In Search of Heroes

HEAVENLY HELL- Where All Serious Writers Go

2011-12-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

Pearly Gates after Daily Polishing

Welcome to the New Year. Well, for you, maybe. I’m writing this several days before New Years’ Eve, knowing I'll have returned from a trip north to see family just in time to miss all the celebration. While the rest of you are out there whooping it up, I’ll be at home pounding the keyboard. But if you think I’m whining, you’re mistaken.

You can tell this is a serious writer
by his pride in the three words he got
onto the paper. Can't see them?
Oh, he must have used White-Out.

I think the last time we ventured out on the wild year end spree was 1989 when we got as far as Plaid Pantry before the drunk drivers scared us off the road. Following the national tradition doesn’t appeal to me. It would mean actually dressing up and going out, and then eating too much and drinking things I don’t even want to remember in the morning. Not that I don’t like to dress up. I do it at least twice a year, and actually, I clean up pretty good. But there’s just nothing like hanging around the house in my faded muu muu, fuzzy comfy sox and new Christmas robe that so far doesn’t even have a bacon fat dribble on it while the guys are safely downstairs in front of the TV. I'll have a glass of wine, maybe, and some shrimp cocktail that still has frost lingering on the tails. I’m perfectly capable of getting fat without leaving the house.

The truth is, I’d just as soon stay home and write, curled up in said faded muu muu on my bed with my laptop, as do anything else in the world. I will spend the day working on the ending of my January release, BELOVED STRANGER, briefly hobbling on stiff legs down the stairs for supper, then return to my awkward Yoga-like position on my bed to work some more on it. No doubt I'll find a rough spot on the last scene, but I'll simply do what always works: a whirlpool bath. Sure enough, in five minutes I'll have all the missing parts outlined in my little notepad, and I'll lean back to enjoy the soothing flow of the bubbly water. For maybe a minute. I'll spend the last 25 minutes before the timer shuts off planning my next story. (No, I'm not providing any pictures of me in any of the above circumstances. Don't ask.)

Demon Deadline's Workplace

I know what you’re thinking. Couldn’t I just enjoy the whirlpool bath without turning it into some sort of workaholic marathon? Are you kidding? What kind of fun would that be? I’m a writer. I write. People who don’t write, don’t. And they don’t understand those who do.

Ever hear about the writer who died and walked up to the Pearly Gates, only to discover the Gates were temporarily closed for their daily polishing? While he waited around for things to open up, St. Peter offered the author a tour of Hell because, he said, authors get to choose whether they go to Heaven or Hell.

Demon Deadline in action.
Down in Hell, all the writers were squatting before desks made from rocks, pounding on ancient typewriters, while behind them some joker whose name was Demon Deadline (I kid you not) cracked a whip and yelled, “Write, you fools! Write!”

As soon as the gates were polished, St. Pete and the author returned to Heaven, and St Peter showed the author around the Heavenly Authors’ Chamber, located on a remote cloud, perched precariously at the very edge of Heaven. All the writers were sitting before rock desks pounding on ancient typewriters. And darned if that guy Deadline wasn’t right behind them, cracking his whip and yelling, “Write, you fools! Write!”

“I don’t get it,” said the author. “What’s the difference?”

St. Peter beamed proudly and said, “Our Heavenly Authors get to be published in the Heavenly Times.”

Real authors understand that. Of course any author who had a choice would clearly choose Heaven over Hell, but lacking that choice, he’d choose Hell over an ordinary life without writing. Writers know all about Hell anyway. Hell is a When as well as a Where. It'’s when you spent the entire night working out a fabulous scene in your mind until you know every single detail. Then you sit down at your computer the next day and discover you do indeed have every little detail in your mind. Everything, that is, except the words to describe it.

Jimmy and my favorite heroine

And Hell is when someone drags you off to a party to loosen up and have fun for a change, just when you’re champing at the bit to write that delicious love scene. (And yes, that’s champing at the bit, not chomping. All Regency authors know horses do not chomp their bits because Regency authors love their research even as much as they do writing.)

Heaven is when your hero is Johnny Depp, Gerard Butler and Jimmy Thomas combined in just the right proportions, and you have no trouble at all picturing him or telling anyone all about him. Hell is when you’re a hundred pages into the book and still can’t get a mental picture of Hero, even though he ought to be the sexiest, most kissable guy you’ve ever written.

This ordinary world is very neatly divided into two kinds of people: Those who write, and those who know all writers are crazy. The second group would find no pleasure in running around all day in comfy sox and muu muus (or pajamas or sweats), but tying one on at a New Year’s party is something they find worthy of a year-long wait. They consider computers to be work tools and whirlpool baths a source for luxurious “aaaahhhhs”. Writers, on the other hand, derive incredible pleasure (or pain) from their computers. But whirlpool tubs, being the source of some of their greatest ideas, are clearly work tools.

So those of you who are not writers will not understand my New Years’ Eve wish. It is only for authors, who will have no trouble understanding. Here it is, my special wish for you, for now and all the years to come:

MAY YOU WRITE FOREVER.
And for the rest of you, who we love so much:
Buy our books! Live a Happily Ever After!

Love and hugs to all!

Delle

Glass Eye Studio Winner!

2011-12-28T18:02:00.000-08:00

Running behind again--as you know I sometimes do--
The WINNER of the $35 gift Certificate to The Glass Eye Studio is Diana Duncan! Diana, I'm being demonic. I'm waiting for you to find it so I can hear you scream...

I'm still collecting entries for the final drawing on New Years Day for:
A gift certificate for the tooled Leather e-reader cover- or $87 toward any other item in the Oberon Designs catalog.
One $10 gift certificate each to three winners to the winners' choice of Amazon, Glass Eye or Oberon Designs.

There are so many choices at Glass Eye and Oberon Designs that I can't even decide which ones for myself, so I wouldn't want to pick for you. The e-reader covers come in sizes and shapes to fit all Kindles and Nooks, and might fit other readers too, but I'd be very careful about that if you're the winner. Check your measurements carefully and then contact them directly to be sure. If not, there are many other beautiful products available.

The usual things will get you extra chances in the drawing.
Buy a 99 cent book on Amazon- (particularly HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS since it is climbing the charts right now).
Or give a copy to a friend if you've already bought one.
Comment on Face Book.
Comment on my blog.
Reply on Twitter.
Share or re-tweet promo posts.
Write your own promo posts for me.

Each one will get you one more chance at the final prizes. Go on- help my TOAD reach the Big Time!

WHERE DID THE STORY COME FROM?

2011-12-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

NEW COVER DESIGN!

First, before we get to our topic for today, because this it the book that always makes me think of those lightbulb creative moments:

FREE on Kindle Dec. 23rd and 24th ONLY: HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS

Downlload this free book, or buy another, and get a new chance at my drawing for the hand-tooled leather e-reader cover or handblown glass ornament. Or comment on my blog, re-tweet my tweets, comment on Face Book. Each one gets you one more opportunity. Be sure and let me know, though, so I don't accidentally miss you!

Now on with the show:

I'm convinced everyone has story ideas. But maybe they don't recognize them. And of course, a story idea doesn't come with a complete story- most of the time, anyway. It's a germ of an idea. Something that is a little, or a lot, different from the everyday thoughts that run through our heads.

Most authors will tell you they don't get story ideas from their dreams. I do, but only occasionally. SIREN popped into my head in a dream, and it wasn't just a concept. It was probably the first half of the story. And while I do remember my dreams, usually I don't get more than fragments. FAERIE, which will come out sometime, I promise, was a fragment, with the heroine's inner conflict but not too much else.

LOKI'S DAUGHTERS came about on a dreary Sunday afternoon when my daughter, son, and I were sitting around the table, watching the kids play. My daughter and I complained that we'd never found any Viking romances that didn't have that supposed "romantic rape" scene. We detest those. So the three of us got spent the rest of the afternoon laughing and composing a Viking plot where the Vikings were the good guys. I think it was probably more romantic comedy at the time, and in fact it sounded almost like a stage musical.

LADY WICKED came from a young male social work colleague, sweet thought he was, who absolutely refused to believe that barely a hundred years ago, in some places such as England, wives were considered the husband's chattel, and could not even make a will without their husband's permission.

FIRE DANCE was probably mostly the result of years of working with abuse survivors and learning so much from them in terms of human triumph and survival. I had to write a heroine who represented the amazing courage I had seen so often.

But HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS probably had the most unusual beginning:

Back in the ancient past of my writing career, a good friend and Regency-writing colleague named Shirley Karr sent me a joke about a very modern princess and her encounter with an egotistical amphibian. You've probably seen it. It made the rounds of all e-groups lists the way jokes fly around the world on YouTube and Face Book today. I thought it was funny, but I thought it needed a more historical feel, so I re-framed it in a historical setting and sent it back to her:

Once upon a time, a beautiful, intelligent princess lived in a lovely kingdom by the sea. One day as she strolled in her garden alongside her favorite fountain, a frog leaped to the fountain wall beside her, startling her."Good morning," said the frog as he strutted along the wall (no mean feat, considering the shape of his legs). "I have come to rescue you."The princess studied the frog quizzically, for she had never seen a talking, strutting frog before, and certainly could not imagine why she might need rescuing."I am not a really frog, you see, but an enchanted prince. One kiss from you and I shall return to my former glorious state, whereupon I shall save you from spinsterhood and carry you off to my castle where you can cook my meals, do my laundry, and bear me dozens of sons who will all be as handsome as I am."That evening the princess sat down to supper at her table, set with the finest china and Waterford crystal, and smiled as she speared her Frog Legs Forestiére with her golden fork.

Of course, no heroine of mine would ever fry and skewer a hero, not to mention a frog. But it could happen metaphorically.. And you can tell by the epithet given him, "His Majesty, the Prince of Toads", that he is in dire need of a real lesson in loving. And there's nothing like a good romance to give it to him. And so the process began of finding said hero, and then, just the right heroine to deliver such a come-uppance. And, as is usual for me, I had to pay attention, for Lucas and Sophie did not have an ordinary story. It was truly their story, not mine!

Writers, the next time you find yourself struggling for a new story concept, the place to look is your own experiences. You don't have to stick with the details you experienced. How could you go to the core concept and expand to make a unique story?

And readers, if you wanted to write a story, what event in your life might trigger a story with a new twist?

Seriously? PopEye Muscles?

2011-12-08T17:14:00.001-08:00

You know I've taken an interest in the new Kindle Fire. Okay, okay, so I love it. But I recognize it's not the perfect device for everyone. I'm taking an interest, in fact, to the opposition as well. And you know there has to be some. Some people hate everything Amazon. Some hate everything not iPad or Apple. Heck, there are even some people still living who hate e-books and are still predicting their imminent demise. I heard one just the other day. A used book seller.

Anyway, I came across a Kindle Fire review the other day http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/06tech/gaming-gadgets/kindle-fire-panned-nielsen/index.html?iref=allsearch .I would have just read and dismissed it but by the time I finished reading, I was shaking with laughter. Read this:

"The Fire is a heavy object. It's unpleasant to hold for extended periods of time. Unless you have forearm muscles like Popeye, you can't comfortably sit and read an engaging novel all evening."

Popeye, huh? Seriously? All I have to do is read a few hours a day and I'll get muscles in my arms? My PT will love that. Okay, let's drag out the old postal scale and do comparisons. It's not all that accurate but it ought to be close enough. This isn't even government work.

Kindle 3Gen, bare 9 oz.
Kindle 3Gen w/neoprene sleeve 14 oz.
Kindle 3Gen w/lighted leather case 19 oz.
Kindle Fire, bare 15 oz
Kindle Fire w/padded nylon case 20 oz
Kindle Fire w/ hardshell case 19 oz.
Apple iPad, bare (info from Apple's tech specs) 1.33 pounds (21.3 oz)

[Addendum 12-12-11: Trade paperback book, 320 pages 15 oz.]

So Fire is not quite double the weight of 3Gen. About what I'd guessed. But almost all users I know both read and carry their e-readers and tablets in some kind of case or sleeve. My Fire in a nylon case is 1 oz. heavier than my hubby's 3Gen in its fancy leather case. And it's lighter than the iPad, bare (duh! the iPad is bigger!) Now, this guy is trying to tell this asthmatic over-the-hill flabby-muscled gal that the Fire is too heavy for him? That's after I read three books in two days? C'mon! Where are the muscles you promised??? My PT wants muscles!

"The lack of physical buttons for turning the page also impedes on the reading experience for fiction. On the older Kindles, it's easy to keep a finger on the button when all you use it for is to turn the page. In contrast, tapping an area of the screen disrupts reading enjoyment, is slightly error-prone, and leaves smudges on the screen."

Lack of buttons? Isn't that the point of touch screens? Honestly, I didn't think I'd like a touch screen, and fingerprints? Yuck. But I started getting finger cramp with the old 3Gen. And for me the light tap on the screen, or eve a dramatic, flashy swipe of the finger across the screen is just plain easier. Fingerprints? Not any worse than my laptop screen, and better than my phone.

"The Fire screen also has more glare than the traditional Kindle."

Glare? Sorry, guy. I'm the world's best arbiter of glary screens. If you had my eye problems, you'd understand- I'm missing major parts of my eyes. One of them is almost bionic. I've returned laptops to the store in less than a day because the glare bothered me so much. This is not a glary screen. Think it's too bright? Dim it. It's very adjustable. Even better, use the sepia screen color. It's not depressing like gray is. It's soothing.

So is Fire better or worse than 3Gen? Depends on what you want! Entirely! Want long battery life? Low contrast screen? super light weight? Get the new Kindle Touch. Don't like touch screen? Get the old style with keys. Want bright colors? Flipping through covers at a touch? Fire is better. Need a bigger screen, computer competence? That's where you get into iPad.

The big thing is, these guys are looking for iPads at Fire cost. No, guys. Not gonna happen! Fire is not an iPad. REPEAT AFTER ME: FIRE IS NOT AN iPAD. You want an iPad? Suck it up and plunk down the big bucks because there is no substitute. But if one just wants to read books, why would he buy an iPad? (For that matter, if one wants to write books on the fly, the iPad is probably also not the best choice. Even jazzed up with a keyboard. But that's not its central purpose.)

What they just can't get is that not everybody wants an iPad. Fire is built to be an e-book reader. It's for media consumption. Videos, magazines, music (needs decent headphones), etc. The 3.9 -4 million buyers in November and December are buying it for media consumption, not its computer abilities.

What most of us are buying when we choose a reading/playing device is access to content. I'm not particularly interested in the content and stuff that attracts many people to iPads. And iPad, while perfect for what some people want, is too big to make a good reader to me, but too small to be the computer I want. Or more accurately, not built to be the computer I want. I could write books on one, but I can write more and faster on my little 3 pound MSI Wind. I can do digital art with Photoshop on it. I probably could on iPad, but ya know, sometimes learning a different way can be a pain. What's interesting to me is that suddenly I'm finding a whole lot of people looking at things the way I do, and I thought I was in a really tiny minority. Who would've thought, five years ago, that instead of books vanishing because people had become so jaded with video, millions of readers would re-discover the unique experience of reading a book?

But even though Fire should not be put in the same class as iPad, it looks like it's created problems for Apple. Word is, Apple is going to lower the price of iPad2 because it's lost so much market share to Kindle Fire. In less than a month, Fire has grabbed 13.9% of the tablet market, when it really shouldn't even be in that category, quickly passing second-place Samsung Galaxy, which at its best had 6.9%. http://www.isuppli.com/Display-Materials-and-Systems/News/Pages/Red-Hot-Kindle-Fire-Blazes-its-Way-to-Second-Place-in-Media-Tablet-Market.aspx?cnn=yes

As far as those Popeye muscles go, well, I carried a large messenger bag with both mini Wind and Kindle, plus all those carry-on things from Portland through San Francisco to Maui in October. Didn't think a thing about it. Muscles? Nope, after a whole week in Hawaii, no bigger muscles. I just squeezed my arms again, just in case. Don't think it's gonna happen.

My, How the World Has Changed...

2011-12-06T16:25:00.001-08:00

In all fairness, I have to say this article by Dan Reisinger was published in April, 2008, almost four years ago. The Kindle he's talking about was one I found not quite satisfactory enough, and I decided to wait a little longer. It was two more years before I finally bought my first Kindle, the granddaughter, you might say, of the original.

"Although some people see a reason to buy a device just to read a book, I don't. Some have said that Amazon's Kindle is the savior of the e-book market. I don't believe it. Others say that e-book readers will kill the book publishing industry and bring it into the 21st century. I think that's rubbish. The fact of the matter is e-book readers will never have commercial relevance."

Here, go read it for yourself.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-9911511-17.html

Four Kindle Addicts Compare Devices and Accessories

2011-12-06T14:51:00.001-08:00

It's a family thing with us. If we're readers, we read ebooks. And that means, for at least some of us, we own Kindles or have Kindle software on our computers. So it really wasn't a big deal when four of us sat down after Thanksgiving to compare our Kindles and accessories.

Andy (right) is holding his brand new Kindle Fire. Pam (center), Jeff (left) and I (taking photo) all have Kindle 3rd Generation. But we have all chosen different cases and accessories.

This was a day before my new Kindle Fire arrived, and what you see in front is my old Kindle. I had a hard time being patient, especially after seeing Andy's, which was his birthday present. (See previous post.)

Jeff has that classy leather cover in orange with an extendable light. http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Lighted-Leather-Cover-Keyboard/dp/B003DZ165W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323212758&sr=1-1 When he bought his cover, it was a lot more expensive than it is now- about $70, and he chose orange because he figured not many other people would choose that so it might make his Kindle a little less vulnerable to being stolen. Also he tends to mislay things and orange is hard to miss, especially in a household where the only other orange things are his shirts.

What he likes about Kindle 3: The e-ink screen is easy to read, and the pull-out light is handy if he's in a darker environment. He can read it outside, regardless of how bright the day is. And he likes the long battery life. Kindle books are so easy to download, he's starting to complain about impulse buying.

What he doesn't like: He loves science fiction, and his favorite authors are either expensive or not available in ebook format, but that has nothing to do with e-readers and accessories. The pull-out light can be annoying, with an odd glare on the screen. I wouldn't be surprised to see him up-grading to the Fire. But then again, he might not.

In this photo you can see he's reading with the Kindle propped on a small, lightweight plastic stand. He found holding the Kindle a little awkward so he found this little stand for something like $7. He even uses it in bed by propping it on his nightstand. He reads several books a week. The week we went to Hawaii in October, he actually ran out of Kindle books even though he'd stocked up well before leaving. We had trouble getting his Kindle to download new books so were forced to go to a real bookstore for a change.

Pam bought a silicone sleeve by Marware because the Kindle seemed vulnerable to being dropped.
http://www.amazon.com/Marware-SportGrip-Fitted-Silicone-Keyboard/dp/B0046A8YB2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323215904&sr=1-1
It's easier to handle, she says, and she has a bright pink sleeve with a clear window, by M-Edge, so it can be read without removing from the sleeve.
http://www.amazon.com/M-Edge-Leisure-Kindle-Jacket-Keyboard/dp/B0045EOWMY/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323216209&sr=1-3

What Pam likes: She can't see any point in buying the Fire. Gray e-ink is easier on her eyes, and she likes the long battery life of the Kindle 3. She gets lots of cheap or free books, and she has no qualms at all about asking her favorite authors to get their books available in e-book format. She still reads lots of paper books, too, and often re-reads her favorite authors. Then there are audio books, to which she listens on her daily commute. She gets them mostly from her local library. So far she hasn't tried the Kindle audio feature, but says she might.

What she doesn't like: High book prices.

At this point, Andy hadn't yet bought a cover. He's thrilled with the Fire, which is actually his first e-reading device beyond his computer.

What he likes: At first he didn't like how easily the screen changes its orientation from portrait to landscape, but then he found the lock. He and I both though we would want the anti-glare screen protector. But the reviews aren't good, and we just aren't seeing any glare worth worrying about. He likes the sharp, bright screen and the ability to change screen text display to white lettering on black for night in-the-car reading.

The case he bought a few days later, by Inland, is lightweight and semi-rigid, with a zipper and an inner mesh pocket. He bought it at Fry's Electronics. He likes the extra protectiveness of the hard shell..
http://inlandproduct.com/prohttabletcasefitsmost7tablets02252.aspx
The mesh inner pocket would hold a USB cord, but not the charging cord one that comes with the Kindle.

What he doesn't like: He wishes he could have a longer battery life like the e-ink screen devices.The case doesn't have a strap, loop or lanyard and he had to add one of his own. He also thinks the pocket is too loose and prone to "fall-out".

That purple-encased e-reader in front, with no person attached to it, is mine, and I will be passing it on to a friend for Christmas. I just can't see letting a perfectly good e-book reader go to waste when it could enrich someone's life.

What I like: You know what I love about the new Fire. What I love about Kindle 3, though? It was the first e-book reader I could actually tolerate. My really crazy vision problems kept me from enjoying the older darker, dull-colored screens, but Kindle 3 was bright enough. And it was very lightweight and easy to hold. The long battery life means it will run for several days without re-charging. I did have to re-charge once while in Hawaii, and that charge lasted until long after I was back home. And I think I liked the old Kindle method of grouping books in lists, better than I do the flip-through color covers on "shelves". But the new more visual system is definitely growing on me.

As for the case: I didn't want the weight of a leather case, and I wanted one that could zip, thinking maybe it would offer better protection. This one was made by Tucano for the 7" Galaxy Tablet, bought at Fry's Electronics. It's sort of like this: http://www.tucano.com/IT/featured/radice?lang=eng&___store=
It's a perfect fit, and is nicely padded but lightweight (also fits the Fire, which is essentially the same size). The outer pocket makes a great place for the cord when traveling. The case, possibly by adding some cushioned bulk without much weight, is actually more comfortable to hold than just the reader alone. So for now, I'm keeping this case for my new Fire.

What I don't like: The e-ink screen is not soothing to me. It's my eyes, I guess, and also something about the way I respond emotionally to color. Gray depresses me. The Fire is much more pleasurable for me to read. I had to find a separate light, and never did find one that was really satisfactory. I ended up with a Mighty Bright that folds. It does stay in place better than others, but none of them do a really good job. The Fire sure doesn't need a light!

Oh, the knitted lace tablecloth? Why yes, thank you, I did knit it myself.

