Agonising

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of - Part 5

A year or two ago, I never thought of social media as the place where I’d find my next book to read. And I’m not talking Goodreads here.

I don’t particularly like Goodreads. The site is clumsy to use. The reviewers are often unnecessarily vitriolic. And there is a decided bias in favor of corporate publishers and their books.

No, I’m talking about Twitter primarily, although I’ve found some very good reads on some of the closed Facebook groups.

Three of the recent authors I’ve run across who write very enjoyable books are RH Hale, Joe Congel, and Richard Schwindt. In the past, I discovered Crispian Thurlborn, Ben Willoughby, and Steve Bargdill.

One of my recent discoveries was Agonising by Ernestine Marsh, who describes herself as “a woman who has written a book”. And what a book it is!

Agonising is written as a series of alternating advice columns between two rival agony aunts, Jean Price and Raine Vincent. Both of whom are characters in every sense of the word. We are treated to delicious humor, biting satire, and an insightful look at human nature. The advice they give to the answer seekers is usually ridiculous and frequently irreverent. And their acerbic comments about each other will have you falling out of your chair from laughter.

With a deft hand, Ms Marsh has pulled back the curtain on the façade that hides the reality of our times and who we are.

Not to overplay my own hand, but if Voltaire were alive today I think he’d be looking over his shoulder at this very worthy competitor.

There’s not much of a plot, but I don’t think you’ll miss it. You’ll be too busy laughing. And what plot there is, Ms Marsh brings to a very satisfying and hilarious conclusion.

Agonising is very highly recommended! And, as of this writing, a mere 99¢.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

The Stone Seekers

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of - Part 4

A couple, three years ago I ran into Jack Tyler on a now defunct steampunk forum. We’ve kept in touch over the years. He’s a very interesting fellow and you can read his thoughts about books and life on his blog.

I read and reviewed Beyond the Rails a couple years ago. It’s a good book. I have the other two in the series and look forward to reading them.

However, I think the book that is truly the winner in Jack’s oeuvre is The Stone Seekers.

Over the years, I’ve drifted away from fantasy because, for the most part, the corporate publishers gave us nothing but Tolkien pastiches that weren’t anywhere near as good as the original. Or magic that just didn’t make sense because it was inconsistent.

If I see the words elf, or dwarf, that’s it. The book goes back on the virtual shelf. Or if I see pointy ears, the same — back on the shelf it goes. With very rare exception. The same goes for magic.

As a result, I was very surprised — pleasantly surprised — not to find even a smidgen of Tolkien in The Stone Seekers. There is magic, but it is well done.

Tyler has given us a new world of quests and high adventure. He’s given us new beings that are unique and mythic. Along with his straightforward and good storytelling.

In fact, I think The Stone Seekers could be turned into at least a trilogy, if not a series. And I think we readers would like that. But first, we need to get Mr Tyler some sales and reviews. The book is currently only 99¢. You can spend a buck on far worse than Jack Tyler’s book and not get the lasting satisfaction and enjoyment provided by The Stone Seekers. The book would also make for a fabulous movie.

The story line is a standard quest plot. Nothing new there. Where The Stone Seekers shines is in the well-drawn characters and the world that Tyler has created. The characters are complex, but not overly so. The world is richly drawn, but description doesn’t bog down the story.

As I stated above, Tyler is a good storyteller. He gives us enough so we keep on reading, right to the end. Where I, at least, was filled with sadness that there was no more.

The Stone Seekers is very much worth your time and money. The book is good old-fashioned fun and very satisfying entertainment.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time — happy reading!

An Angel Fallen

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of - Part 3

Somewhere in the social media world I ran into Andy Graham. From that encounter, I went on to read his novella An Angel Fallen. And I’m glad I did.

Graham is a superb writer. His command of the language, as well as his knowledge of literature, and his skill at telling a story — all add up to one fabulous read.

An Angel Fallen must be experienced. To try and tell the story in brief would do it an injustice. And the story is about justice. And retribution. And sacrifice.

An Angel Fallen could very well be the ultimate coming of age story. Even though it’s much more than that. It is a philosophy of life masquerading as a story — one that is haunting and stays with you long after you’ve read it.

I do not understand why this gem is not selling like the proverbial hot cakes. Because it needs to be. It’s that good.

What I didn’t realize is that An Angel Fallen is Book 2 of the Dark Fiction Tales series. So I went ahead and bought the first book and am looking forward to reading it.

Don’t miss this superb writer. His star, and ours, is rising.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

Entangled

Good Books You Probably Never Heard Of - Part 2

My purpose in writing this new blog series is to 

1. Share books I’ve read and liked, and
2. Promote those books to a wider audience

I’m not a “professional” reviewer. I’m simply a reader who appreciates good books. Reviewing isn’t my job. Writing is. However, when I come across well-written and entertaining books I will share them with you. Mostly, if not exclusively, these will be books that aren’t selling, or aren’t selling well. Books that, in my opinion, deserve a much wider audience. Books that truly should be bestsellers.

And, now, on with the show!

