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ai ai - a nod to Pirate
Books |
author - January 15, 2025
- Having written a pirate book myself - I thought I'd ask Perplexity AI for a list of Pirate
books.
It
replied
with age sorted lists which it had extracted from 5 web sources.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
All of which are worthy lists but none of which include my book.
Perplexity's
list of pirate books from search results, categorized by age group: |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Undaunted by my own pirate book's
undiscoverability in this first search, I then asked Perplexity AI as a follow
up to list books with pirates and goblins in the title.
Perplexity's
suggestions - some books featuring pirates and goblins:
Fiction
Books
- Alexander Woyte and the Pirates (and Goblins) by Zsolt Kerekes - A
comedy saga involving a Portsmouth pirate ship melted from an arctic iceberg and
goblins 1
- Pirates, Goblins, & Peg-Leg Bill by Curtis Cornell - An
adventure across Serenium following Peg-Leg Bill
8
(temporarily out of print)
- The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison - A fantasy novel with
hints of pirates and featuring goblins
4
Pirate Books with Potential Goblin Elements
- The Rover by Mel Odom - A fantasy novel involving pirates, goblins,
and a librarian protagonist
2
Recommended
Pirate Books by Zsolt Kerekes
Kerekes suggests some classic pirate
literature that influenced his work:
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester
That list of suggestions by the AI was more pleasing to me (as you
might guess) and suggests there may be a gap in the market for more.
goblinsearch
editor's notes:- unfortunately AI data is prone to errors like everything
else and when I checked the links cited by Perplexity to the 2nd query (above)
I found that some of them were wrong, being out of date, duplicates or
otherwise incorrect. So I've deleted the duplicates and replaced others with
the best current urls I could find at this time.
Link rot in AIs can
occur typically due to the time interval which has elapsed since the whole web
sample was done, and in some cases related to this pirates book query because
the AI can't judge the difference in reliability between offering a transient
link such as in a news page and a permalink such as in a dedicated blog. | | |
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January 14, 2025
I've
just noticed that we're exactly a month away from Valentine's Day - which means
for me a reset of writing plans. Because having duly met my self imposed
deadline of Christmas Day (that recent one in 2024 if you're wondering) to
assemble a civilian readable 300 page version of my 80% complete version of my
work in
progress for my valued beta reader - I had with that seeming stretchy
appearance which time has - boldly predicted that by February 14th (which was
the next easy to remember date which sprang into my mind) - I'd surely be
ready with the next iteration which would be 90% done.
Unlike
deadlines for software projects - where you can argue that - hardly anyone
ever presses that button - so we can put that feature in the next release
- putting out another book iteration which has about the same number of
missing chapters as the earlier edition would not redeemable by an explanation
that despite the unplugged gaps in the story the writer has nevertheless
increased the book's total length. So that portends to be a deadline I may
miss. Unless I speed up.
The speed bumps in this road have come from working my way through a
list of hundreds of line edits which I made for myself while reading the beta
version of the book myself over the Christmas holiday period. Not so much the
notes to myself which are along the lines of - change these words to those -
but the gear changing note at the start of chapter 3 which said - rewrite this
to make it compatible with the timeline.
Now this is a part of the
story in which the quality of the writing is not the issue. It flowed well
enough. These pages were among the earliest passages I drafted in 2001 when I
began the story, and they survived with the lightest of edits into the 2005
version which was a short story. But having taken heed of what my beta readers
at that time told me (all 6 of them) and my resuming the rewriting the story
and the world building as a novel 19 years later in 2024 left a little gap
between 2 new parts which I temporarily filled with the glue logic from the
much smaller story.
So this morning I'm seeing a bunch of nicely
written pages which tell a part of the story but which will feel incomplete when
viewed from the perspective of what follows.
How to fix that problem?
Inspiration came to me from real life. At essence in the book is a family story
which an uncle tells his nephew from the earliest age that the boy wants to
hear it. As the years go by and the boy asks more that story - which was true at
heart would be retold in multiple layers depending on how the teller percieves
the listener can benefit from knowing more details without wishing to lie but
not wanting to cause harm.
In real families at times like Christmas we
may refer to a formative incident in real life (which everyone at the table
knows already) in a single line. And when new people come into those family get
togethers then it can be time to repeat the story in a different way.
Each
telling of such a story - for those who hear it - can exist as a memory in its
own right. Leading to many versions of a story - sometimes different because of
when it was told - or who told it - and each instance having its own different
internalized meaning at different times.
That's what I'm doing now. Or
trying to do in a way that is interesting and curiosity arousing for my
readers and holds true to the pacing of the book and yet doesn't give away any
revelation which is still needed to be arrived at by the main characters for
themselves later.
