In a previous post on my blog whataboutebooks.com, I wrote, “Like many other authors, I have come to realize that traditional ebook prices are too high.” It has taken a while for me to buy into the ninety-nine cent movement. First I reduced the price of the initial book in the Mark Rollins series as a test for getting new readers. Then I dropped the price of the other books in the series to $2.99. But, I finally came around, and now the ebook editions for all my books are priced at the 99 cent level:
99¢ for Mark Rollins’ New Career and the Women’s Health Club
99¢ for Mark Rollins and the Rainmaker
99¢ for Mark Rollins and the Puppeteer
Monday, September 26, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
There is more than one kind of casualty. There are life and limb casualties—human beings murdered and maimed out of hate, greed, lust, jealousy, or for no other reason other than to simply to kill or hurt.
There are other casualties—business casualties of lost wealth and wreaked dreams. These are casualties of time and technology that clear the space needed to build the future—a process sometimes called “creative destruction”.
I’m an author, and I deal with both—murder and mayhem as a mystery writer, while as a as a business author I write about prospering where the only constant, change, is destroying whatever already exists. Sometimes I combine both mystery and business survival into a single story.
There are other casualties—business casualties of lost wealth and wreaked dreams. These are casualties of time and technology that clear the space needed to build the future—a process sometimes called “creative destruction”.
I’m an author, and I deal with both—murder and mayhem as a mystery writer, while as a as a business author I write about prospering where the only constant, change, is destroying whatever already exists. Sometimes I combine both mystery and business survival into a single story.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
$.99: A 99 Cent Kindle Book,"Mark Rollins' New Career & the Women's Health Club"
To Introduce new readers to Mark Rollins mysteries, you can now buy the Kindle edition of the first Mark Rollins mystery, Mark Rollins' New Career & the Women's Health Club, for just 99 Cents!
Friday, October 29, 2010
U.S. cities are not suppose to be war zones
Four hundred and eight U.S. military members died in Afghanistan operations during 2010 as of October 29th. The combined casualty count for both U. S. and coalition members for the same period is 606.
During the same period 649 homicides occurred in just three of our U.S. cities. There were 370 murders in Chicago, 176 in Baltimore and 103 in D.C. As far as I know, our cities are not suppose to be war zones.
During the same period 649 homicides occurred in just three of our U.S. cities. There were 370 murders in Chicago, 176 in Baltimore and 103 in D.C. As far as I know, our cities are not suppose to be war zones.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Honor lives—In our Millitary
Yesterday the Restoring Honor rally in Washington DC drew an impressive crowd. The rally was a reflection of the mood of the entire nation. We no longer trust our CEOs, or our government! We want a return to the core values of this county—faith, hope and charity. We want a return to HONOR.
Thankfully we still have the military to look up to. It is in the military where men serve out of a sense of duty rather than greed. It is the military that provides examples of honor and bravery. It is the military who we look to get the job done when the rest of the government fails, as was case with Katrina.
The year-to-date U.S. military losses in Afghanistan have now exceeded 300. The restoring honor rally raised millions of dollars for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. You can express your thanks to members of the military and honor the more than 300 who have died in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) by adding your donation to the cause. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation’s mission is to provide a college education to every child who has lost a parent while serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Special Operations. To donate click on Restoring Honor.
Thankfully we still have the military to look up to. It is in the military where men serve out of a sense of duty rather than greed. It is the military that provides examples of honor and bravery. It is the military who we look to get the job done when the rest of the government fails, as was case with Katrina.
