Re: Warriors of Love
 

A brief quote from my novel Margaret Again:

“So we come to the final part of this morning’s arithmetic problem,” Miss Miles announced. How much prize money would an artillery captain take from the sack of the Surrey city? Margaret – what’s your answer?”

“Sixteen and eight pence, miss,” I said without confidence. “Remainder three.”

“Remainder three, child?”

“Yes, miss. It wouldn’t divide exactly… or I don’t think it would. I had a remainder of three, miss.”

“And what kind of coin do you think remainder three is, you surprising girl.”

“I don’t know, miss.”

“Do you think it possible that your answer is wrong, Margaret?”

“Yes, miss. I expect it is, miss.”

Re: Warriors of Love
 

This is only tangentially connected with The Warriors of Love in a "by the same author" way, but this morning I started work on what is intended to develop into a book about school uniform. It should be profusely illustrated, and, if anyone has suitable pictures in the form of jpeg files, I would be interested to see them.

Anyway, here is my draft for the beginning of the book:

“I have had a telephone call…” our head teacher began. It was always I have rather than I’ve, and telephone rather than phone. It was most certainly never some busybody has phoned me, but that was the sense of the thing.

“I have had a telephone call…” at morning assembly betokened that a pupil of the school had been reported as engaging in some piece of minor hooliganism, or perhaps merely buying chips at lunchtime. We were permitted to take school dinners, or go home for lunch, but not to patronise the fish and chip shop a hundred yards from the school gates.

“I have had a telephone call…” translated into English as some busybody has phoned me. The words filled me with dread. I was under suspicion. My supposition was that the culprit would be identified sooner or later, but, until that happened, I would be watched more carefully, my every fault duly noted. Looking back, I suspect that, after the lecture on right conduct at morning assembly, the matter was taken no further. Probably the teachers dismissed it from their minds more quickly than I did.

And who, or what, was responsible for my unease over the ensuing days? The misbehaving pupil, obviously. Also the interfering busybody who phoned the school to report the matter. Not least, our school uniform was responsible.

Clearly, the busybody had not recognised the culprit’s face, otherwise the complaint would surely have been addressed to the child’s parents (most probably mother). The uniform created the connection exemplified in phoning the head teacher of a specific school.

We have the first of several reasons for children to dislike school uniform, it serves to demonstrate a link that, I imagine, even the best behaved pupil would sometimes prefer to be overlooked. Perhaps I am a cynic, but it seems to me that this is also a reason for head teachers to dislike school uniform. I imagine our head, weary with responsibility for the behaviour of a schoolful of children, thinking: Oh no, not Mrs Knebworth… what does she want this time?

Parental dislike of school uniform was other, and largely financial. Raised in Southend-on-Sea, our local school outfitters was a shop called Meakers. It’s gone now, but I’m sure that in my schooldays (the 1950s and early 1960s) every town in England had its equivalent to Meakers. Acceptable substitutes for Meakers’ blouses and skirts could be bought elsewhere, but not blazers or headgear. Not even, I think, girls’ summer dresses. These were gingham, and might, perhaps be run up by an industrious mother on a sewing machine. But they needed to be embellished with exactly the correct white trim. Meakers, then, had a monopoly in significant, indispensable, items of uniform. Only the more naive amongst us will fail to recognise the connection between monopoly and prices.

With children, head teachers and parents all given reason to dislike school uniforms, it is scarcely surprising that in my teenage years (the early to mid 1960s) the consensus of opinion seemed to be that youngsters would not be obliged to wear them for very much longer. I heard people say that, in another ten years, school uniforms would have ceased to be. Indeed, for some while, they appeared to be on the decline. Yet, a decade into the twenty-first century, more children seem to be so-clothed than half a century before.

When my business takes me on to the streets or public transport not long after the schools debouche their cargo of students, I see very few children out of uniform. The details of the uniform often seem very similar to those of my schooldays. Both sexes are frequently to be seen in blazers adorned with the school badge, items I assume to remain expensive, long after the disappearance of Meakers, and other such shops. Most of the girls still wear pleated skirts.

