Mike Jastrzebski's Blog, page 110

Click, click . . . There's no place like home

from disnology.com

I've been hankering after a pair of ruby slippers lately.  See, the other night I went out to dinner with a friend and when she drove me home, I gave her directions to the wrong place.  I didn't know where my home was — I was as bad off as Dorothy in the poppy field (but I had a designated driver).  Can you blame me?  In a little over a year and a half, I have lived in four abodes —  two different condos and two boats.  Yes, I love to travel and I consider myself something o...

From Rags to Riches on the Kindle? How to sell 200 e-books in 4 days.

I've been selling my books on Kindle for  seven weeks now. In that time I've sold 343 copies of The Storm Killer at Amazon.

 

On Wednesday, August 10th I went live with my second book, Key Lime Blues. Since then, I have sold 83 copies of Key Lime Blues.

This works out to approximately $836.00 earned. This is not a true figure because books sold outside of the U.S. earn less, and I have sold a few at the lower rate. How did I do it?

First–I had an artist design my covers. Vicki Landis, who...

Whalers & Shorts

In an earlier blog I admitted a certain affinity for a porpoise that hung out at the Miami Seaquarium and showed up on TV once a week during my childhood. If you are familiar with Flipper you may remember the image of Sandy and Bud bombing around in a small fiberglass skiff. The 13-foot Whaler on that show left a lasting mark with me. I had a bike. I had a skateboard. I had a football and a basketball, a really good pair of skates, too. But Sandy and Bud had their own 13-foot Whaler. Damn.

Bac...

Blame it on the rain gods

By Michael Haskins

My publisher sent galleys of my next book last week. Seems everyone is working electronically now, so the galley came as an attachment in an email. I am not complaining because to send it back I didn't have to go to the post office and pay postage. In the past, postage to send a query letter, then (if I was lucky) a synopsis and a few chapters, and finally the full manuscript, became expensive.

I have recently been sending a query, synopsis and a few chapters of my third...

Those Damn Dog Days

By Mike Jastrzebski

When I lived in Michigan, and later Maine and Minnesota, I couldn't wait for summer. Winters were harsh–the first winter I lived in Minnesota we had 5 days in a row where the temperature dropped into the minus 30 degree range. When Mary and I started talking about heading south on the boat I couldn't wait to escape the cold.

This is where I lived in Maine.

Don't get me wrong, I don't miss the cold, but when I heard Christine was going to spend the summer in the Bahamas...

About boats and blogs

Each dot indicates a sailing blogger on SailBlogs

Our fellow blogger Mike was the guy who started us down this path of creating this blog, Write on the Water.  He told me one night at our writers' critique group that he was considering starting a blog and he had this great name for it.  "A blog," he said, "for all those people out there who dream of quitting their job and moving onto a boat to write."  I got it immediately.  It has been my dream for oh so long to try to live simply and...

From Rags to Riches on the Kindle? The Second Book

By Mike Jastrzebski

One of the first things I realized after I went live with The Storm Killer was that I really needed to have a second book available for those readers who were interested in my book. Unlike traditional publishing, e-book readers are used to instant gratification. Don't get me wrong, I include myself in that group. I've had my Kindle for 3 years now and when I want a book, I want it right away.

So I've been working 8-10 hours a day over the last couple of months rewriting Key ...

Another Voyage…Another Scene

"You have more patience than I," a friend recently said when I told her the story of a stewardess who dropped a platter of lobsters all over the teak deck.  Not only did it make a mess, but I had to scramble to make another dinner.  The deckhands were mad, the guests were hungry, the owner was upset her favorite serving dish was broken, and the captain was furious.  Me?  I just laughed.  I now had a new scene for my sequel to Sea Fare.

I don't have more patience than anyone else, or...

Watercolors

by Tom Tripp

A funny thing happened on the way to the last page of my first novel. I discovered watercolors. I know that's a little random. Let me explain.

Last week I spent some special time up on the coast of Maine, hiding away in a little room by a bay, working on my novel. I'd carved out some time away from my freelance writing business with an eye toward finishing the novel. I found a quiet, quaint room in an old resort and typed merrily away, taking breaks to get out in the salty ocean...

There's something about Key West

My second book, Key Lime Blues, will be coming out at the end of this week on Kindle and Smashwords. The book is set in Key West. The ending of its predecessor, The Storm Killer, is also set in Key West. Obviously, I'm a little obsessed with Key West, which for the uninformed is US mile marker O.

We lived on our sailboat, Rough Draft, in Key West for three months back in 2006 after hurricane Katrina hit Mobile and chased us from that city. While we were in Key West we stayed at the Garrison...