Windy’s Blog

After six years my crime and suspense novel has finally been published! It was a tough decision for me, whether to continue to follow the traditional publishing route, or to go ahead and join the multitude of authors who are self-publishing with Amazon. But after extensive research and some soul searching, I decided to jump on the e-book river and ride the stream into the ocean of millions of authors who publish on-line only. Also, I recently was given a gift of a Kindle Fire, and wanted to read my own works on it!

The story is quite different from my blog, so dedicated readers here may be a little shocked. But still, I believe you will enjoy it. Everyone has a dark side, right? This story travels over there, but only so far as needed to get the point across: in this world, there are some crazy people.

I didn’t want to write just another crime novel. I wanted colorful characters that would help the reader enjoy what is not usually an enjoyable subject. So the story is more about the people trying to solve the mystery, rather than the crime itself.  Just as with life, the novel contains both humor and sadness. I know that you will enjoy the read.

After deciding to publish as an e-book, the next challenge I faced was determining the sale price. I wanted to make the book affordable for everyone. But, there’s always the chance of under pricing. Most novels sell for around $ 7.99. So I could have put that price, and earned a much larger profit for each sale. The only problem with that is that I would be limiting my readership, and I didn’t want to do that.

Finally I came up with a price of $ 3.99 for the e-book. It’s less than the standard price, and I am okay with that.  Although perhaps risking the perceived credibility that goes along with higher priced books, I can now easily market the book as costing less than a cup of flavored coffee at Starbucks. And I can reach a much broader audience while still making a small profit. For me, that’s the most important part.

So where can you get the book? Here’s the link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Z8P8N4

Take some time to read it. The e-book is set up to work with Kindles, but you can download the free Kindle App by clicking HERE.     Once you download an App, you can read the book on computers and devices such as phones and tablets.

So go ahead and get my book! It’s a quick read, and I know that you will enjoy it.

Join the Facebook page and leave your comments and reviews of the book there.

Happy reading!

I had another epiphany recently. As I was contemplating the universe and all of its complexities, the thought jumped into my head “do my readers actually know how to read my blog?” Yes, I know. It was a shocking question, even to me. The epiphany came when I thought “Oh, I need to tell them how!” Wow, such earth-shattering, life-changing thoughts I have. It’s a wonder I’m not totally famous yet. Totally.

So here is the information you need to know:

1. When I update the blog, the most recent post will show on the homepage. Neat, isn’t it? Following the recent blog (if there is enough room on the home page) will be the next to recent post. The page is set up in date order.

2. On the top of the home page there are “tabs”. These are to provide you with other interesting things to read about me. There is the Home tab, which amazingly enough, will bring you back to the home page when you click on it. So if you’re ever lost in some other area and can’t find your way home, this tab will bring you there with just one click. (kind of like the movie).

To the right of the Home tab is the My Novel tab. Clicking on that tab will bring you to another area with a completely different design and info on the novel I’ve written which has yet to be published. To the right of that tab is the esteemed Who Am I, which has not been updated due to some personal reasons I won’t explain here right now.

So you see that in addition to the regular blog posts, there are several tabs to check out. The “For the Grieving” tab contains all of the posts from the now defunct Courageous Hearts website that I used to run.

3. The Categories. Did you know that all posts I’ve ever written are still kept in archive for you? They can be accessed by scrolling down the home page. To the right you will see what are supposed to be paper clips, but sometimes look more like some random graphic. I try to put every post into one of these Categories, so that if you are looking for a certain blog you can find it there.

For example: say that you are having a bad day and just need to read something to make you laugh. Simply scroll to the right and click on the Humor category. That should help you out some.

What if you just need to regroup and want some spiritual support? I’ve got that covered. Click on the Spiritual category and read some blogs about how God works in my life. There are even some pictures in some of the posts for your visual enjoyment.

4. If the tabs and the Categories don’t supply enough filtering for you and you want to know if I’ve blogged about a specific subject, there is the Search feature. Located just above the Categories section, you can type in a subject or even a series of words and click on Search, and voila, you will find out which blogs match those words!

Ok, so now that you know how to navigate around this blog, why do you care? Well, you should be enthralled simply with the idea that you can access all sorts of writings for your entertainment. But aside from that, I will be holding a contest soon and you may want to participate. Part of the contest will require your involvement. I’ll be asking for you to comment about your favorite post on this blog. More details on that to come later.

But, really, why should I write here if you aren’t going to read it? If you aren’t getting the most out of this blogging thing, then what’s the point of it? Oh, yeah, aside from it being the place where I can ramble on and on at my own discretion with no one disputing my theories (’cause I edit out those comments!).

Speaking of comments, I do read them all. If you don’t know how to write a comment to me, here’s how: simply click on the top, right side of the post where the word COMMENT appears in orange letters. Posts that have comments on them will state the number, for example, 2 comments, etc. If you see Comments Off, it means there were no comments made in the first two weeks of posting, and further comments on that post are not able to be made. (I had to cut it off somewhere and I figured if two weeks was not enough time to leave a comment, well, hmm).

So that’s it. I hope that you will make use of the tools on this blog to browse through the tabs, the categories, the comments and the home page. I encourage you to read something different today from the blog. Or pick a category and browse through the older posts. Enjoy this space as much as I do. And keep checking for that contest, coming soon to Windy’s Blog!

In an effort to 1) save money and 2) be more organized, I’ve changed this site a little.
Did you notice?

I transferred the content from my other web site (courageoushearts.com) to this blog. I also
transferred the info I had posted about my novel.

All of this content can now be found at the top of this page, by clicking on the appropriate
tab or “button.” (For The Grieving and My Novel).

When you have some time, please check out those areas of the blog. I’d also like to make sure
that each area appears correctly on your computer screen. I’m not that great at the html coding, so I had to do
some guessing on how to structure everything. Be a good tester and let me know if the areas
of the site work!

I hope to make other changes to this site when I have the time to learn more about web site development.

Enjoy!

p.s.–  Here are the direct links to the two sections:

For the Grieving

and

My Novel