R.L. Anderson's Blog, page 2
July 24, 2016
A Teaser!
WHAT WOULD YOU DO if an attractive member of the opposite sex who had jilted you sent you a check for fifty grand to solve the murder of none other than the person you were jilted for????? It happens to Will in my next book, coming soon!!! That’s a little teaser for you–wait
and see what he does and if you would do the same. For now it’ll remain a mystery, as will the title, which I'm keeping under wraps till I get a little closer to publication.
and see what he does and if you would do the same. For now it’ll remain a mystery, as will the title, which I'm keeping under wraps till I get a little closer to publication.
July 18, 2016
Let's Make It Christmas In July, shall we?
Let’s make it Christmas in July.
Let’s make it country.
Let’s make it festive.
Let’s make it family friendly.
Let’s make it a mystery.
Let’s make it politically incorrect.
Let’s NOT make it sad.
Let’s Make It Merry Christmas.
It’s like no other Christmas book you’ve ever read and it’s in Paperback, Kindle, Nook and Kobo
editions.
Let’s make it country.
Let’s make it festive.
Let’s make it family friendly.
Let’s make it a mystery.
Let’s make it politically incorrect.
Let’s NOT make it sad.
Let’s Make It Merry Christmas.
It’s like no other Christmas book you’ve ever read and it’s in Paperback, Kindle, Nook and Kobo
editions.
July 15, 2016
PLAY BALL!
This doesn’t have anything to do with my books, but I happen to be an avid baseball fan, and with the sport now in full swing, some thoughts come to mind as to what changes I’d like to make to the game if it were up to me. Just to add my voice to the many others who love the game but at the same time are critical of certain aspects of it, mainly to speed it up and make the
boring parts of it less boring. For what it’s worth, here are my ideas:
1. Eliminate extra innings. Spring training games can end in a tie, and I believe I heard once that Japanese baseball games can also end in a tie. So why not???
2. Limit the number of foul balls a batter can hit before he’s out. This would eliminate the boring practice of hitting foul ball after foul ball after foul ball just to wear down the pitcher.
3. Eliminate stealing. Make it so that the runner must stay on the bag all the time until the next guy either hits or walks. This would eliminate the pitcher’s having to keep an eye on would be base stealers and keep throwing the ball in that direction in hopes of getting them out. Why not just make it so that if the runner gets off the bag even for a second, he’s OUT??
4. Eliminate intentional walks. They’re always a waste.
5. Put a clock on the pitcher, comparable to the shot clock in basketball. Give him a certain number of seconds to make the pitch, and if he takes longer, the batter walks. This would help speed up “slow” pitchers.
6. Eliminate closers and the save situation. Closers usually seem to be the worst pitchers on the team, so why put one in at the end when it’s a close game? What a waste.
7. Eliminate pitch counts and the practice of taking the pitcher out after a certain number of times that he throws the ball. Let the starter get a complete game if he’s doing a good job. Bullpen pitchers should be used ONLY if needed, not automatically after a certain number of pitches. The legendary Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller would have agreed. He thought
today’s pitchers are “soft”, having to be taken out after a particular number of pitches. Which, of
course, they are.
That being said, PLAY BALL!!!
boring parts of it less boring. For what it’s worth, here are my ideas:
1. Eliminate extra innings. Spring training games can end in a tie, and I believe I heard once that Japanese baseball games can also end in a tie. So why not???
2. Limit the number of foul balls a batter can hit before he’s out. This would eliminate the boring practice of hitting foul ball after foul ball after foul ball just to wear down the pitcher.
3. Eliminate stealing. Make it so that the runner must stay on the bag all the time until the next guy either hits or walks. This would eliminate the pitcher’s having to keep an eye on would be base stealers and keep throwing the ball in that direction in hopes of getting them out. Why not just make it so that if the runner gets off the bag even for a second, he’s OUT??
4. Eliminate intentional walks. They’re always a waste.
5. Put a clock on the pitcher, comparable to the shot clock in basketball. Give him a certain number of seconds to make the pitch, and if he takes longer, the batter walks. This would help speed up “slow” pitchers.
6. Eliminate closers and the save situation. Closers usually seem to be the worst pitchers on the team, so why put one in at the end when it’s a close game? What a waste.
7. Eliminate pitch counts and the practice of taking the pitcher out after a certain number of times that he throws the ball. Let the starter get a complete game if he’s doing a good job. Bullpen pitchers should be used ONLY if needed, not automatically after a certain number of pitches. The legendary Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller would have agreed. He thought
today’s pitchers are “soft”, having to be taken out after a particular number of pitches. Which, of
course, they are.
