I've been busy over the last year or so. We have moved house and also become grandparents. Hosted numerous friends coming to say hello or staying. Been involved with our local community. Even spent a couple of amazing weeks in Mexico City. But then it was imperative to get back to work. I now have three books on amazon - 'Calandra's Spring', available at
www.amazon.com/dp/B007IX4NI2#reader_B007IX4NI2
'The Other Side of Nowhere' http://tinyurl.com/d7kt9wn
and now - 'Fabulicious! Ice-Cream Sandwiches Home-Made'
which is a complete departure from my novels, being a 'how to'. You can find it at:
http://tinyurl.com/cqlg4au
All are Kindle books as I would like future generations to have some large trees in the world. And a Kindle is a great way to read recipes!
Enjoy!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
My favourite swimming gadget
It's important for writers to get exercise and mine is swimming. I have paddles, flippers and a board and use them all to speed up my exercise. I alternate and then use them altogether swimming a mile or so and the last 10 laps are without the gear. Love it and I can think while I swim!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Free uploads of 'Calandra's Spring'.
The 'sale' of my book on Kindle for free today continues and is a steady trickle of downloads. This has lifted my amazon.com rating considerably but I wonder how quickly that will drop after I am again charging (a small amount) for my months of work!?
It seems that writers rarely hit the big time or even the middling-small time enough to make a living unless the book is sponsored from the start as some kind of 'corporate' undertaking. Of course, the sacrifice then is that, to some degree, you have to toe the company line and your writing becomes a mouthpiece for some robber baron (at worst). I've been in those shoes for many a long year as I have worked as a writer, technical writer and corporate and enjoyed the discipline of it, but felt it most gut-wrenching when matters I wrote about involved retrenchments and sackings.
However, it paid for my kids to go to school, learn a musical instrument and travel. And I always tried to make the message optimistic with some direction towards a remedy.
It seems that writers rarely hit the big time or even the middling-small time enough to make a living unless the book is sponsored from the start as some kind of 'corporate' undertaking. Of course, the sacrifice then is that, to some degree, you have to toe the company line and your writing becomes a mouthpiece for some robber baron (at worst). I've been in those shoes for many a long year as I have worked as a writer, technical writer and corporate and enjoyed the discipline of it, but felt it most gut-wrenching when matters I wrote about involved retrenchments and sackings.
However, it paid for my kids to go to school, learn a musical instrument and travel. And I always tried to make the message optimistic with some direction towards a remedy.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Formatting solution for Kindle
If you have uploaded a book and then been disappointed when you have checked it on your Kindle (or had feedback from readers criticising your format) this may be a solution:
For those of you who asked, this is what I noted.
I have a Macbook Pro (2009) and initially used Microsoft Word to write my books. I thought that saving as a PDF would do it for a Kindle upload, but no, the formatting went out the window but looked OK in the preview. So, what I did was go to my bookshelf, choose the book for reformatting and choose edit from the actions menu. Previously, I had re-saved my beautifully formatted file as an html file. Then I re-uploaded it. This kept the format (with hard page breaks and indents).
Hope this helps you!
For those of you who asked, this is what I noted.
I have a Macbook Pro (2009) and initially used Microsoft Word to write my books. I thought that saving as a PDF would do it for a Kindle upload, but no, the formatting went out the window but looked OK in the preview. So, what I did was go to my bookshelf, choose the book for reformatting and choose edit from the actions menu. Previously, I had re-saved my beautifully formatted file as an html file. Then I re-uploaded it. This kept the format (with hard page breaks and indents).
Hope this helps you!
FREE book! Today and tomorrow only!
My book, 'Calandra's Spring' is on FREE promo listing at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007IX4NI2
Please feel very welcome to download and any reviews or feedback are gratefully received!
Incidentally, Kindle reformatted the book so that it was a disaster but I worked long and hard on it and now it is fine. If you bought the old version, re-upload this one as it is formatted correctly.
Enjoy the read! It is an adult book but some older YA readers will enjoy it. There is some racy sex in it but probably nothing that our young adult kids haven't seen in Twilight.
Please feel very welcome to download and any reviews or feedback are gratefully received!
Incidentally, Kindle reformatted the book so that it was a disaster but I worked long and hard on it and now it is fine. If you bought the old version, re-upload this one as it is formatted correctly.
Enjoy the read! It is an adult book but some older YA readers will enjoy it. There is some racy sex in it but probably nothing that our young adult kids haven't seen in Twilight.
Friday, October 19, 2012
'The Other Side of Nowhere' needs reviewers
If you are in the mood to read and review this book, please let me know and I will send you a copy. It's always hard to get someone to read, especially with a long work and one that is for Digital publishing only, but I would love some feedback!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
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