James M. Jackson's Blog, page 7

The Jim Jackson Simplified Income Tax Plan

I posted the first version of my tax-simplification plan in February 2012. Five years later, I made a couple of tweaks, but the essence stays the same. It's clear, simple, and best of all would be completely transparent. I've emphasized that last aspect more is this updated 2017 version.

I challenge President Trump to match me in boldness and effectiveness in generating revenue to run the government and being transparent about how the Federal government spends our money.
Personal Income Taxes:
1...

10 Similarities Between Birding and Writing

Birding and writing have a lot of similarities. Say what? Read on.

I'iwiAs part of our Hawaiian vacation, Jan and I joined a birding tour of the islands. It was a great vacation and I did very little writing while we were gone, but I did think about writing. Here are ten ways birding and writing are similar.

1. In birding and writing, no matter how good you are, someone is better than you, at least in some aspects.

No additional commentary needed on this one.

2. Birding and writing can both be so...

Remembering Pearl Harbor

War is caused either by an imperialistic stance by an aggressor, a failure of nations to successfully negotiate their differences, or a combination of the two, which is how the United States ended up in World War Two.
When Japan invaded Manchuria (imperialism), the United States reacted by refusing to sell Japan oil. This was no small matter for Japan, who bought 80% of its oil from U.S. companies. When the terms the U.S. required to begin shipping oil to Japan were too high for the Japanese g...

Simplify

As we approach the coming equinox, thoughts turn to spring cleaning. It’s a tradition, is it not: spring cleaning? Not my tradition, mind you. My seasonal thoughts turn to spring peepers and leaves popping on trees and migrating birds, many freshly attired to attract a mate, and <groan> income taxes. I don’t notice the dirt I’ve tracked into the house until it’s pointed out to me. Nor do I notice overfilled closets, file cabinets, or newsletter mailing lists until there is no room for t...

Cowriting a Short Story

As a writer of the Seamus McCree Mystery/Suspense series, my marketing aim is to expose more potential readers to my novels. When Teresa Inge asked if I’d be interested in submitting a story for the 50 Shades of Cabernet anthology, I immediately agreed. It fit my marketing needs: a Seamus short story in an anthology with lots of excellent writers that would expose a new group of mystery readers to him. [Pre-order links for Amazon and B&N.]
Over the last few years I had worked closely with...

Put Up or Shut Up (An Open Letter to President Trump)

Dear President Trump:
You won the electoral college election and, having been duly sworn into office, are the president of the United States of America.
Act like it.
Presidents represent all the people of the United States. They give up their personal right to voice unproven beliefs to the public as though they are facts because their pronouncements now come from the head of the executive branch of government, not from a private citizen.
Illegal Voters
When you claim to have won the popular vote h...

A Primer on Replacing Obamacare

“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.” – HL Menken
“Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” – President Donald J. Trump
For the last six years, congressional Republicans have had a clear, simple, and wrong solution to fixing the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”). They voted umpteen times to repeal it and offered no measure to replace it.
The law, as many laws are, is a complex compromise between aspiration (mostly by Democrats) an...

Cover Wars

For the past week, I have been filling out a questionnaire that will provide the basis for an interview to appear in a magazine later this year. I’ll leave you in suspense about the details so I have fodder for a future blog. One of the questions was, “How did getting/being published change your life?” My response was that after publication I spend much less time on pure writing and significantly more time on sales and marketing activities.
To my way of thinking, it’s all about exposure. I hav...

Why I Am All In with Amazon for Ebooks

Every Indy Author (a.k.a. Self-published Author) must make a fundamental decision about how to market their electronic books. Do they jump in bed solely with Amazon or play the field, allowing readers to purchase books from Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, Google Play and others?
Authors must evaluate many factors before coming to a decision about how to sell a particular book. The size and breadth of their following, including the percentage of readers in the U.S. compared to other parts o...

Five Lessons Learned as a Nano-Press

What is a nano-press? Small presses are often defined as with revenues of less than $50 million. Micro-press frequently refers to the physical size of the books (often pamphlets or comics). Wolf’s Echo Press revenues are WAY BELOW the $50 million mark, so I thought that I should come up with a distinguishing term, and nano-press sounded about right.
Last year, I decided to produce an anthology of novellas set in the lowcountry of the southeast U.S. I invited three author friends who knew the a...