House Guests
One of the reasons I built my new house the way I did was so I could have house guests, and now I have. Last Monday I was pleased to have friends John and Karel spend the night on their way back to Albuquerque. They had been marshaling at the PGA golf tournament in Phoenix, and since John is also the Southwest Region President for AFA, he uses the trip to also visit the four chapters in the state, including mine here in Sierra Vista.
Before they arrived, however, another visitor came. His name is Padraig, but like many Irishmen, he prefers to be called Patty. Patty’s an interesting sort. Rough-hewn. Despite my persistent requests, he insists on staying outside. “Sun or snow, rain or blow,” he says, “my place is out of doors, lad. I’ll be fine. Been doin’ this for many a year, and will for many a year more.”
His personality is quite varied. At times he can be expansive, with many friends. At other times, he prefers to relax, being comfortable with just one.
Is he homeless? Not at all. He has a home here.
So who is he, then?
Let me introduce you properly. Please meet my good friend, Patty O’Furniture.
That’s him in his more expansive mood. And when he likes to stretch out…
…or welcome friends for a chat…
…or just kick back with one friend.
Now you might be thinking that something’s still missing, and you’d be right. This week I’ll be heading up to Tucson to make arrangements for Patty’s cousins, Patty O’Taybel, to make their ways here. (OK, seriously, Edith and I have to pick out the granite that will be used for the tops–we have some left over from the interior, but not enough for all the tables I need–and then I need to chat with Paul and Celia at Copper Anza to design the bases.)
Book News
Five more chapters to go and I’ll be done reviewing my writers’ group’s comment on draft 2 of Guardians. I expect to finish that and some other work on the draft this week, and then it’ll be time to start editing.
Meanwhile, I’m enjoying one of the benefits of distributing the ebook versions of The Eternity Plague and Chrysalis exclusively through Amazon’s KDP Select program. Kindle owners who are members of the Kindle Owners Lending Library can sample books without buying them but authors still get paid based on the number of “normalized” pages that readers read. This chart shows how many pages, from both books combined, were read on each day for the last 30 days.
The numbers vary widely, from a low of zero to a high of 1,134 since January 13th. Since I started with this program, readers have logged over 5,000 pages. That sounds like a lot, maybe, but at a half cent a page (or a little less), it isn’t a lot of income. But it’s better than no income at all!
Speaking of no income, the KDP Select program also allows an author to make their books free for up to 5 days out of every 90. In January, I did that with The Eternity Plague and Chrysalis for 3 days each. That got me 142 downloads of The Eternity Plague and 237 of Chrysalis. Now, I’m not going to get paid for any of them, but they get me visibility with readers who might not have otherwise found my work, and right now, that’s more important.
There are two more free days for each book coming up: February 24 and 25 for The Eternity Plague and March 10 and 11 for Chrysalis, so if you haven’t picked up a copy, there’s your chance to do so. Or for a science fiction-reading friend to do so. But they’re only available through Amazon for the Kindle, or the Kindle app for a computer, tablet, or smart phone.
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