Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire! Poor Paddy Cleary(sp) and poor me. Might as well add poor Yorick into this mix. A name change because I had a random thought? Maybe the KA Club was not such a bad idea. That is what I am doing to myself right now! Lol, please!

Please don't bring up the whole name change thing again. :D
It was traumatic enough the first time and we don't want to go through that again.

We want to keep the emphasis on the ancient and medieval HF but in order to cater to other eras of HF for people like me, Terri added the modern folders. It is added to the description of the group but not the title.

I agree with you completely. End of discussion as far as I am concerned.

Hi Ben,
I can understand the question. It is fair enough. I think Dawn pretty much covered it, but I'd like to add an addendum to that.

The group evolved. We started off only catering to Ancient and Medieval, but people like Dawn and many, many others, had nowhere to go for their more modern history. We decided to evolve the purpose of the group so our members could talk historical fiction without time frame restriction.

As Dawn says, the main focus is still Ancient and Medieval fiction, but there is no way to change the name to include the tag words of Ancient, Medieval and Historical fiction plus Modern History and it can't be plain old Historical Fiction group because titles that plain are already taken on GR.
. So instead of including Modern History in the title, it is mentioned in the sub title/group description.
It basically makes it so our members don't have to go somewhere else to talk Victorian HF or Edwardian HF etc...

FYI: You know about the meltdown of all things electronic in my house caused by lightning. Goodreads tells me I have zero friends, read zero books, etc. I had to rejoin this group to contact you. I am using the Nook which is limited in its features. ( I am reading GREED by Peggy Holloway (not in system) on Smashwords but lack any capacity to advise them so). I think I can find my ebooks, friends, groups and restore everything, but it will take time.

Ladylawyer8650gmail.com wrote: "FYI: You know about the meltdown of all things electronic in my house caused by lightning. Goodreads tells me I have zero friends, read zero books, etc. I had to rejoin this group to contact yo..."

That is so annoying for you. I will offer you good luck in returning everything to normal. :)

Oh no, Linda, that is awful. Or should I say 'Lady Lawyer'. Sounds like your high class Escort name. :D But of course, you have never been THAT kind of working girl.

Good luck, Linda. :-)

In case you haven't found your old self, Linda, here is your profile.
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/52...

You'll be pleased to know that you are still showing up in my profile as my friend.

I touched my profile that you gsve me above. Everything I had lost
st was found. Then I hit My Books, I think, and everything was gone except for Goodreads saying I had zero friends and zero books. Strange! This seems to be the only portal into my Goodreads world! You are not coming to me through email apps but through a notice.
Well, I guess I will have to play the high class escort to my husband to put him 'in the mood', so to speak, to fix this mess. Poor man, he has spent the last week trying to get service restored to our computers. Thanks for the help. When I find me, I'll let you know. Lol

haha! Yes, you let us know when you find yourself. We'll be here to greet you as Linda or Lady Lawyer. Whichever you please. :)

To all our members who knew Chris (the former librarian from....I think Oregon) from this group,
For some reason our dear mate has left Goodreads. We don't know why, we just noticed his comments missing from threads and he vanished from all our friends lists and our groups member list.

I don't know why he left Goodreads altogether. If it was something wrong with in here I would have thought he'd tell us, or delete out of the group, but he has left the website, not just our group.
So, if anyone is wondering where Chris went, or why all his comments have vanished, this is why.
We'll miss him. He was one of our original memebrs.:(

And if you ever come back, Chris, under another username or something. We will be happy to see you. :)

It's '[email protected].' That capital 'l' has the goodreads problem solvers in a lather.
I liked Chris. He was smart and had amusing turns of phrase.

We don't think it's a glitch, it's every post he's ever made and he dropped out of all our friends lists. So unfortunately it looks like he left GR's completely. If it was a glitch we would hope he'd come back and let us know too, but we haven't heard from him.

