So. What's It About?

"You've written books? That's amazing! I'd love to read 'em- what're they about?"

I get this a lot, and the clear answer is, "You've just got to read them to find out".

Oh, it's not that I think they're the best combination of 26 letters and punctuation ever to grace a page because they're obviously not. I'm happy with them and proud of them but, yanno.

Here's the thing, though. Two of my books are pretty easy to pigeonhole.

"CancerDance- a love story" is a journal of our family's adventures in medical land- except for a few 'getting to know us' chapters it's written as it was unfolding and so it's all out there- the funny, the relieved, the terrified and the incredibly pissed off; all lying there nekkid and fresh and raw. I love it because it has a happy ending and I love it because it's not written from a 'to God go the glory' perspective or an 'and he taught us so much before he died' perspective (I hate those). We're normal people with average intelligence and limited funds and we just did the best we knew how. Still do.

Easterchicks Gone Bad is a compilation of the first 30ish articles I wrote for www.homestead.org so it's just that. Thirty different short stories about all sorts of homesteady things from alternative energy sources to cutting hair to hatching chicks and milking goats. Some of them funny and some torn straight from my heart as we ourselves faced trials and tribulations.

This is where it gets tricky.

When you publish books on Amazon, they ask you to categorize them- non-fiction, fiction, history, fantasy, romance, adventure, health and wellness, etc.

The following books are a clear and resounding 'none of the above'.

Here's what they're not.

They're not your average 'shit hits the fan' book. Not zombie books. Not shoot 'em ups. And yet they all deal with the breaking down of society and the events that would likely take place.

The problem is that none of the realistic scenarios will be historic, fantastic, romantic, adventurous epics.We're looking at the slow, plodding, crushing weight of a systemic collapse- not the astonishing literal earth-shattering explosion caused by one easily identified enemy who looks like a Bad Guy.

The problem is that the other day I perused an online event listing of authors 'getting their books out there' and they were all stuff I'd never read in a million years- vampire books, horror stories, soft porn romance, you know- fiction.

Our house is filled with books. Filled. With. Books.

Easily over 1,000. I'll wager not more than a tenth of those are fiction and 90% of those are classics like Mark Twain and Douglas Adams.

So we're flat not geared towards picking up a book for no reason other than to kill time.

Not that that's a bad thing. We just don't do it. Never have. Even Alec.

We ENJOY the social commentary books, the actual history books, the scientific discovery books.

That's some fun, there.

What that means when I write a fiction story, then, is that it's not pure fiction. It's social commentary and observation using fictitious characters in a realistic setting. Without zombies.

People who've read 'em say they like 'em. They say they're important and prescient and touching and human.

Because I'm a stickler for things like spelling and punctuation and grammar they are reasonably correct and proper. They're carefully crafted and the characters are created to be as real as you and me. Because they could be you or me.

They're not Rambo and they're not the Terminator. In fact, they're not even men. And they're for damn sure not the pistol packing, big-boobed, big-haired 'men with vaginas' who pass for the token females in other 'end of the world' books when women aren't in the story to be raped and killed or sent to the kitchen to make sammiches in between waiting to be saved by some big strong M.A.N...bosoms heaving.

They are courageous and they are survivors. They love men but their choices in life are not 'hide behind a big strong man or die' and they do not automatically give up control and swoon when a man "Oh, thank goodness! Finally!" comes on the scene.

So where the hell do I put these stories when Amazon insists on a category?

Weird as shit spots because I have to be honest. If I put them in with the other SHTF books I'll have more refunds demanded than books purchased, and reviews that'll curl yer eyebrow hairs for being 'naive' and 'too sugar coated' which is bullshit because they deal with homelessness and hunger and death and the FACT that the first ones to be hit the hardest whenever society shifts are the weakest. It's bullshit because I've lived abuse and homelessness and poverty and unemployment and I KNOW bad shit happens. But it's not the norm.

What scares the shit out of me is that people read the road warrior books endlessly and start to think that's the only outcome of collapse. When it's not. Historically- it's not.

But people don't read history anymore.

They read vampires.

So I followed the category list down to the end of the line and

"Almost Invisible- a different kind of survival story" ended up in 'homelessness'. Because that's what it's about. A little old lady with Alzheimer's who's homeless and what happens in her personal world and the society around her.