The year-to-date U.S. military losses in Afghanistan have now exceeded 300. The restoring honor rally raised millions of dollars for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. You can express your thanks to members of the military and honor the more than 300 who have died in Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) by adding your donation to the cause. The Special Operations Warrior Foundation’s mission is to provide a college education to every child who has lost a parent while serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Special Operations. To donate click on Restoring Honor.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Afghanistan Safer for Military than Chicago
Forty seven brave U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan since my last post. The year-to-date death toll stands at 224. In the mean time, in Chicago 29 people were shot during the weekend preceding the Supreme Court’s finding that the city’s ban on hand guns unconstitutional. According to The Huffington Post, in the week end prior to that, “at least 52 people were shot between Friday evening and early Monday in Chicago.” Once again, we find that when guns are banned, only the bad guys have guns. The bad guys in Chicago “killed” 50 in June and if July 2010 matches last year’s totals you can expect Chicago bad buys will kill another 60 in July— Military personnel in Afghanistan are safer than if they were stationed in Chicago!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Facts and Facts Checking Bites the Dust
FACTS are a casualty of an irresponsible and lazy news media. MSNBC is running a new ad for the Dylan Ratigan show. In the ad Dylan explains he is a truth-teller at a time when the truth is in short supply. He compares himself to Teddy Roosevelt who he quotes as having said, "I don't give them hell, I just tell the truth and they think it is hell."
Teddy didn't say that. The quote belongs to "Give ’Em Hell” Harry Truman.
Don't you find it amazing that NBC's truth-teller didn't even bother to get the source of his quote correct? So much for his credibility! It is, deservedly, down the tubes.
I learned through personal experience over the course of my career, that a reporter asking for an interview had already written his story. All they really wanted out of the interview was a sound bite that they could use to support the story they had already written. I can also say that I never read a story written about me or any enterprise or activity I was involved with that was accurate. All of them included errors. Even very favorable articles included inaccuracies - often significant ones. Unfortunately, getting it right is not high on the priority list of reporters or news outlets. Truth is the casualty.
Teddy didn't say that. The quote belongs to "Give ’Em Hell” Harry Truman.
Don't you find it amazing that NBC's truth-teller didn't even bother to get the source of his quote correct? So much for his credibility! It is, deservedly, down the tubes.
I learned through personal experience over the course of my career, that a reporter asking for an interview had already written his story. All they really wanted out of the interview was a sound bite that they could use to support the story they had already written. I can also say that I never read a story written about me or any enterprise or activity I was involved with that was accurate. All of them included errors. Even very favorable articles included inaccuracies - often significant ones. Unfortunately, getting it right is not high on the priority list of reporters or news outlets. Truth is the casualty.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
What time is it in Paris?
That is what my body would like to know. I am back in Tennessee after a nine day visit to the land of wondrous foods and great wines—research for my next book Mark Rollins and the Claret Murders.
Actually it was just short vacation. Claret is the English term for Baudaux Wines. Been there and done that. This time we were heading for the Rhone Valley—the land of rosé wines and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. As we sped through the French countryside on the upper deck of a double decker train from Charles de Gaulle International Airport to Avignon, I could not help repeating those famous words from the movie “French Kiss” —“beautiful, beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful!”.
Home base for most of our time in France was La Petite Colline de Roussiillon. La Petite Colline is our family’s French retreat—a charming two-bedroom with a pool and surrounded by forest, flowers, rosemary, and lavender outside. When not in use by the family, it is available as a vacation rental through JUST FRANCE.
What could be more pleasant—a morning attending an open air market in Bonnieux, lunch at Les Florets in Gigondas, a drive through the Lubéron Valley to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to browse the antique shops, home to Petite Colline for a dip in the pool, cocktails on the terrace, a twilight stroll under sky thick with stars followed by a chilled rosé from a local Côtes-du-Lubéron. And tomorrow? More soft breezes, sunshine, and blue skies.
We wrapped up our visit with two nights in Paris and then the grueling ten hour return flight to Dallas. That was followed by a dizzying trip through the lines in customs and a three hour layover before our hour and a half flight to Nashville.
My trip did expose another U. S. Casualty. It seems the shine is off of our President. He is a victim of his incompetence. The image of a boot on the neck of BP isn't setting well with the Brits. European newspapers and TV were portraying Obama as an amateur.
On the war front thirty-seven U. S. service men have lost their lives in Afghanistan during the last 23 days. The death toll is now 172 year to date.
