Keeper of the Lost Cities Reading and Book Release Update

Keeper of the Lost Cities #9.5 Unraveled will be released one week from Tuesday.  Two online virtual events with Shannon Messenger will be held next week.  Information is in this post:

Keeper of the Lost Cities #9.5 Unraveled Pre-Order Giveaway + Live Events

Shannon will be signing copies of Unraveled for Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore.  The books will ship after the book is published.

Signed Shannon Messenger Books at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore

Naturally, I had to pre-order a signed copy, so now I have a total of four copies of Unraveled pre-ordered.  It's excessive, but worth it.  This is how it happened.  I had previously ordered a Barnes & Noble edition, which I used to submit my information to get the publisher's pre-order giveaway.  I have to keep my original order since it's tied to the promotional package.  I am then getting a book from each of next week's virtual events.  And now, I'm getting a signed book as well.  The four books consist of two Barnes & Noble special editions, one regular edition, and one signed regular edition.  I will keep one Barnes & Noble special edition and the signed regular edition.

Shannon wrote a guest post for Teen Librarian Toolbox about how the Keeper series got off to a slow start when it was first published.

Surviving the Slow Burn of Middle Grade by Shannon Messenger

I have been reading the series again, for the fourth time, to fully refresh my memory before #9.5 is released.  I am now at the beginning of #9 Stellarlune.  I will soon be publishing a new series of Keeper posts on my current thoughts and observations.  

Beginning here, I comment on some things from late in the set but with no specifics.  Nothing is revealed, but the comments could be considered slightly spoilerish.  I mention this because some people, like me, prefer to know nothing.  If you're like me, then skip until the paragraph just above the first of the two images that are near the end of the post.

I've been mulling over several things.  I'm very eager to read the Forgotten Secrets again, and I've already read through the Fintan memory at least twice this month.  Right after I finished reading Book 7 again, I was mulling over the Fintan memory as I drove to work one morning.  I believe it was on the morning of November 12.  Yes, it's weird that I know this, but it was a watershed moment.  I thought about that Forgotten Secret and some of the oddness of it.  It reminded me of a scene in Book 7, which led me to a significant revelation.  While I was pretty sure that I wouldn't forget, I grabbed my phone and dictated a short note about what I had just realized.  I was thrilled.

After realizing that I had figured out something significant about one Forgotten Secret, I decided that I would write separate posts about each Forgotten Secret and would pull previous thoughts into those posts in order to better collect my thoughts.  That will be a work in progress over the next two or three weeks.

Book 7 is a slog to get through and is widely viewed as the weakest book in the set.  It's the book that has driven some readers away from the series.  This is a shame, since the secrets begin to be revealed in Book 8.

The thing about Book 7, though, is that there is some very important information in it.  One chapter in Book 7 gives information that led to my conclusion about the Fintan Forgotten Secret.  And by the way, that conclusion led me to realize something about all of the Forgotten Secrets (well, except for one of them), and I believe it explains the possible inconsistency with one of the Forgotten Secrets.  In fact, I know it does, so there's no inconsistency. 

It's in this post that I mention the possible inconsistency.

Keeper of the Lost Cities:  The Chronological Order of the Forgotten Secrets

It's not an inconsistency if what I believe is true.

Book 7 is extremely important, but the clues are easily missed due to how bloated the book is.  Too much time—way too much time—is spent in the Healing Center.  It also doesn't help that other parts of the book drag on for too long as well.  The joking and circular conversations are also a bit much.  Some of it is way too silly and stupid.  The flaws in the book cause readers to skim and then they miss the important details.

I skimmed a lot when I read Book 7 the second and third times.  Since it had been a year since I had last read it, my tolerance was much higher.  I did very little skimming this time.  That enabled me to notice more than I had previously.  I am so excited that I will read through all of the Forgotten Secrets again this week.

During this reading of the books, I have realized that I truly enjoy the later books in the set.  Books 8, 8.5, and 9 are really good, because we begin to learn secrets.  The series payoff begins to be doled out in Book 8.  We are getting it a little at a time, which is quite satisfying.  Book 9 sets up for the Forkle reveal, and I expect we will learn his true identity in Book 10, whenever that book is published.

While I enjoy the main plot and like Sophie and her friends a lot, my focus is on the adult characters, most particularly Forkle, Kenric, and Oralie.  All three characters fascinate me, and my interest centers on my search for clues about what motivates these characters.  All three are very gray, and gray characters are very interesting.

I unabashedly love Kenric and Oralie.

Back in July, Laura Hollingsworth ran some eBay auctions.  In a couple of them, she offered the buyer a marker sketch of any character that she has previously drawn for the Keeper books.  I immediately decided that I had to get a sketch of Kenric.  After some thought, I realized that I needed Oralie as well so that I would have a matched set of my two favorite characters.  I won the two auctions and requested Kenric and Oralie. 

This is what Laura Hollingsworth had to say about the sketches on her Instagram.

Marker sketches of Kenric and Oralie from Keeper of the Lost Cities! A buyer won two auctions with sketches and asked for these (My OTP in that series—I am very happy!)

It pleases me that my request made her happy.  I love the sketches.  

eBay, Reading, and Autoimmune Update

eBay is attempting to trick sellers into purchasing its ShipCover insurance whenever sellers use a service that doesn't not include insurance.  This new practice is shady and obnoxious.

