Appalachian Trail

I need your help please

/ Rainee / 15 Comments
English: Looking up from the Hunt Spur towards...

English: Looking up from the Hunt Spur towards the Gateway from the Hunt Trail on Katahadin. The Hunt Trail is also the Appalachian Trail. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have decided to do some more study this Semester and as part of it I have to write a publishing proposal. Firstly I need to do some market research and I thought you may like to help me. The publishing proposal will include:

  • a table of contents
  • synopsis
  • a sample chapter
  • bibliographical details
  • potential market –  this where I would value your opinion please
  • word length
  • details of relevant contacts, associations and newsletters that could be used for marketing.

I don’t have any plans or wish to write a book  just now. I am going along for the journey and I am not sure where it will lead me. It is interesting to learn about the publishing process as there is so much more to it than I ever imagined. It is very market focused and it appears that the trick is to find a gap in the market.

I have some ideas for an imagined book. I can check online book stores to see what already exists.

For example, I thought of writing about my son walking the Appalachian Trail (he should be on the peak of Mt Katahdin any day now, having walked over two thousand miles).

I searched on Amazon and there are 3,577 books available on the Appalachian Trail so maybe that market is already saturated. However I couldn’t find any of these books written from an Australian’s experience. At present, my options include:

  1. my son’s adventure on the Appalachian Trail (I would have to work in partnership with him obviously)
  2. stories of living in remote communities in Australia
  3. understanding the challenges of being a sole parent
  4. wisdom gained from years of life experience (often the wisdom comes after disaster 🙂
  5. women from the Baby Boom generation

So, would you be so kind  and reply with your choice of options 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 as a potential topic for a book that might interest you. If none of them do, that is fine also. This will still be my market research! Even if you can just go to the comment box below and write your choice, I will be very grateful 🙂 )

 

Cheers

Lorraine

 

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Today’s blog isn’t really a blog – it is a test of my IT skills :-)

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The Pocosin cabin along the trail in Shenandoa...

The Pocosin cabin along the trail in Shenandoah National Park (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today I want to do a blog mainly so I can test that everything is working as it should be.

I spent a couple of hours on the computer and I could get two out three things working but couldn’t manage to pull off all three. Hopefully I have achieved victory after changing my browser yet again – this time to Mozilla Firefox.

I have mentioned my son before – he is doing the Appalachian Trail. If anyone is interested in having a look at his blog it is at www.neanderjoel.wordpress.com

He seems to be having a great time – he commented that Americans are just like us (Australians) except they talk funny! I enjoyed that.

cheers for now

Lorraine

Weekly Photo Challenge – Unusual

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Appallachian Trail beware!

This photo for today’s Weekly Photo Challenge is of my youngest son trying out his new wet-weather gear in readiness to fly to the US and walk the Appalachian Trail, starting at Atlanta.

I often dream that I am flying to America. It is a recurrent dream (nightmare) and is always packed with disaster. I dream that I:

  • forget my passport
  • lose my passport
  • miss the plane
  • go on the wrong plane
  • I can’t get a taxi
  • my phone won’t work and I can’t call the taxi
  • and just about everything goes wrong.

So, in seeing my son off to America, I felt well prepared for everything that could possibly go wrong. I was there to make sure it all went well. I checked over his ticket details and pointed out some fine print that he missed (minor things) to make sure every box was ticked.

So, yesterday we got to the plane in plenty of time, we found a good parking space – it was all going well. There was a long queue to check-in so my partner and I watched and waited. When he got to the check-in, it seemed to be taking longer that it should. Alarm bells started ringing!

What possibly could be wrong. Then I saw him walk away from check-in and he still had his luggage. This was not a good sign 😦 He was directed to another counter and I decided to find out what was happening. He pointed to his ticket and specifically to the date!

We were there one day too soon! I couldn’t believe my eyes and then I couldn’t help laughing. I had read that piece of paper from top to bottom but I hadn’t noticed the date at the top of the page. I wasn’t angry or annoyed – it was just one of those things that happen!

He was to fly via New Zealand and so we checked and found he could do the first leg of the journey and have nearly two days in New Zealand as a bonus :-). He WILL get to L.A. in the next few days after all.

The outfit he is wearing is made of a new fabric that is ultra-light. I had it made locally. Information about the fabric can be found at:

Hopefully my son will read this blog in the next day or so and remember to let this mum know that he is doing fine 🙂 as she is thinking of him!

cheers for now

Lorraine

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