Shannon Messenger Interviews - Keeper of the Lost Cities

I decided to watch as many Shannon Messenger interviews as I could find so that I could hear certain comments for myself.  This post is spoiler free, so it's safe to read if you haven't read through the entire set.

Shannon mentions that the Keeper series is "X-Men meets Lord of the Rings."  Legalos was the inspiration for Sophie.  She wanted a girl to be the protagonist, and she also wanted a large cast of characters so that the protagonist is not the only one saving the day.

Shannon originally planned to be a screenwriter, and her training in movies shaped how she writes.  This is why the Keeper books are so dialogue heavy.  In the later books, I feel that the conversations are way too long, but I concede that children likely really enjoy the endless teasing and banter.  For adult readers, it's a bit much, but the series is aimed at children.  

Shannon Messenger Interview with James Ponti

Shannon had an initial three-book deal, and the series was not a runaway success.  As Shannon finished book 3, she asked whether she needed to wrap it up or whether she could get a fourth book.  She was granted a fourth book but was told that was it.  She said that the same thing happened with book 5, and then the series began to gain momentum, reaching the New York Times bestsellers list.  After that, it became her decision on how many books to write.

Shannon Messenger 2017 Book Signing

At the beginning of the above video, Shannon says that she had trouble selling the first Keeper book.  She was unknown, and middle-grade fantasy is hard to break into.  The protagonist is almost always a boy.  Also, Shannon was told that her book was too long.

Interview with Adrian Beck

Once I had an agent and we went to shop the series, I ... told her that I now could see this being 8, 9, 10 books.  She was just like, "Okay, so we need to talk about the realities of publishing.  You're a debut author.  No one's going to buy 10 books from you."  It would have been nice, but I got very lucky that they were even willing to buy 3 and ... we had to wait and see from there how the series would do. 

First, I was a little bit like ... how am I going to do that.  And then I realized that I had a lot of villains and so the easiest way ... was to just hold back on the villains until I knew how many books I was going to get to have.  So that’s why the first three ... only have a couple of villains and then we get a couple more in the next, [books] 4 and 5, and then definitely get some more in [books] 6, 7, and 8.  And so, everyone sort of wondered like had I just been making up new villains to stretch out the series?  And it's like, no, I was planning those all along...  

Publishing's a business, you know, and so we had to kind of wait and then when they bought Book 5, [I was told that] many series are 5 books [total].  And I just got very lucky that Book 5 was the one that hit the New York Times list and the series had really started to get legs under it and so they said, "You can keep going."  And so then we had ... book 6 and 7, ... then they were just like however many you want.  And so now I’m in this really nice position where I’m getting to let the story sort of dictate how many books there will be instead of having to arbitrarily say, "There will be this many."  

This explains we have no inkling about certain villains and plot points during the first few books.  Shannon didn't know if she would be able to tell the complete story.  By necessity, the plot had to be rolled out gradually.

In this next video, it's fun to witness the audience's reaction when Shannon says that she knows who Sophie's biological parents are.  Of course she does!

Shannon Messenger Tour

Just like I know who Sophie's biological parents are.  You guys think I could be this many books into the series and not know that and just... pick randomly?!  I have to know these things...  I just don't have to tell them to you guys.

This last quote is about the ending of #9 Stellarlune.  The quote is vague and doesn't spoil anything, but if you're like me, then you don't want to see even vague commentary about a book that you haven't read yet.  If this describes you, then stop reading this post now.

Stellarlune Interview

The ... reveal that happens at the end of this is something that is integral to the series.  It's one of the darkest secrets of the Lost Cities, and it’s something that I always knew existed and I always wanted to address but I just wasn’t sure if I was going to get there.  And so now that the series has become as successful as it is, I get to have the number of books that the series needs to really tell the full story.  It was like, okay, we're doing this then ...  It’s just this moment that you know in many ways, the journey getting there has been full of surprises ...  I also, I fully knew that if I could—if I had my way—that this is where we were going to and so it was really cool to finally write that moment where ... the veils drop and we get this reveal and ... I hope they like this! 