"American Evolution- adolescence of a nation" dropped squarely into 'alternate history' after being shunted into 'science fiction' because that's what it is. It shows a snippet of the lives of 4 generations of girls- Thanksgiving Day when they're eight years old. So it covers almost 100 years of societal evolution.

These last two are pretty quick reads- more novellas than novels. They're supposed to be. They're meant to encourage independent thought about what society is going through and where we are headed- I want the reader to come to his/her own conclusions and opinions and possible fixes for a broken species. It's not my place to write a 'how to fix shit' book. But I can get ya'll thinking.

Needless to say, they're a slow sell. While the SHTF and zombies and vampires and bosom-rending member-throbbing books are selling like hotcakes, people just aren't typing in 'homelessness' and 'alternative history' when looking for a nice easy quick read.

But I'm tellin' ya.

You totally should.

Sometimes your books should be more than mental chewing gum.

That's what TV is for.



PS- To read any of the above books, please see the big ol' book cover photos at the left of this screen

<-------- right there

and coming soon to an obscure category near you- "Unimpressive- the inelegant art of getting by".

I'm pretty proud of this one as well.

Peace, ya'll.

American Evolution- Adolescence of a Nation

*The following was written the day I put up the PREVIEW of this book- it hadn't even become available yet. I thought of taking it down because I sound almost as snarky as the detractors, but figured what the hell. Even an ol' treehugging hippiechick has the right to be pissed off every once in a while.

Just sorta chapped my hiney that because I say, "Yanno, maybe we should focus less on how handy our armaments will be and how many 'pieces of trash' we can blow away and more on things like large-scale hunger, and health issues, and poverty- all things that will rapidly get worse if there's a big societal shift, and realizing that being alive is much more than just avoiding being dead (and more likely at the hands of some trigger-happy fear-filled bozo than an actual 'bad guy')", and then lay out a fictitious story projecting some of those thoughts that a shit-storm ensues.

And then gets worse because I didn't fall down and whimper and bat my eyelashes at the sheer manliness of the onslaught of 'survivalist credentials' barrage given to justify the attack.

Bullshit.

So I'm leaving it up. Because I believe that while there are some people 'on the left' who are truly passive and would really rather be mowed down or give up all their stuff than stand up to some bastards who think they can take it from those 'stupid hippies'

for most of us, they'll be unpleasantly surprised.

I guess what really pisses me off the most is that a mindset of "something bad is coming and we all need to pull together NOW to make a better society" is seen as silly and naive, but "I gotta get me some more ammo, cuz the zombies are coming- screw the world, I'm protecting myself and my own" is somehow brilliant and brave.

That pisses me off because it impedes any hope for humanity progressing, and almost ensures that we all suffer longer and worse for the short-sighted selfishness of that kind of attitude.

Anyhoo- it's available now from Amazon at the link below (Kindle and in paperback) and from my website (click on the cover of the book on the left side of this page) for a signed copy. I promise not to sign it with any cuss words unless specifically asked to. :)

Happy Apocalypse, ya'll.

I'm not sure why I'm already getting a mess of crap about this from people who haven't even read it.

First of all- it's FICTION, you twitchy defensive dumb-asses.

Secondly- you don't know me or my history and haven't even read the book.

Honestly, it's way more depressing and death-filled than a lot of the Mad Max zombie stories...but only because it has to do with real life and how things are much more likely go in the event of a societal collapse. Ya. You're more likely to get bad diarrhea and skin rashes from no soap and water than come across a roving band of zombies. Fix THAT with your AK.

I just read an email going around- written by a man who was in one of the Twin Towers on 9/11. He wrote it right after he got out of there so it was fresh in his mind. He wrote of the compassion of people, the kindness, the strength and the courage.

You can see it here- http://www.snopes.com/rumors/mayblum.asp

Not panic. Not selfishness. Not savagery.

I can't think of a more stressful and sudden situation than that one was and yet people behaved BETTER than expected, not worse.

So take that and shove it up your ass, Zombie Survivalists.

Peace, love and kitten kisses.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Evolution--Adolescence-Nation-ebook/dp/B00BOWG2RI/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1362457408&sr=8-12&keywords=sheri+dixon

Sneak Peek

"Files in Review"...stay tuned.

