Dedicated to the Business of Writing

  

In Publishing News this week,

 

 Coming To a Book Fair near you…the Bologna Children’s Book Fair is touring to other book fairs. They are showcasing a pop up Pre Bologna experience. Porter Anderson explains why the ‘fair’ is making guest appearances and how it hopes to drum up more interest in its expanded format offerings.

 

The Oxford University Press recently settled their employees collective bargaining contract and everything looked rosy until they abruptly terminated a whole teams employment this week. Mark Williams offers his acerbic take on the news which must be how their employees are feeling now.

 

Amazon is holding out an AI carrot to Narrators. The Verge reports that Amazon Audible Narrators can now clone their voices and use them for projects. It is in beta but still it could be a lifeline for narrators whose livelihood is under threat from AI narration.

Meanwhile there is a new kid on the block offering 50 % profits to authors who want to provide audio options for their blogs and other written material. Check out Spoken, which is also in beta. Providing audio narration seems to be the 2024 big format mover.

 

Joanna Penn recently chatted with Sacha Black on pivoting genres. This is a chance to listen to two powerhouse writers and speakers chat about their different author business and how they are staying relevant and successful. Check out the podcast/transcript.

Joanna is also celebrating 13 years as a full time author and all the lessons she has learned along the way. Every year at her anniversary she does a roundup show about her journey to where she is and how the last year has shaped up for her. Congratulations Joanna. 

 

Reuters reports that a class action has been taken against Academic publishers over their non payment of peer reviews which effectively amounts to price fixing in the academic publishing world. They report that academic publishers made over $10 billion dollars last year and paid out nothing to the people who provided the work. If you speak to any scientist you will hear this complaint constantly. When you publish an academic paper you have to pay the journal to take it. (Cost: thousands) Then the journal demands a peer review of an academic paper in the same field (which is done for free.) The journal publishes the paper and demands that the university pay a massive subscription so they can access their own research. Add in academic textbooks to a captive student population and you can see why they are rolling in money. Kudos to the neuroscientist professor who has finally had enough and brought the class action. I just want to know why it has taken so long for the scientists to do this? (career suicide anyone?)

 

Sue Coletta takes issue with a recent article written by AI on how to respond to 1 star reviews or even 4 star reviews. The advice given was Bad… very bad. Sue relates why you should never engage with reviewers.

Staying with reviewers and the fabulous Killzone blog, Elaine Viets writes about one reviewers annoyance at seeing the same things happening in book after book. Publishers should be picking up these errors. Check out the gripe list.

 

Katie Weiland has an outstanding article on trusting yourself as a writer. When do you know enough to write a good story? This is a print out and stick on the wall article.

 

In The Craft Section,

Should your novel have a prologue- Lucy Hay

How to resolve a characters internal arc- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Torn between two projects -James Scott Bell – Bookmark

A deep look at deep editing – C S Lakin-Bookmark

5 unexpected plot devices to consider- Savannah Cordova

 

In The Marketing Section

Two interesting articles on Book Promotion from Bookbaby- How to create revenue streams and Book promotion ideas- Bookmark

Building an author platform- Bookbub- Bookmark

Supercharge your mailing list- Cori Ramos- Bookmark

 

To Finish,

 

You have finished the book… the editor is happy. You have checked page proofs until your brain is fried. Then the knotty problem of who to dedicate the book to rears its head. Which family member … friend… inspiration… will you choose? Sophie Masson writes about the perils of dedications in books.

 

I am fast coming up to another big milestone with the Craicer blog. I have to dedicate all the many articles to the readers of the blog. Of course, as a teacher and learner I am hardwired for research and talking about what I learn so I would do it anyway. It is nice to hear that I’ve helped writers along the way with the right article at the right time or a new income stream or just greater knowledge of the world of publishing. The occasional tip into the coffee fund has been greatly appreciated over the years too. 

Thanks for reading.

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox, subscribe to the Substack version.

If you like the blog and want to buy me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

What Is Your Time Worth?

