Tis the season for frozen fingers and toes! This week has been a cold one, dipping below 0F a few nights. That didn’t stop me from going outside and risking frozen body parts–twice. We all need some excitement in our lives, right?

What to Look for From Rundy

With all of the cold weather going around perhaps the kind of excitement you prefer is the type one can indulge while sitting wrapped in a blanket with feet propped at the fire, and coffee in hand. Reading a book can be just that type of excitement. And, as promised last week, we have just such a book for you! At long last, The Stuttering Duke of York (sequel to The Stuttering Bard of York) is available as a free pdf download. You can download it here: http://creative-vapors.com/duke/download-the-stuttering-duke-of-york/

Please consider spreading the word. Share the book with friends you think might enjoy it, and post a review online.

If you have any comments on the book I’d be glad to hear them!

Some people are very busy and find it hard to set aside a lot of time to read and entire book all at once. In that line of thought, my next project is to serialize both The Stuttering Bard of York and The Stuttering Duke of York so that they can be read one chapter a day. I have a lot of work yet to get the books reformatted for reading online, but I’ll keep you updated as this progresses.

Word From the Publishing World

It seems like just about everyone in the book world has an opinion on self-publishing. (Yes, I have one too.) Some views are presented more intelligently than others. Guy Kawasaki is a successful man and a self-publisher. He was interviewed by Forbes, and has some strong opinions on the topic of self-publishing. Read the interview here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2013/01/21/considering-self-publishing-dont-bother-unless-you-follow-guy-kawasakis-advice/

There is always another side to the story. Nick Morgan, another contributor at Forbes, makes the good point that not all of us have the same platform as Guy Kawasakis. Read his article on the difficulties of self-publishing here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2013/01/08/thinking-of-self-publishing-your-book-in-2013-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

Physical Books vs. E-books

The debate about physical books and e-books rages on. I have written about this topic before, but to offer another slightly sentimental view I’ll point you to a piece by Josh Catone over at Mashable titled “Why Printed Books Will Never Die” (http://mashable.com/2013/01/16/e-books-vs-print/) A very sane point made in the article is this: “But the choice between e-books and printed books is not a zero sum game. Print books do not have to disappear for e-books to flourish, and e-books don’t have to be the only choice.”

An Inventive Way

I am always looking for an inventive way to get the word about my writing out to the world. Hey, I’ll take any inventive, and effective way to get my books out there. Author Jack Cheng found a way: Run a Kickstarter campaign to fund it. Very neat idea. Of course, you need the ability to get the word about the Kickstarter campaign out to the public so it is still something of the chicken and egg problem.

With that caveat said, it is still a nifty idea.

I don’t have a Kickstarter campaign, but if you’d like updates on my writing consider subscribing to this website via rss or email.

Until next time, keep warm!