A post from Sam worth checking out.

Most of Us Read The Bible The Wrong Way by Sam Williamson, 4 november 2013  Have you ever been in a relationship in which everything you say is misunderstood? It's as though the other person has a built in bias to misinterpret you: You say their new tie is attractive. They wonder if you are buttering them up in order to borrow fifty bucks. You privately mention that their plaid, pink tie clashes (in the tiniest way) with their striped, orange shirt. They think you are a critical jerk. You say nothing at all about their new tie. They figure you are a self-obsessed narcissist who never notices anything about anyone else. A built-in-bias prevents them from hearing what you have to say because their hearing is filtered through their agenda. They only hear what they want to hear. Well, we are that biased, agenda-driven person, only we misinterpret what God says. We read scripture through the lens of our purposes, and we overlook hispurpose. We are missing the boat to a rich life with God, and boarding a dinghy to relational hell.  [...]  Read more...

Upcoming Promo and quick update on NaNoWriMo

Well, November is fast becoming my new favorite month. In addition to No Shave November and Thanksgiving, it's also National Novel Writing Month (as I've talked a lot about in past years). If you'd like to join NaNo don't stress about being behind, you can still catch up. Go here and register. Search for Sir Bunch to friend me on the site.

I met with a great pack of writers at the Portland Airport last night and we all started writing at midnight. I wrote over 3k before I packed it in. Yes I'm beat today, but hey, if I didn't write at all today I'd still be on track. I'm giving myself a lot of grace this year though, because of the other reason November is becoming the best month ever--I'm getting married November 9th in Sacramento. To answer FAQ's: Yes she's a real live woman. No, she's not blind. Yes, she knows I'm a writer. What can I say, it only took forty-two years to find her.

So to celebrate you can get my short story "The Dark Djin" for free on Kindle from November 8th to 12th. That story will appear along with nine others in my upcoming anthology.

Then on November 15th, my next co-authored non-fiction is due out. This is an amazing story of a woman's journey to freedom in America. Links to be inserted when they are available.

ATTENTION UPDATE! "I Didn't Give Up," is out at last and here's the link: http://amzn.to/17AEre9

Finally, I'm trying out Amazon's newest promo trick, Countdown, on my fantasy, "Suffering Rancor". It will be available for $0.99 from December 2nd to 5th in the US and 2nd to 6th in the UK. That'll be a great way to celebrate having drafted the bulk of Defying Rancor (the sequel) this month. I don't have a release date set for Defying Rancor but lets call it Fall of 2014.

The next fiction book I will release will be my short story anthology, "A Denny's Tales: 21st Century Midnight Mythology," at the end of March. Other projects in the pipeline include mystery thriller, "Vancouver Scooter Club Mystery #1: Footless and Fancy Free." Again, the date isn't firm, but look for it Spring of 2014.

I have two halfway drafted novels, therefore distant future projects: A Magic Realism/Christian Urban Fantasy set in the 1980's called "Team US!" and a SciFi/Space Opera named "Dark and Derelict." Look for those in 2015.

So I confess that I didn't get two novels and the anthology out in 2013, but I did draft 100k words and ghost write a novel, and will bring it out this year, publish a short story, edit a poetry anthology which will also be out before Christmas, attend half a dozen sales/promotional events, oh and find a wife! Give me a break! Seriously, someone give me a break, please.

PS On the diet front, I did gain back the 20lbs I lost, so I'm going to have to do something about that again soon. I'm not going to stress it until after November 15th. I did join a gym and I'm going to be swimming 3 times a week all November, but I'm not going back on the the starvation diet until after my honeymoon. Get real. LOL. Did I mention that I moved to Beaverton in the middle of all this. Yeah, been busy thanks. I don't want to hear any of my little droogies complaining that they don't have time to write.

I'd have gotten 50% more done if I'd stressed less. I'm strongly endorsing a book called "the Power of Full Engagement." I'm reading and loving it so far.

Amazon Matchbook and other cool things you should know!

The October 29 article in Gizmag by James Holloway contains some great info on the new amazon feature called Matchbook. The original article can be found here: http://www.gizmag.com/kindle-matchbook-launch/29580/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=927a661179-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-927a661179-90192181

Above, a screen shot of one my books offering the new program, and below are links to my two current books enrolled in the program.
http://www.amazon.com/Suffering-Rancor-Return-ebook/dp/B008D5SAYW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383186620&sr=1-1&keywords=suffering+rancor
http://www.amazon.com/On-Becoming-Man-Training-Warrior/dp/1475138210/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1383188555&sr=1-1

The article points out that this program helps folks who want to be able to read their book in either format. In my experience people who like the physical book (tactile readers) reject ebooks and people who love the convenience of ebooks were generally not big readers when physical books were their only option. So at first blush this wouldn't seem like a big value add, but to me the advantage comes if you want to shift your library over. Or if you want to buy physical books as gifts and then read the ebooks yourself.

