I muse at length on the new Amazon offering over at Mad Genius Club.

I’m reminded of the old admonishment, be careful what you wish for. You might get it. The Genie in Scheherazade’s tales of Arabian Nights was a most literal being. So are computers, come to think of it. Unless you define your parameters, you might not like the results of your wishes.

So I am cautious, when presented with the latest in bright shiny prospects. It might be an opportunity, a chance to reach into the bag and pull out the tool I need for the job at hand, and there might be a beartrap in there ready to close on my fingers.

It’s not that I don’t trust Amazon, it’s that I don’t need to trust Amazon. When presented with the latest and greatest reason to sign onto KDP select with my books, I’m mulling it over from a business standpoint before I plunge right in.

Read More Here…

In other thoughts, I have had the opportunity twice this last week to get outside and take photos. Once for me, once for you. I wanted to do an updated shoot of myself-with-book for the blog, and it was a good excuse to take a walk. I’m carrying a copyright 1900 copy of Arabian Nights, and at one point I started reading it out loud to my First Reader, as the language is very old-fashioned and absurd. It’s been a while since I read any of my antiques, I was staring at it while he took photos and couldn’t help reading it. Text just draws me right in!

So here are a few I took, the shots for the Book Dryad my First Reader did (ever-patient, that man), and a link to many more if you enjoy photos of bugs, birds, and flowers.

Dragonfly
Dragonfly
pollinators
A butterfly and a bee share a spacious echinacea
cox arboretum
Black Swallowtail
Dragonfly
Dragonfly with blue body
wild rabbit
Wild bunny!
Book Dryad
Reading out loud to my photographer…
Reading
He’s looking over my shoulder… Does someone reading over your shoulder bother you?
Book Dryad
Arabian Nights, the tale of a woman who saved her own life with words knit into stories.