The Supermarket Guy

A new contest in the loop, to win a Part 1 or Part 2.  There are 8 available books to be won, of Part 1, and 8 available books to be won, on Part 2. Total of 16 books. This is how this contest will go ( Rules could change at any time). Doesn't every contest have that in the fine print?   Contest is open to residents of U.S.A. and Canada. 1. E mail the answer between 4 to 10 pm, Saturday, June 2. Any e mails outside this time, will not be eligible to win. Mail the answer to ___________ 2. Answer the following riddle, for an object that can be found at the supermarket:  There is nothing gets by me, I work all day, as I am usually near the exits. Now and then you have to make sure the plastic bags over your produce is tight, so I can let you go through. Who am I? 2.a What do you love about your supermarket? 3.  You can win one book of either Part 1 or Part 2, and you must tell me which book you would like to read. You can check on my website www.supermarketguy....

A cold one today Northern N.B. I suspect, that it will rain this afternoon, and then for the next few days. We do need the rain, after all. The grass in my front lawn, has had a hard time in getting green or switching to a lovely green carpet. The neighbor the other day, smiled when I made fun of my lawn. I said it looks like a rug from India. It has parched patches in it, as if it went through a severe drought. Dotting in between the green exterior canvas, all over the front lawn. I strongly believe, that the contractor did not give me, a good supply of top soil. Even when he was dumping it, I asked to be sure if it was top soil. It looked like it was screened, as it was what I had originally asked for. But it looked, a little, too fine or something. But, not knowing the real deal, they spread it over the front of my lawn. The first year, not much will occur. You can seed it, and you may get a weak cover of green over it. If you hydro seed, then you probably will get a much bette...

Interesting thing happened today. Prices dropping for my books, on Amazon.Uk. In the USA, the prices have remained solid, and at the top suggested pricing. The reasons, could be a few. One, being the fact that I have been checking this site very often, that it creates a log of it. The log, may have caused them to lower the price to make them think I will buy my own book. This is the same, as if someone else somewhere was continually hitting that site, and they finally gave in to drop a juicier lure. I am not sure if this is really the case. But, I have heard through the grapevine, that it may be one of them. I checked on another computer system, and the prices were still low, so maybe this is not the way it is. Second, it could be that they do have some books in their warehouse to move. Maybe, the "2 remaining books" and "Order while supplies last" maybe taking up their valuable space. This could be, bad for me also, as  a clearance to get rid of my books forev...

Stay tuned. Maybe you could be lucky as the two individuals who won my books, a little while ago. Another contest, maybe in the later week days coming up. I will try to line it up, for when I am off work. I will make it just as short and as fast as the first one! Usually a 24 to 36 hr notice, and then wham bango! A two hour time limit, a 7 to 9 pm Atlantic time date. Then, to answer a question you could easily find by typing it into your search browser, to win a book!  It does not get much better than that! I think this his how Regis Philbin did it, on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire!" way back when!  Maybe a multiple choice, question! Yes, we remember the call a friend, use the audience, or take away two of the wrong answers... That was the best television game show, I had ever seen. It is just that, the host was so charismatic, and had a good flow with the audience. Many times I laughed, at his stunned reaction to his hosts awkward comments, at times. And th...

I was glad to see my press release today. In just reading it, it did make me laugh. Below is a sentence from the Press Release by Dog Ear Editors... "Crazy motorcycle chases, spying on his competitor dressed as a woman, three-headed pigs and a bear hunt are just a small part of this hilarious romp with a would-be supermarket czar." It did make me laugh, of the certain situations that occur in the book. They did, a really overwhelming job, of describing a few scenes of the action and humor in the book. This made me worry somewhat about Part 3, as it may not be as funny as Part 2. Part 2, maybe better than Part 1, but that is up to the public to decide. I need to fine tune, Part 3, into a finer humor book. The main body is there, but it has to be finessed. I was away today working, so I figure the press release may be out this Monday, or Tuesday. I e mailed them back, explaining the situation. Today was a beautiful day in Northern NB, with plus 27 C weather, but when w...

