Books for Boys

I've got Accidental Pirates on my mind because I dropped in on Les Freres Corses this week. They're not bookworms by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think they've ever even read a chapter book from beginning to end. Accidental Pirates has changed that. When I stopped in for a short visit. Chris, the brother upon whom the character telling the story in the book is based, immediately grabbed the book and showed me that he was reading it, pointing out that he only had one chapter to go. "They should make this into a movie!" he exclaimed.

That response makes all the time I spent writing Accidental Pirates a complete success. Getting even one boy to read is a victory. Most of the boys I know--arguably, not that many--don't read much at all. Many boys do read, but young male readership has dropped off steadily over the last decade or two. In fact, some report (by which I mean the standard search engine) that reading for pleasure among 11-16 year old boys has dropped steeply in the last 20 years. Only 12% of Gen Z boys read books. Why? 

I suppose there is no single reason. Casting around for suspects, I know that video games provide immediate feedback for less effort invested than reading. Video games require less imagination and often channel non-stop excitement--a steady stream of mind crack that rapidly addicts the player to the immediate rush feedback. The digital rush leaves the mind in a state of decay with nothing to show for the time spent. I liked video games as kid, but I couldn't play them continuously. I had to go to the arcade and the quarters or nickels soon came to an end. Video games were a rare delight. Now many players spend fewer hours at a full-time job that they do with their eyes glued to the gaming screen. I still like video games, but they can't hold my interest like they did when I was a kid. At any rate, getting boys to read faces direct competition from video games.

Suspect number two is the short video. Boys can watch an endless scroll of short videos on youtube and other sites. Watching short videos requires even less effort than playing video games. There's a lot to be learned on these videos, but mostly they absorb time and brain cells with little long-term benefit. Don't ask me how I know.

We should look at another suspect in this crime against boys: Publishers. Who runs the publishing companies and decides what books get published? It's not men. Women and girls read more than men and boys, so it's natural to expect that more books directed to women and girls would be published--but boys suffer for it. It's a truism that most girls will read books with boys as the main characters. The opposite is not true. Boys rarely read and enjoy books with girls as the main characters. Boys want action and adventure. They want to be able to imagine themselves as the heroes who save the day, solve the crime, and vanquish the foe. Tea parties, frilly dresses, girls engaged in long conversations, and even tomboys doing fun and weird things (I'm talking about you, Pippi) don't hold much appeal for boys. Put a girl with red pigtails on the cover and you turn away 90% of boys who would be interested if a boy were featured. Maybe boys are sexist. Maybe I'm sexist. I don't think I am, but I do know that I can usually tell after reading a paragraph or a page whether a man or a woman wrote the story. Most women tell stories with a different tone and emphasize different aspects that do men. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I came to recognize the difference at an early age and realized that I usually preferred the male tone, even though I continue to enjoy stories written by talented women.

I'm happy to report that Raconteur Press has taken up arms against this sea of suspects. Raconteur Press continues to publish adventure books for boys to promote the dreams that come by exploring the undiscovered country of an exciting tale. RP has already published several great adventures for boys in a variety of genres:

Dreams of Fire and Gold by Fred Philips

Meteor Men by Scott Schad

Boy's Own Starship by Christopher Nuttal

I've Got This by Frederick Key

Fossil Force by Graham Bradley

Accidental Pirates by Stanley Wheeler 

I've probably missed a couple titles, but if you have a boy who reads, or who would read if he had the books before him, you can't go wrong with any of these titles. 

 

 

 

 

Hard Time in Kharput

 

The sequel to Accidental Pirates has been sent to the publisher for consideration. Chris and Kenny are thrown into a kingdom in turmoil facing treachery within and enemies without. Chris has been drafted to replace the blood mage - and he finds the job has a serious downside. Kenny wields enchanted steel against a host of enemies. Together they are the kingdom's only hope against a new evil.

I've been doing a lot of reading about Enoch - Genesis 6, Moses 7 & 8, as well as The Book of Enoch, a long with A Brief History of Time and an Alan Dean Foster novel. I may post about these at some point, but at I haven't yet finished any of the books, so I'll post a fun fact from something I did finish - or at least I think I did. This is condensed from chapter 11 of Crusaders by Dan Jones:

Fun Fact:

During an expedition to Egypt, King Baldwin I died after eating a breakfast of fresh fish. His body was salted, spiced, and transported back to Jerusalem to be buried beside his brother Godrey at The Holy Sepulchre. Baldwin of Bourcq raced to Jerusalem, beating the other contenders, to be anointed king and was later crowned in Bethlehem. Nearly sixty, he had been Count of Edessa for almost twenty years. Frankish power and Crusader confidence had been dealt a severe blow at the Field of Blood. The fate of the Crusader kingdoms depended on European help.

