Ted Clifton's Grain of Salt Commentary

Still Crazy After All of These Years

I’ve slightly known a couple of authors. Not pals by any means but we have shared thoughts and experiences over the years. I found both to be tedious. Why is that? The common trait I disliked was an obsession with detail. Nothing is simply what it is; everything has layers and complexity. It may look like a tree, but it is really a statement about the human misery developed during a troubled childhood. It’s just that you as a lesser human cannot see that depth. These were people who could write a great book but there was no way in hell you would want to sit and talk to them. Often, I just wanted to scream just say what you mean!

A reader made a comment to me that she could not imagine how I could come up with these convoluted plots. My response was, what convoluted plots? I thought they were straight forward with a twist or two. Giving it more consideration, I realized I thought in those convoluted ways, and it all seemed normal to have entanglements that would take deep analysis and complex drawings to figure out. Lo and behold, I was just as annoying as my two author acquaintances. Damn!

This is mostly, of course, only fiction writers. They must build a story that will keep your attention until the very end, or close to it. There must be many suspects in the murder mystery to keep you guessing who did it. So much of the expertise of these authors is to frame a story in such a way that you cannot guess what is happening, but at the same time give you good, reliable clues so that you might guess what is happening. Okay, now we’re really confused.

When I began to write, I thought I needed a detail outline from the beginning to the final chapter. I needed character lists with descriptions and all sorts of useless details. Today, I just write. I get an idea and I start to write, for good or bad, the story just flows. I’ve often said the characters themselves write the book I just type it—but that starts to sound a little crazy. However, that does give me the opportunity to include my favorite picture of an obviously crazy person—Leo Tolstoy. His world must have been so convoluted he didn’t even know he was in it.

Especially when I’m writing in an existing series with characters I have known for years. I just give them the basic outline of the story and let it fly. Vincent Malone knows what to do, after all he been doing this for years.

Ray Pacheco and Tyee Chino will be coming back. My next project after Durango Two Step (Vincent Malone #4) will be Vegas Dead-End which will bring back those characters. While writing Four Corners War, the last Pacheco & Chino I have done, I begin to sense that Ray Pacheco was done. If the characters can write the books, I guess they can decide they have done enough and want to be left alone. I ended Four Corners War stating Ray was going to retire and fish for his remaining years. That seemed like what he wanted; however, the truth comes out—I control Ray Pacheco, not Ray. I know there probably should be some way for the Ray character to protest, but there isn’t. He wanted to retire but those books are too good to just stop writing them, so Ray is back and happily will be writing again, under my supervision.

If I knew more authors, there is probably a vast mix of different personalities and approaches to how they write but, based on my limited experience, so far most are nuts and how they write is none of your business. And yes, that does include me.

Then giving old Tolstoy some reflection, I wondered if crazy people were drawn to writing fiction or if writing fiction made you crazy. It might be called the van Gogh syndrome where high levels of creativity destroy key human functioning areas of the brain. So, the more creative, ingenious your work becomes the more wackadoodle you become. (Insert Tolstoy photo) (delete my photo).

Mixed Bag

How To Sell Your Business Without a Broker. Catchy title. Book has lots of twists and turns with a completely surprising ending. Wait a minute that describes Durango Two Step, not a boring business book. And believe me, if you are not interested in selling or buying a business, this book is dreadfully boring. It includes mostly useless information about how businesses are valued. Such things as capitalization rates, multiples, discounted cash flow analysis—wow, stop it’s too exciting. And of course, there are the exciting chapters on due diligence and normalizing earnings.

Enough said. If for some strange reason you are interested in the subject of this book it is now available on Amazon. The e-book is $9.99 and the paperback, which should be available in a few days, is $17. If you not interested in the subject matter, it has no value at all.

Facebook still thinks I’ve done something wrong and has locked my account. It’s still there, but I cannot access it– just in case I wanted to commit additional offenses. Oh well.

I’ve lived in the same house for about eighteen years. The house is thirty-seven years old and many of its parts are still original. Yes, there is a constant demand for repairs. When we first moved in, we had some AC issues and randomly called for a repair person. It was a local company, and the guy fixed our problem and became somewhat of a regular at our house. Almost from the beginning, that was eighteen years ago, the guy was saying you really should replace that unit.

