer what happened from that I'm sure. Or dig deeper to find out more, if you wish, but really what I want to say is that it's completely natural for an author to feel what they feel upon reading reviews of their work. It's involuntary. It's what you feel. However, there is one thing you do have control over, and that is how you react and where. I think it is so important to have a trusted friend within writing and a private space in which you can get everything off your chest for them and only them to hear and respond. Until you find such a companion, at least confide in a close friend or family member outside of writing. Whatever you do, do not use a public space like twitter, where you also build and shape your online presence and reputation, to come to terms with any kind of disappointment, whether it's a lack of reviews, or a review that was less flattering than you had hoped for. Please. It can only hurt you.

But the real reason I'm bringing up reviews again, is, I have recently received some for my new release. The Weapon and the Fruit: Any Body Can Murder is all ready to be printed and distributed in time for its 7th July publication date, and copies of it are in the hands of ARC readers. Three reviews have already been posted to Goodreads and you can go and see them for yourself. I would invite you to pre-order the book too, as that's already an option, however you can still sign up for a FREE ARC yourself, until the 31st of May, so why not save yourself some money and get the book sooner by doing that now? (Unless of course May 2025 is already over by the time you read this).

And to conclude the trinity promised by the title, I am making two in person appearances as Folk & Bespoke events in Essex. I will be in Dunmow on Sunday 25th May with paperbacks of Four and Twenty Blackboards (as well as free bookmarks and stickers and recruiting additonal ARC reviewers) and in Ware on Saturday 21st June I'll have paperbacks of books for sale, which means you can buy signed physical copies of Any Body Can Murder over two weeks before it's officially released.

These will very likely be my final UK in-person appearances for some time, as I am moving to India in August. I will also be closing my direct sale of signed copies from Aneurysm Cupcake then. You will still be able to order paperbacks directly through a different means, to anywhere in the UK or the USA, but they will not be signed, and postage will not be free as the orders will be managed by Lightning Source.

I will be taking pre-orders for signed copies of Any Body Can Murder alongside the orders of Four and Twenty Blackboards from the 1st of June once the ARC signup has closed and I will announce that on this blog then. Those orders will continue until the 1st of August, after which the purchase page will be replaced.

Happy reading and reviewing, and to all those who have left or will leave an honest review of any indie book, I give my sincere thanks. You make our lives so much better and easier, and I hope that the actions of some authors do not deter you from continuing to feed back and support, critique and guide us for the good of everyone.

The Indie Author Book Festival, Huntingdon Saturday 3rd May 2025

I am delighted to confirm that I will be present at the Indie Author Book Festival, on Saturday the 3rd of May 2025, (yes I'm missing the last day of the football season for this), at the Commemoration Hall, in Huntingdon. (39 High St PE29 3AQ)

The festival takes place on both the Saturday and the Sunday that weekend, from 10am to 4pm with free entry to anyone.

Come and say hello, pick up a signed copy, have a chat, question my taste in music, demand the death of your least favourite characters, help yourself to a free bookmark or even sign up to review an Advance Reader Copy of my next release.

For more information about the festival including a happy and healthy list of all the authors in attend across both days, please visit https://www.indieauthorbookfair.com/e... .

A read for a read.

Independent authors are looking for more and more ways to support each other at the moment. We're in a market where the many readers out there for whom each of our books seems just right, aren't able to discover them. The places where readers go to find new recommended reads will only offer them the work of a handful of authors writing in a small number of genres tightly defined by tropes and trends. Those same books, the chosen few to receive significant marketing budgets, are also the ones promoted by independent book marketers; online influencers who unfortunately have learnt, the hard way or otherwise, that if they don't push those same books as their fellow professionals, they won't remain influential for very long.

Influencers are now just influence brokers, stuck in the middle. Their incentives come from both ends. The ARCs and freebies and exclusive interviews will only keep coming to them if they continue to devote their finite reading and production time covering those big titles, but also their audiences won't continue to take them seriously as influences if they aren't covering those same big popular titles.

