She says to me, even Kerouac said that road trips have unexpected turns. He also wrote, “My witness is the empty sky.”
The empty sky and tracks below
Month: August 2010
A Midwest downtown on a Sunday afternoon.
Downtown
A Midwest downtown on a Sunday afternoon.
Quote: “Astonishment is the root of philosophy.”
~ Paul Tillich, The Writer’s Almanac
Quote
Eichelman Park
How to find wifi hotspots for digital nomads
If you’re traveling on the road and need some wifi connectivity, a couple websites help locate hotposts. Obviously, any Starbucks in America will have free wifi, as well as Barnes and Noble, but for other places I use jiwire and openwifispots to find wifi hotpots.
Advice for writers
In the September issue of Writer’s Digest, Sherman Alexie says:
Every word on your blog is a word not in your book.
As someone who has been blogging for a few years, that’s conflicting advice. I was encouraged by a friend to start a blog as a way to work on my writing skills. So, I started blogging as a way to discipline myself to write every day. Six years later I have several working or completed manuscripts and no books. Mr. Alexie may have a point. He also offers this:
Don’t Google search yourself.
Last night for a few minutes it felt like August 1988. Driving west on Highway 11, a half moon rising to the southwest, a line of red radio tower lights on the horizon to the northwest, the evening… read more »
A long time ago I used to work at this place when it was called Atlantis Family Restaurant.
August 1988
Last night for a few minutes it felt like August 1988. Driving west on Highway 11, a half moon rising to the southwest, a line of red radio tower lights on the horizon to the northwest, the evening star the Greeks named Hesperus straight on to the west and Def Leppard’s hit song “Pour Some Sugar on Me” explodes from the auto’s stereo speakers. For a moment, I’m planning to leave this place and pursue an art degree. And I’m thinking about auditioning for the high school musical. And I’m wondering if… Then the song ends. And it’s not August 1988. And yet here I am again driving west on Highway 11.
If you’re a writer who has lost a manuscript due to your computer crashing, here are two online options to protect your work. For a few years, I’ve been using Google docs to organize manuscript… read more »
Racine’s Wind Point Lighthouse.
From today’s The Writer’s Almanac, an excerpt from “Midwest” by Stephen Dunn:
The church
always was smaller than the grain elevator, though we pretended otherwise.
Interlude
From today’s The Writer’s Almanac, an excerpt from “Midwest” by Stephen Dunn:
The church
always was smaller
than the grain elevator,
though we pretended otherwise.
As a child, the largest structures I ever saw included farm silos and grain elevators. They were the closest thing to a cathedral the Heartland has to offer a child.
Two online helps for writers
If you’re a writer who has lost a manuscript due to your computer crashing, here are two online options to protect your work.
For a few years, I’ve been using Google docs to organize manuscript drafts and as an online storage, back-up option. The nice thing about Google Docs is that is works almost seamlessly with Word Docs. Google Docs offers the following online apps: text, spreadsheet, form and presentation. Truth be told, I haven’t used a Microsoft product since I began using Google docs.
Recently I began using Dropbox to store audio files, images and other documents and really enjoy it.
Advice to authors regarding indie bookstores and Amazon.com
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) offers advice to authors seeking to work with indie books stores:
- Know the Marketplace
- Know Who And How To Contact
- Know the Terms (i.e. your business arrangement with the bookstore)
- Don’t shoot yourself in the foot (avoid mentioning that you book is available on Amazon.com)
This is good advice for authors when working with indie booksellers. The operative words are “with indie booksellers.” Truth be told, the majority of the sales for books I’ve helped publish come from Amazon.com. The reason for this, I suspect, is that Amazon.com is where the masses go to buy books.
Know that I am a big supporter of indie bookstores. But I’m also practical and know that indie bookstores attract a niche audience of readers. Some book titles do better at indie bookstores than others. For example, if you’re a local writer with a book on regional hiking trails or you’re a local poet with a book, you may do better at an indie store than on Amazon.com. That being said, Amazon offers a 45/55 terms of sale (a smidge better than indie stores offering a 40/60 terms of sales). That may not seem like much, but if you’re a small publisher, that 5% difference may cover cost of shipping products to bookstores which directly impacts breakeven numbers for book titles.
As an author (or small press publisher), know that you have sales options. And avoid mentioning Amazon.com when working with indie booksellers — it gives them ulcers.
Renovated Main Street
A couple of years ago the main street was ripped up and busy with construction trucks and earth movers. Now it’s quite lovely on a quiet August morning.
A couple of years ago the main street was ripped up and busy with construction trucks and earth movers. Now it’s quite lovely on a quiet August… read more »
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) offers advice to authors seeking to work with indie books stores: Know the Marketplace Know Who And How To Contact Know the Terms read more »
Rework is a really smart business book written by the crew from 37signals. If you haven’t checked it out, you must. In the meantime, Gnat Gnat has done a nice job of summarizing the highlights in this downloadable cheat sheet (pdf).
Coffeehouse Junkie 
