A Lot Like Work

Preparing for the release of a new book is fun, exciting, and a heck of a lot of work! Like deciding where to hold the release party. Sending out advance review copies. Doing one last proofreading. Creating a professional website. Preparing a blog tour. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s my baby, it would be a lot like work.

So, we’re still on-track for a June 23 release of City Limits, but the location for the party is still unknown. Since a release party in Seattle would mean driving across the State, I’m also looking for venues in Ellensburg, Spokane, Coeur d’Alene and possibly Yakima, Walla Walla, Pullman, and Moscow. There are alternative loops I could make that would take me south to Tacoma, Olympia, Vancouver, and Portland. So many details!

And then there is the blog-tour. Do you blog about books and authors? I’m available. I’ll include a free electronic copy of the book, banners and images, and written or audio content. Let me know.

As I’ve been working on creating a professional website at http://www.nathaneverett.com, I’ve discovered a few holes in my distribution. For example, I removed For Money or Mayhem from printing at Lightning Source to go to CreateSpace early in 2016. But then I took off on an around-the-world adventure and forgot that I didn’t release the book. So, I spent part of the past week, re-proofreading and cross-checking the layout of that Dag Hamar mystery and it has now been sent off for a print proof. It should be on the market by the end of May.

I’m uncovering other holes in my opus. I thought all my books were available on Nook as well as Kindle. Not so. This week, part of my task will be to release all my books on Nook. I got caught up in Amazons “Select” program a few years ago and that requires that they be the only place that is allowed to distribute. That’s supposed to get you higher rankings and better visibility, none of which ever materialized. I’d rather have broader distribution.

Contrasting views from the window of my trailer, showing the different moods of Sun Meadow. A foggy morning and a sunny morning. Always an encouragement to live life to the fullest.

I had hoped to get through an entire week without seeing yet another U.S. tragedy. Yet we get a shooting at a high school in Texas with still more dead teens. And then I see the same tired responses from pseudo-conservatives and neo-liberals alike. Gun control laws—none of which would have prevented this latest massacre—and ‘it’s my right’, which is becoming a boring whine by people who have no other reason to own powerful weapons.

There are those who philosophically bemoan the lack of discipline, economic pressures, loss of Christian values, and violent video games, but none have a positive option to offer. America never matured past the Wild West stage in its development. We still believe that might makes right and the fastest draw wins.

It is likely that there will be another American revolution in the coming decade. The balance of power has gone so far overboard with an administration that things of corporate profit (and personal gain) before making any decision and a class of the rich who become ever more remote from the reality of the masses. Perhaps it is my cynicism emerging that makes me see a dystopian future in which the nation after a bloody revolution is no better than the one before. Like Democrats and Republicans switching power positions in government, a revolution will result in a power change that is simply the tyranny of a different subgroup.

Hezekiah 2:12: Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed.