On Reading

We all have our own taste when it comes to reading. Nothing at all surprising in that statement. What I have found, however, after several years of watching people on YouTube talking about books, is just how different people's tastes are when it comes to books. 

In a way, that realization is obvious. Libraries are full of books for this reason. I guess I just never thought about all the factors that go into one's personal taste in books. And how different my taste is from what many other readers look for in a good book.

It seems there are several very distinct aspects of books that readers value which I don't. Many of the people I watch, when talking about books, will rave about the emotions a book created in them. A great book, in their eyes, is one that stirs their emotions to the depths. We're talking tragedy, sadness, pain, horror and fear. Emotions that in real life, I have to believe they would wish to avoid. But they love the facsimile of these emotions delivered in a book. I have also heard it said that reading these heavy emotions in books help them deal with the real ones in life.

I have to admit that I don't understand how experiencing these second-hand emotions is either entertaining or helpful, but I realize that it's on me. I'm not a fellow who's big on emotions. A quiet, cloistered, simple life is my ideal. I have no desire, much less, need, drama in my life, or the pseudo-version of it in my reading for any reason.

It is also very possible that because of my nature, it may well be that the emotions portrayed in the story simply don't affect me to the same degree as other readers. Books that stir up these emotions in some readers, may, for all I know, simply leave me unmoved. It's not that I don't encounter sadness, loss, and grief in the books I read. I just take them as part of the story on the page, and don't feel the need to share the emotions of a paper character.  I certainly don't read in order to feel something. I simply want to be carried off to a different world with good companions, and explore it along with them, be that world the past or an entirely different world. It may be I never get entirely lost within a book.

Related to the emotional impact of a book on a reader, is another characteristic of great books that readers tout; books that stick with the them long after they finish reading it. This can be the emotional impact, but also the ideas the book presented to the reader. If it makes them think, and keep them thinking about the book long after they read it, it is seen as a hallmark of a great book.

Once again, while I understand why this is so, it is also not something that I seek in a book. I probably don't read those types of books. You know, serious books. Books by authors with a message to deliver. Those types of books generally don't interest me. And it's entirely possible that I miss the message altogether. And as for new ideas, viewpoints, and questions... Well, I'm just a simple old peasant Taoist, who values calm, simplicity, and intuitive knowledge. I've no interest in exploring great ideas and questions without answers nor do I care to turn over rocks to see the ugliness and unfairness of the world.

You don't have to be one or another when it comes to reading. A reader might have a broad taste that includes the classics to old pulp stories, and appreciates all of them for what they are. I watch several booktubers who read and enjoy both old pulp stories and the classics, each for what they are.

Once again, I'm not one of them. I have rather narrow tastes.  Plus, my reading taste have changed. These days I like clever, witty writing, and engaging characters. My book shelf attests to this fact. I still have well over 600 mass market SF paperbacks from my youth, even though I have no desire to go back and read them. These books are all about story, and nothing but story, with nondescript writing and cardboard characters, i.e. not for me in my dotage. I keep them as old friends, a history of my life, and as decor.

And finally, unlike some readers, I have no interest in reading outside of my comfort zone or being challenged by reading hard or challenging books. On booktube I have encountered people who read books that they don't really enjoy reading, but feel that the experience of reading the book was worth it, somehow making them a better person for having done so. I'm not sure how, perhaps it gives them a sense of accomplishment. Or the widened their horizons that made them better people, somehow. Again, each to their own, but not for me. I'm fine as I am.

However, all this said, I still find it interesting to learn about the books that I know I would not enjoy... My taste being so narrow, that's most of them. So I watch booktubers who read books that I have no interest in reading myself, like fantasy, horror, classic SF books, Victorian fiction, and literary classics because I'm curious, but not curious enough to actually read them myself. Really, it is the best of both worlds, I learn about all sorts of books, without having to suffer through the ones that don't appeal to me as a reader. And when you think about how vast the spectrum of books are, learning about books from other readers is likely the only way to get to know at least something about even a small corner the world of books. And you might find some that sound interesting enough to actually read in the process.

 

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 201)

 

THE SATURDAY MORNING BOOK REPORT

A mystery this week set in India of the early 1920's. As most of my books these days, I found it on a YouTube channel, and it was available from the library.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sunjata Massey   C

In this book, the first of a series, Massey set out to tell two stories. 

The first story, the title of the book, is a mystery story that takes place in Bombay of 1921. It is centered on the three widows of a rich Indian business man. The first female lawyer in Bombay, the Oxford educated Preveen Mistry, who works for her lawyer father, is tasked with looking after the rights of the three widows, who seem to be giving their inheritance away. A murder ensues. 