I sent the books out yesterday, to the contest winners! Thanks allot for participating, and later on we may have another short, small contest in a little while. Just all depends on the work load with other things here... I was thinking that making it short like that, it would help as to not crash my e mail server ( a joke in itself), as it never happened... But, I may think of doing the contest another way, or the same. Today is exposed to be plus 27, in Northern NB. Soon time to put in the gardens, maybe next week. I have 1024 followers on twitter, which is hard to believe, but with over 5000 tweets placed. I have a 5 to 1 tweet ratio for followers, while I see many have a 10 to 1 follow to tweet ratio for gaining followers. Some people hardly tweet, and they got a huge following. What am I doing wrong ;) I worked a little bit on "Supermarket Dominium" yesterday, creating the preamble, and then inserting more fine tuning into the book. More fine tuning is required...

Cedar Rapids was a great comedy film. Ed Helms and John C. Reilly really put together an oddball couple of sorts, with one on the mild side and one on the wild side. Ed Helms is Tim Lippe, a man who things everything is not what it seems. He starts dating his old teacher, who is quite a few years older than him. He believes it is a steady relationship, while only seeing each other once a week. Working for an insurance company, with their star agent dead, he is sent to the annual convention to try to win the diamond award.  He being told my numerous people to stay clear of Dan Zeigler (John C Reilly), who is someone who would ruin a persons chances at winning the prestigious award. Eventually Ed lets loose, and goes a bit wild the next few nights. He feels guilty about his behaviour, and ends up calling his teacher in his home town telling what happened. Nearly falling apart, he goes on another wild binge, after things could not get much worse. In the end, he must make a decisi...

The Contest is over. I had two winners, from Ottawa, Ontario, and California USA. I had over 200 hits on my site, mostly from the USA. Second, Canada, then Moscow. The people who hit, could have just e mailed me, and they would have won a book. I will check in the near future, for another contest, as this one was... how do I put it. Lackluster, ho hum. I am not sure, if the problem was with: 1. The requirement of checking out the website, and commenting on a cover, then having to name the largest grocer in a country. 2. 200 hits on my site, maybe not enough. I would have had to get over 3000 hits, to get rid of my free books! 3. Twitter is not as good as it is. I went directly through twitter, to get to my contest base. If this is the case, you really need to advertise again and again and, again. 4. Time frame was not sufficient. I know, now, probably that it was too short. But, when you are new at this, you have to be careful as not to get too many e mails in the box. T...

Just look below, contest extended for two hours! The first 16 just to e mail me a ____ with info will win a book.

Here it is. This small contest is open to residents of the USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom. 8 books will be given out on Part 2, and 8 books on Part 1. To win, you must do the following: 1. Identify which book you like best. I will try to give you the book you select, depending on how many of one type goes out. Tell me what you think the cover of the selected book represents. The book you Identify out of my two authored books, is the one you could win. You just need to describe one book cover. 2. Answer the question, who is Canada's largest grocery retailer/ Supermarket? 2a. The closest description to my thoughts on the book cover, will win the book. Starting with the best description, going down the line. 3. Leave your address so I can mail you the book. I will place your first name only, with the city or town, village you are from in the winning column later on the blog. 4. I will sign the book, send it through the snail mail. 5. E mail must come in at a certai...

Just on the Amazon.com, and Amazon.Uk sites, my Part 2 has been Rising in Relevance in the 30 day new release column, for Dog Ear titles only. At Amazon.Uk, my book has been # 1 in Relevance for all Dog Ear titles (only), for the last 9 to 10 months or so. Now this book, Part 2, is heading up the newly released list, to the front page in both the USA and UK. I may be thinking of having a contest soon, on here. I will explore the details tomorrow, as I never had done something like this before. Due to the costs of mailing, it maybe only available to certain areas of the world. If my book was a best seller, I could widen the contest to all regions of the globe. But when mailing costs 50 dollars for one book to halfway around the world, you can guess why I must narrow my contest to probably just North America. If I ever sell allot, I could have a small, worldwide contest. I do wish there was no such thing as high shipping costs, as I wish I could involve all peoples from all countr...

