It’s been a fairly dry week, with a lot more sunshine, especially yesterday. With the UK celebrating the Queen’s platinum jubilee this weekend, Mother Nature seems to tweaked the weather to make the thousands of street parties more enjoyable.
I’ve been back at the monthly small business market the past two days . Ten of my novels sold, while two of Sylvia’s poetry books were purchased, along with eleven of her poetry sheets. Today’s the final day for the month, so hopefully it’ll be a good one.
Over the past week, the price of petrol jumped another two pence a liter. Now it’s up to £1.73, which makes it the equivalent of $8.34 for a U.S. gallon at the current exchange rate. This is a jump of thirty-four cents a gallon since last week.
Here’s this week’s quote (Compliments of http://www.wisdomquotesandstories.com/):
“The worst part about being strong is that no one ever asks if you’re okay.”
So who was born on this date in history? Let’s find out who in the writing world was born on June 5th, the first Sunday of the month:
Bernardino Baldi, Italian mathematician and writer; Pu Songling, Qing Dynasty Chinese writer (Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio); Cláudio Manuel da Costa, Brazilian poet; John Maynard Keynes, English economist whose ideas changed the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics; Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (Manservant and Maidservant); Raden Mas Noto Soeroto, Javanese poet (Melatiknoppen); Federico Garcia Lorca, Spanish poet and dramatist (Blood Wedding); Hugo Huppert, Austrian writer and poet; Rolf Bongs, German writer; Alfred Kazin, American writer and literature critic (The Inmost Leaf); Richard Scarry, American children’s author and illustrator (What Do People Do All Day?); Cornelius Ryan, Irish war reporter and historian (Bridge too Far); Otto F. Walter, Swiss writer and publisher (Walter Verlag); Alifa Rifaat, Egyptian writer; Christy Brown, Irish novelist (My Left Foot, Down All the Days); Margaret Drabble, British author (Needle’s Eye); Ann Craft, British researcher and writer and disabilities advocate (NAPSAC); Matthew Lesko, American author; David Hare, English playwright and director (Plenty, The Hours, The Reader); Ken Follett, Welsh spy author (Eye of the Needle, Lie Down with Lions); J. J. Bittenbinder, American television host and author; Suze Orman, American financial advisor, author and TV personality and author (The Suze Orman Show); Margo Lanagan, Australian author; and Rick Riordan, American author (Percy Jackson & the Olympians).
Any names familiar to you? There were two for me: Jon Maynard Keynes and Ken Follet. Whether you recognize anyone on the list or not, if today’s your special day I hope you have a great one!
My Work in Progress
Work continued this week on my next WIP, Frozen Conquest. The third chapter has been posted to the two online subscription writing site I use. So far, the three chapters have received forty-one reviews, some from long-standing reviewers while others came from new people.
Here’s the next snippet:
A wheeze escaped from Brown as he clutched a hand to his chest. He reached into a drawer with the other, rummaging for his nitroglycerin pills. Where are they?
His shaking hand found the elusive bottle. With agonizing slowness, he forced the cap from the top and placed two pills under his tongue. Before long, his chest relaxed. Damn inconvenient getting old.
He picked up his glass and took another sip of his whiskey. Ah, the elixir of life. If some French nun made it to 117 drinking a glass of wine each day, why can’t I have my favorite beverage?
Brown took a final sip before turning back to his computer. He reread his message and clicked on send. And so it begins. Who will be the first to crack? Not the British—too stoic. America? A possibility. He clicked his fingers. My money’s on the French.
Enjoying the sound of his own voice, he began uttering his thoughts. “So what should my demands be? The G20 is unable to get climate change under control. Perhaps if I confiscate the G7’s gold stockpiles and share them with less wealthy nations to get climate change promises underway? Perhaps push them to provide the rarest diamonds and artwork, either from private collections or museums and banks?”
Brown stood and gazed out the window at the shimmering ocean. “Problem is, I don’t really need anything, but I crave all the power the G7 controls. As my father used to say, ‘Power is everything. Without it, you’re nothing.’”
His phone rang, interrupting his train of thought. He scowled and picked it up. “What?”
“Mister Brown, this is Pierre. I wondered what you would like for dinner this evening and at what time?”
“Hmm.” Brown tapped his fingers on the desk. “Mexican—not what you made last time, even my dog wouldn’t eat it. Order in—for 8 p.m. Make it for two—you will join me. Perhaps you can learn from the experience.”
“But, sir, I have a late-night date.”
“So? Cancel it. What’s more important? A private and personal life or taking care of my dietary needs?”
“But … but …”
“No excuses, Pierre. If you’re not in the dining room when the food arrives and I’m ready to eat, I suggest you pack your bags. You won’t find another job in this city as a chef—I promise you. “Brown hung up and sighed. “So hard to get good help.”
More next time.
The editing process is going well on Ultimate Excalation. I completed my third edit pass through the manuscript, which now stands at 78,034 words.
I sent the manuscript to my beta readers on Wednesday and requested their feedback by July 10th. Depending upon their feedback, I’ll be submitting it to my publisher the beginning of August.
In the meantime, I’m taking a week or so off from looking at the manuscript before I start my fourth edit pass. I still want to check for missing or incorrect punctuation, misspelled or incorrect words, and make any adjustments if I think something needs a tweak.
Book Promotions
My novels are participating in four Bookfunnel promotions this month:
THE USUAL SUSPECTS: Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense Reads group promo. There are 171 novels to choose from:
https://books.bookfunnel.com/b…
THE COLOR OF Action: Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense, and Sci-Fi & Fantasy with 18 novels to choose from:
https://books.bookfunnel.com/t…
Summer Chills and Kills: A Kindle Promotion: There are 84 novels to choose from:
https://books.bookfunnel.com/s…
Thriller, Mystery & Suspense group promo. Another 70 novels in this one.
https://books.bookfunnel.com/t…
This brings us to an end for another week. I hope you found something of interest. If you have any suggestions for a topic you’d like to read about, please let me know. Until the next time, thank you for reading and hope you drop in again.
© Copyright 2022 Randall Krzak. All rights reserved
