My recent absence -- and a request

[Eagle]

I had an interesting Thanksgiving. A tree branch took out just the neutral wire between my house and the street, resulting in most of the circuits getting 240 volts instead of 120 volts. A LOT of things got fried (including the heat circulator controller, hot water circulator controller, boiler burner controller, several light fixtures, and my laser printer). I'm still getting things put back to a semblance of normal, which is why I haven't been on here that much recently.

 

 

Which brings me to the request part. Good friends across town invited me to join their family for Thanksgiving dinner, knowing I wasn't able to cook my own. Their 12-year old daughter knows that I have published a few books, so I guess she thinks I'm a "pro." After dinner, she presented me with a printout of a book she wrote -- about a 12-year-old girl dragon. When I got it home and read it, I thought it was remarkably good for a 12-year old. So I got the bright idea to give it a quick edit, format it as a real book, and upload it to Amazon's self publishing site to put it in print. I got together with her father last weekend and we set up an author account linked to her bank account, uploaded the book, and it's now on sale as both a printed book and a Kindle edition.

 

The back story on this is that the author's older brother is severely special needs, so her parents don't have a lot of time to spend with her. That probably explains why she spends a lot of time reading, and now writing. I showed the book to a couple of co-workers who have daughters the same age, and they both said "My daughter couldn't have written that."

If any of you would be willing to drop $5 on a copy of the Kindle edition, I think it would really light up her day on Christmas if her father could call up the sales report and show her that [___] people have already bought her book. So far I know of three sales -- I bought the Kindle, and her father bought both the Kindle edition and the print version.

It's a LITTLE book, for sure, and definitely not adult fare. If any of you would buy it, it would be just to help make the girl's day -- it won't replace Isaac Asimov's books on your best-seller shelf, but I think it would blow the kid's mind if she sees a sales report that a bunch of people bought HER book.

Thanks for your consideration.

https://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Thief-Grace-Acampora-ebook/dp/B0BNZLT2FC/ref=sr_1_2?crid=369WWWDU0CFW4&keywords=The+Pearl+Thief&qid=1670573709&s=books&sprefix=the+pearl+thief%2Cstripbooks%2C99&sr=1-2

[frankspeed420]

You've helped me in the past. I would absolutely try to figure out this and get one

[fiatslug87]

That was very nice of you to get the ball rolling for her. 

[Htchevyii]

Done!

[Htchevyii]

Weird though, why does it say the author is an older woman?

[fiatslug87]

11 hours ago, Htchevyii said:

Weird though, why does it say the author is an older woman?

Wrong Acampora, should be Grace

[Eagle]

Yeah, Amazon somehow connected this book to a different author, even though they correctly listed the author of this book as Grace Acampora. Both her father, through whose e-mail the author account was set up, and I have contacted them and they claim it has been fixed. Obviously, it hasn't been fixed. But it has been partially revised -- it originally included several reviews of Lauren Acampora's books. It now only shows one review, which appears to be for Grace's book.

 

I guess the Amazon minions in Mumbai don't understand that more than one person in the United States might have the last name "Acampora."

 

[Htchevyii]

I figured it was something like that. The book looked like the right one.

[Pete M]

bought 3 copies   can't wait to tell the recipients that someone their age wrote the book.   

[Eagle]

Thank you, folks.

 

I can hardly wait to see Grace's face on Christmas.

 

[Limeyjeeper]

Done

[thecodemonk]

Bought!

[89eliminator]

verified purchaser 

[jdog]

Purchased

Also looks like they fixed the author mix up

[Eagle]

Update:

 

I can't thank you guys who bought the book enough. To say that Grace was blown away would be an understatement. To borrow a phrase from MY favorite author, she was gobsmacked. She opened the book and looked at it and was sort of, "Okay, it's a little book" -- and then the light bulb went on and she looked around the room at everybody and said, "Hey! It's MY book! Thank you, thank, you, thank you!" Then her father fired up his computer and showed her that HER book is for sale on Amazon, and that twenty people have bought copies of HER book, and she couldn't wait to tell her friends. I lost count of how many times she said it was her best Christmas present ever.

 

So, again -- thank you all.

 

[Pete M]

christmas gift giving done right.   kudos to you kind sir.  

 

I would have left a review for her to read, but still haven't gotten the copies and kinda wanted to integrate the words of the kids I'm giving them too.    that can be the gift that keeps on giving.   

[jeff351]

sorry I missed the post before now. Just bought a copy.

[m2bandit]

That's awesome that you did this for her.

I ordered the paper back, I'll just have to find someone to give it to.