As with a lot of writing... once I've decided a pattern or shape or
rules to it - it makes the writing much easier. And when will you be able to
order the complete book and judge for yourself? Still in this half of 2025 I
hope. Come back here for another update on February 14th. Bring a candle and a
bottle of fizz.
So long for now. Thanks for coming here.
Zsolt Kerekes,
East Chiltington | |
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What am I writing now?
author - January 9,
2025 - During this first week in January 2025 I've been working through line
edits and continuity edits (if that's a thing) for my novel -
the Goblins are
Coming! having released an ebook version of this book as it was on
Christmas Day to beta readers. Big picture view of this project? - is that a
couple more months work are needed to complete it.
Today I've been
rewriting one of the earliest scenes which I drafted in 2001 (yes really 24
years ago!) Stories and books play an important part in this novel. This scene
was a reference to story telling machines and speculation as to what they may
have looked like.
Yesterday I took part in the UK Government's
consultation on
AI
and copyright. I will share some of my inputs to that survey on
social
media later today. If you're an author who wants to take part in it yourself
the window for responding remains open till February 24, 2025.
Also
in recent days I have been struggling to do micro edits to the book blurb on
Amazon UK for my story Jamie and the Tree
Troll. I feel it has the potential to reach a much bigger audience but the
book platform denies my attempts to list a kids book of folklore as a folklore
book for adults too. If all else fails I may choose to flick the metadata switch
and turn kids book off. But I'm reluctant to do so because that's why I
wrote the book in the first place. In the meantime I content myself with
rewriting a few words here and there in the blurb to see if they make any
difference to sales
That's enough from me for now. Thanks for coming
here.
Zsolt Kerekes,
East Chiltington | |
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Happy New Year
author - January 1, 2025 -
My New Year message (unsuccessfully) began with a pitch to promote some past
books. I'm keeping its cringe-worthy entirety here as a reminder to myself -
don't do it again next year! (Unless? Maybe? No! - just don't.) Lesson learned.
Maybe.
What can I offer that you might want to read today? For
kids of various
ages - I can offer 4 books.
The
last of those kids books also seems to have a special appeal for adults with an
interest in Sussex folklore - or so I've learned recently. Take a look at
Jamie and
the Tree Troll a new legend of the South Downs in Sussex.
And what
am I writing now?
At Christmas (just 5 days ago) I emailed advance
beta reader copies of a new 300 page novel I've been writing for the past 13
months called -
the Goblins are
Coming! I'm reading the story too for the first time myself in book form,
and have amassed a list of minor line edits and notes to myself to fix
continuity errors I found in some sections. An optimistic guess as to when it
will be ready for general publication is April 2025.
I also met one of
my readers over the holiday period which was as much a surprise to me as it was
to her. I've learned now that word of mouth book recommendations are describing
my book in a different way to to that I had been doing online. So I've updated
the categories under which it's listed on Amazon this morning to reflect that
reality.
Happy new year.
Zsolt Kerekes,
East Chiltington | |
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re book reviews and
Paulene Turner's 6 volume series The Time Travel Chronicles
November
26, 2024 - from time to time I write short reviews of the new books I've read
from living authors - especially those I've encountered on X.
I had a
vain hope which I expressed in a tweet earlier this year - that acquiring the
habit of saying something about books which other authors have written might
help me shape a style for that crucial period when I would have to write a blurb
for my next new book. I can't say I'm confident this scheme will work. Writers
are generally the worst at explaining their own work. What's certain is I need
more practise.
Anyway today I wrote a (longer than a tweet) review of
Paulene
Turner's new book - Point of Origin - which is volume 6 in The Time
Travel Chronicles
This is a series which I started reading in
2023 when - having rewritten and published my kids novel -
Alexander Woyte and the
Pirates (and Goblins) - and being surprised by how much I enjoyed reading it
- having forgotten in the 20+ years since writing it what was in it - I was
looking for something light and amusing in a similar vein to read as a
counterweight to serious non fiction.
Luckily for me that coincided
with the publication of Paulene Turner's Secrets of
the Nile which I reviewed on Amazon (December 8,2023) like so... |
intrigued by
the cover, captivated by the sample, loved the book
I'm so glad I
took the risk of trying this story. No one in the room sees the cover when
you're reading an ebook! I'm not in the ideal reader demographic (nearer 66 than
16) and a bloke - but after a difficult year and reading way too many way
serious books I thought I'd dip into something which might just be fun. Paulene
Turner never ran out of something funny or fascinating to place on each next
page. I won't put in any plot spoilers but I'll always remember - how much was
paid for the treasure map. No doubt you'll have your own favorite scenes too.
