I knew what I was going to blog about for today, but forgot what it was. But, I have some news to tell anyway. First of all, I’m proud to say I finally turned Cherry Blossoms in Twilight into an ebook. It actually wasn’t too hard, but then I know MS Word pretty well. Cherry Blossoms is in the special Amazon Kindle Select program, which means people with Kindles who are Amazon Prime members (free, immediate shipping and special discount pricing) can “borrow” the Cherry ebook free, I think for a month.

After 90 days in this Select program I can offer the ebook free to anyone with any e-reader, or even none, for several days of my choosing. I will note the days here and on my social media accounts. The advantage to me of doing that is to hopefully gain more readers who might leave reviews. Hopefully decent reviews. If anyone wants to be nice to an author with a lesser known book, leave a pleasant online review on Amazon or B&N. No fake 5-star reviews because you’re a nice person, but real, probably 3-4-star reviews. I’ve seen where authors get bitten hard by a nasty review written by someone who was fooled by all the 5-star reviews by friends. Ouch!

The only problem with the Cherry ebook is that it is listed totally separate from the print book, so you have to search for it specially in the Kindle store. Undoubtedly this is due to the way the print book got into Amazon (not through Amazon) and not sure I can get that fixed. Here’s a link to the Cherry Blossoms in Twilight ebook. (Nook people, I’ve heard you can download Calibre for free or use another free mobi to e-pub converter to turn a Kindle e-book into a Nook ebook, but don’t ask me how.)

This brings me to a second bit of news. In case you haven’t noticed, there is a Resource page on this website with memoir-help links and explanatory articles relating to publishing. With so many people out there wondering what to do with their writing, I thought I’d share my knowledge and maybe save somebody some money and pain. Feel free to ask me questions via the Contact page here. There is also a good Facebook group led by Sonia Marsh called Gutsy Indie Publishers if you need help and support.

Next, I want to announce that my friend Terry Baker Mulligan, whose memoir, Sugar Hill: Where the Sun Rises Over Harlem, I profiled earlier here, won a gold Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY) for her book in the multicultural nonfiction adult category. I am so proud of her, and think her historically colorful memoir deserves that gold. This is Terry’s debut book that took her about 35 years to finally finish. Don’t give up people, even Cherry Blossoms took 10 years to complete, and I did a second edition 2 years later. It’s never too late to be an author!