[Eagle]

Guys, once again I'd like to thank each of you who bought a copy from the bottom of my heart. I wish you could all have seen her face when she opened the copy I gave her and she realized that it was HER book. I had wanted to catch it on my cell phone, but her parents are very concerned about privacy, especially when it involves their children, so I gave up on that idea.

 

[Pete M]

sooooooooo..... I haven't gotten them and figured I'd check on the tracking.  Amazon says they were left in the mailbox on Sunday the 18th.  no one here remembers a package of 3 identical books showing up so my best guess is that they were promptly picked up on monday as outgoing mail?

 

whatever.  3 more ordered.  

[Eagle]

That's really unfair.

 

Amazon's shipping has been getting worse and worse. I have had two recent instances where the tracking information says the package was handed to a resident. But I'm the only resident, and nobody handed anything to me. In fact, one time last summer I was in the driveway tinkering with one of the XJs when an Amazon truck rolled in. I wanted to save the guy some steps so I put down my tools, walked over, and offered to take it from him right at the truck. He said no, the rules required that he put it on the doorstep and take a photo -- which he proceeded to do.

 

Neither of the "handed to a resident" deliveries had a photo, of course. I spotted the first one about a week later -- in the weeds behind the mailbox at the side of the road, between the stone wall and the mailbox post. The second was just a few days ago. It was dropped on the grass beside the driveway about 30 or 40 feet from the house. There were tire marks on the grass, so my guess is that he drove the nose of the truck onto the grass and just dropped it out of the window.

 

[m2bandit]

On 1/6/2023 at 12:05 PM, Pete M said:

sooooooooo..... I haven't gotten them and figured I'd check on the tracking.  Amazon says they were left in the mailbox on Sunday the 18th.  no one here remembers a package of 3 identical books showing up so my best guess is that they were promptly picked up on monday as outgoing mail?

 

whatever.  3 more ordered.  

Oddly enough mine is in the amazon abyss as well. It has been at their local delivery warehouse for over a week.

I just canceled my prime. I haven't had 2 day shipping since covid. Not sure what prime is paying for anymore.

 

 

 

On 1/6/2023 at 11:41 PM, Eagle said:

That's really unfair.

 

Amazon's shipping has been getting worse and worse. I have had two recent instances where the tracking information says the package was handed to a resident. But I'm the only resident, and nobody handed anything to me. In fact, one time last summer I was in the driveway tinkering with one of the XJs when an Amazon truck rolled in. I wanted to save the guy some steps so I put down my tools, walked over, and offered to take it from him right at the truck. He said no, the rules required that he put it on the doorstep and take a photo -- which he proceeded to do.

 

Neither of the "handed to a resident" deliveries had a photo, of course. I spotted the first one about a week later -- in the weeds behind the mailbox at the side of the road, between the stone wall and the mailbox post. The second was just a few days ago. It was dropped on the grass beside the driveway about 30 or 40 feet from the house. There were tire marks on the grass, so my guess is that he drove the nose of the truck onto the grass and just dropped it out of the window.

 

I just had ontrac deliver a home depot order and mark it as "left at mail room". I drove to the local store which is a privately operated mail room I use. It wasn't there. I drove home and saw it on the side of the HWY in the ditch by my road soaking wet.

 

[glundblad]

On 12/10/2022 at 11:46 AM, Eagle said:

I had an interesting Thanksgiving. A tree branch took out just the neutral wire between my house and the street, resulting in most of the circuits getting 240 volts instead of 120 volts. A LOT of things got fried (including the heat circulator controller, hot water circulator controller, boiler burner controller, several light fixtures, and my laser printer). I'm still getting things put back to a semblance of normal, which is why I haven't been on here that much recently.

 

 

Which brings me to the request part. Good friends across town invited me to join their family for Thanksgiving dinner, knowing I wasn't able to cook my own. Their 12-year old daughter knows that I have published a few books, so I guess she thinks I'm a "pro." After dinner, she presented me with a printout of a book she wrote -- about a 12-year-old girl dragon. When I got it home and read it, I thought it was remarkably good for a 12-year old. So I got the bright idea to give it a quick edit, format it as a real book, and upload it to Amazon's self publishing site to put it in print. I got together with her father last weekend and we set up an author account linked to her bank account, uploaded the book, and it's now on sale as both a printed book and a Kindle edition.

 

The back story on this is that the author's older brother is severely special needs, so her parents don't have a lot of time to spend with her. That probably explains why she spends a lot of time reading, and now writing. I showed the book to a couple of co-workers who have daughters the same age, and they both said "My daughter couldn't have written that."

 

Eagle, this is a very touching story.  Congratulations on being such a fine human being.

[Eagle]

It would be great if some of you who bought it would post reviews. That one 5-star review is getting lonely ...

 

[JimB]

Bought it for my 13-year-old niece. Waiting for her review.