News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #127…
“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy….” Less happening too for my newsletter. Gershwin’s classic song is hardly appropriate for modern lifestyles, though. Many people are heading off to vacation. Those can be hectic—the vacations, not the people (although people tend to live hectic lives these days, which is why they need vacations). The best vacation I can imagine? Sitting under a shade tree or under an umbrella on the beach or in a Paris café on the Left Bank reading a good book. Some people flock to theme parks where kids can ride crazy rides and puke up their hot dogs afterwards. Not my idea of fun. Been there; done that. Take my advice: pick a vacation away from the chaos in your life and get some quiet R&R.
Sure, visit Mother Nature (scenery, not Johnny peeing on your shoe) in our wonderful national parks; take a cruise; tour Civil War battlegrounds; visit Monet’s home outside of Paris; whatever…and wherever you can find some peace and quiet. And take some books along. (OK, all hard to do if you have small kids, but if they’re older, dump them in the amusement park and do your own thing. Or leave them with their grandparents. They’re always on vacation and are supposed to love their grandkids, right?)
Now that all parents are mad at me…. Kids too, I suppose, if they read this blog (it’s basically PG-13, with the exception of some short stories that are still less risqué than TV’s cable channels). Parents, what’s the best thing you can do for your children? Start them reading. It’s not easy to do today with all the passive distractions kids (and adults!) have, not to mention hectic lifestyles (softball, soccer, and hockey games, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, hang-gliding, and whatever for the kids with the parents carting them around while living on their cell phones because the boss expects you to be there for him 24/7) but language and the written word are important because they define us as human beings—losing them means losing our humanity.
Human beings don’t talk in 140 character snippets; they shouldn’t limit their reading to them either. No one wants kids bullying or bragging on Facebook, and parents shouldn’t let them. Too much technology is dehumanizing. Reading returns the humanizing element to modern, robotic lifestyles. From books for young children to those young adult (YA) novels, there are books especially written for kids. The YA novels are often enjoyed by adults too. (I’ve written one YA novel, The Secret Lab, and was surprised by the adult readers who liked it.) So get your child reading. Make sure s/he rejoins the human race. Set a good example by doing so yourself.
Taken aback. Last Sunday’s “Momma Strip” stopped me in my tracks. Hardly a comic strip at all, it featured a tomb stone for Mrs. Hobbs and a multitude of characters from other strips paying respects. “What’s this?” I asked myself. So I googled “today’s momma strip” and discovered it was an adieu to the strip because Mell Lazarus (May 3, 1927-May 24, 2016) had died. Wow! Didn’t know he died. They must have had a backlog of strips they used until now. RIP Mell and Mrs. Hobbs. (And now I guess this blog is a full online newspaper with this its first two obits. Hmm. Maybe not the first. I did a memorial to Mercedes Sosa once—somewhere in the archives.)
Don’t worry. I won’t make a habit of putting obits into this blog. I refrained from mentioning Harper Lee, for example, or Prince, whose lyrics were often poetic. Cartoonists are often both writers and artists, though, whether just for giggles or in editorial cartoons (“Doonesbury,” often appearing on the editorial page of conservative newspapers, is both—many are), so the comic “Momma” strip got my intention. Unusual too, because Mrs. Hobbs’s kids weren’t present in the strip, just characters from other strips. Strange….
Amazon retail prices. Whether good or bad, this retailer makes the news. In this case, I’m ambivalent about a new policy where they won’t show retail prices. Consumers are supposed to be smart enough to recognize that the posted price is a real bargain. Can you imagine the consequences for books? Readers will see those Kindle Countdown Deals or freebie offers and wonder if the book’s always priced like that. Discounts for trad-pubbed ebooks might be obvious (“Oh my, it’s much lower than the cost of the print book now!”), but indies, which are usually bargains, might suffer. $0 is clear, though, if a reader knows Amazon doesn’t allow perma-free, but a Countdown Deal from $2.99 to $0.99 won’t be that obvious.
Looks like I made my ebooks non-exclusive on Amazon just in time. My deals for books on Smashwords are only announced in this blog (I’m assuming Amazon’s computers don’t read the blog), so readers will always know when they’re on sale. And you can buy ebooks there formatted for your Kindle too. The coupon code could be considered unwieldy, but consumers are accustomed to those for other products. Smashwords also offers a borrowing option through its affiliate Overdrive. For ebooks, you can get by without Prime and KDP Select quite easily. And for me, Amazon is just another online retailer now. They do show my paper versions, though; Smashwords could care less. Pros and cons to everything.
A sci-fi summer? Most of my entries in this genre are already added to Smashwords: the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” (Survivors of the Chaos, Sing a Samba Galactica, and Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!); the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” (Full Medical, Evil Agenda, and No Amber Waves of Grain); The Secret Lab (YA novel); More than Human: The Mensa Contagion; and Rogue Planet. The “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” are as much sci-fi thrillers as mysteries (see below); they’ve been added to Smashwords too. Soldiers of God will be added soon. Check these books out for your summer reading.
The “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” are on sale. Mary Jo is inviting you to celebrate with her for leaving Amazon exclusivity and appearing on Smashwords too. She’s an ex-USN Master-at-Arms who manages to get into a lot of trouble as a civilian; she also manages to beat the odds and survive, though. Muddlin’ Through (Smashwords coupon code KY27A) is an international thriller where she works to clear her name and pay back the group that framed her. In the process, she discovers the MECHs, Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans, and romance as she runs around the U.S., South American, and Europe. Silicon Slummin’…and Just Gettin’ By (Smashwords coupon code VT64E) takes place almost exclusively in the Silicon Valley where she has two government groups pursuing her, one U.S., the other Russian. She also has a stalker on a revenge mission. Both books, normally $2.99, are $0.99 on Smashwords, using the coupon codes, until August 1—lots of entertaining summer reading for $2!
In libris libertas!
