Announcement, Book Presentation, e-Publishing, Product, Public Appearance, Update

Update on All Points of Interest

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Things Going On & Things Coming Up!

March 19th, 2019, Tom Trimbath and I will take the floor again at the Langley Public Library to give our “Self-Publishing: From Inspiration to Publication” presentation. If you’re anywhere between considering writing and publishing a book or close to completion, check the WIBC events page and put us on your calendar. Coupeville and Freeland libraries here on Whidbey Island have also been talking toward hosting events including and in addition to Self-Publishing: From Inspiration to Publication.

Tom and I are looking for additional locations and avenues to present this topic and help authors along their paths.  Here’s video of our October presentation — I also made an audio recording which I intend to post somewhere online ASAP.  The video stopped about an hour into the evening, however my audio recording captured the whole night.

After completing and publishing “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” in both paper book and e-book forms last Fall, I didn’t take a break — I rolled right in to my next 2 book projects! One is a cookie recipe book which I’m quite excited about, the other is a bagpipe sheet music book for a veterans organization I’m honored to be a part of. While I am working on both, the sheet music book has taken the lead as I am aiming to have it published come spring — somewhat more specifically, June.

No-no — it’s a good thing — really ……. I think. 😉

Now that things are getting stabilized with pivoting WIBC from being a production baking company to writing & publishing books, yours truly is on the hunt for a day job.  Lately I’ve reworked my resume so it is in fit fighting form and I have gotten a few interviews line up with interesting looking local employers.  At the same time, I’m working on my infamous truck to further get it into fit commuting form.  Since buying it I’ve done a lot of needed repairs; while it is currently in good shape, there are these last few projects to address so it is less likely to create interruptions as I re-join the traditional workfarce …. er, I mean, workforce.

And now, further on the audio front …

Three things I’m excited to tell you about!

A year ago I started looking into becoming an audio book narrator.  I developed a solid initial understanding of the industry and ways to get into it.  This interest is still in me, however I have had higher priorities.  I plan to narrate my own books and others — first though I need to get things stabilized with my day job.

I’ve said a few times recently that I have 4 recordings ‘in the can’ for my experiential recording project Archive Of Resonance.  I’m getting help with the audio now  and intend to (er, finally) complete each album as time allows — if I can get all of these put together and published through Amazon this year, great, if not then no big deal … they’ll get done when they’re supposed to.

LASTLY And Not Leastly …
In my superhero persona as BagpiperDon, I have taken on a personal challenge!  An online bagpipe school called Dojo University has put forth an activity that bagpipers may take part in For FREE.  I’ve known about Dojo U for years, heard nothing but good things about them, and would LOVE to make use of their services.  They produce various Free materials which I have been gratefully using in the mean time — chiefly e-articles and some videos.  Lately I’ve been taking part in the “Dojo U 100 Day Bagpipe Challenge“.  The primary part of the challenge is for pipers, in their individual practice, to assemble their pipes and practice one tune (any tune) a day for 100 consecutive days …. and if you miss a day, you have to start over.  I see the object of this as not so much to work on one’s playing ability as it is to develop discipline.  Today will be Day 017 for me — only 083 days to go!

Thanks for keeping up with me!
~ Don

Author, Book, e-Book, Review, Tip

Put in the Spotlight by Craig Lea Gordon

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Do You Like Sci-Fi?

If you do then you need to know about Craig Lea Gordon …

Craig Lea Gordon — playable at 33RPM

After three years of work, last fall I began to see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel‘ on writing my first recipe book, “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies“.  As my publication date grew close I started looking online for other independent authors — I wanted to find folks who were going for it like me, men and women who were sharp and well experienced.  There were numerous questions I had, which I not only thought I could ask these authors but also learn from them by observing what they do.  Among these authors I was fortunate to come across Craig Lea Gordon and his work.

Craig lives and writes in North East England — where Gordon Sumner is from …. you know, Sting?!?  He comes across as a pleasant blend of being smart as a whip and extremely down to earth.  I picked up on him through a free e-book offer, and in my opinion what Craig writes is AMAZING!  First I got the e-book and then I started receiving e-mails from the guy — Craig, not Sting.  One of his e-mails offered that I could join his Facebook group — which then lead to getting my hands on a copy of “The Machine“.

I have a few problems when it comes to books…

One of these problems is that I LOVE BOOKS.  I’ll get a stack of books — often from a used book store — and I want to read them All.  One or two of them will catch my eye at home were I already have a few books open …. it’s an interesting book … I’m looking forward to reading it …. and I tell myself, “Well, I can just read the first few pages to get a sense of it and then put it down until I’ve finished one of my other books.”  Yeah … that never works …. and the next I know I have four or five books that I’m in the middle of and loving*.  I did this with “The Machine”, and as reading goes … I made a wonderful mistake.
* For the record, I currently only have three books that I’m reading … maybe four.