Actually it was just short vacation. Claret is the English term for Baudaux Wines. Been there and done that. This time we were heading for the Rhone Valley—the land of rosé wines and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. As we sped through the French countryside on the upper deck of a double decker train from Charles de Gaulle International Airport to Avignon, I could not help repeating those famous words from the movie “French Kiss” —“beautiful, beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful!”.
Home base for most of our time in France was La Petite Colline de Roussiillon. La Petite Colline is our family’s French retreat—a charming two-bedroom with a pool and surrounded by forest, flowers, rosemary, and lavender outside. When not in use by the family, it is available as a vacation rental through JUST FRANCE.
What could be more pleasant—a morning attending an open air market in Bonnieux, lunch at Les Florets in Gigondas, a drive through the Lubéron Valley to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to browse the antique shops, home to Petite Colline for a dip in the pool, cocktails on the terrace, a twilight stroll under sky thick with stars followed by a chilled rosé from a local Côtes-du-Lubéron. And tomorrow? More soft breezes, sunshine, and blue skies.
We wrapped up our visit with two nights in Paris and then the grueling ten hour return flight to Dallas. That was followed by a dizzying trip through the lines in customs and a three hour layover before our hour and a half flight to Nashville.
My trip did expose another U. S. Casualty. It seems the shine is off of our President. He is a victim of his incompetence. The image of a boot on the neck of BP isn't setting well with the Brits. European newspapers and TV were portraying Obama as an amateur.
On the war front thirty-seven U. S. service men have lost their lives in Afghanistan during the last 23 days. The death toll is now 172 year to date.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Casualties of the Gulf Oil Accident
There is a story to be told that many people will never want told.
It is the story about why the BP explosion and the release of oil into the Gulf of Mexico went uncontained. It is the story of why the U.S. Government and BP became adversaries (rather than working together to contain the escaping oil) working independently and each limited by their own capabilities. Each hampered by their distrust and suspicion of the other.
“Why?” is the question. BP’s limited resources mean that it will surely become a casualty. So will the U. S. citizens who are impacted by the oil. The Gulf will, however, recover. After all, we live on a planet that more than once was a frozen ball. At other times, it was pounded and split by meteors and volcanic eruptions. The surface of the planet is constantly being torn apart and smashed together again. Planet Earth is a piece of explosion debris hurling through space lighted and heated by a burning ember , the sun, that in the last days will destroy us. Do we really believe our planet is incapable of surviving BP’s bruise?
Our government says “we will keep our boot on their neck until they stop the oil and every claim is paid”. Something is wrong about that position. Should a great government be so helpless that its response to is a pending disaster is to only demand that the problem be solved by a mere commercial business (one with no army, no navy, no federal reserve, no NASA, etc., etc., etc.)? That is just not how leadership is exercised. We should have had the combined resources of the U. S., BP, and others working in tandem, cooperatively, to prevent this accident from becoming a national disaster.
Was this accident preventable? Maybe and maybe not. But that has nothing to do with the problem at hand right now. The problem was is to contain the oil spill and to head off the potential damage. The government of the United States has chosen another path. The wrong path.
It is the story about why the BP explosion and the release of oil into the Gulf of Mexico went uncontained. It is the story of why the U.S. Government and BP became adversaries (rather than working together to contain the escaping oil) working independently and each limited by their own capabilities. Each hampered by their distrust and suspicion of the other.
“Why?” is the question. BP’s limited resources mean that it will surely become a casualty. So will the U. S. citizens who are impacted by the oil. The Gulf will, however, recover. After all, we live on a planet that more than once was a frozen ball. At other times, it was pounded and split by meteors and volcanic eruptions. The surface of the planet is constantly being torn apart and smashed together again. Planet Earth is a piece of explosion debris hurling through space lighted and heated by a burning ember , the sun, that in the last days will destroy us. Do we really believe our planet is incapable of surviving BP’s bruise?
