Some of you (the frequent readers among my followers) will have noticed my prolonged absence from Pub0x and My Lot. That's for a number of reasons, ill health and unreliable Internet connection included. The prime reason, however, is that I have been writing and fastidiously editing (in no less than five passes) a book, a work of fiction based on a true story. It's a whopping ~260 pages, which is no small feat for someone used to writing short stories of no more than a few pages.
LeanPub allows upload of ePub and PDF files only, so I couldn't upload the (much smaller) DjVu version (except as what LP calls an "extra" that comes with the other formats), which is approximately half the size . If, for some reason, you can't download either the ePub or PDF and have software that can handle DjVu, I might be prepared to send you the DjVu version (although the quality is not optimal by any means).
Please go check it out on LeanPub and let me know what you think of it. To provide you with incentive and pique your interest, here's what's on the back cover:
Dear Allana,
I have been reluctant to interfere in the issue between you (the Ropers) and the Weismanns, but since you have repeatedly asked my opinion, I have decided to write to you. I think you have behaved very badly. Your methods of dealing with conflict are to collapse and let others pick up the pieces or to shout and scream and bully people into submission, which is simply not okay.
You are, at best, a tenant in Hermann’s house. You know your rent is low because of the inconvenience of the ongoing building. I still think the best option is for you and Thomas to talk (nicely) to Hermann and Jenny. If you are not prepared to do this, then move out of their house. Hermann is a generous and patient man, but even he has his limits, which you have stretched near to breaking point. Quite frankly, I think you owe him an apology.
With love and hope,
Josephine
I did not send it straight away. I reread it, I mulled it over. I removed some sentences, I changed words, I asked Pete’s opinion. I knew it was not kind. I realised it would not be well-received, but some things needed to be put down in words. Do not ask an honest person for her opinion if you don’t want to receive an honest answer. It was despatched, ignoring the rule of going with my gut feeling. In hindsight, perhaps I should have done the latter, but perhaps not.No contemplation or time was taken for Allana’s reactionary message to reach me. A hasty email was flung back. She was furious, reacting in her usual knee-jerk manner. Whatever came into her head was spewed out through her typing. There was no awareness of wrong-doing nor bad behaviour on her part. No one deserved an apology, as she saw it. She wanted nothing further to do with me, Hermann or Jenny. It came as no surprise, since it had happened before. What if I had let the permanently angry Allana sort out her own battle with the weak Jenny? It was what a wise sister would have done. Her self- pitying sentence lodged in my mind:
“I feel such a fool for spending all this time knowing the three of you have been talking about me behind my back, and to
know that you all hate me really hurts.”Is that really what she took from my email? This was the overly dramatic beginning of how the four of us were split apart (or at least in three). It could have stayed as a petty and unremarkable family squabble, but it turned out to be the precursor to something far more horrible and interesting. As you will find out soon, things came to a head at Alicia and Xavier’s wedding, when Ian’s misgivings about Richard’s character turned out to be well-founded ...
As further incentive, here are some coupon codes to get $10 off. (They are limited to the first 125 people to use them, starting from 22:00 tonight, so be quick about it.)
- /c/vVWyYyw8rhaL8gHMe3BScEDN29CJbKPF
- /c/Iz5N6fkAZEs3HKw1ns6kCfUwQhQUgfut
- /c/AD4wvp7gHtt6eN8MQR0rHPv6fcAg8A3l
All going well, I'll follow it up with the full collection of stories in the "Fractures" series, some of which I have published here and on Read.cash.
