Trudy Myers's Blog, page 12
May 4, 2023
The First Americans, Part 3
But thewestern coast was not the only available route for early colonists. An ice-freecorridor formed after 2 ice sheets that had met in the middle of the continentbegan to melt. At first, the meltwater formed vast lakes, but these eventuallydrained, leaving dry land. This corridor ran along the eastern flank of theRockies, from Alaska to the lower 48 states. It was originally believed to haveopened up 13,000 years ago, which fit the Clovis-First scenario, but ruled outit being available for earlier people.
A group ofscientists decided to take another look at this corridor, using new methods ofdating, and determined that the corridor formed at least 14,000 to 15,000 yearsago, possibly more. What's more, the corridor in northern Alberta was at least400 kilometers wide and no longer held any large lakes. Now, the corridor wasscoured by retreating ice and pierced by cold winds, so it would have seemed aformidable place to early travelers. But hunter-gatherers from Beringia mayhave decided to explore it after watching flocks of waterfowl head south in thefall and return in the spring. Food would have been scarce, but the explorerscould have hunted birds or larger game, such as mountain sheep, now believed tohave grazed in the Yukon and northern British Columbia.
Thetravelers may have taken along dogs. Siberian hunters first domesticated wolvesas long ago as 33,000 years. These would have made valuable hunting companionsand pack animals. A 1994 study revealed that dogs carrying 13 kilograms (28.7lbs) could travel as far as 27 kilometers a day, in the right conditions. Ifhunting failed, and starvation threatened, the migrants could have eaten someof their dogs. One scientist calculated the colonists could have reached thesouthern end of the corridor in only four months, traveling at 16 kilometers aday.
Back atButtermilk Creek in Texas, the scientists are still studying the tiny, delicatetools created and left by the pre-Clovis people, and may have found new cluesabout the origins of the Clovis people. 2,500 years after the pre-Clovis peopleknapped blades and bifaces, Clovis hunters used similar techniques across NorthAmerica to make massive, elongated blades, some reaching 21 cm (8.3 inches) ormore in length. It is possible the Clovis people were descended from earliermigrants coming through Beringia.
April 27, 2023
The First Americans, Part 2
TheClovis-First model says humans reached the Americas by trekking overland, butothers propose the earliest travelers arrived by sea, paddling small boatsalong the coast, from East Asia to southern Beringia and down the western coastof the Americas. Scientists first began thinking about this route in the late1970s, when they started examining geologic and pollen records to reconstructancient environments along Canada's western coast. Instead of the entirenorthwestern coast laying under thick ice, analyses of coastal bogs showed thata coniferous forest thrived on Washington's Olympic Peninsula 13,000 years ago,and that other green refuges dotted the coast. Early humans camping in thesespots would have found plenty of shellfish, salmon, waterfowl and caribou orother land animals grazing in the larger spots.
In fact,it is now known that much of the British Columbian coast was ice free at least16,000 years ago. Although they haven't found any preserved boats, they wereknown to humans at least 45,000 years ago when humans island-hopped from Asiato Australia. Still, finding campsites of these exploring mariners are hard tofind. This is because as the ice sheets melted, the sea level rose, drowningancient coastlines under meters of water. However, in March 2011, evidence ofearly seafarers was found on Santa Rosa Island, just off the southernCalifornia coast. Nearly 12,000 years ago, Paleo-American sailors crossed 10kilometers of open water to Santa Rosa, which would have required a boat. Birdbones and charcoal found at the site were dated to 11,800 years ago.
Thesetravelers had hunted Canada geese and cormorants as well as pinnipeds (sealsand sea lions). They also left behind distinctive technology, more than 50dainty stemmed points that may have been part of darts used for hunting. Theirdesign seemed very unlike the long, furrowed and sturdy-looking Clovisspearpoints. Very similar stemmed points were found scattered around thenorthern rim of the Pacific Ocean. The earliest came from the Korean peninsula,Japan and the Russian Far East, and were dated to around 15,000 years ago.Stemmed points found in Oregon were dated at 14,000 years old, and12,000-year-old points were found on the Channel Islands, in Baja Californiaand along coastal South America.
Even so,explorers of this rich coastal world were unlikely to have raced southward.They may have moved just a kilometer or so a year. They were moving intounpopulated lands, and had to maintain connections with people behind them inorder to have marriage partners available.