That being said, PLAY BALL!!!
July 12, 2016
CHRISTMAS IN JULY
Fire up your Kindle!
Book your Nook!
Unscramble your KOBO so it spells BOOK!
Or, if traditional books are more your style,
The paperback edition will make you smile.
It's a Christmastime mystery that won't make you cry.
Let's Make It Merry Christmas.
CHRISTMAS IN JULY!
Book your Nook!
Unscramble your KOBO so it spells BOOK!
Or, if traditional books are more your style,
The paperback edition will make you smile.
It's a Christmastime mystery that won't make you cry.
Let's Make It Merry Christmas.
CHRISTMAS IN JULY!
May 2, 2016
YOU'RE FIRED!!!
It happens to Will and Jenine in Ranch Park. And it happened once to me, too. If it ever happens to you–hopefully it won’t–but if it does, there’s a good chance that it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Now, don’t get me wrong. There are many perfectly good reasons for people to get fired. Inability to do the job, theft, vandalism, drugs, rudeness to customers–to name a few. But there are also many instances of wrongful dismissal from a real job or a volunteer position.
In my case it happened when a TV crew from Our Ohio, a documentary series, came out to a small theme park where I was volunteering. It had been MY idea to get them to come. But when they finally did, nobody bothered to tell me. So I missed the whole thing. What’s more, a staff member I considered my arch rival, since both of us were doing photography for the place,
got all the credit and got to do all the cool stuff with the TV folks. Stuff that I had looked forward to doing. But HE got to do it instead of me. I was not a happy camper. I complained a bit too loudly to the wrong people–and got the boot. Dirty politics were at work–and I’ve heard others say much the same about that place. I did not let it keep me down, however. Instead, I let it be the kick in the pants that I needed to awaken the sleeping #author inside me. I began to
write Ranch Park–and the Will Nickerson Mysteries blossomed from there. The series would never have been, had it not been for a wrongful firing from a volunteer position that I had planned to quit within a few months anyway. A door was slammed in my face. But it jarred open a new door to something potentially MUCH bigger and better. My own novels, published
and available to readers worldwide! So if a wrongful dismissal ever happens to you, do not be ashamed. I’m certainly not ashamed of anything. It just means you’re a person and not a ‘bot. You don’t play by the rules. You’re a game changer. And that’s a darn good thing to be. The world was built by game changers. Not by those who always played by the rules. In the future
when I become an employer, I’ll welcome people who have been fired from other jobs to come work for me. I’m going to want some game changers on my team.
Ranch Park is in #paperback and #Kindle editions at: amzn.to/1zKuIvH
It’s on #Nook and #Kobo, too!
Nook: bit.ly/1xqC2j9
Kobo: bit.ly/1A7bw0w
In my case it happened when a TV crew from Our Ohio, a documentary series, came out to a small theme park where I was volunteering. It had been MY idea to get them to come. But when they finally did, nobody bothered to tell me. So I missed the whole thing. What’s more, a staff member I considered my arch rival, since both of us were doing photography for the place,
got all the credit and got to do all the cool stuff with the TV folks. Stuff that I had looked forward to doing. But HE got to do it instead of me. I was not a happy camper. I complained a bit too loudly to the wrong people–and got the boot. Dirty politics were at work–and I’ve heard others say much the same about that place. I did not let it keep me down, however. Instead, I let it be the kick in the pants that I needed to awaken the sleeping #author inside me. I began to
write Ranch Park–and the Will Nickerson Mysteries blossomed from there. The series would never have been, had it not been for a wrongful firing from a volunteer position that I had planned to quit within a few months anyway. A door was slammed in my face. But it jarred open a new door to something potentially MUCH bigger and better. My own novels, published
and available to readers worldwide! So if a wrongful dismissal ever happens to you, do not be ashamed. I’m certainly not ashamed of anything. It just means you’re a person and not a ‘bot. You don’t play by the rules. You’re a game changer. And that’s a darn good thing to be. The world was built by game changers. Not by those who always played by the rules. In the future
when I become an employer, I’ll welcome people who have been fired from other jobs to come work for me. I’m going to want some game changers on my team.
Ranch Park is in #paperback and #Kindle editions at: amzn.to/1zKuIvH
It’s on #Nook and #Kobo, too!