 

 

In Publishing News this week,

In a boost for writers living and working in New York State, the governor has just signed into law that freelancers must get paid. This is an important law for freelancers, who too often are the last to be paid or not at all. Writers and Illustrators are often asked to do work for free. Our creativity is our livelihood, and it is wearying to keep saying No, I haven’t any free books or I can’t give you free art. A good rule of thumb if you do something for free is to write an invoice for the client with the dollar value highlighted as a donation for ‘tax purposes.’ This quietly reinforces the point that your work and time has value. You can probably claim it on your tax as a donation, and they can too. Then if you need to you can have the luxury of saying – My accountant has capped my donation budget this year, Sorry. (Accountants like to have donation budgets… even if you don’t have an accountant.) 

 

Publishing Perspectives reports that over the last five years audio book sales have been increasing year on year to now being up in the double digits of all book sales.

 

The UK Publishers Association is campaigning for people to come and work in publishing. They are using some interesting ideas to get people thinking about who controlls the narrative, or what publishing ideas get taken up. They want diversity, they want clarity of vision, however they aren’t talking about salaries. 

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard turns the spotlight on the little guys. How do the little countries market their books at their own bookfairs.

 

It’s the beginning of the holiday season of selling books and buying gifts for writers. Check out this list from Sandra Beckwith of great writer gifts and deals. (Don’t forget to check last week’s blog post for writer deals as well.) 

If you are just getting into your marketing- Check out Penny Sansevieri’s great post on holiday marketing ideas.

 

Are you over workshopping your novel? Anne R Allen has a great blog on this topic. She has written a checklist of phrases that can flag when you have gone too far down the workshop rabbit hole.

 

Sacha Black delivered the keynote at 20 Books to 50K Vegas (The world’s biggest author convention,) early this month. It was an amazing talk that will be up on YouTube in a few months time. She writes about the conference and things she learned for the Alliance of Independent writers blog

 

Suzanne Lakin has a great post on writing universal themes in fiction and writing craft guru, James Scott Bell, has a must read post on making your sentences sing. This is a printout and stick on your wall post. 

 

In The Craft Section,

How to do your own structural edit- Sarah Kuiken- Bookmark

How to catch 10 most common editing mistakes- Natalie Hanemann- Bookmark

Creating and resolving conflict in your novel- Clare Langley Hawthorne

Tips for writing a successful story climax- Becca Puglisi-Bookmark

Writing short book descriptions- Amy Bernstein- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Social Media Marketing for Authors – Penny Sansevieri

F.A.R. Marketing – Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

How to create fun freebies – Colleen Story- Bookmark

10 strategies to boost your book- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Author blogs – Pros and Cons- Fussy Librarian

 

To Finish,

It is no secret that I am an admirer of Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I must reference her in the blog at least 3 times a month. Kristine’s long career in all facets of Traditional and Indie publishing has been invaluable over the last decade in understanding how publishing has changed, is changing, will change and the importance of owning your IP, and your relationship to readers. She has been a clear sighted guide to what is important and how to manage change in publishing. I will miss her. If you haven’t got one of her nonfiction books on the business of writing you are missing out. Get one for the holidays.

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter to go out. If you want the best of my bookmarked links, you can subscribe here to join our happy band.

 

If you want the weekly blog in your inbox subscribe to the Substack version.

 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: Joyce Wan on Bluesky

The Rumours Are True

 

 

In Publishing News this week....

Earlier in the year I wrote of a rumour that TikTok would start a shop…and now they have. They aren’t selling books in it yet… but publishers will be wondering when. An important side note though, with the ownership of the TikTok site being controversial, many states and countries are looking at ways to limit its influence. If you build a business only on TikTok it could disappear overnight. Mark Williams points out that English Language publishers could be heading for a disaster here.

 

Big Bad Wolf is back. For new readers BBW is an outfit that buys up remaindered English language books from publishers and sells them in huge 24/7 book sales in Asia and Indonesia. The numbers are eye watering… and show that there is a huge market for these books in other countries. (Not to mention, a quick way to get a fast buck without the author getting a slice of the sale.)

