KEEPING UP!

In the past couple of years I have learned to blog, to join Facebook, to burn DVDs, to program my picture key chain, and master my self-publishing project. Lately I have been feeling right proud of myself and all my technological accomplishments. However, today I got a message that requires me to join Twitter and a request to put a bit of a video on my blog. Those two requests were just about the straws that broke my techie camel's back!

All of these advances in technology are marvelous and I really am excited when I master them, but the learning curve for me is often quite a stretch. I grind my teeth, make attempts by myself, and when all else fails I call one or more of my sons who know far more than I will EVER learn. They certainly did not inherit their technological skills from me, but I am really grateful that they are willing to share their expertise with me. And they do it so nicely. Thank you, boys!

Anyhow! When I have a block of time, I will figure out how to join Twitter and I will hopefully learn how to put a bit of video on my blog. Meanwhile, I continue being proud of the techie skills I have acquired so far as I prepare to post this message to my blog.

SELF-PUBLISHING

I self-published my book, "Growing Up in the Texas Panhandle" through Lulu.com and had an excellent experience with that company. They did a very professional job, I found them easy to work with; they provided assistance in their online chat room when I got stuck; and, BEST OF ALL, I had to pay them NOTHING up front for the book.

I got some excellent advice from Sharon Lippincott on font size, line spacing and margins and her guidance was most helpful. I did have to contact Lulu.com a couple of times for assistance with my cover photo, and they they helped me iron out a couple of glitches. I also asked several friends to read over my stories and make suggestion or corrections.

I only ordered the number of books that I thought I needed for Christmas giving. I then reordered again because I also sold some to friends and the books arrived at my house seven days after I ordered them. The more books I buy, the cheaper they are. To me, that is a win/win situation! I have not had to pay a large amount of money up front for books and I do not have boxes of books in the garage waiting to be sold. I am having a wonderful time holding MY BOOK in my hands and admiring it.

A REVIEW OF MY BOOK!

A wonderful review of my new book, Growing Up in the Texas Panhandle, just appeared on Smockity Frock's blog. To read it, go to http://smockityfrocks.blogspot.com/. Thank you so much, Ms. Smockity.

This self-publishing adventure has been so much fun. I would encourage all of you to gather up some of the wonderful stories that I have been reading on your blogs and send them in to Lulu.com for publishing. It took me a while to get things in the shape and format that I wanted, but the end result has been most pleasing. And the cost factor (no outlay of cash on my part) is especially appealing during these difficult economic times.

My husband commented, as he read the book in a final edit, that he wished he had a book like that full of his grandmother's stories. I am pleased to have this book to pass down to my children and grandchildren--a book of pictures and memories.

MY BOOK IS HERE!

My book is ready to order from the link on the right sidebar. My copy just came in yesterday and I am so pleased with it. It is GORGEOUS! Lulu.com did a marvelous job with it and my copy came almost exactly one week—to the hour—after I pushed the button to submit it. I am so excited to have it in hand before Christmas. And I have ordered copies for gift-giving at Christmas, but, shhhh! That is a secret--don't tell my family members!

Now I am thinking of a couple of other books that I would like to submit. I LOVE the part about it not costing me anything up front—except for the books I order for myself. This is great! My husband did moan when I said I could see several more books-in-the-making because he helps me with the editing. Oh well, perhaps NOT before Christmas.

Just a Little Glitch!

There is just a little glitch with my self-publishing project. The price comes up wrong when I add a button on my blog to order it from Lulu.com and they are working on it. The first Live Chat person I talked to said she thought I could figure out how to fix it--and I was CLUELESS, but the second Live Chat person said it was a glitch in THEIR system, so I will have to wait until Monday and hopefully their technical people can get it fixed. Oh well!

New Endeavor - Self-Publishing

I just sent my stories in to Lulu.com and self published my book, "Growing Up in the Texas Panhandle." I am so excited to have it finished and "out of my hair." I have been working on it for several months and have had a wonderful time editing my stories, adding in old family pictures, designing the cover, and getting it ready to send in. I dithered around for quite some time--especially the past two weeks. My husband read it over one more time with his handy red editing pen and declared it READY! I fiddled with the cover, chatted with Lulu.com's Live Chat several times and finally pushed the button to LET IT GO! What a feeling of exhilaration that was! Wow! I did it! And, now I can hardly wait to get my first copy.

