Wednesday 4th April
Just got back this morning from Wellington. We had a march through Wellington to try to encourage the politicians to protect the Maui's dolphins by extending the ban on fishing nets that kill so many of them. We finished on the steps of parliament.
We carried banners and signs and Pete Bethune got us all cranked up with noisy chants etc. I'd repainted the huge red banner we used for the "Save Japan dolphins" day demonstration, to make the wording say "Save Maui's dolphins." We were photographed and filmed and were on the news I believe. I spent the night before the march on the bus to Wellington and the night after the march on the bus home. So pretty tired after all that, but it was worth it when you think how few are left alive.
On Saturday, I go to Auckland for the Auckland incarnation of the same protest.

Sunday 25th March. Maui's Dolphins Crisis
The world's rarest marine dolphin is the Maui's dolphin that lives off the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. There are now only 55 of them left alive. They are dying in fishing nets and by fishing by-catch. If they go extinct which is inevitable unless the fishermen are stopped, they will be the first species of marine dolphins to die out at the hand of man. And it will happen right here in my own country and in my own lifetime.

The story of Ripple happens twenty million years in the past. But the deities gave us the story in the hope we humans will prevent the dolphinless future they foresee for this planet. That possible future is displayed in the final chapter of the book - the chapter that takes us over 200 years forward in time.
However, to my horror, I now discover that bleak future is happening already right here and now, and we humans are doing little to prevent it.
I've sent a copy of Ripple to the Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, in the hope she will read it and act to stop the fishing in the Maui's zones.
I am marching on parliament with the other activists on the 3rd April and again in Auckland on the 7th April. I ask all those who read this to sign the petition calling for effective government action.
Click here to sign the petition.
I also ask you to join the marches, here in Wellington and here in Auckland

Monday 11th March
Below is a photo of me with Ripple at Raglan. It was the Maui's dolphin conservation day and I had a wonderful time, met lots of great people and learned a huge amount about how to sell books to real live flesh and blood people. This piece of visual marketing did not work as few people were attracted by it. Those who came over to talk to me mostly bought a book, which proved my spiel was working, but most just walked by without stopping because the display pretty much wags its finger at them accusingly and says, "It's your duty to buy this book." Instead of letting them know what the book would give them in return. So this is an example of how NOT to do it. But I've already designed a new set-up and though it will take a bit of time and effort to create, I'm certain it will work better.
I think my hat looks great!
Wheelers put in their second order for print books last week. (Tiny orders at this stage and they're selling to libraries)

Tuesday 14th February
The reviews have been coming in beautifully since I last wrote here. These responses have been quite overwhelming. There are now 16 five-star reviews on Amazon and not one review with fewer than five-stars. All the reviews are unsolicited. This means that I did not request them - they were freely given by those who wrote them. I've published them on my new Ripple Reviews page, but they can also be found on Ripple's Amazon USA page.
In further Ripple news, an article came out in the local Te Awamutu Courier about the book and so we put some print copies for sale in the local Paper Plus bookshop, where the first batch sold out very quickly and had to be replenished after the first week.

Friday 18th November
In regular contact with the Japan Dolphin activists at Taiji via Facebook and it's devastating to hear how dolphins are still being slaughtered there nearly every day. Dolphin lovers from around the world support each other as it happens on the Taiji Dolphins Action Group Facebook page and there is much day-to-day praying for the hunts to fail and anger when it doesn't and joy whenever the boats come back with no desperate pod flying before them into the cove of death. So I'm in a hurry to get the marketing of Ripple underway, in the hope she can hasten the end of the slaughter.

Tuesday 15th November
The proof arrived. It came in the form of a printed out book. It looks great. I was delighted. I made the PRINT book available for sale immediately for $11.50 The e-book remains at $2.99 Those prices are in $US.
Amazon began the process of putting the page together. It takes a few days to complete.
Informed the WDCS but it may be a bit longer before it is available on the UK Amazon. Once it is up and running in the UK and the US, I'll be ready to let rip more fully with the marketing.

1st November 2011
I am talking to the people at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society about donating all the royalties from Ripple to them for a while. This achieves several benefits. It helps the society to help cetaceans. It helps get the word out about Ripple, which in turn helps change attitudes towards cetaceans so it is all a win-win. I am now so glad I turned down the contract with the conventional publisher. I now have the freedom to give some worthwhile money to a cause that has the exact same objectives I do, instead of having it go to a publisher who would care nothing for dolphins. It means I will make no money for a while, but I'm accustomed to poverty.

