EBooks on Kindle!

The following is an informational post to inform those who are techno-savvy and Kindle owners that the books which I have authored (two, to be exact) are now currently, immediately, as never-before-previously available for purchase or borrow Kindle. 

There.

I said it.

To be more simplistic, I repeat:

The Book of Pages About Crossing Bridges is on Kindle.  Find it here:  Kindle Book of Pages

AND

A Friend Named Jesus is on Kindle.  Find it here: Kindle Friend Named Jesus

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, by the way, for being readers of words.  Without you, where would a writer like me be?

For those of us without Kindle who would like a book or ten, please stop by the website.  
Find it here: Writer's Pages Webstore

Thanks, again.

This message has been brought to you by Kris A. NewMan, A Writer With Too Many Words

Simpler Thoughts

For those of you who need something simple and plain to think about today, here's a little flashback to a quainter subject.  A couple of years ago I was involved in a platform boosting campaign that did, surely, boost my readership.  I posted the piece below as part of that.  I find this list of ten things about me to be interesting in that they are still ten things I would list if someone really wanted to know about me.

But what would really be interesting to me is if you, my readers, would tell me some things about you!  Drop me a comment, stop by the website listed below, friend me on Facebook.  My writer's mind is so curious to know your story!


So, dear reader, tell me ten things about you!


===========================================


Well, this whole campaign and reading what everyone else is writing has done wonders for my motivation.  That's a fact.  Those of you who know me will find this list redundant.  Those new friends I have connected with, may find it a bit eclectic.

But since Kelly lured me into this and Kelly has just posted ten things about her, I thought I'd see if I can find ten things about me to say.  Not sure how this will go....

1.  I was raised in foster care.  That's an important fact about me.  It says how I view relationships, money, time, responsibility and family.  Please don't assume any negatives from my experience.  There are so many more positives that they far outweigh what might have been.  I had amazingly good foster parents.  I hope my life honors their memory.

2.  I love to read.  All kinds of books.  Always have.  L'Amour to Paul to Tolstoy to Fitzgerald to Castle.  Biographies are my favorites, but I read all sorts of random things.

3.  I hate guns.  It's my right as a patriotic American to hate guns.  Think what you will.  Tell me again that guns don't kill people..... I hate guns.  Hunting rifles used to feed your family, that's different.  I mean handguns and machine guns.  The kind of weapons only used to take life.  They only brings sadness - whether they kill someone or not.

4.  I love Jesus.  I am an outspoken born-again believer in the name of Jesus.  True story.  I try to follow His teachings and live to please Him.  I don't know if I'm a very good Christian, but I try.

5.  I have four official angelbabies and many, many more extras.  Angelbabies are grandchildren.  They call me Bapka (Polish for Grandmother according to Google translations).  They make me smile constantly.

6.  I love kids.  I have two sons and one daughter-in-law, but have been adopted by a wide range of kids - some barely younger enough to be my children.  They are all colors of the rainbow and come from many cultures.  I love them each individually and am proud to be owned by them.

7.  This is getting tougher....  Let's see.... I am a writer.  I suppose you already know that.  It took me a long time to believe my 7th grade English teacher who first labeled me.  I think I was 40 when I started to call myself a writer.  I was 44 when I published my first book.

8.  I am divorced.  That's hard for me to remember, too.  I know I'm not married, but it's hard to remember why sometimes.  Mental block, I suppose.  It's an important fact about me, but I don't always advertise it.

9.  My bucket list has a lot of traveling on it.  I love to go places and meet new people.  I like to see the world through their eyes and experience their lifestyle.  Such an amazing diversity in our world.

10.  My house decorating theme is "My Stuff."  Strewn about the walls and bookshelves and floor and cabinets are stories collected from people who have crossed my path.  Grandma's PianoOrgan, books from friends long gone, Angelbaby toys, gifts from my sons who were once little boys, pictures of my sister and I.  It's my stuff.  It's not much, but it tells the story of me.

There!  I did it!  Ten things about me.  Well, if you are still reading, thanks!  Now.... tell me about you.  At least tell me where you are from and how you found this writer's words.

 ===============================

To order a copy of A Book of Pages About Crossing Bridges or a Friend Named Jesus,

 please visit my website:  Writer's Pages

Facebook:  Author Kris A. Newman

Population: 485 - Meeting Your Neighbor One Siren at a Time

I like to read.  I read a lot, actually, and have a general opinion about everything I read.  From magazine articles to cereal boxes to books to political pieces.... I have an opinion.

I like biographies the best.  Every once in awhile I read a book and find myself so delved in that I don’t want it to end.  Like the little kid afraid to turn the page with Grover and find the Monster at the End of the Book, I hesitate the page turning in hopes to prolong the inevitable.

Population: 485 : Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time by Michael Perry was exactly that kind of book. 

I probably would never have picked it up to read on my own.  It’s about small town life, which I’m living enough of these days.  Stories of a volunteer EMT/firefighter, of which I know nothing.   A co-worker, however, suggested the book to me.  “He writes like you.  I think you’d like it a lot.”

Like me?  Well, now that makes a difference.  Maybe I could unravel the mystery of why anyone reads my rambles.  After having read Michael Perry, I understand what she was saying, but he and I are very different.  I am honored to have the comparison made. I think what she meant was we write with the same first-person transparency.  But I am nowhere near as polished and smart as Perry.

I hope I write like him when I grow up.  I hope my words will shift someone’s paradigms, but that’s hard to measure.

What did I like about the book?  I liked how it drew me in and made me want to know more.  I liked his turns of phrases, use of language and honesty.  I liked the funny stories, the poignant memories and the simple portraits drawn adjective by adjective. 

What didn’t I like?  Well, it ended much too soon for me.  I felt as though I was finally getting to know the characters and then it ended!  There I was all alone again without my new-found friends.  Ugh!  Where’s the justice?  I want to know more!  

It’s honestly been awhile since I’ve gotten so involved with the characters of a book that I felt I could recognize them walking down the street.  That’s how much life Michael Perry gives to characters.  Although, to be honest, his characters are real people and perhaps that’s why they are so alive in these pages.

Perry’s viewpoint is the key to what I love and hate about this work. I haven’t quite come to terms with, haven’t quite gotten a grasp of, don’t understand mostly the small town culture.  There I said it.  I’m a city girl.  Urban bred.  I know how to behave in a world of clashing, clanging, clinging dust and noise.  Navigating personal city relationships is an easy thing for me. 

Small town life, not so much.

Perry’s insight into cause and effect of small town culture was a treasure trove of references for me.  Why people talk about some things and not others, how people perceive my intentions, which actions are intrusive, which are expected.... it’s all different in a small town because everyone is so intrinsically connected.  Everyone is related somehow. 

In a city, people are expected to come and go frequently.  Ties are less binding.  Change is the only constant.  There is a freedom in knowing you will acquire other friends as time moves along in a shifting city.  Small towns are made of  consistency, of continuity, of connections.  Relationships are slower to bond and have older foundations.

At the end of a particularly tragic scene in Population: 485, Perry comments on the comfort of sharing grief with those who have shared most of his family’s history.  The chord that binds these families and friends together is beautiful and mysterious to me.

Michael Perry will sit on the shelf of  favorite authors in my mind.  He joins Mitch Albom and Andrew Bridge on the list of those I’d like to meet to thank for changing my perspectives. 

I highly recommend Population: 485.  I have just dug into Truck, A Love Story and can’t wait to meet the truck, and the love, of his life.  Maybe this one will teach me how to be a writer when I grow up.


If you want to know more about Michael Perry's work, his website is here:  SneezingCow