The Boat of Small Mysteries is out today!

[galadhir]

As the title says, The Boat of Small Mysteries is out today :)

You can get it on Amazon here, or everywhere else (Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple etc) over here.

~

When a new disability ruins Emily’s life and family turns her out, she finds herself forced into a nomadic life on a narrowboat. With very little money and even less physical stamina, she doesn’t know if she has it in her to forge a whole new future on her own.

In the idyllic surroundings of the British waterways, as she moves from place to place she encounters a series of small mysteries. Can she solve them and find a new purpose for herself in the process? Or must a missing person remain lost and the case of the body in the lock remain unsolved?

Half cozy mystery and half fond ode to the narrowboat life, ‘The Boat of Small Mysteries,’ is a charming tale of resilience and intuition, sure to appeal to anyone who enjoys BBC Four’s Canal Boat Diaries, or the gentle adventures of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books.

~

Currently it's out in ebook only. The paperback is in the works but I am waiting for the proof copy to arrive so that I can check that it's ok before I release it.

It's also currently at 0.99c as an early bird discount, but it will be going up from that probably on the first of March - to the heady heights of $2.99

First book in seven years! I am sick with nerves over how it will go. There's a lot to be said for a few years of rest--it's all new to me again.

Comments

[watervole]

Not seeing any link to Kobo on the 'over here'.

[galadhir]

This is true :( Draft2Digital used to distribute to Kobo. I wonder what happened and what I can do now to get my stuff on Kobo, if possible at all. I'll have to look into that. I'll get back to you :)

Oh no, I take that back. D2D do still distribute to Kobo, but Kobo is offline at the moment due to a public holiday in Ontario, so it's just that it's delayed in going up. Wait a couple of days and they will have it, I'm sure :) That's a relief!

[watervole]

Thanks. I buy most of my ebooks from Kobo. I'll try again in a few days.

[galadhir]

I get most of my ebooks from Kobo too :) It does seem to be up there now, even though I'm not positively sure it's live yet:

book

[watervole]

Bought, and added to my 'to read' list on Goodreads.

[galadhir]

Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it :) It's a bit of a departure for me, but that was part of the fun.

[watervole]

Thanks. I buy most of my ebooks from Kobo. I'll try again in a few days.

[julesjones]

Oh good. I immediately went to Books2Read for the link to Kobo to buy it and went "Where? Where is book? Where is Precious?"

Since it's not on Kobo yet - are you putting it into Kobo Plus? I have tested by reading my own books and did indeed get a Plus payout, so it does seem to produce a small amount of money.

[galadhir]

I think it probably is on Kobo now although I'm not sure if it's live yet. I'm also not sure how I would go about putting it into Kobo plus - because it was D2D that put it up on Kobo, I'm not sure how I would assert ownership of it enough to do that. Hopefully they will have done it for me. It's certainly got a Kobo Plus panel at the side of it.

Thank you!

[julesjones]

And about 2 seconds after hitting the "buy now" button I realised I should have had a quick look at it first with Kobo Plus to make sure for you that it works.

(I took out a Kobo Plus subscription last year when I expected to be spending 2 weeks lying face down to keep my retina in place post-surgery. Surgery was not needed because the last check on the morning of surgery found that I was one of the lucky 10% for whom it had fixed itself, but I did not cancel the subscription.)

[galadhir]

Thank you so much for buying it regardless :)

I have a Kobo audiobook subscription, but I do miss being able to just read any book in the stock for free. I think that's a very worthwhile investment, and I'm even gladder that your eyes fixed themselves. Thank goodness for that! You deserve a little treat :)

[pattrose]

Congratulations on the ebook. That must be so exciting.

[galadhir]

Thank you! Actually the process of publication is so long winded that I currently feel like I never want to hear about the book again, but I'm sure that will pass and then I'll be proud :)

[mistressofmuses]

Happy book release day! :D

[galadhir]

Thank you! All of this has reminded me why I used to get so tired of self promotion. I'm quite glad that next week I go back to quiet writing again for the next year or so :)

[mistressofmuses]

Congrats on making it through the promotional hurdles, and enjoy retreating to the writing part of the book cycle!

[galadhir]

Thank you :)

[lucy_roman]

I will be buying the paperback, so please do update when it's ready.

[galadhir]

Oh thank you very much! I will do :)

[watervole]

'Billy Ruffian' isn't Hornblower (I did the whole series on audiobook not long ago). It's from a different book, probably a naval history book.

Do you want me to tell you any other errata I spot? There's always a fine balance between wanting to know, and being too demoralised when they're reported...

Nice having a boat called Elizabeth Moon - I like her 'Serrano' series.

[watervole]

Mind you, a Hornblower phase could easily be assumed to be a general Napoleonic era naval phase.

[galadhir]

Yes, exactly. That's how I tend to use it, even though I've never actually read Hornblower beyond the first book. It's a convenient shorthand for 'I had a phase where I was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean to get madly into the Royal Navy in the 18th century.' Conversations always go too fast for me to get that sort of thing in.

[watervole]

Hornblower books vary quite a bit in quality, but most of them are worth reading. I'm gradually adding them on Good Reads when I remember.

I think Hornblower and the Hotspur was a particular favourite.

[galadhir]

I didn't really enjoy the first one, but I was constantly comparing it with Master and Commander and I don't think that was fair at all. I hear they get better as they go on.

[watervole]

I think Master and Commander is the stronger series of the two, but Hornblower still has some good ones.

Hornblower is far more isolated as a person - lacks a Maturin.

The writing order is very different to the chronological order.

[galadhir]

I'm probably okay with leaving the book alone now, tbh. I've already started writing the next one, and as it's not non-fiction a certain amount of playing fast and loose with reality is excusable, imo. Unless you would like to tell me, in which I will happily hear anything you're concerned about and decide what to do about them on a case by case basis. But that could be a big job!

I thought Elizabeth Moon was a lovely name for a boat, and she deserved to be memorialized so it was a win win :)

[watervole]

One thing that I think you missed with the women who drowned. You explained how she got strangled, but I don't think you explained why the boat sank.
Obvious to a boater - with no one to steer, you can get caught on the sill if going down, or caught under part of the gate going up. But your average policeman is not a boater.

(Finished reading it late last night, as I was enjoying it, and have active toddler here this morning, so no chance to go and check the text to see if you did explain it.)

[galadhir]

I didn't explain it at that point, that's true :) I did have the engineers who took the rope off Emily's prop argue about how it might have sunk her, and mention how dangerous locks are and how easy it is to sink a narrowboat even though they look so sturdy. So I hope the reader might know.

OTOH, you're right that Emily should perhaps have explained this to the police while she was giving her evidence. I'll give that some thought and see if I can put it in.

Thanks!