And Now . . . on Amazon - - ANGELA!

It's been over a year since I pushed that "NEW POST" button here at XLSIOR Labs. I extend my apologies to all my readers, I'm back, and hope the three of you will forgive my absence.  I've been working on a new project - Kindle Publishing!  I've been taking my best articles through a few more re-writes, and collecting them into an as yet untitled collection, planned for release in November 2017. And, to help me get up-to-date on the publishing procedures, before publishing the main collection,  I've released as a "test batch" a short collection of some of my Christmas stories, just in time for the holidays (the release date is October 28, 2017). The book title is "Angela and Other Christmas Stories".

Kindle Publishing is a specialized instance of electronic document publishing, owned by Amazon - if you're unfamiliar with e-books, it's something like a music download.  You can read a Kindle book if you have a Kindle, or you can get a Kindle "app" for almost any mobile device, tablet, Kindle Fire tablet, or even for a PC. If you have Amazon Prime, you can download and read, for FREE, a huge selection of Kindle titles, mine included. You can even read  it on your cell phone.  If you want to try reading it on a rotary-dial phone, however, you're on your own.

I originally wrote the Christmas stories because I needed stories for a Christmas variety show I was putting together as part of Milwaukee's venerable 25 year run of Music on KK, a community concert series established by my wife, Joyce Parker.

Trouble was, I couldn't find a published Christmas story that was just right for our show, so I wrote one.  I wanted stories that were full of the child-like joy and magic that you can still experience sometimes at Christmas, at a time when we take time to appreciate one another. Over the years the stories have been refined and polished, always improving. I've finally got something that I can read, pause, and then say softly "And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown".

Reviews are an important part of the Amazon publishing process.  Review statistics, to Amazon are an indication of the author's marketability; I'd like to come down on the good side of that . . . I think of Gil Shine, a theater director with whom I used to create shows. After each show, Gil used to appear on stage after the curtain call, a short stooped gray-haired elf with a twinkle in his eye and he'd make his announcement to the audience. Let me paraphrase:  "If you have read the book, and like it, please leave a short Amazon review.  If you didn't  like the stories, Mum's the word!"