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.

Release Day for Love and Other Happy Endings

It is release day for the second "taster flight" of classic short stories that I've put together.

Love and Other Happy Endings has five short stories:

• The Singing Lesson, by Katherine Mansfield
• Akin to Love, by L.M. Montgomery
• Mr. Lismore and the Widow, by Wilkie Collins
• Head and Shoulders, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Other Man's Wife, by James Oliver Curwood

All are love stories, and all end on a high note. I like them all (obviously) but my favorite is Head and Shoulders. Perhaps not coincidentally, it is also the one with the most thought-provoking ending. Some might argue with me that it is actually a happy ending at all, but I explain why I consider it a happy ending in the afterword of the book. I don't want to explain here, because it would ruin the story if you decide to read it!

As usual, you can get all the purchase links on the book's webpage, but I'll put them here for convenience:

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

You can also buy the paperback directly from CreateSpace if you'd like.

The GoodReads page is still in process. I can't run pre-order periods on Amazon on books of public domain stories, and that delays getting the GoodReads page created. Once it is available, I'll include a link in a Friday links post. 

Here's the Tungsten Hippo post on the book.

If you want to help me spread the word about the release, here are some easy things you could do:

• Share my Annorlunda Books facebook post or my Tungsten Hippo facebook post
• Retweet my Annorlunda Books tweet or Tungsten Hippo tweet

My release day was marred somewhat by having to spend two hours this morning dealing with a hack on Tungsten Hippo. I wasted a bunch of time trying to deal with it last night- lesson learned, wait for the US support team to be back online. I don't think the offshore support people are less skilled, but I think their processes don't let them be as helpful. There's an interesting post in that for some other time. For right now, I'll just note that staying up until after midnight trying to fix the site last night was an error in judgement, and I'm very tired and maybe should just go take a nap now. I have things I want/need to do, but am perhaps too tired to do them effectively.

But still, hooray for release days! 

Sick Days and Advance Notices

Yesterday at about lunch time, the school called to tell me Petunia had a fever. Unfortunately, I didn't get the message until almost 45 minutes later, due to a dead zone in the building I was in and my failure to check my messages promptly.

So, poor Petunia had to wait almost two hours for me to come get her. She may never let me forget this.

She's home from school today, too, of course. She still has a fever, but once that is controlled by Tylenol, she wants to do things. Mostly, she wants to do art projects based on those shown on some shows she likes watching.

This is not entirely conducive to me getting work done, but I have managed to get a couple hours' worth of work in this morning. Mr. Snarky comes home in about 45 minutes, so that I can go to a meeting I have scheduled.

I'm not feeling 100%, either. This seems to be the same old thing that we've been dealing with since Petunia was a baby: she gets a fever for three days, I get a sore throat and a little rundown feeling, and everyone else is fine.  I just fell down a rabbit hole looking for old posts about Petunia's fevers for any curious new readers. Here's one, but the story wasn't as over as I thought when I posted it. Here was the start of the great health scare, round 2. Here is a post written at the time we were in the midst of the worst of it. In the end, we did nothing, and the fevers got less common as she got older... and I noticed the correlation with my mild sore throats. My current theory is that there is some family viruses that hit Petunia hard, gives me a sore throat, and don't bother most other people. But to be honest, I don't think about it much anymore- I just work out the logistics for a couple of Petunia sick days and we all go about our business.

In a perfect world, I would have just given up on work for the day and spent the day snuggled up next to Petunia on the sofa, reading. But, this is not a perfect world, and I really don't want to get behind again after just finally catching up... so I've been working.

I even have things to show from my work!

The next Annorlunda Books Taster Flight is making its way through my proofing process. I am now confident I'll get at least the ebook versions ready for a February 10 release date.

The book is called Love and Other Happy Endings. Here is the cover:

And here is the link to the webpage where purchase links will appear as they become available. Since this is a collection of public domain stories, I can't have a preorder page on Amazon, so I'll just try to time the release.

And most importantly, here is a link to where you can sign up to be an advance reader. I should have advance e-copies to distribute by Friday.

In other advance-y news: I'm starting to put together a plan to promote my latest 1 hour, $20 online seminar, which is a seminar version of the time management workshop I gave recently. You don't have to wait for me to get the promo plan sorted out, though- the seminar is enrolling now, and if you sign up before February 9 and use the promo code NEWSLETTER you'll get $2 off the price.

The seminar is a distillation of some of my favorite time management techniques, along with a discussion of how to use the data you collect by tracking your time to figure out which techniques will help you the most. I was really happy with how the workshop turned out, so I decided to take the information I presented and turn it into a seminar. When I gave the workshop, I had several hands on exercises to help people try out the techniques we were discussing. I've moved those to a "next steps" document that you'll get with the seminar.