I am so intrigued by this!  This development will undoubtedly change everything.  It's neat that it was planned all along and kept from us until Shannon knew that she would have enough books to tell the full story.  

Fan Theories on Keeper of the Lost Cities

I read through the Keeper of the Lost Cities series twice from March 13 through May 22.  I continued thinking about the books throughout the summer and perused online discussions periodically.  In August, I decided that I should read the books again, for the third time.  For my third reading, I had a specific focus that was different from my previous one.

I have created a page with handy links to all of my posts on this series.

View them here:  Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories

This post and upcoming ones contain my thoughts on my third reading of the books.

Do not read further unless you have read all of the books including #8.5 and #9.  This post contains MAJOR SERIES SPOILERS. 

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I continue to wonder about Fintan and the scene where he and Kenric appear to die.  We know that Fintan faked his death, and Kenric had to have faked his death as well, even though that hasn't yet been revealed in the books.

Quite a few people speculate that Kenric is alive.  This theory gets shut down fast each time someone mentions it.  The fans who say Kenric is dead dominate any discussion where anyone thinks otherwise.  My frustration with the lack of discussion about Kenric's uncertain death is what led me to read through the set three times.  Since I can't find much discussion supporting what I believe, I have had to search the books for evidence.

Fans think that Kenric must be dead because it's unthinkable that he would hurt Oralie by faking his death.  They feel that Oralie would be devastated if she were to learn that Kenric faked his death.  In one brief discussion, a fan did pose the thought that Oralie would be happy to learn that Kenric is alive.  I'm not sure why no one else thinks of that.  

Yes, Oralie would be very angry with Kenric at first if he were to reappear alive, having faked his death.  However, Kenric would no doubt have a good explanation for his actions, which would result in Oralie forgiving him.  Ultimately, she'd be happy to have her Kenric back.

Some fans also believe that Shannon Messenger hasn't killed off enough characters.  This is considered a weakness on her part.  These fans are very against the idea that Kenric could be resurrected at some point.  I guess I have trouble understanding why it's so important for enough characters to be killed by a children's book author.  The series is, after all, a children's book series.

Besides, the elves are said to have no crime and very few deaths.  It seems to me that having few deaths fits Messenger's near-ideal elf world perfectly.

I believe Kenric is alive, because of all the clues.  His name is Kenric Elgar Fathdon, which is an anagram with all letters used exactly once and none left over:  "Forkle grin and teach."

That's rather specific.  "Grin" refers to Kenric, and "teach" refers to Leto.  The phrase translates to "Forkle, Kenric, and Leto."  Kenric is Forkle and Leto.  If you've read my past posts, then you know that I'm 100% convinced of this and that I've found plenty of evidence to support my belief, in addition to the anagram.

When I can use every letter in a name exactly once and create a phrase that is relevant to the series plot, then I believe that the name was crafted to form that specific anagram.  There is no way this means anything other than what it appears to mean.

These are the anagrams I've found.

Kenric Elgar Fathdon is "Forkle grin and teach."
Connor Kate Natalie Freeman is "one Forkle at a main entrance."
Ethan Benedict Wright II is "grin teach tweed inhibit." 
Eleanor Olivia Wright is "love Oralie with a grin." 

These are very simple anagrams that are much easier to spot.

Kerlof is "Forkle."
Tiergan is "Granite."

I also believe that Kenric is Sophie's biological father.  There are just too many clues pointing to this for anything else to be true.  I have detailed the clues in one of my past posts.  This is another theory that has been mentioned online quite a few times and is also shut down fast with little dissent. 

People think Kenric isn't Sophie's father because Forkle has told Sophie that Kenric isn't her father.  But Forkle lies. 

Book 8.5, Page 375   [Mr. Forkle] lies sometimes.  Maybe all the time.  Who knows?

We've been told multiple times that Mr. Forkle is a liar.  Forkle has admitted that he's lied to Sophie about important information.  Forkle can be quite convincing, but I think he's lying or tricking Sophie with what he says.  If Forkle is Kenric, then he's going to lie about Kenric being Sophie's father. 