Nook: bit.ly/1xqC2j9
Kobo: bit.ly/1A7bw0w
April 14, 2016
NEW BOOK LOOKING FOR A TITLE
With the newest installment of the Will Nickerson Mysteries just about finished, I’m now starting to think about getting a good title for it. Easier said than done. Sometimes the title comes right up, even before the book is started, as was the case with Ranch Park and also with my ghost story, Mrs. Treaster’s Bed & Breakfast. No other titles were ever considered with either of those. With the others, however, the titles were harder to come by. I had “working titles” for them all, just to use while the book was being written, and with some I knew they were going to be changed to something more appealing. The “working title” of my latest one is simply “Montana Story”, but that is not likely to be the final title for publication. Whenever I publish a new book one essential step is to do a search on Amazon and Goodreads to see if anyone else is already using the title that I have in mind, and if so, I’d better come up with something else. My second novel, It’s A Place For Trees, was originally supposed to be titled The Tree Museum. That was the “working title” all the way through. I thought it was a good title and intended to publish it with that title. But when I did the online search, it tested positive. There was already another book by another author with that exact title, plus four or five with very similar titles, so that anything I researched with a similar title also tested positive. The publication of my book was delayed for a couple of weeks while I tried to think of a new title. My mother finally came up with It’s A Place For Trees, after a line in the chapter where Will takes Laurel’s arboretum tour. When I was a tour guide for the Holden Arboretum, I learned that “arboretum” means “tree museum”. However, according to the dictionary, “a place for trees” is actually a more accurate definition. So It’s A Place For Trees it is!
The Will Nickerson Mysteries, consisting of Ranch Park, It’s A Place For Trees, Viking It Is,
Let’s Make It Merry Christmas and What’s Up In Wyoming will soon be joined by a new
member of the family that’s now looking for a title!
The Will Nickerson Mysteries, consisting of Ranch Park, It’s A Place For Trees, Viking It Is,
Let’s Make It Merry Christmas and What’s Up In Wyoming will soon be joined by a new
member of the family that’s now looking for a title!
January 12, 2016
WHAT'S NOT IN A BOOK
Sometimes what’s not in a book is just as important as what is. Profanity and graphic sex are NOT in any of my books. Romance, YES! Graphic sex, NO! Now, I won’t claim that there’s no violence, as there has to be a murder if you’re writing a murder mystery, right? But I keep the violence to a minimum and try to avoid excessively gory “blood-and-guts” descriptions of the demise of my fictional murder victims. Adult fiction without the adult language. That’s one of my trademarks. If the WILL NICKERSON MYSTERIES and MRS. TREASTER’S BED & BREAKFAST were movies, I’d probably give them a PG rating, for very brief and MILD violence and scary situations at times. But they are clean. Check ‘em out at:
amzn.to/1mShsiT (Paperback and Kindle)
bit.ly/1oSAN9b (Nook)
bit.ly/1uYdeyn (Kobo)
amzn.to/1mShsiT (Paperback and Kindle)
bit.ly/1oSAN9b (Nook)
bit.ly/1uYdeyn (Kobo)
January 4, 2016
WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE OFFICE
They’re often considered dinosaurs of the office. Typewriters. Nobody used them anymore, in
the age of computers, right? WRONG. Many businesses and government offices, too, do, in fact
still use them. They’re needed for filling out preprinted forms, which you can’t do on a
computer, and they’re much handier for addressing envelopes and typing labels and cards, too.
And now it seems antique typewriters are becoming quite popular among collectors. They look
really cool as a decoration piece in an office or a den or a study. The vintage typewriter is also a symbol of an author. Although most authors today (myself included) use computers to do their writing, that symbol remains. And you can still find an author now and then who chooses to use a classic old typewriter to type a manuscript. I have met a few who do, in fact.
The typewriter has had a profound influence in my writing, as I’ve grown up with my dad’s typewriter sales and repair business. The business was dumped in my lap when he passed away, so I’m continuing it for now till the economy will allow me to pursue my dream of a working farm, and hopefully my career as an author will grow to profitable proportions as well. But, anyway, typewriters and authors seem to go hand in hand, and the old dinosaurs have given me tons of inspiration to write. In particular, with repairs it is often necessary to test the machines. Before doing the repairs, you’ve gotta see what’s wrong with the things. Especially if it’s an intermittent problem. Gotta try it out and see what, if anything, is wrong with it. Are certain letters not typing? Is it the space bar? Carrier return? And once it’s been repaired, you’ve gotta try it out before it goes back to the customer. See if all is in working order. Testing a typewriter can be an extremely tedious job. Traditionally you type the sentence “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country” or something like that. Type that over and over and over and over. BORRRRRING!!! Having a more creative nature, I came up with ways to make it un-boring. Instead of typing that insipid phrase over and over, I began to type sentences in foreign languages (since I’m a big language buff). It’s a great way to practice. Some of the characters needed in other languages can be simulated on a typewriter with the standard American English keyboard, such as for the German Umlaut, you type the letter “a” or “o” or “u”, then backspace and type the quotation mark over it. The accent marks used in Romance languages are harder to do, so I just have to pretend they are there. But foreign languages are not all. I also found myself writing stories, just for fun, to test typewriters. It just seemed to happen naturally. I’d write them out a page or two at a time–actually testing the typewriter much more thoroughly than necessary. A boring task suddenly became fun. Something I looked forward to doing. The stories were silly at times, and nobody but me ever read them, but they did help me develop my craft as an author. Parts of them even fit into my Will Nickerson Mysteries once I began to write in earnest. For example, the Prologue of Ranch Park was lifted almost word-for-word out of one of my typewriter-testing exercises.
