Changing view - Changing Mind
Alive at last! So many days, weeks with no activity in here. All down to companies now requiring upgraded security on web-sites. Good thinking, but when it takes one unawares ……..!!!!!
Thankfully, I have Skype which enabled the long calls while GoDaddy guys poked around the system and finally have me up and running.
Back later for news. Just now I need a coffee and a deep breath and put my feet up in relief.
https://steemit.com/australia/@isabeldorastorey/priority-post-print-copy-arrived-today
First I need to get some idea of how many print copies will find a home in Australia. Once I have a ball-park figure I can order a batch of author copies to sell at AUD$25.00 plus postage within Australia for those not living in Adelaide. Once such an order has been placed and the shipment despatched, then I will transfer the print version from Createspace into the Amazon domain where it can sit beside the e-book version available to those within the US and elsewhere.
But first, to describe what is on offer.
Ancient lore meets modern law.
Century long saga between 1865 – 1965
Four families, four generations, four countries, four cultures.
An early reader tells “that it moves forward through eras and locations, with events playing out in the UK, Australia, South Africa, and upon the high seas.
A rich compelling tale of dynasty, dispossession, and changing times, it concerns noblemen and wanderers; it touches pioneers, soldiers, and lawyers. It lives in history, framed by trusts and family legend.”
If you are in Australia and would like a signed copy please check the postage from your region https://auspost.com.au/business/shipping/check-postage-costs/downloadable-price-guides
add the cost of posting 600gm to $25, email an order to (http://mixedfortunes363@gmail.com) with your contact details. I will then place a bulk order; let you know when it arrives and, on receipt of the amount due sent to
paypal.me/IsabelStorey/xx (xx = $25+postage), I will post the book to you and advise that it is on the way.
I can’t leave this open for too long as I want to make the book available to the American market at their postage rates. There are two extremely supportive people living in the US to whom I wish to gift a copy as soon as the book moves into the Amazon sphere. My thinking is that I would welcome signs of interest by people in Australia by no later than April 30.
(One thing I will never attempt is to write a book on marketing as I am sure this is an off-beat process I am suggesting.)
https://steemit.com/writing/@isabeldorastorey/heirloom-featuring-within-my-novel
During the note-making years before I started writing the first draft, I sought an item which would be valuable at the time (18th century) and rare later on. In an encyclopedia of antiques I came across a photo of a piece of Lomonsov porcelain. Friends of mine who are familiar with antiques had not then heard the name.
Within my novel, a young bride takes into her marriage to a Scottish ducal family, a dowry which included a full set of all serving items of Lomonsov porcelain – the Forget-me-not pattern as this seemed appropriate for the purpose within my novel. Over the years the Duchess gifts cups and saucers to close friends and these are handed down over each of the generations within my novel. At that time, the name was not found by Google.
Well under way in the writing, I went on-line to track down an on-line version of my original source and found to my pleased amazement that the factory Lomonsov was back in business and the same pattern as was available in the middle of the eighteenth century is available today.
heirloom ˈɛːluːm/noun a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations.
I doubt I will ever have the space for a full set, but am hoping to purchase at least one cup and saucer out of my royalties which I hope will flow once I publish MIXED FORTUNES.
Am just waiting for a tick of approval from a tutor who has my great respect before I upload to Createspace.
Within a few days I will have the files I need to upload the novel to Createspace and, when done, it will be available on Amazon as either print or ebook.
Why am I waiting for these when the original proofread file sits in my computer?
Well, I have a friend who is a graphics whiz and she is about to put the finishing touches to the covers – print and ebook.
As the story is told in present tense all the way through I have not given a title on chapters. These would be a dead giveaway to that which follows. As such requires its own style of formatting.
As I have mentioned before, I hope to launch the novel on April 21st, this being what would have been my mother’s 100th birthday. This is in rather belated recognition of a persistent dream of hers during which she walked down a corridor of doors closed against her. But at the end there was a book. The way she talked led me to understand she thought the book made it all worth while.
I know there was little within “Life Before Lithium” which gave her any pleasure.
I like to think this one – MIXED FORTUNES – would have resonated with her given she gave me many snippets of the material it contains.
Lately I have been moving out of my comfort zones. Yes, that’s right – zone’S’.
I had to do something when I topped the bathroom scales at 102 kg. Loaded myfitnesspal.com to monitor every scrap of food and drink passing my lips. The only way I could eat that which I felt like eating required enough exercise to add to my daily allowance and still be on track for losing weight. I am now – after three weeks – at 98 kg this Sunday morning. I am tossing up whether to go for a walk or have a day of rest and modest meals. Meal planning has been a breeze. Into the supermarket and out with 14 frozen meals each fortnight (now into my second). It took one round to appreciate which are my favourite meals and on the second have eliminated the less enjoyable.
So that is one changed environment. The next is that I have started getting into the spoken word poetry scene here in Adelaide and there are many of those! I had been hesitant about going out and reading given that so many people find my lack of dentition off-putting, but it seems that I can read/recite with sufficient clarity for people to enjoy my work. Not only am I out there reading, I also took park in a poetry workshop run by Jennifer Eades as poet in residence at the Adelaide City Library. Writing again now the novel is finished and handed to another properly prepare for Createspace. (Yes, I know I could do it myself, but I know me and there is always that one thing I forget to do.) She has done such a good job on the cover. I think so.
