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Showing posts from January, 2012

The Supermarket Guy is now available at Fishpond NZ!

Fishpond internet book stores, now carries "The Supermarket Guy",  located in New Zealand! Thanks Fishpond New Zealand, I am sure the lambs will be frightened now that the book has arrived on your shelves!! ( I buy allot of lamb products from New Zealand!)...

Blog is up 2.7 % over the best month ever!

I did not believe that this month I would have surpassed last months total. For the second last week, I had low visitation to my blog. Thus, I believed I would finish 5 to 10 % less than the previous best month. I was wrong, as usual. Just like a talk show host, you always wonder when your show is going to go south and taken off of the air! Went to play bowling ( the big ball bowling), with some family members. The second time, I did allot better reaching 90 or so. I beat most of the family, as they were not used to it. Neither was I. Poor score too, I thought. As, the father in law scored 160, then 180 in the second game. That is pretty much getting a strike, every time he threw, or a spare. He did not miss getting a strike too often. Some people asked if he wanted to play in the league. He threw at 30 mph. I threw at 22 mph average. It shows the speed of the throw, which is quite impressive. It was such a long time that I played, that I did not even realize that it kept score autom

Sunny and minus 10 C in Northern New Brunswick

Sunny and minus 10 today. Tomorrow, 2 inches of snow. Went back to the bank yesterday, about the checks from my publisher. They said, the real problem was that the lady at the cash cashed them as if they were in Canadian funds. It was in USA funds. The check that she told me was no good, and that I would have to get a new one because of the two stamps that were placed on the back,  was, still good. They paid me the small sum. Another worker asked for me in person to see her first, when cashing these checks. Everything would be ok. For that 7 dollar charge, they told me there is no charge for me. Interesting. I thought so, as the other bank told me the same thing. I am glad I got it straightened out. Sometimes you just have to talk to a higher up person to get it all ironed out. Besides that, my vehicle is in the garage for 2 days. It is undergoing a painting inside the door seams. They would  have probably been alright for 2 years, but they were showing signs of corrosion already.

Two new sites the book can be found on!

On BAM! Or, Books a Million,  and in South Korea, on Nano or some name like that.. Every few weeks, you see a new site that has added the book. This is very good news, as a confidence builder, or as these sites pick up books they like. Thanks very much to these new two sites who picked up the book!

Cashing a check from the USA costs me just as much as my payment!

Got an old payment from Dog Ear Publishing. It was approximately 6 dollars... Wow. And, the check was at first accepted, at the bank. Stamped, then rejected. The teller then gave me the story, in french, that it cost more to cash the check than to get the money. She asked if they could issue a Canadian check to me, instead of an American. New to this arena, I went to a different bank. They told me the scoop, that there was to be no charge for these checks. So, very interesting. A teller telling me, it costs 7 dollars to cash a 6 dollar check. Lord have mercy. So, now I will have to figure this out. I need to go back there, and talk to someone higher up. The check is stamped, twice, so it is no good now. That 6 bucks is in the twilight zone, right now. Not that I really care, right now. But if this is the case, I will try to get the publisher to give me a yearly payment. This should take care of the erroneous charge of 7 bucks. I am glad the teller told me, at any rate... But. But.

No great book reviews yet!

Waiting for one brave heart to review my book! Talk about, a long wait. Only on one site, I seen a review of a five on five. I thought by now, someone from amazon would have reviewed it. They say never pay for a book review. I don't think it is the thing to do, either. There are 5 people on goodreads that are going to read it,  but their lists are super long. This means they may only get to my book within a year or so. Incredible. I would love to review my book, but I cannot. It is against the rules of chivalry. I am not a person to take a review by heart. If it is bad, a .oo1 on five, then so be it. I will just hunker down, and not write anymore. It will be the sure avenue to get into some other kind of business. Maybe join the circus. Well, time to drink a beer, then go to bed. Have a great night, till tomorrow ;)

Got an advertisement through the e mail for an Apple I Pad 2.

Honestly, I was waiting for the I Pad 3 to come out... We all know someone who has one. They think they own the next hottest gadget. They have been out for a good while... I thought to myself, what is the great advantage over the greatest machine to ever come on the market. At least in my opinion, The Labtop computer! The I Pads functionality. Try to explain me that. They say it is light, and thin. You can take it anywhere. It takes, apple software, apple products. Which, is great. Alright, then there is the other generic brands out there. That take Microsoft, and the other programs apple does not use.  You have a touch screen, as all of the cell phones are much like this now. You can haul up a screen to start typing, at the expense of losing allot of the screen view. A few inches of screen left to look at. I would be afraid to dirty this touch screen with my hands at times. It appears to be more of a polish job, than anything. I would say there will always be a market for these tabl

136 friends on goodreads.

I now have a 136 friends on goodreads. They come from all over the world. Whenever, I seen the word of Humor in the description of these people, I would ask them for friendship. At first, I was asking anyone to be a friend. I decided to slow it down, and just look for those who read humor to add to my list of friends. Through those 136 friends, I may talk to 2 or 3. And, maybe a message every 2 weeks or so. Very nice people, to take time out of their busy schedules to help with book problems or find out interests in where I live. At times I message some people out of the 136, and they do not answer back. It is a rare thing, but it does happen. Maybe they are too busy with things, and that is understandable. These people are mostly busy. Very busy, reading, and reading, all the time. I was stuck on a novel aways back, and am only on page 70 of 260 or something. I just got in a rut.  I will try to finish it this week. Then, there are those people who have thousands of friends. I coul

Blew out my fathers gate today!