Kindle Fire Lights My Fire

2011-11-28T17:17:00.001-08:00

Frankie Blue-Eyes checks out the Kindle Fire

Okay, so I wasn't the first person to get my Kindle Fire, even though I was surely one of the very first to order it. Impatient though I was, especially when the one I ordered for my son on Nov. 1 arrived several days before the one I ordered for myself on Sept. 28, I'm okay with the fact that it finally got here the day after Thanksgiving. I tracked its progress across the country, through Phoenix, then Los Angeles, where it took a long nap, then right past me on the freeway which runs only 2 miles from my house, all the way north to Kent, Washington, where it again got a nice, long rest before heading south again, reaching my "local" post office in time to spend a lonely Thanksgiving there. But my post person is pretty super. Even though it was after 5:00 p.m. when the truck came by my house, she made sure I got it before she quit for the day. Two weeks after it had been shipped.

Never mind all that. I'm now perfectly happy. It's pretty much what I expected- few surprises and minimal drawbacks. But they might be significant to other people so I'm not going to pull any punches when I tell you about it.

The first thing I noticed is that it's quite attractive- although it looks pretty much like all the other tablet type devices available now. The back is sort of rubberized- probably a silicone backing, that helps to make it feel more secure in my hands than other tablet type devices I've held. It probably helps to keep the ceramic glass face from breaking if dropped, but I'm going to do my best not to test that. At 7 inches, it's smaller than the 10 inch iPad, so it's lighter and more comfortable to hold. But it appears to be about 50-75% heavier than my old Kindle 3rd Generation.

The display has the shiny black border we've come to expect, and the display itself is sharp and clear, but also has some anti-reflective properties. I was worried about the possible glare, since I find the reflections from the glossy screens very annoying. I can still see some reflection from the black border, but not enough from the display itself to be noticed. At a resolution and size of 1024x600 @169pixels per inch, pictures are sharp enough for me, despite my vision problems. I have no trouble reading even when it's set at the smallest font. Brightness is fully adjustable, and the display can be set in any of three combinations: the usual black font against white background, as well as white font on black (great for night reading in a car), and my favorite, a classy brown font on sepia background. The display can rotate when the reader is rotated. I find it convenient to lock it when I'm reading because it shifts very easily. I've heard some people say they can't read on a backlit screen for long periods of time, so they believe they can't use the Fire. I'd be surprised, since everyone I know who has said that hasn't given the Fire a chance, but maybe it's so. I have severe visual distortion problems, and I find the gray-on-gray straining, but I do very well with the cheery color screen. I do dim it slightly, and I find the sepia background soothing.

Some e-readers I've tried recently almost require a stylus, pressed rather hard, to send commands, and I would not buy those devices for that reason (as well as blurry display which is extremely annoying). The Fire responds to a light touch. You have to spend a little time finding all the settings and learning to manipulate the bookshelves, but it's not hard. All my books from my older Kindle loaded quickly with no problem. And I'm sure it's no surprise to you that buying a book is a simple one click. Amazon would never give up that feature!

The battery does last a full ten hours. Not much compared to the e-ink devices, I know.That's with wi-fi turned off. You should do that anyway, for any of the Kindles. I wish it lasted longer, but until color e-ink screens become practical, that's going to continue to be a problem with backlit color readers. I understand the new color Nook battery life is slightly better, but that won't really matter until it becomes perhaps 50% better.

I don't really like the transformer type charging cord, which is probably minimal in size, but it's still clunky compared to the cord for the e-ink Kindle. I'm guessing the backlit screen requires current conversion that the older e-ink design didn't need. No USB cable is provided. The old Kindle cord is convertible to a USB cord, a very neat arrangement. I bought a retractable USB-to-micro-USB cord because I will need to import my manuscripts to the Fire. Incidentally, I also picked up a very small AC/DC charger that works in either a car or airplane, and it will work for the Fire as well as netbook, camera, phone, etc.

I wish it had a SD card slot. I don't think the memory capacity is good enough to not have any way to supplement it. There's the Cloud, of course, but I'm mildly opposed to having Amazon store all my personal documents there. I admit, it will probably not become a problem for me, since I bought a reader for reading pleasure, and I have my mini-laptop for actual work when I'm away from home. But I can see how a lot of people won't be happy with this.

So overall, I totally love my Kindle Fire. I can easily forgive its shortcomings simply because I know most of them are limited by existing technology. It's sort of like, way back when I was a kid, black and white photos were "good enough"-- until color became practical and inexpensive enough to actually use. And I remember when black & white TV was "good enough" because color wasn't all that good, and cost too much anyway. But nobody clung to black and white TV, once it became reasonably affordable. E-ink is "good enough", sure. But now that I have a great color option, why would I want dull gray?

The first book I read with my Fire was GABBY, about Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. I was completely absorbed in it and read till I conked out from exhaustion, then picked it up the next morning to finish. That's something I haven't been able to do for years. I have to say, the Kindle Fire made reading an entire book much more pleasurable, with no eye strain or headaches. I'm resolved now to not read or buy paper books again except for those reference books that can't adapt well to ereaders. And that will continue to be a problem for me because color pictures have to be limited in size to the screen size. So maybe someday screens will unfold to expand to the size of full page spreads.

I'll rate it 4 3/4 Stars because I think the next one will address some of the issues I have with this one, like the SD slot. Technology will eventually solve all the difficulties, I'm certain.

Coming Next: Four EBook Addicts Compare their Devices, Cases, Etc.

Anne McCaffrey- In Memory

2011-11-24T11:33:00.001-08:00

I took this from my son's web comic, "Too Much Information":

Anne McCaffrey passed away this week. She gave us so much. Like Little Ace above, we ride the backs of the White Dragon whenever we read her "Dragonriders of Pern" series, and tasted rich imagination and the triumphs of right and courage. It's impossible to find enough words to describe her impact on us, the readers and the writers-- unless we read every word of all her stories.

OVER THE HILL IN MAUI PART 2

2011-10-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

THE BIG BOYS COME IN AT NIGHT

The first thing we do in a trip is to check out local sources of information. That's where you can often find something you never thought of, or get a better price. Time share condos almost always have someone who does a presentation, and we went. Usually we don't because this is where they try to persuade you to buy into more time shares. In Orlando we did, because they gave us $150 which we happily used on the kids for goodies. Here, we learned about the Van trip to Hana, and we knew that was a much better deal than driving ourselves, because that's one windey-ass road. And after I'm home I'll give you a more detailed account of that trip, which was truly wonderful. I'm still mad about that battery on my brand new camera, because that trip should have been photographed the entire distance.

There's also insider information. The presenter told us all beaches on Maui close one our after sunset because
"The Big Boys come in at night". A shiver went up my spine. I knew instantly what she meant, and if you don't, just imagine what swims in the ocean and has a fin that sticks up out of the water. Most of the sharks in Hawaii are harmless to man, and I could easily see that at the aquarium tanks where small sharks swam through all the other fish and even a diver who was working in the pool. But there are also the Tiger Sharks, in particular. I don't think even the professional divers go into the ocean at night.

I also was thinking of the other kind of "Big Boys", the sharks of the human kind. We're pretty good at avoiding them, but more and more, they are finding new ways to fleece tourists even in low traffic areas. We're learning we can enjoy those high traffic areas and just walk away from the sharks. Maybe I'll blog later on that subject, but not now.

Yesterday was perhaps one of our most favorite days. We just dinked around. A drive down to South Maui is short, intriguing. That's where the really rich Maui property owners live, and where some fantastic up-scale condo rentals are. I can see why. It's away from the really heavy tourist areas, and an excellent place to make a secluded retreat.

The beaches were not heavily populated because the surf was pretty high, and winds very gusty- about 20-30 miles per hour. Sand really stings when it hits your face at that speed. Wherever you are on the Islands, if there's a wind it's very nice. Because it's been mostly from the south, it's brought the vog (volcanic gases) up from the Big Island's volcano, Kilauea, over a hundred miles away. That worried me since I have lung problems, but I seem to have done all right. Staying in an air-conditioned car is good in that case. But it's really not bad, not even enough to catch an odor in the air.

The aquarium is definitely worth a trip. Sure it's expensive, but really quite reasonable considering costs of maintaining the facility. Cheaper than Sea World, but then they don't have jumping dolphins or Orcas or any kind of show.

And the beach? Well maybe today. We haven't even planned anything yet. Maybe if I wrap a pareo around my body, no one will notice how odd my swin suit is...

OVER THE HILL IN MAUI PART 1

2011-10-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

PART 1: THE SWIMSUIT STILL FITS IF I LEAVE ONE BOOB OUT

N Maui Beach (I'll get you the name later)

Funny thing how I've always thought of Maui as a place where only the young people came. I don't know why- perhaps I'd heard descriptions from other people who love the Valley Isle. From those impressions I have always pictured it as the Party Isle. We've been to all the other major islands, though, so Maui had things that were on our Bucket List. Well, no, you know me, I'm not one to let a little age difference intimidate me. Just makes me wish I could still do some of those things I used to do. So we went to Maui.

Imagine my surprise then, when I saw more people with wrinkles and bags than taut physiques. More gray hair than blonde, and any woman who wanted to, wearing a Maui sundress.

sunset over the harbor from the condo

Second impression: those aren't just the tourists. Maui-ites have no intention of hiding from the sun once they're over the hill. They're in paradise, and age has nothing to do with it.

clouds at 8,000 ft

We've actually been here several days. By the time I get in, my back aches like fire and my ankles have swelled like logs. And here we are, constantly meeting Young Things who would have put my hiking abilities to shame back when I was their current age.

tiny flowers at 9,000 ft on Haleakala

Yesterday in our drive to the top of Haleakala- up the steepest highway in the world, we came up to a hiker pick-up area, and there stood a young couple not looking too hopeful. We never pick up hitch-hikers. We did anyway. What a joy they were! Manchesterians transplanted to California, eagerly hiking the very trail I had dreamed of doing fifteen years ago. We took them up to the trailhead just short of the crest, and they began their trek across the crater.

Today we took a helicopter over the crater and down on the rainy side, two other couples, both young, one from California, one from France. We all had a wonderful, exciting adventure. I've never done a helicopter ride before but even I knew the supposed scary sudden altitude drops were actually pretty wimpy. Don't care. It was thrilling.

one of hundreds of waterfalls in windward side

I'm getting brave in this Wild Over-the-Hill world called Maui. Still haven't stuck a toe in the water yet, though. Still wondering what I'm going to do with the other boob. And I finally got the pictures posted! Some of them anyway!

OVER THE HILL IN MAUI PART 1 Coming tonight

2011-10-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

We're now in Maui and I'll start with the first post in a short series tonight after we get back to the condo. I'll be taking my camera and binocs as we get our bearings on the island. We've been all over Hawaii but this is the first time to Maui other than stop-overs. On today's agenda- the Maui Farmers and Crafts market, the beaches, etc.

NEW ADDITIONS to Mercy Corps Sale

2011-09-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

Just a $25 donation to Mercy Corps can get you a book cover customized to your book.

See my Mercy Corps Donation Page

2011-09-25T12:58:00.000-07:00

VISIT MY MERCY CORPS DONATION PAGE AND READ ABOUT HOW YOU CAN GET A BOOK COVER FOR ONLY $25.

So you probably think I'm not doing anything. Not so. In fact, working on books and covers has kept me pretty darn busy, and then there have been some personal things come up that have been a bit-- well, let's just say, emotionally and physically demanding.

But I did have time for another whimsical cover design (hey, a person needs to have a little fun now and then). It doesn't belong to any book. But when I re-dressed her in yellow instead of white, I remembered the WISPS OF SUMMER design I did in August. What a great series this would make, based on seasons. It sounds sort of like a Victorian women's fiction, don't you think? Maybe Rumors of Autumn, and Remembrance of Winter. From that, I got a new idea:

Does anyone want these, maybe with your own title and author name? I'll make you a deal: $25 per cover but not to me. Paid as a donation to Mercy Corps, which is ranked as one of the best world-wide charitable organizations operating in the US. Over 90% of the funds donated make it to the people who need the help. And their programs are aimed not only at emergency relief but at helping people become self-sufficient.

Then one more step: a new promotion for Mercy Corps, using my inventory of experimental and speculative cover designs. So If you need a good deal on a cover, check out the ones I'm posting on my MERCY CORPS PAGE.

CELEBRATORY GUNFIRE CONTEST!

2011-08-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

Well, one of those "secret projects" I've been working on has reached fruition. It's a promotion for Lady Wicked with a sharply reduced price.
99 CENTS!
This won't last long- but I don't know how long. The publisher, The wild Rose Press is evaluating the promotion and if it's successful in generating lots of sales, might continue using these 99 cent promos to help readers discover TWRP books. Some of my favorite authors are on their list, so I'm hoping for great success. For myself, I just want my Lady to find all the readers I feel she needs and deserves.

So to help encourage buyers, and reward the readers who have already bought the book at the much higher list price ($7! They deserve to be rewarded), I want to throw a big contest. The big celebratory gunfire contest type. What shall it be? Give me your best ideas by noon tomorrow (Pacific Daylight Time) and I'll reward the top five with a $5 Amazon Gift Certificate. This means it HAS to be something I can launch immediately, before the price goes back up.

News in BRIEF!

2011-08-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

So you've noticed I'm not posting much these days. The reasons for my dereliction of duty are below.

(Incidentally, this design for Wisps of Summer is just a mock cover, posted just for fun to show you that I often rebel against deadlines and obligations. And because I thought you might like it. There is no book planned for it, so I guess I might work it up for someone else who likes it.)

I have to get BELOVED STRANGER to an editor by August 14th. It's supposed to be 25,000 words or less. It's 32,000 and I haven'd reached The End.

An editor called, having read LOKI'S DAUGHTERS (which is not for sale as it's doing quite well where it is) and wants to know what else I have. Wow, that always feels good, and I'm very interested in this publisher, whereas traditional publishing is not where I want to go right now. So can I finish FAERIE and get it to her really really soon? No matter that I really had wanted to release it earlier this year, it is just not ready. And the idea of releasing a book before it's ready just appals me. So I'm working hard on that.

I have another project proposal which I can't discuss yet, but it's quite exciting. Right now it's at the "either sit and wait or go do something else" stage. I'd say it's a long shot.

And although I've completed four consignment book covers, I still have five more due this month. September is full, and I have some scheduled here and there throughout the fall. It's a good thing some people are willing to wait, having books that won't be released until later this year or early next year.

And I didn't mention the new wood flooring going in upstairs to replace our really ancient carpet that is probably a major cause of my constant sinus and runny nose problem. That's where I work. I need a cleaner work environment, so somehow I have to sacrifice my work space plus numerous hours of packing, carrying out, moving and then returning my possessions to their rightful places once the job is done. I've dreamed of this for years. But I sure wish someone else would do it for me!

LOKI'S DAUGHTERS is an Amazon Best Seller!

2011-07-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

So, an update on the last post, when LOKI'S DAUGHTERS was free on Amazon. By the time it was finally removed from the Free Reads list, it had downloads just shy of 50,000 copies, in about 13 days. And then it moved to the Amazon and Kindle top Sellers list!

Its first re-listing, or the first I saw since I was out with the guys to see Harry Potter, was at #10,072. Really disappointing. But I should have realized that was just a starting point. It quickly moved to #1472, then #375, then up to #271. The next morning it started at #171 and moved rapidly up to #103, and then onto the Top 100 Sellers, getting as high as #90. Since then it's been lurking in the mid 100s range and gained some this morning to be at #140. But I'm pretty sure a lot of its potential market was sapped by staying on the Free Reads for so long,

All in all, that's fine. It's a book I always loved and so I love it when new readers find it and love it. And even more so when they let me know it caused them to go looking for my other books.

Right now, yes I'm still being a bad blogger (almost wrote blooger, which seems oddly fitting). There 's not enough time in the day. I barely make it to Face Book and forget Twitter regularly. It seem so me when I'm being very productive with writing and cover work, that's an inward thinking process, and it's hard to shift back out to the outer, more social networking process.

Here's what's happening:
1. Amazon kicked back The Mudlark for bad formatting. Duh, didn't we have it fixed exactly right yet again? I saw it and even read through on the Kindle again. It was fine. Then suddenly it has all those crazy double indents again. This time we got some hexa-digital software and went through it line by line, and there are NO hidden codes, no thing that could possibly be triggering those ugly nasty double indents. The book looks just perfect with every other format except Amazon's Kindle.

But this time someone wised me up, and pointed to html format. At first I gagged- you know, the whole eye-rollling head-pounding "No! Don't make me learn it!" thing. But it's easy to just save as an html web page. In Word, it's called "Web Page", and you do it exactly like saving in rtf format. Then you put it into the Kindle Generator in exactly the same way you would a Word doc file. You just choose the file from your computer files with an extension of .htm

I hope this works. It looks great in the preview, and I went through the whole thing. This isn't totally adequate, and now I'm finding that in spite of my desire to avoid learning html, it's what I'm going to have to learn next if I want my books to be really professional. Funny thing, that the tool I really needed was right there all along. But it took the really good explanations of Guido Henkel for me to understand why and how to do it. I DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS! My brain says it hurts, just thinking about it! But I'm telling you, if you want a really professional book that looks great in any ebook format, this is what you have to do. Go check him out. I'll blog more about my learning experience as I go along.

2. I'm still not finished getting FAERIE in publishable state. I'm disappointed but I can't put it out until the last problems are resolved. While all books have problems, I've found those are the places where I have real opportunities to make a book great instead of just good. So it's best to keep looking for the things a book needs to be unique instead of taking the first reasonable way to finish it. I hate putting it down again, but other things now must be done first.

3. I have to finish BELOVED STRANGER (was IN THE ARMS OF A STRANGER), which is aimed at an invitation-only series of novellas through a publisher. I may still self-publish it instead if I think it would work better for me, but I'm still aiming to get this book done and sent off by August 14.

4. And cover art is really keeping me hopping. I'm going to have to cut back on that, even though I love doing it. I've been getting a lot of multiple requests from authors, and often they want to bring out several books at once. Sometimes I can't accommodate them. But it is fun to develop a series style for their books.

LOKI'S DAUGHTERS is FREE!

2011-07-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0033WSKA4

Okay, you probably know by now I'm utterly indiscriminate when it comes to giving away books. Sure I want you to buy them. But I want you to read them too, and because (if) you love them, go buy the others. So when a book is FREE, I think it's a good thing. Right now- and not for long- LOKI'S DAUGHTERS is free on Amazon Kindle, and on Smashwords.

Since last night it's already had over 6,000 downloads and is ranked #10 in the Kindle Store Free Reads. Its the #2 Historical Romance and #7 Romance Yesterday its ranking was #1626 Kindle Store, so that's a long way up. Free Reads are really a different list from the general Kindle Store list. But the value to me will actually show when the book is no longer free and will appear (I hope) on the regular lists.

But I have no idea how long it will be free. So be my guest! Go get it!

Hugs to you all!

The Elegance of Simplicity

2011-06-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

(WARNING: No, I haven't written this book. Yes, I might.)

The cover is the first page of your book. All authors know that, and they all want a title that will grab attention, hold it, intrigue- grasp the reader so hard she can't let go. They want the cover to somehow convey to the reader every emotion the author feels about her story. And sometimes they mis-understand that the cover should NOT tell the story.

Think about it. If you look at a cover and you quickly spin in your mind how the story will go, where it's set, how the characters will feel and change, then what will you do next? You'll put it down. You're satisfied. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and maybe in the case of a book cover, a hundred thousand words. And if your cover tells your whole story, the reader's done. No, a cover should be the first page, not the whole thing.

But it's hard. Authors who self-publish in digital form are really vulnerable to this "perfect cover" flaw. Artists, too, or I, at least, keep wanting to crowd in yet one more little element to make the cover so perfect. And the reality is, simplicity can be a far better seller. Simplicity can be incredibly elegant. Or stark. Or simply simple. The way ebook covers are viewed, in long, scrolling lists of small thumbnail images, or on pages crammed with other covers, means covers have a hard time being the one cover the reader glimpses in a rapid scroll downward. But simple, in its many forms, usually does the job most authors crave. It stops the reader in her fast-paced scrolling tracks.

I did this cover design for one reason. To demonstrate how compelling just a face can be. I've hinted that the story is medieval. But I could have put in a verbal hint that it was contemporary, and truly her heavily made up face suggests that. But that's a side issue because there is no story. The very simplicity, the stark sharpness of her makeup and the flowing folds of the dark purple scarf (chiffon, I can tell in close-up) meld into the background. If anything is fanciful, it's the lettering. But since the photo compelled me to call her Amethyste, a name I made up just for her, I felt it demanded to come out looking like a carved jewel. There's room for that because it has so little competition.

Not that I will do all covers in this fashion from now on- I'm incapable of doing that. But I think this will remind me, and perhaps other authors, that when it comes to ebook covers, simplicity is the best elegance.

A Design for an Upcoming Release

2011-06-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Just thought you'd like to see this. The book is not quite finished and I haven't really decided how I will publish it. I will actually probably submit it to a more traditional e-publisher since I have an invitation to submit a story that this one fits.

It's a novella length story told partially by letters, set in England, Portugal and Spain during the Peninsular War between Napoleon's French Empire and the British-Portuguese-Spanish Allies. It's a story that's roamed around my mind for years, but I've always been told it "would never sell".

Well, now what will sell depends on the readers, not the publishing industry, and I'm finding the readers want a much broader range of romances than legacy publishers can afford to give them. I understand that. If a story might sell well, but another one will likely sell extremely well, which one should a publisher, who is in business to make a profit, buy? And maybe they're right, maybe a story that's not entirely set in Regency England, especially one that takes the reader to the brink of the battlefield, won't have a good market.

but this story is too dear to my heart to leave un-published. I'll leave it to the readers to decide how valuable it is to them.

Hugs to all my wonderful readers, who share my tastes in love stories!

Delle

FAERIE will release July 20! (Updated to September-Sorry!)

2011-06-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

Release delayed to September, 2011
for technical reasons

Blogger says it's having upload problems so I'm just dropping by right now to give you some updates. Oh hey, it worked! Never mind.

FAERIE will be releasing July 20. Yes, I know some of you have waited a long time for it, but that's one reason I decided I would bring it out myself. The wait for a regular pub date would be a year or more away. So now it's going through a professional edit, and the cover is done. And I'm starting the process of finding reviewers and setting up promotions. No one can buy a book if they can't find it! You can find out more about it in my "Books and WIPs" section.

