I’ve just uploaded a ficlet in the Living Fae series to my Free Stuff page. It’s called The Party and was written for a Dreamwidth group who celebrate Monsterfest every October. This week’s prompt was Shifters and whilst I don’t see the shifters in my stories as monsters in any sense, the story immediately sprang to mind. This was pleasing because I have recently had a dearth of ideas…
I won’t be writing during November despite the common Nanowrimo vibe of the month, mainly because I’ll be concentrating on reformatting a novel for Smashwords. Cue groan. I moved The Skilled Investigators into KU and of course had to remove them from Smashwords. I realised I’d have to change the back matter in my books to reflect the fact that from a Smashwords point of view The Skilled Investigators no longer exists. Oh well, I thought, I might switch back again or I might move other books, and I might write more. So I carefully, or so I thought, composed a section for the back matter that told people how and where to find my books without committing the heinous crime of mentioning Amazon on Smashwords or vice versa. I edited the Smashwords versions with no apparent problems. Then Smashwords assured me that two novels now needed total reformatting before they could be sent to other sites. I’ve done one and had it accepted. Now for the other. It’s very boring and time consuming work but I hope to finish it in November. Meanwhile, the novel is still available on Smashwords but I’m not sure in which formats. And since epub are the ones refusing the new versions, and Amazon are switching from mobi to epub, watch this space. Maybe it’s a good job I have no plot bunnies desperate to be written at the moment!
This is not my photo – I got it from Wikipedia – but I have one the same only my scanner isn’t working.
Some years ago I posted about my own slightly spooky experiences at the site of Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair in Eastern Poland https://wordpress.com/post/jaymountney.com/594 This year I’ve turned that and our subsequent travels in the region into an mm romantic ghost story for a FB group I belong to.
All the details about Poland and Germany are as I recall them but I was there with my husband and we started off with a trip along the Baltic coast, only visiting Berlin on the way home. We used the ferry via Hamburg, not Hull.
I belong to a writers’ group on Dreamwidth and every October they run a ‘Monsterfest’ with prompts to inspire ficlets. A recent prompt was ‘dragons’ and Scratch’s voice from my fantasy detective series was very insistent in my head. This is the result. It will lack something if you aren’t familiar with the novels, but to some extent I hope it stands alone. I have also put a link to it on the relevant page (see the tabs at the top of the blog). There is a better illustration on the linked document, also from clipart.
The Treatment of Prisoners
Scratch surveyed the chaos. Elves were really quite stupid at times. Why had the criminals thought they could outrun a dragon and hide their stash of drugs? They must have realised he was a registered and qualified Skilled Investigator from the Guild. He proudly wore a lanyard announcing his status and he had shouted to them on his public broadcast wavelength, suggesting fairly forcibly that they should surrender.
However, they had run instead, and now they were scattered around the field where he had caught up with them, all lying on their backs staring up at the angry dragon, their packages strewn around them. There was a small firepit in the centre of the field. He had merely wanted to frighten them into submission but it seemed he had terrified them so that they all collapsed, just as though they were theatrical puppets and their strings had been suddenly cut. He sighed and reminded himself to see the farmer later to compensate for the field damage. He called for back-up. He had a new partner, someone he was learning to communicate with privately. Alvon evidently heard his mental message and was soon with him. Alvon carried handcuffs and made short work of restraining the drug dealers. Scratch carried cuffs too but was still nervous about injuring someone if he tried to cuff them and they resisted. He gave Alvon his cuffs – neither carried enough for this group.
They really were puppets, Scratch reflected. The puppeteer was still a shadowy figure and he hoped they would be able to get one of this crop of villains to tell them enough to work out who was ultimately responsible and where they could be found. He suspected, however, that the mastermind was human and comparatively safe in the human realm.
The dragon, like his fellow investigators, felt angry about drugs. They were a human thing, not an elvish one, but they had recently crossed the border into The Kingdom, no doubt lining the pockets of those who manipulated the dealers who themselves were greedy and uncaring about the distress they sold. The users were elves who wanted release from grief or depression and did not understand that human drugs would provide neither. The usual effects on elves were a worsening of either or both but by then the dealers were long gone.
