Christmas in the Land of a Million Christmas Trees

For eight years I lived in a wonderland nicknamed “the land of a million Christmas trees”, and it really was. A mile above sea level in the Canadian Rockies, we started celebrating Christmas in November. By the end of October everything was covered in deep snow, and by early November the local ski hill was open.

Once our little lake was frozen, the horse-drawn sleigh rides started and the grounds crew started cutting the simple ice castle right out of the lake. Skating on the lake commenced as soon as it was safe. Once the castle was done, our talented sous-chef would carve Santa, the sled, and all eight reindeer for the top. One year he modelled Santa after me because I was walking by and had a full beard and he was artistically having trouble getting the the face right. My portrait in ice. :)

Santa and the cutest elves on the planet.

Busloads of seniors came up for special lunches starting in November and they would be entertained by our choir singing carols, and finally a visit from St. Nick himself. For three years, I was the go-to guy as Santa, doing upwards of 17 shows a season. It was an absolutely marvellous, joyous time. If you think kids love Santa, try an 80-year-old sweetie on oxygen when Santa says to her “You haven’t been to see me in awhile, dear. (she’d giggle) It’s okay, I still believe in YOU.” There is ALWAYS a child in us, waiting to be seen and recognized with love and joy, no matter the path that led us to that moment.

Lovers on Ice at Lake Louise.

After the Chateau Lake Louise Christmas Eve Nativity play.

I truly miss those years, and if you think that it was all about the commercial part of Christmas you’d be very wrong. On Christmas Eve we had a live-animal nativity re-enactment, narrated by our great boss. For four years, I played Joseph. Some years it was -35 and others only -20c, but we always had a great time. One year we had a live baby Jesus, too, and SHE was wonderful in the role. I think that was the year one of the goats escaped and vanished overnight to the other end of the lake where it hunkered down under a tree until it was rescued.

Christmas Day, Santa came back for one post-fly-around-the-world-in-one-night visit to give out a few final gifts and relax with cookies, cocoa, and dance the Macarena with the kids.

This was our Christmas. All 700-plus of us staff and over 1000 guests.

This was Christmas at Chateau Lake Louise, in Banff National Park.

Merry Christmas!

Ciao for now,

T-Bone.

And Then the Work Paid Off! A Novel Sold!

It is with great pleasure that I announce the acquisition of my somewhat romantic paranormal novel, “Waking Anastasia”, by Tyche Books of Calgary, for release in 2016.

For me this is a monumentous event, as it confirms that what I think of as a delightful story about life, death, and dying is shared by someone who isn’t a family member.

So what is “Waking Anastasia” about? Well, here’s the pitch that got the manuscript read in the first place:

Why should being murdered keep Anastasia Romanova from living it up a little? She’s just a ghost, floating in front of a boy, wanting to be loved.

When Jerry Powell inherits a torn, bloodstained book of poetry he has no idea that it contains the soul of Anastasia Romanova. But when he accidentally awakens the royal ghost, he discovers that death hasn’t dulled her sense of mischief and joy for life whatsoever. Now he just has to keep up with her while dealing with a new job, a new city, and the possibility of a brain tumour.

“Waking Anastsia” is a humour-filled, paranormal, love story pitting a dying radio station manager soured on love and women against the ever-optimistic, century-dead teenaged Grand Duchess.

Alexandra Romanova and her four daughters, including Anastasia, second from the right.

I will be blogging much more later on about how the story started as a dream, became a screenplay, and then morphed into a novel. There will be all sorts of stuff about the research to bring Anastasia to life “as never before” as one critiquer has said, as well as where the history and the fiction blend.

Film rights are still available, so hurry. 2018 is the 100th anniversary of Anastasia’s murder. :)

That’s it, that’s all. Watch this page for further details in the months to come.

Thank you for all of your support. For a complete list of my currently available stories, check out my Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003KCV338.

Ciao for now,

Tim.

www.tgmreynolds.com

The Broken Shield for KOBO!

Yes indeed do, my earth-shaking (literally) urban fantasy e-novel, The Broken Shield, is now available for Kobo. Check it out at Kobobooks.com, where it has reached as high as #34 in Contemporary Fantasy.

Phoenix

This is a special announcement, because the book was written about and for a very special girl, Phoenix. Yes, to you who never met her, Phoenix was just a dog, but for those who met her and felt her energy wrap around your heart, she was something special. Unfortunately, four weeks ago Phoenix’ heart trouble resurfaced in a major way and she told us that it was time to let her go. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but it had to be done.

The Broken Shield, by Timothy Reynolds

I will dedicate an entire blog or two to life with Phoenix (and the pain of life without her), but suffice it to say, heart and soul, she’s a big part of The Broken Shield, and my life was all the better for having had her in it.

That’s it, that’s all.

Ciao for now.

T-Bone

www.tgmreynolds.com

Remembrance Day & Politicians

A group called “Our Duty” has gone public with a request that politicians stay away from November 11th Remembrance Day events. They say it is because the day is about remembering and memorializing, not about photo ops and politics. Here is the original article: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/no-photos-of-stephen-harper-or-any-other-politician-during-remembrance-day-please-group-askse.

