The Saturday Morning Post (no. 115) SUNDAY EXTRA!

 

In this week's Extra! edition we return to a series for which I've reviewed three books already for one last adventure, though it happens to be the second book in the series....

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 Body at the Tower by Y S Lee  B

As I mentioned in the lede, this is the second book in The Agency series, AKA a Mary Quinn Mystery. I've read the other three already, and reviewed them here, with their grades, book 1.(B) Book 3,(C+) and Book 4 (C) I have been getting these books from the library, and this book had, for some reason, a much longer waiting list, so it only became available three months after the others, and I didn't care to wait for it, so I read ahead.

I describe the first book, and subsequent books as rather over the top penny dreadfuls, but with an authentic flavor, being written by a scholar of the Victorian Era. They are also marketed as YA books, with a young, 18 year old heroine. 

The premise of these books is that "The Agency" is a private detective agency being run by two women who also run a school for orphan girls, training them to make a living in the male dominated Victorian Era. The best and brightest are offered the chance to become detectives, on the theory that women in that era were more or less invisible, and could investigate things without attracting attention.

This installment is perhaps the most down to earth one of the series, though the crime Mary Quinn is asked to solve involves a dead worker, and possible embezzlement or theft of building supplies, involving the building of what we usually just call "Big Ben", the clock tower of the Parliament Building. To investigate the questions surrounding the death of the worker from a fall from the tower during the night, Mary dresses up like a young boy and is hired as a helper to the bricklayers, who are clearly up to no good. Her romantic lead from book one returns from India, ill from the effects of malaria, and is hired to inspect the working of the construction on the tower for the inquest. Together, in an uneasy alliance, they begin to solve the case, along with a somewhat shady journalist, who shows up in later books as well. 

The writing is fine, the highlight is a fairly well rendered Victorian London, and some thrills and chills, without being quite so over the top as in the other books of this series. Considered as YA books, they are probably a better read for that market than for me, who doesn't read YA, except by carelessness, as in this case. Still, I don't regret my time with them.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 114)

 

A work of historical fiction this time around, one that comes highly recommended by a number of fantasy booktubers.

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 Last Kingdom by Bernard Cronwell   B-

The Last Kingdom is a story about the youth of Conan the Barbarian, that is to say, Uhtred, son of Uhtred. Rather than a sword and sorcery story, it is a historical novel set in 9th century England when England was being invaded, occupied, and partially subjugated by the Danes, often called the Vikings. That said, Uhtred and Conan seem to have very much in common as fictional characters.

The story is told by Uhtred, son of Uhtred from the vantage point of his old age. It begins when he is 10 years old, the second son of an English nobleman of the north of England. Three Danish ships are spotted and his father, Uhtred, sends his eldest son, Uhtred, son of Uhtred, to spy on them. This sone does something foolish, gets himself killed, so our narrator is given his dead elder brother's name, Uhtred, son of Uhtred, as was custom. His father is then called to raise a force to fight the invading Danes and he takes Uhtred et. al. along, though he's only a boy of 10. They lose that battle. His father is killed. However, Uhtred, seeing the Dane leader who brought his brother's head back to taunt the elder Uhtred,  attacks him with his little sword. This amuses the Dane, Ragnar, who then takes him prisoner and raises him much like a son.

Uhtred finds life as a Dane appealing. He wants to be a warrior, and warriors the Danes are. Over the course of the next six years, he becomes a Dane, and a third son to Ragnar, and serves the Danes in their wars against the English, though in his heart he still believes himself an Englishman. And, as the heir of of a noble, he hopes to regain his rightful place in England.

Telling the story from the view point of Uhtred in his old age, allows Cornwell to prove a historical perspective to the events and people the young Uhtred meets in the ten years this book covers, something he could not do if written from the young Uhtred's point of view. And it is very clear that he wants to write a history of these times and uses the eyes and memory of Uhtred to do so. Uhtred's story is a vehicle for telling the history of the time. He is given various adventures that serve to move him about the land so as to view the history and people Cordwell wishes to write about. As such, less attention is paid to him as a character, though Cornwell does try to give him some depth, such as his dual loyalties to this Danish foster-family and his claims to be an English noble, who's land had been usurped by his uncle. Still, his character comes across as somewhat shallow. He's merely a warrior very much in the mold of Conan; a simple barbarian who loves to fight, rape, and murder like the Danes he was raised by.

