New Book - A Visit to the Farm

I uploaded the new book, "A Visit to the Farm, The Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat," for printing. I found a couple of errors and am preparing to upload it again. So goes the life of an author. The book is the same size as the previous one, "Astronaut Training," but has almost twice as many illustrations. The hardest part is getting the word out to everybody that the book is there. All I can do is keep trying.

Book Signing, Astronaut Training

My book signing for "Astronaut Training" was a little bit disappointing. It was in the middle of the afternoon and the outside temperature was over 100 degrees. Not many people showed up. Having a signing gets my work exposed to more people though. I spent the time doing what I shouldn't do. I went back through the first part of the book. I found a misspelled word. It doesn't distract significantly from the book but it bothered me to find it. I'm going to be ordering some more books shortly, but I think that I'll upload a corrected text. I'm going to read through the proof copy of "A Visit to the Farm" very carefully. I don't want to have to change the text after it's published.

Book Signing: Astronaut Training

My book signing for Astronaut Training is this Saturday from 2 to 4 P.M. at the Twig Book Shop. I've got the proof back for the second book, A Visit to the Farm. I didn't like how a couple of the drawings came out and have made corrections to them. Also the cover isn't as clear as I would like it. I'm going to redo it and upload the cover and the text this weekend. I need to be more active with my blog and work on it more than every few days. It's just difficult to take the time to do a really good job as I have so many different things going on. Any body need some tomato's? I made the mistake of planting about twenty tomato plants and now their producing. It's impossible for us to eat the tomatoes they are producing. Maybe the hot weather will bring us relief from the tomato attack. I guess it could be worse.

Finishing a Book

It's often difficult for authors to let go of a book and send it off to the publisher or printer. "I know that if I work on it for just a little longer I can make it better." We all have to adopt the same philosophy that poets have developed. You work on the manuscript (poem) until you're tired or sick of looking at it. At this point you send it off. It's complete. No book, no matter how perfect it is judged to be by others, is totally complete or perfect. An author, reading their own work many years after the work has been published, will often be heard to mutter something like, "I can't believe I got this published, it's terrible." Don't despair, just work, write, get tired of it, and send it off. It's good enough. There are those few of us who can't live with, "It's good enough." These writers will not publish very much. Write often, be prolific and put your work out to be read and looked at by others. So what if some of them don't like it or you have a dangling sentence once in awhile. Make it your style and work every day if it is possible as your work will get better. My set of children's books that I'm working on are an example. Writing a book and doing the illustrations takes me about four months. It takes another couple of months to edit it and do the corrections. I've published, "Astronaut Training," late last year and expect to receive the proof for, "A Visit to the Farm," today or tomorrow. I'm working on, "Moving." These are all in the book collection, "The Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat." The books are written for fourth and fifth grade readers. Are they any good? I''ve been told that they are and that I have a good sense of humor and style. Only time and my readers will tell.

Publishing second book, "A Visit to the Farm"

I took the plunge sent off to the printer. If all goes well I'll have the proof copy to review in the near future. I have the pleasant task of protesting my property taxes tomorrow. Just something to take me away from other things that I need to be doing. Oh, well we can't have it all. I need to make some telephone calls tomorrow to see if I can get, "Astronaut Training," out to a few more places before the next book comes out. My home page is ronaldcthompson.com. I'm going to posting a chapter out of the book, "Astronaut Training," on it. I think I'll go ahead a post a chapter out of the new book too. I think the next book will have Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat move up the river to where Dad is working. The fourth book may have them all go camping for a few days.

Cosmic Cat and Astronaut Training

I attended a couple of short courses; one yesterday and one today. I'm obviously not networking enough and not using social networking to my best advantage. I also need to connect with more people that are blogging. I'm going to attempt to do it--it just takes time. One of the short courses was on social networking such as Facebook. I actually used Facebook once. I though that it was too much of an invasion of my privacy. I'm going to try it again and see what happens. I need to send out some press releases for the new book, "A Visit to the Farm." I sent out one yesterday but I need to get as many out as I can. I handed out a number of business cards at the meetings maybe one of the participants will check out my blog.

The Continuing Saga of Cosmic Cat

It still goes on. It's all ready but I haven't uploaded it to the printer. There's still some question as to the cover template. It should be straightened out tomorrow. What's another day. Has anybody read, "Astronaut Training," the first book in the "Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat?" Hopefully I'll get a report that somebody has before the second book, "A Visit to the Farm," is published. I'm working on the third book. It will be a trip to visit with Dad at the end of the summer just before school starts. They decide to go ahead and move before school starts. It's a very busy time. Getting packed, moved, and settled into a new town. Reading the first two books will better prepare you for the third one. It's not necessary, but it would be best. Each book will be able to stand on its own merits.

A Visit to the Farm Continued

I've redone the cover a little bit. Moved some words around and generally made it more balanced. I also found a drawing in the book that needed to be altered slightly. Writ ting a book is sort of like writing poetry. When is a poem done? When you get tired of working on it. There isn't any book that the author wouldn't change if given the chance. I hope that having a second book out there will help spur the sales of the first book, "Astronaut Training, The Adventures of Curtis, Connie, and Cosmic Cat." I talked the personnel at the U.S.S. Alabama today. She's supposed to send my a listing of her vendors. I'm going to try to get on their listing. Maybe this will get me into more markets. I printed out a short pile of bookmarks today. I've got to add some red to my printer. I'm trying to convince myself that I should start using things like, "Facebook." I'm not sure, I'll have to think about it. I have to get over my reluctance to send the book, "A Visit to the Farm," off to the printer. In case anybody is interested my email address is rct@ronaldcthompson. com and my home page is ronaldcthompson.com