GONE WITH A TIP OF HIS HAT

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss

On this day in 1991, Theodor Seuss Geisel died at the age of eighty-seven.

It is hard to think there was a time when there was NO Dr. Seuss.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”  

His first children's book, To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street (1937) was rejected by twenty-seven publishers.

But over the next fifty years he would write and illustrate forty-eight books,

collect a Pulitzer, two Emmys and three Oscars,

and make the more lasting household contributions of Horton, Yertle, the Cat in the Hat.

Imagine if he had stopped with the 26th publisher!

Actually,

He only knew 26 publishers!

He met a friend on the street

to whom he confided his lost dream.

His friend had just become a publisher!

And the rest is history!

The evolution of the "Dr. Seuss" pseudonym began during Geisel's senior year at Dartmouth College.

When the dean forced him to resign his editorship of the school's humor magazine

as punishment for having too much fun and too few marks, Geisel continued to contribute as "Ted Seuss."

The name and word fun reflects a streak of whimsy and putting-one-over that lasted a lifetime and became a mission.

When Geisel was a student at Oxford, and banned by school regulations from driving a motorcycle,

he tied dead ducks to his handlebars to pass his vehicle off as that of a poultry deliveryman.

When living in New York City and finding himself with a telephone number one digit different from a local fish market,

he would send his own cardboard fish to those who called him with their order.

When trying to quit smoking in his fifties,

he carried a corncob pipe empty of tobacco but full of dirt, in which he had planted radish seeds.

He would suck on the pipe while riding the bus, stopping every now and then to take out an eyedropper of water and squeeze a few drops into the bowl.

To anyone who took the bait he would explain that he was "Watering the radishes."

At eighty-two, he published his last book, You're Only Old Once,

and told reporters that "Age has no effect on me. I surf as much as I ever have. I climb Mount Everest as much as I ever have...."

May we all endeavor to have a bit of that kind of spirit!

BRILLIANT HUES OF STRANGLED LIFE

TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF AUTUMN ...

On this day in 1819, twenty-five-year-old John Keats wrote to his friend, Charles Brown, to say that he was giving up poetry for journalism. 

This is also the first day of autumn.

 Four days earlier in 1819 Keats had written "To Autumn," now one of his most popular poems, and one which many critics regard as "flawless in structure, texture, tone, and rhythm":

 "Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too --"

It is a stanza quoted by Wolf Howl in THE LAST SHAMAN

(Buy the Kindle book for 99 cents, then get the audiobook for ONLY $1.99)
http://www.amazon.com/THE-LAST-SHAMAN-ROLAND-YEOMANS-ebook/dp/B00534OEL4

Keats had quit the study of medicine for poetry in 1816. 

In three years he had published some, earned little, and been much-attacked by the critics. 

 This new decision was a response to the harvest that never was, and a resolve to fill his cupboard himself:

 "It is quite time I should set myself doing something, and live no longer upon hopes."

Are you feeling like that about your own writing? 

 It is only human to feel such when long efforts seem to reap hardly any harvest. 

The bright leaves of autumn, though beautiful, are merely the result of the sap being withheld from them:

Brilliant hues of strangled life.

Perhaps you should learn from John Keats who left his dream, thinking his whole life lay before him.

And it did ... just not in the way he thought.

 Four months later Keats experienced his first lung hemorrhage.

"That drop of blood is my death warrant," he now wrote to Charles Brown.

 And a year after that he was dead from tuberculosis. 

Hold onto your dream.  Live it.  Cling to the song of creation in your heart.

A modern poet, Fernando Ortega, has written:

But lately I have seen you fading
As the world is changing,
As the seasons fly.
Still my heart in secret
Holds on to the deepest colors
Of the earth and sky.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR eBOOK_ the streets are paved with Fool's Gold

Aside from Olivia Wilde being photographed holding your book are there any surefire marketing avenues for selling your eBook?

A thousand eBooks monthly are being published.  How to stand out in that blizzard?

Let's be honest with ourselves:

If we do what everyone else is doing in marketing, we will get the results everyone else is receiving:

 which are NOT VERY MUCH!

You can trade reviews with fellow authors  -- get caught --  and get thrown off Amazon for life.

Ah, thank you, no.

Team up with fellow authors in joint projects --

   That way even if the joint book is picked up by a reader, your name is crammed with the names of other authors.  

You fade even more into the background.

Twitter every 3 minutes about your book?  Want to know how many folks I have unfollowed for doing that?

FaceBook your book?  Unless you pay excessive fees, your posts about your books are seen by only about 10% of your followers.

Blog tours?  Cover reveals?  Prize giveaways?  All old hat.

I read one post where one author was waxing excited about the future of eBook Publishing, 

but then she was on a high from being invited to speak in Stockholm, Sweden to local writers.

I don't know about you, but I don't get such invitations.  

Even if I did, I have a day & night job and no funds to book the flight!

So what if you are just an average struggling writer with little free time, less money, and fewer followers on your blog?