Perhaps the most conspicuous casualty of the years from the mid twentieth to early twenty-first century is school headgear. When I was young, boys wore school caps, girls a variety of hats. The most common, in state-funded grammar schools, seemed to be the beret. There are berets that may be worn with an air of Gallic sophistication. The objects sold by Meakers, with a school badge sewn to the front were emphatically not in that category. Quite the reverse, they were an item of uniform universally hated by girls of my generation, or – at least – hated by every girl I encountered. Of course, once out of sight of the school gates, a girl could thrust her beret into her satchel. Even this seemed a risky enterprise: the sort of thing that might conceivably have Mrs Knebworth picking up the telephone.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

A brief passage of dialogue from Margaret Again:

“What did the old miser want, Tuerqui?” Lisa-Louise asked. “From the look on your face, it can’t have been joining him for Solstice dinner.”

“No it wasn’t, thank the goddess, although his guests will include your Uncle Wilfred.”

“A reason to avoid it like the penny brothel pox.”

“There are plenty of other reasons too, mistress, headed by Cornelius Lock.”

“May the Mistresses of Fury stuff his arse with tax evaded gold, until it bursts out of his mouth.”

“Does that mean Merry Solstice, Mr Lock, mistress?”

Re: Warriors of Love
 

"Margaret Again" with its new cover arrived today. The cover looks even better full size on the book than it does in the reduced size reproductions. I'm very pleased with it. :)

On the down side, I've spotted another typo. :(

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I'm very pleased with the new "Margaret Again" cover. It looks much better full size on the book than it does in this reduced size reproduction. I particularly like the stoned look on the unicorn's face.

http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2058

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I have, today, published Odalisque in two volumes. I did so largely to have copies for my own reference, but decided to make them available from Lulu in case anyone else is interested. The volumes cost just £10 each (plus postage).

I don't intend to issue these two books more widely, so they are unlikely ever to be available from Amazon or bookshops.

Volume 2 also contains my early work on Tuerqui Again and a brief (one page) overview of The Warriors of Love as a whole.

http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2071

http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2072

Re: Warriors of Love
 

All of my books, including the Odalisque volumes are listed here:

P F Jeffery's Storefront - Lulu.com

More details of each title may be had by clicking on it, and a preview is available for each book, including the Odalisque volumes.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

My first two books are now available on Amazon:



I'm trying to get them to display better on Amazon.

In the meantime, the books display a lot better here:

P F Jeffery's Storefront - Lulu.com

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Here, for the benefit of the two or three Americans on this site, are links to the United States of America Amazon:



$35.95 sounds like a lot of money. Is it?

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I've just checked how much $35.95 is in real money, and according to the Interweb site at which I looked, it's £24.69. So how come my books are £16.99 on UK Amazon, but £24.69 on US Amazon? :confused:

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I'm thinking of creating hard covered editions of my books, to be available only on Lulu. They might work out at an affordable price. Only one way to find out.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I've produced a cheaper than the paperback hard covered edition of Jane, by having it available only on Lulu. This will not be available from Amazon or any other outlet, but the price is very low.

Jane by P Jeffery in Science Fiction Fantasy

I make not a penny on this hard covered edition. It's as cheap as I'm allowed to make it.

I have the impression, too, that Lulu is offering free delivery to US purchasers (though you may have to buy two books to qualify for this). UK purchasers will have to pay for the postage, but £12.91 is not expensive for a 443 page hard covered book, even when one adds the shipping cost (likely to be £9.99, and making it about £5 more expensive than the "post free" paperback from Amazon).

I'm waiting to see how Jane turns out before offering other titles as minimum price hard covered books.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I've put a short review on that new hardback page of Jane linked in the previous post.
Jane is the only novel -- of the rewritten 12-novel version of PF Jeffery's 20+ years long writing rite-of-passage that has evolved into Warriors of Love -- that I have so far read.

It deserves a wide readership.