The "Rise of the Market Overlord, Supermarket Guy 2" is world wide. I seen it in Japan, UK, Sweden, Germany, and even in my native home of Canada. The publisher sent me my 5 free books today! To my surprise, the error still existed on the front cover page. Rise of the Market Overload. Overload?  I somehow missed out, on that title. It would have also been a trooper of a title. Oh well. But, the fine people at my publishing house, told me it was corrected. It was just that I ordered my books before the correction took place. I made double sure, to ask again, as when I received my first 30 books the error was there. Just a few days later, and the errors still exist on my 5 freebies. A guy at work wanted one already. He thinks it could go antiquarian, with that mistake in there. I said, the chance is there. On the handy dandy side of things, I repaired a squeaky floor here the other day. I went down in the basement, and looked and searched for a deformed beam. They all ...

The Avengers. I watched it after all the hoopla and accolades worn through. Estimates were, that it was the top grossing film of all time for the first week of opening. Or something like that. Well, I sat down in the theater with my 3D glasses on. Watched the action. A villain named Loki, bent on doing what??? You guessed it, taking over the world. No surprise, as most shows and features are about this. They are looking for some power cube, in order to create a portal to allow a huge alien army in to subdue the planet. The only thing standing in their way, is the shield group and a few superheroes that hopefully will form a future avenger group. Samuel L Jackson does a good job in playing the guy in control. He is the director of the Shield top secret movement, and as always, plays a good role in these situations (Not too often we do not see him in this role). First star, goes to Iron man himself. His quick witty, often smart humor, puts him as my first star of the show. Robert Do...

I received my 40 books today. 30 of Part 2, and 10 of Part 1. Part 2, was astounding. For myself, the cover looked, well. My opinion, super! I am trying not to be biased, but I find it looked great. I turned to the title page, where the error was still there. "Rise of the Market Overload". Overlord should be there, instead of Overload. I immediately called the publisher. There, they said it is because the order went out before the correction was made. I did, make a correction for this problem, a week ago approximately. I maybe the only one, with the 30 books with this error in it. Then again, it was showcased on Amazon and Barnes for a good while. Maybe, some people out there have the error as well. This is a good thing, maybe, for book collectors. I talked to a woman at the local bookstore today. She said she heard stories of numerous authors, where the spell check went past several words that were not exposed to be where they were. Such as my own, Overload.. Which ...

The last week or so, I have decided to seal my basement against Radon Gas. I am unsure if it all will work, as I have to retest to determine the results. The thing is, I had an open box pit to the ground 2' by 2', 8 inches deep to facilitate a future shower hook up in the basement to my underground piping. I hooked an elbow going up, then a straight pipe, so I could fill in this hole with some cement. Also, my sump pump hole was right to the ground. I also sealed that in as well, leaving a pipe sticking out of the cement I poured there, to hook to my drain of my Venmar (House Ventilation system). I also sealed 3 longitudinal cracks, all the way across the basement. When a basement settles, they say this can happen. I sealed them just with a poly filler. I will buy two radon kits, to determine the new value, if there is any. The information with the kits will tell you where to install them, and how high off the ground they should be placed. If I remember correctly, we place...

http://www.supermarketguy.com/book2/index.php Above is the link to my original website. The Part 1 segment has not changed, but the Part 2 segment is added on. I like the work the Publisher did on the site, with the scrolling logo on top, linking to either Part 1 or Part 2. And, the brief description is there for Part 2, as well as the two men dueling with bread sticks in their hands... I hope you all take something from it, and enjoy the site... My small Preface on Competition, is actually a commentary on the issue itself. Have a great day, till next time...

Here in N.B., my father always said, wait until the first week of June to plant your garden. With global warming, I wonder if we could put this back a week or so. Maybe 2 weeks? I will see what to do when the weather approaches. Usually, I would buy seeds for bean pods that had a growth period of approximately 60 days. The butter beans, yellow style, and the green as well. Plenty of time to grow, before the cold weather hit in the fall. Same as carrots, cucumbers, or any seed we planted. We would always look on the back of the package, and determine the times for planting. His soil was always great for growing. The soil here at my house, is very weak. I grew bean pods years ago, but they did not come that good. A deer cropped them of as well, one year. When I bought the land, I discovered later on that the owner had already stripped off the topsoil. We then bought some soil, and made some large wooden boxes out in the back. We bought a brand name soil booster in sacks, and mixed t...