And next? It seems to Camelot. If I'm not mistaken or erased before I get there. |
Thereafter, having loved book 1,
I waited eagerly for each successive new volume in Paulene Turner's series to
become available.
They were great fun to read.
Paulene had
seen some of my earlier short reviews and tweets and then seeing this review of
volume 6 - asked me - which books and characters did I like best? You can see
that conversation too in a footer below my review. ...read the
review
PS - there's still time for you before Christmas to
order the whole series in print as a gift for someone. Or just keep it for
yourself. | | |
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news - October 8, 2024
The
paperback edition of my book Jamie and the Tree Troll
was the best selling of my books in September 2024, and (13 months after
publishing it) has now attracted its first review which tells me that its
original listing as a "kids book" may be too narrow.
As
I wrote in a recent
tweet -
Amazon UK lists this in a category called
light
novels for children which author Paulene
Turner (whose
Secrets of the
Nile I commented on
here)
helpfully told
me might well be a
ghost
category. Nevertheless I think lightweight kidlit is a playful
description which I'm content to own and I may use it proactively.
I'm
still writing The Goblins are
Coming! I wrote another 1,000 new words today (net after edits) and the
new text went straight into the Reedsy book editor. Final publication date has
slipped by 2-3 months from what I had in mind when I began converting the
original short story into a novel 10 months ago. The cover may change too from
the current placeholder.
In reply to a playful tweet by author Dani Finn who
prompted
- "Authors: Explain your book to me like I'm 5."
I
replied
(meaning with reference to The Goblins are Coming!) - "People believe
what they read in books is true. So if you want to change the past and the
future you only have to write the right book. (And hide all the others.)"
I saved that above tweet here so I can find it again easily when I
finish the novel and start scrabbling around for a short way to describe it in
a blurb.
Back to what I've been writing today. I've been circling the
pivotal library scenes in The Goblins are Coming! with many tweets. I've already
written the chapters which come immediately before and after it.. And I've been
entangled in the novel's library in my writing today. As to authenticity? the
chapter itself has been written during many hours I've spent hours sitting in
real libraries and in other writing locations in Dorset, East Sussex and Kent.
If you're a librarian please consider adding my books to your
library. The
libby links
are here. Authors in today's market face a stark choice:- do I put my books
in Amazon kindle unlimited? or free public libraries? KU's restrictive terms
and conditions prevent authors doing both. | |
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new audiobook - Princess Laura and the Unsuitable
Dragon Suitors
news: April 25, 2024 - Google
Play Books today published an audiobook version of the novel for kids
Princess Laura and
the Unsuitable Dragon Suitors written by Zsolt Kerekes who has
published 4
books for children. Running time is 1 hr 20 min approx.
Click
here to hear the first 8 minutes free
"Audio
was the first version in which I shared this story when I wrote it for my sister
Anna and her daughter Laura in 2002," said the author Zsolt Kerekes. "when
I read it out aloud from my handwritten draft. It was always in my mind to
produce an audiobook version at sometime, and without this great AI narration
done by Google my readers would've had to wait another year for an adiobook
edition - because of my other writing commitments. The ebook and paperback
editions of the Princess Laura book were published in 2023. I hope the audio
version will introduce the story to a new generation of families in an easy to
digest way." | |
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Jamie and the Tree Troll -
audiobook now available
news:
April 7, 2024 - It was many months ago that I initiated the process of asking
Apple Books to create an audiobook of one of my kids stories.
Would
they? Wouldn't they? The offer to authors on their website said they would do
audio narration free for authors for selected books in popular genres. That
indicated to me: romance, history, literature. Would they do a kids book? (Kids
book as in the Hobbit and Harry Potter are just for kids too.) I thought it
was worth a try.
Nothing happened for months and I forgot all about it.
Then a few days ago I felt like I'd won a prize when I saw a link to my book
appear.
Apple Books
has produced an audiobook version of my book
Jamie and
the Tree Troll.
Click
here to hear to hear the introduction and first chapter free
click
here to see all my ebooks on the Apple Books store
PS - alert! The
lovely voice of the American narrator does pronounce the placename "Ditchling"
wrong. Which jarred for me at first as a local resident. But that didn't
detract from my enjoyment of listening to the story. Listen to the sample and
decide for yourself. | |
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author news - January 17,
2024
The story I'm working on now is -
the Goblins are
Coming! - which will emerge in October 2024 either as a long novella or
(more likely) a novel.
 Although
the setting isn't explicitly stated the location and approximate date are
inferred by the reader from the context of the story to be North America in the
mid 2100s "after The Fall" although there are also elements of the
story which take place geological eons before and many human lifetimes later.
