Note; all links on this blog will take you through to Goodreads

May 2022

Posted on March 2022

Although this blog has seen little action over the past couple of months, that doesn’t mean nothing has been going on - I only have one pair of hands and a set amount of time! Unfortunately, I am still struggling with the after effects of my wife’s death in May of last year (see November posting). Yes, all the official bodies are oh so sympathetic, but they are also oh so totally useless at actually getting on with anything. So I am still fighting red tape and regrettably this is both taking my time and is demoralising to boot, which is impacting on my writing. However, in spite of the foregoing, I have managed to finish the first drafts of The Tunnel and The Road; the first two parts of my modern adaption of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Both will require a fair amount of editing of course. I have also made a tentative start on the third part of this project, The Bridge.

Although some recent promotions did fairly well, bringing in both sales and reviews, I am still looking for serious reviewers, those who will post a review on Amazon. So if any serious reviewers are reading this and would like to review any of my books, please get in touch and we’ll get something arranged.

I’ll probably get another promotion going before too long, so keep watching, particularly Twitter, as it is so much more reliable than FaceBook. Unfortunately, while all the stuff mentioned above is still hanging over me, it is difficult to make plans.

Thanks for your continued support and enjoy your reading.

Posted on 4 December 2021

"The Red Grouse Tales; The Little Dog and other stories," has just received a Literary Titan Book Award. The Red Grouse Tales Perhaps needless to say, I am pretty pleased about this. It has also been receiving a good lot of very favourable reviews as well, which I am also pleased about!
I am sure you are bored with authors banging on about "Please post a review", but reviews are the only feedback we authors get from readers, and are the only way curious readers can find an impartial opinion of a book. So please do post a review (both here on Goodreads and also on Amazon). Thank you.

Posted on 2 November 2021

Following the success of last months promotions, I have decided to run another this month, only this time with my Book Excellence Award winning book The Ghost Moth .

For the whole of the month it will be reduced in price from $4.80 / £3.50 to just $0.99 / £0.70.

And why am I doing this for an award winning book when I am not going to make any money from it? Well, says I optimistically, I am hoping for reviews. Yes, I know readers are keen to give ratings, however many are not so keen on giving reviews and it is reviews that writers need as it is these which influence Amazon ratings. A review need only be a single sentence, or less than that - a couple of words will do - but a review counts as a review, in this algorithm age. So please, I need your reviews! And The Ghost Moth is a good read; the Book Excellence Awards think so, as do the reviewers who have left reviews here on Goodreads, as do over 4,500 readers who have given it an average rating of 4.3 stars! So treat yourself to a bargain and me to a review! Thanks.

You have probably noticed that my posting of blogs has been poor this year. My wife was diagnosed with cancer in July last year. She had an operation which we were told was successful but her health started declining at an alarming rate in January and she died in May. Throughout this period, my writing, blog posting, etc., all had to go on the back burner while I looked after her. Since her death I have been sorting out her funeral, burial and legal matters. Although there is still a bit to do, I am now back in the UK and trying to pick up where I had to leave off at the spring of this year. Hvile i fred, Aud.

Writing wise; I have made a reasonable start on the first two parts of a trilogy. I have yet to start the third part. Whether it will be published as a trilogy or one large 'brick' in three parts, I haven't decided yet. Publication will be a way off yet - back-end of next year, if I am lucky? I have also a couple of new Red Grouse Tales on the boil, so who knows, I might get one of them published in the meantime?

I thank you all for your continued support and hope you continue to enjoy my stories.

Posted on 1 May 2021

Posted on 1 January 2021

Oh goodness! What a year 2020 has been? I am sure that most of us will be hard-pushed to think of anything positive to have come out of it, but, as unlikely as it seems, there is always something positive to be found in every situation. I hope you can find something.