And speaking of that workshop... I just got an email from the people who are supposed to be paying me, indicating that they need yet another form filled out. So I think I'll end this post here and go fill out the form. Getting paid is nice, after all.

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.

Survey: Interest in a Short Online Intro to Project Management Course

Last week, I mentioned that I was thinking about offering a short "introduction to project management" course. The idea is to put together something that would help people who don't have the time and/or inclination to undertake an in depth study of project management, but would benefit from knowing the basics of how a project manager approaches a project. This would NOT be a full project management course, and although I would discuss some tools I find useful for managing projects, it would also not be a training session on those tools.

It would also not be doctrinaire- i.e., I use methods and tools from a variety of project management methods, and would not limit myself to one type of project management in the course.

Basically, this would be focused on practical information that people could use right away to make their projects run better.

I'm still fleshing out the idea, but right now I think the class would be two 1.5 hour sessions, held once per week on two successive weeks. I would probably talk for about an hour (with interruptions for questions welcome), and then open it up for questions for about 30 minutes. These questions could cover real situations you're facing, as long as you don't mind sharing the details with the entire class.

The class would be online through some sort of online meeting software, and I'd send you any slides I use.

That's all I have right now. Here's where I ask you for help! I have put together a short survey to gauge interest in this idea. Please share it widely! And take it yourself, if you're interested in the class.

Here is the URL, if you want to paste that into an email or tweet or something: http://goo.gl/forms/dQxVaWSvoR

You can also just send people to this post.

Any and all responses are welcomed. I can't guarantee I'll take all of the ideas I get from the survey, but I can guarantee I'll be grateful for all of them!

I'm polling for information using this account, because it is where I have the widest reach. The actual class and any marketing of it will be done via my real name account. I'll reference it here to the extent that I can, and will also link to announcements in my personal newsletter. But if you're interested and want to be sure you don't miss the class if I decide to run it, there is a space at the bottom of the form to enter an email address. I won't share it, add you to any other mailing list I run, or anything like that. I'll use it to send you exactly one email announcing the class and directing you to information about how to sign up. So put your email address in there.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Calling All Writers, Current and Future

I decided to self-publish a short ebook about job searching for two reasons: the first was that I wanted to do something with what I learned about searching for a job from the 10+ years I spent as a hiring manager. The second was that I needed a test case to find out how much money, time, and effort it takes to publish and promote a short ebook once it is written.

I wanted that data because I'd been toying with the idea of publishing other people's books. After more than a year running Tungsten Hippo, my short ebook review site, I have gotten much better at finding interesting ebooks to read, even when they aren't high in the Amazon search results. However, I still see a hole in what is available. I want more short science ebooks, and more short ebooks about social science topics, and more short ebooks telling interesting historical stories, and more short fiction ebooks that really make me think. There are some of all of those types of short ebooks, but I think there should be more. I love finding a short ebook that can teach me something worthwhile in an evening or two, and I want there to more of them.

At the same time, I have been wondering whether short ebooks could help fill some of the gap left as traditional media downsizes and online media struggles to find a business model that supports in depth writing. I wonder if a revenue stream from a few short ebooks could help buffer writers against the rough economic tides, whether those writers are earning a living primarily from their writing or from something else.

So I've decided to go for it. I will take some of the money I make from the profitable part of my business (i.e., the consulting work) and invest it in publishing short ebooks. And by invest, I mean: I will pay the upfront costs (cover art, editing, ISBNs, etc) AND I will offer authors a modest advance. I will also give authors the option of choosing a higher initial royalty rate over an advance- for some types of authors, this will be a better deal. For others, the advance with an earn-out period will be a better deal. I think most authors will be able to figure out for themselves which model is better for them, so I'll let them choose. I'll also invest my time by doing a kickass job formatting the book for publication and by working on promoting the book. Authors will still need to do some promotion, too, but I will help line up reviewers and will be experimenting like crazy to figure out how best to market the sorts of books I want to publish.

I want to focus on pieces that are 30-160 pages in length (7000 - 40,000 words). Those are guidelines not firm rules. They are based on the definition of a novelette and a novella. I want fiction and non-fiction. For fiction, I am not picky about genre, but it has to be the sort of story that has interesting themes and makes me think. For non-fiction, I truly am interested in the "meatier" topics. I think there are several other companies publishing things like true crime stories now, and want to instead focus on books that make me learn something new and worth knowing. I would be absolutely thrilled to see people submit a short ebook about their research, as long as it is aimed at a general audience. I don't just mean science research, either- one of my favorite short ebooks is The Heart of Haiku. Science, social science, humanities... I'll consider it all, as long as it engages me and makes me learn.

In all cases, the writing has to be good. Since it is my money, I get to decide what good means, but the shorthand version is "well-written and compelling."

