"Fifteen Ways To Earn Extra Cash At Home"

That's the title of my latest eBook at Lulu.com. I am getting addicted to this publishing online thing. It's almost like working a jigsaw puzzle--you carefully gather all the pieces you need and then put each one where it belongs. When you are finished, voila--a masterpiece--the puzzle I mean. The eBook isn't always quite that great.

Anyway, for the price, $5.95, I can say it is a steal, even if I did write it myself. How about the rest of you out there? I mentioned self-publishing in an earlier blog entry when I put my last eBook online. Have any of you given it a try? Even if you never sell a single copy, there is something really satisfying about seeing your book, with your name as the author on the front cover, right out there in plain sight for everyone to see.

In this eBook, I have written a chapter each on 15 different things you can do to earn money at home. Most of them I've actually done myself--I guess I should have included writing eBooks, but maybe I'll make that the subject of my next eBook. Anyway, the jobs I cover in the book have all been done by me personally, or by someone I know, so you might say they have been tested and proven to work.

If you are among those who would like to earn a little extra cash from home, or know of someone who does, why not check it out? It has a few nice photos and some pretty detailed information about how to do each job to make money at home so I think you will really like it. Fifteen Ways To Earn Extra Cash At Home

That's it for today. If this eBook writing gets to be much more fun, I won't have time to blog anymore and that would really be bad, because I like to do that, too.

(To see my earlier, Bible Basics Workbook for Kids, eBook Click Here .)

"You Were My Favorite Teacher"

After a lot of years of teaching at different grade levels, I moved to a town about 25 miles from where I had done most of my teaching. Over the years, I occasionally ran into a former student and was amazed to find that they still remembered me. Sometimes they had to clue me in as to who they were since they had grown up in the meantime and changed a bit more in looks than I had.

Anyway, not long ago, I ordered a sandwich at the speaker of an Arby's Roast Beef restaurant, and when I drove up to the window, a young woman I didn't recognize came dashing over to the window. "You're Mrs. Gibson," she cried. "You were my very favorite teacher." A bit embarrassed, I asked her name. As soon as she told me, I did remember the little girl with pigtails that had been so appealing to me 20 years earlier.

I redeemed myself a little by telling her exactly where she had sat in my class and by mentioning the pigtails, and since no one was behind me, we were able to chat a while, and she repeated that she had remembered me because I was her very favorite teacher.

I'm sure my head must have started to swell as I imagined that it must have been because I had taught her how to write clearly, or had helped her plan that science project that had won a prize, or maybe it was because I finally got the idea of how fractions worked across to her in math.

I didn't have to imagine for long, because then she said; "You want to know why you were my favorite teacher? It was because you took us skating on the last day of school and bought us each a Coke afterwards."

I guess it's a good thing they don't let students pick out who is going to be the "teacher of the year."

Ever Tried "Do It Yourself" Publication?

My articles have been published numerous times over the years in magazines, newspapers, church newsletters, etc., but until I joined a writer’s group, the idea of actually writing a book had never entered my mind. Even then, I didn’t give book writing much serious thought, because those who had published books shared their tales of woe with the rest of us about how difficult it was to even get an editor to look at a manuscript, let alone consider it for publication.

Recently though, I began to think how nice it might be to gather together the lessons I had taught to middle school Sunday school kids and have them printed in workbook form. The lessons covered everything from Salvation to Choosing Friends That Please God, and seemed very well received by the kids I had been privileged to teach. Not that I aspired to approach a famous publisher with my small 40-page workbook, but perhaps I could figure out an inexpensive way to do it myself so that other parents could benefit from what I had already put together and used successfully with kids.

I read a couple of books I highly recommend to anyone who is considering self publishing, especially for books that are slanted to a specific group of people. The first was called, The Well-Fed Writer, by Peter Bowerman, and the other was, The Well-Fed Self Publisher, also by Peter Bowerman.

The first book covers the nuts and bolts of how to go about planning a book from beginning to end, and how to market it afterwards. The second, is a bit more technical on the publishing end and shows you how you can publish your own book and continue to make a profit from it for many years to come.

I learned a lot from both books, but decided I wasn’t really after making a big profit from my book, but rather to have all my lessons in one volume for parents to use at home with their kids. A friend told me about lulu.com where you can set up a downloadable book for free, and only pay a small commission for books that are actually purchased. It seemed too good to be true to this older lady living on a fixed income, but it was true. And the fun I had choosing the format and cover for the book made me want to write a big bunch of books so I could do it all over again. Who knows—maybe I will.

Anyway, the result of my efforts is a downloadable ebook called, Bible Basics For Kids, and is available for only $1.50 at this link Bible Basics for anyone who might be interested. Unfortunatly, they don’t send the cover with the book---but I’m pretty sure you’ll find the other 40-some pages are well-worth the money anyway.

"Abandon" Doesn't Have To Be A Dirty Word

I have never cared for the word, abandon. In my mind, it always conjured up only negative visions.

However, just recently, I have come to the conclusion that there are many things in my life that actually need to be abandoned. There is not enough time left in my life to accomplish even a small fraction of the projects I have started and bogged down in over the years.

My sewing room is full of half-done garments; my spare bedroom bookshelf contains more books than I could read if I read from daylight til dark for the next ten years; three drawers of my desk overflow with partially written articles and even a novel or two; and there is a huge box in the family room filled with brochures from all the places I truly intended to visit. I even have an idle keyboard with half a dozen music books and a guitar tucked safely away in its case in hopes that, someday, I will find time to learn to play one or both of them. And that isn't counting the dreams I have of coming up with a way to make a fortune online, etc., etc.

I can't describe the stress all these unfinished projects have placed upon me. Every Monday, I make a new, "to do" list for the week and include at least one long term unfinished project, only to find on Friday, that another week has ended with most of my "to do" items still undone.
Sound familiar?

But tell me this. Is there any law, written or unwritten, that says we have to finish every project we ever start?

So, after spending some time this afternoon contemplating the meaning of "abandon" I have come to the conclusion that discarding most of the projects I described above would be a very liberating experience. I'm going to do it! I am going to commit abandonment......

Will I feel guilty? Probably--at least for a little while, but I suspect the guilt will pass. Anyone care to join me?