Desperation or guidance?

Last weekend I tried a marketing experiment. As I have noted here and elsewhere I have very little time to do the things I need to do when it comes to getting my work out there and moving. In a move that was either sheer desperation, or Divine guidance I took a chance and put my novella The Last Raid up for free. That's right it was free, the cost was nada, zip, zilch or zero. At first I was just amazed as the copies went flying off Amazon and onto computers, Kindles, iPads, and smart phones around the world. Some went to the UK a few went to Germany, and one even went to France. The title spent most of the weekend at either the number 1 or 2 spots on the free list. But what did it all mean in the long run? Since the promotion ended Tuesday morning my story has made a steady climb up the charts and has spent the majority of the time in the top ten titles on the Kindle Westerns list and on the Westerns list for all books. So it has been ranking right up near the top of the list that includes all paperbacks, hardbacks, and Kindle books. I have jokingly said that you can now call me a bestselling author. The surprise of it all is that I really am a bestselling western author. As for the question of desperation or guidance, I'm going with guidance. Along the way I have had a lot of help and the biggest help of all is my wife Polly, without her encouragement none of this would have happened.

Experiment.

It has been a wild week, fighting with the paperwork to get back into the U.S. from Quebec. Dealing with rude customs officials at the Port of Baltimore. Spending time with a friend and fellow writer Robert Bidinotto and seeing the movie Act of Valor, which was amazing. It also included taking a chance and making use of an Amazon kindle promotion program which allows me to offer free downloads of one of my published pieces. So I chose to make The Last Raid available for free. The offer started at midnight on Friday and will end at midnight on Monday. The response has been wonderful with over 6000 downloads (at the time of this writing) in the U.S. and more in UK, Germany and France. Now if it will turn into paid sales or not is another question. The story has been at the top of the best seller (is it really a best seller if it is free?) list for Westerns since Friday afternoon spending the majority of that time in the number one slot. When counting all of the free downloads available it climbed as high as number 42. The big hope is that this kind of exposure will get the attention of those who buy e-books and they will not only buy this work but others that are available. Only time will tell how it will all come out. I have two days left to promote my work for free and have set it up to make the short story Welcome Home available to coincide with a Face Book event Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day. It was written as a tribute to those veterans I served with who had been in Vietnam so it fits with the whole idea behind the event.

Can I get some cheese?

What is the difference between a truck driver and a puppy dog?
The puppy dog quits whining eventually.
The passing of my 59th birthday just happened and I have been doing a lot of whining, at least in my mind. I haven't been vocalizing it but it has been on my mind. Then I see something that takes my breath away and helps change my attitude. Since the first of the year it has been one thing after another to go wrong. Nothing really major but a lot of little stuff. TV going out on the truck and things like that. Since I only use the TV to watch movies I can do that on my computer. Just not as well. Money that has been planned for one thing now ends up going to replace the TV. Along with that I have been busy as all get out on the road. Then today it happened, one of those extraordinary things that is both inspiring and aggravating. Inspiring because of it's beauty, aggravating because I don't have the time or place to stop and photograph it.
It happened as I was driving through the Columbia River Gorge heading east on the Oregon side. It had been snowing lightly, occasionally changing to rain with ice, all of which can be beautiful, until it sticks to the road or messes up your windshield. The storm seemed to be moving slowly eastward with me. Since the storm was much slower moving than I was, it wasn't long till I reached the edge where the storm ended and the sun was shining. Something caught my attention and I looked out at the Columbia River, the waters deep green in color with white capped waves as the wind fought against the natural current of the river. There it was, one of the most beautiful rainbows I have ever seen. For miles it hung there just outside my driver's window as if it were following me as I drove.
Trucking has been a hard life in many ways, but it has also been a great life. I have tried to capture some of the magic that I have had the pleasure to see, thanks to trucking over the years in some of my stories. Some are just beyond words. One of the biggest disappointments I have had is that pulling over to photograph these things is almost impossible due to parking area and, or time constraints. Some day I will find the way to do just that pull over and play with my camera for awhile. Until then I will have to just keep doing what I have to until I get to the point I can do what I want.