I know that short ebooks are a tough market, and I'm prepared for it to take a little time to make this profitable. But I do intend to make it profitable, which means that I intend for the authors to earn more than their advances. I have some (I think) cool ideas for new things to try to increase the market for the books I'd publish, and some even cooler long term ideas I can try once my basic ideas are working and I have a bit of a catalog built up.

But... none of this can happen if I can't find compelling stories to publish. That's where I need your help. I am looking for three things:

1. If you are already sold on my idea and want to submit your writing for me to consider, hooray! Please do. My email address is wandsci at gmail dot com.

2. If you're not sure, or even sure that you're not interested in submitting your writing, but would like to help out: I'd really like to talk over the terms I'll be offering with an experienced author or two, to make sure they are fair to both the authors and my business. Again my email address is wandsci at gmail dot com.

3. If neither of the above applies to you, you can still help by spreading this post far and wide.

Thank you!

Its Release Day for Petunia!

I'm excited to announce that you can now buy my latest children's book, Petunia, the Girl Who Was NOT a Princess from these fine retailers:

• Amazon
• BN.com
• iBooks 
• The publisher

You can also ask your favorite bookstore or library to order it. It is available as a hardcover book and as an eBook. 

It is also available as an eBook through the Epic ebook subscription service. In fact, it was released a little early there, and has already picked up over 450 reads, which is pretty cool.

I wrote a little bit about the story and showed some of the illustrations in an earlier post. In brief, it is a story about a little girl who is NOT a princess. She is lonely among all the princesses until she discovers that the new little princess in her neighborhood is not JUST a princess. Here are some early reviews:

• From It's a Jumble
• From Today Wendy 
• From Marcia at the 123 Blog
• From Anandi at the Papercraft Lab

I'll add more reviews as they come in. (Update: I wrote a little more about the book in this post.)

Here's a bonus sample page:

Thanks to Penelope (far left), Petunia tries out dancing... but she stays NOT a princess

I've promised a couple of people copies of the book in gratitude for beta testing it. I'll send those out as soon as I get the hardcovers. If you aren't one of those people, you can still get a free copy of the book- I'm giving away my last paperback advance review copy in a raffle. 

I'll even sign it if you want!

If you already have a copy of Petunia, you can substitute The Zebra Said Shhh instead.

I'm giving away a couple free ebooks, two t-shirts, and three buttons, too. If you win the ebook and already have Petunia, you can substitute one of my other ebooks instead.

The t-shirts say either "NOT a Princess" or "Not JUST a Princess," and if you are so inclined you can also buy them.

The sample t-shirts I ordered for my kids

My kids both wanted white shirts, but they also come as black shirts with white text. There are ladies, unisex, youth and toddler shirts and infant onesies available. If you win this prize, you can pick the style and size you want. 

The buttons were swag my publisher made to hand out at the American Library Association conference, and were apparently quite popular. 

The publisher sent me five of the buttons left after the conference. My kids have claimed two, and I'm giving away the other three.

You can enter the raffle by:

• Buying the book
• Reviewing the book (on a retail site, GoodReads, or your own site)
• Tweeting about the book
• Tweeting about how your kids (or you!) are #notaprincess or #notjustaprincess
• Telling people about the book via any other means (tell a friend! tell a librarian! share on your favorite social media network! hire a skywriter! It's up to you.)

I also added an option to donate to a charity working to alleviate the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, because I've heard that those charities aren't getting the level of donations they need and that breaks my heart.

I'm running the raffle through Rafflecopter again, but if you have any problems with it or just don't want to give Rafflecopter your email address, you can email me directly (wandsci at gmail dot com) and I'll enter you into the raffle. You get two entries for buying a book, writing a review, or donating to charity. You get one entry for the other options, but you can do those once per day. Yes, sharing a link to this page or RTing one of my tweets about the book is a perfectly fine way to enter. But you have to tell me about it, either via the form below or via email.

You have until 12 a.m. on Friday, November 7, to enter.

Here's the raffle:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Introducing Petunia, the Girl Who Was NOT a Princess

You have less than one day left to enter the raffle to win my review of your cover letter and/or resume, so if you were thinking of doing that: get on it. Time is running out.

But this post isn't about that book, it is about my new children's book! (If you're new here, you may not remember that my first short ebook and children's book release dates stacked up like this, too. It is apparently my thing. This concerns me, because while I already have a pretty solid draft of what I hope will be my third children's book, I have no current plans to write another short ebook. Clearly, I'll need to change that.)

Anyway, back on topic.

I am beyond excited to show you the cover of my new children's book, Petunia, the Girl Who Was NOT a Princess, which is coming out October 20 (mark your calendars!):

Interestingly, Petunia looks a little bit like me. But I don't have bangs. Anymore.