I got my snow blower running at my gate, then at my fathers to clear out the snow. My 12 hp snow blower throws the snow 50 feet across the yard. When buying a snow blower, as I know this, from on now I will make sure the impeller is large. The larger the impeller, the farther the snow will be thrown. This helps not to blow the snow twice when blowing. I know my dads little 8 hp is good for a small storm of 10 to 15 cm, but he wants snow removed in a large area of 80 feet across in one way. This was a storm of 25 or 30 cm. By putting my blower in the middle of the stretch, and blowing to the right then the left, I can clear the snow on the banks so I do not have to blow it again. I will miss my 12 hp blower when it finally rusts and falls apart, as all things do. It is nice to blow snow, when you got the time to do it. Lately, I had the time. Not working, for a change. As far as the book is concerned, there is no news there. The only thought I have on it for the last little while, i

Worst winter storm in awhile

About a foot and a half of snow in the yard. This is the worst winter storm we had this year, for snowfall amounts. I say that, because freezing rain is a pain in the butt. I cannot say it is the worst, as we had one morning with allot of freezing rain, but for snowfall amount, it was the worst. I should have been a politician. Well, will have to take old Piney out to blow it today. Try to blow it somewheres. Today was the curl for cancer event, and I was going to go. Just that, I did not take part in a team this year, and then I was tired, and had to blow this gate and my Dads gate as well. Takes an hour for each gate to blow, with my little put put. Today I will call the book gallery here in Bathurst. They phoned, for something. Maybe I sold out on books again, but I think it is because that I purchased a rare book there today. Lisette Brodey, and Crooked Moon. I bought it since she was a friend of mine, on goodreads. I am now in the habit of buying books from my friends. I think

Not sure if blog will attain its past heights!

Listening to Joe Crocker and Jennifer Warner, "Love lift us up where we belong",  and I see the eagle but cannot reach it! My blog may fall short of its December height of its white, glistening peak! I think I maybe 2 % off, which is not bad, considering December is the month of mall scurrying! Well, you cannot win them all. Thanks to all the viewers this month, for bearing with me, as my inspiration for writing fell off the wagon a little bit here and there.. I still am glad I had a total of 746 views in a matter of 5 months. I find that is an honest number. What will happen when I reach a thousand, if I ever get there. I may drink a beer divided that number by ten. Have a great afternoon, till then..

Snow has just started in Northern NB

Have to pay the bills fairly soon here, as the power bill has come in and the phone bill. When you talk about the cost of living, it is a surprising thing. When you total the house power bill we pay here, it is probably close to 3000 to 4000 dollars for the average home. That is a big bill. That is if you heat only with electricity. My friends have installed some air to air heat recovery units, and from what I hear they can save upwards to 50 approx. dollars in the coldest months on their bills. I may purchase one later on, depending or not if I burn with wood in the next little while. The only thing with the wood heat, is your insurance may go up a bit. And the ashes, to dispose of them is not always fun. But, the heat is, very good coming from a wood stove.  Oil, heating should be competitive, but a half a tank costs 500 dollars. It may last a month. I am unsure of the future of oil heating for homes. Why would anyone, but the rich, get an oil furnace installed at a cost of 3000-4000

30 cm of snow today!

Northern NB expected to get 30 cm of snow today. It did not start yet. Did the forecasters get their data wrong, again? Watched a movie the other day, Johnny English Reborn. It was fairly good, but I would not rate it as high as Dumb and Dumber, or the Naked Gun movies. The gadgets were quite funny in this movie though. It was a spoof of a James Bond, as we all know. Then I seen "The Last Godfather". I think I watched the first 30 minutes or so, then I left the room. The best part of the picture was Mr. Harvey Keitel. Puts on a great act, no matter what flop he stars in. Too bad he got into this one.  I think this guy is up there with Al Pacino and Deniro. But, if it is for a childrens movie, which I now believe it is, I would rank this film high. I would probably rank it 5 on 5 for a kids movie. Well, that is good for the movie revues for today. I hope you all have a great day, I need to go recharge the batteries. Till then..

Rise of The Market Overlord!

The Rise of the Market Overlord. The publisher is going to send me, on Feb 2nd (Giving they still have electric power in Indiana by that time), the body of the text. This is incredible. Very fast, efficient. I am anxious to pour over it again, to see what the copy editor has found in disagreement to my hillbilly dictionary. I knew I was ahead of the game, by giving my book cover on the onset of the books publication. This greatly helps the process, probably by weeks. How many authors, have the cover waiting, sitting under a few feet of dust in the house!  Only yours, truly! This book again, deals with much of todays issues. Competition. Trying to survive. Being savvy, and trying to get into that niche market where everyone wants to be. Dirty tricks, and rebounding through perserverance. It will be interesting how well it does in the Relevance rankings throughout Amazon. Good bless them!  Especially the UK! Where my Part 1, is still number 1, for total Dog Ear books (2000 and coun

Another snow storm tomorrow!

