My new book 'The Black Bridge' is almost ready for online publishing...

It is with the editor, and hopefully should be out sometime this summer.  I apologize for taking so long to finish this 3rd book in the series 'A Time Before Facebook', but this retirement gig is time consuming at times.

Some great news, however, I am almost a third of the way through Book #4 in the series, called 'Boys Love Forts'.  But life throws curves at us sometimes, and what I thought would be a relaxing retirement, living half my life in Mexico and the other half in Canada drinking tea and writing books, has changed somewhat.

I am now the owner of an oyster/clam lease on Vancouver Island, and most of my summers will be spent developing this project.  I hope that on rainy west coast days, I can fit in a little time for writing.

Also in Mexico, my primary writing location, has been reshaped by outside influences.  My best friend in Mexico is a property manager, and guess what, he and I have bought our first rental property in Mexico.  I now have less time, periodically, for writing in my sunny relaxed environment.

Oh well, I'll keep at writing, and will sincerely try to publish one eBook per year, if possible.  I'll post again when the third book publishes on Smashwords.com, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.  And, of course, remember they are published under the name 'Jimmy James Jr.'.

How I'd love to live my life and with others would too.

1. Visit my family more often and hug them each and every time.
2. Help those less fortunate than myself.
3. Those I help that show not gratitude, fuck off and help no more.
4. Believe in a higher being and goodness, refraining from joining any religion or cult.
5. Work hard all my life and plan for my own retirement.
6. Help my children achieve a higher education.
7. Contribute something tangible to the world, writing, music, etc.
8. Consider the earth first in all decisions.
9. Treat animals as kindly as people.
10. Give criminals a second chance, but not a third.
11. Respect all cultures and religions as long as they respect my beliefs and do not try to force theirs on me.
12. Support only those politicians that are honest.
13. Support bailouts of Canadian ONLY companies that, in turn, support Canadian workers.
14. Look for ways to decrease my fossil fuel consumption.
15. Try to live and eat healthy for a long life with my family.
16. Investigate the issues and believe what I have determined is the truth.
17. In any way possible, attempt to pay fewer bank user fees and interest, and reduce my taxes whenever possible.
18. Support helping those in need in my own country, before those in other countries.
19. Establish a long list of true friends.
20. Treat everyone with dignity and respect, just as I expect them to treat me.
21. Try to ignore the terrible things happening in the world and try to retain a semblance of happiness.
22. Think before I speak and before I post online.
23. See the world, or what's left of it - before it is destroyed by men.

What kind of writer are you? The Novelist

The Novelist - now this is a true writer in my book.  It is also what I aspire to be one day.

The novelist takes and idea, or a group of ideas based on either fact or fiction, and creates a story that allows the reader to drift off into another world.  When written well, the novel keeps you turning pages one after the other, to find out what happens next.

The novel, in many cases, can be the foundation for almost all other forms of writing.  Many screenplays, plays and movies originate from novels.  Novelists, like many other writers, spend much of their time hidden away in a secluded spot to create these marvelous works.  They don't come out to play often, but when they do, they are usually the quiet ones that may appear somewhat antisocial.  They may have a better relationship with their characters than they do with the real world.

However, once you peel away the protective layers of the novelist, you will find some of the most thoughtful and intelligent people hidden underneath that you will ever meet.  If only one day I can become a true novelist.  BTW, this is the final chapter on the various types of writers.

What kind of writer are you? The Blogger

The Blogger - what a fantastic way to reach a vast audience, that is, if you can figure out how to get your blog out there and easily accessible.  The first step, however, is to find the right platform for your blog.  As you noticed, I am using Google Blogger, because it was one of the most popular ones when I started my blog last year.

The ratings now show that Blogger is all but dead.  I think it might be time to switch to another more popular platform in the near future.  More popular platforms that are actually monitored and improved upon regularly are:  A Quick Primer, Wordpress (always one of the best), Squarespace, Posthaven and Ghost, just to mention a few.

But what is blogging all about?  Basically anything you want to write about that tickles your fancy, can be included in your blog.  The main thing is to make it interesting and be passionate about what you write.  Also, be sure to have a basic knowledge of your topics, because there is nothing worse than rambling on about something, and having a complete stranger challenge your information.  Not only does this make your blog ineffective, it can be quite embarrassing as well.