PS: Edit: My much longer real-time review of JANE last year:
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2009...f-jeffery.html

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Since posting that, I've noticed that it takes them much longer to produce a hard covered book than a paperback. I suppose that is as one might expect.

Paperbacks ship after 3-5 business days.
Hard covered volumes ship after 10-15 business days.

(Essentially, barring public holidays, that means 2-3 weeks.)

This being so, I think that I may go ahead with publishing other books as low price hard covered volumes, without waiting to receive Jane in this form.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I have now blogged about this series of books:
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/jane_by_pf_jeffery.htm

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I have now issued all five of my published books in hard covers. The price of each is the minimum I'm allowed to charge (I make nothing from any of them). The prices vary because of different page counts. They are as follows:

Jane £12.91
Margaret £13.37
Tuerqui £13.42
Margaret Again £13.37
Golden Goddess and Bloody Times £8.44

The books take 2-3 weeks to print, bind and send.

Click on the link in my signature to visit my storefront.

UK purchasers need to add postage. I think that, in the USA, it is currently possible to buy any two (or more) of these post free. That's if I've understood the messages Lulu sends out correctly.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Margaret now has a picture of the cover on UK Amazon:


For whatever reason, Jane hasn't, as yet.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

And on US Amazon:


The US Amazon price has dropped a little since I last looked.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Last night, I discovered that both Tuerqui and Golden Goddess and Bloody Times are available on Amazon, but not under the name P F Jeffery. I'm attempting to get them to write my name the same way for all of the books. P. F. Jeff is certainly not good enough! :eek:



I don't think that Margaret Again is, as yet, available from Amazon... But I'm less certain on this point than I should be. In a perfect world, perhaps they'd have emailed me to let me know my books were now available on Amazon. In fact, I rather expected that. But no such courtesy was vouchsafed.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

All four books now display with a cover picture on Amazon.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I found, today, that this book now has Amazon's "Search Inside" facility. One can read the first half dozen pages on Amazon.


The cover is my last TLO avatar, of course.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

An excerpt from the draft of Tuerqui Again Chapter 8:

We arrived in the late afternoon, as the sun’s rays caught the splendid scene almost horizontally. Hundreds of tents had been pitched, all but the largest of them brightly coloured, no two alike. Over each floated a banner picked out with metallic threads, gleaming like sunbeams upon ruffled water. Dwarfing all others was Berenice’s great black canvas palace, but even that shone as the light caught its satin panels and sombre embroideries.

“Mummy,” Tuerquelle said, emerging from the carriage, “it’s like the camp of the faerie queen at Faraway Haven.”

“It is,” I replied, “only that’s a story and this is real.”

“Don’t you sometimes think we might be in a story, mummy?”

“We are,” Lady Isobel said, “your mummy’s writing it.”

“Mistress,” Tuerquelle asked, “are we living in the really and truly, and in a story, all at the same time?”

“It seems that way, my precious.”

“And what about the people who will read my story?” I asked. “Are they real? Or are they in stories themselves?”

“Maybe some of them aren’t yet born, Tuerqui. They certainly don’t live in what Tuerquelle calls the really and truly.”

“But, mistress and mummy,” Tuerquelle continued, “what if faerie magic brought the book back to the Old Time?”

“Well,” Lady Isobel replied, “perhaps the people who would read it there are now in the World to Come, meeting the fate of wicked blasphemers.”

“Otherwise,” I added, “the Devourer has taken them.”

“Or,” Tuerquelle shuddered, “they’re ghosts… or those dead things that suck blood from people, while they’re asleep.”

“Vampires,” I frowned in response, “and if I find out who’s been telling you about that scary stuff…”

“Whichever,” my mistress said, “they’re not in the here and now reality.”

“Not,” I added, “in the really and truly… so, they’re not as real as we are… and, considering their wickedness and blasphemy, a good job too.”

