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On a sunny day the electricity isn't too much of a problem, as the new solar panel seems to provide enough power to run the internet and my computer all day without having to resort to the generator. Water isn't too much of an issue, but the less we waste, the longer we can go between water runs. This involves a 16 kilometre round trip in the pick-up truck, laden with plastic barrels, and one big metal barrel too. Filling them all up by hosepipe at the local community centre takes around an hour. Life here is full of interesting and different experiences. One of the great pleasures of my day when Moe is at work is looking after the chickens, and collecting their eggs. I let the chickens out and about each day, and they potter around happily, often following me around if I am outside too. We have four chickens, and usually average around three eggs per day. Yesterday I showed Moe the entertaining art of chicken hypnosis. I can't remember where or when I heard about this, but if you lay a chicken on it's back and wait for it to relax, you can then let go and walk away, and it will just lie there until something surprises it out of it's entranced state. Very amusing!   
With time to spare, and some forestry clean-up needed, Moe offered to give me a lesson in the use of her chainsaw, and duly informed of the correct and safe use of the formidable machine, I was unleashed on a couple of fallen trees. Great fun! All limbs and digits still intact at the end of the day!   
Not much progress to report on the book this week! There has been far too many distractions! I had hoped that a log cabin in the middle of nowhere would offer the ideal, distraction-free environment! Back to the writing with a vengance tomorrow though - at least that's the plan!
Every month or so there is a gathering, organised by DPSAY (Dog Powered Sports Association of the Yukon) and Yukon Brewing Copper Haul Twister League, for anyone who wants to take some of their dogs for a run. The options for competitors are a bicycle with two dogs pulling, a bike with one dog, or running with one dog. Obviously I wanted the fastest option, keen to enter the two-dog bicycle class. The races were scheduled for 5pm, so a bit of training was in order in the afternoon. Moe's bicycle was given a quick service, which consisted of pumping the tyres up, and swapping the brakes over. I've come unstuck in a painful fashion before on a bike with the back brake on the right, which is all wrong to me! Moe got a couple of dogs harnessed up, and attached by ropes to the front of the bike. Any last minute tips, I wondered? "I've never tried this before!" she said, "Good luck!" And with that we were off, with Moe and Maible in hot pursuit on the quad! I managed to stay on the bike down the twisting, dusty driveway, and then out onto the main gravel road. The dogs got in to their stride along the road, and were pretty fast. We managed the left turn where Finn pointed me onto the trail through the forest, and the dogs pulled us along at an easy lope through the trees. Eventually we hit the driveway, and back up to the kennel again. Race training successful!   
Moe picked three sled-dogs from the kennel, two fresh ones for me, and one for her. My companions for the race were to be Warrior and Wham. Moe would run with Gromit, and Maible would be running with pet dog Zoli. At the race start point quite a few people gathered, and we filled in the requisite waivers, and I found that there was only myself and Darryl competing in the two-dog race. With temperatures approaching the thirties, it was decided that the course for the two-dog bicycle race would be shortened from two miles to one, to avoid overheating the dogs, which are of course much more used to running in temperatures well below freezing. Darryl was first away in our race, and suitably padded with Finn's skateboard protection, I was in pursuit a minute later. The course took us through a couple of deep puddles, and then up a slight hill to a creek where we turned around to return. I got a bit of a scare coming back down the hill, as I was peddling fast and the dogs were pulling hard, and we came round a corner to find a huge truck hurtling towards us. The track was only one vehicle wide, and he had to veer off into the bush. I continued on regardless - I was in a race after all! I found out later that the truck had been stolen, and was being thrashed about through the forest by the new "owners"! I had been pretty lucky no to get hit. I finished the race in great time, my dogs pulling through the water with no hesitation at all. Darryl had had a bit of trouble with his at the water, and we weren't sure who had been the quickest. There was much entertainment in the rest of the races, with a couple of spectacular falls at the water obstacles. Runners did well too, and Maible and Zoli turned in a great performance.   
