Electronic Book Readers-

One of my Facebook friends asked me when my books will be out in print. She wanted to read my works but did not have an electronic book reader. Unfortunately, the traditional way of getting into print is a long and arduous process, with winning an agent who must win a publisher and then the whole publishing circus.

Alternatively, I could go with a print-on-demand service. If someone orders my books a copy will be printed and sent to them. Not a bad system. At this point in my publishing adventure I am not prepared to shell out the hundreds of bucks to get the document formatted for print on demand. My budget for all of this is small. Ebooks are an affordable option, and the one I chose.

Ebooks have a lot of advantages. They all fit on smart phones, devices like the iTouch media player, pad format computers, and computers of all sorts. Most of these devices simply require you to download an ereader as an application or standard piece of software. These devices have various advantages and disadvantages.

For example, the smart phone you have with you always. Therefore, you will have any books you have loaded on the device with you wherever you go. The disadvantage is the size of the screen. Some people will find reading on a phone (or iTouch like device) difficult. Others will find it pleasant. I know of one woman who has read many books on her iTouch, and finds it just fine as a reader.

My reader of choice is the Nook, sold by Barnes and Noble. When they reduced the price to my chosen trigger point ($150) I bought one. The first model. I like the paper-like screen, as I can read it in full light and not get the computer screen wash-out common with phone and computer screens. By the way, the current prices have units below $150.

To get started it is easy to download a reader to your computer. There are quite a few free books available from various sources. They are easy to download and open with you reading software. Give computer reading a try and see how you like it. If you have a smart phone, try a reading application. The cost of getting started is quite low.

From there a reader can move on to evaluating other electronic reading devices. Sony has a nice one. Amazon has their Kindle, which was first on the market and still an excellent device. Kobo, which had been associated with the Borders distribution network, seems like an adequate device. Of course, there is also the Nook. Prices vary depending on the device and the features you might prefer.

If the cost of the device is of concern, don't forget the free books I mentioned. There are a lot of books out there that will cost you nothing. Paper books will never disappear, but the convenience of ebooks will grow on you. With the right kind of account you can often download a book in minutes, and be reading right away.

I recommend you give it a try. And, while you are trying, have a look my own works. I have enjoyed writing them. I would love for you to read them.

(Note: at present I am unaware of any way to read epub format writings on the Kindle. My works are not currently available in Kindle format.)

Non-articulated Dreams-

I think that dreams, and the pursuits of dreams, are important in the life of a human. Most of the happiest people I have known (a sadly small number of people) were people who identified their dreams early in life and focused on fulfilling those dreams. Many others I have known have just drifted through life, much like I feel I have done.

Am I a happy person? Not so much so as I would like. Why is that? I don't think that I truly identified my dreams early in life, and those I had I did not nurture. Dreams need to be identified, then fed and pruned and given liberty to grow. I knew little about that in my youth, and apparently it was not a priority with those who were tasked with educating me.

Do I find fault with those people? No, I don't. I was not neglected with malicious intent. I was not neglected through laziness. I don't think I was neglected at all. I suspect that the idea of finding your own passion and letting it become a dream, then growing that dream, is just not a common concept.

Dreams are, in many social contexts, considered frivolous wastes of time. One must be practical, and responsible. You can't go off following dreams and still manage to live a good life. You have to earn a good living, and buy a house and all of those other things that make up the American Dream. Oh, wait. There's that word again. Dream.

I had a really good childhood. Our economic status was sufficient that I was not compelled to dig my way out of poverty just to get an even start with most other Americans. There were plenty of resources, had I a dream and a will to see it fulfilled. I simply had not gathered the skills of dreaming. Day dreaming, yes, but not the kind of dreaming that gives direction and motivation and fulfillment.

Yet I have attained to much I value. A good family. A nice home. My children are reasonably balanced human beings who are generally liked and respected. None of our troubles are the consequences of miscreant misbehavior. In retrospect, these are dreams I never articulated yet achieved nonetheless.

They are my non-articulated dreams. I have even achieved some whims that never really attained to the status of dreams. Like writing a novel, and seeing it published. Indeed, I have written and published three novels, and a collection of short stories. I had a whim of being a writer, but no real dream.

I cannot change my past, yet I sometimes wonder. What if I had really dreamed of being a writer? What if I had learned what it might take to become not just a writer, but a professional writer? I can only speculate, but it might have been an interesting life. More satisfying that the one I now live? I really can't say.

