Get set for the holidays!

Yes, it's that time of year. Christmas is just around the corner, and to get you in the mood for the holidays we've started our run on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The work is in five "Staves," each of which is quite substantial. As we did with Sleepy Hollow, we will be rather arbitrarily breaking each stave into more manageable chunks. This will enable us to stretch the story out longer, but it will also make it easier for daily reading.

Really the reasons for starting this holiday run in mid-November are purely selfish. First, I love Christmas, and if I could start decorating in October I would. Fortunately my wife keeps me sane in that area. Secondly, by starting earlier we'll have a chance to take a break during the last couple of weeks in December. We don't take holidays around here, so this is our chance to enjoy the fruits of our labours. Finally, it gives us a chance to stretch out our material a little.

Twenty-Thousand Leagues is at long last nearing completion, and will end this week. At the Earth's Core and Gulliver's Travels are likewise close to their conclusions. Once these three novels have concluded, it will be nothing but Christmas until we retire for the holidays. New Christmas stories will be published starting next Monday, with an extra collection of short stories and poems added as a bonus feature.

New Novels for November

Hallowe'en has passed, and sadly that means our great run of seasonal features has come to an end. Don't worry, if you missed anything they'll be up again next year...and with Christmas just around the corner, it's almost time for a new set of fun holiday classics!

But in the meantime, we're excited to bring you two more great works of speculative fiction: Gulliver's Travels by Johnathon Swift -- arguably one of the earliest "science fiction" novels, dating from the early part of the 18th century -- and At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which has inspired numerous tales and films about incredible journeys within the realm of the human sphere.

We do apologize for the delay in getting to these novels after the 31st, however the thought of a few days publishing only one blognovel was a refreshing repose that just couldn't be passed up. But all good things must come to an end, and we're perfectly happy getting back to work to bring our readers fresh reading material for the new season. Happy reading!

Halloween Features winding down

This week we're winding down the last two of our seasonal blognovel features: Dracula will conclude on Sunday with Chapter 27, and Frankenstein will conclude Friday with Chapter 24. Bear in mind that all three seasonal features (including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) will be taken offline on November 1.

In addition to these, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz concludes tomorrow with the diminuitive chapter 24 ("Home Again"), and The War of the Worlds will wrap up with its Epilogue on Monday.

If it seems we'll be left with sparse reading after this week, take heart. Captain Nemo is still guiding us through the waters of the world in his epic adventure, and it's almost time to begin our next round of seasonal features, including Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. But to pass the time, starting November 1 we'll be adding two new classic novels to your online reading list.

Never a day without a good book :) Happy reading!

Back from Holiday

We're back online!

As many of you recall, we only publish on weekdays...except for the seasonal features, which we need to get in before the end of the month, and so must publish on weekends as well.

This week, Monday was Thanksgiving for those of us in Canada, and we took the day off. I know...you folks south of the border missed seeing your Monday updates on 20,000 Leagues, War of the Worlds, and The Wizard of Oz. But you'll be fine I'm sure :)

Meanwhile, the publication run on Dracula and Frankenstein continues uninterrupted (except, of course, for yesterday's holiday). By popular demand, we've begun searching for another short story to run as well, which will probably start next week. Keep an eye out for that, and happy reading!

Two More Wraps

Today we were able to present the final chapters of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow -- a short story we rather arbitrarily fractured into four "parts" for easy reading -- and The Time Machine. As with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, both of these stories will remain online. Sleepy Hollow, however, as a seasonal selection, will be coming offline November 1st.

Fret not, however. In November, we'll begin running our Christmas features.

"In November?!" you say?

Yes. Our sponsors want us to begin those features early to give shoppers plenty of time to consider their offers. It really does work for everyone, as readers will be able to get caught up on their Christmas favourites without being interrupted by the holiday shopping rush, and we'll be able to get OUR favourite season up and running sooner (no, not November 1st...probably the 2nd or 3rd week).

Anyway, to get the Hallowe'en features wrapped up before the 31st, we'll be running new chapters on the weekends as well (but not for the regular features). The only exception will be Monday, Oct. 9, which is the Thanksgiving holiday for us in Canada.

To get you thinking about Christmas, here's one of our newest partners. If you have any little people in your life, this will make an amazing gift idea:

Alice Finale

Yes folks, we've reached the end of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. If you missed any of it, don't worry...it's not going anywhere. As a matter of fact, all of our novels, with the exception of the seasonal features, will be staying online as we build our library.

We're currently collecting ISBN numbers to apply to our serial blognovel features as well, so we'll soon be able to offer each story for sale in a paper format online. We're also working on a newsletter that will make it easier for you to keep up with our updates as well as our sponsors' offers.

Again, Chapter 12 of Alice is the last chapter, but the book will remain online. Happy reading!

Halloween Features Running

THEY'RE HERE!

Our Hallowe'en special features are now up and running.

We've had to make some adjustments to the structure of some of the stories. For example, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, while originally a continuous short story, has had to be broken into four parts for ease of reading. It would probably be classed today as a "novella," and certainly the story itself can be read in one sitting. But looking at it published in a blog was just too much text. When we do our paper edition we'll be keeping the original format.

Frankenstein opens with a series of four letters. These we've formatted into a single "chapter" for ease of structure. Tomorrow we'll publish Chapter 1 as it appears in the novel.

Dracula will be published with the chapters in their original format.

All three stories are currently active, and join our ongoing series with daily updates.

Regular readers will notice that our sponsors have changed for the seasonal features. Actually, they haven't changed as such...we've just added more, and will be rotating advertisements. These sponsors are not pay-per-click sponsors as the Google Adsense ads are. These are commissioned sales, so if you're running late looking for your Hallowe'en costumes, accessories, decorations, props, and so on, these would be the places to look. Their direct links are as follows (for the shopping-curious):


BuyCostumes.com

Costume Craze

ExtremeHalloweenNetwork.net: (10% off orders of $75 or more! Use Coupon Code CJ1 during checkout)

HalfPriceCostumes.com

HalloweenOnly - Your one-stop scare shop for all things Halloween!

SpiritHalloween.com