So, I'm compiling a mailing list. I've been resistant to this idea in the past, because direct email seems spammy to me. However, I personally subscribe to email updates for a number of my favorite authors, and I never feel spammed when they tell me about a new book, so I guess it can be a good thing.

The only time I'll use this list is when I release something new. Whether the new content is text or audio, free or paid, adult, young adult, or children’s stories, you’ll get an email about it if you stay subscribed. I doubt you'll get more than a few emails per year, and it's easy to unsubscribe.

The subscription sign up is on the right. Thanks so much for supporting my work!

The awful stuff included leaving my first anesthesia job unexpectedly amid a sea of nasty politics, teaching myself a new practice style (travel work) under great financial pressure, working a lot of 16-hour days in Portland, and somehow hurting my back such that I haven’t been able to sit comfortably for 4 months and may have to have surgery this year. I haven’t been home in 6 months and spent the holidays alone in a hotel. I haven’t seen 2 of my cats since I left, and I feel like I don’t have a home anymore.

The awesome stuff included being on hand for the birth of my nephew, Morgan (first child of my only sibling), still loving the actual practice of anesthesia (even if politics and hours sometimes suck), getting to live in Portland again—hiking its woods, seeing my friends there, eating the wonderful food—even if I was living out of a suitcase, attending a fantastic first Balticon where I spent time with some of my favorite creative people and felt like a rock star for a few days, winning a Parsec with Bryan Lincoln for Fullcast, and having a successful first year in eBooks.

There was other stuff, but those were the highlights. I’m hoping for a less bumpy 2012, but right now, it looks uncertain.

In creative accomplishments, I produced Book 3 of Cowry Catchers in audio (and dealt with the backlash). I also put together the audio for the various Crossroads stories and released that collection on Podiobooks.com near the end of the year. Starting in Dec of 2010 and over the course of 2011, I put out 10 eBooks. I made 2 of them free (the first books in 2 series) and the rest are for sale. If you look to the right on this blog, you will see them. Four of those books are illustrated, and this involved special challenges. I’ve gotten about a third of the illustrations for Book 4 of Cowry Catchers and they are *awesome.* :D

In actual writing, starting in November, I got through about 35,500 words of the rewrite for Hunters Unlucky. I finished Part 2 (of the 6 Part story), and I’m pleased with how that’s going. It’s shaping up to be a book that I think a lot of people will enjoy.

I also wrote the most icky short story I’ve ever produced (where do these things come from??)—“Kittens: Free to Good Home”—which has yet to find a buyer.

In the interests of helping other self-publishers, I provide numbers. These are my sales so far. This includes only books sold, no freebies. It includes sales on Amazon, BN, SW, and (a very few) on CreateSpace.

• Dec: 36
• Jan: 31
• Feb: 88
• March: 271
• April: 180
• May: 352
• June: 359
• July: 363
• August: 296
• Sept: 208
• Oct: 184
• Nov: 205
• Dec: 359

Total = 2932

For the money, I track only what has actually dropped into my bank account. All distributors pay 2 months behind. Consequently, the payments I’ve received represent only books sold through Oct. Nov and Dec are not included. With that in mind, my overall expenses for publishing (in text and audio) since 2007 when I started commissioning illustrations have been $13,021.68. My gross income has been $5,051.16. About $1,000 of that came from sales of audio short stories, donations on my site and on Podiobooks.com, and other little stuff. The other $4,000 came from eBooks.

Included in that 13K is almost $500 in royalties paid to artists this year. That was above and beyond their upfront asking price for their art, which I also paid. No artist asks for or expects royalties, but it was something I wanted to do for the illustrators of the Cowry Catchers books. I volunteered to pay them 25% of what the distributor gave me for the first 3 years the book is available, split between them according to the number of illustrations they did (calculated for each book). Stupid of me? Maybe a little. I doubt I will break even on those books before the 3 years are up, but I don’t think artists get paid enough, and I wanted people working on the books to have a vested interest in them after the work was over.

Through Oct, my average income per book sold was $1.70 (and really somewhat less, because that doesn’t take into account the royalties I pay my artists). I was making $300-$600 per month. However, towards the end of Oct, the Cowry Catchers Complete 5-Book Series hit the virtual shelves, and that had a pretty big impact on the money. It’s a $10 book. I get about $6.60 per book sold, and it’s not illustrated, so I’m not paying royalties to artists.