What I like to do now is encourage people to follow their dreams. Granted, a dream may not be practical, but that is part of the nurturing and pruning. The dream has to be given shape and fed the necessary resources to live in the real world. Shaping your dream will shape your life, and I suspect that it will be all the richer and more fulfilling for the effort.

There are, of course, dream killers out there. They will challenge your dream. It won't be practical, at least in their minds. It won't be responsible, this dream-chasing. As to those, I recommend you examine their lives. Do they seem happy? Do they appear to be fulfilled? Does their idea of practicality and responsibility contribute to a truly good life? If not, I suggest you distance yourself from them. They may poison your dream.

The road to dream fulfillment will, of course, have challenges. Roads always do. Those challenges can be incorporated into the dream, if you are creative and committed. Overcoming them will add richness to your dream, and give it context.

Dare to dream. Dare to follow your dreams. YOUR dreams.

Self-Promotion is not my thing-

So, it has been a busy time for me. For a retired guy I am working a lot. Not seeing much money, but working a lot. I have uploaded all of my completed novels in the Edge of the World series to Barnes and Noble. I also finished compiling, editing and uploading my short stories. These are the compiled short stories from my blog, Short Stories by MLockridge. They are now available as an ebook.

Though I have had enough sales so far to say I have had some sales, I am not seeing any current revenue to augment my rather sparse pension. I am very thankful for that pension, having invested twenty years of my life in a dangerous and unpleasant environment to win it. Still, there is little money from the books thus far.

So, the books will need a little promotion.

This amounts to promoting myself. I have never been so inclined. It is a learning curve the whole of which I must climb. Social networking, both online and in the real world. Meeting people, and talking myself and my books up. I suppose some people gravitate to this kind of thing. I much prefer the thought of taking my Mobile Man Cave down by the river and just watching the water flow down to the sea.

I have set my foot on this trail, however, and I intend to see it through. So, I have begun gathering materials and preparing to go out there and do something. What, I am not entirely sure of, as yet. Still, a few ideas. Barnes and Noble book store in Medford seems a good place. I can go and have informal meet-the-author events there. Perhaps some coffee houses would be good venues. I hope to participate in a gamers convention at a local game shop, being present as a local author of fantasy adventure novels.

I am just beginning to collect a list of upcoming events in Oregon and Northern California which might serve as suitable venues. The how-to of all of this is a thing I will have to grow into. Book events, storytelling conventions and the like seem to be related and interesting to me. How to promote through attendance is something I will have to develop.

Meanwhile, due to the limited funding of my retirement I am exploring some employment options. I have a qualification test this weekend for a job that could serve well enough. I will provide details as those become prudent and available. If the hours are right I can gain a bit of income, some of which can support the whole promotion process.

It really is rather fun, and it is healthy to have a challenge to face. I look forward to seeing how it all turns out, and will certainly keep friends and readers posted.

Keep Moving Forward-

The past month or two have been busy. I have been committed to editing, formatting and uploading my novels to Barnes and Noble through their Pubit program. Along with continuing to move into a new home, with all of the chaos and the yard work and this and that and the other.

Marcus of Abderus and the Inn at the Edge of the World, the first novel in my Edge of the World series of Fantasy Adventure novels, is on sale. So are the following two titles. Plus a little set of rules for a super simple war game I wrote up.

So, I have been away from blogging. It is time to turn that around, now. I am pretty much on my own for promoting my novels, and every source I come across focuses on Social Networking. Blogging is a part of that. Most of you blog readers already know that. Indeed, most of you are far better at this social networking thing than I am. This is going to be work.


Not that I mind the work. Indeed, this is the best thing I have done in the way of work. Granted, my revenue from these efforts has not been sufficient to buy a cup of coffee, but I have made a few cents already. Income that can be measured in actual dollars lies at the other end of some serious promotion. That, and continued writing.

I recently visited our local Barnes and Noble book store and talked with the people there. Though supportive and encouraging, they had nothing to offer with regard to promotion other than the social networking thing. There are no in-store promotions for ebooks, and that is quite understandable. The brick-and-mortar book store makes money selling physical books, along with a lot of reading related items.

Some ideas are percolating in my cogitator, however. Ideas that will allow me to use their venue to a mutual advantage. I have signed up for Twitter and am expanding my presence on Facebook to prepare for this very low budget promotional tour. It may net only a few readers, but every reader has friends. With social networking that makes for potentially viral expansion.

