The Dream Jumper's Secret is Live!

Book 2 in the Dream Jumper Series is now available for sale
- The Dream Jumper's Secret - live on Amazon Books now!
Get yours now, before they run out. :)

http://amzn.com/B00JTMDO7G


More soon...
Kim Hornsby

Mystery/Suspense/Paranormal Love Story

Nominated for BEST INDIE FIRST BOOK by Indie RomCon

Amazon Bestselling Author Kim Hornsby

THE DREAM JUMPER'S PROMISE

Without a recovered body Tina Greene can't accept the presumed surfing death of her husband, Hank. Months after signing the death certificate, she trades mourning for saving her Maui dive shop from bankruptcy. When Jamey Dunn walks back into her life things take a strange turn. Dreams of Hank have the dive instructor questioning her sanity and leaning heavily on Hank's best friend, Noble. Jamey and Noble clash at every turn, both desperate to help Tina. When Jamey suspects Tina's strange dreams hold clues to Hank's disappearance, he must reveal his unbelievable ability to visit dreams. Trusting the man who betrayed her years before doesn't come easily for Tina when the decision to let Jamey enter her subconscious has a price. As Tina, Noble and Jamey decipher the mystery of Hank's disappearance, grave danger sets in to reveal that one person is a traitor, one is flirting with insanity and one is an impostor.

146 Reviews on AMAZON- Mostly 5 STAR

Book Trailer on YouTube

REVIEWS

A mysterious skill that straddles the line between paranormal and possible, a woman mourning her husband lost at sea, and the sunny embrace of Maui all come together in an evocative narrative that quickly becomes a real page-turner.

Lisa Costantino, Author of Maiden's Veil, Chanticleer Top Pick Women's Fiction 2012

Kim Hornsby's "The Dream Jumper's Promise" is a fantastic, compelling novel. It straddles the boundaries between genres - it's got elements of romance, mystery, suspense and also the supernatural, and the author brings them all together very satisfyingly.

James deBenedetto, Author of The Dream Student

This is a perfect summer read or when your winter nights get too long. Romance, mystery, gorgeous setting brought to a magical life. Kim has a way of bringing her characters to life and making them feel normal but special with real heart. That's rare these days. Nice mix women's fiction light with a twist of magic/psychic without being heavy handed so the 2nd chance love story stays the main focus. The surprises at the end are worth the wait!
Christine M. Fairchild, Author of Suspense/Thriller An Eye For Danger, The Goliath Conspiracy


Priced to allow anyone with a mobile device and three dollars, to have a copy
Also available in Print and soon to be available in Audible

Sample- The Dream Jumper's Promise

Chapter 1

A shadow moved past the front window of Tina and Hank’s Dive Shop. The door opened, the overhead bell jingled, and a Maui Cop entered the store. The uniform, gun at the hip, even his downcast eyes were all familiar sights. In the last ten months, Tina had seen more than she wanted of Maui’s finest, and they hadn’t come through when she most needed them.

“The sharks will get the body,” they’d said.

Everyone believed Hank was dead, but she wasn’t convinced. Not yet, even though the search had been abandoned after only one hundred and sixty-eight hours—ten thousand and eighty excruciatingly long minutes of hoping.

Her dog, Obi, trotted over to the policeman, as if the man wasn’t seconds away from pounding another nail in Hank’s empty coffin.

“We found your husband’s wallet.” The leather in the cop’s outstretched hand was a small but powerful reminder of Hank. Memories meteored towards her—his gypsy-black hair and twinkling eyes. At the beach, driving his truck, smiling from their bed.

She cupped the wallet in her small hand and closed her fingers around its edges. For all that remained of a dynamic man, it was surprisingly light.

“Where?” She tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.

“Off the path, above Honolua."

No one takes a wallet surfing. “Thanks.” It would hold his credit cards, medical insurance card, driver’s license, dive instructor card, all part of Hank’s life on Maui. A life he’d cherished. Married only sixteen months, would a man simply abandon his wife and a charmed life in Hawaii without a word?

