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The world market is open to all
With ebooks pushing into the book trade, all publishers enjoy the miracle of worldwide marketing without costly warehousing,
distribution and the tyranny of the bookshop chains. This Christmas, for instance, readers can download a serial hailed as “the best since Dickens”. Run Maggie Run, a digital title, wears its publisher’s
audacious boast with optimism.
It coincides with rivalry between several electronic reading devices that are competing for a place in festive stockings. In this marketing skirmish, content is a vital ingredient and Maggie’s spicy adventures are
available in all, or most, of the appliances.
The serial joins digital-format bestselling novels, and could outsell them if a trend favouring short texts continues. The Scots-Australian author, John Ivor, holds star rating for historical fiction from Darling Newspaper Press.
Ivor’s digital serial, following successful hardbacks and paperbacks, blends thrills, humour and outrageous characters.
“That is why we liken it to Charles Dickens,” said publishing executive Charles Bryce in Perth, Australia. “It is also interesting to recall that the Victorian novelist used serial form to popularise his novels.
“We have found that ebooks (electronic books) are particularly suited to short-span scrutiny, say text up to 6000 words. People are still coming to terms with reading on a screen even if it is hand-held. Our
short-stories sell well in digital format, mostly mystery and romance. We offer lengthy novels too, but these tend to lag compared to our traditional hardback and paperback sales.
“Thanks to the Internet, the essay has also made a comeback, although nowadays people call them blogs.”
Run Maggie Run begins with a heroine aged 9 sentenced to hang for murder in the 1830s. Her odyssey to womanhood begins in Scotland and culminates in The Great Southland, as Australia was then known.
The serial is one of the goodies nudging readers towards ebooks in the weeks to Christmas. These can be read on any computer screen, or on most hand-held designs. There are several appliances, such as Iliad
(British), Cybook (French), Sony (Japanese), Bebook (Dutch), and others. All have small individual differences. A planned launch in Britain of Amazon's Kindle, after success in the United States, has now been
postponed until "at least next year".
Internet retailers heavily into ebooks, and easy to access and search, include Mobipocket, Cyber Read, Ebook Crescent, Books on Board, and many more that can be found via Google.
Good stories and recommended reads from the world of books
NOT NECESSARILY FAST SELLERS, THEIR APPEAL IS EVERLASTING.
Scarlet Stiletto, The First Cut brings crime fans the best in short fiction. See below.
Great Land of Dreams
is about an individual beating impossible odds in her odyssey to womanhood. John Ivor’s novel is intelligent, literary and entertaining. Details below.
Goodnight Britannia, ha ha ha.
It’s great to find a yarn with lots of humour, and Bryce McBryce does it well with the British Raj at its peak in prewar Sri Lanka. See Wee Charlie’s World, below.
Publishers!
Free book promotion is here. Booktaste.com gives free space for authors or their publishers to promote a book. We particularly welcome smallpress and self-published fiction. Click here for details.
Readers! Browse the good titles below.
 Bloodstone Castle
, by Mirella Patzer. isbn 978-0-9784865-2-5 Paperback 264pp. Medieval romance. Not just a book. Castle and characters are vividly illustrated at www.bloodstonecastle.blogspot.com There are also ebook and audio and ITunes versions of this gripping tale. In Italy’s most dazzling and
dangerous age, the heroine’s bloodstone pendant is key to a hidden treasure. Since childhood she has been promised in marriage to a villainous duke, who
is desperate to gain the riches. But a rival suitor has sworn to heal a family feud by winning her hand. She’s trapped between obligation and honour.
Read an extract.
To buy: At all major online booksellers or your local bookshop. Published by Enspiren Press. Author’s website www.mirellapatzer.com
 OUTCASTS OF SKAGARAY, by Andrew Clarke is thrilling fantasy by a history teacher inspired by ancient Norse and Orkney myth. It’s a powerful
story, well written, in which love, faith and courage prevail against the rule of evil. It is original in concept and fast paced.
Read an extract.
To purchase. In Australia Au$16.50 + p&h www.threeswans.com.au
US residents check your Christian bookstore or www.amazon.com
UK readers www.amazon.co.uk
Author contact: andrew@threeswans.com.au
SCARLET STILETTO. The First Cut. Lindy Cameron (Ed). Mira Books. 358pp
paperback, isbn 9781741165562. These 26 superb crime fiction tales from Australia include the prize winne rs after 13 years of the Sisters in Crime group, Australia. http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz/ Sisters in Crime is actually worldwide, originating in the US, http://www.sistersincrime.org/
The Australian collection is a particular delight and serves up terror, enigma and chuckles in varying voices and styles. All the authors are women and
some of their ideas are breathtakingly original. In quality the stories match the world’s best crime writing.