My blogs are divided into a few main topics that I enjoy writing about.  Writing of course, and also Politics, Mexico and Canada.  You can never write enough about politics, and because the news always contains different political issues, there is a never-ending supply of material for me to blog about.

My main concern, however, about my blogs is trying to determine how to reach an audience.  I don't just want friends to read my blogs, I want the WORLD to read them.  Unfortunately, I haven't discovered just how to accomplish this yet.  Perhaps it has something to do with my blog title, perhaps the titles of my individual posts;  whatever it is, it seems to be hit and miss for me.  I will write a blog one day on a certain topic, and get one view;  then the next day I'll blog on the same topic and get 100 views.

If anyone has any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong, it would be greatly appreciated.

Now that my boat has been repaired and I have no plans for taking any immediate yachting trips, I just might be able to blog more often.  The last, and final, chapter in this series is The Novelist.  Coming soon.

What kind of writer are you? The Songwriter

The Songwriter - a songwriter is similar to a poet, particularly those songwriters that concentrate on writing the lyrics to songs.  Many songwriters are also musicians, which gives them a distinct advantage to become a full-bodied songwriter; because songwriting not only includes writing lyrics, it requires writing a melody too.

So, to be considered a songwriter, one must write either lyrics or melodies, or both in many circumstances.  That is, unless, the song is written solely as an instrumental.  In many instances a person has the ability to only create either one or the other.  To create a complete song, they will usually have to collaborate with another person.

Myself, I love to write lyrics, and even though I am also a musician, the melody of the song just doesn't come to me.  Of course, I have an idea of what the meter and genre of the song will be (fast, slow, Rock and Roll, Country), but not the melody itself is missing.

Fortunately many of my previous band mates have been talented in writing music, and we have collaborated on numerous songs.  And great ones, I might add.  In my opinion, if a group of musicians in a band are somehow able to write and perform their own music, it doesn't get much better than that.

Songwriting is like modern day poetry, but much more entertaining because it tantalizes the senses in ways poetry cannot.  Even if poetry is spoken, it just doesn't compare to the sound of a great song. Poetry with music, I simply love it.

What kind of writer are you? The Satirist

The Satirist -now this is the kind of writing that I like, and it is really fun.  Just pick any topic that you think is ridiculous, and go to town on it.  But of course, try not to be totally rude and obnoxious when slamming whatever it is you are writing about.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is a perfect example of satire.  It is a satire of 18th Century British Society, and is a classic.  Satirists of today can have a field day with topics such as politics, overpaid actors and professional sports figures, and numerous other subjects.  Politics has always been a favorite throughout the times.

When writing satire, keep in mind that you want the reader to find your writing humorous, and not condescending.  You want to leave them with a smile on their face, and something to think about.  You don't want to leave them with the impression that you are just a complainer, and possibly even an arrogant antagonist.

Anyway, a little satire in whatever you write can add spice to your creations.

What kind of writer are you? The Playwright

The Playwright - Every time I look at the spelling of this work, I feel it should be spelled 'Playwrite'.  You know, 'play' for the primary function of this genre of writing, and 'write' for what else, writing.  Perhaps it comes from an ancient form of the word 'write'.  Maybe it is actually spelled correctly and my assumption is wrong.

Anyway, a playwright is a person that writes dramatic pieces of literature that are written primarily for performances such as plays and television.  A production that is both visual and oral.  Because they are a drama, they have main characters, protagonists, antagonists, and a plot.  They can be written in prose or poetry, but most modern plays are written in prose.

If a play is written for personal satisfaction, and not for any type of production, in my opinion they are like a flower that will never bloom.  Transposing a play from the pages to the stage, not only allows for an enhanced visual effect of the work, it also gives either the playwright or the production manager room to be even more creative.

In my personal opinion, I have always found plays a more social venue than just going to a movie theater and watching a production on the big screen.  Not only do you get to see real actors, and at times be able to interact with them, most plays have an intermission that allows the attendees to get refreshments and also discuss their feelings on the play thus far.

Definitely a more personal way to view an author's work.

