Thursday, January 31, 2019

Now Ready For Purchase

Available Now!

The first two books in my Dragons Run My Life fantasy series, plus the short story that reads best between them.
Book One. Click Here for Amazon; click Here for other e-tailers (epub version)

The Intermediate Story: Click Here for Amazon; Click Here for epub versions.

Book Two. Click Here for Amazon; Click Here for epub versions.

The Dragons Run My Life series is set on the planet Toile. Follow the trials, heartache and joys of red-headed three princesses urged by beings they call ‘dragons’ to avoid continent-wide war, something they don’t even understand.

The desire to understand their world and the taboos they live with drives them. Of course, they have responsibilities, too, their families, their friends and compatriots.They are princesses, after all. Conflicts, assassins, ordinary day-to-day tasks all must be managed; none can be set aside for the quest.

The dragons speak to a few, without revealing their plans, or especially their nature. Their guidance, to use the term loosely, seems to lack any rationale; the few must make their own choices whether to accept the advice or not. Predictably, they follow when the direction given matches their instincts and hopes. How the dragons will react when their words are not heeded remains to be seen. Perhaps they know well enough how to couch their counsel so it will always be palatable.

Family, friends, country and joy of discovery drive the actions of those we see; others are equally driven, perhaps to seek the same goals.

The first two books, The Faux Princess and The True Princess, along with The Warden's Tale, are available now at your favorite e-bookseller. If you don't find them, please let me know so I can extend my reach.

Book Three: The Journeys Home will be available at the end of February. Pre-orders will be up soon.



Thanks for reading. Comments, as always, are welcome.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Personal Feelings About MailChimp

This is my experience. I hope yours is different.

A the end of November, I signed up for a free account with MailChimp, to have something to do with the email addresses I got from participating in a BookFunnel promotion.

The sign-up was not particularly difficult, though a bit arcane for me, never having tried that sort of service before. I added my mail list, worked for a while on my first message, and sent a couple of test messages to myself.

Instantly (in internet time), I received a notification that my account had violated the TOS, and was suspended until… Never was clear until when. Or how to cure. So far, the answer is 'until forever'.

I responded to the notice the way it pointed to, saying I apologize and what exactly did I do and how do I get reinstated?
The message: Read the Terms of Service.

I did, several times. I still couldn’t figure out what I did. But there’s no way to contact them to ask that question and all the FAQs I found don’t address it either.

I had no response for two weeks, either to what I did wrong or what I had to do to be reinstated, so I closed the account and went to MailerLite. Even now, a month and a half later, nothing from them.

The warning I have is that, in my experience, MailChimp either has no customer service to speak of, or too much business. I can accept that a free account might well not raise any interest, but to ignore a request for help still seems to me a bit egregious.

Your experience may well be different. I hope it’s better.