April 20, 2023
The First Americans, Part 1
Forseveral decades, archaeologists thought the first Americans were the Clovispeople, said to have reached the New World 13,000 years ago from northern Asiaby following Mammoths and other large prey across the Beringia Bridge. Supposedly,they journeyed rapidly overland from the Yukon to Alberta, leaving behind theirdistinctive stone tools across what is now the lower 48 states. But it has nowbeen established that humans reached the Americas thousands of years earlier.The evidence comes not only from archaeological finds, but also from geneticsand geology.
Forinstance, from a Texas creek bank, excavators discovered more than 19,000artifacts, some no larger than a thumbnail. One such artifact was once part ofan all-purpose cutting tool, like an ice age equivalent of a box cutter.Artifacts like these are pushing the history of humans in the New World backbeyond the Clovis people, since these tools were dated to 15,500 years ago.
Insouthern Chile, archaeologists found traces of early Americans who slept inhide-covered tents and ate seafood and wild potatoes 14,600 years ago. That waslong before the Clovis people appeared in North America. in Paisley Five MilePoint Caves in Oregon, another team found 14,400-year-old human fecescontaining seeds of desert parsley and other plants.
Over thepast decade, geneticists have been finding new clues where the first Americanscame from and when they left home by studying the DNA of indigenous peoples.This information strongly indicates the first Americans' ancestors came fromsouthern Siberia. Although this confirmed the suspected homeland, it alsoindicated that the New World colonists left their homeland between 25,000 and25,000 years ago. This would have been a difficult time to migrate, for hugeglaciers capped the mountain valleys of Asia, and massive ice sheets mantledmost of Canada, New England and several northern states. But that didn'tnecessarily stop the colonists.
The icesheets had lowered sea level by more than 100 meters, exposing continentalshelves. The newly revealed land of northeastern Asia and Alaska, plus adjacentregions in Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada, formed a landmass joining theOld World to the New known as Beringia.
The airthat swept over Beringia were dry and brought little snow to the area, thuspreventing the growth of ice sheets. It was an arid tundra grassland inhabitedby woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, steppe bison, musk ox and caribou.Genetic studies suggest that sea lions likely inhabited the rocky islands thatstudded Beringia's south shore. So human migrants had their pick of hunting terrestrialmammals or seafaring ones.
The majorgenetic lineages of Natives Americans suggests that the earliest Americanspaused somewhere and evolved in isolation for thousands of years beforecontinuing on. Some 19,000 years ago, North America's ice sheets beganshrinking, creating 2 passable routes to the south. Several studies of thegeographical distribution of genetic diversity in indigenous Americans indicatethe earliest colonists arrived between 18,000 and 15,000 years ago, whichplaces them a pre-Clovis.
April 14, 2023
Bread Recipes
About14,400 years ago, someone was baking pita bread in the Black Desert ofnortheastern Jordan. Researchers made this discovery by sampling the contentsof 2 stone fireplaces left at a small campsite by the Natufians, who werehunter gatherers. The charred remains suggest the Natufians gathered wildcereals and tubers to make flour for the bread. Bread was probably not a staplefood, but a rare treat. Researchers were surprised to find people making breadat least 4,000 years before the dawn of agriculture.
Meanwhile,at another Natufian site 150 miles away, another team analyzed residues on 3stone mortors and found evidence of beer being brewed from wild wheat andbarley 13,000 years ago.
Beer andBread! Life was good!
Anothersource says that to make the first bread, cereal grains were roasted, wateradded to make a 'grain paste', which was then cooked. This flatbread still hasa legacy in many parts of the world. Modern descendants include Mexico'stortillas, Indian chapatti, naan and roti, Armenian lavishes, Iranian sangaksand taboons, Scottish oatcakes and North American johnnycake.
Traces offlour have been found at Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe, which means flouris over 30,000 years old. Cereals were a part of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle,even though the majority of their food was animal protein and fats. Around10,000 years ago, during the Neolithic period, cereals and breads were eatenmore regularly. Wheat and barley were domesticated about this time and spreadfrom Southeast Asia to Europe, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Rice,maize, and sorghum may have been used to make bread in other parts of theworld.
Eventually,leavened bread was created by taking a chunk of day-old dough and adding waterand sugar to use as a 'sourdough starter', of sorts. For a lighter bread, thefoam from beer was collected and added to the dough. For places that drank winerather than beer, a mixture of grape must and flour paste worked in a similarmanner.
https://abreadaffair.com/bakery-vanco...
