Alva in Port Henry and Roberta, Henderson, and Waldman

Heard from Alva. Told me she’d decided to leave Albany to check out the real world. Seems she’d heard the bridge at Crown Point was completed and was a sight for sore eyes–I guess hers. So she and a friend who had joined her in Albany to rattle political cages about extending the Millionaire’s Tax had taken a run up to see the new bridge and walk across it.

According to Alva, the view from the bridge over Lake Champlain is simply stunning in both North and South directions so they have decided to bunk down in Port Henry for a few days.

Oh, and just a bit ago, Alva called me again to say the Bridge at Crown Point at night from Port Henry is just magical to behold; not only the walkways over the bridge, but also the road leading up to it are beautifully lit.

Also, according to Alva, she and an acquaintance named Zeta have already decided to walk the span again in the morning, but this time, as the sun comes up–because the Green Mountains with the sun rising over them and the thought of arriving mid-Bridge as it does so is just too exciting for her to resist.

In view of Alva’s anticipation, it just didn’t seem to be the time to talk of mundane things like Alva Press and our PR campaign. So I never got to mention the fact that Kristen Henderson’s book of poetry, Drum Machine, will be released in January.

Also I did not mention that last night I met Carl Waldman, well-know author of some ten or more other books on explorers, Elvis, and American Indians–including the Encyclopedia of Native Americans! Or that he’s asked me to read his yet to be published newest novel–a mystery.

Can’t help it. Life is so lop-sided: Alva’s all in a tizzy about Crown Point Bridge being done and right now all I can think about is reading Waldman’s mystery.

Still, next week I think I’ll take a run to Port Henry just to take a look at the Bridge myself. I love Port Henry–used to live there–and was pretty devastated a couple of years ago when they imploded the old Crown Point Bridge due to its weakened state.

And believe me, I was not the only one.

Roberta in Po-Town, Ready to run four hours north

Word of Alva under the Tents!

Worried about Alva! Went out to bring her a plate from Thanksgiving dinner. Checked out the tents in Po-Town. There are eleven of them. Couldn’t find her but heard she had left for the Occupy movement in Albany and should be back around noon. Left the plate with someone who thought they’d see her. Along with a bag of oranges and some nuts to be shared among those there. Wish she’d come back. Or at least ring in. Hard to feel grateful with all those tents and Alva off to who knows where. And doesn’t help to have heard the homeless numbers in NYC are at 40,000.

Say, if you get chance, please forward this link to a friend. Perhaps they’ve seen Alva. And if you see her and get chance to talk to her, ask her please to at least ring in.

Roberta in Po-Town–in for Alva who is out of town just now

Thanksgiving: Alva Under the Tents

Yup! Alva took her sleeping bag and went out to join the Occupy Movement and I’m all a dither.

Ever see ALVA when she is on a roll? Hair stands out straight all around her head. Her eyes get so big  they look like headlights. And she moves so fast at times she’s a blur.

I tried, but I was able to keep her here in the office until yesterday. Then the Super Committee did it’s thing. She heard the news that was it!  I watched as Alva threw cheese, oranges, and loaf of bread into a bag. Then she just stormed out. Yelled over her shoulder not to try to call her as she wasn’t taking her cell with her. Said she didn’t think they had chargers in the tents. Haven’t heard from her since.

Now tell me what I’m supposed to do. How am I suppose to feel grateful with ALVA out there who knows where ready to fight the world just because she thinks that the top 1% should talk to those she calls those meal-headed people in Congress. Alva believes the rich should explain that as they own a third of the country’s wealth they agree with the Occupy Movement: The tax structure simply is not fair! And she wants them to tell the tea-baggers–that’s what ALVA calls them–to just stop second-guessing them–the rich–the top 1%–and think about the poor!

That’s ALVA. And I just don’t what else to do except to make sure my voter registration is in order.

Roberta in Po-Town, Hoping for a saner Thanksgiving 2012

Hey, Alva, What Happened to October?

