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"Alone Together" -- New book on Ericson 32-3 To Hawaii and Back

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Kindle edition should be ready in about two weeks.

And I spoke too soon about the audio book. It is hard labor, a ratio of 5:1 post production to performance.

That should be available in six weeks or so, if I survive RMS levels, noise gates and ACX protocols.

Doing your own sound engineering is very like varnishing. One little puff of wind and it's sand it all off and start over.
 

MMLOGAN

Member III
Happy Birthday Christian

Per my wife, your biggest fan, today is your birthday.

If she is correct, best wishes!

If not, best wishes anyway!

Cheers,
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
My regards to a very close reader.

I spent today in the embrace of my exhaust system, attaching new throttle and shift cables. Tracy was down there with me, handing tools.

Doesn't get better.

Cheers,
Christian
 

Tom Metzger

Sustaining Partner
My regards to a very close reader.

I spent today in the embrace of my exhaust system, attaching new throttle and shift cables. Tracy was down there with me, handing tools. Doesn't get better.

Happy birthday! Having spent the day at a wake for a young crew member from my Bermuda trip in '79 I know how important it is to share these moments. They're all good.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Thanks for asking. The audiobook is finished and currently awaiting technical approvals (of which there are many) at Audible/Amazon. The Kindle version should be available in a week or so, based on the second edition.
 

Geoff W.

Makes Up For It With Enthusiasm
Blogs Author
Digging up this thread as it seems most appropriate - I just finished the book this morning. I thought it was wonderfully written, Christian. Your self-effacing, honest, humorous tone of voice as well as the deeper forays into what it means to be alone, what it means to be a person, what makes a "self, and the invaluable technical boat analysis/preparation notes were wonderful. I teared up at The Loss of Wildflower.

Also, side note as a practicing Buddhist and meditator -- it's exciting to me that your exploration of self, your internal and external "becalming" in the doldrums, your encounters with dissatisfaction and acceptance all sound very familiar. No affiliation required - they're just the deep sorts of insights we can have as humans when spending that much time looking very, very closely at what exactly our lives are.

Bravo, can't wait to read the second.
 

mfield

Member III
I would very much like to buy this book but I suffer an unfortunate allergy to Amazon. Is the book available from another source?

I post here rather than as a PM as I am sure there are others that suffer the same affliction.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Mike,

There are many sources of my books, Barnes & Noble for the Nook, Angus & Roberts in Australia, Kindle from Kindle, ACX for the audiobooks.

They are typically not in bookstores, except the new line of Amazon Books stores. Shipping two publisher copies to a thousand physical locations no longer makes sense for most of us. It never made sense for sailing books, which is why International Marine, the publisher of most books on our shelves, went out of business as I was typing page 153 of "Alone Together" three years ago. An unhappy moment.

The Internet--you're not against that--is the current efficient source for all books, worldwide. Independent used booksellers provide access to the great books we never had before.

Amazon, of course, dominates. It sells my books around the world, with the country suffix .UK and so on. I get paid on time. I get mail from Iceland and Serbia. I am read in Patagonia and Paris. That is new and revolutionary and possible only with Amazon. A company which, whatever its faults, also saved The Washington Post, whatever its faults.

A miracle is a miracle. I push a button on my computer and a new book arrives in two days for $20. I push a button and a 50-year-old obscure classic is plucked form a shelf from some independent collector in Texas or Arkansas or North CArolina, wrapped in the local newspaper, packaged in an old Kmart box, and sent to me for $8.95. There was a time when I thumbed library card catalogs for that, with never a broad notion of the scope of knowledge available.

Without Amazon there would be no inventory of out of print sailing books, because House publishers cannot keep inventory because of tax issues. Print-on-Demand solved that. It is access to used books via Internet (Amazon advertisers) and Print on Demand for current stuff that allows niche topics to thrive as books that don't just disappear, as once they did.

Meantime, ebook and audiobooks have taken off. Why? Apart from preference, it's too expensive to ship a physical book very far. The postage for single copy of my books to Canada is $20. To Australia it is $55. In the Continental US, $2.31 (media mail). Reading habits are therefore altered.

But of course, after this celebration of the new world order, you can always buy a book from me. Autographed, even. Or with a note. I'm happy to do it for friends here, but it's a duty not an efficiency.

By the way, here's my new video on books for Christmas season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWhBb9Yrqn4&t=90s

I have received in the past a few requests for books inscribed as gifts, so we have set up a system this time.

Provide the name of the recipient and a message, or guidance for a message, and I'll do my best to write something and sign it. Send to:

Phyllis Wade
Olmstead Williams Communications
10940 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 1210
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Enclose the mailing address and a check made out to East Wind Productions, Inc. for $23 ($18.95 plus $4 postage via media mail).

Regards,
Christian
 
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