Results were announced at a BBQ late that evening at another of the competitor's house, and unfortunately Darryl had just beaten me! Still, second place in my first race sounds like a great result to me. Moe and Maible both did well, Maible finishing third in her class with a fantastic run. We both received gift vouchers to spend at the local deli in town. What a great afternoon and evening, and thanks to all involved in organising the event. And what a fun introduction to running dogs. I hope to compete again in the September event. You can see pictures of the event on the Copper Haul Twister blog here.
I haven't been doing too much, simply writing as much as I can when Moe is off at work, and hanging out with her and the kids when they are all around at the weekends. The book is going well, and I am about 90% complete on the first (very rough) draft. I hope to have the first draft completely finished by the end of this week, then the long process of editing and re-editing will begin. We have had many visitors over the past few weeks, and since I have been here we have hosted thirteen different couchsurfers from four different countries - USA, Italy, France and Germany. Over the weekend we had four people staying, as two groups both ended up here at the same time, so along with Moe and the kids, and Moe's two neighbours we had ten of us for dinner. It's fun to meet with other travellers and hear their stories and experiences, and it's nice to feel that I am giving back to the travelling community a little, after being a traveller for so long myself, and being so openly welcomed by others. 
One of our visitors, Phil from Germany, was wondering why there wasn't a local Whitehorse CS group, and why there were no local meetings of couchsurfers and their guests. In Rio, invited by my host Fabio, I attended one such gathering, and had a great evening, meeting many other travellers in the city to enjoy the Carnival. So inspired by Phils questions and comments, I set up a Whitehorse CS group. I also arranged the first gathering, and on Friday 27th August made my way into town to see who else might show up. Already there were Phil and Sebastien, who had stayed with us the previous evening. Not far behind them were our other guests, Bob and Mary-Beth, on their way to Alaska to make a fresh start there. Throughout the evening more and more people turned up, and by the end of the night we had a total we had fifteen people. A good result for the first meeting, I felt. I am planning to try to arrange a regular gathering, on the last Friday of each month, the next one scheduled for Friday 24th September.   
  
As we crossed the pass, heading down to the US border, there wasn't much of a view at all as we were just below cloud base. From what I could see it looked as if it would be very spectacular on a nice day. By the time we entered Alaska, we were completely enveloped in damp whiteness.   
At the US border we all presented passports, and my Australian one stood out like a sore thumb among the other three Canadian ones. Sure enough I was asked to park up and come in to the interview room. My previous US visa had expired by a week, and as my I-94 card hadn't been handed in, I was in trouble! I was told that next time I had to surrender my card if I was not planning to return and then exit from the States before its 90 day period expired. Eventually I was issued with a new card. Phew! Skagway is a very picturesque little place, and is a tourist stopoff for the cruise ships heading up and down the Alaska coast. There was one ship in, and a few tourists trawled around the shops in the rain. The season comes to an end very soon, and the huge souvenir and t-shirt shop was having a big "50% off" sale. We all stocked up, and for fifty bucks I got two warm coats and a new t-shirt. Bargain!   
We were hoping to see bears, as it is almost time for the salmon run to start up the river, and the bears apparently come out fishing in large numbers. Moe thinks we may have been a week or two early, as there wasn't a bear to be seen anywhere. In the end we took a walk to the very atmospheric woodland cemetery which was the final resting place for around seventy people who had died in an avalanche on the Chilkoot Trail on April 3rd 1898, and walked through the woods at the abandoned Dyea townsite. Dyea had boomed and then bust over a period of a couple of years during the height of the goldrush, and the forest has almost completely hidden all but the last few remains of the once large thriving town. More on Dyea and the Slide cemetery here:- http://www.nps.gov/klgo/historyculture/dyea.htm   
We planned to camp overnight, but over a delicious fish and chips supper an executive decision was made, despite some semi-enthusiastic opposition from the kids, to return home, as the rain had hardly let up all day.