Scratch wished he had Genef by his side but she was off with her new husband, Vikor, enjoying what both humans and elves called a meadseason. Why mead was involved he couldn’t imagine but he hoped there would be eggs. He half understood the explanation given frequently and patiently that elves and humans did not lay eggs as dragons did, but surely eggs must be involved somehow. Otherwise, how could there possibly be baby elves? In any case, Genef was unavailable and Rath, who had been a superb mentor to both of them, was abroad doing something complex and dangerous whilst his husband was desolate and lonely at home. So Alvon had volunteered to work with Scratch and although they got along well, Alvon was not Genef and Scratch felt somehow adrift.
He created a cage with his talons and Alvon ushered their captives into it. He would take them back to the Guild House and get others involved in interrogating them. He couldn’t be expected to question a dozen of them all by himself and Alvon was not experienced enough yet to conduct an interview without his mentor present. In some ways Scratch wished he could be that mentor. Then he would have more control over Alvon’s training and time management. But he knew he wasn’t yet at a stage where he could mentor anyone, and he supposed he should just be glad someone had offered to take Genef’s place temporarily and that their mentor had liked the idea.
He delivered his load of prisoners to the Guild House quite roughly, simply opening his talon cage and tumbling them out onto the central courtyard. He didn’t much care if they were bruised or shaken. They had caused a great deal of distress and deserved a little bit of misery in return.
He messaged Fel to say he’d soon be back at the apartment he shared with Fel and Rath. At least, he occupied the roof. First he would stop for some of those delicious pebbles on the shore. He needed to recharge his fire, after all. He could also catch some fish for supper though he would keep his own share back. Fel would only ruin them with cooking. Why elves liked burnt food was beyond him.
“One consignment of drug dealers,” he told the elf on duty at the Guild House doors. “They’ll all need to be interrogated and I just hope we can find their overall leader.”
“Could be human,” responded the elf and Alvon, who had also arrived, nodded. Scratch had already come to that conclusion but he nodded too, noticing that the prisoners shivered when they saw his great head bobbing.
“I could find him, her, them,” he said. “I could snatch them and bring them here.”
“Maybe,” said Alvon, “but wait till you have permission.”
Scratch sighed. Once upon a time he would have gone ahead and done whatever his dragon soul deemed appropriate to people who hurt other people whether the victims were elf, human or dragonkind. But he knew he must stick to the rules of the Guild. After all, he was a fully accredited Investigator now.
The link to the PDF is now live at the very bottom on the page on The Skilled Investigators. It took me days to work out how to do it…
September fruit. A poor harvest this year – the blossom and the insects didn’t come at the same time!
Recommended viewing:
The Woman in the Wall BBC***** Excellent drama based around the people and communities involved in the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland.
DNA Season 2**** Enjoyable follow up to Season 1. BBC iPlayer
Into Death Valley with Nick Knowles. Ch 5. **** Fascinating.
BBC Proms especially Chineke with Akugbo playing Haydn’s trumpet concerto. Mostly on iPlayer. I won’t give the series stars because it really does depend on your tastes so check the programmes before watching.
Recommended reading: (a good crop for September – better than the pears)
Fiction:
Mr Mercedes by Stephen King***** for the writing but I didn’t personally like it and particularly hated the planned attack on a concert which mirrored, for me, the attack on the Manchester Arena so recently.
Just Stay Away by Tony Wirt***** Gripping thriller where a young boy threatens the main character’s sanity. Amazon freebie when I got it but it’s cheap and it’s on KU.
Midnight in the Renaissance Elevator by various authors ***** Excellent anthology centred round a misbehaving elevator at a writers’ con which inspired the collection. There’s a mix of heat, paranormal elements, etc. but the standard is consistently high and I can guarantee that you’ll enjoy at least the majority, whatever your personal tastes. However, I ought to warn you that Remi Varlow’s story is a teaser for a series and not just a story set in the ‘verse of a series so unless you know their writing and think you might continue, you could skip it. The anthology is sold in aid of a charity, The Trevor Project.