Ilghazi, the victor of the Field of Blood, died in 1122--his death probably wasn't from the fish--and the Franks looked to Aleppo again with greedy eyes. September 13, 1122, Joscelin, Count of Edessa, was captured by Balak, Ilghazi's nephew who had stepped in to fill his uncle's slippers. After being transported, sew inside a camel skin, Joscelin was locked up in the fortress of Kharput. Then Baldwin himself was also captured and locked up with Joscelin. The Crusader fortunes seemed fated never to recover from the defeat at the Field of Blood.

A year later, Ilghazi's son Timurtash succeeded Balak after the latter's death in May 1124. Baldwin arranged to pay Timurtash a ransom for his release. However, Baldwin had built up some ill will about his capture; he failed to pay the ransom as agreed, preparing to attack Timurtash instead. The other good news for the Crusaders was the capture of Tyre.

Baldwin II arrived at the walls of Aleppo in October with his Timurtash tax in the form of an army at his back. Additionally, he had among his forces the troops of a Muslim ally, Dubays Ibn Sadaqa, whom he had promised to install as the commander of Aleppo in place of Timurtash. Baldwin laid siege to the city until January 1125, when Muslim forces began raiding Antiochene territory. Baldwin returned to Jerusalem. A stalemate between the Franks and the Muslims had developed and could only be broken by an influx of new warriors from the west or a uniting of Islamic forces.

 

Next week I'm scheduled for a podcast interview. I'll post a link when it's available. 

 

 

Combat Infantry on the Beach

Thus began the game of Combat Infantry Western Front by Columbia Games. This was the second playing of the first scenario. The first time through, the Americans smote the Germans with a great smiting. The first reason for that was that the dice favored the GIs and disfavored the Germans. The other reason was that the latter had been mistakenly deprived of three of their assets. This time, the Germans had their full complement of blocks and the dice evenly mistreated both sides.
 

The Americans had limited placement options. The Germans have more options. In the first run through they crowded near the beach to try to prevent the Americans off the sand. This time, they spread out because the rules place limits on how many units can fire through a hexside.

Here they are at turn three. Although the American left and right were making progress, the center couldn't get any momentum.

 

 By the end of turn 4, the Germans have been forced back on the American right, and the GIs were making an end run on the left, but the Germans continued to dominate the line of scrimmage in the center. However, the Americans were about to add air support to their artillery power.

I didn't get any other pictures. The Americans drove around on the left to take the town behind the German right and did get contest a hex of St. Hilaire on the German left. The Americans made some desperate moves on the last turn in an attempt to drive the Germans out of some key positions but lost more than they gained. They were hampered by several failed rally attempts that continually delayed the planned thrust in the center, and the same problem then slowed the advance on the right. The objective victory points would've resulted in a tie, but the Americans took a two point victory for more enemy units destroyed--thanks to artillery and air support.

____________________________

The final edit to the Accidental Pirates sequel should wrap up this week and I can get it sent to the Raconteur Press for consideration. 

We had a visit from the Lawtwister and three of his small claims. The latter had a great time with their grandma, even getting in a Scooby doo game. They all helped us examine the potential new chateau--which will remain sans chat gris--and gave their respective verdicts on it as a place for future visits.

Meanwhile, Les Freres Corse are burning through their copy of Accidental Pirates. It can't be helped, it's a rip-roaring, dragon-flaming, swashbuckling tale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ardneh's Sword

I finished reading Fred Saberhagen's Ardneh's Sword a few days ago. As with the earlier work in the series, Empire of the East, I stopped about 75 percent of the way through to read another book. I needed the palate cleansed before I could go on, because the pacing was off for me. The slow build to the conclusion was a steady diet of the same bland questions. I did give it 4 stars because it began and ended well--sort of. The story takes place a thousand years after the events of EotE. Chance, Rolf's heir is off with an expedition to find the titular item. Under the direction of a scholar, he cares for an owl that may have the capacity for speech, but the speech is a dialect of gibberish. The owl is wounded mysteriously while bringing Chance Ardneh's Key; this item comes and goes from around Chance's neck at will. Chance meets a young, redheaded boy and as well as a girl, the boy's twin, and a grandmotherly figure. Turns out that these three are the same entity, a djinn named Zalmoxis, or is it the mighty demon Avenarius? That question persists until near the end of the book.

Meanwhile, the scholarly wagon train is threatened by bandits and attempts to take refuge at a sanctuary of healers--although what they're doing way out there in the blasted lands, or whatever the desolation is call, I never quite understood. There, Chance meets Abigail, who has some magic sense and takes the items left by the dead sorceress who was part of the scholarly wagon train to the treasure. The healers do take them to a cave. The bandits attack; there's some magic; Draffut returns to route the bandits for a time.The Beast Lord then goes off on some other errand--like Reverend Tim Tom--taking part of the caravan with him while Chance, Abigail, Zalmoxis, and others take another way looking for Ardneh's workshop.

