Greetings from beautiful downtown 2025! by Lance Chalmers

 

bwlpublishing.ca/chalmers-lance

www.amazon.ca/Rocker-Rez-Lance-Chalmers

Really? 2025? Why does it feel like New Year’s Eve was ages ago, and yet it takes no time at all for the next one to arrive?

I’ve tried to begin 2025 by making professional progress with my musical endeavors. My dear, departed dad was against changing for the sake of change, but I promised myself I’d always embrace changes in technology and the challenges that come with it.

Restoring a snowblower is a very linear process. I rather enjoyed it. It distracts from the frustrations associated with the new software and hardware issues I’m facing. I downgraded my hardware to use older systems, solely for the purpose of studio stability.

But the downside? When you invest in new software, your older hardware often can’t handle the demands of the new programs. Nothing new to any of my peers, of course. There’s just a lack of smiles when lamenting the necessary upgrades to coordinate said software and hardware.

I’ve reluctantly had to gather resources to acquire new hardware. My acoustic drums will remain the same, with their present steam-powered, coal-burning recording format.

The new program and hardware will be used specifically for the ever-changing and dominating digital realm of drumming. I’ve built a tower with a desk that rises up and out of the top of the tower to harness lightning. Franken-lance. I’ve only got to get one more piece to the puzzle. Once I do, I’ll be able to send MIDI info all over the world to clients and friends. Who has time to mix real acoustic drums? (Well, of course, I do.)

My services will be in line with current changes in recording and songwriting before my next celebration of my arrival on Earth. My advice? Don’t listen to advice. Keep on pushing. Straight ahead. Where are my reading glasses? I can’t see how small the notes are now.

Stay tuned for an upgraded EPK, everyone!

Goodbye for now,
Lance “Frankenstein” Chalmers, AKA Digital Man.

 

The Challenge of Self Promoting by Tobias Robbins

https://bookswelove.com/robbins-tobias/

I was raised to be humble. I don't feel comfortable self promoting. It feels like bragging. But that is what is needed if I want to get people to buy my book, right? I feel it's a good book. Maybe even great. But for me to push that on a stranger feels wrong for some reason. It's the difference between art and business. To me art is synonymous with honesty and altruism. Business has a more cynical connotation, like it is inherently more selfish. How can an artist sell their work but not sell out? It sounds easy on the surface. I believe in my product, I genuinely think it is a solid book. So promoting it should be just like sharing my opinion, it's natural and sincere. But why do I feel yucky about it then?

I recently got a five star review from Readers’ Favorite. It had perfect scores in each of the categories for which it was considered. I now have evidence that I am not the only one that thinks it's good. But still, there is that subtle whisper telling me to be quiet about it. Don't be a show off. You don't need to rub it in their faces. 

I need to ignore that voice if I am to ever sell copies of this book. Push away the doubt and turn it into a job. Sell my product. 

I just submitted it to the Arizona Authors Association Literary Contest. If I do halfway good enough in the contest then maybe that will do my promotion for me. Maybe a contest win could get me the recognition I know I need to promote the book. 

I am going to focus on separating myself from my art. It is just a thing like all other things. The same way I can recommend a movie to someone else. I don't have a personal stake in it. I can argue all day why my top ten horror movies are the greatest, so why should promoting my book be any different? I know it is a quality work of fiction and I have several reasons to feel this way. 

If I don't show faith in my book, then I can’t expect anyone else to either. 

Take Me to the Mardi Gras

 

                                                                 My BWL author page

Have you ever been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras?  

Having just returned from my first, let me recommend it to you.

Here are some things to know:

1. It's not a day, it's a season! Mardi Gras in New Orleans is known as Carnival Season. It begins on Little Christmas--January 6th and lasts until Fat Tuesday...the day before the Easter Lenten Season begins. This date changes every year.

 There are events, balls, parties, and parades galore uptown, downtown, the French Quarter and the suburbs of New Orleans. They get bigger and more frequent as the season goes on.

2. King Cake is served throughout...King Cake is a beautiful confection that comes in many forms--sweet and savory. Wow, it's delicious! Everywhere you visit to socialize during the season, bring a King Cake and you'll be most welcome. And yes, there is a baby in it.

King Cake...can you find the baby?