1.) Have a favorite, living author?

Contact that writer's web page, offering to do an interview, hawking that author's latest book.  So far, I have not connected that way.  But you may.  What have you to lose?

2.) Amazon's Top Reviewers:
http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers  

Take Ali Julia -- she writes:  

"Feel free to email me with review requests."  Then, she lists her interests, giving you an idea if your book fits her tastes.

There are others listed.  Try.  You have nothing to lose and a great deal to gain.  :-)

Have any novel new ideas?  

Let me know.  

We are in this together.

"Maybe I can fly." Alex's Under-rated Treasures BlogHop

http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-next-ninja-blogfest-plus-golon.html

Everyone has a favorite movie or band that no one else has ever heard about. For whatever reason, they remain undiscovered and underrated. 

Now is your chance to tell the world about this obscure treasure!

On Monday, September 22, post about your favorite unknown –

MOVIE – BAND/ARTIST – TV SHOW – BOOK

Post about one or all four – dealer’s choice! 

BABYLON 5

 ALL ALONE IN THE NIGHT

This was a gem of a TV series.  It was crafted with a definitive Beginning, Middle, and End.

It re-defined TV Science Fiction

though its lackluster first season hurt it in the eyes of viewers.

Start with Season 2 

And you will be in for a great ride!

It is a clash between Order and Chaos with the universe caught in the middle.

Here is Captain Sheridan fighting the Shadows the only way he can:

Every sacrifice in Babylon 5 had consequences and usually a healing
lesson:

 THE FRISCO KID

Huh? you say.  You're not alone.  A Polish Rabbi Out West?

If you have a heart, it is a great movie.  

In today's culture that demands fast cars, faster women, and mistakes "cool" for character, it doesn't have a chance.

The start of the film is slow, but once Harrison Ford arrives on the scene as a train robber, the story of the Old West's Oddest Couple is underway.

Sure, Italians play the Indians but if you read my HER BONES ARE IN THE BADLANDS, you know that Iron Eyes Cody was really an Italian, too!

THE NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS

Once Upon A Time

There was a newly minted 13 year old boy roaming Secondhand Prose, the local used book store. 

He was searching for something for his other friends in THE LEAGUE OF FIVE to read together.

Yep, I saw that title and knew I had found our new group book.  Thorne Smith wrote TOPPER another book you probably never heard of either.

But before you think the book is scandalous: it is fun, innocent, and zany -- perfect for 13 year old's.

It is the Roaring 20's, Hunter Hawk has discovered how to turn flesh into stone. 

He hadn't meant to, but no matter, he HAD INVENTED SOMETHING!

With no one appreciative of his discovery, he roams his estate at night, meeting a leprechaun and his witch daughter, Meg (who can turn stone to flesh).

Introduce all of them into a museum at night in the Greek mythology section, and you can guess the rest.

Just read the beginning of this teaser, and you will smile:

NIGHTWISH

Victor Standish's and my favorite band that no one knows

 And they introduced me to John Two Hawks

HOW TO SUCCEED WITH eBOOKS

Megan Fox wrote me, asking if I would explain how to succeed at being an eBook author. 

And after that would I mind establishing world peace?

{I live in an enchanted world. But even so that last request is a bit beyond me.}

Well, to start off:

A self-published author has beaten names including Lee Child, James Patterson and Stieg Larsson 

to become the bestselling ebook author on Amazon.co.uk for the last three months of 2011.

Kerry Wilkinson, 31, self-published Locked In, the first book in his Jessica Daniel series of detective novels, last year,

only to find it shoot up the UK's Kindle charts.

 Self-published author Katie Stephens also took the fifth slot over the same period with her debut novel, Candles on the Sand.

"This time last year, I hadn't even started writing Locked In and now I have a No 1 bestselling book in the Kindle Store,

 outselling many authors that I have grown up reading," said Wilkinson.

1.) Wilkinson's Secret:

Wilkinson never approached a traditional publisher with his novel because he "didn't set out to 'be an author',"  instead aiming just to "write something I thought I would like".

"I keep chapters short and snappy because I like that.

I try not to flit between characters too much because I don't like that either.

As such, in a literary sense, I know it's not perfect - but I wasn't aiming for that. I wanted to create something I would like as a consumer," he said. 



2.) Choose the right book, the right genre and the right title:

In other words, catch the potential reader's attention!

At this stage in the digital revolution,

the successful self-published ebooks spring from popular genres, and those for which there are already big online communities –

fantasy, erotica, chick-lit, horror and crime thrillers.

Be careful with your title:

in an era of keywords, tags and search engine optimisation, it has never been more important.



3.) Don't just rely on Twitter or Facebook:

Most people who buy your book want to find out more about you and they can't find that from your Twitter feed.

A website is a sales platform, it's a marketing platform and it's a global presence if you do it right.

 A recent Verso survey estimated that barely 12% of books are discovered from social networks whereas 50% are passed on via personal recommendations.