What kind of writer are you? The Historian

The Historian - Yawn......Sorry, but history was never one of my favorite subjects, and I tended to find myself falling asleep during many classes.  It may not have been the topic itself, it may have been the teacher.  He was a big oaf with a deep voice, and when he spoke, the world stopped spinning and everything went dark.

Seriously though, I have always been extremely interested in history.  I went through a phase a few years back where I ate up every book I could find on World War II.  I have always been a firm believer that if we study our past, we have the opportunity to make fewer mistakes in the future.  Notice I used the word 'opportunity'.  Just because humans have the capacity to learn from their mistakes, does not mean they actually will.

Historians are a little like private investigators or archeologists digging for clues about a subject, and then arranging them in some sense of order.  Hopefully if they accomplish this, they can also make their works interesting reading.  Actually, when you get right down to it, I love a task where I can work alone and spend hours investigating a mystery.

I can't believe it.  I started this article with the premise that historians were boring people and even more boring writers, and I finished with them being some kind of detectives.  Go figure.

Next week's rant - Who knows?

What kind of writer are you? The Essayist

The Essayist - I looked up the dictionary definition of this today, and it was very informative.  An essayist is 'a person that writes essays'.  Now I understand.  Clear as mud.

Actually what I later discovered was, an essayist is someone who writes, in their opinion, about a multitude of topics.  They can concentrate on the more profound and intellectual topics we humans experience, or just provide their opinions on the less extraordinary things found in our daily lives.  They can write in prose or verse, but prose is the normal.

Because these essays are the writers own opinions or reflections, they are open to discussion or criticism by those with different outlooks on the subject.  I think most modern day essayists can be found writing articles for magazines and periodicals.  I generally don't read these types of prose, however, there are some that I believe I read everyday without actually realizing it.

For instance, bloggers commenting on current new articles, that write numerous paragraphs explaining their opinion on subjects can be considered essayists - although many of their essays are quite short in length.  One useful essayist I find in my work as a novel writer, is the critic or reviewer.  These kind folks analyse a writers work, and write an essay outlining their opinions of it's value.  Other essayists write reviews of products we use in our normal daily lives.

When I first started investigating the essayist, I had assumed that they were simply opinionated writers trying to prove their arrogance by writing intellectual pieces on a variety of intellectual topics.  How wrong I was.  They are actually quite useful in today's society.

What kind of writer are you? The Screenwriter

The Screenwriter (sometimes called Scriptwriter) -what I describe as a much more difficult occupation than the novelist.  Of course, many screenwriters are either novelists themselves, or they use novels to create their screenplays.

Screenwriting is difficult because of the medium required to produce your work.  In the old days, much of the writing was done for radio, thus the term 'scriptwriter'.  A writer was not able to describe and set scenes for the audience and use special visual effects because this was not possible through a completely audio scenario.  How a scriptwriter made his script more effective was through the use of various sound effects and tonal changes in voices.  Of course, because the characters could not be seen, a person that could use different voices could, in effect, portray numerous characters in a story.

Today, because radio productions are few and far between, most of the scriptwriting is done for movie or television screenplays.  Screenplay s vary in length depending on the length of the production, shorter for most TV programs, but longer for movies.  But they are all consistent in their presentation and follow a standard 'screenplay' format.  There are a couple of different styles, but only one format.

I have just begun a new career as an author of books, but one day I hope to face the challenge of writing either a separate screenplay, or one based on one of my books.  I have started to learn the process of developing characters through the use of both prose and dialogue, but the ability to tell a story primarily with dialogue would definitely be something interesting to tackle.  I think I'll wait a couple of years though.

I am going on vacation for two weeks, and may not be able to get any updates written on this current topic of types of writers, but will definitely have the next one done sometime in early March.

What kind of writer are you? The Speechwriter

The Speechwriter - now this is a truly noble occupation.  I think if this was my career I would ask someone to please just shoot me in the head.  Not only is the content a pile of bullshit, it is written for the lowest of the lows in most cases - politicians.

Not only do their clients/bosses lie their way into a job, they spend their entire career paying back their financial supporters once they have been elected.  To do this they change whatever laws are necessary to help these manipulators.  Then they leave a few years later with a big fat pension that they didn't earn, but the public has to pay for - forever.