The second story Massey is the backstory of Preveen. It focuses on the subservient position of women in India, and the oppressive requirements of a certain religion. This backstory takes place in 1916-17.

She slices and dices these two stories in to one disjointed story that skips back and forward in time, a technique that you may already know, I really dislike. I've complained about this type of story often enough. In this case, there was no need to slice and dice Preveen's early history into the murder mystery, since it had nothing to do with the title mystery. Perhaps she did it because she could not have sold the backstory as a standalone novel, so, much like what I think Ellis Peters does with her Cadfael mysteries, she folded the story she wanted to tell into a mystery in order to sell it. And perhaps by splitting the two story lines and sprinkling them throughout the story, she hoped to create more tension in both stories by jumping back and forth between them at cliffhanging moments in both storylines. I just found it annoying.

I also found neither story line all that engaging. Preveen is a nice character, but the plots of both story lines are littered with confusing and unnecessary side characters. On the positive side, the story does include a lot of local details and a window to life in Bombay that time period, which is one of the reasons I chose this book to read. And it did have not one, but two, maps! Hooray! I love maps in books.

It seemed clear Massey wished to highlight the sorry plight of women in the India of 1920's and before, by going into elaborate detail about certain aspects of their lives. I dare say some readers, likely women, will find this interesting, but I wasn't one of them. Nothing wrong with highlighting the plight of women throughout history, but in me, she's preaching to the choir. Almost everywhere in the world, the role of women in society often amounted to plain ill-use, at best. In this story, with its disjointed structure, I could not fully connect with Preveen, and so I just didn't find myself interested in her litany of sufferings in the past and the plight of the widows in the "present." Other readers might.

As for the mystery. This is not a who-dun-it with clues you can follow. The murderer was unlikely, and we had the bog-standard confession at the end to conveniently clear everything up for the reader before the murder then tries to kill Preveen. 

All in all, a disappointment.

Some Small Dive Release Dates

 

All of my beta readers have reported back with their corrections and suggestions, so I can draw a line under the writing of the book, and move on to publishing it. 

Some Small Dive as a paperback is available now.  You can buy it on Amazon here for $11.99 USD

Some Small Dive as an Amazon ebook is available now as a preorder for it's 1 October 2026 release. You can preorder it here for $3.99 The Amazon audiobook will follow shortly for $3.99

The free ebook versions of Some Small Dive will be arriving at all the usual stores on or shortly after 1 October 2026  

SOME SMALL DIVE

My most boring book ever!

This from the author of “the dullest book I have ever read” – a reader, and “the only thing it did was put me to sleep” – another reader, another book.

I believe blurbs should honestly introduce the book to potential readers so they know what to expect. That being the case, I must tell you that this is the most mundane of stories. Only the fact that it is set on a world other than Earth makes it slightly different from a light literary fiction novel. Readers who have found my work via science fiction and fantasy, may perhaps find this story boring. You’ve been warned. But what can all readers, new and old, expect to find in this novel?

First off, it is the third book in the loose series of my “Lorrian Novels.” It is preceded by Chateau Clare and Glencrow Summer. However, all of the novels are stand-alone stories. This one is set entirely in the city of Celora, half a year after the events of Glencrow Summer. Once again, it features a new cast of characters, along with a few cameo appearances by characters from Chateau Clare. However, unlike those first two novels, there are no science fiction/fantasy elements in this story. This story concerns the everyday concerns of the after work patrons of the Bleu Moon, the small dive of the title, including a slow burn romance or two.

Most of these patrons come from the newspaper industry. A managing director, several editors, a critic, an actor, and a novelist make up the central cast. Set in the distant future, all of the characters are very human, but now with a lifespan of around two hundred years. Thus, over the course of two centuries, most people will change aspects of their lives, jobs, and relationships at least several times. In this novel, all of the patrons of the Bleu Moon find themselves facing opportunities to change their lives. Some will take it, others not. Some Small Dive is their story.

C. Litka usually spins tales of adventure, mystery, and travel set in richly imagined worlds. In Some Small Dive he has changed pace, and written a quiet, character-driven story of life on a slightly different world. Nevertheless, if you seek to escape your everyday life, you’ll find no better company, nor more wonderful worlds to explore, than in the stories of C. Litka.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 200)

 

THE SATURDAY MORNING BOOK REPORT

Our book this week is from an author who's first book I tried and I DNF'ed (Cahokai Jazz). He gets another chance, and a very rare grade from me.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

Nonesuch by Francis Spufford  F

Incomplete.

