The Saturday Morning Post (No. 187)

 

This week we have another book that I've been introduced to by watching various BookTubers on YouTube. This time Roy Reads Anything, and his monthly read-along series of "Forgotten Victorian Bestselling Authors." In his introduction to this author, he sounded like someone whose story I wouldn't mind reading. Was I right?

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

Lost Sir Massingberd, A Romance of Real Life (Volumes 1 & 2) James Payn  B-

I have already posted a selection from the introduction to this book regarding how everyone the author knew seemed to be a writer of some sort as an illustration that some things never change.

This book was published in 1864, and reflects the type of popular fiction of the period, and yet, I think its writing style is still accessible to modern readers. The story is told by a first person narrator looking back on an incident of his youth. The older persona of the elder narrator is very much present in the narration, which is not my favorite style, but at least the narrator has a sense of humor, which leavens the somewhat gothic melodrama of the story.

The story itself concerns a unapologetically cruel and heartless man, the title character, Sir Massingberd, and his ward and nephew, the young heir to the large country estate they are living in. Since the cruel uncle is the first born, he inherited the estate, which he could then pass on to his son, if he had one, which he doesn't. And so the estate will belong to the son of his younger brother, this nephew of his, aged 17 at the start of the story. But only if he reaches the of age at 21. Fine, except that Sir Massingberd spent all his money in his youth, and because much of the estate  is "entailed" meaning that he can not sell it, he is almost always penny-less, earning what money he can from selling the fruit he grows in an enclosed garden, and what he can more or less steal from the estate that he lives on. As I said he is the guardian of this nephew who, rightfully, lives in terror of his uncle who would want him dead and has likely tried to kill him. In the story he escapes his uncle's clutches after one such failed attempt, only for a time. 

The story also explores the backstory of Sir Massingberd, and the customs of the period in which this story is set, Napoleonic/Regency period. 

I enjoyed the story, though I found it a little more Victorian, i.e. melodramatic, than I had been hoping for, after reading the introduction, while at the same time, less Gothic than its premise promised to be.

My Desk Tour

A little over eleven years and a month ago, I posted my first blog post. My post counter currently sits at 745 posts. A lot of water has flowed over the dam since then. 

Back in the old days of 2015, it was said that every author needed a website or at least a blog. And so, with my first release, A Summer in Amber, I started this blog with a post talking about that book, its settings and origins. You can find this first post Here. 

The idea behind a blog or website was to promote your books, and to demonstrate that there was a human being behind the name on the cover of your books. I've stuck to that purpose over the last eleven years. I announce and talk about my books around the time they are released, talk a bit about myself, and share a few of my opinions mostly on things writing and publishing and a few other innocent topics. Not because I think they are all that important, they are not, but, because that's the purpose of this blog. And nothing more.

So, in that modest spirit, I offer you, dear reader, and all you dear bots, a glimpse of the desk at which all the worlds of C. Litka are brought to words, if not life.

Bottom to top; we start with my green resin chair. Nothing fancy about it at all, indeed, it's back is broken, so that I had to stich it up with wire. You can't be extravagant as an author. You can't see all of them, but I have three old chair cushions on it whose purpose is solely to get me at the proper height for comfortable typing; neither too low, nor too high. This, I believe is important. As is how you type. I learned to type on a manual typewriter where you couldn't use palm rests to support your hands while you typed, you had to hold them in front of you and pressed down with your fingers to type. To this day I continue to do so, with my writs straight while hovering over the keyboard and typing down with my fingers, and after all these years and millions of words, I still haven't experienced carpel tunnel. Knock on wood. I think this is because my wrists remain straight, unlike people who type on keyboards and laptops, while resting their wrists on the desk or top of their laptop's palm rest, i.e.  at the same level or below the keys, which means they have to arch up their hands and fingers to type. But what do I know? These days, I really appreciate that the chair has armrests. They are a great help when it comes time to standing up. All in all, a legendary chair, a highlight of the future museum.

My desk is a cheap pressed board with fake contact paper wood veneer desk dating back to ca 1992. It used to be one of the kid's desks. However, the top of the desk is now made of Brazilian Rosewood which I salvaged from the scraps of the hardwood floor we installed in our old house. I had to add a cushion or two to account for the increase in the height of the desktop this addition caused.   

I like to keep my desk clear of clutter, so you're seeing it in pretty much working condition. I have a drawing table where I keep all my junk.

