Idea for You Holiday Greetings: Idea for Marketing, Too

Little Known Poetry History: Chapbooks, a tradition in the poetry world since Elizabethan times, are named after the itinerant chapmen who travelled from village to village selling their goods.

My poetry partner Magdalena Ball and I figure there is no holiday greeting more meaningful than a poem—a real poem, not sing-songy impersonal verse from the shelves of card shops. With that in mind, we have created the Celebration Series of chapbooks and have released TaDa! Just in time for the holiday season! a chapbook titled Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational.

Now, here’s the exciting part. Literature lovers everywhere can order these chapbooks with full-color covers by prize-winning water colorist Vicki Thomas for only $3. each. That’s only $75 for 25 of the most memorable holiday greetings you’ve ever sent to your friends and relatives. Each booklet is a card and gift in one.

Blooming Red includes Maggie’s science-inspired and Carolyn’s nostalgic poetry. It also includes some humorous poems for fair measure.
Here is one of the lighter-spirited ones from me:

Cruising Santa Clause©
After the season of pinescent
and candlewax, here is Santa

of the Seas, a ringer for the real guy.
Jolly round bearded face, sans a pipe

clenched tight in his teeth, wearing
his off-duty uniform, candy-cane-colored

running shoes, green gabardines, cranberry
worsted blazer, rhinestone-studded

lapel pin, and always with the Mrs, she as gray
as a Midwest winter day, beside his hollyberry

splendor. I peek discreetly. There walking
among Etruscan tombs, perched on remnants

of a Corinthian capitol at Ephesus
as if it were a stool, bright red and green

against the sand at Giza, wandering
through the ship’s casino, poking a placard

high to bid on a Kincaid canvas replica
(Ahhhh! The colored lights illuminating


the snow embellished by the master
himself). Best of all, night of nights! Santa

seated front row in the Stardust
Theater, other upfront guests volunteer
him to saw the gammy woman in red fringe
and sequins in half. He hesitates not a moment,

but went straight to his work.

The chapbooks in the Celebration Series include Cherished Pulse (for anyone you love), also with artwork from California artist Vicki Thomas (www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse); She Wore Emerald Then (for mothers on your gift list) with photographs by May Lattanzio (www.budurl.com/MotherChapbook); Imagining the Future: For Fathers and Other Masculine Apparitions (for the men in your life) (www.budurl.com/Imagining). And now Blooming Red for the special folks on your holiday list! (www.budurl.com/BloomingRed). All are available individually at only $6.95 on Amazon but are only $3. each when ordered in quantities of 25 or more directly from the poets. Put HOLIDAY ORDER in the subject line and send an e-mail to me at HoJoNews@aol.com . I will make payment arrangements with you and give you the small shipping cost for the number you order.

Magdalena Ball runs the highly respected CompulsiveReader.com review site. She is the author of the poetry book Repulsion Thrust, which was published to unanimous five-star reviews. Her novel Sleep Before Evening, was a Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poetry appears frequently in review journals. She is listed in Poets & Writers and her chapbook of poetry, Tracings (http://budurl.com/CarolynsTracings), was given the Award of Excellence by the Military Writers Society of America and She Wore Emerald Then won its highest honor of gold. One of her poems recently won the Franklin Christoph Poetry Prize. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer and instructor for UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

For more information on any of the chapbooks in this poetry series, contact either of the authors or visit media rooms at www.howtodoitfrugally.com or www.magdalenaball.com. To learn more about artist Vicki Thomas and to see her work, go to http://www.vickithomasartist.com/.

Wishing you a lovely autumn and winter season,
Carolyn

The Frugal Mom

In this economy one must be wise with their money to include moms. Actually the frugal mom goes back generations and isn't really some new creation. I remember my mother buying groceries wisely and getting the most for her money. As a child I disliked waiting and waiting at the check out stand as the cashier spent time going through endless coupons and all the time the people waiting in line behind us became impatient. Then came the fact that when my mother did her grocery shopping, there were always two shopping carts and it took forever to get out of the grocery store, however, that was how my mother did her shopping. If it was on sale, she bought it for even weeks later.
 
I recall her buying lots of meat at the butcher shop and then taking it home and cutting it into portions and freezing it for the meals, days, weeks and even months to come. You see my mother was a frugal shopper when it came to the grocery stores and even would visit 2 or 3 stores to catch all the sales.
 
You would be surprised just how much you can get for your hard earned dollars by working the grocery stores to your advantage. Just a few weeks back I went to one grocery store for some sale items, spent $39.00 and saved over $40.00. That's almost $80.00 worth of groceries for under $40.00.
 
Happy shopping ....
 
 
 

On Wordiness --Yeah, And Marketing!

A first for great book marketing is great editing. I thought subscribers to this blog might want to follow the regular feature on wordiness on my Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor blog. There is a new one today at http://www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com/.  . Maybe even subscribe so you don't miss a single tip for avoiding wordiness.

My Wordiness posts are done like alerts. I use this format: When you see these words then you might consider eliminating some of them with an edit like this.

The blog also includes a search engine so you can easily find all the posts on wordiness. AND, I am open to your suggestions--credited, of course!

Author Come Share At The Authors Page



Come join and be a part of The Authors Page as a active blog author. Share your books, book descriptions, book covers, authors sites, blogs or web sites with our readers. Here's a great chance to write and post daily, weekly or monthly and share what's on your heart, table and horizon.

Simply email kingdomexpansion1@gmail.com and request to become a blog author at The Authors Page.

How To Self Publish

You've either become a do it yourself author or you are considering it. Why? Most likely because of funding or you might have that creative DNA that loves taking on projects and seeing them through.

Today many authors are choosing to self publish. If you have a computer with the right programs, some experience with those programs and the time, you can prepare your own manuscript as a print ready file. OK, well it's not quite that easy as many first time self publishing authors soon find out.

Some advice for the first time self publishing author. Do your home work and take in all the information that you can find. It makes the whole process much easier, you come to know the do's, the dont's and the many pitfalls. The best part is that after a few self publishing courses (online searching and reading) you will have the basic 101 information down.