So there's a horrible dearth of liberal survivalist books out there (as in...ZERO).

And who better to fix that than your local ray of sunshine pointy little liberal, yours truly?

(from the blurb)

An 'End of America' story for those whose rose-colored glasses have been shattered, but who refuse to hide behind the barrel of a gun.

If you realize that the coming collapse will be more about pulling together and community than everyone becoming zombie road warriors, this is your story.

If you know that the world can be a dangerous place and that people can do awful things to each other, but believe that good people do NOT become bad people under stress, but are more likely to become heroes, this is your story.

If you've been smacked down by abuse, poverty, discrimination, addiction, violence of all nature and have come out the other side stronger but not callous, even more compassionate than before, this is your story.

If you believe in a better America for everyone- not just the powerful and mighty, but also the small and insignificant, and that this can be accomplished by ordinary people who are willing to fight without violence and be courageous in the face of adversity, this is the story I've written.

And I've written it for you.

(teeny tiny excerpt)

"They drove as night fell and the evening fog rolled in, as it did every day. Both seemed suddenly of a menacing and unnatural nature.

The air smelled metallic, felt electrical. The fog burned their eyes and froze on their eyelashes. Both Griffin and Eliza had grown up in the polluted atmosphere, but somehow it had been cushioned and masked by the constant vibration and hum of their mechanized world.

Eliza started to cry, tears freezing on her cheeks even though it was not winter. They’d been so close.

So close to bringing the world around to a better future, not just for the very wealthy, but for everyone. They had been sure that their child would be born into the new world, and they were right.

And heartbreakingly wrong."

It'll be available in paperback and on Kindle within the week- I'll let you know exactly when.

I just couldn't resist a little pre-production promo :)

(book cover paste-up)

Wasting My Time

A while back I opined that the only way I would ever sell any quantity of books would be to write a survivalist, vampire, Christian romance, murder mystery, on accounta that's the stuff what's selling better than hotcakes on a cold morning.

So I've started.

And it's hard, because I'm wired for the Short Story. It's a good exercise for me and it's actually getting easier as I go.

The problem is that in the back of my head is that tiny, annoying little voice whispering, "You know- no one will buy this one...either".

Not because it's not a good story- I'm actually pretty psyched about it.

Not because it's difficult to read due to grammatical and spelling errors, because I'm pretty anal about all that mess.

But because when I stop to think about it, generally nudged to do so by other people who say, "Yanno..." there just doesn't seem to be a market for stories like mine.

I can't write gun porn. I just can't.

I can't write doomsday rape-the-dogs-eat-the-babies stories. I just can't.

I write from my heart, and my heart tells me that even though I've personally seen and experienced some pretty bad things in my life so I know damn well that bad things happen generally for no good reason, that the world and people in the great majority are good.

And I understand when I hear people say when things get really tough for whatever reason in the face and middle of a societal breakdown that good people have the capability of doing bad things in the name of "survival".

I also (sort of) see that there is a (tiny) segment of society that will behave in willfully awful ways if there is a lack of things like law enforcement and jails- things that keep them honest just by the threat of punishment. Although I think if things get THAT bad they'll be just as homeless and hungry as everyone else and will probably be busy finding, ummm...food.

But truly?

People are just as likely to behave in a spectacularly courageous manner when plopped into the center of chaos and disaster.

It happens all the time.

So what the hell?

Why the absolute craze for books that glorify the awful side of humanity, that idolize the very violence that tears apart families, communities and societies every single day?

Why the assumption, nay the hope- that "the end of the world as we know it" will be one big fat hairy shoot 'em up?

When something bad happens on a big scale, like a hurricane or tornado or whatnot, there is sometimes a small amount of lawlessness. IN GENERAL, people work together, help each other, do what they can for each other.

When I try to point this out, all I get is "NUH UH! BECAUSE KATRINA!"

Meaning of course, the disastrous episode wherein a horrific amount of people were all squished into the astrodome and all hell broke loose. Something about overcrowding, not enough food, or water, or toilets, or toilet paper. Also the mayhem outside the astrodome which was bad guys and/or the law enforcement- it's sometimes difficult to tell in NOLA.

"People are animals!"

