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Welcome to the website of Charlsie Russell and Loblolly Writer's House, author and home of historical mystery and suspense set in Mississippi. Each novel offers readers a complimentary sojourn into Southern history, replete with a sensual romance. The craft fair season continues--it's been hot, but pretty successful. I'm venturing into parts of the state I've never been to before and loving it. I have uploaded my three published books on the Smashwords website and the books are now available for downloading in a number of digital formats to include mobipocket for Amazon's Kindle and epub for, among others, Barnes & Noble's Nook, iphone, Stanza, and the newest Sony E-reader. Epub will standardize the formatting for all digital readers at some point in the future. Smashwords also formats works in LRF (the format used by the original Sony readers), Javascript, HTML, Plain Text, and Palm Doc for Palm Pilot devices. Smashwords promises additional formats in the future in addition to greater functionality with already existing e-readers. In addition to making my books available to readers who have fallen in love with their e-readers (I am one--I got a Nook for Christmas last year), Smashwords provides me the potential for marketing/distribution beyond my "hardcopy" limitation within the state of Mississippi, the setting for all my books. Logistics limits my marketing area. I have very small print runs, which makes me less than desirable to book distributors, even regional ones, but I can personally manage contact with independent bookstores throughout the state. My primary venue for selling books is craft fairs, and each season I try to hit as many as I can from one end of the state to the other. Weekend after weekend beginning in April and ending in early December, I pack up my car with tent, table, chairs, and books and set up a booth at large and small towns across the state. In addition to the Mississippians who patronize these events, I have sold books to visitors from outside Mississippi and have subsequently received follow-up orders from outside Mississippi's boundaries and occasionally from outside the South. Still, when it comes to getting out there and hand-selling my books, I am limited by financial/logistical restraints, and I stick close to the place where I believe my books are most likely to sell in the greatest volumn--Mississippi, my niche market, so to speak. This website is my shop window to the world beyond Mississippi; I'm hoping Smashwords and the growing digital market will expand that market. And for those of you who love the physical book, so do I. Epublishing supplements Loblolly Writer's House's products, not replaces them. I always intend to publish my books in hardcopy. That said, I promised my fans I'd tell you, as best I could, how I turned my Quark-typeset book into a digital book. So if any of you are thinking about going that route (even if you are thinking of going with strictly an epubbed book--you don't have to print it first) then follow me to my Publishing on Smashwords for the Digital Market page. And for those of you who wish only to read on your now treasured e-reader, visit Charlsie Russell's Page at Smashwords. From there you can also visit the pages of a myriad of other authors and get a feel for what Smashwords has to offer the growing e-reader community. Charlsie Russell is still out there signing and selling her books 09/04/2010-At the Iuka Heritage Festival in Tishimingo county. 09/11/2010-At the Ole Town Septimberfest in New Hebron, and yes, that spelling of Septimber is correct. New Hebron is in the Piney Woods. Cute huh? 09/18-19/2010-At the Twenty-sixth Annual Diamondhead Arts and Crafts Show in Diamondhead. 09/24-26/2010-At the Twenty-third Annual Mississippi Pecan Festival in Richton. 10/02/2010-At the Thirty-third Annual ZontaFest in Pascagoula. 10/03/2010-At the Fall Around Downtown Festival in downtown Gulfport. 10/07-09/2010-At the Fourteenth Annual Cruisin' the Coast in D'Iberville. 11/06-07/2010-At the Picayune Street Fair in downtown Picayune. 11/13/2010-At the Gingham Tree Festival in Lucedale. Caffeine and Ice Cream in Dolphin Court on Pass Road in Gulfport, MS 228-868-1198 All Wrapped Up! gift store on Sangani Blvd. in D'Iberville, MS Bay Books on Main Street in old town Bay St. Louis, MS Pass Christian Books, on Second Street in Pass Christian, MS Cover to Cover Books in Natchez Main Street Books on Main Street in Hattiesburg For readers not close to one of these stores, you can order my books from Amazon, and you can still order directly from me thru this website. In addition to the stores referenced above, which routinely take and sell my books, I have broached a number of other independent book stores across the state that have taken copies of my books on a trial basis. Link to my Buy Books Page to see who they are, and if you're in the vicinity of one of those stores, consider approaching the buyer and requesting one of my books. Charlsie Russell is available to talk about her books, writing, and/or self-publishing to interested groups. Feel free to contact her. Charlsie Russell is a retired U.S.Naval Intelligence Officer. A descendant of generations of Southerners, she now juggles her time between full-time homemaker to her family and writing fiction set in Mississippi's glorious past. For more information on Charlsie Russell, visit her About the Author page, which makes up part of her Press Kit. As a strong supporter of individual liberty, the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and the promotion of free enterprise, national defense, and traditional American values, I subscribe to The Patriot Post, a concise, informative, and entertaining analysis of the week's most important news, policy, and opinion delivered to my e-mail inbox at no charge. I recommend anyone who believes in the Constitution visit The Patriot Post today for a looksee. I think many of you, as I did, will end up subscribing. Copyright Notice "Loblolly Writer's House Site" Copyright © 2006 by Charlsie Russell All rights reserved on all material on all pages in this site, plus the copyright on compilations and design, graphics, and logos except as noted. 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