The keyboard is a Keychrone K3D2 mechanical keyboard with low profile blue keys. I've used several mechanical keyboards over the years, and prior to the mechanical ones, I used a Logitech K810. The present keyboard can be used wirelessly, but I keep it wired, which allows me to wake the computer by just pressing a key whenever I return to it. I don't mind the one wire.

My current computer, seen as the second smaller screen on the right is a 2022 14" Lenovo Yoga 9i with a 12th Generation Intel i7 and 16 gigs of RAM. I purchased it to replace my HP Envy from 2017, but did not actually make the switch until a year or so ago. Only after I did so did I discover that the Envy's battery was bulging, so I removed the battery and now used it plugged in as the computer on my bike-on-a-rack for my explorations of the world, via train videos. Before the Envy I was using a Lenovo IdeaPad 100S, a little red $200 11" laptop with a keyboard and monitor. You don't need much of a computer to write. Prior to my red Lenovo, I was writing with a Mac Mini, and may've wrote the first part of Some Day Days on either an original iMac or a iBook. I wrote my first novel and novella on a manual typewriter, and in the 90 's I wrote my unpublished YA story on a Cambridge Computer Z88, my first useful computer, which I bought when I couldn't afford a Mac. I used to be a Mac guy, but changes for the sake of changes in MacOS began to bug me, plus, I could get a perfectly suitable laptop for my purposes for $200 vs $900 for the smaller Mac Air, so I switched Windows, and have not looked back. When I do have to trouble shoot my wife's iPad, I find that Apple's software drives me crazy. Anyway, I use my laptop with a 360 degree hinge in "presentation mode" so all I see is its touch-screen, which I use mostly to display the YouTube music I have when I am working.

The old 21" Acer monitor dates from 2014. I have it set on a home made stand that keeps it low on the desk, as I like to look slightly down on it rather than crane my head up to see it. In the shadows behind the monitor I have a Tivoli Audio stereo radio from 2001 that I use for my speakers. Sitting on the radio unit on the left is my statue of Popeye "I yam what I yam", an to the left, my little LED desk lamp. You can just see the top of a jar where I keep Bali's Best Tea Candy. And above the desk is my painting of Maig Glen from A Summer in Amber.

I spend at least an hour every morning after I roll out of bed at this desk writing my fiction. At nine, I call the morning session a day, and head up stairs to toast a slice of my home-baked bread, slather it with orange marmalade, and brew a cup of (loose leaf) tea for breakfast while checking in on various websites, starting with a glimpse of London via the Abbey road webcam. In the evening, I will usually spend another hour or two at my desk writing blog posts, book reviews, and when things are going well with the stories, I will also continue the morning's work.

So there you have it. I am blessed with just enough gumption to sit down at my desk every morning to write something, whether I feel like it or not, as often not as otherwise, but once I start typing, words get written, and thus, so, eventually, stories. Given the number of devices I see offered for "distraction-free" writing, I guess I'm also blessed by being too old for social media, so I am never tempted to use my computer during my writing hours for browsing social media or other distractions, which also contributes to stories getting written. And well, I must also mention that I have time to write - no job, no kids around the house, no lawn to mow. That, I am sure, makes a difference, though I did write a fantasy novel, SF novella, a YA novel, over the course of years when I was working. 

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 186)

 

With my KU subscription running out, I decided to return to one of the more successful finds. It proved very delightful.

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.

Untrue till Death by Graham Brack  A

I gave the first book in this series, Death In Deft, a B grade, and as you may've noticed this one earned an A, which I believe is my first A grade book of the year. In my opinion Mr Brack stepped up his game in this time around. 

How so, you ask? By giving his minister/priest lecturer in moral philosophy more of an attitude; kindly, yet with a keen eye and a sarcastic sense of humor. As you no doubt know, I enjoy clever and humorous writing, and I really enjoyed this story for the humor he brought to the story. Now, as I have noted before, just setting a story in the past, and describing the landscape does not necessarily give the story the feel of the past. The use of language is an important element in recreating an impression of a past era. Patrick O'Brian does it so well, as does  Ellis Peters. Both still manage to make their writing feel something of the time the story is set in, while still being very readable for modern readers. In these books, while Brack does a good job of recreating the landscape and customs of Holland in 1670's, he hasn't attempted to write the character and story in a way that evokes the historical period. His first person narrator, Master Mercurius has a very modern viewpoint for a Calvinist minister/Catholic priest of that era, and beyond his use of titles and customs, he writes in a rather breezy, modern style, with, as I said, a lot of humorous observations and asides. To be consistent, I should deduct points for this, but I'm anything but consistent. Give me clever, witty writing and I'll overlook a lot of nitpicks. And he does make the point in his historical notes, that not everyone of the time thinks like most people at any point in history, so it's perfectly realistic to imagine his character having a more tolerant view of people, life, and morality than your typical 17th century Calvinist. Fair enough.

