What am I?

I started thinking about an old game earlier; where items are concealed in cloth bags and identified by touch, others are in jars and have to be picked out by taste or smell, and the train of thought trundled down a branch line and I wondered about myself.

My first books strayed on to the internet via Smashwords in August, a blast through November started the next one, What You Ask For, available as it was written on the Smashwords Nanowrimo page. Having someone downloading and reading the draft as it appeared on Smashwords took a bit of getting used to, but I enjoyed the buzz. The earlier titles have all appeared on the various channels where Smashwords distributes to. (Not Amazon - technical issues).

Find the book was the challenge in the first weeks after publication, tracking down the page on the site where they arrived for sale at Diesel, Kobo, Sony, or wherever. Eye-balling the cover design on each site; it was the description at Diesel that caught my eye; Indie Author.

I smiled at that, to me it has a cool ring to it, but I guess there will be many reactions each one coloured by the perception of the individual.

Why do I think it is cool? It's the word independent, indie, (there's a nod to Indie of the Indiana Jones stories). It has the edge of a maverick, a loner, the character who rides into the dusty town and sorts out the mess and then rides out again, answerable to no-one. That's the key!

Answerable to no-one. It's the crazy who sticks their neck out and does something with no safety net and nobody to blame if everything goes pear shaped; I did It, it was me! An acceptance of personal responsibility.

At the end of the day, there is a book, checked and proof read, formatted with a cover design and out there for you the reader.

The books are for you, Reader, and at this time of year I can echo the words of Dickens in his preface to A Christmas Carol; that they shall not put you out of humour with yourself, each other, or with me. Should they be enjoyed at this holiday or later in the year when the sun reaches into bones chilled by winter, as the days lengthen, and warm evenings and cool drinks beckon us out of doors. Enjoy them and share them with your friends.