Write On!

Early warning, this is about writing, indie publishing and marketing, not my usual travel-photo stuff.  If you are thinking of writing and publishing and would like to know more, this is for you. If you don't care about any of this, sign off right here! See ya next time.

This year I had the great good fortune to see three publications come to completion at roughly the same time, late spring 2012. It wasn't a coincidence. I held off publishing the first two as I wanted their release to coincide with  The Adventures of Frieda being published by my friend Kaan in Turkey. I hoped for some marketing synergy from the three coming out close together.

First I completed Santa Barbara Fire Song, a series of 3 short stories. From Fire Song I learned how to prepare a manuscript as an ebook. I chose Smashwords.com because of their support for indie (independent) authors and their comprehensive free manual. They also send your ebook to most of the ebook retailers in the proper format if you meet their format requirements.

I knew I wanted to make this little book available free and I didn't want to pay to give it away. I thought what I wrote might be helpful to kids who were in firestorm situations and it would give people a sample of how I write and therefore interest them in other projects. This collection has three stories, each about different characters. The first is Black Belly who also appears in The Adventures of Frieda, next comes Gel who is the main character in Dungeon Dreams and the third is Rose who has made a few appearances in other short stories I wrote but haven't published. Doing a short project worked as shaping the manuscript to publish went quickly. I did several iterations before release of Fire Song as an ebook. The hardest technical part for me was the cover. I used a photo from the "Tea" fire in Santa Barbara. I think the cover is marginal and it took several attempts learning to get it ready to use. I just (10/13) popped in a new cover that will appear on Smashwords ebooks from now on. I think it looks much better. I will next attempt to spooge it over to Kindle. This will give you an idea of how flexible ebooks are. You can revise over and over, from tiny edits of commas up to a complete re-write if you like!

The great part is that it took off with more people down loading than I expected. It's still free and I intend it always will be. I couldn't afford to give away print copies and sending it as an email attachment was limited and not very appealing. So far there have been nearly 400 downloads. I was expecting maybe 30 friends and family would take a look. One clarification. A download doesn't mean a person read the material! It means they asked to have it loaded to their reader or computer. Maybe there's just one demented person who downloaded Fire Song 400 times! Good on ya! I also heard from some real people that they read it with their kids, so I know there's more than one reader out there.

That was the introductory piece in my market strategy. The Adventures of Frieda  was published in Turkey and some of you came to the book launch where I had a splendid time and got to introduce Kaan to some new folks and reacquaint him with old friends. This is the piece I wanted most to promote after Kaan went to all the trouble of finding a translater, an illustrator, an editor and a printer to bring this together out of stories I wrote for my grand kids.  So I was intending Fire Song to introduce the idea of me as a children's author and people would consider Frieda  as a serious (that can't be the right word for a book featuring a frog with red pigtails and her buddy who's eyebrows are never on his face) children's book. Frieda is a real hard copy book and even though our first customer suggested 25 cents was a good price, it sells for more.

One thing we learned from Frieda is that it is difficult to distribute books from another country in the US. We're still working on it. So far I am the distributor and the only US online outlet is through NatureTrack.com where you can order a copy. That's kept distribution down to less than 100 so far. The good part is that profits from Frieda go to NatureTrack to support outdoor field trips in nature for kids. When you see me, ask me, I often have copies in the car.

My third book started as a short story and grew one short story after another until it was a novel.  I promised my granddaughters I would publish Dungeon Dreams, some day. After the first completed version I gave them several years ago, we sat down and discussed what was needed to finish the book for publication. I made them editors, Kori and Taylor Gibson. They didn't know how much detail and work goes into completing a manuscript for publication. Neither did I. I learned about e-publishing, and it seemed a way I could complete my promise to them. I also aimed at using DD  to promote Frieda. My neighbor, Karen May, painted the image that became the cover.

Dungeon Dreams was announced when Frieda came out and was offered free as a promotion. Now it sells on most of the ebook retail stores (Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble, etc.)  along with Fire Song.  Dungeon Dreams has been downloaded about 200 times. In the back of both ebooks is a blurb about buying a copy of Frieda. I donate all the profit from DD to NatureTrack.