The faint chugging of the air compressor in the shop’s back alley broke through her thoughts. Katie, her shop girl, was in the back alley filling scuba tanks. Tina looked around to see the policeman had gone. She pulled the driver’s license from its slot and grains of sand fell, sand that Hank might have touched before he went into the water that day.

 “Did I hear you talking to someone?” Katie popped in from the back room, her blond hair swinging.

“Police.” Tina held up the wallet. “Hank’s.”

Katie froze.

Someone barely of drinking age would know little of consoling a thirty-four-year-old widow. “Katie, can you do the coffee run now? I’ll finish filling the tanks if you’ll get me a double.” Tina needed something and she hoped it was just coffee.

She walked through to the back alley and lowered herself to sit on an overturned milk crate, waiting for the group of submerged scuba tanks in a metal trough to fill to 3000 psi. Leaning against the wall, her gaze drifted towards the sky. The gray clouds held in the humidity like a wool blanket, and sweat trickled down the small of her back into the waistband of her board shorts.

This new turn of events didn’t completely eliminate the possibility that Hank might have faked his own death. He was smart enough to know credit cards were useless to someone who wanted to disappear. Still. The wallet felt cool in her hand. She’d have to tell Noble it turned up. Open that bag of snakes. Poor Noble.

She extracted a picture tucked into a fold of the wallet and a stab of loneliness shot through her. In it she and Hank were smiling from a sun-drenched, black-sand beach in Hana. She fit perfectly into the curve of his long, lean body. Like phantom pain in an amputated leg, the memory of how it felt to tuck in under his shoulder lingered. They’d driven to the sleepy town of Hana, that day, with their best friend Noble and a girlfriend, hoping to take a break from the craziness of the Lahaina scene. Back when she knew he loved her, beyond any doubt.

But now there was doubt. Especially when days before his death, he’d said, “No matter what, always remember how much I love you.” She’d thought he was worried about how their relationship would change when she got pregnant, a plan they were working on with feverish diligence. “Silly man,” she said, kissing him.

Tina tucked the photo back in the wallet. Memories would drive her crazy if she didn’t get a grip soon. A deep breath revealed the scent of plumeria flowers from the tree across the laneway at Mr. Takeshimi’s house.

Watching the elderly neighbor sweeping the porch of his pristine cottage, his broom swishing a gentle rhythm, she called out. “Hey, Mr. T.”. He was a fighter, still holding onto his real estate despite million-dollar offers. Hank’s plan had been to buy the house and open an art gallery. But now she was in debt and that plan was long forgotten. Someone would come along eventually and make it a tacky T-shirt shop. Or a competing dive shop.

When Mr. T. straightened, Tina increased her volume. “Big storm coming in."

He nodded. “Doesn’t scare me.”

No, it wouldn’t. He’d endured World War II as a Japanese American in Hawaii. Sixty-one years after the Pearl Harbor attack, he was sweeping his porch. He stared at her, his face a question in waiting.

“Me neither.” She tried to believe in her own words.

Mr. Takeshimi nodded, as if this explained something. “Fall seven times and stand up eight, Tina.” Japanese proverbs lived on the tip of his tongue. He’d once said, “Good things come to those who wait,” and then Hank came into her life.

She stood. “I’m up. Thanks, Mr. T.” She smiled his way, knowing he’d worry without it.

Back in the shop, Tina met the gaze of a fist-sized octopus in one of the aquariums. Staring directly into the cephalopod’s eyes, she tried to convey an apology. Five days in an aquarium was too long for an intelligent creature. “I’ll see you get released today. I’m sorry it’s been so long, Mr. Oc.”

It was eight a.m. Time to open the store for the day. Flipping the wall switch, she illuminated all six fish tanks to create the underwater look to her Lahaina Towne shop. Over two years before, Hank had installed the wall of sixty-gallon aquariums to stylize the store and lure customers in. Even during the recent shutdown, the tanks had been maintained and viewed through the windows, still colorful, the fish vibrant, even though Hank was dead.