Either way this seems like a cool feature to me...
"To use the service, Amazon customers can use the Kindle MatchBook page to search their purchase history, dating all the way back to Amazon's launch of its online bookstore in 1995. Though some titles are available for free, others will be priced at US$0.99, $1.99 or $2.99."

Onto another topic: I love shipping container homes. I can't explain, I just do. At one point you could get them surplus and build one cheaper than through other means, but due to popularity those days are gone. Still there's some cool things you can do with them. Here's another gizmag article worth a read.
http://www.gizmag.com/low-cost-house-shipping-containers-family/29577/

Finally, I've been preaching decentralized computing, especially with cell phones, for almost two years. I think its coming but I'm fascinated watching it develop. I didn't get a chance to talk about the samsung watch, but here's an interesting development.
http://www.gizmag.com/motorola-ara-modular-smartphone/29579/

The idea is to allow you to upgrade and customize one piece at a time. You might desire a physical keyboard, or external memory, or you might want something stripped down so your battery lasts longer.

Could Junk Food be as Addictive as Drugs?

Interesting story from Dr. Mercola...

• According to a recent animal study, Oreo cookies are just as addictive as cocaine or morphine, activating more neurons in the brain’s pleasure center than exposure to illicit drugs
• Most processed foods are actually created to be addictive—whether we’re talking about cookies or pasta sauce—through the masterful use of addictive ingredients like salt, fat, sugar and a wide variety of proprietary flavorings
• In a shocking twist, the European Union has approved a health claim for fructose, slated to take effect as of 2014
• Food manufacturers that replace at least 30 percent of the glucose and/or sucrose content in their food with fructose will be allowed to state their product has a positive effect on carbohydrate metabolism and insulin sensitivity
• While fructose creates a lower glycemic response immediately after eating it, compared to sucrose or glucose, it is grossly misleading to say it’s therefore healthier for you, as this completely ignores its overall metabolic consequences

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/30/oreos-fructose-consumption.aspx?e_cid=20131030Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131030Z1

Try this healthy option...

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/478789004106139092/

Update and Bonus: Quick Travel Tips

If you aren't following me on Pinterest you're missing out on some cool things I find for example:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/25755029092634235/?e_t_s=pins&amp=&e_t=9e49ef571f29499d880d4c50dd63ab46&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_recs_131021_recs_131021_518_recs_131021_18

Here's how to find me on Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/sirbunch/

I also have a brand new author page. I'm working out the details on what gets posted where, but the idea is to draw author stuff away from my personal page. I have been trying to use my book page for that, but as my non-fiction work continues to grow I need something other my individual book pages to cover all that's going on. So I have a page for
my writing business: https://www.facebook.com/TaleScribe
Suffering Rancor: https://www.facebook.com/SufferingRancor
On Becoming a Man: https://www.facebook.com/OnBecomingAMan
Author Andy Bunch: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAndyBunch

So follow my author page! There's less politics and religion. LOL

So there's a ton going on, which keeps me from updating like I want to. The rumored engagement is true. I'll try to post some more details and some picks about Mid-November. Kristin is a very private person so one of the delays in being able to keep this updated is being sensitive to her wishes. As I'm able to shift things around, like my facebook pages, I'm confident I can get back up to speed with communicating with my readers and other authors. Rest assured you are all very important to me, and I will get things back on track soon.

In publishing news! The semi-firm release date for my secret project is November 15th. This will be a non-fiction novella. The story follows a courageous woman as she immigrates from an oppressive middle-eastern family to a family of her own and freedom in the US. It's inspiring and it's been a real pleasure to ghost this story for the author. This is a must read for Christians and for women, and I think it will be very popular.

For those concerned that all this net silence means I'm not working on the sequel to Suffering Rancor, fear not. I've had some great revelations about challenges in the original plot outline and how to break through. This week, I'm drafting the detailed, scene by scene, working outline as I usually would just before NaNoWriMo. I will update this post later today when I get logged into the NaNo site and post a way to find me so you can join me in this years NaNo. I will only be drafting 30K this November though, as at least two BIG things are going to eat ten to twelve days.

I thinks this is pretty good for now. I don't want to overwhelm you. LOL.

Beauty in the Rain

I haven't even gotten a chance to share about this and there's only 5 days left. I'll give you a special heads up too, in just a bit.