Despite first impressions suggesting a dystopian fantasy genre I
prefer to think of it as literary fiction. The core themes of the story are the
trials, successes and failures of deep family relationships in times of
adversities which first encroach into their lives as anonymous and symbolic in
form but which on closer contact manifest with back stories of their own.
I
privately shared an early implementation of the Goblins are Coming concept as a
short story with beta readers in 2005. They all said similar things. Make it
longer. We want to know what happened before and after.
I set it
aside as a project for after I had met my other writing obligations. A story to
satisfy me as a lifelong reader of fantasy and science fiction. It's getting
there and it's exciting to see it growing week by week. When it's published
the ebook and print editions will also contain the original pilot as an
appendix - so you will be able to see how much it changed in style and depth.
And then what? Back to my big project -
The Remote - a genre busting book which will
tell its own story within the story.
Now back to writing. Zsolt Kerekes | |
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book review - Murder on the
Alpha Centauri Express
January
3, 2024 - like a lot of other writers I've forgotten what I was supposed to be
writing during the recent holiday period and instead indulged myself reading
other people's books.
In the best traditions of writers avoiding
writing what they had planned to do I decided this morning instead to begin by
writing a review of a book I enjoyed recently - Murder on the Alpha
Centauri Express by Steve Downes. I
rarely write reviews and when I have done - did them anonymously. But what
the heck? It was easier than reconnecting to my work in progress. here's a link to my
review | |
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news November 6, 2023
Fear is the
new quantum entanglement!
My Pact with the Goblin Queen, a
horror story based in Brighton, England, is the warning tale of a failed English
Literature undergraduate who became a best selling author.
available now from all major ebook platforms |
 | |
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news -September 20, 2023
I've
temporarily disconnected myself from social media for a couple of weeks so I can
get on with less distractions and meet my next couple of book writing
deadlines.
The next book you'll see published by me - is a horror story
- My Pact
with the Goblin Queen - which was inspired by memories of spooky walks as a
teenager 50 years ago in Brighton - on my way across Preston Park, over the
London Road, and up the misty hill of Withdean.
"Was it really
that scary?" - I asked a friend of mine (30 years later in 2004 - when I
wrote the first draft of this story). He used to do the same walk with me from
time to time. "Oh yes- he said. I remember it well."
I'm
hoping to get this one out in time for Halloween. Definitely as an ebook - and
maybe as a thin paperback too.
You can get a
foretaste of it here. An unfortunate choice of words - "foretaste"
as you will learn later. | |
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The Remote
a novel - by Zsolt Kerekes
advance fragments |
news - August 14, 2023 - If you've bought any of
the 4 little books for children that I've published this year and looked at
the very last page - other books by the author -
Zsolt Kerekes - you'll
see a list of all the stories I plan to publish in the next 18 months.
And right at the very end of that list - and is an entirely new novel
for adults - The Remote - a blend of
hard science fiction and contemporary urban fantasy - which which will be
published in the 2nd half of 2025.
What's it about?
From
time to time between now and publication - you'll see snippets - which I've
called advance fragments of it on The Remote home page itself - theremote.uk- and also small hints of
progress on my new Xauthor / twitter page
@goblinsearch
The first
of these - is called - advance fragment:- DeTALES 9.01 - which curiously - is
about the book itself being banned by literary censors before it ever even
got published. ...click to read more
details |
 | | |
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@goblinsearch
tweeted
Jamie and the Tree Troll - now on kindleAugust 1, 2023 - published
today on Amazon kindle
and unlimited - Jamie and the
Tree Troll - a magical children's story of
Clayton, near
Ditchling, in the South Downs
- by Zsolt Kerekes -
writer at goblinsearch.com who now
lives in the nearby unspoiled parish of
East Chiltington.

There
aren't no such things as tree trolls! - said Jamie (aged 7) when his uncle
suggested it was tree trolls who had been stealing crisps and sandwiches out
from their backpacks when they went for walks and picnics in the ancient woods
surrounding their once grand old house in Clayton, near Ditchling in Sussex in
the South Downs.
Names of places, if true, tell stories. Which legends, themselves,
have names renowned too. We always look forward to one we've not heard. And now
we edge close to where it begins. Jamie and the Tree Troll. A story of living
memory, with truth in its pages, and legend, and magic.
First published as a novella in parts on the author's website
goblinsearch.com long ago it was published for the first time in August 2023 as
a proper book. Please read the sample and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story
too. ...read it on
Amazon | | |
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news:- July 11, 2023 - my
children's bedtime story book Alexander Woyte and the Goblins
(set in modern day Jane
Austen country in Hampshire) is now available on Hoopla - which - if you don't
know it - is a digital library content infrastructure services company. ...click here to see my
book on Hoopla
Re libraries
Like many kids of
my generation (starting school in the 1960s) I was a frequent visitor to my
local library - which was located in
Hangleton,
Hove, Sussex, England. I
tweeted
about that experience recently to say thanks.