New Orleans food is fantastic. Have you ever had the delightful donut-like confection called beignets? If you go to the African American Museum in Treme you'll find the Calas Cafe, serving beignet's predecessors: calas..made with rice instead of wheat flour and first created by enslaved people on the 17th century streets of New Orleans. It's served with lemon curd.

With Chef Brendon at the Calas Cafe

Calas with lemon curd...yum!

3. Carnival Season is all about Family. You've probably seen some lurid images of Mardi Gras. (and yes, as my daughter tells most of her hotel guests..."nothing good happens after midnight, so get in by then.") But the season is all about family...from float participants making sure all the children get thrown beads and toys, to accomplished high school marching bands and cheering squads, to lesser known krewes (sponsors of parade marches and floats) like Krewe of Barkus ... dog lovers dressing up their pooches (many who need to be adopted by loving folks), and 'Tit Rex with its tiny wagon-pulled floats that imitate the gigantic ones, to the fantastic Black Masking Indians who visit the elderly who are no longer able to stand on parade routes. These wonderful dancers visit their elders on their stoops and porches. They also honor the Native Americans who took in and hid their enslaved ancestors.

Black Masking Indians look fantastic!

4. New Orleanians love the lost art of conversation, consisting of the fine arts of listening and expressing curiosity.  So get ready to learn things about people from all over the world during Mardi Gras.

5. Don't forget the music...it is everywhere! From jazz to classical to down-bayou Cajun. What a gumbo of delightful sounds, with places like the New Orleans Jazz Museum offering free concerts at least twice a week. Here's the wonderful Christien Bold and his band scatting some Duke Ellington at an afternoon performance...

Christien Bold and band keep Jazz thriving!

6. EVERYTHING is political! My daughter organizes mini krewes among her friends for Mardi Gras day marching downtown into Jackson Square. This year Ed and I joined in as personifications of our wonderful U.S. National Parks. We thought this non-political, until their funding started being slashed. So we added 500 stamped post cards to pass out to folks who chose to notify our elected representatives that we are NOT pleased with this decision!

Krewe Save Our National Parks

I hope you'll visit the beautiful Big Easy any time, but especially when it's all decked out for Mardi Gras!

More Book Launch Plans

                                                   Please click this link for author information

My book launch for my new mystery novel A Killer Whisky is less than two weeks away. I've spent the past month on preparation, and there's still plenty to do. 

An easy task was to create a Facebook Event Page and invite about 160 Facebook friends who live in the Calgary area. So far, nine have said they're going. This might not seem like a lot, but some will bring a friend, not all attendees confirm, and part of the purpose is to let people know my new book is available. I drop into the Event Page daily and make occasional comments to generate interest. One friend told me my Event Page shows up regularly on his Facebook feed, possibly because he presses "like" whenever the page appears. From other "likes" to the page, I notice that friends I didn't invite have seen it. Thus, the page becomes continuous promotion for relatively little effort on my part.  

For friends who aren't active on Facebook, I created a poster that I email to them individually. This takes more time than a mass mailout, but I think the personal approach prompts more people come. People usually reply, whether they can go or not, and it's fun to catch up with those I haven't seen in months or longer. I contact everyone who's shown an interest in my writing and especially those who have attended previous launches. It helps to keep an attendance list and look back at previous launch pictures.  

In addition, I've sent notices about the launch to my writing groups for inclusion in their weekly or monthly newsletters to members. Few people will attend as a result of these announcements, but some might buy the book and read it if it strikes them as interesting. 

I've also started work on the launch program, which will centre on my PowerPoint presentation. I enjoying doing PowerPoints and work hard to find the right image or bullet points to compliment what I want to say. My talk will focus on my inspirations for writing A Killer Whisky, setting locations in Calgary, and the novel's historical background - the story takes place during the 1918 Flu Pandemic, World War One, and Alberta Prohibition. I still need to create more slides and tweak existing ones to make the newspaper headlines, advertisements, photographs, and cartoons more effective. 

A week before the launch, I'll get a dress rehearsal for the PowerPoint presentation at the Pincher Creek Municipal Library, where I'll discuss the historical events relevant to an audience in Southern Alberta. Both the Pincher Creek Author Talk and Calgary Book Launch will include readings from the novel, which I still have to select, practice, and fit into the program.  