And don't worry, historical romance lovers, I'm not abandoning my Regency Historicals. I'm finishing up two right now. One, I'll be submitting to a more traditional publisher, but I think I'll bring out the other myself. Why one and not the other? One is an invitation to submit for a specific subject novella, and I just happened to have it already half written, so why not give it a shot? The other I think will suit my needs more if I produce it myself. I'll probably bring it out in the mid fall. (Another trip to Hawaii intervenes in September.)

So you're asking, is there really some kind of advantage in publishing my stories myself? Isn't that the horrible monster, Vanity Publishing? Well it could be, but you can be sure what I'm doing is a LOT OF HARD WORK, aimed at providing the best stories I can at a price the readers can easily afford, and that I've studied the situation carefully, and have about 18 months' very successful experience in independent publishing. In my traditionally published books you'll find a lot of excellent professional work, by wonderful editors and cover artists, along with technical people who know how to format a published book and have the means to distribute the books. But all that comes at a price, and sometimes readers have a hard time justifying buying a book that costs more than a few bucks.

But the thing is, I know how to do all of that, too. Yes, I do know better than to publish a book that only I have edited. Good grief, if you know me, you know my eyes are horrible anyway, and even the best sighted authors who viciously attack their books word by word will miss things. So yes, all my books will always go through at least one professional editor, not to mention eagle-eyed critique partners. I'll do a final edit on other authors' books, and it will be professional. But not my own. And of course, yes, I do my own covers.

So none of my indie-published books will ever be priced for more than $2.99. Most will be free, or 99 cents. And you get a book you'll love at a price that lets yo go buy another book too. And I, believe it or not, make a bit more money myself because so many more people can afford my books.

Hugs to all. And in the meantime, don't forget SIREN, a brand new story, not a re-tread, is now available. Only 99 cents. If you honestly can't afford it, email me. We'll work something out.

AND THE CONTEST WINNER IS...

2011-05-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

1st, the $25 Amazon gift certificate: Samantha Fury.

Because: she sent that luscious photo of one of my favorite models, making it the most helpful suggestion. At first I thought it was the one I'd already tried unsuccessfully, but this photo is a little different. The one I already had is black & white, which would be hard to color, but also the head positioning in the older one is straight forward, which wouldn't work. But this one is perfect, with his head turned as if he is listening to the Siren's song.

2nd, the $10 Amazon gift certificate: Amber Autry-Munnerlyn.

I will give a $1 Amazon gift certificate OR a coupon for a free download of Siren (99 cent value) to each of the other entrants. But since I don't have email addresses for all of you, I'll be contacting you through Face Book to ask your choice. The Amazon certificate requires an email address, but the Smashwords coupon is something I can simply give to you directly for you to use.

SIREN is now up and available on Smashwords, where the first copy sold within an hour. It's also up on Amazon UK, where at least one copy has sold within minutes. You can see the page for it on Amazon US already but I don't know if it can be bought yet since my bookshelf page says it isn't available yet. All the same, it'll be available sometime this evening, and here's the link:

SIREN ON AMAZON

SIREN COVER CONTEST! PRIZES! Updated

2011-05-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

(Note 2: I've added two new designs to the contest, based largely on what you've had to say so far. So if you've got time, take a look and see what you think of #4 and #5.)

(NOTE 1: If you have to comment anonymously, pls include your FaceBook name of some other way I can reach you- probably not good to show your email address on the comment.)

I'm about to release my first totally independent novella, SIREN. This 25,000 word novella. It's gone through an outside editor, and is ready to go. Except for one thing. It has THREE covers. So I'd like you to help me decide which one is the best one for the story. THERE WILL BE PRIZES.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

SIREN is a 24,000 word novella, a sensual historical sea fantasy romance set in 1851, during the time of the great Clipper Ships. From the beginning, Siren is a mystery to the hero, John Wall, so main story is told entirely in his point of view, to emphasize his inability to know or understand the mysterious being of the sea.

For seventeen years, John Wall has sailed the seas, braving storms and pirates to bring his cargo safely into port.

Sometimes he sees the Siren and hears her clarion voice above the crashing waves:

"Come to me, John Wall. Come to me."

But the Siren's song is death, so John resists its lure--

Until the night he meets the King of Storms.

Masts shattered, sheets ripped and sails torn, his men-- gone--

John clings fiercely to the wreckage, defying death.

And the Siren comes for him.

"Come to me," her beautiful voice sings.

Their lips locked in a kiss, John Wall slips beneath the sea.

What has he found? Heaven? Hell?

Or something beyond his wildest imagination?

WHAT TO DO:
Read the blurb and look at the three proposed covers, on this post. And comment. If all you want to say is "Great cover!", that's fine with me. But the commenters who give some helpful, insightful suggestions (I get to decide) will be given an extra FIVE chances toward winning the prizes. Yes, you can say you don't like something, and yes, you can point out flaws. Remember, my crazy eyes often don't see something that's perfectly obvious to other people, so I don't take offense to such things if they're not rudely presented.

You MUST be willing to give me your actual email address if you are a winner because all prizes must be sent by email.

PRIZES:
1st: $25 Gift Certificate to Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Sony, or other ebook retailer the winner chooses. This will be MY choice of the most helpful comment. no promises that I'll actually be able to use the best comment though.
2nd: $10 Gift Certificate to an ebook retailer of winner's choice, randomly drawn from all commenters. (Don't spam me with hundreds of "nice cover" type entries. I'll just delete all but one anyway.) Commenters with helpful suggestions or comments beyond "nice cover" remarks will be given five entries into the drawing.
3rd: Ten $1 Gift certificates to AMAZON ONLY. These will be randomly drawn in the above manner.
Bonus Prizes: Two Free copies of SIREN from Smashwords

Nobody gets more than one prize.

DEADLINE: You've got till NOON, Friday May 18, 2011, to enter. I have to cut it off then so I can get the book out. And I'll announce the winners on Friday night on this blog.

And look for SIREN's release on Amazon, Smashwords and other ebook retailers. I'll post precise links when I get them.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say!

Oh, the Treachery!

2011-05-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Temporarily FREE on Kindle!

Okay, so it's not really treachery. Maybe more of a slippery slope. But since I once broke my wrist by slipping on a flat, nearly level rock AFTER climbing down a cliff, I'm a little bit hyper-vigilant about slippery slopes.

It seems two of my books, FIRE DANCE and THE MUDLARK, are caught in a price war between Sony and Amazon. Sony marked them down to $0.00 (which as near as I can tell is a contract violation), and Amazon consequently matched the price (which is NOT a contract violation).

Temporarily FREE on Kindle!

I have no idea how this might have changed my sales numbers on Sony- and in fact I can't get any communication from either them or Smashwords, my distributor. But I can tell you Amazon reports that I've had over 35,000 downloads of my FOUR directly published books in less than a week.

So I should be excited about two huge bookstores giving away my book without my permission? You bet. Here's why:

At first sales of the other two, non-free directly published books as well as the three published by other publishers, dropped drastically. But within less than a day, they rose. They had been dragging after a four month run at the Top Seller lists on Amazon, and needed a little infusion of something. My plan had been to direct-publish a novella- my historical sea fantasy romance, SIREN, but formatting problems, three back-to-back conferences in April and a huge increase in cover art requests have slowed me down for anything that doesn't have a firm deadline. So Free Reads is just the boost I need right now to go along with the next release.

That's most likely about 20,000 new readers in the US and about 4,000 in UK, at least glancing at my books on their Kindles. And from my experience, a fair number of readers will go buy another book by me, once they've read one. I particularly like seeing my UK sales go up, tossing both HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS and LOKI'S DAUGHTERS into the UK Top Sellers lists. Before, they'd gone all but undiscovered.

So what am I going to do about Sony? Nothing, probably. Will they pay me? I don't know. But in the meantime, I'm issuing an open invitation to all readers. GO GET 'EM!

KINDLE SALES UPDATES

2011-03-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in awhile- I can't believe how busy I've become since the New Year, both with ebook sales and ebook covers. But the whole ebook worlds seems to be spinning so fast it's hard to see what is going on. So I thought I should drop by my own blog and tell you what I see.

The sales growth has been phenomenal in three months for my books, and a lot of other authors are reporting the same thing. It's clear, though, that sales growth is uneven, and a lot of authors are struggling, trying to get a toe hold in the market. I get asked a lot how to do that, and I really can't tell you how to do it. What worked for me began with a fabulous piece of luck, yet I have to say it's probably the only major piece of luck not directly related to hard work I've had in all my years in publishing. The rest was really a matter of working myself and my books into the right position at the right time, but without knowing ahead of time what that position and time would be. In other words, plain old perseverance.

But I'm happy to report that HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS has remained at the top of the Regency Romances for a solid month, and has been on the Top Selling Romances list for 48 days. How many sales does this take? Around 200 a day. Totals? For four books, in December I sold 1208 books, but January jumped to just under 6,000. And February, almost reached 10,000. With my other published books on Amazon, sales weren't as good, but they also have been rising. So I'm certain I sold well over the 10,000 last month. This month? Looking good but not nearly that kind of increase. And every day I have to sell more than before to keep my ranking. So some days I sell more books yet still drop in ranking. Some days the other way around. So, since I've been ranking between 29 and 46 in all Romances, I figure there are at least 50 other romance authors who are having the same kind of experience, or even better. I wonder how many books they're selling????

LADY WICKED is out!

2011-02-25T14:43:00.000-08:00

I haven't been so excited about a book release since my first one back in 2000. But LADY WICKED is a very special book to me.

Available at Amazon, The Wild Rose Press,
All Romance EBooks, etc.
http://tinyurl.com/4pvom2o

It finalled in the Golden Heart twice, and won in 2005. It had a hard time in the post -9/11 era when few editors would buy historicals of any flavor, and particularly not those that weren't all light and fluffy. LADY WICKED isn't fluff. I do write fluff and love to do it, but although this book has lots of humor in it, it's definitely not the softest tissue in the box. But it's special because, as in all my books, love and justice triumph in the end. This time in a very memorable way. When karma comes around for my villains, it does a lot more than knock the wind out of them. I think this is the best ending I've ever written because, poetic justice really reigns.

Now, here it is! Launching with its first two reviews, both of them wonderful!

From RT Reviews:

RT Rating

Lady Wicked is not only a wonderful romance, it’s also a fantastic mystery. As this compelling novel goes from hysterical scenes to dramatic ones all while developing a captivating romance, readers may well wonder if Jacobs has created a Mr. Darcy for this generation.

From Sizzling Hot Book Reviews:
POSTED BY REVIEWER VICKY AT 5:52 PM
Lady Wicked deals with what happens after all the balls and parties we so often read about in historical romances. We can all guess about the happy stories, but Lady Wicked gives us a look into what can happen when the other extreme happens. Delle Jacobs has done her research into the laws and social rules of the time, giving us a real feel for what was accepted and how it might have happened. While this is fiction and an extreme case, one understands that divorce seems to be a last step taken.

Lady Wicked is much more than a historical or even a divorce novel. We see Savoury grow as a person. He learns he has been wasting he life before now. He connects to his family home, to the ‘real’ people around him, and finds love for the first time. He may be in tarnished armor, but he is a true knight, rescuing not only Davina, but a couple other characters as well. Watching him become a man is so nice. Davina admits that she was not much of anything under her father, finding herself as she realized she was willing to give up all wealth and title just to get out from under her husband. She has to learn to overcome her own fear, especially of men, large men. This is not easy, and is to be expected after her abuse.

The twist to the mystery of Lady Wicked is great, and I really enjoyed it. There is some nice play on historical law, and the lead up to the romance works well. This is a definite read for historical lovers, and for those who like to see the underdog win as well.

TWO NEW RELEASES!

2011-02-06T21:22:00.000-08:00

Life is getting exciting! Two releases in one month! A whimsical contemporary Valentines Day novella from the Cupid Gone Wild anthology, THE BOSS WORE RED, co-authored with SamMarie Ashe, and released by eTreasures. Remember when I did that mock cover? Well, it spawned a story, and it's just plain fun!
Buy It on Amazon Buy It from All Romance eBooks

AND LADY WICKED, Golden Heart winner and winner of many contests, will be released Feb. 25 from The Wild Rose Press. I have already been told by the Romantic Times reviewer that the review, probably in the April issue, will be the very highest RT can give!

Pre-Order it on All Romance eBooks!

Help Support Egyptian Author Olivia Gates on her Release Day

2011-02-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

This came to me from my friend Deb Marlowe who got it from Bonnie Vanak. Please feel free to copy and paste it in your blog or wherever, since Olivia is unable to access the internet during the unrest in Egypt.

***

My friend Bonnie Vanak (who writes Egyptian-set historicals as well as wonderful Nocturnes!) alerted me to the plight of Harlequin author, Olivia Gates. Here's the info from Bonnie's blog:

As you know, protests are taking place in Egypt and the government has shut down internet communication. Author Olivia Gates, who lives in Egypt, has a February 1 release by Harlequin Desire called To Tempt a Sheikh. We'd like to get out the word about her book since Olivia cannot.

Let's support an author who cannot access the internet to promote her book.

To Tempt a Sheikh by Olivia Gates

He rescued hostage Talia Burke from his royal family's rival tribe and swept her into his strong embrace. But Prince Harres Aal Shalaan soon discovered there was more to the brave beauty than he knew. Talia held information vital to protecting his beloved kingdom…and she had every reason not to trust him.

Marooned together at a desert oasis, Talia couldn't resist Harres. Yet even as his sizzling seduction entranced her, his loyalty to his family and country would always make them enemies. Falling for the sheikh would be her heart's greatest mistake…but she feared it was already too late….

In stores February 1!

Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Books A Million and bookstores everywhere. Also available at eharlequin both in print and as an ebook.

To read a first chapter and visit Olivia's webpage, click here.

KINDLE E-BOOK SALES ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROOF

2011-01-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

Amazon Best Seller!

Over the last few months I've been keeping a close eye on the volume of my sales on Kindle, and recently realized that my efforts have a wider range of importance than just my personal experience and the books I'm personally selling.

Many of you know I received a phenomenal boost back in October when Kindle put two of my books on their 100 Free Reads list for five days, and that my sales numbers continued to be high (but not THAT high) for the rest of the month (actually have continued high). But you might not know what the long term ramifications have been. And you would be unlikely to know how that has put me into a position to observe the massive changes in the ebooks market in the last few months. I have kept records of how my books have moved up and down on the charts, but that is of interest mostly to me. One of the things that I think is of broader interest is in charting the advance of sales in general.

This Free Reads boost gave my books a visibility they didn't have earlier, and I've had at least one book on a best seller list since then. As long as there's one on a visible list, buyers can easily find my books because, especially if they like what they read, one book leads to another sale, and then another, which in turn propels other books onto best seller lists. That's how HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS got there. It was never a free read, but was discovered by readers who had liked FIRE DANCE and THE MUDLARK. LOKI'S DAUGHTERS didn't get quite this kind of boost, but it is now showing excellent sales.

Since I have several self-published books on Kindle, I am able to receive immediate exact sales reports and compare them with the rankings for my books. HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS consistently accounts for half of the sales for four books, which gives me a perspective on what is needed to keep a book on the best seller lists, and how many sales it takes to improve the ranking. I decided after Thanksgiving to offer all of my books at 99 cents through the Christmas season, and originally had intended to return to the normal $2.99 price after Christmas Day. But my sales volume was so high, I changed my mind and have kept the low price. I'm aware that this low price means I can't get Kindle's 70% royalty rate, but I made the decision because I see my job right now as to grab buyers and hopefully develop a large group of returning readers. In looking at the numbers of "also bought" books sold, I believe this is happening because people who bought one of my books have a vary high incidence of buying the others.

Sales on Kindle since Christmas Day have risen to between double and triple the pre-Christmas rate, which was high to begin with. This appears to be a general trend on Kindle, and likely is a reflection of the incredible number of Kindle readers sold by Amazon this holiday season. Every day except one in the new year has shown an increase in volume over the previous day, and I am now selling at about 100 books a day (four titles). Today is on track to record perhaps as many as 120 books sold.

Because I can compare my actual real time sales numbers with my overall ranking, I can see I'm doing only barely better than other books in my genre and in historical fiction, so the top books must be selling individually at least 80-100 per day. Yet there's only one or two of those books even appearing in the best selling general fiction list.

At the top of the Regency list, it now takes about 50 sales a day to move upward in ranking from #7 to #6, but of course the higher the ranking, the more sales are needed, while at the lower end of the lists, just a few sales will move a book from 4,000's to 3,000's. Over all, this indicates to me that the volume of sales of Kindle books has more than doubled its pre-Christmas numbers, and possibly could be three times. In the most popular genres, it might be even higher. Several times I have noted a sudden jump in my number of sales, yet my overall ranking lowered, which tells me other genres were having even sharper volume sales increases.

I seem to do well overnight, and my ranking is often better in the morning than it is for the rest of the day. I suspect this reflects Asian and European sales. This balances with my web page stats which show I have a fairly large following in Asia and Europe. My ranking is usually higher if I first check my stats at 7 a.m. than if I don't get around to it till 10 a.m. But I also see a big jump in early evening, which may be after-work surges.

Although romance is doing very well in ebook sales, the top positions are still dominated by mainstream fiction and thrillers. Ficton that appeals to men appears more likely to be represented on the general fiction list than fiction that appeals mostly to women. However, in November I noticed there were no romances in the top 20 fiction ebooks, but now they are appearing in the top 10. I don't know if this was a fluke or not.

In romances, ebooks clearly dominate the top ten, with only a few paperback showing up. Classics such as Diana Gabaldon's and Ken Follett's books continue to be in extremely high demand and consistently show high in the best seller lists. Historical romance is not selling as well as Contemporary romance, although it sells very well.

I'm not in a position to tell you about other genres, other than these very limited observations. But I'll keep watching, just because I find it interesting.

Delle

Delle Jacobs http://dellejacobs.blogspot.com
LADY WICKED coming 2/25/2011 from The Wild Rose Press
Every proper lady ought to have a rake in her life.

Laptop!

2010-12-30T15:55:00.000-08:00

New laptop is here and it's gorgeous! However I am at the "I hate you I hate you" stage. Two hours to find out how to turn on the backlit keyboard- yes the info is there, but it's listed under a different model only, and you have to know that first without being told.

Why the #*!! can't manufacturers write simple, down to nitty gritty manuals anymore? Is it because men don't read manuals and they don't write manuals for women???

Now re-installing software and data. Photoshop is up- the brand new CS5 Extended, and I am salivating, just thinking about it, But must get back to my story which is nearly done. But I have to have the software installed first.

Computer Failure! New One Coming

2010-12-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

My NEW Dell Vostro 3500
in Lucerne RED!!!

Well, my trusty old Dell Vostro laptop finally gave out after four years. I could replace the motherboard, but the cost is about $175-$200 for the motherboard, assuming free labor. I've got my Baby, the MSI Wind U230 to tide me over, but while it's great for its intended purpose, coffee shop writing, it's hard on my eyes for other things. So it's time to move up.

Only Dell offers the anti-glare screen I must have in a wide variety of models. I also really want a backlit keyboard for durability and the visibility- important for my screwball eyes. But finding my right combo at a good price was hard. I'm having to downgrade on hard drive size, but I work off back-up drives a lot anyway. I could replace it with my new 500 gb drive from the defunct machine, but there's that pesky warranty problem. And, silly thing that I am sometimes, I am actually paying extra for RED. But you know how I love color.

If anyone I actually know who is close by wants a free motherboardless laptop, it's theirs. I loved this little workhorse and put a lot of money into upgrading and otherwise spoiling it so I'd love to see it get a new home. Possibly even talk son into doing an install for the nice person who will buy the motherboard. And no I will not guarantee anything. Not labor, not parts, not even whether this will continue to operate. It might not even be the motherboard that's at fault- could be the CPU or something else, even though it's most likely that. I'm simply not taking that responsibility.

I'll keep the new 500 gb hard drive as a backup drive, and re-install the original 120 gb, which had relatively little use. There's 4 gb of DDR2 memory, two batteries- a 9 cell in good shape and a 6 cell almost new. A new AC power cord and adapter, even a new keyboard and touchpad because I'm so hard on those. An anti-glare screen, of course. And Windows 7, recently installed, but I won't need. No Word, WordPerfect, Photoshop or that kind of stuff.

BLACK FRIDAY SALE!

2010-11-24T19:02:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Black Friday, the authors listed below agreed to participate by giving YOU, their fans, a great book to read for the Holiday Season. So act fast, this is a ONE DAY EVENT!!! Nov. 26, 2010
(HINT: Three of my four books are already available for 99 cents, and one should be soon. They will be at this price through the weekend, and longer if it looks like a good idea.)

Not all books have direct links to the books. Try the author website or Face Book page.

Participating authors:

Ashlynn Monroe
Blood and Bondage
Dark Miracle
Love Factory
Mirage
Or visit her website at http://ashlynnmonroe.com/
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000491733108

Barbara Ellen Brink
Entangled
Or visit her Blogspot http://barbarasthinline.blogspot.com/
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1441230489

Delle Jacobs
Fire Dance
His Majesty, the Prince of Toads
Loki's Daughters
The Mudlark
Or visit her website http://dellejacobs.com/
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/dellejacobs?v=info#!/dellejacobs?v=wall

Elizabeth Reyes
Forever Mine (The Moreno Brothers)
Or visit her Blogspot http://thebeginnings-elirey.blogspot.com/
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1810909588

Jamie Debree
Tempest
Or visit her website at http://jamiedebree.com/ or http://www.brazensnakebooks.com/
Face Book Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/NovelistJamieDeBree

Jax Cassidy
Devil's Heart
Or visit her website http://jaxcassidy.com/
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/#!/jaxcassidy

Jenna Anderson
Healing Touch
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/#!/JennaScribbles?v=info

Jodi Langston
Always
Nature of the Beast
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001589959287#!/profile.php?id=100000163137938

Valerie Maarten
Second Chances
The Gift of Joy
Or visit her website http://thewriteworld.webs.com/
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001589959287#!/profile.php?id=100001589959287

Also available on Smashwords.com and Barnesandnoble.com (Nook) and Lulu.com

Now let's go fill up that Kindle and other ereaders....HAPPY READING

MOCK COVER MONDAY! : The Wrong Mistress

2010-11-22T14:21:00.000-08:00

It's Mock Cover Monday again! This week: The Wrong Mistress.

