Hope

I just bought Pete Souza's collection of photos of Barack Obama during his Presidency. I bought the deluxe edition signed by Souza because I could get it from amazon.co.uk. It has sold out in the US.

The reason I bought it? When the images of the past deliver hope for the future, it's a powerful thing to embrace.

Perspective

It's amazing how much can be said with one word and one photo taken from a certain perspective.

Forgotten writers

Is it worse to be forgotten than never known? BBC author Hephzibah Anderson reveals the reasons why several famous and successful authors have been forgotten and suggests that it's up to readers to keep them alive. Finding the out-of-print books in second-hand book shops is half the joy. Yes it is. Fortunately, we have several charity shops in our town that carry lots of second hand books, as well as a second-hand dedicated book store. And I love them all.

Personally, I would rather be forgotten than never known. At least then there's a chance of being found again.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20171010-the-great-writers-forgotten-by-history

eReaders can be challenging

Annual Washington Post Neologism Contest

Thank you Washington Post for once again introducing some levity into the national conversation.


ANNUAL NEOLOGISM CONTEST

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words.

The winners are:
1. Coffee (N.), the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (V.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (V.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (Adj.), impotent.
6. Negligent (Adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
7. Lymph (V.), to walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (N.), olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (N.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (N.), a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (N.), a humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (N.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon (N), a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (N.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (N.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (N.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

Mea culpa -- reversing the philosophy of the To Do list

First, I feel guilty for not having written much this summer. My last post was the day before my birthday. That was the last day I sat at my computer before sailing off to Spain with Alex aboard Aleria. I don't feel too guilty because in the two months we were there, I recharged. Limited internet, no TV, and no radio meant lots of reading, seeing new things and relaxing. Lots of new ideas and the desire to follow up ensued.

Expertise and self-publishing

Several years ago, a friend who lectures about how to deal with problem teenagers was telling us about her specialty. Alex asked her if she was ever asked for more information. She said 'always' and that she gives the parents a typed handout. He advised her to self-publish her notes in a book and sell it instead. She did just that and now sells enough books to have quit her day job and do what she loves full time.

Survey of Indie Authors by Smashwords Yields Interesting Insights

Smashwords does an annual survey of indie publishers results and this year's has some interesting revelations. You can read their blog here:  http://blog.smashwords.com/2017/06/smashwords-survey-2017.html 

And view the results of the survey in a slideshare here:
https://www.slideshare.net/Smashwords/2017-smashwords-survey-of-ebook-trends-and-data

Significantly, they found signs that many indies who are selling ebooks well at $2.99 should probably experiment with higher prices.  In previous surveys, $2.99 and $3.99 were the sweets spots.  It looks like it's time to add $4.99 to that mix.

What's in a dream?

I have been unable to write much in the last few weeks. I've experienced a series of events that blocked me up.

• We went skiing to Livigno, Italy for a week and for the first time I admitted that skiing was getting to be excessive work (Am I getting old?). The conditions were great, and we had fun skiing with cousins from Germany until Celine tore her knee up like I did so many years ago. Perhaps the memory of that did me in. 

Promoting my book

It's hard work promoting a novel. We were travelling for much of the time since we released the book so I never had a chance to really launch it. We're also concentrating on Alex's new release Self Publishing for Success. He launched it at Books@One in Louisburgh to a small but interested audience in a very nice session. Next week he does a seminar at the Castlebar Library. But me, I'm not really doing much.

My book was on the table as an offering from White Seahorse Press at Books@One. I did post it on Goodreads and amazon.com. I did a book reading to post on our website and blogs. I have signed up to Reader's Gazette and they tweet my stuff out regularly. I did post when I had a chance on Women who sail Facebook group. I do occasionally post something on different sites but I'm not really working at it. Why? because I think this is a trivial book that helped me learn how to write a book. I am aiming for the next one to be the literary novel or memoir that I have to get out.

Book reading from The Naked Truth

Trailer for Onyx the Cruising Kitty

View on YouTube

Learn more about the book at White Seahorse.

The Naked Truth Press Release

Contact: Alex Blackwell
President
White Seahorse
Division of Knowledge Clinic Ltd.
Port Aleria, Rosnakilly, Kilmeena
Westport, County Mayo, Ireland
+353 87 624 3907
ablackwell@knowledgeclinic.com
www.coastalboating.net

For Immediate Release

Announcing the New Release:
The Naked Truth
A nautical murder mystery
by Daria Blackwell

14 February 2017, Westport, Ireland:  White Seahorse is pleased to announce the release of The Naked Truth - A nautical murder mystery. It is Daria Blackwell’s first novel. She is the co-author of several previous non-fiction works.

