Argon: Blog

A new story is out: Cacao or Joseph Ermeler's Travels

Joseph Ermeler is a wagon master for a powerful merchant house in the age of discovery and is sent to faraway lands, to bring home precious spices. Now a merchant in his own right and returned to the town of his birth, he meets Barbara Bohne, a tempestuous shrew by reputation, but swayed from her man-hating ways by Joseph with the magic of sweet and spicy chocolate. A 17th century love story.

Foreword
The Fugger and Welser families of merchants and bankers were amongst the most powerful people in 16th to 17th century Europe, who could make or break a Holy Roman Emperor, by lending him money or denying it. They had branches — Kontore — all over Europe, and they moved huge sums of money by issuing Wechsel, money orders, that could be transported without fear of loss. This new form of financing, without the tedious and dangerous transfer of bullion or minted gold, is intricately connected to the Age of Discovery, a euphemism for subjugating and plundering indigenous people the World over, something that required share holders who expected a return on their investments, leaving little room for humanity
Travelling to the Spice Islands, or Malukas, in the early 17th century certainly was a dangerous undertaking, given the rudimentary navigation tools, the hand-drawn and -copied sea charts, the health hazards from scurvy and tropical fevers, poorly constructed ships and the frequent — and understandable — hostility of the 'discovered' peoples. Merchants perished or became well off, whilst the crews of the ships in which they travelled perished, if not during one, then in one of the next journeys. The only people getting rich and living to enjoy the riches, were those who financed the ships and stayed safely at home.
This is the setting for a new story in my Knights and Commoners Universe, once again focussing on a commoner, a young trader and merchant who risks his health and life to bring home riches for his boss, a rich merchant and banker. Whilst wintering in Genoa and enjoying the leisure time with a lusty young widow, he gets a taste of hot chocolate, and he decides to add cocoa beans to his staple of trading goods, a decision that will bring him happiness and wealth.
And yes, the movie Chocolat was an inspiration for this tale, too.

I spent the last weeks revising this 2012 tale, adding text here and there for better clarity and generally improving syntax and language. There is even one new chapter where our hero does some 14th century CSI work ;o). For those readers who may want to revisit the story of a medieval, unlikely hero.

Have a good weekend!

Dear Readers,
I have posted a revised version of Under The Broad Pennant to ZBookStore/Bookapy, correcting a few typos, continuity errors and other glitches. The revision is of course free for all previous buyers to download.
On SOL, Chapter 52 of In The Navy is in the posting queue. I decided to switch from twice weekly to every three days. I have never had a story heading all three top lists (downloads/scores/popularity) before, so thank you for your support and your feedback!!

I last added to the Anthony Carter saga in 2009 with the chapter 'The Last Battle'. I had to put a question mark after that chapter title now, since I am adding 17 new chapters to 'In The Navy', covering Anthony's life from 1811 to 1815. As usual, I'll be posting two chapters per week, and the full Book 3, 'Under The Broad Pennant', covering Anthony life and career from his near ship wreck on the Spanish coast to Napoleon's Hundred Days, is already available at Bookapy and ZBS.

Dear readers,
some of you may have noticed that I have been incommunicado for a few weeks and not responding to any feedback since I finished posting Mob Princess. The reason for this is 21 inches long, weighs in at 7 pounds and some change and carries a mixed sex chromosome set: I became a grandfather again, and there were quite a lot of things with which Gramps-to-be was tasked in the weeks before. So, I'm sorry (but not too much) for neglecting my 'duties' as an author.
I thank the readers who messaged typos and other errors to me in the last weeks. I promise to consider your suggestions, but I will not answer all the messages in my backlog since it takes away too much time from writing new stuff. In a few weeks, I should be back to normal — at least as 'normal' goes for me. Right now, however, Gramps is more concerned about the little mewling bundle and his little big sister, who is a bit dazed with all the changes in her family life and needs her grandparental units more than usual.