Many readers read the books and then want to hear the opinions of reviewers afterwards, when spoilers aren't a problem for them. I will admit I do this with film reviews. I have a cinema membership so I'll go and see all sorts of things, and then compare my opinions with those of critics whose opinions I find entertaining and/or insightful afterwards when spoilers do not pose a threat to me.

So where else do indie authors turn? Professional marketing people? They're out there certainly, but there's a problem. First of all you need to find promoters who will genuinely throw everything they have at getting the right kind of attention for your book, who understand what makes your book different from others, and how to make other people interested in it, rather than just take a fee and then apply the same by the numbers process to the book irrespective of what the book is and how it differs from any other.

In fact there are even worse scenarios of people who would take your money and then just disappear rather than deliver even a poor or token service, but fortunately those are far easier to spot. An important example of this is any platform that claims to offer promotion on their own dedicated site. You visit their website, look at what they have to offer, check out their fees and feel that it's the right arrangement for you and your budget. But then you notice that there doesn't seem to be any way for you to sign up as a reader. No reader's section of the website. No link to a Facebook group to join, not even an email list to subscribe to. Nothing but listings of books that authors have submitted for promotion. Those books are prominently displayed on the website just as promised. They look impressive. Service delivered. Except who's seeing them? Only other authors looking for places to promote their books.

Anything else? Social media? Sort of. It's a thing. It's available to us all. Posting is simple. We can craft the post, get the wording right, meet the character limit, make sure to include the right links and images, and if you still believe in them, hashtags too. And then sigh as no-one sees them apart from the few people who interact with you regularly. You soon realise all you're doing is making people who like you eventually very bored of seeing you try to promote your work in the same way, until they mute you for their own sanity. In principle you should be able to build an audience just by being yourself and producing regular, interesting and varied output, hoping people will find their way to that link on your profile or the invitation to buy on your pinned post, but it doesn't really work out.

Anything left? Yes. One thing. As I mentioned at the start, Indie authors do have each other for support. We can buy each other's books, read and review them, and hope to give a small boost to their presence in spaces where a few extra sales and reviews make a difference. Mutual reviews by authors of each others' books are frowned upon for obvious valid reasons. But general support and even mutual purchasing causes no such problems. Individuals have created websites such as www.thefotia.com and www.indiosyncrasy.com where you can learn about a wide variety of indie books and their authors. The hope is very slowly to get the kind of readers looking for something a bit different, either because their interests aren't covered by those popular heavily marketed genres, or because they get excited about being the ones to introduce their friends to new things, will grow to recognise these places as their go-to for hidden gems.

I have recently bought a few indie books, read and reviewed them, and today I have decided to turn it from a whim to something more formal.

So from the date and time of this blog entry, for every copy sold of The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards, and for every new sign-up to review a FREE Advance Reader Copy of The Weapon and the Fruit: Any Body Can Murder (yours to keep, in your hands ahead of its publication date, in exchange for an honest review), I shall purchase an indie book. And if I know it was you who made the purchase or filled in the form, I shall look for your book first.

I might not be able to share reviews of your books on platforms where you have reviewed my books, but I can still mention them here on this blog, and recommend them personally to anyone I feel with enjoy them.

If you would like to read either of my books and trigger more purchases of other books this way, please visit www.aneurysmcupcake.com where you'll find details of both books, and of how to buy one now, and sign up to read the other very soon.

I am committed to continuing making purchases in this way at least until the 31st May 2025, which is the deadline for joining the ARC team.

Alternatively you can cut me, the middle man, right out, and just go to an indie author site such as the ones I mentioned above and buy something directly for yourself. We all thank you for your support!

Are men reading less? Is anyone to blame? Is there a solution?

Other than theft for AI training, (don't worry - I'll get to that in another post) the current popular topic in the online book community, is the idea that men are reading a lot less than they used to, and certainly less than women, and a suggested main reason for this is that despite the huge diversity of books available for anyone to buy, only a few very narrowly defined categories get the benefit of hefty marketing budgets and prominent placing in book shops.