After I moved Fire Song to also sell at Amazon's Kindle Store (yes, you can list at Amazon & Smashwords at the same time) I discovered that the cost of creating a paper copy of your own work was...free. When I first considered publishing Dungeon Dreams it looked like it would cost $300-500 to create a paper version and to have some copies to distribute. Reading carefully I discovered it was possible if I did all the setup work that I could have a paper version available for sale for nothing! You might consider the sweat equity in this project before jumping in, it takes some time and some digital fussiness that isn't appealing to all writers. When I finished Dungeon Dreams I went through what looked like an easy conversion of the Kindle ebook to Amazon's subsidiary company, Create Space for a paper copy. It wasn't as easy as I hoped. Most of that had to do with learning to size pages down to a trade paperback. It is easy to create an 8.5 X 11 inch edition, but I didn't find that attractive. Getting the cover with the words to the right size took many tries, but I did it. If you plan to do this, it might be faster to start with Create Space and then move to Amazon/Kindle ebook format.

The paperback version of Dungeon Dreams is available through Create Space (use: createspace.com/3899301, I get more money to donate when you buy it here!) and through Amazon/Kindle. The main point of doing all that work isn't to sell tons of paperbacks. It is to have a physical copy for my grandkids after all these years. If a few copies sell too, that is a good thing. If you do this, you can buy copies of your own book for a few bucks without having to pay someone hundreds of dollars. I stand in dark alleys and sell them from secret pockets in my rain coat.

What's next? I have a non-fiction book about a family dog that is about to come out. I still need a cover to go on the front! My Dog Ate My House is now available at Amazon's Kindle Store and Smashwords.com under my name. My nephew Andrew Crenshaw did the art work for the cover and Laurie Hoyle did the editing. Hope you enjoy!

Early & Post Fire + New RV

These are a couple of photos for comparison. The 3-smokes shot was soon after the fire started and next one is today after the smoke cleared so you can see how the area burned off. With the fire retardant and burned areas it looks a little like a southwest hillside with red rock.  

 Earlier this month we went to a family wedding (grandnephew Justin and bride Kristin) near Portland and then up to Sequim, WA to buy a truck camper for the next phase of our travels. The travel trailer is really nice once it arrives at camp and the truck is unhooked. If you've been to our house you can imagine the difficulty inserting it here. It would be much better if no one else were on the road while I negotiate into the property, but that doesn't happen. So we downsized. A lot!

The two photos with water are the Hood Canal not far from Dosewallips State Park, WA.  I saw two bald eagles that morning on the river in front of our campsite. Carole, standing in the back, is at our campsite after we spent our first night.

 This is after I knocked most the bugs off the truck and camper. This makes a good emergency home in case of more wildfires and other home threatening events! We're not planning any, but then we didn't plan the last one either.

Just a reminder, you can click any photo in the blog to see the images made large. At least that works on my computer, maybe it will on yours.

Close Fire as Summer Steams Through October

   Fire was always a part of life here since the first Americans were in Santa Barbara thousands of years ago.  The Chumash encouraged valued annuals through small fires after harvesting seeds. Recently large, wildfire has become more prevalent. Much too prevalent. This is the bigger of two fires in our mountain area in the past week. The first started with and burned up our mail carrier's truck. Some of our mail survived with a smokey essence. A mere acre burned with the vehicle.

This one started early in the morning and threatened those on the other side of San Marcos Pass at Painted Cave coming right to the edge of their properties.

The aerial precision of the air drops was stunning. The theater of this fire is a narrow wedge between two steep drainages that flow together above Highway 154. The choreography of 6 choppers and 7 planes in this reduced air space was high drama on wing and proceeded without incident. The result came early and was highly effective. Keeping this potentially huge fire storm between the ridges and below the houses was an education in concentrated air attack on fire close up. Forty-four acres burned to the rocks and all houses still stand unharmed!