So with a couple of solid weeks of work behind me I now have a complete first draft, and have started the editing process! Still quite a bit of work to do, but there is now light at the end of the tunnel, and I am still aiming for publication before the end of October. I have been working a little on the Whitehorse couchsurfing group that I started, and have now sent out invites for the second gathering in town, planned for Friday 24th September. While perusing the latest group posts on Saturday morning I spotted a request from Andy, who has been paddling up the west coast, and was looking for a lift south back to the States. As we drove into town that morning we spotted a hitcher on the road, heading in the opposite direction, with a couple of paddles and a sign for "USA". I know who that is, I exclaimed, feeling sorry for him standing in the rain. Several hours later, as we headed home after some Whitehorse sightseeing, we spotted him again! We stopped to say hello, and offered him a place to stay for the evening. Andy eventually stayed for a couple of nights, and booked a fantastic last-minute flight back to Colorado. So as he was here on Sunday, we took him along to the September Dryland Dog Races with us.   
The races were in a different location to last month, and the trails longer and tougher. After my pleasing performance last time out, I was enthusiastic, and entered the pet dog bicycle race, the one/two-dog bicycle race, and the mass start grand finale. Moe, Finn and Maible all ran in the canicross (running-with-a-dog) race, and Finn joined in the long bicycle race too with one dog. Competition was much stiffer than last month, with many more competitors. I had been doing some practicing with pet dog Zoli, and was reasonably confident, but others had faster, stronger dogs that didn't get distracted by every bystander. I took a big fall when Zoli suddenly stopped to visit one of the photographers! In the running, Finn did very well, looking absolutely worn out at the finish line, having been dragged around the course by a very enthusiastic and swift dog, The Blur. Maible and Moe did well too, Maible giving Zoli another run around the course.   
I thought I had been fast in the two-dog bike race, and managed a respectable 9th place finish among tough competition, two minutes behind the winner. Finn did a fantastic job on the tricky course with just one dog. The highlight of the day though was the mass start race on the grassy landing strip nearby, with a fast straight run to a fairly tight left-hand turn onto a trail for the return to the start/finish. For a couple of seconds my dogs Warrior and Wham nosed ahead a little, but we were overhauled by faster, fitter teams. Moe has only just started training her dogs this season, so they aren't too strong yet. 
The race was incredibly thrilling, reminding me a little of the chariot race scene in "Ben Hur", but without the spikes on the axles! It was fantastic to be hurtling along at such speed with so many others! Andy managed to join in for this final race too, running with The Blur, and thoroughly enjoying himself.   
What a fantastic day once again. Huge thanks to Hans and Susie for organising the trails and welcoming everyone afterwards in their beautiful cabin, and to all others involved in the organisation too. Race results here: http://copperhaultwister.blogspot.com/
So on Wednesday I reached my book editing threshold, and tired of simply gazing out of the window at Needle Mountain in the distance, I decided it was time to go and climb it. From the map in Moe's kitchen there doesn't appear to be any tracks heading up there, and moe doesn't know of any, so I decided to simply drive to the point on the gravel road nearest to the bottom of the steep slope, and head upwards from there. Zoli, the pet dog here, accompanied me for the expedition, and we climbed easily up through the open forest for the first section of the climb, then out onto more open ground with a few small crags scattered about, which we could detour around.   
Higher up we ran into a very dense patch of poplars which we had to battle through, and wearing shorts proved to be a slightly foolish choice! Above that we had to climb rocky scree, and eventually made it to the flatter summit area. It took around two hours, about double my initial estimate. The summit itself was reached by a steep rocky climb, and I had to tie Zoli up and make the last part of the ascent on my own. The view from the top was awesome, with Annie Lake spread out below to the south.   
Moe's cabin was visible in the forest away to the north.   
The descent was equally tricky, through more dense poplar stands, and my legs ended the day very scratched and bruised. I was reminded many times throughout the day of a blog I wrote quite a while ago, while in Devon in the UK, about how the path will reveal itself if you set off and keep moving forwards. That's how climbing Needle Mountain felt. There was no definite path, but there was always a way to figure out how to get through and continue onwards.   
