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[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Think I might try Mexico next.

Huge tome it is."

It's Michener, of course it is. The Source is one of my favourite books.

[Patti (baconater)]

I've got The Source, too. Haven't read it yet.
Managed to find his (I think) complete backlist somewhere.

Amazon don't carry the e-books.

[Kath]

Just finished 2 books - The Suspended Fourth by Paul Levinson. I'm giving this a hearty 4* and if it were more than 25 pages for £1.99 it would get the full whack. Excellent but, to buy a series amounting in length to a full novel would be ridiculously expensive.

Also finished The Red Church by Scott Nicholson. Very creepy, atmospheric horror novel. Loved this too. It's of a type within the genre but very well done. Just about to review these.

[Pat]

I have The Red Church on my fire, not read it yet. If you think it's that good I will start it now.

[Michael]

Pat wrote: "I have The Red Church on my fire, not read it yet. If you think it's that good I will start it now."

I liked it as well - a decent horror read.

[Patti (baconater)]

Kath wrote: "Just finished 2 books - The Suspended Fourth by Paul Levinson. I'm giving this a hearty 4* and if it were more than 25 pages for £1.99 it would get the full whack. Excellent but, to..."

£1.99 for 25 pages? I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

[Natasha]

Just finished Wilt by Tom Sharpe. Laugh-out-loud funny now and then. But it seems most people managed to find it funnier than I did.

Just started Trumpet by Jackie Kay, a wonderfully well-written story told from many perspectives of a trumpet player who was discovered to be transgender after his death.

[Desley (Cat fosterer)]

Finished The Blood that bonds today, I enjoyed it. Now reading some Sherlock Holmes, which it appears I've read before

[Jim]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "
£1.99 for 25 pages? I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. ..."

It does seem a bit steep, I felt that I was pushing the limits when I did Flotsam or Jetsam for 99p and that is apparently 58 pages

At what point does it stop being reasonable? (And that is a genuine question I'm not being rhetorical)

[Jim]

Natasha (Diarist) wrote: "Just finished Wilt by Tom Sharpe. Laugh-out-loud funny now and then. But it seems most people managed to find it funnier than I did.
..."

I remember enjoying it immensely but that was a lot of years ago

[Kath]

Those two shorts in that series are very good but a novel length collection would cost around £18. Market won't stand it.

[Tim]

Jim wrote: "At what point does it stop being reasonable? (And that is a genuine question I'm not being rhetorical)
"

My own opinion is that £1.99 is reasonable for a novella (100-ish pages), but when you're down in double digits, you might get away with £1.49 for 70+, but any fewer is just taking the mick. You have to charge at least 99p, cos that's the rules (although I've seen plenty of rubbish that wasn't worth even that).

[Patti (baconater)]

If it's part of a series that's eventually going to be a whole book or collection, I say finish writing it and release it properly, not in dribs and drabs.
Not to mention the publishing and marketing of the bits will take time away from the writing of it.
Now, if it's been published as a taster that's gonna be made permanently free at some point, that's different.
Then, I say finish writing the whole thing then market the taster.
Releasing bits at silly prices really gets up my nose, can you tell?

[Lexie]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "If it's part of a series that's eventually going to be a whole book or collection, I say finish writing it and release it properly, not in dribs and drabs.
Not to mention the publishing and marketi..."

No, not at all. You're very subtle. :-)

[Jim]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Not to mention the publishing and marketing of the bits will take time away from the writing of it...."

And that's the problem
Unless you want the book to disappear down into the depths of Amazon and below 700,000 (Or down below 2,000,000 in the .com rankings) and never to be seen again you've got to keep drawing attention to it. If you're really good and have nothing better to do with your life you can drop a new book into the bottomless abyss every six months and hope that this disturbs things down at the bottom and allows some of the others to float briefly to the top again.
Or you can stir the water on a monthly basis and hope that has a positive effect

[Kath]

Currently beta reading but I recently read Rachel Abbott's new short novel Nowhere Child: A Short Novel which is out today. It's got hard edges but ultimately it's delightful.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Natasha]

Very well put, Jim. My arm's fallen off with stirring. I'm having a bit of a rest. Might as well have two sales per month as fifteen.

[David]

Just finished The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue & Vice for Box Office Success , which was very good indeed, mainly about writing for films, but it concerns the moral premise upon which a good story is built.

Just started The 7 Secrets of the Prolific: The Definitive Guide to Overcoming Procrastination, Perfectionism, and Writer's Block, which is - apparently - about procrastination - so I may not get around to finishing it.

[Patti (baconater)]

Jim wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "Not to mention the publishing and marketing of the bits will take time away from the writing of it...."

And that's the problem
Unless you want the book to disappear down ..."

Sorry, that just made me think of you agitating the slurry pit. :D

[Jim]

Life is like a slurry pit,you've got to keep everything well stirred otherwise we all know what floats to the top

[Michael]

I've just read Katie Stewart's Famous Animals: Volume 1 and I loved it!

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/201...

[Lexie]

Jim wrote: "Life is like a slurry pit,you've got to keep everything well stirred otherwise we all know what floats to the top"

The guy who runs Smashwords referred to it as a 'tsunami of drek', a phrase which bobs to the top of my mind far too often.