My attention to this topic was first drawn by editor and YouTuber Kristin / The Nonsense-Free Editor, who has plenty to say on it, including responses to those who commented dismissing the idea altogether. Link here: https://youtu.be/VGgMpnHj_-4?si=P4_B5...

Since then the discussion has been all over twitter and I've seen plenty of tweets, acknowledging it, but also celebrating it as justice for a past era where women could hardly find anything to read, leading to a category that somehow still exists called "women's fiction", implying that every other type of fiction is either uninteresting to or unsuitable for women. Apparently we haven't moved on from that, but we certainly do have plenty of other categories of fiction which are loved almost exclusively by women.

I personally don't have a problem with the amount of romantasy and dark romance there is out there. There is an awful lot of it, but there is also a lot of porn in video form which men enjoy, and as long as everyone knows it's not real, and no-one's behaviour is influenced by it then that's absolutely fine. I do find it surprising that for every man who enjoys watching video centred around the abuse of a woman, there's a woman who enjoys reading a book centred around the abuse of a woman, but we all have our kinks, myself included, and as long as fiction stays fiction, and reality stays bound by consent, then as far as I'm concerned, have at!



This morning I came across another YouTube video on the topic from an Australian Indie Author who runs the bald book geek channel. Link here: https://youtu.be/w4Mq7yPQP-Y?si=6H4dS...

The following is based on the comment I left upon watching it:

I think there is something to get out of the "Let's celebrate" type of responses, and that's a clue to how to solve the problem. Men are reading less because the types of books they enjoy aren't spoonfed to the public the way romantasy books are. Fewer books for men are marketed because men are reading less. So the solution must be similar to how women took their place in the market to begin with, and that's for Indie authors who write the types of books those men want to read work together to increase the visibility of their combined work, so that those men among the general public become aware that there are plenty of books out there that they would enjoy. Then in turn those male readers (or any readers of those books), need to get together and discuss the books in a public space, creating their own version of booktok.

Unfortunately nothing will happen on its own. This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. I think it should probably start with the indie authors, but once they get the ball rolling, the responsibility lies with the readers to show that they do truly want these books enough for larger publishers to notice.

I believe a lot of people who say they want more diverse content, films based on original concepts, music untouched by Max Martin, etc. really mean they want diverse content to be vetted for quality, given a healthy budget and marketed heavily to them, so they can then consume it with high confidence that it will satisfy them. The industries will only do that for the tried and tested and copied to death material that has made them money before. So it is up to those who say they want diverse material to take the risk, and buy recordings, books, or cinema tickets to obscure material that no-one can review for them, because it's not very well-known. And before they can do that, they have to look for it and find it in the first place. Some of it will be great. Some will be terrible. A lot will be simply OK. It might not feel worth the effort. But that's the only alternative to getting the same stuff again and again that you claim to be sick of.

If you want to take a punt on something, visit the Fellowship of the Indie Author website, http://www.thefotia.com - or Indiosyncrasy, http://www.indiosyncrasy.com - where you'll find all sorts of diverse content and hopefully something you might enjoy. My own work is there too, but chances are if you're reading this you've already discovered it.

Star Ratings, Direct Sales and Other Musings

Hello again. First of all I have been back in the UK for ten days or so and feel exactly how anyone would have expected, including myself, about returning to the cold weather. But as well as having to wear all the layers every time I leave home, it also means that once again it is possible for me to add personalised signatures to paperbacks and ensure they are promptly posted to anyone who orders them directly from www.aneurysmcupcake.com - with UK shipping still free until the current stock runs out. International shipping is just £5 to anywhere outside of the UK, and as well as the signature, orders include a couple of free bookmarks.

Meanwhile, I found myself participating in an interesting conversation about star ratings on Twitter yesterday, which prompted me to set out exactly what each rating from one to five stars means for me. That is to say what I am thinking when I decide what ratings to give, not how I interpret anyone else's.