I visited a local game shop, as well. Astral Games of Medford, Oregon. I talked with Aaron, the owner. We have a shared audience, in that many of the games he sells and promotes in his store are Fantasy Adventure games. My Edge of the World series is a Fantasy Adventure. Somehow, I feel that at least a few of his customers will take some interest in the novels. At least, that is my hope.

It is quite likely I will frequent his store for "meet the author" events. Indeed, I am also considering little "meet the author" events at coffee shops and other locations. Probably just an hour here, an hour there, as time permits and opportunity provides. Chat with people and invite them to read my works.

With my desire to travel I can see incorporating informal "meet the author" events in any travel adventures I might take in the years to come. I don't imagine the return on these little events will be particularly great, but over time I hope that at least a bit of traffic will come back to my Barnes and Noble offerings.

Whatever the case, I must keep moving forward. Come along with me, won't you?

A funny thing happened on the way to publication-

Today was pretty productive. I have completed the final edit on all three finished novels in my The Edge of the World series. I need to get them into epub format, so I researched that. I found a plug-in for Open Office (after a lot of "buy our product" web searching) and got it downloaded and installed. Being free was a good thing.

Next I selected a file to turn from a odt file to an epub file. The file happens to be a short piece I wrote as a give-away once I am published. I then viewed that file in the Adobe Digital Editions reader. It looked pretty good. I moved the file onto my Nook ebook reader. It looked pretty good there, as well. Not bad, so far.

That done I then established a Facebook presence for my work. That went pretty well. Next, a web site. I just went with a free Google site, and it is just a framework at this point. Still, I got a lot done.

Then, it happened. Now, a while back I had to change my title. The original title of volume one was The Inn at the Edge of the World. That's because the story begins at an inn, which happens to be in a place called "The Edge of the World." I liked it. It scanned well. It felt right.

Subsequently I learned that someone else had written a book called The Inn at the Edge of the World. I considered going ahead, then I learned that the book was becoming a movie. So, I changed my title. I shortened it to The Edge of the World. I even decided that the name could be the overarching title for the series. Yeah, that should work.

So, I am doing some follow-up research on my chosen title. What did I find? Yep. Mr. Anderson beat me to it, both for a starting title and a series title. Great.

Looks like another title change. Maybe Choo Choo Charlie and the Train Robbers. That wouldn't relate at all to the story, but at least it isn't taken. Just a second. Hmm. Well, that particular title is clear, but Choo Choo Charlie is a property of Hershey's. Crap.

On another note, I figured I would use this blog as my primary blog associated with my efforts and publishing my works. I am probably doing this all wrong, but being ignorant and somewhat obtuse gives me great freedom.

I can't wait to see what happen next.

Thoughts on the creative process-

Humans are creative creatures. Some more so than others, but as a species we are very creative. I have most recently been exercising my own creativity writing my "Edge of the World" series of fantasy adventure novels. Many people I know are creative in other ways, but the compulsion to create is rather common among humans.

What is created is not necessarily common. It is fresh and new. It is creation.

My daughter, Beth, is a quilter. She has a knack for selecting and combining patterns and colors that is quite magical. My wife, Linda, is a decorator. Sadly, I have been unable to provide for her the rather expensive canvasses necessary to fully exercise her art, but she does phenomenally well within the limitations of our current circumstances. She would have much greater freedom if I had been gifted with the ability to create wealth, but that has proved to be a gift that is lacking.

I can, however, write. I have done so from childhood. Had I the courage and foresight to follow that natural ability I might have had a writer's life, but I took different paths and am only now striving to turn a hobby into a profession. The paths I have traveled have been formative and informative, and I do not regret them.

The "Edge of the World" series began as a short story, a piece of what is called "Flash Fiction." A very short story of just a few pages. I had an image in my mind, and if I had developed my skills in drawing I would have sketched it. I did not have sufficient skill in drawing, so I wrote that story. It was later published in my blog, Short Stories by MLockridge.

Subsequent experiences in my life revealed I had an issue with depression. I sought counseling for this issue, and the counselor provided tools for me to use. One tool was to start a project and see it to completion. Apparently the focused effort would aid in managing depression. In this case it proved to be true.

I decided to take my short story about The Edge of the World and turn it into a novel. I sat down and wrote. I wrote a lot. Over 100,000 words. I edited and polished and finished the work. Along the way I got the depression under control and as far as the exercise was concerned, I was done.

