Entries Tagged 'ON-LINE AUCTIONS: Great Deals & Addiction Potienti' ↓

The Kindle version of Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Mystery is available and priced at an unbelievable 99 cents!

Here’s a link to Numenon on the Amazon Kindle Store!

Am I crazy? Like a fox! When I last looked, Numenon was #8 in Religious Fiction (closing on The Shack), and #1 in Mysticism in two categories of Religion & Spirituality. JOIN THE STAMPEDE!

Buy the Kindle version of Numenon, and you can enter the world of Will Duane, the richest man on earth, and Grandfather, a great Native shaman, in less then a 60 seconds. Numenon won two national awards as an Advance Reading Copy. It’s entered in more contests. We’re waiting for results.

Here it is on my web site: Numenon on SandyNathan.com

Here it is as a print book on Amazon. Look at those Five Star Reviews.

Check out this video:

Here’s a video about Sandy Nathan’s new book, Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money. Click and be transported!

Sandy Nathan, National Award Winning Author

I’ve always hated the “Who is Sandy Nathan?” question. Ditto: Who is anyone? This is a philosophical inquiry. Answering that question is why we’re on earth. You can’t answer it in thirty seconds.

However, someone sent me these crazy questions. The little blurb at the top says the basics about me, and the Q & A session gives you a sense of the whole creature––me.

Enjoy!
Sandy

Sandy Nathan knows the worlds she describes in her writing. She draws on her personal studies in meditation, spirituality, and mysticism as well as her experiences in Silicon Valley corporate culture, breathing life into her characters and giving them depth and dimension. Sandy has won multiple national awards for her books. The mother of three grown children, Sandy and her husband live on their California horse ranch.

This gives an adequate view, but you may get a livelier one from this question and answer session:

 Q & A WITH SANDY NATHAN:

Where did you get the idea of a series of thrillers about the richest man in the world and a great shaman?

From God. Also from the strands of my life. Most of what’s in the Bloodsong Series comes from the threads of my life, as interpreted by my unconscious mind and shaped by my editors.

The series exploded in my brain after a cataclysmic and healing meditation retreat and thirty years of personal work. Heal that trauma! Clean up that mess!

I started writing the Bloodsong Series in 1995. I was fifty years old: It took me fifty years to have something worth saying. It’s taken me thirteen more to write it properly.

Are Will Duane and Grandfather based on real people?

No. They grew up inside of me as characters. They bear similarities to people I’ve known or read about, but they have their own life inside me. I wish they were real. I’d love to do dinner at Will’s.

Are you real?

Yeah. It says so on the label attached to the back of my neck.

Actually, this is a good question. BECOMING AND BEING REAL are the main things I write about. Becoming my Self is my goal in life.

Why did you call it The Bloodsong Series?

My surgeon asked me that as he wheeled me into the operating room. I said that, “It almost killed me to write it, so why not?” (The surgery went fine.)

The actual reason is that my blood sang, danced, and did cartwheels during the years I’ve worked on the series. I hope yours does the same. This is visceral, bloody spirituality.

Why are books about vampires so popular these days?

Beats me. I think people should read about bloody, heart-singing, mind-searing spirituality. The vampire deal does nada for me. Books about spiritual growth and recovery from addiction are compatible with action, violence, sex and sensuality. Read my stuff and find out. Better: Try it and find out.

Live your heart’s song, not its drippings.

Why all the sex in Numenon?

There’s only one explicit scene, and that’s a flashback. The undercurrent of sexuality in Numenon is due to the undercurrent of sexuality in all things human.

And besides, I have my mother’s permission to write what I wrote. I started this book in 1995. About 1997, I announced to my mom that I was writing a novel.

She said, “I want the first copy!” My mom was elderly at this time. And always had been a lady.

After two years of writing, I knew the lay of the book, so to speak. I gasped and said, “Well, mom, some of it’s kind of … raunchy.”

She smiled her adorable smile and said, “Why, Sandy, honey, you have to have sex in it, or no one will buy it.”

She died in the year 2000 and didn’t receive that first copy. I like to think that in the Bloodsong Series and my other fiction, I have embodied my mother’s advice to the fullest. I’m sure she’d be proud.

Do you have any advice for your readers?

Lead the life that’s yours instead of faking someone else’s.

What kind of music do you listen to while writing?

None. The song of my soul, the music of the spheres, and the chugging of my computer sound automatically when I write. That’s enough. I get hostile if anyone comes into the room making any noise. Since I write in the family room most of the time, I have become a problem, like our dog who bites anyone near his dish. We’re working on it.

What do you wear when you write?

I usually wear complete Peruvian Paso horse show regalia suitable for the highest levels of competition. This includes a white shirt and jeans, poncho, wide brimmed Peruvian hat, belt, spurs, fancy neck scarf, jewelry and a harmonica.

If that’s in the wash, I wear a tutu and pointe shoes.

Who’s feeding me these questions? What difference does it make?

I write round the clock and wear whatever I’m wearing.

You can ask Sandy Nathan a question! Before submitting, ask yourself, “Is this a good question? Would I ask my mom this? Or, would I ask my minister, rabbi, guru or dog trainer? Am I scammer or seriously disturbed person that Sandy doesn’t want to hear from? Am I trying to hawk my book rather than reaching out and buying Sandy’s?”

If you’re on the level, ask away. You can comment here or do it through our contact page. Sandy answers sporadically. She can be pretty fast, if it’s a really good questions and relates to her work.

Stepping Off the Edge, winner of six national awards

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

I was looking through old family albums recently and came upon the following article about my father. It contained information that I thought worth sharing––some of it was new to me. Father’s Day is about acknowledging our fathers for what they’ve done and honoring who they are or were. That’s what I’m doing here.

For all his accomplishments, some of which are laid out below, my dad died at age 45. No, he didn’t die of a heart attack. He was in perfect health. Someone who turned the wrong way onto a freeway off-ramp killed him. The old guy might have been drunk––he did have an opened bottle of wine on the seat next to him–-or he might have been confused. He could have been trying to end his own life. He did end his life, along with my father’s.