 

Traffic flowed all day on 154 and power was restored to our neighborhood soon after it went out. The Sheriff patrolled neighborhoods and made reverse 911 calls to get our attention.

While this may not be global weirding at work, it's hard not to look at the total pattern of the increasing frequency of Southern Cal. big fires and not wonder about the cause. Fire suppression? Sure, it's been over zealous. Encroaching on the rural habitat with the urban interface? Of course we have and are increasing this menace. And I still suspect the climate change as well.

At the least we had a hot fall with summer  unwilling to loosen its talons. Today, a much needed respite is on hand with a cooler, on-shore flow complete with clouds and humidity. Maybe fall at last?

Mountains of Summer

Fall is rumored to be lurking on the edge of these 90+ degree days following the American tradition of laboring back to work and school in the shadow of the first Monday of September. I am still in the thrall of the Mountains of Summer and cooling my days with those memories as the hot winds blow. The other day hardly broke 70 and it rained in shear apostasy to the Santa Barbara tradition of no rain until November. But tomorrow the heat returns to our low pretender of a mountain and I, well I seek to recall the cool breezes of higher ground.
   This started when I noticed this evening my first photo of the June Lakes blog is an image of Falling Leaf Lake! You didn't notice? Well, it took me awhile, but we never saw June Lake through the trees like that. Brett Stearns and I hiked a high trail.

   Below is a photo of Jen and her cousin, Todd, down from Portland area with his family, sister Tanya and her family and their parents Bill and Carol. Somehow I missed most the most of the action with the camera, but this photo from the east end of Inspiration Point (SB) delivers the sense of fun and sharing we enjoyed for most of a week. I also missed the trip to the Mouse, when they all took in Disney Land. This opportunity for our families to be together needs to happen much more often!

  I don't know who the lady is, but she watched our every move on the street going up to the cafes and general store at June Lake. She needs a life.
   Mono lake has had a tough time over the years being guzzled by the metropolis to the south, but it's looking better than last we left it, a little bluer and a lot fuller.

All over the world Mark Twain was there before me, truly the Kilroy of an earlier era. While reporting from Virginia City, he ventured out to visit the tufa towers with the remarkable flies and shrimp of Mono Lake and for once he didn't have a better view than I. The lake was fuller and the towers were mostly still underwater and are now more exposed. They grow closer to flooding again and below another Sam expresses enthusiasm for how large the lake should grow and I agree.

  A view of the east escarpement from our stop in Lone Pine while we consider the hiking/climbing achievement of super mom (Jen) last summer.  This water valve gives tribute to water theft via the construction of water aqua ducts beginning with Rome and marching through history all the way through Owens Valley to Los Angeles. As Mark T. said, "Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting!" Some people don't realize there is a fight until the water is gone. My quote check finds that Mark Twain might not have uttered the whiskey quote, but we're pretty certain he drank a little of it in his day and we're not so sure about water.

  Just for fun, here's another view from June Lake to show how paddling always provides another perspective. Life on the water is a little bit better. Yes, there was a little thunder timpani to punctuate the night with echoes among the peaks.

June Lakes

We had a fine trip, Taylor, Sam, Carole and I had five days traveling together up 395 to the eastern Sierra’s June Lakes. It is a wonderful and most attractive area. My previous drive-throughs worked for scouting and I knew it would be stellar. We all enjoyed the spacious cabin almost on the lake. The little lakes, including Gull in our photo, at 7600' elevation sit in glacial potholes, most less than a mile in any direction. They make a delightful necklace cast about the arc of the valley on the east Sierra escarpment where Reverse Ridge provides the western hub in the glacial valley. The small ski operation shut down this year from lack of profit and looks to be devastating for winter months’ tourism. There will be people for cross country skiing, maybe skating on the lakes and possibly ice fishing. TV won't bring in many I suspect.

Stormy

Sam on June Lake

Our kayaking on the lake every day and some hiking garnered great views. We visited the ghost town, Bodie with a fascinating tour of the stamping mill. It was the best explanation of hard-rock gold mining and processing. While many buildings stand today, they are but 5% of the town before burning in 1932.