Book 4, Page 368   "Someday you may understand," Mr. Forkle told Sophie.  "But for now I can at least assure you—as I did with your concerns about Jolie—that I am not your genetic father."  Keefe grabbed Mr. Forkle's wrist.  "He's telling the truth.  And... he actually feels kinda bad about it."

That just means that the Mr. Forkle speaking in that scene isn't Sophie's father.  His twin could be.

Book 4, Page 369   Mr. Forkle sighed.  I can tell you're still pondering possibilities.  So I will add that your genetic parents had no connection to each other.  There was no unrequited love.  They weren't even friends.  I did that purposely, because I couldn't allow them to know who each other were.

This statement is part lie and part clever wording. 

Forkle says that Sophie's parents had "no connection."  This part is an outright lie.  But then, it also could be clever wording.  What is meant by the word "connection"?  Kenric and Oralie certainly knew each other, so they were connected.  However, a synonym of connection is relationship.  A relationship could just be friends, which Kenric and Oralie were.  A relationship could be marriage or by blood, which they were not.  Kenric and Oralie had a connection, but then they didn't.

A phrase can be twisted to mean the opposite of what it means at face value.  Mr. Forkle is speaking in a clever fashion that is deliberately misleading.

Forkle says that there was "no unrequited love."  "Unrequited love" is when one loves another person who doesn't return the feelings.  Kenric and Oralie both loved each other; the feelings weren't unrequited.  They simply didn't act on their feelings.  "No unrequited love" is a true statement about Kenric and Oralie.

Forkle says that they weren't friends.  At first, Kenric and Oralie were not friends.  This is revealed in the Forgotten Secrets of Book 9.  Forkle's statement about them not being friends was true at one point in time.  They were friends later.  But then, one could say that they secretly loved each other, so they weren't friends.  They were lovers who weren't acting on their feelings.

Book 5, Page 43   "Was Kenric my father?  He was a Telepath.  And he was always so kind to me."  Her throat closed off as she remembered his bright smiles.  The red-haired Councillor had been one of Sophie's strongest supporters, right up until the day she'd lost him to Fintan's inferno of Everblaze.  Magnate Leto reached for Sophie's hand, tracing a finger across the star-shaped scar he'd accidentally given her when he healed her abilities.  "Kenric wasn't involved with Project Moonlark.  And that's all I can tell you.  Some secrets must remain hidden."

I believe that Leto's statement is technically true but highly misleading.  I finally worked out what he is doing.  Councillor Kenric was not involved with Project Moonlark; rather, Mr. Forkle was involved.  Kenric's Black Swan activities were, technically speaking, completed as Mr. Forkle.  So, it is true to say that Kenric wasn't involved.

Also, Leto is tracing Sophie's scar as he says that Kenric wasn't involved.  It's like he's talking about the scar, which was caused by Forkle.  Kenric didn't cause the scar, not technically.

I put little weight on Leto's statements, since I believe he is twisting his words to mislead Sophie.

A lot of fans don't think Kenric is Forkle because they doubt he would have hurt Oralie by faking his death.  I even believed that at first, which threw me off.  However...

If Kenric is Forkle, then Kenric is a pair of identical twins.  This means that Oralie was in love with a pair of twins, which is an impossible situation.  Kenric (the two of them) could never be with Oralie, so I can see why Kenric would fake his death instead of resigning from the Council.  If Kenric had resigned, then Oralie might have resigned as well.  How would the twins have dealt with that?  

I do go back and forth on whether one twin or both were in love with Oralie. 

1.  When I first wrote this post, my thinking was that one twin loved Oralie.  The other twin was in the Forgotten Secrets where he wasn't being very nice to Oralie.  I thought the deceased twin is the one who did not love Oralie, and the one still alive does.

2.  By the time I revised this post, my mind had changed.  I now think that both twins loved Oralie.  They had to feel the same way about everything because of their shared identity.  In the Forgotten Secret from Oralie's cache, Oralie tells Kenric (page 533, Book 8.5), "You can't hide your feelings, Kenric.  They're there—every time I'm around you."  Both twins must have loved Oralie, or she would have detected a difference. 

I assume that the living twin is Sophie's father.

A very popular fan theory is that Elwin is Sophie's father.  This belief comes from one statement made by Elwin.  

