I’m just full of announcements. Back around the holidays I announced that I would be imminently unpublishing my book This, Their Friendship’s Monument (TTFM) on Amazon and publishing a new and improved version of it called Coal Country Connections (C3). A quick recap—I had decided that I wanted to change the black and white images … More Writing prognostiphobia–yes, it’s a thing
On Christmas, I got the best present ever. I’ve had other best presents ever, including a shoebox crammed full of wonderful paperback books when I was a preteen, sweaters, afghans, wall art and other beautiful handcrafted items, and other gifts that weren’t handmade but were incredibly thoughtful. As we all know, this is Christmas #2 … More Best. Present. Ever.
It should have been easy. All I wanted to do was change the photos in my book on Amazon from black and white (B&W) to color. Simple, right? Nope. This cautionary tale is being told for two reasons–to let my readers know that my old book will soon become a new book (sort of), and … More My book will soon be unpublished & republished with a new name on Amazon–read on to discover why
Today is Veteran’s Day, 2021. It’s the first Veteran’s Day that William Boyd of the town of Jim Thorpe, PA finally has a military marker. William Boyd was a Private in the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry in the Union Army during the Civil War, and for a time he was a prisoner of war in Richmond. … More A Civil War veteran was finally honored for his service on Veteran’s Day
I’m writing a book. My second one, actually (the first one This, Their Friendship’s Monument can be found on Amazon). Writing my first book taught me how hard writing a first book can be. And because I self-published using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), I know how complicated that is too. In some of my previous … More From Procrastination Station to Conjunction Junction: writing is hard
Somehow, with no idea of what I was doing, I was able to get a military marker for a Civil War veteran who had none. A cousin of mine (four times removed) was in the 4th Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil War and became a prisoner of war at Libby Prison in Richmond, from which … More How I was able to honor a hero with the help of a few good people
I never thought I’d write about history. I’ve always liked to write, sure, and I tried my hand at writing novels years ago. But when my grandmother died a few years ago and we found a little autograph album in her records, I unexpectedly found my reason to write. The autograph/friendship album was filled with … More When the present blocks you from the past: one of the challenges of writing about the past
When I published “This, Their Friendship’s Monument” in September 2020 on Amazon, I didn’t think an index for it was necessary. Probably because I’d spent literally years writing it and could locate anything in it in a matter of seconds. It’s been a few months since the writing dust settled, and I recently went back … More “This, Their Friendship’s Monument” now has an index
Years ago, I tried my hand at writing fiction, and bought just about every book I could find on the subject, including one by Stephen King called “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”. In it, King says “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for … More When You Open the Writing Room Door
I can’t believe it. After years of working on it, off and on, my book is finished. And not just finished, but self-published and on Amazon. Yes, AMAZON. I submitted it for publication yesterday around 8:00 PM and by 4:00 this morning I had an email from Amazon with the subject line “Your book is … More I finally did it…I’m officially a (self) published author
ChessieWriter 