Here’s the article from an old newspaper. I’m going to post it in its entirety.

From the DAILY COMMERCIAL NEWS, “OLDEST BUSINESS NEWSPAPER ON THE PACIFIC COAST––SINCE 1875,” Thursday, January 15, 1959, by Hugh Russell Fraser

Today’s Bay Area Profile of Andy Oddstad is another in a DAILY COMMERCIAL NEWS series which appears each Thursday to give you an intimate portrayal of prominent Bay Area executives. The author, Hugh Russell Fraser, is recognized as among the top book reviewers and biographical writers of our time. ––Editor.

When I heard that down in Redwood City there is a man, only 40 years old, who has built 10,000 houses in the Bay Area in the last 10 years, I decided to go down and see what he was like.

They call him Andy Oddstad, but his real name is Icelandic in origin––Andres Fjeldsted Oddstad.

He is a stocky, blond type, built like a wrestler (which he was at college, and still is), decidedly affable and friendly in his manner.

There is nothing ostentatious about his office a 1718 Broadway. There he presides over the destinies of 10 construction and building companies, the best known of which is Oddstad Homes.

With a signal to his secretary to cut off the phone, so as to give me his uninterrupted attention (How I hate these tycoons who take a dozen calls while pretending to talk to a visitor!), he talked in a low-pitched, well-modulated voice.

Naturally, I wanted to find out what made the man tick; I first questioned him about how he got into the home-building business.

Born in British Columbia, Oddstad’s forbearers were all from Iceland. He was 9 years old when his father, a carpenter and builder, moved to San Francisco. Here he worked for his brothers-in-law, the famous builders Ellis and Henry Stoneson. Young Andy went to Sunnyside Grammar School.

At the age of 10 he knew he was going into the building business. Never was there any doubt of it.

FASCINATED

Not because his uncles were builders in a big way, the founders of Stonestown, but because everything about building, from sweeping out the floors of new houses to constructing walls and roofs, fascinated him.

Every daylight hour that he did not have to spend in school, he spent around building projects; in fact, he worked after school cleaning up trash on building sites, sweeping floors, helping make repairs. He discovered he would rather do that than play.

Meanwhile, Andy kept on going to school––first to Aptos Junior High, then two years at San Francisco college and finally two years at the University of California [at Berkeley] from which he graduated with honors and an engineering degree in 1941.

Despite the financial status of his uncles, he worked his way through college, always in building and construction work.

It was while at college that he stumbled onto something that made him think of business in more precise terms. He took as his graduate thesis a study of low-cost housing in California!

ALMOST HALF

He went all over the state, and in San Diego he ran into an eye opener. Mind you, this was in 1941 when government construction of low-cost housing was at its high point. He discovered to his amazement that Uncle Sam was putting out $9000 for a unit that was little more than a three-room apartment, while in San Francisco, private enterprise was building five-room houses with a garage underneath, definitely superior to the San Diego Government-subsidized project, for about $4250! In other words, for less than half the subsidized amount!

That was his first acquaintance with the waste inherent in bureaucracy. He could hardly believe his eyes, but slowly he came to realize that he was looking at a simple and inescapable fact.

His interesting and carefully documented thesis went to waste, however, although the University of California gave him a pat on the back for it.

Hardly had he completed this study when the approach of World War II brought him into the Navy. There he became a “frogman,” an undersea demolition expert. He saw combat duty in Okinawa, winning a raft of medals, including the Bronze Star Medal, a Presidential Unit Citation, and the Pacific Theater Ribbon with five battle stars.

On getting out of the Navy, with the rank of Lieutenant [Actually, Ensign  SN], he returned to the Bay Area. Then he decided to go into business for himself. [The initial business was funded with $500 or thereabouts that my mother, Clara Oddstad, saved from her wartime wages. SN] He teamed up with another Icelander, Chris Finson, who hailed from Seattle, and together they formed the Sterling Building Company.

GREAT TRIO

It was at this point that his famous uncles, Henry and Ellis Stoneson, came in with help and guidance. A third man, to whom Oddstad gives great credit, was Parker Maddux, one-time president of the San Francisco Bank. This great trio, all three of whom helped Andres Oddstad on the road to a spectacular success, have all passed on, Henry Stoneson only recently.

Andres Oddstad doesn’t think much of the co-called “self-made men” who insist they did it all, that nobody helped them.

“When you come to analyze it,” he said, “that is nonsense. Nobody makes it alone. Sooner or later, they get cooperation and/or assistance. I am proud of the help and expert guidance that I got from my uncles and from Parker Maddux, and if you writing anything about me, don’t forget to mention their names!”

I like this about the man. No boasting, no phony claims. In fact, I think he underestimated, rather than overestimated, his own ability, which I soon recognized was considerable. It is plain he is a hard and unremitting worker; that he thinks problems through and believes in doing a through and careful job.

But he also has imagination! This was apparent in his keen interest in economics and architecture. Perhaps a better word is enthusiasm, although I do not usually associated the word “enthusiasm” with a man who always talks in a low-pitched voice, never once raising it to an excited pitch.

It was obvious he has been fascinated by two men, the great architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, and J. Kenneth Galbraith, author of The Affluent Society. Wright he regards as a great architect, the like of which American has never known. “He thinks and designs in three dimensions,” says Oddstad. “In addition, he is a showman and super salesman. Take this training ground he operates for young architects on the desert near Phoenix, Arizona. [Taliesin West] There he takes young men out of college, puts them to work drafting––carrying out his ideas, and the result is he has a far-reaching influence on the rising generation of architects.

“Wright sees things in their relation to their environment. Many orthodox architects––and Wright is anything but orthodox––remind me of the fellow who polishes a pebble in a mosaic. Write has helped me think in depth––you have to do it in any kind of business, but especially in the building business.”

But it was the imaginative Galbraith I wanted to question him about. The Affluent Society has dynamite in it, and I was curious our the third largest builder in the San Francisco area reacted to the top U.S. economist.