Book 8, page 510:  So she told Livvy and Elwin, "He won't tell me who my biological parents are.  Even though I deserve to know."  "You definitely deserve to know that," Elwin agreed, narrowing his eyes at Mr. Forkle.

Fans have decided that Elwin's statement means that Elwin is her father.  However, Elwin was simply stating his belief that Sophie has a right to know, and most anyone would agree.  If Elwin were the male donor to Project Moonlark, he'd be leery of the consequences, so I doubt that he would have made that statement if he were Sophie's father.

A lot of fans think that either Brant, Gethen, or Fintan is Sophie's biological father.  If either Brant or Gethen were Sophie's father, it would just be gross.  Brant and Gethen are both murderers with no redeeming qualities. 

Fintan, at least, has some redeeming qualities, even though he's one of the villains.  I feel kind of sorry for Fintan with how he was forced not to use his talent.  Even so, I very much doubt that Fintan is Sophie's father.  Fintan is not where the clues lead.  They lead to Kenric.

Going back to how I began this post, I believe that Fintan is very important and in ways that have not been revealed.  Fintan is connected to Elysian somehow.  The butterflies mentioned in the Forgotten Secrets of Book 9 are in Fintan's memories in Book 2. 

[June 2024 Correction:  Upon reading Book 2 again, I noticed that the memory from Book 2, Page 239 is from Prentice's mind.  Since Kenric entered Fintan's mind, he could still have gotten the memory from Fintan and then saved it in Prentice's mind, since Prentice was his Keeper.  It's also possible that Kenric saved his own memory of Elysian in Prentice's mind.]

As I reread the books, I checked every mention of Fintan very carefully to see if I could figure anything out.  Fintan is always saying, "Something's missing."  Indeed.  Readers are missing information about Fintan, which is why we can't quite make sense of his plans.

Tiergan is also of deep interest to me.  I believe his allegiance is exactly what we believe it to be, which is with the Black Swan, but there is something from his past that has been withheld from us.  I wonder what it is and whether it is something very important.  I paid close attention to Tiergan as I reread the books.

Fans really dislike Oralie.  This is because of Sophie's attitude towards Oralie in the later books.  Sophie is highly resentful that Oralie kept secrets, not telling her that she was Sophie's mother.  Sophie is also resentful that Oralie is a Councillor, which means that Sophie can never reveal her mother's identity and can never be matched.

Sophie's attitude is understandable but a bit irrational.  After all, Sophie would not exist if her biological parents hadn't donated to Project Moonlark.

I think Sophie has such intense anger towards Oralie for reasons that she hasn't articulated.  Sophie says that it's because of the secrets and because of her unmatchable status.  I believe that the real reason for the anger is because of how very much Sophie has always liked Oralie.  If Sophie had been raised by Oralie, then she would have quite naturally had a very close relationship with her.  Sophie feels cheated.  Sure, she's had other great parents, but she can never experience what it would have been like to have been raised by her biological parents.

Additional posts will follow.  I will include a brief synopsis of each book.  I am having trouble remembering when certain events happened, so I want to get that information in this blog.  I also will include any additional thoughts that I have.

More Keeper of the Lost Cities Posts + a Brief Reading Update

I am on the cusp of scheduling my upcoming Keeper of the Lost Cities posts for publication.  The posts were not written in the order that they will publish.  Some of what will publish first was written last. 

This means that some of my commentary on certain theories might be contradictory or circular in argument.  I have decided not to edit too much and to let what I wrote stand for itself.  For some theories, I continue to go back and forth on what I think, so I will contradict myself at times.  I can't help that.

In preparation for this latest round of posts, I put together a page listing all of my posts on the Keeper of the Lost Cities series.  I have split the posts into two lists for posts that are spoiler-free and for posts that contain spoilers.  The posts with spoilers contain major late series spoilers and should be avoided until all books in the series have been read.  Spoiler-free posts are fine for everyone to read.

Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories

I set up a Tumblr account a few months back.  I'm finally using it for some of my Keeper of the Lost Cities content.  