4.) Do it professionally:

According to the survey done by The Taleist (  http://blog.taleist.com/ )

self-publishers who take the most professional approach to production – getting external help (editors, proofreaders and, especially, cover designers) –

make on average 34% more from their books.

5.) Learn from the most popular girl in high school - GIVE IT AWAY:

Everyone loves a freebie, especially online. Getting read is an obvious way to sell more copies via word of mouth –

if your book is any good.

For authors wanting to eat, giveaways should be for a limited time only ... AND FOR THE FIRST OF A SERIES

6.) THE DARK SECRET:

No, not erotica,

although, Megan, for you that's not a bad idea –

the print version of EL James's originally self-published Fifty Shades of Grey sold 100,000 copies in its first week in the UK,

becoming the fastest-selling book that year.

Kerry Wilkinson's day job involves web journalism

but his success, he insists, was the same as any book throughout history:

 his book found an audience via word-of-mouth.

"The truth is, there is no magic wand.

Regardless of anyone who tries to flog you a 'How to sell a million books' guide,

it is the dirty secret no one will share – a lot of it is luck."

So there all of us are: on the shore of the ocean of possibilities.  The decisions are yours alone.

Make them wise ones.

FOUR BLOOD MOONS

WHY ARE WE SO OBSESSED WITH

THE END OF THE WORLD?



A friend lent me her book on the Four Blood Moons.

She wanted me to read it, so I did.  It made my teeth throb, but I did.

Echoes of Harold Camping murmured to me as the author Mark Blitz basically spoke of the Jewish festivals.

It took him to page 143 to even begin to talk of the Blood Moons.

Only 8 tetrads (4 consecutive blood moons in a row) have occurred in the past 2000 years.

This one will be the 9th.

Then, Mark transformed into Harold Camping:

9 is the last of the single digits.

It marks The End, the conclusion of the matter.

It is akin to the number 6 ... why he doesn't say, but he goes on to say 6 being the sum of its factors

(3 x 3 = 9    3 + 3 = 6 

 and $15.95 is what you just lost by buying his book!)

Mark furthers muddies the prophetic waters Camping style:

9 is a factor of 666 ( which is 9 times 74)

and it is one less than Bo Derek (that last is mine.)

Mark writes that the sum of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet is 4995 (5 x 999). 

It is stamped therefore with the numbers of grace and finality.

(Italics his/ the head scratching all mine.)

Why all our fixation with The End of the world?

Writing strictly on a not-for-prophet basis, here are some of my thoughts:

1.) WE BALK AT OUR WALK-ON PART IN THE WORLD'S STORY

For many, the world doesn’t only revolve around us – it stops around us too.

1 in 7 people in the world right now believe it will all end during their lifetime.

2.) THERE'S A SENSE OF MEANING TO BEING THERE FOR THE RINGING DOWN OF THE CURTAIN.

The idea of an apocalypse pushes all the right buttons at a psychological level. 

Our minds have always tried to create some kind of framework of meaning to give history and our own personal lives some kind of significance.

3.) IT'S ABOUT POWER

Apocalyptic predictions are a way for people to try to control the way their (and others’) world works.

What you get during times of particular discontent – war, famine or general bad times – is a rise in apocalyptic preaching and ideas.

And at those times we seem to lap it up like there’s no tomorrow. 

4.)  IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER

Robert Oppenheimer had a bet going with other members of the Manhattan Project as to whether the first atom bomb

(that they were about to set off) would start a chain reaction that would destroy the earth’s atmosphere. 

It does seem as if Man has a built-in Death Wish, doesn't it?

5.) THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES IF THERE IS NO TOMORROW

The same thought is the basis for the popularity of the movie, GROUNDHOG DAY.

When you’re mortgaged up to your eyeballs, hideously in debt, overworked, underpaid,

totally depressed about the global financial meltdown and climate change,

a little apocalyptic event might seem like a breath of fresh air, right? 

WHY DO YOU THINK WE ARE SO FASCINATED WITH ALL THESE SCENARIO'S OF

THE END OF THE WORLD?

A NEW TERROR BORN IN DEATH

 

ANCIENT EVIL NEVER LOOKED SO BEAUTIFUL

 

http://www.audible.com.au/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Death-in-the-House-of-Life-Audiobook/B00NLQSB0G

 

 

Older than the Sphinx

Deadlier than the Colors out of Space

 

Meilori Shinseen is the most

dangerous creature on this planet ...

 

And beloved to the cursed lawman,

Captain Samuel McCord.

 

What will he do when she

enters the desert wastes of 1895 Egypt

in search

of the lost facets of her nature

even she found reprehensible?

 

Join McCord and his companions:

Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain,

Oscar Wilde, Ada Byron

and

Winston Churchill

 

As McCord tries to walk the razor's edge

between love and honor.

 

Will he succeed?

 

Listen to Robert Rossman's

thrilling narration of

DEATH IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE

and find out.

 

"Oh, if when you died,

you were only dead."

- Meilori Shinseen