Spring 2026 Has Arrived.

As the area heats up (finally) I am busy weeding and preparing vegetable gardens for the spring crops.

I also finished my accounts for the 25-26 financial year. And am now looking forward to writing and publishing more stories for the 26-27 financial year.

There is a Kickstarter on now by Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s for one of her Fantasy series.

Smashwords 2026 Summer/Winter Sale

Smashwords 2026 Summer/Winter sale is on for the month of July. Which means the year is already half over.

Be sure to visit Smashwords and look for some bargains or free ebooks at the above link.

I am eking out an hour here and there to write another ghost story and bundle it with 4 other ghost stories in one volume and publish in the next month or two.  The reason for this is selling one book of approximately 50K words for US$4.99 is better for the readers than 5 short stories of approx. 10K words for US$2.99 each.

And if the readers want more of the same, I can always write another 5 stories of 10K each in the future with the same characters.

Enjoy the month reading, whether relaxing at the beach or in front of a fire.

So, in the middle of winter in Australia, I hope you are all writing and reading, and having fun.

 

Draft2Digital Publishing Process 2026

Draft2Digital has made some changes to their publishing process since I first used them years ago. After I write my story in Word.doc, or in LibreOffice and save as a .doc file, I use Scribus instead of In Design to create my print book Interior and Cover layouts, because it is free software.

Formatting Print Books for D2D.

It is already April and I am way behind in updating all my print books.

Three more print books have been reformatted and uploaded to D2D in the past week, and I am waiting for them to be processed and published. I am now working on another interior and cover this week.

Republishing on D2D

Continuing the saga of Draft2Digital NOT accepting my W-8BEN form with my IRS EIN number.

After many, many emails, with an attached completed W-8BEN pdf form (exactly the same as the past 15 years or so) and my suggesting that D2D roll back the merge of my Smashwords books into D2D, something happened.

Delisting from D2D

I have unfortunately had to delist all my eBooks and print books from D2D because they did not accept my EIN number on my W-8BEN form.

Smashwords EOY Sale

My eBooks will be available as part of the Smashwords 2025 End of Year Sale!

It runs from December 8 to January 1.

Other news is that my first print book in the Tracker series has been updated.

Distributors and POD Printers

I started the merge of my Smashwords and D2D eBooks and noticed one Print book (not in the merge) needed the price updated.

So I updated the price and cover on one POD fiction book on D2D with the new Recommended Retail Price in US Dollars after the print costs increased. This was to keep the $2.00 royalty on each Print sale as I was taught in a publishing course I took years ago.

Independent Publishing in 2025

I am taking a course on “Your Own Short Story Markets” by Dean Wesley Smith at the moment to compliment my writing Ghost short stories which are all running over 7500 words, so should really be called as novelettes.

Novella Kickstarter Workshop

I just backed another Kickstarter by Kristine Kathryn Rusch because of the Special Workshop on Story Market.

Winter is Here 2025

The month of May zoomed by while I was busy doing yard work and June has almost gone by as well.

I plotted the next 3 ghost short stories, while the first 3 were beta read. Did not start writing though.

April Writing Life

April is one of those months that is flying past while I wasn’t looking. Or busy with life.

Thankfully, I got two of three short ghost stories edited between other things. I am now working on editing the third story as I get time. And hoping to have it finished in the next few days.

Still Blogging in 2025

I was reading the latest blog post by Anne R Allen, where she listed commonsense rules she follows with her blog posts. It is worth the read just to refresh and confirm your own blogging rules.

Kickstarter Update

An update on the Kickstarter I supported in the last blog post.

It funded. And reached it’s fourth stretch goal. Which means I will be receiving the 4 Marble Grant Ghost eBooks and 4 classic workshops. They are Character Voice, Author Voice, Character Development and Point of View. I am excited about that.

Backing Another Kickstarter

I looked at Dean Wesley Smith’s latest Kickstarter with 4 eBooks about a ghost and her partner. I have already read some of the stories and decided not to participate in this Kickstarter.

Last Days of Smashwords EOY Sale

It is the last two days of Smashwords End of Year Sale!

Find my books and many more at https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos through the end of the January 1, 2025!

Tell your reader friends to visit and get some good stories as sale prices.

My goal for the new year is simple. I hope to write one short story a month for the year. And finish the current novel and get it published.

So, I wish you all lots of good reading in 2025.

And I hope we all get to write many good stories in 2025.

Keep writing and having fun during the new year.

 

 

Smashwords EOY Sale 2024

Still Writing Short Stories

I can’t believe that another month has flown by.

I submitted my first Ghost short story with a magazine 3 months ago and was advised it was placed at 98 in a queue. Now it is down to 68 in the queue. So I am still waiting to see if it get picked up or rejected.

In the meantime I started the second Ghost short story with the same characters.

Vale Holly Lisle

Sadly, Holly Lisle died on 27th August, 2024.

Thank you, Holly Lisle, for all the encouragement you gave me and many other writers around the world. Thank you for your generosity in creating wonderful writing courses that were worth more than the monitory value you placed on them.

Writer Sanctum Book Fair

I have my fantasy book Rider in a Book Fair for Writer Sanctum. There are also other genres available in the Book Fair besides fantasy.

Check out the page here.

Also remember the Smashwords Summer/Winter sale is on for the month of July. Pick up some very good genre books by new authors and enjoy your Summer or Winter reading.