a Welcome

For readers, brief explainer is in order here.

First off—is this a blog, or an eBook, or what?

I’ve decided to post this book in weekly chunks (episodes)—which by some basic definitions would make it a blog.  Modern, regular blog readers would expect something calling itself a blog to include lots of fancy graphics, buttons, images, links to other relevant material, and plenty of effort invested into constantly giving them a chance to ‘sound off’.

Oh, and lots of ‘calls-to-action(s)’, pop-ups, and (of course)… ads.

eBook readers are also likely used to seeing most of these features as well, though maybe with a bit more text.

Most e-readers, by now, understand that the majority of these mechanisms are based on strategies designed to make money by increasing the number of views (which grows the number of subscriptions and book purchases), while giving ads more places to be seen.

But here’s my thing—basically, I can’t make money.

I was forced to retire early by my medical condition, and I now receive a small amount of income as well as medical benefits from my final employer’s retirement program.  While I consider myself VERY FORTUNATE to have this income and insurance, I’ve learned that if I ever report more than a tiny amount of income, these benefits will cease, permanently.

And while I might like to think I could do without my retirement benefits I’ve got to be realistic.  I currently use several medications that help me control seizures, and these would cost literally thousands of dollars per year if I had to buy them without insurance.  Even with insurance, their cost is a constant burden for my wife and I, and if I ever miss doses, seizures can be triggered by withdrawing from them.

For this reason, I’m not trying to sell my book (or my music or anything else I’m posting on this site).

I wrote this book because I have some very unusual experiences to share, and if any of my story can find its way to the intended ‘niche’ group, I know it could potentially help at least someone else out there who may be going through some of the same kinds of crazy crap I’ve learned to wade through as a ‘disabled’ person.

Also, one of the symptoms of my disability is being less social and more withdrawn.  For me, a big part of this is because my seizures have gradually caused me to have an increasingly lousy memory (in my case, I have the most trouble with the most recent memories, because this area of my brain has gradually been most damaged by my episodes).  This makes me lousy at being a regular social media user, and I often forget to check messages and reply promptly and tag and poke-back and all that.  So, keeping up with a constant stream of like-hate-poke-troll traffic is just basically not my thang.

Sometimes I do better socially than other times, but I’m not planning to sit in front of my computer spamming around constantly to promote this book.  Rather, I’m hoping that it might find its way to the right readers because I posted it, and it therefore can be shared–freely.  As I’ve learned well, the readers I’d most like to reach are also often not exactly swimming in spending cash anyways.

So, the bummer for a reader of this ‘autobiographical freeBook series’ (as I’m calling it) is that there will be a low-amount of eye-candy and click-bait.  The benefit, however, will be less nagging and advertising than most modern blogs and eBooks are likely to present.

I hope you will enjoy this freeBook series, and that maybe you’ll tell a friend about it too… Chefileptic @ nateBNT.com.