Our beloved mythical author Alisse Davy has graciously agreed to do a Regency story, thus giving me opportunity to re-make Ruby With Chocolates (I'm still thinking of delicious stories to go with that one.)

Although a Regency heroine would never actually wear her hair down for a formal occasion, I didn't change it. That would involve re-painting her back as well as her hair, and although I could do that, I just didn't want to.

It got me to thinking, what woman would be wearing her hair down while in a formal evening dress, and still have a shawl draped over her shoulders? Perhaps a mistress? Have the pins just been pulled from her hair? There is no setting, so it could be in a house, an inn, even a private room of a ballroom. Perhaps on the terrace. How did she get there? What is going on between her and the unseen man?

I loved the authentic shawl which I stole from an 1815 fashion plate, by the way.

You might not like my title and have a better one you'd use. I see this as a Regency, but maybe you have other ideas. Play off what others have said, or write your own idea from scratch. Just invent a plot idea to go with this cover.

MOCK COVER MONDAY! Ruby With Chocolates

2010-11-15T12:43:00.000-08:00

It's Mock Cover Monday! Today's mock cover is Ruby With Chocolates. It's not a real book, just a fairly generic cover design that's sort of suggestive of different directions. How do you think the story ought to go? Is Ruby a person? Is a genuine ruby involved? What's with the chocolate? Okay, so we know what's with chocolate, but how would you make it part of the story?

Or would you re-title it and write a completely different story?

The only other thing for sure is, it's a romance.

Go for it!

NaNoWriMo and Me

2010-10-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

I'll probably finish this story

NaNoWriMo:
Na = National
No = Novel
Wri= Writing
Mo = Month

It happens every November. Multi-thousands of writers, pseudo-writers, hobby writers and never-before writers commit to concentrated effort to produce a 50,000 word novel entirely within the month. That's an average of 1,666.67words per day, or if you figure by page count at 250 words per page, 6.67 pages a day. Doesn't seem like much on the surface, but after the first few pages or week, your brain starts bogging down and it gets just plain hard. A pretty fair number of them succeed.

And whats the reward? You completed a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. You get a funny looking icon you can put on your website. And if you didn't resort to too much gibberish or pasting all your emails into the document, you do have something you might, with great effort be able to revise into a real novel.

In other words, bragging rights. And words on paper/screen.

Or maybe this one

The odd thing about it is, that's just exactly what most writers need now and then. It's kind of a crazy anonymous push in the behind that we pretend is real that gets us motivated. There's a whole world of people out there who thing writers just sit down and type and stories flow from them like water over Niagara Falls. They think we have it easy. We just sit there and type out our fantasies. In fact, somebody collected statistics once that showed 82% of the American adult population thinks they want to write a novel. And they believe they could do it better than most of the professional novelists out there. They just haven't had time yet.

Well, they can't. Unless they actually sit down and do what it takes. Those same stats show that of that 82%, less than 2% actually sit down and start a novel, in their entire lives. And of those, less than 1% complete it. Just imagine, then, how few of those go on to make writing novels a part-time or full-time career. Because writing a novel isn't a breeze. It's exceptionally hard work. And writing a good, sellable novel is even harder.

Most people do have great day dreams and fantasies. But those rarely make good novels because they lack dynamism. They're like strings of still photos, not the forward motion of action leading to consequence, evaluation leading to new action, etc. And the writing itself is something new writers think they can do, but often the clarity of their ideas doesn't make it from their brain to the paper. They see what's missing but the reader doesn't. These new writers are the apprentices, the interns, in a field where the journeymen and masters are still learning their craft, still exploring new challenges, still experience failure of their experiments throughout their careers. The process never stops.

This one's ready to start

What does this have to do with NaNoWriMo? NaNo is really set up for the amateur writer, so why would very experienced writers try to shoe-horn themselves into it? Well, like I said, it's hard, and often very discouraging. As one agent said, "In this field, rejection is the norm". An editor once told me she has piles of manuscripts sitting on her desk at any given time (now those piles are likely to be in her computer, but there are more of them), and she feels lucky if she finds even one manuscript with potential. She estimated she buys 1 in 600 that come across her desk. Those are really bad odds for writers. Often the stories we love the most are the ones we can't sell. We have winning streaks, then suddenly can't sell anything for years. Publishers stop buying exactly what we've just finished and mailed off to them the day it hits their desk. We have to be tough, and we are not. We're not supposed to take it all personally, but what is merely a paper manuscript to a publisher is our soul imprinted on paper. We're reduced to numbers, genres, and it's hard on us.

And follow with this one

But in November, beginning on the first day of the month, we shed some of that discouragement and aim for something different. Last year I started a story that I don't expect ever to sell. It's a story I want to write, that I don't think any editor will want to buy because it doesn't fit well anywhere. It's for me. Me alone. And taking the time to write it lifted my sagging spirits, as does aiming away from the publishing industry. Writing fast with not much care about quality can be very freeing. Write fast, clean up later. For me, that would be a bad habit if I did it regularly. But for NaNo, it perks me up, gets me excited again about creative writing.

Too bad there's no time for this one

Now, the truth: I break the rules. I don't start with a fresh new story on November 1. I'm often very deep into a story, possibly one that got stuck for some reason. I might work on more than one story, especially if I'm writing novellas which are only about 25,000 words long. Or, like last year, I might start, knowing I won't be able to finish for other reasons. And I don't write quite as freely because I don't like cleaning up messes. So I can't go as fast as some writers. But I figure what I'm doing is for me, so I see no reason why I can't make up my own rules. And if I reach the 50,000 words written fresh and new, I figure I won. And whatever I reach, I feel like a distance runner, exhausted but elated. And that's a whole different feeling that can carry me a long way through the next year when I have to face the tougher parts of this strange career.

So this year, in just a few more days, I will begin my own NaNoWriMo, doing it my way. I still haven't decided which book to finish- I could choose from two. Or I could pick one or two of my novellas that I have plotted out and pitch myself in that direction. And I will do my best to make my own goal of 1700-2000 words every day. I'll have dirty hair, unmade beds, lunch of cheese and crackers-- whatever it takes. I'll still feed the cats and kiss hubby, and get birthday presents off to all the November grandkids,all that stuff, sure. But mostly, I'll be a writing demon for 30 days of the year.

Part of me thinks it's too bad there's not more than one November in a year. The other part thinks, "Who are you kidding?"

A Most Unusual Man: Benoit Mandelbrot

2010-10-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

Fantasy cover using a fractal dragon

A most unusual man has died. Benoit Mandelbrot, age 85, a Polish immigrant who escaped Hitler's persecution, passed away of pancreatic cancer. You probably haven't heard of him unless you are very interested in advanced mathematics or geometry in nature. I wouldn't have known, myself, except that I had been wanting to post a blog about my fascination with fractals as art, and did a Google search to find a good definition. And there I saw the post that the man who had developed the concept had just died.

Fractal design from Czintos Odon
(umlauts on both O's in last name)

Mandelbrot did something that crossed the boundaries between art and science, bringing art to science and science to art. He discovered and explored the principle of fractals.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370951,00.asp

I don't begin to claim any more than a basic understanding of his concepts. I'm like most people who have a preliminary grasp of repeatable patterns in nature and art. That's all. But I have admired the concept, and seen it flourish in popular imagination and art. I've used the (royalty free) designs of others in my own designs because I find the symmetry fascinating. It's like snowflakes, or fern leaves. It's a new kind of geometry that can be used to analyze or portray complex shapes that were previously thought to be unmeasurable, or too complex to be described by Euclidian, or what most of us know as high school Geometry. As near as I can figure, that means finding regularity in shapes that appear to be random.

Czintos Ödön

A butterfly designed from fractal
segments, artist unknown

Mandelbrot is said to have began working on his concept when he studied the Coastline of England, which, the more closely you measure it, the more it grows in length. Now, that, I understand. How can a coastline be measured, anyway? At what time of day do you go to make your measurements? High tide? Low Tide? And how high would high tide have to be? The more detailed you make your measurements, in and out of crevices and crannies, the longer the distance will become. Even if you only measured a portion for one hour, that distance would have changed during that hour.And you can't go back the next day at the same time to continue your work because the tides change every day.

fractal spiral design, artist unknown

True fractals are built of tinier fractals, so that if you magnify them, you can see even the lines are made up of the same repeated form. Magnify even 2,000 times, and you'll see them, theoretically in infinite magnification.

That's too much for me. It's all an interesting conundrum, but I'd just as soon leave it as unexplainable, unmeasurable, for I'm not a mathematician. What I find fascinating is the effect this idea has had on computer-generated art. Fractal-building software can now take a complex shape and repeat it, repeatedly, in varying sizes, to make a whole that has the same shape. Or in patterns to make other shapes. Or even more variations, perhaps combining different fractal patterns. In my artwork, I have kind of cheated, because I use Photoshop warping to turn the image into what I want it to be, and the repeated shapes are no longer identical except for size. I put them with other pictures, I paint on them. I make them different. But they still fascinate me even when I alter them. They fit wonderfully with my kind of fantasy.

So Thank you, Benoit Mandelbrot. Perhaps in my simplicity I mis-understand your deep concepts, but thank you anyway, for being a scientist/mathematician who had an artistic vision that has enriched my life.

Turner: The Man Who Tried to Paint It All

2010-10-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today in the Pacific Northwest is one of those inexplicable days when the weather seems totally out of sync with the rest of the world. After a long, cool and wet "Green Tomato Summer" when the rest of the nation was broiling, today we have brilliant sunshine and bright skies, with an expected temperature of 70 degrees.

Indirectly, weather like this always makes me think if an extraordinary man of the 19th Century, a small man of great stature in my mind Joseph Mallord Wiliam Turner, known most to the world as J.M.W.Turner. I think of the strange,baffling weather experienced by Northern Europe and North America in the year 1816 which we now know was caused by the giant volcanic eruption of Mt. Tambora in the Indonesian area. Although the average temperatures lowered only 3 degrees, this was enough to create massive problems. Crops failed, snow fell in July, and even Niagara Falls froze over. And the skies around the world exhibited glorious sunsets. Nobody knew then what had caused the sudden changes, and they didn't seem to make any connection between the unusual skies and the weather changes.

While other people worried about more mundane and immediate problems, one man in particular saw the magnificent glory in the skies and set about to capture it all. Turner was already a promising artist in 1816, but he had not yet reached the peak of his fame. Like most artists of his day, he was concerned with recording the visual details of life and nature, for there really was no other way to pass them on but through art. And like most painters, he strove for exacting detail. He learned the techniques of the great masters. He hung his paintings in galleries, eagerly hoping for the adoration of the masses.

But the sunsets over Europe that year began a change in him that would send his career into new directions. He became enamored with the magnificent colors and patterns in the skies, and perhaps afraid they would not continue forever, he rushed to paint the sunsets all over Europe. He probably had ADHD, for he was an excitable, fast-paced, forever busy man, always sketching when he could not be painting, always wanting to capture everything he saw on canvas. And now he wanted most of all to capture the sunsets.

But how do you capture an ever-changing sunset? Clouds shift and colors change from blue to yellow, to gold, orange, red, purple and every shade in between, minute by minute. Even a rapid painter like Turner could not succeed. I think when I look at sunsets how I can simply pull out my point-and-shoot digital camera and record the memory with a click. No one in his era could do that. Turner couldn't stand that. He wanted to make that glorious moment stand still and be his forever.

For the next few years, while sunsets remained glorious, Turner streamlined his techniques and caught wonderful skies over castles, over oceans, over mountains and fields. And today we have an impressive array of his wonderful paintings.

If you follow the link above, you'll see a gallery of his many paintings on several pages, each one with a link. You might notice, too, that his style changes from the early carefully detailed Classical style, leaning toward the color splashes of the later Impressionists. And even though the brilliant sunsets faded, Turner did not forget them. The brilliant splash of light infected him for the rest of his painting life. He became more fascinated by the play of light than the detail of objects. His style became more diffuse, sometimes making the viewer wonder if his sight was fading. It was infectious. Other painters, suffering from the same malady of needing to make a moment in time stand still long enough to capture it on canvas, took up his techniques, painting faster and faster, letting their brushes stroke out the impression of the scene instead of its details. Impressionism, with its study of light play and form,was being born. And you can see its beginnings in the paintings of Turner's lifetime.

Turner was extraordinary in many ways. And I'll tell you someday how he was one of the first to use his own form of mass media to promote his work and sell it when other artists stuck to the old tried and true ways and starved. But most of all when I think of him, I think of the sunsets he saved for us, and how he tried to paint them all.

The BEST SELLER SAGA Continues!

2010-10-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

What a thrill yesterday to see my book FIRE DANCE at the very top of Amazon Best Selling Romances, and at #6 on All Genres of Amazon Books. THE MUDLARK, with very similar download numbers, was right behind it. Wow, a double!

Then MUDLARK vanished. I could from my reports that its numbers were still right up there, but where was it? After some digging around, I found it, back on the Free Reads list, except that it wasn't free!!?? And on its book page, it had no ranking numbers. Wah! A Best Seller and it's now not on ANY list? Well, I probably should have called someone right then, but I couldn't figure out who. This morning it was still broken. FD is still at the top, so I quickly printed the page in case I have to prove I'm not delusional or the world's biggest liar. But my poor, not free Mudlark had dropped to #18 on the Free Reads.

So I did a chat with an Amazon fixit-person. He tried but had to refer it to Kindle. No workee there. You have to either have problem with a Kindle or a problem with an order. There's no category for Lost In Space Best Sellers.

Then up pops an email from Amazon asking if the chat helped. Well, no.... but the guy was really super. So they asked to call me, and in exactly the specified five minutes, I got a call. Explained problem, and he empathized with my feelings of panic and promised to send Kindle folk to my aid right away. Still waiting, but hey, that was only ten minutes ago.

I couldn't resist telling him how authors feel that Amazon Kindle is turning the publishing world upside down. And I have to admit, although I don't like monopolies, I sure do like the way Amazon has handled all my problems. I'l let you now when my lovely Mudlark gets to sing again.

AMAZON BEST SELLER!

2010-10-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

#24 on Amazon Top 100
Best Seller Regency Romance

Amazon Best Seller. Wow, I love saying that. And it sneaked up on me from behind, and as my friend Trish Morey in Australia would say, gobsmacked me.

HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS, a re-published e-book, which I admit was very popular in its first round of publication with Awe-Struck E-Books, is suddenly on Amazon's 100 Top Regency Best Seller list.

But wait! Not just one book! THE MUDLARK and FIRE DANCE are dancing right along, with LOKI'S DAUGHTERS looming right behind them. What the heck happened? Kind of funny, really, so being one to laugh at myself frequently, I thought I'd let you laugh with me. Especially considering it's still going on, and I haven't been suddenly kicked back to the gutter.lers. That's all Regencies, not just Kindle e-books. Wow. Best Seller. Right up there with the big guys.

#1 Kindle Regency Free Read
#2 Amazon Best Selling Romances
Historical Romance Free Read

I went off to the Emerald City Writers Conference this weekend, as usual having a wonderful time, since this is one of the best regional writers' conferences anywhere, and I know so many of the people there. But if you know me, you're probably not surprised that my stamina failed me early Friday night. Happens all the time. So I headed off to my room, and quickly reached the pj stage, where I check my stats before crashing. Pulled out my beloved MSI Wind baby laptop and pulled up my Kindle report.

First day of the month. I'm expecting single digits because my sales always seem to look better later in the month. Two look normal, if a little high. The other two look like historical dates. Come on, there's no way self-published e-books would sell 1933 and 1840 copies in one day. You know my eyes, which are complete screwballs as much as they are eyeballs. I never believe what they think they see. If I tell anybody, they'll think I'm lying. Or that I'm nuts, or maybe lost in LaLaLand. About half dressed, I rundown the hall (and am fortunate to have a room on the same floor as the main activities because running is also not something I do well anymore, and find my roommate, Sarah Rapslee. Poor Sarah almost has to carry me back. And carrying people is not Sarah's best sport. And now the numbers look like futuristic dates. And Sarah's sitting there watching the numbers climb, cheerily announcing each incrementic jump.

#1 Amazon Best Selling Romances
#3 Kindle all genres

What we soon discovered- what my eyes actually did not spot, but friend Marianne Nicoletto Strnad did, was that Kindle had put the two books up as Free Reads. Oh, well, I figured no money in that, but free reads are great promo. That was why I'd priced them so low in the first place. And there it was. The higher the numbers went on those two, he more sales I was seeing on the other two. The Free Reads were drawing attention to my other two books, and those sales were jumping into the best seller lists for both Kindle e-books and Amazon Books, which was throwing them into direct competition with print books.

I'm sure I was unbearable for some people. Saw a bit of eye-rolling, but most people caught on that this was not some silly e-book author (okay, so they were right on that first part) ecstatic over selling one or two books. These are Amazon Best Seller lists. That's the big time for any book. My sales numbers are right up there with the top Regency authors.

So yes, I'm still sort of sorry that yes, I'm still unbearable. For those people who still say they will never read an e-book because they aren't any good, I have to say I understand. I love my "real" books too, and I completely sympathize. With both of you.

THE SKELETON WOMAN A Dutch Folk Tale Retold by Susanna Ives

2010-09-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Susanna Ives has just debuted at Carina Press with her release of RAKES & RADISHES, a delightful and humorous Regency romance I first experienced as a contest judge. I'm so happy to see it come out. So I thought I'd hunt up this marvelous tale Susanna re-interpreted for me after her trip to the Netherlands in 2009.

And if you want to check out here book, here's where to get it:
http://ebooks.carinapress.com/86260A16-243A-49E5-849F-0E5A0D842BFB/10/134/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID={61D50A99-24CC-4154-9330-794A12CD98D9}

Susanna's website.

http://www.susannaives.com/ and http://susannaives.com/wordpress/

The Skeleton Woman

I love the symbolism of water.

For a time during my childhood, I lived in my grandfather’s old, yellow, Victorian house nestled amid the pink and white lantana. A great curiosity to my young mind was the well just outside our back screen door. I don’t know the history of the well; perhaps it was dug when the old house had only two rooms. By the time I came along, a protective concrete slab covered the opening. A hole, about three inches in diameter, had been cut into the concrete. I would throw limestone rocks down the hole and waited for them to splash the water deep, deep below.

Now I as write from Maastricht, Netherlands, the Jeker River winds like a grapevine through the old stone buildings and stone fortifications, eventually disappearing under the city into the network of dark silent channels leading to the Maas River.

When Delle asked me frame to my journey to the Netherlands in terms of the hero’s journey, I immediately thought of Joseph Campbell’s work. Yet, most of Campbell’s heroes sojourn into the unknown. In my case, my journey was a return. A rebirth. My imagination kept circling back to the hero from a folktale entitled the “Skeleton Woman” recounted in Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It’s a myth of a fisherman hero, who finds a horrifying treasure under the waters, and a heroine reborn. So, I have adapted the tale and reset it in Maastricht. Hopefully, you will enjoy it, but be aware — it is a little weird (or “freaky” as my husband describes it). After all, we’re is the realm of myth and folklore, so one learns to expect swan princesses in the sky and tiny mermaids under the water.

…………………….

A long time ago—no one remembers exactly when—a woman was thrown into the Maas River and drowned. She drifted to the river’s bottom, and over time, the fish nibbled her flesh away until she was just a skeleton. You may know this woman—day after day spent grocery shopping, folding laundry, scanning the lines of a spreadsheet, sitting before her computer pushing pixels about a screen—until one day she became this hollowed out skeleton, just as sure as the fish ate her skin. All her creativity nibbled away in everyday living. For years, she drifted about the river’s floor, a forgotten, tangled skeleton amid hundreds of years of refuse: Roman beads, medieval vessels, the rusted remains of shrapnel.

Now comes our Dutch hero, a mere fisherman, dipping his pole into the Maas for gifts from below. Food to appease his hunger. In Jungian terms, he is playing with some powerful stuff on his small boat afloat on the water, poking the surface of the subconscious. How often the romance novel begins with the hero who thinks he is perfectly content in his small, controlled world. Such heroes should know better than to fish!

Of course, his fishing line catches onto the ribs of the old skeleton. Our fisherman, thinking he has gotten something big—the mighty Hemingway of fish—excitedly reels his catch in. From the water rises an old, hideous skeleton, decorated with slimy weeds, old bicycle parts, beer bottles, and other urban debris.

He cries out, horrified at the atrocity hanging from his line. He drops his pole and slams down the boat’s throttle, desperate to flee all he has seen. But the fishing line is caught on his person, so the poor skeleton rides behind, bouncing in the rough water of the speeding boat’s wake. The fisherman drives his boat to the shore, leaps onto land, and runs away.

But the skeleton, still connected to him, is dragged along. Her bones rattle on the old cobblestone. It has been so long since she has been above water. She has forgotten the dense air scented with rain, faint diesel fumes, and flowers. Or the narrow streets lined with ateliers selling modern paintings with lush, vivid colors and flowing lines.

By the Turkish grocer, her skeleton hand reaches out and grabs a handful of the salty, mild-tasting olives from Turkey. Oh, to taste something different than the foul, polluted river waters! Further down the street, a chocolatier has put out candied orange peels covered in bitter dark chocolate. Like a greedy thief, she takes a handful of these, too.

Now, she clings to the terrified fisherman, so afraid to be thrown in the sea again. Afraid her senses will again be dulled by years of drifting, floating about in darkness and silence.

The fisherman runs to his small flat above the restaurant where the tables have been scattered onto the small square. He scrambles upstairs, then slams his door shut, thinking he has outrun the monster. But down at his feet, her bones are wrapped tight about his ankles. He kicks the skeleton to the corner and begins to pace the room, his hand pressed to his mouth. She can hear his fearful heart beats echoing against the high, white plaster walls. Finally, he tosses up his hands, mutters a curse, and walks away.

The skeleton is alone.

From her dark eye sockets, she studies the room. Flowers spill over the edges of a glass vase set on the low table before the Danish-style flat leather sofa. Beyond the thick-glassed, arched windows, she can see the roofs and chimneys of Maastricht sprouting up at odd angles, like weeds fighting for the space in the sun. Above the narrow, dormant coal fireplace, a nude female dances on a canvass of swirling splatters of red and gold paint. The skeleton once had round, fat breasts and curving hips. Clad in silk, feathers, beads, and jewels, she had danced in the street during Carnival, swinging her hips in sensual swirling motions.