This is a finely written book that moves along at a nice pace, which earns it is B grade. It has a lot of history to tell of the period when Alfred the Great ruled southern England, and resisted the Danish invaders. Cornwell went on to write 12 more Uhtred novels in this series known variously as the Saxton Chronicles, the Warrior Chronicles, or The Last Kingdom, from the TV series that adopted 10 of the books. 

That said, I have no desire to read more of them. Perhaps, if I had seen the TV show, I might have a different opinion. Or not. As I have implied, Uhtred, as a character, is very much a clone of Conan the Barbarian; someone who loves battle and killing his enemies. Other than his love of battle, and scheming, there's not a lot to like about him, for my taste. 

There are a number of battle scenes in the book, which, as I have often mentioned, I just skip over, as I can't picture them - making them a waste of my time. Plus, I'm not a fan of old men telling stories of their youth, tossing in hints of what's to come. Which is to say, I'm not a fan of foreshadowing. These negative factors are which earns it its " - " grade. However, I recognize that all of these things I don't like, are things a lot of readers love, so if you are one of them, give this book a try, knowing that if you love it, you have a dozen other books to read with Uhtred. You won't have to leave the 9th century anytime soon.

Books I've Read So Far In 2025

With half of the year having slipped by, I thought I would talk a little bit - without too many spoilers for upcoming Saturday Morning Post reviews - about what I've read this year so far.

At the time of this posting, I started 40 books so far in 2025. I did not finish 8 of those, so I read 32 books as of now. Last year I read in total 48 books, so I'm reading at a slightly faster pace than last year. I am also ahead in the number of books I DNFed, since the total for all of 2024 was 5 and I'm already at 8 only half way into the year. There is a simple explanation for the jump in DNFs that I'll touch on in a minute.

First the books I read. Below is the list of the books I've reviewed to date The first number in the listing is the Saturday Morning Post number of the review. I still have 15 more Saturday Morning posts written for the rest of the books I've read, or attempted to read. Clearly, I'm going to have to start releasing "Extras!" posts again, since I'm now nearly four months behind my reading in posting my reviews. I like a backlog, but I don't need four months worth.

Below is a list of the books which I've read so far this year, and have posted reviews of. The most recent review is on the top. The number before the title is that Saturday Morning Post (Number)

Blog Post # Title -Author-grade

113 New York Minute Stephen Aryan C

112 An Infamous Army Georgette Heyer C

111 Convenient Marriage Georget Heyer DNF 31%

       Emma Jane Austen DNF 6%

110 Winter Journeys Audrey Driscoll B

109 What Comes of Attending Commoners Ball Elisabeth Aimee Brown DNF 55%

108 The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 7 Beth Brower A

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol Beth Brower A

107 The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 5 Beth Brower A

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 6 Beth Brower A

106 The Old World, Book One, By the Hands of Men Roy M Griffis C

105 The Wizard’s Butler Nathan Lowell DNF 29%

104 The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 3 Beth Brower A

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 4 Beth Brower A

103 The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 1 Beth Brower A

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 2 Beth Brower A

102 John Nuclear at the Perihelion Palace Berthold Gambrel B

101 The Devil’s Cub Gerogette Heyer B

100 Brother Cadfael’s Penance B

99 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen C+

98 The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer B+

97 The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer B+

96 Friday’s Child by Georgette Heyer A

95 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen B-

94 These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer B+

93 Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett DNF (40%)

92 The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer B

91 Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer B+

90 The Dawning of Everything by David Graeber & David Wengrow DNF

Despite a DNF to start the year, as you can see, my reading year took off strong, even with the 4 books I DNF'ed. The list includes lots of "B"s, and then we get to those 8 Emma M Lion A books. with their "A" grades. And I enjoyed the first Georgette Heyer books as well. However, my most recent reads of her books have not fared as well going forward. 

However, like the Heyer books, all my reading has taken a turn for the mediocre. Going through the list of the upcoming reviews, I see that I have another 4 DNFs, to bring the yearly total to 8, with only 4 "B"s and no "A" books. The remaining books, 10 books in all, are "C"s of one sort or another with one movie review. In short, not a single book to write home about in the last couple of months. The saving grace of this period of book reading, was that I had gone back and reread the Emma M Lion series. Just as good, if not better, the second time around. No doubt it casts a long shadow.

