Paul - You made it here. You must like books!

Do you know what a Duende is?

If you said ‘no’, then it’s time for you to find out.

Duendes and another kind of creature, called Anjana (in fact many of them), appear in the new Hilda story that’s set for publication on the next Saturday.

It is already available for pre-order on Amazon and Smashwords, so that’s a bit of good news (right?).

I’m certain that the book is already rolling out to the other e-book locations (all in a browser near you), so things should be “shiny” by the end of the coming week!

When a certain señor arrives in Sunrise, looking for Johanna, all signs point to a new adventure. The man asks Johanna to travel to the Strong Wind Islands with him, because there is a big problem: the local fairies are going missing, and no one knows where they go, or what causes them to disappear.

Hilda and family can’t let Johanna travel alone, so they all join. The journey is interesting, to say the least, and Hilda’s encounter with Johanna’s homeland, its people and food, and also the clothing is not what she could have expected. Isla makes a few changes, and Oona and Hilda come up with a bit of very creative ‘body work’.

Enjoy your trip to the Strong Wind Islands, and find out what’s going on with Duendes and Anjanas.

Hilda 24. It is there.

Hilda 24. The Order of Nun-ja. It is there. On the e-shelves.

Good day. I bring good tidings in this strange time.

What is happening in this story, you may ask:

An influx of thieves and robbers make Hilda and her family wonder what’s going on.
An influx of (initially) barely visible nuns makes things even more special.
And the new guests of the king… what kind of people are they? Don’t they behave a bit off?
Follow the adventures of Hilda, don’t miss the moment where things go ‘crack’, and find out what’s all this about the Order of Nun-ja.

Is this enough to make you curious?

If so, you can run over to these fine store, where it’s waiting for you on the e-shelves!

Smashwords, Amazon, (and all the other regional ones), Barnes&Noble, Apple iTunes and Kobo e-books.

Something strange happened on the way to the Amazon…

Some people may have noticed that books that I declare ‘free’ aren’t free on all the Amazon websites.

I’ve mentioned this to the good people at Amazon on a few occasions, each time they fix it, but somehow there is a glitch in their system that unfixes their fixes.

This is a short post to let Kindle-owners know that you can get all the free books for free at Smashwords. All you need is a free account, look for my name there and download the ‘mobi’ version of the books. You can upload those to your Kindle or use the Kindle’s e-mail address to load them through wifi if that’s easier.

I hope this helps someone!

The devil went down to Georgia

And found another notebook for his diary.

And lucky me was there to witness it and the writing of it. The result of that is now available in most of the usual places. Ladies and gentlemen, I present:

The Devil’s Diary 2

Welcome to book 2, compiled of entries of the Devil’s Diary.
The Devil’s Diary 2 takes you along on another trail of mishaps, bad stuff, fun stuff and weird stuff. If you haven’t read the first Devil’s Diary, some of the characters might be a little alien to you – but if you did read that, it might still feel that way.
Again, a devil’s life isn’t all brimstone and roses, but this time an archangel supplies a nice surprise in Bill’s life.
Oh…
Who is Bill, you ask?
Step into Hell and find out!
I shall include the same disclaimer that is also in book 1:
This book is not for the very religious or the faint of heart.

The book is available at Smashwords, Amazon, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.nl, Amazon.it, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.ca, Amazon.au, Barnes&Noble, Kobo. We’re still working on the paperback!

Long time, no post. And now: a new book. Devil’s Diary part 2

Yes, it’s true. A new Devil’s Diary is coming out, and it will happen in a week, on July 11th.

Welcome to book 2, compiled of entries of the Devil’s Diary.
The Devil’s Diary 2 takes you along on another trail of mishaps, bad stuff, fun stuff and weird stuff. If you haven’t read the first Devil’s Diary, some of the characters might be a little alien to you – but if you did read that, it might still feel that way.
Again, a devil’s life isn’t all brimstone and roses, but this time an archangel supplies a nice surprise in Bill’s life.
Oh…
Who is Bill, you ask?
Step into Hell and find out!
I shall include the same disclaimer that is also in book 1:
This book is not for the very religious or the faint of heart.

This book appeared during November of 2019, in the famous Nanowrimo month. I had too much fun writing it. I hope you will take the disclaimer to heart, don’t feel threatened by it and join me in some laughter!

