Thursday, August 29, 2013

Everyone Loves a Contest



Everyone loves a contest. As Americans, the thrill of winning is in our blood! The vast majority of us take pleasure it competing or watching great sports. Often competition helps deliver the energy needed to lift us up to the next level. It has been this way and will remain this way for eons.

For this reason, Little Pond Publishing (LPP) is sponsoring two one-of-a-kind contests for both sage and novice writers. Autumn Tales is for the writers of murder, mystery or romance novels; and Tattle Tales is for the writers of children's books. For more information on these excellent opportunities go to littlepondpublishing.com

As a digital publishing house, we believe it is critical for LPP to lead the way in communicating with writers in new and creative ways. These contests have be designed for this very reason. Today writers have more creative and technical tools within their reach than ever before, and it's LPP's goal to help them utilize these assets.




Thursday, August 15, 2013

Is that thunder I hear?



Hell's flames coming to Vegas

Is that thunder I hear?

It's 8:40 A.M., and raining lobsters here on Florida's Space Coast! No really! The sight of the foam cooler, heavy with fresh lobsters sitting on our dining room floor, shook me into reality.

The two-day lobster mini-sports season (July 24/25) had cruised past its mid-point just as a line of heavy downpours and gusty northwest winds brush the coastline. Despite the necessity of dodging tropical showers, many divers and snorkelers hunting and gathering spiny lobsters experienced high visibility and success up and down Florida's East coast, despite nasty algae blooms in Biscayne Bay and the Indian River Lagoon.

Being away for the past two weeks, I journeyed from Satellite Beach, Florida, to Las Vegas, Nevada, then to the Florida Keys. For me reading and traveling go hand-in-hand, and lately I've been carrying David McCullough's great John Adams biography through airports and subways. This darn paperback must weight four or five pounds!

I laugh out loud at times as tiny glimpses of my subliminal transformation into the eBook world surfaces. My dear friend, John Detmer, talks of how paperback books were forbidden from his parents' library in their home nestled along Chicago's south shore of Lake Michigan in Winnetka, Illnois. Yes, there was a time when hard cover books were king.

In a world where people travel light, fast and agile, the thought of continuing the old ways is moot. Change comes rapidly to the tech savvy folks. We now live in a world were libraries, thousands of titles, are carried around on a tablet weighting less than a pound. Is that thunder I hear?


Until next time . . . Fodder Away to my Facebook!



Thursday, August 1, 2013

A Fluid Tool of Alteration


In early summer for the past decade or more my good friend, Mark Nichols, reunites a bunch of fishing captains and outdoor photojournalist friends. We gather at River Palm Cottages in Jensen Beach for the D.O.A. Lures¹ Outdoor Writers Bash (the D.O.A. has become a sponsor of Florida's Eco Voice Digest and if you are interested check it out at Eco-Voice.org).

The gathering is a joyous occasion full of great food, spirits and many new and old stories. We also do a load of fishing along the shores of North America's greatest and most diverse estuaries, the Indian River Lagoon.

Mike Connor with a seatrout!
For me fishing has been a fluid tool of alteration. Just add water and most of us become different creatures more in tune with our surroundings and connected to our natural spirit. As a fishing guide for nearly twenty years, I would usually focus my thoughts on the security and happiness of my clients while on the water, but today things are a little different. Now fishing provides empty space within my mind, where I can fill it with thoughts of simple things in life. Things like the great southern white butterflies invading our backyards this time of year or how well the shrimping has been on the lagoon the past couple of months, but of course, slowly, steadily more pressing thoughts begin to percolate.

As I dive deep into the advancing world of digital publishing, I feel a bit melancholy hearing my respected associates resistant to change. Perhaps my sadness is more about the distance created between us by my chosen path and in my mind¹s eye I am watching them fade into history carrying with them rich, colorful stories that might have been shared with a new audience.

Until next time ... Fodder Away!