Walking around the room, she noticed the octopus watching her. Its scrutiny made her feel like she was not only being watched, but judged. A ridiculous thought. She tilted her head and contemplated what it must be thinking. “Being caged sucks,” she said, not necessarily to the octopus.

The pit mix, Obi Wan, bared his teeth in a smile, his usual reaction to any word ending in ‘uck.’ “It’s okay. Mommy’s having a good day.” She scratched behind her dog’s ears, his favorite spot, and then moved to the back room. Tucking the wallet in the top drawer of her messy desk, her palm lingered on the metal front in silent apology to Hank for shutting him away.

 “Here, Boss.” Katie entered the back room and then set the double espresso with extra sugar on the desk. Ever since her boyfriend, Ned confessed that her constant talking drove him crazy, Katie had been trying to use fewer words.

“Thanks, Katie.”

Katie hovered over Tina, her smile hinting at all the unspoken sentences rattling around inside her mouth.

Tina arched her brows in question. “Just say it Katie. I won’t tell Ned.”

“Uncle Jamey’s coming today.” The words shot from Katie’s lips like dice thrown on a table.

“Your uncle from Seattle?” She nodded. “My offer stands. Tell him he can dive free on slow days.” A soldier on leave from Afghanistan could dive on her nickel any day there was space. “He might have to wait until this Kona storm blows through.” Bad conditions would put a halt on diving for the next few days. Katie beamed and skipped into the next room, a sunny influence to have around.

Tina took a sip of the steaming coffee and wondered which problem to tackle first. The desk was littered with bills and phone messages from creditors but before she could open another letter from the bank, Katie’s scream made her fly out of her chair and run into the next room. She rounded the doorway to see a man grab Katie roughly and lift her off her feet. The scream turned to a squeal that ended in a giggle. This was not Ned, who was lean and scruffy and always looked like he just woke up. This was an adult--tall, with sandy-colored hair on the long side of a crew cut and muscular arms. His crisp white T-shirt reading Maui Parasail stretched across a broad back.

“I can’t believe you’re here.” Katie pulled away from the hug. “I miss everyone, you know? How is everybody? I mean really. How’s Dad and Grandpops?” She stopped to take a breath as her resolve to use fewer words went flying out the window.

“Everyone’s good."

Katie did a little happy dance, her smile stretching from ear to ear. “I hoped you’d call this morning. I was just telling my boss that you’d come today. The diving isn’t looking good. I’m sorry about the storm coming in and Tina said it’s not likely we’ll dive tomorrow but the weather here can change in a few hours, just like Seattle.”

Tina stepped forward, knowing an interruption would be necessary. “You’re Katie’s uncle, I presume.” She extended her hand.

As the man turned to face her, Tina froze. It had been a while, but she knew this person well enough to know that when he slept on his back, he snored. And that he had a small birthmark shaped like South America below his belly button. Far below. She’d once pointed to Tierra del Fuego, and then inched southward, with her tongue.

His slightly lopsided smile was achingly familiar and once so dear to her, her breath now caught in her throat and produced a tiny warble that she hoped was inaudible. Even though she’d changed in ten years, he must recognize her too. As their palms made contact, Tina felt a powerful surge pass between them, almost like an electric shock. Her eyes widened as a curtain of darkness moved in front of her vision and blackness invaded.

“Kristina?” The familiar timbre of James’ voice sounded far away, muffled, as she fought for consciousness. Sinking to the floor, the last thing she felt was his arm moving behind her back.

Curious? Check it out on Amazon!

The Dream Jumper's Promise

Kim Hornsby is also the author of Best Selling Romantic Suspense novel Necessary Detour, published by The Wild Rose Press and available on Amazon, Sony, Kobo, iTunes, Nook, in print and Audible Amazon.

New Cover for The Dream Jumper!!!

