Going Down to Yasgur's Farm #OpenBook Blog Hop

June 25, 1018
What historical event would you have liked to witness?

I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
         credit: Joni Mitchell

I can't tell you how I first heard about Woodstock. Maybe it was a news report, or it may have been from my older siblings. But it was after the event, not before. i wasn't really into popular music at the time.

But as the legends around the event grew, the more interested I became. And as the music gained airplay, it called out to me. From the simplicity of singer-songwriters like Joni Baez to the exotic sounds of Ravi Shanker and the featured performance of Jimi Hendrix.

What would it have been like to spend three or so days listening to some of the great musicians of the time? Sure, there was a lack of food, water, and restrooms, but there was no lack of peace and love. I was too young to make the trip, but thanks to technology, I own much of the recorded music.

I don't know if this event will ever be copied. Sure, they tried. And failed (in my opinion.)

And I would have liked to attend a Burning Man Festival before they became popular. Or maybe one of these days I'll stumble upon a Rainbow gathering. Although I'm getting a bit too old for the sleeping on the ground thing.

In the meantime, I think I'll put on some Santana, slip on my headphones, and go check out what events the other authors are talking about.

June 25, 1018
What historical event would you have liked to witness?
Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants' blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person's blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

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Free Books #OpenBook Blog Hop

What's your opinion on authors giving their books away for free?

If you are a heavy reader of e-books, you probably know that there are a lot of free books out there. Enough that you could fill whatever e-reader you use without spending a penny. And you know what? Some of those books are good. Really good.

But you won't find any of my books on that list. and that's on purpose. I don't give my books away for free on a mass basis. (I have been known to give away a copy or two to interested readers.) My reasoning is simple.

I work hard on my books. I put a lot of time and effort into writing my character's stories. My time should be worth something,

But beyond that, It's not a totally free process to get them ready for publication. I don't have the skill set needed to format them in the way they need to be set to work properly with all the various e-readers. I pay someone to do it for me. There's the cost of editing and covers, too.

Then there is the delivery fee. At least one of the major sites (cough, Amazon, cough) charges the author a small delivery fee when their book is downloaded. (not on free books, however.) That's on top of the cut they take for their share of royalties.

Now, I am very aware of the concept that readers will so love your free book that they will go right out and buy the rest of the books in a series. I've seen that stats that indicate that this use to work. I've also heard the discussions about whether it works any more or not, and I lean toward the side that says it doesn't. Why?

I believe the market is over-saturated. There are too may free books out there, and even if they get
downloaded they don't get read. Sorry, my author friends, but I'm a poster child for that. I'm not sure how many unread books I have on my app. Too many. And I'm fairly picky about what I download.

So, I won't price my books for free. I do try to price my books at an "attractive" level, one that won't scare off potential readers to a fairly unknown author. And I have one book (The Marquesa's Necklace) priced at 99¢ to attempt to draw in new readers. (Haven't read it yet? Go buy it! Please?) In advertising terminology, it's my loss leader. My hope is that if there's at least a small investment made to obtain the book, there's a higher chance that it will actually get read.

But I would love to hear how readers feel about this topic. The comments are open! And while I'm waiting, I'm going to hop on over and find out what the other authors think.


June 18, 2018
What's your opinion on authors giving their books away for free?

Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants' blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person's blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

Strange Conditions #OpenBook Blog Hop

What's the strangest medical or psychological condition you've ever given to one of your characters?

It would be easy to say that many of the characters in my Free Wolves series suffer from clinical lycanthropy. In simple terms, that's the condition of thinking you are a werewolf (or other animal.) In more technical terms, it's defined as a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is a non-human animal. Its name is associated with the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which humans are said to physically shapeshift into wolves. (from Wikipedia.) But since my characters can actually shift, it's not a delusion. Or is it?

I'll leave you to ponder that question and move on to Oak Grove and Harmony. If you've read the books, you know she has a few quirks to her personality. Counting stairs is one of them, and being obsessed with naming things is another. Her morning habit of coffee and reading the newspaper in the summer borders is more than a pattern. Then there's her weekend cleaning ritual, chores always done in the same order.

Although I didn't plan it, those symptoms point to a slight (and undiagnosed) case of OCD. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) It's defined as a common, chronic and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.

That may be part of what makes the librarian job so perfect for Harmony. There's a certain sense of ritual in many of the daily tasks. Shelving books, for example. Not only does it involve finding the right spot for each book, I can see her straightening up all the neighboring books in a perfect line, all the spines the exact same distance from the edge of the shelf. Or carefully arranging the magazines in the periodicals section so they are in chronological order.

Here's one example from The Marquesa's Necklace:

 I climbed the stone steps, smiling, counting them as I had habitually done all those years ago. As a teenager, the library became my second home. One, two, three ....fifteen. There is now a wheelchair ramp in the back, but the steps are unchanged. 

I don't consider Obsessive Compulsive Disorder strange, but it opens up a whole host of quirks for me to play with in exploring Harmony's personality.

Now, let's see what the other authors inflicted on their characters! 

June 11, 2018
whats the strangest medical or psychological condition you've ever given to one of your characters?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants' blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person's blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

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Changing My Life #OpenBook Blog Hop

If you could change one thing in your life and not have it affect you negatively later, what would you pick?

Let me start by saying I'd be afraid to change anything, despite the disclaimer about not affecting me negatively later. What's the saying- for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's true. But for the sake of this blog, I'll set that feeling aside.

If you've read my bio, you know I'm a computer geek. It's my job. I won't bore you with the technical details, but between my job and writing, I spend far too much time staring at a computer screen. And I wouldn't change that.

So, what would I change? I'd figure out a way to get started in the computer field sooner. I was no spring chicken when I touched my first keyboard. Heck, I'm old enough that in high school, there was no such thing as keyboarding. Kids took typing classes back then.

And the test they gave predicting what field we should study didn't even include a category for computers. I forget what the score suggested I make a career in, but it didn't happen. Of course, personal computers didn't exist back then, but computers were mainstream for big business.  Good programmers were sought after. But I have no desire to be a programmer.

Move ahead a few years, when personal computers started to hit the market and servers no longer filled entire rooms. That's when I wished I gotten started. Before the dot.com boom. (I came in at the end of that era.) Of course, with my extra knowledge, I would have bought stock in technology companies while it was still cheap.

What would my life look like now if that had happened? I hate to even think about it. I have a pretty darn good job now and I wouldn't want to mess it up. Or all the other good things in my life.

Now, let's go find out what  the other authors would change.

June 4, 2018
If you could change one thing in your life and not have it affect you negatively later, what would you pick?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants' blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person's blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

Blogger

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