Friday, September 7, 2012

The Newbie's Guide to Publishing

This blog is one I like. This guy is something of a perfectionist and a moralist. We should not ask friends to post reviews of our book on Amazon and things like that. I personally don't think all the reviews in the world will help a bad book, just ruin somebody's day. If however your book is good then okay. Who however is objective when it comes to their own work? Writers tend to think every word is solid gold. If you do have questions he answers them clearly. One of the things I always wanted to know is how much a writer makes, and boy does he answer that question! You get a clear idea of what is possible and how publishing works. It is a great blog. He appears to be the hardest working author on the planet. His heroine in Whiskey Sour is a person who is driven to do one thing above all else, catch the killer. In that way she is like the author himself. (These books are like the Stephanie Plum novels and just as fun to read) The theme is to relax a little and stop and smell the roses, something the author appears to be telling himself!
      The authors name is J. Konrath and he sells books on his blog and on Amazon. You're welcome.

Economize

I have a friend who cannot quit his job, even though he is far past retirement age. He has too much to pay! He has satellite television, a car payment and medical bills. (I still don't understand how inflation is making medical bills skyrocket upwards and how that can bankrupt the country. I get this picture of all the people that work in the medical profession having all the money and the rest of us are begging on street corners.) This is what is going to happen to our generation. Unable to retire, we continue to work. Well, with stocks doing the hutchie coochie and interest rates rock bottom would you want to buy an IRA right now? This favors spending. We are supposed to spend our money and save the economy. If people would only spend they lament on CNN. What is that supposed to mean?
Okay, think on this. One of the first rules of contract law is that both parties have to understand the agreement before signing. Who of us understands our credit card contract? The mission in this is to mislead, if not downright cheat. What about the lottery? Here is another case of those ill-equipped to handle money recieving it, after the IRS gets a big chunk and the place that sold the winning ticket gets some. It seems very bad to lift someone up and give them no help. Remember watching My Fair Lady and thinking how unfair it was that he had raised her up from her social station and then dumped her back on the street she came from? Isn't this essentially the same thing?
What we do is never eat out at restaurants. Never, never, never. I find myself crazy seeing ads on television and tell myself it is not as good as it looks. What in advertising ever is? Discover the joys of squash, the meat replacing power of beans, the way to cook bacon in the oven ( and watch like a hawk ). I find myself blown away by the simple tip that water will boil faster if you put a lid on it. Wow, this really works. My tip is the noble large lima bean. My mother thought this was absolutely necessary to eat every night and I fought the taste by covering them with ketchup. Time however has brought wisdom and a pound of dried beans and one strip of bacon will in due course produce a masterpiece that mashed up with cornbread makes me happy. You cannot ruin this. If the water gets low and the mixture is thick, add water. It is this soup, this marvelous spoonfuls of flavor spiced with a little pork, that is delicious so add water generously. So much food for so little and I never miss the meat.
So who for president, I for one do not know. I can read articles that make me like Romney and articles that shine a lustrous light on Obama. One thing I do think is that government is a business, although a poorly run one everyone seems to agree. On that basis I like Romney. Obama is like a dream that seems impossible. Can we really provide medical care for all? This sounds like a fantasy spun from the other side of reality. I like it, I just don't think we can have it.
Let whoever be president it doesn't seem to matter. I think a downward trend is where we are going.
But hey,. what do I know?