Much of this downturn can be explained by the fact that I am exploring books that are out of my usual orbit of reading. This includes a number of classic authors and books, as well as some odd one-offs. For example, one book was suggested by neighbor, as well as several suggested by one or two of the booktubers I follow. And it also includes a first draft of a book by an author that I did not expect to like, but was curious anyway. There were also two books I reread that did not live up to my expectations. In short, my reading has been somewhat all over the bookish landscape, sampling this and that, mostly based on recommendations and a "What the heck" attitude. Prospecting is a risky venture. Sometime you discover gold, other times... "C"s and DNFs

I must confess I'm getting rather weary of "C" books, and fruitless quests to find new authors to read. I have a book on hold at the library from a new author recommended to me, but beyond that, I've grown rather leery of the recommendations I've been coming across on booktube. I think I'm in the mood to start pulling out some old favorites from my shelves. What's the point of having a library if not to keep the books you love, close at hand to reread again?

As a bonus feature, below is a map I came across of fictional London's St Crispian's as featured in The Uncollected Journals of Emma M Lion by Beth Brower.

Source: https://emma-m-lion.fandom.com/wiki/St._Crispian%27s

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 113)

 

Given our less than spectacular run of Regency era stories, we're off in a new direction this week with a speculative fiction novella by Stephen Aryan. Mr Aryan's YouTube channel is one of the channels I used to watch, so I know a bit about him. 

On his channel on YouTube he was "A Traditionally Published Fantasy Author." "Traditionally Published" being the operational words, as he offered advice on how to be published traditionally, and dispelled "myths" about traditional publishing being promoted by advocates of self publishing. I was a member of his author Discord server for a while, with the hope of being able to discuss writing with other writers. I discovered the Discord format wasn't for me, and dropped out after six months or so. I still get his newsletter each month, so I still follow his career. I'm not a fan of his type of fantasy, so I haven't read more than a few sample pages of his work before picking this novella up on Kindle Unlimited.

Stephen Aryan's first trilogy was published by a major publisher in 2015, it earned out and he was offered another contract for a second trilogy. That didn't do as well, and he seemed to have been not offered another contract, since he ended up selling a duology to a smallish publisher, Angry Robot. The first of those books did well enough to be offered a second contract for a trilogy. However, the second book has only 1/3 the number of ratings on Goodreads - which I use as a stand in for sales numbers, which indicates a big drop off in sales. The first book in his next trilogy has even less ratings then that second book. When the first book of a trilogy bombs, the next two books are usually DOA, and the second book did nothing to change that trajectory, nor does the third book appear likely to change that trajectory either. 

He is now without a book contract. 

It is said that 90% of the authors in traditional publishing are out of the business within 10 years, so Aryan's trajectory is, well, let's say, educational. Being without a contract, and with a track record of his books not selling particularly well...he could well be said to be out of the business within 10 years. This is not to say he's given up. He has several ongoing projects that he hopes his agent can sell, perhaps by changing genre. But in the meanwhile, he has released his first self published novella, which is what I will be talking about below. And, though he is no longer putting out new videos, he had been, in the last year, calling himself simply "A Fantasy Author", no doubt seeing the handwriting on the wall. We will have to see how he fares going forward.

As the fantasy author Mark Lawrence said in a recent blog post:

"The trajectory of most author careers is a modest boom followed by a rapid return to the day job as sales trail back down to insignificant." 

Anyway, enough of a backstory. On to the review.

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.

New York Minute by Stephen Aryan  C

This is a crime-noir novella set on a world settled by humans. The New York in the title is the name of the city on this new world that was meant to reproduce the Earth city of that name. But things didn't go as planned, so we have a much more primitive culture living in the remains of that high-tech, but unfinished city. The story involves an ex-cop now private eye, Cole Blackstone, who is hired by the most feared crime boss of the city, Karl Dolman - a job he dared not refuse - to locate the crime boss' missing daughter. We follow Blackstone as he, and an old pal of his, with an incurable disease, one that makes him tougher before it kills him, try to trace the whereabouts of this wayward daughter. It takes them into the meanest streets of New York. Here they meet ruthless gangs and ends in a long running fight scene with lots of action, blood, and death. It turns out the plot was pretty much one big MaGuffin.

If you are going to write a private eye noir story, it is going to be compared, in my mind at least, to the work of Raymond Chandler on the lyrical end of the spectrum and Georges Simenon on the other, cold, hard attention to detail end. There are many other writers of private eye stories, but those are the two I know and appreciate the most. They're tough acts to follow. 

