At BEA it was recommended that those of us who blog should do so daily. I assume that they meant it should be done daily if you had some purpose in doing it such as publicizing your publishing endeavors and specifically your books.
But as I am doing this I am wondering about the impact of all this blogging. When asked for a show of hands most people in the room at one of the presentations indicated that they had read someone else's blog just that morning. As more and more of us blog there is more and more to be read and more and more to write. Do we, in the end, have time for anything else?
This situation is an extension of a broader phenomenon. The ipod is everywhere and it holds up to 3000 songs. I am assuming that most ipod owners select the songs they put on their instruments. It is always possible that someone is selling preloaded ipods. Let's see that is an ipod for $300 and 3000 songs at 99 cents. So, the cost comes in at just under $3300. I doubt there is a market like that out there. But who knows.
Anyway, you have to select your songs which takes time. For my part I have not purchased an ipod as much as I like to have music going. Where on earth am I to find the time to program that toy? I have no plans to invest my time in that fashion.
Back to blogging. Isn't this getting to be a rather compulsive process. We publish our thoughts and ramblings and read those of other people. We could spend all of our time engaged in the blog. Whether it is ministering to your ipod or massaging your blogging life it appears we have entered a virtual world where we have virtual lives made possible by our technology. Maybe this is the answer to war and will bring peace in our time. If we are compulsively engaged in our virtual relationship with the content of our technological wonders then we will not have time to do damage to each other. Except in the form of our virtual compulsivity.

I do wonder how marketing people keep their sanity. Or is it that sane people don't go into marketing? Now that authors have to do their own marketing whether they have a big time publisher or are doing it themselves, we all have to be marketing people.

But, I find it very frustrating. I admit I have a high tolerance for ambiguity but I'm not so sure I want to live in a completely ambiguous world. Trying to sell books is nothing but ambiguous. I suppose I should be satisfied if they are selling but it would be nice to know what we are doing right.

We are busily promoting and are watching Amazon put in pitiful orders which are expensive to ship and at the same time the orders roll in from Baker & Taylor. Not that I am uphappy about that but I would like to know what it means and why. Does that mean we are somehow tapping into the library market which is supposedly a large part of their business? If that is true, how did we do that? It beats me.

I'd really rather put away my shotgun and get out my daisy air rifle to hit our sales target.

Speaking of sales, the second book in the Demontagne Saga, A Circle of Dreams, is out. Our reviews are really good and it is viewed as a stand alone book which is important. Come visit our website at www.annierogers.com and read the reviews and see our latest articles. See you there.

Recently our webmistress pointed out that there were a few dozen things which needed to be updated at www.annierogers.com. ( Why does that sound so kinky? We have webmasters but that means a man. And she is a she. So it must be webmistress. Right?) Anyway, she was validly pointing out the fact that some things had changed and we really needed to update.

So, I went and took a look. That was pretty awful. Now I believe most of life is self inflicted and that is true for our website as well. It is not just your pretty picture with the cover image of the latest book up front. We have lots of stuff including our articles in the Author to Author section and out press kit. And so on. So, there was lots to do and I spent two days combing it and revising. If we had kept it simple then it wouldn't be that amount of work. But I have to face the fact that we decided not to keep it simple. We wanted to to be interesting. Which it is.

So, give Donna (our Webmistress) a few days and then run over to www.annierogers.com and roam around. Ciao y'all.

They are throwing a party and we are not invited.
Early in June there was an ad in Publisher Weekly for nominations for the debut author award given at the Quill Awards. My wife passed it on to me to look at and she asked what the Quill Awards were. I had run across them but couldn't remember so I googled them.
The ad gave the basic information needed for nomination which was to be done by email but failed to note a few things which I found on the Quill website.
You only need apply for an award if you have a starred review in Publishers Weekly and are at the top of the bestseller list from PW and national booksellers. The top award went to someone by the name of Rowling. Humm. Let's see. That means you really need not apply unless the debut author is one of those published by the big six. Most of us peons will not get into PW to begin with no matter what we produce.
So, it boils down to the big six and big media throwing themselves a party and we are not invited.
I thought about nominating anyway since the ad in PW did not specify the details I uncovered but gave it a low priority and by the time I got back to it the deadline had passed.
Maybe you are thinking it was just as well that I didn't tug on superman's cape. I don't subscribe to that philosphy. What are they going to do? Ignore us? Reject our nomination? Not give us a review? They already do THAT!

