Saturday’s Forum
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21 responses to “Saturday’s Forum”
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The anniversary is tomorrow actually but I may be too preoccupied to write then.
I ask that myself sometimes. On April Fool’s Day 2014 I published my first book, an original work of mine, at Amazon. Over the next six months I published more books. Most of them were old stories I had posted to two websites over the years but one of these was an original work. It was my dung beetle story.
From April to September 2014 I earned between $150 and $325 a month on all my books with the exception of two were priced $2.99. Not exactly exciting sums of money. In early October I was doing my best business to date but I didn’t expect to come in at more than around 500 or so.
Next up for me was for me to repolish one of my old stories. It was rewritten for the 2nd time since 2005. My longtime editor Leeanne, who hadn’t worked on this story of mine, was very critical of it. Her main complaint- My main character whined too much. So I eliminated most of the whining.
The story is about a married couple (who have two young children) and how their experimenting sexually causes their relationship to disintegrate and then how the husband (who has custody of the children) tries to put their life back together again.
And I published it on October 27, 2014. It was priced at 3.99, the first time I published anything for that price. Book sales were great. I remember one day. with my wife’s encouragement, where I kept hitting the refresh button on my Amazon sales page. My one day total rose as high as 49.
For the month of October 2014 I made almost 900 dollars. Early in November I raised the book’s price to 4.99. For the month of November I made a little over 2000 dollars.
My book business was more than a hobby now and I formed a S corp for it. Income would fluctuate quite a bit for another two years before settling down in a trend where it increasingly grew to an average of 8 to ten thousand a month. I went traditional publishing this year and early reports have my business still increasing. I have sold the rights to three books of mine, one of which was made into a movie in India. More income was raised through this. I was able to buy our condo with cash in 2021 thanks to everything. Dear wife and I don’t live fancy. She drives a 2022 Nissan and me a 2005 Toyota Matrix. She does her clothes shopping at Ross, me at Target. We have helped put two nephews and a niece through Philippine nursing or medical school. Dear wife will cease working at our church on December 31st.
As that movie song asks= Where did we go right? I don’t really know. While my imagination is great, my writing skills aren’t. My best seller (Over 600000 copies) isn’t particularly clever. An early reviewer of that book said it was written by a 4th grader. I have always wondered if the story’s early sexual activity was what brought in readers. Whatever the cause, tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of its publication.
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@Bill Jempty:
Congratulations, Bill. -
The Washington Post says it will not endorse a candidate for president
Latest hornet’s nest kicked.
Publisher William Lewis explained the decision as a return to the newspaper’s roots.
If just a change in policy, then why not announce it back during the summer?
The Washington Post’s publisher said Friday that the paper will not make an endorsement in this year’s presidential contest, for the first time in 36 years, or in future presidential races.
The decision, announced 11 days before an election that most polls show as too close to call, drew immediate and heated condemnation from a wide swath of subscribers, political figures and media commentators. Robert Kagan, a longtime Post columnist and editor-at-large in the opinion department, resigned in protest, and a group of 11 Washington Post columnists co-signed an article condemning the decision. Angry readers and sources flooded the email inboxes of numerous staffers with complaints.
That’s all I’m going to say about this but there is a swirl of accusations, rumors, reasonings, rationales that will continue to be discussed for the next few weeks. Have fun!
UPDATE: I just noticed the conversation started yesterday afternoon. Too busy with grandchildren to notice. Plus I’m making a concerted effort to tune out for my mental health.
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It’s always the ones you most expect: Elon Musk worked illegally in the US while building his first start-up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/26/elon-musk-immigration-status/
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@Scott: I canceled my subscription to WaPo yesterday. Democracy Dies in Darkness, indeed.
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@Jax: As I noted yesterday, who expected that Bezos was making this kind of a mission statement?
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Analysis of why Russia failed to get air superiority agasint Ukraine.
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If you’re looking for a spooky movie, I’d recommend Ghostwatch.
If you want to go old-school, a gem (IMHO) of supernatural suspense that few people have ever heard of is The Changeling (1980). George C. Scott, Trish Van de Vere, Melvyn Douglas, John Colicos, Barry Morse, etc.
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@DrDaveT: I bought this DVD many years ago, as film nerd and Melvyn Douglas fan. Have never gotten around to watching it, but I will now.
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Apparently, Kamala events are not kid-friendly, unless you like a Kamala supporter screaming the f-word in your child’s face. Ah, the college-matriculated. So socialized. Not a lot of regulation of emotions on display. Nor discipline of intellect.
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@JKB:
Terrible, and I hope she is ashamed of herself. What could justify screaming at a child like that?
Thankfully, a bystander, who seemed to be stepping back and watching the situation, immediately steps in when the yelling starts and pushes the screamer away.
Her behavior was out of line and NOT tolerated.
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@DrDaveT:
If you want to go old-school, a gem (IMHO) of supernatural suspense that few people have ever heard of is The Changeling (1980). George C. Scott, Trish Van de Vere, Melvyn Douglas, John Colicos, Barry Morse, etc.
I saw that movie when it was in the theaters. Great cast but I wasn’t impressed. I’m not a fan of ghost stories.
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@JKB: Yet “Grab ’em by the pussy” events are totally kid friendly.
My eyes just rolled so hard I got a headache.
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@Kathy:
parallel universe story.
Like where Guinan is a starship Captain with a Borg First Officer and a Ferengi Chief Medical Officer?
I sometimes though the last half of Deep Space Nine was an alternate universe. At the show’s beginning Rom was made out to be an idiot who as a brother once said ‘couldn’t fix a bent straw’ and then the series progresses and he is a mechanical wonder.
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..and a Ferengi Chief Medical Officer?
No private equity medicine in the Federation!
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@Bill Jempty: I knew a guy who was almost an entirely different person when their big brother was around. He would just internalize and let the older brother lead the way. Looking back I can’t help but think he was on the spectrum. Much like how I view Rom’s behaviour.
There was essentially three Roms in the series. The Rom that appeared in the pilot. The Rom that existed for a while under Quark. Then the Rom who flourished once he escaped the smothering embrace of his family.
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