The fisherman clangs about in the kitchen. Soon the high whistle of steaming hot water fills the flat. He returns, sits down on a sofa, looks at the skeleton, and runs his hand through his hair. He is tall—the Dutch are the tallest people in the world—but his dark hair curls are brushed back from his face and fall about his shoulders like the Italian men. From his teacup, steam rises. She can smell the sweet Rooibos and vanilla. The skeleton is so thirsty; she could gulp down the tea in one swallow, but she dare not move.

The fisherman studies her sad, mangled bones heaped in the corner. A compassionate light warms his eyes, the fear receding. “You are just a poor skeleton,” he whispers. He sets down his cup, crawls on his knees to the skeleton. Slowly he untangles her old bones. His hands are large, but as precise as a painter’s. He hums as he pulls her legs from where they had become tangled about her shoulders, straightens her spine, and kindly sets her head upright.

When he is done, he opens the window and fills the room with the warm, summer breeze, rich with the staccato of Dutch conversation amongst friends, the lulling rolling sounds of Massnet’s Meditation, and the fragrance of wine and flowers. He sits on his sofa and begins to read. The skeleton watches the concentration of his eyes, the crinkle in his brow, and the unthinking motion of brushing his hair from his eyes. For hours she does nothing but watch; she wonders what words light up his mind, wishing they could fill her mind too.

A little before midnight, the fisherman falls asleep on his sofa, the book falling from his fingers. The skeleton crawls forward, careful not to let her bones clank. So thirsty. She sips the last of his tea, now cold to her growing lips. The aroma of African leaves and vanilla fills the small nose forming on her face.

She looks at his creased face, troubled in his dreams. A tear slides from his eye. Still so thirsty, she drinks the tear. It fills her skeletal frame like pitchers and pitchers of pure water.

The fisherman shivers in his sleep. She carefully touches his face with her bony hand, wanting to comfort him as he had comforted her. Warm skin blossoms like opening flower petals on her fingertips, down her hand, her arm, and over her body. She feels him quiver under her fingers. Was he cold? Were there other monsters in his dreams? She slides beside him and presses herself against him until she can feel his heart beating beneath her fat breasts. His arms circle her body as if by memory, knowing the sloping concave of her waist, the tender place between her shoulder blades. His eyes, still drowsy with sleep, open and gaze at her. She sees her face reflected on the gray surface of his eyes. She is smiling. He cups her chin in his hands and brings his mouth to hers. His warm breath fills her lungs, making her alive with art, words, world, being.

The Most Important Book You'll Ever Write

2010-09-11T21:28:00.001-07:00

Then, Now and Forever-
One Book Leads to Another

I'm not going to show you my most important book. You've never heard of it. There is one editor who has, and he's actually still around as an editor, but I'm not going to name him. I'm hoping, you see, that he doesn't remember he ever saw it.

It was called A TIGER PURRING (isn't that clever? I certainly thought so at the time.) The time was 1993 and this was the first full-length novel I actually finished. I'd always given up before. I was such a lousy typist, you see, and all I had was a portable typewriter with a broken "e" key. Imagine typing even a sentence without an "e". Unfortunately even the repair guy gave up trying to fix it. And I had another life as a working single parent making barely enough money to keep us in a roof and clothes. It took so long to get even a short story typed that didn't look like a chicken had used the page for its dirty work that I just couldn't justify it.

Then in 1993, my son built me a computer. We had them at work, but shared in groups of eight people, and two guys in our unit wouldn't get out of the chair long enough to let the rest of us learn. I was fascinated with them, yet kind of terrified too. My son responded to my gratitude by saying, "This is so you'll leave mine alone." Well, all right, I was sort of getting attached to his.

So I started plotting my story. Had a great plan. The first three chapters went very smoothly. Then the plot started drifting because there were, well, a few things I hadn't thought of in the beginning, and I could already tell I was going to have to go back and change some things. I had the sense to at least make notes of those and keep on going.

About halfway through, I was convinced my mind was dissolving. I had all kinds of threads going, and my story was not all that complex. I'd lose one thread while working on another. A different one would suddenly become impossible. The tangle grew and grew, and I was close to panicking. But I couldn't quit. I kept untangling knots, re-working, and even completely re-writing some parts. And the plot shifted in a completely different direction. I researched more, found a new angle, wrote, wrote, and wrote, and my hero and heroine grew. In the middle of it all, new story ideas started popping into my head, demanding to be written. Afraid to let go of the current story, I jotted down the ideas and rushed back to find out why a Tiger would be Purring. Never mind that no tiger was ever mentioned in the book.

Finally I reached The End. And I knew it wasn't the end after all, but I was sure a second draft would take care of that. Proudly, I revised, twice even, and hey, you know, it looked pretty good. I sent it off to the unnamed editor, who I'd had the audacity to tell in my first editor interview, "I'm Delle Jacobs and I've never done anything like this before in my entire life."

Well, I found out it wasn't pretty good. Not horrible, but certainly not publishable, and the editor kindly pointed out that although it was shot through with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, he did see some real talent emerging. I re-read. He was right. And even more, I could tell the story was not salvageable as commercial fiction. It's still on my hard drive because I had the sense to convert it from my primitive word processing program to Word Perfect.

(By the way, one scene, re-written, did find a home in one of my best loved Regency Historicals, HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS, and most recently all that research I'd done on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia worked its way into my historical romantic sea fantasy SIREN, which is about to go out for submission next week.)

But I told you, this, my worst, most inexperienced, most primitive piece of fiction, is the most important book I've ever written. You must be wondering if I keep my marbles in a bag with a hole in the bottom. Maybe, but I'm right about this assertion. Here's why.

To begin with, the process of putting together something as complex and inter-woven as a full length novel re-wired my brain. I'd always been a multi-tasker, but something about going through this process gave me a new dimension. I'd learned something I might call Threading, a sort of process in which multiple linear lines can weave in and out of each other, always contributing to the whole. This was the point at which I became an author. Because my mind had become different. I thought and organized my thoughts in a wholly new way for me.

What I didn't know until later is, this is exactly what happens physiologically with drug addiction. The neurons get re-routed in the brain. No doubt, yes, I had also become addicted to the entire process. It was also true that every time I wrote a book, I went through the same physiological process a reader experiences, but on a more intense, more complex level, over a much longer time span.

That rather awful book was even more important in other ways. From its roots and the knowledge gained in writing it sprang the next book, and the next, and next. The creative process spawned more creative thought, new ideas for new books. The first book showed me how to organize a novel. Because it was imperfect, I learned the things I needed to know to make the next book perfect (so I thought). I researched for more accuracy and better writing skills. Each new book presented a new challenge, something I had to learn or overcome, or something new I didn't know if I could do.

That's all still true. The chain of books goes on. And none since the first one could have been written if I hadn't done the first one. It may dwell forever in Dust Bunny Heaven, but it will always be the most important book I'll ever write.

You can't have a best seller without first writing a book. And all best sellers began when the author sat down to write his first book.

The Queen's Court

2010-09-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here's something I received today from a person who is very dear to me. We were sharing with some friends our sadness over the shallowness of friendships we had mistaken for something of depth, and learning we were not alone in our loss and grief. She sent me this comment on her own pain, and I thought it sadly beautiful, and wise.

"Sometimes I stumble through the vast twisted forest of shoulds. I should make a bridge. I should fix this fence. As if relationships are sacred. Some just aren't. While I could take full responsibility for failing to tolerate abuse and that might permit me back into the Queen's Court, I know not to expect accountability from the Queen and I know the abuse will continue.

"What I cannot do is find the right words to convince the Queen that our values are equal, that I deserve to be treated with respect, that her "Off with her head!" method of relating might just be WRONG. So I stumble out, back into the harsh light of reality.

"I know the Queen has some amazing qualities. I know she has admirable traits. I know her existence has great value to me. However, I am powerless to change how she treats me and I have two choices, be her footstool or be separate from her. So this relationship remains sacred in a new way. I wish her well. I wish her happiness. I wish her love. I wish the same for me. We are bonded forever in my heart, but that is where the relationship begins and ends."

The Double Life of a Confederate Soldier

2010-08-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Martin Braxton,
Confederate or Union Soldier?

I've been dabbling a bit in genealogy lately, trying to solve some of the puzzling stories about my family history, and instead I've come up with even more puzzles. Along the way, I re-connected with my cousin Della, and then discovered another more distant cousin Della. So now the three of us dream of meeting in Southern Mississippi-Alabama to research together, with me introducing us: "Hi, I'm Delle, and this is my cousin Della, and this is my other cousin Della."

But that's just an aside. I really want to tell you about our mutual puzzling ancestor, Benjamin Braxton, a man who appears to have led two lives and gotten away with it.

Years ago I overheard a relative tell my mom and grandmom a story about an ancestor , a Confederate Army officer with a wife and child, who had disappeared in the war and was presumed dead. Years later his son had found his father living in Florida with a wife and several children, but when confronted, the man denied having any family in Alabama. After the "son" returned home, his mother said to just let it go because there were children involved. I remember the woman showing them pictures, but I was sort of on the sidelines and didn't get to see them.

Martha Lambert, Ben's "real" wife

The two Dellas and I all confessed confusion over this man because we had so little information on him. Was the story true, or a family myth? Did he have two wives or one? At the same time? Was there a divorce? Was my great grandmother really his daughter, since she wasn't listed on any of the census records of his family? And was he Confederate or Union, because there were stories connecting to both. And most of all, if he was a bigamist, what was he thinking?

Della Y came up with some pictures and information that said he was a Confederate private, along with two of his brothers, as well as a photo of Benjamin in CSA uniform. Della N found our great-grandmother's death certificate that confirmed she had gone by the maiden name Braxton (that, too, had been in question). But she had also used the last name Lambert at one time.

Then I read something about a Union fort, Fort Barrancas, near Pensacola. I hadn't realized that parts of Florida had remained strong in Union sympathies. So I checked Union Army records on the internet. Also looked up Fort Barrancas and Fort Pensacola. There I found Benjamin and his two brothers, complete with a physical description. But they had all joined the 1st Cavalry of Fort Pensacola on the same day, surprisingly late in the war, December 31, 1863.

Margaret Lambert Braxton
Norton, my g-g-grandmother

Benjamin Braxton, at 5'8", was the middle brother, and also in between in height, between his 5' 10" older brother and 5'4" younger one. He was dark skinned, black hair and brown eyes, where the two brothers were fair skinned, one with dark hair and yes and one a blue-eyed blond. Their parents had lived in Alabama but moved to that very wild Florida Peninsula area around 1851 when they received a land grant, when Ben was around 10-11 years old. On the map, the distance is barely 15-20 miles from Geneva, Alabama, where Mary Crowder lived, so some connection with the area would be within reason. On the Florida census rolls, Ben and his wife Martha Lambert Braxton married in 1866 and didn't have children till 1867.

But supposedly he married, using the name John William Braxton, in 1861 to Mary Crowder, and a son was born within a year, before Ben went off to war. Suspicious, huh? And another question formed. Was my g-grannie, born in 1866, illegitimate, possibly raised by her maternal grandparents, the Lamberts, perhaps? She used that name too, and apparently had come from Florida, but I don't know where. Was she Martha's child, or Mary's? Or maybe some other woman's?

Mary Crowder, Ben's supposed first wife

And the instant I saw his photo, I was confronted with yet another puzzle. My instant thought was, This man is Cherokee. He just plain looked Cherokee to me. I had been looking for a Native American ancestor, but he was my great-great-great grandfather, a Choctaw named Mihatima (real spelling and White Man's Name unknown). Benjamin's parents originated in Cherokee country, not Choctaw country, so it wouldn't be surprising if he were Cherokee, and Della Y says people often comment that she looks Native American. She bears a strong resemblance to Benjamin, and also his wife Martha who has that same high cheekboned flat face. Choctaws tend to have a more rounded face, like my grandmother, who was the last member of my family to be a member of the Mississippi Choctaw Nation. So why, if the family admits to an older Choctaw connection, wouldn't there be any mention of a newer Cherokee connection? Then again, maybe he wasn't Cherokee, or Native American at all.

We will probably never have all the pieces. But we did find a piece of Florida history that is very eye-opening. It seems Ben and his brothers were Confederate deserters. But they weren't the only ones. An entire group of North Florida residents deserted around the same time. Dale Cox, http://civilwarflorida.blogspot.com/2009/04/1st-and-2nd-cavalries-union-soldiers.html
a very thorough researcher of Florida during the Civil War, presented an enlightening blog on the development of the 1st Cavalry at the Union Fort at Pensacola.

Settlement was pretty new there, and the people were quite independent, mostly subsistence farmers. In 1863 the Confederate general in charge of supply had over-reached his bounds in Florida and had stripped local farms bare, leaving families to starve. The soldiers from that area had mostly been conscripted, including Ben and his brothers. With the newly established Union Fort Barrancas at Pensacola being so close, a system developed to guide deserting Southern soldiers through the swamps to the fort. Ben and his brothers are known to have escaped, supposedly one captured, but he must have got away again because all three signed on to the fort's rosters together. The Union didn't know quite what to do with all these men, but ended up with the brand new 1st Cavalry of Pensacola, which officially was in business on the last day of 1863. A fourth brother joined them in 1864.

So Ben really was in two opposing armies. But his reason for deserting now appears much stronger. He didn't have children then, and hadn't married his official wife yet, but he had strong relationships with his family of origin. And he seemed to be in the same situation as a lot of others who lived in his area.

Ben's Pension - which wife got it?

But had he been married to an Alabama woman in the early 1860s and produced a child? We don't know. Perhaps that child was really illegitimate. He isn't on any census records we've found with the supposed first wife, Mary, and child, John William Braxton. We can't find any marriage records. And Mary claimed at one time to be widowed and another to be divorced. But that sort of thing isn't unusual in old census and other records. Further, after Ben died, she tried to claim his Union Army pension. We don't think she succeeded, but can't find that info either. Where was Ben between 1861 and 1863? Did he really use an alias of John William Braxton, as Mary claimed? Was Ben sneaky? Was Mary hornswoggled? Was Ben just a jerk? Or maligned? Or do we simply not know the real story?

But the big question still looms: What was that man thinking? If you've got any ideas, the Della-Della-Delles would sure like to know.

Paty Jager: Blog Tour Stop #5

2010-08-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

Paty Jager is my guest today, telling us all about her exciting new book, SPIRIT OF THE MOUNTAIN. She has an interesting puzzle and contest, which she's mentioned beneath her excerpt. Be sure to check it out. She's doing a bit of journeying today, but be sure to leave a comment and she'll get back to you.

Delle, Thank you for having me here today to talk about Spirit of the Mountain, a historical paranormal releasing this Friday the 13th!

This is the first book of a trilogy set among the Nez Perce of the Wallowa Valley in NE Oregon. I have sibling spirits and each one has their own story and how they fall in love with a mortal. I kept the day to day life of the Nimiipuu factual and inserted all the fun spirit stuff, which is only a figment of my imagination. While the Nez Perce did believe in spirits and the Creator, I have made up my own sense of how the Creator and the spirits in my books influenced the band and my characters.

Nez Perce were animists; They believed that everything in creation- animals, birds, fish, rocks, trees, stars, plants and all natural phenomena- had spirits or a supernatural side that appeared to humans in visions and could influence them for good or harm. I took this notion and brought good and bad spirits to life in my book. With this ingrained belief in their society it was easy to make my heroine believe in the hero when she sees him for the first time as a man and realizes he is the wolf she has been talking to about her fears.

Blurb for Spirit of the Mountain
Wren, the daughter of a Nimiipuu chief, has been fated to save her people ever since her vision quest. When a warrior from the enemy Blackleg tribe asks for her hand in marriage to bring peace between the tribes, her world is torn apart.

Himiin is the spirit of the mountain, custodian to all creatures including the Nimiipuu. As a white wolf he listens to Wren’s secret fears and loses his heart to the mortal maiden. Respecting her people’s beliefs, he cannot prevent her leaving the mountain with the Blackleg warrior.

When an evil spirit threatens Wren’s life, Himiin must leave the mountain to save her. But to leave the mountain means he’ll turn to smoke…

Excerpt
She knew not of this man. He was not from any of the Nimiipuu tribes. He would not have gone unnoticed. She had heard stories of a band with flaxen hair who lived before the coming of the horse in the area far beyond the River of Many Bends.
Could he be of that band? If so, why was he here, on this mountain?
“Come, Wren,” he bid in a deep, soothing voice.
She started forward at his command then stopped. How did he know her name?
Wren moved a foot backward to step into the trees and run if necessary. “How do you know me?”
“Your friend called you that.” His gaze never left her face. She stared into his eyes, recognition flashed, warming her to her toes.
His presence didn’t threaten her. It puzzled her. Why did he stand in the clearing where she met the wolf? She took a step forward.
“You are called?”
“Himiin,” he said with a slight tip of his head.
Wolf. She stared in disbelief. Was he the wolf?
She gazed into his eyes. The recognition she saw within the depths set her heart racing. How could he be? It was not possible.
“You have received bad news?” His light blue eyes turned a deep blue, showing her he was the wolf she sought.
But how could this be?
She took a step back, unsure of this man and the turmoil within. Her mind grasped at all the tales told by the elders around the winter campfires.
Many stories told of shape shifters and how they showed themselves to only a few. Could her wolf be a shape shifter? If so, could this be a sign about her future? Her heart thudded in her chest. If he truly was the wolf, he knew everything about her, and she knew nothing of him.
“How do you come to be both man and wolf?” Her father always told her she asked too many questions, but this seemed a very good time to ask many.
“I am the spirit of the mountain.” He shrugged.
“The creator has given me the ability to take many forms.”
“How is it you have come to me?” She took a step forward. The warmth of his voice and unguarded stance drew her.

Fifth Puzzle Piece

“You came to me. I merely tended my wounds, when you came upon me.”
She gulped in air and choked.
He was truly the wolf.

This is the fifth day of my six day blog tour that includes a puzzle and a prize. Copy the puzzle piece in this post to a document and collect all the pieces at the blogs I visit. Then when you have them all, send them to me at patyjag@gmail.com and I'll put your name in the drawing for a copy of Spirit of the Mountain and other goodies. I'll draw the name and post it on my blog on Monday, August 16th. If you want to go back and check out all the blogs to join the contest, hop over to my blog and find the places I've been. http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com

If you'd like to read more about me and my books or enter my website contest go to: http://www.patyjager.net

Delle, Thanks for having me!

Paty

Blog Tour Contest Winner!

2010-08-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well, life does have a way of side-swiping, doesn't it? I feel like I've been on the losing side of a 100 to 1 snowball fight. But things are doing better and I'm catching up.

Brandlwyne # 6997
The winner of the glass necklace and ebook from 1Romance Ebooks! Fortunately for me this time, I actually have her contact information so I don't have to go hunting for it.

And for the others who posted comments on the blog, I will arrange a 50% gift coupon for any of my books on 1Romance EBooks. I am right now setting up my contact page again in such a way that the spam monsters can't find either you or me, and all you'll have to do is send me contact info through that.

Change in Blog Stop #31!

2010-07-30T07:14:00.000-07:00

Blog Tourists: There's been a change in the next blog stop, #31. I couldn't get online to change my post or inform anyone, so I apologize for not getting the new URL posted, Here it is Author Raine Delight:
http://rainedelightbooknook.blogspot.com/2010/07/happy-anniversary-1romancecom.html

More later. moving on to the condo and joining visiting family. Happy Blog Tour, everyone!

Delle

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO 1ROMANCEEBOOKS.COM!

2010-07-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO 1ROMANCEEBOOKS.COM!
(INTRODUCTION TO BLOG, INCLUDING LINK TO PREVIOUS BLOG) Thank you for my stop on the 1RomanceEbooks.com one year anniversary blog tour!

This is blog stop # 30, following #29, J.M. Snyder, URL: http://jmsnyder.com/
The link to the next stop will be found at the end of this post.

While this is not exactly the trip from Hell, it does have some of those characteristics. The Swan is a lovely hotel, but the room is problematic. Little things: We asked for a cot, and after many hours had a rollaway delivered when we were at dinner. But I am not very good as sleeping vertically, so I did request that somebody come back and place the bed parallel to the floor. Other little details along the same vein, yet the place is pleasant and nice at the same time. Naturally a personal family crisis had to hit at the same time and getting back home early doesn't seem to be a workable option. On the bright side, the scary part of that has passed, and friends are stepping in to help out.

I'm actually writing this Tuesday night, in case I can't Wednesday night. Tomorrow I'll be meeting with about a hundred other authors who write Regency-set romances, with workshops aimed at historical information, improving writing skills, market and sales, and so on. And food. The food is spectacular. Tomorrow night, we'll have a "soiree" with a lot of us coming in Regency costume and performing real English country dances. Regency style gaming. And food. More great food.

What I'm going to try to do tomorrow is take several photos and then just add them to what I've writter here. rather than try to re-write in the middle of the night when I finally get back to my room. But the very fact that I will be too exhausted to write anything more should tell you what I great time I'm having!

As a prize I'm giving away 2 things: a copy of winner's choice of any of my ebooks on 1RE- including the award-winner I'm going to put up after I get back home, HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS. In addition, there will be a beautiful hand-blown glass necklace. And maybe, just for a whim, I'll add a little souvenir from Harry Potter-land or Disney World Depending on what I find.

Please leave a comment to enter the drawing to win! Maybe a question about Disney World or something about writer's conferences or this special interest one which will be the day before the huge Romance Writers of America conference starts. In my spare time. I'll try to answer.

Yah, sure, you say. Okay, just post your comments, then., and maybe you'll win the Grand Prize, the fabulous Sony Touch EReader. Remember: the more comments you leave on the tour, the better your chances of winning the grand prize.
***
The next stop on the anniversary tour is #31, Claire Thompson, URL: http://clairethompsonauthor.blogspot.com/

UNVEILING THE SECRETS OF THE CAPTCHA Part 3

2010-07-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

Like me, you no doubt have puzzled many times over the meanings of those strange Captcha words you have to re-type before posting comments on blogs. You know- the ones that look so much like words, yet aren't any words you've ever seen before? It's one of my lifelong ambitions to unravel these riddles, so I have been collecting them and piece by painstaking piece uncovering their true meanings. Alas, I fear the task is never-ending: more of them appear every day. But here are some of them I've managed to decipher:

Lumanoc: n. Singular of a wild ox that comes out only by the light of a full moon. Grows long fangs to replace its ruminant teeth. Feeds on werewolves.