As you might expect, the bandits follow with an eye toward the prize. The prize at last becomes revealed. Ardneh's sword isn't one item, but many--spandex suits that turn the wearers into pagan gods with no recollection of their former life. One of these dispatches Avenarius. The many gods go their ways. Abigail and Chance elect not to don this armor of the gods and go make marriage plans. The end.

I was most disappointed by the fact that the big battle at the end of EoftE promised a better and different world. However, a thousand years later, the world appeared to be pretty much the same as before, albeit with fewer demons. The owl's role never amounted to much. Avenarius as an antagonist turned out to be a dud; his demise wasn't attributable to any heroics by Chance. The matter of who was spying for the bandits, and the suspicious activity of one of the minor characters was never resolved, as near as I can remember. I'm not a fan of the resolution, but donning the armor of the gods was a completely unexpected twist that was intriguing. One must wonder whether the humans were worse off with the demons or the new gods that were Ardneh's cure for that affliction. I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been shorter. Again, I gave it 4 stars, so my criticisms should be considered in that light.

The sequel to Accidental Pirates has been written and received a round of editing. I'll make one more complete read/edit pass and send it in for consideration for publication. I'll be the first to admit that Accidental Pirates has a slower start than I prefer. The sequel, on the other hand, hits the afterburners at the end of the first short chapter. Although it does gear down for the curves, it never hits the brakes. The last several chapters are a white hot burn to the finish with no shortage of casualties along the way as the boys face danger from the blood pack, turncoats, magical beasts, treachery, and the Dragon Queen herself. It's a glorious charge into peril to help good prevail against evil.

 

 

 

 

Field of Blood

 

Speaking of Accidental Pirates, I was on The Spaceman and the Hafling podcast/show Saturday. We recorded yesterday; the show should go up on youtube in a couple weeks. Naturally, I will post a link when I get it.

I finished reading Sharpe's Sword. The end made up for the slow middle. The end reflects the ending of the first book in the series with the hero slaying and taking the overalls of the French Imperial Guard cavalry colonel. -- Foreshadowing Sharpe fighting at Waterloo as a colonel? I don't know. I can't remember if he was a colonel at Waterloo, but I think he was. I used to have a very nice matched set of the original series but parted with them during one of our moves when I thought I would never read them again--that was 20 years ago. Now I read them in ebook if I find one that's an exceptionally good price and I feel the yearn to revisit Sharpe and the light company.

Fun Fact History:

During the summer of 1111, a Muslim coalition under Mawdud, atabeg of Mosul, laid siege to Turbessel near Edessa and forced the crusader leader there, Joscelin of Courtney, to pay tribute. The following year, King Baldwin failed in besieging Tyre after the siege machines were burned and a relief army threatened. The next year, 1113, Mawdud and Tughtakin briefly captured Baldwin. The crusader king escaped, and in October, Mawdud was assassinated by one of the Nizari Ismaili sect--also known as the Hashashin. In fighting among the Muslim leaders prevented organized action against the crusaders for a few years. 

Ilghazi ibn Artuk commanded an army of Turcoman warriors and controlled the fortress town of Mardin, between Aleppo and Mosul. Aleppo and Edessa bordered his region of influence. Roger of Salerno was the regent of Antioch on behalf of the 11 year old Bohemund II. Battles for succession in Constantinople left Roger free of potential hindrance from the west. He seized the opportunity to take control of Aleppo's satellite castles. The citizenry made pleas to Ilghazi for help against the invader. Ilghazi, with his father-in-law, Tughtatin of Damascus, began assembling a huge army.

Roger's fb page began to fill with warnings of the massive hostile build up and he responded with #livingmybestlife and began raising his own army. His force even included Armenian mercenaries and light cavalry from Northern Syria and Asia Minor. 

On June 28, 1119, Ilghazi posted #lightyouup and attacked at a location that became know as Ager Sanguinis: Field of Blood. He triumphed after a battle of only an hour, in which Roger suffered a sword thrust through the nose and into his brain. Having left his Excedrin behind, he expired with a splitting headache. One chronicler reported that the Christians who were not flayed or beheaded on the spot were chained like dogs and led away. Many of those lucky prisoners were tortured the next day and slain, while others were taken to Damascus for ransom, death, or slavery. Ilghazi had destroyed Antioch's regent, army, and regional dominance in a single battle.

The above is summarized from Crusaders by Dan Jones.

Wikipedia indicates that Roger had camped in the pass of Sarmada at a wooded valley with steep sides and few avenues of escape; Ilghazi surrounded him during the night.  Roger's 700 knights, 500 light cavalry, and 3,000 infantry assembled in a V formation and initially prevailed in an archery duel and attacked on their right. However, the crusader left collapsed under an aggressive attack, confusing the rest of the force at the same time a dust storm blinded them. The slaughter followed.