How about you? Do you like it?
Out and about with my phone camera joining the fun of the Adelaide Fringe GooseChase. Capturing Street Art.
(Did wonders for my step count (Garmin) and distance and calories as measured in MapMyWalk.)
Next into another comfort zone. Until I joined and found myself contributing to steemit, I did not realise how little actual enjoyment I was getting out of Facebook . If you are looking for a more rewarding (in every sense) way of writing and sharing, then Google ‘steemit’ and follow links.
Within the steemit community I find myself able to write on a level I would never feel sufficiently free to do on Facebook. (Particularly after a sanctimonious comment made in reply to a post on domestic violence.) Within steemit I find the reward of bit coin tokens both receiving and giving to others far more motivating than anything ever on Facebook.
So, apart from updating calendar for poetry readings – and checking folk are alive and well – this is where you will find me in future.
Took myself for a long walk to clock up my 6000 steps goal. Rested at a bus shelter on the way home, (via West Terrace Cemetery) and there on the bench, was a book. I thought someone had lost it, but a label attached states
“Books on the Rail, take me home, read me, return me for someone else to enjoy.”
So… I now have a copy of Finding Nemo to enjoy.
Reaching the steps goal (taking it steadily) meant I could have some extra to eat as posting to my food diary within myfitnesspal.
The second surprise was tuning into a previously unseen episode of Midsomer Murders! With so many repeats over the years I thought I had, at one stage, seen them all. Not so! But I am beginning to guess what is coming next?
Had a busy day culling links stored as bookmarks. So many items of seeming interest which are now no longer available 404’s. Ah well.
This is my first post written which will go on-line as a Steem post. My fingers crossed.
Hopefully, 2018 will ind me a little more wise with my time and energy. For a while I had been running around like a headless chook (I will spare you a graphic) and not achieving much at all. Because as a person long retired who had allowed her retiring self to sink into doing as little as possible, I have only myself to blame. Now, I am on the verge of rewarding myself for some achievements.
First, finally attacking the weight gained while having Meals on Wheels delivered. Am on track, thanks to my fitness pal, to shedding slowly. Next, I started going out in evenings to poetry readings at bars and clubs. Open mikes. Well received. Discovered the price of beer which came as a bit of a shock! Manage to make one last the evening. Have been attending poetry workshops as the Adelaide City Library and finally getting back into writing poetry again. I have a bundle of books on the way from Createspace which is good as am being asked for copies!
Biggest step of all, is changing over to the Steemit platform as a discipline to write more regularly within that community than I have been in that other place.
Tearing leaves from an old notebook, putting together a folder for the research necessary for the next book – the plot of which is REALLY shaping up – I came across a sheet used within a workshop run by David Chapple for Eyre Writers, Port Lincoln.
Against the prompts on the left side of the page I had filled the dotted lines, resorting to verse when under pressure. Here goes:
I grew up in…. Mount Helena
Where the weather was always….fresh and the air was cleaner.
And the sound of that time…. is the Jane Brook running
Friends ….taught me the Kellys were always punning
Family …. taught me that’s ow we were perceived
And…. now I live to be believed
Today ….I am as truthful as I ever can be
Tomorrow …. is when I deceive only me.
I wish …. I had not seen the vision of my future self
I’ve become accustomed to ….leaving the ream on the shelf
I know ….that my hope is that when I am dead
and ….you read my writing in the years ahead.
Any ideas about fonts? The picture itself is so close to my description to Mary of the rare image I actually see that she might be standing behind my eyes.
For a while I have been stuck on progressing next novel. (Breaking Hearts) Partly because I had plotted from beginning to end which left me no surprises to enjoy when writing. I tried adopting the approach I have seen/heard others use – pegging away at Aristotle’s Incline. It does not connect with me where it matters – it does not set my thinking alight. Whereas playing around with hexagons while working out “Mixed Fortunes” worked for me. That was an array of six hexagons forming the seventh in the centre. I was able to think in straight lines from there – which explains the straight line of present tense from beginning to end. The ideas to explore within (?) “This is My Body” OR “Perilous Plunder” (?) require more complex interactions between characters than in “Mixed Fortunes”. Did an Image Search on Google, playing around with concentric circles when I came across this labyrinth within the hexagon. EUREKA!
Another stumbling block to productivity has been holding my breath for a competition result due on February 3. A matter of IfThisThenThat which has resolved itself after an action and conversation yesterday. The action was to apply for an advance on my pension to cover the cost of publication IF it needs to come out of my pocket. The conversation was with Mary G. who helped in working out costs of potential publication comparisons. Upshot is, if necessary, I will leave it in her proven and capable hands with even greater confidence as she created a mock-up cover which has blown me away. As soon as I can work out how to load a pdf file here and show you, I will.
Now, to get out the coloured pencils and play with copies of the maze.
(But if the heavens shine on me on February 7th, and the pension advance stashed away is not needed for publication, then I will take myself to Canberra for the Seven Sisters exhibition at the Museum and, with time and cash to spare also visit the National Gallery and Library while there.)