“Let me say one thing,” said Oddstad, “I like to solve any problem by reducing the variables––in other words, simplifying the assumptions. But by no means do I disregard the variables. Some economists––in fact all of them but Galbraith, disregard factors they don’t understand.”

“Meaning what?” I demanded. “Let’s get specific.”

“Well, just this: The usual run of economists pay no attention to such factors as human greed, the ego, etc. Because they do not understand these, they ignore what they can’t understand. Galbraith does not. He tries to reckon with all the variables. In other worlds, he sets the whole problem of economics against against a background of common sense. Do I make myself clear?”

“Exactly, ” I said. “In fact, you have converted me, as never before, to the value of Galbraith. My previous acquaintance with him was wholly superficial. In other words, if I may add, it is your view that most economists are lacking in fundamental common sense?”

ALL BUSINESS

“Right!” he said in that low, even voice of his. Then he added slowly: “Of course, you can ask how all this helps me in my business? Well, an understanding of economics helps toward an understanding of the reference frame of all business, not just the building business.”

“And speaking of business,” I said, “what do you think of the future of the building business in California?”

“Just this:” he replied, “first, our population is going to double by 1975. They are coming in here at a great rate now. It is becoming a trend. And it will accelerate. Not only that, we will double our production units. I mean––and let me make myself clear––for every apartment house or building you see now, there will be another apartment house or building by 1975. For every home you see now, there will be another home in 16 years.

“You mean,” I said, “for every house and building we see know, we are going to see double that by 1975?”

“Yes. This is one part of the country where values are going to be on the increase, steadily and persistently. In fact, right now California has the only semi-permanent wealth in the nation.”

When I left this rather extraordinary man, whose profession is building and whose hobby is economics, I suspected he was telling me the truth. The surprising thing is that 1975 is only a relatively short time off!”

End

Andy Oddstad getting ready to water ski in the SF Bay, early 1960s

• • • • • • • • •

AFTERWORD: Well, we all know that 1975 came and went. I’m sure my father’s predictions were far lower than actual levels of development in California. I’m also certain that he could not comprehend the explosion in housing prices from the 1970s on. For a guy born in 1918, contemporary housing prices would sound like fantasy.

These days [I originally posted this in 2008.), some of his most modest homes that sold for about $9,000 in the 1950s are going for $1 million. (I wish he hadn’t sold them!) [They’re down to a mere $800K due to the recession of the 2000s.]

Andy Oddstad was a guy who came up in the Great Depression. The article above mentions him working for his uncles after school. He did it because he needed to work if his family was to eat––and the rest of the Oddstad family worked, too. Sweeping out jobs after school wasn’t a hobby. Nor were his two paper routes before school just for fun. He constructed the bicycle he rode to deliver those papers out of scrap from the junkyard. And raised rabbits behind the family home for meat for the table.

Those were hard times.

Oddstad Homes had built over 14,000 homes at the time of my father’s death. Oddstad Homes was the #1 builder of residential housing in Northern California by a wide margin, and #10 in the US at its hey-day.

What was it like having a dad like that? Like growing up in the Marines. Tough, and fair. He really did read Galbraith. He had––and read–-volumes by the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Baruch Spinoza on his bedside table. When he helped me with my homework, I had to have razor sharp pencils, several pens, a pad of scratch paper, good paper for the answers, a straight edge, and a compass at the table before he would sit down with me. I got one explanation, that was it. [Pocket calculators didn’t exist.]

Brisk.

I majored in economics for my first two college degrees, due in part to his influence. I’m glad I have that knowledge, though it’s taken me a lifetime to start “listening to my heart” as the New Agers say. I still feel guilty about being a writer and author, though I know it’s what I was born to do. (My dad could not have fathomed the New Age, either. Or free love or the 1960s.)

I owe Andy Oddstad a very great deal. I’ve never seen a person who lived at 100% and demanded that those around him do the same. He shaped me and my life.

What are some of the most important words my father said to me?

First off, he said, “Sandy, there’s no reason a girl can’t do everything a boy can do.” So I took physics and calculus in high school. “And I know how smart you are, so don’t try and tell me you can’t get good grades.” I got good grades.

He held me to a high standard, and I’ve kept it. That’s the most valuable thing I got from my dad. He was the most disciplined person I’ve met. He moved through life at hyper-speed, like he was skating on the edge of a razor blade.

It’s a shame he’s been all but forgotten. He gave a great deal to the San Francisco Bay Area.

But that’s what happens when you die.

I know that housing tracts built by one of his competitors, Joseph Eichler, have been named Historical Neighborhoods. There’s an very glossy, slick magazine put out for owners and fans of Eichler homes. I think that’s great. Eichler’s designs were spectacular examples of low cost, good design.

They are not spectacular examples of low cost, good construction. I’ve lived in an Eichler. I know all about huge single-paned windows that leak all the heat in the room and radiant (under floor) heating that that doesn’t keep rooms warm and can lead to big repair bills when it breaks. My cousin worked as a carpenter building Eichlers. I will not repeat what he said about the quality of their construction. I don’t know if the old saw about how fast they burn down is true. Do Eichlers really burn down in three minutes?

Enough carping. I expected that Frank Lloyd Wright would approve more of Eichler’s work than my fathers. I do wish that some of the folks living in Farm Hill, Linda Mar, Crestmont, Rollingwood and the rest of the communities built by Oddstad Homes might throw together a blog or something.

My dad was an engineer. He was interested in straight lines and economy and that’s what he built. He wanted everyone to have a good, well-built house over his or her head. He was a political liberal, a strong Kennedy man, a man who cared about everyone, not just the rich.

Now is the time to remember our fathers, whoever they were and whatever they did, even if they weren’t perfect and contributed to our personal difficulties. We’re here because of them, whoever they were or are.

My best wishes, fathers. And all the best to you, Andy Oddstad, whom I knew as Daddy. There’s so much you didn’t get to see, Daddy. You have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. You missed the Beatles.

And you didn’t get to read my books! I think you would have liked them.