The Machine is rich in detail and has a creepy-factor that is palpable!  The last time I read a book that had this level of ambiance was authored by a well-known writer here in Washington State by the name of Frank Herbert … you know, the guy who wrote Dune.  Yeah, The Machine is like that!

Craig’s most recent book!

As for Craig, he’s a swell guy!  He updates us on his literary projects in his Facebook group, we get to see sneak previews of his cover art, and he presents weekly ‘What Sci-Fi Film Is This’ challenges … which I get the right answer to about half the time … and consequently realize how much sci-fi I’ve seen.  Craig even puts up with my sense of humor, which for that alone he should probably get knighted.

And here’s part of why I’m making sure you know about Craig and his writing — because lately …. he did me a solid!

(Read on ….)

(Yep … keep scrolling down.)

This wasn’t actually a surprise*, but let’s pretend that it was… because that’s more fun!

Ten days ago I received Craig’s most recent e-mail update.  First he told his followers about how the holidays went with his family.  Then Craig let us know how to get Advance Reader Copies of his next book “The Acid Suite”.  The he told us about two other authors’ books — now, bear in mind, Craig has an international following with his e-mails.  One of these books is titled “The Rig” by Roger Levy, and the other one …. well …. it wasn’t a sci-fi book at all!?!  In fact, Craig told everyone about “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” by yours truly!!!  Craig wrote about my participation on his Facebook group and even plugged my book on Amazon — WOW!
* Craig messaged me a few days earlier and kindly asked if I would mind if he did this … PHHT, like I was going to say No?!?

Check out what Craig is doing at his homepage along with Facebook & Twitter — you can even get a free e-book copy of his first Acid Suite book “Transmit“.  Dark palpable sci-fi cyberpunk … oh yeah, Craig is your new author!

And Craig …. Thank You,
~ Don

Craig Links You Need To Know About

 

Beverage, Experiment, Tip

One Way Not To Drink Coffee

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I <3 Coffee … This is pretty well known.

I’ve done the math …

I had an amusing revelation about my coffee-of-late — frankly it was also kind of gross …. so of course I had to share about it here!  And it is cookie related by the way …..

I recently got on a crinkle kick. Growing up, my mom made chocolate crinkles as one of our Xmas cookies, and they were AMAZING! I’m not clear if crinkles are considered strictly-Xmas cookies, however going toward my next recipe book I’ve been developing an assortment of flavours — Lemon Crinkles, Orange Crinkles, Ginger Molasses Crinkles, modifications on the classic Chocolate Crinkle… Only one problem — the powdered sugar keeps cooking into my cookies and disappearing.

Chocolate Crinkles

I made mention of this problem on my personal Facebook profile and received a remark back — that if you mix a little cornstarch into your powdered sugar it won’t melt into the cookies. So the last time I experimented with with a crinkle recipe I gave this cornstarch trick a try — and had No Luck. In fact, it seemed like it melted in MORE.  At best I had spots of powered sugar on the cookies. The worse part was that I had made up a cereal bowl size mixture of powdered sugar and cornstarch and had a TON left over!

Image result for dalmatian
My cookies kinda looked like this fella and — aside from the blotchy sugar — about as happy!
Just so we’re clear, powered sugar is also know as confectioners sugar….
Not my actual bowl of confectioners sugar, but doesn’t the picture look nice with my blog post?

Lately, to use this bowl of corn-starched powered-sugar up I’ve been putting it in my coffee. Big deal, right — it’s sugar, and the cornstarch won’t hurt me — so what?!?

What happens when you put cornstarch into something hot — like hot water? It clumps, it thickens still but it thickens to itself — I didn’t even think of that! Yeah … if you don’t want dubious coffee-tasting sludge in your coffee …. this is not a way to use up the bowl of corn-starched powdered-sugar.

Image result for Duh!

Lesson learned & laughing at myself,
Don

Book, Product, Progress, Publication, Update

Things Now, Soon, and 2019

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Happy Sunday Morning!

Yes, I can say that — which probably means the coffee has kicked in ….

Sundry things to chatter about today…

As you’ve heard my first recipe book is out in both paper & e-book form AND that I am not one to take a break — yes, I’m already working on 2 future books! As with any time two or more projects are running concurrently, sometimes one project takes a lead over the other. Of these two books, one is a recipe book and the other is a Highland bagpipe sheet music book. Since publishing “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” on Amazon I have mostly worked on the future recipe book — and I’m Thrilled about its developments! During the past week I’ve realized that the sheet music book is rather close to being done along with having a higher priority. There is some ‘heavy lifting’ to do on this project and everything is ready for it to happen — SO — I’m pressing forth on this as time allows. This is also good because…

Tomorrow I’m meeting with Tom Trimbath — my friend and self-publishing coach — first time in 2019! Getting to work with Tom is great — he’s a wonderful soul full of mirth and insight. I’m looking to talk with him about this sheet music book (since it’s a rather different project) along with our interests in presenting our books and how-to-self-publish topic at various locations in 2019. I hope he’s ready for tomorrow as I’ve already drawn up a list of things to ask and talk with him about!

