Publish Your Christian Novel or Non-Fiction Book with Best Self Publisher

Authors today are increasingly turning to self publishing as a solution to getting their books to market. With traditional publishers offering less and less and asking more and more of their authors, many are choosing self publishing in order to control their own destiny and to dramatically increase their profit. However, just as most folks who build an addition to their home don't act as a general contractor, authors who self publish are now discovering partnership publishers.

Companies like CSN Books Orange County provide comprehensive evaluation of an author's work at whatever stage the project has reached. CSN can then provide a full range of services including professional editing, proofing, writing, typesetting, cover design, publishing, printing, marketing and distribution of the book. Gary Kirk, president of CSN Books Orange County, explains how to self publish your Christian book in this video.

Glendora Has A Great Piano Teacher - See Her Play

While I'm bragging. Here is a short recital from daughter, Christian, the Piano Teacher. She lives in Glendora, which is close to Covina, Monrovia, San Dimas, Pomona, and Irwindale. I say that to remind you all to send your friends to see her for piano lessons.

And, did I mention she is also my friend on my new facebook.

Robert's Piano Recital

Check out this video. The song, take 5 is written in 5:4 time and in 6 flats. It is much, much harder than Robert makes it sound.

Progress - Slow, But Sure

One more shop has said yes to my proposition. It kind of reminded me of a bit of wisdom about slow and steady. I would like to have 10 shops signed up by now. Instead I have only Pat's 605, Palms Cyclery, PV Bicycle Center, and G's Cyclery. So thus far I am only signing up one every 1.6 weeks. I need 22 absolute minimum to pay the bills. So, math wizzes, at the current rate, I won't get to my minimum unitl week 35. That would put me somewhere in November. Not a pretty picture.

OK, starting June 1, I will be full time, thus hopefully doubling the output. I would have 8 accounts on June 1, then get to 22 by the end of August. Still not good.

The next question becomes, will my closing rate start to increase because a lot of the first few weeks has been spent in data base building, materials creation, planning, and driving my wheels off. Now, hopefully the time will be more efficiently spent in following up letters, e-mails, and previous contacts to set appointments. My closing ratio on appointments has been over 75%. The key is getting the appointment.

This might seem irrelevant to you, but I'm guessing there are many things in your life that have the same issues. This kind of analysis can help with school, career planning, parenting, etc.

In doing this evaluation, it occurs to me that I can actually get through June as long as I get paid by 22 accounts in June, so I have that whole month to get it done.
So the goal will be 1 new account per week in the last two weeks of April. Two new accounts per week in May. That will get me to 14 or 15 by June 1. Then maintaining 2 per week in June would get me to 23 or 24 by the end of June.

Some would set the goals higher. You can't hit the moon unless your aiming for it, or some such. I have commonly used that kind of strategy. I'm going with this conservative idea for this round. I'll report back later.

My New Career

I am hoping that some time this summer I can take up blogging about politics again. However, for now I am headlong into starting up a new business offering marketing services to bicycle retailers. As anyone who has had the great fortune and misfortune to start a new enterprise knows, this old guy is putting in 70 hour weeks.

If you know anyone who needs to be more profitable in their bicycle retail business, have them contact me or at least go to http://bicycleretailer.blogspot.com which gives a general overview of what I do.

If you need a bicycle or a bicycle part, check out the stores of my first three clients. I have created web sites for them at http://pvbicyclingcenter@blogspot.com, http://pats605cyclery.blogspot.com, and http://palmscycle.blogspot.com.

I'm hoping to make a living off of this specific market. However, if you have a small business that needs marketing help, I may be able to help.

"RACE MATTERS!" - LA Times

I admit to trumping up the headline a bit. However, if you read the Editorial pages of today's LA Times, and you don't think my headline is an appropriate summary, just say so in the comments. This blogger has been saying for years that we are burying our collective heads in the sand when we take the politically correct approach to education (and other aspects of life), and try to walk away from the real reasons blacks don't swim and whites can't jump.

There are real differences in the ways that different ethnic groups and races handle different aspects of life. If we are ever going to get true equality of opportunity (all we can really hope for), then it is going to require someone to start asking the hard questions. There is hope, of course. Bill Cosby has addressed the social issue. Now the Times has bravely thrown down the gauntlet. We reported here on a study that showed parental expectations to be uniquely correlated with student results. (Black parents expect "C's", Asian parents expect "A's".)

Thank you LA Times. And for those of you who don't know me or my family. We are mixed race and ethnicity.