When I began
earning enough money to buy my own books and was moving around every couple of
years to progress my career I dropped the library habit. Another reason being
that often I was paying fines for late return of physical books which were
about the same as the cost of buying the books themselves.
In the
nascent ebook era - kindle
became my primary bookstore for about 10 years and kindle unlimited (KU)
sufficed as a kind of surrogate library.
I grew weary of KU
after a number of years however. Because whatever search criteria I used Amazon
seemed fixated on offering me books I wasn't interested in.
In
practise this meant I often had to scroll through 200 to 300 titles to narrow
down a couple of samples that l felt tempted to follow up. A bit like Netflix -
more time searching for content than actually enjoying it.
What I
didn't realise then - was that the fault lay in KU's algorithms and
not in the rich treasure trove of self published books. But I lost faith in
what KU had to offer.
During the first Covid lockdowns I learned
that my tax funded local library services supported an ebook app called
Libby. And that - for me -
replaced KU. Although I still do buy ebooks on kindle and (rarely) buy print
books from secondhand book stores.
As to Libby - 3 of my books are
available
here on Libby - but whether you can borrow them depends on choices made by
your own local library and its budget priorities.
This long preamble
explains why I'm delighted now to offer my books to another (new to me)
library service. And whether you want to read my books or not - if
you're an avid reader - then please take a look at what they have to offer.
See
also:- Hoopla's blog page
about
Hoopla (in their own words)
"Hoopla digital is a
category-creating service that partners with Public Libraries across North
America, Australia, and New Zealand to provide online and mobile access to
thousands of movies, TV shows, music albums, eBooks, audiobooks, and comics.
With hoopla digital, patrons can borrow, instantly stream, and download dynamic
content with a valid Library card. All content is accessible via hoopla
digital's mobile app and online at hoopladigital.com"
PS - my
ebooks are also available in other digital libraries too.
Another
recent example being:-
in
Palace Marketplace - which
describes itself - in its
about page like this...
"Palace Marketplace, founded by
Digital Public Library of America, a strategic partner of The Palace Project, is
a non-profit ebook and audiobook marketplace developed in consultation with
libraries, for libraries." ...read more about it | | |
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July 6, 2023
Jamie and the Tree TrollI'm currently working on the rewrite
and conversion to ebook format of my children's story
Jamie and
the Tree Troll - which is set in the South Downs near Ditchling in the
county of Sussex - in a hamlet called Clayton.
 I'm
using 4 different writing tools to produce and combine the various textual
fragments of my books. The final stage (for me) being working online in the
Reedsy Book Editor.
For ease of navigation I thought it would help me
to mock up a temporary placeholder cover - which you can see here.
Its
main purpose is to make it easier for me to open the correct files and remind
myself what I'm working on as I'm doing active edits on 5 books at the moment.
I
remembered that 6 months before I started writing the first chapter of the Jamie
Tree Troll story (in the summer of 2005) my wife Janet had shot a short
documentary video on her phone of some of the real-life characters in the story
setting out into the woods around their house on an expedition to see if
they could rediscover the hole in the ground which we thought might be the
entrance to the Tree Troll's lair.
Jamie (then age 5) carried a small
dead tree which was almost twice as tall as he was - with the intention of
using it to measure how deep the hole was if he did manage to find it. As it
happens - it wasn't the right place.
In those days the resolution of
camera images was only 340 pixels wide so the video quality didn't look great
when I looked this morning. And for privacy reasons I chose a small part of the
frame grab which excluded the people in the scene. But the fuzzy image is an
authentic capture of the feel of the setting where the story is based.
It's
likely that the real book cover will be entirely different to the placeholder
image you see here. Jamie's sister Laura - who was also on that February 2005
expedition to find the Tree Troll's lair - and who recently (in 2023) created
the cover images for Princess Laura
and the Unsuitable Dragon Suitors - will design a cover which suits the
story. As soon as I've finished editing and rewriting it. The expected
publication date is August 2023. | | | |
.. |

Never
go in the woods without a can! |
.. |
news
- June 26, 2023
new look for PrincessLauraBook.com
I hope you like the new look of the landing page for my book Princess Laura and the Unsuitable
Dragon Suitors.
As
I said in a recent
tweet
I'm experimenting with different landing page styles for all my books.
If
you look at the landing pages for my other books on goblinsearch.com - which haven't
been updated to the newest style yet - you'll see why I decided I had to
experiment with a new look or two. (Unlike Princess Laura I can't design a
scrambled looking web page and expect it to become the latest fashion.)
I
used to do thousands of experiments with my computer market guides.
Corporate readers sometimes said - Zsolt can you undo that it's messing with our
filters.
What am I working on now?
I'm rewriting and
converting (from html) to ebook/paperback the 4th in my children's books
backlist - Jamie and the
Tree Troll.
I've been using the free Reedsy Book editor to do the
final stages of edits and writing too. I wrote a blog about using it (in Feb
2023) - what's the
most surprising thing I learned converting my first book to kindle?
After
the Tree Troll book I will move my efforts on to books for grown ups. This
will be done in parallel with producing audiobook versions of all the
children's stories. Starting with the Princess Laura audiobook - which I hope
to have ready for Christmas. | |
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June 13,
2023 - The paperback edition of my children's book Princess Laura and the
Unsuitable Dragon Suitors was published today on Amazon | |
US
store /
UK
store /
I
tweeted this
|
 | | |
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is goblinsearch an author site?
clues needed |
writer:-
June 1, 2023 - I redid my so called author website goblinsearch.com
this morning so now there are clues it might have something to do with books.
I rarely looked at it since 2001. It was a story storage bin. 90% of the content
is invisible with works in progress only I can see. 27 years writing in html
will do that to you.
You're seeing it today (whenever today
might be). It might have changed again a lot or a little since then.
Want
to compare?
this
was my original tweet | | |
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Every family's got its own Princess or 2 right? The Princesses in Your life will thank you for
reading them my little book
Princess Laura and the Unsuitable
Dragon Suitors in which they will meet our hero - Laura - who's not scared
of anything.
Exploring the wild woods? Her shoes bear the scars.
Meeting dogs so tall she has to look up to see their glistening bitey teeth?
Nice doggie. And as the cover reveals she's not even scared of dragons. But
don't mention spiders. Oh - she's gone.
Every Princess has their maid, and you'll laugh at the antics of
Laura's maid - the "brains department" in the Princess business -
with her wealth of worldly advice - who struggles to turn out the Princess in
her charge with an appearance that looks royally presentable.
You'll
also meet the various (unsuitable) Princely suitors from the surrounding
kingdoms, although it may be that with different names you might've met some
people like them already in real life.
20 years after writing this
story for my sister and her daughter I still love the characters and I hope that
with this retelling as a proper book you will grow to love them too.
drumroll...
and now for the official book cover blurb
When the young Princess Laura
secretly rescues a baby dragon from her father's hunt the dragon predicts that -
one day in the future she will be the cause of his death. When Laura reaches
marriageable age her father presents her with a choice of suitors - one from
each of the surrounding kingdoms. Laura's chosen suitor must kill a dragon to
prove his worthiness to the King.
What can she do to make sure that
doesn't happen?
I
tweeted this | | | |
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newly published - Princess
Laura and the Unsuitable Dragon Suitors |
writer:- May 23, 2023 - After a
few weeks delay due to ill health I'm delighted to announce that my novella -
Princess
Laura and the Unsuitable Dragon Suitors was published this week on
Amazon kindle.
If you saw the web version of this story which was
published here on goblinsearch.com 19 years ago - it's the same story but has
been rewritten and improved with some light tweaks to make it even more
enjoyable.
I'm delighted to say that the
free
sample preview gives you a goodly amount to judge for yourself if it'sa
story for you or not. If you do buy it - please submit a review from your
kindle app at the end. Thanks.
When the young Princess Laura
secretly rescues a baby dragon from her father's hunt the dragon predicts that -
one day in the future she will be the cause of his death. ...read
a free sample
PS - a paperback version is expected to be
available in mid June.
See also:-
my Amazon author
bio | | |
. |
request my
books from your Libby reader |
writer:- May 17, 2023 - Although
the pricing level of my ebooks is set experimentally low - I understand that
many of you - particularly if (like me) you are a voracious reader (always
going onto the next book) also do a lot of your reading via libraries. (There
just isn't enough money to buy all those books.) So I thought I'd
mention that I have made a special effort to make my books available in the
library collection of Overdrive - the creators of the
Libby reading app.
Here's
the link - https://www.overdrive.com/creators/3076086/zsolt-kerekes
The
way it works is this...
if you search for my name or my books from
within Libby then - depending how your local library has set things up with
deep search - it will show you books which are in the worldwide Libby system
even if they aren't in your own library yet. If you select them and tag them -
this sends an informal request to your library that you have an interest. And if
enough readers do the same then the librarians use these requests as a factor to
help them decide which books they should buy.
I've done this myself
for other authors' books which I wanted to read - and then been pleasantly
surprised a few months later when I got a notification saying that it's
available to read.
On the other hand - if you don't want to wait - then
just go to your favorite ebook store and you'll probably find it there.