[Patti (baconater)]

I've given up on Mexico.

I just don't care about bullfighting.

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

I must admit, it would put me off too. Don't let that put you off reading other Michener books like The Source, The Bridges at Toko-ri, Caravans and Sayonara. He was a superb writer.

[Jim]

I read The Bridges at Toko-ri many years ago but didn't bother remembering the name of the author :-(

[Patti (baconater)]

I've actually LIVED some other Mitcheners. Really disappointed in Mexico.

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "I've actually LIVED some other Mitcheners. Really disappointed in Mexico."

Caravans was very good but was turned into a mediocre film.

[Patti (baconater)]

Caribbean and Alaska were both excellent.

[Natasha]

Just finished the beautiful Trumpet by Jackie Kay (my review).

Just started the bizarre The City & the City by China Miéville.

[Patti (baconater)]

Started Canada.

Brilliant so far.

[Julie]

I just finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I don't know why it took me so long to start it. As soon as I started reading I knew I was going to love it. Half way through I was laughing out loud. My only slightly negative comment is that it maybe went on a bit towards the end and could have been tied up sooner, but all in all, a great and uplifting read.
About to start Rachel Abbott's new novella, Nowhere Child.

[Kath]

I loved The Help, Julie. We read it for the village book group. What startled me was that so much of it was within my lifetime.

[Patti (baconater)]

The Help is a great book.

The film is goid, too.

[Patti (baconater)]

Goid.

Goid grief. I type that way too often.

[Julie]

I know, me too. The other spooky thing is that I'm working on my own new novel and the part I'm writing is set in 1963. When I started reading The Help I had just written about exactly the same period but from such a different perspective.

[S.]

Ive just completed the Great Losing by Karine Green.

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

I meant to say, I finished reading Will Once's Global Domination for beginners this week.

A good book and quite enjoyable. A few typos but not as many as I've seen in a lot of books, good story, imaginatively told. Some of it was quite touching. I seriously believe that we have yet to see the best of Will's work.

Continuing to read my way through the Harry Harrison Megapack. It's always nice to have a book you can dip into every now and again and this one ticks all the boxes.

[Patti (baconater)]

Read his Love, Death and Tea, Geoff.

It'll tickle you.

[Geoff (G. Robbins) (merda constat variat altitudo)]

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Read his Love, Death and Tea, Geoff.

It'll tickle you."

And what makes you think I'm ticklish?

[Jim]

Just finished Poseidon's Spear

It's another in the story of the life of Arimnestos of Plataea written by Christian Cameron

The first in the series is Killer of Men and that is followed by Marathon: Freedom or Death

I've enjoyed them all, as far as I can make out he's got a real feel for the history of the period, but they are 'war' books

[Patti (baconater)]

Geoff (G. Robbins) (The noisy passionfruit) wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "Read his Love, Death and Tea, Geoff.

It'll tickle you."

And what makes you think I'm ticklish?"

Your high pitched giggle.

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

Jim wrote: "Just finished Poseidon's Spear

It's another in the story of the life of Arimnestos of Plataea written by Christian Cameron

The first in the series is..."


Christian Cameron is a writer I enjoy very much Jim. His The Red Knight and its sequel The Fell Sword (he calls himself Miles Cameron for those) are amongst my top faves currently. No 3 in the series The Dread Wyrm is out this week and I have it on pre-order even though it is a tenner.
I also have enjoyed The Ill-Made Knight and some of his Tom Swan series, though they are perhaps a little samey.

[Alison]

Just finished The Jewel by Amy Ewing. Need to stop reading YA dystopian. They are getting a bit repetitive.

[Michael]

I've just finished reading The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons and I have to say it's a better book than the first - which I also enjoyed:

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/201...

[Patti (baconater)]

I've said it many times and I'll say it again.

You write great reviews, Mr Brookes.

[Michael]

Thank you bacon lady :-)

[Sam]

Just finished One Summer: America, 1927

Hasn't put me off Mr Bryson, but this was my least favourite work of his: overly long and rather too trivial in too many parts.

Just started The Sunrise

Recommended by a friend and set in Cyprus for which I have a certain fondness.

[L.A.]

Just finished and just started . Enjoyed it again - it was a re-read, even though the writing style is very simple. Great story.

[Kath]

I've recently read and loved Strange Shores and Other Stories by Sam Kates - three short stories with a common theme but different genres. A great read. I always love Sam's writing.

http://ignitebooks.blogspot.co.uk/201...

I also read, before its publication, The Art of Forgetting the latest Julie McLaren book, out today. It's splendid - a family mystery which is made more difficult by the mother's failing mind. Very well observed and a great story.

http://ignitebooks.blogspot.co.uk/201...

[David]

Just finished:

Collected Poems which was good, but on the comprehensive side.

Eureka!: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Ancient Greeks but Were Afraid to Ask. A nice light introduction to the period.

The World of Jeeves , which is Wodehouse and therefore great.

Just started:

Alex's Adventures in Numberland, which is about numbers.

Philip Larkin: Poems selected by Martin Amis

Someone Else's Skin