Harry Potter - Buy It in Paperback

Completely out of reading material, and still several weeks before football, I decided to read the Harry Potter Books. This was not entirely without a recommendation. Hugh Hewitt had interviewed John Mark Reynolds, classicist and apologetics professor at Biola regarding whether or not Harry Potter was ok for Christians. Reynolds couldn't see how it was any less appropriate than Lord of the Rings, and said while Harry Potter wasn't close to the literary level of LOTR, it was still a fun read.

After reading books 1 and 2, I agree. On my rating system, this is buy in paperback only if you can't borrow it from someone. I suspect my 11 year-old son likes it way more than me. He is about to polish off number 5 (700 plus pages), having just begun about 4 weeks ago. Maybe I'll have him do a review.

Mandatory Doctor Visits

You knew it would come to this, but it is the most shocking statement I remember ever hearing out of the lips of a presidential candidate. Normally they do this stuff by stealth when you least expect it. John Edwards says that his health care plan would REQUIRE US Citizens to be covered by health care and REQUIRE US Citizens to go to the doctor.

Now you may or may not know this, but in Canada's health care system, Canadian Citizens are REQUIRED to use doctors within the system. It doesn't matter how much they are willing to pay a doctor outside the system, they must use PUBLIC health. And doctors who provide health care outside the system are committing a CRIME.

You can bet that any system cooked up by a Democrat will make all health care public, none private, thus forcing US CITIZENS to go out of country if they want better or faster health care, just like the Canadians do now.

John Edwards didn't have a chance of becoming President. Now he has no chance of achieving any public office. However, we need the reporters to start asking Hillary and others if they would agree with Edwards about MANDATORY preventitive doctor visits.

Global Warming Exposure as Fraud Should Not Stop New Energy Effort

It will probably take another 10 years for the Europeans to get it, and 5 years before the Democrats in America give up on it, but human-caused global warming is just not provable, and the science is quickly proving that any warming is cyclical and natural.

Here is a Nasa revision of hotest years on record over the last 100 or so. You don't need to be a scientist to look at those numbers and do an analysis which even questions whether there is global warming of any consequence at all.

According to the new data published by NASA, 1998 is no longer the hottest year ever. 1934 is.

Four of the top 10 years of US CONUS high temperature deviations are now from the 1930s: 1934, 1931, 1938 and 1939, while only 3 of the top 10 are from the last 10 years (1998, 2006, 1999). Several years (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) fell well down the leaderboard, behind even 1900. (World rankings of temperature are calculated separately.)

Top 10 GISS U.S. Temperature deviation (deg C) in New Order 8/7/2007
Year
1934
1998
1921
2006
1931
1999
1953
1990
1938
1939

Here’s the old order of top 10 yearly temperatures.
Year
1998
1934
2006
1921
1931
1999
1953
2001
1990
1938

Then here is a listing of scientists with super-impressive credentials who once believed in anthropomorphic global warming, who have changed their mind due to further research.

The most important point to be made of all this has nothing to do with global warming or cooling or whether man has anything to do with it. The other reasons for encouraging science and markets to dramatically increase efficiencies in energy use, and to find alternative energy sources are far more compelling, provable, and immediate.

1. Middle East and Northern Coast of South America use of oil as weapon.
2. Cost of chasing ever more difficult to reach carbon based resources
3. Pollution of air and other natural rescources by current methods of extraction, delivery, and use of carbon based fuel.
4. Just makes good sense to minimize all costs of energy, freeing up capital and income for other uses.

Futurethink - What Are Big Issues for the Future

I ran into this website while researching future trends. The blogger did an excellent job of laying out some possible major issues of the future. Some of the comments were outstanding. I couldn't help myself, so I commented

Aging Population - Aging Labor force. It seems likely that we will see major increases in productivity that will result in needing less labor rather than the other way around. The seniors won't need to go back to work as some may think as, but they may want to to increase sense of being valuable. Many young adults will be bored out of their skulls like some of the wealthy young adults are today, since the average person will enjoy a lifestyle like a rockstar today. If that seems crazy, imagine what the average person has today vs what they had in the 30's or even 50's. There will be a major business opportunity and use of labor for entertaining these bored people.

Health Care costs will peak and decline- There will be no field where innovation will drive down costs more than this one. The incentive to invest in this area will drive huge amounts of capital into faster, less expensive cures, and lowered drug cost. Changes in the method of delivery of health care is already happening (see WalMart health clinics, for instance.)