I am also feeling a little like this with my book now. I have finished writing it, and it needs a little polish yet, but I now have to enter the unknown territory of getting it published. I have used several musical references in my writing, and am now looking for permission to use them from the respective copyright owners. I also wish to use the eBay logo and a Google map on the cover, and need permission to do this too. Then I have to prepare the files for print, sort out an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), and perform a host of other tasks that I had never considered. But, like the climb up Needle Mountain, as I take each new step forward the next step is revealed, and I am confident that before too long, perhaps a little later than planned, I will have a book in print that I am very proud of!
According to the Canadian calendar it is three more months until winter begins officially, but it feels like it has already arrived in Whitehorse!! 
Needle Mountain is almost invisible, covered in snow, against the white clouds in the background. What a contrast to last week when I walked up there in shorts and t-shirt in the sun!
I much prefer this sort of interview than the single host who had a few dry fact-finding questions, usually the same ones I have been asked many many times before. This interview though was great fun, and different from the norm. You can listen to the interview here by clicking the "Play" button:-
 
Click on the picture below to see a larger version:- 
In the meantime, here is another article, from New Idea, another magazine based in Australia. This was published in September 2010. Click on this picture below to see a larger version:- 
I have been at work on this pretty-much full-time since early July, and am very pleased with the final outcome. The book is called "A Life Sold", and is subtitled "What ever happened to the guy who sold his whole life on eBay?" I am publishing it via Print On Demand, through one of the world's largest POD suppliers, LightningSource. This means that the book will be available to a large part of the world, via Amazon's vast network, as well as through many other online book retailers, many of which also access books from LightningSource. Here is the cover design, for your interest (click on the image for a larger version): 
The back blurb reads as follows: What on earth would make someone decide to put their whole life up for sale… on eBay? I now have to wait for the files to be accepted and a proof copy to be printed and mailed to me. Once I okay this, the book should be available online shortly afterwards - almost certainly before the end of November if there are no hitches. Thanks to all who have been part of the story, and have assisted me along the way. How exciting!!
You may remember the media coverage for the application process for the "Best Job in the World" in April 2009. You had to make a one minute video as your main part of an application for the job, which involved being "caretaker" on a tropical island off the coast of eastern Australia. This time it is for a TV show called Paradise Hunter. They are looking for a host, who will be employed for twelve months, travelling the globe, looking for paradise-like locations. Sounds like my type of job. Once again the first stage of the entry process is to submit a one minute video. Votes on the videos go some way towards influencing the judges decisions. Any votes would be gratefully received. Please go here to vote: http://www.paradisehunter.com/vote/Ianusher.html Thanks very much. See you in paradise!
The printer, LightningSource, in the UK, were very efficient, and the next step in the process is that they send me a proof copy of the book. Once I give this the okay, the book gets listed for sale on Amazon, and is available for order. The proof copy was despatched from the supplier in Birmingham on the evening of 4th November, at around 6pm. DHL are the courier service looking after the transportation. From Birmingham it travelled to London, arriving at Heathrow at 9am the following morning. It departed later that morning, the 5th, from Heathrow, and showed up in Hamilton, Ontario on the evening of Sunday 7th, according to the online tracking facility. I imagined, now that it was in the country, it would only be a couple of days at the most before it arrived in Whitehorse. At 4.10am on Monday the 8th, according to the DHL website, the package arrived in Toronto. And since then, there doesn't seem to have been any sign of movement! By Wednesday last week I was getting a little frustrated at not seeing any progress, and gave customer services a ring. They would get someone to call me back, they promised. Someone did call, and managed to confirm that the website showed the package to be in Toronto - yes, I could see that, I answered testily. Unfortunately Thursday was Remembrance Day, so the DHL office here in Whitehorse was closed, and customer services could not get any further information about the whereabouts of the package. I never heard anything from them on Friday, but I did manage to get in touch with the office here. Nothing arrived in Whitehorse on Friday, as the Air North flight into town was cancelled. So, almost seven full days later, the website still shows my proof copy of the book as being in Toronto, and not a single DHL person seems to be able to tell me where it actually is! As you can imagine, it is all incredibly frustrating. All I need is to see the book, confirm that it looks like I expected it to, and we are up and running very shortly afterwards. Come on DHL. It took a couple of days to get it from Birmingham in England to Canada - how on Earth can it take over a week to get it from one side of the country to the other? I'll be using Fedex in future!