In addition, sales picked up towards Christmas. Although they didn’t top the summer numbers, I was making a lot more per book. I estimate I made something over $1500 in Nov and Dec, so total income through 2011 will look something more like $6500—right at half of my total expenditures since 2007. Most of that money was made in a single year of eBooks, while the expenditures were gradual over 5 years.

Is this success? Well, I think so! I’m not sure that I’ll be in the black by the end of 2012. I still have to pay for the illustrations for Book 5 and half of those for Book 4. However, I would be very surprised if I’m not in the black by 2013. I will then have the dubious distinction of paying taxes on this little venture.

Will I achieve my ultimate goal of working 20-30 hours a week in the OR and spending the rest of my time writing for a solid part-time income? For the first time in my life, I see how to do it. Might take 5 years. Might take 10. I’d be 44 by then. Still young enough to be an anomaly. :)

Like all creative people, I’ve got a shopping list of goals for 2012. Whether I accomplish them depends on what kind of curve balls life throws me. Here’s what I’d like to do:

Finish 3 novels – Hunters Unlucky, The Scarlet Albatross, and the Holovarus book (not it’s real name, also probably a novella). I’d like to get 2 of these polished and released as ebooks. The third could be written, but I don’t think it’ll get edited until next year.

I’d like to write 4 short stories in the Panamindorah universe, produce them in audio, and put them up quarterly as paid content. I wanted to do this last year, but then life happened.

I’d like to write at least 2 short stories that are either not Panamindorah-related or are very different from what I’ve done previously, for a total of 6 shorts.

I’d also like to produce Book 4 of Cowry Catchers in audio. Possibly start on Book 5, but I’d be happy if I got Book 4 out the door.

A big thank you to all of you folks who bought my work, listened to the podcasts, left reviews, posted on the forums, volunteered your voices, sent encouraging emails, tweeted and retweeted, favorited and friended and shared. You are the reason these projects are successful, the reason I keep throwing myself at those goals even when life gets in the way. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your enthusiasm and support. Have a wonderful 2012!

I can see why people usually do first drafts for NaNo. In that case, just laying down words is a useful activity. When you’re working on a near-final draft, they have to be the right words or it’s counter-productive. Still, I got back into the habit of writing everyday, which I haven’t done since anesthesia school. 1,000 words a day is a good speed for me and not stressful. I had a lot of stuff going on this month as I deal with an unexpected health problem, have early holidays with my family, try to help my brother and sister-in-law with a new baby, prepare to transition to a new travel assignment in Maryland, and try to spend time with my friends in Portland before I leave. I didn’t put too much priority on NaNo, and I’m happy with what I still managed to get done. You will continue to see updates to Hunters on this site until it’s finished.

Over the last few days, I stopped working on Hunters to focus on something that I’ve been trying to get off my plate all year—the audio version of Crossroads, the Panamindorah short story collection. I *finally* got it done. This will be a Podiobooks.com exclusive. It includes 2 stories that have only ever been paid content until now (Night in the Crystal City and Professionals). The version of Professionals in the free audiobook will be my solo read. The fullcast version is still in my online store, but I’ve lowered the price to $2. The audio for Crystal City has not been available anywhere since Feb. All the files have been uploaded to Libsyn, and all related info is with Evo. He’ll schedule the book whenever he gets time, probably in the next couple of weeks.

You’d think that Crossroads would not be a big project, since all the stories were already recorded. And it wasn’t a *big* project, but it did require about 10 hours of focused attention. It needed overall book-ends of audio from me, and the individual stories needed intros and outros with an author’s note, giving some context and background. I want people unfamiliar with my books to be able to enjoy them. Most of the stories were also tangled up with other audio, which had to be clipped and spliced. The overall sound quality varies a lot, but I think they’re still enjoyable. I’ll make another announcement when the book is actually up at Podiobooks.com.