I simply love pretention and to view the activities of the high and mighty especially when there is silliness afoot. I do hold the New York Times in high regard and it deserves its good reputation. There are times though when they make errors which are truly amazing. Like the day that their motto on their masthead suddenly became "That's fit to print all the news" rather than "All the news that's fit to print."
And recently while looking for something on cable to help me achieve vegetable consciousness I came upon the Times Discovery Channel which often has quite good things on it. In this instance they were offering "One Hundred Years of Presidential Golf". Lord love a duck. Please save me. Can you tell I'm not into golf and find this utter triviality.

The long tail again. The tail is interesting in that there is a bulge at the end where books continue to sell and there is quality out there at the end. But, again there is a very specific problem for fiction.
Our nonfiction book about short term therapy for stepfamilies is still out there selling a little bit after over ten years. It is a perfect example of the long tail. The publisher did not consult us but it is clear that they went to POD production since it seems doubtful that they have the book lying around after ten years. Or, anyway, that is my assumption.
A major issue with POD is cost. POD production is cheaper than it used to be and quality is higher but it is still costly per unit. With our stepfamily book, though, it sell for $32 and change so it is possible to absorb the POD cost. Not so with our fiction books. The cost of POD takes up way too much of the cost of the book. In fact, it makes it a money loser. It seems unlikely that the long tail will apply to fiction any time soon given these economics.

The difference between the marketing for fiction and nonfiction continues to impress me. We found using PR for fiction to be much more difficult and at BEA it became clear that new marketing activities were developing but there were many more possibilities for nonfiction.

In using PR there were niches for nonfiction which could be exploited which was typically not the case for fiction. And now Amazon is entering the fray to sell parts of books. Using Amazon Update opens new possibilities but when it comes to fiction why someone would want to buy part of a novel escapes me.

But for many types of nonfiction there might be very useful pieces. At the same time I can understand the hysteria attached when agents, publishers and authors look at the possibilities. A specific part of a nonfiction book might be all someone really needs and so they could get the information they needed for a fraction of the cost of the book. And to the publisher that means for a fraction of what it cost to produce the book.

So, how much should be charged and what does one do about security if indeed security is even very good. And so it goes. There are clearly going to be a lot of missteps and disappointments as we find our way into our brave new world.

Maybe it's not so bad that fiction may not have to fight those battles in those ways.

The long tail was the big buzz at BEA this year. Some of the stats were interesting and somewhat unexpected but I only heard a miniscule bit of discussion of the difference between the long tail for nonfiction and fiction.

We are experienced in seeing the long tail in nonfiction. In the mid 90s we left our clinical practice which specialized in helping stepfamilies make the adjustment to their new family status. We had a very successful model to use because we were national experts in stepfamily dynamics and had worked with the core people for almost twenty years. Unfortunately managed care was running the show and we could not practice ethically with them calling the shots.

Parenthetically, what happened with managed care is another indicator that simply turning free market forces loose as the Bush administration wants is not always the best idea. Our health system has never recovered from the depredations of the health care industry which has now largely departed from the market they ruined. Mental health in particular was devastated.

Anyway, we did not want to leave without at least documenting what we had learned and knew worked. We had the profile of the most vulnerable stepfamily and knew that it was crucial to begin work with the couple to shore up this shakey family. We knew not to put stepmothers in therapy and in most instances not the more troubled children either. It was a very successful episodic couples based model which worked very well. So, we put what we knew in a book which was published. It came out at a good time and the company which now owns the rights are keeping it in stock because POD is now a possibility. And so now for those who are smart enough to know there is a goldmine of information out there, they can still buy our book. We publicize it not at all and it continues to steadily sell a few copies here and there. It is this kind of thing which demonstrates the best of the long tail.