I have a new COVER to show off for my novel, The Dream Jumper's Promise! And I love it!
This magnificent artistry was designed by cover artist extraordinaire, Jen Vinci/Jeanine Henning who has done some amazing bestseller covers lately. I can't remember how I found her but when I did and she started working on finding the exact combination of photos and font to reflect the contents of my book, I knew I was going to be very, very pleased.
My last cover was lovely. I still think it is a great cover. I worked really really hard on it, 5 months of searching for different photos, pouring over sites, worrying about looking too weird, too romancy, too pale, too creepy. BUT, comments from readers have led me to think that the cover did not truly represent the story. I felt badly to change the cover because my dear friend Lori Coulson, who has a fantastic eye, helped me with the cover, according to my specifications. I know she'll understand it served me well and it was time to move on.
And so, I launch this new cover with a light heart and the knowledge that I finally let the expert take over some aspect of this process and help me.
As The Dream Jumper's Promise gets more successful, I'm excited about the prospects. This new cover puts it in a whole new section of Amazon Books - the bestseller section!
http://amzn.com/B00AA4FAJC


Thanks for your support in my struggle to be a successful novelist!
Kim

Inception Meets Maui Meets Award Season

My first published novel, The Dream Jumper's Promise, (look to your right) is nominated for Best Indie First Book by the readers associated with Indie Romance Convention. I'm touched that somebody or somebodies nominated my lil ole book. Of course I think it's an awesome read full of twists and surprises and has one of the best love stories ever, but then I wrote it. 60 Reviews with 4.5 stars out of 5 is really good, I think, and I'm thrilled to be able to say it's nominated for something. But then, if you know me, you also know that I am no stranger to self promotion. As an actress and singer for almost 30 years, I don't have any problem telling people I'm amazingly fantastic because if I don't believe it, no one else will.

Back to me and my award:

http://indieromanceconvention.blogspot.com/2013/03/

This is the link to vote but unfortunately I am not tech savvy enough to know how to insert a real link into my blog to instantly transport you to this page. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I need to get successful enough to warrant a secretary/computer genius person. Maybe if I win this award on Monday...

I'm proud of my book and how hard it's working to reach its readers who I believe are middle aged women who love Hawaii and eat pasta on Thursday with a fork and spoon. However, I've found that men like the story too and so now I'm not sure who wants to read it the most. The novel has a mystery that satisfies the curious mind, a tropical setting that will have you smelling the plumeria and feeling the warm trade wind on your face, and a romance that will have you puckering up without realizing it as you read about Jamey and Tina (and Noble).

If you like reading, and don't mind paying 99 cents for several days worth of quality entertainment, click on the book cover to the right, buy my book, read it and vote for me on Monday. And while you're at it, go ahead and write me a nice review (see my blog on how to write a review) on Amazon and then go ahead and buy my other book Necessary Detour. If you like that one, I'll redirect you to my novella that is a lot like being on The Bachelor. According to my reviews it's really 'cute'.

Both The Dream Jumper's Promise and Necessary Detour will be available in print next week for those of you who appreciate holding the printed version in your hands. I know I do.

Anyone who likes my books will be happy to know that the second Dream Jumper novel is plotted and will be out this summer. It's set in Nicaragua.

Happy Reading!

Kim

Freaky Dreams-Had Any?

Dreams can be freaky. Just the thought of going off somewhere with strangers while you sleep is enough to keep anyone awake. Anyone or anything can enter your dream life to attack or torment. Conversely, you can do anything within a dream, be anyone you want. Wouldn’t it be FAN-Freaky-TASTIC to just set an order for a dream about your favorite movie star or a tropical vacation and then go to sleep knowing it would be your REM entertainment? 

Some believe you can. I tried it the other night but it kind of backfired. I was thinking about Hugh Jackman singing to me when I went to sleep but instead of dreaming of Wolverine or Van Helsing, I had a dream that I was Chuck Norris's girlfriend and he was REALLY standoffish. (I'd been tossing around Chuck Norris jokes with my daughter earlier) Maybe the trick is to think of your dreamy boyfriend earlier in the day then try to forget him so it gets pushed back to the hindbrain. Read on...

