I’m well on my way to creating the second book in the series “The Merlin Brothers Mysteries”. This second book is called “The Mystery of the Pirates of Discovery Bay”. My co-authors and creative design contributors- My grandsons have asked that I include girls in this next book…and so I have. Two girls from two different worlds collaborate as pirates alive in 1900 in the area of Discovery Bay, Washington state.

The hero of the story is a mystical Raven who helps to find gold doubloons and pirate ships and saves the girls from danger. She is wise and brave and has stories to tell. It’s a story full of adventure, history and surprises. This book will be published in December of 2025. It includes 70 water colored illustrations and several learning pages to keep your attention. Thanks to Wesley and Grayson for all your good ideas.

I continue to be amazed at how helpful Amazon KDP has been in helping me to publish my books. I have not been selling books at local bookstores because they will not accept self-published books through Amazon. But, with this book, I hope to hold a Pirate Party book release! It’s in the works! It will be held in December 2025 in Port Townsend, Washington.

Amazon has 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 the regular 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.

The Raven says…look onward.