To buy: Ask any bookshop.
 LEGS. The human face of the Tour de France
by Liz Cochrane. ISBN: 978-1906018-12-2.
The Tour de France turns nasty. A fatal crash is just the first of a series of
shocks. Rumours fly. Does the man in the Yellow Jersey have a criminal past? TV commentator Jo Bonnard accuses the man she believes to be the
villain behind all the trouble. But her error could have tragic consequences.
Read an extract.
To purchase: www.originalwriting.ie
Author contact lizmrc@yahoo.com
 Duking Days Rebellion, by Anita Davison. Historical romance, 271pp. The daughter of a rebel English noble is caught in the turmoil as King Charles II’s reign ends. Soldiers ransack the estate, then the Crown confiscates it. She
flees to London after the Battle of Sedgemoor, but King James wants revenge on all who opposed him. The traitor's daughter is never safe.
Publisher: Enspired Press.
Read an extract.
To purchase: www.lulu.com
Author’s website www.anitadavison.co.uk
 Tangled Hearts, by Rosemary Morris. Historical romance, 186pp. Available
as paperback or ebook. Penniless heroine fights for life and love in the turbulent reign of Queen Anne. The parson’s son is not all he seems, while
an arranged marriage threatens her freedom. She seeks a legendary treasure in order to reclaim her ancestral home.
Publisher: Enspired Press, www.enspirenpress.com
Read an extract.
Author’s website www.rosemarymorris.co.uk
The Twisting Vine, by Margaret Muir, captures Yorkshire in the 1890s and its splendid  settings. Falling to temptation, Lucy steals an expensive French doll from her dying mistress and sets in motion, over 25 years, cruel twists of Fate and fluctuating fortunes for herself and her son.
Publisher: Robert Hale, 224pp hardback.
Read an extract.
To purchase: www.amazon.co.uk
Author’s website: www.margaretmuirauthor.com
The Massacre at Fall Creek, by Jessamyn West., 373pp hardback. Written 1975, this and  other Jessamyn West stories are available for $1 at www.abebooks.com
It relates a murder trial that divides a god-fearing community. It tackles
honour, treachery, hypocrisy, ambition, but mostly the emotions of a sturdy heroine. As an entertaining chronicler of the Old West, Jessamyn West is rated by some as better than Mark Twain. She’s best known for The Friendly
Persuasion which became a film starring Gary Cooper.
Sea Dust, by Margaret Muir, 399pp hardback (Thorpe/Ulverscroft).
 Desperate to escape from her cruel husband, in Whitby, 1856, Emma stows
away on a ship bound for Africa. Disaster awaits when the ship arrives at Cape Town. The author pulls no punches in portraying the dark side of family life and the lives of people bound by the sea.
Read an extract.
To purchase: www.amazon.co.uk
Author’s website: www.margaretmuirauthor.com
RAGE by Simon Conway, Hodder & Stoughton hb 338pp,
 isbn 0340839635, also in paperback isbn 0340839643
A former soldier, the author wrote this thriller in 2006, when heading a non-profit organisation to clear landmines left in previous war zones. Not
just a page-turner, it is literature for our violent age. The descriptions of war-torn Iraq are by a born writer, the insights informative, the revelations
shocking. The plot returns a British ex-combat soldier to the area as a UN observer in 2003, only days before the US invasion after the 9/11 atrocity.
He is drawn into a ruthless world of corruption where life is cheap and the truth deadly.
 FOLLOWING THE GAME, by John Cailes. (Prestige Books, isbn
1-7551-148-6, paperback 160pp).
sjc@tadaust,org,au
Currently Au$15.95 + postage.
Nineteen short stories of varying length, each one having little in common
with its neighbours. They have reference to thoughts that over the years have dwelt their moment in the author's mind. They range from the comic to
the tragic to downright cruel. There's a ghost story, a fantasy, a satire and at the end a cautionary tale.
Read an extract.
BRO DIE McHAGGIS and the secret of Loch Ness, by Helen Campbell. Children’s fiction, 176pp paperback. Humans are just a myth in the haggis world but
Brodie sets out to find one, befriending a young girl. With haggis on the menu at a Burns Supper, Brodie has to escape without revealing the secret of
the Loch Ness Monster. Brodie meets a host of exciting characters. Full details are at www.brodiemchaggis.com
Read an extract.
