"Roundheads and Ramblings"

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Trumpets! Confetti! Funny Hats! Screaming Crowds!

Posted on Wednesday, November 15, 2017 12:37 PM

It's Time to Celebrate

Today, Katzenhaus Books proudly announces the release of their new book, The Second Mouse Goes Digital: Self-Publishing Comes of Age.

This new volume completely updates and expands its popular predecessor, The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese: How To Avoid the Traps of Self-Publishing. The publishing world has undergone major changes since 2011. New software, new social media platforms, new publishing companies, new industry standards, and an epidemic of new scammers--all demand that anyone involved in self-publishing, or even considering it, must take a fresh look at the industry as a whole.

Some cheese ages well, so we have included all the old advice that still works today. But other cheeses are best sampled fresh, so you'll find new suggestions for helpful software, reliable publishers, and innovative techniques for creating self-published books that are indiscernible from those books issued by mainstream publishers. For suggestions, we turned to some famous rodents in children's literature to seek advice, and we've picked the newest recommendations from our family of literary mice.

If you have written a book, or are in the middle of writing one, or even thinking about writing a book, you need the advice of The Second Mouse at your fingertips. Order your Kindle version today at a temporarily-reduced price of just $2.99. The trade paper edition will become available in just a few days. Stay tuned for that announcement. And in the meantime,

Happy Writing!

from author Carolyn P. Schriber and all her mousey friends.

No, You Can't Have Any More Green Beans until You Finish Your Chocolate!

Posted on Friday, February 26, 2016 11:58 AM

The following article appeared on "The Bright Side" Facebook posting this morning. Scientists have discovered that you can eat as much chocolate as you want — here’s why:

It’s always great to find an excuse to do something that you love more often. Eating chocolate, for example.Very fortunately for many of us, science now favors this sweet habit. Here’s the big reason why being a ’’chocoholic’’ is no longer something to be worried about.

Chocolate makes us smarter.

That’s right. This is a scientific fact! 968 people aged between 23 and 98 participated in a study that was devoted to discovering the health benefits of eating chocolate. It turned out that those who ate chocolate more often had a better developed visual memory, a more impressive ability to memorize things, better abstract thinking, and better powers of concentration. In addition, scientists found that eating chocolate slows down the aging of the brain and prevents the appearance of diseases like dementia.

The substances within chocolate that have these beneficial effects on our mental activity are called ’’cocoa flavanols.’’ However, the majority of these substances were found in dark chocolate, and only in smaller quantities in milk and white chocolate. So as you can see, the chance of getting the benefits here depends on the type of chocolate.

We here at Bright Side think this is the best news ever. We’re going to the store to load up on choc. We need it so that we can work better — and so you do!

Kudos to a Company Who Gets Customer Service Right

Posted on Monday, February 1, 2016 4:44 PM

We hear so many complaints these days on Facebook and other sites that negative attitudes build up quickly. It seems only fair that at least once in a while we also report the good things that happen. Here's what happened to me today.

We have used Cook's Pest Control in Memphis for years. They come by four times a year and treat for bug infestations--everything from tiny ants to wasp nests to spider webs are quickly and efficiently taken care of. But they have one device to discover what kind of pests are around that I loathe. They uses sticky pads, black, about 6 inches by 3 inches and coated with the world's most tenacious goop. So far, they have not caught anything larger than a good-sized wolf spider, although I'm sure they could also permanently disable a good-sized mouse (but I have cats for that!)

But I have to modify that statement. They haven't caught much that was ALIVE! My garbage can was a different story. One of those pads was placed underneath the can, so that when I attempted to roll it to the curb, a wheel went over the sticky pad, and we stopped dead. It was more effective than those wheel blocks the cops use to disable a car with too many parking tickets. I eventually managed to pry the pad loose, but it took hours of toil and sweat equity to dissolve the connections between wheel and pad. I chalked that up to my own failure to look carefully before I moved the can.

However, yesterday, with the sun out and temperatures in the 70s, I decided to sweep my front porch. Off I went to the garage to find my brand new corn-straw broom. I found it all right. It wasn't going anywhere. It was standing upright, every straw fiber planted firmly in another one of those sticky pads. How many fibers does it take to make up a standard-sized broom? I certainly don't know, but there's no way I'm cleaning goop off of every one of those strands. The broom is a goner.

So today, I decided to inform the company of what I thought about their sticky pads. Actually, I think I was fairly polite about it, and all I suggested was that they ask their technicians to seek permission before placing those pads where an unsuspecting customer (or broom) might fall victim to them.

Now, here's the good news. Within a hour after I posted my little diatribe to the company website, my phone rang. It was a Cook's representative, calling to apologize for the inconvenience and telling me that they would be taking $15.00 off my bill so that I could purchase a new broom. I am impressed! The gesture cost them $15.00, but the good will it engendered was priceless. Wouldn't it be nice if every company had such customer service? That's too much to ask for, I suppose, but it's a good object lesson for all of us in our dealings with others.

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good news

Trumpets! Confetti! Funny Hats! Screaming Crowds!

No, You Can't Have Any More Green Beans until You Finish Your Chocolate!

Kudos to a Company Who Gets Customer Service Right