But wait! There's more. Here is a sneak peek at one of the inside pages, too:

That tree does NOT look like the tree in our backyard, though. Our tree is an avocado tree.

You can pre-order it now via the publisher, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble (hard cover only- there will be a Nook book, but it isn't available for pre-order yet). There will be an iBooks version, too.

The book is about Petunia, a little girl who is not at all princessy, but is surrounded by princesses. She is lonely and wants a friend who will climb trees, build towers, and play ball with her. A new family moves in next door, and Petunia is disappointed to find that the new little girl is another %$#@*! princess,  but- wait for it- Penelope turns out to like to climb trees, and build towers, and ball, too.

Because, you know, being princessy is just one aspect of a girl's personality. One might even say it is completely orthogonal to interest in building towers or playing ball.

The book came out of my frustration with the way our culture seems to write off little girls who love princesses, as if they can't also love all sorts of other things. Pumpkin loved princesses and LEGO. I even wrote about how stupid she thought it was to get a LEGO castle that didn't have a princess in it. (I note with some satisfaction that LEGO seems to have fixed this in its newer castle sets. Hell, you can get Disney Princess LEGOnow. Yes, we have some.)  Petunia loves princesses and trains and cars. And soccer. (Here's a fact that might surprise people who know me as a kickboxing-loving, mostly pants wearing woman- the closest I have ever come to dropping out of STEM was in grad school, when I struggled to integrate my feminine side with my science side.)

You may note that my daughter Petunia has a namesake in the story. The funny thing is, she doesn't know her blog name is Petunia (she doesn't know what a blog is). This story is part of Petunia's bedtime routine, just like the zebra story was (and sometimes still is) part of Pumpkin's bedtime routine. In my mind, Penelope is the clear hero of my story because she is the one who realizes that loving sparkles and bows only means that you love sparkles and bows. Petunia, though, calls it the "tuna story" and identifies with Petunia.

But then, she also favors Elsa over Anna, and as we all know, Anna is the hero of that story.

To be fair, I did put Petunia in the title. But Penelope, the Princess Who Knows What's What didn't seem like a very good title.

Anyway- in a little less than a month you can have this book. It will be available as an ebook and a hardcover. I love the illustrations, and think my message would do a lot of people (kids and grown ups!) some good to read. Also, I like money. So I'm hoping it does really well! If you'd like to help me with that, I'm looking for volunteers to review it. You'll get an electronic advance copy and my undying gratitude, and all you have to do in return is write an honest review of the book. You do not need a blog to volunteer- Amazon reviews are awesome, too. And if you end up hating the book, you're welcome to say that in your review. If you're interested in volunteering, email me at wandsci at gmail dot com, or tweet at me.

Also- my publisher and I are planning our promotions for this book. One thing we'll be doing is a giveaway (or two?) associated with people talking about the book on social media. Details will be forthcoming closer to the release date, but in the meantime, start thinking about how you'd tell the world that your sparkle-hating child is #notaprincess or how your little sparkle-fiend is #notjustaprincess, because kids are unique individuals, not stereotypes.

Pleasant Surprises

The radiologist did finally return from the long weekend and confirm that Petunia's arm was broken. However, when I took her to the orthopedist, we got some good news. Her arm was indeed broken, but it was not a bad break, and he thought she'd only need to wear a cast for 2-3 weeks, and she can go straight back into her activities once the cast is off. Since one of those weeks is Thanksgiving week and gymnastics and soccer class are canceled that week anyway, this greatly simplifies the decision of what to do about our classes. We do nothing and just start up again in December.

Petunia is doing fine with the cast. She puts up with the inconvenience it introduces without complaint, and likes showing it off to her teachers and friends. She runs around just like usual- so much so that I find myself having to remind her that her balance is a bit different with the cast on. I don't want her to fall and break the other arm, after all.

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My Tungsten Hippo post this week is about how the site got its name. If you were one of the people who wondered about that, now you can know- just click over and read the story!

As I say in the post, I'm currently trying to work my way up a steep learning curve about using social media to market a website. Facebook gave me some advertising credits, so I used those and now have enough likes on my page to get to see analytics. So far, that hasn't been particularly informative, but it is nice to know that some small number of people are seeing my posts there.

I clearly have a lot left to learn about using Facebook to reach people, but I have at least started to make some progress. It will be interesting to see if my number of followers continues to grow now that my ad campaign is over. I suspect not. I am currently thinking about how much money I am willing to invest in this little project. Regardless, I think the next thing to try is some Google ads, so my Facebook followers will probably remain at 42 for the time-being. Since I am a Douglas Adams fan, that amuses me.