Writing aside, what is the story about? This time around we meet William lll of Orange, who has recently come into power in the Netherlands after defeating a French invasion.  Nevertheless his position is far from secure. At least he feels it is, since he is acting very much like a king in a country that was something of a republic prior to his succession to the role of something like protector of the republic. I haven't delved too deeply into the background history, but he tends to overstep his still iffy position as the head of the government and his enemies within the country are still active. So, Willian, having heard of Mercurius's success in solving the mystery of the three missing girls, summons him and asks (read; commands) him to interview a fellow scholar in a different city to access his usefulness. This scholar has been keeping an eye on the sentiments of the populace and potential trouble makers for William in that city, but he is old, infirmed, and William is looking to find his eventual replacement. In the meantime the unpleasant secretary of the Rector of the University where Mercurius teaches at is found dead... Murdered, in fact. And there seem to be some sort of connection between the murder to William and to Mercurius's mission for William. 

As with all mysteries, I really can't get into too many details without spoilers. All I will say is that these books are not your typical who-done-it stories. I don't think you can expect to discover the mysteries on your own, being both unfamiliar with the settings, and the fact that Mercurius keeps some of his insights to himself. So, as the reader, you're along for the ride. The good thing about the story, is that it's a very entertaining ride.

Disappointment is the Lot of Writers

One might say it's their own fault. They're chasing an (almost) impossible dream; a dream of earning a living while staying home in their pajamas and working at something they love. However, if they had their wits about them, and did even a little research, they would know that it's easier to get to heaven, notwithstanding the odds that many are called, but few are chosen, than getting published and/or making money as a writer. One in a thousand aspiring writers get offered a book deal, and then, only three or four years later, half of them are back on the street, with nine out of ten of them out of the business within a decade. And even with a contract, few of authors ever make a living from their writing. Things may be a little grimmer in indie publishing. Most of the traditionally published authors received some sort of an advance - money for their work - and occasionally, royalties. Indie publishers, on the other hand, need to finance their own books, which, if they are chumps, and sadly, many of them are, this can costs hundreds to thousands of dollars. Dollars they'll never likely to see again.

One could also say that it's the fault of their attitude as well, though I suppose one can't blame them for having it, since that attitude is very pervasive. That attitude being that the distinction between good, professional work, and bad, amateur work, is signaled by the price the product commands. In the case of authors, a professional author not only expects to be paid for their work, but actually expects to sell some books at the price they set. Amateurs, on the other hand are not good enough to charge for their work, so they should not expect to sell it. Thus, those who do not charge for their work, do so because it's not good enough to command anything more. I, of course, do not accept this definition, I have my own definition of being an amateur, so I can live the life of an amateur without misgivings. It has saved me from a lot of disappointment, and more than that, between sales and a lack of concern about sales, I've had fun writing all my life.

In addition, professionalism not withstanding, almost every writer I know believes that they are, in fact, due compensation for all the work, the creativity, and the artistic merit they've put into crafting their stories, as well as for the entertainment their work provides for readers. The flaw in this attitude is that, unless they have a publishing deal with a publisher, no one asked them to write their stories, and thus, no one owes them anything for doing it. If they're chumps enough to believe they can make money writing fiction, they have only themselves to blame if they don't. 

Of course, they can ask for money, and yes, it is fair to ask for some sort of compensation for the entertainment value their book provides. However, it will be total sales, not the price the writer values his work at, which determines the actual value of their effort as a commercial product in the marketplace.

This, the dollars, turns out to be one of the great sources of disappointment for artist of any sort with commercial ambitions. Indie publishing is a rotten business, one with astounding failure rates. Still, hope springs eternal. I've seen a chart that shows from 2020 to 2024 about 100,000 ebooks per month were uploaded to Amazon, but since then, the number has risen to over 300,000 ebooks per month, likely as a result of AI produced books. The readership, however, while avid, is not growing, so clearly, the overwhelming majority of ebooks will simply go unread, or if lucky, barely read, unless one already has a following of some sort. Thus, if an author choses to measure the value of their work in dollars - being a professional and all that - well, they're likely left with the mental gymnastics of convincing themselves that sales, or rather the lack of sales, is not, after all, the only yardstick of worth. There are other factors that can explain the lack of agreement between the professional nature of the product and its lack of sales.

