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Don’t know if ‘birth’ is the best reference to the event last night (January 5, 2012) but that’s when this website was launched to the public, ‘or came into the world’, if you will.   Inception occurred about six weeks before with an email or facebook contact with Jeremy Hendrickson, a former student and web development specialist.  From that point we worked together on content and format and all the other details until we both felt that everything worked.  Mostly, we did everything long distance–me in Florida  and Jeremy back home in Hibbing–with some lengthy phone conversations and incredible patience on Jeremy’s part. I must admit that I am not tech-typer person, so the teacher became the student.  Lots of creativity went into the process, most of it from Jeremy.

Anyhow, last night we decided to go public and agreed to use my facebook pages to develop a ‘fan’ site and then post a connection with my 420 ‘friends’.   Fan site?  I guess that’s a necessary part of it all.

Both the process and the end result of this project have put me in touch with the dual purpose/function of the site. For certain, there is an obvious commercial element: Entice people to buy your product!  Up until now my sales have mostly been ‘word of mouth’ as I haven’t had much of an advertising budget.  Also, sales have come from the sweat and energy of road work–I can’t count the miles or the hours spent traveling all over Minnesota for book events, arts/crafts shows, holiday bizarres, and almost any event where there is a public gathering.  The travel is easy, the tent-pitching, table setting, and necessary  schmoozing take a toll.  At the ‘Land of the Loon’ festival a few years ago, my $275.00 tent was caught in a wind gust and ended up totally destroyed in the branches of a sturdy Alcott Park Maple.  And, about 43% of all outdoor events experience rain–often torrential rain.  Rain is a major nemesis of paperback books.  Selling a book through a bookstore (if one is willing to shelve your titles) is the easiest but the least profitable.  A sale on Amazon is break-even at best.  Anyhow, the marketing sales aspect of my little sole-proprietor publishing business might get a nice lift from this site as I think it represents me and my books quite effetively.

I’ll admit to the social aspect of this site.  Writers and artists of every persuasion are people with considerable egos, even if they disguise it well.  Aside from a compliment about one of my children or grandchildren, a compliment on one of my stories comes in a very close second.  Naturally, I hope that a few people (“fans’) will send some kudos my way–either on my site or on my works.  If nothing else, this site will give me an opportunity to publically  journal, another ultra-ego endeavor.

I hope you will be in touch with me as well as I with you.  God bless . . . .

Don’t know if ‘birth’ is the best reference to the event last night (January 5, 2012) but that’s when this website was launched to the public, ‘or came into the world’, if you will.   Inception occurred about six weeks before with an email or facebook contact with Jeremy Hendrickson, a former student and web development specialist.  From that point we worked together on content and format and all the other details until we both felt that everything worked.  Mostly, we did everything long distance–me in Florida  and Jeremy back home in Hibbing–with some lengthy phone conversations and incredible patience on Jeremy’s part. I must admit that I am not tech-typer person, so the teacher became the student.  Lots of creativity went into the process, most of it from Jeremy.

Anyhow, last night we decided to go public and agreed to use my facebook pages to develop a ‘fan’ site and then post a connection with my 420 ‘friends’.   Fan site?  I guess that’s a necessary part of it all.

Both the process and the end result of this project have put me in touch with the dual purpose/function of the site. For certain, there is an obvious commercial element: Entice people to buy your product!  Up until now my sales have mostly been ‘word of mouth’ as I haven’t had much of an advertising budget.  Also, sales have come from the sweat and energy of road work–I can’t count the miles or the hours spent traveling all over Minnesota for book events, arts/crafts shows, holiday bizarres, and almost any event where there is a public gathering.  The travel is easy, the tent-pitching, table setting, and necessary  schmoozing take a toll.  At the ‘Land of the Loon’ festival a few years ago, my $275.00 tent was caught in a wind gust and ended up totally destroyed in the branches of a sturdy Alcott Park Maple.  And, about 43% of all outdoor events experience rain–often torrential rain.  Rain is a major nemesis of paperback books.  Selling a book through a bookstore (if one is willing to shelve your titles) is the easiest but the least profitable.  A sale on Amazon is break-even at best.  Anyhow, the marketing sales aspect of my little sole-proprietor publishing business might get a nice lift from this site as I think it represents me and my books quite effetively.

I’ll admit to the social aspect of this site.  Writers and artists of every persuasion are people with considerable egos, even if they disguise it well.  Aside from a compliment about one of my children or grandchildren, a compliment on one of my stories comes in a very close second.  Naturally, I hope that a few people (“fans’) will send some kudos my way–either on my site or on my works.  If nothing else, this site will give me an opportunity to publically  journal, another ultra-ego endeavor.

I hope you will be in touch with me as well as I with you.  God bless . . . .

It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m in Naples, Florida where it’s a balmy 78 degrees.  I just finished working with Jeremy Hendrickson on this website and we’re just about finished.  He’s good!  Earlier I did some writing, about two hours worth, and I’m still feeling like there is a flow to this story.  I still don’t quite know where it will take me but my characters are beginning to ‘do their thing’–that’s good, that’s what it’s all about.

This is my third winter down here and most of the landscape is quite familiar now.  I bike daily and make a stop at the Gulf beach every day.  I love the sand and the sea, the sounds and the smells, the palm trees and palmetto and cyprus, the heat of the tropical sun.  How can I miss the snow of northern Minnesota?  Strangely, at times I really do.  This is tourist country in the winter and the holiday vacation time is especially busy.  I’m living across from a favorite tourist site called ‘Tin City’, a hundred shops, eateries, and a busy marina.  If one enjoys people watching, there are few places with more variety.  Tonight there is a fantastic fireworks show off of the Naples Pier.  I went down to the beach last year and couldn’t believe all the people–more than 100,000 along several miles of shoreline.  Tables set up on the beach, candelabras and linen covered tables, champaign, even some wearing tuxedos.  It’s hard to find enough space for a lawn chair in some places and people begin finding their space in the early afternoon.  This year I might try to view the spectacular show from the rooftop of the Bayfront building.

Among my New Year’s resolution’s–a better father, better friend, better Christian, etc. and getting in shape, of course–I have one ‘intention’–finish my seventh novel.  Also have a kids story on my computer.  We’ll see.

If you are reading this blog post, you have found my website.  I hope you will tell others to check it out.  I hope that you and some of those ‘others’ you tell about the site will purchase a book or two.  Or, if you would, communicate with me on the contact page.  It should be fun for me to be in touch with my readers and/or friends this way.  Also, hoping to be linked with my site on Facebook, too.

Until next time, my wishes for a Happy and Blessed 2012–it’s going to be the best year ever.

December 28,2011

For the past three weeks I’ve gotten into a writing routine where I’ve done something each day.  For the longest time I’ve had two stories almost at odds with one another.  I worked on both hoping they might mesh, coexist, coincide …or that one or the other might be the alpha.  Today I had my best story ‘flow’ so far.  I’m encouraged, psyched!  If I can do it, the two divergent stories can intersect.  I’ll keep you posted as I go.