Air-conditioning is one of those things that on a really hot day you would pay almost anything for relief but on a cool day, not so much. If you don’t need it the cost feels remarkably high. Procrastination won and the same AC in in place today and the same repair man regularly makes an appearance. He has gotten a lot older, and now talks about me replacing the AC before he retires.

I think about the things I will spend money on; more streaming services, food of any variety, landscaping (except trees) and new technology. Maybe it’s because they are less expensive and you pay many of them in small increments. I’m also a budget person. I develop short-term and long-term budgets and if the expenditure is not in my budget, I have problems.

I could add to my budget for a new car, big new TV, even new oven, but new heating and air conditioning—not highly likely. Unless, of course, it’s not working. So, the only time I think about the old HVAC is when it is broken.

The curse of procrastination is that it will catch up with you, probably at the worst possible time. Damn, I should have taken care of those brakes months ago and now I’m streaking down this mountain road; oops.

Obviously, having poor AC is not the same as dying on the mountain road with no brakes. So, you just keep postponing, until the guy who comes around every so often say the magic words; your old AC is officially dead. But until then I will just ignore the whole thing.

Due to Amazon my readers are all over the world. I’m not a several million-books sold author but have sold (or given away) hundreds of thousands over the years. A surprising number of those readers are in Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and Asia. And I hear from them on occasion. For some reason that surprises me, maybe because I live in my Denver bubble and don’t think about other places too much. The comment from these readers usually is regarding the locations and how they enjoy reading about those places, New Mexico in general and Santa Fe in particular. Thanks to everyone for being a reader wherever you live.

Speaking of unique places Durango Two Step is on track to be published later this summer, I hope. Expect to have the per-order up soon on Amazon.

Thanks for being a reader!

Standards, Anonymity and Mom

My blog is automatically posted to Facebook. Apparently, and I am only guessing because of the maze of Facebook rules, these postings have violated Facebook’s standards. I cannot imagine the complexity of managing Facebook’s millions of users; without question it can only be handled by computers. Those computers are programed to recognize some sort of pattern, maybe hate speech, or advocating violence and no doubt, a long list of other social offenses.

Because of my apparent violations of something my account has been suspended. It is also not clear, but the length of the suspension will be based on how seriously I have violated the community standards.

Do I care? Probably not. I do run ads on Facebook that have also been blocked. In a strange way it is almost reassuring to be in violation of something regarding Facebook. The odd thing is that I cannot access this account but the “automatic” posting of the blog and newsletter is still happening; and since that is the only thing that I’m posting, it is those posts that must be the violation source. It is ironic, and I like that. The net effect of their policing is to stop me from placing ads—their source of revenue (not that my ads matter a twit).

Many people, especially politicians, think of Facebook as a quasi-utility, like phones, electricity, or something. It is not. It is a privately owned business offering a service supported by advertising. They can decide what is on their site, not the government or Ted Clifton, and I’m okay with that, more power to them.

One of the other catch-all pieces in their standards is misusing copyrighted material, I might have violated that, unknowingly. This could have happened by using certain graphics, such as book covers form Amazon—not sure about that, but if so; oh well.

My solution could involve fully understanding and adhering to Facebook’s standards or just stop posting on Facebook. I’m going with the easiest path, just stop posting these blogs to Facebook (they will still be posted to twitter @1952Legacy). Maybe after a while Facebook will feel I’ve been “punished” enough and make my account active again, if not; well, life goes on.

One of the Success Paths business books is about ready to be published. Been thinking about how to handle that in relationship to my mystery books. Would someone be less likely to buy the “How to Sell Your Business Without a Broker” book if they thought I also wrote mystery books? Why would they care? Would my credibility as a CPA and serious “guy” be damaged?

There’s no doubt, this is an odd mix. Mysteries and “How To” books. Can’t imagine mystery book buyers caring at all if I also wrote business books, but maybe a business book buyer would think this is odd and choose someone else for this arcane knowledge. In that regard; at one time, I thought about using a pen name. Maybe Mark Twain. Of course, that could be confusing since most people would not associate Mark Twain with business financial matters.