Sorry, but I disagree with Our Duty. It IS about politics, because the men and women who have made wartime sacrifices did it so we could have the freedom to practice the politics of our choice. We elect politicians to represent us and speak for us on a global scale, and so this is right. Yes, remember the fallen, but allow the leaders who represent the nation they fell for to show solidarity and respect.

I would be more upset if our leaders did NOT show up at war monuments during this one solemn day a year. The elected officials who send our young people to die in foreign lands defending the rights and freedoms of others have a right themselves to publicly show that the decision is never easy and that they will not hide behind policies and committees.

Remembrance Day isn’t just about soldiers, it’s about humans, and what one human will sacrifice to defend the rights of another human. We should not forget the non-military personnel lost when the battles came to their homes and they stood beside the soldiers we sent over. Most of our troops get to come home…the locals ARE home.

So, let the leaders appear…but ban the media. It’s not a circus without the media making it so. The less-ethical politicians will keep themselves away if there’s no media, while the true leaders will still be there.

That’s my opinion.
Take it or leave it.

Ciao for now.

Tim.

Free for Kindle?

I know I’m going about this in the wrong order but I finally self-pubished my novel “The Broken Shield” as an eBook exclusively on Amazon for 90 days.

The Broken Shield by Timothy Reynolds

Very quickly, the reason for an Amazon exclusive was to have access to the Kindle Select features, which includes the ability to do a free giveaway for one to five days. This past weekend (September 13 & 14) I had a two-days-for-free giveaway of “The Broken Shield”. The book launched on July 21 for $2.99 and between then and August 23rd, a grand total of 22 eBooks sold. Then, for the next 20 days, not a single damned copy was downloaded. That’s right, not a one. But that’s okay, because 21 friends and family had already supported me. I bought the 22nd copy, back when it was the first copy. I knew the steam would run out on the book eventually, and it did.

So, zero sales for the 20 days leading up to this past weekend. The Kindle Select program requires a Kindle-exclusive for 90 days, but offers up, amongst other things, 5 days total of free giveaway. Not having done this before, I decided not to use up all 5 days at once, but rather go for the entire weekend. Two day of free. Another goal was to keep costs to zero, because there’s no point in spending a fortune in order to give something away. In order to promote this, I decided to only use social media. Facebook and Twitter are my go-to social medias, and even Twitter is seldom used, by me, at least.

This was my first post on Facebook:

Okay, Kindle-owners (and app-users)… My urban fantasy eNovel is now free! Go get it! If you read it and don’t like it, I will give you your money back, but only if you get it this weekend!

Where else will you find a history-bending adventure in which the hero has MS, hangs out with a whistling pixie, and can compare Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler and make sense? This is NOT satire. It’s a story of the battle for our souls, with plenty of fighting, some humour, and warning about all those security cameras you see around you.

From Lake Louise to Tasmania to Tokyo to London to Chile to Holland to Central Park and even Mecca… can you handle the adventure, the danger, the broken hearts, and the sacrifices made for us by complete strangers?

The response took a few hours, but then the downloads started. Throughout the course of two days I made 9 posts on Facebook and 4 tweets. I also kept FB friends, apprised of progress, and made sure to express all the gratitude I was feeling.

On Saturday, downloads kept climbing, andI kept posting. On Sunday, I cut way back on posting to see the difference between heavy whoring and mild petting when the price is zero.

So, what happened once the freebee ball got rolling? Saturday saw 79 copies downloaded. On Sunday, 29 kind souls went for the download thing. That’s 108 copies! But it didn’t end there, because wherever Amazon is based out of, there were a few hours of Monday which were still Sunday for everyone else. Three more copies were uploaded. 111 total. Wow.

That’s 111 new readers. One cool thing about Amazon is that it lets me get a breakdown of which Amazon online stores saw which numbers. It doesn’t tell if if two Amazon.com buyers were from the USA and one from Mexico, but it does tell me that two used amazon.com and one used Amazon.com.mx.

That said, here is how 111 downloads break down, by Amazon websites:

• Amazon.com: 57 Saturday + 19 Sunday = 76 Total
• Amazon.ca (Canada): 11 + 4 = 15
• Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom): 9 + 3 = 12
• Amazon.de (Germany): 2 + 3 + 1 Monday = 6
• Amazon.com.au (Australia): 0 + 0 + 1 = 1
• Amazon.com.br (Brazil): 0 + 0 + 1 = 1

 

And the next step is… Well, if this was just about selling/downloading, I’d move on to the next marketing tool, through Google or some such. But this is an experiment, a learning process. It’s sloppy experiment with no control group or true scientific method, but it’s still an experiment. The next step is to see if word-of-mouth can make any sales. Will anyone actually read it? Will they tell anyone else about it, and will any of those people buy the book now that the price has gone back up to the crippling $2.99USD?

