If a Tree Falls in the Forrest…

A few days ago Publisher’s Weekly announced that Penguin Group had purchased ASI, an independent author’s service company. It would appear that the Biggies in the traditional publishing world are waking up to the fact that they can neither control nor stop the independent movement. But my question is, how does Penguin plan to use this acquisition?


Will it function as an imprint? Will they treat ASI the same way Amazon treats Create Space, as a subsidiary? Or will they use it as a hedge against possible losses given the growth of the Indie publishing?
Hmmm. However they choose to use it you can be sure we Indies are not going away.


This acquisition causes me to wonder two things: 1) Is Penguin trying to maintain their slice of the publishing pie by grabbing whatever they can of the Independent dollars? or 2) Is this their way of getting a foothold in the Indie realm?


In either case, we are watching you, Penguin. You chopped down your first tree. We heard it fall!

Fridays R 4 Fun!

 There are meals, home cooked or otherwise, that make me drool and still others that bring me comfort. But these bits of cuisine make me smile or outright giggle. These are a few!

 This one is cute and still looks tasty! This does too, but I’m not sure what animal it is. Care to guess? It’s pretty clear that these are watermelon.   But I don’t know if I’d eat them.  Take a look at this next one. I’m sure I wouldn’t eat it.  It’s just too weird!
These are funny. No problem eating them.
Yep, I’d laugh with every bite. And these are just plain cute.  
And this last one is for my friend Maria Toth. She’d slap this on her table in a heartbeat!

Revelation!

It’s time to get serious! If anyone had asked me if I take my writing seriously, my answer would have been, “Of course I do!” I guess you’d have to define the word, seriously.


I've been doing some studying about marketing. That led me to promotion, which led me to platform, and finally to brand. What I've learned so far is that I’ve been playing at this writing thing.

That caused me to have a real ‘sit-down conversation’ with myself. My first revelation was that what I thought was a goal, wasn’t. At the very least it’s not a long-term goal. So I had to set a list of real goals for myself. Then I had to determine what my brand is and following that would be my platform. I’m still in the process of pulling it all together, but I’ve come to the conclusion that what I have is a business!

I never set out the become a business owner. All I wanted to do (or so I thought) was write some books. Well, things are never as simple as we think they are.

So now I have a business name, brand, and platform that I must launch. There are still a lot of things to get in order before that can happen.

What about you? What are your writing revelations?

Leimert Park Book Fair

My very first book fair! I had a blast. There were lots of people. It seemed like everyone was glad to to be there.
Here we are in our Princess Kandake finery setting up . The little blue things lined up on the table are offerings of bubble gum.
We got the displays ready and had our stock waiting for the customers to beat a path to our table.  THEY CAME! Young , old and every age in between. And they were buying I was signing books, passing out cards, and talking about the history of Nubia.
I had such a good time. I can’t wait to do it all again.

Website Blues

I need a mad scientist! Someone who can clean up my website AND write boomerang code. Boomerang code would be something that detects destructive code and turns it back on the people who wrote it and those who tried to use it.

Within the last week or so some evil villain inserted a string of code onto my website that corrupted my data base. I hired a company to go in and clean it up, but it looks like the villain may have changed some of the passwords and locked us out!

Now I may have to take the whole thing down and rebuild it. AUUUGH!

I really don’t understand what they get out of doing something like this. Sheesh! I guess it’s like a friend told me, “Some people are the flowers of the world and others are the fertilizer.”

Fridays R 4 Fun!

Hi Everyone. Today I'm not having too much fun. I still sorting out the problems with my website. But there's no reason you shouldn't enjoy yourselves. This short video cracked my up! Take a look.

This gave me the laugh that I desperately needed!

Where the Stories Come From

Someone once asked me where I got the ideas for my stories. My response was, everywhere.

I’m an observer of life. I watch everything. I could be in the mall, out in the park, or on a hike and ideas flood into my mind. They come from the people I see, the way clouds float in the sky, or even the way a trash can could be overflowing.

I have recently started a kayaking class. Fortunately for me it takes place in a swimming pool so should I need to make a ‘wet exit’ (escaping from an overturned kayak) I only have to swim as far as the side of the pool.

Well, last week I was sitting in the kayak and my eye caught the way the paddle cut into the water and a story began to form in my mind. What would happen if we could stroke space like that and change the way the stars and planets were aligned?

Then…suppose an entire galaxy was being rearranged and swept away because of a careless being rowing across the universe without caution. How would the others stop him/her/it? Would there be a war? What would be the outcome? Would they be able to put things back where they belong? How?

I’m not quite sure how this story ends, but when I figure it out, it will appear on my website.