I know, how about “Anonymous”. Plenty of books have been written by anonymous so where is the harm. Would you buy a book written by someone unknown about how to do anything? Probably not!

The final decision was to just let it fly with the wind. The business books and the mysteries are all written by the same person, me. If that causes a problem, I will just file it into my expanding folder labeled ‘Facebook Issues’ and forget about it.

On occasion I have complained about readers reviews. Usually about reviews that don’t seem to make sense or are focused on my occasional use of “offensive language”, okay maybe a bit more than occasional, although I’m not real sure what is offensive language considering the wide us of most once so-called bad words.

I almost never comment on the bulk of my reviews—because they are so good. It sounds like bragging to me, and my mother was strict on that type of behavior. Of course, she was also opposed to some of my language choices. Fortunately, for me, she was not able to read any of my books—she might have made a bad review about my language if she had.

There was a recent reader review for the Series Starter Box Set which I’m going to pass along.

“Ted Clifton is a very good professional storyteller. He gives enough information and insight into to his characters that it then allows the readers to color in the rest. This journey with Mr. Clifton has resulted in hours of reading pleasure.”

I think that might be the best review I have received. Giving a reader “reading pleasure” is the ultimate “high five”. Thank you very much reader for your comment, it was very much appreciated.

Writing Requires Thinking, I Think?

When I tell someone I write books, often the first response is how long does it take you to write a book? That may be just conversation filler, and the person asking could care less; but it’s a common question. My answer is that it depends. My part of writing a book does not cover all aspects required to get a book ready to publish. Editing and proofing can take almost as long as writing—although maybe it just seems that way to me.

My actual writing time is a huge variable. It has taken as little as two months and as long as years. The two months was steady, everyday writing. The years was with lots of interruptions. When things are going well for me I can “easily” write two to three thousand words a day. So, for a 70,000-word book at an average of 2,500 words a day it takes 28 days. As I just stated my best time was twice that ideal time. That is mostly due to those days when nothing is going right, and it’s best to just stop.

With this analysis I think the best I could do to complete a book, ready to publish, would be four months. That is two to write and two to handle the editing, proofing, artwork etc. Four months start to finish. Based on that I should write three books a year—I don’t.

If writing was just word production, I guess that three book goal might be achievable. Sure, I have no problem typing 2,500 words a day, that’s not the issue. The snag is that I must think of those words.

Some days it is like the words were already in my head—it is just a matter of getting them down on paper; other days—well, the words are not flowing. That thinking part is what keeps most people from writing books. That is the second most common question about writing; how do you think up those stories?

When I was not a writer, it never crossed my mind about a plot for a book. Now that I am a writer, almost everyday a new story idea will pop into my head. It could be we can all think up good books, but if your mind is busy thinking about chores, or work issues, or personal relationship foul ups—there is no room for book ideas.

This seems to indicate the best book ideas will pop into a blank mind easier than one occupied with daily activities. I think I’m starting to understand my writing skills much better.

Coming Soon to Amazon Vella: Doctor Hightower: False Prophet

Murder mystery, legal thriller with a little sci-fi to boot. It begins with the discovery of a life extending drug in 1938. Hightower was a member of the scientific team that made the discovery. Every member took the drug—would they live forever? Tragically, No! Most of the team were killed days after the project was abruptly shut down. Dr. Hightower survived. Now, in 2020, Hightower has become a lawyer. He has not aged. Teaming with a young female attorney he seeks justice and revenge.

Still no date on when this will be available, should be soon; I hope!

Happy Memorial Day!

A Strange Announcement

Have finished and published Doctor Hightower: False Prophet. It is, unfortunately, not available to read. This project was for the new service by Amazon called Kindle Vella. You may, or may not, have heard about this. The difference is that it is based on serialized stories verses “books”, designed to be read on your phone. There are episodes, not chapters, and they can be purchased an episode at a time.

The upshot is that Amazon has made the service available to authors to publish their stories, but at this point have yet to announce a date when this service will be live. Not sure if this is a good approach for me (the fees to authors are minuscule), but I had a good story that I wanted to tell, so, I jumped in.