It should be available on Amazon within a week or so, I hope. I will put up a link as soon as I get one.
 
There is very little detail on the Amazon page as yet, as it takes a few days to filter through from the printer, but I have managed to put something in my author profile, and add a book cover picture. The direct page link is as follows: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0980865301
I am very pleased to be eligible for Super Saver Shipping, which means that if you include the book as part of an order that totals over $25, shipping is completely FREE! So if you wish to buy a copy, then it is probably worthwhile buying another book to put with it, and save the shipping costs. Here are some suggestions for books I have enjoyed recently: Eat, Pray, Love My suggestions are a little self-serving, I must admit, as Amazon often links books when they are bought together. I don't think it would do me any harm at all if my book got linked to Elizabeth Gilbert's bestseller!! In fact, at the time of writing this blog, "Eat, Pray, Love" is currently discounted down to $7.01, and "Honeymoon With My Brother" is only $5.18. You could buy both of these along with "A Life Sold" for a bargain $27.18, and pay no shipping costs at all. Anyway, just a suggestion, if you are looking for Christmas presents.....! :-) The book isn't yet listed on Amazon UK or Amazon Canada yet, but again I hope this will follow shortly. I will post again when it shows up on these or any of the other Amazon sites.
ParadiseHunter.com sent me an email yesterday to regrettably inform me that I didn't make it through the first part of the selection process, and they have now selected 40 semi-finalists. There were ten applicants chosen by public vote, and thirty more selected by a panel of judges/employers. I was obviously not going to make it in by public vote, as I entered at the last possible second, but I had hoped I might make it through as one of the thirty. Unlike the original Queensland "Best Job in the World", which received over 40,000 video entries, there were only 697 for this one. I thought I had a decent chance, and my hopes were raised a few days ago when they emailed me for some further information. Oh well - I'll just have to go in search of paradise myself - Panama in January, I think! Thanks to all who voted for me. For the record, here is the video I submitted for my entry:-
The book A LIFE SOLD is published via Print On Demand (POD), through the world's largest POD printer, LightningSource. This means that I do not have to pay for copies to be printed up-front. When someone orders a copy it is printed and bound to order, and despatched.
LightningSource (LS) supply POD books to Amazon and many other online retailers. They provide a direct feed of book info to retailers, who can choose to hold a small supply of books, or simply use LS to fulfill orders as they are received. Amazon prefers to hold a supply of books in stock. So, all was going well. The book had appeared on Amazom.com, and I ordered quite a few copies to send out to some of the people who I wished to thank for their part in my journey. Orders were going out, books were being shipped, and yesterday I even received emails from two people who have already received their copy. However, Amazon had done something slightly odd with the listing. When I filled in the book details with LightningSource, I had credited Moe and Kris as my editors. In the Amazon listing, which draws its info from LS, it looked like all three of us were co-authors. "Just change the listing at LightningSource," Moe suggested, "and remove us as editors." It seemed like the easiest solution. However, I have now discovered to my cost that to alter the book data, LS marks the book temporarily as unavailable to print. This happens only for a few hours, until the data is changed, then the book is back as available. However, this interruption causes Amazon to mark the book as "temporarily unavailable", or even as "out of stock"! Surely Amazon's listing returns to full availability as soon as LS updates their feed. Apparently not! The book has now been listed for several days as "usually delivered in 3 to 5 weeks", with an additional "so you won't receive this order until after Christmas" if you do try to order it. I rang LS to see what their suggestion was. It can take Amazon anywhere between 1 to 3 weeks to update the feed. I emailed Amazon several times, and received various responses - "We've sold out of that title!", "We're waiting for new stock.", "It's an automated system." etc etc. I even tried to ring Amazon this morning - that can be a challenge in itself. I finally got through to a help rep - he would have to transfer me to the Seller Support Department.... no luck - they are closed today because it's a public holiday - Happy Thanksgiving! I'm hoping to get this resolved before the end of the week, or early next week at the latest. You should still be able to get the book well before Christmas. I have already placed more orders on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, and expect these to be sent out as soon as the book comes back online as available. In the meantime, here are the links for the book on Amazon sites around the world:-
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
, and has finally showed up as "In Stock" on Amazon.co.uk too. Canada, France and Germany sites still show availability as "Usually ships within 3 to 5 weeks", but I am hoping that this will change as soon as they receive stock from the printer.
