Some Weekend Reading and Some Books I Read

We're through our first week back at school and so far we're all healthy (knocks furiously on wood). My kids report that a few kids were out in each class and that a lot of kids and teachers have upgraded their masks. My kids are still wearing their KF94s. I don't think it is reasonable to think they could keep a fit-tested, sealed N95/KN95 on for an entire day - they have to take the mask off for water breaks, eating lunch, etc. So, even if we "upgraded" to an N95 I don't think we'd actually get more protection. My reading is that a KF94 is roughly equivalent to a non-fit tested N95 (here's an article with a little more detail) and I just find the KF94s more comfortable and easier to put on and off.

We've had cold temperatures (leading to this unintentionally hilarious article in my local paper about our long string of sub-70 degree days) but sunny skies, so lunch has been outdoors.

Petunia also went back to her ballet class this week, but we got an email at the end of the week saying class would be on Zoom next week. The school had three kids report COVID cases (none in my daughter's class) and decided it would be better to go back to Zoom for a week or two. I am feeling really happy that Santa brought Petunia a home barre this Christmas....

I am going to mostly stay out of the raging online argument about whether schools should go back online for a few weeks, except to say that if the choice was between online school and what I'm reading about in NYC, I'd pick online in a heartbeat. That is of course easy for me to say as someone who works from home and has kids old enough to mostly handle online school on their own. 

My only comment - and strongly held opinion - is that if we, as a society, want to be sure schools stay open, we should provide all teachers and students with high quality masks, make sure schools have good air filters and ventilation, give families a way to let their kids do school remote or asynchronously if they suspect exposure, and most importantly take steps to bring down community transmission rates. It is nonsensical to me that the only thing we're talking about closing is schools. 

If you want to prioritize kids staying in school, you actually have to prioritize kids staying in school not just yell at teachers online.

I'm pretty lucky in that my district put air filters in all school rooms early on and our climate is such that doors and windows can be left open without turning everyone into icicles. We have a mask mandate and staff are required to be vaccinated. The district's attempt to mandate vaccines for students 16 and older is tied up in court, but they continue to push for vaccination and they are running clinics at the high schools to try to make it easy to get shots. They also offer free tests at school for students (and apparently any parents who want a test) once a week.

And now that boosters are authorized for 12 and up, we'll be getting Pumpkin boosted (Petunia will have to wait until late March since she only got vaccinated in October). We have an appointment for Wednesday after school. 

But our case rates continue to go up here so I still think we'll be lucky to get through January without getting COVID.

In other news...

Derek Lowe wrote up a pharma chemist's take on paxlovid manufacturing. As he and others had pointed out earlier on Twitter, the availability of the starting materials is likely to be a big factor in how quickly the drug can be manufactured, and these days those starting materials are probably made outside of the US, overwhelmingly in China. 

It is easy to lose faith in our fellow Americans right now, but this tweet was a good reminder that the overwhelming majority are OK. The problem is just that the 25% who aren't are so loud and obnoxious:

And nearly 75% of eligible Americans are vaccinated. That would mean 3 of every 4 Americans is acting responsibly and sees 1/6 as a threat to our democracy. Not perfect, but those are good numbers. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/DgiFnojJko

— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) January 3, 2022

Chrysler says it is going to be an all-electric brand by 2028. Does this mean we'll get an electric minivan? A lot of us really want an electric minivan.

And my original plan for this post was to write a short update and then talk about books I liked in 2021, so let's end with some books I liked.

I didn't read as much as I would have liked because I'm having a really hard time with anything that makes me tense (or, as most people would call it "the plot"). But here are some I read and liked:

Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata. This is a translation from Japanese. It is about a woman who doesn't really fit into society's expectations for her.

Wilding, by Isabella Tree. This is a book about a British land owner's decision to "rewild" their estate. I found it fascinating.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors, by Kawai Strong Washburn. I struggled a bit with parts of this one because there are definitely people making some bad decisions (one of the biggest triggers of tenseness for me...) but it is a beautiful book about a Hawaiian family with one extraordinary member and how that both helps and hurts the family.

Sourdough, by Robin Sloan. A fun novel about a sourdough starter that changes a woman's life. 

I have found that sci-fi novels don't trigger that same "I can't handle a plot" reaction in me, so towards the end of the year, I started Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. I really liked it and am still thinking about it. I'll probably read the next book in the trilogy soon.

I also have a couple of books I read aloud with Petunia that I can recommend:

Weird Kid, by Greg van Eekhout. I have enjoyed all of his middle grade books and this one was no exception. It is about a kid who is actually an alien and his struggles to find his place in life.

Here in the Real World, by Sara Pennypacker. Petunia and I both really loved this story of two kids on the edges who make themselves a sanctuary in an abandoned lot.

Finally, I've been reading poems before bed some nights and I really like that. A book of poems I read this year that I loved was Goldenrod, by Maggie Smith (of Good Bones fame).

And that's all I have today. I think it is time I get started on my to do list for the weekend. First up - take down the Christmas tree!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Things I Enjoyed in 2019

Yes, I know, it is traditional to write your "best of" lists at the end of the year, and not in January. But that didn't happen, and better late than never, right?

I was originally going to make this post just about my favorite books from 2019, but I decided to make it more general and include some other things I enjoyed. Let's start with the books, though.

Of course, there are the three books I published in 2019: The Dodo Knight, a novella by Michelle Rene about the friendship between Lewis Carroll and his muse, Alice Liddell, told from Alice's viewpoint; Arctic Adagio, a mystery/thriller novelette by DJ Cockburn set in an all-too-believable near future when the climate has changed and governments have crumbled and the super-rich have taken to the high seas to evading the remnants of authority in luxury yachts; and The Boy Who Was Mistaken for a Fairy King, a magic-infused novella about a boy (who happens to have antlers on his head) and a girl (who loves the chase) and what happens when they get tangled in magic they don't understand.

I only publish books I really love,  and so of course those are three books I enjoyed last year.

Looking more widely, here were some of my favorite books that I read last year:

Rowing to Latitude, by Jill Fredston. The book is about the trips Fredston takes with her husband, paddling in arctic waters, and it definitely works as a travel book. But it is about more than that, too. It is about finding your place in life and then living life on your own terms. It is about taking risks and recognizing the risks we take for granted. This is the book that has embedded itself most firmly in my mind in the last year. I find myself thinking about it often. In fact, I wrote about it in two blog posts, one at Beyond Managing and one at Adjusted Latitude. I just loved this book.

The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai. This is a book about the AIDS crisis, the lives it took, and the lives it changed. I found this to be a very moving and thought-provoking novel. The book's primary concern is its story, but wrapped in with the story are themes of how we respond to disaster, and how we live with what fate has given us for our lives.

Space Opera, by Catherynne M. Valente. I bought this book because it was billed as a mash-up of Douglas Adams and Eurovision and that sounded like a bunch of fun. It is, but it is more than that. The premise is that the intergalactic sentient beings have decided that instead of fighting wars they will have a song contest. When a new planet is considered for inclusion among the sentient beings, its worthiness is judged in this contest. As long as the newcomers don't come in dead last, they get to live. Earth has come to the notice of the sentient beings in the galaxy and we have been "invited" to compete... and what happens next is as wacky as anything Adams dreamed up. I didn't think Valente quite nailed the balance of ridiculous and mundane as well as Adams, but that is a high bar. I really enjoyed the book, and in the end, I found it had a lot of serious ideas to convey, too. They sneak up on you while you're distracted by the wackiness and the glitter. If the premise sounds at all interesting to you, give it a try. I suspect you'll end up really liking it - I did!

