Marching into March 2026

Writing activity was stymied from December through February due to second hip replacement op in 13 months--- I don't recommend ....

However, coming out of that malaise in mid-February it was time to ' produce' my newest INDIE work which had been already arranged and catalogued for purposes of table of contents, proofed etc. - an Anthology of short stories, poems and even a few cartoons. As this might be the only such volume I produce, I did want to pack it full of 'all sorts' that I at least liked (never mind anyone else :)

I had not gone through the KDP production process for almost 2 years, and for some reason found it difficult to set proper margins for 8x5" book. After trying to 'skin the cat' many times in many ways but still incurring 'bleed' and getting mighty frustrated, resorted to upping the size to 8.5x5.5"-- still encountering probs despite changing size of MS to pour in and using Kdp's own templates from the past . Just when I was about to shoot 'somebody' and had even posted on the kdp forum, somehow some margins finally ' set ' and eventually I was able to keep everything within the lines to the point I could request a proof from the uploaded file.

Not smooth sailing there either I found. It used to be you could only get proofs printed through amazon.com in the States. I put through the order for one and was told can't ship to my address. I read various crazy reports on reddit etc on how to get a proof in Canada, but fortunately I myself found and read under KDP Help, the tip to basically change my marketplace, which before was always just Amazon.com but now would be Amazon.ca . I went back into 'continue set up' and made necessary changes. No problem for shipping apparently to Canadian address now .

So, currently awaiting a proof that I suspect still 'marginal' but at least I will have a concrete visual to go by for set up etc that I can edit further . Time's a-wasting. Lets hope the complete version hits the market soon. TBA .