Sad Farwells to Harry Morgan

I was shocked to hop on line to find the headlines announcing the loss of Harry Morgan today.  At 96, I guess it is not surprising, but it is very sad indeed.  It seems the world I knew as a child is fading into the next generation’s world.  The icons that my generation have held so near and dear over the years seem to be fading into the pages of time.   For those of us that spent many an hour laughing and crying as we watched M.A.S.H., Col. Potter will be missed.  Or, maybe we will be missing Bill Gannon from Dragnet.  Perhaps one of the other numerous films Mr. Morgan starred in will be the memory of him that we hold dearest.  One thing for sure, America lost a great talent today.  May Mr. Morgan R.I.P.

Getting Noticed

Having just written my first children’s book “How Orples Came To Be“, I am beginning to discover that it has a lot of competition in the literary world. When I go to Barnes and Noble and/or Amazon.com, I need to search the title since I am still an ‘unknown author’. This being the case, how will someone search a title of a book they don’t know exists yet? Thus, since I had a few books left from my first author signing event, I decided I would give a copy to each of my brothers and sisters for Christmas.  Most books will need to be mailed since my family is pretty spread out these days.  Thus, I made a label with my main characters decorating the Treasure Tree (you’ll have to read the book to clarify why the Treasure Tree is what it is). Along with the illustration, I’ve added a little text and the title of my book in the hopes that curious eyes will fall upon the words and check out my new book.  I used the drawing with text to wrap the book in, then covered the wrapping and the label in clear contact paper (my favorite way to mail a package).  Of course, I am hoping you too have curious eyes and would like to delve into finding out, at the very least, what an ‘orple’ actually is. This book is geared for children 8+, but has lots of spot illustrations for smaller children to follow along should Mom and Dad want to read the book to them.  My little five year old grandson speaks ‘orple’, as is true of his brothers, aged 7 and 10.  It is an unusual story that I wrote 25 years ago.  For several years I set the manuscript aside, then during a move, found the manuscript and re-read it.  At that time, I felt the material was worthy of a book, so decided to add drawings to go along with the words. As time went by the manuscript and the drawings fell together into a very fast paced little book that should hold your attention nicely.  The subject and a sample of the e-book are both on the sites mentioned above. Or from my website

Olivia and Oscar's first Christmas

(just type in the book title).  You can also order books wholesale from my website (directly from the publisher) to resell at charity events and fundraisers. In the meantime, I ‘m thinking any form of exposure I can get is worthy of my time and attention.  Maybe one day, the ‘right’ eyes will see my book  and decide to mass produce my work.   Isn’t that what we all want?   Here’s hoping. For Now, please allow me to extend “Holiday Greetings” to each and every one of you.   May you all have a very happy 2012.

Protect Your Soft Cover Books

When my own children were small I tried to provide them with a variety of reading materials.   They had subscriptions to several magazines as well as a nice assortment of books, many softcover.  To preserve these books and magazines, I turned to one of my favorite household staples . . . clear contact paper.  The stuff is amazing.  Every month when a new magazine would arrive, I’d nab it from the mailbox and cover it in contact paper (on both the inside and outside cover pages)  prior to giving it to the kids.  As a result the covers were practically indestructible as well as water proof.   I was able to pass most of the magazines down the line and out the door to other families with  children.