Passing of a friend.

In high school he and I were almost inseparable, then I ran off to California and ended up joining the Army. The adventures he and I had dreamed of around those summer campfires in the mountains were never to come. Our lives took different roads, but in a time when I really needed friends he and his family came into my life. What I learned from them about family was very important to my later life. His sister was the one to inform me of his passing. While we hadn't seen each other in years the memories that we created during those few years of high school will live on. Death is a part of life, yet it is always a surprise when it happens. To his three children who survive, all I can say is that your father was an important part of my life in a very positive way. He was willing to be friends with the kid from the Group Home, who had no family close by. We camped and dreamed around a thousand fires, all the time making plans for the future. Vic even though life lead us down different paths know that I will always cherish those dreams of our youth. I hope your soul was in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knew you were gone. May the adventures your physical body could not handle here on Earth be yours now for eternity.

Country Folks will survive.

Recently there has been some attention given to those that the media has dubbed Preppers. These are people who are preparing for an uncertain future. They are storing food, medicines, and yes guns and ammunition. Living in the country as I do when I am home, this only makes sense to me. I was in Denver during the Christmas Blizzard of 1982. The town was paralyzed for three days, every grocery and convenience store were picked clean, and all the shelves were picked clean. One person I know was trapped in his apartment with no way to get his insulin refilled. One of the conversations I have seen online had to do with taking the supplies from the Preppers by violence if necessary and that violence spilling out into the countryside. While that scenario may make for a good Post Apocalypse scifi movie the reality has a few flaws. First of all is the fact that people who live in the country tend to be armed and proficient with those arms. They hunt and fish regularly and hit what they aim at rather than holding the pistol sideways because it looked cool on TV. Add to that an intimate knowledge of the terrain and being used to dealing with hardships, the Country Folk have the advantage over those who live in the city. Most of those who would become the roving gang types are not really comfortable outside the city. They may venture out on occasion but will be met with stern determination. A good example of how it would most likely happen can be found in the book Granny Boo by Phil Whitley. People who know the land and understand it will always be able to rise from what ever is thrown at them. It is in their DNA.

Technology and Freedom

When I wrote the short story Shade to be included in the book Rambling I was playing with ideas that have been used before, but I wanted to give it a little different spin. In most stories with dystopian societies it is the Government that has all the best tech. What if the techs didn't like the idea of technology running everyone's life? Freedom has always offered the best chance for everyone to advance, so in my story it is the rebels who have the best tech. It was so much fun to write that I am working on the next episode in the lives of Shade, and Sieda. It will still be taking place in a world that is a cross between Demolition Man and 1984 but with a much more advanced and sophisticated underground, called the Sub-Gridders because they live just under the grid. They have access to the grid and all of the good things that technology brings when used to advance knowledge and freedom instead of being used to control the masses. This post was inspired by the story of a U.S. Senator who was the victim of technology this week at an airport. Some say that the machine was making a random pick to find the next person for extra scrutiny instead of relying on a human to do it. Now that is scary. Will we become slaves to our machines or will we be their masters?

First post of 2012

Wow! I can't believe that January is over half gone and I haven't posted here yet. Two back to back trips to Canada with no connection is part of the cause, but only part. There has been a lot going on just nothing really interesting. I am working on a sequel to my short story "Shade" and it is taking a while to get it really flowing.

Last year was tumultuous to say the least, and this year is off to a bit of a rough start, but usually that portends a good year. So hopefully I will be able to get two of my New Year's resolutions taken care of by finishing not only the sequel to "Shade" but also another piece I am working on off and on which will bring back the characters from "Christmas on the Mesa" which continues to sell even though the Christmas season is over.