It's (a)Live!

Alrighty now, after much teeth gnashing (not really but it sounds good for effect), I finally discovered what was wrong with my thumbnail. When I was creating my thumbnail, I read that it could be in one of two formats, one being TIFF and the other being JPG (JPEG). I wanted the highest quality so I went with TIFF, that's what I uploaded to Amazon (the same place where I uploaded the book). It showed up just find in that space, the space that only I could see. Little by little, the bits and pieces of my work began to show on Amazon, the book itself, the description, the read sample part showed up, I had a little hiccup on the author page part but finally got that smoothed out. The only thing that refused to show was the thumbnail for the book. I even re-uploaded the TIFF version and waited another couple of days, still it wasn't showing the thumbnail. So as a last ditch effort, I decided to upload a JPG version of the thumbnail and a few short hours later, everything became perfect, the thumbnail was showing and I'm super happy with how it looks. In the time this has been live, I've made 2 (organic) sales of the book and one person did the Kindle Unlimited thing. 

Let me explain the Kindle Unlimited, it's a monthly subscription on Amazon where you can "borrow" ebooks, kind of like a library, you can have a certain number of books at any one time, I can't remember the exact number, I'm thinking it's 10, but it might be more. Those books, you don't have to pay for (other than the monthly subscription you pay to Amazon) and can keep as long as you keep your subscription active. It's good for deciding if you want to spend the money on purchasing a book, or just read through it and return it so you can get other books.

The way this works, the author gets paid based on how many pages are read, hopefully the book is interesting enough that the readers will read the whole thing, but if it's not, that is OK too, we get paid for what you do read. 

Of course if you purchase the book outright, the author makes a commission on that sale, whether it's an ebook or a physical book. 

So some exciting news, I was digging around to see where my book ranks, and for a new book, it's ranking pretty high in the category New Release Religious Reference. it's ranking #5 out of 100 as of the time I checked. Of course that number can change rapidly, but I will say I'm pretty thrilled at the fact that without any sort of promotion or advertising, it hit #5, it's possible it ranked even higher but I didn't see it if it did. For the rest of the ranking, as of the time of this writing, it is:

#423,392 in Kindle store altogether

#23,921 in Christian eBooks and Bibles

#616 i Religion Encyclopedias 

#124 in Religious Reference

#5 in new Religious Reference

I waited until the thumbnail for the book became visible before even thinking about promoting it. I did post about it here and did the YouTube video, other than that, I haven't mentioned it anywhere else. That is about to change, I'm very excited to let my peeps know about this. Please feel free to check it out, if you have Kindle Unlimited, I'd greatly appreciate it if you would "borrow" the eBook and read it, that is absolutely free to you for as long as it's available for Kindle Unlimited. If you really want to support me, buying the book outright is also nice, but either way will work, I get paid for it, I really think this is a good book, I put a lot of work into putting this together. It was definitely a labor of love! Check it out and let me know what you think, I'd love some feedback. 

I appreciate each and every one of you.

https://amzn.to/4bMgqHU

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

From Flood to Fountain book is live!

It's finally live! My first published book. I've been working and waiting on Amazon to get the details correct, for some reason my author page wouldn't come up, the part where I edit it, I kept getting an error message, I reached out to Amazon's help and they did get it fixed. I was able to add a picture and a bio, but it takes time for these things to populate in the Amazon universe, so for now, as of the time I am writing this, my author page is a bit bland, I'm assuming it will become more exciting and personalized soon. 

Another thing that I'm waiting on is the thumbnail of the book to show, as of right now, it shows that there isn't a thumbnail, again I'm hoping that gets remedied soon, I understand it takes hours to a few days for that to fully populate. I did reupload the cover as I had read that might fix it if in fact it was having an issue. 

Meanwhile, I couldn't wait to announce this, I really wanted to wait until the thumbnail was visible and my author page was more filled out, but as I stated previously, I'm not good at waiting. LOL

I had a bit of fun with an app that created a 2 person podcast about the book, it's around 13 minutes long, give it a listen if you wish. https://youtu.be/ETlrrBpvpgg

The link to the book is in the description of the video. Or you can do a search for my name on Amazon

Wretha Smith

It will pull up my book, something I find a great deal of joy about, that I can do a search for my name on Amazon and it will actually pull up my book, it tickles me!

