The Vandal – Derek Haines

We all know there is a publishing and ebook war going on and as in any war there will be winners and losers as well as casualties along the way. But as an independent author, I don’t want any part of it. I  just want to write and hopefully sell some books. Not die on a corporate battlefield. While I have been experimenting with Kindle’s new KDP Select and trying to determine if it is worthwhile or not I stumbled on a disturbing situation that has changed the way I plan to distribute my ebooks. I’m going to move all of my books to Kindle exclusively. There are a number

There was a time long, long ago in the days when books were books that the singular most important issues that needed careful attention before publishing were editing, proof reading and choosing the typography. Once that first proof copy hit your eyes, you knew all the work was over and your book was born and would stay perfect forever. Then along came ebook publishing. Well you can now ditch typography because eBook devices make it a dead set waste of time. It just shown text. Bigger or smaller. Luckily however, the other two remain. Editing and proof reading. But if that was all there was to do, ebooks would be

One of my greatest culinary discoveries since arriving in Switzerland just has to be Rösti. Yes, everyone knows about our famous Fondue, but Rösti is much more versatile and can be served in so many different forms and as an accompaniment to so many other foods. However the real fame of Rösti is that it defines the separation of the German speaking population from the French speaking lot with the well-known Röstigraben. The imaginary dividing line between the two languages. Well, as I cannot call myself and expert in cooking Rösti, I am fortunate enough to be married to an expert. But to ensure true conformity with the recipe, I have decided to

I do have a day job. Although I rabbit on a lot about writing, social media and my dog, I don’t mention my day job very often on my blog. So for those of you who may not know, I fill my days being an adult EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher. That is, teaching adults how to use English for professional purposes. Although quite specialised, I’m lucky to be living in Switzerland where the need to use English is increasing every year. While the official languages are German, French and Italian, English is often used as the ‘lingua franca’ or bridge language between the various parts of Switzerland and of course Europe.