'Neath Quicksilver’s Moon is partially unpublished as of 10/10/2011 for wider publication.

The first six chapters (or so) will remain available as an introduction to the story, which is now available on Amazon.com (and its local equivalents) and Barnes and Noble as eBooks at a charge of very slightly less than three bucks US, or a local equivalent in GBP, Euros, and whatnot, to which may be added VAT, sales tax, or whatever local scheme is used to support the local economy. If anyone is inconvenienced by this, please let me know, and we can work something out. In any case, the other chapters are only unpubbed, not deleted, so everything remains available in an emergency, including comments. I plan to offer the book as a Lulu paperback as well, but it will take a bit longer.

Jaye Michael (Jeffrey M. Mahr) was a remarkably generous man. He worked in a field, caring for developmentally-disabled children, for which monetary rewards are less than astounding, yet generously gave of his time and energy to support writers of all sorts, but was especially interested in stories of personal transformation. He ran TSAT for several years, and freely offered his advice (and hosting) to any and all.

He was, I think, a deeply religious man, and offered his own stories of transformation freely, as signposts, if you will, of how meaning and love can be found in the most confused and troubled lives. So why, you might well ask, charge anything at all?

There are two reasons: First, there are now two large and potentially-immortal corporations, Amazon.com (and its international subsidiaries) and B&N with a vested interest (i.e. They make money by selling them) in making these titles available in perpetuity, relatively immortal, in our scheme of things, and less... fragile. Second, this work, and the other three on my list, will be offered essentially everywhere around the world (thus greatly-enlarging Jaye's potential audience), are DRM-Free (Unencumbered by Digital Rights Management schemes), and so essentially immortal once in your hands. If you buy the ePub from Barnes and Noble, or the Kindle-formated eBook from Amazon.com, you own it forever. If you hurl your Nook, or your Kindle, or whatever against the wall in a fit of rage, you can download the story again, relatively secure in the belief that it will always be available up there in the ‘cloud’.

In addition, if and as new editions are released, on Amazon.com, all owners will be notified, and can then chose to have the story updated automatically. but on both Amazon.com and B&N the story can be updated by deleting it from whatever you're reading it on and re-downloading. Also, as a fully-formatted eBook file, many features are available that aren't practical in other forms. The text is fully footnoted, for example, and has a simple chapter navigation scheme that allows one to skip through the chapters rapidly, and the book as a whole is searchable, so one can find every place where Luz is mentioned, for only one example.

There are ‘apps’ available for almost every computer operating system, tablet computer, and smart phone, so the story is portable across many devises, and neither version requires actually owning the supposed target devise.

You can also convert the story to the format of your choice (although text-to-speech for the visually-disabled is built into both the Kindle and the Nook), using inexpensive or user-supported tools like Calibre (and many other equivalents), so you can load the story onto whatever device you prefer, and read it however you want to read it, long after the Kindle and the Nook are dust, as quaintly antique as eight-inch floppy discs. You can also give it away, although I'd ask that you respect the distribution channel enough not to copy and send a thousand copies to all your friends. If you can't afford the price, just ask, and I'll send you a copy through e-mail, gratis, as Jaye would have wanted, I think.

And speaking of conversion, if anyone would like to translate our story (Mine and Jaye’s) into another language, just ask, and do a good job. I'd be glad to work with you to ensure a smooth path.

Jaye’s Quicksilver ‘Universe’ is open to all, so if you want to tell other parts of the story, please feel free, as long as you respect the premise, which is as compassionate and generous as the two of us could manage. Horde Leader Skrztff’l awaits your pleasure. I won’t be checking up on you.

Levanah, October 11, 2011