Sandy

Ray Stern and Andy Oddstad getting ready to water ski in the SF Bay, early 1960s.
Ray was a great buddy of my dad’s. He was a professional wrestler and entrepreneur. The caption next to this photo in our family album is, “Ray floats at last.” That is written in my dad’s handwriting and refers to the fact that Ray was a block of solid muscle. He had so little fat mass that he couldn’t float at all without his wet suit. I think he was the hardest to teach of the many people my dad taught to ski. By-gone times: The Bay is too polluted for skiing now. Ray and my dad are gone.

The other day, I was about to purchase a lot of seven vintage raccoon coats on eBay.

I’ll say that again: I WAS GONNA BUY SEVEN OLD RACCOON COATS. I seriously, seriously wanted to toss in the winning bid.

These were not marked as to size: None of them might have fit me. My thought was, “Well, maybe one of them (or more) will fit me. I can sell the rest back on eBay and make a bundle.” Or not. The seller didn’t PUT any close ups in the ad. I couldn’t tell if some might be missing things like sleeves or backs.

I was not so lost in I wanna that I couldn’t see that this was a stupid thing to do. (I’m not saying rehabbing things and reselling them on eBay is a bad thing for everyone, but for me, it definitely is.)

I have a new book coming out in two months and all sorts of publicity stuff happening. Book stores want me to speak, and the Book Expo America, the largest book fair in the country is coming up in months, close to my house. Plus, I’m writing a new book, science fiction thriller, and I’m closing in on the final chapters.

Book related activities are what I should be concentrating on. The thrust of my life is getting those books out and promoting them.

Taking on seven beat up raccoon coats in California, where winter is two weeks and consists of three days below 60 degrees, ranks in the realms of the really stupid.

IT BRINGS UP AN IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR ALL OF US:

WHY DO WE HUMANS DO IDIOTIC THINGS? MORE IMPORTANTLY, HOW CAN WE STOP OURSELVES BEFORE WE DO REAL DAMAGE TO OUR LIVES?

HOW CAN WE STOP OURSELVES? (We’ll work on WHY WE DO IT later.)

1. DON’T DO IT. The number one way to eliminate your stupid mistakes is: DON’T DO THEM. If you have any inkling that what you want to do is stupid, don’t do it. Don’t make the phone call, put in the bid, place the bet, buy the bottle, or wink back at that good looking guy/gal. WHATEVER IT IS, DON’T DO IT.

(I’m writing for everyone reading this blog as well as the person writing it. At this point, the raccoon coat deal isn’t dead. I could still shoot in a snipe. Why do you think I’m writing this? It’s writing therapy.)

If you think what you’re about to do is dumb, don’t do it.

Another way of saying this is, “Do good, not evil.” St. Thomas Aquinas said that many years ago. It remains priceless advice.

The other half of this is, “DON’T DO IT” by itself is about as effective as those drug abuse prevention programs based on “JUST SAY NO.” 🙂

Of course druggies can’t say no, they’re addicts. They live in a society based upon their saying, “Yes!” and often. Just like all of us. Our society is a maximal immersion in temptation and desire. We float in the titillation of the senses, the commandment “Do thy thing,” and “If you want it, you should have it.” Sooner is better.

Who says “Don’t do it.” I do. Others do. The trick is, “How?”

By not doing it. This requires self control and development of the will. Two spiritual attributes.

2. THINK ABOUT WHAT STUPID MEANS. There’s evil, and there’s stupid. I think they wrap nicely into each other. My book, Stepping Off the Edge, has two chapters in it on recognizing and dealing with evil. I’m not going to repeat these here. However, the crux of my arugment comes from something my meditation master said. He said something like, “Hurting other people is the greatest evil. Even thinking about hurting another is great evil.”

If you’re about to do something stupid, it undoubtedly has an element of evil. You hurt yourself or someone else. Do an analysis like the following for your I wanna.

What’s the evil with me and the coats? If I got the package at the asking price, it would cost $350 to deliver the hairy monsters to the door. That’s with no returns, and no, “Gee, seller, I really need a bigger size on at least one.”

Would my husband notice the $350 charge on our credit card? Oh, yeah. He who holds the family finances together, denies me nothing, pays the bills, and demands almost nothing for himself would take it like a fist in the gut. I would be betraying him. This is definite evil on my part.

What about me? How do I hurt myself? So I get the furs, jump into the joy of rehabbing shedding pelts? Something I know nothing about? Not only that, I don’t know the creatures’ condition. When done with this learning experience, I “get” to resell them on eBay or craigslist or my local flea market.

At the expense of working on my book Numenon, the first book of a series that I’ve been working on since 1995, which is coming out soon?

Talk about self sabotage.

4. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE? Get this and saying no will be easier.

WHY AM I HERE? Keep this question before you always. Search until you find an answer. You are on this planet to ask that question until you know the answer. When you know the answer, then you are to actuate the plan.

Got it? Of course, you’ve got it. We all know this. Ever you ever caught yourself sort of ducking you head in guilt when you’re about to do something stupid. evil or off purpose? We all do that.

Only a few of us, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Mohatma Ghandhi and the like really live their lives the big way, being all that they were meant to be. The rest of us duck and jive and sleaze out. Me included. Those raccoon coats were the birthplace of this entry, after all.

It took me 50 years to find my life’s purpose, which is writing about those first 50 years and all the rest. Creating meaning out of chaos and mayhem. It was hard. Writing is hard. It’s easier to fritter my time away on stupid things.

5. WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?

Under every burning desire is what you really want and need. It’s an intangible thing that you will never get by buying fur coats, getting a new car or spouse. What emotional need are you trying to meet with whatever stupid thing you’re about to do? Examine this.

Using our furry friends, what do those coats mean to me? Well, I’m exhausted, doing all this book stuff. Worn out. I’d like do not just own a furry coat, I’d like to be a furry animal and curl up somewhere. I’m pooped, so I go for fur. I don’t want to burden my family with the cost of one coat, so I figure that I’ll make a profit with the seven coats, and then justify keeping one. That’s logical, isn’t it? Stupid logic. I’m buying seven times the work, a huge risk as to quality, all for unrecognized emotional need.