Aryan is neither. Indeed, I found it somewhat surprising that, as an author of 11 traditionally published books, his writing was, while serviceable, very mundane, nondescript. There was, I felt, no real style or flair in it. None of Chandler's wit or deft descriptions. This was not too surprising, since I had read those several pages of a previous book, and felt the same way. So the bar was low going in, and while he may have reached it, he did not exceeded it. 

However, since I am big fan of style in writing, my criticisms may be ignored by many, if not most readers. The story has lots of action, if that's your cup of tea, going for it, just know that nothing in the story sets it apart from any other book in the genre.

However not only was his writing uninspired, his plot was as well.  It had all the familiar tropes; Blackstone is an ex-cop, the police are corrupt, the hookers are alluring, the streets are mean, in a medieval style, with horse drawn trollies and all the usual smells of a rotting city are cataloged. Everything in the story is, in fact a mashup of, bog-standard noir and urban fantasy settings. There is nothing really unique about this New York.

Strangely enough, he has his first person narrator spend a great deal of time explaining the whole backstory of the city, even though most of it has nothing at all to do with the story he's telling. As for the New York of the story, he uses just the names of the various locales of the real New York, which have no relationship to the real city save that it was originally meant to be a new version of it. There is really no sense of the original New York, and the use of the old locale name adds nothing to the story, save confusion. He plans to write several more stories to build out his world, so there was really no need to do all that info-dumping world-building in this one. It could've been left for later stories when that information might be more relevant. 

All told, my rather  low expectations were more or less met. I am, however, still surprised that an experienced, published author of 11 novels, should still be writing on what I consider an such an unexceptional level*. As always, I grade books more or less on how much I enjoy them. This book wasn't my cup of tea. It may be for you. Kindle Unlimited readers can read if for free and see what they think. It's short enough to read in a day.

*Since reading this story, I've read the beta version of a best selling self-published sf/fantasy author's newest novel, and I was no more impressed with his writing. Indeed, I didn't even bother to finish it it was so sparse and elements of the story so unbelievable. I guess for most readers of genre fiction, story does indeed trump writing. They don't think about the underpinnings, or the lack there of. Being a writer myself, I do. I'll talk about that story in a couple of months...

(Some More) Thoughts On AI

Art Flitter, human foreman of Warehouse 73B, after three years at his desk without having to do anything, began to suspect that the small sealed gift box included in his ‘Welcome to Warehouse 73B’ information packet handed to him on his first day on the job, with a note stuck on it saying, ‘Do not open for 30 years,' likely contained an inscribed gold watch thanking him for his 30 years of service and wishing him well in his retirement.

I swear, I thought that I'd never written a piece on AI before. I did know, however, that I had posted something using the robot/AI cartoons like the one above, so I searched down through my posts to see what I'd done, only to discover that I had, indeed, written a post about AI in July 2023. Rereading my 2023 piece, it seems like I've not changed my mind much, if at all. So this post covers much of the same ground as the previous one. But it also has a few different points as well. And having already spent several hours writing it, up it goes...

I recently watch a video on YouTube where an author, as a proof of concept, went through the entire process of creating an entire science fiction novel from scratch using AI. He had the AI generate the story idea then write the story, scene by scene. While it took an elaborate process with various checks and balances, and using several pro-level AIs, with some human proofreading to check for continuity, since the scenes were produced independently, the story it produced was good enough to be published, a big improvement from his results a year before. 

So clearly, AI generated novels are possible, and will only get better. And a tidal wave of them is likely on the way. I think most readers will never notice the difference. Commercially successful books in genre fiction are usually, with a few exceptions, not great art. Good enough is all that is necessary to please most people. AI will soon become good enough.

Should writers be at all concerned? I don't think so. For most of us it will simply be business as usual. For one simple reason. Books sell largely on the basis of how many readers become aware of them. Quality may matter, but they have to come across them before quality first begins to matter. It doesn't really matter how good, or not, the AI novels will become, since, the market is already very over saturated. Even now, we're talking about 30,000 to 50,000 books released every month in the most popular genres on Amazon. 

For the commercially successful writers, they too need not worry. If you can beat those odds, well, there's little different between too many books, and too too many books. They've already figured out how to deal with an over saturated market. Whatever works for best selling authors now will work just as well against ten or more times those numbers because they know how to reach their readers. Unless the generators of AI written books know their secret, all those books they turn out will never be seen, and thus never be sold. In short, AI publishers will still face the almost insurmountable odds of making a worthwhile amount of money as any independent publisher. And good luck with that.