 

Do you remember the HarperCollins strike from earlier in the year? (BTW the TV/Film writer’s strike is still ongoing.) It may have been resolved but HarperCollins seems to have mislaid payment of some outstanding bills to content writers. Lawsuits about to start.

 

In welcome news the USA Today Bestsellers list is back after its hiatus. The USA Today list is only judged on book sales across many outlets so often gives a truer picture of what is selling compared to other lists where list placement can bought.

 

Children’s writers were thoroughly approving when Michael Rosen was awarded the Pen Pinter prize "for the ability to address the serious matters of life in a spirit of joy, humour, and hope." 

 

I can already tell that Kris Rusch’s new series on niche marketing is going to be another epic series. This week she talks about multiple newsletters and why they are a good idea.

 

Recently I have seen questions from writers who have been diagnosed with ADHD about how they can manage the diagnosis and also write effectively. This article recently published in an online journal might shed some light. Other ADHD writers find that writing sprints work very well for getting the words down.

 

Writer’s Digest has a spotlight on Sacha Black – Sacha besides writing lots of books, also runs the Rebel Author podcast and has a popular series of writing craft books. It’s a great interview.

 

Writers In The Storm have an article from Karen DeBonis on What I didn’t expect after publishing my book? Post publishing depression is a real thing.

 

Insecure Writers Support Group have an interesting post on archetypes- using Christopher Vogler’s Writers journey book for inspiration.

 

Have you thought about using onomatopoeia in your stories? This article looks at how words like rattle and screech add life to your writing. 

 

 

In The Craft Section,

What does you character want-K M Weiland- Bookmark

Using Story Structure to your advantage- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

How to determine your books timespan- C S Lakin- Bookmark

Positive traits can have drawbacks- Becca Puglisi- Bookmark

Save the cat beat sheet- Kindlepreneur- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

How to write a book proposal- Reedsy – Bookmark

How to Quick Pitch your book- Ruth Harris- Bookmark

Adding direct sales to your website – Written Word Media- Bookmark

What can be author swag – Bookmark

7 tips to boost your Author homepage- Camilla Monk-Bookmark

 

To Finish,

I came across this article from Colleen Story on 5 ways writers are like aliens from outer space. How dare she expose us. Yes, the truth is out there. We have been discovered. Luckily, all is not lost. Our eccentric ways are fully justified if we call ourselves writers. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It's nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links and other interesting extras you can subscribe here to join our happy band.

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

 Pic: Photo by Albert Antony on Unsplash

The Publishing Soap Opera

This week in publishing news…

 

The DOJ and PRH wrapped up their closing arguments after nearly a month in court. Now the judge has to decide if the sale of Simon and Schuster will go through or whether the DOJ can successfully block it. There were many popcorn moments. Among them, opposing lawyers not wanting to grill Stephen King because they wanted their books signed and the PRH CEO thinking everyone gets large advances and marketing budgets. 

Publishers Weekly has a breakdown of the closing arguments, or as they say- we’re right back where we started. It makes fascinating reading.

 

While everyone looks at the money that is supposed to be swimming in publishing, the reality is looking different for the actual workers, let alone the writers. A survey of publishing professionals' workplace stress indicates that burnout and low pay is causing many to leave the profession. It makes grim and sad reading. The death of starry-eyed dreams is never pretty. Something has to change.

 

Mark Williams of The New Publishing Standard points out that the recent American Publishers report of falling eBook sales doesn’t account for the huge payouts Amazon has been giving to authors from Kindle Unlimited during the same reporting period. So where is all the money in publishing? At the same time as everyone is looking at the numbers, Amazon is too and pulling back from restocking its warehouses. It’s just a blip they said to Publisher’s Weekly, but for how long?

 

Over in the UK the association of publishers are not happy with the government which has decided that data mining copyrighted work and creative IP is ok. The government is about to pass a law to make it easier. They want to welcome huge data firms to the UK. Guess who will lose out?

 

Mark Williams likes to remind everyone that publishing is a global business. This week he looked at the rising cost of printing that has seen the Bangladesh publishers scrambling to stay afloat with costs for ink, paper, and printing jumping by 50%. What to do? Mark points out that with over 75% of the population online, maybe they could make a digital book. Radical thinking for conservative publishers.

