Are you ready to celebrate the holidays?

Published on December 18, 2017December 17, 2017 by Jean M. Cogdell8 Comments

Got all your shopping done?

Are you a planner or one of those last-minute grab and go type of shoppers?

If you’re like me and fall somewhere in the middle better hit the stores soon. Thank goodness for Amazon!

My shopping is almost complete. Only a couple more to find and a couple more I’m waiting on to be delivered.

But if you’re still looking for a great gift, remember books give all year-long!

I hope however you celebrate this time of year, your holiday is filled with joy and wonder.

So, I’m not going to flood your inbox with posts you probably have little time to read. You’ll still hear from me, from time to time. Because I’m going to give myself a few days off around Christmas. But don’t you worry, I’ll be back with lots of energy and more stuff after the hustle and bustle of the holidays wind down.

I’d love to know…

More shopping to do? Or all finished?

Do you have any special plans for the holidays?

I HOPE YOU’LL TAKE A MINUTE TO FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA, JUST CLICK ON THE BUTTONS BELOW. I’LL LEAVE A LIGHT ON.

Memories & Movies

Published on April 11, 2014April 11, 2014 by Jean M. Cogdell4 Comments

Five Sentence Fiction – Feathers

Memories and Movies

I searched through the attic of my mind for memories long hidden in dark corners and opened a round metal container covered in dust. With care, I unwind and thread the old movie reel, damaged with age, and smeared by tears, into my imaginary projector.

The memories, filled with an image here, an image there, look more like ghosts than humans, but still I smile. Pictures flash, they tickle my mind like feathers against my neck, whispering in my ear, then as wisps of smoke slipping through my fingers they vanish.

I pushed at my hair brushing away the cobwebs, closed the box and put the memories where I found them until another rainy day.

Be sure and join in the fun at Lillie McFerrin Writes! See what you can do with five sentence fiction.

Who owns your books?

Published on January 15, 2013 by Jean M. CogdellLeave a comment

I had a great Christmas and to my surprise received a new Kindle Paperwhite. I’ve been a proud, addicted owner of a Kindle 2 since

their launch and had lusted after the cute tiny Paperwhite from the first commercial. So, I abandoned my faithful 2, curled up with my cute new baby to enjoy all that the latest and greatest had to offer. I was about to be surprised in a different way as I discovered there are less, not more, whistles on my new toy such as no text to speech.

I’m not alone in my love of Kindle. My kids and grandkids have Kindles. It was through a series of events in helping each other with all these gadgets I discovered Kindle has made a major unpleasant change. Due to the new Cloud feature, a person is more or less, in this bloggers opinion, renting books rather than purchasing.

Let me explain. With the old Kindle, you could archive some books and retain others on the device itself. Should you deactivate your Kindle the books on your device (Kindle) at the time of deactivation would remain available and saved. The archived books were no longer available as these books remained on the Amazon.com Website.

However, the new Kindle devices work different. Should you deactivate your device, Amazon wipes your Kindle brand spanking clean. How do I know? Because we did this with ours, I wanted to change the name of my account to separate it from the old Kindle. All books I’d purchased were lost and I was unable to access on them my new Kindle unless I reactivated it with the old account. The books were sent to Am azon’s Cloud.

I spoke with customer service and voiced my concern. Their response was that I wasn’t the only person who felt this way. The customer service rep continued to say over and over that Amazon would hold my books on their website in the Cloud until I activated another device to access them. So I ask him, “Am I renting these books or buying them?”

A little flustered he responded that the Paperwhite would hold up to 1100 books. However, I was correct that when the Paperwhite or Kindlefires are deactivated, unlike the old Kindles, all books are transferred to the Cloud where they remain until reactivated. My old Kindle is looking pretty good now…

What do you think? Are we buying or renting?

Let me know your thoughts…
Better yet let Amazon.com know your thoughts.

Office Max and Office Depot No longer Distributing Kindle Paperwhites (goodereader.com)
Amazon Kindle Touch Gets New Firmware Update (goodereader.com)
The Amazon Kindle family keeps on growing (bestbuymobile.com)
Important Notice for Kindle Paperwhite Readers (dan-harris.net)
Kindle Touch update brings new interface, features (pocket-lint.com)
Why “Send To Kindle” makes Amazon better than Barnes & Noble and others (teleread.com)
Review: Kindle Paperwhite (ayeshaschroeder.com)
Parental controls and your Kindle (ilmk.wordpress.com)
Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight vs Amazon Kindle Paperwhite vs Kobo Glo: spec comparison (itproportal.com)
Amazon update gives Kindle Touch capabilities of Paperwhite (electronista.com)

Do it For Pleasure

Published on December 15, 2012December 15, 2012 by Jean M. Cogdell1 Comment

My novel stalled over the summer, but then I remembered why I’d started this book. It began as a project for my granddaughters. A recent conversation with one of them prompted me to get off my procrastinating duff and get busy. I’d allowed myself to be sidelined by many of the blogs and self-help articles on how to write, sell and publish.

My Inbox filled to overflowing, reading one after another, soon I’m sucked in, and the day is gone. Now don’t get me wrong, nine out of ten are terrific and worth reading if that’s how I wished to spend my time, but I’ve got a novel to write.

Since that day things have been progressing much better. I’m still not moving at lightening speed but after the holidays, I plan on no excuses.

After the events in Connecticut yesterday, I’m reminded once more how precious time is and if I’m to finish my novel before my grandkids have kids of their own, I will keep my goal in sight. So, I’ll do my best to remember the only accolades I want or need for this book are the ones coming from five adoring fans who think I’m great no matter how many copies I’ll sell. They are my target audience.

Should anyone else enjoy the words I put between the first page and last, well that’ll be icing on the cake. Now I’ve some writing to do for the love of some young readers and the pure pleasure of writing.

Stay motivated.

Jean