Other ingredients for the book launch event are food and drink. Since "whisky" is in the novel's title and plays a key role in the story, I've pursued my idea of serving "wee drams" of whisky and whisky cocktails named for the story's characters. A few weeks ago, I knew little about whisky cocktails other than that I'd liked Whisky Sours when I was younger. From the internet I've now learned about bitters, muddlers, and channel knives for making lemon twists, and I've found cocktail recipes that my husband and I are experimenting with this week. Our first attempt was a success! Cinnamon Maple Whisky Sour will be the signature drink for my protagonist Katharine, a Canadian patriot who supported the Great War.  

Between now and the launch on March 25th, I'll need to shop for snack platters, lemons for my mixers and twists, and door prizes related to the book. I still need to finalize arrangements with my bookseller, Owl's Nest Bookstore. No doubt myriad details requiring attention will come up. Let's hope for no last-minute disasters, like a snowstorm - not unusual for Calgary in March - or a key person like me coming down with the flu.  

Is the book launch worth all this time, effort, money, and stress?

I don't know. 

But it is fun to plan a party. 

Cheers to everyone who loves writing and reading books! 

        

Old Fashioned - our second cocktail experiment 

     

 

President Trump and the Bee's Knees by Karla Stover

 https://bookswelove.net/stover-karla/

     For those interested, i.e. when inquiring minds want to know, Wikipedia has a list of  animals who lived at the Whitehouse during the various administrations. Lots of horses, dogs and cats, of course, but others that are more unexpected, such as Thomas Jefferson's sheep, two grizzly bear cubs and a number of mockingbirds. James Madison, Ulysses S. Grant, and Andrew Jackson had parrots while John Quincy Adams had silkworms and alligators. A pair of elephants sent to James Buchanan arrived when Abraham Lincoln was in office and he politely refused them. Interestingly enough, Lincoln also had a dog which was assassinated shortly after he was. Grover Cleveland was gifted goldfish. The first Siamese cat in the United States was given to Rutherford B. Hayes. George W. Bush had a longhorn steer and the list goes on and on. Which brings us to Donald Trump. He had no pets during his first term but now, thanks to the Obamas, he is in charge of the White House bees. 

    It all started when Michelle Obama decided to create a kitchen garden. Its purposes: to provide fresh produce to the Obamas and Whitehouse guests, to educate children about healthy eating, and to encourage people to eat healthy, locally-grown food. 

    White House vegetable gardens go way back, though the most unique may have been Hillary Clinton's which was constructed on the White House roof. More traditionally, the Obamas and a group of 5th graders broke ground on a portion of the south lawn in 2009. Of course, what's a vegetable garden (or any other kind of garden, for that matter) without bees to pollinate it? 

    Bring on a bee keeper. 

    According to bee keeper Charlie Brandts, "on a stretch of grass where helicopters, where thousands of children enjoyed Easter egg hunts, and where a Portuguese Water Dog frolicked daily, there were concerns." The job had to be as error-free as possible, requiring coordination with the National Park Service gardeners, the Secret Service and the Office of Communications. Eventually, things fell into place and Brandts came up with an easy device for quickly closing the hives' front door, designed for use by any of the staff, if necessary. He also designed and placed a special ventilation box on the hive so the bees wouldn't become overheated during those times when they would be closed in.

    And all the careful work paid off. "It is not unusual for the single hive on the South Lawn to yield 200 pounds of honey a year. This harvest has reached wounded warriors, school kids, the President’s table, the G-20, and even the Pope. When the Make-A-Wish kids visit the Oval Office, they get some honey. Hundreds of school kids who visit the garden (including the children of White House staff on “Bring Your Kids to Work Day”), as well as participants in the Easter Egg Roll, have received information on bees and beekeeping, as well as the clear personal message that bees are important wherever you find people and food."

    The president has duties that get little recognition: directing the minting of commemorative coins; controlling the national Christmas tree; naming national monuments and approving all states' flags and seals; (I live in Washington State where the legislature wants a new flag. Washington State is extremely liberal so I say, "Good luck with that.) And serving as the honorary head of the Boy Scouts. And, thanks to the Obamas, managing the White House bees. Possibly another sticky situation for the president to be in.