Series Books for Girls on Tumblr

The total number of different books I've read in 2023 is pretty low at 42 books.  If I'm allowed to count the Keeper books multiple times, then that will raise my total to 62 books, which sounds better.  Since I usually don't read books multiple times during the same year, I think I will go with the number of different books, placing my total so far at 42.

I hope that I can get myself to read some other books in the coming weeks, once I finish reading Keeper #9 Stellarlune for the third time.  

It does occur to me to wonder how many books I read last year.  Oh!  I only read 47 books in 2022.

Books Read and Media Consumed in 2022

Gosh, that means that I've read more this year than last year.  I have read the equivalent of 62 books, although only 42 different books.  Hmm.

It seems like I could motivate myself into beating last year's total by reading just six more books.  I should try!  I'm not sure what I would read. 

Maybe I can find something that will appeal to me.  I will attempt to read at least six more books.  If I do it, then great.  If not, then at least I will finish 2023 having read the equivalent of more books than I did in 2022.

Series-Books.com Website Update (Image Problems)

I have had an intermittent problem for several years with some images not showing on my Series-Books.com website.  Google Chrome tends to be the browser that won't display many of the images.  

Back in February, I migrated all three of my websites from Yahoo! to GoDaddy.  I noticed during that time that certain images on Series-Books.com were at times not showing.  I decided not to worry too much about it, since the work I did to migrate all three sites was a massive and exhausting task.  I was at the limit of what I could stand doing.

It was reported to me during the last week that images weren't showing on one of the Series-Books.com pages.  I checked and verified the problem.  I have checked several times since then, and the images are continuing not to show up on Google Chrome.  Several pages on the site are impacted.  The images tend to be visible on other browsers.  

Click on the images in order to see them at a higher resolution.

This is what I wrote back in February in my post, Website Migration Progress.

Series-Books.com is on GoDaddy and looks good in all browsers except for Google Chrome.  The problem is that some images are on ZorroLegend.com.  Some are also on NewWorldZorro.com, but NewWorldZorro.com has been moved to GoDaddy, so those images are fine.  For whatever reason, the Chrome browser won't load the images from the Turbify server onto the sites as hosted by GoDaddy. 

On the surface, this makes no sense.  The HTML files for Series-Books.com have the full URLs to the images on ZorroLegend.com.  The images load fine in the other browsers, just not Chrome.  I have a suspicion what the problem might be, but it's not worth investigating since I'm going to close the Turbify accounts sometime soon.

You might be wondering why many of the Series-Books.com images are hosted by the other two sites.  This goes back to the free GeoCities sites that I originally created.  The storage space was limited, and I had so many images for the series book cover art galleries that I had to place a bunch of them on the other two sites.  I have left them where they were placed even though I have had paid accounts for more than 15 years.

It's now extremely obvious to me what the problem is.  The sites are no longer on Turbify and are completely under my control, so the issue had nothing to do with Turbify.  It's that Google Chrome is preventing the images from showing due to them being hosted by another site.  The problem has something to do with a site security error. 

I might be able to pay for a site security certificate to fix it; I'm not very knowledgeable about what that entails.  That aside, just getting the images copied into the file manager for Series-Books.com and changing the links on the pages to the files hosted by Series-Books.com appears to fix the problem.  That's what I need to do.

581 images have been hosted by ZorroLegend.com and NewWorldZorro.com for all of these years.  I know how many since I just downloaded all of them to my computer.  In the coming days, I will get them copied to Series-Books.com and will edit the necessary pages to the new image locations.  After I have done that, then hopefully the image problem will be fixed.

Auctions + Cheap Scarce Books Not Selling on eBay

I am trying some auctions on eBay.  I decided that I might as well get started with the international editions and Nancy Drew blank endpapers books.  An auction is the fairest way to do it, since more than one person might be interested.

eBay Auctions

Both my eBay and Etsy stores are open.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

I reopened my stores on Wednesday morning and have had not one sale.  It's not that I care; it's that I hoped to resume a normal activity in order to improve my frame of mind.  It won't work if nothing is going to sell.  I just don't see the point.  I feel like if nothing other than potentially the auctions has sold by next weekend that I will just shut down again.  I'm not in a good place mentally and for reasons I did not state in my previous post.  