 

Joanna Penn interviewed Ryan Dingler from Google Play Books on AI narration. Whatever you feel about the spoken word and narration it is worth keeping an eye on with the big moves in audio publishing. It’s an interesting interview. Check out the links to Google’s voice library, the AI voices are getting very good. When they get full cast functionality, which Google are promising soon, that’s when it will seriously change audio publishing.

 

Anne R Allen has a big post on the latest scams which I touched upon last week. Anne goes into more detail about how these scammers are stealing agent identities and how you can sort out the fakes from the real offers.

 

Kris Rusch continues her posts on the business of writing. When is your art not a business? 

I kept thinking of the poor young publishing professionals being told to grab audio rights their company has no intention of doing anything with when I was reading this.

 

BookBaby has a big post on serial writing sites. If you want to figure out where the best place is to publish your serial soap opera- check out their recommendations. 

 

Now Novel has a comprehensive post on Thriller writing. If you have been wanting to try out some ideas in the thriller genre this is the post for you.

 

In the Craft section,

How to write a good blog post- Rachel Thompson

3 mistakes to avoid with your side characters- Sacha Black- Bookmark

Plot emerges from characters- Scott Myers

5 character tools you need to know- Angela Ackerman- Bookmark

Beyond character goal and motivation- Foxprint Editorial- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

8 creative ways to launch a book- Penny Sansevieri- Bookmark

How to launch a thriller- Interview with a thriller writer.- Sandra Beckwith

Infographic on writing promo-related dates for September – Penny Sansevieri

2 great posts from Dave Chesson- How to build an about the author page and a nifty print formatting template generator- Bookmark both

 

To Finish,

If you are looking for some courses to do around writing craft, punctuation, publishing, cover design etc. Udemy has a big selection. Dave Chesson has pulled together a useful list. The big news is that Udemy is having a sale for a week with all their courses over 85% off. You can pick up a course for less than $20. So if you were looking to learn new skills or deep dive research into artisan cheese making for your soap opera serial cowboy hero… now’s the time to sign up.

Maureen

@craicer

 

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter. If you want the best of my bookmarked links and other bits and pieces come on in and subscribe.

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top or here. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

PIC Photo by Matthew Tkocz on Unsplash

The Price Of Fame

This week is the one-year anniversary of the countrywide lockdown for Covid 19. As a country, we closed schools and worked from home, where we could. We learned the value of a daily walk in the neighborhood by putting teddy bears in the window for little children to count. (We had a skydiving bear off our carport.) We all learned Zoom and Skype. We discovered new ways to work and consume entertainment. In the publishing world, conferences were canceled and books were delayed. 

One year on and the lockdowns continue in the big cities which host big publishing conferences. This week the Paris Book Fair was canceled and the company behind the book fairs is in trouble. The new publishing world might just be digital. Are publishers ready for this? The New Publishing Standard asks. Wattpatt is forging ahead with plans for TV shows and streaming services. 

Meanwhile, Kris Rusch has an interesting story about what happens when Hollywood comes calling and you discover that you signed a contract for all rights. Tom Clancy’s estate legal fight could be yours. Just who does own Jack Ryan?

 

Facebook is launching a journalism platform. It is aimed at self-publishing journalists giving them the tools and place to publish multi-media stories. But who is going to consume the content and how are they going to pay for it? Your FB author pages might just be the next money stream for them.

 

Draft2Digital a publishing aggregator introduced payment splitting a few months ago. That has been a boon for co-authors and groups publishing digitally. D2D does all the heavy lifting. Recently Kevin Tumlinson of D2D shared how authors have been using this new feature. Take a shared universe….

Of course, you can’t use D2D unless you are publishing your own work so to help you out Jane Friedman recently had a blog post on 11 signs you are ready to self-publish.

 

It is nearly tax time here in New Zealand. After last year, the taxman may not get much of a haul. Sacha Black looks at personal finance for Indie Authors.

