It's been forever . . .

My blog! I have finally found my way back to it. Ideas have not been lacking, but when Google changed its format, I couldn't figure out how to post to my blog. Tonight I finally found the magic button to allow me to return and post again. Yeah! Since my last post, Konrad Reichenberger is still a missing persons. As he has now been gone seven years, last spring his family decided to hold a memorial service for him in Coloma, California, one of his favorite places. I was fortunate enough to attend this beautiful outdoor ceremony celebrating Konrad's life. Even know the family and all his friends are still seeking him or information to his whereabouts. As a reminder he disappeared in the California Pine area of Alturas County California. Meanwhile I have been writing. It's been so long that I don't remember if I wrote about the last two books of mine to be published. The first is the last in The Conrad Chronicles series and is titled Resolution. As with all my books it is available at . The book is only available through Lulu or via me if you see me at some fair. By doing this I can keep the price down. If I made it available everywhere I'd be force to accomadate Amazon's pricing and that would mean I'd need to sell the book for more than $20 just to make a quarter. The other book is in a different genre. Years ago I connected with a publisher to write this book, but the press never came through in the end, so I decided to make it available on Lulu.com as well. This book I chose to create a hardback edition first. It is Ghost Tales from Northern California's Highway 101. The link to purchase it is . Ghost Tales is not connected to any of my other books and involved me dusting off my history degree and doing some research. The tales inside are spooky, but not horrifying. As the back reads Welcome to chilling stories from Northern California's Highway 101. Ghosts, spooks, and other supernatural creatures hide within these pages. Spine tingling tales from behind the Redwood curtain will send you exploring ship wrecks, haunted houses, and up the old Highway 101 now known as Bell Springs Road. Enjoy. Happy Reading! I'm back!

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!

The Conrad Chronicles: Rejection is now in print!

About an hour ago, I received my proof copy for The Conrad Chronicles: Rejection. After checking it over, I submitted the okay for it to be distributed. While it will take 6 to 8 weeks for the book to be fully available through books stores and online places such as amazon and Barnes and Nobles, the book can be purchased right now from lulu.com.

In fact, today (November 26), Lulu is offering one of it's biggest discounts of the year, 35% off.  Also, I have knocked 10% of the book, so that means you will save 45% off of the cover price of $17.99 if you buy it today. Though, if you do miss the discount Lulu is offering, today, they usually have another one going on (usually 10% to 20%), so if you head to lulu.com you can find it.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/heather-hobson/the-conrad-chronicles-rejection/paperback/product-23875263.html

For your information, Rejection is the the third book in the series. You can start the series at this book (as originally it was the first book written), but if you want all the background you really should read Revolt and Realizations first, both of which are available at Lulu at a discount (and are already on amazon, Barnes and Nobles, as well as other places). Rejection is also a darker book than the first two, and thus I have marked it on Lulu as an over 18 book.

Happy Reading!