Archaeology, January-February 2019, pp 26-27, "TheFirst Bakers"
April 7, 2023
Nutmeg, an Ancient Spice
Nutmeg wasused in the Banda Islands (Indonesia) as long ago as 3500 years. Pottery from thatdate have traces of nutmeg in them. It's not known if it wasused for its fruit, as a spice or for medicinal purposes, but NeolithicIndonesian communities were clearly using it for something.
TheBanda Islands consist of eleven small volcanic islands, and are part of thelarger Maluku Islands group. These islands were the only source of nutmeg andmace production until the mid-19th century.
Nutmeg isthe ground up seed of several tree species of the genus Myristica. Mace isanother spice produced by grinding up the seed covering. These trees are also acommercial source of nutmeg essential oil and nutmeg butter. Indonesia is themain producer of nutmeg and mace, as the true nutmeg tree is native there.
If nutmegis consumed in amounts exceeding the typical use as a spice, it may produceallergic reactions, dermatitis or have psychoactive effects. Although sometimesused in traditional medicine for various disorders, nutmeg is not used inmedicines today.
Nutmeg hasa distinctive pungent fragrance and a slightly sweet taste. It can be used toflavor baked goods, confections, puddings, potatoes, meats, sausages, sauces,vegetables and beverages such as eggnog.
Nutmegtrees are dioecious plants, which means individual plants are either male orfemale. The first harvest of nutmeg trees takes place 7-9 years after plantingand the trees reach full production after 20 years.
Nutmeg isused as a spice in many cuisines. In Indonesia, it is used in spicy soups, ingravy for meat dishes, and in certain European derived dishes. In India, it isused in many sweet, as well as savoury, dishes. Ground nutmeg is also smoked inIndia for a different flavor. In Europe, nutmeg and mace are used in potato andspinach dishes, in processed meat products, in soups, sauces, baked goods andrice pudding. The Dutch add nutmeg to such vegetables as Brussels sprouts,cauliflower and string beans, as well as to mulled cider, mulled wine, junket(also known as curds and whey) and eggnog. Nutmeg is a common spice for pumpkinpie. In the Caribbean, nutmeg is sprinkled on top of drinks such as theBushwacker, Painkiller, and Barbados rum punch.
The nutmegfruit can also be eaten. It is used to make jam, or is finely sliced, cookedwith sugar and crystallised to make a fragrant candy. Sliced nutmeg fruit ismade with a sugary syrup liquid or dry coated with sugar to make a dessert.Nutmeg rind can be blended or boiled to make iced nutmeg juice. In India, thisis used for juice, pickles and chutney.
Nutmegessential oil is obtained by steam distillation of ground nutmeg. It is used inperfumes and pharmaceuticals. The oil is colorless or light yellow, and smellsand tastes of nutmeg. It is used as flavoring in baked goods, syrups, beveragesand sweets. When used to replace ground nutmeg, it doesn't leave particles inthe food. The oil is also used in manufacturing toothpaste and cough syrups.
Nutmegbutter is obtained from the nut. It is a reddish-brown semisolid substance withthe taste and smell of nutmeg. About 75% of nutmeg butter can be turned into afatty acid. This can be used as a replacement for cocoa butter, can be mixedwith cottonseed or palm oil, and has applications as an industrial lubricant.
In thesixth century AD, nutmeg spread to India, then to Constantinople. By the 13thcentury, Arab traders knew the origin of nutmeg was the Indonesian islands, butkept the location a secret from European traders.
In August1511, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Malacca on behalf of the king ofPortugal. At the time, Malacca was the hub of Asian trade. In November of thatyear, Albuquerque sent an expedition of 3 ships to find the Banda Islands.Those ships arrived in early 1512 and remained for about a month, buying andfilling their ships with nutmeg, mace and cloves. Although control of thistrade by the Portuguese was not possible, they participated without a footholdin the islands.
In 1621,the Dutch East India Company waged battle with the Bandanese to obtain amonopoly on nutmeg. It is estimated the Bandanese went from a population ofapproximately 15,000 people to 1,000 people.
TheBritish invaded and temporarily took control of the Banda Islands during theNapoleonic Wars. They busily transplanted nutmeg trees, complete with soil, toSri Lanka and Singapore and other places. From those, they also transplantedtrees, most notably to Zanzibar and Grenada. The Dutch eventually regainedcontrol of the Banda Islands, and kept it until World War II.
In 2019,142,000 tonnes of nutmeg were produced. Indonesia, Guatemala and India producedapproximately equal amounts, producing 85% of the global total.
