The drowned Phoenician Sailor by Lesley hayes

Having read and enjoyed a number of Lesley’s short stories, I thought it was high time I read one of her novels and it didn’t disappoint. I gave this 5 stars.

The Drowned Phoenician Sailor by Lesley Hayes on Amazon.com 

I admire the way Ms Hayes construct a sentence and she has a lightness of touch that stops this work from sinking into melodrama or becoming heavy. Her lightness and sense of humour makes this book very readable and enjoyable despite dealing with serious issues such as loss, abandonment and emotional abuse. I know the writer is a psychotherapist and it show in how she approaches her characters. Her main protagonist Kaya/Fynn we get to know as she finds her own therapist dead when turns up for their regular session. Fynn still has a lot of issues to sort out and maybe this is why the therapist manifests itself as a ghost. I found it at times uncomfortable as we got such an insight into her life. (Like listening at the door of a therapist session in progress) At times the pace dropped a little, but I put that down to relating more to some characters than others. (I think Jack would be someone I would hide from in a pub, for the fear of him dragging me into a deep philosophical discussion.) Lesley Hayes has written a beautiful book that will appeal to most, as the number of emotions explored, are many and I think every reader will recognise themselves at some point. 

In other news:

I'm pleased to announce that Blood Ties Language in the Blood book 2 is now also available on smashwords at $2.99 keeping it at the same price as Amazon.

Book 1 has been free now for a week and without any advertising, 150 copies were downloaded. I hope Amazon will follow suit, but for the time being please feel free to report it to them. (I'm also free on Itunes, Barnes and Nobles, Kobo and Fnac to name but a few.)

Smashwords

Another day another skill learnt. I now know the difference between a mobi and an epub. I didn't want to know, but in the last few months I've picked up a lot of knowledge unwillingly. The reason I picked up some more skills screaming and kicking is because Amazon refuses to make a book permanently free unless you can prove that it is sold or rather given away at another retailers. I went with Smashwords as many of my writer friends use it and they distribute to many other retailers like Barnes and Noble. Very soon I'll ask people to bombard Amazon with complaints about having seen Language in the Blood for free on another site. Here is the link:

Language in the Blood on Smashwords.

So why give a book away for free?
I often run promotions by giving books away free, but Amazon only lets me do this for 5 days every 90 days. This will allow me to run promotions more often. Some writers have really seen sales of their books take of after making one book perma free. As I have a series, it makes sense to entice people in with book 1 for free.
What did I think of Smashwords?
To set up an account was very easy, as I'm making the book free I didn't need to provide much information. Then when it came to upload the book I opened their style guide. This was one of the most complex and sleep inducing works I've ever had the misfortune to look at. I decided to ignore the thing and upload. It's formatted for Kindle (a mobi) so how bad can it be?
Their previewer promptly came up with some errors, mainly the table of contents. I set to address each one with the 'help' of this guide. I've looked at some e-readers and put it through a epub gizmo and most of it looks fine. All in all an afternoons work. I know it's probably not perfect on all e-formats, but the main focus is the books on Amazon.
Other news:
I jumped the gun a bit and ordered some books before my editor had a look at the proof.

I know this was hasty, but I wanted to give out books to many people that I don't see that often before Christmas. Book 2 Blood Ties is absolutely perfect, but book 1 has an issue that I didn't spot in the e-previewer which meant the pages went a little out of sink. Only a problem if you want your table of content to match with the chapters;)
The plus point is that some people will get a very rare copy of Language in the Blood as we will update this error very soon. If you like your books less than perfect but rare, go to Amazon now before it's too late:

Language in the Blood in Paperback

Unexpected

People on the Côte d'Azur generally don't expect anything else but glorious sunshine. When things are different they are very ill prepared. I never check the weather forecast; I carry an umbrella and a pair of sunglasses in my bag, what else can possibly happen here? Most people only carry a pair of sunglasses; it never rains, right? So it was no small surprise that cafe owners were again totally caught on the hop when the first storm of the autumn season hit. Work crews were busy, this morning on the beach salvaging decking, chairs and potted palm trees from the beach fronts.

I guess I'm not the only one that doesn't bother with the weather forcast. We repare the damage and promise ourselves we really should be better prepared (Yes these storms cause havoc every year!) but after a few weeks of glorious weather we have lulled ourselves back into a false sense of security; Its the south of France, what's the worst that can happen.
On other news:
I've not progresses much on my novel as with work, book promotion and a trip to Holland, I've not had the time to sit down and write. The promotion on the other hand went well. I had a free book offer on Language in the Blood and used the site: ilovevampirenovels.com
I've given away an impressive 771 books in two days and having a number of sales and KU borrows too in the days that followed. As it was a free book, the advert might not pay entirely for itself, but it will be interesting to see the next two weeks if it was worth it.
Both the language in the blood books are now also available in paperback via Amazon and createspace(There is even a distributor offering a second hand copy? How? I haven't even received my copies yet!)
Language in the blood, second hand!!! on Amazon
More news:
The Anthologie I'm part of; Holes, has been made available to download for free on Smashwords:
Holes, the anthology

You don't need any devises and can just download as a pdf on your computer. Its a great collection of dark stories with Holes as a central theme.