To purchase: www.chloepublishing.com
Author’s website: www.hcampbell.com
SCARLET ANGEL, by Peggy Graham. Hardcover 466pp.
The story of Silvie Marsh and her effects on the lives of four men who love her, and the two women  who hate her. At 20,
to take her invalid mother and her young sister from a shabby London street scarred by the Blitz, she chooses a desperate path. The cost is devastating.
Emotional conflict stalks in the following years. It’s a stirring read.
Read an extract.
Direct purchase www.ulverscroft.com or ulver@ozemail.com.au
FAC E VALUE, by Peggy Graham. Crime suspense, hardcover 368pp. Set in 1955
England. An inheritance and a grand house become reason for murder. From New York come a supposed niece of the aged owner, and the sinister James.
Involved against them is the old lady’s gardener-chauffeur, just out of jail and determined to go straight.
Read an extract.
Purchase at www.ulverscroft.com or email
ulver@ozemail.com.au
 WEE CHARLIE’S WORLD, by Bryce McBryce. Adult fiction paperback original, 196 pages of chuckles involving the delightful misadventures of a
boy in the twilight of the British Empire. In a far fortress, in 1930s Ceylon, conflict between the brat and the Commanding Officer fuel the fun. Charlie
is a thinker, forever battling Life’s monsters and trying to understand the baffling ways of the adult world.
Read an extract.
Credit card purchase UK: amazon.co.uk
US: cafepress.com/danpress
Publisher direct (Australia), by cheque: danpress@optusnet.com.au
 THE DEVIL’S OASIS, by Bartle Bull. African adventurers take to the battlefields of North Africa in the early days of World War II. Old friends
become enemies, a white hunter is co-opted to foil Rommel’s drive on Cairo. It’s well researched on battle strategies and the character conflict is excellent.
The opening.
Credit card purchase via Amazon, paperback or hardback.
SHORT TRIPS – tales that entertain,compiled by Bryce McBryce. Paperback original in large print,  232 pages. It includes 13 stories that vary in theme, voice and location.There’s
humour, crime, adventure, romance and family interest. Each plot is character driven. This is just the thing to begin your day or for bus, train or plane.
Read an extract.
Credit card purchase UK: amazon.co.uk
US:
cafepress.com/bookpress
Publisher direct (Australia), by cheque: danpress@optusnet.com.au
GREAT LAND OF DREAMS, by John Ivor. 352pp perfect binding paperback. Historical fiction set  in 1830s. On the run from Scotland’s hangman, Maggie joins British gentry who set out to create “a second America” in the wilderness of Western Australia. With class barriers strictly enforced, they see it as an Eden for enlightened
gentlefolk. Deceit and murder rule instead. Maggie crusades for justice in the new land. This compelling novel has literary overtones and is based on factual events.
Read the opening.
Credit card purchase: amazon.co.uk or booksurge.com
PARA HANDY TALES, by Neil Munro. Rarely listed now, these humour classics have delighted three  generations and rank with Wodehouse, Waugh and John Mortimer’s Rumpole series. The peculiar ways of the Scots and their abuse of the English
language leave a pleasurable glow when applied by Neil Munro. Originally a series in Glasgow’s Evening News, the books involve a Clyde coal boat and its crew. Email publisher direct info@birlinn.co.uk. Also, as pictured here, there’s a Pan collection of all three books, 384pp and great value (secondhand) at www.abebooks.com. Munro’s humour is also found in
“Erchie, My Droll Friend” (a Glasgow waiter) and “Jimmy Swan” (travelling salesman).
FATHER IN A FIX, by Neil Boyd. More rare humour from the past is the “Bless Me Father” series that  became a television favourite. The cover pictured here is a Corgi
paperback, 272pp. These titles are still available and it’s worth doing a search for the best secondhand deal at www.abebooks.com
The fun involves a naive young curate, an irascible, lovable, old Irish priest,
and their housekeeper known as “that blarney-tongued woman who could blast a tree just by talking to it”. The author based these stories on his own experiences as a Roman Catholic priest.
THE IDEAL WIFE, by Geraldine McCaughrean.An evergreen entertainment, historically informative  and fuelled by character conflict. In 1790s England, a wealthy gentleman adopts two foundling girls to raise and educate in his own unique beliefs. He
intends to eventually choose which one to wed. As they grow to womanhood the girls compete for him with increasing venom. Intransigent ideals cause betrayal and tragedy. Published by Richard Cohen Books, London.
Read the opening.
Credit card purchase: amazon.co.uk
This prolific, award-winning author writes for children too. Her website: www.geraldinemccaughrean.co.uk
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