Whors: n. an archaic spelling for a long legged quadraped that munches grass. (Surprise! You thought it was something else, didn't you?)

Redigrab: n. First conceived in a laboratory with the intention of producing a viable competitor to Cling Wrap, Redigrab was discovered to have such gripping power it was found to be most useful to law enforcement for detaining criminals instead of handcuffs. Unfortunately it had the same effect on the arresting officers, while those of the criminal persuasion quickly learned the only antidote was peanut butter. Therefore, by slathering their wrists with peanut butter in preparation for the commission of a crime, the criminals pre-disposed themselves to escape, leaving their would-be captors bound instead. Hence, Redigrab has been outlawed in all civilized countries and is now used only in Somalia, where nobody knows who's in charge anyway.

Icksatly: adv. Pig Latin corruption of sickly. Sometimes mistaken for NASA-Speak referring to a malfunctioning Mars satellite.

Prorn: n. Clearly, this is text-speak for professional porn.

Bustsos-- uhhhh..... Several implications for this word have been uncovered but all have turned out to be false leads, and its true meaning continues to elude me. If anyone has seen this word used in an appropriate fashion or has knowledge of its roots, it is imperative that you report it to the proper authority (me) immediately.

Leervows: v. That's when one of those really tiny passenger jets promises to get you off the ground and even safely back to earth. Really. Honest. Fixed that hole in the fuel tank. Put a really stout Band-Aid on the one back by the tail section. It'll be perfectly safe. No need to report it to the FAA.

Pedrapid: n. A pedophile on foot after his 1978 Plymouth ran out of gas in the desert. A condition that happens all too rarely.

Depical: n. A putrid pink medicine you take by the spoonful to cure bouts of depis, a skin disease with hiccups and spells of ADD. Don't believe me? Watch my grandsons.

Terrific Blog Tour!

2010-07-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to 1Romance EBooks! They're celebrating with a fabulous Blog Tour from July 15 to 31, over 30 authors, up to 2 a day, participating! GRAND PRIZE is a Sony reader TOUCH edition, selected by drawing from all participating and REGISTERED readers who comment. Every comment during the tour earns another chance for the reader, so you have lots of opportunities to win. Every author is giving out a prize too, so that's 34 more chances to win a prize. http://1romanceebooks.com

My day is July 29th, when I'll be in Orlando at RWA and the Beau Monde conferences, so I'll share my experiences with you. And I'll be giving away the winner's choice of an ebook from 1Romance EBooks, plus a beautiful hand-poured glass pendant necklace.

You MUST register at 1Romance EBooks before any of your comments will count, so get busy and sign up. It's free, and you'll get a chance to get to know a bunch of authors, all who write romance. You can earn more points, too. Just go to their site and read the rules. And have a great time touring with us!

Randy Ingermanson on the Future of Publishing

2010-07-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

I just read this article from Randy Ingermanson's blog called The Future of Publishing. If you are interested in publishing and what your future is in the big flow of the mighty rivers within it, read this article. It's extremely insightful. http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/blog/2010/07/07/the-future-of-publishing/

It's long and very detailed, 9 specific predictions, looking at the broad expanse of publishing and how it will change. I'm inclined to agree, although I don't see anything in this article about how Amazon and other e-distributors will fit in. I think those things, which will ultimately determine the income of published authors, are in great flux right now, so certainly I would be reluctant to make such a prediction.

I'm guessing anyway, though. Apple's iPad is making a huge play for the ebook market. Sony, Barnes & Noble and many small distributors are also diving into the melee. Amazon's Kindle intends to own the whole show. But now Google is headed toward the skirmish pile. Then there are all the small ebook publishers. Will they be squeezed out by self-publishing in e-form? Well, I think the strong and innovative will stay strong. The weaker, poorly organized companies will miss too many opportunities. And in the end- or perhaps only the immediate end- Amazon will not rule the world after all. Sorry, Amazon. To use a parallel in nature: The mighty Amazon River flows into an ocean- the Atlantic Ocean. And the ocean is bigger.

Retro-Geek Triumphs Again!

2010-07-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

I am discovering more and more every day about using The New Blogger as a website. Except that I don't think I'm even going to bother to call it a website. It's a Multi-Blog? I don't care.

What's new?

1. Linked the pages and related secondary blogs, and back-link to home blog. Need BUTTONS instead. I'll work on that.

2. Completed the Mexico photo blog on The Most Beautiful Place on Earth. Go check it out. Next is England, then the Mediterranean.

3. Getting the Books blog in shape. New posting on my newest coming release, LADY WICKED. I would still like to post the stories of how each book came to be.

4. Added a Fan Page, but don't know how I'm going to organize it. Can't use my previous design- it won't work here.

5. More to do- no link to my videos, no reviews of books posted.

Most important (for me), a new idea:

6.I don't have enough blogs! I felt like I needed a private place, to could organize myself, rant if I so pleased, keep all my notes handy and so on. I've used GMail's calendar and task list but it feels like I'm shoe-horning myself into their mold. So I designed a blog that really works for me. A Day-Planner and Journal combined. The way I've used spiral-bound notebooks for years.

In the center is the blog part with titled postings. The documents, etc. On the left column is a dated list of things not to forget. Bills, tasks, appointments. On the right, a current shopping list, and links to sites I'm likely to need quickly. I want to post a small calendar because I've always found it helpful to visualize how much time fits between now and an event. The one I have found does link me directly to my Google GMail age calendar, which is nice, but 'd rather have it right on the blog. And I don't like the ad, but don't want to pay to remove it. So I will likely just put up my own link to the GMail page, and find an updating calendar for visual.

For me, this is a major success. As visual as I am, I'm always forgetting what is not in sight. And the organizer stuff I've seen for computers seems to fit a world that is a step beyond my reach. This blog does it my way! It's pretty, and it's elegant, and it's just mine. No one else can find it. Voila! Victoire! (Can you tell I don't speak French?)

KINDLE Goes to 70% Royalties

2010-07-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed my books have not been available on Kindle the last few days, or that I no longer have them listed with deep discount prices or free on Smashwords. That's actually good news. Two of them are back up on Kindle, and the other two will be soon. Here's what's going on:

As of June 30, the new 70% royalty rates are available on Kindle. This change, announced in May, doubles the previous 35% royalty rate, which was Pikersville compared to what competition was paying- 65 to 85%, depending on the site. But with Kindle selling possibly 90% or better of ebooks in general, self-publishing ebook authors couldn't afford not to use Kindle as a distributor. Amazon's one driving force all these years has been to capture the entirety of the market, though, and competition from smaller sites, which often offered free ebooks, or discounted rates, was beginning to cut into their game. After all, if an author gets 85% of the cut, as on Smashwords, he/she can sell her books at a heavily discounted price and still make more per book than through Kindle because if there's anything ebook buyers love, it's cheap or free ebooks.

But naturally, considering its true nature, Amazon found a way to leverage the increased royalty rate into a competition-bashing weapon. And authors can't really turn it down if their aim is making sales that have some meaning.

Kindle will also keep the 35% royalty rate, and authors may choose. But they can only have the 70% rate IF they do not offer their book on a competitive site for less money. In addition, the book must be priced between $2.99 and 9.99, and it must be priced at least 20% lower than the retail price of the same book in print. And, the book may not be in the public domain. The author or publisher who puts the book up on Kindle must have legal rights to its publication. In addition, there is a delivery fee based on size of file, which amounts to about a nickel on my books.

There are a few things that seem sort of contradictory, and I'm researching them, but it seems clear to me that I cannot offer my books on Smashwords or another such site, or my own site, for any price under $2.99, and clearly I cannot give them away or offer them at "Name your own price" , which I had been doing.

That was, unfortunately, one of Smashwords' best draws. But if, for example, I sold one book in a hundred for a price of about $1- and that's about how much one gets with the "Name your own price" pricing, I'd have to give away huge number of books to equal 70% of $2.99, minus $.05, or $2.04 for every book. I can count on each of my books selling at least 10 books a month, and many times, a lot more. It's kind of unpredictable. And yes, I admit I haven't been promoting in the most effective ways on Amazon, so they could be doing much better than this. To make better use of Smashwords, I'd have to give up 35% in royalties from Kindle. I can't afford that.

The question is, of course, what will Smashwords do to counter Kindle's move? I am no lawyer, but I see this strong-arm method of grabbing the competition's customers as pretty close to an anti-trust move. That's never scared Amazon off from trying similar tactics in the past, but in almost all cases they've had to back down. So I wonder what will happen next?

For those of you who are considering re-issuing your older books for which you have your rights, or if you're thinking about e-publishing some stories you don't plan to put through the traditional publishing process, maybe this increase, coming from the biggest seller of ebooks in the industry, could be good news. It's good for me, overall. With this increase, I'll be making more money per month from my older books than I ever made through a publisher in an entire quarter. And from the last owner of the company, more every month than I made in the entire year.

Bulwer-Lytton Awards Announced!

2010-07-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is a must read for every author, and actually anyone who loves a bad pun or revels in the worst of prose:

http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

Awarded every year since 1982 by persons nobody seems to know, they are in honor of the worst piece of prose ever written:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Note I copied it straight from the B-L website and it is not a copyright infringement. The more appropriate question might be whether some prose could actually be so bad as to be unworthy of copyright. Unfortunately any group of words strung together in sufficient number as to be identifiable and unique, and using any barely meaningful grammar so as to be roughly intelligible is considered to be under copyright from the date of its creation.

But you'll have to go to the site itself to read this year's Big Winners. Or Big Losers, as the case might be.

The Non-Geek-SpeakerStruggles On

2010-07-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my latest venture with Blogger, I've been trying out different kinds of headers to go with different templates. I don't want to get into actual template design at this point, but I would like to learn how to install custom backgrounds. I read the directions. They are very clear- until they get to the point where there's something I don't know that I need to know. Then they just elide right over that one little thing as if it ought to be obvious. Hey, come on! I don't speak Geek!

But the headers, now that's something I understand. I've done a number of them for friends, and quite a few for myself in the past. I enjoy changing the look of my blog. I wouldn't wear the same dress every day. Why should I want to wear the same blog every day?

For the most part, custom headers need to be distinctive and enhance the entire blog, but they need to be background that showcases the blog owner and blog title. My friend Tori Scott wanted a deep red or burgundy color, something dramatic, and had in mind a burgundy-light chocolate-black combo she had used in decorating a room. We had to compromise a little because the same colors tended to not work as well for our purposes here. Check out the whole blog design here: http://toriscott.blogspot.com

We've all seen those blogs that are so busy they scream at the reader, calling attention in a hundred directions at once. I'm trying not to do that. I want to give a design that enhances what the author has to say, not screams for attention on its own.

I've been playing with the basic idea I used for Tori's site, and I have to say it's fun and versatile. The basic background involves two layers, the top one rounded beveled and shadowed like a website button, and the bottom one slightly larger, usually contrasting in some way, as a base. I'm posting a few of my attempts here. They look nice on their own but they really stand out when combined with a compatible template. I'm putting my own name on some of them, and a fanciful title, but they can all be changed. In the meantme, they're a good idea to experiment with, and will probably lead to even more ideas.

I tried "Impressions" on a very soft watercolor type landscape that echoed the colors, and the Window Template has a semi-transparent post background that carries out the mood. I believe the original is a JMW Turner painting, but I haven't been able to find it recently to verify it. Someone told me it was by Claude Lorrain but I doubt it. This is entirely Turner's style, especially that brilliant splash of sunlight in the middle.

"My Secret Cay" is a double play on "Key". When I was a teen I read a book about a couple who bought Marina Cay in the Caribbean and lived there alone for a year. Recently I found an old scrapbook and in it was the map of the island I had traced from inside the front cover. The Desert Island principle, I think- it always fascinated me. I looked up the book on Bookfinders and copies now sell in the hundreds of dollars. And I'll bet the library threw it away when it got doggy.

The measurements I've been using for these headers is one that works pretty well with all Blogger templates: 3"x9" @300 ppi. Always "shrink to fit" when installing. The height could be 2" or even 1", if you want a narrow design.

The Mexico blog

2010-06-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've just finished the first of my pictorial blogs under The Most Beautiful Place on earth. My description of the MBPoE is simple: The one where I am, or have been. And every now and then it might be a place in the past, or one I have no hope of ever seeing. But today, that place is our March, 2006 trip to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, and I'm featuring two of the most famous of the Mayan cities.

You can follow this link here
OR, why not take the more leisurely journey and go through the tab above where you can check out the proposed links to future posts on The Most Beautiful Place on Earth?

UPDATE in the Blogger Experiment

2010-06-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

I've discovered how to do tabs, which means I can add extra pages. No, that's not enough for me. I added two new blogs, which I'm trying to connect via the new pages. Both my "About My Books" and my "Visit the Most Beautiful Place on Earth" tabs expand into supplementary blogs.

But I'm not too knowledgeable about making connecting links, so be sure to check out those links above. I really love the secondary blog site I developed for the About My Books page, but I think I have to do a little more to make it un-confusing (is that a word? If not, it should be, because I need it NOW.)

I would like to connect directly to those new blogs instead of having an intermediary page. I've had lots of helpful suggestions on this project, including Maggie Jaimeson's suggestions on linking directly from my website. I'm still undecided on this. The one thing, I think, that concerns me is whether people looking for my website but getting a blog instead might feel confused or misled.

In the last two days, I've expanded the information on the pages, but still have a long way to go. I mustn't forget I'm a writer while I do all this! Yet I'd like to have the task finished.

Can Blogger Become My Home Web Page?

2010-06-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

You're welcome to drop by and watch as I experiment with the new Blogger. My curiosity is about whether I can make it into a useful web page. And whether I should. Very simply put, I like blogging and working with Blogger, but websites are a big baffle for me.

Recently my son set up a modified Word Press blog template as my website so I could make my own changes. I think it was a good idea, but it hasn't been as easy to do as I wanted, and some things just didn't work well for me. I wanted my design, my way, but it's just a bit off. Things won't go where I want them. I can see it is possible, but I'd have to know enough code to take an existing template and modify it, and I don't.

Then when Blogger popped up with this new Template Designer and about 30 new templates, I was right in the middle of putting together a blog site for another author. I had to learn how to work it right then and there.

I can see this is a much simpler system. But can I turn it into a reasonable website that I can operate? That's what my experiment is all about. I'm taking one blog, with one page, and expanding it to maybe ten pages, some of which will actually be secondary blogs. In layers. like a website.

I have lots of questions still.

Should I make my blog my central home? I know people don't do that, but maybe I should. I get a lot more traffic on my blog than I do my website. But that's been my fault because I have been so much better at keeping up the blog.

Maybe I should make my website a static page, like a portal page, and just lead with links to various pages on my blog?

Right now I'm trying to work around the limitation Blogger has of making the "Extra Pages" static. That is, they can't keep a running update like a blog can. Some, I would like that way, so I'm setting them up to link directly to another blog. But it seems a little clumsy. How can I reduce it by one step?

Lots more to come. Check out my tabs at the top of the home page. Lots are "under construction", so I've made notes there on what I plan to do.

Please feel welcome to comment or make suggestions. You probably have to comment on the home page- so far at least. Or if you have questions, ask them. Maybe I've already found the answers.

Castelldefels: A Wonderful Little Spanish Town Faces Tragedy

2010-06-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's not what you'd call a pretty little town, and probably not one where very many wealthy people live. Dry and flat, the gravelly soil makes me think this land must once have been the beach, many eons past. People often have tiny backyard gardens behind walls, where they grow tomatoes that look like they could use a little more water. The sidewalks are often narrow and cracked, or not there at all. Its castle is that building up on the hill in the center of the photo below. From a distance, it looks rather nondescript.

I came across this wonderful watercolor of the castle, though, and thought you might like to see it. It's by Nancy Laberge Muren, who has graciously given me permission to post it here. She also spent time in Castelldefels, and remembers it fondly. And now that I see prints of this wonderful watercolor are available at only $24.50, I know I must have one.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/45067575/castle-art-spain-travel

I didn't know at first why we decided to stay in this little town. There was just something about it that drew me. But not too long before we went, my brother reminded me he had lived there, and I'd written him a number of letters, before he moved on to Mallorca, and later, Madrid. So perhaps my affinity began there.

Castelldefels is a good 20 miles from Barcelona and perhaps 10 miles southwest of the airport. And we were told the castle for which the town is named is too run down for tourists. I would have gone anyway, but the hotel owner told us we would be disappointed and to go see the castle in Barcelona. That we did, and yes, it was wonderful. But now, I really wish we'd seen the little castle too, run down or not. As my brother said, "Well, all castles are run down." Let's face it, castles by definition are old, so why shouldn't they be?

The beach at Castelldefels is terrific, we were told, but we never got to it, for four days is not enough to do such laid-back things. I had hoped we could go down to Tarragona where a ruined Roman amphitheater faces the sea. But the train connections are too poor and would have taken up most of a day, first in to Barcelona, then wait, then back south, just to get there. So for our four days there, we confined ourselves to hiking the mile to the train station, and then riding the train into Barcelona. It was a stark, bare train, meaning to do its job well. And that, it did, very inexpensively.

We loved Barcelona. But there are so many things about Castelldefels that linger in our hearts and echo in our minds. The people we met, from the people at the hotel to the friendly older couple we met on the train, were always kind, helpful and pleasant, and patient even with my clumsy Spanish and lack of knowledge of local customs.

I will never forget that couple on the train. Although the husband gave up, his wife was so worried that we would get off at the right place. And their Catalonian accent created a stumbling block for me that I couldn't seem to surpass. Finally as they were getting off at their stop, she said, "Sants. Sants." At first, I wondered what saints could have to do with it. A church? "Recuerda Usted," she said. "Sants." So I repeated "Sants," and nodded. She left the train sighing and shaking her head, but with a smile. Sants was the short name for the station in Barcelona. Immediately when I saw the sign, I was sure, and no matter what my hubby said about it being wrong, we got off, right in the middle of Barcelona, just where we wanted to be.

On our last night, a fierce storm hit just as we were getting off the train. Taxis had lined up on the opposite side of the tracks, beyond the station, but all the locals knew where they were and got to them first. We stood in the pouring rain, which seemed oddly warm for late September, and soon we were rewarded by a returning cab. Again, a very pleasant man, who like the others wondered why we would stay in this backwater town instead of Barcelona. I said, because we loved it, and he smiled. Then he rushed quickly away in the rain, for, no doubt, the rain makes his business good.

And I remember another cabbie who took us from the hotel to the dock in Barcelona for our cruise. He had pleasant Spanish music playing softly, and I absently began to pick up the melodies and hum along. He was so thrilled that I knew "their" music that I couldn't bear to tell him I'd always had a talent for picking up tunes quickly. I just told him the truth: the music was just so beautiful. And besides, with my limited Spanish, that was about all I could say.

Today there's been a tragic accident at one of the two stations in Castelldefells. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100624/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_train_fatalities

It's not the one where we got on and off, but both stations are similar. When you get off the train, you walk along the platform until you reach a staircase that leads to an underpass, to walk beneath the tracks. There's also a walkway above the tracks. Not all of the trains stop. High speed express trains roaring up from southern cities barrel through Castelldefels at speeds that frightened me. And they come along very frequently. I remember thinking how someone could so easily fell in front of a train, and I backed away to be sure that someone wasn't me.

No, there was no way I would have crossed those tracks. Yet today thirty people who had come from Barcelona to celebrate the solstice (known there as Noche de San Juan) and to party on the beach, did exactly that. And that bullet of a train came roaring through, completely unable to stop when the people on the tracks were spotted. Not until the remains of the victims were studied did the authorities realize there were 13 instead of 12 who died.

Perhaps people don't realize how fast 87 miles per hour is. Some said the doors to the underpass were closed so they had no choice. Yet I'm pretty sure there are no doors. The stairs to the underpass are maybe 8 to 10 feet wide, and the underpass is maybe 20 feet wide. Sometimes it was very crowded. But it's open all the way. Maybe the doors are hidden- somehow? But I don't think so.

Perhaps the crowd was so great that it seemed like the passage was closed. Perhaps everyone was so drunk, they couldn't think. Or afraid of getting trampled in a crowd? Who can tell? Most of the victims were very young, immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America. Had they been from rural areas and were not accustomed to fast trains? How can we know?

After our time there, though, I feel an affinity for the people of Castelldefels. And of course I feel sad for the families of the victims. But most of all I feel sad for the people of Castelldefels who are dealing with the tragedy. I know they are helping, in whatever ways they can.

One Year Ago

2010-06-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

In Memoriam

Nedā Āġā Soltān
January 23, 1982 – June 20, 2009

I am not Iranian, nor Muslim. I am female, and I do know
The right to vote is precious.

If WATERLOO Had Gone the Other Way

2010-06-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Battle of Waterloo was won by the Allies- Britain, Prussia, Russia, Austria and other smaller countries like Belgium- against Napoleon's Grand Armee 195 years ago today. It was a defining moment in history, yet from so long in the past, it's hard today to see how it changed the world- or how things might have been if the French had won. It's just really hard for people in today's world to grasp the battle, what led up to it, just how long Europe had been engaged in this enormous struggle, and why in the world Britain had to get involved at all.

I'm not going to get into all of that- history is easy to find all over the internet if you're curious about it. And if you really want resources, just ask me and I'll give them to you. But I will tell you what Britain's stake was and how their loss would have made everything different. This is just my opinion of what would have happened, and of course nobody really knows. And a lot of people disagree, but here's how I see it.

Throughout the entirety of Napoleon's hold on the Continent, Britain remained the thorn in Napoleon's side. Britain held supremacy on the seas, and Britain controlled a large part of the world- or at least controlled most of the trade. Napoleon might control all of Europe, but the world eluded him as long as Britain lay outside his grasp. He had made attempts at Britain and in 1805 it had looked like he might succeed. He had massed a huge flotilla of flat-bottomed boats to ferry his massed army of over 200,000 across the English Channel. Then suddenly he abandoned the entire project and dashed off across the Continent to answer a newer threat. The truth was, his flotilla had little chance of success and his craft were not suited for a Channel crossing.