Woods of the Raven by Mary Calmes***** A small town witch deals with incursions by evil fae. Good use of myth and legend, and a nice slow burn romance.
Stone Heart by Jenn Burke***** A lovely ending to the gargoyle trilogy.
Magic Burning by Kaje Harper***** Superb addition to the Carnival of Mysteries series.
Gluttony and other hungers by TJ Nichols***** Bittersweet finale to the Mytho series though I believe there’s to be a spin-off novel about two minor characters. The focus here was mostly on the wedding (plus the hate crimes surrounding it) and was a fascinating look at cultural differences.
Speaking in silence by Jackson Marsh***** Excellent mystery for the Larkspur Academy men. This time, an earldom for Archer is at stake.
These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall**** Excellent crime story despite being written in present tense. Unusual main character who creates memory banks with holograms etc.
Roustabout by Morgan Brice (Carnival of Mysteries)**** A great addition to the series. Both MCs are also people with magical powers so it’s just that bit different.
Repairing Destiny by Geneva Vand**** Nicely told YA mm fantasy adventure involving a prince and his mate. Reviewed in more detail for Scott Coatsworth.
Non-fiction:
The Fallen Stones by Diana Marcum**** (Non-fiction) Fascinating account of a journalist’s sojourn in Belize, writing about a butterfly farm that supplied the living butterfly exhibits worldwide. It was made more interesting in that it brought real life elements to Julie Bozza’s The Butterfly Hunter trilogy and NR Walker’s Imago series both of which I loved.
Factfulness by Hans Rosling**** (Non-fiction).Interesting explanation of why we get the wrong impressions about various world issues. I got more than an average score on the initial questions so maybe I’m not the target audience. For those I got wrong my guesses (which might still have been wrong) were mostly informed by more up to date data. The book was published pre-covid and pre the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine.
Earth. BBC. **** Chris Packham presents a history of origins in David Attenborough style. Worth viewing.
Why buildings collapse BBC **** Frightening look at why some building collapse without apparent warning. The focus is on the apartments in Florida but the current situation with RAAC in UK makes it compulsive viewing.
I’ve been reading a lot (the Brit summer didn’t happen) and can highly recommend the following:
Wrath and other Troubles by TJ Nichols***** Lovely (as usual) volume in the Mytho series. After the vote as to whether the paranormals are human…
Seeing through Shadows by Jackson Marsh***** Great addition to the Larkspur Mysteries – Chester (new character) and Frank Andino.
To love the dragon king by Antonia Aquilante ***** A new writer to me. Gorgeous mm fantasy romance with enough thriller element to counteract sweetness. This was an ARC but I’m very happy to promote it. I’ve reviewed it in more detail for Scott’s review site.
Defying Logic by Nicky James***** Excellent missing persons mystery in the Doyle and Valor series with Quaid and Aslan developing their relationship and their lives in the aftermath of the previous book. I don’t think it would be as good if not read in order.
Help Wanted by Marshall Thornton***** Nice addition to the series (Pinx Videos in LA). Javier is wrongly accused.
Solstice by Eli Easton and RJ Scott***** Will definitely follow the series! Sheriff and animal behaviourist investigate murder with help from a dog.
The Blue Bar by Damyanti Biswas***** Another new writer to me. Gripping crime story set in Mumbai. Will order the sequel when it comes out. Interesting to see similarities and differences between Indian and UK police (with their common origin).
Sapphire Water by Adam J Ridley***** This rounds off the series with the siblings getting jewels and having to deal with various paranormal problems. This time it’s a ‘lost’ half brother. It was good seeing all the characters again and watching the town develop. Satisfactory conclusion to the story arc.
Stardust Wake and Jurassic Dark by Si Clarke. ***** Quirky shorts in the Starship Teapot ‘verse including how Lem got Spock!
Tracefinder: Contact by Kaje Harper. ***** Totally intriguing story about an undercover cop (Nick) and a guy with the ability to ‘find’ people (Brian). The series continues with Changes**** and Choices**** Well worth following the whole story.
