My Two Lives

It’s official. My federal budget ebook is now called “No Budget, No Pay.”

December 9, 2013

Thanks to those who let me know their opinion on the new title and cover. I’m currently uploading the new book and cover to Smashwords and Amazon and once it makes its way through their uploading process it will be available for purchase at the new price of $2.99. My apologies to those who haven’t bought it yet but if you’ve already bought it you should be able to get the updated version at no additional charge. more “It’s official. My federal budget ebook is now called “No Budget, No Pay.”” …

Review: Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion

December 9, 2013

Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Anyone who loves good soul music should clear time from your days to curl up with this book. Robert Gordon takes us all the way through the history of Stax Records, from back when it was just a glimmer in Jim Stewart’s eye all the way through the forced closure. if you want a feel good story this isn’t for you, but if you’re willing to see both the very good and the very bad, and everything in between, this may be just the book for you.

For best results make sure you’ve got some of your favorite Stax family music handy to play while reading. There’s nothing like reading how one of your favorite songs was written while hearing the final result. And don’t just give it a single read, this one deserves to be ready twice, once straight through and a second time checking the notes in the back.

View all my reviews

Sony finally has all three of my ebooks

December 3, 2013

One of the things I get to do when I publish a new ebook or an update to an existing ebook is to watch for when Smashwords sends the new version to their retail partners. When I see that a retailer has been sent the ebook or update I start checking each retailer’s website to find it so I can post a link on each book’s page. It can go very quickly and with some retailers it can go slowly due to how they handle each new ebook or update. more “Sony finally has all three of my ebooks” …

As we enter the last part of the year

November 27, 2013

Updated 21 November 2015 to point the link to the repost of the article on this site.

As we get into the meat of Hal-giv-hanu-mas-za-year I want to take a moment and wish everyone a happy, safe and joyful holiday season. Regardless of what holidays you celebrate and which ones you ignore, I want to thank everyone who’s discovered my writing and chose to look for more from me, both as ebooks and on this site. Knowing people enjoy what I write makes me want to write better stories to reward you for your time and energy spent keeping up with my writing. There are a lot of ebooks and websites you could read so I don’t take a single reader for granted. more “As we enter the last part of the year” …

Should I make this available as a desktop wallpaper that can be downloaded?

My virtual workspace

November 22, 2013

Updated 1 July: I have an updated image I’m using for my wallpaper and I’ve put a sample of that after the jump. Should I make it available as a desktop wallpaper that can be downloaded?

Back in September I mentioned that I was thinking about creating some desktop wallpapers, two based on images for He’s With the Band and one image showing my virtual workspace. As I was answering the questions for the Smashwords author interview I saw that one of the questions was about my workspace. I didn’t answer that one since I don’t really have a workspace that the moment but it reminded me that I wanted to update the workspace wallpaper image to show the books I’ve released since last August and to show the online stores that carry my ebooks. more “My virtual workspace” …

I’ve been interviewed!

November 19, 2013

Smashwords, the company that distributes my ebooks, has created a tool to let their authors post an interview on their Smashwords page. When I saw it back in August it looked interesting but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use it. I looked at the other day I realized it had some really good questions for us, which was my biggest hesitation about using it myself. I thought we would have to think of our own questions, and while we can add our own they have a number of great questions just waiting for our answers.

Find out how I started writing, what my writing process is and who some of my favorite authors are in my Smashwords interview. Is there a question you’d like answered? Leave it in the comments here and I’ll add it to my Smashwords interview.

Congrats to my ebook distributor and a free Whitey Bulger ebook from WBUR

November 13, 2013

Yesterday Mark Coker posted an announcement on the Smashwords blog that Smashwords was ranked as the #1 indie ebook producer for 2012. That is fantastic news and not just because they’re the company that distributes my ebooks to stores like iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Diesel and even to libraries. Smashwords was created back in 2008 for the specific purpose of helping independent ebook writers get their ebooks into stores where readers can find them. more “Congrats to my ebook distributor and a free Whitey Bulger ebook from WBUR” …

“Somewhere… and More” Is NOW AVAILABLE

November 5, 2013

It’s finally here. Somewhere… and More: The Lyrics of J.M. Hardin is now available for purchase and immediate download.

For those who don’t know, about a decade ago I wrote a Christian short story called He’s With the Band, the tale of a song writing sound guy who’s finally giving in to pressure from the band he works for and some friends and is finally making demos of his songs and seeing what he can do with them. Along the way he meets a young woman who he thinks is just a fan of the band but who’s been wanting to meet him. In the story are some of the words to three of the songs I’d written, and with the release Somewhere… and More I’m publishing the complete lyrics to not only those three songs but to eight other songs I’ve written since moving to Boston in 1989. While the new ebook is a book of song lyrics I’m marketing it as a book of poetry, and I really hope that my lyrics are good enough that you’ll enjoy them without the music. more ““Somewhere… and More” Is NOW AVAILABLE” …

“Somewhere… and More” comes out TOMORROW: “The Upper Room”

November 4, 2013

My next ebook, Somewhere… and More: The Lyrics of J.M. Hardin comes out tomorrow and I have one more preview to share with you before it comes out.

For those just joining us, about a decade ago I wrote a little Christian short story called He’s With the Band. Part of the story are some of the words to three of the songs I’d written, and with tomorrow’s release of Somewhere… and More I’m publishing the complete lyrics to not only those three songs but to eight other songs I’ve written since moving to Boston in 1989. While the new ebook is a book of song lyrics I’m marketing it as a book of poetry, and it’s my hope that my lyrics are good enough that you’ll enjoy them without the music.

You can still preorder Somewhere… and More just $2.99 at Smashwords, Apple’s iBooks, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store and when it’s released tomorrow you’ll automatically be notified that you can download it. If you order it from Smashwords you can get it DRM FREE and in the format you need for all of the devices you read ebooks on without having to pay for a second copy of my ebook. They can’t say that at any of the other ebook stores. more ““Somewhere… and More” comes out TOMORROW: “The Upper Room”” …