The last line of this book is "To be continued" with a classic cliffhanger ending. There is no indication anywhere on the book that it is only volume one of a series. I don't accept incomplete work. Hence the "F" grade. 

The setting, anyway, had a lot going for it. London 1939-1940, and the blitz. Perhaps my favorite place and time in history. The story, something of a romance and an exploration of the suppressed position of women in that time period was wrapped around a great McGuffin. 

The premise is that magic exists with the help of "angels" who are being compelled to work for some people, thorough spells. And that there was this "bridge" via a series of nodes created by spells through which one could enter the land of Nonsuch, from there you could then travel anywhere in time. The McGuffin is that protagonists are tasked with preventing a Nazi sympathizer who knows how to use this bridge from reaching Nonesuch, and from there to a time and place where she can assassinate Winston Churchill in 1939. This would lead to Lord Halifax replacing Chamberlin as prime minister, and who then, the author at least, suggests, would've made peace with Hitler, and that somehow, the British Nazis would have taken over. Which is to say, nonesuch nonsense.

So it's a time travel novel.  Time travel novels never really make sense, if you take a minute to think about them. Go back and change history and you eliminate the reason you went back to change history in the first place, and thus, no effort would be needed to change it since the world would be different, and thus, you, if you existed at all in the future, wouldn't have been sent back to change it. But if you weren't sent back to change history, then history wouldn't have been changed... And so, around and around you go again and again. It never makes sense.

The story is marketed as fiction, rather than fantasy or SF and reads like fiction, except for the magic and the McGuffin that runs through it, off and on, both more or less as an excuse to juice up the plot. As literary fiction it had a lot of inner dialog, literary fiction sort of musing, that kept the pace of the book rather leisurely despite the magic elements. The magic parts involved a lot of far-out descriptions that, as you likely know, doesn't work for me, so I skimmed over those parts to get to the results. And the results, in my opinion, ended up being neither fantasy nor literary fiction.

Besides being incomplete, I had a great problem with the McGuffin. Time travel  aside, it didn't make any sense. The people going back in time are from 1940. At that point in history, few, if anyone but perhaps, Churchill himself, would believe that he, of the Dardanelles disaster, would end up be heralded as such the key figure in Britain's fight in World War 2. That is a post-war impression, and not universally held. The British people tossed Churchill out of office as soon as they had the chance to after the war. Even if you give Churchill sole credit for Britain staying in the war, as the author does, no one in 1940 would have been able to know that. Nor predict the Mosley's Blackshirts would be anything but a band of kooks, should Churchill not be around. Personally, I seriously doubt that Churchill alone was standing between a British defeat and a Nazi victory. No British politician of any sort would trust Hitler's word in 1940 after Munich and his invasion of Poland. And I am sure Winston wasn't alone in his determination to defeat Hitler. And well, Hitler would've still invaded Russia, and that wasn't ever going to turn out well. In short the McGuffin is not compelling.

So, with the novel being incomplete, the McGuffin unbelievable, and the magic more of a plot device than anything that feels organic to the world. I won't be reading the second part, cliffhanger or not. All I can say is I'm glad I read a library book, and didn't buy it. If I found that I spend $30 on half a novel, I would've been really angry.

Sequels and Series Books

I have said in this space that unless the first book is a best seller, writing sequels is for chumps. It is a well known fact that every book in a series sells fewer copies than the book that proceeded it, as readers drop out for various reasons. Thus, one needs a high initial base line in the first book in order to be able to accept the declining sales of the following books. Nevertheless, you often see writers writing, and selling or self-publishing a trilogy before the sales of the first book is known. And if it fails to sell, the remaining two books are dead on arrival. 

I ignore my advice. Of course, I do. None of my books are best sellers, and yet you will find that most of my books are part of one series or another. Three or four depending on how you count them. I wrote the what became the Bright Black Sea with the idea of it being a serial story of novellas back when Amazon was paying Kindle Unlimited books on a per book basis, rather than by the page. I could've released it as three novels, but I didn't want to see that inevitable decline in sales, so I bundled them all up together to avoid that heartbreak. The Lost Star's Sea was similar in size and structure, mostly because I just wanted a companion volume to be of a similar size. All I intended to write was the castaways story, but had to continue to fill the book out with other adventures.  I have since broken those two novels into a six book series on Amazon in order to make them audiobooks - they were too long for there auto-narrated process, and consider the originals now omnibuses. 