And indeed, there are many, so it may be easy to reconcile commercial failure with artistic merit. Why, if no one ever comes across their book, how can its artistic worth be measured? But nevertheless, there is no denying that as a product it is, at least, a commercial failure, since money is the yardstick they automatically have adopted, as professionals, to measure success by. And so most books turn out to be... disappointments at some level.

For the life of my, I don't know why so many writers who are, with aforethought, producing a product to sell while looking (or not) at their oh, so very likely fate, stubbornly persist in choosing all but certain commercial failure and disappointment when they need not, if they would simply think outside the box.

Now, I should add here, that writing fiction is both an art and a commercial product. As a work of art, I can understand their attitude. As an artist, I felt that my best work was my most impressionist pieces, though even among people who like art enough to visit art galleries, in life and online, maybe only one or two in a hundred appreciated what I was doing. One of the reasons I stopped selling my art was that my more mundane, i.e. realistic, pieces sold better than my best work. It was discouraging that my so-so work was the stuff that was getting out into the world, but, alas, most people like realism. At least I didn't have to part ways with my best pieces. So I too, in a way, understand a writer standing by their work as art, even if it isn't a commercial success. But a book is so much more a commercial work than a painting is - it needs to be published and sold to be appreciated. Paintings can be sold as well, of course, but they just need to be viewed to be appreciated. 

Given all this, the questions I have for self publishing authors is this; does the fact that you ask for money, make you a professional writer? Does it take just one sale to validate this judgement?  Or do you need more? And if so, how many more sales are needed? How distinct is the line between professional and amateur?

I've been able to avoid disappointment as an amateur writer due to a mindset different than most writers. To begin with, I look upon ebooks differently than most. Because they are so ephemeral, merely insubstantial electronic files, I don't consider them really books at all. They're merely a medium that delivers a story. And because they can be endlessly duplicated at no cost, they have no economic value. Only the story they deliver has any value. And since I've been borrowing and reading books from a library all my life, I've never directly connected reading a story to buying a book. So it seems natural for me to offer my stories via a worthless medium for free. It costs me nothing to do so, and well, in my mind, reading a story is one of life's free entertainments.   

And then there is the fact that I like being an amateur writer. Because I enjoy the entire process of writing and publishing my work, I feel no need for anyone to pay me for doing it, so I ask no one to do so. I'm just having fun. By choosing to share, rather than sell my work, wherever possible, my work is much more easily accessible. And as a result, it has been read and enjoyed by a thousand readers, instead of only dozens which would've likely been the case if I had chosen to consider myself a "professional" and put a price on my work. I chose to measure artistic value without a dollar sign, and instead, use readership as my yardstick of success. I've never been disappointed by the results. And, as a bonus, I've enjoyed the freedom to write what I please, how I please. And, every once and a while, readers thank me for sharing my books for free, readers like Attie and Ruth.

"I am 81 years and in an oldage home. enjoyed his light hesrted whit. I live on the other side of earth. I am an Afrikaans speaking person. So there can be some small errors in my writing. Thank you and Bless you. Attie."

"loved all your books...deprecating heroes and wayward ladies! very grateful for free audiobooks as I am s pensioner Ruth gr South Africa.."

Sharing has its own rewards. So if disappointment is the lot of writers, it need not be. As I said, the best things in life are free.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 185)

 

I'd like to consider myself a fair minded fellow. So I was willing to give an author who's first book I recently DNF'ed a second chance. As usual, we ask The Question; What could go wrong?

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

P.S. From Paris by Marc Levy  B+  (I liked this, the German cover, best)

As you can see, nothing. Indeed, I was going to grade the book an A when I finished reading it, but by the following morning, I decided that I needed to knock off a few points for reasons I'll get to below. But really, how can you go wrong with a book set in Paris by one of the most popular French authors of today?

A British actress, Mia having just finished filming a movie with her philandering husband, who's been off somewhere for days, decides to get away to Paris and clear her mind and decide what to do about her life. She stays with her best friend Daisy, a restaurant owner. She still loves her husband, but does he love her? 