Oh, and even if you don't purchase the book, I would greatly appreciate it if you would follow me on Amazon, that way you can see when I publish more books.

https://amzn.to/4bMgqHU

(I just checked and my author page shows my picture now and my bio), now if they could just get the thumbnail on my book visible...)

The book went live yesterday, I was hoping to get the thumbnails visible before promoting this book, but even before I could work on that part, I actually made a sale, all organic, no promotion on my part, I know it wasn't anyone I know because according to my analytics, it was purchased by someone in Australia. I also had one person do the Kindle Unlimited thing and has read part way into the book. The Kindle Unlimited makes the ebook free for those who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited. The authors are paid based on pages read, I'm not asking for anyone to read any farther than they want to, I'm just stating what is common knowledge and publicly known through Amazon.

So this officially makes me a published author, woot! Even though I have been engaged in writing for many MANY years, this is the first time I've entered into this arena, it feels pretty good and I will continue adding to my books. 

I do intend to create a paperback copy of this, a physical book as I know there are people who prefer those, I will do a standard 6x9 and an 8.5x11 workbook size that will include wide margins for notes. I can't wait to hold a copy of each in my hands.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

I'm not good at waiting... but I'm trying.

72 hours, that's how long it said I have to wait... did I mention I'm not good at waiting? But wait I must. What is it I'm waiting on I hear you ask? My book, yes I finally did it, and as soon as Amazon approves my book, I'll officially be a published author! 

I can't remember exactly when I started writing this, I tend to be terrible with dates and times, but this has been in the works for at least 6 months, much longer if I really think about it. The book cover I worked up, I had 2 iterations of it, one was light and the other was dark, I asked my Facebook friends to help choose between the two, and that happened at the end of September, so the book must have been well in the works for me to to have created the cover. For the record, most everyone chose the darker more contrasty image.

Story Time:

I think back on my life growing up. I discovered books and the library at a young age, I believe I was in the 4th or 5th grade, in English class we had a weekly task, creative writing, we all had a spiral notebook and our task was to write a short story. The story could be anything, at the end of the week we had to read our story aloud to the class. Even though I was a painfully shy child, I secretly looked forward to reading my story. I think my stories were pretty good for a kid of my age, I had a very deep imagination and was quite capable of spinning tales. I remember that most of the other students didn't like that part of the class, whether it was the writing part or the reading aloud, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I kept my love of reading and writing through my teenage years up into my adult years. Though I did slow down on my reading and writing because I had to live my life, working, trying to earn enough to pay the rent. I turned to audiobooks to satisfy my reading habit. I was able to start writing again once we moved to our off grid home, this very blog to be exact. I started writing to my friends and family we were leaving behind to go live our lives. This honed my writing skills back to where they were previously. 

So fast forward to now, I'm getting my literary vibe on by continuing to write in my various online outlets, more than I want to write about at this moment, I want to get back to the subject at hand. I have been working on this book for a while, and finally FINALLY got it completed, I am the queen of UFOs, UnFinished Objects, I have more than I like to admit. My kryptonite seems to be actually FINISHING something, I understand it's an issue with ADD, never was actually diagnosed, but it runs in my family and I suspect I'm afflicted too. And it's OK, I can live with it, I just need to get work on being disciplined and finish these projects. 

So, as of yesterday, I finished this book to the point where I could get it uploaded to Amazon. I will admit that I had it ready hours before I was able to push that final button. I kept going back over the manuscript and finding things I wanted to tweak, a word here, a phrase there, I did find a typo in the website links I added at the last minute. The deal is, I was continuing to work and rework it, my inner perfectionist was being fed quite well, but that isn't going to get the job completed. Any other authors have this issue???

My neighbor and friend had texted me to ask about going on a walk, I took that as my sign, I wanted to be able to tell her that I had pushed the button to publish this. So I gritted my teeth and pushed the button. Nothing earthshaking happened, no angel choir sang, I got a screen that said the book is being reviewed and it could take up to 72 hours. 

Now it's going into the second day, yes I am refreshing the screen to see when it says something other than "under review", I'm not sure if that means I'm going to have to take another step to make it go live or if it will automatically go live. 

Now I need to work on getting this book formatted for a physical paperback, I am going to do a 6x9 standard paperback, and an 8.5x11 workbook size, that will have all the same text but it will have a 3 inch blank margin on the outer side for note taking purposes. I really want to go ahead and publish the paperbacks now, but I'm told it's better to let the ebook version breathe for a bit before putting out the physical versions. So I'll do that. 