Then we came to fiction. I simply could not see in most instances where the long tail works very well. For fiction it seems that continuing sales depends on continuing promotions. And that costs money. Now, if you are Nora Roberts with a back list of 200 books, it is not necessary. But for the rest of us, it is necessary. I think it may be that the long tail will turn out to be really about "hard" information and the nonfiction book. We will see.

At least I was able to get on to blog this morning in a reasonable amount of time. But that was after I was told my cookies were dysfunctional. They weren't, of course, and the problem was cured by starting all over. That is, after I was told the page expired. Complain.....

Anyway, one of the things I like about being able to keep a creative focus is it makes me think about the diverse forms of expression. And sometimes I get to see really neat juxtapositions. The other night I did my usual thing when I stop work which is to simply cruise the TV channels. I have this on-off switch which means I am either totally on or totally off and when I go off I want passive entertainment and I definitely don't want to think.

So, I was cruising when I came upon The Umbrellas of Cherbourg from 1958. It is a sentimental favorite of mine. I know, it is pretty sappy and very French and very 50s but it stilll holds a certain allure for me. It is a simple story, tres tragique often with pretty weak voices as operas go. If "opera" can be applied. But there is a primitive romanticism in it which it is good not to forget.

Then when it ended I cruised further and on the gay and lesbian channel I found Moulin Rouge. Dark and disturbing as always but extremely well done. How nice it is to be able to move between such extremes amidst such diversity. Both of them fulfilled me in their own way.

They again reminded me of the richness of various forms of art and the fact that as I get older I see worth in more and more forms. When I was a lot younger I think I was often attracted to word driven literary offerings but as my life has gotten richer with age I find richness in feelings and the images. But not all images. We happened on a painting exhibit at MOMA in New York which featured dark post World War II images. An interesting exercise to be able to see the link to the tragedy which had just occurred. Interesting but not attractive. Nothing I would want to live with. Tragedy can validate feelings but it is usually best taken as a new beginning or an opportunity. Not to be dwelt upon. From it can come an opening and at least the search for beauty however it chooses to manifest itself. I think in the end that is what attracts me to straightforward romantic stories. That is the central theme in A Dream Across Time. Look what you can have if you will stick by your dreams and have faith in your future.

Come visit us at www.annierogers.com

I have had a terrible time recently getting up on Blogger. Everything took forever and generally I got a message saying the page could not be found. It was impossible to spend the day trying because we are so torn up around here.
The other major problem is being torn up around here. After some months living in a new place we finally figured out what we wanted to do with the house and have started renovations. Or, should I say devastations. Our offices and our bedroom is still functional but the rest of the house has been destroyed. That also means that the rooms considered stilll functional are filled with assorted furniture from somewhere else.
It all brings back memories. When we lived in our former two hundred year old house we were always renovating. One day I went to clean out a clog in the kitchen sink. The cleanout shattered and the cabinet I had to remove to get at it broke to pieces. Since the drain was under a concrete pad on the bottom floor we had to tear up the wood floor and jackhammer up the pad. While we were at it we tore everything back to the stone walls, sandblasted them and started over.
It took six months of work to clear everything out. My wife cooked on a wood stove in the livingroom sometimes and sometimes in the fireplace. When it was functioning the stove was sitting on what was left of the concrete pad. It sat on a two by four frame to keep it level. When the fridge quit we called a repairman who told us that it was not working because it was 35 degrees in the kitchen and the fridge needed 45 degrees to work. He suggested we leave the door open part of the time.
So, the other night sitting in our current devastation I said it felt like home.
Anyway, that's my excuse and will probably remain my excuse for some time to come. I had resolved to blog every day but there are simply too many things in the way. I'll do the best I can. At least it is getting on to summer and the fridge still works.
It is all fodder for a future novel. We plan to do our own Don't Stop the Carnival based on our experiences in the Caribbean. It will be very easy to convert our experiences remodeling into similar experience in the Caribbean complete with Rastas and runaway workmen. It should all bring back fun memories from all kinds of places.

