KING OF THE ICE CAP

Yaki, an Eskimo boy gives further proof why he deserves praise from his father.  With his great discovery in this story, he makes an unselfish offer giving new life to his entire village.  This gesture earns him the respect and honor of the tribal elders. Read more

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1 PLUG YOUR BOOK

I’ve begun a complicated project that I hope will help children find my website “Felix the Storyteller,” where they can read my many stories for free, and at the same time I’ll sell my books that are in the Bookstore. My son, David, who built and created the website, has been working to get a higher ranking for the site, but being busy with his own business, I wanted to help him by learning how to do it myself.

I recently read a well-written and informative article by Karen McWilliams in the May|June 2009 edition of SCBWI Magazine, where she wrote about the book Plug Your Book! Online Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber. The article truly excited me because I felt the book she basically reviewed was exactly what I’d been looking for. Weber gave examples of ways for authors to promote their books online. He had helped launch over 1,000 books online as well as assisted many publishers in building online marketing departments.

I immediately ordered the book and it arrived in a couple of days. Karen was right, it’s an easy read but it stops right there. Karen said she had very little computer skills but had no trouble understanding what Weber had to say. That’s the difference between younger and older computer users and I’m in the latter category. When I plugged into some of the URL’s I got confused–old age setting in. I know I’ll eventually get it but it will take longer. I’ve had the same problem ever since my early 60’s, when I learned to play the piano, reviewed my jazz band arranging skills that I hadn’t done for years, and began studying jazz and classical guitars. I did them well, and at the same time I was writing my 38 children’s stories and novel. I had to eventually stop playing piano and the guitars when my fingers and hands began bothering me in my 70’s. This was all accomplished after I retired, but being older it took longer to absorb the material.

I’m sure the further I get into Plug Your Book and my mind eventually soaks up the material, it will become easier, and I should get the expected results. I already have a website that Weber recommends building, and three of my books are on amazon.com, so I’m slightly ahead of the game. It’s going to be a struggle for while, so I’ll continue this series to let you know my progress…if I haven’t given up the battle. If I’ve stopped you’ll know Father Time has taken over.

The above article will be the first of a series dealing with this book.

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SHOWBIZ

My latest TV interview this week was a pleasant experience. But I was a little disappointed when told my allotted seven minutes would be shortened to three. To my surprise it turned out well. After my recent episode with the women’s club, I’d become slightly psychotic and thought it would be another fiasco, but thank God it wasn’t.

The invitation to be interviewed on local TV began with my friend Kirk Finley, Sports Director and Anchor Reporter for Time Warner Cable, Channel 3 in Lancaster, CA. He had come to my house the previous week to drop-off a CD he had edited from another show a year earlier when he had interviewed me for SO-CAL NEWS-3. It had been about my book, “Diary of a Young Musician: Final Days of the Big Band Era,” when I was going to have a book signing at Barnes & Noble.

While Kirk was at my house I showed him my new website, “Felix the Storyteller,” my son David had created and built. He was truly impressed with the site, especially the 31 cover illustrations by Disney animator John MacFarlane. He asked how I happened to get the idea of recording the stories myself. I told him my wife Shirley and I began editing and making small changes to improve all 38 of my children’s stories during the summer of 2007, taking about four months. I told Kirk a former student of mine, Susy Christiansen, now a composer with Disney, had suggested I go to a recording studio and record all 38 of my stories, but I felt totally insecure about doing them. Shirley and I realized it would be an expensive undertaking, so we decided to postpone the decision. A few weeks later Shirley bought me a first-class microphone and interface for Christmas. I now had my own small recording studio. My first attempt at recording one of my own stories was an excruciating experience, making me aware I needed practice—lots of it! I thought to myself, could buying that microphone have been a mistake? I had planned on personally recording only one or two, then hire a professional to do six or seven others. The only reason why I was going to record them was that David told me children liked to hear authors narrate their own stories. At the same time he had almost completed my new website that he’d volunteered to do. I emailed him the first two stories I’d recorded for his personal critique. Being a former editor he rejected both, but gave me great advice how to improve them. I must have learned my lesson well because his next critique a few weeks later was an ecstatic experience, telling me the third recording was fantastic, and the fourth was even better! I thought he was just being kind. He said they sounded so good I should record the other three or four myself rather than hire a professional. Instead of recording seven or eight as I had originally intended, I did 10, then 20, with 30 as my goal, but ended up doing all 38 stories that took me ten months to complete, a monumental task! I used GarageBand to record them on my Mac.

Kirk Finley really enjoyed hearing the story how I began recording, and before returning to the studio he asked if I would like to be interviewed again. I said I would. “You should tell the interviewer the same story you just told me,” he said, “it would be of interest to viewers.” I was surprised when Kirk called the next day and asked if I wanted to be on a show the following day, I would be a last minute replacement for someone who had cancelled. My allotted time would be seven minutes, about the time it takes me to take a long breath! Kirk took notes over the phone about my three careers for the host of the show. The way I figured it would take about an hour or longer to answer the number of questions he asked.

When I arrived at the studio the next morning I found out I was to be the last one interviewed by Mitchell Chase, host of “The Local Edition.” When it was time to be interviewed the crew immediately shuffled me in front of the cameras. With a few adjustments to my seat the host introduced me. Mitchell began the show by asking how I got my start as a professional musician. He then asked a question or two about my teaching career, and finally about my website and children’s books. I didn’t even have time to get nervous. Thanks to Mitchell Chase the entire interview was a great success, another notch in my belt.