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The Jevlir Caravansary

Category: Books

  • New Jevlir-Related Book: Stories of the Way

    Since I began publishing some of my “thinking” short stories on this blog, a number of people have suggested that I publish a collection. Well, how can a writer an publisher ignore such suggestions? I’ve done it! I’m embedding the press release below. It should be shipping December 5, 2011, and that means you can have a copy by Christmas. We should have a Kindle edition available within the week.

    As noted in the description, most of the stories are from this blog, though some have been edited. I did write two new stories, “The Juror’s Oath” and “The Magic Sword” specifically for this collection. I also added selected scripture readings and thought questions to each one for people who might want to use the material in discussions.

  • Tales from Jevlir Kindle Price Reduction

    I have reduced the price of the Kindle edition of Tales from Jevlir: Oddballs [publisher catalog page] to $0.99 from $2.99. Now such a price reduction could look desperate as a result of poor sales. Well, it’s not desperate, but it is due to poor sales. I didn’t expect too much, considering that most of the stories in the book come directly from this blog. Still, there are two stories you won’t have seen here. So now for just 99 cents you can have the collection on your Kindle.

  • Special Offer: Tales from Jevlir

    From now through the end of the year, I’m offering autographed copies (if you wish) of the book Tales from Jevlir for just $5.00 shipped.  That’s right!  Just $5, + sales tax if you live in Florida.  No other charges.  If you fill in the line about the autograph, letting me know who to autograph the book to, I’ll do it!

     

     

    Autograph


  • On Reading Bad Books – and What They Are

    I’m trying to get back to this blog, but paying work continues to intervene, and fiction writing is not paying work for me, nor is reviewing or commenting on fiction. I will get back to posting and even have some plans for some of my material elsewhere.

    That said, this morning I found a link from Martin LaBar of Sun and Shield to a post by Elizabeth Moon, Why “bad” books succeed. If I can summarize her post very briefly, I think she is saying that it’s because bad books are not entirely bad.

    And I would add that, of course, good books are not entirely good. For example, I read Ms. Moon’s books, and would definitely not call them “bad,” in fact, she is one of those authors I regularly read. Yet I sometimes dislike her battle descriptions and I was not too happy with the ending of Victory Conditions. But to all that I say, who cares? I read the books anyhow, and I like them. Sometimes when you’ve done enough reading you just feel like complaining about something.

    To make the same point again, I hate time travel, yet I read everything from the Dragonriders of Pern and other series by Anne McCaffrey that I can get my hands on. Why? Anne McCaffrey is simply in a class by herself as a story teller, and her characters draw you in and make you want to hear more about them.

    I think it’s fairly arrogant to tell other people what they ought to like in literature. I’ve been told I should like Dostoyevsky. I can’t stand him. All apologies to advocates of great literature. I’m going to miss that part of it. But are people who like his writing stupid? Do they have bad taste? In my opinion, they simply have tastes that differ from mine. In this case it might be that it is the social commentary and the ideas that drive them.

    Speaking of ideas, I like reading parts of Ayn Rand, but things like John Galt’s speech in Atlas Shrugged just turn me off as part of a novel. When I first read Atlas Shrugged I scanned the speech and then read it later when I was in the mood for some non-fiction.

    I wrote on this topic before in Defining Good Literature (Or Not), and the follow-up, So Are There Actually Standards in Literature.

    Enjoy. (Or not!)

  • Book: The Miracle at Speedy Motors

    I’m prepared to read just about anything Alexander McCall Smith writes. This whole series is charming–enchanting, even.

    The story this time centers a great deal around the office, with her secretary, or “Associate Detective” as she has become getting involved a great deal along with her fiance.

    I’m not one to tell much of the story, but Precious Ramotswe finds herself solving things in very unexpected ways, even when she’s intending to do something quite different.

    All I can say about the whole series is, “What’s not to like?”

  • Book: Hounded to Death

    I like Rita Mae Brown, and especially the mysteries that involve Sneaky Pie Brown. This was my first time reading from her series written around fox hunting.

    I guess I’m a cat person much more than a dog person, but I never really warmed up to the background in fox hunting. It just doesn’t resonate with me. In addition, the animals are less involved than they are in the books with Sneaky Pie.

    Nonetheless I still detect the skill of the other books, even though I didn’t warm to the background. Rita Mae Brown can paint the background and characters that draw you in with relatively few words. You quickly feel like you know the characters and you actually care what happens to them.

    I rate the book a three for myself, but I’m betting most mystery readers will rate it higher than that.

  • Book Notes: Cat in a Sapphire Slipper

    I’m a sucker for light reading that involves cats and mystery, so how could I possibly not enjoy Carole Nelson Douglas’s Midnight Louie mysteries?

    This latest book finds Max Kinsella missing and Temple Barr getting engaged to Matt Devine, while the Fontana brothers are all kidnapped, and generally all hell is breaking loose all over.

    The problem is to solve the mystery before everyone’s life is ruined, and this is accomplished in a most amusing manner in the required number of pages (396). This is pure fun, though I must say if you don’t like cats you may not like it all that well. Midnight Louie encounters an old flame, and we end up with four cats working on the mystery at once.

    What’s not to like?

  • Doing the Opposite

    I found this good suggestion at Fresh Fiction the other day.

    Now I’m not suggesting that you go out and do the opposite of whatever you’re doing, but I have found over the last couple of years that many of my own problems result from continuing to do the same thing even when it doesn’t actually work.

    In the case of Angie Fox, author of the post I cited, it was a matter of doing something nearly the opposite of what she had been. The result is that she has a new book coming out, The Accidental Demon Slayer. I know nothing about it but what she writes, but what’s important for writers is that it is published! For others, there may be some other goal.

    Now writing something different isn’t precisely the opposite of writing. But it’s still a big change. It’s a good suggestion!

  • Book: Victory Conditions

    I blogged about a previous volume in this series, Engaging the Enemy, and while I had complaints, I rated it a 4, because I will continue to go out and look for books by this particular author. Elizabeth Moon does good characterizations and her plot lines are generally interesting enough. I do not find her battle scenes all that engaging or well described. If you’re looking for David Weber style battle scenes, these don’t match up.

    Nonetheless, as I said last time, I have kept on reading the series, and while Elizabeth Moon is not on my top tier list (gotta have everything they write, NOW!), her name is a pretty good one to get me reading.

    [Spoiler alert]

    I found the ending of this book a bit anticlimactic. The final battle is not the best of the lot. I could summarize it as “there was a lot of shooting in space and then the good guys won.” The ending seems almost abrupt, one in which we’re told what happens to everyone sort of like those notes just before film credits telling you where each character ended up.

    [/spoiler]

    OK, so I will grab the next book by Moon anyhow, though this series is finished. I still rate the series a 4, but this final book is, I think, the least engaging of the series.

  • Book: Hand of Evil

    I’m back to J. A. Jance again with this fascinating novel of suspense and mystery. I like Jance’s characters and her ability to keep the suspense going whilst keeping you involved with those characters. The mystery is good, though I guessed most of it a bit too early for my test. I might well credit that to chance, however, because I don’t do that so frequently with her books.

    In Hand of Evil, Ali Reynolds finds herself drawn into multiple cases of extreme evil, with one case distracting her from the other. It’s not her intention to get into police business, but she does. Along the way she finds herself falling in love, largely unaware.

    This was my first Ali Reynolds book, and I need to go back and read something earlier. I’m also looking forward to the new Joanna Brady mystery, Damage Control, scheduled for August 1, 2008.