I continue to wonder why series books aren't selling like they did not too long ago.  This has been a problem since early this year.  I have three theories as to why.

1.  Inflation is bad.  This is the most likely reason.  

2.  People just don't use eBay and Etsy like they once did.  I think eBay is probably doing fine, but Etsy is floundering.

3.  Series book fandom has passed the beginning of the end, and fewer people are interested in collecting the books.

Reason #3 is what I fear.  We know that we will lose many collectors in the coming years due to downsizing, etc.  As that happens, interest in series books will wane.  I fear that we are already reaching that point, and I hope I'm wrong.

I am seeing some really scarce books priced low that are getting relisted on eBay and continue not to sell.  I don't mention what I see on eBay since I feel that those who use eBay should get first pick.  However, I'm frustrated about some of the extremely scarce books that are listed and aren't selling.

For example, the Girl Scouts Mystery series by Virginia Fairfax is a top series for me.  It was brutally hard for me to find all six books years ago.  Several of them are on eBay right now, and some books have more than one copy available.  The books are priced cheap, and yet nobody is buying them.  The books are not available online, so this makes no sense.  And yes, I'm mentioning them here because I wish somebody would buy the books so that they can enjoy some great stories.  It drives me crazy seeing these wonderful books being relisted and continuing not to sell.

There are scarce Judy Bolton books and Dana Girls books that I've seen relisted recently.  I think I've seen Rick Brant and Kay Tracey as well.  I'm talking about some of the scarcer stuff.  I also have seen multiple cheap copies of Trixie Belden #36-39 listed in various bulk lots that have not sold during the first few hours they were listed.  In the past, bulk Trixie Belden lots priced low that included the scarce books would typically sell in the first five minutes.  Why the lower interest? 

Why won't people buy the books?  Are they no longer using eBay?  Are collectors no longer interested in these books?  Or is inflation just that bad?  

Update on Autoimmunity, Selling, Reading, and Car Trouble

I wrote an update around a month ago, but then I never published it.  Here is an abbreviated summary of that post plus the relevant current information.

When school started, I had a minor thyroid flare which resolved pretty quickly.  I then had a health screening on September 5 that involved radiation.  I asked for a thyroid shield.  The technician stopped dead in her tracks and seemed like she had a problem with the request.  She then asked if I knew who Dr. Oz was and mentioned how he had convinced people to use a thyroid shield when it isn't necessary.

I told her that I have thyroid disease and that when I didn't use a thyroid shield in 2016 that it shut my thyroid down for two months and made me deathly ill.  (Deathly ill is not an exaggeration.  I was sicker than I've ever been in those two months.  It was absolutely awful.)  She put the thyroid shield on me and remarked that everyone is different.

How dare she have a problem with my request, and I should not have to explain why.  I am very nervous when I am exposed to radiation even with the thyroid shield on.  I was that sick in the fall of 2016. 

The shield does not block all of the radiation.  It does reduce the exposure by up to 50% and reduces the dose by 2.5 times.  This means that my thyroid did get exposed to radiation on September 5, just at a lower amount than it would have without the shield. 

This is why I felt a noticeable thyroid flare from September 6 through September 23.  Meanwhile, I got the new Moderna Covid vaccine on September 22.  I didn't feel that great the first couple of days.  Aside from that, I seemed to do okay, so far as I could tell.  At least I didn't have a terrible reaction like I did last year.

I then acquired a seemingly extremely mild virus on October 1.  There were no symptoms except for laryngitis.  It's now been over two weeks, and I'm still struggling to get my voice back.  I've had very light congestion, so I know that I have had something.  While I do frequently suffer from severe laryngitis caused by viruses, it was really odd to have it happen when the virus was almost nothing.  I suspect that the laryngitis might be tied to the vaccine, since the vaccine has caused inflammation.

My thyroid hormone levels have been constantly fluctuating up and down ever since I had Covid in July 2022.  I have never had this much instability.  Here's an update to what I included in my post from August 4.