6. IF YOU’RE IN TEMPTATION, TELL SOMEONE ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU MAKE THE LEAP.

In Stepping Off the Edge, I’m pretty open in telling the truth about myself. People have asked me, “Boy, you were really taking a risk, taking about that.” Here is one of my greatest secrets:

If you want to make something disappear, tell the truth about it. 

If you’re really serious about getting the monkey off your back, take a picture of it and show everyone you know. The clearer and and more definitive you can be about whatever is holding you captive, the less power that temptation will have on you. Works for crushes on people, things you want that are stupid, all sorts of emotions like anger, resentment, jealousy. So while people are going, “Oh wow, she’s so brave,” I’m really becoming freer to be the person I was meant to be. It works. Yes, you will feel exposed and like a real idiot when you do it. Freedom is worth the cost. And the cost is cheap when it’s telling the truth. Go, and create goodness and truth. The embarrasment fades.

7. IT IS EASIER TO FILL OUR LIVES WITH STUPID, TRIVIAL, MEANINGLESS AND EVIL THINGS THAN IT IS TO LOOK INSIDE, DISCOVER OUR PURPOSE AND BECOME THE MAGNIFICENT PERSON YOU CAME HERE TO BE.

That’s the underlying “how to stop.” Get real. You’re going to die one day. Do what you came here to do.

I’m going to post this now. May add pictures and such later. As well as the why we do stupid things. I’ll also update this and let you know if I let the seven raccoon coats go with out buying them.

Sandy Nathan

PS. While the coats may sound like a dumb thing to lust after, they’re not as stupid as some things people do. I know someone who dumped his really nice, respectable wife of many years for a twenty year old he met at a swap meet. That ranks in the realm of the unbelievably stupid acts.

The beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, home of national award winning author, Sandy Nathan

Sandy Nathan
Let’s talk about things that matter . . .

That’s what we do here. Things that matter cover a wide range. Like on-line auctions, eBay and getting smart. Check this out:

IT JUST HAPPENED AGAIN––SOMETHING I WANTED ON EBAY WAS SOLD AT A PRICE THREE TIMES WHAT I WAS WILLING TO PAY––AND THREE TIMES WHAT IT WAS WORTH! ARGGH!

That was the last straw. I decided to write this article, no more procrastination!

BIDDERS KNOW THIS: THE ONLY BID THAT MATTERS IN AN ON-LINE AUCTION IS THE WINNING BID, WHICH OCCURS AT THE END OF THE AUCTION.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SIT THERE LIKE A CHICKEN, PLUCKING AWAY FOR EIGHT DAYS, RAISING YOUR BID EVERY TIME SOME OTHER ADDICT RAISES IT, AND THINKING THAT YOU’RE BEING A SHARP BUYER. OR THAT YOU’LL WIN. THAT IS NONSENSE.

THE ONLY BID THAT MATTERS IS THE ONE THAT WINS. THAT BID IS THE ONE IN PLACE IN THE LAST INSTANT OF AN AUCTION. THE REST IS ADVANCE TITILLATION––THE EXCITEMENT THAT HOOKS THE LOSER.

THE ONLY TIME YOU SHOULD SHOW UP IN AN ON-LINE AUCTION IS THAT LAST INSTANT, DELIVERING THE WINNING BID––ASSUMING YOU’RE BIDDING FOR SOMETHING YOU NEED AND THE BID IS WITHIN YOUR BUDGET.

DON’T BE A DOPE. BID SMART.

THERE. I’VE SAID IT.

Creatures to emulate: Be a coyote, not a chicken.

At the end of the auction that prompted this tirade, I looked at the item’s auction page, wanting to do a post game analysis, and knowing what I’d find. Come with me now. Check out (almost) any completed auction on eBay. (We can all find the auction ad page right? I’m writing for beginners on eBay, as well as others. The auction ad page is where we placed our bid, right?)

I went straight to auction page’s Bid History line. That’s in the middle of the info section in the top area of the page, right above the winning bidder’s name. (The area where the End time, Shipping costs, Ships to, Item Location, History, and High Bidder are stacked on top of each other.)

I clicked on History, which is a number indicating the number of bidders, and sure enough, the bid history looked like this:

(No, it doesn’t look like this. I’m having a bit of trouble getting WordPress to write a table. I’ll try to figure this out. Meantime: the table on eBay shows our bidders bidding more and more for the same item, often with no other buyer in sight. In the info below, salliemay raises the bid from $29 to $150 all by herself, no other bidders showing. Her final bid of $273 is almost ten times her initial bid. She doesn’t pay the increase she caused; the winner does.)

BIDDER . . . . . . . BID AMOUNT . . . . . BID TIME

muggsie (781). . . . .$276 . . . . . . . . 12 noon (1 sec. before auction ends)
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . .$273 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven minute before close
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . .$271 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nine minutes before close
bee-bob (7) . . . . . . . . .$266 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ten minutes before close
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . $264 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eleven minutes to go
fritz (14) . . . . . . . . . . . $262 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eight hours to go
bee-bob (7) . . . . . . . . .$260 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 hours to go
fritz (14) . . . . . . . . . . . $225 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Four days to go
bee-bob (7) . . . . . . . . . $175 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Two days to go
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . .$150 . . . . . . . . . . . . . We’re heading to the initial listing date
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . . $125
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . . .$99
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . . .$89 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Closer and closer to the auction start
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . . . $59
salliemay (2) . . . . . . . . . $29
BOZOMAN (0). . . . . . . .$10
Starting price . . . . .$9.99 . . . . . . . . . . . . TIME ZERO: AUCTION BEGINS

(These are made up bidder names, by the way. If there are real BOZOMAN(0)s out there, let me know and I’ll change the name.)

Okay, what happened here? Basically, our friend salliemay bid up the price of the item from a lousy ten bucks to $273. She didn’t do it alone; she had help from her friends, fritz and bee-bob. (BOZOMAN opted out after firing the opening salvo.)

Notice anything about these wannabe winners? Yes, their highest feedback score is 14. Ol’ fritz managed to win fourteen times and earn the (14) behind his name. These people are BEGINNERS.