23rd September 2011
Two days ago Ripple was published as an e-book on Amazon. It took a bit of working out how to do this but we got there in the end. So now you can buy the e-book for $2.99 (US) That's less than a cup of coffee. Now I'm intending to launch into the marketing plan and also work out how to make a print version available via POD in NZ so kiwis who don't use e-readers, don't have to pay for postage from the US.

September
Recently, I was offered a publishing contract by a US publisher. I turned it down after agonising for a bit. In all the years of dreaming about a publishing contract arriving on my doorstep, I never imagined myself turning it down when it came, but that's what happened. The contract was just too much weighted in favour of the publisher and I could not see what they were offering, in exchange for what they wanted to take. So Ripple and I gave up on commercial publishers and went our own merry way towards Amazon.

Also during September I got a response from a marine scientist called Mark Simmonds who is International Director of Science of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society International.
I had sent Ripple to him to check the story for factual accuracy so was surprised and delighted to get the following reaction. He was very helpful with checking my accuracy but also wrote that . . . "It (Ripple) moved me deeply, and more than once. It is a wonderfully ‘complete’ story; very elegant in construction and breath-taking in its breadth of inventions and concepts. If it would be helpful to cite me in support of the book, I would be pleased to be quoted saying something like ‘Ripple is a unique and remarkable vision’. Thank you again for the opportunity to read it and I wish you all the best in getting it into the best-sellers lists where it belongs.

June/July/August to 1st September
During this time, I had Ripple edited by Raymond Huber and went through the process with his experienced guidance. I also began reading up on e-book preparation and spent a bit of energy sending Ripple out to a few publishers to test the waters. I refused to send to any who required a printout of the manuscript since I thought that was too "last century" for consideration. It all had to happen by email or not at all.

Also during this phase I continued to be very active in online marine conservation and took on the task of organising the "SaveJapanDolphins Day " protest in Auckland. Held 1st September. Met a lot of great people. It was a change to venture out away from the computer and the world of online activism into the sometimes scary world of physical protest. I really got to do the whole banner waving thing.
Photos of our protest are here on Thunderflukes page.

The day before the protest, I was taken to lunch by a lovely policeman who was worried I might be intending to disrupt the welcome to the Rugby world cup players which was to take place at the same time just a few hundred metres away from our dolphin protest. He probably wanted get me off the street to stop me from canvassing too much for the protest the next day. On the day of the protest I presented a printout of Ripple to the Japanese consulate and was interviewed on Asian TV about Ripple. No idea if it was ever screened. Much of the protest build-up happened through Facebook and was recorded there.

14th June
Since I last wrote on this page, Ripple has survived her second assessment by Barbara Else. The assessment was very encouraging but held a few extra suggestions for improvements which have since been made. The story has now been sent away to Raymond Huber for editing. He has completed the first half of the story and I am now working my way through the edits accepting or rejecting each one.

One very exciting thing has happened recently. Joe Bergeron created a cover design for the book. It is displayed on the Ripple page. As an artist for Ripple, Joe has always been my number one choice because of his knowledge of astronomy and his amazing artistic talent. If ever Ripple were to be more fully illustrated, (something I would love to see one day), he would be the first choice.

I am now thinking about how to publish Ripple. My explorations of conventional publishers' web sites indicate that they will not be of much use to me. Most are not accepting material of this type. Those still accepting material insist on an agent. I'm not interested in that. Most publishers and agents promise to get back to you in anything from 3 months to 6 months! I'm not interested in that either. Incredibly, most of them still expect you to print it all out with wide margins and double spacing (for maximum unecessary expense and wastage) and post it off by snailmail in an enormous expensive package. I'm certainly not interested in that in this day and age.

Fortunately, this is 2011 and authors can take matters into their own hands, in a way they never could before and sidestep the whole annoying and costly process of finding a publisher, by doing everything themselves. By everything I mean, book design, e-book creation, printing, and promotion. All stuff I will enjoy enormously. This is looking to be my most likely path at this stage.

Unlike ten years ago it is no longer considered professional suicide.

I have started the process of marketing already and it is proving to be a lot of fun and taking me to places I love to be, like into the world of online ocean conservation activism where I certainly belong. Perhaps this was the whole reason I wrote this book in the first place. just to get me out there! It all happens via Facebook and Twitter where a writer's skill comes into its own within exciting new literary disciplines. How much can you convey in 140 characters? Its a very cool challenge.

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