August 2022 - under
September 2022 - over
October 2022 - over
November 2022 - under
December 2022 - under; medication change
January 2023 - under (even worse); dose increase
February 2023 - under
March 2023 - slightly under, felt normal for around 10 days; kept same dose
April 2023 - over
May 2023 - over (even worse); dose decrease
June 2023 - under
July 2023 - under; dose increase
August 2023 - felt normal for a few weeks
September 2023 - under
October 2023 - over

Taking thyroid medication for autoimmune thyroid disease is like chasing a moving target. 

I suspect that the Covid vaccine has caused a flare, just not as bad as what happened last year.  Flares can initially manifest with an increase in thyroid hormone which then becomes a deficit weeks later.  I have lost six pounds without trying, and I do feel mildly wired.  If it doesn't get any worse, then I will keep taking my current dose until I'm tested in late December.  I believe my continuing fluctuation in levels began because of Covid in July 2022.

I did not intend to keep my eBay and Etsy stores closed for very long when I shut them down in August.  How I've felt and certain events have caused me to be disinterested in selling books. 

I knew that fall break was when I should reopen, but I didn't know if I would be up to it.  As of two weeks ago, I was strongly against the idea of returning to selling books.  I've been slowly talking myself into it for the last two weeks.  I finally reached the point a few days ago where I felt that I could stomach selling again.

Please note that I'm still not wanting to sell; I just think that I can tolerate doing it despite my disinterest.  I also feel that getting back to a normal activity will help get me into a better place mentally.  Therefore, I reopened both of my stores this morning before I left for work.  I had the time since I woke up 2 1/2 hours early feeling wired (this after a 12-hour work day each of the last two days that should have exhausted me - yes, I must be overmedicated!).

Both stores are now open.  My current listings are the ones that I had in early August with nothing new added.  If I can motivate myself, I might add some listings in the next few days.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

I continue to be extremely unmotivated to read books.  The interest just isn't there, with one exception.  This may sound pathetic, but I continue to be obsessed with the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and am now reading the set for the third time.  I have a new focus and am looking for clues about another character.

I will have another series of posts on the Keeper books once I finish up this third reading of the books.  I wrote rather enthusiastically about the books back in the spring.  The series isn't perfect; nothing is.  The main drawback is that in the later books some conversations are excessively long.  It's just too much.  That aside, I love the books and am having a blast looking for clues.

I also remain frustrated with the Keeper of the Lost Cities fan base, which is a bit toxic.  Many fans seem unhappy about everything.  I don't understand why people have such high expectations for a middle-grade children's book series.  The books aren't perfect, and I'm not sure why people expect them to be perfect.

Finally, if you have a General Motors vehicle, you really don't want to have any repairs that require parts.  The GM workers are on strike, and no new parts are being made. 

My 2018 Chevrolet Malibu displayed the check engine light on October 2 and handled differently than usual.  I took it in to be checked.  The car needed a new sensor, and they didn't have one.  They called around, found a sensor in another state, and had it shipped in.  I finally picked up the car on October 11.

On October 12, the check engine light displayed again.  I was annoyed at the car.  I felt that it probably had been repaired but that something else was also wrong that hadn't been diagnosed.  I got the car in on October 14, knowing that they wouldn't check it until October 16 since they have very few mechanics on the weekend.

Apparently it was a major undertaking to figure out why the battery wasn't receiving enough charge.  They finally found that the negative battery cable wasn't transferring a charge.  And of course they didn't have a negative battery cable.  I became a bit worried when they told me that they were about to call around the country and would call me back later.  Oh, joy.

I got lucky.  They called back 20 minutes later to tell me that they found a negative cable in California and that it would be shipped in.  They'll get it around this weekend, so I should get the car back next week.  Of course it shouldn't be this hard, but I assume that they are getting me a "General Motors certified negative battery cable."  That way they can charge more.

If you have a General Motors vehicle, try sweet-talking it.  Be kind to it.  You want it to behave until the GM strike is over.

Keeper of the Lost Cities #9 Stellarlune Now Available in Paperback

I already had the entire set of Keeper of the Lost Cities books on Kindle plus all of the books up through #8.5 in paperback.  I was not intending to purchase #9 Stellarlune in paperback until I heard about the short story that is exclusive to the paperback edition.  