They drive me crazy. How did muggsie (781) win the item and get that 781 positive feedback score that the (781) behind his name indicates? By using a sniping program. Simple as that. Do you think a smart guy like muggsie (781) is going to sit around his computer waiting for the last second to throw in his bid? No. Software does it.

When does muggsie (781) show up in the auction? Once––one second before it closes. Where do I show up? Not at all. When salliemay did her thing with the price, I pulled my snipe. The item was out of my budget range. I never showed up at all.

Where did I learn this? While I was getting my (286) positive feedback score. I have an entire web site devoted to helping you improve your game on eBay. See SANDY’S AUCTION WISDOM for many well thought out articles about both buying and selling on eBay, as well as managing the little problem that many of us find ourselves with: eBay addiction.

Lots to read on SANDY’S AUCTION WISDOM, folks. I’m not going to replicate it here. The articles on that site were once some of the most highly ranked articles on buying and addiction on the Net, by the way. I don’t keep changing them all the time to stay up in the ratings, because I’m not addicted to my own website statistics. My articles on buyding and selling and marketing are good reading, if you’re serious about being sane and participating in on-line auctions.

One funny aside, my auction domain name http://www.sandysauctionwisdom.com, the cumbersome Sandys Auction Wisdom, was originally the snappy ebayonspurs. I chose that catchy URL, because it referred to my ‘zine, Spurs Magazine, and led to my web articles about eBay on Spurs. That seemed easy enough.

Not to eBay. I came out with ebayonspurs and got a letter from Meg Whitman faster than I could post an auction listing. eBay frowns upon people trying to catch a wave by latching onto its corporate image. Use of the word “ebay” in any domain name is a no-no. When threatened with legal action, I rolled, pulling my cute moniker and going to something obscure, but kosher.

More about what happened in the auction above and most auctions. I want you to look at the bidding history of any recently completed auction. Almost invariably, somebody bids and bids and bids, apparently against her (or him) self. Why? I don’t get it. If another bid was made, it would show up in the bid history, yes? They must be doing it for some reason, thinking they’re winning––this time, they’ll finally win. Yay!

I’ve looked at lots of auction results, and it always seems that one bidder keeps upping the price and upping it. It’s always a low feedback score person––a newbie. And the auction is almost always won in the last seconds by someone whose feedback score shows lots of winning. And at a much higher price than necessary if salliemae could have been THROTTLED at her first bid.

Oh, yes, you may get several beginners doing the same thing, as we have above. They should all be THROTTLED.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on. The solitary bidder listed again and again, bidding with no other bidder recorded, raising the price.

So I wrote to eBay, saying what I’ve told you above. They got back pronto, with information about shill bidding. You know what that is? Check it out: shill bidding from eBay’s site. Ebay is the best source of info about eBay, their on-site guides being up to date, easy to understand and authoritative. (My articles are basically correct, but eBay changes so quickly that you should check any uncertainly you may have with their HELP PAGES. )

When I told eBay about the pattern I’d observed over and over again, they thought it was shill bidding––salliemay was actually the dreaded RUPERT (21,741), who was in collusion a pack of other auction pirates, bumping up bids right and left.

I don’t think so. Why would RUPERT want a ratty old fur coat? Why would RUPERT want table linens or the other stupid (sorry, lovers of fur and lace) things that catch my eye? And why would what I show in my example be so pervasive?

I chalk it up to an even more pervasive human trait: STUPIDITY. Or IGNORANCE, if you want to be more polite. I’m just sick of the sallies and wonnies and dopies of the auction world causing me to lose stuff that’s probably feeding my own addictions and also causing strain with my husband about my overspending. (So, okay, the loss isn’t important in the bigger scheme of things.)

And I’m sick of beginners and idiots (Sorry. Sometimes I get really heated . . .) making everyone pay more than they need to for trivial to extremely useful stuff.

So: use a sniping program. To learn what this is, go to my series on on-line auctions and memorize it: THE PLACE WHERE YOU GET THE SNIPING HARDWARE.

To make it easier than that, I use esnipe.com, which has helped me get pretty much everything I’ve won. Every once in a while, I pay them $20 bucks or so. They bid for me electronically, charging a minimal amount when I win something. I’m out of the bidding wars. Out of sight, lurking like a sneaking bandit, waiting to win.

Which is what we want do to, yes? We’re not just sitting in front of our computers knowing our hips are spreading by the day, we’re trying to win. Sign up for esnipe, they’ll take care of you.

eBay has it’s own, in house sniping program, which you can use on bundles of things you want. It will bid on a group of specified items for you until you win something. That’s pretty neat. I’ve never used it, so can’t say how it works. But salliemay, for goodness sake, stop bidding against yourself and start winning!

eBay’s Bid Assistant Check it out!

Oh, you won’t win if your bid isn’t the highest bid in place at the auction’s closing. But that’s a matter of choice and budgeting. Read my whole series, I get into all of that. Financial sobriety, the soft addictions, not going broke. Having your soul come out on top instead of your lust for stuff. These are deep articles, sumptuously illustrated by stuff from eBay.

Ebay also has it’s own really good tutorials on everything eBay related. Here’s the eBay LEARNING CENTER.

That’s it, folks. Oh, one other thing you should read to get smart about on-line auctions:

Stepping Off the Edge
Winner of six national awards, including:
Bronze Medal, 2007 IPPY Awards; finalist, Benjamin Franklin Awards in New Age; finalist, 2007 Indie Excellence Awards in Memoir, Self Help and Spirituality; finalist, BEST BOOKS OF 2007, Memoir

I’ve got two chapters in Stepping Off the Edge about eBay addiction. How I got it, how I handle it. Financial experts have told me they’ve never seen on-line addiction treated the way I do.

So, get my book, and read my SANDY’S AUCTION WISDOM series. A reader sent me the following about that series:

Dear Sandy,

Thank you very much for your site. Your analysis of what causes this kind of addiction has helped me to break down why I am doing what I am. Because of that I now have a much better chance of freeing myself from this and whatever else I manage to become compulsive about in my life.