Some experts think that dreams are nothing but your pesky hindbrain’s need for stimulation while the body has gone to sleep. During REM (Rapid Eye Movement or Deep Sleep) messages are sent to the front brain to keep active and those messages link up with your memories and feelings to concoct a dream. Here’s a funny example: In a study, dreamers who wore red colored glasses before sleep had dreams that involved the color red. Taking this further, I’m wondering if I went to sleep with photos of Hugh Jackman taped to my eyeballs...

If you were hoping that dreams were more mysterious, keep reading. Something truly freaky is coming. Not everyone believes that your dream themes stem from sexual frustrations. Even Freud. Many scientists who have analyzed dreams have no explanations or interpretations but most agree that if you’re being chased, it probably means you’re afraid of something in waking life.

There is a whole, huge dream dictionary online where you can retrieve specifics but again, no one knows for sure what a dream means. Some common themes such as public nudity, losing teeth, and flying, continue to baffle even the best psychiatrists. I think we can all agree if you dream you have gone to a PTA meeting stark-naked, you have repressed insecurities and feelings of not being well liked by your peers. Can we move on to less obvious ideas now?

Flying is supposedly linked to sexual feelings but I disagree. I’d like to agree because I dream of flying all the time and I’m damned good at it. An expert, in fact. 'Nuff said.

My recurring dream theme is about entering a house with rooms, and doors, and connections to more rooms that never seem to end. Often the top floor is haunted by something evil, the wind swirling around ominously, spirits taunting me to climb the stairs etc. Sometimes I must rescue something up there. Once it was my mother who’d recently died. She was a tiny owl and I set her free out a window. But usually I avoid the top floor knowing that it is the worst form of evil there is and the likelihood of getting out is not good. I don’t even venture to the floor just below it in case something grabs me. According to dream sites, the house is me, my mind, and the attic is supposed to be my intellect. So what I get from this is: I’m afraid to be intelligent. Is that what you got too? In real life, I am not a cerebral Rhodes scholar type person whose thirst for knowledge drives me to distraction. I’m a people person (I like to say, cheerfully). So maybe my hindbrain wants more and my front brain thinks it’s a bad idea to get too smart. I don’t know.

Lucid dreams are when you know you’re dreaming within your dream. Ever done that? I remember as early as five years old having a dream about my kindergarten teacher throwing me down the stairs (don’t ask) and me saying to her that it was fine that she was about to send me flying because it was only a dream.

Then, there are things called W.I.L.D. dreams and I’m not talking about what you might think. Wake Induced Lucid Dreams are the holy grail of lucid dreaming. It’s a method of going from fully awake to a lucid dream of vivid proportions. Supposedly it takes a ton of practice and very few can do it. This is where ordering your dream might kick in nicely.

During the time you are in REM at night, you are dreaming, whether you remember them or not. If you are woken during REM, you are more likely to remember your dream. Try this idea by setting an alarm clock. You could be rewarded by remembering one. 

Here’s the freaky part I was telling you about. There is such a thing as a precognitive dream where you dream something that comes true. Now this idea is completely inexplicable in scientific terms and not well received by anyone who tends to think logically. However, Mark Twain once had a vivid precognitive dream showing his beloved brother in a coffin with an arrangement of roses on his chest, only to have it come true within the month. His brother was killed in a tugboat explosion and ended up in a coffin exactly like the one in the dream, right down to the one red rose in the midst of all the white roses. Charles Dickens had two supernatural experiences involving dreams. Once, his dead father visited him in a dream and Charles awoke to find him sitting on the edge of his bed. The second time, he dreamed of his sister in law who’d recently died. He’d loved her in real life and had several dreams of meeting her in his dreams. After one such dream, he awoke to see her apparition floating in his bedroom, eventually disappearing through the room’s ceiling. I did not know this when I wrote The Dream Jumper’s Promise but found this very interesting. If you read my book, you’ll see why.