In addition, I spent several days this week with Rah Cloutier (who lives in Portland), working on sketches for Cowry Catchers Book 4. They go a lot faster when I’m there in person to throw out ideas and say “this and not that.” CC4 is going to have some beautiful artwork! Here’s a teaser:

My method only works if you've got a separte file for each voice actor. If you highlight all the lines in a single file using different colors, then I don't know how to help you. If someone else knows how to get a word-count in such a document, I'm all ears. Word can search for hilights, but as far as I know, it can't search for specific colors.

Assuming you've only hilighted the lines of a single voice actor within the document, do the following:

1. Save a new copy (or just make sure you don’t overwrite your file).

2. Go to “Find and Replace” (Control+H in Word 2010. I think it might be Control+F in older versions).

3. Open the "More" Dropdown menu.

4. Put your curser in the “Find What” box (but don't write anything), and click “Format.”

5. Select “Highlight" once, then select it AGAIN. Under “Find what,” it will then say “Format: “Not Highlight.”

6. Do not write anything in the “Replace with” box.

7. Hit “Replace All.” You are replacing all non-highlighted text with nothing.

8. Do a word count, and you’re done. Remember not to overwrite your original file!

Update 12/17/11 - Bryan Lincoln sent me this, which might also be helpful to anyone using Open Office:

I was playing around with this a little in Open Office (no Word on this computer) and I found I could do specific colors. I didn't find a "Not Highlight" anywhere, but I could do the following:

Edit: Select all (might not be needed but I did it anyway)

Edit: Find and replace

Under More Options, select Format

Under the background tab, choose the highlight color

Don't put anything into the "Search For" field, and select "Find all"

Hit close (the find/replace menu is now gone...all the highlighted text of the chosen color is now selected. Very Useful!)

Edit:Copy

File:New Document

Paste into the new document and do a word count.

Alternatively, with all the highlighted text selected, you can remove the highlights of a single color all at once. So if you highlight each character with a different color, you could turn off the colors one at a time. Would be nice if I could remove all highlights EXCEPT for one color, but I don't see a way to do that.

Not sure if this help you with Word at all, but I thought I'd share what I found.

His name is Robert Quill. Here's what happened: I was at Balticon for the first time in 2011 and loved it! As a memento, I purchased a $119 commission of myself as a pirate from a man who turned out to be...in retrospect...a pirate. :( Rober was an official artist at the convention as far as I could tell. He had a booth outside the dealer’s area. I was planning to use the image as a playful portrait in the "About Me/ Contact" section of the Cowry Catcher's website.

Mr. Quill took all the money up front at the convention via credit card, engaged in a few halfhearted emails back and forth, never finished the commission, and then stopped responding to my requests for update.

Here’s a timeline:

5/31/11 – I paid $119 via credit card at Balticon for an ink illustration of myself as pirate.

6/13/11 – I emailed for status update (and to make sure he had not lost my email address).

6/15/11 – He sent me an email with a link to this sketch http://www.robertquill.com/transfer/AbigailHilton.jpg, asking whether I wanted to make any corrections before he finished the piece.

6/26/11 – I responded verifying that the sketch was a go.

10/9/11 – I wrote to ask for an update; he said he had misplaced the commission and would look into it.

10/18/11 – I wrote asking whether he’d found the missing commission and expressing concerns about his intention to finish it. He never responded.

I would be surprised if I’m the only person he’s done this to. People commissioning artwork at a convention have no way of checking the credentials of artists or comparing reviews from other clients. We take it on faith that an artist with a booth has been at least marginally vetted by the convention organizers. I’m sure they didn’t know he was a thief.

However, as an author who commissions a lot of artwork, I'm trying to make sure that people know. Don't commission this guy. I’m sure I’ll never see my $119 again or the artwork, but I would at least like to make sure he doesn’t get to keep taking advantage of my peers.

If further developments occur (like a refund or the artwork), I'll add an update. Maybe Mr. Quill was struck by lightning and cannot answer his emails. Maybe, but I doubt it.

Update 11/20/11: Right after making the previous post, I emailed the Balticon organizers. There's no reporting system for artists, and I don't want this artist to do the same thing to some other sucker at the convention next year. I have lots of friends who attend that convention. The Balticon organizers were very nice and actually got in touch with the artist's agent. This resulted in the artist offering me a refund. To date, the refund has not arrived (he said that he could not refund my credit card and didn't want to use Paypal). However, we seem to be making progress. I am impressed with the Balticon organizers for their handling of this situation. They care about their attendees.