I think that the way that you write about this subject matter is very insightful and nurturing, I got something out of every section and it taught me something about myself that was way more valuable than just how to quit compulsively shopping from my computer.

I think your articles will help everyone with the intelligence to understand the concepts and the patience to read more than a paragraph. I may even buy your book based on my enjoyment of your writing. I have copied and pasted a small section of the text from it and put it in a folder I keep on my desktop called “read this everyday”.

Thanks Sandy.

Thank you, my dear reader. Now let’s all be smart, non-addictive, winning buyers!
Sandy Nathan, National award winning author. Winner of eight awards as of 12/11/07!

Sandy Nathan, National Award Winning Author

I’m so excited about being on the Full Power Living radio show! Full Power Living is the only internationally-broadcast radio show dedicated to “awakening the world to the power and importance of human emotions.”

And feelings are important, as those who have been knocked over by powerful reactions to seemingly trivial events can testify. Our feelings have their own logic and are tied directly to our deepest values and beliefs.

Ilene Dillon, M.F.T., L.C.S.W.

Full Power Living is hosted by Ilene L. Dillon, M.F.T., L.C.S.W. Ilene has been a psychotherapist for almost forty years, teaching thousands of people how to use their emotions to master life challenges. You can learn more about Ilene from her web site, Emotional Pro.

To listen to the show, log on to World Talk Radio (www.worldtalkradio.com). Once the site is up, click on Studio A, which you’ll see close to the top of the screen on the left. Another screen will come up with a navigation bar indicating the days of the week. It’s right about in the middle of the screen. Click on Thursday, and then scroll to 9 AM. Ilene and I will be there!

We’re going to be focusing on my book, Stepping Off the Edge, and how I treat emotions in it, as well as how I use emotions in my work as a writer and in my life. I have to tell you, effectively using my emotional world was one of the things that allowed me to write my books and see them published. So far, my books have won six national awards.

If you’ve read Stepping Off the Edge or my ‘zines and articles, you may want to ask me a question or make a comment. The Full Power Living show is your chance! Call toll free during the show––AUGUST 9TH 9 TO 10 AM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME. In North America, you can call toll-free: 866-613-1612. Outside North America, the toll free number is 001-858-268-3068. I hope to hear from you!

If you miss the show, it will be archived on the radio station, Ilene’s web site, and my site, sandynathan.com But I hope you can make it: August 9, 2007, 9 AM.
I’m in the saddle, doing what I love. Horse are like emotions; when you’re skillful, you can control them with the subtlest cues, substituting understanding and teamwork for force.

Numenon, The Bloodsong Series I.
Numenon will not be released officially until late 2007 or early 2008. But––we’ll have pre-release copies available soon. Very soon, I’ll post a link so you can order your copy. The first book of The Bloodsong Series, Numenon has been getting more hits than anything on my web site. Winner of the 2007 National Indie Excellence Award for Religious Fiction.

What’s Numenon about?

Join the richest man in the world and his top executives on a journey that may cost their lives. Will Duane, founder and CEO of Numenon, Inc., surprises his team by telling them that they’re going to a Native American retreat in New Mexico.

He doesn’t tell them that his dream of transforming the world through enlightened capitalism is all but dead and that he’s falling apart. He doesn’t say that the security of his home has been breached. Nor does he reveal a terrifying, prophetic dream. And he certainly doesn’t tell them about the mine . . .

An ancient Native shaman awaits them at the mysterious Mogollon Bowl. The Holy Man attempts to guide them to their good, while an unseen, ominous force plots their ruin.

Will Light or Darkness claim their souls?

“The collision of commerce and spirit, the world’s richest man and an ancient Native American shaman, a global corporation larger than any other and the quiet strength at the core of the natural world — this is thriller and metaphor and life lesson in the hands of a writer who has journey’d through both worlds.”
Gerald DiPego, screenwriter–Phenomenon

Stepping Off the Edge. Winner of Five National Awards. Click here to buy.

SANDY NATHAN, National Award Winning Author

If you Google the name Bill Miller, you will get web links to a large number of very interesting folk, most of whom are not the person I’m writing about.

It’s not that I don’t like Bill Miller the Hooked on Fishing Guy. I’m sure that I’d like him fine if we ever met, but I’m not hooked on fishing. If you are, you can see him on his Brighthouse Networks TV show. Or check out his web site for the latest in angling knowledge, pictures of his catch, and tips on how to improve your own angling.

No, I’m not talking about that Bill Miller the Texas BAR-B-Q Guy, either. For years, this Bill Miller held the www.billmiller.com web address. He probably changed it when he got sick of requests for Bill the Native American musician’s songs.

I can see it now––Bill picks up the phone in his Hill Country restaurant: “No, I can’t sing Reservation Road, but I can get you a nice plate of tri-tip and beans . . .” Check out that BAR-B-Q web site, it’s inspiring. Makes me want to go to Texas and eat ribs.

Nor do I wish to write about Bill Miller the Money Dude. That Bill Miller is the portfolio manager for the lotsa-billions Legg Mason Value Trust. On the other hand, as a former economist, anybody who beats the market as often as this Bill does makes my heart flutter. Oh, baby. Check out this article from Newsweek that talks about why Bill Miller was named one of the best fund money managers of 2006: Bill’s Incredible Performance. You go, guy! Tackle the National Debt! We need money managers like you!

The correct Bill Miller. This links to his web site.

Nope, I’m not writing about any of them. This BLOG POST is about BILL MILLER, THE GRAMMY-WINNING, MOHICAN/GERMAN, MAJOR MUSICIAN, AND REALLY GREAT ARTIST. NOT TO MENTION INSPIRING SPEAKER AND SPIRITUAL LEADER. THAT Bill Miller. His web address is: http://www.billmiller.net You can also pick up his latest news, slide shows, about fifty videos on his MySpace space:

MYSPACE/BILLMILLEROFFICIAL

Bill Miller singing at the Gathering, a Native American spiritual retreat. Bill is spiritual leader of the Gathering.