China and Russia may be the major threats of the future, but they may just as likely integrate into the community of nations without any real confrontations of consequence. The Extremist Muslims will be marginalized by all "mature" nations. As Mideast oil becomes less important (due to oil from other places and new sources of energy), the rest of the world will no longer be held hostage, and will be able to use all necessary methods to root out the bad guys from the tinpot dictatorships.

Solar energy will be the future energy method that will win the day. New materials, new storaage approaches, and computer optimization will combine to find a way. Solar is the obvious ultimate victor, because it is ubiquitous, and can't be owned. This months Wired magazine shows a new material that may dramatically increase the ability to maximize available sources of sunlight in a small area.

The issue of rich vs poor will never go away, and many will still be arguing for redistribution of wealth. It won't work. Take all the money from the rich and give it to the poor. Wait 10 years and the distribution will work its way back to the way it was +/-.

Global cooling will be the big political issue 10 years from now as the Sun enters a period like the 50's - 70's. The foolish among us will once again claim the sky is falling and that the next ice age is just around the corner.

Pollution will become a non issue as the cost of controlling it becomes substantially less (orders of magnitude.)

As history will prove, the real issues of politics will be unintended consequences, ruthless desire for power by sociopathic leaders, and folks with IQ's of 100 and 180 who fall for the garbage offered by such leaders.

Religion will be alive and thriving as the rest of life becomes less and less meaningful. We tend to find meaning in our occupations, our children, our possessions, and our creative output. All of these things will have less meaning. (e.g. See LA Times article on luxury goods losing their cachet.

I agree with the idea that runaway science in any of a number of places is the greatest threat to our futures: Nano anything, genetic engineering, robots, etc.

Energy Independence From MidEast AND Reduce CO2

Gregg Easterbrook, Brooking Institute Fellow, and not someone I would normally quote, says the following (link to entire article):

This chart shows that in 1975, when the fuel crunch hit, new cars in the United States averaged 136 horsepower. The average declined to a low of 99 horsepower in 1982, as manufacturers scurried to raise fuel economy. (Higher horsepower means more gasoline burned.) Really, 99 horsepower isn't enough for anything larger than a minicar; you need enough horses to be able to accelerate, especially at freeway merge lanes. But in the last two decades, average horsepower has been climbing steadily. In 2004, the typical new car had 184 horsepower, and the typical new SUV or pickup truck used as a car--SUVs and pickups used as cars now account for about half of new vehicle sales--had 235 horsepower. That rolls together for an average of about 210 horsepower in new passenger vehicles sold in the United States. In other words 2004 cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks offer more than 50 percent better horsepower than passenger vehicles in 1975. (At that time there were no SUVs, and using a pickup truck as a car, rather than for commercial work, was rare.)

Ever-higher horsepower is the reason the overall fuel economy of new U.S. vehicles is now at its lowest since 1988. Engineers have steadily made automotive power trains more efficient--but nearly all the efficiency has gone into power, not MPG. Other things being equal, a one-third reduction in the horsepower of new vehicles would lead to roughly a one-third increase in their miles-per-gallon numbers. And a one-third increase in the MPG of new cars and SUVs is all that is required to eliminate petroleum imports from Persian Gulf states!

Now, I recognize I am past the age of caring very much about muscle cars (that is unless someone wants to indulge me in my fantasy of taking a HemiCuda out for a day on the Salt Flats.) But if Easterbrook is right, and we could be energy independent by merely chopping HP by and average of 33%, which would also mean 33% less Carbon in the atmosphere. What is Congress waiting for.

In fact, the House passed an energy bill today that did not include any increase in MPG standards. The Senate version calls for an increase to 35 MPG average by 2020.

No Hurricanes - Must Be Global Cooling

I would never choose the career of a weather forecaster. With all the data, all the scientific advances, all the weather satellites, and all the ice core drilling, you'd think we could predict what the high and low will be tomorrow. But we are lousy at it. See my scientific report on same last year here.

So Al Gore, the inventor of global warming, hung his hat in a major way on Atlantic and Gulf hurricanes being related to global warming. Then the headlines declared global warming proven beyond doubt after the 2005 season. Of course, Al and his disciples called the 2006 season (one of the least productive in a century) a fluke. 2005 wasn't a fluke, it was scientific evidence. As July segues into August, we have another fluke on our hands. All the forecasters who are called upon by the media to predict hurricane numbers are lowering their estimates for 2007 to another unusually mild year.

So the scientific question for all you Global Warming advocates: "How many flukes does it take to change a mind?"