Alex Blackwell, White Seahorse President, independent publisher and author said, “This novel complements our existing line of self-published works, each of which takes on a degree of a nautical theme, but weaves an intriguing story around adventures on the high seas. It’s not the typical diary of an Atlantic circuit. It has multiple twists of plot that are unexpected but highly plausible. It’s a story that anyone who has ever thought about sailing away will find amusing and intriguing. They may even glean several valuable lessons from the narrative.”

When asked how she developed her story, Daria Blackwell explained, “When we sailed across the Atlantic and through the Caribbean, I kept meticulous notes and wrote missives to our friends and family throughout the trip. But I knew I didn’t want to just tell our story as a travelogue. I wanted to use our real experience as the backdrop to a fictional story, one that would be full of twists and turns. So I just started writing, and one day the idea of stringing together a series of disparate yet potentially connected events came to me, and The Naked Truth was born.”

The story begins with Xander and Jessica anchored in the Canary Islands. They had sailed off in search of adventure. Sailing across oceans on their own boat was exactly the kind of restorative voyage the Lynches craved. They quit their high powered jobs, sold their house, and cast off the lines. When Jessica witnesses a series of murders in exotic settings, their adventure sets her on the course of a murder trail. On finding no evidence – no bodies, no signs of struggles – their quest to answer unasked questions begins.  Tormented by helplessness, Jessica experiences bizarre dreams within which lay the clues that evaded the professionals. They embark on a convoluted course to uncover the naked truth.

The Naked Truth is set in the Atlantic Islands and the Caribbean. The description of crossing oceans as a lifestyle is based on the author’s experience. Everything else is fiction.

Paperback: 418 pages

Publisher: White Seahorse/CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Launch date:  February 10, 2017

ISBN10:  1540793745      

ISBN13: 978-1540793744

SRP: $15.00        

About the Author

Daria Blackwell is the co-author of two critically acclaimed non-fiction books Happy Hooking - The Art of Anchoring, Cruising the Wild Atlantic Way and Onyx, The Cruising Kitty. The Naked Truth is her debut novel, a murder mystery set in the midst of sailing adventures. She has written numerous articles for sailing magazines and websites on both sides of the Atlantic. Daria is a USCG-licensed captain with three Atlantic crossings and a year’s sabbatical sailing in the Caribbean to her credit. In a former life she was a scientist, a science writer, a creative copywriter, a strategic planner, and a top level executive in marketing and communications firms. She is the author of several publications on cultural competence. A dual citizen of the US and Ireland, Daria has taken on a mid-Atlantic mind set. Follow her blogs at http://dariablackwell.blogspot.ie/ and http://aleriasadventures.blogspot.com/.

About White Seahorse

White Seahorse (www.whiteseahorse.com) is a division of Knowledge Clinic Limited based in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland (www.knowledgeclinic.com). White Seahorse is dedicated to providing information, products, and consulting, marketing and communications services to the marine leisure industry. White Seahorse’s publishing arm provides support for independent authors who self-publish.

• High resolution art is available from ablackwell@knowledgeclinic.com .  
• Booksellers interested in carrying any of the White Seahorse titles should contact ablackwell@knowledgeclinic.com. They may also order directly from CreateSpace.com.
• For more titles, visit http://www.whiteseahorse.ie.

https://www.whiteseahorse.ie/publishing/NakedTruth/NT-Release.html

Soon to be released: Self-Publishing for Success, Every book deserves to be published.

https://www.prlog.org/12622784-new-book-release-the-naked-truth-nautical-murder-mystery.html

Moving to Ireland

When we first moved back (actually my husband moved back, I went with him) to Ireland, we were eager to work and share the immense amount of experience we had in very relevant professions.  I had been a top level executive in pharma and related businesses; my husband was a marketing, printing and new media specialist with multinationals. I have cultural competence as a specialty, which is very rare. I was told, "Oh we have plenty of people with your profile." So we started our own business, were let down by a government agency, and began writing books instead. It's been an interesting ride.

I do love living here. Life is real here. No alternative facts. But many people have a very limited understanding of what the world out there is really like. It's a story I'm looking to tell.

Social Networking to promote your works

eBiz MBA has ranked the top social networking sites. There is no doubt that self-publishing required disciplined self-promotion. So it pays to know where you can have the most impact. Facebook and YouTube are are the clear winners when it comes to delivering sheer numbers of users. But Twitter, especially now that with our supreme TOTUS has us wondering, "What next?"

"Now I lay me down to sleep 

wondering what the Trump will tweet."

But seriously, as opposed to most social media which depend on pull to intercept people who are already there, Twitter is a push medium that can distribute a message to the entire universe of users interested in a particular subject with a simple #. It's how the #resistance is growing. It's a very powerful medium so tweeting your message is very important. The following is today's report from eBiz MBA. Each of the sites has it's own appeal. Use them to your advantage. After all, they are free, except for your time. Use it wisely. 

My book is live on amazon

We uploaded the pdf and approved the proof last night. I checked this morning and, voila, my book is live online at amazon.com. Thrilling and chilling. Will anyone want to buy it?  Will they read it? Will they like it?  It's terrifying to lay yourself out there like that, baring your soul to the world. What will the naked truth turn out to be?

