Rick McBee's Writings
Explore the magic of new ideas and books to read as well as see what books I have written, my favorite photos, my opinions on may subjects, including Science, Africa, the Caribbean, the Civil War, my Book Reviews, and Much More!
Star Wars – Death Star – Nixed by President – Hurray!!
Hurray! At least one budget breaking military FUBAR has been nixed! If you, America, got upset when someone put a bit of federal money into research on green energy and then the company went belly up, you ought to be really be upset by the kinds of wasteful projects that our military throws out on the table and they never seem to go bankrupt even though they repeatedly blow money away like it was going out of style. Our nation could go completely bankrupt on this kind of boondoggle! So who are we going to blow up? The Maritians? The little green cheese men on the moon? Ourselves more likely. My word, aren’t we the dumbest animals on the planet and we still haven’t realized that we have already met the enemy and it is US!
Marketing “Rough Enough” – How I got started on the book!
The Civil War is a lifelong compulsion for some persons so in that respect I an a Ricky-come-lately having only really gotten interested in 1994 while discussing with my then dying father some of the papers and letters he wanted to leave to me. These included several small boxes of papers from his own mother and father as well as a box from his grandfather, Richard Clow. The box was a gold mine of material, including a knife used by Richard during the Civil War, a cup, fork, powder horn, and some letters in their original envelopes with stamps unfortunately torn off by my father during his budding stamp collecting days. In addition there was a small diary which became the mystery booklet that kept me working on research for over ten years. Its cryptic notes, old song verses, Spanish sections and lists of ducks killed and people met, carried me from Fort Buford, ND to Little Sioux, IA and then back through Cheyenne, WY to Deadwood, SD and the gold mines. Ultimately I followed his track onto Montpelier, ID, Granite, OR and then to Mapleton, OR and the little museum in Florence which has a large picture of Richard Clow and his wife Linnie,(Story) Clow in the first room. Wow! A lot of miles, and thumbing through papers in museums and court houses to find all the materials. Along the way I was reading every Civil War book on the Petersburg, VA area and then took a trip out to walk the battlefields. Amazing!
More Marketing on “Rough Enough”
Raining in Hood River, can’t go skiing so this AM is another push to get out copies of the book to a number of people who have indicated that they would be willing to review it in their local newspapers or on Amazon once it’s released on March 1st. It’s not what you call a “big show” day, but one of those days when most of us as writers tend to dither over and do things like clean the toilet, scrape the dried dog poop off the shoes we left from last summer and every other chore rather than the one that will promote the book. So, here goes! I resolve not to clean the toilet or do the poop covered shoes today! They can wait until after I get the nit picking writer chores done that need attention!. Wish me luck.
End of World Events: Getting Scientific Proof Finally!
Scientific proof is possible in two ways:
1. Since the entire universe is expanding at just under the speed of light, the new universe is going to be just slightly out of kilter with the old one. So if you want evidence of this event’s occurrence, all you have to do is set up your measurement equipment next to any object and the day after, your equipment will register that it has been displaced by slightly less than 1.14048 x 10 to the minus 8th inches! (This is the amount it would have been displaced if the universe was moving at the speed of light.) We should have the ability to monitor this type of event although quantum movements may skew the evidence somewhat.
2. The other proof of the event comes from the evidence left behind by the methane gas released by the simultaneous nan-farts that are let off everywhere on earth by living organisms just after the occurrence of the reincarnation event. It should be possible in the near future with our sophisticated atmospheric gas monitoring systems to record this through a reincarnation event, since the old record would be in existence and the reincarnated metering system would then show a blip in gasses just following the event.
I hope this helps all of you understand the End of World Events and why you haven’t noticed them even though they seem to occur quite frequently. I actually was able to record both the movement and the gas passage of the Mayan event. Unfortunately, my coffee cup knocked my instrumentation and I will have to wait for the next event to replicate my results which were thus lost to history!>)
Targeting the Newspapers for Book PR
Interspersed with the “at home” holiday snacks and drinks today I managed to put together another bunch of addresses for recipients of my PR materials that will go to Newspapers. It’s always amazing to see how long it takes to get things done on the internet with the distractions of pop-up ads and side-bar junk. It’s no wonder that I find it so much easier to get my actual writing work done on the old computer that I don’t connect to the internet. With that machine I can just get in the “zone” for writing and stay in there for hours on end. It makes for consistency and well developed thoughts rather than the usual “snap judgement” stuff. Yesterday evening I upgraded my LinkedIn subscription for a fee of $20 per month. I figure three at home book sales per month will cover the additional cost and I can certainly manage that. I am hopeful that the additional coverage will give me an even larger audience for book sales and PR as we move toward the release date of 1 March for my book, “Rough Enough”
http://www.pdbookstore.com/comfiles/pages/RichardMcBee.shtml
Sending out Galley Proof Copies Takes Time!
Here it is, Friday afternoon already and I have just about finished selecting my lists of newspapers, magazines, Amazon reviewers, radio shows, talk shows and blogs to receive a copy of the Galley Proof for my Civil War Book, “Rough Enough.” See the link to the Publisher Direct Bookstore if you don’t already know about the book. It’s a good one!>)
http://www.pdbookstore.com/comfiles/pages/RichardMcBee.shtml
It’s a longer process than one might think. I part because it entails contacting each of the possible reviewers or publishers with information about the book ahead of time and asking them to respond about whether they are willing to review the book.