However, the story continued past the end I had selected. So, I began the sequel. Like the first novel it flowed from me rather smoothly. I think it did so because I had spent so much time over the years just thinking about the story and a lot of the writing had been done rather informally in the back chambers of my cluttered mind. I just had to drag the first volume out and dust it off. The second was almost as easy.

Now that I had two novels I started seriously contemplating publication. I knew that the traditional route to publication was arduous and long. I just didn't need something like that in my life. This whole thing was intended to aid in managing depression, not cause it. So, I searched for other ways to do this.

With the advent of the Internet a lot of options had opened up. Self-publishing electronically and being listed in a major catalog looked like the right thing. Barnes and Noble offered such a program, and at little cost. This might just work, I thought.

In researching I found a lot of friends on the Internet who were at various places in this same process. I studied their models for doing this business and read some of their works. One thing that I observed that would make this whole project somewhat lucrative was having more books in the series.

More writing. The third novel did not flow so easily. It was more work, with more thinking and more editing. Indeed, I need to give it at least one more run-through to comb out the tangles and give it a nice shine. The third novel led to the beginnings of a fourth, which in terms of small volume electronic publication meant a few more bucks. Also, I really am enjoying the process of building a series of novels.

I began the fourth novel yesterday. However, I decided I needed a tool for creating something from scratch. This book has not been bubbling on a back burner of my brain for a considerable time. So, I checked on tools I could use. Fortunately, the Internet gives me access to a lot of back burners in a lot of bubbling brains, and I learned that I already had the tool I needed.

I write in Open Office, a suite of free tools downloadable on the Internet. I found that some people use their presentation software to do storyboarding. This is a bit like outlining a work, but more graphic and a bit easier, at least for me. I began writing slides which can be displayed a number of ways, and I can move them around on the screen. Pretty cool.

The tool I needed was right there in the suite of software I already used, and it was free! (Thanks to the several people who recommended this suite to me. Consider this "paying it forward.") I have spent several hours working on my storyboard, and it is going great!

I figure I will have enough to work with in another day or so, which will (I hope) be a sufficient break from the editing of the third novel to allow me to return to it fresh and ready to work. If all goes well I will be able to upload the first three novels to Pubit and get them out in the Barnes and Noble catalog.

Of course I will also have to get a Facebook fan page set up with the hope of having a few fans to read it. Also, a web site of some kind. And there is all of the promotion work I will have to do myself because I don't have a traditional publishing house backing me. Oh, and accounting, assuming I actually see some revenue from this adventure.

Whatever happens, I am not depressed and I am having fun. It seems like I have already won. If others enjoy the work and I make a few bucks, that's cool as well.

We didn't even know we were part of the problem...

As I shared recently, I attended my high school reunion. That event took place in Ashland, Oregon. Though born in Grants Pass, Oregon, I spent my early youth in southern California. The Artesia and Lakewood districts of sprawling Los Angeles. My family moved back to southern Oregon, to Ashland, just before I entered the sixth grade.

Those were good years. It was a nice town with considerable interest. A college town. A tourist destination. At the heart of the town is Lithia Park. The park extends from the town plaza up a narrow little valley, and is centered on Ashland Creek. Indeed, most of your time visiting the park will be spent walking along paths beside this fast running stream.

When I attended my reunion I intentionally parked near the top of the park. I had to walk the length of the park back to town, and back through the park when I left the reunion. It was a nostalgic journey, and a very pleasant one. Much was the same. Many long standing landmarks and features were either the same as I remembered or somewhat improved.

One of my recollections of childhood in Lithia Park was running on the unmarked and unofficial trails. These were steep trails, and one of the pleasures was to slide down the steep paths like dry trail skiers. Our skis were tennis shoes, and the 'snow' was the sliding surface of the hillsides.

Those trails are closed. Some are fenced to deny access. There are signs encouraging visitors to stay on the marked and official paths. The free-form adventuring of the past had caused erosion, damaging the park we so loved. In those long-ago days it did not occur to us that we were part of a problem. We were hurting something we greatly valued, and didn't see it at all.

I am sad to see the loss of such freedom, but recognize and accept the necessity of doing so to protect the park. It is a beautiful park, and worth preserving. Young people will simply have to find other adventures to share in building their young lives. I am sure that they will.

I wonder if the college has unofficial adventures in urban spelunking still available? That was fun, too.