Update 12/8/11 - Robert refunded my money today via Paypal after I got the Balticon organizers involved. The con organizers truly seemed to care about my predicament, and I am greatful for their help.

If you ever feel the need to comission this guy (or anyone, really), I advise paying half the money up front and half on completion. This is a common practice, and if an artist will not agree to it...find someone else. I don't think Robert intended to rob me when he took my credit card at the convention. However, I do think he needs money on the table as motivation to complete a comission.

When I was 14, I started the first novel that I actually finished. It was called...well, it was called something silly. For short, it was called “Lidian” – the name of the world. I finished it almost exactly a year later. It was a bloated, lumbering beast, something over 250,000 words.

That book played a special roll in my friendships as a teenager and young adult. It became my letter of introduction to the world. I met people over that book who became lifelong friends and beta readers, people whose opinions still matter to me.

I went on to write other books, better books, different books. But every few years, I would return to Lidian, armed with more experience, and try to improve it. The story has been edited more than any other book I’ve ever written. It was submitted to, and rejected by, dozens of publishers--the old-fashioned way via snailmail and cardboard boxes. College teachers shook their heads over it. One of them told me it gave her nightmares.

Now that we’ve finally entered the age of self-actualization for authors, I have returned to this book again, determined to put it to rest. It’s not something I would write today, but I know it has an audience. People exist who will like this book.

But co-authoring a book with your teenage self is hard. I mean, it’s really tough. It’s tough to know what to keep and what to throw out, what to rewrite and what to leave alone. I am no longer the girl who wrote this story. She was charming in ways that I am not, and I am clever in ways that she was not. She did not know me, and I have half-forgotten her.

So the re-write process has been sluggish. I’ve been stopping and starting it for over a year. In addition, I’m worried about what my existing audience will think if I release this book without explanation. Anyone who thinks I wrote it after Cowry Catchers will wonder whether I have sustained a head injury.

I have been toying with the idea of serializing it on my site for a while, and I’ve also wanted to try NaNoWriMo. So here’s what I have decided to do – I will attempt to get through 100,000 words of this novel in Nov. I suspect that my rewrite will cut it down to 150K or less. I was pretty verbose as a teenager. I’ll polish off the rest in Dec. Most of it will be rewritten from scratch. I plan to reboot it, not just rewrite it. That means nothing is off the table. I’ll make drastic changes if I think I need to. But I will get through it.

You (any of you who are interested) will be my beta readers. I always have a few (usually half a dozen) reading a novel as I write. I actually have trouble completing things without these people. The version I release here will not be final. It will be near-final, but I reserve the right to make changes. Your comments/corrections are welcome. When I’m finished with all the editing, I’ll release the eBook for sale. I will probably take this version down at that point (or maybe not; I haven’t decided). You get to read it for free if you read it here.

Hunters will be released (along with possibly snarky commontary from me) in a separate journal. Follow the link or click the page in the far right corner above. You can add it to your feedreader if you do that sort of thing.

Amazon

BN

Smashwords

Here you go, folks - the complete 5-book series, clocking in at something over 300,000 words. This version is *not* illustrated. This is just the text. If you wait for the illustrated versions or the audio, it will probably take about a year longer to get the story. I'm giving you choices.

Eve is an inquisitive baby rat who regularly escapes from her cage. One night she meets a strange creature in a glass tank across the room - a boa constrictor named Malachi. The snake is amused by Eve's questions, and he awes her with stories of the wilds where he was caught. What will happen to their fragile friendship when Eve discovers what Malachi eats? Can they devise a solution that will save both Malachi and Eve's family of rats?

Feeding Malachi is a 6,000-word story, divided into 10 short chapters. The story is illustrated with beautiful ink drawings by the Sarah Cloutier, who is also the cover artist. The story has a few scary moments, but also a happy ending. If you and your child enjoyed the whimsical dialogue of The Little Prince or the loveable characters in Janell Cannon's Stellaluna and Verdi, you will enjoy the adventures of Eve and Malachi.

Here are the first 3 chapters, minus illustrations.