I can’t believe it. I thought nothing would keep Alva quiet and now I find that neither she nor I blogged once in October!

Me, I understand. School was grueling. All new caseload. But Alva. All she has to do is hang around to help me with branding. She watches. I work. And just when she is most needed! You see right now is not a good time for me. Which I suppose, does strain Alva.

The problem is that I can’t find a PR person to work five hours a week for Alva–even at top dollar. What is it? PR people don’t care for eBooking? Or mass emailing? Well, Alva and I both think its the wave of the future–which why we have made the Jenkins Living Now Award winning novel Jolt: a rural noir available in eBook form at http://alvapressinc.com.

And that’s why Alva and I are both so excited to announce that come the turn of the year Alva Press, Inc. will also release Kristen Henderson’s wonderful book of poetry, Drum Machine in eBook as well as book form.

In other, Alva thinks that if you haven’t downloaded your copy of Jolt: a rural noir, you should do it. You see it is now available in eBook form in both ePub (for Nook) and Mobi (for Kindle) for just $11.95 shipping included at http://alvapressinc.com.

But perhaps you are an old fashioned reader like me, Roberta, and you prefer the feel of your hand on the book’s spine as you turn the pages. Well, that’s okay, too, as you can also order copies of Jolt: a rural noir  in Trade Paper Back or Hard Cover at http://alvapressinc.com.

Alva, you know, is an avid reader of all the best literature. So yesterday I asked her about Jolt: a rural noir. She said it’s just too good a read to miss and hopes you’ll read it and let her know what you think. You see she follows readers comments regularly on GoodReads.com. So if you write your review there, she’ll be sure to see it. And she always gets so excited to read one. It really is a kind of special affirmation for her.

So do make Alva happy. Order your copy of Jolt: a rural noir and afterward give it your five star rating on GoodReads.com–to date everyone has. I’m sure Alva’d like that. And then maybe I’ll be able to get her to blog more. (Also, when she’s feeling up, it’s really fun at the office with her! So do it for me, too.)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hey, Roberta, I heard you. But it’s been tough lately. The weather and all.You know.

And to tell you the truth,  I’d blog some now, but I gotta check out Jolt: a rural noir on GoodReads.com–just in case there is a new critique.

Tawktayalater.

Alva the Indie

Alva Press, Inc. Short Poll

Ten Years Post 9/11: Alva at Last a Real Company

Alva Press, Inc., celebrates the fact that she is a real company at last!

In a trek that began with my search for knowledge as to how I, my loved ones, and finally, the community, might effectively respond to any Mass Event, I researched and wrote Jolt: a rural noir. To further the word on post mass event and general survival techniques, two and a half years ago Alva Press, Inc, became an online entity. My blog at http://alvapressinc.com/robertamroyonnuclearsurvival is the product of that intent. And now ten years post 9/11 ALVA commemorates the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 with the release of Jolt: a rural noir in ePub and Mobi eBook forms and recognizes just how far Alva Press, Inc., has come in the process.

No longer is Alva a one-person enterprise. ALVA now includes integrated professional support services in the area of technical support, writing and editing, design, public relations, advertising and distribution. And recently ALVA started a small copying service which is housed at Gallery Ottaviani, 214 Hooker Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY. (845) 452-9227.

ALVA aims not only to please the readers and writers of the world, but to the extent it can, to also serve the community.

READERS

can now purchase eBooks as well as soft and hard cover traditional forms.

WRITERS

can arrange to have their books and manuscripts converted into eBooks for distribution through the ALVA site and any others they so choose.

COMMUNITY

As ALVA is yet a very tiny entity with limited resources, its expression of community care is similarly limited. Nonetheless, ALVA reaches out to help in these small ways:

READERS – Enjoy the variety of three blogs ALVA supports:The Writer Publisher’s WebBlog and Roberta M. Roy’s Personal Blog and the Nuclear Survival Blog — morphed over time into more of a healthy living and general survival informational one.

WRITERS – ALVA offers the first three lucky writers who qualify, the opportunity for free book or manuscript conversion of to an eBook for presentation and distribution through ALVA’s website.