Circe, by Madeline Miller. This book is a delight. It is a retelling of the myth that both honors its source material and makes it feel fresh and relevant. Also, it is just wonderful storytelling.

There were also two books I read to Petunia that I loved, and that I think anyone would enjoy reading, either with a child or on your own:

Cog, by Greg van Eekhout. We'd read and loved this author's earlier book, The Voyage of the Dogs, and so were really looking forward to this book. It did not disappoint. Cog is an android who was built to learn. When he is separated from Gina, his creator, he sets off on a mission to find her, and the result is a really good story.

Summer of a Thousand Pies, by Margaret Dilloway. We got this book because the author appeared at the event van Eekhout did to support Cog. Both authors were signing their books, and it felt wrong not to have both books, so I bought Summer of a Thousand Pies. I'm so glad I did! It is the story of Cady, a young girl who has been living in a van in San Diego with her father. When her father shows up at her school drunk, she is taken from him and ends up with her aunt in Julian (a small town in the mountains outside of San Diego), who owns a pie shop. The book follows her as she finds her footing in her new home... only to discover it might be taken away. The characters in this book are marvelous, and I really looked forward to reading it to Petunia whenever it was my turn to read to her! I don't think I'd read it to a kid much younger than Petunia - there are some serious themes. But they are all handled deftly, and there was nothing I wasn't willing to discuss with Petunia and I think she is old enough to be having those discussions. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to drop a bunch of spoilers, but if you're curious about the book for your kid and want to know more, just email me.

Non-book things I enjoyed in 2019 included:

Seeing Pride and Prejudice, the play by Kate Hamill. This was a birthday gift to me from my sister, and I don't think I've ever had so much fun at a play. This was just a delight.

Eating carne seca enchiladas at El Charro Cafe in Tucson. I am not a foodie, and so it is a bit surprising to me that I feel like a meal belongs on this list... but El Charro's carne seca is really something special, and if you ever get the chance to try it, you should!

Seeing the Maud Lewis exhibit at the Nova Scotia art gallery in Halifax (see more about this visit in my Adjusted Latitudes write up)

Hearing some great Cape Breton fiddle music from Chrissy Crowley at the Red Shoe pub in Mabou, Cape Breton (you can also read more about this part of our vacation at Adjusted Latitudes!)

Prince Edward Island was pretty cool, too.

I'm sure that as soon as I hit "publish" I will think of five other things that should be on this list... but I'm going to hit publish anyway. If you are so inclined, tell me about things you enjoyed last year in the comments!

Not Quite Summer Yet Reading

I've read several really good books lately, so I decided it was time for a books post.

Two of my books are book club books, and they show why I love my book club. I would never have picked up either of them on my own, and I absolutely loved both of them.

First was Rowing to Latitude, by Jill Fredston. I've mentioned this one here before, but it is worth mentioning again because I loved it so much. This is a memoir by a woman who is an avalanche expert - but although she writes a bit about that, mostly the book is about the long summer rowing trips she and her husband take in arctic waters. It is beautifully written and she is an interesting woman living life exactly how she wants to live it. The book gave me so much to think about. We read the book for May's book club, but insights from reading this book are still unspooling in my brain.

I just finished our June book club book, which was Circe, by Madeline Miller, and WOW is this a good book. It is another book with beautiful writing, but what I loved most was how relatable Miller made Circe. The writing about Circe's relationship with her son is some of the best writing about motherhood I've ever read, and that's just one small part of what makes this book so great.

In between these two book club books, I read The Peripheral, by William Gibson. I love how Gibson can dunk you into a strange but believable future, and how if you squint a bit you can trace the thread of how we get to this future. There are two futures in this book, both utterly plausible and somewhat horrifying. But I don't find his books bleak, because even though his characters are living in a future you hope we avoid, they are real and human and at least some of them are salvaging something good from their lives, and that somehow makes me feel hopeful that humanity will muddle through whatever catastrophe we bring down on ourselves. But there's also an edge to this book, a warning about the potential catastrophes we face hidden in among the puzzling out the rules of the world into which you find yourself immersed.

I am also reading a book of poetry right now. I've been reading more poetry, and I decided I should buy some. I picked Good Bones, by Maggie Smith, because I love the title poem so much. I am glad I did, because the other poems in the collection are also speaking to me.

I've been thinking a little bit about the through-thread of some of these books - particularly Rowing to Latitude and Circe, which both spoke to me more than I expected when I started them. I put the pieces together tonight, as I read the closing chapters of Anne of Green Gables aloud to Pumpkin (for the second time - we decided to reread it in advance of a trip to Prince Edward Island later this summer). I'll be a bit vague, in case you've never read Anne of Green Gables.. but the final chapter, titled "The Bend in the Road" is what made me connect the dots. Both Rowing to Latitude and Circe are about women plotting their own paths in life, paths that are maybe not what everyone else expects of them. There's a passage in Circe in which she is facing a more powerful god, in which she thinks "I cannot bear this world a moment longer." And the god answers, "Then, child, make another."

I don't really have my thoughts from all these books pulled together into a cohesive story yet, but I think the through-thread I'm finding from Fredston's unusual path in life to Circe's determination to shape her own life to Anne's resolution to follow the bend in the road is telling me something interesting. I'm just not sure what, yet. At least I'm enjoying some good books while I figure it out!

What good books have you read lately? Drop them in the comments.

Oh Hey Look What Happened While I Was Super Busy... Two New Books!

I've had a very, very busy couple of weeks. I won't go into all the details - they are mostly just things like "I had an important all-day meeting at work" - but I do want to share something cool that happened in the midst of the whirlwind.

I had two more children's books come out!

The Bedtime Battle started out as a sequel to Petunia, the Girl Who Was NOT a Princess. The plan was for Petunia and Penelope to have a sleepover and deal with monsters under the bed. But the Petunia illustrator wasn't interested in doing a sequel, so my publisher and I decided to rework the story as a stand alone book. Now Alice and Adele have a sleepover and deal with monsters under the bed! All of the monster-taming techniques in the book are real things we tried when our kids were littler... including the monster repellent spray. 

There's actually a funny story about monster spray in our house. I must have been pretty desperate on the night I tried this trick, because I didn't stop and think and just grabbed something relatively innocuous I could spray in Pumpkin's room. I grabbed the Febreeze air freshener spray, which promptly became known as "monster spray." And that is why when Mr. Snarky farts my kids run to the hall closet yelling "get the monster spray!"

The Magic Trapdoor grew out of my frustration with easy readers. So many of them are deadly dull! I wondered if I could do better. You'll have to be the judge of whether I did, but I am pleased with how the story turned out. It is about a little boy who loses his "best red car" under his bed, and finds a magic trapdoor when he crawls under to get his car. The trapdoor takes him to see dinosaurs (of course). I tried hard to make this scientifically accurate, so all of the dinosaurs in the book are ones that existed at about the same time and in the same place as the T. rex. The main text is pitched at about a kindergarten/first grade level reader, and there is extra explanatory text that the adult reading with the kid could read to add more details about the dinosaurs.