This is what I wrote (heavily influenced by what was possible to fit into a single tweet - star emojis, spaces and proper punctuation aside - I'm adding them here and now only, because I can).

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 - got me so excited I want to tell everyone all about it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 - easy to imagine it's a 5 for someone else but not to my taste, or it's a 3 but pushes a lot of my personal excitement buttons.
⭐⭐⭐ 3 - I enjoyed it.
⭐⭐ 2 - it deserves to exist.
⭐ 1- finished it just in case it got better, but it didn't.

Upon reflection I might reword 1 star ⭐ to simply say "I managed to finish it."

I subsequently added that I believe we should really have an even number of options. Many people would like half stars in between, which would guarantee an even number, so I would absolutely fine with that. I imagine that the main appeal of half stars to most people is to expand the scale from 5 degrees to 10, and I can see the benefits of that. We read a lot of books, more than enough to spread our ratings over that many distinct levels of enjoyment, significance, quality or whatever it is that we choose to measure.

But I'm more interested having an even number of options available, whether 4, 6, 10 or any number greater than 2, which only allows you to say good or bad, because then a reviewer must make a choice to go above or below the 50% mark, and I think that would be very helpful. My own reason for giving three stars illustrates this well enough. "I enjoyed it". Right in the middle. Not really saying anything of value.

Of course this is also the reason why I don't pay much attention to the number of stars in a review. What's written in words matters so much more. The reasons someone gives for not liking a book could be reasons why I might love it, and vice versa. That's also why I would never ascribe my own interpretations of the stars that I use as my own guide to anyone else's ratings. I don't know what giving 2,3,4, or any number of stars to a book means to you, but that's fine because you're also going to tell me what you thought of that book in your review.

That said, while I don't think there should be an absolute standard definition of ratings, whether mine or yours, or even one suggested by the review platform in question (now I realise it might have been sensible to check if Goodreads has one before beginning this blog entry, but never mind), I do strongly recommend that everyone has their own, which you can disclose on your review blog or keep privately just for yourself. If you always know what you personally mean when rating a book (or a film or anything really), and can keep it consistent as a result, you may find that really useful. Just remember that your system is for you, and only for you.

Meanwhile, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review or even just a rating on my work. I don't reply to individuals for obvious reasons, but I appreciate every single review for its honesty, clarity and the avoidance of spoilers, which are the only three things I believe an author should expect. If you have written a review either before or after this is posted, you may take my thanks personally.

By letting others know how well a book compared with your individual tastes and expectations, you're giving them the best chance of deciding whether or not it is right for them, and it is the best kind of help there can be for the right pairings books and readers to find each other.

We all have paperbacks! And ebooks too.

The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards was officially released worldwide without any complication on Tuesday 7th Jan, and can be found in all of the usual places in ebook and paperback form. Pre-ordered paperbacks signed by me were received on time too, posted the day before I left for India.

Meanwhile, I am taking some time away from a busy music workload and demoralising British weather in a de facto writing retreat, courtesy of my friend here in Hyderabad who kindly is putting me up in his place, and then didn't turn up himself until a week later. The upshot of this is I am already well into the first draft of the sequel, titled The Weapon and the Fruit: Any Body Can Murder. It will follow the same characters after a three year gap following the events of Four and Twenty Blackboards. The new story will stand alone, and does not spoil the first, though readers will certainly get far more enjoyment out of it if they're already familiar with the world of Lance Pomegranate and can find meaning of the small references to the events of the previous book. So while not a direct continuation, it is very much a sequel.

I'll talk more about what can be expected from Any Body Can Murder once everyone has had time to enjoy and digest Four and Twenty Blackboards. But let me say how I excited I am to be creating a new work again and revisiting these characters I've got to know so well.

I hope to complete the first draft shortly after returning to the UK in February, if not before and continue steadily along the pipeline that will lead to another book in your hands, but for now, I'm excited to see Four and Twenty Blackboards safely delivered, and currently being enjoyed by readers on opposite sides of the Northern Hemisphere. The number of paperbacks that have already been ordered was a most pleasant shock to me when I checked for the first time yesterday. I have no idea what the ebook numbers are, and will not see them until March. Thank you to everyone for taking a punt on a new author and a new breed of quirky P.I. I hope you all enjoy the story.