A great snow storm coming tomorrow! A 25 cm, so they say, for real this time, for Northern New Brunswick. The ski dooers may have a chance to get out there and do some sailing over the sea of white fluff! I will have to go out and start snow shoeing. I used to downhill ski, but these days I usually never have time to go. Maybe a part of myself is a bit lazy. Seen my book at a few more internet book sites, and internet news. But, that is about all. No news, no movement, to cheer about. I may draw out the front cover or Part III, of The Supermarket Guy. I will draw three main characters on the front. Two nemesis, and the main character on the front between the two. I need to place other bystanders in there as well, perhaps, to magnify the situation they are all in. I will probably send Part 3 out to the copyright office next week. I do need to write a few end pages, but that should be easy to do. I already got in my mind, after the end ending, so to speak. Well, time to go to bed. I

Thinking about a contest for my books.

I was thinking about having a small contest for to win a book, on this website here. I am not sure how to go about it yet, or how to arrange it. I think it would have to be a time between a certain hour or two, or a day. I would receive e mails, and from there, randomly chose an e mail. Or, I could just ask a question, and depending on how it is answered, give a prize. Not being a book mogul yet (maybe never will), I could only give a few prizes. This is, so far, a money losing venture for me. Good thing I still got a day job. People who answer the question would have to give their address on where to send the book. An autographed copy! Wow! It could go Antiquarian! I will decide, if it is better to do so close to my Part 2 Rise of the Market Overlord release, or to do it a bit earlier. I am still debating this. But, one thing is for certain, I will figure it out. Well, night shift was pretty good last night. I found a piece of equipment that was not running right, and got the mech

Sometimes you just cannot win

Sometimes you just cannot win. I played some auction 45 today, and lost twice. I was not getting any fives, and only a few Jacks and other cards were not enough to produce a victory. The other team was hitting, getting the cards we were going on, and putting us down quite often. It is either you hit, or miss. Luck is like that. Maybe tomorrow, the cards may turn, and we may win again. I do not get frustrated at cards, as I know it is a game of chance. There is some small details, that can however, produce better results. If you think someone is bluffing, and then set them down. If you have good setting cards, you can let the team bid and watch them fall. But, I do find, there is some instances where the luck is totally against you, and the house of cards fall down. It is a great game. I remember an old an that used to play with us. He would go 120 for 60, on just a five. Most of the time, he would make it. If you take the odds of making it, it is actually probably 50 %? I am not su

Drove through freezing rain this morning.

It was freezing rain this morning, and the roads were slippery. Especially the side roads. It was worse than a skating rink in some places, as the gloss of wet rain over ice, made traction very treacherous. I put the truck in four by four, and headed home. I drove much slower than usual, and the schools and colleges were closed. It will change to rain today,  then back to the cold weather on Wednesday. Working night shift, last night burned me out. I am on burn out again! You just do not feel good after a night shift. Your body wants to stay up during the day, but you eat when you get home, so it does not help the situation that much... I am just glad in a way, that I did not have to blow out the gate today. My neighbor who got up to work this morning also said that the freezing rain is better than snow for only that reason. I hope you all have a Super day, Till then..

Good sign. The neighbor cracked up laughing at me!

It was a good sign. At the mailbox the other day, the neighbor cracked up laughing at me. It was a long steady laugh. He said, that Harold guy is quite the guy. Where does he come from? I joked a little back, as he tried to contain his laughter, as he said his wife was reading The Supermarket Guy. I am glad it produced some hysterics. That was the second time, where someone who just started to laugh at me just thinking about the action that takes place in the book. He is quite the cat, I must say..  Have a good day, till then..

Freezing rain and drizzle for tonight

Freezing rain, drizzle for tonight and tomorrow for Northern NB, perhaps. Maybe snow? I would like to see the snow come, but I do not like moving it. Got to a sure footing on level 33 on Stronghold Crusader. It gets addictive, as I now want to finish the level off and go to the next. I did have to go search on the internet on a gaming site to see how to get past that level. I did some things that were requested to help, and it did help, big time. I just hope I do not waste too much time, on that. It is hard to go to bed, once I start playing that game. And, I know while a little bit is ok, allot lets a person get away from whats most important in life. Other people, and chores around the house. If I do not do it, or help to do it, then things go behind. That is the thought for the day! I hope you all have a great afternoon, as nothing new on the book front... Till then..

Some miraculous phone calls made to me today!

I had quite the calls today at home. Who said I was not well connected. The Pope called me directly from the Vatican. Said he needed a copy of The Supermarket Guy, to solve the problem of world peace. I answered, the answer can be found, in there.  Then, Barack called me from the White House. Said he needed some advice on how to solve the unemployment situation in the United States. I said, read till the ending, the answer is also there! After thinking that I got enough phone calls today, another call popped up. It was Kim Kardashian, she wanted an immediate answer to solve her loneliness. I said without hesitation, the answer is right there, use the book as a good night companion to your lonely nights. Reading can substitute for a person, during quiet times :) Ok, so I stretched the phone calls a bit. I actually got one phone call from someone who phoned the wrong number... Oh well... Nice to dream..  But, to be quite honest, without reading Part 1, Part 2 will not be that fun. Hope

Continue to find my Book on more and more Internet book sites!

One good thing, is that The Supermarket Guy book is on more and more internet book sites. Abbeys in Australia, Valor books, Berkelow, homeshop18, and even E bay Australia. Allot of new Book store results from Australia, the Land Down Under.. Men at Work.. Thanks, Australia, for the support!