Beginning recently, whenever I purchase a media mail shipping label, this is what eBay presents to me before the purchase goes through.  Click on the image in order to see it better.

I must make a conscious effort not to click on the blue box that says "Add extra protection."  I know I'm going to mess up eventually.  When it finally happens, I will then void the label and create a new one.  This is a blatant cash grab by eBay, since the ShipCover insurance is their insurance and is not from the post office.  This is one of the lowest things that eBay has ever done.

It's important for eBay store sellers to end their listings periodically and then list them again using the "sell similar" option.  I've been too busy, tired, and distracted to mess with that in recent months.  This is why my sales slowed down.  Around the end of October, I ended all of my listings and used "sell similar."  This image shows what happened.

It does help to give listings a fresh start.  Many people search by "newly listed" first, and this gets their eyes on the listings.

On September 10 in my post Book Reading Milestone for This Year, I wrote:

I'm guaranteed to match my total from 2021.  I still have to complete my fourth reading of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, which I plan to do sometime between now and the release of book 9.5 in early December.  I've already reread books 1 and 2 this year, but I got sidetracked like what always happens when I read these days.  Once I read books 3 through 8, 8.5, 9, and 9.5, I will have read nine more books, equaling my 2021 total of 60 books.

The last few months have been rough with multiple events causing increases in inflammation.  School started, we have new books, I got my Covid vaccine, and I caught three or four viruses in September and October.  The viruses ran together, so I'm not sure how many I had.  The one from late October caused a terrible cough which I still have.

My struggle with dryness continues.  In my post from August 25, I wrote in regard to my summer autoimmune flare:

I feared that I had Sjögren's syndrome, which causes excessive dryness.  I have suspected Sjögren's syndrome for years, but I tested negative in the past.  Most people with Sjögren's syndrome do test negative, so that doesn't rule it out.  I plan to be tested again later this year, just in case the test shows something.

I was tested two weeks ago.  I tested positive for Anti-SSA/Ro antibodies, which are autoantibodies present in around eight different autoimmune diseases, most notably including Sjögren's syndrome.  I am being referred to rheumatology, but I know it is Sjögren's syndrome.  I have the hallmark symptoms.

As a result of everything, I haven't read much, and I continue to struggle to focus on following through with any reading that I attempt.  I did finally restart reading KotLC, and I'm now on #8.  The number of books I've read in 2024 currently stands at 56 and will reach 60 once I finish this reading of KotLC.  Even though I'm unable to read much during the week, I will make it through #9 by the time the new book is released on December 3, so I'm on schedule.  Thanksgiving Break, which begins Friday afternoon, will give me enough time to finish up.

This post was supposed to be finished up early last week.  I forced myself to finish this morning, or else I was never going to publish it.

Flaky eBay Three Investigators Situation

I wrote this post back in September and delayed publishing it until the listings expired from eBay's search results.   

This post is a summary of the events surrounding an eBay listing of scarce high-numbered Three Investigators Gibraltar hardcover books.

First, here is an explanation.  The original Three Investigators series consists of 43 books.  #1-28 were issued in both hardcover and softcover trade editions.  #29-43 were only offered in softcover trade editions.  They were also available as Gibraltar hardcover editions, but these were primarily sold to libraries.  The high-numbered hardcover editions are extremely scarce and almost always surface as library discards with at least moderate wear.

#29-43 are highly coveted in the hardcover Gibraltar binding.

In late July, a seller offered a bulk lot of 12 Three Investigators books, including seven of the high-numbered hardcover books.  The listing sold via Buy It Now at $125, which was an extreme bargain.

(Click on each image in order to view in high quality.)

Right after the listing closed, someone posted about it in the Facebook Three Investigators group, saying that someone just barely beat them to the listing.  That post is important, because a large number of Three Investigators fans then knew what had just happened.

Unfortunately, some people like to meddle.  Apparently, someone immediately contacted the seller and let them know that they had just sold a valuable group of books for $125.  The seller relisted the books with a starting bid price of $1,850.  The books sold for $2,025 to the same person who had purchased them for $125.  It should be noted that whoever meddled didn't get the books. 

The seller then reneged on the second sale.  This is the negative feedback that the buyer left for both listings.

The seller then went with individual listings.  They also decided to remove the library markings, thus damaging the books.

The seller switched to another user ID for the new listings, likely due to the negative feedback on the other ID.  Regardless of what happens next, this won't end well.

The seller is greedy, unscrupulous, and lacking in judgment.  They should have honored the $125 sale.  Sometimes sellers take losses, but in the long run, they will do better when they avoid bad behavior. 

The person who meddled in the situation is also at fault.  Because of their actions, the seller has damaged the books by removing the library stickers.  They should have stayed out of the situation.  

It is understandable why the seller chose not to honor the $125 sale.  After all, many people would struggle to honor the sale after learning of the true value of the books.  It was wrong not to honor the sale, but I can see why that decision was made.

The subsequent decision to renege on the $2,025 sale is astonishing.  That price might not be the top value possible, but it's quite a good price to get for the books.  The seller made a bad decision in failing to honor the second sale.