I'll definitely post an excited post when this ebook goes live on Amazon, I hope you, my followers, friends and family will have an interest in this book. Oh, I guess I should say what it's about :)

I'm sure as you can probably tell, this is a book all about water in the Bible. When the first spark hit me, I was sitting in church and there was a reference to something about water, I wish I could remember the exact verse, but that started a quick search on how many Bible scriptures refer to water, I was surprised to see the beginnings, how many actual verses were there. Honestly I even found scriptures that I was not familiar with, and I found some that were actually in multiple places and different situations but I didn't realize they were separate instances, I had put them together into one. 

The process of separating each instance, finding the historical background, finding the other scriptures that refer to that scripture. I certainly got an education doing this, I do not claim to be a Bible scholar in any way, but I've grown up "in the church", officially accepted Christ as my savoir at 12 years of age, though I maintained a relationship with Jesus from as far back as I can remember. Reading the Bible was embedded in me from a young age. That still doesn't make me an expert, just an interested person, someone who has loved the mysteries of the Bible, loved finding connections that are woven throughout the Bible. I believe the Bible, even if there are parts that don't seem to make sense.

So, now I wait, refreshing the screen that says this book is still being reviewed. 

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Eighteen Years Off Grid, and a Question About Reality

Eighteen years. That is how long we have been living in far west Texas, in our off grid home, the SkyCastle, 100% off grid, on the side of a mountain, in the high desert. It is honestly the longest I have ever lived in any one place. Not that I moved around constantly. My family moved a time or two, but we usually stayed put for several years at a time. I suppose the second longest stretch was when we settled in a suburb of Fort Worth, toward the end of my elementary school years and into junior high.

When I think about all the places I have lived, born in Texas, several towns around the DFW area and Irving, a few years in Southern California as a kid, and nearly a year in Oregon as an adult, I can say without hesitation that this place, where I live now, is my favorite.

I think I finally became ME here. Does that make sense? I hope so, because it makes perfect sense to me. I got to grow into the ME I am, and I am pretty happy with the person who lives between my ears. It has taken all of my 60 years to become this ME, to grow into this ME. I know, not proper English. It is OK. The writer in me is cringing a little too. She will get over it, and I know you will too.

Today is the first day of 2026, which feels almost unfathomable. I cannot really explain why, it just does. I still remember when our years started with 19. I remember the transition into 2000, leaving the 1900s behind. It felt monumental, almost impossible. Would our technology handle the date change? We went to bed not knowing if computers would work, if we could use credit or debit cards, if banks would function, if gas pumps would work. Thankfully, none of those fears came true. The first day of 2000 came and went like any other day.

Or did it?

Is it possible that something happened, or almost happened, that we were never aware of? Or that a timeline shifted and we simply did not notice? I suppose I have read too many science fiction novels, and yet...

Here is something interesting I realized just a few days ago. Have you heard of the Mandela Effect? If you have been living under a large rock, you can look it up here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=mandela+effect

I think I have experienced several Mandela Effect moments, but this one just came into focus for me. You know electric pressure cookers, right? Those once scary, potentially explosive kitchen devices that now safely cook and can food. Around the time we were transitioning into our off grid life, electric pressure cookers became popular. The programmable kind that can cook all sorts of wonderful things.

Do you remember what the main one was called? Was it an InstaPot? Or an Instant Pot?

Because my memory, very clearly, is InstaPot. Maybe Insta Pot, one word or two, I am not entirely sure, but I remember it as InstaPot. That is what I always called it. It became a generic name in my mind, much like Kleenex or Q-Tips. We ask for Kleenex, not facial tissue. We ask for Q-Tips, not cotton swabs. I remember calling electric pressure cookers InstaPots.

Over the last six months or so, I started noticing them being called Instant Pot everywhere. Online, in ads, on YouTube. At first I thought maybe another company had made a knockoff and had to use a different name. But no. Apparently, they have always been called Instant Pot. There has never been an electric pressure cooker brand called InstaPot.

Now, to be fair, this all came out just as we were moving off grid. We did not, and still do not, have the power capacity to run electric cooking appliances. Anything that intentionally generates heat electrically is a no go for us. The only two kitchen gadgets I feel like I have truly missed out on are electric pressure cookers and air fryers. Both interest me, but neither has been an option.

So I am genuinely curious. What do you remember? InstaPot or Instant Pot? Am I alone in this? I would love to hear what you think.

Wishing everyone a happy, blessed, and prosperous New Year.

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!