Completing Hightower will clear my schedule (and head) and can get back to Durango Two Step. It is good to be writing at a consistent pace again.

Newspapers have been an important part of my daily routine for a long time. The morning newspaper and coffee is a bad habit from way back (used to include cigarettes, thankfully broke that addiction years ago). Online news is available 24/7, but there is something comforting about having a local morning paper to read—even if it is online.

Newspapers, and the birth of a new one into an established market, was the basis of one of my series of books, The Muckraker Mysteries. The story is about a new paper starting in Oklahoma City after a heated governorship race. The losing candidate was a wealthy man who started the paper to challenge the existing paper based on their political bias and influence. It was an ugly confrontational experience that failed. I knew some of the players, and my fictional account was based on one of those individuals.

Just recently the Colorado Springs newspaper, The Gazette, has started an online Denver Gazette to compete with the Denver Post. I was happy, another newspaper to read.

Newspapers have always been accused of having a political bias. This newspaper is Republican or right leaning, or this one is Democratic or left leaning. While it was clear in the op-ed pages which direction most newspapers fell, I seldom saw the bias in the regular news. Sure, the story selection, or positioning in the paper could reflect a bias toward one point-of-view or another; but it was never blatantly obvious, only suspected.

Today, newspapers, like everything else, announce their bias. It is in-your-face journalism, appealing to the like-minded crowd with little if any concern about being accused of bias. Now, of course, the day-to-day stories that are not political get the ‘who, what, when, where, why and how’ treatment; but even they have a slant.

The political differences between the Gazette and the Post are obvious. I’ve been surprised how obvious. The Post is probably a bit more subtle. The difference in approach is disturbing to me, for some reason. I think I want newspapers to at least try to maintain a non-biased image. Why? Not sure, just feels more comfortable to me. If everything can be divided along Red/Blue lines I think we’re in trouble.

Not sure I will continue to support the Gazette, due to their obvious bias, which they seem proud of; but the sports section is great, so might continue to subscribe. Sports is more important than politics.

Speaking of sports, the Colorado Rockies baseball team is one of the worst teams in all of baseball; and yet, I continue to watch. I even see glimmers of hope. What is that about sports that allows us to root for a team that loses more than wins? Maybe it is the definition of hope, it’s not based on logic just a desire, a wish. Through some miracle the Rockies are going to suddenly become a “great” team and beat all the teams I dislike. Sports bias is different, and I fully support it. Go Rockies!

Judging Book Covers

Writing books as an independent author means there are many tasks that I deal with that are not writing. Obviously, I write the books; but just as important are the other items that must be accomplished. For some of these I hire people to assist, but the decisions on what these things become is up to me. The one I enjoy the most is deciding on the book cover.

This is an artistic, practical and money decision. You could spend a fortune on a book cover or almost nothing. Most writers will not spend a fortune, since they don’t have it; they will go somewhere within that range. Most will be on the low end, like mine.

My fist book cover was The Bootlegger’s Legacy. At that point in time, I wanted perfection and spent more on the cover than I was comfortable with because I thought everything was incredibly important. Still have no idea if this cover helped book sales or not. I liked the cover but probably would not select this approach if redoing the design.

Another aspect of covers is a series theme. The next book was going to be the first of a series of books—Dog Gone Lies. The cover was selected because it lent itself to carrying on that theme. This was mostly color with some minor additions that would be compatible across a whole series. Really liked the boldness of the design and the colors. Thought the three books in this series had impactful covers. Dog Gone Lies has been my best-selling book, but it is probably not due to the cover, more about having dog in the title.

The next series was Vincent Malone. The whole approach here, I think, was due mostly to my jaded view of the value of covers. I was interested but not dedicated to the process of developing the cover. Since one of my goals at this point was to not spend much, the covers have always left me a little disappointed. This series was not innovative and built off the Pacheco & Chino style. Simplistic and bold.

Durango Two Step is the fourth book in this series. The pre-order will be available in the next few weeks. That means a new cover.