Entangled

The novel Entangled by J. Evan Stuart, as of this writing, sits at number 2,420,293 in the paid Kindle store. That essentially means no one is buying or reading this book. And that is too bad, because the novel is very well written and the story is one that you don’t want to end.

Supposedly, Entangled is the first in the Sonya Reisler series. However, the author has apparently disappeared. His blog hasn’t been updated since 2016, and his Twitter account hasn’t seen any activity since May 2017.

A very good writer, now apparently lost to the reading community. Just this one gem left behind. A shame. A very sad shame.

Entangled is, loosely, a police procedural mystery. I use the term “loosely” because the story does not focus on the procedure, but on the characters.

Connor is being framed for killing his parents and almost killing his sister, who he adores. Detective Sonya Reisler, a newbie on the detective squad, is supposed to look over the evidence and rubber-stamp the local sheriff’s decision. When she does, however, something doesn’t sit right with her and the more she digs, the more things don’t look right. Is Connor being framed? Is he the easy out?

Then to complicate things even more, Connor meets Sonya to tell her his side of the story. And as fate would have it, they like each other and Sonya finds herself protecting the fugitive.

Stuart brings the book to a very exciting and satisfying conclusion that easily leaves the door open for a sequel, or several sequels.

Let’s get this author some buys, KU reads, and reviews. Maybe, just maybe we will find out what happens in the rest of the series.

Comments are always welcome, and, until next time, happy reading!

Good Books You Never Heard Of

Sometime late last year I started reading three series by authors who advertised themselves as being New York Times, USA Today, and/or Amazon bestsellers.

I was so disappointed with the first book of the one series, I stopped reading a third of the way into the novel. It was just flat-out boring. The main character was an uninteresting unidimensional cardboard stereotypical kickass heroine. With Daddy Issues to boot. Even the promise of her becoming a vampire (and I love vampires) could not rescue my waning interest.

The second series I attempted was a sci-fi action series. I did manage to finish the initial novel. But it was a struggle. The main character was an angry cripple. Unfortunately he was also as flat and uninteresting as a pancake forgotten in the fridge. The villain was as unidimensional as Dr Smith in the original Lost in Space. And just as pathetic. The attempt to introduce a romance subplot was awkward and frigid. I didn’t go on to book two.

I got hooked on the third series from the blurb, but the first quarter of the initial book was just plain bad. The author clearly needed a ghost writer. The writing was wooden. The action unbelievable. The plotting, obviously cribbed from some “expert’s” plot point chart, was mechanical. If the book had been a paper novel, I’d have dumped it at the used bookstore and gotten some of my money back. Being an ebook, I’m just out the cash. One argument against ebooks.

I decided then and there I was not going to line the pockets of anymore “bestselling” authors. My money is too dear. I live on a retirement income after all.

As I’ve discussed before, a bestselling novel isn’t necessarily an actual bestseller. There are just too many ways to scam the system, or the system itself is rigged. A bestseller may in fact be a bestseller. Then again, the author or publisher or the raters could have manipulated things so the book simply looks like a bestseller.

I’m an avid reader. And it’s very true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or the reader in this case. What I like, you may not; and vice versa.

I don’t like Romance novels. Others eat them for breakfast. I don’t particularly like YA. Others read nothing but.

I’m not a fan of magic. Others love magic, even if the system is flawed. They don’t care.

In my opinion, the kickass heroine has been done to death. But there are those who love every kickass heroine who comes along.

That’s the beauty of art in any form — there’s an audience, whether large or small, for every artist.

Over the next few weeks, I want to shine a spotlight on some books, characters, and authors that are virtually unknown to the larger reading universe. Books, characters, and authors that I think deserve a much larger audience because they are very much worth reading.

Since attempting to read those three “bestselling authors”, I’ve launched a crusade to discover the hidden gems that are out there. Books and writers I thoroughly enjoy. Books and writers that deserve a much, much larger audience.

If you know of any that fit the bill, good books that aren’t selling, do let me know. 

Next week, if all goes well, we’ll begin. 

As many of you know, I’m in the middle of a major relocation. Moving from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I’ve lived for the majority of my nearly 66 years, to Houston, Texas. 

Moving is chaos. Moving companies don’t operate on firm schedules. They have windows. So while they’ll pick up our stuff on Friday, the 24th, they may deliver it as late as the 7th of September.

Consequently, I won’t have ready internet service. So we’ll see what happens, knowing that at some point things will get back to a new normal.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

More on Writing’s Purpose

Two weeks ago we took a look at Stephen King’s statement regarding why writers write. We concluded that while it sounded noble, it wasn’t overly accurate.

Most writers write to make money. If they happen to enrich people’s lives along the way, that’s a nice bonus.

This week I’d like to look at Edgar Rice Burroughs’s far more realistic assessment.

In August of 1931, Forrest J Ackerman, then 14, got into an argument with his teacher over the literary merits of Tarzan. Ackerman then wrote a letter to Burroughs telling him about it.

Burroughs sent a letter back to Ackerman. Here is the reply:

Thanks for your letter. Tell your teacher that, though she may be right about my stories, there are some fifty million people in the world who will not agree with her, which is fortunate for me, since even writers of garbage-can literature must eat.

