Mike Jastrzebski's Blog, page 112

Sailing Against the Tide of Change

Sunrise at sea

The sailing vessel Wild Matilda and her crew have been on the move during the last ten days or so, and it has really brought home to me the tidal change that has occurred in the worlds of reading, writing and cruising over the last several decades.

When I first started cruising in the 1970's, we used to take off on long passages and read a book while on day watch — and on night watch, I'd tell myself stories and daydream.  We'd write our logs and journals on paper in hard bound n...

The Sunsets of my Life.

By Mike Jastrzebski

I decided that it's time for a sailing post, and I can't think of anything more enjoyable when it comes to cruising than sunsets. Sunrises are nice, but a good sunset can be magnificent. The new heading on our blog here is a sunset shot taken by my wife, Mary, when we were moored in Key West. Maybe I should clarify the picture situation. Mary takes pretty much all of our pictures. I'm the writer, she's the photographer.

Here are a couple more shots of Key West

Even dogs like ...

John Alden, "Wooden Ships" & Writing

by John Urban

         John Alden was one of the 20th century's great sailboat designers.  Alden's design office was in Boston and he summered in Rhode Island, not far from I live.  Alden designed a series of boats known as the Malabars which won several Newport to Burmuda races.  Or you might remember the cover of a Crosby, Stills & Nash album that featured David Crosby's yacht, the Mayan.  That boat, which was referenced in several songs, is a 59-foot Alden schooner.  Alden's boats were...

Hello, my name is Michael and I'm a writer . . .

By Michael Haskins

July 16, 2010 

I think I mentioned earlier that I chose to write a short story – a little more than 8,000 words – instead of a synopsis for my third book (Car Wash Blues). Well, I finished the story, let it sit about two weeks, did a quick edit/rewrite, and finally sent it off.

I was out of excuses, so I sat down and wrote the two-page synopsis. I guess it is a good "elevator" synopsis like I was asked to give at the last MWA Fla. Chapter luncheon. I capsulized the whole...

From Rags to Riches on the Kindle? Part 6-Promotion.

By Mike Jastrzebski

As with any book, nobody buys it if they've never heard about it. So how do you promote an e-book? You can't have a book signing. No one is going to walk into a bookstore and stumble across your book while looking for their favorite author. The newspapers won't review the book.

My first recommendation is start a blog. If you don't have an e-book published yet, still start a blog. I started Write on the Water 3 months before I published The Storm Killer. This blog is not...

Where's Christine kling?

By Mike Jastrzebski

Sorry Christine couldn't post but she's at sea somewhere between the Bahamas and South Carolina with no internet service. She promises she'll be back next week.

In the meantime you might want to check out yesterdays post "From Rags to Riches on the Kindle? The first fifteen days, or agent Joyce Hollands post Wednesday about how sttrange the writing business is.

From Rags to Riches on Kindle? The first fifteen days.

By Mike Jastrzebski

Well it's been fifteen day since I went live with my Kindle book, The Storm Killer. In that time I have sold 68 books, or an average of 4.5 books a day. At $2.00 profit per book, that gives me a grand total of $136.00 earned. So no. at this point I'm not getting rich, but then I never really expected to.

I decided to put my book on Kindle because next spring my wife, Mary, and I are planning to take our 36-foot Islander sailboat for an extended cruise. I mentioned in an...

Agent Joyce Holland: The writing business is strange

For weeks on end I receive submissions that leave me discouraged and then will suddenly get two or three in a row that are just plain wonderful and raise my excitement level to giddy. Giddy is good! It restores my belief that what I'm doing counts for something. Then there are the funny ones, the obscene ones, and the threatening ones. Let's ignore the last two. My favorite funny submission was one I received the other day. It was short and sweet. Basically, the author described his book as c...

Going Freelance: The Blog as Portfolio

by Tom Tripp

There are lots of different ways to write on the water.  Not everyone has a book in them and even if you do, working on it probably isn't paying the bills. You may need or want to do some freelance writing. But there are lots of freelance writers out there and if you're like me and just getting back into full-time writing, you need to do something to build a portfolio that is going to help you get some of those freelance assignments.

Nowadays, one of the best techniques for doing t...