Municipal elections are being held today, throughout the province of New Brunswick. Polls are open until 10 am to 8 pm. There are mixed feelings during a day like today. Who to vote for, and who will best represent your community. Then there are ballots cast for the health authority, and district school board representatives, as well. If you live in a local service district, like me, then you will only have a shot to vote for the health authority and local school board reps. I know when I head into an election booth, or anybody goes, we wonder what the incumbent has done for me. Did he make my life easier, and what did he do for the municipality. Did my taxes go up? That is probably the number one issue for allot of people in the voting scheme of things. Where is the money being spent? Why did they do certain projects, and did they do these projects on the beam. We all know, there is only so much a municipality can do, in regard to governing, especially if you are just a little ...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Supermarket-Guy-II-Overload/dp/1457511576/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1336872607&sr=8-3 They got it there as "Rise of the Market Overload", will be changed shortly, to "Rise of the Market Overlord"... Too funny... Till next time...

Maybe you got one mother. Maybe two, counting your grand ma! Maybe three, as you are a mother yourself. Getting that special mothers day gift can be a hassle. Big line ups, and shopping, especially for men, is not fun. Gift certificates, are usually the way to go. How about a gift certificate for a massage, or a break at spa. How about cooking them a meal, or bringing them a meal from a restaurant. You can always get them, something they have been wanting for a long time. Moms are smart, and they will toss out their idea of what they want, when you visit often. I could hear my Mom say often, "Oh I need this ...", at many trips to the house. What you could do, is kill two birds with one stone. Get the thing she wants, on mothers day, even if she has to wait 8 months for it..  She may have been broadcasting her want, for a long time... Now, I maybe going to far towards my book humor on this one... I should stop, save it for the books.. It is hard to give something to a mot...

Arthritis. There are two main types, rheumatoid and osteo. Last year, I had to take my mother to the hospital, as her arthritis count in her blood was high. They had to bring it back down, with medication. Pain killers only help so much, also. Sometimes she will try the Tylenol 3, extra strength, or sometimes Advil. Nothing, truly, works against this painful disease, where every movement can bring soreness and discomfort. She contracted it bad in her mid 60s. But she could still make bread, make pies, and cook. Once she reached in her early 70s, this became all but the past. She did no longer, have the strength in her hands to form the dough. Then it hit badly one year, where she could not climb the stairs. Her hands are now deformed somewhat, making a concave line from her wrist to her knuckles. This year, I found my mother was a little better for the wear. She actually walked out to the car today, with a cane. Usually I have to wheel chair her to the car. I had to bring her to a...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-supermarket-guy-ii-daren-doucet/1110700086?ean=9781457511578 Barnes and Noble link, to "The Rise of the Market Overlord" Get it now while quantities last!!!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Supermarket-Guy-II-Overload/dp/1457511576/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336670394&sr=1-1 There is the link, from Amazon.com  for "The Rise of the Market Overlord" It shows it as Overload, but they will correct the mistakes in due time... As well, as the publisher offered to correct the mistake and change it back to Overlord. So, it appears we will be back on track, it will just take a little time. It appears the publisher, will not charge me for this mistake, as I did sent in the title to them in an e mail the first time to get corrected. The main problem, was that I did not spell check my title page inside. It always started at the main body of the book, from page one till the end.. I am just glad I caught it now. So, this is the release with out much bang for the buck. There it is, on Amazon.com, and soon the rest of the sites, for all the world to see... I hope.. Have a good afternoon, till next time.