The Romantic Reads group I belong to is running a summer flash fic challenge, based on photographs voted on by the group. My fic got its outing today, and I hope you’ll like it and also have a look at the others posted so far. It’s been an interesting thing to do. Some time ago I was in an online writing group where we wrote weekly flash fics to a prompt and critiqued each other’s work; I learnt a lot from that experience. It really is a challenge to produce a story that contains all the information you need about the world and characters in less than a thousand words and make the plot interesting too.
Those Easter lambs grew up and are indistinguishable from their mothers apart from the fact that the mothers are shorn.
Just recommendations again, with one warning.
TV
There she goes. **** BBC iPlayer David Tenant in a fascinating series about a family with a severely learning disabled child.
Umbrella Academy Season 3**** Netflix How dark can it get? And now we have to wait till 2024 and hope the actor/writer strike doesn’t make it even further away.
Books
The Butterfly Hunter boxed set by Julie Bozza**** Trilogy of novels plus a short story.A lovely mm romance set mostly in the Australian outback with elements of paranormal or at least a nod to Dreamtime stories.
Dead Souls by Ian Rankin.**** Gripping novel in the Rebus series – one I’d missed!
Power of Zero series by Jackie Keswick****
I’d read the first in this series and finally got to the rest!
House Hunt**** Jack goes UC re drugs, then gets kidnapped during investigation re break ins at Nancarrow Mining. Quite tense and complex.
Swings and Roundabouts **** More excitement for Jack and Gareth. Murder mystery in Sweden.
Dating Games **** shorts set during the other novels
Apidae by Xenia Melzer**** Possibly the last in a great series about a detective who can communicate with insects, spiders, etc. .
Unstable Connections by Nicky James**** Discoveries re Juniper in the Doyle/Valor series.
Inevitable Disclosure by Nicky James***** Really gripping plot and the Doyle/Valor relationship is progressing nicely.
The Altered 3 by Anabelle Jacobs**** This finishes the story arc nicely. An interesting shifter mm trilogy.
The Distant Echo by Val McDermid**** It was weird reading something I watched on TV ages ago. Some differences – I think due to them wanting to give detective Karen Pirie a greater role in this first of a TV series.
Overdue and Occultism by Jamie Sands**** Sweet mm story featuring a witch and a ghost hunter in a haunted NZ library.
The Clockwork City by Shelley Adina **** Excellent addition to her steampunk universe, plus a murder investigation. An ARC read which I have reviewed for Scott Coatsworth
Luck of the Draw by Addison Albright**** Nicely told story of an arranged marriage but a bit short. Another ARC read with a review for Scott
The Untouchable Sky by Will Forrest* One star because it ended on a cliffhanger without ever having referred to a series. Quite an intriguing story about a young man who learns about his magic in adulthood after having been treated as insane. Included here as a warning. By all means read it if you’re happy to read the entire series.
I happily rewatched Casablanca, and saw a lot of the coverage of Glastonbury. Nothing else of note.
Books
A stand-alone non fiction book:
The Vanishing Triangle by Claire McGowan*** An absorbing look at crime against women in modern Ireland but it was rather repetitive. Written by a crime author rather than a journalist it was surprisingly poorly structured. Very thought provoking, and has broader implications for other countries too.
Some series:
I really enjoy good series, and find a great deal of pleasure in getting to know the characters, both major and minor, in detail, and being immersed in the location.
General fantasy
Empire of Grass by Tad Williams**** General fantasy. This volume hooked me into the universe just as much as book 1 but I resented the way it ended on cliffhangers for virtually all the main characters. Plus the sequel is priced higher for the ebook despite a font problem which had me nearly giving up with the first book which I had in paperback.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett**** Fascinating magic and world building. There is a sequel. This is not an mm series but there is a delightful ff pairing of minor characters which is treated as perfectly normal and adds to the pleasure of the story.
Series with mm focus:
Broadway Butchery by CS Poe***** Book 3 in the Memento Mori series. I find both Larkin and Doyle totally fascinating, and the mysteries are nicely complex as is their relationship. Highly recommended. .
Eruca by Xenia Melzer**** Good second investigation for this pair. Andy’s ability to communicate with insects is both helpful in terms of police work and devastating for him.