And here it is on amazon.co.uk...

Now to get the Kindle version up and start promoting it. The real work begins. I have just created a page for it on Goodreads. So much more to do.

Short Memoir by a Ukrainian American Irishwoman

I wrote a short memoir for a competition to be included in the Fish 2017 anthology. It's about my journey as a Ukrainian American Irishwoman and my search for home. I started developing my thoughts in my blog about what it means to be Ukrainian in the diaspora. This competition forced me to edit them into a story. The reviewer loved my piece and suggested I pursue a radio version as the story is very relevant and needs to be told. So my next project is underway. I have contacted the RTE Documentary on One, and am developing a proposal for their consideration. This could be fun.

Final phase of publishing for The Naked Truth

Yesterday, I completed the proofreading of the Create Space printed proof.  I found quite a few typos, so I took the opportunity to fix a few little things I did not like as well. It's interesting how much more you see in print than on the screen. We made a new pdf and I checked that to make certain nothing went wonky, which can always happen. It was fine. So Alex uploaded the revised pdf to Create Space.

This morning we received a new proof pdf to check, which I did again. Despite their indication that there were a few low res images in the book, I did not see anything I could identify as low res. We're going with it.

Final word count: 95,480. Final page count 400. Plus author bio and promotional pages for our other books. We always take the opportunity to promote the others when we can.

So yipee! I am finished with this phase. Now the marketing begins in earnest. Wish me luck.

Two spaces at the end vs one

No.  We don't use typewriters any more.

No. We don't use typewriters any more. 

I've been hunted by people who chide me for the modern ailment of instinctively using two spaces at the end of a sentence. The young ones rant about how it is totally unacceptable to use two spaces. That all the style guides use one space.

Welcome to the computer era when spacing is precisely calculated. I grew up typing on a manual typewriter. Yes, manual, long before electric. The spacing was erratic. In typing courses, which were required in high school, we learned to type two spaces after a full stop punctuation mark. What becomes rote at that age stays with you for a lifetime, trust me.

Look back in history and you will see that it was typesetters in the UK who first decided that one space would be the accepted standard in order to alleviate the mess in typography at the time. People were using one, two or even three spaces to make different typefaces more readable. To eliminate the inconsistencies, they made a new rule. That rule was adopted in America much later.

I happen to think that sentences are much more readable with two spaces between them, especially as my eyes age (I'll spare the rant about type size and color selected by young whipper snappers for another post.). But I'll accede to the masses, as it's a small and invisible point that could stand in the way of being published.

So when I am finished with a manuscript, I simply find and replace two spaces with one. See if you can tell the difference? At least it gives me more characters to tweet. Just wait 'till I whip out my typewriter when the grid goes down!

Oh, and by the way, in their new style manual (2017), the APA has returned to two spaces for readability.  Chicago Style Manual recommends one.

English is hard

Did you know there are 3000 words in English for being drunk? But having many ways of expressing yourself is only one of the difficulties with the English language. For me, homonyms are the worst. Read and Red, sell and cell, fair and fare, wine and whine, meet, meat and mete are just a few. For years, I thought Puff the magic dragon had something to do with ceiling wax rather than sealing wax.

Goodreads

I chose to express my author profiles differently on different websites.  On amazon, I wrote short bios that a publisher would likely prefer. On Goodreads I chose to write a more reader focused bio. Why, because I think Goodreads is run by readers and it's the person not the book that may appeal to those who administer it. We'll see if my logic works.

And here's a review of Turtle Bunbury's excellent book 1847 that I posted on Goodreads.

The Author Profile

I have been busy creating and updating my author profiles on sites like amazon, Goodreads, and Smashwords. The latter is a really interesting resource for indie publishers and self-publishers. It distributes eBooks to everyone but amazon. They take a small percentage of sales revenue and the author gets the lions share. Can't wait to see how it works.

Something to remember

The Naked Truth proof has gone to print

I reviewed and approved the Create Space pdf and the proof has gone to press. The sales page has been built and we are on our way. Now we wait.

And it's off...to Create Space

The final pdf has been uploaded to Create Space for review today. What a moment! It's finished and gone to the printer. In a couple of days, we'll be reviewing their pdf to make sure nothing has gone wrong between here and there. We did have a little difficulty with our own pdf today. Blank pages, funny pagination, stuff like that. And amazingly, when just scanning through the final .docx file, I caught three more typos. Lord knows how the eye just doesn't see sometimes.

The next step will be to review a hard copy proof. If fine, we post to amazon companies and affiliates and create our own webpage. Then the marketing begins. Alex created an emoticon for me to use promotionally. Very cute. Thanks for all your help my love.

Anyway, I think I can be proud of this work. It won't change the world, but it might entertain a soul or two. In any case, I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of.