I wish it was a glitch. But like Dawn, I think he'd come back, even if he registered a new profile and came back under a new name. It is a shame.
I love GR and I cannot imagine a single event that could make me want to ditch all my years of shelving books and people I'd met. Whatever happened to make him go, it must have been pretty bad. :(
If I was pissed off with a group, or decided I didn't want to speak to others, I'd delete out of groups, delete my friends and make my profile private.
But I can't imagine I'd want to ever do that! Heavens no! :D

I hate to say this, but perhaps he died. Morbid thought, but then his family would probably wipe everythign clean.

No, lol, I don't think that happened, Anne. :D He posted the day before and was deleted off GR the next morning. And they'd have to know his passwords. I think something has peed him off about GR and he has left, that's all. :-)

Anne wrote: "but then his family would probably wipe everythign clean."

Gee, mine wouldn't. And if they did, I'd haunt them.

Me too..:D
Even in death I would not want all my bookshelves deleted! Lol

I munderstand, but some families are strange-mine cheated me out of my inheritance, and I live in a mnaufactured home with bills up the ying yang. However, I try to remember to thank God for what I do have. There are so many out there who are suffering more than I am.

I was wondering. How many of you enter the Goodreads Giveaways, and how many books have you actually won? I have entered 46 and won once.

And of the books you have won. Have you read and reviewed them all?
As mentioned, I have only ever won one. I won it a couple months ago and I finally read it and reviewed it this week.

Someone in Goodreads Feedback group mentioned the issue with members winning books and not reviewing them and it made me really curious to know how often others have won books, and then in turn, whether you have reviewed them.

Of the 5 I have won, I have read 4 with the 5th on my list of books to get to in September. I just won this last one this summer and it wasn't an ARC so I'm less inclined to put other books aside to get to it but I WILL get to it.

I always enter a giveaway with the intention of reading the book if I win it. I think that is only fair.

How many do you think you have enetered, Tasha?
I know you guys in the US get lots and lots of great giveaways. Best selling authors for example. We have slim pickings in the giveaways that will post to Australia.

I've entered a whole bunch of giveaways and I've won two. I read City of Dreams but I couldn't even get out of the first chapter of Android Karenina

Makes me wonder if your chances increase once you start leaving reviews for books you win.
As mentioned, I won one a few months back and never won anymore. Having finally reviewed the winning book this week, I will be interested to see if I win another one in the next couple months.
Still, they aren't good odds. :-)

Android Karenina! Lol!

Terri wrote: "To all our members who knew Chris (the former librarian from....I think Oregon) from this group,
For some reason our dear mate has left Goodreads. We don't know why, we just noticed his comments mi..."

Jaq mentions on her blog that folk using community computers sometimes get deleted from Goodreads. Is it possible that ChrisL used the library computer for Goodreads posts. It is book related after all and a good library resource. If he changed his job or there was a change of policy its quite likely that his personal mail and postings would be expunged.

Chris was a retired librarian, and used his home computer. And as far as I know, you actually have to opt in, when you leave, to have your comments deleted from groups.
Someone who is just no longer a member of GR still has their posts in groups, only the username has gone and it will say 'deleted member' instead.

I'm not sure how people get completely deleted from GR by using a community computer. How does that even work, I wonder? It doesn't matter who's computer you are on, if you log in, your profile is there.

Linda had the problem recently with lightning blowing the computer up. While her details may be gone, her profile is still on GR.

Terri wrote: "How many do you think you have enetered, Tasha?
I know you guys in the US get lots and lots of great giveaways. Best selling authors for example. We have slim pickings in the giveaways that will p..."

I'm not sure but many more times than I've won.

Ah. A shared IP thing. Right, well I understand now. :-) But they can sign in under a new username can't they? So if someone is gone involuntarily, they would be able to set up a new account and tell people that something deleted them.
Chris simply left though. Something has gotten the better of him and he threw it all away.

If you are out there lurking under a new name. Please come back, Chris.

Hi Jaq,
I do have an eReader (on my tablet), but I'm afraid I hate eReading. I just can't get into a book in its digital form. I wish I could as I would have an endless supply of ebooks if I could get used to reading digital. :-)

Terri wrote: "Android Karenina! Lol!"