The original intent is for there to be at least a couple more Magic Trapdoor books... we'll see if this illustrator cooperates!

Since so many of my readers have kids about the same age as mine, I know that these books won't be appropriate for many of you. But if you do have a kid in your life who is the right age, please check these books out. The links above are to Amazon, but you can get the books at all the usual places, and they are also available on the Epic app, which is an app full of books for kids that we really liked when my kids were a little bit younger.

Books to Read Aloud

I've recently finished two really good books with the kids - one with each of them. It is hard to find good read aloud bedtime stories. My kids don't like things that are too scary as bedtime stories. They say it makes it hard to settle and go to sleep. I can see their point: my book club is reading Slade House, by David Mitchell, this month and I doubt I'll finish it because I've discovered I can't read it right before bed or I'll have weird, creepy dreams. It is a beautifully written book, but it has a way of worming its way into my subconscious that just doesn't work for bedtime reading.

Anyway, I'm always on the lookout for good bedtime books for the kids, and these two are good enough I want to share!

The kids and I went to see Greg Van Eekhout, the author of The Voyage of the Dogs, give a reading  at our local bookstore. It is set in a future in which humans and dogs can understand each other, and there are dog astronauts - barkonauts. The story is about what happens when a crew of barkonauts awakens from stasis to find the human crew on their ship gone. I was really intrigued by the premise of the book, so I was glad when Petunia decided we should read it together at bedtime. The author told us at the reading that all the dogs survive, so Petunia didn't mind the tense bits. (And knowing this in no way detracts from the book, so if you have a kid who would worry about that, too, go ahead and tell them.) The characters are wonderfully drawn. The dogs are dogs, not humans in dogs form, if you know what I mean. And I loved their problem-solving. This is such a fun book - I recommend it highly, even if you don't have a kid to read it to.

Finding bedtime stories for Pumpkin is getting harder and harder. She reads Harry Potter and other high-tension books to herself, but wants gentler stories for bedtime. The Anne of Green Gables books were perfect, although she asked to stop Rilla of Ingleside because the build up to WWI was too much for her. On a whim, I picked up a book my in-laws gave me years ago, that has been sitting on my "to read" pile. The 10 p.m. Question, by Kate Di Goldi, is a wonderful story of a 12 year old boy finding his way in the world. His family is a little odd, and what exactly is going on with his family is part of what you discover while you read. Frankie, the main character, has a lot of anxiety, and I really liked how the author made that just one of the things about a really interesting and likeable boy. I think this is a fine story for an 11 year old, and maybe even a little younger, but be aware that there are some adult themes. Nothing really detailed, but I did have to tell Pumpkin what a prostitute is or one small section of the story wouldn't have made as much sense. But I think I could have just breezed past that part and it wouldn't have mattered: It isn't central to the story.

In writing about these two books, it occurs to me that one of the reasons I liked them so much is they both have really great endings. The authors both do a great job of bringing their stories to a close while also leaving enough of an opening for you to think about what might come next for the characters. I really like it when a book does that!

Do you have any good bedtime story suggestions? Put them in the comments!

Release Day, Day Off... Not Quite to Plan

I've been feeling a little burned out, so I decided to plan a day off. Then I looked at my work calendar and decided the best I could manage right now was a half day. So I scheduled that for today. I figured that would work out well, since today is also the release day for The Inconvenient God - I planned to call in to some meetings in the morning, have a nice lunch, then do some release day promo, then head out for a walk on the beach.

But then I came down with a cold last Friday. I'm better (mostly - still a little stuffed up, but no longer clearly sick). My husband got sick two days ago. And Petunia got sick this morning. So far, Pumpkin is healthy. We'll see if that lasts.

So, I have both Mr. Snarky and Petunia home with me today. I attended my meetings, but had to work a little longer than I anticipated because my other time was interrupted tending to Petunia. I guess the bright side of having Mr. Snarky home, too, is that he can stay here with Petunia and I can still take my walk on the beach. But this is not the peaceful "mental health day" I imagined.

Oh well... at least it is looking like a good release day for The Inconvenient God! There are several reviews on the GoodReads page, and quite a few sales so far. If you want to add to the sales total, you can get the ebook for $2.99 at the usual places:

• Amazon 
• BN.com 
• GumRoad 
• iTunes
• Kobo 
• Smashwords

And the paperback for $7.99 at Amazon and BN.com. It will be available at IndieBound soon, and librarians - it will be in Overdrive and Baker & Taylor soon, too!

Here are a couple of early reviews:

• The Little Red Reviewer (pretty much spoiler free)
• Fill Your Bookshelf (mild spoilers, but not of the ending)

Also, don't forget I'm running a release month promo for this book - send me proof of purchase (which can just be a picture of the book on your ereader) and I'll send you a promo code to get Vanessa Fogg's equally wonderful novelette The Lilies of Dawn for just $0.99.

International readers - if you're in a location for which the exchange rate makes this book a ridiculous price for a novelette, but you want to read it, please get in touch! I'll work something out with you. 

Hooray for release days! And boo on sick days. I'm going to get my walk on the beach, though, and that's not nothing. 

Books and Such

Thank you for all the nice comments on my last post. My stomach is feeling better, although not 100% normal yet. I am not sure if the improvement is due to time, the Pepto I took one night, or the beer I had the next night... or some combination of all three.

Tonight, let's talk about books! Books are more fun than identity theft and upset stomachs.

I've ready some really great non-fiction books lately, so first I'll tell you about those.

I read Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann, for book club this month and oh wow, you should read it. It tells the story of a murder spree targeting members of the Osage tribe, who were incredibly wealthy due to their rights to oil found on their land, but who could not turn their wealth into fair treatment from the government or most white people with whom they interacted. It is a gripping true crime story mixed with a devastating history lesson.

I am just now finishing up My Own Words, by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This was a gift, and it sat unread for quite awhile. But I'm so glad I decided to pick it up! The essays and speeches in the first part of the book provide a fascinating look into Justice Ginsburg's early life and career. But I think my favorite essay in the book is The Madison Lecture: Speaking in a Judicial Voice. Specifically, her comments on Roe v. Wade in the "Measured Motions in Third Branch Decisionmaking"are really thought-provoking. Basically, she thinks the court got too far out ahead of the legislative bodies in making that ruling, and made too broad of a ruling. She argues that a more moderate ruling might have allowed time for the legislative branches of state governments to "catch up" and thereby have avoided the contentious backlash against the ruling we're all living through now. I'm not really doing justice to her argument, so if you're interested in it, I recommend getting your hands on a copy of the book and reading the lecture yourself.

On a much different note: The Colour of Food, by Anne Else, was another gift book. I can't disentangle how much of my enjoyment of it was because it is a well-written and diverting set of essays about memories and food and how much came from the fact that the book was given to me by my mother-in-law, and I think may have helped me understand her a bit better. (I like my mother-in-law quite a lot, for the record, so that is in no way a comment on her. I just don't see her all that often since she lives in New Zealand!)