The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards already entertaining people on opposite sides of the Northern hemisphere (India and Indiana) on the first day of publication.
Currently ranked #2 in FICTION/Mystery & Detective/Private Investigators according to IngramSpark. pic.twitter.com/ZnD8O344EX

— L.E. Bendon (@L_E_Bendon) January 8, 2025

Special thanks to my ARC readers who've been posting their reviews here, on their blogs, and elsewhere and have many kind things to say.

I have paperbacks!

I had been telling myself for some time that it will finally feel real and complete when I have physical copies in my possession, and now I do. Several of them are on the move again, just minutes after I received them, in the hands of Royal Mail, making their way to the lovely people who pre-ordered directly from Aneurysm Cupcake, and of course to the British Library. They're signed, sealed and soon-to-be-delivered. Meanwhile I'm on my way to Heathrow, with several more copies in tow, as I am going to spend New Year's Eve in the air, and the entirety of January 2025 in India. For this reason, I will not be signing any more copies for direct online sales until February when I return to the UK, but of course The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards can be pre-ordered for its 7th January release, (and ordered thereafter) from all of the usual places - you can even ask your favourite bookshop that only you and your elite circle of friends know about to order a copy for you if that's your thing.

It's alive!

The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards is now out of my hands, and in the hands of the distributors. Approved for printing and retail, and available for pre-order in all of the usual places and almost certainly your personal favourites. Officially available from the 7th January 2025, without any further action required from me. This means I now carry the comfort of knowing that I could meet with an unfortunate incident, or fall prey to a debilitating illness or homicidal maniac (provoked or unprovoked), and it won't stop anyone from reading about Lance Pomegranate discovering who murdered Jane Alder and why.

My wonderful team of ARC reviewers already have an e-copy to read and review and some have already contributed their thoughts right here on Goodreads.

Meanwhile as a debut author expecting sales to begin in small numbers, I am taking full advantage of that by offering a personalised autograph on every paperback ordered directly through the Aneurysm Cupcake website (see http://www.aneurysmcupcake.com ), and throw in a couple of free bookmarks with each one too, as well as FREE UK shipping. (It's just £5 for shipping outside the UK). If you or the friend or relative wish to benefit from this, pre-orders must be placed by Sunday 29th December 2024. This is because I'm off to India for the whole of January. Direct sales will resume when I return at the beginning of February, and I intend to maintain this offer from then, for as long as demand is manageable. Of course the book's availability elsewhere will be uninterrupted, with pre-ordering happening now right up until it becomes simply ordering from the 7th January.

Day 1 as a Goodreads author.

I have a novel set to be publised very soon. My first, which I began a few years ago, let like dormant for a while until earlier this year I at last understood how to turn it from something I felt proud to have completed to a story I am proud to invite everyone to read. Now that it's listed on Goodreads, and I am its author, I have a Goodreads author page, which makes everything feel a little bit more real. I realise this is silly because writing a book should feel far more significant than being allowed to blog on here, but here I am.

The book in question, titled The Weapon and the Fruit: Four and Twenty Blackboards, introduces London's newest eccentric private detective as he helps police solve the murder of a Hammersmith primary school teacher.

Advance Reader Copies are in the hands of keen reviewers right now. If you happen to read this post before 10th December 2024, and would like to join the ARC team, then you may sign up for it here: http://www.aneurysmcupcake.com/arcsig...

Otherwise, if the signup has already closed by the time you heard about it, the book will be available on the 7th January 2025 in paperback and ebook, from all the places you usually like to get your books.

I will also be selling personalised signed paperbacks which will each include free postage within the UK and a couple of free bookmarks if ordered directly from http://www.aneurysmcupcake.com.

All the information regarding pre-order and purchase will be available there after the ARC signup closes on the 10th December.