September 28, 2012 by J M Gallagher

Rollin’ Rollin’

I’m back on Chapter 4 of my novel now, after refixing Chapter 2 to smooth what I’d changed in Chapter 1 during the bootcamp. I smoothed and reworked a bit of Chapter 3, too. Just have to read it all when we’re not so tired, and it’ll be signed off.

But now, the Epcot Food & Wine Festival begins, family is coming to town this weekend, and all the tv shows we watch come back from hiatus. We’ll see how good I get at staying on task while keeping up with Person of Interest, Castle, Amazing Race and Top Chef (when that starts).

In the meantime, enjoy a new paragraph I added to Chapter 1:

Technically, I wore a costume, too. Like a spy’s tuxedo, my generic blue shorts and shirt concealed the fact that I could leaf through filing cabinets with the flick of a wrist, answer the phone while dealing with a hangnail, and pour coffee to placate the meanest boss. All with a perky smile. After a full day as a mild-mannered office drone, I spent my nights and weekends dispensing justice in the form of counseling treatment plans to addicted delinquents. Fear my super powers, slackers.

Imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

September 27, 2012 by J M Gallagher

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(Images are from Amazon and owners retain all rights.)

September 25, 2012 by J M Gallagher

Political Cloud

The restaurant we went to tonight had a TV behind the sushi bar. Almost every time I glanced at the screen, another political ad was on. So cannot wait for this run up to the election to be over.

When we got home, we found politically-related entries on John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton‘s blogs that clearly show the ludicrous nature of our political world.

Scalzi? Against political ads on Youtube? Accused of taping bacon to cats? *Gasp Shock Awe*

Wheaton? Wears crappy sweaters? Thinks Scalzi is wrong, wrong WRONG???

Now that’s a scandal I care about! 😀

September 24, 2012 by J M Gallagher

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At this moment, this book is the #1 bestseller of all Amazon Kindle ebooks:

Not entirely due to its cover, I think. 🙂

(Images are from Amazon and owners retain all rights.)

September 23, 2012 by J M Gallagher

Happy Birthday!!

To the best brother in the whole world:

Happy Birthday, Patrick!!

September 22, 2012 by J M Gallagher

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(Images are from Amazon and owners retain all rights.)

September 20, 2012 by J M Gallagher

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(Images are from Amazon and owners retain all rights.)

September 19, 2012 by J M Gallagher

Authors’ Warning to Those Who Self-Publish

Anya Bast is a NYT bestselling author of erotic and paranormal romances. While searching through book covers on Amazon, I came across this blog post and decided to share it since I have many friends published on the Kindle.

Amazon has bots searching the web to ensure it isn’t publishing plagiarized books. It found a copy of one of her novellas online and demanded proof that she wasn’t the pirate. Since she was out of town at the time, she missed the window of opportunity and her KDP account was terminated.

Fortunately, she was able to get the situation resolved, but not without a lot of hassle on her part.

Author Mysti Parker suggests setting up Google Alerts so you’ll know when your book title is mentioned online. Because of this, she discovered a site that facilitates illegal ebook sharing and had this to say about it:

Book sharing sites like Perusing the Shelves may not be selling pirated copies, but by allowing others to share unlimited e-copies of any author’s work, without the express consent of said author, are perpetrating the illegal trade of copyrighted work. I’m sure there are authors there who regularly interact with the members there, but I am not one of those, and to see a request for my book pop up there is surprising and annoying, considering how easy it is to contact me online.”

Seems to me that simply writing a book and marketing it is hassle enough without having to worry about pirates…