Smelt fry for 13 dollars

All you can eat smelts, at a local restaurant, for 13 dollars. With that, you get potatoes, and vegetables. That is not a bad price, due to the cleaning of them and all. Quite a job to clean the frozen cold smelt. Your hands sometimes get very cold, and at times you take a small break from cleaning them. I know what you are thinking, let them sit all day in the sink. I should think ahead a little better, but most of the time we just take them out on a spur of the moment 4 hours before supper. They do not have allot of time to thaw out from frozen. Besides that, no news on the book front. I will send away Part 3 soon enough to the copyright office. I will draw the cover page sometime. This one, should be fairly simple, showing the main character in between two other characters. My favorite game, is Stronghold Crusader. It is the original. I am at level 33. I cannot get by this level, for some reason or other. The other castles are too close to mine, and the computer lords have 8000

Seen the show Red Tails!

Watched the show Red Tails today. A film from Lucasfilm. Taking us back to the flying aces of 1944, during the second world war. During this time, the race barrier was still there and this is what this show is about. Not only trying to win a tough battle on the field, but a group of black flying aces trying to gain acceptance for their capabilities as being equal to the white squadrons. Based on a true story, this all black squadron had some of the best military records for the military squadrons during the war. It is hard to critique a movie like this. I would say, that Cuba Gooding Jr. is better in cop flicks, or comedies. As a serious role as a captain, is just not his cue. There is allot of hype, and fast breaks during the conversation ( reminded me of my own writing), which is probably alright for certain genres but not for a show like this. Yet, it is a historical film. And, I have allot of respect for a film like this. I think young people can learn, allot from a film like t

A foot of snow!

Woke up this morning with a foot of snow. What did we know? I see the neighbors are already up, blowing it. I soon will have to get out the old machine and start chugging away at it. Another storm headed here for Mon-Tues. The snow mobiles will have allot of base now for their tracks. Besides that, I wrote a few letters to some more literary agents. I did not overly ask for representation, but just said a few kind words, and presented as to who I am. No bites on the lure yet. But isn't that life is all about. Fishing.  Fishing for that job, fishing for that special person to spend your lifetime with, or that story that will finally warm a persons heartl. Everyone, casts their line out to the sea. Sometimes you catch the passing fish, sometimes it is not a big one. I remember myself, sitting out on a sunny day on the Bay of Chaleur, casting in the sunset, looking to catch a mackeral. My arm sometimes, would be slightly wore out, and my shoulder feeling a bit numb, after cast a

Time for some input!

Ever since I started this site, I found that the settings were disabled, for to enable anyone to talk or comment after a blog that I put on. I set up the system, so it will enable people if they would like to comment on this site. I did not realize it, until looking at different blog sites, that this was taking place. If you have any questions, ( I will try to answer to my best ability), please send away! I forgot, that I set this up for Russian text, for translation. This is probably why I got so many great people from Russia coming this way. Thanks, by the way! I wish I could set it up for every language out there. Maybe someday I will figure that out on here too! It is so lonely, talking all by myself... : )  Till then.. 

The new Ab Roller with spring assist!

Bought the new ab roller with spring assist. I had to take a quick second look, at the package when I brought it home. I just wanted an ab roller, and the famous one is the Ab Roller, of course, as seen on TV. I need to get down my beer gut. Well, I used it now for two days. It works like the original, and looks like the original. I had some problems assembling it, as there was a sleeve over a spring to attach to the head rest. After a second attempt, I put it on without too much trouble. Their is a small noise, coming from the spring rubbing on the nylon covering. It annoys me somewhat, but if you have the music blasting, you may not hear it that often. If it is one thing I have to this point, is good hearing. It really is interesting, how they added the spring assist. It moves up your head fast, as to help with the exercise. If it continues to bother me, I can probably haul off the spring assist if I do not like it, and toss it. And still use the ab roller in its original state. I

Good morning world!

Yesterday got equal visits from Russia and the United States! Russia is now number one visitor on this blog! Thanks for coming over to you all. I sent the newest book cover, the other day to Dog Ear Publishing. It was sent at 400 DPI, at 9 or so MB. We tried at 600, but it bounced back, that perhaps they could not receive a 15 MB file..  But maybe something went wrong on our end. I talked to the graphics people, and they were satisfied with the 400 DPI book cover. It cost the same as staples did, at 6 bucks. This time, they e mailed it instead of putting it on a disk. I figured, that maybe the person at staples did not know how to run the machine, as it was at 99 DPI, when it arrived at Dog Ear. So, I lost 6 bucks... I will go back and just talk to the people there, as their people should be trained properly also. I blame it on the management, if anything. They sometimes hire people, and this happens everywhere, where they are not trained enough on the machines settings. They just ne

Working on The Supermarket Guy Part IV

Decided to work mildly at The Supermarket Guy Part IV. There are no rushes. There are no deadlines. This is the good part about it. It is going to focus more on the teenage years of the main character. His difficulties, in life, and his finding a certain kind of freedom. Hopefully it will all, someday, come together.. I am just on, Page 1... Have a great day, till then..

Will be sending book cover today.

