Stormy Weather

You may have heard of the song "Stormy Weather"? All romantic, right? Well, I went off for two days to my bat cave and when I returned my gazebo had decided to go on an adventure all by itself and visit the neighbor's yard. That's the second gazebo in less than two years!! I don't know why they are like that... you love them and cherish them and then, what do you get? No goodbye, no adios, amigo, no nothing, just up and gone! I guess I'll get over it... someday. Sniff.

Poetry

One of my fellow authors at the Kindleboards.com recently opened a thread for me, he said, to display my limericks and rhymes. It is, of course, open to everyone, readers and writers alike and not limited to limericks. Any and all poetry is subject to enjoyment and/or ridicule from the readers/authors... all in fun naturally. An old friend and fan who dates from my very early writing career recently found me on the boards (actually, she was there before I was because she owned a Kindle and I still don't). Anyway, after posting a few rhymes in a friendly banter exchange, a strange thing seems to be happening. Another author/reader thinks that she is me! (Or I am she or is it her?) Anyway, I was absolutely thrilled to see that the readers of this bizaare little thread put enough thought into it to draw conclusions about the originators of the bawdy poems. I have since played it up that this particular fan is my stalker who follows me around, adoring me. This again, is done in fun and is absolutely not true, but rather another unabashed attempt at self-promotion on my part.
I have always loved to read and write limericks. A rather harmless habit, one must admit, although more brain-squeezing than chewing fingernails or twisting hair. I did talk my old fan into writing a limerick of her own and she showed surprising talent in this little-appreciated literary genre. In other words, I was quite pleased with her work.
If you want to read these terrible rhymes and judge for yourself have a looksee at the Kindleboards.com under the Book Bazaar and look for the thread on Limericks.
I have reduced my Red Cross of Gold II:. the King of Terrors to just $.99 for a while simply because it is undergoing a bit of typo correction and the corrected version will be a while in coming. By no means are the typos destructive to the storyline, they simply need to be corrected for aesthetic purposes and because I will soon be releasing the book in paper on Amazon.com and I want it as perfect as possible in case any of the major publishing houses, agents and/or film makers happen by... (crosses fingers).
Wish me luck. Happy reading and thanks for stopping by. Brendan

Rhythm, Rhyme and Harmony

If you travel around the web and you want to see something absolutely awful, go to Kindleboards.com and look at the Book Bazaar Forum under the Poetry thread and you'll find an original limerick that I was coerced into writing by my fellow author, Edward Patterson. You will also find a number of interesting comments and threads for bargain books on Kindle where most of my books are now published. I am currently trying to get the final edit on King of Terrors, the second book in the Red Cross of Gold Series so that I can publish on Amazon.com proper in the paperback section for those of you who want to hold a real book in your hands. I have also dropped the price on said Kindle book for a time while I am cutting the final edit. Thanks for stopping buy... I mean by and keep on reading until you find the answers because, trust me, they are out there.

Reviews

Reviews. What are these... really? I had always thought... in my feeble mind, that reviews as posted on sites such as Amazon.books and Amazon Kindle Boards concerned themselves with remarks and comments concerning the so-called readability of the book, i.e. were the characters believable? were the settings first rate or not so hot? was the action exciting? did it keep the reader's attention? would you recommend it to your friends?

I have given many reviews and have always spoken to the issues listed above. However, it has been brought to my attention lately that reviewers should base their reviews on something called "the rules", which apparently include a great deal of criticism directed at spelling, word usage, formatting, grammar, punctuation, so on and so forth. These topics, I believe are editing issues and should be addressed in forums and boards such as Kindle Boards "Book Bazaar" where I heartily agree that any opinions of readers is highly valuable input even if we might not want to hear it. These comments can be helpful when editing and correcting and when writing future epic giants.

I am still firmly convinced that Reviews should be recommendations/non-recommendations to other potential readers for the book in question... period (pardon the pun) and not comma-tary on grammar, which as aggravating as it is to some people of higher learning, is not as important to to the general populace as it should be.

Introduction

My name is Brendan Carroll. I'm a fulltime writer/author with a 40+ hour job working for the State of Texas as a hobby (to pay the bills). I'm an Indie author with a total of nine books now ready for your reading pleasure on Amazon.com at the Kindle Store.

My novels are a sort of super-series of 28 adventures centered on the adventures and misadventures of Chevalier Mark Andrew Ramsay, the only Scottish member of the Immortal Council of Twelve, Ordo Militi Templi, Red Cross of Gold. He is commonly called the Knight of Death or in French, which is the Order's formal language, l'Chevalier du Morte. He works as an assassin and alchemist for the thousand year old chapter and is about 837 years old at present. He makes the gold that the Order needs to operate its private army and when someone needs to be killed, he does that as his primary job. He holds the Secrety of the Key of Death for the semi-immortal members of the inner grand council and he also holds the divine Mystery of Alchemy which allows him to make gold from base metals.

Mark is a simple Scotsman who wants nothing more than to be left alone, but his life is turned upsidedown when an assassin's mission sends him to America to retrieve or eliminate a traitorous apprentice to the Order's Grand Master. The members of the inner circle cannot desert, nor can they simply leave the Order. It is a lifetime commitment and deviations will not be tolerated.

In America, Mark temporarily becomes disoriented after a vicious assault and he forgets who he is and what he is doing there. While he is trying to regain his memory, he meets and falls in love with one of his captors. Keeping company with women is strictly forbidden by the Primitive Rule of Order for the Templars which states "The company of women is a dangerous thing and has led many men from the path to paradise".

Needless to say, he suddenly finds himself embroiled in a life and death struggle as he attempts to fight off his captors who are bent on extracting the secret of immortality from him while his own Brothers of the Order come looking for him, considering him a traitor to the Order. An old enemy is determine to take his head back to Italy in a box, his new-found love wants him to stay with her and give up the Order and his loyal apprentice and friends are trying to help him, but he doesn't know which way to turn.

Things get pretty sticky for him and the outcome looks even bleaker when the Grand Master, himself, shows up in Texas, ready to do battle for the sake of the Order.

Happy reading. Brendan Carroll