Well, duh.

Of course we are.

Therefore we act/react the same as any other animal.

We have chickens.

Stay put- there's a direction I'm taking with this.

Most people keep their chickens literally cooped up- for their own safety and for ease of finding eggs.

They hate it.

No matter how large the enclosure, the chickens get nervous and aggressive and act in very anti-social ways. The roosters tear all the feathers out of the hens, the hens eat each others' eggs, the roosters fight and kill each other.

Compare that to our chickens, who have never seen a coop in their lives.

Do some get eaten by coyotes? Yep.

Do we have a helluva time finding eggs sometimes? Yep.

But.

Right now we have a ridiculous amount of roosters- 5 roosters and 8 hens. If they were cooped, they'd all be dead. Guaranteed.

Loose and left to make their own natural chicken decisions, they work out territories, and separate flocks, and respect boundaries, and all go into the barn and roost at night without issue.

The reason people in big snowstorms (every year) in the northlands and recently in Superstorm Sandy- people who were NOT herded into tiny enclosures and who could move as freely as possible, were out there helping each other and not going batshit crazy.

My point.

Is that when animals- poultry or people- are placed in stressful situations and allowed to work things out themselves, they pull together. When forced into even MORE stressful environs, they turn into sociopaths.

My point.

Is that while some sort of ginormous disaster could usher in a time of violence and destruction in only a way that clever humans can execute, it's just as likely to be

-initial confusion
-frustrated denial of not being able to go back to 'normal'
-re-organization and re-thinking shit
-carrying on

Seriously.

Now that's not a spoiler for my book. Because that's not all there is to it.

I'm just saying.

Is an actual happy ending so shoot-yourself-in-the-head boring that such a thing can never sell?

Is there really no interest at all in a future that doesn't include rivers of blood and the smell of napalm in the morning?

I mean, where ARE all the "liberal survivalist" novels?

Everything out there is written for the way far clinging to the very edge of the Right audience. And they're eating it up. Voraciously.

Which bothers me because they seem to WANT that to happen, they're PLANNING on it and they'll be HEARTBROKEN if they can't use up their 100,000 rounds of AK47 ammo on liberals and gays and "gang bangers" and illegals.

We're animals.

We gravitate towards a leader who nudges in a certain direction.

It bothers me that so many people are being nudged into the direction of violence. Are accepting it, embracing it and celebrating it. So if something DOES happen, how the hell do they THINK it's gonna go? And I'm sorry to tell 'em, but exactly .0000000001% of them would survive more than 24 hours in one of their fantasies.

I'd love for there to be SOMETHING out there that nudges in the other direction- something that says, "Yep. Some shit happened and we can't go back. Lets go forward...all of us and together".

Anyway.

I don't know when it'll be done, but I hope at least a few people buy it.

Or if you're looking for something to read right now, I've got a few other books already done. They can be found right here

<----------------------

Not because I write to make money, but because like it or not, the value of something is at least partially tied to dollars and cents coming in. And all I've ever wanted to be is an author.

Or a train engineer.

Whatever.

Fine. I'll Give It a Shot

The other day I was lamenting how my book sales were going in spite of all the marketing, advertising, social networking steps I've been taking within the confines of my non-existent budget for anything not food or rent related.

And I said at one point

"I almost feel like if I want to actually make money writing I'm gonna have to do a series of vampire Christian romance mystery porn survivalist books."


So guess what?

I've started. I can't think of it being a series, because that scares the crap out of me. Actually, the whole 'book' thing scares the crap out of me.

How can that be? There are FOUR books advertised with my name as the author

<----------- right over here

How can I possibly be askeerd of writing a book?

Because.

CancerDance- a love story is a journal. I wrote it while the events were happening day by day, month by month, and lord have mercy year by year. There are a few chapters at the beginning that sort of set up the book by introducing the main characters and giving an idea of what makes us "us" and what makes us tick.

Easterchicks Gone Bad is a compilation of the first 31 articles I wrote one by one for Neil on www.homestead.org.

Almost Invisible- a different kind of survival story was my first attempt at anything book-like from the ground up and the only way I could do it was to imagine each chapter as a stand-alone story on its own, then lace 'em together. Even then, it's definitely a 'can be read in one sitting if you sit long enough' sort of thing.