I've also accumulated a small number of Twitter followers, and am slowly working to add more. I have a plan of sorts for how to do that. It is taking time, but at least I have some direction. Twitter is the social media platform I actually use the most, so I guess it is not surprising that it is the one I feel most confident about using for Tungsten Hippo.

On Tumblr and Pinterest, I'm really lost. I don't think my content is currently visual enough to be a natural fit for either of those platforms. I am browsing around, trying to get my head around how people use those platforms, and trying things out to see if I can land on something that works. Given my theory that short eBooks should appeal to parents with limited time to read and the statistics about women reading more than men, Pinterest seems like the better fit for Tungsten Hippo. But there are a lot of fun book-related Tumblrs out there, so I stay somewhat active on Tumblr just so I can follow those. Also, I sometimes find interesting things I can use as content on one of the other networks.

I obviously don't have enough time to really work these networks. I miss a lot of great things, I'm sure. However, one of the pleasant surprises about the Tungsten Hippo project is how much cool stuff I've found just by growing my social network in a new direction. Here are some of my favorites:

• The Times Haiku tumblr. I love this site.
• There is a site called Proofreading Books that pairs books with alcoholic drinks
• There is a site called Book Riot, and they have a literary travel guides series. I love them.
• Inspired by that series, I started a Pinterest board of Bookish Travel Ideas. This may be my favorite of my boards, although I am also enjoying creating a board of cool Hippopotamuses. 

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Mr. Snarky left on his business trip yesterday. So far, the kids and I are doing OK. My sister came over yesterday to accompany us to Pumpkin's cheer event, and while I'm glad she came along, I think I could actually have managed on my own if I'd had to. Pumpkin and a bazillion other little girls (the cheer school runs programs at several elementary schools) ran onto the field waving their pom poms and proceeded to do a cheer and a dance routine. It was cute. Pumpkin was proud of the high kicks and forward rolls she did. I agreed they were good.

As I sat watching the first half of the game, waiting for Pumpkin to do her thing so we could go home, I was struck by the fact that this was my first ever college football game. My college wasn't a sports powerhouse, and I was never big on sports. My grad school didn't even have undergrads. It amuses me that the thing that finally made me go to a college football game was my six year old's love of cheerleading.

My sister stuck around for awhile after we got home, which gave me time to go do the grocery shopping without having to drag the kids along. That was a major help. In fact, let's call that another pleasant surprise, because I was dreading the shopping trip this weekend. The kids loving grocery shopping with me and actually behave quite well, but the amount of time it takes to shop increases exponentially with the number of kids accompanying me, and anytime I shop with both of them, sometime around the dairy section I just want to scream.

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Thanks to my sister's help and the kids' good behavior, I was able to get most of our chores for the weekend done yesterday, so we had time to go do something fun today. After some deliberation, they decided they wanted to go to the zoo and ride the Skyfari. So that is what we did. Despite what seemed like an eternity spent getting everyone dressed and sunscreened, we got there so early that a lot of things weren't open yet.

This amused me

As promised, we rode the Skyfari.

We rode it both ways, because there was no line at the top station.

This is not posed. They both spent both rides peering over the side.

We also saw some animals, climbed on some animal sculptures, ate lunch, and rode on the Balboa Park Railroad just outside the zoo.

Metal animals are the best kind

I drew the line at the merry-go-round, though, and said they'd have to wait for some other weekend to do that.

So I'd have to say that so far, the temporary solo parenting is going better than I expected it would. I end the weekend more tired than usual, but not unusually frazzled. We'll see what I say after tomorrow (swim lessons) and Tuesday (parent-teacher conference day).

How about you? Had any pleasant surprises recently?

Multiple Interests and Social Networks

My Tungsten Hippo post this week is a housekeeping one: it is a description of the social networks on which I'm active as Tungsten Hippo. "Active"  is of course a relative term: there are only so many hours in the day, and I spend only a small fraction of them on social networks. However, I do post somewhat regularly on all the networks I list in my post, so if you're interested in books and reading-related things, you might be interested in the things I post as Tungsten Hippo on the various social networks. I cross-post and/or retweet only a very small number of them as Wandering Scientist, because I don't want to overwhelm the people who are following Wandering Scientist for the things I usually write about here, namely science, technology, improving how we work, parenting, and the interesting things that happen when you smash all of those things together.

One of the things that I find interesting about social networks is the way they allow us to either separate our interests or not. For a long time, I resisted the urge to separate the different aspects of me. The initial decision point came when I started reading both parenting and science blogs online. Would I have distinct identities on the two types of blogs, or just one? I decided to have just one, thinking that it might be useful for those two aspects of my online personality to mix.