Now, I'm sure some speechwriters truly believe their job is honorable and that the work they produce is valuable, but they obviously don't have the forsight to see the Big Picture.  They are writing for liars and scum, and their finished product (the speech) is a farce.  Maybe one day they will realize this, and make the politicians write their own BS.

My suggestion for speechwriters - firing squad.

Next week - The Screenwriter.

When is a writer's 'marketing' annoying?

I am a fairly new addition to the online writing market.  I think I've done almost everything that everyone else has done to promote my first two books;  like set up a facebook page dedicated to my writing and books and set up a Twitter account and Blog.  I have politely added new friends, trying to ensure that we have interests in common.  I've even gone off the beaten path from time to time and added friends that are musicians, myself being a bass guitar player.

I have noticed, however, that some of my recent 'friends' not only post indiscriminately on my sites, but they seem to have joined every writers group currently registered on the internet.  Not only have they joined these multitude of groups, they appear to have a never-ending supply of daily posts at their fingertips.  One particular 'friend', I have noticed, posts about 20 times a day on these various sites, which are unfortunately sent to my personal pages.

Now, I'm not sure if this 'writer' actually has this much to say, or if they feel that posting absolutely everywhere will market their skills at the same rate of speed as they are posting.  If they are trying to accomplish a fast-track for their book sales, in my opinion, they are just doing the opposite.  I have now had to block a couple of these promoters so that I can actually read posts of some importance.  Not only have they forced me to delete them and their hundreds of posts, I have made a resolve to stay as far away from their writings as possible.

Their attempt of promoting themselves and their works has had the exact opposite effect that they probably desired.  Please, please, stop posting so much - you appear desperate, and are driving sales down, not up.  Just my opinion.

What kind of writer are you? The Children's Author

The Children's Author -boy did these writers pick a difficult genre to write for.  This past birthday, my eldest son found a gift for me that was truly unique.  He signed me up to an online Children's Writing Course.  Even though my current writing is aimed at a slightly higher age than children, I have found that this course applies to any new writer.

Children's Books are generally categorized into Pre-School (which includes infant and nursery books for children under 7 years old); Over 7 (which includes children from 7 to 11 years old); and Teenager/Young Adult books for those children over 11 years old.  Of course, different publishers may change or rename these categories, but they do follow a similar categorization.

Needless to say, the basic rules of writing must still apply for whatever type of writing you do.  That is to say Setting, Characterization/Dialogue, Plot, Theme and Storyline are all critical.  The largest market for Children's Books are romance stories for young girls.  However, fantasy and science fiction are also popular now, and even for boys.  So pick a category, find out if there is a market, and start writing for the age bracket you want - keeping in mind that your main character should be about the same age as your audience.

Now, I'm sure you are thinking that to be a good children's book writer, you must have the mind of a child or possibly even act like one.  Not so.  I sincerely think that as long as you haven't got Dementia or Alzheimer's (of course, you wouldn't know it if you had them), and can still recall your time as a child, this should suffice.

I am currently writing a series of books, which might be described as auto-biographic, that are made up of numerous short stories from my early childhood.  I am writing them from the perspective of my age in the various stories/chapters, but even so, I consider them primarily for young adults and adults in the same age bracket as me (let's just say I'm over 50).

I am actually having a lot of fun writing these 'memoirs', but have found it challenging to keep my momentum and motivation going over the past few months, but even this topic has been covered in detail.  This course has also given me valuable information to become a professional writer and re-enforced my resolve to keep writing.

Next week - The Speechwriter

What kind of writer are you? The Poet

The Poet -First off, not all male poets are gay, they are sensitive.  A poet is a person that has music running through their soul, and when they write, it comes out in rhythms and rhymes.  All you have to do is add music to their writings and you have a song.

There are so many kinds of poetry it will be difficult to describe them all here, but here we go anyway.  Let's start with the basics - The Sonnet.  Sonnets are lyric poems that contain 14 lines only.  William Shakespeare loved to write sonnets, and wrote many memorable ones.  They generally contain only one or two rhyme schemes.

