Ellen O'Shea Storyteller

My newest book was published in April of 2023. It is a tale of the first Border Collie family related to my dog Thunder. Old Ben is the great grandfather of Thunder, the Grandfather of Zeus of Marrowstone and is related to many of the Border Collies who live on local farms in Chimacum Valley.

Old Ben is an origin story. It is a tale told to the author. Old Ben came to the Chimacum valley in 1953 and was born on a Basque sheep ranch in Eastern Washington.

In this illustrated Children’s book Ben tells the story of his first years on a dairy farm in Chimacum, Washington. Ben, a beautiful Border Collie narrates the story of his adventures. He has several other farm animal friends who assist him to watch over cows, dogs, poultry, and dairy farmers. His best friend is a rooster named Max. Ben and Max save the day when they alert the farmers to a barn fire and help to move the dairy cows into the night and away from danger. This book has 18 illustrations created by the author and artist Ellen O’Shea. The 51-page book includes learning pages that help children to learn about nature, the people who live in the region, farm dog training including commands, hand signals, and whistles, and information about the origin of Border Collies and the Basque Sheep ranching community in the west of the United States.

Check out the book on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Old-Journey-Farm-Border-Collie/dp/173210235X?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

More graphics from the new book. Border Collie origin in Scotland

The Basque of Eastern Washington with Border Collie puppies

Hand Commands for Border Collies and working dogs

Farm Animals- Old Ben’s friends

Hello all…I’m back. I lost this website for a couple of years due to COVID and unscrupulous hosting companies. I want to thank WordPress for helping me to regain my domain name and helping me to create a new website. This website is an important part of giving me voice for my stories, my children’s books and my art.

During the Covid epidemic I lost the ability to work and pay for my websites. I was overcharged by an unscrupulous hosting company to keep them up and I could not pay the price. I lost control of this website and another one that is very important to me Radical Botany.com.

The Radical Botany website was a place that I compiled 30 years of data and research on the importance of allowing and protecting native plants in the ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest and other localities across the globe. I lost the domain name and it was sold to an anti-environmental group that has a deep hatred for those who stand up for the Earth. I am not able to repurchase the domain name.

However, WordPress team stepped up and saved my Radical Botany website by archiving it under a WordPress umbrella. The new website URL is https:radicalbotany.wordpress.com. I am deeply thankful to the WordPress team for saving my website. I am only conducting my website hosting business with WordPress.com now. I know that in an emergency they will try to help their customers and members.

As for this newly designed EllenOSheastoryteller.com website. I was able to transfer my domain name to WordPress before it could be sold. I am very happy to have this website up and running and working hard to make sure all the links to my books work.

Another shoutout during the Covid Pandemic goes to Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). They hosted a site for me to display and write about my books. They gave me an extra push in free advertising so that my Christmas book ‘Ben, The Border Collies’ Christmas” would be seen by the world. I am now transferring all my self-publishing needs to Amazon KDP.

They have a huge distribution network (175 countries) as we all know. But, did you know they support the efforts of self-publishing authors by creating programs whereby authors can share profits beyond theregular profits they make for book sales.

One program allows authors to create e-books of their work and allow it to be part of the Kindle Select program. The program offers additional promotional features to help independent authors and publishers reach more readers and earn more royalties when they make their ebooks exclusive to the Kindle store for 90 days. At launch, the program included $500,000 KDP Select Global Fund, which has since grown to more than $45 million per month, and provided $2.2 billion in royalties to participating authors.

Another Amazon author supporting program is called Kindle Vella which allows authors to create stories chapter by chapter in real time and share their creations in the Kindle App. Authors are paid by the number of views they generate.

So, that was my shout-out to the heroes of the COVID years. I am thankful for having access to theses kind people who did not try to overpower vulnerable people when the chips were down.

Next..stories to tell