Monday, August 22, 2011

This Was The Week That Was



This week I hardly did any writing for three reasons: 1) We had more company than we've had for awhile (and boy was I ready to see emmisaries from the outside world again!)  2) I was going through the procedure to set up my book, The Fourth Wish, on Kindle. 3) I was answering interview questions (via email) about writing The Fourth Wish (quite fun.)


I'll work backwards:
Interview: Diane Gross writes book reviews for Sacramento Book Examiner and will be reviewing my book later in the week (I'll tweet it when she does). The two part interview is prelude to the review, and you can read part one of her interview here.


Kindle: Ah, Kindle! Friends have been telling me I should put my book on Kindle, and so I decided to do just that. Originally, I self-published The Fourth Wish through CreateSpace, a very user-friendly publishing site with links to Amazon -- you can sell your book through both sites.  CreateSpace also offers incredible technical support. (I speak gratefully, since I am one who can be one click away from disaster whenever I try new ventures in technology.) They helped me immensely when setting up the original publication, and they helped me set it up for Kindle (charging a small fee to first format the book for Kindle). By phone, a technician walked me through the whole process of  downloading a free Kindle for Mac from Amazon, downloading my formatted book so I could read it to see if it looked good (it did), and then uploading it into my Kindle account. This was last Wednesday, and CreateSpace will connect the two links so that all reviews, etc. go to both sites, and both the paperback sites and the Kindle site are shown together, giving one a choice of which way to purchase. (The paperback sells for $14.95; the Kindle for $6.99.)


Visitors: I have been truly lucky, even before this week.  One of my classmates from art class has stopped by a couple of times with the teacher's demo pictures she saved for me. She also brought pasta, pasta sauce, and fresh basil. My wonderful neighbor has stopped by several times with books to read, a bag of  eats and treats, and a beautifully potted African Violet. (Visits I especially appreciate, as she has had surgery of her own to deal with.)

But last week's visits came all in a bunch: A writer friend stopped by with a beautiful potted succulent plant whose name I can't pronounce. Our nephew out from New York and stayed overnight. Friends from Colfax brought us lunch -- tortalini, salad, fresh bread, fruit salad, berry pie -- we are still marvelling over their kindness. (Especially kind for Sir Husband, as I am not cooking yet.) And yesterday my picture book writing group met at our house, since I also am not driving yet.

But I will be, and soon! I'll be doing all of it, and then my news will encompass more than the state of my foot. Until then, I look forward to visiting your blogs again and catching up on your news.

And please leave some recommendations for good reads.  I'm reading again.

13 comments:

  1. That is great news The Fourth Wish will soon be available on Kindle, Mitty. I’m hopping over right now to read your author interview.

    As for great reads? I just read the ARC for Sheila Dalton's psychological mystery/drama The Girl in the Box; it is easily one of the best novels I've read in several years. I'm delighted Sheila will be doing a book giveaway on Goodreads that is scheduled to start Sept. 15.

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  2. It was great to see you yesterday at critique! It's been too long.

    Right now I'm reading a book the author sent to me to review on my blog. It's The Summer of Hammers and Angels by Shannon Wiersbitzky. It's terrific and I'm looking forward to some quiet time to finish it. Last week a read a chapter book called Marty McGuire by Kate Messner. It's terrific and I think you'd like it. Happy reading.

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  3. Its great that The Fourth Wish will be available on Kindle. Congrats.

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  4. Cool. I have a Kindle. I wonder, though, how a picture book will look on it. I guess I'll find out.

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  5. I just started reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Michael Offutt just gave it a glowing reviews won his blog today, which formed me to take it off the shelf!

    I've been seeing a lot of family, so I haven't had much luck with writing either.

    Goo luck with Kindle!

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  6. What nice visitors you have!

    I hope the recover is coming along well!

    And how exciting to get your book in Kindle format, very cool.

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  7. Good stuff, Elizabeth! I wouldn't even know how to format something into a Kindle. One of these days I'll figure it out. They say it's the future of publishing, right?

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  8. It sounds like you have managed to be busy despite everything! And your friends sound lovely - it shows you are obviously a good friend in return. :)

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  10. I removed the earlier comment because I had some omissions and misspellings in it. Wish they would just delete it, period. It looks like maybe I was swearing or something!

    Anyway, thanks all of you for your comments:

    Michelle, Rosi, ad Theresa, thanks for the recommendations: The Girl in the Box, Marty McGuire, and American Gods are on my list now.

    Jayne and Kimberly, yes, I really am blest (or is it blessed?) with good friends and neighbors.

    David, I didn't have a clue about how to set up Kindle, which is why I was so grateful for the technical support. And it's the kind of support that doesn't make you feel "dumb" if you know what I mean. Encouragement all the way.

    Richard and Rachna, thanks for the good wishes. And thanks, Richard, for the shout out on FB.

    Hi, Lola, thanks for the visit and the nice comments.

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  11. Hoping sales go well. Can't wait to get my Kindle replaced.

    Definitely want to read GiB. Read it in the very early stages, but didn't get to the end. It's a must read.

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  12. Hi, Joy, thanks for the advice in your email. I'll be posting Friday with news and awards.

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