In that novel I take the idea of lucid dreaming and W.I.L.D. dreaming one step further to a level where you are able to share dreams with another person. I honestly thought I made this up but it turns out there is such a thing as a shared dream. And it turns out there is a movie called "Inception" about this too. When I saw the ad for that movie a few years ago, I was angry that they’d somehow stolen my idea but I finished editing the book and eventually published anyways. I’m glad I did because there are many differences in how the writer of "Inception" and I approach dream jumping. For one, my jumper doesn’t intravenously squirt anything into his veins. He enters the dream through a psychic connection, matching his breathing to his subject’s. Luckily Jamey Dunn (my hero) is a moral person and would never jump into someone’s dream to swindle a Fortune 500 business man.

In The Dream Jumper’s Promise, Jamey and his former love Tina, (who has just lost her husband) share dreams to try to find out what happened the day the husband went surfing and never returned. I wanted to call it a paranormal theme but there are no vampires or shape shifters. Then I wanted to call it romantic suspense but it’s got this para aspect. Maybe someday Amazon Kindle will have a category within paranormal called Dream Jumping. You never know.

Obviously I find dreaming extremely fascinating. How about you? Had any strange dreams lately? Let's hear!

Rock Star Tips

Yesterday I guest blogged and promised tips on building self confidence for public speaking (Rock Star Tips) and realized that post is no longer here. Only a silly nattering on about how I was nervous conducting my workshop Channeling Your Inner Rock Star.

Here are my tips in a nutshell (acorn, if you're wondering)

When speaking in public or just meeting your public:

1. Wear something fabulous that makes you feel extra special. Even a pedicure counts because the whole idea is to make you FEEL like you are extraordinary. Carry a small token to give you courage, like a seashell.
2. Give yourself a stage name if you don't already have a pen name. This will be how you refer to yourself in your own mind when summoning the alter ego who is fabulous in front of crowds and oozes self confidence.
3. Imagine that person has an entourage, a secretary, a personal umbrella handler (PUH) and twenty employees who handle her every need. She also has a second home in ______. You fill in where you've always wanted to live, given scads of moulah.
4. Smile, Nod, Take deep breaths. People will wait if you seem confident. Don't be afraid of dead space. It is like the period after your profound comment.
5. Imagine the group in front of you as a gathering of friends who love you. They WANT you to be fabulous, engaging, honest. There's nothing worse than trying to watch someone who is terrified of failure or rejection. If you believe you are wonderful, the audience will too.
6. Don't look directly at anyone, just scan the sea of faces, in a large crowd and play to the back of the room.
7. If they laugh at your joke, use that pause to collect yourself and proceed.
8. Try to enjoy the fact that people are listening to what you have to say. It doesn't need to be profound, only temporarily entertaining. For the moments you are speaking, you must imagine that they find you interesting, or they wouldn't still be sitting there.

There are scads more tricks but these are the essentials. Feel free to email me if you need some personal love or attention about speaking in front of a group. You are FABULOUS!
Kim

The Dream Jumper's Promise #2!!

I have no problem being #2. Ever. In any situation (except love). At this point - 36 hours into a 48 hour FREE KINDLE giveway on Amazon I have 'sold' over 10,000 copies of this novel and am holding at #2 for Women's Fiction and Contemporary. I'm holding at #3 for Romantic Suspense. Strangely enough, the gal who is beating me has both books above mine. I won't put her name here and give her free publicity until my free days ends. BUT I did email her to say congrats. I'm not a total jerk, just partial. Having auditioned all my life for parts in acting, I won't help another competitor during the competition. Learned that lesson the hard way. I'm thrilled she and I are doing so well and I bet she is too although she is not a new author.
I can't pull myself away from the computer today except to get tea, drive my son to sell a soccer jersey and go to the loo. It's so exciting. Both nights I've stayed awake watching the numbers go up.
Last time I went free I got to #6 in Women's Fiction for one hour but mostly stayed below the top ten line for all 3 days. This time I did more marketing, tweeted, FB'ed to the point of nausea and changed my blurb and cover.
The cover now has more of the bronzed bodies on the front cover, darker blue in the sky and a more compelling lead line: "A mysterious ability, a broken promise, a life changed forever"
And I put Christine M. Fairchild's quote at the beginning of my description to get her opinion on the page seeing she's the Editor Devil and they keep removing her great review.
The blurb now focuses more on the romance. I didn't want it to sound like the typical romance blurb but I think it came off showing the reader that there will be some hot stuff in the pages of this book. After all, I want to represent it truthfully and also sell books. What I noticed last time I went free was that the top downloads had couples on the cover in an intimate pose. And that the blurbs were not beautifully written. So I went ahead and tried to model them.
I read a review this week for an edgy book called Sins and Needles and she rounded up many pro reviews before her free days and put them before her blurb. Her book did really well on the free listings so I copied her.
Must go now and tweet again. Maybe some last minute efforts to sell in the UK too before all the Brits go to bed!
Wish me luck
http://amzn.com/B00AA4FAJC