And before this, there had been Trafalgar, when the British soundly defeated the French and Spanish fleets. Late in 1806, Napoleon issued the Continental System to counter the British Embargo and to try to isolate Britain from all European trade. Although effective, Britain still had the rest of the world for trade, and France did not.

So Napoleon had to conquer Britain or his Empire was doomed. But in 1815, he was cornered. He had recently escaped Elba and swept through France, gathering supporters in an amazing blitz. The frightened Allies once more prepared for battle, knowing it would take all of them jointly cooperating to keep what they had regained and finally defeat the Corsican Monster. At Waterloo, Mt. St. Jean to be more exact, Wellington was still without most of his Allies when Napoleon attacked. Blucher's Prussians were close but still dangerously separated, and the Austrians and Russians too far away yet to make it in time. But the ferocity of the fighting British Allies kept the day going until the amazing old man, Blucher, finally managed to battle his way to the field of contest, catching the French off guard from their right, and trapped in the pincers. The day was done, and Napoleon fleeing back toward Paris.

What if Blucher had not succeeded in his fierce flurry to reach Wellington? Napoleon was very good at catching his enemy divided, and he had done this once more, so it could have succeeded. What if Wellington had made a few more errors, in site, perhaps (no, he would never have made THAT mistake- he was a genius in picking battle sites). Or what if his troops in the little chateau of Hougoumont had failed in their desperate daylong battle to hold Wellington's right? It would have all been over, and French flags would have flown on the ridge at Mt. St. Jean.

Austria, Russia, Prussia would not have mattered. They would have crumbled as they always had in the past. Although Wellington had wisely made his retreat plan along with his battle plan, the French would have followed them across the Channel in every ship that could be commandeered, and with a good part of the British Army still at sea trying to get to Belgium, the defense of Britain would have been meager. Pitchforks and cudgels just don't do much against muskets and cannons.

When France captured Britain, they would get with it all the navy, the merchant vessels, the trade routes, the colonies- literally the wealth of the world uncontested. Whether they could have held it is another question, since everything they had held had been a precarious balance all along. But the new United States of America wouldn't have contested. All the Spanish and Portuguese world was not strong enough.

In short, France would have become the great world empire, instead of Britain. Not only would we all speak French, but we would be operating under the Napoleonic Code of Law. The French Revolution had in truth been dead in France from the beginning of Napoleon's Empire. Independence as we have known it would have been different, if not dead. And in Napoleon's Empire, people who disagreed or failed to live up to his demands didn't last long. His demands were not always rational, and always any failure had to have its scapegoat. Not to say that doesn't happen now to at least some degree, but it was a way of life in France's domain then.

How much we would have evolved from that, it's hard to say. Modern France is not an example for this because it is based as much on Napoleon's defeat as his successes. But it's pretty clear our world today would be far different. Nor can we even be sure whether we'd like it or not.

So tell me, what's your take on it?

Now for my Bookmarks...

2010-06-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Now that I've got a cover for LADY WICKED, my coming-soon release from The Wild Rose Press, I just had to do a bookmark. A little re-positioning, fine-tuning, and some blurbs and addresses. And a new design on the backside. Add a subtle color gradient for spice. (Oh yeah, I put a dress on her. Just because I could.)

For those of you who have a thing for RT cover models, and you know Jimmy Thomas, you may recognize him in the embrace silhouette. He's got some fabulous photos I'd love to use on covers, and they're not all that expensive- and pretty cheap for the e-book or bookmark size- $5. For the full size, $15. Not bad. Yes, I can get images at Fotolia, Dreamstime and iStock for only a few dollars, and that's where the ones on the cover of LADY WICKED came from. But they're not Jimmy Thomas! Go check his site out at http://www.romancenovelco vers.com/index.htm

Now off to VistaPrint for cheap printing. Yes, I'm cheap. I know that. I think there's some kind of elitist trailer trash blood in me because I take great pride in either doing the work myself or getting it done cheap, yet well. VistaPrint has its drawbacks but if you learn to work with them, free is a great price. I design bookmarks to fit as a pair on the standard post card. Then I use my very precise Fiskars trimmer to cut them. 100 post cards are free if you wait for the sales, and that gives me 200 bookmarks.

The above designs show the front and back. When I have them printed, I put two to a card- fronts on one side and backs on the other. The tricky part is getting the center perfect on both sides, and making sure there is a bleed area (extra color that doesn't have anything vital like type on it). Not all of VP's printing materials come out in quite the right colors, but their post cards have never failed me. The back side isn't glossy, but I like it in color anyway. That's usually an extra $9.99, but this time was $7.49. Uploading two photos usually costs $5 each but is 50% off right now, and sometimes is free.

I HAVE A COVER!

2010-06-14T09:54:00.001-07:00

At last! My cover for LADY WICKED! The wonderful artist is Tina Lynn, who I was so pleased allowed me a lot of input into the design, even to picking the background and cover hero and heroine. This can never be perfect, of course, especially for historicals, because artists these days are limited to what royalty-free photos they can purchase and alter to fit. Adding costume details is something very few artists are willing or able to do, which is probably why you see so many semi-nude people on ebook historical covers. And the lipstick? Sorry, no self-respecting model these days would be willing to be photographed without it. I've painted out eye shadow before, but lipstick is just a nightmare to even try.

I don't have a pub date yet but that will be coming soon, and I hope will be before the end of the year.

So did you ever wonder what goes into a cover design? Well, I'll show you a few of the elements. I don't happen to have purchased but one of these in this photo, though, so I'll show you a different couple, who we couldn't use for other contractual reasons (but the photo is royalty-free and paid for, so don't worry).

In this cover design, the man and woman came from different photos, and had to be matched together, the woman flipped horizontally so they both were lit from the same side. She had on a very modern gorgeous red low cut strapless, which of course had to go. His lighting was much too bright for hers, so he had to be darkened. And shadows had to be added all around. Her photo was much like this one of the couple, so dark it was hard to tell her hair from the background. Of course, all that background in the portrait photos had to be removed, carefully so the poor heroine's hair didn't go with it.

I had fallen in love with this stone staircase a long time before, even though it is probably from a cathedral on the European Continent. I love the light, airy look, the subtle colors. But that wouldn't work for a dark medieval hall. You would never find such intricate and elegant stonework in the fairly simple, pragmatic medieval hall in my book- I know that. But by hiding a lot of the architectural detail but keeping the curved stairs leading to that mysterious door, it incorporates the same spirit as the bell tower in my story. In darkening, it lost the subtle coloring I love, so we added this radial gradient color glaze. It's not opaque, as it is here, and can be faded out, erased in places, or extra darkening shadows in others as needed. Tina is more conservative than I am-- I am just plain flagrant when it comes to color. She kept just the hint of color.

The fonts make up an entirely new layer. I don't have Tina's work on this, but I'm showing you a sample in a similar font with a simpler but similar effect. She and I don't have the same font adjusting software. I put it against a mottled green background so you can see how the shadowing gives it dimension.

So when you finally have all these elements just the way you want them, the layers are all merged into one design. You always keep a copy of the separate layers, though, because chances are excellent that when it's all assembled, suddenly something will pop out at you and say, "Lookee here! Glaring ERROR!" No, I don't think I ever did any cover that I didn't have to back up and fix something.

So, you just thought covers were just painted? Not anymore! These are just the basics. There are eyes to be painted green, sometimes hair to be changed. There could be a sword to add, perhaps a swath of tartan- but not this time. Making a book cover is an intriguing art.

Kindle and the New Self-EPublishing

2010-06-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Most successful authors have previously published works for which the publishing rights have reverted to the author. They'd like to see their books re-printed, but finding a traditional publisher to pick them up is pretty difficult. Re-printing a paper book is an expensive proposition for a book with a limited market.

Enter Kindle.

Kindle is widely regarded as the most significant forward-moving force. Probably true. But I think it's not so much Kindle as it is the Kindle Bookstore, which arguably holds more ebooks than any other source on the internet. People buy Kindles because of the enormous inventory of titles. And the reason for this is that Kindle opened itself up to the Independent Publisher. Essentially, this means ANYBODY.

This is the perfect opportunity for re-issues. The investment is tiny, and the author receives 35% royalties. Sales aren't huge, but they are growing, and supposedly Amazon will be hiking the royalties to independent publishers to 70% beginning this month. I'm not sure of the details, but since Kindle is the biggest market for ebooks, this would be nice. Many authors feel they can afford to set a more attractive price since they don't have to share with a publisher or agent.

WHAT YOU NEED TO PUBLISH A KINDLE BOOK:
Where: on Amazon.com, Kindle Store>In Sidebar, Publish on Kindle> On top line under Kindle Books, Small publishers and Authors... Digital Text Platform, DTP link>Sign In by following directions.

I suggest reading through FAQs and other information before starting. Some of it won't make sense at first, but when you reach that point in your process, you'll have an idea where to look for your answer.

Here's a list of the information you'll need to assemble for uploading your ebook. I suggest you get it all together before you start and save yourself a lot of back-tracking.

CHECKLIST:

#1 Enter Product Details
ISBN: You don't actually need an ISBN for your own Kindle upload. But if you already have one, or are planning on other ebook releases, get one. Don't use the same ISBN for print and electronic books.
Title:
Description: 4000 characters max
Publisher: That's you
Language:
Pub Date: I suggest about 5-7 days from current date. They may get faster in the future
Categories: e.g. Historical Romance
Authors:
search key words: look for as many appropriate words as you can think of
Product Image: min 1200 pix on smallest side I used 300 dpi, 6x9"
Edition Number: (optional)
Series Title: (optional)
Series Volume: (optional)

#2 Confirm Content Rights
Worldwide or Individual Territories
You'll later be asked to confirm or verify this. I sent the email letter granting release of rights.

#3 Upload & Preview Book
formats: Word, HTML, PRC, PDF (poor)
Preview- not easy if you don't know HTML but go through the whole thing anyway. Sometimes it looks fuzzy- I'm not sure if it would be fuzzy in the finished book. I did it over just in case it would improve and it did. You could be surprised at the things that show up in the preview, or don't show up. If all else fails, cancel (trash can) and start over. Before you do, though, make sure you have copies of all the info you put into the blanks and boxes.

#4 Enter Suggested Retail Price
I decided to price low. I can always raise it later.

wait 48-72 Hours while it's being reviewed.
You might not see your product description right away- up to a week.
Be sure to read the Amazon DTP Quick Start Guide, under Getting Started Guide

SETTING UP YOUR BOOK FOR EASY READING:

You can publish your book on Kindle in just about any layout you want. You don't even have to check for spelling errors. But if you don't want to irritate your readers, it's a good idea to make sure you understand what works well for reading on the Kindle.

Your book might already be in proper book layout for a print book. But this isn't necessarily the best layout for an ereader, especially Kindle. Kindle has no page numbers because the content is so adjustable. Depending on font size and other adjustments, the number of words per line, number of lines on the screen, and therefore the number of pages changes. So you want your content to flow easily for the reader.

The first thing you want to do is remove all headers, footers and page numbers. They take up screen space and irritate the reader, who just wants to get on with your story. And besides, remember, Kindle books have no pages, so headers, footers and page numbers mean nothing.

I suggest eliminating all page breaks between chapters. And since it's an irritation for readers to keep thumbing down through blank page after blank page, which is what you get if you have a lot of lines left before the beginning of the next chapter, substitute about 5 or 6 line returns for the page break. It won't seem like enough for you, the author. But those same 5-8 or so lines can take up a lot of space on the ereader. Do 2,3,4, or whatever you choose, but I suggest doing just enough to make it clear there's a new chapter coming up. I want the first lines of the new chapter to show on the same screen as the last words of the previous chapter.

Because I use Word Perfect, I've found it best to use the Reveal Codes feature to strip out all those little codes that don't seem to be there-until I change font, format or programs. But in Word, you can often get rid of such codes by highlighting the entire manuscript, then putting in the formatting that you want all through the manuscript. For instance, you might have some oddball font codes you think are gone, but will pop up sometimes if you do a backspace in the wrong place, or other such nonsense. Select and choose ALL. Then change the font to the one you want consistently, such as Times New Roman.

It's quite possible to scan a print book if you don't have an electronic copy. Most scanners have OCR (Optical Character Recognition) ability now and can convert to text document. But they're ‟sloppy", meaning they don't always get it right- ‟cl" often becomes ‟d", for example. The best way to do this is to take the book apart and scan each page flat so you don't get a ditch or gutter distortion. I haven't tried this, but I hear it's a bit of a pain. Still, better than re-typing!

If you work from a manuscript, you probably double-spaced, and used a five-space wide paragraph indent. Not good for e-reading. Select All and change to single spacing. Set your tab at .200" or .300". You'll even like the look better yourself.

Some people don't center chapter headings, but I prefer them. And I close down the spaces between scenes, separating them only with ***. Keep remembering, ereader screens are small.

WHAT ABOUT COVERS?
A good cover is very helpful for selling ebooks, although I rate it less important than a reduced price and known author name. You probably can't use a cover from a previous edition unless it's your own creation. Even then I'd suggest you use a different cover to separate yourself and your book from the previous edition under other publishers.

Covers can be simple or elaborate. You can pay an artist- we cover artists tend to work very cheap, but not all do. You can do it yourself, too. If you're not artistic, you can buy royalty-free photos from a number of sites online, and add your own lettering. You will need some sot of program to manage your graphic tasks. Often simple programs are shareware. Photoshop Elements is pretty good for basic work. You can have your 6 year-old kid color with crayons if you want. It's your book. You do want something that gets attention and makes a reader want to buy.

(I do cover art, in case you're interested. I can do simple for around $20-25 or complex, up to around $150. Sorry but I don't have time for anything more complex.)

Don't use copyrighted material without permission! Use your own photos or maybe a friend's but even with the friend, ask him to sign a release giving you permission to use it. If you buy art or photos from royalty-free sites, check the usage agreement. They are all a bit different.

Upload a good quality cover. This means a high resolution. If you swipe photos off the internet, chances are good they aren't good quality. So it's not even in your best interest to take them.

Who edits your book? Nobody but you, unless you arrange for it yourself. You are solely responsible for the quality of your book, so be patient with yourself and the process. Turn out a product you'd be happy to buy.

Now you're pleased with your accomplishment and the book is available on Kindle. Sales start trickling in. And new questions start trickling into your mind. How can I promote? How can I increase sales? And the newly intriguing question:

Is there more to this than just Kindle?

Sure, there is. But that's for another post. Coming up:
Smashwords Makes a Splash.
EPromo
And other things E.

The Day the Mountain Blew

2010-05-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

In Southwest Washington State, most people who lived here thirty years ago are talking about what they were doing on May 18, 1980, the Day the Mountain Blew. It's etched in my memory too, but despite the fascination I've had for Mt. St. Helens long before that major eruption, the day I remember so poignantly was exactly one week before, May 11, 1980.

It was Mothers' Day that year, and the present I was given was a drive down from Olympia, Washington, where we lived then, to get up as close to the mountain as we could, and see what it looked like. Changes were happening. It was venting, rumbling, even bulging on one side. There were barriers up marking the Red Zone, and signs encouraging people not to go closer. But we saw no sign of the State Patrol.

There wasn't all that much we could see anyway, for it was a very typical Northwest spring day, rainy temperate, with thick, low clouds. Not until we were about to leave did we actually get a glimpse of the mountain, and I was shocked at how close it seemed. We should have been about ten miles away. Or was it really that big?

Disappointed in how little we saw, we fooled around in the stream beds and picked at unusual rocks in road cuts. I found one I've never identified for sure, with tiny, very pale bluish green crystals arranged in globules. My son, in an attempt to get a better glimpse of the mountain, climbed to the top of the nearest ridge, a good thousand or better feet above the stream bed where the rest of us foraged for agates. (It was everyone's ambition to see the mountain "blow", but few if any of the people there had any real comprehension of what that meant). He got his glimpse, but only barely, before the clouds closed in again.

So we didn't get everything we wanted, yet it had been one of those wonderful little adventures we cherished so much.

Exactly one week later, we heard the news. My husband was working overtime in Tacoma, and I had gone with him, just because, well, newlyweds do that kind of thing. At 8:32 a.m., Mt. St. Helens had erupted. Blown out almost the entire north side of the mountain. Ash billowed five miles into a bright blue sky, turning the world around the mountain dark as night, and carried eastward through the entire state and into Idaho . Super-heated pyroclastic flows rushed down the valley up over what is now named Johnstone Ridge after geologist Dr. David Johnstone who died there, down the far side, and up the next, blowing everyone and everything off the ridge where my son had been standing. In the valley below, the Toutle River became a rushing torrent of hot, deep, ashy mud, carrying huge boulders and chunks of ice from the mountain's flanks.

We'd been told the Red Zone was 10 miles from the volcano. At that location, it was barely more than 3 miles.

If we had taken our trip one week later, we would all have been wiped out. There is no out-running such an explosion. That isn't likely, really, although if we had not been able to go that Sunday, we would have gone the next. Nor is it really likely, with about a three hour drive from Olympia and up the Spirit Lake Highway, we would have reached the area before the eruption. Yet when we think of the mountain, we can't help but realize, when it comes to such forces of nature, just how helpless we human beings are.

It was five more years before we were allowed to return to the volcano, and then only from the east side, up a winding mountainous road that was only cleared wide enough for one lane of traffic. The ash in the air was choking, for the line of cars slowly snaking up the mountains to the lookout point seemed endless. And at the lookout on Mt. Margaret, we suddenly realized the devastation we had we had traveled through getting to the viewpoint, was beyond anything we had comprehended in all the time since the mountain blew. Even in future years, we couldn't identify where we had been before. What had been Elk Rock, where my son had stood, was swept bare. Nothing survived there.

I have some pictures from that trip, and one old Polaroid from the May 11 trip, but my scanner isn't working. Perhaps I'll post them another time. We've been up the New Spirit Lake Highway a number of times in the last twenty years, and always look forward to going again. We love to take visiting friends and family. The pictures here are the ones from our last trip. Spirit Lake has completely changed its shape, but it lies like a sapphire against a malachite background of tall firs, as if it had always been that way. It's hard to imagine now the immense devastation of thirty years ago, when the Toutle River ran so fast and hard, its bridges were washed away and buried in the flow of muddy ash and rock. But close to the volcano, the deeply slashed, vertical-walled trenches through barren gray ash can still be seen. From the volcano's mouth on the north slope, where for some reason no one had given the slightest thought the mountain would explode, a thick flow of mud, rock and ash protrudes like a giant lolling tongue.

Thirty years, and the mountain has found again new awesome beauty, yet is completely changed from what it had been. And for all that, the signs of the eruption are everywhere. In milennia to come, this eruption will still show its scars, just as past eruptions can still be seen.

MOTHERHOOD IS THE NECESSITY OF INVENTION

2010-05-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

That was the title of a book I intended to write a number of years ago. The kids were small. Life was rough, and income scarce. So bad that we were on the regular cut-off list for the electric meter man. One day I saw him coming and ran out to meet him, paid receipt in hand. "Oh, sorry," he said. "I guess it just got to be a habit."

I was thinking about all the things I did to adapt, make ends meet. And I'll admit, the way I made things did have a lot of people amazed. I thought myself quite clever, clever enough to write them in a book. But it never got done. Being clever while raising five kids takes a lot of time, you see. And when I finally decided if I hoped to ever get out of the poverty cycle, I'd better get back to school and get my degree, book writing was set aside for some future time.

That was my "Blaze of Glory" period- as in, "Might as well go out in a Blaze of Glory." Because that's what going to college full-time while raising five kids, baby-sitting for other moms and selling home-baked bread to neighbors is.

Side-tracked, there. That's only tangential to my point. My point is, I see my daughters, as mothers, doing the same thing. When something can't be done, they find a way to do it. Does it mean sewing a garment you can't afford to buy? Getting a degree to get a better job while working and raising kids? Writing a book? Painting a watercolor? Building a gadget to do something better? Working a night shift or getting a tele-commute job, finding a way to help a step-child develop great study habits? Making grueling internet searches and bid to find the cheapest air tickets to Disney World for a mini-family reunion?

That's what moms do. They invent a way.

2010-05-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

The book cover I'm posting here is a mock cover- the actual cover hasn't been designed yet. But more on LADY WICKED at the bottom of this post.

You might have noticed the new look. This design came about backwards, from a book cover design, which I then was told by a fairly large number of people was a book I should write. Yes I know, usually the book idea comes first, not the cover. But sometimes not so for me.

My original cover design was titled 10,000 YEARS, but my editor thinks 1,000 YEARS is better, and that then triggered improved plot thoughts. And then in the meantime, I needed a new website design, so I borrowed the elements from the cover design.

So now I'm in the process of remodeling both the blog and the website, and all that while in the middle of contest coordinating hell. The Royal Ascot is right at the point of assigning entries to the judges, which is the most annoyingly complex and confusing part of the entire contest. Later, when the entries return from the judges, it's pretty complex, but there's really nothing like getting them to the judges in the first place.

I should be through with this phase of the contest by Wednesday. I've got some interesting blogs coming up for you. But the website will take a bit more time because...

The exciting part! I've got my galleys for LADY WICKED and have only about 10 days left to complete them! We're moving so fast on this book, I think it just may get a release date before the end of the year! I don't think I've been so excited about a book release since the first one, FIRE DANCE, back in 2000. FD remained my favorite of all my books for years, but LADY WICKED has long since surpassed it.

The Indomitable Agostina Zaragoza: Maid of Saragossa

2010-01-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

By all accounts, Agostina of Zaragosa was a woman of humble birth, one of those who might have passed her time in history unrecorded, had not circumstances beyond her control brought out her amazing strength of character.

Most of the population of the entire Continent of Europe felt helpless against the might of Napoleon's Grand Armee. Most great cities just capitulated when they saw him coming. Few battles were fought without enormous casualties on those defending armies. Napoleon invaded Spain, a country still largely locked in its own impoverished medieval past, something different happened. There isn't much positive that could be said about Spain's army or its generals, and the weak monarch and royal family could do nothing but flee. But the people were something else. In the end, it was the "Spanish Ulcer" that oozed the blood of the Napoleonic forces, keeping them tied up in Spain and unable to join the emainder of the armies in battles elsewhere.

