Did you get a new ebook reader for Christmas? Or are you just looking for new content to read on an old reader? He’s With the Band has always been free, but from now to 1 January my other two ebooks are on sale as part of the Smashwords End of Year Sale. more “My ebooks are on sale”
Perhaps you’ve seen the an image like the one on the right from Grammarly, suggesting that you could insult people better by quoting Shakespeare. Will was great at coming up with ways to say things in unexpected ways but he’s not the only one. I found some interesting ways to swear without running afoul of the language police while reading the books of Larry Niven.
Updated 20 March: It was brought to my attention that I had a gray moment and didn’t include a link to Grammarly’s website. I’ve used Grammarly to check my writing both here on WfaA, in web posts all over the ‘net, and even for things that aren’t completely web-based. If you do any writing in English you need to check out Grammarly and at least get the free browser plugin. You’ll wonder how you wrote without Grammarly, no matter who your English teachers were.
Unfortunately the Kickstarter project simply didn’t get the backing it needed and I’ve closed it early. This obviously means the Franklin Park ebook won’t get made at this point, but since the laptop to replace my old one was part of the budget for that project it means that it will continue being difficult for me to do much writing. I still have the rewrite of He’s With the Band that I want to finish but it will take time during the day that gets taken from other tasks to work on it.
Thanks to everyone who backed me and got the word out, especially Amy, Tara and Danielle, as well as Pareesa and everyone over at the Franklin Park Coalition. Perhaps we can try it again at some point because I’d love to get this book made.
As I write this there are only nine days left in my Kickstarter project to create a photobook of Franklin Park but we’re still sitting at only 4% of the needed $2,900 raised. That’s puzzling because I’ve talked to a lot of people around Boston and I’ve heard a lot of excitement about the book, and with the exception of my very last backer all the money has come from out-of-state family members. The one Boston backer is a friend who used to live in Jamaica Plain and still raves about the area.
If you’re planning on backing my project I need to ask you to do it this weekend. After running the numbers I’ve decided to set a challenge for my backers and prospective backers: I need to raise $1,200 for the project by noon Eastern Time on Monday, 4 August. That’s just over 40%, and I it’s a lot of scratch to raise in a mere four days. But if we can’t meet that goal there’s no way we’ll raise 96% in the remaining seven days.
If we can hit that goal we’ll still need to raise about $250 every day for the remaining week of the campaign. Some will say it’s too much to raise after raising less than that in the past three weeks but if we can hit Monday’s goal I know we can all get the word out and put the project over the top.
If it turns out that Monday’s goal is missed I’ll cancel the funding and thank everyone for their help. Depending on how much money is raised by noon on Monday I”ll look into possibly trying again, either with a smaller goal or possibly through another crowd funding site. I’ve seen recently that there’s another service that can let you choose to accept whatever money gets raised rather than being all or nothing like Kickstarter does but if I don’t see the possibility of at least replacing the laptop that died back in September I’m not sure if it will make sense to try again.
If the laptop can get replaced I’ll at least be able to finish the rewrite of He’s With the Band that I’ve been trying to do for the past few months, and it should let me get back the mystery I was working on when the laptop crashed one last time and took the hard drive with it. I may not be able to make the photobook at that point but at least I can get back to writing and try to give my readers something to read. I can’t tell you how many people have told me they loved He’s With the Band and want me to write more, even if it’s not a continuation of Al’s story. Without a laptop there’s just not enough hours in the day to do the things I need to do online and to be able to write.
The ball’s in your court. If you’ve been thinking of backing my next book now’s the time. It doesn’t have to be a big amount, even small pledges can add up to make a difference, and the more people back me the more others will be wiling to join the crowd. You won’t need to pay your pledge until after the campaign ends on Sunday, 10 August, and then only if the project is fully funded. This way you can look to see what your budget will be able to handle before making your pledge.
Last week I was glad to be able to report that the Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of my next book, a photobook of Franklin Park, had its first two backers. Unfortunately despite hearing lots of enthusiasm about the book only one other person has backed it since then. And that’s not a good thing for the creation of a photobook of Boston’s much-loved urban park. more “The Kickstarter campaign is almost at the halfway mark and it doesn’t look good for my Franklin Park photobook”
“I have a confession to make.”
That’s how Yumi Sakugawa’s I Think I Am in Friend-Love with You begins. You may have seen it since it went viral on the Sadie Magazine website. I saw it when StumbleUpon my first thought was “Oh. My. God. I wish I could show this to my best friend. It says exactly what I wanted to say but didn’t know what words to use.” Alas, my friend and I had a falling out and I couldn’t show it to them but I’m hoping they’ve already seen it and have shown it to someone super-awesome they know. more “Everyone should have one or two friends like this”
Due to a recent price increase in the paperback edition of He’s With the Band, along with the fact that I am unable to make any updates in that edition of the book, I have removed it from sale from Amazon and their CreateSpace division. The minimum price Amazon allowed me to charge for the paperback was high enough at $4.59, simply because the book is so short, but when I noticed that the price had risen almost a dollar with no explanation as to why the minimum price was increased I felt I had no choice but to remove it from print completely.
I’m sorry about any inconvenience this causes.
I just uploaded a new version of He’s With the Band to Smashwords with a sneak peek at Somewhere… and More: The Lyrics of J.M. Hardin.
You can get they updated version of HWTB from Smashwords now, and once they approve the new version it will go into the Smashwords Premium Catalog, which means it will be made available to the iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and the other ebook stores. more “He’s With the Band gets updated… with goodies”
Updated 6 September: Please forgive my tardiness in posting this but it turns out that A.D.Pomeroy, the man behind Dictionary Corner, had to shut the site down due to time commitments. Luckily he moved the review to his other site, Quiet Lilac. I’ve changed the links below to point to the new location. Part of his review also graces the back of the paperback version of He’s With the Band, and I’m glad he allowed me to use his review there.
This morning I saw that one of my fellow WordPress.com bloggers, dictionarycorner, has reviewed “He’s With the Band.” He makes some great points, and as I continue working on my mystery I’m definitely going to keep his comments in mind. more ““He’s With the Band” gets reviewd by Quiet Lilac”