 

Di Ann Mills recently wrote a guest blog on the most valuable writing advice she had ever received. I absolutely agree with her… 

 

In the Craft Section,

How to show not tell- Janice Hardy – Bookmark

Finding your way to the end of your story- Sharon Warner- Bookmark

5 reasons why you need a professional editor- Jim Demp

10 questions to help you set the stage- C S Lakin- Bookmark

 

In The Marketing Section,

Create Book Promo graphics- Sandra Beckwith- Bookmark- Also Check out David Gaughran's latest video on FB ads- Making one in real time with Canva 

How to market Indie books - Ingram Spark

Free book promotions- Frances Caballo – Bookmark

 2 Great posts from Penny Sansevieri

5 essential book marketing strategies for mystery authors and

5 features of effective and engaging websites

 

To Finish,

Last weekend I attended a writing workshop for two days. We had a whiteboard where people could write questions that we answered in breakout sessions from writing. One of the questions which caught our attention was, what if you start to hate your story? 

James Scott Bell recently wrote an excellent blog on just this problem. 

 

Maureen

@craicer

 

It is nearly time for my monthly newsletter with the best of my bookmarked links. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

 

Pic: 

 

Getting Creative

Last week I was urging people to look for the silver lining. A lot can happen in a week. 

Sadly, I am seeing many people in the arts industry who have had their jobs disappear, launches canceled, speaking gigs (that pay the rent) postponed or stopped. Then I saw booksellers struggling and the layoffs of staff have begun.

Some great booksellers are keeping their staff on full pay and giving them vacation time. Others are coming up with innovative ways to stay relevant in the community. A friend who does a regular storytime in a children’s bookshop is now doing an online version for the store. (They also have a mobile EFTPOS machine so they can go out to cars with your phone in order.) Other bookshops have started a delivery service. 

Now is the time to get creative to weather the Covid 19 storm. 

With the canceling of so many festivals, some kid’s authors got together to hold an online book festival for kids. Check out how they are doing it and share the idea around.

Penguin Random House, Scholastic, and others are relaxing their licenses so teachers can use their books and crafts in videos for children who are unable to go to school. Authors who have their own licenses for this may be able to offer something similar. 

Librarians overseas, are arguing that now is the time to relax the fair use rules on copyright. This is tricky as authors should still be paid for their work. It is their livelihood.

Amazon is priority shipping- anything not a priority for Covid 19 is getting delayed. Unfortunately, books are not seen as a priority. However, that doesn’t apply to KDP print and ebooks. (silver lining)

In the middle of all this Macmillan ended its library embargo. Everyone told them you don’t mess with librarians, but they had to find out the hard way.

Kristine Rusch talks about Black Swan events and how the world and business change forever at these times. This is an interesting read and something to ponder on as we look at our author business. Dean and Kris are also offering big discounts on all their courses for authors who are stuck inside. 

Nate Hoffelder is noting that most of the Book Fairs are talking postponement. He has a blog post on what to take if you are planning to go to a fair as soon as everything gets back to the new normal.

Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors has a very useful article on how Indie Publishing might be able to weather the Covid 19 storm.

In The Craft Section,

4 tips for creating Villains- Sacha Black - Bookmark

5 tips for writing therapy scenes- Jennifer Lane

4 reasons why sprinting is the new writing- Sacha Black

Ways to add depth to settings- Jordan Dane- Bookmark

Taking the first step towards writing- Shanna Swendson- Bookmark

In The Marketing Section,

How to make your book marketing more effective- Rachel Thompson- Bookmark

Packaging your book- Keywords, metadata, and selling points- Nicolas Erik- Bookmark!

New free epub creation tool- Yay.

Increasing discoverability- Facebook Goodreads Twitter- Ingram blog

Change your author blog into a website- Nate Hoffelder- Bookmark

To Finish

In this time of uncertainty with the news constantly changing around us it can be tempting to lock ourselves away and go back to comfort food, books, etc etc. If you know anyone contemplating plans to write that picture book, ‘because it’s easy to write a kids book’ send them over to read Melinda Szymanik’s blog- The picture book gospel. 