I hit a snag, on the road of distribution. "The Supermarket Guy II: Rise of the Market Overload", was placed on Amazon.com as my second book. Overload?  Not Overlord. I began to laugh, mildly at this mistake... Then I wondered, how such a mistake, could be made. I e mailed the publisher, with the link to show them their error. I wondered how many book sellers had the title as such, and how many press releases had the title as such. Just a typo, and to be truthful, mistakes do happen. Then I thought, I better check the whole thing over again. I checked even my own book cover... Yes, there was an "R" in Overlord. Phew... Then I checked, the paper cover page. It had "Overload" on it.. Gesh... So, I then rechecked the e mail that I sent for to make the corrections. It specifically stated, that I put "Rise of the Market Overlord" underneath "The Supermarket Guy II".  It was right there, in black and white. The first pass came ar...

Rain will be here tomorrow, for Northern NB. Actually, I am looking forward to it, as the snow melted fast. The land was getting dry, and my front lawn, which is newly planted, needs allot of moisture. There is still some brown patches in between the smaller patches of green. Fiddle heads. Just a fern, in early development. Late April till early May. This year, they word is out that there may not be that many. You can go near a river bank, or a swampy area, and pick to your hearts delight. If you do not got the ability to go picking, you can usually buy them at the large supermarkets anyways. But this year, they have been having a hard time to pop up from the ground. They say, the rivers over swelled so much, that it ruined allot of the fiddle heads. I will try to get out, to check to see if there are many near the little river close to here. It just takes a small knife, and a bag, and off to the races. Wash them in water, take off all of the brown rust off of them, soak them for aw...

We should all find the time, to do a little bit of gym. I did chest, and triceps today. I went light, as I had not been training in a long, long, time. I do want, to find out more about the joints and going heavy. It is better to go light, medium, than heavy, for weight training. Cycle it, over and over again. I would also, like to do more cardio as well. Hoping that this time it will stick, I do not want to give up like in past times. For small gains, 3 times a week, just to maintain, at least 2. All in all, you do feel better after a training. I can tell my endurance and strength are down a bit. It will take a month or two to get to maximum capacity again. So, after or before reading that great book, get out there and do some activity. Stay active, and feel good. Till next time...

"The Rise of the Market Overlord" Part 2, of The Supermarket Guy, has actually 3 days more of work added to its release date to Barnes&Noble, and Amazon.com. I was saying around 7 days today, now it is approximately 10 to the release. I e mailed again, to find out if the release was close to my countdown. It was, but I was off quite a bit on that, as the dates are nixed as to when things move. In 7 days, the online retailers above will get the information that the book is ready for sale. But, it could take approximately 3 days for them to design it to their sites, into their search engine and set up. The press release must be, on the time it is available to the distributors. I think my website will be the same, with just a tab to click to the "Market Overlord" site. I had an e mail back from the designers, and they asked again what I had planned to do. Just to keep the original site, and add a tab to direct towards the synopsis of Part 2. And, maybe just pl...

E Coli outbreak in N.B.,  which was on the local news here, a little while ago. 2 people in Bathurst, 2 people in Saint John, and approximately 20 in the Mirimichi may have contracted the illness. My mother, who is a worrier, called and asked me not to eat out at the restaurants. No doubt, it could have either come from a food source (ground beef?) or a water source, as in the case of Walkerton Ont. where some people died from the E Coli. Many people have a ultra violet light, passing through their water supply to kill E Coli and Coliform bacteria. Presence of coliform suggests a future path for E Coli to become present in the water supply. It was the worst, ever breakout of E Coli in Canada, thus far. I am not sure if the health authorities found the source of contamination in our area yet. I am sure it takes a certain amount of time for the E Coli to really do some damage to a persons system, and maybe from that time backward they can find the source from what people ate at th...

Part 1, of The Supermarket Guy, is still all over the world. I check every so many times, to see where it is at. It is still at Saxo, Mighty Ape, Amazon.ch de ca com uk fr jp, india books, Barnes and Nobles, Chapters Indigo, all over the world. I did not mention, all of the distributors like WHsmith, Foyles, Berkelouw, and many more... I was told from the Publisher, that they did not call these companies (exception with Barnes and Amazon) to distribute the book through the others. They approach my publisher, and take certain books to display on their web pages. I consider myself lucky, that my book has gone to Croatia, England, Italy, China, Australia and New Zealand, to name a few of the many. I am unsure how long the book will remain on their sites, as I am unsure of how well it will sell. But, I imagine a few 100 kilobytes of a page amongst hundreds of thousands does not really matter much to them. It is all a big ocean of books, and someday, someone will buy one. It all adds up,...