I think that Bill might have greater name recognition if his were a recognizable Native American name, such as Crazy Horse or Sitting Bull. (I’m not being disrespectful to those great American Indian heroes. They are my heroes, too. I just wanted to illustrate my point with names that everyone would agree were authentic.)

Okay, if Bill had a traditional Indian name, he might have more name recognition. Folks would probably not get him mixed up with the Money or Bar-B-Q Guys. (I wonder if he gets requests for tri-tip sandwiches or hot stocks on his web site? Let me know, Bill.)

Bill playing at the Gathering retreat again. The paintings behind him are his art.

I am a great fan of Bill Miller the Musician, Songwriter, Artist and Speaker. I have been his fan since first hearing his music on the sound system of a Western store in Solvang, California. This was back around 1997. I bought the CD, The Red Road. It reduced me to a blubbering slab of emotions when I listened to it. (I did this at home, fortunately.) I instantly became Bill’s fan, wrote him a huge letter (which never again was seen after I tossed it in mail box), and have idolized him since.

(This is saying a lot, because in my culture, we do not show strong emotions. We are sophisticated, which means we lie about our feelings in the service of appearing calm and fearless. Maybe superior. I was born and raised in the heart of Silicon Valley before it became a jungle of tilt-up concrete buildings, money, and both broken and fulfilled dreams.)

Bill with Linda & Jenny at the Gathering. Another reason to attend: This could be a picture of you.

Anyway, Bill knocked me over. Still does. If you are a Bill Miller fan, you will find lots of Bill lore, and a Bill Miller interview in my award winning book, Stepping Off the Edge.

This is a brazen sales pitch for my book, yes. But Bill and the Gathering, the retreat he leads every September in Tennessee, have impacted my soul, my life, my heart. So I wrote about them in my book. Actually, if you look on almost any page of my massive family of web sites, including LITTLE INDIA: A Bit of India in Southern California, you will find some mention of Bill Miller.

This link should take you to me being interview on Amazing Authors. I talk about Bill and the Gathering there, too.

Stepping Off the Edge: My book’s title describes how I feel when I get in one of these silly moods. In freefall and hoping I don’t hit bottom too hard. Anyway, you will notice that Bill Miller’s portrait is on the cover of my book. The book has lots about Bill and many other people in it, but mostly it’s about me crashing through a few years of my life, managing to illustrate everything they taught me when I was studying counseling. It will make you laugh and cry, even just looking at the illustrations.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything about Bill for the Net. I googled Bill Miller, and discovered that my own huge fan website about him DIDN’T SHOW UP ANYWHERE. It used to be on the first page, right near Bill’s own site and the BAR-B-Q Guy’s. Gone! It was gone from the rankings!

My site had become a web non-entity, at least in the world of Bills.

Those of you with optimized web sites where you paid a fortune so that your site lands on top will empathize, right? You know what page standing means.

My situation is worse––I’m a scrappy grandmother: I do most of my web stuff myself.

Do you realize that the neurons in my brain that pulled that Bill Miller website together the first time and got it on the Net so many years ago are GONE? KAPUT. Yes, aging does that.

So what I put up ten years ago, I don’t know how to put up again.

Oy vey, as my mother-in-law used to say. Oy very, I say.

The covered bridge at Coker Creek, site of the Gathering. Sometimes, moving forward in life is as simple as stepping over the brige. (That sounds like a good book title . . .)

Given the fact that my site had disappeared off the charts, I wanted to do something, something drastic, to call attention to may flagging “hittage.” What? What could I do to raise myself within the Miller world?

If you find this blog, you should look at my really big page on Bill Miller and life around him. Check out http://www.billmilleronspurs.com I’ll make sure something’s up there. Somehow . . .

And there’s another article about Bill, too. BILL MILLER: HALLOWEEN II. You will not believe this article. It’s about seeing Bill in a concert at Santa Barbara, CA, only forty minutes and over a mountain from where I live. The writing in this article is fun and profound, but the pictures are KILLER!

No where will you see pictures like this. This article is mostly illustrated with photos one of my friends took at a Peruvian Paso horse show. She photographed a costume class. Ever seen a horse and rider dressed as an elephant? Read Bill II and you will. My friend has an MFA (Master’s in Fine Art) in photography, so not only are her photos unbelievable in content, the horses and riders are in the middle of the picture.
Bill and I signing books and posters at the Gathering.

Maybe you’ve already seen these articles, and that’s why I don’t exist Google-wise––you’ve moved on, as Stephen King says. (I’m fan of his, too. Check out is web site.)

But, hey––I’ve been busy. I’ve published two books in the last couple years. Writing is hard work. I can’t update, update, update. Read the articles about Bill again. Look at the pictures. Look through all the years of THE GATHERING’S WEB SITE. So many pictures you’ll get bleary eyed. Of Bill and everyone. Go to the Gathering. It’s life changing.

The main hall at Coker Creek, site of the Gathering.

Go see Bill, too. He’s an over the top performer. Check out MySpace/Bill Miller Official for his schedule. Write him message. We all like getting messages. Buy his CDs. His paintings. Do that.

Meanwhile, I’ve had some fun while not writing about Bill on the Net. My book, Stepping Off the Edge, has won five national awards. It was a finalist for the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award, a Bronze Medal Winner in the 2007 Ippys, and a finalist in three categories of the 2007 Indie Excellence Awards. (These contests are so big, if you’re a finalist you can call yourself a winner. Like the Academy Awards nominees get to flash it.)

I’m a grateful woman. All the work paid off.

Not only that, my novel, Numenon, which won’t be out until later this year, won the 2007 Indie Excellence Award in Religious Fiction as a galley. I hope to give Dan Brown a run for his money with my Bloodsong Series. Numenon is the first book in that series. I hope you’ll take the time to look at my web site, read about me and my work. If you’re so moved, I’d love it if you reserved a copy of Numenon and even bought Stepping Off the Edge.

Thank you my readers, for your support and patience. Yes, I get a little silly sometimes. A lot silly, actually. But I appreciate you.