Phineas And Ferb - Carpe Diem [HD] in honor of my upcoming retirement -- You may have to let it download once and then play to get rid of the pauses.

Buy Nook or buy book

I uploaded the Elijah book this morning, and when I went to check on it at Barnes & Noble online (it should take 24 hours, but I was in a hurry), I discovered that Barnes & Noble is now carrying both the Nook versions and the paperback book version of my books. Again I am not expecting any sudden surge in purchases because of this, but it does mean that the books are now available on the two main online book services.

Pretty cool, IMHO.

Nookify [UPDATED]

(I googled nookify and found nothing, so perhaps it is my neologism, all my own. I did find bookify ...)

I nookified my mystery novel late Saturday night. What that means is that it is now available as a Nook book -- an e-book -- through Barnes & Noble online. After it showed up on their page today selling for the same as the hard copy, Tom suggested that I drop the e-book price since people get nothing except the reading of the book. I said that is all they really get with the actual book, but he pointed out that they can use the book as a paperweight or something useful after they read it, assuming they do read it. So I dropped the price for the e-book, but the change will not show up online for another day or two. As it turns out, my royalties for the less expensive e-book are within a few cents of the royalties for the real book.

I plan to nookify the other two books later. Not that I am expecting much action in this regard. But it is fun to know that somewhere out there, beneath the cyber sky, my words are sitting in binary code on a server. Sheldon Cooper would be proud.

UPDATE: This afternoon I nookified the Gratian book. That just leaves the Elijah book to go.

Coming soon!

Well, we finally figured out how to manage it so that I can retire. My official retirement date will be June 30, 2012. In order to use up my paid vacation time, I will work my final day at the library on Saturday, June 23. When I brought the idea up with my boss, I thought it would be a bit further away, but the city/library policy seems to be to act fast. So ...

I am trying to get all the preparatory work done. My Social Security application has been sent in. I am working on getting my health insurance in place so that my new individual policy kicks in on July 1. I have most of the 14 page application filled out, but I need to get a few pieces of information from my doctor Monday to finish that and mail it in. My group insurance ends June 30. If there is a hang up, I will be able to continue with the group policy, paying the full premium -- which is steep! -- until my new policy is set.

I am also trying to work out exactly how to use up my vacation time and my comp time so that I am actually finished on June 23. I have figured out a couple of ways to do it. I am taking two days off next week anyway, and I will run the other ideas past my boss when I get back to work.

On other fronts, Peter was here for a week between school sessions. He seems to be doing quite well. I am proud of him! He headed back this morning and will return for about a month in July. I will be away part of that time, because I plan to go to Texas for a visit with my mother and other family folks after July 4.

My good friend from my Carmelite days, Fr. Steve Payne, is in the Midwest for a couple of conferences. He has a few free days and we plan to get together for lunch within the next few days. It has been a couple of years since I saw him, and after this, it will probably be another couple before we see each other again. It will be good to catch up.

Meanwhile I move along towards the next part of the journey.