The sequels to Sailing to Redoubt were not planned, I just felt like writing more. The same goes for the sequels to The Darval-Mers Dossier they just, well happened. On the other hand, the Nine Star Nebula Mystery/Adventures stories where planned as a series. There was a "commercial" reason for this; they were something of a sequel to my best selling book by far, The Bright Black Sea. They were a return to that setting and featuring a younger version of a character from that book. But, as I said, none of my books are best sellers except relative to the average self-publishing author's sales. And still...

So why have I, and many other writers, written so many series books when it's such an iffy strategy? There are several reasons, chief amongst them, at least for me, is laziness. Subsequent books in a series are half the work, or less, of a new standalone story, since the characters and setting have been invented and developed already. All a writer needs to do for a new story is think of something else for them to do. However, it is also true that many authors have epic stories in mind, that they feel need three fat books to be told. I'm not one of them.

In addition, there is a sense of familiarity, even kinship, with the characters and the world a writer creates. There often is a relationship that develops between the author and the characters they bring to life. Characters develop agency, and with it, a sense of friendship and responsibility, a feeling that you own them more of a life then that one book. That said, many authors are cold blooded murderers of their creations, which I can't understand, but I guess it takes all kinds...

Both of these reasons, the laziness and the relationship between author and characters are independent of sales, and may well explain why a series is a series out of the gate, even prior it is released. Hope springing eternal. Writers hope that readers will buy the books, and love the characters and world as much as they do, and will demand more books. But that is almost always a bird in the bush at the start of a series. There are simply too many books being published for this dream to come true for many writers.

As I said, most of my books are part of one series or another. Of the 20 books (24 when counting The Bright Black Sea and The Lost Star's Sea as a six book series like it is in Amazon and Kobo) I've written, 8 books that can be considered standalone novels. But even then, there are relationships. Some Day Days and A Summer in Amber are set in our world, though perhaps 60 -70 years apart. Keiree, The Girl on the Kerb, and Beneath the Lanterns are all set in the Post-Solar-Age. The "Lorrian novels", Chateau Clare, Glencrow Summer, and the upcoming Some Small Dive, are set within a couple of years of each other and not only share the world, but a few minor characters as well. Plus, only A Night on Isvalar, Some Day Days and A Summer in Amber are books that do not fit into my larger "universe" of star systems settled by slower than light ships set out from Earth's solar system spanning civilization of the Solar-Age. 

But in my defense, my advice about not writing sequels is aimed at writers who hope to make money writing, which is to say, 99.9% of writers. I don't write to make money, I write to entertain myself, and hopefully, any readers who happen upon my stories. So, you see, I don't have to follow my own advice, because I'm not playing the game, as the game is usually played. Plus my sequels do as well as the originals, there is very little fall off, so if I feel that if want to write them, I can, and they will find their modest audience.

Though I said that every book in a series sell fewer copies than the one before, there can be strange exceptions. For instance, the third book in my Nine Star Nebula Mystery/Adventure series, Shadows of an Iron Kingdom, is the bestselling book of that series, and continues to out sell the others, for some unknown reason. Perhaps its title makes it seem associated with a game of that name. Or Gothic novels sell... And then there is the case of Glencrow Summer, which now consistently outsells Chateau Clare, though in this case, they were written to be standalones, so that less surprising that one book outselling any other in such a loose "series". Though why it does, is a mystery to me. Perhaps, once again, it is it's title or perhaps subject, summer being attractive. But I guess that's the business. Random House was named after the business.

I'm happy with my approach, which consists of writing books with open endings that I can add on to, if I care to. Plus,  I like writing a variety of novels in a specific "world" where I don't have to invent everything from scratch again. As I said a couple of weeks ago, inventing new worlds from scratch is a lot of work, work this lazy writer isn't inclined to do these days. Anything is possible, but I'm pretty comfortable in the worlds I've written already. In any event, you should not expect to see rayguns and spaceships in my future books.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 199)

THE SATURDAY MORNING BOOK REPORT

This week we have something different. Again. That's been the story of my reading year to date. I've been trying this and that. Some have worked, others have not. What I haven't found yet is another Brother Cadfael, Emma M Lion, Anne of Green Gables or Georgette Heyer, which is to say entirely reliable books to read.

I've been looking to my booktube to suggest books for me, and this entry is no different. Booktubers have these month-long "events" where followers of their channels are invited to read a certain type of book each month. One of those events is "June on the Range" where one reads westerns. And because I have a nice two month cushion of book reports in the can, it's June for this report.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

The End of the Trail by Robert E Howard   C

As I said, for "June on the Range" I decided to read a western. Why not? I've read westerns before -Lonesome Dove and its to prequels, and some Zane Grey westerns years ago. The originator of this reading event is Michael K Vaughan, and since his favorite writer if Robert E Howard, and the library had a copy of this book, I decided to kill two birds with one stone; read a western, and give Howard another chance. I read his Conan novel for another booktube event last fall, I believe.