And another thing... In addition to being criticized for having a Caribbean setting we were also told that we could not have a married heroine. Really? Are all marriages forever? Do divorces never occur? Is there no married woman who doesn't have some thoughts about a man other than her husband? Mercy me! I must be living in someone else's universe.

Where do people get this stuff? Actually I know. One fact is that an amazing number of people are pretty myopic in their view of the world. The word "inflexible" also applies. And then, too, it seems in Harlequin romances married women are as rare as hen's teeth.

But we thought it better if Jamie, our heroine in A Dream Across Time, was married. It was a far more likely scenario if she was to go to St. Lucia. And we saw these stories all the time. The affairs, the Caribbean meltdowns and all the other ugly things that happened to some people. So, we decided to stick with reality rather than the conventional prejudices.

Oh yes. There was another thing we encountered. Some people thought it was preposterous and beyond belief that part of a family would be found after 200 years. The problem is we knew people in Martinique who introduced us to the long lost family members they had found. And since in my wife's family there was an eighteen month old boy lost in Ellis Island and never found, it seems there just might be truth in legends.

All of this boils down to writing what you know, sticking to your guns and not permitting yourself to be swayed by ever bit of stray advise which might be utterly misguided.
Come visit us at www.annierogers.com

One of my very favorite sayings is - "Reality is nothing. Perception is everything." The more you think about it, the more profound the saying gets. Another saying I like is - "Don't ever argue with what someone WANTS to believe." The second saying is an indication of an excellent way you can waste your time. The first is battling a belief system or something someone wants to perceive.

We ran into that kind of belief system prejudice when we first aired our debut novel. We heard from people that "nobody" ever sets a romance novel in the Caribbean. How interesting. "Why not?" we asked. Because it isn't done we were told. Some answer! In fact, we searched the database of the Romance Writers of America and found one novel set on a cruise ship and another on a nameless island. So, of course, that meant we shouldn't use the setting we were most familiar with.

Of course, since we are not in favor in such unexamined biases, we forged ahead with our setting in the Caribbean which people are finding intriguing and it offered us a schtick for publicity. We simply couldn't imagine why the Caribbean could not be a romance setting since it is arguably one of the most romantic places on earth. But the more we looked at this bias the clearer we became about the basis of it. RWA has been so wedded to Harlequin and its various lines that if it had not been done in their books, it was considered unacceptable.

I guess we will just have to muddle through with our misguided perceptions of what will work in fiction. And maybe be able to engage in some creativity.

One of my very favorite sayings is - "Reality is nothing. Perception is everything." The more you think about it, the more profound the saying gets. Another saying I like is - "Don't ever argue with what someone WANTS to believe." The second saying is an indication of an excellent way you can waste your time. The first is battling a belief system or something someone wants to perceive.

We ran into that kind of belief system prejudice when we first aired our debut novel. We heard from people that "nobody" ever sets a romance novel in the Caribbean. How interesting. "Why not?" we asked. Because it isn't done we were told. In fact, we searched the database of the Romance Writers of America and found one novel set on a cruise ship and another on a nameless island. So, of course, that meant we shouldn't use the setting we were most familiar with.

Of course, since we are not in favor in such unexamined biases, we forged ahead with our setting in the Caribbean which people are finding intriguing and it offered us a schtick for publicity. We simply couldn't imagine why the Caribbean could not be a romance setting since it is arguably one of the most romantic places on earth. But the more we looked at this bias the clearer we became about the basis of it. RWA has been so wedded to Harlequin and its various lines that if it had not been done in their books, it was considered unacceptable.

I guess we will just have to muddle through with our misguided perceptions of what will work in fiction. And maybe be able to engage in some creativity.