Nutmegintoxication may occur with side effects such as delirium, anxiety, confusion,headaches, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, eye irritation, and amnesia. It takesseveral hours to reach maximum effect and may last for several days. Nutmegoverdose rarely causes death, but can if combined with other drugs.
The scentof nutmeg may attract pets, but it can be poisonous to them.
I'm not ahuge fan of pumpkin pie, but I love a sprinkling of nutmeg in my eggnog. Whatabout you? Do you have a favorite dish that uses nutmeg?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutmeg
Archeology, January/February 2019, page 25
April 1, 2023
Aurochs, the Mega-Cow
TheAurochs were around during the last ice age, although I seldom think of them asan ice age megafauna. 'Auroch' is German for "original ox" and ispronounced OR-ock.
Auroch isthe megafauna ancestor of all domesticated cattle. During its prime, a maleauroch stood about six feet high at the shoulder and weighed a ton, althoughother websites said they could have weighed 3,000 lbs. The species lived from2,000,000 to 500 years ago, inhabiting the plains of Eurasia and northernAfrica. There is no indication that they ever made it to the Americas. The lastauroch, a female, was killed in Poland in 1627.
Cavepaintings of Auroch from Lascaux in France have been dated to about 17,000years ago. Humans hunted them for food, and they also domesticated it, apast-time that eventually led to modern cows.
There wereactually 3 separate subspecies of auroch. Bosprimigenius primigenius is the best known subspecies, and is the onedepicted in the Lascaux cave paintings. It was native to Eurasia. Bos primigenius namadicus, or the IndianAurock, was domesticated a few thousand years ago into the Zebu cattle. TheNorth African Auroch (Bos primigeniusafricanus) is the most obscure of the subspecies, and is likely native tothe Middle East.
In the1920s, a pair of German zoo directors attempted to resurrect the Auroch byselective breeding of modern cows. The result was a herd of oversized oxenknown as Heck cattle. Hopes for the resurrection of the Auroch persist,although by using more advanced science than the Heck brothers used.
March 23, 2023
Woolly What?
I started wondering why there were only 2 animals that had once evolved into wooly renditions. Times were cold during the ice age. Surely there were other animals that made adaptations, too, in order to survive? And then I remembered, way back in my childhood, of hearing about another animal that was called 'woolly'.
The woolly caterpillar!
Quickly, I set out to find what information I could on this remaining ice age creature.
It is known by many names; woolly bear caterpillar, fuzzy bear caterpillar, woolly worm, and hedgehog caterpillar. But apparently, nobody calls it a woolly caterpillar! I can only guess that one of my childhood playmates shortened 'woolly bear caterpillar' into 'woolly caterpillar', or I did it myself, possibly without even realizing I had done it.
The woolly bear caterpillar is the larval form of the Isabella tiger moth. It has black fur at the front and back, with a band of reddish brown around the middle.
They can usually be found in the autumn, after they have stuffed themselves on a variety of grasses and weeds, including dandelion, nettles and plantain, and are then in search of a dark and sheltered spot where they can hibernate for the winter.
There are those who believe that the amount of black on the woolly bear in the autumn predicts how severe the coming winter will be. But the truth is that its coloring is dependent on how well it stuffed itself, its age, and the species (there are about 260 species of tiger moth).
The isabella tiger moth's larval form occurs in the United States, Greenland and Canada. It can be found in many cold regions, including the Arctic. The Arctic woolly bear caterpillar emerges from the egg in the fall. It spends the winter in its larval form, frozen solid. First, its heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, its blood, and finally the rest of the body. It survives by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues. In the spring, it thaws, and resumes eating. It will go through 7 winters in the frozen state before it finally becomes a moth. As an adult moth, it has about 1 week to mate, lay eggs, and die.
It is not recommended to handle the woolly bear caterpillar because their sharp hairs may cause dermatitis in some people.
The larval form of the isabella tiger moth should not be confused with the larval forms of the Grammia incorrupta or the garden tiger moth, both of whom are also called woolly bear caterpillars.
Woollybear Caterpillar festivals are held in several locations in the fall: Vermillion, OH; Banner Elk, NC; Beattyville, KY; Oil City, PA; and Little Valley, NY.
Well, that was not what I expected. I was thinking an ice age megafauna, maybe 4 or 5 feet tall at the shoulder, able to provide a feast for dozens of humans at a time. Or maybe they would trample right over humans. Something that when it finally hatched, would produce an adult about the size of Mothra!
Still, that freezing in order to get through the winter, that's kind of neat. I'll have to remember that and work it into some story or other.
https://ccswoollybearcaterpillarbaum1...
