Christmas Poem 2022

Rescues, Book 7 in the Conrad Chronicles is published!

Book seven of The Conrad Chronicles has just gone to print. Rescues is the the seventh book in what will be a series of nine. Eight is being polished and nine is being written at this time. The journey of the Conrads of Karna and Aleron is almost at an end. Due to the printing costs and rising prices of materials, I made a decision with Rescues. The book will only be available through lulu.com or one of it's outlets. I skipped Global Distribution. For those of you not in the book industry, Global Distribuation means your book is available anywhere books are sold, including book stores, the internet, and can be found in a library's collection. Now I must explain why I skipped Global Distribution, and there are two main reasons. Without it I can price the same quality of book for significantly less, which is a benefit to the reader and at the same time I make a larger profit. Anyone who knows books, knows the Amazon Corporation has come to dominate the book market. As a result, they have set the bar high for their cut of the profits, which forces printers and publishers to charge more for books. The Amazon Corporation demands 60% of retail when a book sells (This may be different if one chooses to publish through them, which I have chosen not to do because I want full control of the rights to my books). Math-wise let me explain. Assume it costs $8 to print a book, it would then need to retail for $20 for Amazon Corporation to get their 60% of retail. So if a book sells at the price of $20 the printer gets $8 and Amazon gets $12 and the author gets $0. Let's say I decide I want a little money, so I raise the price of the book to $21. I still don't get $1 a book as Amazon takes 60% of the new retail price of $21. Now the printer gets $8, Amazon gets $12.60 and I get $.40. That is what selecting Global Distribuation has done to the price of books thanks to Amazon Corporation dominating the book market. Since I skipped Global Distribuation for Rescues, the book can only be found on lulu.com, but I can sell it for $12.99, which is a much fairer and more reasonable price for a trade paperback. As I move forward with my novels, they will solely be found on lulu.com for the time being. I also will not be formating any more of my novels as e-books because I have discovered that Google Docs has several of them available there in large segments (about 2/3 of each book in random pages) and has done this without my permission. I was very disheartened when a friend uncovered this and informed me. That is my current writing update. Happy Reading!

Konrad Reichenberger is still missing 4 years later

This past week my friend Konrad Charles Reichenberger has been missing for four years. His family and friends are still hoping he will be found. Just to remind everyone: Konrad Charles Reichenberger was last seen on January 13, 2018 in Alturas, California in the California Pines Hill Area.

Konrad is 6'2" tall, weighed 200 lbs when he disappeared, and is now 48 years old. He has tattoos on his right arm, brown hair that he usually has worn very short to almost shaved off, and usually has facial hair. Some friends called him Kurt. Modoc County, where Konrad disappeared, is a rural area. It is one of the poorer counties in California, and is filled with a lot of wilderness. In the area he disappeared from there had been illegal logging, as well as drug labs hidden in forested areas. None of us are sure what has happened to Konrad other than he was last seen at his cabin home on January 13, 2018 and that he loved his dogs so much he would never had just left them without a solid reason or being forced to leave against his will. When he disappeared there was several feet of snow on the ground.

(Konrad and my brother at my sister's wedding. Konrad is in the brown shirt). If you have any information on his disappearance please contac the Modoc Sheriff's department at 503-233-4416. Please feel free to share this information and repost it.