Once again, I like the colors, but there is something missing. Keep in mind I don’t know what I mean by missing. If I knew, I could add it. Part of the issue with covers is that in most cases they are viewed as ridiculously small thumbnail sizes. If you were in a bookstore, the impact of the cover is different than viewing the cover on-line at a small size.

The murder books (Muckraker/Tommy Jacks books) have had two or three different covers. I like the latest ones and even like many that were rejected. As best I can tell all the revisions have had zero impact on sales. Now maybe all the covers were bad, but still there should have been some noticeable impact on changing the covers. I would say the whole effort and cost of changing that series covers several times was a complete waste.

I see covers where there has been obviously a tremendous amount of effort and cost expended. These covers often have unique artwork conveying elements of the plot. They are elaborate and beautiful. If your goal is to win a book cover award, this is the way to go; if you goal is to sell books, it is a waste of time and money (maybe?). Even with that said, if I had the money (to waste) I would have all new covers for my books, and they would be original art with detail impossible to see at the small size and no impact on books sales. Why, because I love book covers.

Simplistic, bold book covers can be effective in creating book sales; but the most interesting covers have real meaning within the artistic representation of that book. Below are some that have caught my eye. In most cases I know nothing about the book itself, it’s just the cover that caught my attention.

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, might be good advice in evaluating people, but quite often the cover of a book does offer a way to judge and to do so correctly.

Ramblings

Making significant progress on the Doctor Hightower series for Amazon Vella. This is a new Amazon “product” based on serialized stories targeting phone readership. It is based on episodes as opposed to chapters. This is a little different for me to be writing episodes rather than chapters. Of course, it is also just the same. The episodes by design are a little shorter than the chapters in a book and the total word count will be less.

Hightower was a project I really liked that got caught up in my health problems and mental malaise. It is great to be zipping along with this story now.

Plot recap: In 1938 at Harvard University a team of scientists were working on developing a life extending drug from substances gathered by world famous scientist Dr. McAlister. This team included a young Dr. Hightower and his wife Anna. Included in the group was a hot head named Baxter. McAlister calls off the project because he is uncomfortable with the funding source (the military), the pending war and how his discovery might be used. Baxter decides that the documents about the formulae would be valuable and he will sell them to the highest bidder. To make his document the most valuable, he decides to eliminate (kill) all members of the team. This hideous objective includes killing Anna Hightower. Baxter confronts her at home and shoves her off the roof patio. She strikes her head on a fence and dies instantly. During this confrontation Hightower confronts Baxter and the result was Baxter also falling to his surmised death off the roof.

However, Baxter survives and escapes. This begins a lifelong battle between the two mortal enemies.

Image icon for the series:

Not sure when this will be live on Amazon but would guess within the next few months.

The Hightower project has bumped Durango Two Step back a little. My estimate on the next Vincent Malone book is late summer–yes, this year. I know my credibility on this book is not good–seems like I’ve been writing this for year; but it is alive and well and I’m writing on a regular basis again. So maybe it will actually happen.

Nothing new happening with my art. Have plans for more uploads of past art in the next few months.

That means more cactus and tumbleweed stuff. There was a period of time when we were living in New Mexico that all I painted was cactus or tumbleweeds–some of these got a little weird but they were pleasing to me.

Yes, You’re a Character in My Book!

Writing books is storytelling. It can be based on something the author has experienced, or it can be totally made-up. No one has experienced going to another planet, but there are plenty of stories about doing that very thing. Based on someone’s imagination.

My stories are about people who are somewhat like individuals I have known, but a lot more interesting. One of my characters could be based on someone who mostly just took care of life, doing the everyday things normal people do. But with just a little twist here and there, I turn him into an adventure seeking con-man, or maybe a dark foreboding detective. This seems to help me keep a consistent core established for the character, while they do things that the real person would not do. Maybe that is way too complicated, but it seems to work for me.

I’m currently writing in two different books; I do not recommend this –it is confusing and stupid. One of the characters is a familiar one, Vincent Malone. Malone’s character shares some traits with a person I knew when I was in the printing business. My business life has covered many industries, but one common factor always existed; there were people who thrived in whatever the business activity was by cutting corners; they were crooks. This was usually petty crime, mostly two-bit hustlers. Cheating customers or suppliers; and usually lying to everyone. I got to know one of these people when we joined forces for a short while. It was supposed to be for our mutual benefit, it did not turn out well.