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Here's a thing. This book (the paperback of Odalisque Volume 2 & Tuerqui Again Early Work):

http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2072

and this book (the hard covered edition of Odalisque Volume 2 & Tuerqui Again Early Work):

http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2110

are significantly different. The paperback includes Tuerqui Again as of 13th June, and at that time my work in progress ran to 130 pages. The hard covered edition includes Tuerqui Again as of today (24th June), and now my work in progress runs to 220 pages. So, I conclude, in the space of eleven days, the novel has expanded by 90 pages.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

The Odalisque covers seem extraordinarily apt... a statue of an odalisque looking backwards over her shoulder.

http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2109
http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2110

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I sent this (as a PM) to five people amongst my TLO friends who live in the USA (or I think they all do). I also emailed it to the four (only four, crumbs!) people in my email address book who live in the USA. But this may as well be available to any Americans who look at this thread. For non-Americans, I'm afraid, the free shipping is not available... but I get ahead of myself...

I wanted to point out that the hard covered books available via my Lulu storefront:

P F Jeffery's Storefront - Lulu.com

are not only very lovely, but very cheap (the minimum price for which Lulu will allow me to sell them... I don't make a penny on these, and to make them available on Amazon, I'd have to charge a lot more). And (this is where the USA comes in) you have the option of this offer:

Lulu FREE Shipping
FREE shipping in the US on Orders of $19.95 and over (some restrictions apply)
How do I take advantage of Lulu FREE Shipping
Place at least $19.95 of eligible Lulu.com products in your Shopping Cart. (Eligible items will say “Lulu FREE Summer Shipping” beneath their price)
Proceed to checkout
Enter shipping address (must be in the US to qualify)
Select mail rate shipping
Coupon FREESHIP will automatically appear in your cart if you qualify. You may enter another coupon code but this will cancel your free shipping until you re-enter FREESHIP
Place your order, and enjoy Lulu FREE shipping!
The Fine Print
To qualify for Lulu FREE Summer Shipping, your cart has to total at least $19.95 in printed book merchandise, but that total excludes taxes. So basically, make sure your books, photo books and calendars add up to $19.95 or more. What is eligible for FREE Summer Shipping? Pretty much anything that’s printed. The exceptions are CDs & DVDs. Obviously downloads and eBooks are excluded too. Since the US Postal Service will deliver your order, we can only offer FREE Summer Shipping to valid US delivery addresses. We can also ship to APO/FPO addresses, but just make sure you use a valid US zip code with your order. Unfortunately, FREE Summer Shipping can’t be combined with any other promotional codes at this time. Just a heads up—canceling items, changing your shipping address, or shipping method might affect your order’s eligibility for Lulu FREE Summer Shipping. If you cancel an item, and your new order total falls below $19.95, the order won’t be eligible for Lulu FREE Summer Shipping. While we don’t have any plans, desires, intentions or wishes to do so, we can change or discontinue Lulu FREE Summer Shipping at anytime. Maximum discount of $19.95.
****************************************

Without checking the UK/US exchange rate, I'm pretty sure that while the "at least $19.95" would not apply to any single book, it would cover any combination of two.

My first hard covered copy of one of my books reached me yesterday, and I'm really pleased with it.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Today, I've been working on "Tuerqui Again" Chapter 9, which is an expansion of less than 8 pages from "Odalisque" Chapter 50. This morning, I was thinking "there's not enough here to make a full chapter"... Then, this afternoon, it all fell into place. The less than 8 pages blossomed to 24 (more than three times the original length)... and the extra material proved important, stuff that it's now difficult to believe I ever omitted. There's something rather wonderful about a chapter falling into place.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I have started a real-time review of MARGARET:
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2010...f-jeffery.html

" 'Ghosts have very sharp ears. They can hear a child breathing a mile away.' "

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Here's a photo with the title page of Margaret... in the hard covered edition.

http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2147

Re: Warriors of Love
 

As a little birthday present to this site, the words of the carol Solstice Night:

Solstice night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round the goddess –- mother and child
Holy sun, rise waxing in might
Spring is coming, my darling
Spring is coming, don’t fret

(From Margaret Again.)