So you see, typewriters still do have their place after all. New electronic ones are still being manufactured, and although they lack the romance and mystique of a big old black manual model, they do the job and do it well. These dinosaurs are not extinct.
Keep on typing!
the age of computers, right? WRONG. Many businesses and government offices, too, do, in fact
still use them. They’re needed for filling out preprinted forms, which you can’t do on a
computer, and they’re much handier for addressing envelopes and typing labels and cards, too.
And now it seems antique typewriters are becoming quite popular among collectors. They look
really cool as a decoration piece in an office or a den or a study. The vintage typewriter is also a symbol of an author. Although most authors today (myself included) use computers to do their writing, that symbol remains. And you can still find an author now and then who chooses to use a classic old typewriter to type a manuscript. I have met a few who do, in fact.
The typewriter has had a profound influence in my writing, as I’ve grown up with my dad’s typewriter sales and repair business. The business was dumped in my lap when he passed away, so I’m continuing it for now till the economy will allow me to pursue my dream of a working farm, and hopefully my career as an author will grow to profitable proportions as well. But, anyway, typewriters and authors seem to go hand in hand, and the old dinosaurs have given me tons of inspiration to write. In particular, with repairs it is often necessary to test the machines. Before doing the repairs, you’ve gotta see what’s wrong with the things. Especially if it’s an intermittent problem. Gotta try it out and see what, if anything, is wrong with it. Are certain letters not typing? Is it the space bar? Carrier return? And once it’s been repaired, you’ve gotta try it out before it goes back to the customer. See if all is in working order. Testing a typewriter can be an extremely tedious job. Traditionally you type the sentence “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country” or something like that. Type that over and over and over and over. BORRRRRING!!! Having a more creative nature, I came up with ways to make it un-boring. Instead of typing that insipid phrase over and over, I began to type sentences in foreign languages (since I’m a big language buff). It’s a great way to practice. Some of the characters needed in other languages can be simulated on a typewriter with the standard American English keyboard, such as for the German Umlaut, you type the letter “a” or “o” or “u”, then backspace and type the quotation mark over it. The accent marks used in Romance languages are harder to do, so I just have to pretend they are there. But foreign languages are not all. I also found myself writing stories, just for fun, to test typewriters. It just seemed to happen naturally. I’d write them out a page or two at a time–actually testing the typewriter much more thoroughly than necessary. A boring task suddenly became fun. Something I looked forward to doing. The stories were silly at times, and nobody but me ever read them, but they did help me develop my craft as an author. Parts of them even fit into my Will Nickerson Mysteries once I began to write in earnest. For example, the Prologue of Ranch Park was lifted almost word-for-word out of one of my typewriter-testing exercises.
So you see, typewriters still do have their place after all. New electronic ones are still being manufactured, and although they lack the romance and mystique of a big old black manual model, they do the job and do it well. These dinosaurs are not extinct.
Keep on typing!
December 23, 2015
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
The Entire Cast of Characters of the WILL NICKERSON MYSTERIES and all the Ghosts and Guests of MRS. TREASTER'S BED & BREAKFAST (and the Author, R.L. Anderson, too) wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
December 17, 2015
CHRISTMAS E-BOOK SALE
Does your Christmas wish list include a Kindle? Or a Nook? Or a Kobo? Or a tablet or smartphone equipped with the ebook reader app? If Santa brings you one (and if you’re a mystery fan) you’ll be able to book it with RANCH PARK and IT’S A PLACE FOR TREES for 99c, as these, my first two WILL NICKERSON MYSTERIES are on sale for this special promo price till New Year’s. And if you've got a Kindle and also get the paperback edition from Amazon, the ebooks are free with the Kindle Match Book program. If you’re new to the series, here’s your chance to get started on the cheap!