What was odd about this unfortunate relationship was that I knew he was cheating me, but I still liked the guy. Most of us have known someone like that; you couldn’t trust him as far as you could throw him, but he was always fun to be around. Our business deal did not last long. Even though he did some things that were not honest, we parted friends.

Malone has lived a life with those types of relationships. People liked him and thought he was good at his job; but few trusted him. He left a trail with an ex-wife, an estranged brother, a long list of business colleagues he never contacts and many acquaintances, whose name he cannot remember. He’s a loner.

For my story Vincent needed to be this broken man. He travels to Santa Fe to escape life and wait for death but finds a whole new beginning and becomes a better person.

I don’t know what happened to my unreliable business associate, but I have a feeling it did not go well. He was no Vincent Malone.

The other book features a character who in the 1930s worked on a science project that discovered a drug to extend life. This happy occurrence was immediately followed by incredible tragedy. His name is Doctor Hightower. When I started writing this book, I had a complete mental image of who this person was but could never pin it down to one individual I had known. Then it occurred to me, the mental picture I had developed matched my older brother.

My older brother was a computer genius almost before there were computers. In the 1960s he was working on some of the largest and most secret computers in existence. At that time, he was a member of an exceedingly small group of people with experience with these revolutionary machines. He had a scientific mind and a charismatic personality. He was the perfect Doctor Hightower for my story.

My brother died some years ago, but I think he would appreciate the irony of Doctor Hightower and his adventures, including delving into murder cases with a very clever associate at his side. Lani Newcastle. My brother was a very smart man who knew he could do almost anything he wanted, very much like Doctor Hightower.

I’m increasingly worried that as I continue to write these two stories at once that somehow, I will get them confused and have Malone and Hightower teaming up to prevent some massive injustice that is about to occur. Now wait a minute, maybe there is something there. Nah, neither of them would be that sociable; better just let them have their own stories.

Don’t Be Angry, Watch a Movie?

Yes, this is the umpteenth issue of the blog with no subject, because I could not think of one. So instead of something important, how about something banal; like my favorite TV/Movies that I have recently watched?

I write murder mysteries, so my favorite shows are often murder mysteries. I do live in a bubble, and I like it. As a mystery writer you should really pay attention to what I like, because obviously I know good mysteries. This is something I choose to believe, whether it is true is subject to debate.

Mysteries worth watching.

C.B. Strike. This is a moody tale about a very trouble soul. Reminds me a little of my Vincent Malone character only with more damage. Not a lot of these but what is available is worth watching. Based on a popular book series.

Wallander. Another flawed detective dealing as much with personal grief as mystery solving. Flawed characters can become tiresome, but this one has merit. Based on a popular book series.

Maigret—the 2016 version. A British moody, slow moving murder mystery taking place in Paris. This detective is a little less flawed than mine and more intellectual. Also based on a popular book series.

Endeavor. Speaking of intellectual detectives here is one, Morse. Love the pace of this story and the main character. There is a movie and TV show with the same actors—exceptionally good.

Vera. There is a trend here– this is also based on a popular book series. The detective is flawed but in this case female. Enjoyable but can get tiresome.

The main reason I relate to these mysteries is the common connection of strong main characters. These are character driven stories—with good plots as a bonus.

Entertaining in Different Ways.

Temple Grandin. Amazing story of a woman with autism who finds a unique path to success and fame. Touching and uplifting story.

Einstein and Eddington. Great story about entirely different people during a troubling time in the world.

Miss Potter. Maybe the best movie I have seen. This is about the children’s book author Beatrix Potter.

Have Watched Many Times—always funny.

The Birdcage. My wife has watched this show so many times she can repeat the lines along with the movie.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. Just has to be one of the funniest and most uplifting movies ever made.

In the first 50 years of the 1900s much of the world was involved in two world wars. The misery that was spread around the world during those times is almost unbelievable. I’m sure there was a sense of accomplishment after WWII that at least the suffering ended the craziness for a short time. Today it feels like the world is not in a good place. Not the same as before but not good.

