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Ebook Sale July 2023 🔗

Book covers
The DRM-free ebook retailer SmashWords has a sale from 1st – 31st July 2023. Did you know that you can gift ebooks on SmashWords? You can gift an ebook with or without the sale coupon, just select the appropriate “Give as a gift (using coupon)” or “gift without coupon” option.

The following Dickimaw ebooks are included in the sale:

100% off (free!) short story noir crime fiction I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing

[book image] It’s 1928 and Albert Sternheimer, a yegg (jewel thief) from St Louis, is travelling on the RMS Aquitania with a case of stolen jewels, but unknown to him there’s someone else on board with an interest in him and the contents of his case.

100% off (free!) short story cybercrime fiction Unsocial Media

[book image] A cybercrime short story cautionary tale about the dangers of sharing too much information. Greg has unwisely accepted a friend request from “Natalie”, a stranger who starts to stalk him after failing to hook him in a scam. The stalking moves from the digital world to real life when Natalie shares a photo of Greg with his neighbour Susie, in what looks like a compromising position. Unknown to any of them, Greg’s wife (the unnamed narrator) has a secret life of her own and is doggedly following Natalie’s trail.

50% off crime fiction novel The Private Enemy

[book image] In the Fenland area of Norfolk, the last Earl of Wynherne is found dead on the study floor of his Gothic mansion. His daughter is missing, having run off after stabbing the seemingly respectable Mr Allerton in the leg. Detective Inspector Charles Hadley and his partner Detective Sergeant Sarah Fenning are called in to investigate, but in this retro world of gangsters and corrupt city police a wrong move could destroy the fragile alliances and trigger war after thirty years of uneasy peace.

50% off illustrated children’s story The Foolish Hedgehog

[book image] A little hedgehog promises his grandmother that he won’t go onto the wasteland (the road) where the dragons (vehicles) live, but one day he’s tempted onto the road by a hungry crow. Will he manage to get home safely? This story can be used to introduce young children to the concepts of road safety and stranger-danger.

Previous Post

Image of magnifying glass over a green bug.I was recently informed that dickimaw-books.com had a medium severity reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the version of cPanel this website was using at the time. I solved the problem by moving to a new web-hosting provider that didn’t have the issue. The security researcher used a non-invasive probe. No data was compromised.
Nicola Talbot 2023-05-22 (updated 2023-06-17) 📂 Security Site 🔖 Migration News Online Store

Recent Posts

Ebook Sale July 2023
Book coversThe DRM-free ebook retailer SmashWords has a sale from 1st – 31st July 2023. My crime novel “The Private Enemy” and children’s illustrated story “The Foolish Hedgehog” both have a 50% discount and my crime fiction short story “I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing” and cybercrime fiction short story “Unsocial Media” both have a 100% discount (i.e. free!) for the duration of the sale. Did you know that you can gift ebooks on SmashWords?
Bug Bounty Hunters
Image of magnifying glass over a green bug.I was recently informed that dickimaw-books.com had a medium severity reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the version of cPanel this website was using at the time. I solved the problem by moving to a new web-hosting provider that didn’t have the issue. The security researcher used a non-invasive probe. No data was compromised.
Nicola Talbot 2023-05-22 (updated 2023-06-17) 📂 Security Site 🔖 Migration News Online Store
Unsocial Media: a cybercrime short story
Unsocial Media book cover.Greg has unwisely accepted a friend request from “Natalie”, a stranger who starts to stalk him after failing to hook him in a scam but, unknown to either of them, Greg’s wife (the narrator) is quietly investigating Natalie, following the trail from online into the real world.
Hello E-Hedgehog
The Foolish Hedgehog Cover Image.The Foolish Hedgehog is back in print as an ebook. If you’re looking for a short illustrated story for young children to keep them entertained over the holiday, have a read of the preview on SmashWords and buy it while it’s half-price!
Ongoing Email Issues on Website
For some weeks now, the forms on this site, such as the contact page, have been unable to send an email. It seems to be caused by an SSL issue outside of my control. All support channels to the web hosting company used by this site are down, which means I can’t even report the issue, let alone get it fixed.
Nicola Talbot 2022-08-28 (updated 2022-10-08) 📂 Site 🔖 News
Book Shop Closed Indefinitely Due to PayPal Removing Support for Encrypted Website Payments
The Dickimaw Books store has unfortunately closed until further notice. The reason for this is because PayPal has removed support for encryption with its PayPal Payments Standard option.
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Children’s Illustrated Fiction
Illustrated fiction for young children: The Foolish Hedgehog and Quack, Quack, Quack. Give My Hat Back!
Creative Writing
The art of writing fiction, inspiration and themes.
Crime Fiction
The crime fiction category covers the crime novels The Private Enemy and The Fourth Protectorate and also the crime short stories I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing and I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing.
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Fiction books and other stories.
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The TeX typesetting system in general or the LaTeX format in particular.
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This category is about the county of Norfolk in East Anglia (the eastern bulgy bit of England). It’s where The Private Enemy is set and is also where the author lives.
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The speculative fiction category includes the novel The Private Enemy (set in the future), the alternative history novel The Fourth Protectorate, and the fantasy novel Muirgealia.

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Alternative History
Sub-genre of speculative fiction, alternative history is “what if?” fiction.
book samples
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A part of the creative writing process, conservation of detail essentially means that only significant information should be added to a work of fiction.
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Regional dialects, in particular the Norfolk dialect.
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Fantasy
Sub-genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements.
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Hippochette
A pochette (pocket violin) with a hippo headpiece.
I’ve Heard the Mermaid Sing
A crime fiction short story (available as an ebook) set in the late 1920s on the RMS Aquitania. See the story’s main page for further details.
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The little things that inspired the author’s stories.
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Posts about the website migration.
Muirgealia
A fantasy novel. See the book’s main page for further details.
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Quack, Quack, Quack. Give My Hat Back!
Information about the illustrated children’s book. See the book’s main page for further details.
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Posts about sales that are running or are pending at the time of the post.
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The Foolish Hedgehog
Information about the illustrated children’s book. See the book’s main page for further details.
The Fourth Protectorate
Alternative history novel set in 1980s/90s London. See the book’s main page for further details.
The Private Enemy
A crime/speculative fiction novel set in a future Norfolk run by gangsters. See the book’s main page for further details.
Unsocial Media
A cybercrime fiction short story (available as an ebook). See the story’s main page for further details.
World Book Day
World Book Day (UK and Ireland) is an annual charity event held in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland on the first Thursday in March. It’s a local version of the global UNESCO World Book Day.