When looking at the broader picture, I have no doubts many jobs are going to be eliminated by AI. Just Google a photograph taken in a factory at the turn of the last century and compare it to any one of today's factories. You will see that machines have all but replaced humans in manufacturing, arguably to our benefit.

Is art different or more important, than producing cars or toasters? Your call. Clearly however, capitalist don't see a difference. They see that creating all sorts of art will be more cost efficient and require smaller HR departments. It is simply a question of time, as they now have the machines needed to replace this set of human workers. This is what machines, and capitalists, have always done. And have done for centuries. 

Nevertheless, we're told that machines can never truly create art. That AI will never replace human artists because, well to put in a simple phrase, AIs don't have souls, and all the attributes assigned to having one. If they can't replace human artists, why such outrage, such angst?

I don't think the discussion is really about art and creativity at all, even if they make it sound like it is. AIs are not a threat to any sort of art, as art

Let's be cynical realistic here; it's because AI threatens artists' incomes. This discussion, this angst, is not about art. It's about money. Art as a job. Anyone who doesn't need money to motivate them to create art can still be creative. AI doesn't effect making art at all. It affects making money from making art. 

The real issue is that many commercial artists will have to get new jobs. 

Now, looking for work sucks. I know this from experience. But it is also part of most everyone's life. So there's nothing new here. Artists can still do their art. All that may be changing in the coming decade is the opportunity to profit financially from doing their art.

And, well, we all know that money is the root of all evil, so one can make the case that AI is here to save artists from evil. Or at least compromised art for the sake of popular taste and commercial viability.

Also, on the positive side, many of these commercial writers and artists are, or soon will be using, AI as a tool to supplement and streamline their workflow and become more productive, while still being considered human artists. Good AI, not evil AI.

Bottom line for authors is that AI won't starve writers. The industry has been quite adept at starving them for centuries. Writers, and most other artists, are used to little pay for their creativity. Most of them already have to have, you know, real jobs, to make money. AI is going to eliminate jobs that produce art, which is sad, but that doesn't mean AI is eliminating art. It's just eliminating jobs. And, maybe, dreams.

Like it or not, replacing humans with machines pretty much defines capitalism and the march of progress. Arguably, it has made the lot of humans better. Will it continue to do so? Stay tuned.

Disclaimer

I use free Google Docs, Grammarly, and Scribbr online grammar tools to proofread my manuscript for typos, wrong words, and comma placement, to the benefit of my readers.

I use Google, Apple, and Amazon auto-generated narration for my audiobooks, giving my readers more options.

I don't use any Ai tools in either my writing or art. I do use the old school spell checker for my manuscripts and photo retouching tools in Gimp for my art - all aids that have been around for several decades.

The Darval-Mers Dossier -E book FREE on Amazon

 

I just noticed that Amazon, all on its own, has slashed the $2.99 ebook price of The Darval-Mers Dossier to $0.00 price matching all the other ebook stores. I don't how long this sale will last, but get it while you can!

The Darval-Mers Dossier on Amazon can be found HERE

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 112)

 

Another Regency Story this week as well. Did it fare any better than the last two? Am I growing tried reading this genre?

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.

An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer  C

To answer the lede question, sort of. For both questions. This book is the third book in a loose series of stories starting with These Old Shades. That book had as its main character the cold and ruthless Duke of Avon. The second book, The Devil's Cub tells the story of his son, and in this one, we meet his granddaughter, Barbara, and two of her brothers. Most of them take more after the Duke than his wife, meaning that they are bold, seemingly heartless, and prone to scandals.

While the story has a romance, such as it is, of the wild and headstrong Barbara with an aide de camp to Field Marshall Wellington, it is at its heart, a work of historical fiction set during he 100 Days after Napoleon returned from his exile to his defeat at Waterloo. The first three quarters of the story is set in Brussels and begins several months before that famous battle, as the English slowly gather an army of local allies and their own troops. Meanwhile, the wealthy society, having flocked to the continent after the defeat of Napoleon (the first time) find themselves seemingly in the way of the French army, though it is only a distant storm cloud at first. In this part we have all the domestic drama of an ill-advised romance, and the affairs of the wealthy families residing in Brussels - lots of names, lots of people, lots of parties and such. Heyer also weaves in historical characters into her story, drawing on the memoirs of the people involved in those events to recreate the time and mood. Truth be told, I did not find the story all that engaging, perhaps because all of the side characters as well as with a focus on Barbara, who's not likable.