Last and Certainly Not Least…

Over the past few days I’ve gotten to chat online with my friend, Donna.  This is the very-same Donna in Scotland who you will read about in the Acknowledgments section of Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies.  As it turns out she’s had my book for a number of days and didn’t know that she was on my Thank You list — she had spent all this time going through my recipes and stories.  When it comes to websites and web-marketing, Donna is as smart as a whip*!  She took a quick look yesterday here at WhidbeyIslandBaking.com and noticed a few improvements that could be made.  Donna went further to say that she could do a review of my site along with giving me a slew of web-marketing tips.  While I have learned a good bit of marketing from being a professional musician, I believe that one can always learn more — and quite frankly, I know rather little when it comes to online-marketing.  SO… I’m excited to be working with Donna over the coming days and weeks to both improve this site and my web-marketing skills — and, as in my book, once again I ought to say Thanks Donna!
(*She’s also one heck of a photographer!)

Announcement, Author, Baking, Book, Cookies, Experiment, Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, Product, Public Appearance, Publication, Update

New Year – New Endeavours!

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HAPPY 2019!

New Years can be a bit funny — because what is it really?  Another 365 days and 6 hours* past and another to go … a December 31st and January 1st is just the difference of a day … and yet it is also something many of us use as an opportunity.  We look to the past to make changes or try something new with the future — and sometimes it’s not so much about the past as it is about trying something new to enjoy.  So what does 2019 hold for you?  I know a few of the things I’m looking toward…
(* Yes, 6 hours — this is how we get leap year AKA the bissextus or a or bissextile year)

It’s harder to show a picture of the e-book version…

This past October I published my first book — “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” — then in mid-December I followed with publishing the e-book version.  I’ve had the pleasure of getting to present my book a few times during late 2018, and with the New Year I aim to get more speaking dates.  I thoroughly  ENJOY getting to talk with other people about baking — getting new-bakers turned on to the idea and talking with old-hats at baking to find out about their ideas!

On the heals of releasing Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies I was compelled to get to work on 2 new books — yes, “compelled“!  These were not the next projects I thought I would do, but they were the two that chewed on my mind the most — I was just drawn to them…

But what are they?

I both can and can’t tell you you that…

Yours truly in my other superhero persona… (you can also find me on FB as BagpiperDon BTW)

YES, 2 books, not just 1 …. because that’s how I do things.

One of these books is an ‘official’ Highland bagpipe sheet music book for the local-chapter of a Scottish military origination I’m a part of.  The aim of this is not just to create something for my group but ultimately to offer this to the national organization to become all of our ‘official’ bagpipe sheet music book ….. SO, potentially producing and publishing a book for a national (actually international) organization … it’s kind of a big deal!

As for the other book…
(I’m really excited about this project!)

As a performing musician and recording artist I have learned to play certain things close to the vest.  I have something in excess of 30 album ideas which I would LOVE to record — and have every intention to produce ….. HOWEVER … I generally don’t reveal those ideas to many if any people beforehand.  Why?  Simply because I want to make my albums — as opposed to someone hearing my idea, swiping it, and beating me to the punch.  This other book is along these lines, but I will tell you this…

  • So far as I know there is only one other recipe book at all similar to it currently on the market &/or ever before made; it involves cookies which I am developing new recipes specifically for this project.
  • I may be partnering with another writer for the content of this book.
  • To fully and correctly publish this book I will have to learn and do things that I previously have only been familiar with however have not otherwise done.
  • This will probably be a coffee table book.  I would like this book to have its own t-shirt.  I may not make an e-book version however I definitely would like to make an audiobook version.  AND it is my preference to release all of these at the same time.

AND two other things I’m working on…

Well …. not quite like this.

As an extension of being a professional musician I like to record things — and I do mean ‘things’ being not-music however are sounds I find interesting.  I do this under the project name of Archive Of Resonance.  I have been a busy boy over the last number of years — both getting things done and sometimes having to put a few things on the shelf.  One such thing …. or moreover four such things … are AOR recordings.  While there are recordings I have wanted to make*, I have captured four sets of audio which I have wanted to turn into albums …. just that finishing this work has not been a priority.  By my guesstimate, each of these need about 20 hours of work.  My aim is to work on these over the course of 2019, publish them, and make them available on Amazon.
(*mostly couldn’t because I lacked transportation — but that’s changed now!)

AND LASTLY …

With pivoting WIBC from production baking to writing and publishing books and other products, I knew that I would need to get an Author’s/Musician’s Day Job.  I got an initial start on my job search in the fall of 2018 and will be getting back at in during January 2019.  This previous start was a decent beginning — I have some leads that look interesting and a decent idea of what my skills apply to.  So the future looks …… interesting!

Going Forward!
~ Don