Summer Writing

At last, it looks as if summer is here.

My writing normally slows down a bit when warm weather arrives. For me, summer means lots of vacation days, short trips, golf, long walks, and hikes, gardening, a little fishing, and more time with my cameras taking wildlife and landscape photos. I also spend time watching Little League baseball and my favorite big league team the Rockies who are off to a great start.

One of our favorite places to relax and only a few minutes away

I will continue working on my new nonfiction book and hope to finish the 4^th  kid's chapter book from my Mike and Moose & Me series. Here is the link to the first of the series.

I am doing a few small promotions for my newest book – here is my latest post on it.

Just in time for summer. Beginning Gardening and Other Entertaining Lies. Everything from how to read labels on a bag of fertilizer to building backyard raised beds. Great for beginners along with terrific reminders and how to’s, for long time gardeners also.  Complete with humor and four short stories, each starting with a body in the garden.

NOW FREE WITH KINDLE UNLIMITED OR A MERE .99 CENTS TO PURCHASE THE Ebook.

Give it a try today,learning and laughing all in the same book.

Other than that I will do lots of soaking in the sun and relaxing in the warmth of summer. How about You?

Last evening - sunset over Guernsey State Park 

Using Kindle Unlimited and New Book Covers

Thursday at our house - Today, Saturday, I worked in short sleeves in the garden
-WYOMING-

Now You Can download all of my Books for Free with Kindle Unlimited - Like many writers that self-publish I am constantly looking for more revenue. With that in mind, I decided to move all of my books to Kindle Unlimited. I have always had a few there, but decided I would give it a try with all nine of my books and my one published short story. Not sure what will happen but if nothing else, it will give me something to check every day.

So what is Kindle Unlimited? - For those of you not familiar with Kindle Unlimited, it is a subscription with Amazon that allows members who pay $9.99 a month to download an unlimited number of books each month. Readers can have up to ten books at any one time but must return books to go past ten in a month. Not a bad deal, some readers return books as soon as they finish or if they decide it is not what they want and order another. Some readers report downloading dozens each month. It also looks like a good place to sell old-fashioned genres such as Westerns and Historical Fiction.

Links to my Western/Historical Fiction books here. 

Take a look and read the free sample.

Take a look at The Ghost Dance Here

Author Pay – Authors are paid by how many pages are read from each downloaded book, works out to a bit over a half cent per page, which for a 300-page book would work out to $1.50, or a little more depending on the month as the payment does vary. Considering that the same book, sold as an eBook for $2.99 would pay the author about $2.00 it is not much different.

   I have not tried it yet myself but believe when late fall comes around again I will give it a try. My old bones do not like the cold weather of winter, and a good book is always a nice companion.

My Garden Book is now .99 cents as an eBook – I also reduced the price of my latest book, Beginning Gardening & Other Entertaining Lies to under a buck. (As I write this late Saturday afternoon the price change has not appeared yet but should change soon)

   This one is a bit shorter, 130 pages in soft cover and 80+ as an eBook, not sure why the big difference, as it takes a pretty small font to knock off 50 pages. This one also contains four short stories that all start with a dead body in the garden. Fun stuff. The actual gardening advice is solid and time tested, a terrific way for gardeners to get going. Take a look at the sample here.

New Covers - My kid's book series – I am starting to put new, and better, covers on my three book, so far, kid’s series. Here is the new cover and the link to the first.

My New Book is Out

My new book is out and much different than all of my others. 

This one tackles my love of gardening along with short murder mysteries.

Beginning Gardening and 4 Cozy, Garden Murder Mysteries

Here is the book blurb 

A book for everyone who gardens or wants to garden. Gardening tips from a Master Gardener who has tried it all, over more than half a century of digging in the soil. With, just for fun, four Garden Murder Mysteries from a Master Story Teller.

All the information needed to start your own gardens, flower beds to do a complete landscape makeover. Tips on everything from fertilizer and seeds to bushes and trees. Raised beds, locating your garden and more. Want to start a garden and not sure what to do? Read it here. Check to see if you are doing it right, it’s all in the book. Tired from all that hard work in the garden?

Relax with four cozy, murder in the garden tales

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Beginning Gardening and 4 Cozy, Garden Murder Mysteries $2.99 eBook or soft cover for $8.99  Click and read the free excerpt.

Oh - What a Couple of Weeks

To say the last two weeks have been a bummer would be the ultimate understatement. 

1. Tooth Extraction
2. Root Canal
3. Flu
4. Arthritis Flair up

There you have it, and a fun ride it has not been - but, the good news is I am on the mend. Seems as I get older bad things seems to come in groups, I only hope this group of ailments has ended for a few years - not fun. Finally up and around - some - the past few days, even managed a half hour speaking engagement yesterday. 

A few weeks ago standing behind the - one of a kind - CCC Cap House in
Guernsey State Park

All of the above means that I have not got around to much writing or editing. I did get a second proof copy for my newest book. I wasn't happy with some of my headings and spacing in the first. After a bit, okay quite a bit, of editing,  Happy Days, at first look, this one seems to be fine and should be available soon, but I will need to take a more careful look first - Just to be sure.

My light-hearted look at gardening - available in a few days.

The first Iris are starting to open - always look great

On the good news side, my yard and garden look quite nice for this time of year, and with no frost, in the two-week forecast, it looks like I will be able to continue planting in our gardens the next few days.

I am continuing the research and rough draft, on what I have found to be both a challenging and energizing new nonfiction book. This one I cannot wait to publish but it will be winter at best before it is ready for the big edit. 

On the grounds of Fort Laramie
 Setting for the new nonfiction book I am working on

Meanwhile, keep on writing and keep on reading.

The famous Iron Bridge at Fort Laramie - What stories it could tell

Well - Looks Like I Survived April

Looks to me like I almost took the month of April off. I made a measly nine blog posts, and although I no longer keep a word count, I suspect it was not high. I do have the proof of my ninth book and will have it up and for sale in a few days. This one – Beginning Gardening and Other Entertaining Lies, has gardening tips, four short stories, all related to gardening and some humor. It is pretty light hearted and only comes in a bit over 100 pages, but it was fun.  Those who have followed me for a while know that I am almost as passionate about gardening as I am about writing and photography.

So what’s next? I am back to work on my nonfiction book, yep the one I have talked about on here before. I am also toying with the idea of a new murder mystery, or I might go back to the one I got stuck on and never completed. Funny, I really liked that story, great location, and a couple of characters I felt were fun, had a murderer, had a body, and just could not come up with a motive – oh well, some day.

Nice to see spring trying to arrive here in Wyoming. Spring seems to make me feel younger and ready to get out and do something. Or maybe its because I am feeling better after a root canal and extraction of a cracked wisdom tooth. Ahh - the Golden Years.

Keep on reading and keep on writing. Good advice for me seems everytime we are out hiking these ol' boys are watching - maybe attempting to tell us something. Yep, better get to work before they catch up with me.