Run Wild with Bossy Boy
by Hui Zhou
Photographs by Hui Zhou
Rating: 4 Stars
A Wonderful Way to Introduce Children to Chickens
Have you ever dreamt about raising chickens in your backyard? Do you want to learn more about the distinguishing characteristics of chickens? Running Wild with Bossy Boy introduces readers to a lucky flock of chickens that express their traits as they run wild as chickens are supposed to do.
As I mentioned in my previous post, one item on my bucket list is to travel across Canada for a year in an RV. That will probably include a trip to Alaska and into the mid-west area of the United States. This won’t be until all my children have graduated high school.
Like many writers do, before I embark on a journey, I research like crazy. Whether I’m learning the parts of a castle, how heavy a sword weighs or what it’s like to live in an RV, I seek out books, websites and videos to help me get a firm grasp on the subject.
As a writer who wants to live on the road, my research took me to those who were already doing it. Turns out, there are many who travel across the globe and write. The wonderful thing about being a writer is that as long as you have an Internet connection, you can upload your work to publish it or submit it to newspapers and magazines.
I’ve been taking photographs since I was 11 years old. Over the past 39 years, I’ve felt comfortable behind the camera, but I’ve never overcome my discomfort of being in front of it. I’ve seen other authors bite the bullet and create videos on a regular basis and post them to YouTube. It helps get their names and books out there.
They don’t always talk about writing or their books. They create a following with interesting videos on a variety of topics.
I had shared a few videos in the past, but I want to do more. I’ve convinced myself the only way to do that is to gain experience making videos – because I like a challenge and my world isn’t crazy enough.
My first step was to watch videos by different people to see how they went about creating content. There are a wide-range of styles and subjects on YouTube, so it is easy to find something to pique your interest.
When I began practising with my phone to shoot videos, the first issue I noticed was the audio. I saw YouTubers often had a mic clipped to their shirt, so I did a little investigating.
Have you been following cockygate?
What is that, you ask?
Well, hold onto your socks and chickens, it has nothing to do with footwear or fowl and everything to do with romance novels.
First, let me tell you the name of a writer who you have probably never heard of before. It seems this is part of the big mystery: no one knew who this writer was before cockygate became a thing. A copyright thing.
It all started a few days ago when news of an unknown writer getting exclusive rights to use a generic word in a book title hit Twitter. This all sounds very weird, and it’s about to get weirder.
The nobody’s name is Faleena Hopkins. The story begins for this woman on June 16, 2016 when she published the first book in the Cocky romance series. Since then, a few more books were published.
Over the past year or so, she’s claimed other romance writers have used the word ‘cocky’ to copycat her stories because there were so good, famous, long . . . cocky. This led to her claim that other writers used the same stock image as she did to get sales, tricking unsuspecting writers into buying their book instead of hers.
Today, I’m supposed to be writing a genealogy column, sizing up a cover for a self-published author and helping two other authors self-publish their books, but I can’t continue with these tasks until I write this post.
I seldom – almost never – sign out of my WordPress account, so I have no idea what the site looks like to visitors. Imagine my surprise when I signed out today to update the site for an organisation I perform secretary duties for and found THIS!
A welcomed message arrived in my inbox this evening. Amazon’s KDP Print will now provide self-published authors with the option of purchasing a proof of their book before it goes on sale for the public. The message also stated writers could purchase author copies.
In my post, dated April 17, 2017 (read Amazon’s New KDP Print Feature is Bad News for CreateSpace Users), one of the major drawbacks of KDP Print over CreateSpace was the inability to order proofs and author copies.
CreateSpace marked its proofs with a large “PROOF” across the last page. KDP Print will take this one step further and “have a ‘Not for Resale’ watermark on the cover and a unique barcode but no ISBN”.
I’m not sure why the extra security is needed since proof copies were the same price as author copies and if a proof was good enough, more copies could be purchased. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
With this ever-changing publishing world, it’s good to explore other options before the need arises. I feel this way about paperback printing services now that CreateSpace seems to be going the way of the megafauna. Before Amazon Print scuttles the boat (read Amazon’s New KDP Print Feature is Bad News for CreateSpace Users), I want my books settled on solid ground at another printer, so I can still get copies with short notice.
At a friend’s recommendation, I tried the printing services of Lulu. She had printed several of her books using their service. She showed me samples, and the quality was good. I uploaded a book and ordered a copy to see how easy it was and to compare it with the quality from CreateSpace.
Lulu accepted interior files created with CreateSpace’s template, so I didn’t have to redo the book to order the sample. I later learned they accept InDesign files, too, as I assumed they would.
Since this was a new program for me, there were a few stumbles, but overall the process wasn’t too difficult. Ordering copies was easy. The benefit of Lulu is they accept PayPal. This is excellent for everyone who doesn’t have a credit card.