However, I think there must have been quite a few sales waiting to be despatched from both the US Amazon warehouse and the UK one, as Amazon.com now shows "Only 5 copies left - order soon (more on the way)". The UK site displays a similar message, but with only two copies remaining!  
While this is a little frustrating, I guess it is also encouraging too. I haven't really made any concerted effort at marketing yet, as I would like availabilty not to be an issue when I do begin in ernest. I have a mailing list of over 4,000 people to contact, as well as about 100 press contacts, all gathered over the past couple of years. I am going to chase up with Amazon again today, as I am a little confused about why availability is even an issue. With the book being supplied by one of the world's largest Print On Demand suppliers, this shouldn't really be an issue. LightningSource have print facilities in both the US and UK, and can print and despatch a book as soon as it is ordered. LS provide order fulfillment for online suppliers. This means that an online book store can offer a LS book, showing it as "In Stock", even if they don't hold any copies. When a customer places an order, the store simply forwards that order on to LS, who print the book and send it directly to the customer. At the moment Amazon don't seem to want to use this facility, preferring to hold a stock of books themselves. When these run out the book gets marked as potentially taking much longer to deliver. At times this would mean that I can order single copies of the book direct from the printer, as could any other online retailer, and despatch them direct to the customer quicker than Amazon can. The whole point of going the Print On Demand route was to avoid having to handle stock. Come on Amazon - let's try to keep up please! It's going to get busier than this when I talk my way on to Oprah's couch!!
The book is now showing as fully available on the US and UK sites, and also as "In Stock" in France and Germany. However, somewhat mysteriously, it shows a taking between 1 to 4 weeks to ship from the Canadian site. I have had around five orders sent out from Amazon.ca  , and it didn't take too long at all.
The biggest mystery is the pricing of the book. I did intend to write this blog about the book being reduced by 9% on Amazon.com , as for the last week or so the book has been on offer at $13.70. But unfortunately this morning the price is back up to the retail figure of $14.99.
The Canadian pricing has been equally unusual. When the book first appeared on the site the price was quickly discounted to C$11.21, a great bargain. Over the following days that became $11.18, and then $11.14. This represents a 26% discount, which is utterly mystifying, as Amazon only make 20% on the book! Along with free postage on orders over $25, I couldn't resist. I ordered 20 copies! Once I get my sales commission back from the printer, I actually pay less per copy than I would have to if I ordered direct from the printer, and as an added bonus Amazon foots the bill to get the book to me. This has the dual advantages of giving me a few sample copies for a bargain price, and twenty extra sales on Amazon, which can't hurt my ranking in Amazon's system! Marvellous! The Canadian price is obviously calculated based on the US price, and with the US and Canadian dollar being almost on par, the standard price on Amazon.ca is C$15.05. unfortunately, as on Amazon.com , the Canadian price returned to full retail price this morning.