I know! I know! *hides*

Hahaha! :D

I don't want to shoch anyone, but I am a miserable failure with'Pute.'
Since my Nook was a gift, I forced myself to use it. When reading, I need map, Western Civilization textbook, dictionary and Encyclopedia Brit. The paper book plus the aforementioned reference books took up a lot of space. Now I have the reference info at a touch on my Nook. I still read paper books, but the convenience of the Nook grows on me. So Terri, give the ereader a go since you have so many ebooks.
Can people email a book to friends? Is that a practice that authors, Amazon and B&N are frowning upon?

Linda wrote: "I don't want to shoch anyone, but I am a miserable failure with'Pute.'
Since my Nook was a gift, I forced myself to use it. When reading, I need map, Western Civilization textbook, dictionary and ..."

If you bought a paper book and wanted to lend it to a friend you wouldn't think twice, whatever the publishers thought. The same principle holds true for eBooks surely. If you have bought it and want to pass it on you can. There are ways of restricting this but I suggest an author uses them at her peril.

Linda wrote: "I don't want to shoch anyone, but I am a miserable failure with'Pute.'
Since my Nook was a gift, I forced myself to use it. When reading, I need map, Western Civilization textbook, dictionary and ..."

Hi Linda,
I gave them a fair go. I read James' first book on one, and another book..a big one..it wasn't for me. That was my attempt to get personal with eReading and it only drove me further away from them.

Further to what James and Jaq have said about lending ebooks.
I too think it is only fair that ebooks can be borrowed. I don't believe in making them free for as many downloads as possible on the net, but I do believe friends should be able to lend ebooks to each other.
It also comes down to price doesn't it. If a non Indie book can have a cover price that equals a paperback price, I think we should be able do what we want with the ebook.

I guess it is harder for Indie authors. Some of which charge so little for their books anyway.
But then again...if you know the game you're getting into and you are in it to make money, then book lending would be a problem. If it is an author who publishes books in the hopes that others will read them and enjoy them, then those authors have nothing to worry about.

I think the library limited lending is a good idea. Where you have to reserve and wait in line for the book. That's better than just allowing people unlimited lending via a website such as Smashwords...but then I am not on Smashwords and don't know how it works. :-)

I didn't think so.

If you are ever looking for some long winded reading, by the way, there is this thread on ereaders vs paper. :-)
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

The Haj by Leon Uris and I had a little experience way back in early 2011. I was absolutely clueless about the operating procedures of any ebook distributors. EXODUS was and is free in ebook format (through Gutenberg I think) because of its historical and learning value. After reading it, I read THE HAJ through The Lending Library, which is free. I read the first chapter, had to go back to the beginning to get the second chapter. Read the second chapter and had to go back to the beginning to read the third chapter. You get the picture. I had to turn every page of every preceding chapter to read the next chapter. Three fourths through the book, I was advised that the part I had read was an excerpt! I was livid! My thumbs and index fingers were cracked and bleeding. Finally, I read the synopsis of THE HAJ at Gutenberg to find out how the book ended. If I had had (I hate using 'had had') a friend with an ecopy, he could have emailed the book to me legally? Live and learn! By the way, THE HAJ is, I think, Mr. Uris' best historical fiction book. A long time ago my boys and I visited the local library every two weeks, and I had borrowed and read THE HAJ, in its entirety, before. So my roaring about that excerpt was due to the principle of the matter. Principle is a good cop-out occasionally.
Once I got into this group, won some giveaways, read for some authors, met some exceptional people, I gradually calmed down about THE HAJ experience. My thumbs and index fingers are not so forgiving. They still hurt. Going on over to read 'ereaders vs paper.'

You can lend most books on the Kindle by going to your "Manage Your Kindle" site and follow the instructions. You lend for 2 weeks and then it automatically returns to you.

James wrote: "Linda wrote: "I don't want to shoch anyone, but I am a miserable failure with'Pute.'
Since my Nook was a gift, I forced myself to use it. When reading, I need map, Western Civilization textbook, d..."