My stories will do you no harm. If they have helped to inculcate in you a love of books, they have done you much good. No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.

Last year I followed the English course prescribed for my two sons, who are in college. The required reading seemed to have been selected for the sole purpose of turning the hearts of young people against books. That, however, seems to be a universal pedagogical complex: to make the acquiring of knowledge a punishment, rather than a pleasure.

I want to emphasize two points out of this excellent statement.

Love of Books

“If [my stories] have helped to inculcate in you a love of books, they have done much good.”

To my mind, reading fiction should be a pleasure. It should instill in the reader a love of books.

Like many of you, I acquired that love very early. I doubt I was even in kindergarten. Books such as Seuss’s Scrambled Eggs Super and Syd Hoff’s Danny and the Dinosaur I still fondly remember. And I’ve loved reading and books ever since.

That love I helped to instill in my daughter. And I now encourage reading whenever I can. For a love of books is far more beneficial than a love of TV, or movies, or video games. Reading has so many additional benefits than video entertainment. It is a skill that is critical to the survival of civilization.

As Burroughs himself points out in his letter: teaching seems to universally have as its goal to make acquiring knowledge a punishment, rather than a pleasure.

This especially affects boys. Is it any wonder girls now go to college in greater numbers than do boys? When reading is a “girl thing”, it only follows that studying is also for “girls” — and what young boy in his right mind wants to like a girl? None when I was growing up, and I don’t think boys have changed all that much in the years since.

Therefore we should encourage authors to write books with good male role models. Because boys don’t identify with female leads. Reading about hot babes and kickass heroines comes in after puberty — if they read at all by that time.

Entertainment

“No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment.”

In my opinion, this is where it is at. Say what one will, the ultimate purpose of a story is to entertain. It may do other things as well — but if it doesn’t entertain, it does nothing beneficial. And it may even go so far as to destroy the impetus to read.

Burroughs noted that if a story entertains and is clean, it is good literature. And the best literature is that which forms the habit of reading in people who might not otherwise read. That is the best form of enrichment. The enrichment of lives. The lives of those who weren’t previously readers.

Comic books are entertainment and are often put down by parents. However, my first exposure to Jules Verne was a comic book version of From Earth to the Moon. It didn’t hurt me. I’m still an avid reader. And I even read “good literature”.

Writing’s Purpose

The purpose of writing fiction is the same as the ancient art of telling a story around the fire: to entertain. The story may also teach a lesson, or moral, or a bit of philosophy. But if the story doesn’t entertain, then it has failed in its main purpose and also in any secondary purpose. And may even turn off the reader. A lifetime of potential pleasure gone in a moment.

I also want to mention Burroughs’s comment “…even writers of garbage-can literature must eat.” Burroughs wrote to entertain and make money. And he made a lot of money.

What I especially like is that Burroughs was honest. He wasn’t afraid to say he wrote for money.

I wonder: if Mr King says one shouldn’t write for money, then why hasn’t he given away all of his earnings from writing? Seems to me the proof is in the pudding.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

Seventeen Days…

…and counting! In 17 days the moving van will be here and a new adventure begins. For those of you who do not know, my wife and I are relocating to Houston, Texas.

She’s retiring on the 17th. She’s put in her time working for the man and is now looking forward to spending her days painting. And if we plan it right, she’ll make some money doing so. That, however, requires a business plan and she hasn’t gotten that far. Yet.

For me, though, all of the packing and sorting is basically a pain in the… I can’t focus! Too much of my brain’s RAM is filled up with wrapping paper, bubblewrap, and boxes.

My books are boxed. My paper (most of it, anyway) is boxed. Most of my pens are packed away. File drawers are empty and the contents packed in boxes.

In the chaos of moving, my writing world is upside down. And that is giving my creative brain conniption fits.

I want to write! And it seems all I’m getting done is an ever growing To-Do List.

Yes, I know: this, too, shall pass. But in the meantime, my brain is stamping its little foot and it’s not being very nice about the forced vacay.

It keeps trying to sidetracked me with plot ideas, story snippets, intriguing first lines — and boy are they tempting. After all, I could just pay the movers to pack everything. Right?

Every time I start thinking along those lines, my wallet throws a fit. And it has a much bigger voice.

What I’ve done to solve this little dilemma, is to type up a short story I wrote some time back. Typing and editing isn’t writing. And it isn’t very creative, but at least my brain now has something to do.

What I have managed to sneak in is time to read. I have discovered a new (to me) author. Richard Schwindt, out of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is delightfully humorous, writes about the adventures of very interesting characters, and does so with a very deft pen.

He also writes self-help non-fiction. He’s a semi-retired social worker and therapist.

Take a look at his Amazon page for some truly fab reads. I provided the link to his Amazon.ca author page, as his Amazon.com page doesn’t contain all of his oeuvre.

I’ve recently read (links are to amazon.com):

Herkimer’s Nose

Scarborough: Confidential

Sioux Lookout: Confidential

Kingston: Confidential

All four books are paranormal mysteries with intriguing occult detectives. They are only $.99 for the summer. Do pick them up. Schwindt is a delightful writer.

Now back to packing.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!