Month: October 2013

“Spice and Me”…It was a wonderful Relationship!


Spice and Me.doc Last October I wrote a blog “Spice and Me…a little longer together. Well, this morning at 7:16am Spice passed away after a four month battle with cancer. She’s now with God in heaven!
I want to honor Spice and reblog the story about the six-year relationship we had together.

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People love their pets and I am one of those crazy animal lovers.
On this October Tuesday, the day dawned cloudy, with a cool mist washing my face. The moisture mixed in with the tears forming as I reached down and gently picked up Spice, a Lapso Apso mix-breed small dog, from the bed and carried her to my car and laid her softly on the back seat.
She is fragile.
The growth mass on her back is increasing in size and is slowly draining blood and the life force from her body. This year, 2013, was the fifth since I adopted Spice from PAWS an excellent animal rescue shelter in the Atlanta area.
Today was time to take Spice to the vet on Lawrenceville Highway in Snellville, Georgia. “Spice and Me” love to ride in the car, but this time she wasn’t poking her head out the window, but lying on the back seat with a blanket covering her body.
Once at the animal hospital, the Vet carried Spice into the hospital-like room and, what seemed like eternity, she returned with a syringe filled with Spice’s blood drawn from the mass on her back.
There was an awkward pause as she said the possibility the growth on Spice’s back was a malignant tumor. The blood work would confirm the doctor’s analysis. The Vet has excellent bed-side manners and delivers the news with respect, concern and love for “Spice and Me”.
Spice is dying!
It could be three months or three years—in other words she will be in hospice care in our home until it comes time to make the “Decision”. That means to put her to sleep when she can no longer respond or life is zapped from her body. When I heard the word, I felt as if someone had punched me in my stomach. The dreaded “C” word sent chills up and down my back. I recently watched a television special on a cable station about how there is a rise in cancer in animals.
Now, cancer was not only at my front door but in my home.
I cried deep inside my soul for a relationship for “Spice and Me” that would last a long time.
My sister, Rochelle, cried out loud.
Until that dreaded “Decision” moment in time, we will fill Spice’s life with anything and everything she desires. This shocking moment frees us to love her, feed her as many treats and whatever she wants to eat or drink. Spice loves to ride in the car and look out the open car window with the wind blowing in her face. I will take her for special car rides and walks in the park. I may even sneak a trip to the McDonald’s drive through to get a hamburger for Spice (smile).
Now, I enjoy her company as she sleeps on the bed, or lay next to me, on a blanket, as I write my novels on the computer.
Spice has a personality that reminds me of the Divas from one of those reality cable television shows like House Wives of Atlanta. Sometimes she will give you an almost human look when you try to make her do something she doesn’t want to do at that particular moment. That look is priceless, almost as if she is thinking “Leave a message”. In other words, Spice will ignore you in her “Diva” way.
I will not only enjoy these precious moments, but live the moments and not live in the past or live in an uncertain future. I will live and breathe this present moment in time that is filled with love and caring, and even a hope for Spice that she might recover. I pray everyday for her recovery.
` People, who are not pet lovers, don’t understand the bond that develops as you and your pet’s personality mesh. It is a special love.
Now, each day is special.
As I look into those big pretty eyes I see unconditional love.

Thompson On…Do You Have a Mobile Website?


purple phantoms phone Today, you can’t walk down a street in any small town or major city in the United States without observing a person with a mobile device, whether it’s a Smart phone pressed against the ear, tapping with strong thumb action on an IPAD or reading on the Barnes & Nobles Nook Book or the Amazon. Com Kindle.
We need a new marketing idea to take advantage of this technology market. Authors let’s get out of the box and uncover this new reading audience for our books. Let’s capture our share of the mobile e-commerce business!
My solution that is working for me: Mobile Website!
My website provider (Wix.com) created a mobile website that is a version of my online website. This is not a plug for my website provider; it’s just the company that gave me this beneficial service.
Just think of the numbers and the people that can be reached on their mobile devices! Today, consumers don’t have to sit down at a computer or crack open a laptop to get information about your books.
You can reach this mobile audience with a mobile website. This will drive visitors, not only to your website, but to your Facebook, twitter and Linkedin.com and other social media outlets.
We need innovative and fresh ideas to get the message out about our books and a mobile website is another means to gain readership for our books. There are millions and billions of cell phone and mobile device users on planet earth.
Let’s make our website, our 24-hour marketing tool, available to as many people as possible. Just another idea for marketing our books.
Check out my mobile website on your mobile device, that you can download.
My website: http://juliusthompsonmarket.wix.com/je-thompson-novels

Thompson On…A Hard Look at my Web Marketing Habit!


WebgoodbadhabitsMy evenings are designated times I reserve for writing chapters in my fifth novel, Chasing The Wind While Riding A Greyhound.
However, there is a nagging thought in the back of my mind that keeps attacking my creative moments. Eventually it stops the creative process and now I must satisfy my “Web Marketing habit”. I reluctantly close the word document and go online where the internet lurks. The internet demands time to satisfy my “Web Marketing Habit.” It is an addiction that must be fulfilled or I am afraid I will not generate any significant book sales.
Everyday of my life I work the “Rule of Five”. What is the Rule of Five? It is something I learned from John Kremer, a few years ago, where I do five things everyday to market my published novels…365 days a year.
For example, I might give out business cards in the checkout line in the local supermarket to people interested in learning about my novels, or people on line to buy coffee at the local coffee shop or going online and working the social media websites.
It is work, work, work and then hope I produce book sales.
What is nagging me is my “Web Marketing Habit” addiction. Is it a habit that produces tangible results?
From looking at the book sales results, I see miniscule upward movement. On Smashwords, I see people opting to download the first few chapters of A Brownstone In Brooklyn and Philly Style and Philly Profile. However, E-book sales don’t match the free downloads of my books.
I have been interviewed on blog talk radio, on a regular basis, internet television, and still I have not seen the book sales spike at any time.
On Amazon.com my national gold medal winning novel, Ghost of Atlanta, has a reduced price and yet the sales are creeping upward and not moving at a steady pace.
This past weekend I visited the Barnes & Nobles in Snellville, Ga. and noticed the bookshelf empty of Ghost of Atlanta and that is a good thing. The Barnes & Nobles sales person said they were ordering more copies.
A positive is that A Brownstone in Brooklyn, which was published twelve years ago, is still selling while most books printed at that time are out of print or the authors gave up marketing.
Yet, my “Web Marketing Habit” must be satisfied or I don’t feel like I am working for my published books. I feel edgy, nervous and not productive.
I feel if I am not working Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc., then I am missing sales opportunities. As a published author how can you judge when your “Web Marketing Habit” is producing sales and not just producing passing interest?
This “Web Marketing Habit” is affecting my creativity.
Am I correct in my feelings that my “Web Marketing Habit” is not producing significant sales? What determines a good sales quarter?
I am working on changing my “Web Marketing Habit”. Any ideas on creating new marketing platforms to produce success and increased book sales?
Help! Help! Help!