A couple good articles

 You should read these articles, why bother writing subpar stuff when others can do it far better for you?  Enjoy!  A bit about Tolkien and Creation (why I now need to read the Silmarillion).  A note about our modern 'trampled' faith, and why that really isn't the case and should make you doubters very nervous.

A review of ‘The Worm Ouroboros’

 I read this book thinking it would be one of those mystifying tones that puzzle and enthrall years after reading it, like The Man Who Was Thursday or That Hideous Strength or even The Once and Future King, something far greater than the pages upon which it is written to contain it.  It is an intriguing read, set in and written like an old epic out of the classical period, but overall an excellent story and a good book.  My greatest impression was that the chaos and capriciousness of the Greek gods was finally civilized and ordered into the medieval Christian ideal of true society and culture (which is not to say this is a Christian book but rather an epic saga written by a western man with a Christian education).  The high ideals of chivalry, nobility, honor, good and evil imbuing the book are a stark contrast to classic mythology wherein the gods smite and ravish whom they will.  What surprised me most was the ending, I had come to expect these men, nay demigods to make the obvious Christian choice, to rejoice in their hard won peace and glory rather than looking upon the horrors of the past with an unfathomable longing.  I was expecting a little of Faramir’s ‘I love the bright sword only for what it defends’ rather than this high deeds and glory for its own sake, at least in this the book lives up to its pagan, or rather merely human, heritage, but then the very idea of the namesake worm is one of repetition and endless circles, when in reality it is a mere circling of the drain.  The Christian answer to such things is a hard edged cross to smite that ancient dragon and his illusionary circles.  War and personal glory are not an end of themselves rather they are only worthwhile wherein they are used to fight back that hideous worm and his destructive ideals.  Good and right and true have always been and will ever be, unsullied, unchanged, undimmed, evil is a bending or marring of that eternal Good, the Good will exist and continue whether there be evil or not.  These valiant and otherwise noble heroes at the last make the same mistake so many mere men now make in thinking Heaven must be dull since therein no evil dwells, not realizing that it is our broken souls that cannot understand such wonderful tales nor even conceive of them, for they are greater than we, no more can a toddler comprehend advanced physics but no affect does that have on gravity’s pull on himself.  This is not a tale too big to fit in a book, save to those whose minds are still dimmed by the dizzying circles of our human life, to find such tales one must look to the very Author of the original tale ‘too big to fit in any written book!’  Job, Ecclesiastes, and most certainly the Gospel of John are just such tales, or rather little chapters of it.  After these have been mastered, perhaps the fairy tales of later saints might then confound us.  A rousing tale but not the end or greatest theteof!

Miracles do happen!

 No, I didn't just sell a book, the reason for my cookbook have ceased to exist (check out my companion to owls blog for details).  Cool right?!

Your name in print

 A decade or two ago it was a big thing to 'publish' your own book, to pay some vanity press tens of thousands of dollars for the honor of printing your tome.  Now you can do the same thing for free, well all it costs you is your blood, sweat, tears, and time, and pretty much everyone has an ebook nowadays.  But I will probably never succeed as an indie author, as I just don't have the heart to guilt people into buying my books, it was bad enough selling Girl Scout cookies back in the day and who doesn't love thin mints?  We had a guy in town here, about 156 years old, could barely see or walk but he had ordered a few thousand books filled with his own reminiscences some decades back and spent his retirement years waddling towards random people in public venues trying to sell his book, it got to the point people would just throw $20 at him and run for it.  I don't want to be that person, poor guy!  Buy my books or don't (like most sane people choose to do), no pressure.  I write because I have to, not because I want to be rich (but hey, that'd be okay too) but I'm too soft-hearted to guilt people into buying stuff they don't want or need (a rather poor capitalist).

But I will say I am not impressed with Amazon as a publisher.  I just got done 'publishing' 8 of my titles for print on demand, apparently I get to pay printing and shipping costs out of my royalties (a 60/40 split) which leaves me with $2 on a $16 book.  I don't like their non-KDP ebook options either, I can't list anything for free and get 35% royalties to boot and if you go KDP you can't publish with anyone else.  I have 'published' with Smashwords for years, though their 'meat grinder' conversion system drives me batty on long books (the hyperlinks don't work), which is why I have some double published with direct2digital on my 'box sets.'  I love the flexibility and options on Smashwords, draft2digital prints nice books but the interface is a little clunky, and amazon has the market reach (though I'm sure my books are priority 0 for being seen by anybody unless I pay for the privilege), so I'm stuck publishing in three different venues.  I'd best stick to inoculating bovines for a living!

But I have a book, or 8, in print, yay!  I'm going to purchase an author copy and I'll let you know on quality.  So if you like real books, your wait is over (not that anyone likely cares!).  It was kind of interesting figuring out the differences in publishing for print vs ebook, but it isn't rocket science so yes, even I can do it, maybe you too?

A note on cookbooks: I did do the cookbook hardcover, but only had 47 pages and it requires 75 minimum, so if you notice large fonts and extra front material, there you go.  

Old-fashioned?

 I'm not sure if anyone has been waiting around the past 12 years or not, but I've finally gone and done it: a paperback version of 'Of Tea...and Things,' is available on Amazon, I'll try and do a starter version for each series (except my cookbooks!), but if they are an international phenomenon I might do the whole series, but right now we'll just stick to the first books, as it is a bit of work and I'm netting $10 a year from my writing!

A mess!

 I'm in the middle of updating covers (full disclosure, all are AI generated using Leonardo.ai) on amazon and Smashwords, as well as putting books on amazon that I hadn't yet.  As usual, having trouble with the Smashwords 'meat grinder' and review process, updating as I can but they seem to randomly reject a given book or ten and I have to resubmit it.  I have also made a few errors in uploading the wrong cover but hopefully have caught those as well!  Amazon I still can't offer 'free' books, so if there is something you are interested in, check out the wider inter web to see if you can get it gratis.  Apparently you can only add 3 titles per day on amazon as well, so I guess that will limit how many I can add there as well, since I don't have time to do this every day, it may come it fits and starts.

The great graham cracker travesty!

 Yeah, so I just updated my various cooking-type books, apparently there is an omission in the graham cracker recipe, you need to add 1/2 cup brown sugar with the moist ingredients, and if you are using psyllium husk, it will be a pliable dough, not a semi-liquid.  Also check out the new AI covers on the cooking type books, will be hopefully updating the single volume books as well, but it may take a while as life is currently in session!