We expect to have the second book in the Demontagne Saga, A Circle of Dreams, on hand and ready for shipment in a matter of less than a week. We hit our publish target and getting it ready was certainly easier than A Dream Across Time which was our first book. Now everything is in place.
Our tactic to get Annie Rogers' name out there was to give a lot of books away. That is what we heard over and over and so that is what we did. My suspicion is that we pretty well saturated our market with free books. The market, of course, for a new author is not large.
Now we will see what happens. We are not going to be so ready to give away the second book and we hope more people will then buy it. And, of course, we now have a back list. The next couple of months should be very interesting from a sales standpoint. We have a lot of promotions out there, advertising and we are now an award winning author.

It's funny how you get caught up in a story and probably don't think about exactly what you are putting together. We knew going into the first novel that there was definitely not going to be a heroine who was a victim. But much of the rest of it just seemed to come with the story we were telling.

I was reminded of this again last night when I was watching another rerun of Sex and the City. Yes, I watch it a lot because the women capture my imagination. I am also fascinated by how the writers managed to keep the relationship between Carrie and Big going so long. I would think it would get old but it did not. Quite artful.

Anyway, they were, as usual, talking about their husband hunt which also related to Newsweek's article about women and marriage this week. I was reminded again that, for me, it is not a matter of a spouse hunt. Too often that is how it seems to come out in discussions of one kind or another. For us, though, it is a matter of partnership.

As we put together our tale in A Dream Across Time we were telling a story of a strong, independent woman. Her husband turned out to be not much of a partner and he abandoned her. Naturally we were all pulling for her to find a new partner but the issue at first was one of survival and choice. As it happened she found a new love and a new family because she was willing to take some risks but at the same time not risk her values. She wasn't going to chase Andre but when they were both available, she wasn't going to say no either.

Finding the spouse and having the wedding is what we talk about. But what is important is finding the partner and building the family.
Visit us at www.annierogers.com

It's funny how you get caught up in a story and probably don't think about exactly what you are putting together. We knew going into the first novel that there was definitely not going to be a heroine who was a victim. But much of the rest of it just seemed to come with the story we were telling.

I was reminded of this again last night when I was watching another rerun of Sex and the City. Yes, I watch it a lot because the women capture my imagination. I am also fascinated by how the writers managed to keep the relationship between Carrie and Big going so long. I would think it would get old but it did not. Quite artful.

Anyway, they were, as usual, talking about their husband hunt which also related to Newsweek's article about women and marriage this week. I was reminded again that, for me, it is not a matter of a spouse hunt. Too often that is how it seems to come out in discussions of one kind or another. For us, though, it is a matter of partnership.

As we put together our tale in A Dream Across Time we were telling a story of a strong, independent woman. Her husband turned out to be not much of a partner and he abandoned her. Naturally we were all pulling for her to find a new partner but the issue at first was one of survival and choice. As it happened she found a new love and a new family because she was willing to take some risks but at the same time not risk her values. She wasn't going to chase Andre but when they were both available, she wasn't going to say no either.

Finding the spouse and having the wedding is what we talk about. But what is important is finding the partner and building the family.
Visit us at www.annierogers.com

Our webmistress (is that an okay term or does it sound kinky?) emailed me the other day to tell me that ebay was now selling books and I might want to go look. "Get out there and flog your books everywhere possible" is my motto. So, I went there and looked at, you guessed it, books. Under romance there were 1014 pages arranged enticingly by price, high to low or the other way.

I simply could not think of a less interesting way to arrange books for sale. It would never occur to me to buy my books because they are either cheap or expensive. I have something I loosely refer to as "taste" and "preference".

With an immediate impression that they did not have a system of interest to me, I decided to see if they had our first book. Lo and behold they did. It was listed by a company which had two "new" books for sale at full retail price. No problem. They could well have bought them from a wholesaler. Although I have to say that the number of "new" books out there stretches my credulity in many cases.

But what got my attention was the amount of information offered by this company about our book. It seems they had lifted all of the information we had put up on Amazon. Gives one pause about freedom of information although I must confess that we did put that information up on what must be considered the public domain.