The Epic Poem - For those poets that cannot get their message across in 14 short lines, there is the epic poem.  These poems usually have a hero or central character, and/or include an adventure.  Henry Wordsworth Longfellow was famous for Epic Poems like 'The Song of Hiawatha' or the 'Iliad' by Homer.  These poets would be considered the novelists of poetry.

The third type of poem is called the "Haiku" - These are much shorter than even the Sonnet, at three lines, and believe it or not they don't even have to rhyme.  Why they are even called poetry is beyond my comprehension, but alas, they are.  They originated in Japan, and that might explain it.  Perhaps they rhyme in japanese.

Moving onto the "Free Verse" poet - To me, these types of poems, which have basically no parameters, are a perfect example of a poet on drugs. They can be any length, be about any topic, include or exclude rhymes and leave the reader with no message whatsoever.  Perhaps if the reader is drunk or on drugs, they may make more sense.

The Cinquain - A five line poem inspired by the Haiku, if that is at all possible.  To top it off, there are numerous variations of the Cinquain.  Here is an example: TreeStrong, TallSwaying, swinging, sighing, Memories of summerOak.  Now if this is what you would call poetry and you get the message, you are a better person than I am.  But I must admit I love the use of capital letters in incorrect places.

The Ballad - Ballads, like Epic Poems, tell a story.  However, they are based on a legend or folk lore, and are often incorporated into songs to make them more effectively received and understood.  Another type of poem similar to a song.

The last popular form of poetry is the Name Poem - These poems should really be written for small children in my opinion, and they follow a particular format, just like the Haiku, Cinquain and Sonnet.  They begin a person's name, and each line thereafter begins with the next letter in that person's name.  For example if the poem is about James, the first line would begin with the word James, the next line would begin with the letter 'a', then 'm' and 'e' and finally 's'.  This would therefore be a 5 line poem.  Whoever dreamed up this type of poem was probably a highly organized neat freak.

There are many other types of poems and poets, but these are the major ones.  I am particularly fond of the ballad poet because I have been in numerous bands and have attempted to write lyrics to songs.  However, when I have found myself in a particularly depressed state, Free Verse has taken over a couple of times and I've written a couple of these gems.  When I go back and re-read them, I have absolutely no idea of where my head was at, but I do know that I was not drunk or on drugs.  I guess this is just one of those strange life's mysteries.

Next week -The Children's Author

What kind of writer are you? The Journalist

The Journalist - a person who writes about news events of the day and adds their own artistic talents to the mix whenever they can.  These writers are often criticized as being talentless and devoid of creativity, but in fact, many of the successful journalists are able to take a bland or boring story and embellish it in such a way as to make it interesting to the reader.  Others haven't developed this ability yet.

One of the benefits of being a journalist is that stories are constantly being created for you in everyday life, and if you are good, you can carry on with your version of the story for as long as it lasts - or even longer.  One of the downfalls is that the journalist can usually never achieve true creativity, and many of the articles they write are about human misery and suffering - not the most positive of topics.  Novelists and Authors don't give journalists the time of day.

There are basically 4 different types of journalists, Print, Photo, Broadcast and Multimedia; and they report on numerous topics such as Sports, Politics, Business, Crime, etc.  Print Journalists work with the written word and write particularly for newspapers, magazines or gossip columns.  Some are employed by a particular newspaper/magazine and actually have a career, and others work freelance, sometimes making more money than those with careers.

Photo Journalists are not really journalists in my mind, unless of course, they include text with their photos.  Needless to say, photo journalists will undoubtedly disagree with this assumption.

Journalism has evolved and become extremely fast-paced in recent years, and many stories have completely run their course before print media has even had the chance to publish them.  This is why the last two types, Broadcast and Multimedia, seem to be taking over as leaders in the industry.  Photo Journalists are also developing a far more important role because of the emergence of these two modes of communication because photos are critical in developing stories on TV and in the Multimedia.  What do they say 'A picture is worth a thousand words'?

I think the goal of ALL journalists is to become famous, get rich, and thus eventually get laid - in basically that order.  The topics that a journalist selects as their profession therefore becomes the target market for their sexual desires.  Yes, you guessed it, Political Journalists want to sleep with some politician they have a crush on;  Business Journalists want to give one of their subjects the Business; and Crime Journalists, deep down, want to get laid by either a sexy criminal or hot police officer.