Calvinism 2

Likely this will be my last post on this subject, but it is the hot topic in my house right now. Part of the Calvinistic thinking is that God only loves those he foreordained to be saved. In other words, he doesn't love sinners who will not be saved. This is explained by pointing to scriptures where the Bible says God loves all as really meaning only His own.

However, we as Christians are instructed to love our enemies, our neighbors as ourselves, and even those who persecute us. The question then is: "Why would God call His creation to a higher standard than He Himself is going to follow?"

Doctrinal Debate - Calvinism vs Arminianism

I think that most folks who come to this blog are Christians. I'm sure some aren't, but given that a high percentage of the postings and linkages deal with Christianity explicitly or have a religious right flavor, those who are not so disposed probably run for blogs that think like they do.

Within the evangelical church, there are many factions, and some of those factions have factions, which sometimes breed other factions. In fact, there are now so many factions, that I wouldn't be surprised if independent churches are becoming the norm.

In my world (and welcome to it) I have had an ongoing debate with my brother and my partner regarding the Charismatic side of things. What about tongues? Slain in the spirit? Word of knowledge? I don't agree that these things are necessary in the Biblical age, but I'm OK that they do.

My prayer partner tends toward the Calvinist side and is a bedrock member of Calvary's mother church. We love to debate one another and have lively differences on some of the issues that divide Southern Baptists and Calvary thinking.

That debate now rages close to home. I'm just guessing, but for 99% of Christians I doubt that the Arminian/Calvin issue ever comes up, and for almost that many I doubt they even know there is a debate.

There are several points of disagreement, but foundational to all is the sovereignty of God. All fundamentalists believe that God is 100% sovereign, otherwise how can he be omnipotent (all powerful, and omniscient (all knowing.) The narrower question is the application of this to our lives, even to our salvation.

Calvinists believe famously in predestination. You may be more aware of this concept from the Presbyterian church where the debate sometimes is compacted into: "there is a bullet with your name on it. Nothing you can do." That trivializes the actual issue which is better stated thus: God does not love all people, only those he predestined to be saved. We are born completely depraved and with no good in us. But at some point in your life, if God has chosen you, He will regenerate you, and you will recognize your need for Jesus. It will not be up to you to choose Jesus. That would be a "work" on your part, therefore you could boast that you had a hand in your own salvation.

The Calvinists acknowledge that this seems to strike a death blow to the idea of Free Will in general, and specifically the issue of man's responsibility for his actions that can only arise out of his having free will. The Arminian (Southern Baptists and most other Baptists, Methodists, etc.) argues that if we don't have a free choice over the most important decision in our life, having free will on the rest is pretty meaningless. Thus, the Arminian says that God knows the beginning and the end, and therefore knows who will be saved, but that we must choose to accept the gift of salvation. (Modern Methodists commonly would think this choice can just be part of a running lifelong participation as opposed to a clear-eyed, come-to-Jesus moment.)
Thus, our Free Will is intact for this decision.

Most of my friends on both sides of this issue say that this distinction should never be a family divider, but it has been and will undoubtedly continue to be a congregation divider. I'd sure be interested to hear comments from the blogosphere.

Goal Setting for Old Folks

Truth is, the following ideas for setting goals are not only for old folks, but will work for anyone. However, in this post the examples and such will be aim at those over 50 or thereabouts. We established a few days ago some of the reasons why goal setting should not be only the province of the young. Now on to the practical methods of doing so.

To do the following exercise right, you would do well to set aside as much time as possible in a quiet place with no chance of interruption. The good new for most in this age category is that such time availability and quiet spaces are way more likely than for those 20-50. Get rid of the cell phone. Relax and contemplate.

The first exercise will deal with the things of this world. What do you wish to acquire? Where would you like to travel? What will you spend your money on? So, imagine that you as you are sitting there, a fairy princess appears. (insert any other magical creature you wish if you aren't in to fairy princesses.) She has appeared before you for the express purpose of fulfilling ten wishes. There are the usual disclaimers: None of the wishes can be for more wishes; you can't wish for things that are impossible; you can't wish for health, happiness, true love, long life etc. You can wish for money. But that is a bit boring.

So sit back and contemplate what you would wish for. A huge home in Newport Harbor, a Hummer, full time travel on back to back cruises, diamonds (blood free, of course), a lifetime supply of Italian Ices? Make a list. When you get to 10, you can add 10 more if you like. In fact, go crazy and list all kinds of things.

If you like travel, list the places you'd like to go. If you have a very special home in mind, give the details that matter to you. If you want some bling, what kind.

Take your time. Think about it. I'll be back in a few days to offer the next step.