9 days left to go, until the " Rise of the Market Overlord " The cover, is exactly what is shown on to the right of the screen, under Part 1's cover. The book has to do with a struggle. A huge struggle, and when things do not go a certain way for one of the characters, then events evolve into allot of mud slinging. And, as we say in Canada, things continue to snowball. Until the snowball rolls and comes to a point where it splatters and covers the landscape to its original form. We hope. This book may have to do a little with a process called, "Winging it".  I seen allot of people wing things, in their lives. When you are not prepared for a presentation, or a test, but come out on top, you just winged it. When you are not prepared for a big match, or a sporting event when you are predicted to do nothing, maybe you just winged it. Maybe it was just luck. The two books, maybe were based on this a little bit. Especially the first, where he really, did "...

I was told, 10 days until the " Rise of The Market Overlord ", is released for distribution.  Uploading the files to press, then quality checks, will cover this duration. Then 7 to 10 days until I receive my 5 free copies, of the Paperback. My original website, www.supermarketguy.com will have the information on the new book. I will also have to approve the Press release information, print marketing materials, and the website update. Barnes and Noble, Amazon, should have the book available once the book is at press. The digital E book, on the other hand, takes 4 weeks from now to make it through the conversion. I find the people who work on these jobs, are very lucky. To be assisting in the materials, and helping with the cover of the book. Their job is never a dull one, as hundreds of books are created every 3 months or so from most publishers. Of course, I can e mail within a week, to see how the progress is going on the book front.  That is the latest news... On t...

An article, from the CBC news about the disappearance of bats from our neighborhoods. They say it is the white fungus, that affected the bats instincts. They now come out in the cold times, when they are not exposed to. Here is a link from the CBC NB site. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/05/03/nb-bat-population-disappearing.html There has been a fascination with bats in the old days. Now, we only hear about a bat around this area if a new Batman film has been released. I cannot remember, the last time I seen a bat. When living in my little village of Jacquet River, when as a kid, Mother would always say when going outside at dark, watch not to let the bats in. They were all over the place, at night, especially in the summer months. I would go outside, and see the bats flying around like crazy, around the lights. The lights, where the hot heat emanated from. I thought they were attracted to the lights, somehow. But the more I think about it, the bugs were ...

I had to agree on a pricing for Part 2 of my book. I took out the calculator, and churned some numbers. The pricing is up from the publisher for this book, approximately 30 cents from the last. Although, in all fairness, this book is 30 pages longer than the first. As we all know, everything goes up in price with time. It is difficult, for someone like myself to adjust the pricing of a book. I am not a skilled marketer. What I had done, was to go look on Amazon at some books that are around the same page count. Many of them are in the 15, 16, dollar range. Few of them are cheaper than that. Mine will be below the 15 dollar mark. It will be close to Part 1's sale price scheme. I would like a lower price on my E book for Part 1, but at the moment, it cannot be done. The 3.98 price that is offered was the best, that I personally could do, due to the cuts you have to give to each entity (publisher, retailer, and me). This was dropped from 8.99, the original pricing. Myself, I need...

The book cover came in from the publisher. They done a very good job, and put my name on the bottom of the cover, with the main logo on the top right of the back of the book, this time.  The first book had the main logo on the bottom back of the book. On the back cover, a brief summary of the book. An author always hopes he hits the right cord, with the audience. I was hoping this was the case, as in Part 1. I sometimes feel I do not describe enough of what is in the book, or talk about the right elements, but a summary should be just a brief spiel about leading up to the main lingering problem in the book. Including some problems/ good times associated with it. Personally, I would not go beyond that. The climax should never be given away, in my opinion in the summary. I think I did a good job at hiding the climax, in both Part 1 and Part 2 of "The Supermarket Guy".  But all authors have their own way, of doing it. Intriguing the audience, just with the mere words on the b...