The Situation: Beauty in the Rain is the title for a kickstarter project that my friend Rick Randall and I have been kicking around for more than a year now. We both have our BS in business management and have worked for several start-up businesses and charities. The only thing that is going to boost our economy at this point is small business and here's why. Big business runs less efficiently, you have checked out employees, high overhead and a lot of legal exposure. Small business is usually owner operated plus a few employees. They run on a tight budget with motivated workers. They can innovate at a startling rate and flex their business model to handle changes in market. They can virtually die and then rise again from the ashes of their own demise and not run whining to the government for a hand out to do it.

At the same time, getting a job with a big company and riding it for 30 years to retirement isn't an option anymore. Everyone I talk to is aware of this but very few people are doing anything differently because of it. This is a new era. When the cold war ended, the industrial age ended and the information age began. Things that have worked to build wealth, like buying a house, aren't always the smart choice.

The Solution: Individuals need to create knew products and ideas that will bring in income. That income doesn't have to be huge if you are able to run your business in a few hours a week while still keeping a day job. Ideally these businesses would be scaleable to full time if the day job suddenly ends. I'm not necessarily talking about MLMs. I'm talking about an income stream you could put into a more traditional investment or simply use to pay down debt, but which ultimately gives you the power to leave a day job if it goes bad. With a workforce clamoring your job, your employers have started to treat you as an asset they can replace with a cheaper model. You need to not have to rely solely on that one income stream.

The Vision: Rick and I want to build a network of friends who support each other's entrepreneurial ideas. We can lend our ideas and expertise to each other and we can connect each other to more friends for additional know-how. For us, at least in the short run, this looks like a series of publishing ventures, but it could go in any direction. We could partner with one of the 6 building contractors we know to acquire an income property for example. We could partner with one or two of the coders we know and develop an app for android and apple devices. A series of limited partnerships is the future as far as we can tell.

One of the best aspects of all this something I call monetizing a hobby. If you already do something you enjoy well, why not find a market for it. It's a brave new world for people willing to take some small calculated risks with time and money. What about the relationship aspect? That's the best part. It's time we stopped stressing over doing business with friends in America. Many cultures around the world consider it rude to try to sell them something when you DON'T know them. When you shoulder a burden together you get closer to people. If you have a spat, work it out. People are spending longer and longer hours at work. Maybe the answer is to do something you enjoy with people you like and get paid for it OUTSIDE of work.

So back to the project at hand. Rick is an avid hiker and a great photographer. We decided greeting cards would be a possible avenue to monetize his hobbies. Running a kickstarter campaign allows us to raise capitol and take advantage of bulk order pricing by getting sales in advance of purchasing the product. More importantly it's a way to find our market. Do we get more backers for large prints of his photos or for the cards? Who finds these cards interesting? We thought we knew our demographic but it's been a learning curve so kickstarter has paid off informationally already, and hopefully soon in other ways as well.

What makes our cards unique?  We really wanted to do something different both visually and with the message inside. We wanted to make a card that people could give between special occasions to communicate encouragement and companionship. There's too much obligation in relationship these days. If this keeps up mother's will only get appreciated on mother's day, children on birthdays, and husbands and wives will only say, 'I love you' on their anniversary. What about those times when you can't focus on work because an old friend is on your mind? Wouldn't it be great to have a nice card you can post that afternoon with a simple heartfelt message?

Sneak Preview I mentioned. Monday will likely be a bonus gift announced, so be looking to back us Monday.

So we created our first set of cards--Beauty in the Rain. If you haven't done so already, check the kickstarter campaign at the other end of this link. These pictures are awesome. http://kck.st/18CI5E0

I've been putting a lot of research into healthier sweeteners. I agree with most of this article linked below. I also thing at the end of the day, the best plan is to develop less sweet tooth and use real sugar. Here's some good info though. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/07/sugar-substitutes.aspx?e_cid=20131007Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131007Z1

• Sugar substitutes can be divided into four general categories: artificial sweetener, sugar alcohols, natural sweeteners, and dietary supplements such as Stevia and Lo Han
• Artificial sweeteners can actually be far worse for you than sugar and fructose, and scientific evidence backs up that conclusion
• Furthermore, numerous studies show they increase weight gain and worsen insulin sensitivity to a greater degree than sugar
• Natural sweeteners such as honey and agave may seem like a healthier choice, but not only are they loaded with fructose, many are also highly processed
• In moderation, some sugar alcohols can be a better choice than highly refined sugar, fructose or artificial sweeteners. Of the various sugar alcohols, xylitol is one of the best. When it is pure, the potential side effects are minimal
• Three of the best sugar substitutes are all-natural Stevia from the whole plant, Lo Han Guo, and dextrose (pure glucose). Contrary to fructose, glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is a far safer sugar alternative