Next, I'll be reading Laura Vanderkam's next book, Off the Clock. I have an advance copy and will start it as soon as I finish the Ruth Bader Ginsburg book.

In fact, Off the Clock is going to be the first book in what I hope will be a series of books I read and write about over at my "real name blog." I've been struggling to decide what to do with that space now that I'm no longer an independent consultant. I considered just moth balling it, but I decided that I like the idea of having a space to write under my actual name, even if I won't write as often. I recently decided that I want to use that space to explore my long-standing interest in the relationship between time use and well-being. I'm still not sure exactly what that will look like, but I have decided that part of it will be reading a book and then writing about what I learned from it and also what I don't agree with in it, if that is relevant. 

I decided to start with Off the Clock since Laura was nice enough to send me an advance copy and I'd like to read it close to when it comes out. But I have been gathering a bit of a list of books I want to read. This evening, I even got that list out of my head and into Trello. I debated various ways to track my list and decided on Trello because I can access it from anywhere and I can keep some notes associated with the books as I read them. Also, the board paradigm seemed like a good way to organize my reading list. So I made a Trello board with three lists: to read, reading, and read. Each book gets a card. It is the happiest of boards! An entire board devoted to books! I'll report back in later on how it works out for this project, irrespective of how the project itself actually goes.

If you're interested in following along on my reading and other explorations, follow me over there. I'm not sure I'll write much about it here. I'm still thinking about how I'll structure things, but I am leaning towards a simple "read along if you want to" structure, where I announce each book as I start it and then when I finish it, I post on it and anyone who is interested can come and discuss. I think this is going to be a slow motion project, and I also think that it would be the sort of thing you can dip in and out of as the books (or podcasts or whatever else) interest you. If you're curious, here are some of the other books on my "to read" list right now:

• Lost Connections, by Johann Hari
• Dying for a Paycheck, by Jeffrey Pfeffer
• Counterclockwise, by Ellen J. Langer
• How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan

And I suspect I'll dig a few more out of my podcast history! I've got a bunch of other books on my board, too, but they aren't necessarily related to this project. Although some, like Evicted, by Matthew Desmond, might find their way in once I read them... who knows? It will be fun to see what connections I find. I'm very open to other reading suggestions, so drop them in the comments if you have them!

Release Day for Both Sides of My Skin

I feel like I should be writing a post about what my first couple of days back as a full time employee have been like, but there isn't much to tell. Monday night, Pumpkin asked me how my first day was, and I told her it was good. Then she asked what I did all day, and I said I sat in meetings... and then she stopped asking questions, because clearly I wasn't going to say anything interesting!

I will tell you the same: my first couple of days have been good, and I've mostly sat in meetings. This is as expected and not a bad thing, really. If you're going to be in charge of the management of a bunch of projects, the easiest, least annoying way to get up to speed on them is to just go to all of the meetings for awhile. After a month or two, I'll know which ones I actually need to be at, and some space will free up in my schedule.

Anyhow, that's all I want to say about going back to work. Maybe at some point I'll write about the "sit in all the meetings until you know which ones you belong in" method of taking over management of an existing team over at my real name blog. Or maybe that sentence is really all there would be to the post. I'll have to think about that.

What I really want to tell you about is the latest Annorlunda Books release day! It is release day for Both Sides of My Skin, by Elizabeth Trach. This is the last release I scheduled before I knew I'd be going back to being full time employee, and so it is a different sort of release day for me. I can't obsessively refresh the sales numbers, which is probably a good thing. But I also will have to wait until lunch or break time to share out any reviews that come in... 

But you can buy the book now! I loved these stories when I first read them. They felt so refreshingly real in how they portrayed the early days of motherhood. I am delighted with how the book has turned out, and am excited that now everyone can read it.

The ebook is $3.99, from all the usual places:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• GumRoad
• iBooks
• Kobo
• Smashwords

The paperback is $8.99:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• IndieBound

If you're near Newburyport, MA, if is also available at The Book Rack.

And it is available at Overdrive if your library uses that. I think it is also available at Baker and Taylor, but I've never been able to figure out how to search and link there, so I have to just take that on faith. Also, I sell all my books DRM-free, so any library that manages its own ebooks could buy from any vendor.

I think any book makes a great gift... but this one would make a particularly good gift for a mother, particularly one still in the baby/toddler years. But don't take my word for it! Get a copy and see for yourself.

Release Day for The Burning

I am sorry to have been so absent here lately. I caught a cold and it won't go away. Or maybe I caught a cold and before I really got better I caught another cold? Either way, I am so tired of it. I've been going to bed early and trying to take it easy and I feel I should be rewarded for this by having the damn cold go away already, but lo, I still have it.

Anyway, today is the release day for another book from my publishing company, Annorlunda Books! The Burning, by J.P. Seewald, is a novella about family and resilience set in the coal country of Pennsylvania. It was inspired by the events in Centralia, PA, and dramatizes how one man reacts to a slow-moving catastrophe like this threatening everything he's worked for.

You can get the ebook for $2.99 from the usual places:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• GumRoad
• iBooks
• Kobo
• Smashwords

And the paperback for $8.99:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• IndieBound

It is also on Overdrive if your library uses that.

That's about all I can muster for this release day post, because I desperately want to take a nap and try to shake this cold. But go grab a copy of The Burning! It is a fast read, and it left me thinking about how I'd respond to a situation in which my livelihood and my home were both threatened. 

A Walk on the Beach and a Release Day

I had lunch with my marketing consultant today, and decided it would be a good day to treat myself to a much delayed walk on the beach after lunch.

I had several successes to celebrate:

• I created and delivered a brand new seminar for a client.
• I delivered an online version of my Navigate the Path to Industry seminar. You can buy the recording here. (Bonus: today GumRoad is donating their cut off the sale to UNICEF's operations in Puerto Rico!) 
• Today was release day for Water into Wine, a science fiction novella by Joyce Chng. (Bonus: Water into Wine is available at GumRoad, too!)

Since today is release day, I'll share a bit more about Water into Wine. It is a sci-fi novella set on a distant planet, but I think you should check it out even if you don't read sci-fi often, because it has such interesting characters. 

One of the things I love about the book (and the other books I've read by Joyce) is the way it takes her culture and imagines it into the future. This is a pretty standard thing for sci-fi to do, but so often, sci-fi only takes white European culture and imagines it into the future. Chng takes her Straits Chinese culture and imagines it forward, which opens up new possibilities. I love reading science fiction from people writing from other cultures, because I think it expands my ideas about what the future might be.

But leaving all that aside, what this book is at its core is a story about a family trying to make a life for themselves amidst chaotic external circumstances they cannot control. It is probably obvious why that resonated with me right now! In Water into Wine, these circumstances are an interstellar war, and a real strength of the book is portraying ordinary people trying to just live their lives during a war.

If any of that intrigues you, please grab a copy of the book today. All the purchase links are on the book's webpage. You can also find links to it in Overdrive, so if you can't afford the book and still want to read it, consider asking your librarian about it. 

So, that's what I was celebrating. It was a nice walk on the beach. The weather was perfect. The shells weren't so great, though. I had a pretty small haul:

The shells were small today, including the sand dollar. It is roughly the size of my thumbnail.