But my guess is that the journalist who follows celebrities, and tries to get photos and stories of their lives, are the journalists that have the most fun.  Sure, some of their investigations lead to negative stories, but discovering smut on these 'people on pedestals' must be extremely exciting at times.  And there seems to be a never-ending number of people that like to read this crap, so their market seems pretty secure.  But ultimately, these journalists, have mad crushes on their celebrity subjects, and want to screw them in more ways than one.

Some journalists are even able to ascend to the pinnacle of stardom themselves, and if THEY ever become the news, it can become quite entertaining for those of us with no excitement in our dreary lives.  Journalists covering the antics of other journalists gives the public some of the juiciest of stories ever.  Jian Ghomeshi comes to mind.

Journalists - are 'the under-valued writers', in my book.

Next Week - The Poet

My Second Book - Ghosts and Skeletons

My second book has now been published on Smashwords.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and Kobo but hasn't taken off yet.  Maybe it is too scary for some people (just joking, it is the second edition in the "A Time Before Facebook" series).  It continues with the story of Jimmy growing up in Northern Idaho, and discovering new things and meeting new people.

This second book took much less time to write, edit and publish.  Not that I am getting better or faster at writing, but I've now learned where to publish online, how to properly format my writing and my cover designer is getting into the groove of designing my artwork.  Kasey is an artist I met in Port Alberni BC, and her work is sometimes a little morbid, but as long as I try to give her inspiration from appropriate stories in my collection, she seems to create the right visual scene.

Here is the link to the Smashwords Page for this, and my first book.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/479796

Please be sure to download your copy before the end of December for a discounted price.  Now, onto Book #3 in the Series. 

Procrastination, a writers greatest nemisis. Well at least mine.

Okay, I have to admit I have suffering from this for about 8 months now.  It is not that I have been sitting on the couch twiddling my thumbs, my life has been quite busy.  I had my second book edited and I published it online.  I spent 5 months in Canada living on and repairing my boat and visited all my family there.  But the writing habits that I had developed during the past couple of years were thrown out the window, and I have been dedicating my 'writing time' to other less important things.

Well, they may not be less important per se, but they are things that can sometimes be moved to a time in the day not previously assigned to writing.  This problem kind of snuck up on me, and before I knew it, I didn't even think about writing in the mornings.  Over the past few weeks I've been mentally addressing the problem, but still finding ways to keep my procrastination continuing.

How did this happen?  I don't think it is because I've now written and published two books and they are not selling as well as expected.  I don't think it is because I've reached a block in my writing abilities.  I have been writing blogs, texts, emails and other forms of written communication.  I have even written the outline for a future book to begin after my current series is completed.  I don't think it is because I'm not organized.

When I first arrived in Mexico a few winters ago, an accident immobilized me temporarily.  This accident provided me with the time to organize my entire series of books.  For each book, I established the title, chapters and even a paragraph outline on what each chapter was going to consist of and how it linked to other chapters.  I definitely had the background information prepared to keep writing until my series was complete.

So why haven't I written for almost 8 months.  Fear!  I think I reached a point where I felt that over the past year I have not received one rating or positive comment on either of my two books.  Sure, it's only been a year, but some writers get all kinds of feedback right away don't they?  I think what happened to me was self doubt took over, and was able to slowly eat away at my original inspiration.  I have to get over the presumption that my writing depends on what others think, and it is really the enjoyment I actually get from sitting down and creating.

Yesterday was and impasse day for me.  I finally said to myself 'Fuck it' and got back into book #3.  I didn't make a whole lot of progress yesterday, but I put in my usual time writing, and I feel good.  So let's get back to business and fuck everyone else.  I'm writing for me.

Many writers like to read. Sometimes good and sometimes bad.

I have found that one of my main downfalls as a writer is the fact that I love to read.  Before the deterioration of my eyes made it difficult to focus on my favorite pastime, reading books, I used to consume at least one novel a week.  I loved to lay in bed and read a book before falling asleep.

