Watercolors by Karen
Stuart Watkins
Karen Brungardt, D.O. caught my attention when I saw her watercolors in the SaddleBrooke Gift Shop. I asked if I could publish a collection of some of her works.
Karen agreed.
Watercolors (2nd Edition) by Karen Brungardt, D. O. became a reality after several corrections and revisions, and is now available on Amazon for $14 or in our SaddleBrooke Gift Shop for $12.
Karen instructs students in the art of watercolor and has many of her individual drawings available at the gift shop, but this is the first collection of some of her best works in a book format.
They are beautiful drawings by a wonderful amateur artist.
SaddleBrooke author Lyz Kelley
A Bucket List Challenge—It’s Never Too Late
Everyday heroes, that’s what SaddleBrooke author Lyz Kelley writes about. Whether the character is a blind floral shop owner, a retired soldier, or a wheelchair-bound sports trainer, Lyz focuses on telling stories with hope, humor, healing, happiness, and heart.
Lyz began her writing journey fifteen years ago as a bucket list item. Her dream was to create stories about ordinary people who reach for the life they want, and in the process, find someone who loves them just as they are. To develop a storyline, Lyz studied relationship psychology, story structure, and worked with a top-tier New York editor to make her novels shine.
She would tell you her original goal was to write one book and hopefully sell ten copies to her family and friends. With 13 books published and over 50,000 copies distributed in 19 different countries, Lyz has more than accomplished her goal. She is humbled by her readers’ response, but is not finished yet.
The smart, funny, and vibrant Arizona residents have inspired Lyz to refocus on imagining second chance relationship stories. Why? Because kids, jobs, and fears create a lot of interesting baggage and she wanted to explore those unique aspects of life in her writing.
Lyz also believes everyone has a story to tell, and that the world needs to hear it. That’s why Lyz belongs to several international groups focused on helping writers finish the story of their heart.
If you enjoy reading fiction books about everyday heroes and want an escape, Lyz would love for you to support her continued journey by downloading a copy of one of her many available books or pre-ordering from her upcoming series.
Silver Spoon (release date August 31)
Silver Dollar (release date September 28)
This new series is about four siblings coming home to reopen the Silver Fox Resort, a place where people and nature come together. There’s a vineyard, spa, meditation garden, and a four-star restaurant catering to incoming guests. Her inspiration for this series was the television show, “The Love Boat,” but living in SaddleBrooke adds layers of fun.
You can find all of Lyz’s books and boxed sets on Amazon. Blinded, Lyz’s first novel published, is also available as an audio book.
Who knows, you might even see a little of yourself in the pages of her next book.
Birds and Beyond
Stuart Watkins
Eddie Lopez and Stuart Watkins announce the publication of Birds and Beyond, a collection of Eddie’s pictures of birds, birds, and more birds.
Stuart noticed some photos that Eddie took of the recent fire in the Catalina mountains and commented on how professional they were. When Eddie said he was just an amateur, Stuart asked to see some of his collection and realized the quality was as good as any professional. They agreed to publish a collection of some of his best photos of birds, animals, SaddleBrooke landscapes, trips through the Catalina State Park, and oh, so many more.
Marie Lopez edited, selected, corrected, and was a tremendous help in the final edition. She took the photo of Eddie and Stuart and wanted them to have all the glory, but she was a wonderful asset to getting this final edition in printable form.
Stuart learned that Eddie is deaf. When speaking to him, look directly at him so he can read your lips. His fading hearing caused him to retire early from the U.S. Air Force.
Eddie usually plays at the competitive level in the SaddleBrooke Senior Softball Association. Unfortunately, recurring injuries have kept him from playing regularly but the injuries have been a blessing allowing more time to devote to his photography journey.
Eddie has an eyesight that compensates to some extent for the loss of his hearing. He notices hues of color, angles to take the best photos, and his talent is obvious. Future plans include an on-line studio to exhibit his photographs.
Birds and Beyond is available on Amazon and in the SaddleBrooke Gift Shop. If you know a birder, or anyone who appreciates excellent photography, this book would make a great gift for family, house guests, or those you may want to thank for being good friends.
Tinman’s Tale and How to Publish a Book with Amazon
Gary Goebel
Tinman’s Tale:
Time weighing somewhat heavily on my hands during the enforced isolation of the recent epidemic, I initially wrote a couple of short descriptions of what to me were notable flying events for the benefit of other aviators. I then decided to expand the articles to include my entire flying recollections of a fifty year aviation career.
I discovered that Amazon had set up a system for publishing eBooks and paperbacks. I used their procedures, and the result is my book, now available on Amazon as both a Kindle book and a paperback. I know many residents of SaddleBrooke may have similar aspirations, so I thought a brief description of how I did it might be of interest. It actually costs nothing to create either an eBook or a paperback book.
Using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to create an eBook or Paperback:
First write your book. A later version of Word will produce a .docx file which may be preferable because for a paperback book you will have to open a .docx file for a template. Get your book edited by an experienced editor. My editor did not know much about flying, so he highlighted areas that the general public also might not understand so that I could rework it. I used .jpg files for my picture inserts, and they seemed to work. Use picture files of sufficient size to be legible but not so large that the size of the entire document takes too long to load. I found that more than 35MB total file size for me was too large.
Perform a Google search for “kindle direct publishing”, establish an account, and go through the preliminary set up to take care of the financial and tax matters. Then you must select to create either an eBook or a paperback. For me it was easiest to first do an eBook, because the formatting rules are not as strict. The basic procedure is to upload your entire manuscript from your computer to KDP, wait briefly while it digests and hopefully accepts it. If there are problems, it will let you know where they are and how to fix them. There is a very responsive phone system which will help you if you cannot figure out what the problem is. Once the manuscript is accepted, then select preview and go through the entire book, making sure everything is where you want it and the pictures are in the correct place. If you are not happy, and there are corrections to make, make them in your amended manuscript.docx, and then upload the manuscript again and preview it again. I believe it took me about 20 tries before I got it how I wanted it. I changed the normal order of activity in the KDP procedure so that I created the book cover first. That way when I did a preview the book cover came first so I could review it as well. Once everything previews the way you want it, publish the kindle book and it will come up for sale.
I found creating the paperback to be more difficult, and the only way I could get the formatting correct in the manuscript was to download a template. Go back to your account and follow the steps for paperback. When you get to the upload manuscript stage, go to the paragraph above and click on “download a KDP template.” Two selections will come up, a template with sample content, and one without. I used the one with sample content, but if you do, you must replace all the sample content with your own information and chapter by chapter text. It took me the longest time to figure out my name had to go in place of author’s name in the copyright page. Make sure you keep the paperback book and the eBook word.docx files named differently. Again there is a responsive phone system which was very helpful, and again there is a preview that allows you to see how it looks. I believe this phase took me more than 20 tries until the uploaded manuscript looked acceptable to me. The results are quite satisfying and you can have your paperback printed with high quality paper, and with either color or black and white pictures. The cost difference is significant. Hope this helps and gets you started on the Great American Novel.