It would be a waste of time and “mucho dinero” if I were to just blindly send the copies out to anyone in the phone book. I mean, think about it. Do I want a one in a hundred ratio of reviews to books I send out? Of course not, so it means weeding out those persons who have other priorities or simply don’t do Civil War books at all.
Once I have the lists completed, then out go the requests and hopefully there will be an immediate response with a big “yes” so that I can proceed with the mailings.
First Mailings of Book: Rough Enough going out today!
Today I began the first mailings of my new Civil War book, “Rough Enough” which follows 15 years of the life of young Richard Clow as he writes letters home to his sisters from the battle field at Petersburg, VA and later moves on to fight on the Montana/Dakota frontier during the Indian Wars. These are the first dated copies that go to family members, the early endorsers and reviewers of the book as well as signed copies for local friends who have already purchased copies. It’s exciting and fun! I’m looking forward to the next few weeks during which time I’ll be sending out copies directly from home to those who buy books directly from me.
To order a book, you can go directly to :
http://www.pdbookstore.com/comfiles/pages/RichardMcBee.shtml
If you are interested in receiving a signed copy of the book, you can do so by sending $26.00 directly to me at: Richard McBee, 4431 Riverside Drive, Hood River, Oregon, 97031, with the name of the person for whom it is to be signed and the mailing address to which you want it to be sent by priority mail. Also send me your email address or mailing address so that I can notify you that it has been sent and can mail a receipt to you. I will be setting up a direct Pay Pal method of ordering in the coming weeks, but that won’t happen until after Christmas, so if you want it sooner, rush me the information. Happy Holiday Seasons Greetings to everyone.
Back to working on the Seashell Book
Thanksgiving was great! The loss of the Oregon State Beavers to the Oregon Ducks was horrible, but now I can concentrate on my writing. In particular, some of my prep for marketing my Civil War book, but even more interesting to me at the moment is the completion of my Seashells of the Caribbean book. The interactive e-book format intrigues me along with all of the macro-photography. The book is up to 300 pages of correlated photos with descriptions of anatomy and collecting tips all linked to internet sites that expand the possibilities of the book almost beyond limits. This will be the future of many hobby books, the ability to have them on your laptop, I-pad or e-reader and take them out into the field as you do your own collecting and photography. I only hope they make a really waterproof laptop soon, I’d love to be able to take one when I go diving!
That first Pristine copy from the printer!
I hike up the hill to the mail box. There inside is an express envelope from American Book Publishing. My heart leaps and I am smiling as the dog and I head back down the road to the house. Even when Elliott does a lunge at Tod’s two dogs as we pass and I drop the letters while trying to hold him, I’m still smiling.
Jill can tell there’s something special when I come in the door and simply say, “Got an envelope from the publisher,” in response to her question of, “What did we get?”
I tear off the corner, slip my pocket knife beneath the tape and slit the top of the packet. My hand comes out with the book. My eyes sparkle as I look at the cover and realize that the real thing is even better than I’d envisioned it from the PDF file.
We break out the peanuts and pour ourselves a glass of sherry. Jill thumbs through the book and hands it to me. “My husband the author,” she says smiling and raising her glass.
I flip the pages to the Acknowledgements and read her the section about her help. I can see her eyes begin to glisten and a smile twists her lips as she sips her sherry. I turn to page 58 and the brief letter written by Richard Clow on that epic day of April 9, 1865 from which I derived the title of the book. I read his words and look at the ceiling to keep my own tears from running out of my eyes.
I take a deep breath, a sip of my sherry, and pull myself together.
“Yes,” I say, soberly yet with a smile, “I hope it sells a million copies.”
Check it out: http://www.pdbookstore.com/comfiles/pages/RichardMcBee.shtml
What to do while you wait for the book to be Printed
One of the great things about doing e-books is the instant feedback given by computers to your wishes and needs. When I first put my Civil War book , Rough Enough on Kindle some 18 months ago, the satisfaction of completing the project to that point was rewarded almost instantaneously with icons and the ability to put the book on view for the rest of the world. On the other hand, the book at that point still needed editing and I was fortunate enough to find American Book Publishers (ABP) willing to take me on.
The result was over 18 months of correspondence and working with one editor to rewrite the entire book, consolidate the references, put in foot notes and pick up a few loose ends of research that the Prince of Serendipity threw my way. I took the book off Kindle because I was assured that it would be radically better by the time I completed it with an editor. A fact that I am glad to say has really come to pass now that I see the cover and manuscript and full manuscript.
I think you’ll love it once it comes off the press and is also exhibited with the 4 main e-book publishers (Kindle, Nook, I-books and Google books) in their formats.
So now what to do with the next week or so while waiting for the books?
1. I’m going to work on my two presentations that will accompany me when I travel and do any speaking engagements. one geared towards Civil War fans and the other geared towards University students in the event that I am asked to speak to a class on the subject. This will take me a couple of good weeks of work.
2. Then when I run out of steam on the presentations, I’ll be putting addresses on my envelopes from the lists that ABP has assured me they will be sending.
3. Finally, I always have my e-book of Caribbean Seashells to fall back on. This is a unique e-book that should rock the market place with the ability to jump from keys to specimens to anatomy to web links…. you name it. I had hoped to have it on the e-book sites for Christmas, but you all know how that goes…..
There you have it for today, never a dull moment on the Oregon farm, but now that the rains are here and the winter wine is fermenting, I can really concentrate on the writing full time…between tips to the ski hill that is.
Take care more on my writing/editing tomorrow.
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Rick McBee's Writings 