The last quarter of the story is a description of the battle of Waterloo, in great detail, as she weaves her fictional characters into the action of the battle's final day. As I have remarked before, not having the ability to create pictures, much less movies in my mind, I find that all the elaborate description and detail accounts of the action to be wasted on me. I just find them tedious, a string of words that create nothing but confusion. These days I don't even bother to read them. I skimmed the battle almost entirely, picking things up again in the final pages to find out what happened. 

I haven't been very lucky with my last several Regency books. I probably should take some time away from them. Ah, but what to read next? At the time I'm writing this I still have a month plus of Kindle Unlimited, but I find it very hard to find books that appeal to me there. I find it hard to find books there, period. They only show you so many of them in certain categories. I think you need know what you're looking for to find what you're looking for. At the moment. I don't. Stay tuned to find out what I did find to read next.

Fields and Fence Lines

Lately I've been wandering about the field of my imagination and storytelling, walking its fence lines, and looking over the green fields beyond.

That, I believe is a simile. If I had said; "I have been considering my writing talent like walking in a field, enclosed by the fences of my limitations," that would have made it a metaphor. I think. Maybe. I looked up the differences a month or so ago. I things like that never quite stick. 

And yet, I've been writing for more than fifty years.

This tells you what sort of writer I am. Or maybe not.

I consider myself an organic writer. I've not been taught how to write fiction. I haven't taken courses in fiction writing. I haven't read books on how to write. I know next to nothing about the terminology of the written word. But for better or worse, none of that has kept me from writing.

This is due, in part because I developed my taste and talent long before the internet. Such information was a lot more inconvenient to acquire back then. And in part because I'm not a book learner. Instead, I came to appreciate the writings of a variety of authors I've come across over the course of my life and several thousand novels. I've "learned" from them, informally, and with practice. 

These days I will sometimes read blog posts and watch videos on "how to write,"  just because I'm curious as to how other writers do it. Not to learn, since, I know how to write. Or I believe I do. I find these how-to-write articles and videos interesting because I couldn't imagine writing they way they approach it. So often it seems almost an mechanical process that is alien to my thought process. 

Still, as I said, it is interesting, going back to that simile or metaphor, to look over the fences of my field to others beyond.

And then consider my field.

I've come to realize that the size and shape of my creative field is fenced in by my personality. While I credit all those novels I've read over the years for shaping my writing style, finding what I liked and disliked those likes and dislikes are a product of my personal taste. I wasn't taught what or how to appreciate what is good, what is great, and how to write. I just decided for myself.

The beauty of my approach is that I never have had to un-learn anything to find my own style. My voice is all mine, for better or worse. My style is my own, for better or worse. It is, as I said, organic. Homegrown.

That said, I also realize there is a price to pay for this approach. Perhaps my field of talent would be larger and richer if I had taken a more formal approach to writing. Looking over the fences, I recognize what I missed with my approach. But they are fields that I haven't, can't, or perhaps, just don't care to roam through them.

Since the limits of my talent and imagination in storytelling are largely the fences of my personal traits and preferences, I do have choices. Some of those green fields on the far side of the fences might be accessible to me, if I cared, or dared, to climb over the fence, or in the case of barbed wire fence, slip under it. You don't really want to climb over barbed wire fences. But to do explore those fields, I'd have to leave my familiar field behind.

To be honest, I have no real desire to do so, even if possible. Too old, too late. And, well, or better or worse, I am content in my talent, my field is large enough for me. Leaving it would make writing feel like an writing exercise, a writing assignment. Class work. Work. 

Work is a four letter word for me. And as I wrote in last week's blog post, I'm writing for fun.

Still, I think there is some value in walking its fence lines, thinking about what they are, why they are, and what lies beyond them. As well as the price I pay for staying on my side of those fences. I expect to have a lot to say about my limits and the fields beyond. This post is just an introduction, or a warning of things to come. I don't know how many posts that might take or when I'll be posting them, but I have a weekly post to fill, so they will be coming.

An Age of Wonder!

 

We live in an age of magic and wonder. I don't say that lightly. I say it because on Saturday, Draft2Digital sent me a notice that, seventeen months after submitting The Prisoner of Cimlye to Apple for conversion to an audiobook, it has finally been released as an audiobook. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I have no explanation as to why this has happened, one can only say, miracles still do happen.