Talking
about delays (above) I apologize for the delay in getting my 3rd book published.
I got zapped by an unexpected health problem which hit me a few weeks ago when
I was 90% of the way through proof reading and rewriting it. I'm emerging from
that now but I didn't want to risk publishing a book which might be affected by
my lack of concentration due to recovery etc. Safer to risk a few typos in this
little note here. |
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global warming? when icebergs melt it's not
just wet inside 300
years ago Captain Feary's pirate ship sailed into an ice storm. As the crew
defrosts into the modern world they discover what's changed and what's not.
Read
a sample of my book |
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Captain
Feary couldn't remember how long he had been standing here watching the icicles
melting. The last thing he remembered was being chased by those navy ships which
had spotted them in the Irish Sea, and hung on their coat tails all the way up
into the ice pack. The navy boats gave up there. It was one thing to stake your
chances on the outcome of a cannonade with a pirate ship. That was
glorious fun. But only a foolish navy captain would risk his ship and
reputation on being needlessly mashed into ice cream.
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news -
Princess Laura story in kindle soon |
writer:- April 18, 2023 - 20
years ago I published Princess Laura and the Unsuitable Dragon Suitors
here on goblinsearch.com as a very long web page. This is my favorite story of
the (4) children's stories that I've written so far.
In the
intervening span of time since then much has changed in how we read stories.
Screen sizes were 20 inches in those days and ebook standards like Amazon's
Kindle, Overdrive's Libby, and Apple Books hadn't been invented. It's been clear
to me for a while that the old web page format no longer suits a modern online
audience. And its inaccessibility has been a barrier to new readers enjoying it.
 Later
this year, in time for Christmas, I'll be publishing an audiobook version of
Princess Laura and the Unsuitable Dragon Suitors. And a friend of mine - an
actress with a lovely voice who has voiced many ebooks for others in the past
- has kindly agreed to do it. But first I need a cover artwork! It never had
one. And a fixed and updated version of the text. The simplest way to start is
with a proper book.
So right now in April 2023 I'm rewriting and
editing the Laura story which will be released as an ebook and in print June
2023.
In the meantime
you can read a sample of that story
and see progress on its publication here. | | |
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paperback
Pirates book - on sale this week |
writer:- April 17, 2023 - The
new paperback edition of Alexander
Woyte and the Pirates (and Goblins) - is now available in the Amazon
store. It comes in the popular 5" by 8" size, has a glossy cover, and
192 pages. Price in the UK is £12.34. |
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Another month. Another
book. 7 books in 7 months? What's next?
Book
#3 will be published in mid May.
I've got a brand new cover
artwork - never seen before by anyone except me and the new artist. And
unlike the first 2 books converted from my backlist and works in progress -
I've already written the blurb and front matter pages of the next book - instead
of writing it all last. It's a different series.
Watch out for
updates here and on my new (useless) twitter account
@goblinsearch You can let me
know what you think there or on
linkedin. Or
better still - just read some samples and let the book sales do the talking.
Should I trademark that? The weird ideas that come into writer's heads.
Sometimes it's best if they stay in. | | |
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phew! -
just in time for Easter |
writer:- April 6, 2023 - The
2nd book in my goblinsearch series - Alexander Woyte and the Pirates
(and Goblins) - was published today in Amazon's kindle store. ...click
here to see it
Anno
Domini 2001
It's modern times (as modern as they ever get) in the
pointy churched sleepy village of Privett in Hampshire, ye Olde England.Until a
year ago no one believed in goblins.
But now they do. Three
goblins live in Privett. Protecting Alexander (who is nearly 6).
The
story of how he was kidnapped according to goblin tradition, rescued by the
hunt, won back in a duel and contracted to be a protected friend of the King of
the Old Wessex Division of Goblins is related in the first book in this series -
Alexander Woyte and the
Goblins. You don't have to read that to enjoy this story. You can always
read it later.
Did anyone mention Pirates? In this rambling,
swash buckling, comedy saga it's not just Alexander who disappears. His minders
and his bunkbed have vanished too.
In the goblinsearch for him we meet
some 18th century pirates melted out of an iceberg, two nuclear subs (one
Russian, one British), the many uses of deadly fire and forget torpedoes, the
correct tripadvisor rating for a Royal Navy destroyer, some anti-nuclear
activists from Greenpeace, a documentary film producer who is not as he claims a
genuine vegetarian, a software wizard who needs help with his business plans,
some billionaires in a round the world balloon race, the features and fittings
in a modern magic carpet, some software writing hedgehogs and a giant man eating
shark.