European Amazon sites offer an equally confusing and entertaining array of prices. I set a price in Euros of €11.99. In France  the price, presumably based on the UK price in Pounds Sterling, is €11.79, discounted to €11.29. In Germany it is $15.99 discounted to €13.99 ?!? And in Italy it is €12.22, discounted by a whopping 30% to a bargain €8.58. Amazon must be losing quite a bit at this price!
It's all very mysterious, but very interesting.
The font that I had used for some of the goal details sections isn't recognised by the Kindle, so I had to make some font changes there. I also had some troubles with a table I had created as an appendix, listing all the goals achieved, and the dates on which they were completed. I did some online research, and discovered the best answer to this dilemma was simply to make an image, and embed that. I saved the completed file as an html document, and using the software suggested by Amazon, created the appropriate file from that. Finally, I wanted to make the Table Of Contents link to the appropriate sections in the book, which involved a bit of reasonably easy html coding. I re-saved the file in eBook format, and the job was done! Far easier than I thought it might be. In the US the eBook is prices at $8.99, and in the UK it is £5.99. Both prices represent a 40% saving on the paperback book price. Unfortunately the UK price has VAT tacked onto it, making the total cost £6.89. I think the US price represents better value at the moment, but that always depends on exchange rates, of course. Click here  for the Kindle version on Amazon.co.uk. Click on the image below to see the Kindle version on Amazon.com .
 It is possible to download free Kindle Reader software for PC, and preview the first part of the book. You can also download the book preview section directly to your Kindle if you have one. Hope you enjoy it, Kindle readers. I would really appreciate any feedback on how you think the book looks on the Kindle. Thanks very much.
I made a couple of comments in reply to Joanna's blogs, and mentioned one particular tip she had given which I had found very helpful. She had suggested that as part of the editing process, it was very useful to read your manuscript out loud to yourself. You could get a feel for how any dialogue sounded, and how the narrative flowed. I also found that I spotted many typing errors that I hadn't previously seen. I think there is something different about the way the brain sees the text when reading aloud that means the little errors are more easily picked up. I was surprised when Joanna contacted me, suggesting she would like do an interview. We made arrangements, and Joanna and I spoke via Skype last week. It was a fun interview to do, and we found we kept getting a little off-track, as we are both very enthusiastic about travel. You can listen to the interview here if you like: Achieving Goals With Ian Usher Who Sold His Life On EBay - The Creative Penn Joanna's thriller, "Pentecost", is due out in February. She has a couple of free chapters available to download from her website - it sounds like it is going to be a great read. 
Thanks for a fun interview Joanna. Good luck with the book.
I have created a new Press Coverage page for the website, and have added links to some of the recent press and publicity about the book. The latest links are to:- - The Creative Penn, an author blog, which I mentioned in my previous posting - The Stuph File, with Peter Anthony Holder - Cheap Travel radio, with Brian Peters They have all been fun interviews to do, and all are available online if you want to listen to them. With Amazon being the main target for as many of my sales as possible, I have been looking at ways to improve my ranking there, as well as find ways that will help others to stumble across my book as they browse through Amazon's huge catalogue of around 8 million books. I have discovered a couple of things that look like they will help, and if you care to assist a little, your input would be very gratefully accepted. Here are a couple of things that you can do that will only take a few seconds. 1). This is the quickest and easiest way you can help out a little - just a few seconds will do! A very influential part of a listing on Amazon is the "Reviews" section. For reviews that have already been written, there is a "Did you find this review helpful?" section. Below each review there is a "Yes" and a "No" button, and you can indicate whether the review was of assistance to you. "Yes" votes for good 5* reviews help keep these reviews on top of the review list. 2). Another really quick way to assist - Amazon makes use of tags to assist people to search for products. You can add your own tags, or agree with tags already suggested by others. I think the most relevant tags are: travel, adventure, goals, goal setting, ebay, auction, life changing, separation, divorce, love... tick the ones you agree with, or add your own. You are allowed to tick or add up to 15 tags. I was looking into the tagging system a little more last night, and it is very interesting to see how it works. When you search