Now is the time to be kind and to think outside of the box, to get the word out about books and reading. Write reviews, talk on social media about favourite books, share your process, invent words games, social distancing doesn’t mean social isolation. Writers are already ahead of the rest of the world in these skills. It’s time to show them off.

Maureen

@craicer

It’s nearly time for my monthly newsletter of the best of the months' bookmarked links.

When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

Pic: Flickr- Creative Commons – Bill Smith- Girl Scout cookies 

History Lessons

February is Black History month in the United States. With diversity or the lack of it in publishing on everyone’s minds there are numerous ways publishers and booksellers seek to show they are listening to the people at least in one month. Unfortunately, sometimes they can get it so wrong. Barnes and Noble and Penguin Random House believed the world was ready for classic white literature to have new diversity style covers…. PR Disaster.

As POC writers pointed out, they could have just highlighted or even published our books!

Elsewhere in the world, the Taipei bookfair has been postponed. This week more than half a million people would have been attending one of the largest literary events in the world. The New Publishing Standard points out that this will probably not be the only casualty to the Corona Virus.

London Book Fair is still on… and they are ‘amping up the profile of audio books and all things audio related at this year’s fair. Publishing Perspectives looks at what is on offer. They also have a report on how many Wattpad stories have been picked up for film, television and book deals.

Anne R Allen has a timely reminder that some readers will persist in believing that you wrote about their lives in your books. This is upsetting for everyone. How can you solve the problems when life imitates fiction?

Kris Rusch has been writing about optimism and the writer. This is a great read for the writer who maybe staring at the bank balance and wondering why we do this thing called writing.

Jami Gold looks at editing and life challenges and puts the two on the same level. An interesting shift in mindset here.

Iva Cheung beautifully demonstrated a problem, in comic form, that she is seeing in publishing houses. Many new editors have no idea what a style sheet is. Her comic does highlight a basic knowledge gap. For a dive into what style sheets are check out this post from Ruth Harris.

Two interesting posts caught my eye today on craft. James Scott Bell on the curse of expository dialogue and Copy Blogger and their tools for editing – take 3 highlighters. As I was reading this, I was reminded of P G Wodehouse’s style of editing. He would pin each page of the novel onto his study wall in rows. Good pages went to the top row. All the others would move up and down the rows depending on how much editing he thought they needed. He wouldn’t send a book off unless every single typewritten page was on the top row.

In The Craft Section, (Bookmark All of them!)

Mental illness- the character is not their disorder- Whataboutwriting-

Writing a genre that is new to you- Writer Unboxed 

The ultimate guide to creating characters- 1000 day MFA-Shaunta Grimes BOOKMARK

10 ways to write a better first chapter with specific word choices – K M Weiland

The art and craft of the elevator pitch – Ruth Harris 

In The Marketing Section,

Bookmarketing advice for new authors-Emilie Rabitoy

5 Book promotion tactics that work- Rachel Thompson

What Amazons Ads dashboard changes mean for authors- Bookmark

21 resources for creating audiobooks and podcasts – Sacha Black – Bookmark

To Finish,

Today is New Zealand’s commemoration day. We remember the treaty that was signed between two very different peoples in 1840 and the subsequent ups and downs of this relationship. We are really only now coming to terms with the legacy of injustice. Now, after 180 years, it will be compulsory to teach our own history in schools. Having studied a little bit of New Zealand history in university this is going to be a wake-up call to the general population. If you want a quick primer on what the treaty was about check out this fabulous graphic novelization that was made for children by Toby Morris.

Ina kei te mohio koe ko wai koe, I anga mai koe I hea kei te mohio koe, 

kei te anga atu ki hea.

If you know who you are and where you are from, then you will know where you are going.

Maureen

@craicer

Do you want the best of my bookmarked links in a handy monthly newsletter?

When you subscribe you will also get a nifty mini book crammed full with marketing notes as a thank you. 

If you like the blog and want to shout me a coffee, hit the coffee button up top. I appreciate the virtual coffee love. Thanks.

Pic : The 1834 Independence flag