This self-publishing experience is quite exciting. I am already sifting through my stories with another book in mind. Will it ever end?? Well, we will see how much patience I have for doing this again. I must say that Lulu.com was quite easy to work with and their Live Chat help is invaluable--especially for someone as technologically challenged as I am.

Now on to my next projects--finishing a painting or two that I have started and neglected while I fiddled with "Growing Up in the Texas Panhandle."

A Quick Update

Some time ago I mentioned gathering my stories about growing up in the Texas Panhandle and self-publishing them at Lulu.com. Well, that project is still in the works. I have gathered the stories and printed them out for editing. A couple of weeks ago my husband (a wonderful editor with a BIG red pen!) looked them over and made a few suggestions. I took them with me on our trip to Oregon and worked on them on the plane. I made a few corrections on some and a major overhaul on others. Then I had a few more ideas for stories and added them, along with a few recipes and more pictures.

This project is turning out to be quite a job and is spread out all around my computer chair now. I realize that October is breathing down my neck and I need to forget about my passion for perfection and just get on with the project if I want it ready for Christmas.

Sigh! Part of my problem is that I have too many projects and not enough time. However, I suspect that is better than having nothing to do and being bored!

A QUICK REPORT

Just wanted to check in and say that I am working on my book--a collection of stories about my growing up days. I have downloaded a number of the stories (some that you might have read on my blog plus some new ones!) into the files of a self-publishing company and am anxious to see how they turn out. Perhaps I will have a book before Christmas! That sounds exciting!


And I had another lesson in furthering my technological knowledge this morning. Yesterday I read Susan Albert's blog and she talked about downloading a book on her Kindle. I had no idea what she was talking about and I intended to look it up on the Internet, but forgot. Today I was talking to a friend about forming a book club at our church and she mentioned a book that she had just downloaded on her Kindle. She offered give me a quick lesson on the newest way to acquire and read books through Amazon.com at a fraction of the cost of buying the book. She told me that she had recently gone on a vacation with 25 books loaded on her Kindle that is about the size of a paperback! She was jumping all around on that thing, showing me different books, how she could underline and highlight passages, store her notes, and upload a book onto web storage for future reference. Mercy! I have a lot to learn to keep up with all these advances in technology!

Self-Publishing Your Writing

I have been pondering gathering all of my stories about growing up in the Texas Panhandle and self-publishing them. Mainly I would want to put them into book form for my family members to enjoy. Perhaps my grandchildren will one day pick up a book of my stories and be amazed (or amused?) at my stories of growing up in a small Texas town in the 1940s and 1950s.

Today I read Marlys Marshall Styne's blog entry on self-publishing and decided that I needed to get moving in that direction. She has self-published several books and I just recently received a copy of her latest collection of rictameter poetry. It is really an impressive book and gives me the incentive to go ahead with my own project. Now all I need to do is get myself in gear and take the first big step--getting organized and getting moving!

AN INTERESTING BOOK!

Last week I received a delightful book, Elder Expectations: My Life in Rictameters, by Marlys Marshall Styne in the mail. Rictameters are unrhymed, nine-line poems with a regular pattern of two, four, six, eight, ten, eight, six, four and two syllables. The first and last lines must be the same.

I was first exposed to Marlys' poems on her blog last March when she decided to do one rictameter a day for the full month and I became hooked on the poetry form. I have never really cared much for writing any type of poetry but I began writing my own rictameters and encouraging my writing groups to do the same. It is fun and a bit of a challenge for the ole brain to write a rictameter!

Another intriguing thing about Marlys' book was that she self-published her poems through lulu.com. The poems were written in March and the book was in my hands in July. Amazing! Marlys says "As for self-publishing (Print on Demand), I'm a great believer in it. Traditional publishing is about making money, and my books don't have the sales potential to attract a publisher's financial interest. Besides, I'm too old and impatient to seek agents and publishers and wait years for a book to come out. I didn't even try that route. I guess I'm the ultimate do-it-yourself person and I enjoy doing the book layout myself. Self-published books have had a poor reputation in the past, thanks to the old "vanity publishers," but things are gradually changing."

Thanks, Marlys, for encouraging me to self-publish a book of my own stories, and also for the gift of your rictameter poetry!

Here is my own poem:

Thank you,

Marlys, for the

gift of your poetry

that you have shared with us via

your lovely rictameters in your book,

Elder Expectations, and your

blog, where I first saw them,

then tried my own.

Thank you!

They are tricky, but they are fun to work with!

By the way, you can buy the book on Amazon.com.