James M. Jackson's Blog, page 22

Is Amazon an Author’s Friend?

The quick and easy answer to the title’s question is NO. Amazon is Amazon’s friend. All others should beware the bruin's close hug.

From time to time Amazon’s interests may be allied with authors’ interests. Amazon may help drive more income to authors than they would have otherwise obtained, but Amazon is NOT an author’s friend. I can hear a number of my author friends saying about now, “But without Amazon, I wouldn’t be—” I am going to interrupt the praise. It is not relevant whether Amazon...

Carrying Costs

By the time this blog is published I will have (hopefully) completed my three-week journey from southern home to northern home. In previous years I have posted online pictures of the stuff we bring back and forth each year. As a published author, I bring my inventory of books. As a reader, I bring my TBR pile (which was especially large this year as it included both Left Coast Crime and Malice Domestic books). Since we are on the road for some time, we need traveling clothes for multiple days...

Sex in the Suburbs

Last Sunday I awoke at 3:30 a.m. to the sounds of love—well, more accurately, lust. For whatever reason I channeled, Paul Simon’s “Duncan,” which starts with

Couple in the next room bound to win a prizeThey’ve been going at it all night long

The problem with my not-quite-awake brain’s jukebox response was this: no humans were involved that night. We’re talking frogs and toads and they are loud. I mean LOUD! Voyeur that I am, I had no shame and listened from the comfort of my bed.

Male frogs an...

Still Plays with Trains

The tee shirt that my breakfast companion wore said, “Still Plays with Trains.” It reminded me of my father, gone now a year and a half, who was a lifelong lover of trains. Shortly before his death he turned in to his editor his last book, this one about the Rochester Division of the Erie Railroad. It was from him that I learned to enjoy rail transport.Growing up, I shared my basement bedroom with Dad’s HO-gauge model railroad setup. Dad shot hours of 16mm film of trains, especially those pul...

Two Potential Rental Car Rip-Off’s

I had the rental car delivered to the hotel because I was arriving after their office closed and would be leaving before their office opened. As I was driving out of town I noticed the gas tank was at 3/8ths full. I would have called them, except they weren’t yet open. I pulled out my cellphone and took a picture of the dashboard showing mileage and gas tank reading. When I returned the car I made sure to fill it to the same level and informed them I had documentation about the original level...

8 Ways To Spend Less & Save More

Today we are trying an experiment. Amy Matt found me on the internet and asked if she could write a guest blog. I decided to give it a try. Below you'll find her thoughts on spending less and saving more. Here's her self-introduction:

Hi. My name is Amy Matt and I am known for my over-supportive behavior for living a frugal life. The reason is that there was a terrible time in my life when I had to encounter excessive debt. I am happy to be guest posting here today. Please visit my blog to lea...

The Husband’s Secret

My Savannah book club, Bound to Please (don’t you love that name), recently read The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty. I stumbled onto the club when they chose Bad Policy as their December 2013 book. Jan and I have continued to go to meetings because it is a good group of people with a variety of ages and interests, and they often choose books we wouldn’t normally read.
I was disappointed in The Husband’s Secret. If you want to know why, contact me off list, because...

“Bitcoin is Still in Beta”

So says Bitcoin’s executive director, Jon Matonis as reported by CNN. Now, I’m sure that bit of information, combined with Matonis’s further advice that “You should only invest in trade what you can afford to lose,” is very comforting to people who used Mt. Gox to store their investment.
In other words, the executive director classifies bitcoin as an extremely risky investment, not a monetary store of value. I suppose that’s obvious for anything which has had its value jump to over $1,000 and...

Bitcoin Exchange Goes Missing

Timing is everything, as the saying goes. On Tuesday, February 25, exactly one week after I ran my blog about the risks of Bitcoins,  Mt. Gox, one of the larger worldwide exchanges, turned off the lights on its website exchange. For those who kept their electronic accounts with Mt. Gox, this is equivalent to me wandering over to my local Wells Fargo Office ATM and discovering it and the bank were no longer there and there is no FDIC insuring my savings.
Here’s an article from Reuters with...

A Skeptic Looks at Bitcoins

One of my rules for evaluating potential investments is how well I understand them. Unless I have developed a basic understanding of the investment and its attendant risks, I’m not willing to invest in it. No amount of written and verbal advice given by “experts,” is sufficient to overcome my need to understand. After all, these selfsame experts are the ones who have missed numerous bubbles.
The value of Bitcoins is market-based, determined by supply and demand. Supply is purportedly regulated...