Carl R. Jennings

Jokes, Japes, and Jocularity

Hello! I'm author Carl R. Jennings and I am happy to bring you my "silly, clever, irreverent, stabby" style of story to you. If you like books similar to those by Terry Pratchett (Discworld books), Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Terry Jones (Starship Titanic), T. Kingfisher (A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking), and Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl) then you'll find mine a fit for your ever towering TBR pile!

The Kingdom of Ugh is just like any other on the improbable planet of Morsus: full of unhappy humans and aloof magical creatures, and is ruled by a king who doesn't care much about anything beyond his next meal. So, for a brief moment of happiness, the subjects took matters into their own hands...

...and beheaded the king.

Again.

This is a problem for a wizard who can't perform spells properly and a witch who finds being a charlatan easier than magic. They're ex's, and they took it upon themselves to provide a monarch to the kingdom as a bitter wager. Although, kingmaking is becoming more complicated than they anticipated, and now they must, yet again, try to find a ruler that can keep possession of something to put a crown on.

But something has to change: regicide has become a matter of course for the subjects of Ugh. There is no tolerance left for the typical aristocrat, and the wager isn't over until one of them installs a successful king or queen.

Which one in this former fiery romantic partnership will be able to win the wager and, incidentally, make such unhappy humans happy at the same time?

Not only does Eartha Bartlett, the last of a powerful line of witches in the hidden town of Blue Hollow, have to deal with the aftermath of the messiest breakup in the history of the town, she has to contend with her well-meaning coven using magic to set her up with someone new.

Unfortunately, not only is Eartha in no mood for a blind date chosen by ritual, this person is an outsider. The secrecy of Blue Hollow is the town's top priority, but that doesn't stop Eartha's coven from luring the man there.

Now, at the behest of the stern mayor, Eartha has to babysit someone suddenly introduced to the magical, the weird, and a completely unfamiliar society.

Zac Jenner is a paramedic with a life that's going nowhere. His bills are piling up, he can't afford his apartment, and not a single job he applied for has responded. Until he receives an offer to take over a general practice in a town called Blue Hollow. It's a great offer, but there are two problems: the first is that he never applied for the job, and the second is that he's not a doctor.

Zac accepts the offer anyway - keeping his lack of credentials to himself - anticipating a quiet life and easy money. Instead, he finds that Blue Hollow is full of the oddest people and people-shaped creatures, unique medical challenges, and a grumpy physician's assistant named Eartha who makes him seriously consider ending his bachelorism.

One night, after falling in love with the owner of Cafe Beget while exploring his kingdom in disguise, the king of the bayside Aliger realizes something: he cannot be both a good king and a good partner in a relationship. And so, he concocts a grand plan to set up an elected government, abdicate the throne, and woo the cafe owner, all in the space of ninety days. While the nobility plot and fight to turn the situation to their own advantage, the king discovers that the dating scene might be more fraught with failure and ruin than royal politics. 

Keeping a business going, especially a cafe, in Aliger is no easy job; and Julia Beget, the owner of Cafe Beget, is doing her best. Not only does she work at all hours - baking, brewing, and barista-ing - with hardly any sleep, she does what she can to keep her menu innovative and novel to attract customers. But her latest invention, the ring doughnut, isn't attracting the business she hoped for, and the future Cafe Beget is precarious.

So she comes up with one final scheme to bet it all on: an open stage night, were people can watch their talented, or foolish, neighbors perform various entertaining acts - and hopefully buy drinks and baked goods as well. While she didn't exactly know what to expect, what she didn't anticipate was the level of chaos it brought. That, and the quiet, new nighttime regular, dressed as a clerk, taking the stage with a lute. Although she begins to suspect that he might be there more for her rather than the chance to play, she can't become distracted if she wants her cafe to become successful.

Right?

Scheming, plotting, wooing, brewing, and baking await within the pages of The Ninety Day King.