Then we have Paul, an American ex-architect who, six or seven years earlier, wrote a story that one of his best friends read, and behind his back, got it into the hands of a publisher. Paul reluctantly agreed to release it, its a best seller, but  being a very shy person, he flees to Paris to avoid being recognized by fans of the book. He has lived in Paris ever since. There he's written five less successful novels, though, for some reason his books are very popular in Korea, and so he lives mostly on those royalties. He is also in love with his Korean translator, who only visits him in Paris when he's done writing the books.

His story starts when his best friends, a husband and wife, arrive in Paris to visit him. Both sets of visitors to Paris, Mia visiting Daisy, and Paul's friends staying with him, can't resist and peek into their hosts' computers, discovering that each of them has a dating app on it. As a practical joke, Paul's friends arrange for Paul to Mia to meet thorough that dating app, telling Paul it is a business meeting with someone interested in opening a restaurant. A disaster ensues that ignites the slow burn romance.

Regular readers know that I prefer first person narratives to third person stories, dislike multi-point of view stories, and that I am not a fan of stories set in contemporary life, all of which are characteristics of this story. Still, all of the characters, with the exception Mia's husband, are very nice people, which is a great plus for me. The narration is very well written and though in third person, it is close, but not  too close, so you're not in every character's head 24-7. The story a rom-com, was interesting enough, and because I liked all the characters, I did not mind the multi-point of view structure, nor the fact that it was set in 2014. Perhaps because it was largely set in Paris, and I love Paris, in theory, anyway, may have contributed to me really liking the story. And, well, I am a sucker for slow burn romances. As I said, it could'a been an A book.

So what went a little wrong?

The ending. 

I wrote a year ago how I had come to realize the importance of white spaces in story telling. The things left unsaid. However in this case, when we came to the closing chapters of the book, there was too much white space, too many things left unsaid. One important scene that I think needed to be in the story that was implied, but missing. Indeed, the last 10% of the book struck me more of a sketch of a story than the final version. And yet, even so it included many unimportant scenes making it both sparse and too long at the same time. Plus, the actions of the characters seemed rather iffy... So, in my mind, it didn't stick the landing.

Plus there may've been one rather gaping plot hole, though it did not matter as far as the larger story goes. Still, I hate plot holes. But it all depends on the answer to this question: given that you have an American, Paul, who has been living in France for six years and speaks French fluently (it is never noted what language he is speaking to whom in the book), which language will he use when being interviewed on a Korean TV show by a Korean host whose questions are translated by a translator off stage via an earpiece, and who then translates his answers into Korean for the viewers? (Got that? Korean interviewer-translator-Paul's response-translator into Korean.) If he speaks in English, it's a plot hole, if in French, not much of one. It still bugs me, but given that the author is French, he no doubt thinks of Paul and the scene in French, and if so, the issue I question would be of no great deal to him when writing the story. However, if Paul was answering in English, it would've had significant ramifications for the scene, seeing that something like 50% of Korean understand at least some English. You'll have to read the book to know how it matters. 

Still, my few minor gripes aside, a very enjoyable book, especially if you're in the mood for a pleasant romance. I think Paris was a big draw for me, as well as the rom-com nature of the story.  That said, I am not sure I'll be reading any more Levy stories before my KU subscription runs out. We'll see.

The Red Wine Dossiers is Now Available

 

The exclusive paperback edition of The Red Wine Dossiers is now available only on Amazon for the price of $12.99! HERE 

The Blurb:

The Red Wine Dossiers collects three novellas and two short stories in the Red Wine Agency prequel series that began with the novel The Darval-Mers Dossier.

In The Founders’ Tribunal Redinal Hu finds himself playing a small, but perhaps dangerous, role in the “Great Game” amongst the contending Great Houses of Lorria. Carleesa Trilae is the private secretary of their great grandmother, Penlane Trilae, the First Minister of the Commonwealth of Lorria. The First Minister has received a summons to appear before something called the Founders’ Tribunal in order to defend her administration against charges that she is not following the founding principles of Lorrian society. What this Founders’ Tribunal is, and who’s behind it, is a mystery. Nevertheless Penlane is determined, even eager, to face this secret tribunal to let them know exactly what she thinks they need to do if they want to maintain the founding principles. Carlessa does not think this is a wise idea. Failing to persuade her great grandmother to accept Red Hu as her legal counsel, she hires Red to secretly attend the tribunal to act as her secret bodyguard.

