I’m talking about myself here. I’ve just published the latest Victorian mystery in my ongoing series of novels set, in this case, in 1892. You can find ‘Follow the Van’ by following that link. [Btw: the link is to Amazon.com, if you’re in the UK, then change the .com to .co.uk, otherwise it will tell you the book isn’t available. The same goes for other countries, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain… wherever you are.]

The first of the three series starts in 1888 with the hunt for the East End Ripper and the characters and story develop from there through 11 books and into series two. There, you find seven books, new characters coming and going but the core team remains strong, and that series then ends with a massive treasure hunt. Meanwhile, series three has been set up, and now, I am starting to write book four of that series. These are all fun mysteries under my pen name, and you can find all the books on my second Amazon page here.

I’ve got another Amazon author page under my real name, and that’s where you can find much earlier books and my Symi collection, as advertised over there on the right of this page. I’m lucky in that many people who go to read both authors are people who’ve been to Symi, who we have met and who I know, but I am also pleased to say I have many readers from all around the world. That might make me sound terribly popular and doing rather well, but that’s not always the case – being popular I mean. Or doing rather well, come to that, but now, my 40 + books pay for their own publishing, so at least I’m not losing out.

I’ve often been asked how I publish my own works on Amazon, and it’s surprisingly simple when you know how. However, the process takes too long to explain in any one article or blog post, or even conversation. If you’re interested to read about the basics, and see a quick summary of how I go about publishing, then check out the article I wrote for my other blog:

http://jacksonmarsh.com/self-publishing-how-i-do-it/

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with the above random photos of Symi which don’t reflect today’s weather, which is cloudy and windy, though not overly cold. Still, a day for staying in and feeling lazy. Once I’ve written the next chapter.

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It was something of a lovely day yesterday. A little writing, a walk, a birthday dinner with the boys, much eating and making merry, perfect. And now, back to normal and onwards, except a few pounds heavier, and with a volume of Schubert sonatas to work through, to go along with the Chopin sonatas I collected in Rhodes recently. Plenty of piano work for me to be getting on with. Thank you everyone who sent birthday wishes, and thank you to my glorious husband for making a grand piano out of chocolate and putting it on a cake first made for Franz Joseph of Austria (who appears in one of my novels), and to Jenine and Sam for cooking me a pie that had mashed potato beneath the crust (no, honestly, and it was delish), and to Harry for the endless entertainment at my dinner last night.

Meanwhile, I’m, hearing more about who is getting ready to open for Easter (which isn’t until May 5th) and for the season, there are rumours that this might be happening and that definitely will, and she’s going to be doing this and he’s not going to be doing that this year, but will be doing the other instead, and so on and so forth. What I do know, because I read the sign on the door, is that up here in the village, Taverna Zoi is looking for staff, so if you fancy a summer job…

Mind you, you’d have to be from an EU country as Brits can no longer work in Greece without a specific and hard-to-get visa, and the days of working your summer in return for a party life when not at work are over. Makes you wonder how the clubs of Faliraki — and other places once popular with the late teen early twenties crowd who came to give out flyers all summer, drink cheap booze and cackle their way to a good vomit — will manage. Ah well, it must be that now they only employ casual staff from other EU countries. I have no idea how I got into this subject, but I’m getting off it now as I have some typing that needs to be done and it’s already a quarter to eight.

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It’s a lovely day out there today, so I may well do some more of this…

That’s after I do some of this…

TWO

Delamere House
October 1892

William Reginal Merrit sat upright in his bed and made a decision. Today, for the first time in his life, he would put his left foot on the floor before his right.

Yesterday, we did some of this…

Followed by a couple of hours of this…

And now I’ve told you all that, I’m off to do some more of this…

If you’ve been following the series (plural), then you might like to know that this has just come out on Kindle and KU. Paperback to follow.

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Today is Greek Independence Day, and a celebration of the start of the war of independence, 1821. It’s a bank holiday, and there will be services and celebrations because it is also the Feast of the Annunciation. Last night, Yialos and the road to Evangelismos were lined with flaming torches as part of those celebrations, and you can see great footage of this if you look at Symi TV, either on Facebook (link here) or on YouTube (link here).

This morning we woke up to cloudy skies and some light rain, but yesterday was a glorious day. I took myself off for a walk around the top of the Pedi Valley to admire the greenery and flowers, blossom and new leaves and had a lovely, quiet walk.

This was partly to recover from the fun and madness of Saturday night when our godsons came for dinner. Just us four, a curry Neil had cooked (I made the bread), and some homemade ice cream, lovely chats about all kinds of things, and a very naughty game of Cards Against Humanity. That raised even more laughs and some eyebrows. Since then, our oldest GB has secured himself his first long-term rental down in Harani, which will be close to his work at Pavone Café, which is just behind the police station. He is due to start his season at the beginning of May, while the other GB will start back at the Kali Strata Restaurant after his school exams, in June.

Before then, he’s got a Yamaha motorbike kit to finish building, a grade two music theory exam next week, and will start on his grade three theory, while continuing with his grade four piano. In our additional music lesson (we have two a week now) we’ve also been learning to play the clarinet (so much easier when you can already read music), and next month, we’re going to start looking at poetry, lyrics, and songwriting.

The last piece of news is that my next book is finally out on Kindle. It will be in paperback as soon as I get the full cover in the next couple of days. Click the cover to reach the Amazon.com page for more details.

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Yesterday, not long after sharing that photo of the harbour in the sunshine, I went out for a walk, got so far along the edge of the hillside, and realised it was about to rain, so I came back. However, I managed to get this shot of two buzzards or eagles making lazy circles in the sky…

That’s probably not dust on your screen, but two tiny black dots which were, in fact, the massive birds above me.

… Sit alone and talk, and watch a hawk making lazy circles in the sky… (‘Oklahoma’) One of Oscar Hammerstein II’s better lines if you ask me because it’s exactly what hawks do; they circle above, riding the thermals and making lazy circles. The line makes sense, unlike some of his others. I mean, ‘To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray.’ (The Sound of Music.)

Say what? For a start, if you were in my nunnery and you sang all night, I’d have you thrown in a cell for disturbing the peace. Secondly, do birds pray? If they do, where do they learn to pray? And do they sing their way through the rehearsals?

Anyway, that’s the kind of mood I’m in today as I listen to the wind howling around the house, watch the white bits on the sea, and wonder if the boat will be on time tomorrow. Yes, I’m going back to Rhodes for the day to finish off my annual MOT, and to hang out with the godson after, to wander the streets, and maybe to go to the shops when my heart is lonely because I know I shall find what I’ve found before. The stores fill my heart with the sound of… cash registers, actually, and no, I shan’t be shopping.

Which has just reminded me, I need to send a thank you email to Fasma Models in Athens. www.fasmamodels.gr/  We had a disaster with a Porsche and got glue on the windscreen (I say ‘we’ when I mean a hormonal teen), so I emailed the shop and asked where I could find a replacement. They rang me back to get the serial number from the box- you may remember this, about six weeks ago – and said they’d be in touch. Yesterday, along with a Grade Three Theory of Music book, arrived a box inside of which was the frame holding all transparent ‘glass’ parts for the Porsche, with no charge and even the postage paid for. What wonderful service and what a lovely surprise. The hormonal teen is coming this afternoon to work on the Yamaha GPz 150 XRS Turbo 67P or whatever the F it’s called, so he will be pleased. (Maybe not about the grade three theory book, but…)

See you next week!

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