And A Reincarnationist's Guide to Graceful Living- over and over and over again was frankly something I did to see what all I could do with the Blurb software since the rest are text only and Blurb sort of prides itself on its quality photo books. While I was there I inserted the spiritual stuff that makes sense to me so it would all be in one place.

I'm not afraid of words, or even of being wordy. But here's my training (both formal and self-imposed).

High school newspaper and yearbook.

Actual city newspaper.

Writing for homestead.org.

Blogging.

All venues that REQUIRE the writer to see the Big Picture, walk around all sides of it and examine it top to bottom, then rip the meat out of it and convey it to the reader using a limited amount of very precisely chosen and placed words.

So I'll admit and confess right here that yesterday I started a writing project very different from what I'm used to on several different levels.

Will I finish it?

Hell, I have no idea.

Will it be good?

Beats the shit outta me.

But I figured I'd announce it out loud so I have to go forward with it and not just hit 'delete' and pretend it never happened.

I know ya'll are waiting with bated breath.

In the meantime, Christmas is coming and books are always a good present.
See my website www.sheri-dixon.com for an idea or three.

They're also

<--------- right over here

Coming Up For Air...

It's done and up and coming.

When I started posting to homestead.org about our family's travails with Ward's medical issues, it was just to let people we love and who love us what was going on- maybe why I wasn't there as often as before.

Back around '09 I read through that thread- all 200+ pages of it.

And I thought, "That's not a thread...it's a journal."

Then I thought, "I don't even remember half of this stuff happening, it was so stressful at the time and we just went from frying pan to fire and back again like literally damned jumping beans.

Then I thought, "I need to make this into a book."

Not because it's "good", because it's horrifying, mostly. But because this little missive is different from most of the other gabazillions of cancer books out there.

It does NOT end with a dead main character. I hate those. Those "And in the end, he died but he taught us so much about life." Those are bullshit.

It does NOT give all the credit for any good outcome to God. IF there's a god out there, I need to get to heaven just long enough to ask him where the hell he is most of the time- not just because of the physical and mental insults that were piled on my good, gentle husband, but all those other little things- sickness, starvation, wars, pestilence of all manner. Don't give me that crap about "Those are the Devil's doing." God is supposed to be bigger than the Devil- DO SOMETHING, DAMMIT.

So I wrote it and it got read by a number of people who all said the same thing- they couldn't put it down once they started it and they loved the book while hating the subject matter. Some of those people don't even know us and they all said the same things.

But here's the "funny" part.

The book's entries end in 2009. And it ended on sort of a non-ending note. Which was fine, because it elucidates that there really ISN'T and 'end' to this mess- and by 'mess' I mean, of course Life. Till you die. Whatever. You know what I'm trying to say.

The FUNNY part is that as awful as the things that happened in the book were...we hadn't seen nuthin' yet. 2010 was WAY worse, and by WAY worse I mean that we came damn close to losing Ward...several times.

I gave myself a year to detach from the stranglehold a year of terror impose on a brain and heart and then decided

to rework the book.

Since it hadn't started out as a book, there was no preface, no history given, just started when it started and that's cool, but I know was confusing for anyone who doesn't know us personally.

So up front I added glimpses into our life together- the things that make Ward and I who we are as a couple, and Ward, Alec and I who we are as a family.

And then I added the rest of 2009 and up through 2011.

I cried through a lot of it.

My editor had to jump ahead to be sure it had a happy ending, even though she'd read the first one and KNEW Ward is still here.

Do I wanna make money? Shit, yeah. A decade of disease has left us pretty dry and with a credit score of -26.

More importantly

I want people to know that shit happens and sometimes God has nothing to do with it- the shit OR the good stuff.

I want people to know that they should NEVER be afraid of asking questions, expecting understandable answers and that they should DEMAND proper care- not just the medical stuff but human compassionly care- for their loved ones.

I want people to know that they are not alone. They have a voice. They need to use it and never be ashamed or embarrassed to do so.

The other day Ward's brother told me, "Sheri, I firmly believe your bitchiness and bullheadedness are the only reasons Ward is still alive."

Well, I appreciate that he acknowledges how much time, effort, energy and tears were shed on keeping his brother out of harm's way.