However, right about at my turnaround point, I got a huge treat. First a flock of pelicans flew by. And then, while I was watching them, I saw dolphins out past the break! I watched them for quite awhile, since they essentially kept pace with me as I walked back towards my starting point.

There were dolphins at the second break line right before I took the picture!

After I lost sight of the dolphins, a lone pelican flew past quite close to shore, and I saw one of these guys:

I think the wildlife sightings more than make up for my small shell haul! 

Even without the cool wildlife, the walk would have been well worth it. I always feel the screwed up muscle in my right shoulder/neck start to relax a bit more when I'm walking on the beach. Walking also helps me work through ideas and decisions. While my celebratory walks on the beach really are about celebrating (you can read about the first one and see my logic), they are also a great way for me to make the space I need to think about my business strategy and plans at a higher level than "here's what I need to do in the next few weeks." 

So, happy book birthday, Water into Wine! And happy beach walk day to me.

Release Day for Hemmed In

I picked a bad day to be the release day for my latest entry in the Annorlunda Books Taster Flight series. Everyone is distracted by the upcoming Comey testimony (and just released opening statement), and I don't blame them. In fact, if I could redirect some of the attention away from that, I'd direct it to the fact that the Senate is preparing to vote on their version of the AHCA, and we still don't know what is in it.

But, June 7 was the day I picked, and anyway, there is always something more important distracting people right now. It is a tough time to be trying to build a business that depends in part on getting people's attention.

Still, you're reading this! So I have your attention, and I can tell you about Hemmed In. It is my fourth "taster flight" of classic short stories, and I think it is my favorite. I liked the other three a lot, but this one wins because it has a story that latched on to me when I first read it and has stayed in my mind ever since.

I first read Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers when I was looking for stories for Missed Chances, my first Taster Flight. It did not fit that theme, but I loved the story, and it has stayed with me, popping into my mind for time to time, ever since. It is the story of two women called to come collect things for a farm wife who is in jail on suspicion of murdering her husband... and to tell you more than that would ruin it.

I keep a spreadsheet of potential stories to use in anthologies, and I eventually realized that I had several stories gathered that would fit a theme about women's lives and the aspects of those lives that men don't always understand: Edna Ferber's The Leading Lady and Mary Lerner's Little Selves were also on my list at that point. I knew I could add The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Gilman Perkins, a classic story read by many people in college women's studies or women's literature classes. I never read it in college, but a lot of my friends (and my sister!) had and recommended it to me when they heard about the Taster Flights.

I revisited some of the other collections of old stories that I had on my Kindle, and found Kate Chopin's A Pair of Silk Stockings. Hemmed In still seemed too short, so I decided to add The Bohemian Girl, by Willa Cather, another story I really love. It may be my favorite thing I've ever read by Willa Cather.

I love all the stories in this anthology, and I think that reading them together makes them even better. The idea behind the "taster flight" concept is that just like I notice new things about a beer when I taste it as part of a flight with other beers, I notice new things about a story when I read it as part of a collection of other stories. For instance, I noticed a new detail upon re-reading The Leading Lady after recently reading The Yellow Wallpaper.

If you want to read the stories and see what I mean, you could theoretically go read each one online. They are in the public domain! But for a mere $2.99 you can get my nicely formatted versions on your ereader, from one of these fine retailers:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• GumRoad
• iBooks
• Kobo

There is also a paperback, available at Amazon and Createspace right now, and coming to other vendors (BN.com, IndieBound) soon.

If you want to help me spread the word, you can share this post, or you can share the Annorlunda Books release day post or my Tungsten Hippo post. The book is also on GoodReads, so you can add it to your shelves. So many options!

Thanks for taking a break from the political maelstrom with me!

Easing Into 2017... And a Release Day

Today is my second day back working after the holiday break. I'm doing OK, but I wouldn't say I'm setting any productivity records. That will come later, once I've convinced my body that no, we don't need an afternoon nap everyday. One of the items on my list today was to start on my 2017 work goals list. I did that, and then went out for my first run of the year. It had been several weeks since my last run of 2016, due partly to the break and partly to two colds I got in December. I've still got lingering congestion from the second cold. So the first run was underwhelming. Still, it felt good to stretch my legs a bit, and I'm genuinely looking forward to the first roller blade of 2017, which should happen on Friday, weather permitting.

I also think I'll try to schedule a walk on the beach soon, maybe even next Wednesday. I find beach walks to be a good way to do some deep thinking about goals, and I have a new book release to celebrate.

Speaking of that new book release....

Caresaway, by DJ Cockburn came out today. I am trying something new with this release. I've made the ebook Amazon-exclusive for three months, and will experiment to see whether I can make the Kindle Unlimited program worthwhile for me. I prefer to go with a broad release, but the KU program gives me access to some additional advertising tools, and I want to see if they are worth giving up the other markets for a few months.

So anyway, you should all buy a copy of Caresaway! It is a thought-provoking "in your head" thriller set in the near future. Edward Crofte has discovered what seems to be a miraculous cure for depression, but he learns that it comes at a steep cost.

Here are the usual links:

• The Annorlunda Books page, which will always have the latest purchase links and will also have a link to an excerpt and reviews as those become available.
• The Amazon pages for the ebook and the paperback (these will merge soon)
• The Createspace page for the paperback (it will make its way to BN.com and Indiebound soon)
• The GoodReads page (with two reviews posted already)
• A review from Fill Your Bookshelves (mild spoilers)

And for your social sharing convenience (please help spread the word!)

• The Annorlunda Books Facebook post about the book
• An Annorlunda Books tweet about the book
• The Pinterest pin for the cover
• The Tungsten Hippo tumblr post for the book

Here's a funny-sad true story about the book. At one point, one of the characters says "So we've made a must-have accessory for the next Bernie Madoff." It originally said "the next Donald Trump," but we decided to change it because we didn't want to tie the book into the current politics, fearing it might make the book feel dated later. This was back when Trump was still just a somewhat unlikely candidate for the Republican nomination. Sigh.

Anyway, check out the book, I think you'll like it! If you're in the Kindle Unlimited program, you can read it for free for the next three months. If you use an ereader other than a Kindle, you should be able to buy it from Amazon, download it, convert it to an ePub (e.g., using Calibre) and then load it onto your ereader. I have never done this (I have done the reverse: bought from Kobo, converted to mobi, and loaded onto my Kindle), but it should in theory be possible. Or, I guess you can wait until April, when I'll expand the release to the other ebook retailers. But why wait? Try it, and if you run into trouble email me and I'll set you up with an epub.

Release Day for Academaze

Today is release day for Academaze, the collection of essays and cartoons about academic life by Sydney Phlox, the more easily indexable pseudonym of Xykademiqz.

Even though my particular publishing model does not require a "big bang" release day, I still love release days. It is great to see something I've worked hard on out in the world. Today is no different, except due to some scheduling issues and my recent "crunch time" I ended up putting this release day on a day when I was scheduled to go in to my main client... so I am later than usual in posting the release day post.

But, better late than never! Academaze is out, and you can grab a copy at the following links:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• Createspace
• GumRoad
• iBooks
• Kobo

You can help spread the word by sharing this post, the release day Facebook post, or the release day Tweet.