Technically Challenged but Hey, I Can Blog!

Ok, so I can't figure out Createspace, can't attach music to my slideshow/trailer and may self destruct as I try to promote my first book, but I'm trying, aren't I? At the age of 55, I was raised in an age (and town) where computers just weren't available. If they arrived in the school system it was after I graduated. I never sat behind a real computer until I was 40 and had my first baby. The internet had to be explained to me years before by an infommercial host I worked for who called it "the information highway". I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes and thought he was drunk. How could you get all that information from a box on your desk, I mean really?
Twenty-two years later I have my very own kompooter and can type all kinds of things and publish stuff and pretend that people are listening to me. Yes, I have a blog, yes, I have a web page and yes I can email with the best of 'em but please don't ask me to format anything or delve too deeply into the bowels of WORD to fix anything. Or to go into the bowels of anything, come to think of it. I'm not very savvy at the box on my desk. I recently lost my whole address book in email and can't figure out how to get it back. This is not good seeing I want to email everyone I've ever known to ask them to buy my book. A year before I couldn't figure out how to access my photos, then realised that they have their very own file. It's too much for this old brain. Do I have to learn all this too even though I just think I figured out how to write a book. Yes, yes, I think so. I fear I will get left behind like the kid in Home Alone if I don't learn to keep up. Tweeting is baffling to me and I keep asking my ten year old to figure it out and then let me know in 4 words or less. Facebook is relatively understandable. Email is a breeze unless I go on vacation and can't get in to my account that I've had since I sat at my first computer. BUT, creating slideshows with music has got me pulling my already thinning hair out by the roots and having to join all these groups in Yahoo and post and contribute has me wishing I was a little more technically minded. I'm exhausted just thinking about all this.
Here are some words that didn't exist when I was at the top of my retention and understanding game: Download, jpg, tweet, kindle, pinterest, blog, vlog, hyperlink, internet, search engine ( I still am not sure what this is) and smart phone. The latter of which I do not have, nor do I want.
I am a self published author, as well as published with a real, live NY publishing house and I'm damned lucky to have gotten that far. Super, uber-lucky, some would say, namely some lady on Goodreads named Jayne something who gave my novel a rating of 2 when everyone else loved it. I know I'm fortunate to be where I am, although self pubbing is only a matter of choice, not brains or talent, and I am thankful to be in this space age decade of being able to read off a glowing panel in my hands as I lie in bed at night, especially reading my very own book--words I put on that page. The thought of it is heady.
So when you ask why I haven't created a kick-ass trailer for either of my published books or why I don't tweet more, or share cool photos on FB, please imagine my ability to do these things as a baby lying in a blanket waiting for someone to diaper and feed it. Useless. Dependant on whatever information another writer wants to throw my way.
It isn't that I don't want to do these things. I do. I'm just not developed enough as a modern writer to draw on these new-fangled, dad-burned devices to use what's in front of me. I'm trying the best I can with what I have. No tweeting for now and probably no trailers. But at least there will be books.
Over and out for now. Thanks for reading, as always!
Kim