Saragossa, or Zaragoza, was one of those small Spanish cities that lacked sufficient fortification to repel invaders, and to the French, it must have looked like easy prey, being surrounded by low, insubstantial brick walls, and only a few old cannons. The usual story of a siege was that once inside the city walls, the battle was over. But not at Saragossa. Inside the walls were many fortified convents and houses, so that the city was like a fortress comprised of many small fortresses.

There were actually two outstanding heroines at Saragossa. Countess Burita, said to be extraordinarily beautiful, had even more courage and determination than beauty, for she organized and led the city's women in resistance against the French. Agostina, a woman of low birth was among them. Initially the women provided assistance to the men, the usual carrying of water and ammunition. (Black powder was manufactured locally, so the people of Saragossa had the knowledge necessary to manufacture all they could use.)

When Agostina came upon a battery that was unattended, its men either dead or just gone, she took over firing herself, thus shaming the men who had abandoned the gun into returning. And let me tell you, just one person firing a park-size cannon is a pretty hard job. Normally a minimum crew of four is required for even a small cannon.

But Agostina didn't just quit when the guys came back. She kept on firing her cannon, and stayed with it until the French finally gave up the siege. Her true story was so inspiring that poets like Byron and Southey wrote about her and artists like Wilkie painted her. She was awarded medals and honors, and when asked to choose her own reward, wanted only two things: To take the name of her city as her own, becoming Agostina Zaragoza, and to continue fighting against the French. She was given both honors.

There is much more to the Siege of Saragossa, which the people, led by their hero, garrison commander Joseph Palafox, with the women continuing to pour their all under the Countess Burita's leadership. The indomitable city held out against the second siege for over 50 days. Eventually the city did fall to the French, but the survivors had forced the French to reasonable terms instead of complete annihilation. If you want to know more about this amazing city and its even more amazing women, this is one of the best descriptions:
http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=morris&book=spanish&story=saragossa

Women Heroines: Susanna Dalbiac, Heroine of Salamanca

2009-12-31T20:24:00.000-08:00

Today is the first of my Women Heroines series, which will deal largely with historical women who broke the traditional women's mold by moving into traditionally male activities. I think I'd also like to emphasize men who encouraged women to step out of the shadows, but we'll see where this leads us. Susanna Dalbiac was definitely one of those women, and her husband Charles did not fail to support her.

***

SUSANNA DALBIAC: HEROINE OF SALAMANCA

The photo to the left may possibly be apparently Susanna Isabella Dalbiac, the heroine of my story here, but I doubt it because the dress is more typical of the 1860s, and it appears Susanna died in the early 1840s. The one below is more likely her daughter, Susanna Stephania Dalbiac, despite the apparent late 18th century dress. I'll explain more later. Above is a painting of the Battle of Salamanca, showing the 4th Light Dragoons charging.

Susanna was born in 1787 and married James Charles Dalbiac, who had joined the 4th Light Dragoons as a cornet in 1797 and made them his lifelong career. Charles joined the Portugal campaign in April 1809, and when he fell ill of a fever, Susanna rushed to his side to nurse him, and thereafter stayed with him.

According to William Napier, "This gentle lady has followed her husband through two whole campaigns in the Spanish Peninsula. She has been by his side in every danger- in every vicissitude she has borne her loving share. In all the thrilling movements of the past few days she has ridden close to her husband's regiment. Again and again has he urged her to seek security but as often she has refused to leave him."

On the night before the Battle of Salamanca, Susanna and her husband slept beneath the stars, she wrapped in his greatcoat, when a thunderstorm struck, stampeding the terrified cavalry horses. Charles snatched up his wife to safety atop some artillery pieces, and he climbed up after her, but there were many of the dragoons who were trampled, Thirty horses were still missing the next morning.

Despite such an inauspicious start to the day, Wellington found the advantage he needed in the audacious mistake of his counterpart, Marmont, who thought he was seizing an opportunity to outflank the British-Portuguese Army. But he didn't know Wellington had judiciously hidden Pakenham's 3rd Division behind the hill, at an angle to the main force, the very place where Marmont's troops hurried to attack and turn the British flank. As the French over-extended themselves to trap their foe, Pakenham lunged, cutting off a good part of the French forces. Then Le Marchant's Heavy Cavalry came at the enemy in a wild and brutal assault that left the French in ruins and their commander, Thomieres, dead.

The 4th Light Dragoons were a part of Le Marchant's assault, and Susanna rode after them. As described by Major Elliott, "The cannon shot of the enemy flew past her, the French shells burst all around. Leaden bullets pierced her riding habit in many places.. . The cavalry trumpets rang out an order, the horses broke into a rapid trot, she drew aside her horse, for she knew that a desperate charge was at that moment to be delivered."

As the cavalry rode into their own cloud of dust, Susanna spotted a color guard with an arm wound gushing blood, and she bandaged it and gave him wine from her flask. From then on, she raced about from one wounded man to another offering aid, and when her wine was gone, she bent to a stream to refill her flask, bullets flying all around her and splashing water in her face.

It was many hours later, hunting through the thousands of dead, dying and wounded, not knowing if he lived or had died, before she finally caught up with her husband again, and they embraced on the battlefield. "As the regiment was dismissed from its ranks, all its remaining men gathered around the brave lady with demonstrations of deepest admiration and respect."

Susanna stayed with her husband until they returned to England, and never returned to the campaign again. In 1814, she gave birth to her daughter, Susanna Stephania Dalbiac, who later married the Scottish Duke of Roxburgh. Many years later, Charles spoke of his wife, "Of this incomparable wife I will only add that a mind of the most refined cast, and with the frame of body alas too delicate she was, when in the field, a stranger to personal fear."

In looking for pictures of Susanna, I could find nothing at all. Then I came upon a family genealogy site which showed a picture of her husband James Charles Dalbiac, in his later years, still in uniform, and one of her daughter. But to me, there's something wrong with that photo. Most of you can probably spot it quickly. The young woman in the photo- probably a photo of a painting- is wearing a dress of the very late 18th or very early 19th Century, when the elder Susanna would have been a young woman. The younger Susanna was not born when this style was in fashion. So I thought perhaps the similarity of names fooled someone, and likely the younger Susanna's husband was better known. I have since my original posting about Susanna talked with a descendant, Pelham West, who provided a portrait of Susanna Isabella in mid-Victorian dress. He tells me this portrait of the younger Susanna hangs in Floors Castle, the ancestral home of the Duke of Roxburgh, who the younger Susanna married. He doubts if the duke would have had the portrait of his mother-in-law hanging in his home, and also notes the portrait was identified by a cousin who was more or less contemporary with the older Susanna, and may have met her.

So perhaps this is one of those paintings in which the subject posed in costume, perhaps representing a more famus figure. I wonder if those precise folds in the garment are meant to indicate a dress that was carefully folded and stored away, perhaps a dress of an earlier era, belonging to the heroic ancestor, Susanna Isabella Dalton Dalbiac. But I still think it is more likely the older woman. Pelham West suggests I get n touch with Floors Castle, or perhaps even go visit to see for myself. That sounds like an excellent idea.

Surprise Snow 2009

2009-12-29T16:00:00.000-08:00

The weather folks seem to be caught off guard with the first snow every year. Last year it actually came on Christmas, the first snow I've ever seen in the Northwest on Christmas Day. This one is quite lovely. It was supposed to rain, with temp around 37. This started about an hour ago and is already over an inch deep. Temp about 34, so it's very wet. The flakes are giants, about 2 inches across or more. In the photos they are the indistinct white blobs that look like spilled white paint.

Jinx (above) and Frankie (left) have opted to take naps instead of trying out the snow. Frankie seems to have fallen in love with my hand mitt project.

A Holiday Video Card For You

2009-12-23T11:15:00.000-08:00

In gratitude for all the friends, family, fans and supporters, those who simply drop by now and then, those who read, critique and review, and those who simply read my books, a donation has been made to Mercy Corps
Click here to view:

THE GIFT: A True Christmas Story from Linda Swift

2009-12-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

When Linda Swift asked me to do a cover for her new release, Single Status, neither of us remembered meeting before. But something about her name kept niggling at my mind, and after awhile the memory began to emerge.

In 1996 after the RWA conference in Dallas, we sat together in the airport when wave after wave of thunderstorms grounded us. After several hours, to our relief, we finally took off. Unfortunately, we came back in. Passengers de-boarded, mechanics tinkered with the engine, more thunderstorms arrived, and finally we left Dallas for real at 5:00 p.m. Too late for anyone's connections. I last saw Linda at the St. Louis airport, where I spent several more hours with the stranded Portland Gay Men's Choir, who sang most of their repertoire for other stranded passengers. We finally got into Portland at 1:30 a.m.

But Linda's card went into my Rolodex. And funny thing, she still had my card too. And I always wondered what happened to her. Now, I know. And I don't think we'll lose touch again.

THE GIFT

All of my family is musical except me. And it was after a performance of her husband's band at a casino in Tunica, that my daughter had an almost fatal accident. While standing on the sidewalk in the wee hours of morning as he loaded his equipment, she was run down by a casino employee, high on drugs, thrown onto the windshield of his car, which hit a wall and caught fire. She was helicoptered to a trauma hospital in Memphis with multiple injuries. Her dad and I arrived from Kentucky and after an all-day wait, she had hours of surgery. Our first miracle was that she lived.

We stayed in a motel for a month, taking turns with her husband, sitting at her bedside, so that she was never alone for a moment. When word spread that she was injured, fans of her band and her husband's flooded her room with flowers. There were so many and the scent was so strong that one physician remarked "Why, this is like a funeral home." A very inappropriate remark in my opinion!

Still too weak to travel to her home in Nashville, she was moved after a few weeks to a rehab center nearby. And when she was finally given permission to travel, my husband and I went ahead to prepare her condo for an invalid. Both bedrooms were upstairs and not wheelchair accessible so we had to buy a bed for the living room. Her dishwasher didn't work and neither did the stove oven. Remember, she and her husband traveled with their respective bands and domestic life did not have priority. But since I was responsible for cooking nutritious meals, I needed proper equipment.

After a couple of days of frantic shopping for appliances, a bed, and groceries, then a frenzy of cleaning as we had been warned of her wounds getting infected, we fell into bed for a few hours sleep before her homecoming.

Sometime after midnight, I was awakened by a loud noise like someone hitting a wall. I tried to ignore it but it only got louder. Muttering something unprintable, I staggered to the window and looked out. And there by the front steps was a lone figure doing something with wood and a hammer. At first, I couldn't figure it out, and then it dawned on me. A man was building a ramp over the concrete steps.

Something we had not even thought of!

I called my husband to wake up and join me. And together we determined that it was the young man next door. We had met him and his wife and young son when we came two days ago and had heard our daughter and husband speak of them before. They had come to Nashville from New York City because he wanted to be a musician. For the time being, they were both employed at the nearby mall, where he worked a late shift as a security officer. Since they had lived in a big city, they had no car and both walked the couple of miles to their jobs as they couldn't afford a car. My daughter and husband had loaned them their car at times for buying groceries and other necessities.

The night was freezing cold and the guy was bundled up in a jacket, sock cap, and gloves as he determinedly hammered away at those boards until he had the ramp finished. And as I stood there watching with tears in my eyes, I felt such gratitude for this simple gift of kindness. It was truly more beautiful than the roomful of flowers I had tended every day. And even more special because I knew it had been a financial sacrifice to buy the lumber as well as a difficult task to build it in the middle of this frigid night.

My daughter came home, and after a fourth surgery and many more weeks of intensive therapy, she was able to walk again. And the much-used ramp was finally taken down. Now only a few scars remain to remind her and us of that almost fatal night. And this is the second miracle.

The neighbor couple went back to New York City after a time because their family needed them there. And the hoped for career in music hasn't happened yet. But I remember them from time to time and make a wish that all their dreams may soon come true.

***

LINDA SWIFT is a native of Kentucky but calls many places home including Florida where she now lives with her husband, a power plant consultant and avid golfer. She is the sole member of a musical family--which includes her husband, son, daughter, and son-in-law--who neither sings nor plays. But she loves to dance!
A late bloomer, she attended college for years between being a wife and mother, then became a counselor, psychometrist, and teacher of physically and mentally challenged students in public education.
Linda began writing poetry at ten, has won numerous awards for poetry, articles, and short stories and has had a play produced on TV. Writing books has been her goal since completing a romance novel at sixteen. She is the author of two books by Kensington and has two e-books currently available from The Wild Rose Press, one of which is also available in print. Her current release is Single Status from Awe-Struck who will also publish her new holiday book in December and her first historical in early 2010.

You can find Linda at her website here: http://www.lindaswift.net/

Kindle for PC - Great for Bad Eyes

2009-12-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

I promised I'd do an update on the Kindle for PC, and now that I've read a few books with it, it's time to report in.

To re-cap: I don't own a Kindle, although I know a lot of people who have bought them and love them. Several people have told me they've both bought and read more books since getting their Kindle. I've had some experience with e-book readers and realize that although many people find it their optimum choice for reading, they're not for me.

Right eye sees this

My reasons have much more to do with my unusual eye problems than with the readers. I've had seven eye surgeries, you see. And while some of my vision is far better than it was when I was just near-sighted, my vision is just plain distorted. Reading has become a major headache for me-- literally. Oddly, both eyes have learned to compensate for each other, producing something kind of like normal. But you can see I'm happy for any help I can get.

Before e-books I'd almost given up trying to read whole books. Yet I could read on my computer fairly well. But e-readers still elude me. Mostly the light-gray/dark gray contrast is too poor. But I can't adjust them well enough to compensate in font size either. So whenever possible I bought the e-version of any book I wanted to read. I had to really want it badly to read it in paper version.

Left eye sees this

A few weeks ago the Kindle for PCs became available. I already have several brands of PDF and Adobe Digital Edition, and a few others. But I couldn't read books that only came in Kindle, and sometimes they're cheaper. And free is a perfectly acceptable price. So could I read Kindles without a Kindle? Would it be any better than other reading formats? Why not try?

Keep in mind, this is a Beta version. There will likely be more improvements in the future. I have figured out how to transfer books to both my laptop and MSI Wind netbook. Simple: download a copy of Kindle for PC on the Wind. Since I'm using my same email address and password, I'm automatically linked to both computers. I can then pull up anything I have archived-- that's everything I have-- and place it in Home on the W ind. Then wherever I quit reading in any book, that's where it opens up in either computer.

Freaky. It's like Amazon is looking over my shoulder while I read, and can reach right into my computer and do whatever it wants. That, I DON'T like, whether it's true or not.

Similarly, I can upload to theKindle site any document I want to be converted into Kindle format, and then download it. That's more cumbersome than I like, and I definitely don't like that feeling of outside control. I have always been opposed to Amazon controlling my reading habits and book-buying habits. So frankly I'm glad I haven't tied myself to Kindle, especially with a big handful of money. Since I don't want Kindle having any access to my personal documents, or books and stuff I buy elsewhere, I can still use other PDF type programs to read them. Or keep them in Word or WordPerfect.

To date, I've read two full length books and a short story. At first I couldn't see any real difference, other than the flexibility my laptop gives me. And I was irritated by having no page numbers because, being a writer, I just naturally analyze and study every book I read. But I hadn't noticed the adjustments (remember, I don't see peripheral stuff well). But I discovered I could not only adjust the font, but the page size. I need a narrower page because it's hard to follow straight lines, and I'd get to the end of a line, but lose where the next line began. With the Kindle for PC, I could narrow the page to a readable width, but still keep a nice size, readable font size. If I needed to, I could enlarge the font to letters as big as a fingernail, but still keep the pages themselves small. True, fewer words per page, but in some readers, any attempt to do this meant getting some lines with only a few words, and sometimes some repeated lines on the next page. Not Kindle- it's got great continuity. Score 2 for Kindle.

But I can't seem to drop down one line at a time, and the arrow keys or other page turners seem to work only for full pages. I got used to it, learning to only use the down arrow at the bottom of the page. But there could be a way to go line by line and I just haven't found it.

While I'd like to have page numbers, I can see that would be hard, if I have fully adjustable page and font size. What I have instead is a percentage of the book. So if it says I've read 70%, I know I'm probably around page 140 to 160. I can get used to this too.

For the same reason, I don't think it supports graphics well yet. With the page flexibility, graphics could end up all chopped up. That means Kindle for PC will be limited mostly to fiction books without illustrations until this works better. That's a shame. And while I can certainly see color illustrations on my laptop, if Kindle can't read colors, will I be able to see them? I don't know. Maybe that will change in later versions.

I do like the way the bookmark functions. I just set it. Then when I re-open Kindle, it takes me right to where I left off automatically. You wouldn't think this would be a problem, but it is with some e-readers, which at the least require several steps, or don't work at all half the time.

The main advantage for Kindle is, they make book buying very easy. Go to Kindle directly from the software, or go directly to Amazon on the web. Find the book I want, click. My account is charged. Click, it downloads directly to Kindle for PC.

Does it save me money? Well, both e-books I've read were cheaper than the paper book and cheaper than the same e-book on Fictionwise. But I also bought two books I haven't yet read on Fictionwise that were cheaper than the Kindle variety. I'm fine with either a PDF or Kindle reader, but now I have more shopping power because I can go either way.

Ease of reading? Well, much better for me, at least. I can adjust the brightness of my laptop screen to best suit my eyes. And font and page size are easier to adjust and maintain on Kindle for PC. I have one reader format that is very easy to accidentally re-set, and also to lose the page I'm on. Who needs that?

I also like that there is a Table of Contents for the chapters, which includes the first line of each chapter. Generally I can tell if I've read that line before, if I forgot what page I was on and didn't bookmark. It's also useful when going back after finishing the book if there's something particular I want to check. If I were still doing book reviews, this would be helpful.

Headaches? None so far. But the paper book I also read this week knocked me out of the entire next day. I've long since decided a backlit screen reduces the effect of double vision for some reason, and that's probably the most straining part of my vision. Sometimes I can work at my laptop for fourteen hours and not really have problems. Now I've got that benefit for reading books too.

I hope.

My way of reading isn't for everyone. A lot of people think the new Kindle for PC doesn't have a purpose-- why not just get a Kindle and read on it? Other than a few hundred dollars, that is. And a lot of people find reading on an e-reader less straining on the eyes than working or reading on a computer. And they point out the battery life of my mini-laptop is nowhere near the life of an e-reader. Also my mini-laptop with its spare battery weighs as much as three Kindles. But I'd be taking the mini with me anyway, and it gives me more battery life than I can use per day as it is. And for me, the comfort in reading is worth the drawbacks, which I find minuscule.

I'd say, if you have eye strain problems, or find yourself frowning when you're reading, you might want to go one step further than your optometrist. Check out how you're reading. Can you make your eyes happier? If so, you'll make yourself happier too.

So Kindle for PC gets a mostly huge thumbs up from me. I suspect I'll be using it a lot. Where to get it?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311

Or if you lose the URL, just go to Amazon.com or search the web for Kindle for PC. It's easy!

Winter, The Love-Hate Time of Year

2009-12-11T10:14:00.000-08:00

It's supposed to get above freezing today. Hooray! Until the next storm hits tonight. Here in the Northwest, I think we can love snow a little bit more than the rest of the country, this year. Or maybe not. We don't get really hard winters as a rule, so when the bad weather hits, we've usually forgotten how to drive in snow and ice.

I admit I hate being cold now, but I remember the time when I really loved it. These days, I love it, but mostly from the warm side of the window. Still, all those memories have to be good for something. That would be writing stories, of course.

We walked to school back then- yes, walked. About a mile. We girls were allowed to wear snow pants, but we had to take them off when we got to school. Yes, girls wore dresses back then.

And we went ice skating on the town reservoir, or on Weber's Lake, in the evenings. Every day we watched the temperatures and gauged the thickness of the ice by whether the temperature got above freezing. We calculated it in terms of days, and every day above freezing, even an hour, took a day off the total count. It took four days minimum below freezing all day and night for enough ice to skate, which meant we allowed at least six days for safety.

Skating was at its best on nights when the moon was full and a bonfire blazed on the shore, where hot chocolate seemed to appear in cups from moms who had dared to join us, and now and then marshmallows were blackened to taste. The ice sometimes grew so thick we could have driven cars on it, but no one ever dared. Our cars were too precious to risk. And sometimes when the lake was getting even colder, giant cracks would echo from one end of the lake to another as we'd skate over it. It was spooky. But we all knew how ice expanded as it froze, and the cracks meant the ice was getting even thicker. We would be safer, not in more danger.

On my 13th birthday, we loaded into cars and drove to a remote creek that was maybe 30 to 50 feet wide and not very deep, but was frozen along its entire course. We skated what seemed like miles up the creek until it narrowed too much and the ice had buckled too badly because it was too shallow. And then we skated back, and were so exhausted we could hardly manage to get into the cars to go home.

Mom had a special treat for us- Because it was also the day before Valentines Day, she had made meringue cups in heart shapes, baked them till they browned, and filled them with strawberry ice cream. I had never been all that fond of strawberry ice cream, but that day it seemed really special.

Ice skating was like flying to me. I wasn't all that good at it, but I rarely fell, and I felt like I soared when I skated. I didn't like Crack the Whip- the guys seemed to think it was funny to put the girls at the end so they'd fall. And we probably looked pretty awkward when we tried to skate with one leg dangling in the air behind us while we spread our arms and pretended to be flying swans.

And there were those who had boyfriends, who snuggled near the fire instead of skating. I didn't, but I don't think I cared, because I loved the skating and I preferred being out on the ice with the boys who loved it too.

I don't have any photos from those skating times. But the memories endured. And the love of soaring over the ice came to the surface again in a book, His Majesty, the Prince of Toads, a story that takes place in the frigid winter of 1816, and my hero finds a way to use Sophie's love of skating to give her a gift to ease her pain in coming to grips with a tragedy she had shut out of her mind many years before. But when he takes her out on the ice that frozen night, he is making a frightening sacrifice, knowing his war injury of shrapnel in his knee is aggravated by such action as skating. The pain is horrendous, and his biggest fear is that he will lose his leg. But for Sophie's need, he takes the risk, doing everything he can to hide his pain from her.

I won't tell you more, in case you haven't read it. I'm hoping and planning on a re-issue of the book soon. But if you get a chance to read it, you'll know, when Sophie skates, she's really me, in a way that isn't often true of my characters. But it's also where Sophie is really Sophie, and where she finds her lost life. And where Lucas finds true heroism. On the ice.

Delle