Nathan Henrion's Blog

My sons are growing up fast, and one of the things my wife has been having fun with is teaching them the concept of family.  She will ask them "who is a Henrion", "who is a Ross" (her maiden name), "who is a Holdwick" (my sister's married name).  They seem to be having a lot of fun with this, but are still baffled as to why their cousin will never have the same last name as them…unless they move to Kentucky.

The family tree on my father's side is truncated due to the fact that he spent a lot of his youth in an orphanage in the Midwest.  Personally, I know very little about his family history.  I was contacted by someone on Facebook awhile ago concerning my family ancestors and I was left to plead ignorance.  I do have a doppelganger on Facebook who lives in France and he seems to be much younger and cooler than me.

So I decided to start Googling the family name.

I found a Daphne Hardy Henrion who has a very cool story.  Apparently she worked on the English translation of Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon during 1939-40.  Being a close intimate of Koestler, she brought the manuscript to England and even suggested the name of the book. This according to Wikipedia…which of course is never wrong.

She took the name "Henrion" in 1947 when she married (well after the Koestler episode) which diminishes some of the coolness factor…but that point can be easily overlooked.

Darkness at Noon is a a dark and powerful book.  It pointedly shows the fallacy of blind obedience to ideology; in this case, communism.  Having read the book several times, it was fascinating to see the family name associated with it in some way.

Read the Wiki here

So I am claiming a piece of history.  From here on out Daphne Hardy Henrion will be my great-great-Auntie, which practically makes me a close confidant of Arthur Koestler.

Jealous?

I for one am not a proponent or enjoyer of advertising.  The limited tv I watch is made so much better by DVR, to skip through the commercials.

We were having a discussion about the back ads in ebooks to correspond with our printed editions.  You know, those pages at the end of a printed book which tell you about sequels or other writers you like?  Yes, those pages that not to many people actually read.  Well, certain folks are focusing on stuffing more of those into ebooks.

But putting on the ...

"It's absolutely absurd to devalue our product but I'm not surprised because our industry is populated by nincompoops." - thebookseller.com

To start, let me say that I am not an economist.  I have an MBA, but that just gives me enough background to be extremely dangerous.  I've read various philosophers, Smith, Marx, Hayek, and Friedman and act as if I know them by heart.  That being said…

Value.  That word has been batted around since the ebook pricing wars began with Amazon selling digital...

My sister was due to have her first baby today, but as of now, no news yet.  Her and her husband decided to not find out if the baby was a boy or a girl, which makes it hard to buy a baby gift.  So here are some of our options.

1. I like this onesie, as I think it could go both ways, a skull if a boy, but with a nice hair bow for a girl:

2. This baby toy might work for either sex…not really sure who the target gender is:

3.   Perhaps a baby instructional tool about how to behave in the car?

The p...

Life is tripping by way too fast now.  Hitting the road again down to the Ohio Valley after a week of birthdays for the wife and kids (an expensive week).  My mind is shot,  I am behind on almost everything, I let some things fall through the cracks (sorry blogfest), and haven't had much to talk about.  So, with that being said, check out Jason McIntyre's new stuff:

Jason at Smashwords

It looks really good.

Because…no matter how much you tangle with your manuscript…it will never do this to you!

This is a question I have thought about for several years after reading a work by a lesser known author who shall remain nameless.  The story he crafted took place in the deep south in the early part of the 20th century.  As you can imagine, the dialogue of the characters was peppered with derogatory slang and names, fitting for the context of the setting.

Historically, an author should paint the world as it really was.  It's what makes the story believable.  Whitewashing the way people...

E-readers are all the rage right now.  As I work pretty much all day long in the ebook distribution channel with the 9-5 gig, I've had a lot of friends ask me what I would recommend purchasing.  I thought I would lay down why I chose the Nook from B&N for me. (Actually, my wife bought it for me for Father's Day…but I gave a bazillion hints).

Choices: iPad, Kobo Reader, Sony Reader, Kindle, Nook

1. E-ink Display:  The iPad is wicked cool.  There is absolutely no doubt about that.  However, I...

Haha…my serial western has been kicked off smashwords.

I started its own blog page here which is probably better because it can be RSS-ified.

http://brodiejackson.wordpress.com

I am migrating the chapters that  were already posted there to the new site.

Get Yur Grit On!