I keep wondering, why? Most people are only interested in living a peaceful, productive life with their families being the priority. Few give much thought to global matters. And, yet we seem to be angry a lot. I wouldn’t want to suggest this in a flip it way but maybe we just can’t be satisfied with whatever life has dealt us and do our best to achieve some level of happiness.

Of course, I know there are people who are really suffering without enough food or adequate shelter. Should they just try to get along? No, they have valid reasons to be angry. What seems odd to me is that I know lots of people who are doing damn well, who are angry. Angry about other people, angry about this or that; just angry. That is what seems so wrong. I’m not sure what the anger is about.

My recommendation is to watch Miss Pettigrew and laugh. Now if you don’t have a TV, I’m starting to understand the anger.

Writer’s Log

What should a book cost? For many years I mostly purchased hardback books—usually because I wanted to read a certain author’s book, and it only came out as a hardback for many months. I could not wait for a cheaper version. Often, in pre-Amazon days, those books were $25 or more at a bookstore. Today many hard cover books are selling on Amazon for that same $25 or much less. E-books are something else, usually $4 to maybe as high as $9—and of course there are many e-books at $2 or even free. I would guess that, unless you wanted a particular author, you could find a “good” book to read for free every day, forever.

I’ve talked about free books before and completely recognize this is 100% the fault of authors. If you write books and give them away, you sure cannot complain about not making money. I’ve done it, and I’m at fault. Here is my product that I spent months and many, many thousands of dollars writing and developing and it’s free. That makes no sense; it is stupid.

The reason authors do it, is because otherwise they are lost in the sea of books available on-line. So many books, so little time; how do you stand out to readers and get them to try your book. You advertise on a web site that has a large data base of readers and offers your book for free. It works, sort of. My analysis says it is marginal. You do get a lot of readers which often will lead to the sell of other books and some recognition of your brand as an author. However, apparently, many free book readers are just that, free book readers. There are thousands (if not millions) of free books, and if that is your price standard, you will never pay for a book.

There is a trend toward serializing books. Rather than chapters you have episodes. This is really a written podcast, trying to attract an on-going audience. Amazon has such an approach ready to launch. Kindle Vella. This will be another low-cost way to purchase books, only on an episode-by-episode basis. Not sure if this is smart or not but think I will try it.

Some time ago I started a new book series called Doctor Hightower. This was a mystery/sci-fi/fantasy book with murder, time-travel (regarding the time-frame being longer than the normal lifespan), and odd pieces blended based on my overall idea of the story. Hightower is a scientist who worked on a team that discovered a drug to extend the length of life and prevent death by disease or accident, with very rapid healing. He suffers great trauma due to circumstances surrounding the battle to own this drug. Many years later Hightower became an attorney and began taking on eccentric cases based on his level of boredom and interests. Living outside of Denver in the foothills, he is most often described as weird, and possibly dangerous.

The first serialized book will be 12 chapters of which 6 are written. Not real sure when Amazon will have this active, but I believe very soon. It won’t be free, but close to it.

Durango Two Step, the fourth book in the Vincent Malone series, is moving forward. Trying to write everyday which is the only way I can finish a book. If I take time off, it is awfully hard for me to get back into the book.

The Malone character is my favorite. I’ve sold a lot more Pacheco & Chino books, but the Malone character is easier for me to identify with. He’s a loser, wow, that is odd I identify with a loser. Malone and I both might need a little therapy.

Malone has had a difficult life because of his weaknesses associated with booze, women, and being a loner with an attitude. At a mature age he is now finding a new life that is promising and scary. He is fighting his life-long tendency to screw things up.

My best-selling book has been Dog Gone Lies. I believe the biggest reason is having Dog in the title. People love dogs and it attracts readers. Many reviewers will comment on how much they enjoyed the dog in the story. In a purely crass sort of way, thinking about having Vincent take on a dog. It would be totally out of character, here is a man who has spent his entire life only caring about himself. But maybe a dog will make him a better person—and I can include the word dog in the title. Durango Two Dog Step? Oh, what we will do for money.