As the title suggests, this is a collection of some of his western short stories originally published in the western pulps of the 1930's. And as you can see, I found them okay. While they did not exceed my expectations, and I had no great expectations, knowing what to expect, they did meet them, which, these days, is a win. I'm sure the original audience found them to be very exciting reads - cowboys and gunslingers, miners and outlaws, guns blaze away, bodies riddled with bullet holes laying on the barroom floor in a pool of their blood. Cold-hearted fast draw killers meeting faster drawing gunslingers, and their end. Gals that the heroes fall in love with at first sight, and marry a day or two later, after they riddle a few bandits and cruel gunslingers with bullet holes and then ride off into the sunset. In short, the American dream.

Vaughan is a well and widely read person, and I suspect that Howard is his favorite for sentimental reasons, but Howard was a good writer within the limits of the genre and time, and the time he took to write each story. He was making something of a living writing, in the middle of the Great Depression as an author of all sorts of pulp stories. So, if you like fast, deadly action, fearless gunmen in desperate straights, and don't care all that much about the inner lives of the characters, you may well enjoy these stories. And well, they are short stories, after all, so one can't expect deep characters. He does, however, sketch something of the driving motives of his characters for each of the main ones. And being a Texan himself, the Texans are always the good guys, the best of the best, bravest of the brave, and the fastest gunslingers in the west. It is said that in Westerns Howard found his true interest and genre.

You know me. I won't waste my time on books that don't appeal to me. I wouldn't have finished this if there wasn't an authentic feeling for the time and place in these stories. The time and place being the depression years, the dirty 30's when they were written rather than when they were set. I found enough interest in these stories to read them all. Not great, but not all that bad.

Some Small Dive - The Cover

 

Above is a quick sketch of my first idea for a cover. I "pictured" it vaguely painted in a very loose, moody, and impressionist style, like some old painting of a jazz pianist. The painting would have wrapped around to the  back cover of the paperback book, with the front cover on the right. However, in sketching it to size, I found it difficult to fit the piano player on the front cover without making him, and all the other figures, very small.

Eventually, I turned the  mind's "camera" 90 degrees, and adopted a sort of Von Gogh style of painting - lots of sketchy color and some black lines. I'd seen pictures of painting he'd done in rooms and I believe a bar. The result is below.

It had the elements I was looking for, and I went with it for a while, though for the cover, it was cropped to eliminated the ceiling. I did feel that the black outlines were too thick. I could thin them out on the painting, or on the computer. Since, as you can see, I left way too much space on top for the title box, the painting did not work as a piece of art. It was out of balance. Given that, I decided to narrow the black lines on the digital copy, which resulted in a minor improvement for the cover. However by then, I had a growing conviction that the art did not really reflect my idea of the Bleu Moon, that some small dive. With the original as a digital copy in hand, I decided that I had nothing to lose by repainting the original piece of art, since it wasn't good art anyway.  Below is the revised version.

As you can see, I didn't really touch the figures, except for adding one in the foreground, along with two new tables. I also extended the lighted shelving higher and created a narrow strip with the paintings before reaching the ceiling. And then, after using it on the cover for a while, I decided the shelves were too high, so I did some work in Gimp to move the ceiling down again, reverting to the two shelves in the digital version. I had painted everything a little darker and more uniform, trusting the illuminated liquor shelves to keep the cover from getting too dark. In the end I really had to blow out the shelves to give the painting more "pop" since it will certainly print darker than what it looks like on this glowing screen. I shortened my usual box for the blurb on the back so it doesn't cover up the piano player. I didn't have much to say about the story anyway. I also did a fair amount in "post" adjustments with the painting. Working in Gimp I once more cleaned up and narrowed the black lines, added a missing barstool and fixing a figure, and as I mentioned, eliminated the third tier of the shelving in back. 

As of now, it's still in layers so I can still shift the painting around in the frame, and I can change the color of the title and blurb boxes, as well as change the size of the background image, but I think it's as good as it's going to get where it's at now. 

As I have mentioned in the past, I really can't "see" images in my mind. I can get a sort of muddy impression of what I would like to do, but no more. And it usually falls apart on contact with reality. That makes creating an image from the story rather difficult, as I have nothing more than an impression to go on. I think this cover, while not even close to my impression of the Bleu Moon, does, at least, suggest it, and that's about as close as I can expect to get.

Below is the ebook cover. I shifted the art a slightly upwards since I did not have to worry about covering up the piano player.