May 18, 2022 saw the publication of Paul Mount is Special Squirrel and the arrival of a new superhero on the block.
Paul Mount is Special Squirrel cover
Paul Mount – Superhero?
Paul was the baby Mary and Joseph had longed for, even the incident Mary was involved in while pregnant wasn’t allowed to get in the way. As Paul was growing up, some of the things that happened around him marked him out as special.
As an ex-girlfriend says of him; “Bright, clever, witty, brave and gentle; my hero.”
Paul finds himself investigating local crime and corruption. His unique, but unreliable, power is definitely helpful
Paul lives in Measham, Ted Bun’s imaginary town somewhere in the English Home Counties. The story brushes against some familiar characters, PC Adiscombe, The Johnstons and the Cutters and a famous resort.
I bought myself a new electric bike. We live on a hill, a long and in places steep hill, about a kilometre from the nearest bar (and the boulangerie). Being slightly eco, I prefer not to drive that short distance and go by bike, unless it is raining. Yes, I know a fairweather eco-warrior!
Proud of my new purchase I put a picture on Farceburk.
The new bike
This posting attracted a comment from my friend (?) Richard Savin. He is the author of some rather good books. Richard’s best seller is the excellent wartime drama that sweeps across Occupied France . “Girl in a Baker’s Van” so when he commented:
“The Nudist on The Butcher’s Bike?”
it made sense. It was also struck me as a challenge.
Several weeks later the plot had jelled in my mind and I started work on a story that turned out to be a much closer approximation to Richards title;
The Boy on a Baker’s Bike.
The story is set during the long summer break after finishing school. When after taking their A-Levels, English teenagers wait nervously for their results to find out if their higher education dreams are going to come true. It is the story of one young man’s working vacation one year during that fuzzy period as the seventies gave way to the eighties.
Read this story to discover the surprises that await our hero that hot summer. Dreams? which dreams? Will any of them come true?
I am delighted that the book will feature original artwork by Rene Gourley. The artist who created the cover image for The Girl with a Ginger Cat
The date of publication is not fixed yet … but I hope it will be on sale around the beginning of November. The details will appear on my author page as soon as everything is finalised.
A new Crooke and Loch story escaped into the rainforest …. the first time I have ever published in three formats, the e-book, the paperback and the new baby a hard cover format edition.
There are two problems with the hard cover version. One for me, the other is for you.
My problem is with the set up. All my paperbacks are in the 8 x 5 inch layout beloved of major publishers of paperbacks such as Penguin. The closest available from the ‘Zon for their hardback format is 8.5 x 5.5! That means a separate Word manuscript for each. Not hard to do but a pain.
The other issue that comes with the change of template size … is the need for a size new cover. To add to the pain there it has to have much wider safety margins. “No problem!” just resize the images.
Nope, you need them to fit in the guide lines.
No problem Amazon have templates!
Yes, but at the minute they are for the paperback formats and sizes and don’t fit, as you are told in an overnight e-mail. Ages spent creating, uploading and adjusting to get the right; dimensions, content in the right place and getting rid of the stuff on the standard templates.
So after hours of labour … here it is …
The downside for you the customer … the rather hefty price compared with the e-book. Three pints rather than some change from one.
Then again, it will take longer to ingest than the drinks … even after the bars, pubs and clubs are re-opened
Two new publications for November in the Year of the Great Plague .
The first new book to get published is brand new tale about Melody, the NBL.
Problems in the Pyrenees
Publishing 1st November 2020
Melody is on an early summer holiday on the Mediterranean coast of France, when she gets a call from her ‘Head of Research’. They have a new set of problems to solve, just a few kilometers away in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
Generous with her time, the generously proportioned Problem Solver swings into action.
The other November publication is an old favourite.
The Uncovered Policeman: The Whole Story
Rags, The Uncovered Policeman finally gets the collection treatment, all twelve (Yes! 12) of the mainline stories from the Uncovered Policeman (the original novella) through to A New Home in the Sun in a single paperback volume.
There wasn’t room in the binding for the short stories!
even so, the collection turns out to be quite a tome; 330 000 words, 655 A4 pages and weighing in at almost 2kg.
All for little more than the price of the series in Kindle e-book format!
The Whole Story joins The Uncovered Policeman: Secret Casebooks in November, in time for Christmas. Sadly it wont be available in the Bookstore because the shipping costs are outrageous.