Authors give back. A few more free books

Dear reader,

With the current Corona problem taking over the world, Smashwords has launched an awesome idea. They ask authors to add more free books for a while, for people to be able to read while being stuck inside.

Of course I want to do that.

If you are interested, visit Smashwords.com to see what’s been made available for free of for a major discount.

The titles I have made free are:

Wanted: Hero
The Story of the Mimosa
A Midsummer Night Adventure
Green Haven
The Devil’s Diary

These books will be free until April 20th of this year. Price changes will NOT trickle down to Barnes and Nobles, Apple, Kobo etc, so you will need to make a free Smashwords account.

Please share this news wherever you can, all the Smashwords authors thank you!

Kobie is waiting for you.

Kobie’s first adventure is available!

Who is Kobie, you ask?

Kobie’s up for her second and hopefully last attempt to pass her exams. She’s not the most zealous student so this presents a serious challenge. What she loves is to read – especially about witches. She would go through lengths to be a witch herself, so she devours anything about the subject she can get her hands on.

Her life is an ordinary one, almost to the point of boring, until she comes across a book with the title “Witch’s Training”. She has to have this book, and that tome has more in store for her than she could have hoped for. In her heart Kobie knows witches and magic don’t exist but this book is set on proving the opposite!

Can Kobie become a witch with the help of “Witch’s Training”? If yes, how does that come about? Strange happenings and a kidnapping are suddenly part of Kobie’s life, making it far more exciting than she had ever wished for.

The e-book is available via Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Apple iBooks, 24Symbols and Kobo. If you can’t decide, please follow this Universal Book link and check out all the places where you can find the book!

Friendship. From something I wrote this morning

Where does friendship start and end?

Friendship. Where does it start and end? — For Hilda, friendship ended where pink began… (Hilda 25)

This morning I wrote this. If you know anything about Hilda, you know her negative love for pink. This sentence just popped up and it made me laugh. I still laugh about it now, and it’s been hours since I wrote it down the first time.

Friendship is something amazing

Have you ever noticed how easy some friendships are? And how difficult others can be? I don’t have many close friends, but the ones I do have are the ones I can count on through thick, thin and anything in between.

It’s the same with Hilda. For her, friends are either there 100% or they are not friends. Then they are acquaintances or even ordinaries. If you’re in the last league, you’re nowhere.

It’s interesting to think about such things regarding the characters in a book. Hilda and William are not the easiest ones to be friends with, with them being magicals in Fairyland.

Baba Yaga? She is in the Hilda league of friendship as well.

Will Kobie be different?

Kobie 1 english - Witch's Training — Kobie’s first adventure

Next week Saturday a new witch-book will appear. It’s about Kobie, who is going to have an encounter with witchcraft as well.

We’ll see how her friendships develop. I can tell you that she is not limiting herself to purple, though. Pink is not a problem for her.

I hope you will have a great day with a lot of reading pleasure!

Paul

Fantasy according to Terry Pratchett

You may not know, but Sir Terry Pratchett is one of my heroes. He’s no longer among us, but his spirit will linger forever.

Just now, I found this piece of an interview with him, and it’s about writing fantasy. My genre of choice.

It’s (among other things) for this reason that I like fantasy. Reading it and writing it. You can find plenty of examples on my site, if you haven’t been here before. Hilda the Wicked Witch is one example, but there is lots more to find. Many of my author friends are also very well versed in Fantasy, like the wonderful Valerie Douglas.

Fantasy rules.

Witches float my boat. Or do they fly my broom?

Witches got me started.

All you faithful followers of this erratic and occasionally updated blog will be aware that I have this thing with witches. In fact my whole writing/publishing ‘career’ started with a witch we all know. Grimhilda the Wicked Witch. Hilda for friends.

Here you see the very first cover of the very first story. My, a lot has changed…

And now there’s a new witch on the block!

Ladies and gentlemen alike… may I present…

Kobie Ketelaars. A new witch?

Some of you may already know Kobie. She started life in Dutch but I thought it so much fun that I have rewritten her story into English.

What can I tell you about Kobie?

So there you have it. A new book is set to appear. The date of dates for Kobie is March 7th, so it will be a while, but no worries: time passes quickly these days!