In my case I published [book:The Ghost Moth, which seems to have gone down a storm with many of you as it now has over 4000 ratings with an average of 4.3 stars. My thanks to all who have read, rated and reviewed. And these ‘thanks’ are not just for the rating and reviewing of my books, but to all of you who rate and review others author’s work as well. What use would Goodreads be to any of us if you did not rate and review the books you’ve read? So please, keep doing it – and don’t forget Amazon as well, because not all in the reading community are members of Goodreads; compared to the readers in the entire world, we are quite a select group!

I appreciate that many of you reading this don’t live in the UK and so will not know what living through the madness of Brexit has been like. The whole of the UK has been almost paralysed for the past three years, and it looks as if this madness is due to continue. Even a government ardent Brexiteer, Michael Gove, when asked on the radio to name an advantage to British business, could only come up with, and I paraphrase, “they will get used to filling in reams of paperwork and dealing with all the additional hassle necessary for trading with the rest of the world!” What a fantastic advantage? No wonder we ordinary folk wonder what planet politicians live on.

However, in spite of all this business of ‘Britain shooting itself in the foot’, on a personal note, my wife and I did manage, at last, to sell our house. Unfortunately, other events overtook us and we were still unable to make our desired move last year, so we had to rent and now hope to complete our move later this year. So, we have had a topsy-turvy year which I hope explains why I have been and still am unable to publish The Ghost Moth and The Bat in paperback. I intend to get on with both as soon as we are settled and not ‘living out of suitcases’.

Rest assured however, I am not sitting twiddling my thumbs and am getting on with what I can. Work on another Red Grouse Tale, The Frog, is continuing. It is going a little slowly at present as I have made a fairly serious start on a new, what I hope will be, trilogy; The Tunnel, The Road and The Bridge. These three stories will be drawing on my civil engineering past and so I hope the engineering element will be factually correct even if the actual stories themselves will be complete works of fiction! I am currently working on the opening chapters of the first two, as I am hoping that by writing both at the same time I will establish the same tone in each and hence a continuity between them. I might well get going on the third fairly soon, for exactly the same reason. When will they be finished? I have no idea, though I strongly suspect it will not be this year. I will try to finish The Frog, and so hopefully will be able to let you have that later this year.

That’s enough from me. I wish you all the best for 2021. Let’s hope it is a much better one than the one just gone.

With Best Wishes,

Leslie

Posted on 22 October 2020

Well, we have moved and from the fact that you can read this posting you'll know that my Internet connection is now up and running. I won't try and pretend that all is 'back to normal' because it isn't. There are still an awful lot of boxes of 'stuff' piled up for that to be so! However, we are making progress.

A plus point of taking a bit of time out from writing is that it allows one to think. This break has allowed me to come up with an idea for a trilogy of books. The general themes of the first two are now in my head, but the third is eluding me at present. However, as I expect all three will be novels, with any luck I'll have sorted out 'Number 3' whilst writing 'Numbers 1 & 2' I've also got a novella to finish and another one at the planning stage. So more than enough to keep me busy!

The Ghost Moth continues to make steady sales and attract favourable ratings, which is gratifying.

Thanks to Wanda B. for her lovely five star review of The Red Grouse Tales

All eight Red Grouse Tale books remain FREE on Kindle Unlimited - so hopefully there is something for everyone! I hope you enjoy them and, as just said, that it won't be too long before I can get round to completing and publishing the next one.

Posted 5 October 2020

Things have been absolutely chaotic in September and this has drifted into October. Not only have we been moving house, but right at the same time some personal issues hit us as well. The result is that instead of making our planned move, we are having to make a temporary one; namely to rent a place for a few months and try again next year. Books have had to take a back seat, as has writing. So if you don't hear much from me, I have not gone away, but am just taking some time out until life gets back to something like normality.

All eight Red Grouse Tale books remain FREE on Kindle Unlimited - so hopefully there is something for everyone! Reviews of any will be most welcome, particularly Amazon reviews. I hope you enjoy them and that it won't be too long before I can get round to completing and publishing the next one.