Elusive relations by Nicky James**** I am following this series set in Toronto about this couple of detectives in an enemies to lovers situation.
Ellery Mountain series by RJ Scott**** There are ten books altogether and I have now read them all. It’s nice to follow multiple characters and get to know the town plus following the setting up of a retreat for veterans. Each story is ‘just’ a pleasant and well written romance but the series as a whole deserves four stars for the world building and the way even minor characters are developed so that the reader cares what happens to them.
Hidden Gem by Lissa Kasey. **** I like Lissa’s writing. This is an mm series. Worth wading through the mild bdsm to get the fascinating sci fi plot. I might read book 2 but suspect a lot of the story has already been covered, briefly, and it’s about minor characters from book 1 rather than more about the main pairing, which I liked.
I found my extensive lists were getting in the way of my writing, so will, for the time being, just entio things of real note.
Viewing:
Unforgotten Season 5. ITV . I had been sad to lose Cassie as the lead detective but thought her replacement was great. Jessie is an interesting character with her own set of personal problems and this helped develop Sunny’s character too. A strong plot with a clever ending enabled the series to branch out from the old formula which I thought was getting a bit tired.
Annika Season 1. BBC. Where Nicola Walker ended up after Cassie ‘died’ in Unforgotten! Interesting police drama with quite a lot of the main character, Annika, ‘speaking’ her thoughts to the audience which was a new ‘breaking the fourth wall’ departure for cop shows in my experience. Nice locations from Glasgow out to the islands.
Reading
The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams. This is the first novel in the new series (The Last King of Osten Ard) set in the kingdoms familiar from Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. I’d read the bridging book, The Heart of What was Lost. I don’t think anyone who hadn’t read the first series or the bridge would have the slightest chance of understanding what was going on, but I was completely hooked and drawn back into the world. Simon, hero of the first series and now high king, is reaching the end of his reign but old problems are returning. Fabulous cast of well developed characters, and some superb world building. I really feel as if I’d been in Osten Ard. I have already bought book 2 – in ebook format this time. Book 1 was a requested gift, in paperback format, and the font was so small I had serious problems reading it but had to know what happened.
For some time I have been meaning to put some of my books into Kindle Unlimited to see whether it would improve the number of readers I can attract. I finally decided to do this for the series The Skilled Investigators because I have committed to a blog for National Crime Reading Month (this June): Bring Crime out of the Closet. The blog tour deals with crime involving mm romance and of course in my series Genef’s brother is gay and his search for a HEA forms the secondary plot arc of the books.
Putting books into KU means removing them from other platforms such as Smashwords as the sites do not play nicely together. No mention of ‘the other place’ is allowed on either. I thought it would be simply a matter of unpublishing then realised I would also have to change the back matter in all my Smashwords books to reflect the fact that the series was no longer available on Smashwords. I duly created a changed back matter that would hopefully not need to be changed again even if I ever put anything else into KU. Instead of a list that could need constant updating I just referred readers to my website and the buy links there. Simple? Well, no, because the act of uploading new versions seemed to snarl up a lot of formatting even though only one paragraph was the issue. I still have to reformat, completely, my two novels The Virgin and the Unicorn and The Seekers because somehow Smashwords have now found various errors that were not, to their knowledge or mine, evident when the books were first published. The books are available on Smashwords but can’t be distributed to other sites because the conversion to Epub fails. I could have understood errors in the new back matter but not in the body of the text.
Then putting the series into KU seemed like a simple procedure but for about 24 hours Amazon seemed to jumble up my entire output. It insisted I only had six books instead of 17. Then it arbitrarily gave a cost of: free with Kindle Unlimited; £230 to buy… though in fact the figure should have read £2.30. The power of the point… Sorted, but quite nerve-racking while it all lasted. And despite having published the books as a series, with volume numbers etc. carefully noted and all boxes ticked, Amazon doesn’t give the series below each book.
I get the impression that some authors manage to switch books between KU and other non-Amazon sites without all this chaos. I’d love to know how they do it!
I will keep you informed about how the trial of KU goes, and about the blog tour.
Jay's World 