for a book on, for example, the subject of "goal setting", the page first shows recently popular products tagged this way. As I write this my book appears at #5 on this list. This is wonderful, and is due to those friends and contacts who have recently done a review or some tagging. Thank you all very much. The list can be sorted several ways, and right now I am #1, as the most recently tagged product under "goal setting". However, I guess it is overall popularity that really counts, and the #1 book in this section has 97 tags for "goal setting". I have 8 "goal setting" tags right now, so have quite a way to go, but if you want to help out, go to the book page here, and scroll down to the tags section (after you have voted "Yes" to a couple of helpful reviews, on the way, of course!) In overall popularity I am currently #18. The top 15 books display on the first page of results, and the book at #15 has been tagged "goal setting" 9 times. So only two more people tagging A LIFE SOLD as being relevant to "goal setting" will put me on the first page. Tags I think I should particularly target are:- - adventure - goals - goal setting - ebay - auction - inspirational books - travel - adventure travel Anything elso you can suggest? You can add up to a maximum of 15 tags, and as always, anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated. There is another new page on the website with a few other ideas and suggestions for ways you can help, should you have the time and inclination. Click here for more info. Many thanks once again to all blog readers out there for your on-going support and encouragement.
This is the picture we used for the family Christmas card - taken on a "warm" -10 deg C day! 
Moe's sister Rainey arrived for the week with her two kids, Wynn and Aslin, and the seven of us managed to enjoy a fun-filled week in the little cabin. I have an invitation to a wedding in New Zealand in February, and am acting as best man for my buddy Bruce in March in England, so very soon after Christmas it was time to hit the road again. Moe dropped me off at the airport in Whitehorse on a very cold morning, and we said our sad farewells. We plan to meet up again towards the end of March, hopefully for a month or so of travelling together. My first flight took me south to Vancouver, and a connection took me onward to LA. I caught the airport bus to Van Nuys, where my friend Evan met me. It wasn't long before we had a couple of beers in hand at his new place right on the beach. It is quite a shock to the system to be somewhere where a t-shirt is adequate for daytime, and a light jacket is all the extra wear that is needed for the evening. On the evening I arrived we constructed Evan's new "Ball O' Fire" enclosure, in which he had just invested, planning to use it for his New Year's Eve bash. We had to test it out, of course!   
I'm here until 3rd or 4th January, and then fly direct to Auckland, where I plan to spend a couple of months exploring New Zealand, and enjoying some sunny southern-hemisphere summer weather. I hope you all had an equally wonderful Christmas, and are looking forward to a fantastic New Year. I am certainly excited about new adventures that 2011 may offer.
It has been a fun year, filled with fun, excitement and surprises. As my year began in January, alone at my brother's house in London, I had no idea how the end of the 100goals100weeks journey would play out, and where life might take me afterwards. The first six months of the year took me to Africa, South America, back to Africa again, then on to Australia for a month or so. From there I headed to Nepal, India, England, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and ended my journey in America, finally visiting the crown of the Statue of Liberty on 4th July. The last two months of my journey provided a very welcome surprise, when I met up again with Moe, who had originally invited me to go dog-sledding in Whitehorse in Canada. A new and exciting relationship flourished, and we decided that I should head back to Whitehorse as soon as my journey ended. Things went very well for us, and we spent a happy six months together. I have had to leave for a while, as there are a couple of weddings I want to attend, but we plan to meet up again towards the end of March. I am currently enjoying New Years Eve in LA with my friend Evan, and I fly to New Zealand in a day or two.   
I think this is going to be pretty much the end of my blogs about travels for now. I have some new ideas for 2011, and plan to change the focus of the blog a little. Keep an eye on this space for new developments in the new year, particularly if you have ever thought about writing a book. For now though, I hope you too have had a wonderful 2010, and wish you all the success you hope for with your own goals in 2011. Best wishes, Ian 11.59pm Friday December 31st 2010 
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The book:-
is now on sale at
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and at other online retailers.
Links here
.... and ....
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