Scene-wise we loiter for a dip in the arctic seas in which sank
the Titanic, learn about a different type of cloud message and land back safely
in the touristic dockyards of Portsmouth, pausing only for a reality check in
the cellars of an old archive in Southsea.
First published as an 8 part
series on goblinsearch in 2001 to 2003, the story has been rewritten and is now
available for the first time as a proper book.
I hope you enjoy reading
it as much as I enjoyed rereading it (while rewriting it) 20 years later. | | |
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Alexander
and Pirates ebook - coming soon... |
writer:-
March 20, 2023 - I'm making fair progress in rewriting and converting the 2nd
book in the Alexander + Goblin series.
The NEW kindle
edition of Alexander
Woyte and the Pirates (and Goblins) will be available for the
Easter holidays.
It's a much longer story than the first
book. A novel (39,000 words) rather than a bedtime story. And with less
pictures.
The action takes place a year after the first story. The picture
shown here on the right is just a temporary placeholder for the cover design
which might be completely different when it hits the bookstores.
If you
don't like sharks, pirates, goblins, nuclear submarines or surprised penguins -
it might not be for you.
The original story was complete and read
aloud March 13, 2001and appeared on goblinsearch.com in April 2001. The new
ebook version fixes many errors, supplies more background information and is
much easier to read on a phone. | | |
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new cover
design? - bedtime story |
writer:-
March 15, 2023 - Hi, I'm experimenting with a new cover design for some
ebook versions of
Alexander Woyte and the
Goblins. The new design - based on the bedroom scene where the
goblins capture Alexander (shown on the right) - signals more clearly that
this is a bedtime story - intended to be read aloud. There are no
changes to the text in the story itself.
Which version you see
when you buy it will depend on which online shop you buy it from and when.
I
will use this testing to tell me which cover readers like best - based on the
number of copies sold of each edition. Then in a month or so - if there's a
clear preference I'll change them everywhere. | | |
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Alexander
Woyte and the Goblins - Paperback |
Writer:- March 6, 2023 - Hi,
a paperback edition of
Alexander Woyte and the
Goblins is now available in the
Amazon store. It wasn't my
original intention to do print but I was told by a reader that (unlike me)
people do still read paperbacks. It's an expensive process though - even for
the ultra efficient print on demand geniuses who make it happen. So it costs you
- the reader - a lot more.
On
the other hand - as one of the characters in the story told me a long time
ago (he's the one who loaned the king his goose feather pen) - a print book
can still be read by someone 100 years later - whereas who knows how
long your ebook format will still be accessible?
BTW - No harm was
done to the goose (called Lucky) in the ethical sourcing of that pre-duel
contract signing pen. It was just a feather which he dropped when he got hot.
Lucky lived for 12 years and would've lived longer but sadly he was killed by
a fox. You can read more about
Lucky Goose and (his
mother) Attila the Hen in a blog I wrote in October 2007.
The
digital edition of Alexander Woyte and the Goblins is also available now to
libraries which use Overdrive
/ Libby. Librarians have a lot of books to choose from and not enough funds
to satisfy them all. You can nudge your library to consider any new book
titles you'd like them to add to their collections (not just this one) by
searching in the Libby app and tagging titles or authors.
Next on my
to-do list is editing, converting and releasing to epub (ebook formats) the
novel Alexander White and the Pirates (and Goblins). Should be available before
Easter. | | |
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Alexander
Woyte and the Goblins
news:- Feb 23, 2023 -
Kindle Edition |
Anno Domini 2000. It's
modern times (as modern as they ever get) in the pointy churched sleepy
village of Privett in Hampshire, Olde England. No one believes in goblins any
more.
That
doesn't stop them causing mischief!
Once every 70 years the goblin
king who lives under the Old Bookshop in Petersfield sends out scouts to find a
replacement human puppy to kidnap. Ideally a fair haired boy aged 4. Alexander
looks like the perfect candidate. His life hasn't been the same since.
Alexander
Woyte and the Goblins - first published here on goblinsearch in 2001 is now
available as a much more readable kindle ebook. ...click here for details | | |
. |
goblinsearch.com - this web site -
is sponsored by Gunnar's
Goblin Hammers - (makers of the finest picnic protection tools since
1862), and Jamie's
Soups - (makers of Jamie's Dinosaur Moss Soup), and Laura's Worm Custard.
co-sponsored
by Prickly Spine
Software - publishers of the finest storage refragmentation software. |
|
|
press
release:- March 28, 2001 - Where do you go to find a missing goblin? -
goblinsearch.com
goblinsearch.com, concept, stories, design and text
copyright © 1999 to 2023
Zsolt Kerekes
This is a work of fiction. All characters in this publication are
fictitious and any resemblance to actual goblins living or dead is purely
coincidental or due to ensorclement beyond our control |