Will be sending the book cover for Part 2 today. The scanner will be of higher quality, and show much more of the details that needs to be shown. There are burning embers in the air around the two characters doing battle. On my two scans, it does not show them in good enough quality, and perhaps with the other scan it may bring out more color. Today I must blow out my gate. It is still frigid cold minus 16 or so out there, so I will try to be fast. There is not much news on the book front. Dog Ear said it would be 6 weeks before they contact me again, for any information about the book. It may have to do with the corrections. This manuscript was at around 65 000 words. It cost me .02 cents times the 65000 subtracting first the 53000 limit for the package. An extra 250 or so  dollars...  For corrections.. Oh well, you cannot always win! As they did give me a 10 % rebate for a returning author.  With the rebate applied, it did actually save me a little money.. Thank goodness. Till then

Wind and 10 cm of snow!

The winds were high, tonight in Northern New Brunswick, with a windchill that would make even The Supermarket Guy run for the var trees in the woods for cover! Minus 20 or so, and actually it is not as bad as some other colder temperatures we used to have here. Sometimes in the high minus 40 s. Just finished another 12 hour day shift, in the dust. It is great to be back and kick back a few beers. My yard is full of snow, I may blow her out tomorrow. I got a 12 horsepower blower,  that has been rebuild and retooled so many times, I cannot count the times on my hand how many times I pulled her apart. The worst, is the bearings, go first. The friction wheel. The self aligning bearing, where you got to take the whole bloody thing apart towards the front. I ran her so hard, the main drive pulley wore right off. It is somewhat fun though, in tearing her apart and fixing her also. I know it sounds strange.. But, you have a more satisfying feeling in rebuilding something, than something th

Snow tomorrow again!

Snow tomorrow for Northern New Brunswick. Today, was at work, and things went fairly smoothly. Tried to send a few JPEGs of my book cover to Dog Ear, but it probably did not turn out that well. I will check with them soon, to see if I can send them another, better quality book cover. It had to be over 300 DPI at one point, but maybe their criteria has changed as well. I got this one done at Staples, and they said they had over 600 DPI, but I still found allot of the color did not come through on my computer. I may have to try again at a printing specialty shop, this time for 36 dollars.  At staples, the cost was 6 bucks for the CD, as they could not e mail to my representative the pictures. At the shop, they will e mail it after a perfect scan. Just that the other day, their pro was out on business.. I will try again, Thursday... Besides that, not much on the news with the books... Have a great night, till then..

Rise of The Market Overlord currently in Production

I am happy to say that "The Supermarket Guy II : Rise of the Market Overlord",  has just been sent for production. I will be sending out the book cover this afternoon, or maybe Thurs. Fri. at the latest. I am thankful for the second chance at creating, a Part 2 to my original volume... I would like to thank everyone who stopped off here, for a visit as well! I took the masterpiece package, with the proofread and grammer, spelling package. I will be also getting 2000 business cards, 20 or so posters, and 200 post cards. I already have, quite a bit from the first package as well. They are telling me, it may take 5 months to hit the stands. Have a great day, and thanks for following..

Welcome Sweden!

Had a great visit from Sweden this morning.  I believe it is the first ever! Thanks for the visit, from that beautiful Nordic country! This morning, phoned Dog Ear Publishing. I am ready with Part 2, of The Rise of The Market Overlord. They are busy. Good sign for them. An extra day, gave me, which is hard to believe, a bit of comedy to put into my book summary. I was thinking hard of how to add a little subtle comedy to the summary. And overnight, it came to me within a few minutes. I wrote it down immediately. As, for days and days passing by, I was knocking my brain on how to sweeten up the book summary. Could not get to it, at all. Nothing would come.. Until last night.. Thank goodness for time.. And no deadlines..  Have a great day, till then..

The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo

Just watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo... Very good show, I give it a 4 on 5. There is some sexual explicit scenes in it, just as a warning to those sensitive eyes. Good writer, this Steig Larsson, and I did not know he passed on in 2004. He left a great series, and allot of science fiction writing as well. Some parts were fast and a bit hard to follow, but of course, things smooth out in the end and the characters show their true selves in the end. My book is done as best as I probably can get it. I will call tomorrow, and decide tomorrow whether or not to continue my dab into writing. It is difficult, but as I have indicated earlier, it probably will be my last try. Just that the success of Part 1 has been an under achiever, thus far. It is probably due, to my writing style. Or, due to poor advertising. It is one or the other. Even though people that have read it, seem to give me much praise. But, if it was to do good, it should have created its own undercurrent by itself..

Minus 20 C today in Northern NB

Cold again today, but the sun is up here in Northern NB. My dad used to say, in Mid February the maple syrup used to run, if you put your tap in the right side where the sun hit on the tree. It would freeze at night, and the maple syrup would run during the day time. We still got a month or so to get to that point, where it may be a little milder. This is the calm day, before the storm. Tomorrow, could be the day I start the process of publishing Part 2. It is addictive, to write books. I do want to produce Part 3, but it will stay in the vault until 2013. Then I will assess the financials, this time. I still have to polish Part 3, and if anyone reads Part 2,  the title of  Part 3 is mysteriously put in there! Even today I found of some things I can put in Part 2, before sending it off. But this could go on, forever. And ever. For the last few days, I have been adding a little material to strengthen the story, here and there. Here I go again, today, for the last time. I made up my

Preparing Cover art, authors bio, books summary.