Long time readers will remember that I set up a separate online identity once before, to discuss gun regulations. I kept that going for a little less than six months. I stopped using those accounts not because I stopped caring about gun-related issues, but because using those accounts was draining my energy and happiness away. There is a subset of gun fans who are just downright unpleasant people to interact with if you do not agree with them. I do not think this is a majority of people who enjoy guns, or even a majority of people who are adamantly opposed to any additional gun regulations. But this subset is out there, and they are incredibly unpleasant. Using the account I set up for discussing gun regulations, I was called names and belittled. I was subjected to emails that I can only describe as pure, distilled hatred. They certainly never listened to any ideas I expressed, just reacted to my refusal to agree with them. Thankfully, they never figured out I was a woman, or I am sure there would have been the usual expressions of online misogyny in there, too.

I have no idea if that account did any good for anyone else, but it was not doing me any good. Logging in to it made me feel nervous and sad. So I abandoned it. My original idea was to read the research and look for solutions. But the solutions in this case are actually pretty obvious (sorry, they are) and well-supported by evidence, and most countries in the world have already implemented them. What is needed in the US is advocacy to overcome the obstacles to implementing the solutions, and it quickly became clear to me that I am not the right person for that sort of work. I do still occasionally tweet out things about gun regulations as Wandering Scientist, so I guess this is a case where I tried to separate aspects of my identity and then ended up bringing them back together. However, I will almost certainly never engage with the gun fans as Wandering Scientist. I do not want that venom here, both because I do not want to pollute my happy little community here and because I am not anonymous enough here to feel safe in inviting the attention of those sorts of people, who seem a bit unhinged and are by definition armed.

Anyway, my point here is not to bash the minority of gun fans who are vicious and lacking in the ability to discuss things with people who disagree with them. It is to think about online identities, and when to keep them separate and when to let them merge.

Since Tungsten Hippo is a distinct project that I want to use to learn about various things, including online marketing, I've decided to keep it separate. Logging into my Tungsten Hippo accounts doesn't make me feel stressed or unhappy- quite the opposite, actually- so it is unlikely I will abandon them like I did the gun regulations discussion accounts. Maybe at some point in the future, I will reference my Wandering Scientist accounts from the Tungsten Hippo accounts, but for right now, I am keeping the references unidirectional and selective. It will be interesting to see what I decide to do in the future if when Tungsten Hippo finds its own legs.

I also find it interesting that while I now have an active online presence under two pseudonyms, I am not active at all under my real name. I don't even have a Facebook page, which is something that is hindering me a bit as I try to figure out how to use Facebook to promote Tungsten Hippo. I do have a LinkedIn account, but I just use it to store my professional history and network. I do not post there.

I am definitely more comfortable online under a pseudonym, although I do not go to great lengths to make it hard to connect my real life name with the pseudonym. As I've said before, if anyone who knows me in real life finds this blog, they'll recognize me in an instant. I always assume that my coworkers read everything I write (although as far as I know, they have not found my blog). I know my parents read my posts, and I like that. But still, I like the pseudonym, and doubt I will ever give it up.

I was intrigued by this tweet from @Seriouspony:

Having experienced social media as both "real name" and now as a pseudonym, I've found far more differences than I'd have thought, all good
— Seriouspony (@seriouspony) November 1, 2013

I am hoping she eventually writes one of her excellent but infrequent blog posts on the topic, because I'd love to read her thoughts on why a pseudonym is better. I can't explain it. Maybe she can.

Do you have multiple online identities? Why or why not? Do you use a pseudonym or your name? Talk to me about social media identities in the comments!

Good Things

I spent last weekend in San Francisco, visiting a good friend. I flew up on Saturday morning and flew home late Sunday afternoon. Notice is said "I"- this was a solo trip. Taking a weekend away without Mr. Snarky or the kids was one of the items on my 2013 personal fun list, and I am so glad I did it. I had a great time catching up with my friend, exploring San Francisco (she's recently moved there, and I haven't been there in over a decade).

One of the things we did was check out Dandelion Chocolate, which is the small-batch chocolatier I mentioned in last week's weekend reading post. This turned out to be an awesome find. They had some samples out, and I was amazed by the difference I could taste between two bars made from different beans. So I bought a tasting sample pack, and my family and I have been enjoying comparing them. They are all delicious- but also distinctly different. I had no idea there is so much variation in the taste of chocolate beans. It makes me wonder two things: (1) how do the big manufacturers ensure consistent taste (I'm guessing it is a combination of using a mix of beans every time and the extra things that are added) and (2) why isn't chocolate tasting already a big thing?

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In book news... Taming the Work Week is now available at Barnes and Noble for the Nook and in various formats directly from the publisher.

And of course, you can still get it for the Kindle on Amazon.

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And that's all I have for you tonight, because I made the rookie mistake of not minimizing work calendar commitments during the last couple of weeks of school, and then we compounded the error by deciding we should refinance our house right now... so things are a bit busy here right now. It is a good thing I have some really good chocolate to help me through....