Our government says “we will keep our boot on their neck until they stop the oil and every claim is paid”. Something is wrong about that position. Should a great government be so helpless that its response to is a pending disaster is to only demand that the problem be solved by a mere commercial business (one with no army, no navy, no federal reserve, no NASA, etc., etc., etc.)? That is just not how leadership is exercised. We should have had the combined resources of the U. S., BP, and others working in tandem, cooperatively, to prevent this accident from becoming a national disaster.
Was this accident preventable? Maybe and maybe not. But that has nothing to do with the problem at hand right now. The problem was is to contain the oil spill and to head off the potential damage. The government of the United States has chosen another path. The wrong path.
Monday, May 24, 2010
ICE vs. Arizona
Since my last post twenty-eight service men lost their lives in Afghanistan. The death toll is now 135 for the year.
U.S casualties are not limited to war zones. Our President has adopted a leadership style that destroys and vilifies so that he can lead “an angry mob” against those he tells us are “responsible for wrongs and our misfortunes.” This form of leadership propagates mob scenes just like the ones in the movies where town’s people are whipped into a frenzy that drives them to storm the jail or burn out the supposed wrong doer. Apparently, President Obama’s notion of unifying people is to unify (organize) some against others.
The latest casualty to fall victim to the President's mob leadership style is the state of Arizona. I understand that the head of ICE (U. S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) is threatening to not accept illegal aliens referred by Arizona to its Office of Detention and Removal, DRO. The DRO is the enforcement arm within ICE for the identification, apprehension, and removal of illegal aliens from the United States. According to the ICE web site, the resources and expertise of the DRO are utilized to identify and apprehend illegal aliens, fugitive aliens, and criminal aliens; furthermore, the DRO manages them while in custody and enforces orders of removal from the United States.
My wife has a great suggestion. Arizona should load its “undocumented” (illegal) aliens on buses. Drive them to D.C., and give them a few dollars of pocket money and let them out in front of the White House. Maybe the DRO will accept referrals from the District of Columbia.
The issue is not immigration. The U.S. needs immigrates who come to our country to become citizens. But immigration must be managed and controlled in an intelligent manner that adds to our strength as a nation. In addition, we need an effective temporary worker program. However, an effective temporary worker program should not involve any obligation for granting citizenship to the worker nor should it require that citizenship be granted to children born to those here on temporary work permits.
As a nation we must know who is coming into our country. Undocumented aliens should be punished for breaking our laws and then returned to country of origin.
U.S casualties are not limited to war zones. Our President has adopted a leadership style that destroys and vilifies so that he can lead “an angry mob” against those he tells us are “responsible for wrongs and our misfortunes.” This form of leadership propagates mob scenes just like the ones in the movies where town’s people are whipped into a frenzy that drives them to storm the jail or burn out the supposed wrong doer. Apparently, President Obama’s notion of unifying people is to unify (organize) some against others.
The latest casualty to fall victim to the President's mob leadership style is the state of Arizona. I understand that the head of ICE (U. S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) is threatening to not accept illegal aliens referred by Arizona to its Office of Detention and Removal, DRO. The DRO is the enforcement arm within ICE for the identification, apprehension, and removal of illegal aliens from the United States. According to the ICE web site, the resources and expertise of the DRO are utilized to identify and apprehend illegal aliens, fugitive aliens, and criminal aliens; furthermore, the DRO manages them while in custody and enforces orders of removal from the United States.
My wife has a great suggestion. Arizona should load its “undocumented” (illegal) aliens on buses. Drive them to D.C., and give them a few dollars of pocket money and let them out in front of the White House. Maybe the DRO will accept referrals from the District of Columbia.
The issue is not immigration. The U.S. needs immigrates who come to our country to become citizens. But immigration must be managed and controlled in an intelligent manner that adds to our strength as a nation. In addition, we need an effective temporary worker program. However, an effective temporary worker program should not involve any obligation for granting citizenship to the worker nor should it require that citizenship be granted to children born to those here on temporary work permits.
As a nation we must know who is coming into our country. Undocumented aliens should be punished for breaking our laws and then returned to country of origin.
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