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Hi. If you are new to this, here is what happens when a book is unglued: a. everybody in the world can read the book for free, on any device, and b. the author is paid a fair amount. The author is paid by people who donate money to unglue the book, that is to make the book free. Those who donate receive recognition and other great stuff...
To read Stephen's adventures in ungluing, please follow Book Merah on Facebook and Twitter.
My name is Stephen Black. I wrote Obama Search Words.
No, I have not met Barack Obama nor anyone from the Democratic Party. I was, however, very fortunate to meet people in Jakarta who were close to the young boy who became President of the United States.
Why did I write this book?
Short answer: writing about the life of Barack Obama gave me a chance to look at my own life and the country I grew up in.
Long answer: I was living in Singapore and my mother came to visit. She had a copy of Dreams of My Father. I was struck by her description of the book and its author. I decided to write about Senator Obama. However, my book would focus upon food. With his connections to American, Hawaiian, African, African-American, Indonesian and gourmet cuisines, the life of Barack Obama could be presented in an interesting way, regardless of his political ups and downs.
So, I went to Indonesia and met people who told me what "Barry" ate when he was a schoolboy in Jakarta. I Googled luaus and Washington D.C.'s three star restaurants. I went to Chicago and had a latte near the Obama home, feasted on soul food at MacArthur's and ate an Egg McMuffin in the McDonald's where, as a social worker, Obama used to hold informal meetings.
It soon became clear that the man was destined for bigger things. He narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic Presidential candidate. Social media provided an intimate view of the election campaign. I saw inside hundreds of different campaign headquarters. Photos of Obama taken with hundreds of kinds of cameras began to appear, photos taken in locations great and small. Something was in the air; history was being made.
I dropped the food idea.
Obama Search Words is full of facts about American society from 1960 to the present and an album of dynamic photos taken by professionals and amateurs. The book's short stories interpret the life of Barack Obama and comment upon the complexities, possibilities
Stephen's book is illustrated with wonderful photography of places the President has lived in and/or been connected to… From the beginning, I was taken on a journey around the planet from Hawaii to Kenya… I liken it to walking through a documentary. The fictional accounts provided me an opportunity to consider how Barack Obama's rise to the most powerful office in the United States has touched and inspired people across all classes, genders, ages, and ethnicities.
Obama Search Words is well-crafted, informative, and enlightening.
-from the Raychelle Writes website
And here's a bonus video from Stephen: Barack & Michelle's first date, using the actual location where it happened.
Premiums
$35
Stephen Black Sampler
You can also see Voice of Pieces artworks.
$100
My book, Monsoon Drain, is now being finalized. Its cover will follow the style of these beautiful covers of the Babette's Feast series by Math Paper Press, a popular press in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
$300
Kwayism
Media: Awagami Inbe thin Japanese paper,lightfast pigment inks
Size; 577x 464mm (23 x 18 inches)
Edition of 50
Signed
$1000
Depth
From the Depth series. Full series can be viewed at http://domainartgallery.com/artist/stephen-black
Media: Sihl 4802 (archival, semi-gloss), lightfast pigment inks
Size: 23.4 x 16.5inches(594 x 420mm)
Mounted on 3mm thk Dilite
Aluminium Hanging Bracket
Edition of 10
Signed
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This work has been claimed by Stephen Black.
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Hello georgedick,
Thank you for your question.
Once OSW was completed, I put it on Kindle exclusively. Prior to that, I had had interesting conversations with a few traditional publishers, but they were ultimately unfruitful. Once it was on Kindle, I did absolutely no marketing. Hopefully this link works and you can understand why: http://www.forbes.com/sites/suwcharmananderson/2012/06/19/book-promotion-for-self-publishers-a-waste-of-time/
Since I completed OSW, I have worked to finish a few other books. The ebook landscape has become larger and more accessible since 2009.It is an exciting time for ebooks, traditional publishing and hybrids like Blurb. It is only now that I can consider them, always with the big picture in mind.
Stephen; have you printed this book yet? Or published on Blurb?
testing this...would be nice o add paragraphs and italics.... I don't know html....