Not very seasonally appropriate today, I'm afraid, though.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Here is something from Margaret that is entirely seasonally appropriate. Today, Glarehaze the 8th, is Margaret/Tuerqui's birthday...


A little more than two weeks after Midsummer it was my birthday –- my eighth. The sun shone, and we took afternoon tea on one of the lawns. There were strawberries, with plenty of cream and powdered honeycake. Best of all, perhaps, was a large cake sugared in pink and white.

A slave served us iced rosehip tea sweetened with honey. The drink had been cooled with some of the contents of my grandfather’s icehouse. This was a subterranean chamber filled with ice when the ponds froze in the winter. During the summer it slowly emptied.

“Well, my dear,” grandfather announced rather gruffly, “we have a present for you.”

“Thank you, grandfather,” I replied dutifully, not expecting a gift I’d care to possess.

“It’s from your mother, and me, and well… the whole family.”

My spirits rose. Perhaps, if so many people had clubbed together to buy it, the present would be worth having, after all. A slave fetched a large box decorated with coloured paper and ribbon. Could it be toy warriors’ armour like the splendid set that had been presented to my brother five months before?

After ripping away the wrappings, to my strong disappointment, I found myself looking at a doll. It wasn’t even a pretty doll, in fact it was downright ugly. Nor was it the kind of doll with which a little girl could play. The thing represented a lady of fashion clothed in white lacy garments a child’s touch would ruin in seconds.

“Ooh, isn’t she lovely?” my mother gushed.

“Yes, mother,” I replied insincerely. “Thank you very much.”

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I spent yesterday showing a Mexican Internet friend round London. For the first time in months (years??) I did no work at all on The Warriors of Love. :eek:

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Des' real-time review of Margaret:

DFLewis: Margaret (2)

is now more than a third of the way through the book.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I intend to discontinue the availability of Odalisque on Lulu. The paperback will probably be discontinued this coming weekend, and the hard covered edition at the end of this month (or perhaps the end of August). Anyone who would like copies after that time should contact me.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Having, for a long time, been working what is essentially a revised and expanded version of Odalisque, I am now nearing the end of work on the first chapter beyond that. (Tuerqui Again Chapter 11.) I have entered what will probably be about 3,600 pages of fresh and original composition.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I have today discontinued the availability of the Odalisque paperbacks. I am pretty sure that only one copy of each volume was printed. That places them amongst the world's rarest extant books. :o

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Margaret Again is now available on Amazon.

Re: Warriors of Love
 

And on US Amazon, too:

Re: Warriors of Love
 

My latest book:

http://www.ligotti.net/picture.php?a...pictureid=2181

Feeling pretty sure that nobody but me would have any interest in this, I've made it available only to me. Of course, if anyone wished a copy, I could produce one and send it to them. I'm not sure whether anyone else can look at this:

Self Publishing - Lulu.com

But, if anyone else can see it, they'll find a preview of the book available. :)

Re: Warriors of Love
 

I have just finished my real-time review of MARGARET (volume 2 of Warriors of Love): HERE

It ends:
"This book is unique. One can't make easy judgements on it. Whatever else one might think about it, it is special. As a reader of Proust, Ligotti, Aickman, Elizabeth Bowen and as a writer myself of densely textured weird fiction, I would not normally think this to be my sort of book, and it must be, therefore, to its enormous credit that it is something I value reading as both enjoyable and agonisable over.
A picaresque adventure story in body and spirit: a journey into different experience zones...."

Re: Warriors of Love
 

Tuerqui Again Chapter 12 is now complete barring 4-5 hours polishing work (tomorrow, I suppose). When I started work on the chapter, I expected it to have several themes. But when I gave it its head, I found that a single theme would fill most of the pages. Then I was a bit concerned, thinking that the theme would not quite run to enough words to fill a chapter all to itself, but would be too long to tack anything else on, without an evident artificiality. I needn't have worried, the theme had a couple of aspects I hadn't foreseen, and turned out be just right for filling a chapter. It had a couple of aces up its sleeve.