We spent a little time at Mono Lake visiting the center we missed in previous trips. The movie filled in more geology on the surrounding area so when it blows up we’ll know what we lost. After Yellowstone, this is one of the more probable volcanic action points in the west. Contemplating over a sundae in Lee Vining brought us full circuit on another day.

Bodie Ore Bus

Early Summer Santa Barbara

Summer in Santa Barbara often means fire, in fact, we have only two seasons, wet and fire. This year, not so much wet. So I entered May and June with some personal trepidation about the fire this time. Fog is boring, but every foggy day  is a day without fire! The cat paws of dampness reached up the mountain slopes to engulf us after a brief window of bright clear sky and slipped away on light breezes by afternoon. Now in August, we've had boring, but not burning! Light breezes, but no sundowners of dragon's breath.

Brown Pool

Why this is important: 1. Our swimming pool morphed into a brown pool. It's better than it sounds. Seventy-seven tons of gravel and 10 tons of decomposed granite turned our old pool into our new bocce court and a creative one at that. There's none of that straight-line thinking with an over-abundance of granite to be covered by the bouncing balls. The rules play the same and no one gets wet!

The New Pool

Red Rocks in SB

Bocce, on cool summer evenings, is a great game for gathering and sharing with friends and family. On a hot summer day, well, we might be wishing for the splashy sort of pool again. 

2. Hiking is more pleasant and longer, strenuous hikes can stretch further into the sizzling summers days. 3. There are fewer air tankers to cover the fires AND they were busy in Colorado. Ok, the priority might be debatable, but it works for me.

Where you see these rocks the wall of soaring heat usually melts my summer hiking resolve, but we had the good fortune to catch these ice-cream boulders before they melted. Only turkey vultures and a few hang gliders get these views when the heat turns on. How did red-rock material end up in SB where the sandstone came from the ocean? Hmmm.

We hosted our old friend Kaan Kocali who lived with us back in the Twentieth Century (1980s) for all too brief a time. We reminisced about times when Kaan and Jen were teens in what turned out to be the last high school year for both of them. Kaan got a degree and Jen, well, she went to college next. Here they are again at lunch comparing notes on family and careers.

Frieda is Launched

In graduate school I was on the "staff" of Zeitgeist, which we called a sporadical. I liked the connotation of a random periodical and it was also a little radical, at least it was politically painful for some folks. We lampooned the faculty, the psych department and the university from time to time. This blog is reminiscent as a sporadical without much radical, and I was feeling nostalgic.

Here's our first reader anywhere!

We had the book launch for Frieda and had a great turnout of people at the Goleta Library. We read before the launch the worst that would happen would be that only two people show up, but all they want is directions to the bathroom. Sure enough, we had one person looking for the way to the women's room. We had a lockout when the library closed and they didn't tell me they were closing the door to our area as well. Fortunately Bob Ehrmann called from behind the door and we got that remedied! It was fun way to start this book off. We raised over $650 with the launch and the first couple weeks of sales. Thanks for your help and thanks to Kaan for such a good price on the book.

Too soon after the Launch we returned Kaan to LAX and he flew home to Ankara to continue his business in entertainment law.

Here's Kaan talking up the book

NatureTrack.org is now selling The Adventures of Frieda and Her Friends on the product page and profits continue to go to support that great organization. The book is also now available at Chaucer's Bookstore in Santa Barbara and the Book Loft in Solvang as well as (this will help so many of you) the Shaw Stationery and Book Store in Klamath Falls, OR. I hope you'll refer friends who are looking for a kids book to these locations, or have them contact me (nord.nord@gmail.com).

Frieda Figurine

Here is the bonus I wasn't expecting at all. Kaan brought a terrific figurine of Frieda in the depths of despair when she first learns she is destined for... finishing school instead of fishing school. I'm glad I'm old and can gush about things like this and not worry about my manly place in life. Isn't this the cutest thing you've seen? I am more than biased. Mesut Gürkan created the illustrations for Frieda and this little figurine that he sent for me.

Thanks for all your support!