Several people have asked about the setting for many of the
Uncovered Policeman stories, L’Abeille Nue. It is entirely fictitious. The
location as described in the book “Goodbye Blues.” The stream, the orchard, the
buildings and the pool exist only in my imagination now that I have lost the
sketch map I made when I started the story. I could take you there I know exactly
where it is but you would be disappointed.
The spirit of L’Abeille Nue is based on fact. During the
early years of the last decade, Mrs Bun and I managed the Quinta da Horta, a
naturist place in the south of Portugal.
The fabric of the resort was on its very last knockings.
Held together by the paint we lashed onto every surface. The water pipes burst
with alarming regularity. The roofs leaked when it rained and the drains were a
total mystery, the man who had dug them had died taking their secrets to the
grave.
No matter when the sun shone the place had a beauty and an
atmosphere of peace. The wonderful guests and the volunteers that stayed
created a buzz about the place. They would paint murals and pictures. Translate
jokes from one language to another and laugh at the retelling.
We would all dine together under the night skies several
time a week. Then play guitars (and for two weeks the accordion) and sing songs
late into the night.
You see now the spirit of L’Abeille Nue, all it needed was decent,
solidly constructed buildings. In an arrangement that would work better than
the random dotting of old farm buildings, converted to cottages. Oh’ and a good
electrical and water supply, drainage and for the twenty-first century proper Wi-Fi
coverage.
Rags and Bea were luckier than Mrs Bun and I were, they got
the perfect set up! While we now have the small but perfectly form L’Olivette …
Where Chas and Di entertained guests in “In and Out of the Blues” and in “When the
Music Stops: DC al Fine.” So we are good.
It has been a busy old month. I have been doing some beta reading for a couple of people as a result I have not had a lot of time for reading published books
Another outing for Max the Historian from St Mary’s.
If you have read the earlier books it will all make sense straight away, if you haven’t it will be difficult to pick the story. There are lots of references to other stories, I won’t say earlier because when you are dealing with “events in contemporary time.”
All the regulars are here, Max, Leon, The Time Police and resident bad guy Clive Ronan. A jolly romp in a series that readers of this page will know I really enjoy. If you are new to this delightful, wickedly funny series … start with Book 1, “One Damn Thing After Another.” It will make more sense, not a lot of sense but more!
5 Stars
The Thirty Something Snap
by Alan Helgasson
Howie is heading towards his 40th birthday. He is worried about the way so many of his male friends undergo major lifestyle changes in their thirties, The Snap. He is a failed musician, he is divorced, he now has a good job, a very good job, so the thought of him ‘Snapping’ has him worried.
Then he gets a late night, well, early morning call from his ex-band mate and best friend. Peter is in hospital, Peter has burnt himself and his car is still at the place where the accident happened … A naturist resort. ‘Snap!’
The story is the classic boy discovers he actually likes girl more than just a friendship and loses her …
Has a second chance at fame as a musician …
A surprising and inventive story, even if it stretches your credulity, and ultimately a rewarding little light read. (It is not quite a #naturistfiction story but deals with naturism in a very mature way!)
Four Stars
Recipes for Gingerbread Children
by Michael Beyer
A very clever book. It is easier to describe in terms of ‘Not’
It is not a children’s book
It is not an adventure story
It is not a light and fluffy fairy tale
It is not a piece of naturist fiction.
But it is all of these things at times as Grandma Gretel weaves her tales for the children that come to her cottage for cookies and stories.
This book is most certainly well written. It delivers moral judgements with all the force of the Brothers Grimm.
Five Stars and the Read of the Month
Myths and Mortals (Numina Book 2)
Charlie N Holmberg
The second book in the three book Myths and Mortals series. Follows on directly from the end of book 1, with the heroine Sandis feeling betrayed by the male lead Rone.
I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first story, it was lacking in pace, with long periods of reflection by Sandis that I found ‘unsatisfactory’.
The action scenes are strong and the story arc is well planned but I felt that it had been padded-out and could have done with a few pages less. On the other hand I plan to read book 3 when it is published.
I was responding to a Twitter post about characters leading a story away from the original plot line and set out a flash fiction outline by way of an example.
Example
3 people in a lift. They have never met before today. they arrived for a job interview that turned out to be a series of tests.
They have been competing all day for 1 job, working as a team.
The lift stops Trapped
One opens a case for his phone a magazine falls out
“Oh ..
