Category Archives: announcement

Mickey Makes Novel Magic

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Yep, it happened today.  A box of ten books arrived from my publisher.  Magical Miss Morgan has reached the published stage finally.  It will hit the bookstores saying, “first edition; 2018”.    I struggled long and hard for two years to accomplish this.  I did practically all the work myself.  Even the cover is my artwork.  I don’t know how to explain the author feeling it gives me, but those of you who are published know what I mean.

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It may not be perfect, (Blueberry has branches with leaves on them growing out of her head), but it is beautiful to me.  I approved it for the final time today.  It goes to Amazon and Barnes and Noble soon.  Don’t know when… but they tell me soon.

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So, do I recommend Page Publishing?  I do not.  But they did get it into print and into stores for me.  And they also convinced me to self-publish from here onward.  And I love this book.  It makes me happy.  Even if all the money I spent on it was for nothing and I am the only one who will ever read it cover to cover.  I gave my daughter a free copy of it.  She might read it.  Someday.  If the internet dies and nothing good ever comes on Netflix again…

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Holding My Book in my Hand

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If I never earn a dime from it, it is a wonderful feeling to see so many years of your life finally result in a book in print.

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Now on Amazon

For this holiday I am thankful for the chance to break into print.  My best novel to date is now available in Kindle E-book and paperback versions.  I have a lot more to say in the near future about the ever-changing nightmare world of publishing, but for now, I am happy.  And I will be even happier if you read my book.

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Snow Babies at Last!

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I tested out Kindle Direct Publishing through Amazon and will soon have the best book I have ever written out in paperback and e-book forms.  I had a contract to publish this with PDMI Publishing and then the publishing company died before my book was actually in print.  I tested out KDP with Stardusters and Space Lizards.  I can now hold a copy of that book in my hands.  That went OK and I learned how to make the next book better.  So be looking for an announcement soon that it is for sale on Amazon.

 

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Life is a Book

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Life is a Book

I write chapters in it every day

The themes are more numerous than the stars

And the themes are always… always complex

But I work through them

One word after another

And soon I will close it

And write no more

But it will still be there

My book

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With the conclusion of Stardusters and Space Lizards, I have now completed a novel nine times.  The seven titles above are the ones I am actually proud of having written.  I am beginning to feel like a novelist.

I should point out that I don’t claim to be a professional novelist.  I have spent a lot more money than I have earned by writing.  But I am not a hobbyist.  After teaching ended as the career that defined my life, writing became my life’s work.  I am trying to become a published novelist.  But “published” is becoming an increasingly complex idea.

Catch a Falling Star is published and available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and I-Universe, the actual publisher.  I-Universe is an Indie publisher, but connected to Penguin Books, and so owned by one of the big five.  Aeroquest is published by Publish America, but I could’ve copied from the encyclopedia and they would’ve bound it into a book form.  I am embarrassed to even own up to having written it.  Snow Babies was a contest finalist manuscript and supposed to be published by PDMI Publishing LLC,  but that publisher folded after the editing was done and so it never found its way into print. Magical Miss Morgan is currently with Page Publishing, a vanity press operation that already collected their fees and don’t seem to be publishing my work.  I am looking into the process of suing in case they don’t come through on a process that is already a year overdue.  And I am determined to see the rest of my books in print if that is in any way possible.  Who knows?  Someday somebody may actually read and like my books… by which I mean somebody that I haven’t paid to read it.  The last one I paid to read one wrote the review on somebody else’s book by mistake and then corrected the error by writing a fudged book report on the back cover blurb.  My luck as an author is reminiscent of Vincent Van Gogh’s luck as a painter.

My life is a book.  I am still writing it.  And I will never let go the pen while I still have life enough to hold it in my hands..

 

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Filed under announcement, autobiography, humor, NOVEL WRITING, Paffooney, photo paffoonies

1,200 Followers

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There are now more than 1,200 people following my blog, Catch a Falling Star.

That’s more than 4 times as many people as lived in the little town where I grew up back in the 60’s and 70’s.

It is hard to believe there are that many foolish or incredibly daring people cruising WordPress.  I wonder if any of them are actually Muppets?  None of the ones whose blogs I have read seem to be Muppets.  Some of them seem to be businesses or corporations.  Probably more properly, Buppets and Cuppets.

I wonder if my blog has caused mental issues for any of them.  It certainly has that potential.  My blog is a lot like a boomerang fish act.  I throw a stinky fish into the wind and if you don’t get it when it comes back around, it can smack you in the head.

Concussions are mental issues, right?

I hope more people will read and like my goofy blog in the future.  And if the stinky fish ideas come back around too often for your taste, you don’t have to catch them.  You can always duck.70512-lewzealand_and_fish

This image of Lew Zealand and his Boomerang Fish Act was shamelessly stolen from an interesting blog called The Muppet Mindset.  But the stinky fish metaphor is entirely my fault.

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Drawing on Possibilities

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I am seriously working on adding videos of me using a dry-erase board to teach goofy stuff that I like to teach.

I am really looking forward to that.  People listen to stuff better than they read stuff.  It just means I have to learn how to use technology more than I did in the classroom.

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Sometimes Even Mickey Boasts a Little!

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May 19, 2017 · 3:30 am

900!

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I have reached 900 followers.  Who knew there were 900 people in the blogosphere goofy enough to follow a cartoony former school teacher who collects dolls because of raging hoarding disorder?  I am a loony conspiracy theory lover (though only a believer of a select few).  I have six incurable diseases and am a cancer survivor since 1983.  I am a writer goofy enough to believe I can write stuff that people want to read, and some of the comments seem to indicate that they really do.

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Here’s this morning’s dawn.  Every one of these I can photograph is something of a miracle.

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The day before yesterday I got sick from Texas heat and diabetes while driving to pick up my son from school.  I had to stop and dash into Toys-R-Us to throw up in their restroom.  Yeck!  Why did I have to talk about something as disgusting as that?  Well, I feel guilty about having to do that in a business’s public restroom.  So I felt compelled to buy something.  Wow!  PEZ dispensers!  And I found Rainbow Dash!  Um, yeah… every dark cloud has its own form of silver lining.

So, there is my goofy, disorganized post about 900.

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Happiness

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It took a while.  I started this blog in 2013.  But I have built it up gradually.  And now I have reached the point that my publisher’s publicity expert said I should reach in a few months.  My novel is not doing nearly as well.  My high-priced consultants (high-priced for me because I have no money) want me to spend more money to try again to get the novel noticed.  What I have actually noticed is that they are making a helluva lot more money than I am.  I am resolved now to do it on my own.  I will find my own way in marketing, or fail on my own.  I don’t need to be paying anybody to help me fail.  I am doing that quite well on my own.  And I have reason to think this blog might be succeeding.  The I-Universe marketing team cannot legitimately claim to have anything at all to do with that.  I thank them for what they have taught me about the business.  They taught me that no one really wants to help me but me myself.  They are in it for the money.  And like unsuccessful authors everywhere, I have begun telling myself, it is not about the money… especially not money for them.

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