Now that the last day of 2023 is upon us, I’d like to wish everyone a safe, joyous, prosperous and healthy new year.
Happy 2024, everyone!
The past few weeks have been extremely busy, hence the lack of weekly posts. During the twenty-one days of the Xmas market, I sold 127 autographed copies of my books. Meanwhile, Sylvia sold almost 200 copies of her laminated poetry sheets and book marks. In addition, a dozen of her poetry books found new homes.
During the past ten days, our son visited from Washington, D.C. Although a short visit, it’s always great to have him with us. We miss him already!
Motorists received good news at the pumps during this period as there was another decrease in gasoline (petrol) prices, with a further six pence shaved off the price to £1.36 a liter. However, with the current exchange rate, the equivalent price of a U.S. gallon dropped twenty-six cents to $6.54. Meanwhile, diesel dropped a penny a liter to £1.44, a decrease of seven pence per liter, but with the exchange rate, this actually led to a decrease of thirty cents a gallon to $6.92.
“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time–proof that humans can work magic.”
― Carl Sagan. Compliments of https://www.inc.com/glenn-leibowitz/50-quotes-from-famous-authors-that-will-inspire-yo.html.
I received good news on Friday.
Ultimate Escalation, which is competing for the 2023 
Chanticleer International Global Thriller Book Awards, has move from the long list to the short list. There’s still a long way to go in the competition, the semi-finals, the finals, the announcement of the seven first in category winners, and the genre grand prize winner. The final results won’t be announced until 20 April 2024 at the annual Chanticleer Authors’ Conference, but I’ll keep posting updates as Ultimate Escalation moves through the competition.
So who was born on this date in history? Let’s find out who in the writing world was born on December 31st, the fourth and final Sunday of the month and of 2023. (Compliments of https://www.onthisday.com/birthdays/).
Andreas Vesalius, Flemish physician and anatomist (De humani corporis fabrica); Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer (Anaconda, El Crimen del Otro)physician and anatomist (De humani corporis fabrica); Silvio Antoniano, Italian cardinal and theologist (Tre libri); Marie d’Agoult (Daniel Stern), French author (Knife); Giovanni Pascoli, Italian classicist & poet; Alfredo Panzini, Italian author (Dizionario Moderno); Lawrence Beesley, English journalist and author; Jacob Israël de Haan, Dutch poet/writer (Pipelines, Jewish Song); Max Lamberty, Flemish sociologist & author (Flemish Resurrection); Tadeusz Breza, Polish writer (The Bronze Gate); Dal Stivens, Australian novelist; Taylor Mead, American writer, actor and performer (Factory, Taylor Mead’s Ass); Dieter Noll, German writer (Die Abenteuer des Werner Holt); Veijo Meri, Finnish writer; Bob Shaw, Northern Irish sci-fi author (Light of Other Days, The Ragged Astronauts); Xavier Chamorro Cardenal, Nicaraguan journalist and newspaper editor (La Prensa; El Nuevo Diario); Edward Bunker, American Crime novelist (No Beast So Fierce; Animal Factory), actor (Straight Time; Reservoir Dogs), screenwriter, and felon; Rolf Haufs, German writer; Nicolas Born, German writer; Ellen Datlow, American editor; Susan Shwartz, American author; Nicholas Sparks, American author (The Notebook); and Junot Díaz, Dominican-American writer and professor (The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao – Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2008).
Any names familiar to you? There weren’t any for me this time. 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
During the Xmas market, I penned chapters 22-30 of Mission: Yemen, Xavier Sear Thriller Book 2. Now I have to type up the chapters and post them to the two online subscription writing sites I use. The challenge will be to decipher my writing!
Reviewers provided another sixteen critiques, bringing the total to 442. As always, they’ve provided plenty of recommendations for me to consider, and I’m always appreciative of the time and effort people put into reviewing my work.
I’ll resume posting snippets next time.
I’m continuing to work on the new project as a co-author with Michael Maxwell, the author of over thirty novels. The tentative title is The Great Rebellion – Finn Harding Book One. It’s a romantic alternate history of the American Civil War. I did add more to a new chapter four when time permitted at the Xmas market and hope to finalize it soon.
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 2023 Randall Krzak. All rights reserved
Betrayal. Its now posted on the two online subscription writing sites I use.