Weekend Reading: The Mostly Science Edition

I don't know whether the story of this week is one of an unusually hectic week kicking my butt or one of me rising to the challenge and (mostly) getting the most important things done. It is probably somewhere in between. However, it meant that I didn't do as much in support of the release of Taming the Work Week as I wanted.

Luckily, my awesome blog friends have come to my rescue. Academic Jungle posted a very nice and thorough review of the book. Laura Vanderkam wrote a post and interviewed me for her CBS MoneyWatch column. And Zenmoo posted the first review on the Amazon page. Thank you, all! More posts will come along later, and I'll post links when they come out. Amazon reviews are also greatly appreciated- my publisher tells me that they really help to sell the book.

But enough about me. Let's talk about science! I have several science and math related things for your this week:

First, an old Boing Boing article from Maggie Koerth-Baker about poison potatoes and how conventional breeding techniques can have unintended consequences.

Next, an old Science news article about the physics of the combination of corn starch and water.

This story about a big advance made by a previously obscure mathematician is nice. This should finally kill off the misconception that failing to land a tenure track job is an indication of lack of intellectual capabilities. It should, but it won't...

Finally, this story about the use of a 3D printer to save a baby's life is awesome.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Taming the Work Week: Out Today!

I am happy to announce that my second book is out today! Taming the Work Week: Work Smarter Not Longer is now available for the Kindle. Other formats will follow along soon.

The book had its genesis in several blog posts I wrote about productivity- most notably my post on having a work limit- and a somewhat insane decision to write a book while also working full time and parenting two children.

Taming the Work Week is a short eBook about getting the most from your time at work, so that you can also have a life outside work... and, I don't know, write a book or something. Although I used pieces of some blog posts, I also wrote quite a bit of text specifically for this book, so even long time readers of this blog will find something new.

The book is not specifically about working motherhood. In fact, I argue in it that it is best to keep the effort to bring our work weeks under control separate from parenting. My initial realizations about having a work limit occurred long before I had children. However, if you've ever wondered how I combine motherhood with having large career ambitions, this book is the answer. And it is not just me: I was at a conference for women in science on Saturday, and attended a session on entrepreneurship. The two entrepreneurs speaking both had kids, and one was a single mother. They were asked how they combined entrepreneurship and motherhood, and their answers echoed a lot of the techniques I discuss in the book.

This book has been a long time coming. I'm excited to have you all read it. I hope you'll get a copy, and most importantly, I hope that if you read it, you find it helpful.

Laura Vanderkam has a nice post about the book up today, if you'd like to read more about it. I'll post links to other reviews as they become available.

The Big Reveal

You may remember that The Zebra Said Shhh was my birthday gift to Pumpkin. I had my copy for almost a month before I gave it to her. Despite several close calls, we actually managed to keep the secret until she opened her birthday gifts.

I was surprisingly nervous as she opened my gift- I had no idea if she'd think the book was cool, or be annoyed that it didn't have the illustrations we made together out of construction paper, or just be confused. Therefore, I was quite relieved when her reaction was positive. She looked at the book for a few seconds before she really processed what it was, and I had to explain that this book meant that other little kids were enjoying her bedtime story now, too. She thought that was pretty neat. She really likes the illustrations, and also noticed that the lion illustration looks a lot like the one she and I made together.

She didn't jump up and down excitedly when she opened the gift, but she has been doing things that make me think she is reasonably excited about the book. The night after she got it, my parents watched the kids while Mr. Snarky and I went out to eat, and they reported that Pumpkin read the book to Petunia, and explained how special it was because I had written it. She also took the book along when she returned to her old day care for a visit during spring break, and made a point to show it to all of the teachers.

Tonight, she picked Kindergarten Diary, by Antoinette Portis, for her bedtime book. We have it home from the library, and she'd already read it several times, but not with me. She gave me a little tour of the book before I started reading, and showed me the dedication page. The book is clearly dedicated to the author's daughter, and Pumpkin said that this was like her "zebra story" book (which is dedicated to her). And then we talked about how we could get a copy of "our" book in the library, too. I'd already been thinking of mimicking Scalzi's tradition of donating a copy of each of his books to his local library, so I said that I could donate a copy to them, and she really liked that idea. I might donate two copies- one physical and one eBook, because I am a huge fan of having kids' books on electronic devices. I use my Kindle Fire when we travel and also just when we're going someplace that is likely to entail a wait. It lets me bring books without weighing down my bag, and also gives the kids an alternative to playing games on the Fire.


Pumpkin has also already started telling Petunia that maybe I'll write a book for her when she turns 6, too. It is a good thing I have some ideas for more children's books!

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For anyone who missed the back story about the book, here it is.