All done. The cover of the book, the artwork, is done. My authors biography, is already done, but minor changes needed. I really wished someone else would have done it for me. The books summary, hopes to catch the main focus of the book, but it would not hurt to have a few comic phrases to it. With Part 1, I thought I done this masterfully, but, maybe not. The books summary, sometimes is hard to hit the right combination. It should be honest, and it should portray the main story of the book. It should not reveal too much of what happens inside, either. An author cannot give away the ending, or risk giving too much information about how some major scenes turn out. It has to be 450 words, as Dog Ear requests. Also, my Bio is the same length. My wife read the summary, and she seemed to like it very much. I may not change it at all. That will be my major problem, for now. Thinking too much, maybe, of how to change things for the better, which may result for the worse... Have a great ni

The Supermarket Guy II: Rise of the Market Overlord

Part 2 is ready. Ready to be published. It will be 50 to 60 pages longer than the original. Tomorrow, or Sunday I will review it one last time. I found allot of errors, and am satisfied with the good story line. Monday or Tuesday, It should be ready to go. It could possibly be my last venture with writing books, as the sales even for Part 1 did not justify the publication of Part 2. But, what can you do? At least, I will have it said that I wrote two books, the first part and second. Something in which I never thought or imagined, I could do. This means probably, that Part 3 could lie in the vault, forever. I wish you all a great night. We got freezing rain here in Northern NB, and the wind is exposed to pick up to 100 km hour. Batten down the hatches...  Till then...

Snow and freezing rain this morning!

Coming home from work, the roads were snow packed, and we had some freezing rain. The temperatures are exposed to be near 0 C today, in Northern NB. A guy at work, told me his favorite scene in the Part 1 of The Supermarket Guy, was the cougar scene! It is in the first chapter. The cougar scene just had to be made. Maybe there is a cougar in your little area of the world, out there somewhere! Maybe they are more tamer, than the one in my first chapter! This one as depicted in the book, is pretty wild, and chases after her prey pretty relentlessly. It had to give the character his certain quirkiness, yet to give him other abilities. I think it was a good trail for him, to see what he was made of. If he could resist the temptation, or not. And then, further more through the book. I will try to finish part 2 today, in corrections. I will have to sleep half of the day, as I am burned out! I hope you all have a good evening, till then...

Minus 27 C this morning in Northern NB

It is cold out there. The dog will only go out to have her pee, and will not even roll in the snow, as she usually does. The mosquitos are up to their legs in frost! Beautiful sunrise, though, and the bay will probably freeze over. Many people are hoping so, as they want to get their little smelt shanties on the bay, to fish for the king of the sea. The mighty smelt! Smelts are good. Some people cook them whole, and eat them with the head on. The guts too. At home, we usually clean them removing the guts, and then taking off the head. We wash them, and then put flour on both sides, and a little salt and pepper. We fry them in oil, on a skillet, or you can go fast and use a deep fryer. Some people laugh at all the work we do, to clean the smelts for eating. As, some just pop them in the oil. Depends on what you like. The smelt, the king of the sea! Some people have nice smelt shanties. A stove, nice pictures up, and fridge, electricity, and nice reclining chairs, and television.  

Welcome Moldova!

Just got a Super visit from, you guessed it, Moldova!  A European Country located between the Ukraine and Romania! I had to check on my map, to see where it was, again, as I heard the name now and then in the news! I have only 40 or more pages to review, before contacting Dog Ear Publishing. I added some small scenes, I took out some other parts where I thought it would not do the story justice. It is a book that may come close to 240 pages, or maybe more, of comedy. It has been much improved. Many people would say I am working on, the final draft. But, it is not so. I think of it as, polishing and finishing it. Then, it will come back to me as I can still make changes from Dog Ear. The first editing and proofreading will check for any major problems, which I can correct at this final stage. Then, 2 more drafts to make corrections (this will cost me, at 25 dollar rate just to do it, then 2 dollars per correction after).  I will have to see if their policy has changed on this. I nee

A visit from the Czech Republic!

This is the first time I got a visit from the Czech Republic. Another great hockey nation! Thanks for visiting. Today it is minus  17 Celcuis.  The dog went out this morning for her regular pee, and it did not take her long to run back into the house to the door. We shaved off her hair a bit, so I think she feels the cold a little faster now. Her coat was long and shaggy, so much she could hardly see out of her two eyes. We got her a nice brush cut, but maybe too short for to be outside for too long. She stays in the house most of the time. Will have to work on Part 2 a bit today as well. Over 2/3 rds done, it should chug along rather smoothly. I am thinking, by Monday it should be all ready to go. Earlier, I am not sure, but it could be done a little faster as well. But it is better to take the long, or the worst case, scenario.  I was thinking I better take my time, just in case I want to do some minor adjustments, and to make sure it flows well. I have to work for someone toni

Correcting Part 2, well over 2/3 rds done!

It is amazing, the finessing you can do, when reading over your material and correcting it. The main body is, greatly improved, and beefed up. It has more humor, and 20 to 30 % improved just in the slant humor. The spelling is greatly improved. The grammer is improved. It just works so well. And, the story comes together allot better. Tomorrow, I think I will be finished. Depending on how many household tasks I have to do here. At times, other stuff comes up that, as we know, delays us (it happens to us all), these daunting tasks like cleaning the driveway from a winter storm, or having to go shopping for some stuff. My book has improved in length, to about 20 pages. Just in refining the whole thing. This is good, good news.. Have a great night,  till then...