In The Isle House Ghost, Red is hired by Mr Colmara, an industrialist, being plagued by messages from “Compliance Agent Nine.” This agent is entering his country home to leave notes urging Mr Colmara to sign a petition for changes in government policy. Which, on the surface, seems innocent enough, except that they’re being delivered at night despite the fact that the house is locked up tight. Colmara fears that these visits may soon become more sinister, since these are the days when the old order is slowly dying and the new order has yet to be determined. This struggle is becoming increasingly cutthroat. Mr Colmara wants the intruder captured and brought to justice, but Red is at a loss to discover just how the notes are being delivered since no one is entering the house. Mr Colmara’s son suggests, jokingly, that Agent Nine is a ghost. Red doesn’t believe in ghosts, but then, who and how are the messages delivered? a classic locked room mystery to solve.

In Nine Again, Red discovers that no good deed goes unpunished. A powerful and ruthless old nemesis returns to demand that Red somehow “fix” what he did in order to solve The Isle House Ghost mystery.

In The Poison-Pill Will, Constance Darma, the new Head of the House of Darma has ruthless enemies within the family. Mz Darma’s grandfather died under unlikely circumstances, and now she’s now being pressured by a pair of ambitious uncles and an equally ambitious aunt to cede her inheritance to each of them. Great Houses have dark secrets, and murder may not be out of the question. A friend of Mz Darma fears for her life and she convinces her to hire Red to draft a “poison-pill will,” that would put an end to the House of Darma should she die - hopefully making her murder counter-productive. In addition, Red is to guard her while he drafts and files this will. Red discovers Mz Darma’s friend’s fears were well founded.

And finally, in The Pawns’ Game, Red must decide what his role, if any, he will play in the Great Game going forward. In it he learns how that game is played by the disposable pawns of that game.

Honestly, this book exists because I want all my stories on my book shelves, and to give to my kindly beta readers who went over these stories as a way of thanking them. I don't expect to sell any copies, and if I do, it's cause for celebration...  I did sell one!, another book out in the wild that might survive for, who knows? A century or more? 

The Poison-Pill Will & The Pawns' Game  are up for Preorder 

The ebook version of The Poison-Pill Will and The Pawns' Game, my latest novella and short story effort, is now available for pre-order on Amazon with a June 18th 2026 release date for the low, low price of $2.99.  HERE It will, of course, be released on all the usual suspects for free around that date as well.

And as long as I had it up for pre-order, I swapped out the ebook cover for The Founders' Tribunal as well, which is currently FREE on Amazon. And I see that The Darval-Mers Dossier is  FREE as well. Who knows what those crazy kids at Amazon are up to?

But if you just can't wait... The Red Wine Dossiers is now available as a real book.

I just want to add that though I envisioned these stories to be the last Red Hu/Wine stories, I rather painted myself into a corner in The Pawns' Game, and the only way out might be through the window of another story. However, if that should happen, it will be the first true Red Wine Agency novel. I ain't promising one. I'm just saying if I should just happen to find a plot... We'll see...

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 184)

 

This book is a little out of reading order. I had written it down in my list for No. 180, but then neglected to write the review. Or at least I can't find where I did, if I did. Now I just have to remember it...

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 Friendly Sea by Andrew Wareham  C+

As I said in the lede, I have to try to remember this book. The fact that I have to work at it, that I forgot to write a review of it right after I finished it, says something. I did, however finish the book, and while I have no intention on continuing on with the series; he seems to crank them out, it wasn't a bad book. It just didn't compare to Patrick O'Brian's work. None of these naval writers for that period do. It's just that high of a bar to clear.

This story starts with a naval engagement where in our hero Fredrick Harris, a masters mate, distinguishes himself leading a boarding party, and is promoted to lieutenant upon his return to England. He is then assigned a ship bound for the West Indies, as a competent second mate, and then gets promoted  to first mate, followed by another promotion to master and commander of his own vessel during his two years sailing in the Caribbean. Things go pretty smoothly for Captain Harris in the Caribbean, earning him prize money, along with some sea battles. 

The author knows his subject, and finds a way to explain the various aspects of service in the Royal Navy of the period and how ships are manned and run in the course of the narrative. The story flows and the main character is likeable enough, though, at least in this first outing, not all that deep. Serviceable, but I found him not all that engaging, not enough to follow his career for another 13 volumes. All in all, a petty simple, but pleasant story, though not particularly memorable. 

I'll just mention here that I also sampled An Officer's Geneses by Anthony Morland, a story about a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars, but decided after just a couple of pages that it wasn't for me. Can't really say I started it to say, just sampled it, so I'll not count it as a DNF.