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In other "zebra story" news... Nicoleandmaggie wrote a nice review of the book, in which we learn that the book stands up well to the chewing treatment children of a certain age like to give their books. Also, both Nicoleandmaggie and Hush compare the book favorably to Go the F**k to Sleep, which is the best book about sleep EVER, so I am very flattered.

Weekend Reading: The Do Cool Things Edition

Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. But I suspect the number of people out there who want to start their own business far exceeds the number who actually do it. As long time readers know, starting a business is one of the things I consider doing when I think about long term goals, so I often read articles about entrepreneurship and finding the will to take some risks and try to "do cool things" in general. Here are some of my recent favorites:

Cal Newport has a summary of an interview with Pam Slim about entrepreneurship and the role of passion. It is an interesting post, and makes me want to read her book. I particularly like this advice:

"Take one idea. Find a simple business model. Then test it using the fewest resources possible (time, energy, money), but in a way that gives you a good sense of whether the idea is viable. This is especially important if you are testing an idea while still holding a traditional job."

I also rather like this article about the dearth of women entrepreneurs, and how trying to plan everything out might not be the best approach. Here's the quote I love from this one:

One of the biggest mistakes we make as women is trying to make plans for how things will fit in our lives. We plan marriages, babies, and even our careers. Coincidentally entrepreneurship is one of those things you can’t really plan. Literally anything can happen on any given day. Last year I wrote on Women 2.0 about organized chaos. It’s how I balance my life as an entrepreneur and single mom who also happens to have some pretty ambitious goals.

Incidentally, the post linked to in that quote is pretty good, too.

And here is another good post from a woman entrepreneur, this one about how no one is likely to be a born entrepreneur, and you need to practice those skills to get better. Here's a good quote from this one:

After starting a number of companies of my own, and meeting with entrepreneurs at all stages of the startup journey, I’ve come to believe that the ability to differentiate good ideas from bad ones and massage bad ideas into profitable companies is like being physically fit. The vast majority of us aren’t born fit. We have to train, practice, and push ourselves to get good at it.

Next,  the funniest link in this post: the seven habits of highly effective mediocre people. I'm not going to try to summarize it. But here is a good quote from it:

We can’t all be grand visionaries. We can’t all be Picassos. We want to make our business, make our art, sell it, make some money, raise a family, and try to be happy.  

I really like this. I think we get caught up in feeling like we need to be amazingly awesome or we can't do something. But the truth is, we just need to be good enough. I played viola all through school, even through graduate school, and then I played Irish fiddle for several more years. I was never going to be a professional musician, but I played well enough to enjoy it and to produce some enjoyment for the people who listened. I think we should approach our work more like that. If we wait until we're unbelievably awesome at things before we'll try them, we will miss out on a lot of cool experiences, and the world may be missing out on some cool things.

So it was in that spirit that I decided to go ahead and try to publish The Zebra Said Shhh. I think it is a pretty good story, but I have no illusions about it being the next Knuffle Bunny. I had lunch with a friend today, and he'd noticed that someone had posted a review on The Zebra Said Shhh Amazon page. He wondered if I minded that the review was a three star review, and he was sort of taken aback by my answer: "Hell no, I don't mind. I think it is AWESOME." First of all, I'm told that even a one star review is better than no review in terms of sales. Second, it is only one review and maybe the next reviewer will like it even more. Third, writing a solid three star book on my first try? Hey, I can live with that. In fact, I will CELEBRATE that.

This is not to say that I don't take the book seriously. Far from it. I worked on the book and made it the best I could. I am fully committed to doing any marketing activities my publisher suggests. I just don't think it fair to expect myself to be perfect, especially not on my first attempt. I'll read the reviews, and learn from them. And my next book (and yes, I've got a next book in the works!) will be even better.

OK, back to the links. The link above about how entrepreneurship takes practice came from a Forbes article by the same author, about how a lot of start ups should focus less on investors and more on customers. There are business ideas outside of Silicon Valley.

Along those lines, I found this piece about running a business that makes products for people who make less than $2 per a day really interesting.

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Since I was talking about the book and reviews, here are the posts about the book that I've seen so far:

• Alyssa at Apple Pie and the Universe has a review that includes a link to my answers to some interview questions.
• Anandi at House of Peanut has a review that includes a little small world back story.
• Ella Johnson at Mymcbooks has a review with a giveaway, open until March 22.
• Tamia Sheldon (the illustrator) has a short post up about the book.
• Xist Publishing is on Pintrest, and here is the page for the book. The quote on this page makes me smile!

I appreciate any and all reviews on blogs, Amazon, or GoodReads (I'll make sure the book is there soon... it is on my list for this weekend). But most of all, I appreciate you reading here. None of this would have happened without this blog, and the new ideas and contacts it has given me. Thank you.