The burning question now is will they get around to releasing the audiobook versions of The Girl on the Kerb, Beneath the Lanterns, and The Lost Star's Sea, all of which have been sitting in limbo since January 1 2024?  Anything, folks, is possible.

The Darval-Mers Dossier is also awaiting Apple Audiobook release, but it's only been like ten days, so far. Which is too soon. Fingers crossed.

The Prisoner of Cimlye, like all my audiobooks on Apple, is a FREE audiobook.

Stay tuned for, hopefully, more miracles.

The Saturday Morning Post (no. 111)

 

Sadly, this week we have two Regency Era DNF's. It happens.

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.

A Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer DNF 31%

The story involves a marriage between a rather raffish duke who wants to produce a heir to keep the title and estate out of the hands of his obnoxious cousin, and the daughter of a noble family whose males have gambled away their fortune. The elder daughter is selected to marry the duke, but she's in love with a poor, but good soldier, who she must give up to save the family. Her 17 year old younger sister decides to save her, so she visits the duke and offers to marry him herself so that her sister can marry for love. She says that she won't interfere with his life, (and mistress) and so he agrees. A story with potential, the reverse of the Reluctant Widow. Alas, it didn't work for me.

It didn't click because I didn't like the two leads. The thoughtful little sister turns into a gambling spendthrift, becoming the darling of the ton, which seemed out of character, since she was supposed to be the thoughtful daughter. Her husband the duke was the typical Heyer male - cool, soft spoken, who has everything under control. His new bride decides to string along her husband's enemy because she wants to gamble with him - gambling being the family addiction. Nothing seemed very convincing, and while I'm sure we get the happy ever after ending, all I could see where familiar games to get there. Oh well, you can't win them all. Hopefully the next one will be better.

Emma by Jane Austen  DNF 6%

It had been my intention to read all of Jane Austen's novels. I'm not so certain now. I do know that I won't be returning to this one, anyway. I have two complaints about Emma.

The first is that its beginning is incredibly tedious. A mundane recounting of the marriage of Emma's governess/companion, her subsequent relationship with her father, the arrival of a new young lady, and other sundry events, seemingly of little consequence. I don't mind slow starts, but this seemed to promise nothing of interest, at least to me.

My second objection can be applied to all the Austen books I've read, And that is that Austen inserts herself between her story and her readers. Sometimes overtly, making comments on the actions of her characters, but always, in my view, in the rather remote manner she tells her stories. You always know she's telling you a story, rather than allowing the story to take on a life of its own. Austen is always there, an unseen, but present, narrator, lurking liked the Cheshire Cat, with a little smile, watching and reporting on her characters; their appearance, their thoughts, flaws, triumphs and failures. It's like a layer of glass between the reader and the story. While it can be amusing to read at times, it removes any resemblance of living life out of the story, at least for me. Her stories are just that, a story. Gossip as literature. And in this case, extremely mundane gossip, at least as far as I could make my way into it, which wasn't far before I decided that I had better things to do with my time.

The Darval-Mers Dossier Available Now on Amazon

 

The ebook and audiobook versions are now Available on Amazon.

PAPERBACK VERSION

Amazon  for $9.99

RETAIL PRICE EDITION FROM AMAZON

Amazon $ 2.99 Ebook

Amazon  or Audible $3.99 Audiobook 

Redinal “Red” Hu had been given a simple message to deliver. ‘If you care for her, stop seeing her.’

A message that could be considered either wise advice, or a dark warning. Considering that it was delivered to the young scion of one of the wealthy Great Houses of the Commonwealth of Lorria, it was probably both. Especially when, with only a little investigation, Hu discovers that the “her” in the message is the future Head of the House of a bitter rival.

Alas, young love.

Young love between the contending Great Houses had always been a daring and dangerous thing. But never more so than during the ruthless secret struggles between the Great Houses that ruled Lorria which soon led to the Humanist Manifesto and the Second Founding.

The Darval-Mers Dossier is a mystery story set in the world of Chateau Clare and Glencrow Summer, some fifteen hundred years prior to those stories, which is to say, in the era when the advanced technology of the First Founding was fast failing, and a new course of society had yet to be decided on.