March 16, 2023
Woolly Rhinos
I don't have the warm feeling for woolly rhinoceroses that I've got for woolly mammoths, but I do have some curiosity about a species that would go to that much trouble to survive in such an inhabitable environment. Why didn't they just move south to a milder climate? I suppose they weren't migratory to begin with, so they wouldn't have had any idea that the climate was different anywhere else.
Woolly rhinos are now extinct, but they were common throughout Europe and Asia during the last glacial period. No remains of them have been found in North America, so it would seem they did not travel across the Bering Strait Land Bridge.
There were 2 sub-species of woolly rhinos, both covered with long, thick hair in order to survive the extremely harsh, cold mammoth steppe. They had large humps reaching up from the shoulders, and fed mainly on grasses and sedges, which are flowering grass-like plants. It had a wide upper lip that allowed it to pluck vegetation directly from the ground. It also ate woody plants such as alders, conifers and willows.
The remains of woolly rhinos had been known for a long time before the species was described. Often, they were attributed to some mythical creatures. Some believed their horns were the claws of a giant bird. One skull was assumed to be that of a dragon.
The oldest known woolly rhinoceros fossil was 3.6 million years old, discovered on the Tibetan Plateau in 2011. A study of DNA samples indicate that the closest living relative of woolly rhinos is the Sumatran rhinoceros.
An adult woolly rhino could measure up to 11.8 ft (3.6 metres) from head to tail, could have stood 5.2 ft (1.6 metres) tall at the shoulder, and weighed as much as 2 tons. Both males and females had 2 horns, a long one of 4.4 ft (1.35 metres) near the end of the nose, and a shorter one of 1.56 ft (47.5 centimetres) between the eyes. These horn measurements are for fully grown specimens. The woolly rhino had a longer head and body and shorter legs than other rhinos. Its shoulder hump was used to support the animal's massive front horn, but it also held fat to aid survival through the desolate winters when food was scarce. It is believed that woolly rhinos could reach the age of 40.
Based on frozen specimens, the rhino's fur coat was reddish-brown, with a thick undercoat under a layer of long, coarse hair. The tail was no longer than 20 inches (50 centimetre). Females had 2 nipples on her udder, indicating they probably gave birth to one calf at a time, although there might occasionally be two. Births would have occurred every 2 to 3 years.
Not only were their tail relatively shorter than those of hot climate rhinos, so were their ears, reaching no longer than 9.5 inches (24 cm) compared to the 12 inches (30 cm) of other rhinos. Woolly rhinos also had thick skin, ranging up to 5/8 inch (15 mm) on the chest and shoulders.
The woolly rhino skull's length gave the head a deeply downward-facing slant. Strong muscles in its neck held the massive skull in place. Like other rhinos, they did not have incisors, only premolars and molars, with which they ground up the vegetation they ate.
Adults had few predators, because of their massive horns and size, but young individuals could be attacked by hyenas, cave lions and other such animals. One skull indicated an attack from a feline, but that individual survived to adulthood.
Woolly rhinos probably used their horns for moving snow to uncover vegetation during winter, as well as for combat. Some cave paintings depict 2 woolly rhinos fighting each other.
The woolly rhinoceros lived mainly in dry to arid climates in lowlands, plateaus and river valleys, with migrations to higher elevations in favorable climate phases. It could not easily cross heavy snow and steep terrain of mountain ranges, so it avoided them. Other large herbivores, such as the woolly mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, saiga antelope and bison, lived alongside it.
By 130,000 years ago, woolly rhinos lived throughout most of Europe, the Russian Plain, Siberia and the Mongolian Plateau, which gave it the widest range of any rhinoceros species.
Humans shared that habitat, but evidence that they interacted is rare. However, many cave paintings do depict woolly rhinoceroses. About 20 such drawings of woolly rhinos are dated at over 31,000 years old.
It is postulated that the woolly rhinoceros went extinct because of the changing climate as the ice age neared its end. There are indications that some population survived until about 10,000 BC in western Siberia. Many rhino remains have been found in the permafrost region. The known history of these discoveries starts in 1771.
All in all, I don't want to meet one of these critters in a cold, dark alley. Or anywhere else, come to think of it. I assume they couldn't see any better than their present-day brethren, but they probably made up for it by attacking anything that moved, whether they knew what it was or not.