Also, Xykademiqz is running a raffle on her blog, and has a running list of reviews as they come in from our advance reviewers (and others). Here are a few quotes from reviews to give you a feel for the book:

"Reading Academaze was like having a long chat with a colleague who’d had experiences similar to mine, but actually processed them instead of simply surviving. It was invigorating and inspiring, and I’m looking forward to sharing the book with my students." - Review by Elizabeth Haswell

"[A]n absolute must-read for anyone who is either thinking of a career in research or has already embarked on the path." - review by Pawel Niewiadomski

"The book is fun, there are tons of RL stories that illustrate each point – I highly recommend it." - Review by Clarissa

"I would highly recommend her book for anyone who is considering a career at a research university, at least in physical science or engineering." - Review by Alex Small at Physicist at Large (Note: the review from Elizabeth Haswell is from a professor in the biosciences, and the review from Clarissa is from a professor of literature... I think the information is relevant for any science professor, and that parts of it are relevant outside of the sciences, but I didn't want to truncate the quote.)

So, what are you waiting for? Grab a copy. Buy copies for all your friends! I think you'll be glad you did.

On a more personal note, I was struck while reviewing the proofs of this book by how far I've come in the technical aspects of publishing. When I compare this book to my first foray into publishing (with my own Navigating the Path to Industry), the difference is quite noticeable, particularly in the paperback version. It is not that Navigating the Path to Industry is terrible- nothing interferes with your ability to read it, for instance. But I hadn't figured out all the publishing norms, and since the paperback was an afterthought, the cover image wasn't the right size, and I had to pad it and I've always regretted my choice of filler color. 

However, this was sort of the plan. I wanted to try out publishing with a book of my own, so that I would make my mistakes on my own work, not someone else's. Even now, when I want to try something new (like adding a second printer for non-Amazon sources of the paperback), I try it first on a Taster Flight. 

I'm not sure if it is worth going back to fix the issues I now see with the Navigating the Path to Industry paperback. Let's just say that it hasn't made it to the top of my priority list yet.

For now, I'll just feel happy for how well Academaze (and Don't Call It Bollywood) turned out!

Why I've Been Scarce Here Lately

As I keep saying, I've been super busy lately. But all that busyness has started to pay off... I have tangible things to show you to account for why most of my posts for the past month have been links posts.

This blog post is going to be all news- I have three things I want to tell you about, two of which account for my whereabouts these past few weeks, and one of which was just a nice surprise I want to share.

Sadly, I may still be scarce around her for awhile more... but this time it will be because we're in the end of the school year silly season and because we have a vacation coming up. Still, my self-induced work hecticness is winding down, so maybe I can squeeze in some more blog posts. I miss rambling on about my life.

Anyway, on to the news:

Item 1: Academaze is now ready for pre-order!

Honestly, this one should have confetti or something, because this is the biggest book I've ever published and it has a bunch of cartoons which added some complexity to the publishing process... so it was a lot of work with some new things to learn. But, it has turned out great! You can just imagine the confetti, though. I know how to make text blink in HTML (I'm old and old school....) but I won't do that to you.

Academaze is a collection of essays and cartoons from the awesome woman who blogs at Xykademiqz about life as a professor at an R1 university. If you're on the tenure track, this book will give you some advice about how to navigate that track successfully. If you're thinking about getting on the tenure track, it will tell you about the job search process and give you a peak at what you'll be signing up for. If you have tenure, it has ideas for handling departmental politics and mentoring your students. And if you're a bystander to this whole academia thing, it will tell you what, exactly, professors are doing all day when they aren't in class.

Plus it is fun to read and the cartoons are amusing.

So all around, a great book to get. You should totally pre-order it.

Here's the Annorlunda news post about the pre-order, with links to all the retailers and more information.

Item 2: Don't Call It Bollywood comes out tomorrow and to celebrate, the author and I are hosting a Twitter watchalong of a Hindi film on Thursday night!

The "overly optimistic scheduling decision" I made was to try to bring two books out in close succession. (And actually, I have a third coming in July, but there's enough breathing room between Academaze and that one that my schedule is now starting to return to normal.)

It was totally worth it, because they are both great books and I wanted to get them out to readers before the summer doldrums hit. And I did it! I'm on schedule for the Academaze release, and Don't Call It Bollywood comes out TOMORROW.

If you've forgotten what Don't Call It Bollywood is about, it is an introduction to Hindi film that gives the reader the historical and artistic context to fully appreciate these films. Author Margaret E. Redlich writes in a conversational tone and intersperses some stories from her own personal path to devoted fandom in with the history and analysis, making this a very approachable book to read.

And, after reading it so many times during the production process I'm very excited to actually watch a Hindi film! Margaret has chosen Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham for our celebratory watch along, and you are all invited to join in the fun. It starts Thursday at 6 p.m. PDT/9 p.m. EDT. I'll be tweeting from the @AnnorlundaInc twitter account, and will also retweet a few things into my @wandsci timeline. Full details of the watch along are available on the Annorlunda news page.

Item 3: My children's books are now available in Kindle Unlimited

This is the "wow, that's a pleasant surprise!" item. My June royalty statement from my publisher included a note that my books will now be available in Kindle Unlimited. Usually, to be included in Kindle Unlimited, you have to be exclusive with Amazon. However, Xist Publishing has negotiated a deal with Amazon that gets its books into Kindle Unlimited without the exclusivity requirement. So you can still get The Zebra Said Shhh and Petunia, the Girl Who Was Not a Princess at other retailers and via other subscription services (like Epic), but it is now available to read for free if you're a member of Kindle Unlimited.

This probably means more royalty income for me, which is nice. But it is also a really big deal for my publisher, and I'm happy for them.

In somewhat related news, one of the things I cut from my to do list in my push to deal with my tight publishing schedule was updates to the book blog at mrnelsonbooks. I'm going to start posting there again now that I'm through "crunch time" and will start sending out the newsletter again, too. I've also been working on a new story, which I hope to start sending out to publishers soon. It is in its final tweaking stage. So who knows? There might be more kids' book related news from me at some point in the future.

In the meantime... check out the two new releases I have coming up from Annorlunda Books, and if you're tempted to join the watch along, please do! I think it is going to be a lot of fun.

A Life Made of Choices

Somehow, despite inserting a trip to my daughters' school in the middle of the day, I have managed to charge 6 hours of paid work today. I consider 7-7.5 hours of "chargeable" work to be a full day, so I will do some more work later. But I'm going to reward myself by writing a blog post before I move on to the next item on my to do list.

(If you're curious: I went to school to see Pumpkin receive an award. She and Petunia both got awards for "responsibility" this week. On different days, of course.)

I want to write about books, and also about how our lives are made of choices, some ours and some other people's, some large and some small. But mostly about books.

I also have to write a tiny bit about the US election. Sorry, people who are tired of it. This part will be short. I find myself obsessing about this election more than I usually do. I always have a preference for who wins, but this year is different. I am reading much more election coverage than usual, and thinking about it more.

This is because of Trump, obviously. I have a settled on a preference in Democratic primary, and it is cool to have a woman so close to securing her party's nomination, but we've been here before. I suspect I'll feel more emotion on that front when the nomination is actually hers (which it looks like it will be, unless Sanders has a truly remarkable run in the rest of the primaries and caucuses.)