This statement by Shannon Messenger was posted on her Facebook on September 12:

Hey Everyone! I know you’re all patiently waiting for book 10–and I know it’s taking me a little longer to write it because I grew a tiny person this year.  So I wanted to give you a little bit of new content to help fill the void—and I chose to include it in the paperback because I was a paperback reader as a kid.  My family couldn’t afford hardcovers, and hardcovers are usually the only books that get to have special bonus content in them.  So this is my gift to all the kids who’ve waited a whole year for the paperback to come out.

On the same post, Shannon's assistant made this statement.

And this story is extra awesome—not just because we get to hear all the feisty thoughts of our favorite fiery girl.  Or because it’s longer than a lot of the other bonus stories that Shannon has written.  But also because it reveals something that *might* be important to the rest of the series. 

Oh my gosh!  I also read somewhere that the short story has to do with Fintan, who is a character that I'm currently trying to figure out.  Yes, I'm still obsessed with the series.

Needless to say, I decided that my paperback set needed to have this book added to it as well.  Now I have all of them in softcover.

My book arrived today in Amazon's sorry envelope packaging.  The cover has a number of surface impact marks from the insufficient packaging.  No matter; I don't need a perfect copy.  I just need the short story!  

I really prefer to read these thick modern books on my iPad.  I took my phone and photographed every page of the short story.  I managed not to focus on the words as I made the photos.  I did see a few phrases here and there, but I managed not to spoil myself.  

I am also okay that my copy of the book is a little rough, since I had to open the back cover more than I would have preferred in order to photograph the pages.  I had to do 29 pages, so I no doubt added a little bit of wear to the book.

After I finished photographing the pages, I placed them in a photo album.  Voila!

I made sure that the resolution of the image is low enough that the pages cannot be read.  I then went back and smudged every image so as not to give the appearance that I could be sharing anything.  I won't violate copyright.  I love this series so much that I want the author to get everything she is owed for her talent.

After I got the photo album set up, I then read the story by flipping through the images.  It was great.

As with the Forgotten Secrets of #9 Stellarlune, the reader gets no context regarding what is revealed.  I will have to mull it over and will probably read the short story multiple times in the near future.  I love trying to figure out where this series is going with the story.  It's So. Much. Fun.

Books Purchased at the Fall Better Books Sale

Today was the members-only presale of the inaugural Fall Better Books Sale in Oklahoma City.  Today's sale had around 25,000 books.  The regular library book sale in February typically has 800,000+ books.

I knew that I would not likely find many series books at this sale today, simply because the large February library sale no longer has many of our old series books.  They are just getting to be too old and scarce to show up in great quantity like they once did.

Even though I knew that I could not possibly find much, I had to show up just in case.  After all, the books offered at the Fall Better Books Sale are books that would have shown up at the next large library book sale.  Also, I believe that the purpose of this sale is to get excess books sold, since the February sale has too many books to put out at the beginning of the sale.  For that reason alone, I knew that I wouldn't find much.  They aren't going to offload all of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books at this sale if the purpose is to get rid of excess books.

Here are the series-related books that I purchased.  (Always click on images in order to see a larger version at a higher resolution.)

The books were only marginally worth purchasing.  Swiss Chalet is in bad shape.  A few of the others are in rough shape.  Mainly, I wasn't going to leave without some series books, so I selected what I felt had some merit for my needs.

I also picked up these three Keeper of the Lost Cities books just because I like the series and again, I was going to buy something.  After all, I took the day off work and waited in line for nearly two hours.  I wasn't leaving empty-handed.  I also got to eat a small serving of free ice cream.  Woo-hoo!

After I had selected all of the above books to have something to buy, I then checked the cookbooks.  Clearly, someone donated their entire collection of comb-bound cookbooks to the library.  I purchased most of them.

I will sell them in small bulk lots with similar books grouped together.  I will group by region and type.  A lot of people collect them.

The sale runs October 6-7 from 9AM to 5PM at OSU-OKC, 930 N. Portland Avenue in Oklahoma City.

This is what I didn't purchase.  

 
Follow this link for some more pictures.