That is my point exactly! After reading for you, I recommended you over and over to my kin. I have passed the paper books to my sister who will pass them to her girls who will pass....When your next book comes out in paper, one or more of them will buy it because they found somebody good. ' Somebody good' may be a colloquialism very widely used in the mid-south, USA, meaning a good book or good author.
I know there is another side to this argument, which I respect.

Bobby wrote: "You can lend most books on the Kindle by going to your "Manage Your Kindle" site and follow the instructions. You lend for 2 weeks and then it automatically returns to you."

OKAY! The Nook has or had the 'Lend Me' feature. The books are pre-marked for lending. The author, the seller and the buyer are aware up front that the book is lendable, which seems fair to me. My Nook now has a N2A chip (nook to android) which makes it versatile. I have not used 'Lend Me' or 'Manage Your Kindle' yet. It is time to look into that feature.
Are we comparing apples to oranges here? First, there are those pre-marked lendable ebooks. Second, there are ebooks, not marked lendable, copyright protected, that we can choose to lend via email to our friends. By no means are we to mass lend or sell copyrighted work. Am I right? But, there is nothing to prevent mass lending except our own consciences. Are those websites that tout free ebooks on the shady side? I am most likely the last person standing ignorant of the answers to these issues.

Bobby wrote: "You can lend most books on the Kindle by going to your "Manage Your Kindle" site and follow the instructions. You lend for 2 weeks and then it automatically returns to you."

True. But I believe that each book can only be lent once. Now, I don't know if that means you can only lend it to one person once or if you can only lend it once..period. But I suspect the latter.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custome...

I think you are right. I know B&N is tight about what book to lend and number of times.

Poor Linda, I remember your Haj dramas only too well. We go back a fair while you and I. :-) Back to late 2011. You have come a long way in that time. Imagine my surprise when you were willingly going to download Calibre to convert ebooks earlier this year! I think it was to convert James' book??
Did you ever do that and work out how to convert files?

Leslie wrote: "

True. But you can only lend it once..."

This would be better if they gave you the option to lend it to someone a few more times. Say three times.


I know with my libraries ebooks, even though they are protected, as are their audiobooks, there are ways to copy the file. My hubby does it with the audiobooks and we tried it once with ebooks and it worked. Can't remember how we did the ebook...but yeah...it was possible. :-)

Gone back to my trusty old Viking chick profile avatar. :-) Ahh, like putting on comfy slippers.

Terri wrote: "Poor Linda, I remember your Haj dramas only too well. We go back a fair while you and I. :-) Back to late 2011. You have come a long way in that time. Imagine my surprise when you were willin..."
I am sorry about that tirade. How many curse words did I use? About James. I believe he emailed the book to me. Amazon wouldn't let me post a review because I had not purchased anything in the last six months. That was easily solved. I would do anything for James as well as other Goodreads authors. The Nook will not let me download except in EPUB, PDF or online streaming. The N2R™ chip allows me to be a Nook and a Kindle. I still have to hook up to computer to download some books. Go fugure. The wash is that B&N andAmazon want me to purchase books, and I understand that. Many people are on a book budget. I don't do the group reads because I may use up my budget on books that are disappointing. In the USA I expect many readers want to buy but cannot because of their budgets. I tried to hack and failed. My younger son, who could have done the job, said, "Mamma, that is stealing and I will report you and send you to jail if you do that!" As if I could actually do it. No, I am a thief failure. The things I have learned from this discussion today has helped so much. Now, if onlyI could look like Katherine Zeta Jones. Terri, you are a friend through and through.

@Terri and @Linda: fair enough. I just thought it strange!

Terri wrote: "Leslie wrote: "

True. But you can only lend it once..."

This would be better if they gave you the option to lend it to someone a few more times. Say three times.


I know with my libraries ebook..."

Believe it or not, I loaned a book on Kindle to a good friend of mine and she hadn't quite finished it when it automatically came back to my Kindle library. I called and spoke to someone at Amazon and they did an override so I could "0ne time only" lend the book back so mt friend could finish it. Makes me proud to be a Kindle owner (sniffs Profusely)!!!