Chapter 1. In Which Eve Makes a Strange Discovery

 “Eve, if you go out again, I’ll shut the cage!” said Phineas to his little cousin. Phineas was a black hooded rat, and he stood bristling beneath the water bottle.

Eve looked down at him from the top of the bottle. “You’re just jealous because you’re too big to go out, and you never thought of it when you were smaller.”

This was true. No rat had considered going out of the glass tank until Eve decided to try. They all thought her rather strange.

“Be sure to bring back a good story!” called Athena, her sister.

“Yes, but mind the cat,” said Moses, her father.

“Do be careful,” said Maribel, her mother, and her aunt and cousins and brothers and sisters said the same.

Eve turned to look at them and nearly lost her balance on top of the water bottle. She was a cream hooded rat with pink eyes, still very small. “I’m always careful. I’ll bring back a lovely story, Athena.” Then she pushed the screen lid with her nose, wriggled her head through the crack, and squirmed out of the glass tank. Eve made sure the lid remained a little ajar. She didn’t worry about Phineas closing it because she knew he wanted to hear her stories as much as the others.

Eve dropped to the shelf beside her home. She waved to her brothers and sisters and cousins and aunt and mother and father, and then started into the dark, quiet house for another adventure.

The cat, she thought, is she out tonight? Eve tested the air with her nose and scanned the dark room. Not a whiff of cat!

Eve took a running start and jumped onto the big, soft chair just across from the shelf where she lived. She bounced once and then scampered up the other side. From the top of the chair, she jumped onto a bookshelf that ran along the far wall. Eve liked the bookshelf—so many hiding places that smelled of leather and paper and ink. From the top of the bookshelf, she could see almost to the end of the room. Eve had never gotten quite to the end before. Usually the cat came, and she had to run. She’d nearly been eaten twice, which was terrifying, but made wonderful stories.

Tonight, thought Eve, I will reach the far end of the room. If the cat comes, I will bite her! Of course, she would do nothing of the kind, but saying so made her feel brave. She started off: from the bookshelf to the desk, from the desk to the rolling chair, from the rolling chair to the plant stand, and from the plant stand across the floor to the sofa. All this took a great deal of time, as Eve was obliged to stop and sniff and clean the dust from her whiskers and bathe herself (for no self-respecting rat would go without a bath after getting dusty) and chew a pencil on the desk and nibble the cookie crumbs left by the boy.

By the time Eve reached the sofa, she was tired and had nearly forgotten why she’d come. But then she looked up and saw the table against the very back wall. Eve gave a little squeak of excitement and cried, “I did it! I reached the end,” and then she ran under the sofa for fear the cat had heard her.

Cautiously she put a whisker out and then her nose. Finding herself still in one piece, she emerged and looked up at the table. “I wonder what’s on top.”

Eve was not the sort of rat to stand idle when there are strange tables to explore, so she shimmied up the sofa and climbed onto the arm to have a look. Or two looks. Or three.

In fact, Eve couldn’t take her eyes off the table. “It looks just like our home,” she whispered. “I didn’t know there were two, not in all the world.”

The glass tank on the table did look like Eve’s home, and as Eve crept closer she saw something moving inside.

Chapter 2. Meet Malachi

 Something was alive inside the new glass tank. Eve did not think it was a cat. She hopped onto the table and inched closer, sniffing, but the glass kept her from catching the stranger’s scent. Finally she grew so impatient that she went right up to the tank.

Immediately there was a loud bump and Eve started back. A face with a long neck moved up and down in front of her.

“Oh,” it said and stood still, “you’re on the outside.” A pair of bright black eyes examined her curiously. Eve thought she’d never seen so odd a creature.

“Please, sir,” she began, “are you a rat or a human or (she gulped) are you a cat?”

The stranger smiled. “I’m not any of those things.”

Eve looked confused. “What other things are there?”

“Well…there are snakes. I am a snake—a boa constrictor, actually. My name is Malachi.”

Eve had never heard of any creatures besides rats and humans and cats. He certainly has a very long neck, she thought. Eve kept seeing more and more of his neck, but she couldn’t find where his body began.

“Where are your shoulders?” she asked.

“I haven’t any.”

“And your whiskers? Your belly, your tail?”