Enter Google with their new book programs which I am trying hard to keep up with. I'm still not sure what I think although we are participating. My concern is that before I can develop a body of experience and establish an opinion that it will all change.

I'm to the point where I'm not sure I can say "stayed tuned". For what? I sit here looking at marketing for our books and have to make choices every day about what route I will take. The overload of possibilities is considerable. And I'm a person who loves to consider possibilities!
And so I am forced to set limits. We have a cell phone around her somewhere which I generally try not to carry except for specific purposes. My argument is the same one I had when car phones first arrived. I don't want you to be able to reach me at all times. I also feel no need to carry the cell phone partly because I don't want to be able to watch your video on it and I certainly don't want to try to read your book on it.
If I sound peevish, it is because that is how I am feeling. Part of me loves to see change and lots of it. But, this is beginning to make a cave look interesting. However, I will probably stay with the option of slogging and blogging on.
As disconnected as today's blog probably is, I feel better for having said it.
Come visit us at www.annierogers.com

I just finished John Grisham's A Painted House. He really hooked me. I could relate to Luke and was pulling for this gutsy kid through everything. Some might think that Luke was a little too sexually interested in the older girls for a boy of seven. If it wasn't intentional, which it might have been, I thought it worked. Partly because I knew Luke was being recalled through the eyes and mind of an adult. Intended or unintended I thought it was an interesting devise and I'll keep it in mind.
I have to admit the story hooked me for personal reasons. My father was born in the late eighteen hundreds in the poorest section of Mississippi near the Alabama border. At about Luke's age I got to see the poor two room house that he lived in as a child. It made a very strong impression. I know it was a desperate struggle for survival.
As a young child my father worked leading a mule at a sawmill and saved what little he could. His pennies eventuallly bought him a cardboard suitcase and a suit of clothes. He went to work in the War Department in Washington during World War I. Eventually he scrapped his way up to being an emminent surgeon in New York. How could I not feel for Luke, his family and the Latchers in Grisham's book.
What I also liked about it was that it was not word driven. I could feel with Luke and I could visualize their lives. But, I couldn't help but think that if it had not been written by John Grisham it would never have gotten published. This wonderful book had rejection notice written all over it.

Terrorism is constantly in the news and so I am often reminded of the events of 9/11.
Since we had a home on St. Lucia and frequent business in the Caribbean I often boarded a plane to go down. I was due to fly out on Air Jamaica on the morning of the 12th. of September. With all planes grounded I obviously was not going anywhere. But I started calling and finally found that Air Jamaica had one plane left in the U.S. and it happened to be at the Baltimore airport. I rebooked for the first flight that would go out on Thursday.

Was I nervous? Of course, not. I knew I was more likely to be killed by a donkey in Ireland than another terrorist attack. It was annoying to wait interminably while grim customs officials scrutinized this motley crew of travelers who were mostly Jamaicans going home.

In Montego Bay in Jamaica I learned that we would be overnighting because planes were just not where they needed to be. I wasn't surprised. Air Jamaica efficiently sent us off to the modest all inclusive they use and I went to the bar for a drink.

I was immediately spotted as an American and found I could not finish even a third of a drink before it was immediately filled again. A stiff drink at that. I finally had to leave the bar because they were being so solicitous.

At dinner I thought my waiter was going to break down. "America is like our mother," he cried.
And so it went for some time. The world was horrified at the magnitude of the crimes. The good will remaining from our efforts in World War II was enhanced by the sympathy the attacks generated.

And then along came the Bush administration. With frequent visits overseas we were able to see the effects among the world community. The arrogance and the misdeeds of our incompetent, petty and myopic government steadily eroded our standing in the world until today the world is terrfied at what we might do next to further distort and disturb the world order. The administration continues to rattle sabers at Iran even in the face of an overextended military and steadily eroding support at home. What is their plan? In the face of our military situation do they plan to send Bush's cronies into Iran swinging their golf clubs to beat the Iranians into submission?

We had so many wonderful adventures in the Caribbean. Watching the reputation of the United States forced into decline was not one of them.