COMMUNITY – ALVA is committed to dedicating $2 from the sale of each of the next 500 books she sells through the ALVA site to the ‘Making Cocoa with Kristina’ Fund. The Making Cocoa with Kristina Fund’s moneies will go toward the purchase of a motorized wheelchair for the young mother and writer, Kristina Jackson. (See Purchase eBooks and Books Here page for more details.)

Have you heard the song “Turning toward Morning” by Gordon Bok? These years and times since 9/11 have been and remain so much a challenge. And while we are not perhaps quite where we would like to be, signs of hope must always be welcomed.

ALVA is but a small, hopeful sprout in a large universe. But I believe that as long as hope springs anew, new answers will emerge. Not only for ALVA and me and Kristina, but also for you, my gentle reader.

Roberta, In Po-Town, Lookin’ toward the Mornin’

*For the complete lyrics to Gordon Bok’s song about how the world always turns toward morning, please go to http://ahistoricality.blogspot.com/2005/08/thursday-lyric-turning-toward-morning.html

This Weekend Hurricane Irene

Well, who knows what the rain, wind, and flooding will mean for Alva and me. Probably (Possibly?) not much in terms of any direct hits. The area is poised for flooding and an emergency shelter has been set up for this afternoon through Thursday in the Mid-Hudson Civic Center. This must definitely come as a godsend and offer reassurance for elderly people using electricity for cooking and cooling as well as for anyone in low lying areas where flooding is anticipated.

My son is taking his boat from the water as it is not that large and if the waters swell there is a chance of it tipping toward its mooring on the stationary dock where it is kept. The most likely result would be damage to its side but in a worst-case scenario, I suppose it could cause it to sink. But then that is just my own speculative thinking and I am not really a boater.

So we’ve brought in the hanging plants and put away the chairs. And I talked to my sister who lives in Raleigh, NC, and her daughter’s college graduation scheduled for today has been canceled and she and everyone around her is tired readying for the storm. And its raining. Luckily for her, Raleigh will just get wind to forty or fifty miles. And rain. Yup, raining hard there now. But the worst will hit around two o’clock when there with rain and more rain, and winds to 40-50 miles an hour.

Here Irene will not hit until tomorrow. Probably with about the same or a bit less intensity as it is and will in Raleigh.

As Poughkeepsie sits high above the river, our biggest concern here will be electrical outages. This in turn could affect Alva and me as most of Alva’s business is on the web.

So if you don’t hear from us for a while, you can guess why.

Roberta in Po-Town, Battenin’ down–like everyone

Earthquake Today!

Lucky for Alva and me, it only shook us up a little bit. First I thought the man downstairs was fixing something. Then I thought someone was knocking on my door. I opened it. No one. It was the earthquake. Reached all the way from lower VA to the Hudson Valley here in NYS.

Later, I called my cousin, Elizabeth D. Hampel who said the vibrations were to be felt as far north as where she is in Middlebury, VT. Happily no apparent damage. Just a little unsettling.

Alva’s digital designer was out on a photo shoot today. A little disappointing not to have uploaded Jolt: a rural noir to the website for sale as an eBook. Alva has both ePub and Mobi editions ready to go so people can download it to both their Nooks and Kindles.

In other, Betty, as I know her, or as she is known in the literary world, Elizabeth D. Hampel, is sending me one of her pieces. It’s a play called Lock, Stock, and Barrel.  It is a comedy which, if Alva agrees to publish it, she must also agree to do so ‘as is.’ It’s a bit of a risk, but not too large a one as both of Betty’s books published to date have avid audiences. And published under the same rules: what Betty writes nobody edits!

Although some people prefer Hampel’s damsel in distress story of the estranged twins, Mirror Image, me, Roberta, I prefer Gumshoe— three rollicking stories of the escapades fo Leo Wolfson, 2nd rate private eye, and available through Amazon.com as an eBook for Kindle.

