Saturday Ramblings

Happy Saturday friends!! I hope this post finds you well. I wanted to do a post for you all today, but admit I still have no direction as to where to take it. So the result... Saturday Ramblings.

Who knows, maybe this will be the start of something beautiful.

I feel like this should at least follow some sort of blind related topic. Let's see if I can keep this together. Ready... Set... Go!!!!

For those of you who are sighted and reading this... How does it look? No just kidding. But really, for those of you who are seers, what brings you to the blog? Is it to learn more about blindness? Are you perhaps going blind yourself? Or, maybe you have a family member who is blind? Lastly, are you part of my amazing inner circle and feel obligated to check this page out for solidarity purposes? Hey no shame in my game... whatever the reason that brought you here, I'll take it. I just hope you decide to stay a while.

For my fellow blindy's... What's up my people?!?! Okay that was super lame. Oh well. I love to connect with blindy's. I think that is true for all people though right? What I mean is, It's important to connect with all different kinds of people. It is especially important however, to connect with people who are in similar situations to ourselves. This way we have that sense that we are indeed not alone in this great big world of ours.

So on to some rambling...

First, to all the book lovers out there. I am currently reading an amazing book called The Hate You Give. I really love this book. I am right on the verge of finishing it and I will be sad to see it go. This book is very relevant to things that are going on in today's society. I have not read one like this before and I am glad I found it. Would you like to see a book review of it when I am finished? If you guys want to see things like that I am happy to deliver. Let me know in the comments.

Second, I just started taking a braille class from the Hadley Institute For The Blind. Have any of you taken this class? If so, what did you think of it? Let everyone know in the comments. I will have to reserve judgement for the time being. I literally just started the course today. I liked what I saw so far though.

Third, I just got confirmation that the second half of my CBA will be started next month. I will be working in the school district's bus garage. Wow... hold on a minute... how many of you literally just pictured me behind the wheel of a great big yellow school bus equipped with my cane taped to the front? Wouldn't that be fantastic??? I think I could completely rock it as a bus driver.

Unfortunately, they did not agree with me. Whatever though... I know I can get them on my side eventually.

But really though, I am looking forward to giving this a shot. I will be working for a couple weeks in the office. The staff has been super helpful so far. They have a lot of ideas on what I can do during my time with them. Some of the work is stuff I am totally familiar with. Other tasks... not so much. I am going to do my best though and I know I will rock it! And if I can't... well... If all else fails, i will fake it til I make it right?

Fourth, My quest to learn Power Point and Google Slides continues. I think this is an important skill to learn. It will help me if I go back to school and it will help me on the job as well. How many Jaws users are good with this? I would love to pick your brain. Let me know in the comments.

Ryan and I still want to start a blindness group in our local area. We can't decide what kind of group to create though. We can do just a group for blind people to support and connect with one another. We are also toying with the idea of starting a group for parents of blind children. This last one is the one we are leaning towards the most. This is not to say we don't want to connect with fellow blindy's. We totally do. But we both have a passion to help people. Being a sighted parent of a blind child can be overwhelming. Navigating those waters can be rough. We would love to help people with that. The only problem we have is that our community is not very large. Having a group for one or the other may mean the group will be super small. This isn't a bad thing, just something to consider. What do you guys think? Should we do separate groups are a combined? Let me know down in the comments.

I feel like i have rambled enough don't you? Thank you for listening and or reading. Do you have an idea for a blog post? Is there a question about blindness burning in your mind? If so, message me or put it in the comments.

Keep your head up guys and let's chat soon.

To self publish or not to self publish

So as pretty much all of you know, I have been trying my hand at the self-publishing gig for the past couple years now. I only have the one book out. You can find clandestine in print and also in e-book online at Amazon, and Barnes & Noble and whatnot. However as I lay here in bed, I keep circling around the same question… What am I doing? Do I really have any business self-publishing?

Let's face the facts…

I really have absolutely zero experience with the book industry. I do not know anything about distribution. I have no idea on where to start with marketing tactics. Platform? I don't even have a stepstool LOL

In order to make money at selling books, you need to have money so that you can advertise and get your book in people's faces. I am not going to lie, I don't have a lot of money to do that. I would love to… I need to… It's crucial for the life of my career after all. So what now then?

If you stood there for more than five seconds… Looking completely puzzled… And finally coming to the conclusion that you had no answer to the last question… You pretty much were just looking in the mirror at me!

Part of me is very highly considering trying the traditional publishing route. I do love the concept, theory, and overall freedom that self-publishing has to offer. The only problem is, with some of the problems listed above as well as some that have not even been mentioned, it might not be the right choice for everyone. And by everyone, I mean myself mainly.

Nothing is set in stone yet. I have not made any final decisions. I have just been having trouble sleeping lately, and thereby, millions of ideas are bouncing around my poor head. I am mostly mind babbling, vent rambling, and trying to put myself into a sleep coma by overworking my brain I guess LOL

I worry that if I have already started the self-publishing game… How can I possibly get my foot in the door on the total opposite end of the field? Also, since the series bound in blood has started self published… Should be finished self published? Is it possible to start one way and and a completely other direction? I have no idea

I would absolutely love to find an author who has gone through this same situation that I am now. Basically, I am hoping that someone will let me completely pick apart their brains until I can make a decision for myself. I figure there probably has to be at least one person out there who has thought about this, and hopefully even tried it. If I'm lucky, I will be able to find someone was successful at it. Or, if nothing else, someone who can tell me that I'm being a complete and utter spaz and that I should just stay right where I'm at and do completely what I'm doing. I would be cool with either option really

Is this really something that I should be talking about in the public eye? The answer that I have come up with is who knows? I know I sure don't. However, I figure the only way to find someone that might have an idea for me is to put it out there. Besides, they always said that honesty is the best policy. I am not to this day completely sure who they are, but they sure seem to know their stuff

For now, this is all I have to say on this subject. I will probably come back and talk about this sometime in the future. Hopefully, I will be blessed to give you a rational well-thought-out decision. If not, sorry for that… Hope you enjoy the ride anyway… Until then, look before you leap

Great Deal Alert!

Hey everyone:) I just wanted to drop you all a little not about a totally great deal I just learned about from a group on Good reads for audio books.

A great publisher named Tantor is offering audio books for as low as $6.95. This is for books that you download and also for books on CD! Please keep in mind however, the price listed above is if U.S. dollars, so prices may be different if you live outside of the United states.

All you have to do to take advantage of this great offer is visit Tantors website.

As I said, this is just a short little note. I just had to pass along this deal for all of you audio book lovers. Happy Reading :)

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

How Do You Like To Read?

Many people whether they are blind or sighted have different theories on the best way to read. I myself have grown acustomed and to love audio books. I love the freedom of downloading them from audible (dot) com. I just download all the books I want to my iPhone and listen to my heart's content.

I have heard that some blindy's like to read eBooks. In order to do this I hear that they use the talking software in their device to read them the material presented on the screen. While I have never tried this method, I'm not totally sure it would be for me. I personally prefer to have the narration come to me in dramatic acting style rather than a computerated voice.

This is not to say that it is not a perfectly wonderful way to enjoy reading. I'd like to sound off to my readers on this. What do you think? Whether you're blind, sighted or anything else, how do you like to read? If you are a fellow blindy, do you read eBooks? Let me know what you think in the comment section of this post.