2 to 8 probably. I think the 3 year old would like it.

I'm at a point where I need to concentrate on marketing. Ugh, not very good at self promotion. However, I've had tremendous feedback on these and I believe it is honest.

Softcover is $9.95. Maybe get one and see if he (or she?) likes it. I would really like any additional feedback.

Yeah! Link? I'm sure you have one in the log somewhere but I'm on my phone.

Looks like all 4 show up with this link

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=loonee+ba...ref=nb_sb_noss

It looks like the hardcover version for Porcupine Peril is only $6.05. Not sure how that happens but seems like a good deal.

Should they be read in order? I agree $6 for hardcover seems odd ... You don't control pricing? Lol
Well, I got that one in hardcover so either way, excited to check it out!

Thanks!

No, there isn't any order. Hope everyone likes it.

I've spent the last two days working on my website. This is not something I care to do at all. I've never liked web development and I honestly don't want anything to do with computer anything right now.

However, I'm now in a position where the money is more valuable than my time. I pretty much need to be my own webmaster.

Right now I can't get the contact form to send me emails and it is driving me insane.

Fortunately, I'll be taking a break soon to go fishing. Because I can do that now.

Got the contact form working. Basically I set everything up correctly but couldn't remember how I did that. My brain is not so good.

The softcover version of the last book is now on Amazon! Yeah!

I believe my website is technically working, but it is butt ugly. I'll be spending some time researching good design.

is it a wordpress site? You can probably get a lot of bang for your buck (and avoid doing web dev) by buying a wordpress theme. Although in my (limited) experience with that there's usually some hacking to do if you have anything custom at all.

Yes, it is wordpress. But I think I got a theme then wasn't happy with it, then messed it up beyond recognition.

I think what I have is salvageable. It's not so much that I can't do "it" as much as I don't know what "it" needs to look like.

Perhaps you've been wondering if I actually bought one of your books. Well, I did, but then it got shipped to Sacramento, CA (I live in MN) and was cancelled and the price was back to normal. I was busy for a few days but finally got on chat with Amazon and had it sent to me at the price you found.

It arrived yesterday!



The 8 week old is only old enough to play dead but the 3 year old really liked it. She kept saying "Baloonee Baloonees! Heheheh!" and thought it was funny I had a "friend named Mr. Boat" (I'm sure I can find your first name somewhere but Mr. Boat has a good ring to it).

very cute

LOL, that is awesome. She's a cutie. That's some serious Dadding going on there.

I'm not sure what is going on with the prices on amazon. It seemed pretty weird to me to begin with. They just magically change?

Thanks again Yugo. I appreciate the feedback. If you are so inclined maybe give it a review on Amazon?

Love it.

Thanks! I guess I'll need to get the other books but not sure I will right away. We have so many friggin' kids books. Maybe we can get rid of a bunch that she never wants to read .

Seems like it? Maybe with small run books like this they run a few and then try to move them quickly or slowly depending on stock of other books or something. I really have no idea either.

Thanks for the reminder! Done.

Thanks Yugo!

Right now I'm sort of focusing on getting a lot of things set up like mailing lists and social media and stuff before I really try to sell anything. I'm hoping I can use some people here for guinea pigs. Like to sign up for a mailing list or "like" my page.

Mini-rant. I hate other people's software. I just attempted to set up a facebook page and it is causing a sharp rise in my blood pressure. I just want to get a proper cover pic set up and it just won't size correctly. After googling it appears I have to create a proper size image outside of facebook and hope it loads properly. What a crock of ****. Facebook can't even auto size images? Reeeeediculous....................

Facebook is dumb and evil.

That is all.

It appears as if my attempts to get a cover pic loaded correctly has alerted the facebook gods. My account has been flagged for suspicious activity. I was told to upload a photo of myself for some reason. The message I am receiving is that they are reviewing that photo and my account will be locked until who knows when.

LOL, as I was typing this, facebook send me an email stating:


There is a button on the email which, when pressed, takes me to the screen that says my account is locked.

I'm going to buy a book for my nephew's son. For maximum enjoyment - and to increase the chance they go back and buy the others - which one should I get?

Thanks! I don't think there is one that is heads above the others but I've gotten the best feedback from Cateepillar Takes a Nap.

In the meantime, I'm still in Facebook time out. I even sent them a copy of my driver's license.

Ordered. Will report back with a review once they get it.

Ahhh, retirement.

It really hasn't been long enough to get a realistic grasp of what retired life will ultimately be, but I have a couple of thoughts.

I now have the time to do whatever I want, but it still seems as if I have more on my plate than I can ever finish. I'm spending a lot of time on two projects right now and can't seem to make significant headway on either. Baby steps I guess.

Project 1 - Marketing my books. I'm still touching up the website. I'm trying to get feedback from as many people as possible. I am starting to get the hang of editing the pages and it is taking me less time to make changes. But I still haven't made much headway on social media. I'm now on goodreads (more on this later) but I'm still banned from facebook and haven't ventured into twitter or instagram or any of the others. My niece, who is all about social media, will be staying with us for a few days and hopefully she can help me get this kickstarted.

I stumbled onto goodreads sort of by accident. It turns out that a lot of people I know, know about it and use it quite often. It is a site where book readers can find and rate books. I searched for loonee balloonees and sure enough, they were there. Sort of out of the way was a link that said, are these yours? I clicked the link and filled out a form and the next day I had an author profile page with all my books on it. Interesting, to me anyway, my kindle short story showed up as well. The magic of the internet. I can sort of cross incorporate my website with theirs. They provide widgets I can put on my site, and my url is on the goodreads site now. Kinda cool.

I'm working on a short story. I feel really good about it. I have the entire plot down and have am pretty far into a first draft. Writing, at least for me, is quite slow. I suspect many hours will be invested before I have a finished product. Again, though, I feel like the story is solid.

You might want to think about using a pseudonym for your non-children stuff. It's pretty weird on Amazon seeing the dark boating trip story mixed in with the Loonees.

I can't say I feel the elation that I was anticipating pre-retirement. I feel more serene I guess, but not all that much happier. Don't get me wrong, I'm very content in life but retirement hasn't bumped the happiness scale significantly.

I think what is nagging me now is the feeling that I must always be doing "something". If I just laze around half the day I feel like I'm sort of doing something wrong.

I feel somewhat guilty that my wife goes to work every day and I don't have to. Our financial arrangements haven't changed since retirement. The only difference has been that she pays a little more to carry me on her insurance plan. Other than that, our contributions to the cause are exactly the same. But, it's just the fact that she works and I don't.

I've found myself almost apologizing for being retired. I've gone to great lengths to explain to people that ask that I'm working hard on my website and also writing. I feel more compelled to put in the hours for these things than doing them because they are activities I enjoy. I'm not sure why I feel this way.