 

 

 

Drown Melancholy news

 

Again, one of my stories in Cirsova Magazine made the Tangent Online Recommended Reading List - for 2025 this time: 

Reviewed by Seraph

“Drown Melancholy” by Stanley Wheeler

It is unclear whether this is a case of inspiration being found anywhere, or the result of a dare, but if you challenged someone to write a story purely on the basis of several recently popular sea shanties, it might look something like this. Don’t let that sound like criticism, it came out fantastic, and I confess to greatly enjoying the aforementioned songs. The speaker is a cabin boy on Captain Edwards ship at the height of the transatlantic era of exploration, and heard some things he wasn’t meant to. Like any good pirate tale, superstition and the supernatural abound, bordering cleanly upon madness, and even an accursed treasure is too difficult to resist. The concept that sins committed above the waves are punished beneath them is classic, but the author does a great job of cleverly weaving the shanties in throughout the story in a meaningful way. 

See all Seraph's reviews for Cirsova #24 here. 

 

For the record, that story was sort of the result of a dare: There was a call from an anthology for a story featuring a sea shanty. I wrote "Drown Melancholy" and submitted it (perhaps under a different title) only for the the publisher to delay the selection date by several months. Finally, the new date passed and the publisher failed to post any additional information or respond to requests about whether the anthology had been cancelled. After a year of nothing from that publisher, and it giving every appearance of having abandoned the proposed anthology, I submitted the story to Cirsova Magazine with good results. I had fun with  accents for a character or two as well as making the shanty intertwine with the plot. I started with nothing more than knowing which old shanty I wanted to use, and worked out the story and how the song figured in as I went along. Some would call that making it up as one goes along, but I prefer to think of it as plotting and development from the leading edge position.

Plotting and development from the leading edge was also how the story for Accidental Pirates came into existence. I knew it would feature the boys and pirates; the rest developed as the story grew. Coincidentally, the sequel, which I just completed, followed the same pattern. The sequel features the boys, kings, wizards, knights, and a plethora of fantastic beasts bent on the destruction of our heroes.

I have no idea how the sales are going for Accidental Pirates, but it was still in the double and low triple digits in the three categories in which it ranks best.

The bad grammar in the meme could be intentional, reflecting the frenzied mind of the storyteller pictured.

The sequel came out just a little bit longer than the original, but is filled with even more action and adventure. It's a rip-roaring adrenaline rush mingled with intrigue and magic.
 

 

2025 Year in Review

 Accidental Pirates is actually the only novel that I had published this year. However, I did get a number of short stories selected for publication.

"A Stardust Memory" was published in Sultry Murder Jazz. I found its placement as the final story in the anthology entirely appropriate.

 "Seventh Hussar and Aide to the Mage" came out in Wyrd Warfare, receiving special attention for containing the best line of dialog in an anthology filled with great dialog - but the anthology is loaded with action. I got to dip into my love of Napoleonic history and warfare for this story, and the characters, especially Beaujeu were a hit with some youtube reviewers.

The anthology Dames, Derringers, and Detectives includes my story, "Calypso's Count." Cats, or "moggies," are featured in every tale in this noir collection. My submission continues the adventures of Noah Vail/Duncan Kane from my Smoke novel.

 

Editor Nick Nethery again delighted me by selecting my wyrd western "Moonlight Fandango" for the Rawhide Revenants anthology. This is my third published story about Whip and Truth, or Glen Sharp and Rufus Pizzini as they are also known, and their adventures in the wyrd west as cowboys with a knack for supernatural encounters. The characters are fan favorites.

In the Goblin Souk anthology, I again went to the Napoleonic well to explore the supernatural adventures of three infantry soldiers during Bonaparte's Egyptian Campaign with "A Soldier's Bargain." Incidentally, a story involving my three Napoleonic cavalrymen who appear in the above-mentioned "Seventh Hussar..." submission also takes place during the Egyptian Campaign, but that story hasn't been published yet.

 

My first story to feature pirates, although they're a different group than those in Accidental Pirates, was published in Cirsova Magazine, issue 24. "Drown Melancholy" reveals the predicament of a boy who has thrown in his lot with a cursed crew on the Spanish Main.

 

Finally, "The Blacksmith's Work" appeared in the Christmas edition of Irreantum Journal. You'll want to check out the paintings and poetry in the collection as well.

 

Of course, I have been working on novels. The sequel to Accidental Pirates is down to the final 5K words, and will be concluded before the year ends--at least one of my proofing team likes the sequel even better than the first entry in the series. I did a bunch of editing and preparing on a novel I submitted for a contest, and in contrast to last year, I had a few stories that didn't fit the needs of the editors making the publication decisions. Those stories may go into a collection of my own.