Malachi smiled. “I’m all tail.”

Eve thought this extremely odd, and she was trying to imagine what it would be like to have her head attached to her tail, when the snake spoke again. “What is your name?”

“Eve.”

“You’re a brave baby rat, Eve.”

Eve bristled. “I’m not a baby! I’m almost a month old.” (She was only two and a half weeks, actually, but she thought that was close enough.)

Malachi put his head down next to her. The distance from the tip of his nose to the back of his jaw was bigger than her entire body. “You’re not that old,” he said.

Eve was feeling sulky and tried to change the subject. “The cat isn’t out tonight. I didn’t need to be brave to come across the room. I just needed a lot of energy.” (And with that she yawned.)

“Not brave?” laughed the snake. “Don’t you know who I am?”

“Yes, you’ve just told me. You’re a tail with a head, called Malachi.”

He laughed. “That’s not what I mean. I mean, don’t you know the relationship between you and me?”

Eve looked very much surprised. “I don’t think we’re related…and if we were, I don’t think I’d admit it.”

Malachi cocked his head on one side. “You really don’t know, do you?”

“Don’t know what?” Eve came to the glass again and put her nose against it. She could see a stick inside and some water in a big dish.

The snake hesitated. “Nothing.”

“I do most certainly know many things!” retorted Eve. “I’ve been out of my glass tank, and not even my father will do that.”

“I’m sure he won’t.” Malachi seemed to be thinking of something else and not really listening to her.

This annoyed Eve. “The boy must not love you very much,” she said slyly. “I can’t see that he feeds you.”

“Oh, he feeds me,” said the snake quickly.

“Where’s your food, then? I don’t see any grain or apples or grapes in your tank.”

“I don’t eat very often—only once a month.”

“Oh?” Eve was much astonished. “You must eat a great deal at one time!”

“Yes…” said Malachi slowly. “I eat a great deal.”

“I’m tired,” said Eve, “and I shouldn’t be standing around in the open like this. The cat might come.”

“Oh, the cat won’t come here,” said Malachi. “She never comes on my table.”

“What makes you so sure? Aren’t you afraid of the cat?”

Malachi flicked his tongue and grinned. “Nope.”

“Why?”

He thought for a moment. “Because I’m bigger.”

This seemed to Eve like a good reason. She sighed. “Well, I’m not. I have to go home now. Good-bye, Malachi.”

He raised his head and watched until she was out of sight. “Good-bye, Eve.”

Chapter 3. “A tail with a head that sees with his nose and smells with his tongue”

 When Eve got back to her tank, she told her whole family about the strange creature called a snake with no body and no whiskers, and whose head was attached to his tail. Most of the family was skeptical, and Phineas announced that he didn’t believe a word of it. “You’re just making up stories because you really didn’t do anything interesting tonight.”

Eve squeaked at him and tried to nip his ear, but her mother intervened. “Now, Eve, try to get along with your cousins. Remember they won’t be here forever.”

“I’m not a liar,” she pouted. “I really did meet him.”

“I believe you, Eve,” said Athena, but Eve could tell that even Athena wasn’t sure.

Only her father, Moses, seemed to have no doubts about her story, but his reaction was not what she had expected. “Eve, you must never go near that creature again.”

“But, father, he’s not a cat!”

“No, but I think he is dangerous.”

“He’s in a tank,” laughed Eve. “What can he do to me?”

Her father didn’t answer for a moment. “Long ago,” he said at last, “when I lived in the pet store, I heard rumors about snakes. I think you should stay away from it.”

As soon as he mentioned the pet store all of the youngsters began to beg for a story. So Moses told them about living with many other rats and seeing many kinds of people and sometimes other kinds of animals. “If you are a good rat, someday the boy will take you away to start a family of your own,” said Moses, “just as he took me from the pet store and brought me here to be with your mother.”

“I don’t see what being good has to do with it,” grumbled Eve, still in a bad mood. “Everyone gets taken away when they get old enough whether they’re good or not.”

But the young rats were busy asking questions about the strange people and animals, and they told her to be quiet.

The next night Eve went to see Malachi again. The snake was curled up under his log, and Eve had to tap and squeak to get him to come out. She was afraid of the cat, but she reminded herself of what Malachi had said: “The cat never comes on my table.”

