It's fast becoming a tradition around here to reflect a bit on the previous year both as a writer and a blogger. Previous bouts of reflection spilled out of me in 2010 and 2009. But, here we are now, in 2012, so let's dig in.

In terms of blogging, my posting decreased dramatically. In 2010, I wrote 159 posts. In 2011, only 48. This reflects an attempt to refocus myself on my novel writing and my self-promotion as an indie author. I'm not giving up blogging; I find there are important topics that, as an author, I need to know. Topics such as the growing alignment of paperback and eBook prices&n... [More]

I've decided to turn comments off, mostly because I'm tried of managing the spam. It's amazing how much spam I get given that this site really doesn't get that many hits/day (maybe 100). Also, I have to approve comments before they appear, so the spam comments never see the light of day, anyway. Yet, they persist. Go figure.

If you do want to drop me a comment, you can find me on Twitter.

Seems like about once a year I get the urge to give the web site/blog a face-lift. The last time I'd made any significant changes was back in October 2009. Now, here's the latest look:

The above is more or less the same as this next one. The newest look adds some embellishments that match the newest cover for The Five Elements.

Just for nostalgia reasons, here are the previous screenshots I took showing the older looks:

This goes way back to the original look I used when I first started this blog using my name as the domain:

We can even go one further back to when I was hosting my blog on blogspot.com:

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Another year has passed and so I'd like to take a look what's been happening around here.

I blogged a lot more this past year than in year's past. I also undertook LibraryThing's 50 Book Reading Challenge (results of that effort will appear in another post). Also, I made the decision to self-publish my fantasy novel, The Five Elements. That decision included serializing the novel, chapter-by-chapter, on this blog; giving it away for free in PDF format; and selling it in eBook format through Amazon and Smashwords. Making sales and collecting reviews on retailers' sites remains a challenge. I do have some things planned for ... [More]