March 10, 2023
Back When Elephants Wore Coats
The Wooly Mammoth was one of the last mammoth species to become extinct. Its closest still-living relative is the Asian elephant. Mammoths used the Bering Land Bridge to migrate from Siberia to North America. Present day Alaska and Canada (and some of New England) were home to the Wooly mammoth, while another species, the Columbian mammoth, lived in the area covered today by the 48 mainland states, and as far south as Costa Rica. Recent DNA studies indicate that that Wooly mammoths and Columbian mammoths could and did impregnate each other.
The Woolly mammoth evolved in Siberia some 400,000 years ago. Some of them entered North America about 100,000 by crossing the Bering Land Bridge. I found several dates for extinction, such as 5,700 years ago in the Yukon (Canada), 5,600 years ago on St Paul Island (Alaska), 4,000 years ago on Wrangel Island (Russia), to 3,900 years ago on the Taymyr Peninsula (Russia). So yes, they co-existed with humans, who used mammoth bones and tusks for making art, tools, dwellings and as food.
Woolly mammoths are among the best studied prehistoric animal because of the discovery of frozen carcasses (Siberia & N America), as well as teeth, stomach contents, dung, and the depiction of them in prehistoric cave paintings. This species became known to Europeans in the 17th century, but had been known in Asia long before that.
Woolly mammoths were roughly the same size as modern African elephants. Males could reach shoulder heights of 11 ft and weighed up to 6 tons, while females reached a shoulder height of about 8 ft, and weighed up to 4 tons. A newborn calf weighed about 200 lbs, and would have been nursed for 3 years before being weaned to a diet of grasses and such. An individual could probably live for 60 years.
Well adapted to the cold ice age, the Woolly mammoth was covered in fur, which varied from dark to light. The ears and tail were short to minimize frostbite and heat loss. It had long, curved tusks, which it used for manipulating objects, fighting and foraging. Its diet was mainly grasses and sedges (a large family of flowering grass-like plants). Its habitat stretched across northern Eurasia and North America.
A genome project for the woolly mammoth was completed in 2015. It has been proposed that the species could be revived, but none of the methods proposed are yet feasible. One article I read postulated that reviving the species could possibly help stabilize the tundra areas of the far north, helping to mitigate the climate change those areas are experiencing, but their reasoning didn't make much sense to me. Having these large creatures roam through the thawing tundra, even if they drag seeds along with them, is not going to halt the thawing of the permafrost. The woolly mammoths could not survive when the rising temperatures melted the huge glaciers of the ice age, and I don't see how they would survive now, when the temperature is even higher.
In my opinion, bringing ice age critters back to life now would only be dooming them to a short, miserable existence before they once again go extinct.
March 3, 2023
Marketing - the Bane of Writing
I decided to write about marketing this week. It's been on my mind quite a bit lately, and I'll tell you why.
A few days ago, I stumbled upon a blog about how authors could market themselves and their work globally. Nothing they suggested in their blog seemed too far out there or difficult to do. So I took their 10 suggestions, broke them into small chunks, and scattered them throughout my infamous To Do List to be tackled over the next couple of months.
Four days ago, I was cleaning out my email box when I found I had been sent Lesson 1 in a 7-part series of lessons on how an author can best and most easily market their goods. I was familiar with the teacher, so I went through that first lesson and took copious notes. Turns out those are DAILY lessons for a full week, so I have been going through each lesson every day, taking detailed notes. I have to take notes, because the lessons take up so much of my time, I can't actually act on what he wants me to do.
And I'm not very tech-savvy. When I set up my last website, following his instructions, it took me 3-4 months to get it ready to publish. He had at least twice as many books to include as I did, and got his done in an afternoon.
And unfortunately, I don't get a lot of support for my marketing efforts. Granted, they haven't done much good so far, but if you want to get anywhere, you have to persevere, right?
I have a good friend (who also writes books), who tells me to forget about marketing. "Just write your books, get 10 or 12 printed, hand them out to friends and family and be done with it." He has a different philosophy about writing than I do. I want to entertain people by telling them stories. And yeah, I'd like to make some money doing it, if I can.
This friend has no concept of what I'm telling him. Every time this subject comes up between us, he gets mad because I won't give in and live life the way he thinks I should. "But you hate marketing! Life is too short to make yourself miserable. Just do the writing, which you enjoy."
It's true, I haven't found any 'fun' in marketing. So far. Maybe because I haven't yet managed to find anything that works. But now I am gathering new steps to take, things to research, tweaks to make... I have a goal to reach for.
It's hard to make progress when you don't know where you're going.
