San Stef thriller

[Kirky]

Just ordered for my Kindle. Can't wait to start reading tonight.   

[carl nottingham]

Yes she will definitely write a review once she's finished it and her name is Julie look forward to book number two

[Charlie]

Best of luck with the book Jimbo, long time no speak.

[Jimbo]

Thanks, Charlie. How are you doing?

[Karen]

Best of luck with the book Jimbo, long time no speak.

How are you Charlie?

[Jimbo]

Mighty and mysterious are the ways of Amazon! They dictated the book pricing for the paperback - which was £8:90. There was nothing I could do about it. I would prefer it to be cheaper, although I only get about £1:20 royalty at the full amount.

This morning I see it's now listed at £7:71 or £7:48. I'd be very interested to see if you get the same result! Don't use my link: put "Amazon Jim Hawkins Almond and the deep blue sea" into the URL bar.

I know that several people have sent reviews in, some five days ago, but none have appeared. Reviews and plenty of stars are very important. Kindle sales are still about 3:1, so I can see why some authors choose Kindle-only as an option.

Meanwhile - Almond:2 is underway. 

[geordieborn2]

Ah the idiosyncrasies of Amazon, £7.48 here. But this is an issue I've long found interesting as I can look at something on my account whilst looking at the same on a device next to me under another account and the price is different. I'm talking items of say £10-20 being 12-18 on the other... At first I thought this was an currency exchange issue e.g. they work in $ and convert, but this looks more like a profiling/ data collection issue?

[Jimbo]

Thanks! Yes - it's profiling - but they didn't ask me, or even tell me. I mean, I'm just the writer.

[geordieborn2]

What we really need to know is how to setup your profile to get things cheaper !

[David A]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and really enjoying it - (no spoilers) but it looks like Jimbo's take on Sidari is exactly the same as mine!

[Jimbo]

Thanks, David. I've tried to describe things as accurately as I can from the point of view of Johnny Almond, who is seeing it all for the first time. I spent a week in Sidari with my son when he was sixteen. We couldn't find a decent Greek taverna. We did have some good curry, though, so I'll try to get that into the second book!

[Lesley]

Actually I fell in love with Corfu (and in love) on my visit (1981) to this rock in Sidari which then was a sleepy resort, a few hippies, sandy beaches and - oh yes found my hubby to be..  A moped hair- riding ride took you over to Manthos in Ag Stef on a Saturday night for a real Greek night but you had to book - else no tables were available, a sandy road between the resorts took ages to get there .....

[Tredegar Boy]

Sidari was a dead quiet little village when we visited there in 1989. Really quaint with traditional taverna's and a few bars. Lovely.

Drove through it on the way to San Stef in 2004 and there was a Mcdonalds (if memory serves), a one-way system and hordes of bars and eateries. How things change.

[Jimbo]

If you want to know how I described it - which you may not - get the book. The Kindle version costs about the same as a pint of beer, and you can read it on phones, tablets, laptops and, of course, Kindles.

What I actually think about Sidari is that it's a rather sad place. It does not have the village feel of Agios Stefanos. It's spread out over a large area and looks like a cheap package-tour operation. It's central street is lively in a commercial way, but lacks a sense of a real place. I would never stay there again.

I suspect whoever is in charge of releasing reviews on Amazon likes Sidari. I get emails from people who posted a review a week ago and it's still not there. Maybe they're all awful - at this rate we'll never know. I set out to write another novel before I was eighty or dead and I did it. Now I want to write two, so I'm 6,000 words into the sequel. I just hope people will enjoy it.

[Tredegar Boy]

Well Jimbo I've downloaded it and will read it by the pool in Majorca in June. I think a book about Corfu would be best read in the summer while in San Stef but we're not going this year as we have a number of postponed trips in the diary already from last year, so Majorca it is.