What we hear from our friends overseas is that the world is looking for our end game in Iraq. The Bush administration bungled the whole thing and we as a nation are paying the price. Since we can't just walk away from our huge mistake, we would have to sit down in open and honest dialogue with the leaders of the world community and especially all people in the region to admit our mistake. eat some crow and to seek support for a commonly acceptable solution. But arrogant people would never do that. So, we wait out the rest of Bush's term and hope for better and wiser leadership in a new day.

In the meantime I think I'm going to pretty much stay home. It is safe to say that our government is hated although the world still seems to like Americans as people. But, for me, it is too painful to see what our country has become in the eyes of the world.

Last night we gave a talk at a book club. We decided that we would focus on where our stories came from. I refer to our stories as being a weaving of fictionalized reality. I know that is a bit cumbersome but it is how I see it. We weave together the stories we saw and heard. While they are typically based in reality they are fictionalized to protect the innocent blah, blah, blah.

Naturally we began by talking about Jamie, our heroine in A Dream Across Time. We saw a lot of Jamie's and people like her husband, Paul, who did what we call a Caribbean Meltdown. Talking about it brought back memories. I remember houses with blinds drawn ostensibly to keep out the sun but the blinds were really drawn against what had become a painful life.

When we set out to write A Dream Across Time we knew we would not write a tragedy and that Jamie would be a survivor and not a victim. And so we did not write stories about these houses and their residents. But I was reminded of their existence.

In these houses were often a woman who had come to "Paradise" with her husband seeking a new life and a new job. Some found a bountiful future and many a painful existence as their lives fell apart in a strange land where they had no anchors. Rather than living the good life in the beautiful sun of the tropics they endured their pain.

We may live so much in fantasy, envying others whom we think live storied lives. As a psychologist I got to see what lives were like behind closed doors and in the tropics I was reminded again that fantasy is just fantasy. In the glorious tropics there are many snakes and often a lot of pain.

Now that the first press release is out I'm working on my targeted list which a good friend advised me to work up. These are mostly the folks you have some connection with and who have real reason to respond. A major part of the list for us here are the bookstores on the Delmarva Pensinsula since we are now in beach season big time and our books make great beach books.
But I have a subset in my targeted list. This list includes the hopeless people whom I wish to annoy like a bug. On the list are such folks as the New York Times, Washington Post, Kirkus, Booklist and the like. You know the places. Self published people or people who don't write "literature" need not apply.
Which brings me to a story. Bear with me here. It is related.
When we built our home in St. Lucia we built it with trucked water. It was about $100 per thousand gallons. It was the only way to get the house built since there were no water mains at the time. It began to hurt though when we had happy tourists in the house. So, we applied for mains water. We were ignored but they did say that if we got mains, they would hook us up.
Enter our attorney, Tyrone Chong. He has twinkling eyes and a great smile but gravely proclaimed what came to be known as The Chong Principle. It runs, "You may have mains water but there will be no water in the mains."
True oriental wisdom but we set about getting mains anyway. We paid for them ourselves. Then we found they wouldn't hook us up. But they had made a mistake since they had sent me a letter saying they would hook us up. I was counseled to be careful. They might take umbrage and decline to do anything. My attitude was, "What are they going to do? Give us no water? They already do THAT!" So, being an American I threatened to sue them individually and severally if they did not hook us up. Panic ensued because in St. Lucia nobody ever behaved like an American. That is, sue. We were immediately hooked up and the Chong Principle was then verified. There was no water in the mains.
In later years water began to come but not to our house. It appeared that the water authority had lost their maps of the valves. Fortunately, I had happened to come upon a set and hidden them away. We adjusted the valves.
So what does this have to do with the publishing industry? I'm just going to say what I think. I'm going to be annoying and keep nudging the mighty. I have developed the Burt Corollary to the Chong Principle. We may produce good books and they may assiduously try to ignore us especially since we are self published but that shouldn't stop us from bugging them and being annoying. What are they going to do? Not give us a review? They already do THAT!