Now my reading consists of editing my own writing, and reading the news online.  This second one has become quite a distraction for me because I now have the TIME to actually read about what is going on in the world.  Before I retired a few years ago, I never seemed to have the time to read the news, let alone comment on it.  In fact, I tried to ignore the news as much as possible back then.  News was almost never nice, and I wanted to remain as happy as possible in my own safe little world.

The point is, when a writer hits a lull in their daily business of storytelling, it is far to easy to get distracted on the internet.  With MSN as my homepage, it is too easy to read all the news and keep up on the stories of the day (even commenting once in a while) while letting my creativity sit on the back burner.

There are some internet sites that are not a complete waste of time however.  My twitter account allows me to keep my followers up to date on how my books and writing are progressing.  Also I am constantly trying to increase the number of followers for potential futures book sales.  My blog is a great venue to promote my writing, and when I get the motivation, to even try to write some knowledgeable gems for other writers.  My Facebook site is also a good place to keep in touch with other writers and to promote my books.

So, in essence, even though I may not be actually writing my books every day, I am still marketing the works that I have already completed.  Not a complete waste of time I guess.  Anyway, if anyone has some good advice about maintaining and improving my motivation to stay focused on my book writing, I would appreciate it.

What did we do before computers, cell phones and the internet?

I don't know about you, but I actually remember those days.  My first computer was a Commodore 64, and my family used it basically for playing games.  You know, the one called "Pong" or something like that.  You had a small paddle and tried to hit a small dot before it hit the bottom of the screen.  And yes, this computer had a whopping 64 kilobytes.  Computers today don't even burp on less than a megabyte.

With the introduction of the internet, computers really took off, and started growing to the mega, giga and terabytes of today.  They have become faster with more storage and RAM, but at the same time, have become smaller.  You can now buy a cell phone that has all the capabilities of a personal computer, and contain 128 gigabytes of storage.  Amazing.

Speaking of cell phones, what did people do before their invention?  Well, believe it or not, they used real telephones that were installed in their homes permanently.  You actually had to be at home, an office, or at a pay telephone booth to make a call.  How inconvenient is that?  If you couldn't reach the person by telephone, you actually had to physically try to find them by walking, biking, driving or bussing to the location you believed they may be at.

Letters were written, not on a PC, but on a thing called a typewriter.  When I first started working in an office, we used these things all the time.  I think it was sometime in 1982 that I was first introduced to the "Fax" machine.  Prior to that we used teletypes.  They were like a typewriter, but were connected to telephone lines, and you could type a message on one machine and it was received on another machine in a different location - instantly, almost.

I'll never forget the installation of the first fax I saw.  It was in the Government Agent's Office in Nelson, BC.  Once it was installed and set up, we started to receive a message from our Headquarters in Victoria, BC.  I watched as the light moved back and forth inside the machine, and paper started to slowly inch it's way out of the front of the machine.  This entire process of transferring maybe 100 words, took about 5 minutes.  We were in shock.

Anyway, my series of books "A Time Before Facebook" describes a time before all of these gadgets.  Book 2 in the series, "Ghosts and Skeletons" has just been published online, and both books can be purchased at Smashwords.com, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and lastly, Amazon.  I am busy writing Book 3, "The Black Bridge", and will probably be working on this series for a few more years to come.  If you have an electronic book reader or a computer, please download a copy, and enjoy reading.

A Time Before Facebook

Ghosts and Skeletons

My 2nd book, Ghosts and Skeletons is now online.

I'm happy with this, my second work, and hope you like it too.  It is the second book in the "A Time Before Facebook" series, and there are a few more books to come.  If you are already following Jimmy James Jr. on facebook or have 'liked' me, there is a discount available on the site to save 25% off the regular retail price.  This discount is only available until October 25th, so download soon.

Also, make sure to download your free copy of the 1st book, "A Time Before Facebook".  It will be changed from FREE, to the regular $3.99 price next week, so get your copy ASAP.

This second book has a couple of stories that I had actually started quite a few years ago, but with the demands of career, family and playing music, I wasn't able to finish them until now.  "Alfie" and "The Meterman" are a couple of my favorites.  But I must say, the Ghost and Skeleton Trails on the Southside hill have fond memories for me also.

Enjoy reading my books, and thank you for your support.  I am an almost starving retiree.  Just joking.