When Malachi finally woke up, he came to the glass and looked at Eve. “You’ve come again.”

“Yes,” said Eve. “I wanted to ask you a question.”

Malachi dangled his head over the edge of his log. “And what is your question?”

“Did you ever live in a pet store?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“My father tells all kinds of stories about the pet store. It sounds like an exciting place.”

Malachi flicked his tongue. “If you have never been anywhere else, I suppose it is an exciting place.”

Eve looked surprised. “There are other places besides here and the pet store?”

Malachi’s bright little eyes looked amused. “Eve, there are more places in the world than there are hairs on your body.”

Eve’s eyes grew round. She sat on the table while Malachi told her about a place he called the jungle. He talked about trees and grass and wind and sky and sun.

Eve interrupted. “I don’t understand grass. Is it like carpet in the house?”

Malachi thought for a moment. “No, it’s more like fur that grows on the ground.”

“And a tree—is that like a chair?”

“No, but I think chairs are made of dead trees.”

“What about the sun. Is it like the lamp on the desk?”

“Yes, only more so.”

Eve wasn’t sure she believed Malachi, but she liked to listen, and in the nights that followed she came back often. Sometimes the cat was in the room, and this prevented Eve from visiting Malachi, but she was becoming adept at crossing the room quickly, and many nights she spent beside Malachi’s tank. The snake seemed to know something about everything. He told her stories about the outside, about humans, and about other animals like birds and lizards.

Sometimes he said strange things. One day Eve asked him why he stuck his tongue out all the time.

“To smell,” said the snake.

“You smell with your tongue,” said Eve doubtfully. “Malachi, that’s silly.”

“It’s true. I see with my nose.”

“What?!”

“I see heat with these pits around my nose. I can see your body because you’re giving off heat.”

Eve started to laugh so hard that she nearly fell off the table. “A tail with a head that sees with his nose and smells with his tongue!”

Malachi frowned. “I’m very efficient!” he growled. “You wouldn’t laugh if you—”

Eve sat up, still snickering. “If I what?”

Malachi curled his head against his log. “Never mind.”

“Oh, don’t be a grouch. What were you going to say?”

But the snake only flicked his tongue. “Nothing.”

“You would be happier if you had a family,” said Eve. “Why don’t you have a family, Malachi?”

“I don’t know. Probably because snakes are expensive pets.”

“What does ‘expensive’ mean?”

“Nothing.”

“You say that a lot.”

He pretended not to hear her. “Why do you think I should have a family?”

“Because we rats always have families. When we get old enough, they take us away to have families.”

Malachi looked uneasy. “Oh?”

“Yes, that’s what happened to my parents, and when I get old enough—”

“It’s late, Eve,” he interrupted. “You should go home.”

She twitched her whiskers. “Well, alright. Goodnight, Malachi.”

_____________________________________________________________

This book is designed to look good on your eReader. You can get it from Amazon, BN, or Smashwords. It is currently $3.50. If you want to see it, but you don't have an eReader, I recommend the Kindle app. It's free for most smartphones, and there's a desktop version as well. You can view your kindle books in any kindle app as long as you're logged in. You can easily switch between devices. For instance, I switch between my Kindle and my iPhone frequently. I'm told that Nook also has an app, which may be just as good, but I haven't used it.

Now, here we are in the brave new world of self-publishing, but children's picture books are still a tough sell as a self-pub. Early-reader chapter books are always kind of an awkward pitch. After kicking around ideas for several years, I finally had Rah illustrate Malachi with adorable ink drawings that I think will look good on a Kindle. I have no idea how this will go over with buyers. Poorly, I suspect, at least at first. But I believe the hour of the children's eBook is coming.

The illustrations have been finished for months, but I've been waiting on a cover. She finally got it done. Yay! So shiny. :) Now, it just needs to be lettered.

I'll post a real teaser when I have a real buy-link, but here's the cover art for those who are interested. Click to enlarge:

Also, for those who are curious, here are my stats of Books sold:

• Dec: 36
• Jan: 31
• Feb: 88
• March: 271
• April: 180
• May: 352
• June: 359
• July: 363

Total is about 1,700 if you count books sold this month.