But Trump is something different, at least in my lifetime. One benefit of reading so much coverage is that I'm starting to understand that we've seen candidates with some of his characteristics before. Or more properly, remember, because I had an excellent high school history teacher and much of what the commentators are pointing out sounds vaguely familiar in that "I haven't thought about that since high school" sort of way.

We've definitely had openly racist candidates in my lifetime. I remember Strom Thurmond's last two decades in the Senate, after all. But by the time I remember him, he'd toned it down to dog whistles. I've been aware that the less subtle form of racism was not gone from our country for quite awhile, but it is a bit breathtaking to see it so openly on display at the rallies of someone who is the frontrunner for his party's presidential nomination.

I think, though, what fascinates me about this election is that it is our chance to answer the question "what would you do if a fascist tried to gain power in your country?" We're not doing so well on that question right now, but I still have hope for us.

I don't want to get into the details of whether or not Trump meets the textbook definition of a fascist. The man has studied Hitler's writings. He is running rallies that are bringing racial and political violence into our political process. He has stated he wants to curtail press freedoms. He bars members of the press he considers unfriendly to him from his rallies. He has said we should bar all Muslims from entering the country. I could go on.

Bear with me, I'm almost to the books part.

I have long been fascinated with the question of what I would have done if I was living in Germany at the time of the Nazis. I am not convinced I would have recognized the danger. If I did, I am not convinced I would have known when to fight and when to flee. I think it is hard to recognize when the situation has tipped from "bad but worth trying to fix" to "the way your world works is being upended and you need to adjust to the new reality."

And this is why I loved The Dream of Scipio by Ian Pears. It follows three storylines in a particular part of France. One storyline is at the end of the Roman Empire, one is in the time of the Black Death, and one is in World War II. In each storyline, people have to decide what to do as their communities and way of life and indeed the very rules by which they are living their life crumble around them. I enjoy Pears' writing, but I love the book for the exploration of the period of time when everything is just starting to fall apart.

I sincerely hope we aren't heading for one of those periods, but this is the first time in my life I've ever felt like we could end up in such a period, depending on the choices we make. And I think that is why I'm so fascinated by this election. What will "mainstream" Republicans do if Trump gets enough delegates to secure the nomination? Will they try to hold their party together, or will they abandon it and start a new one? What is the "right" thing to do? (I don't know.) What if Trump has the most delegates but not enough to win? Again, I don't know what the right thing to do is. It feels like we're heading towards an inflection point of some sort... but who knows what choices will put us on the best trajectory? Who can even say what the best trajectory is at this point?

It has been many years since I read The Dream of Scipio, and I have forgotten many of the details of the plot. But I retain the sense that all of the characters were faced with choices, whether they recognized them as such or not, and that it was not always easy to say what the "right" thing to do was, even from the safe position of knowing how the historical events in which the story is embedded turn out.

So, sticking with the theme of choices, the second book I want to talk about is Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson. This is an amazing book, in which the protagonist keeps reliving her life, but each time the trajectory is slightly different, based on choices she makes or things that happen. It is set in the lead up to World War II, during the war, and immediately after the war, mainly in England. The protagonist experiences the Blitz in London, and in a couple of the timelines, she experiences Nazi Germany. It is such a good book on so many levels. If you're only going to read one of the books I talk about in this post, this would be my pick.

The final book I want to talk about also explores choices, and what we make of them, but in a much more subtle way. It is a memoir called Orchard House, by Tara Austen Weaver. The author's mother decides to buy a house with a really large yard and overrun garden, and the author joins in—and takes ownership of some aspects of—creating a beautiful garden in this space. The garden is metaphor and learning experience, and also helps frame her quest to make peace with her life and the limitations of the people in it. She's not unhappy, but she's not really happy, either, and the garden helps her understand why, and move towards a life more like what she wants. Again the elements of choice (her decision to make the garden a large part of her life) and chance/other people's choices (her mother's decision to buy that house) come together to create her life. Ultimately, though, it is her choice how to respond to her circumstances, and in the end, she learns that it is that response that really determines how she'll experience her life.

I think there are limits to that final lesson. There are some things—the Blitz, for instance—that are pretty much horrible no matter how you choose to respond to them. But then again... if you read Life after Life, you'll see that decisions the main character make do influence how she experiences even that overwhelmingly terrible time. The details are obviously fiction, but the larger conclusion strikes me as true, and it is an interesting thing to ponder. Atkinson doesn't take the easy way out: there is no obvious rule about how to respond to bad things. In general, things seem to turn out better when the protagonist takes action in response to the situations in which she finds herself... but not always. It is really a thought-provoking book.

And now, it is after dinner and I have promised my kids a trip to the ice cream shop to celebrate their awards, so I will close this post. I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of it in the comments!

Almost Like a Release Day

Today was the day I'd picked out as the release day for Missed Chances, my "taster flight" of classic love stories that all feature "the one that got away."

Another cool cover from my designer!

The various retailers had other ideas for me.

Since this collection consists of stories in the public domain, Amazon policy requires some sort of "differentiation" in order to publish. This is fair enough, so I happily set about obtaining some illustrations for the stories. I wasn't 100% sure if this would be enough, or if Amazon would require the title to include "[ILLUSTRATED]" (which would be confusing, since this is not an exact copy of a single public domain book, but a collection of stories culled from multiple public domain sources). So I wanted to get Amazon to approve the book.

It turns out that the only way to get them to review the book is to submit it for publication, and since they don't allow pre-orders on public domain works, that meant submitting it for immediate publication. So, last week, that's what I did, expecting some back and forth before Amazon approved the book. Instead, Amazon approved and listed the book in less than 12 hours, so the ebook version has been listed on Amazon for over a week.

Meanwhile, I was busy assembling the print version and the ePUB version for BN.com, Kobo, and iBooks (the iBooks ePUB version is slightly different from the one for BN.com and Kobo, too).

I finalized the print version and ordered the proof last week. I had to place a rush on the order so that it could arrive before my release day. I had proofread the text pretty carefully before submitting it, so I thought that maybe I'd get away without any changes. I was wrong. I found two typos in the final proof, and had to make the changes and resubmit the files for review. I stayed up late Monday night getting all of this done.

I arranged my schedule so that I could go in a little late to my usual client on Tuesday, hoping that my files would be through the review and ready for me to re-proof. They were not ready by the cutoff time I'd set, so I went ahead and went to my client site. And of course, by the time I got there, there was an email in my inbox saying that my files were now ready to proof. I left as early as I could and re-proofed and submitted for publication yesterday afternoon... but the book is still not showing on Amazon. It is available directly from Createspace, but the really opportunity for sales comes from having it on Amazon. It should be there soon. In the past, the paperback version of my books have appeared on Amazon in a day or less. No such luck this time, I guess.

Yesterday, I also created the iBooks version and submitted that. It is available for sale... but they turned "M.R. Nelson" into "Mr. Nelson." A rather common mistake, actually, but since they've managed to get it right in the past, I was surpised. (The mistake was fixed a few hours after I notified them of it.)

So, all in all, not the smooth release day I'd have liked. I jokingly blamed the retailers at the top of this post, but it is really my fault. The release of this book was a bit more rushed than it should have been. It isn't a big deal in this case, since the authors of the stories in this collection are long dead. I have not ruined a release day for anyone but myself, and I am more inclined to laugh at all of this than be bothered by it. I'll chalk this up to a learning experience and be sure to leave myself more time for reviewing proofs, etc., next time.