It is written as if it was the prequel novel to a series of fictional novels of intrigue known as the Red Wine Agency books which played a role in the novel Chateau Clare. The Darval-Mers Dossier is the story of how Redinal Hu, an ex-attorney, now majordomo of one of the Great Houses of Lorria – with a sideline gig of taking on odd assignments for his old law firm – becomes Red Wine, a gentleman for hire, serving the Great Houses in their secret struggle to shape the future of the Commonwealth.

C. Litka spins tales of adventure, mystery, and travel set in richly imagined worlds. In The Darval-Mers Dossier he has a written mystery story with his usual cast of colorful, fully realized characters. 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 Delightful Lightness of Writing as an Amateur

I have, from day one, approached my author/publishing career as an amateur. I have had no regrets for doing so. Indeed, it was the best decision I've made both as a writer and a publisher. It made both writing and publishing simply fun, as it should be, since, as a decade in the business has shown me, writing fiction is a rotten career; a "career" where failure is the norm. Take it seriously at your own (considerable) risk.

I should define the term "amateur" as I mean it. I take up the banner of K G Chesterton who defended the amateur in his biography of Robert Browning thusly:

“The word amateur has come by the thousand oddities of language to convey an idea of tepidity; whereas the word itself has the meaning of passion. Nor is this peculiarity confined to the mere form of the word; the actual characteristic of these nameless dilettanti is a genuine fire and reality. A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame or money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well. Such a man must love the toils of the work more than any other man can love the rewards of it.”

Or, as he put it more succinctly; “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”

The brilliance of this approach is that, while it allows for success on your own terms, it eliminates failure, save, once more, on your own terms. And if one focuses on the love of, in this case, writing, failure is found only in the sense that one thinks one can, hopefully, do it a little better the next time. Little "failures". Really, these little failures are merely challenges to build on, the spice of life, rather than a real failure. Besides, success is always built on failures. So whether something one writes seems to work or doesn't, it's always a matter of choice, your choice alone.

And irrelevant. 

Irrelevant because the only thing that is relevant is the making of the art, the writing of the story, and the joy of doing so, not the results. Creating is what is relevant. The result will, hopefully, give you joy as well, but if not, you just dive back into the process that you enjoy to produce something better.

The delightful lightness of approaching writing, or any creative endeavor, as an amateur, is the freedom the amateur mindset gives you to create, or attempt to create, exactly what your heart desires. No norms to comply with, no markets to serve, no accolades, rewards, or the mirage of wealth to bend and shape your creation into something that isn't entirely yours. As an amateur those considerations don't, or at least, need not matter. You have the freedom to pick and choose what you think should matter, and what doesn't. You can even try to make a commercial success out of writing, if you care too, just as long as you remember that it is just a game, and the odds are heavily against you. You can do just what you want, and how you want to do it. No compromises are necessary.

This is the thread that runs through the joy of approaching art as an amateur; it gives you freedom, and along with that freedom, comes the control you have over the entire process. You are your own master, answering to no one. How many things in life can you say that?

Freedom and control! The ability to keep your work entirely yours. To create a work of art rather than produce a product. The professional writer, a producer of a product, must become a clog in the machine, a small part of a bigger enterprise, over which the writer has little control over.

Still, if the rewards of the professional approach to writing compensated for the loss of freedom and control, I wouldn't kick. But they don't. It is estimated that 1 in 1000 manuscripts get published in traditional publishing, and only 1 in 10 of those lucky few are still getting published ten years later, i.e. you have a 1 in 10,000 chance of having a ten year plus long career as an author. Then consider the fact that most of those authors are aren't actually making a professional income from their work, despite being "professionals". Indeed, for most writers, no matter what they call themselves, their writing is only a part time job, a paying a hobby. And the same is true for most self-publishing authors, even those with professional aspirations, since the vast majority are probably making pocket change, if not losing money, when trying to meet the "professional" standards promoted by the people who may actually make their living off of selling their services to authors.

But enough negativity. I'm here to celebrate the lightness of playing with words, with characters of one's own imagination, and with a story of one's own to tell. And the challenge of doing it just right, by your own lights. And to write the next one even better.

And maybe someday, should you may find that you're not afraid of making a fool of yourself. That you think what you've created is good, at least good enough. It's something you can share with whoever you want to, however you want to, all the while remembering that, as Chesterton, points out, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly. Failing is not an option when sharing, even if you charge money for your story, since making money is not your goal. It is the doing of it, the writing, the creation, that is what is what is worth doing. Making it is yours, and yours alone.

Have fun writing!