So the holder of the case becomes a woman, the phone vanishes and in a flash, you have
A Job in the City
A Job in the City Flash Fiction
From the first Tweet at 8:19 AM – 21 Apr 2019 to Posting to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing 12 noon – 22 Apr 2019
Faster than a flash of lightning or what?
Out on Amazon for Kindle Friday 26th April 2019
£0.99 or Free with #KindleUnlimited
I hope you enjoy the read and if you like it, please, leave a review. If you think it could be better … contact me directly
I have been binge reading again this time the very absorbing Glass and Steele books by CJ Archer. The story of India Steele, the Time Magician brought up in ignorance of her magic by her parents, who were frightened by the anti-magic power of the Craft Guilds. Her partner in crime (solving) Matt Glass, who is in turns a dead man given a second chance by magic, an American outlaw turned inlaw, the next Lord Ryecroft and the unattainable love of her life.
Set in roughly Victorian London , retaining a great sense of place, these almost cosy, murder and magic stories draw you in and keep you held as the next layer of multi-layered adversaries is revealed in the next book.
Fabulous series only slightly running out of steam by book 7.
Take your average wife, mum, breadwinner and tired old frump, struggling to keep her family housed and fed, in a job situation that is far from perfect, while her wanna be writer husband does very little. You have Penelope.
Her best friend, the perfect, lifestyle blogging millionairess Jenny suddenly dies. Revealing that things were not as they seem.
As a result, Penelope decides that she needs to get honest about her life … starting with her fading marriage.
It might not sound it but it is an entertaining read. Well developed characters and while it has no conventional plot it moves everyone forward through the pages.
Wilson has another murder to solve, that of an ex-Drug Squad officer. As ever there are tentacles that reach so much further and bring an extra dimension to the case.
Unlike so many ‘Wonder Cops’ Inspector Wilson is a team player. His team are his eyes and ears in the world. His boss gives him cover from above. He drinks but not to the excess of Rebus. He thinks but not to the depths of Morse. He has had failed relationships but is now in a fragile long term affair.
This is a series of truly great thrillers, I cannot recommend them highly enough
by Jack Dearborn (author), Ellen Dearborn (editor)
Just as you thought it was all going to be 5star reviews this month.
This tale of a private eye hired to find the Blackmailer who is trying to extort money from members of a naturist club falls a little flat. Miles manages to track down the blackmailer by asking the same questions, word for word often as not of all the members. He then goes home and recounts it all to his wife and partner Luann, verbatim. The one clever trick becomes a bit of a bore after the third telling too.
The lovely Lady Hardcastle and her faithful partner Florence are back on razzle-dazzle form in this latest offering.
A visiting cinema presentation brings murder and mayhem to the Village once again Lady Hardcastle puts it all together in the end.
Light, humorous and easy but I still think these are great well drawn and consistent characters. The two central stars being joined by a troop of lesser personages starting to develop into well rounded an interesting people bodes well for the next book in the series.
An enjoyable Little tale of a small-time newspaper reporter who, at his wife insistence sets off to resolve a mystery from his childhood. . He finally gets beneath the protective shell of his old home town. He is taken in hand by the local paper proprietor and the elderly librarian, both of whom are naturists, and uncovers a story of family and prejudice that slowly resolve to reveal more about the reporter than anything else.
Announcing the New Cover Art for the Rags to Riches Series
I have been fortunate to be given permission to use the images from Andrew Chambers to use as the cover art for the Rags to Riches (the Uncovered Policeman) books.
Andrew, who was the creative talent behind Chamber Cards and now runs Chambers Concrete, making concrete candle in Byfleet in the UK. Sounds whacky but take a look, I recommend them for that ‘awkward’ gift purchase. https://www.chambersconcrete.com/
So the New Covers
Starting with the original story ….
The Uncovered Policeman
We meet PC Adiscombe and he meets Beatrice Johnson
The Second Story
The Uncovered Policeman; Abroad
A holiday in the South of France … Hand luggage only?
![Hope for the Best (Chronicles of St. Mary's Book 10) by [Taylor, Jodi]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51lrfhowq7L.jpg)
![The Thirty Something Snap (2019 Revision) by [Helgasson, Alan]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51OuWhNLJwL.jpg)
![Recipes for Gingerbread Children by [Beyer, Michael]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51rYQ0Eqg4L.jpg)
![Myths and Mortals (Numina Book 2) by [Holmberg, Charlie N.]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Bu7DPRYvL.jpg)
![The Black Spitfire by [Oliver, Nicholas]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41GVZgVcFHL.jpg)