I had a good reason for rushing things, of course. I wanted to use this book as a "thank you" to my Tungsten Hippo mailing list subscribers, and as a lure to get some more subscribers. I am pleased with how it worked in that regard. I also wanted it to be ready for my usual "first Wednesday of the month collection recommendation" on Tungsten Hippo. And it was!

Therefore, I'm calling this book's release a success, even if the release day was a bit wobbly.

So! Now for the usual release day post. All of the links for where you can get Missed Chances will always be on the Annorlunda Books page for the book, but I'll also list them here:

• Amazon
• Createspace (paperback- which will also be available from Amazon soon)
• BN.com
• GumRoad (includes MOBI, ePUB, and PDF)
• iBooks
• Kobo

Sadly, I can't have this book on Oyster (while it is still around!), Scribd, or Overdrive, because I use Smashwords to get into those channels, and Smashwords does not accept public domain works.

But, that's still a lot of options to get the book. I don't have reviews to post yet (see above about how tight the schedule was) so you'll just have to take my word for it: the stories in this book are all great. I still enjoyed reading them during my last proof of the book, which was after reading them roughly 10 times. (That surprised me, frankly.)

The stories are:

• Aunt Philippa and the Men, by L.M. Montgomery
• The Kiss, by Kate Chopin
• The Victory, by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Mystery of Wilhelm Rütter, by Helen Hunt Jackson
• A Florentine Experiment, by Constance Fenimore Woolson

I obviously like them all, but I particularly love A Florentine Experiment.

This release concludes my ridiculously busy six weeks of work. I still have a lot of cool things coming up (my paperbacks on BN.com! Navigating the Path to Industry on Smashwords! Integrating the GumRoad sales directly on the Annorlunda web pages!) but the pace should be less hectic, and I should have time to write some of those blog posts I've been wanting to write. Phew. I also owe myself a walk on the beach. I'm hoping that the weather might be nice enough next week that I can get one last barefoot walk in before it gets too cold to let my feet get wet. I'm going to take the walk, regardless, though!

Another Big Release Day

It is time for another Annorlunda Books release day post!

Today is release day for Okay, So Look, a humorous novella-length retelling of the Book of Genesis by Micah Edwards.

I suspect you're skeptical of this book. I was, too, when it first landed in my inbox. But I really enjoyed reading it- and I learned a lot about the Book of Genesis from reading it, so I knew I had to publish it. Everybody I've handed the book to has had that same skeptical look in their eyes, followed by the same "hey, this was a lot of fun to read!" reaction.

As the author says: "The Bible's full of fantastic stories, and it's a shame so many people miss out on them because they've heard that the book is just a collection of boring lessons sandwiched between tedious lists of begats. Nothing could be further from the truth! It's a collection of entertaining, bizzare and colorful stories sandwiched between tedious lists of begats."

Reviews are starting to come in.

• You can see several on the Amazon page.  You'll have to read the book to find out why one reviewer is now calling her significant other Muppim.
• Natalie at Fill Your Bookshelf says "This book is hilarious."

If you're curious about the book, you can read a short excerpt on the Annorlunda Books website.

If you're ready to buy, all the links are on the Annorlunda Books page, but for your convenience, I'll put them here, too:

• Amazon (ebook and paperback)
• BN.com
• GumRoad (this is direct from my company, and includes the MOBI, ePub, and PDF)
• iBooks
• Kobo
• Smashwords

You can also read it via a subscription service or your library (if they buy it!)

• Overdrive (one way your library can buy the ebook. It will also be in Baker and Taylor, or they can buy direct from Smashwords)
• Oyster (a service now slated to sunset in January- but you can still read books if you're already a subscriber)
• Scribd

It is obviously my pick of the week over atTungsten Hippo. If you're inclined to help me spread the word about this book, here are some ways you could help:

• Add it to your shelves on GoodReads
• Share the Tungsten Hippo facebook post about it or the book's fan page the author set up.
• Retweet the Tungsten Hippo tweet or one of the tweets from @AnnorlundaInc
• Reblog the Tungsten Hippo tumblr post
• Repin the Tungsten Hippo pin or the Annorlunda Books pin
• Share the Annorlunda Books email about it.
• Tell people about it!

As always, I am extremely grateful for any help you feel like giving me, and for the fact that you reas this blog. The end of the super busy period I created for myself is now in sight, so I hope to be back to writing more substantive posts soon.  

A Different Sort of Release Day

I've done release day posts before- for my own books. Today's post is a different sort of release day post. It is release day for the first book written by somebody else that I'm publishing through my publishing company.

Unspotted, by Justin Fox, is a short ebook about the endangered Cape Mountain Leopards of South Africa, and about Quenton Martins and The Cape Leopard Trust, who are working to save these beautiful animals. It is also a travelogue of sorts as Fox journeyed into the Cederberg Mountains to try to see one of the elusive cats for himself.

Obviously, I really like this book- otherwise I wouldn't have bought it to publish! I think you'll like it, too, so check it out.

Two reviews from advance readers are already in:

• Jennifer Gruden says it is worth picking up- and compares it favorably to Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See, which is a book I also love.
• Natalie at Fill Your Bookshelf also liked it, although she would have liked it to be longer (I'll take that!)

You can find the links to all of the retail outlets on the Annorlunda Books page, but to make things easier for you, I'll put them here, too. Although I have a Kindle (OK, I love my Kindle), I don't want to see Amazon be the only source for ebooks- so I skipped the Kindle Unlimited program and have made this book widely available. You can get it for just $2.99 at:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• GumRoad (this is direct from me, and includes the MOBI for your Kindle, the ePub for other ereaders, and a PDF for those who want a hardcopy- you can print it out).
• iBooks
• Kobo
• Smashwords

It is also available at two subscription services:

• Oyster
• Scribd

I'll add links to other channels to the Annorlunda Books page for the book as they become available. Specifically, for the librarians in my audience: Overdrive is in process (via Smashwords). If you have suggestions for other places you'd like to see the book, let me know.

I also made it the pick of the week at Tungsten Hippo, so you can read more of what I thought of the book there.

And I added this edition to GoodReads (it had previously been published in South Africa by a now-defunct publisher).

If you want to help me make this book (and my publishing company!) a success, you can buy the book, read it on a subscription service, write a review (these really help), tell your friends about it, add it to your GoodReads shelf, or share it on social media.

If you want easy ways to share, you can reshare my Tungsten Hippo posts:

Here is the post about the book on the Tungsten Hippo Facebook page

and  here is the Tungsten Hippo tweet:

Today's book is the story of the rare Cape Mtn Leopard & the man trying to saving them, from @JustinFoxAfrica: http://t.co/WSbEJQzKS5

— Tungsten Hippo (@TungstenHippo) August 12, 2015

Although one of the great things about ebooks is that sales can build slowly over time, a big boost on release day can still really help a book, because it helps get the book promoted by the retailers' algorithms. So if you think you'll buy the book, please consider doing so today. A sale at anytime is great, but a sale today is extra helpful.

Regardless, thanks for reading. I'll be back to my usual random mix of posts soon.