A minus 1 day here in Northern New Brunswick

Minus one today for Northern NB. Today, will be working on Part 2, as well as tomorrow. My book of poetry, is complete in my eyes. I will ask, Dog Ear Publishing, how much do they charge, for The Supermarket Guys, book of poetry. I do not see it being an expensive endeavor, and it would be nice to launch two books at once.. Or would it? Hum.  I am told poetry books do even worse than, fiction books. I will e mail Dog Ear today, to see if any changes are in their contract. Their contract, is around a two page form, where I keep the rights to the book. If I want to stop publication, at any time, I can haul the files away from them and store them in my vault forever... If a problem arises between them and I, they rather it go to a mediation panel before getting the lawyers out.  So far, I had no problems.  I will be talking to a representative today or tomorrow, trying to get more facts on the matters at hand.. I hope it all goes good... And, I wish you all a very successful day, in w

The Supermarket Guy # 1 in Relevance on Amazon.UK

Thanks to Amazon.Uk,  for putting my book # 1 in Relevance for the last, 5 months now! This is out of 2000 approximate books on Dog Ears Publishing list! I imagined a few days, but the length of time is greater than I had ever anticipated! Amazon.Uk, you are number one in my book list!

Now can work on Part 2

Finished my last 12 hr shift. Now I will try to get back in the swing of things, to correct Part 2: The Rise of the Market Overlord. I will have to work Thursday, so this may delay the launch. But, it seems, there is no deadlines or due dates on the horizon. I think by Monday though, it should be all sent away. Unless I get the "What in the bloody blazes am I doing!" feeling. No, but I always wanted to have two books written, at least. One, was, definitely not enough. A true writer does not stop, at one. Two, is better than.. You know...  The song made by those famous people. Tonight, I am burned out though. The last shift of the 48 hour stretch is always, the hardest, and, I am always tired on the last day. But, I made it through an array of permits, tests, and more permits, and report a few problems to the supervisor. It is good to be off.. We all need a time to recharge. I will take this as a well needed break...  Crack open the Alpine.. Till then..

Welcome South Korea!

Nice to get a visit from South Korea! We all hope, that the North will someday become a democracy. With the recent change of power, hopefully better relations will result. But, we must hold our breath for now, and keep hoping. Worked today, 12 hour shift. Not much new on the book front. No time for doing any work, which is unfortunate. Tonight, I tried some goolash. It is good, for a change, but we did it with eggnoodles and hamburger. Some tomatoes, celery, and the spices in the goolash package was all natural. Nutmeg, ginger, garlic, celery, and dill, to name a few spices. Fennel spices in there as well, and fenugreek, caraway, which are some spices that I am not accustom to. It almost tasted like, hamburger helper, but without the MSG. We hear allot in the news, about MSG at times, that it is not healthy, and maybe it is a food preservative. It is found in allot of Chinese dishes in some Chinese restaurants around here. You can ask for no MSG in your food... Well, tonight I

The Supermarket Guys Book of Poetry!

The Supermarket Guys Book of Poetry!  I have not thought of the subtitle yet. I am still wondering, whether or not to put in the pictures, or not. I mean, I can draw somewhat. I am a little rusty, but, if the patience and time permits, I could draw a sketch on each side of the poem... You need a good black ink pen that flows, ever so evenly. Sometimes, I have a hard time to find one... But, there are some out there at certain specialty stores for artwork. I need to get a few more. That, is a hard decision to make. To put in pictures, or not. A person could always, draw simple pictures. Stick figures? Too much detail, may cause too many headaches and too much time crouched at a table... Maybe a simple picture, of to the side, of each poem.. Should I put flower arrangements, stars, or celestial beings, around each poem? And, how many poems will it take, to publish a book.. 20? 50? or a 100?  After so many, will I lose focus and lose the art of poem making? I will look at currently pu

Hot book sale rating is 5 on 5 for The Supermarket Guy!

http://www.hotbooksale.com/p6907172/The-Super-Market-Guy.html#back I would like to thank, Hot Book Sale for their rating, a 5 on 5 for my book so far! Much thanks, to a superb site!

Update on Part 2. Rise of the Market Overlord

Just nearly done half of correcting, and fine tuning Part 2. By next week, I will be finished probably around Thursday, if things go well. I will call Dog Ear Publishing, to work out the details of how about to go about this again. Friday, I may scan and then e mail the cover page. It has to be a scanner with over 300 dpi. If things run late, maybe Monday, will be the latest date to get things going. I mailed the last CD,  and may mail it again, as this takes about 9 days to get there. This process will take, probably 4 months to get the copy out. It should be a little faster this time, as there was times when communications were lacking between myself and the publisher. At times, I went through a week waiting for a response, when they did not receive any corrections that I approved. And, they have to wait, for my approval. Sometimes, they think I am busy going over the material, but it is just that the e mails sometimes go through without the attachments.  The problem I had, was the

Russia is now # 1 on this blog!