At any rate, Alva would like Lock, Stock, and Barrel to be produced as a playbook. Somehow the thought of the actors reading from Kindles, Nooks, and eReaders doesn’t fly.

But time will tell.

Roberta in Po-Town, Watchin’ the mail

Not everybody works on Saturday

Saturday. No matter. In our efforts to better define ourselves, as usual, Alva and I continued our struggle with the elusive eWorld. Our challenge today was to get our new ‘professional’ web site up and looking good. Not that we have not tried before. Except for us, today took off with a running start from between three and seven a.m. at which time I finally fell asleep. Waking again at nine thirty, I dragged out of the house by half past ten– too late to prevent a ticket for wrong-side of the street parking.

Sick by then of even the thought of more time dedicated to proofing and repairing the Alva web site, I was happy to have figured out by break of day at least what the problem was. Snatching my ticket from the windshield, I hopped in the car and took off to run errands.

My first stop was Office Depot where I gave a wave to Herman, my favorite associate, and picked up a copy of the 2011 Quickbooks Accountant. From there it was to the post office to mail two certified letters containing rebate requests on a laptop I purchased last week for my son and his family. As neither of the pens on the counter worked, I borrowed one from the post mistress. Attached to its top was a large white rose–the cause of at least one benightedly knowing smile being observedly cast by a woman patron who pulled up to seal a letter across from me.

After the post office it was on to Dunkin’ Donuts. Sweets are not my thing in the morning, but they were out of biscuits and corn muffins so I indulged myself in some coffee cake. Then home again and back to the computer. And the web site.

By that time I had a strategy to address my broken link problem. First, I assumed that my past Do-It-Yourself website provider and my current Professional website provider wanted me happy–especially as one had recommended the other. And as it turned out, Amy was just as nice as everyone there had always been–but I think just because she is generally that way.

Amy is with my old web site provider and although she could not solve the problem she thought for sure that if she were to call my new provider on Monday that they could work it out and she would then call me to let me know in what way it had been resolved. If I could have reached through the phone, I’d have hugged her!

The reason I was so happy with this solution was that from the beginning, the problem had been two-fold with the first part being that it was a link between the two providers that was broken and the second being that I work on Monday while my current provider does not work on Saturday.

More anon,

Roberta in Po-town on the Hudson River in New York State

Feeling Tentative

Having been officially welcomed to the world of WordPress.com, I haven’t settled in completely. But I do want to try the water. I just don’t want to make a complete fool of myself first thing out.

So here’s the pickle. I both want to have fun but I also want to be me–like I want to feature the logo for Alva Press, Inc. so everyone will get to know it. (You see I can’t imagine me without Alva, my publishing company. Also I would like everyone recognize the Alva brand wherever her logo appears.)

Right away, that brings me to another twist. The ‘her.’ Why ‘her’? Well, Alva is far too important for me to refer to her as ‘it’, so whenever I refer to Alva its like talking about my sister or a friend and ‘she’ it is–or ‘her’.

Well, now that that’s been cleared up, the next thing I need to tell you is that Alva will definitely be coming out with her first eBook soon. Just in time for the tenth anniversary of 9/11. After all, if we had not suffered the shock of 9/11, I never would have bothered to do all that research into survival and Natalie and Thaw would never have been born or Jolt: a rural noir been written. And I would never have become a 2011 Living Now Awards Medalist in Inspirational Fiction and Alva would not have even considered publishing eBooks–not only for me, but she also wants to do it for others. All of which brings me around to the theme of Jolt: a rural noir and how survival can contribute to new answers and the renewal of happiness. At least it did for the residents of Lochlee after Magdum Heights went down. And it has for Alva and me since I incorporated her in 2004.

So on behalf of Alva and me, I do hope you will contact Alva and order a copy of Jolt: a rural noir. The story is set in set in an imaginary tri-state area in the northern USA. Great characters. And lots of good stuff about how to respond in the event of a nuclear meltdown.

Well, I did it! My first blog. Do let me know what you think!

Roberta in Po-Town on the Hudson in NYS