Personally, I believe that Ward stuck around to watch his only child grow up.

And he did have some help from the medical staff *wink*

But what we learned, over and over again is that the medical industry is just that- an industry, and it's expected to make money- meaning a lot of the human-ness goes out the window sacrificed for expediency.

People need to know that they can say, "STOP! Stop hurting him. WHY are you doing it this way and is there another way that's just as quick but more humane?" Most of the time, there is.

Courage.

Speak up. If they don't listen, yell. And that's not speaking metaphorically. I've done it.

Do I look like a banshee fishwife sometimes? You betcha.

I don't care. I need my loved ones cared for, cared for well and cared for kindly and I really don't give a good goddamn how silly or unseemly I look to achieve that goal.

Medicine is great. Prayers are fab. But nothing gives a patient strength like knowing someone is in your corner who is not afraid to fight for you with anyone, anywhere and at anytime. Just because they love you.

Please pass it on.

http://www.amazon.com/CancerDance--a-love-story-ebook/dp/B008IBMMJ0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1341667455&sr=8-7&keywords=sheri+dixon



*Coming to "real book" form in the next few weeks- I'll let ya'll know, or you can pre-order here-

http://www.sheri-dixon.com/cancer.html

Writer's Bleck

So I've got these books up on Amazon Kindle.

Specifically, these here-

http://www.amazon.com/Almost-Invisible--Different-Survival-ebook/dp/B007W4T3B4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338518761&sr=8-1

and

http://www.amazon.com/Easterchicks-Gone-Bad-ebook/dp/B0084XL6MG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1338518761&sr=8-4


It's nifty, and pretty miraculous that "books" can be purchased without any paper being involved at all.

Of course Amazon wants to sell a bunch of 'em, since it's pretty much easy money for them because no actual physical merchandise changes hands. So they have these "tools" to help market the books.

One of them is being able to offer the books for free on a limited time basis. The theory is that if you have more than one book up, people will read one for free, then run with piqued interest to purchase the others.

I had a hard time reconciling this, and from what I've heard, so do a lot of other writers.

Writing books is not easy. It's a long and repetitive process- think/write/edit/cut/repeat from the first word till the last period. To just GIVE that away- especially for those who've employed (as in "paid") people to do their editing, formatting, artwork, layout, etc. really sticks in the craw.

I did a 24 hour free demo of Almost Invisible and 118 people downloaded it for free. Common sense says that those are 118 sales lost.

And I saw no big surges in sales. Although if people download a bunch and then read 'em later, there's no way of knowing who that'll influence...or not.

Of course, my first thought was, "What a bunch of cheap bastards- the damn books are under $3.00 full price".

From what I gather there are folks who download ANYTHING that's free, whether they like that type of book or not, and then they go write a crappy review because they don't like it. Even though they never woulda picked it off the bookshelf for realsies.

So why oh why is Easterchicks on free download for 24 hours starting at midnight tonight?

Why GIVE my hard work away?

Because.

These books ARE my heart. They ARE what I believe in so very strongly. I believe with my entire little treehugging soul that what's inside of 'em is real. And true. And vitally important.

I want them in front of people- sometimes the people who wouldn't normally read that kind of book are who need to see it the most. I'm a simple writer- nothing technical, nothing too deep- just enough to nudge a bit. If I spark an interest, there are all sorts of detailed sources to go to after my books.

I've given many copies of the REAL books away for just that reason.

A friend of mine did buy my books- as a favor, I'm sure. She admitted to me that she's "not a reader". She took Easterchicks with her on a weekend trip to have something to do in the car. When I talked to her after the weekend, she was actually lit up- I could not only hear it, I could see it- over the phone. She loved it. It made her think of things she hadn't thought of before. She's excited to try running her 25 acres a little differently, a little more naturally, a little more Earth Friendly.

She said she read it cover to cover on the trip there and was kicking herself for not bringing the others with her for on the way back.

THAT'S what's important to me. Right there.

Sales would be great. Nay, sales would be absofuckinglutely awesome.

But if all I were looking for were sales, I'd be writing Christian Vampire Lawyer Mystery Romance novels.

And as I was wrestling with the last bits of the "free giveaway" concept, it occurred to me

Hey. Once a book, ANY book is out in print it shows up at...the library.