Posted 21 August 2020

It was pleasing to see how many of you were interested in downloading The Blue Horse at the beginning of this month and nice to see that the ratings and reviews are starting to come in.

Like all authors, I can't stress how much these mean to us. a) they let us know that you like our work and so that we are not wasting our time writing something that no one has an interest in! and b) your opinion is far more valuable to a curious reader than ever the author's will be. There is no need to wax lyrical if you don't wish to; a simple "great story," "couldn't put it down," etc., will do just fine. And please, please, post your review on Amazon if you can. I know Goodreads gives the impression that is is home for the world's readers, but it isn't. We are a pretty select band when compared to the readers of the world. So please post on Amazon if you can. Thanks.

This brings me on to The Ghost Moth which appears to be going down very well - I even have 27 likes for my review of my own book! Terrific! Keep them coming - and ratings and reviews are continuing to pour in. I am so glad that so many of you like this book as I was a little concerned that perhaps it was a touch too contoversial.

As a special one-off I am putting The Ghost Moth on a FREE DOWNLOAD on Monday 31 August. When you have read it, please spread the word and review it.

Thanks for your interest in my books and for all your ratings and reviews.

All are FREE on Kindle Unlimited and many are available at only £0.99 as ebooks.

Posted 10 July 2020

Posted 15 June 2020

Firstly, a BIG THANK YOU to all who have posted reviews or ratings of my books here on Goodreads. As a result of your efforts I now have over 840 of them giving an average of 4.26 stars, which is very pleasing. (As a little aside, don't be afraid to post on Amazon if you can - not everyone is a member of Goodreads, we are a rather select band!)

Secondly, at last, I think, I have finished editing the Ghost Moth. It is being read at the moment. If anyone reading this blog is interested in reading and reviewing, please get in touch and, if after reading the blurb you are still interested, I'll arrange an ARC for you. This would be conditional on posting reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads. For those who would like a peek at the cover, this is now viewable on my web site http://www.lesliegarland.com

Thirdly, some of you may have noticed that my old cover designs are showing up occasionally. I have no idea why this is happening, have contacted Goodreads about it, but haven't had a satisfactory answer yet. So the problem remains unresolved.

Fourthly, keep your eye on this blog for some other news which might be breaking at the back end of next week.

Happy reading.

Posted January 2020

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all and I hope you had a great Christmas. Doesn't it all seem like such a long time ago now? Anyway, here we are in January and the days are getting noticably longer.

I have to admit that I really do wonder what these authors who blog every week, not to mention those who blog every day, actually have to say. My life, like yours I expect, simply plods along. There are the occassional high points which are worth a mention, but they don't come every week!

However, one such is my first 5 star review for The Blue Horse . Many thanks Debbie Viscosi.

And another was a great 5 star review of The Red Grouse Tales from Grady Harp. Many thanks.

The Bat is proving to be extremely popular. So thanks to all of you who have added it to your reading lists. I hope you enjoy the tale.

At this time last year I had hoped to have my first novel, The Ghost Moth, just about finished. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out. I realised that I needed a bit of a rewrite of sections of it and as we are still, yes still, trying to move house, knew that I would not be able to give it the necessary concentration - trying to pull things together throughout the length of a book requires that one has to hold a lot in one's head - and so I have temporarily shelved it and concentrated on smaller tasks, such as finishing off The Blue Horse and continuing with another Red Grouse Tale called The Frog - more news in due course!

Thanks to you all for your continued support. As the Norwegian philosopher Arne Ness said, “The best aspect of a book is not the thoughts it contains, but the thoughts it unleashes,” so I hope my "Tales" continue to unleash your thoughts and keep you entertained.

Links to Goodreads;

The Little Dog
The Golden Tup
The Crow
The White Hart
The Red Grouse Tales
The Bat
The Blue Horse

Posted 20 Februrary 2020