“The Broken Shield” is a 101,000-word novel, so few people will read it in the next few days. When people do get around to reading it, not everyone will tell anyone or write a review. If they’re anything like me, they’ll take awhile to read it, and then they’ll forget to review it either on Amazon or on Goodreads, so I will remind them on a week or so.

My hope is that 20% will actually read it and maybe 25% of them will review it. That’s five or six reviews, and in the review world five favourable Goodreads reviews can start the ball rolling.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

In closing, here are the rest of the posts I put up on my Facebook wall and Twitter:

2: (Repeated on FB Author Page, too)  Money is just money, but a reader is someone you have touched with your words. My free-for-this-weekend promotion has just added 17 readers this morning. That’s as many as the total from July 21 to yesterday. I will make about $20 less in royalties, but 17 more people will now have a chance to join me in a story world where pixies are disguised as dogs, a Sasquatch is named Beauty, and the Shields of Light don’t just sacrifice their lives for us, they EACH do it over and over, for more than the last two thousand years.The Aussie link: (part of it is set in Tasmania!) US link (part is set in Central Park)

Canadian link (part is set in Lake Louise!)The UK link (part is set in London! 

3: It’s only available in English, but if your account is in Japan, here’s the link:  Part of it is set in Tokyo and one of the heroes is a Japanese woman living in South Africa.

4: Yes, my wall is full of my book today. It’s only a two-day promotion and I’m only using free social media to promote it. This is all part of my experiment, to see what can be done with a great story for little $$ outlay in marketing.

5: One last post before I leave you all alone and get some work done around the house…One of the favourite characters in The Broken Shield (free for Kindle today & tomorrow!!) with readers so far is Arvinder… a sassy, stylish, 2000-year-old gay East Indian living in London. You can call him any name you want, but don’t try to keep Arvinder from doing his duty for mankind—he’s a two-sword master and one of the deadliest people on the planet. Oh, and he has a wicked sense both of humour and style.

 

Phoenix

 6: I lied. A final book-whoring post for the morning, because people love dogs.This is Phoenix. She’s one of the heroines in The Broken Shield, and she’s not all she appears to be. Her story is free for Kindle today and tomorrow.

TWITTER:

1: Free eBook! 2 days only! Check it out! An urban fantasy novel with a hero with MS, and a smartphone app from Hell. (Amazon Link)

2: 1 Japanese heroine & brief scene in Tokyo, my (free 4 Kindle 2 days) eBook should be avail. in Japan (in English) (Amazon Japan Link)

3: And for Australians (and everyone else) today, my eBook for Kindle is FREE! (Amazon Australia)

Ciao for now,

Tim.

Yo, Canada!

Happy Canada Day EVERYONE.

Wherever you are in the world, whatever your nationality, help us celebrate our nation’s birthday. Why? Because you are welcome here.

For 147 years we’ve been doing our best to build a nation that has open doors and open arms, whether you’re fleeing or vacationing.

We are the largest country in the world, but one of the least regionally-segregated (no matter how Quebec rattles the separation sabre). We’re all proud of where we call home, but we don’t beat each other up over it.

Lake Oesa in Yoho National Park, BC

We’re far from perfect, but instead of denial and a rant from a pulpit, you’ll get an apology…and a coupon for Tim Horton’s.

We don’t want to run the world, we just want to help it run better.

If the US, China, and Russia are the bullies, the Brits are the -self-appointed upper crust, the Aussie’s are the friend out back with the dirty mags and Dad’s beer, then Canada is the Boy Scout. Not dumb, not smart, just plodding along, trying to be prepared while the rest of the world ignores us or yells at us or makes fun of our funny uniforms.

We follow others into a war but we’ll lead the charge when we’re needed.

We don’t fear the enemy, we fear apathy.

We don’t pound our chest to say how great Canadians are (except right now), we pound the table of international human rights and say how great we ALL are.

My family has been in North America for almost 400 years, and in Canada for over 250 years. We didn’t build it with doors to keep people out or people in, we built it as a gathering place.

One mean of the Iroquoian word ‘kanata’ is ” settlement”. So settle by the fire, put your feet up, and help us celebrate a day we’re glad to share with the world.

There will be beer and fireworks later.

Happy Canada Day.

Ciao for now,

T-Bone

An Imagined Conversation based on a Real Finding

Seen on the ground next to a bus bench: two used pregnancy test kits and an empty pack of smokes.

The conversation that went with them? Maybe this is how it went…

“Can I bum a smoke?”

“Sure, but not if you’re pregnant.”

“I’m not.”

“Prove it.”

“Okay.” Pees on tester. “See. Not pregnant.”

“Maybe. But you got that from the Dollar Store, so how do we know it’s accurate?”

“Cuz I got two of them. I’ll do it again. This time you hold it, to prove I’m not messing with it.”

“Okay.”

Pees on second stick. “See. NOT pregnant.”

Wipes pee-wet hand on own shirt. “Fine. Here’s a smoke. Do you need a light, Steve?”

“Nah. I’m good.”

Pack o’ smokes.
by Sam D-Amico (samdamico.photoshelter.com)

***

That’s it, that’s all.

Ciao for now,

T-Bone.