For Free.

For Anyone.

I've always thought of that as a very good thing.

There have been times I flat couldn't afford a book from even the bargain bins at the bookstore, and the library has come through for me.

Times I haven't even had $3.00.

Happy Free Reading Friday to all.

"What Shall I Read Today?"

"Easterchicks Gone Bad" was the first of many articles I wrote (and am still writing) for www.homestead.org and I find it safe to say it's the one that started my "official" writing career.

Little did poor Ward know when he said, "Look, honey- this guy started a new website and is looking for writers" that

a) that would be the last he ever saw of his computer
b) that would be the beginning of many travels and the collection of many dear friends from literally all over the world.

From homestead.org, to self-publishing, to a recurring radio spot, to this blog and Facebook- considering I know no more about my computer than "It's black and grey and when it smokes and makes screeching noises that's bad", I guess I've evolved.

Time will tell if that's been a good thing or not...

Anyhoo- "Easterchicks Gone Bad" is a compilation of articles that people find helpful in their quest for Simple Living in the Country because they are informative, educational, funny, sad and I'm a firm believer in teaching by example- mainly in the form of, "I tried this and it didn't work. It's hilarious NOW, but ya. Don't do that".

Now available for Kindle here-

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0084XL6MG

for iStuff here-

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/855125

and still in "old fashioned book form"- SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR here-

http://www.grinninggoatgifts.com/author.html

You may now resume your regularly scheduled day.

It Only Feels Like I'm Stuck to My Chair

It's 6:17pm and I'm still in my jammies.

Other than feeding the animals (humans, too) breakfast and lunch, all I've done all day is write or tend to things about writing.

I wrote an article for homestead.org, where I have a standing "gig" for a once a month or so article.

I took an "official author" photo of Joey- whose books are selling like hotcakes on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_9?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=tj+reeder&sprefix=tj+reeder%2Caps%2C638 and both he and Molly look fabulous.

I compiled and read-for-time 6 pieces for the Homestead Radio Show out of California where I do a repeating "Last Word" segment. http://www.pacificsites.com/~tubbytunes/2-01-Welcome.htm

I did up an Author page for Facebook to try to nudge folks towards buying my books https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sheri-Dixon/413356998698719?notif_t=page_new_likes

Now I'm taking a break to blog.

And then I'll help Ward feed critters and work a bit in the garden before grilling out burgers for dinner.

I'm considering an after dinner excercise of trying to figure out the Amazon self-publishing format so I can upload "Easterchicks Gone Bad" piece by piece from Word before bed time.

But I don't know if I'll be that brave. The rest of the day has gone pretty well.

And for damn sure I'm not getting out of my jammies.

Be Right Back...

Gotta run and get Edna over for her standing 10am hair appointment, so I'll be back later with my regularly scheduled ranting.

In the meanwhile, if you need something to read, and have a Kindle device and $3 to spare...here ya go.

http://www.amazon.com/Almost-Invisible--Different-Survival-ebook/dp/B007W4T3B4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1335013008&sr=1-1

You're welcome. And please pass it along to everyone you know. Thank you.

Later, gators...

*We Now Pause For a Brief Station Break*

Pssst...

See those books over there?

To the left of this post- there are 4 books written by me that you can click on to buy.

Maybe you haven't done it because you don't "do" books.

Maybe you haven't done it because you can't afford books.

Maybe you haven't done it because you don't have any room for books.

What I DO know is that you DO do computers.

On accounta you're reading this on a computer.

And if you're one of those up-to-date techie kinda people, you have in your possession- possibly in your hand right now- some sort of e-reader.

If you are holding an iPad or souped-up iPhone, you're in luck.

Both "Almost Invisible...a Different Kind of Survival Story" and "Easterchicks Gone Bad" are now available through the Blurb website for downloading to any Apple product.

Within a few weeks they should also be available for purchase straight from the iBookstore app.

I'm currently reconfiguring "Almost Invisible...a Different Kind of Survival Story" to offer as an e-book on Amazon. Stay tuned for that.

Anyhoo- check 'em out. Pass it on. Share the love.

Peace out.

We now return to your regularly scheduled foaming-at-the-mouth-liberal-hippiechick-madness...