Russia has surpassed the United States in total viewership on this blog!  Thank you Russia, for your presence on here, and thanks to the USA also! 252 vs 251 views! Today will be correcting more of Part 2. The weather seems to be a little milder out here today, but overcast. It is minus 10 C so far today, here in Northern New Brunswick. I may check at the bookstore today to see if I sold any books. Last week I sold out, but this time it may take about the same time or a bit more to sell any books. The neighbor blew my driveway the other day, I will have to get him something for that. It is just, that I repaired his snow blower a few days ago, so he repaid the favor, but he continues to blow my gate when I am at work. So, I can go over and get him a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey! Maybe that will take the cold away from around his house!.. Have a good day, we will talk later, till then..

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Mission impossible, ghost protocol, is just that. Humanly impossible! You nearly have to be a ghost to do what Ethan done in this show. But, it lives up to its title. The hits that Ethan Hunt were taking, were nearly impossible for any living human to get through. I had to put away my thoughts throughout the film, on, how did they do that. How did the guy with the lab top do that, and so forth! Leave your thinking cap home! I give it a 4 out of 5 stars, if you take off your thinking cap about how unrealistic the show is. If you sit down, enjoy it, and forget about how the magic was done, then I would give it a 4 out of 5. Maybe, I am too much of a realist, for a show like this one. But, I did enjoy it. And, it does leave you on the edge of your seat, several times. If you do put on your thinking cap while in the theatre, maybe a 3 out of 5. The end battle for the briefcase with some nuclear codes in it, was an alright one. But, I found it dragged on too far. It seemed like it would

Corrected 1/3 of Part 2 thus far.

Corrected 1/3 rds of the Rise of the Market Overlord. I find this one a bit more challenging, but it is coming together fairly well. I added 10 pages just, in that 1/3rd of corrections. The thing is, the dialogue gets a little more refined. The comedy that I did not like, I removed, and replaced some of the parts that were a little mundane. I thought, why did I put that or certain things, in certain places. I had to remove some spacing, and allot, allot, of spelling errors. Incredible, when, you write as fast as I, sometimes do. Well, this will definitely take me into next week sometime to finish. Then, to the publishing stages. I will be going through it again, step by step, as much as possible, with you all on here. This will be again, with Dog Ear Publishing, as they were the company that produced my first work. No contract is signed yet. This maybe done, next week. For now, I need to take a break. I like to rush to the finish line, but, it only creates more mistakes. I know t

Russia beats Canada in semi final game Hockey!

A hockey announcer said the other day, you never can count Canada out for a Gold medal game any year at the world juniors. This year, they were beaten by the Russian team. You can never count out the Russians, either. The Russians had good goal tending the first 2 periods with Vasilevski. Only he fell apart in the third, but the Russian coach did the right thing after 4 goals scored by Canada, and he replaced their goaltender with Markerov.  The Russian Captain, Kuznetsov had 3 goals and an assist. A captain playing like a captain. While disappointed with the loss, I give my congratulations to the Russian team. Very well played, and they showed allot of speed on the rush. The Canadian team, however, did very good this year, regardless of losing to the strong Russian team. I knew, and I had a feeling, when they won those 4 games straight in round robin play, that the jinx would probably go to make them lose the last one. I never, like to see, my favorite team blank out the opposit

Had 45 views in 3 days on this blog!

This is quite something, as I had a record 30 views in at one time, on this blog. My best record was, probably 10 views in one day. The whole day, as compared to, just a small time frame, is something I did not expect either. I was looking at a trend monitoring system today. It was called, Board Reader. You type in the name of a person, or a site, and voila.  It will show you a graph, of how well or how many posts were done on a certain subject. It gives an idea, of how, perhaps, someone is doing. I did one on Lady Gaga, and of course, the numbers are in the thousands a day. I then did one on some other celebrities, and some were surprisingly as low as mine. My numbers, are even, for The Super Market Guy, and The Supermarket Guy. 32 posts per day, approximately. It shows on the graph, how it started off really slow in the first 3 months, and then how traffic doubled on my book over the next 3 months, with spikes on the graph here and there. A very interesting tool indeed, somethi

Some tad pole results for this Blog!

This blog has done better than I had anticipated. I figured, with the holiday season and all, and with myself gone from here 5 days or so from the panel, I thought I would have achieved 10 % less or so. This blog has had an increase of 15.2 % traffic,  beating all stock market results for the last 10 years... I wish my blog was a stock market... Maybe we could talk to wall street about it... And, the other Super news, is that I got a visit from Malaysia. The first time I have gotten a visit from a country from Asia South. Malaysia has nearly the same Population as Canada, and is doing well with jobs and having great growth in GDP. Time to go to the bat cave, for some snoozing.. Till then...

Back from Parents place during New Years!

I spent two days at my Parents, for the New Years Eve and Day yearly visit. I cooked a ham, boiled it first for 2 hrs and a half, then put it in the roaster for another 2 hours. The glaze for the ham, was a tsp of mustard, a half tsp of tumeric, a quarter cup of brown sugar, a cup and a half of water, a quarter cup of the ham juice ( it was salty, I could not use much).  But, it turned out good. I was, quite amazed by myself. It was not sugary, as allot of ham glazes are sugary or maple in taste, if using maple syrup. I liked the less sugar taste, more mustard taste better. I was working night shifts during this time. I, am burned out. In French, do they call it, brule?  I suppose if it was a creme brule, it would really mean a person is right toasted right out of her, with no energy left to keep your eyelids open. I am brule. Sleeping only 4 hours a day, for the past 2 days. I hope I can catch up on my sleep today. I need to get back into correcting Part 2, Rise of the Market Over