Beautiful orchid

my good friend Bette gave me these orchids around the beginning of the year.  They had some beautiful blossoms at first and then all of a sudden all of the blossoms fell off.  I was so sad.  As usual the rakers are not that good at taking care of plants...  We either water too much or too little.  It's so hard to find that balance that nature needs to flourish.

After the blossoms fell off we put the plant outside.  For the next couple of weeks in late January the weather was wet, cloudy and cool.  Then all of a sudden in late February new blossoms appeared.  I was so happy and amazed at the resilience of this little plant.  We brought it back inside and now I've been enjoying the new blossoms for the past several weeks.

This little plant reminded me that nature is so beautiful and so resilient when it's left alone and not disturbed.

my book is in print!

Dear friends, family and caregivers:

My book, "Dolphin's Dance" is now available on the PublishAmerica website. This is the link to their online bookstore: http://www.publishamerica.net/

Scroll to the bottom and use the search feature to find the book. You can search by by last name "Raker" or by the title of the book.

You will see that there are two versions of my book available; the first is a softcover edition for $25 and the second is a special "price edition" for $13. I have seen the softcover edition and it looks pretty good, good quality and ships within two weeks. But, 25 bucks is pretty expensive!

The cheaper price edition I have not seen yet, so I have no idea what the quality looks like (perhaps is printed on tissue paper?) And also it probably takes 4 to 6 weeks to ship. PublishAmerica charges 4 dollars for shipping for each book... They are definitely not a discount bookseller like Amazon. But, they give first-time authors like myself a chance to get published.

I do expect an official release of my book within the next few months, then it will be available for Kindle and also listed on Amazon (I hope).

If you do decide to purchase my book, thank you very much! If you like it please pass it on. It is not a children's book. The cover is deceiving... I apologize in advance for the grammar mistakes, long-winded paragraphs and abundance of adverbs. I also apologize to all my loved ones for the morbid first chapter, it's just the way that I felt at the time. Thank you all for your love and support! I promise to keep writing and get better at it as time goes on.

Dolphins Dance - final manuscripts submitted

I'm happy to announce that this is finally off to the publishers. They sent me the final proofs and cover design this week and allowed me to make some corrections. On Friday I submitted these last changes and now it should be published very soon!

how is 2011 going?

Hello friends,

I was just thinking about all of you this morning when I saw the beautiful snow falling in New York Central Park on the today show. I was hoping that no matter where you are you were getting out and enjoying the winter weather. Thanks for your updates and staying in touch.

So far it's been a busy 2011 for us and things seemed to be going quite well.

I finally submitted my edited manuscript PublishAmerica just this Wednesday. It was tough for me as I wanted to add and edit and add and add, but finally just thought enough was enough and it's my best writing that I can do at this time in my life. I hope it's not too wrought with errors and grammar problems. PublishAmerica doesn't help at all with the editing process. Now, I wait for them to do their formatting and cover design. Perhaps I'll be completed by 6 to 9 months from now. In the meantime I keep on writing and have completed more than 50 pages of a science fiction/SQL to the first, so far called "Sealand 1001". And I have also finished editing my memoirs of the first 25 years of my life. So writing is still a great therapeutic adventure for me each day. I would love to find a literary agent to represent me and give me some guidance. I've written several but no response. I guess I just keep trying at my leisure, I'm in no big hurry.

I got out of the house twice in the last week. I went to the Sony open, so far I've gone every year for the last 12 years. I go with a friend of mine, a retired Air Force major who was a college friend of mine. he takes very good care of me and we had a good time. I also went to the dentist on Tuesday so I am a little bit exhausted. Going out really is a challenge for me.

My son Christopher is back in school at the University of Hawaii in the middle of his junior year. He worked at Best Buy over the holidays as a seasonal worker, learned a lot from the experience. And now he just got a job with an Internet company called "Clearwire". I'm very proud of him, works hard and seems to be very responsible for a 20-year-old. He still spends one day a week with me, which we enjoy very much.

Mineko continues to work full-time. She's always busy and has so many things to do and worry about. But her strength is amazing and her love for me and each other is still very very strong.

My health seems to be pretty stable. I think it's all perspective. I have good days and bad days, but so does everyone. I do get bored sometimes, mostly that happens in the middle of the afternoon when I'm too tired to work on the computer, or uncomfortable for being the one position for too long. I'm grateful I can still do some things. I do wonder about the future, try to take each day as it comes. I have wonderful friends and caregivers.

Thanks for checking in and have a great week!
Rick

Stay in touch with me on my blogs or website
http://sites.google.com/site/rickspossepage/

http://rickswindow.blogspot.com/

http://ricksdvdreviews.blogspot.com/

January is flying

Hello friends, is amazing to me that January is almost
halfway over and we are well into 2011. I've been busy. On Saturday I went to the Sony open with my good friend Bob. We had a great time and continue the tradition we started over 10 years ago. Yesterday, I went to the dentist. So my teeth are clean and my smile is Bright. Today, I finally finish the final manuscript for "Dolphins Dance" and sent it off to the publisher. Christopher started a new job with ClearWire last week and is still going to school full-time. So, I've been busy these days! And a thoroughly enjoying the NFL playoffs.
I hope all of you are having a wonderful January.

Merry Christmas

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone! And a happy new year to come! We had a very relaxing and comfortable Christmas. Mineko, Christopher and I spent the weekend together resting and enjoying each other's company. All of my friends and caregivers and family were so generous to us this year! Thank you thank you thank you to all of you. You're all so special to us and make each day wonderful. Thank you. I can't say that enough...

"Dolphin's Dance"is coming in 2011

Hello friends and family! I'm very happy to announce that my first attempt at a fiction novel "Dolphin's Dance" has been accepted by PublishAmerica. below is part of the query letter I wrote to several publishing houses and literary agents. It gives a good summary of why I wrote the book at what it's about!

My name is Richard Raker and I am 54 years old. I have lived in Honolulu Hawaii with my wife and son for 25 years. I have ALS, a terminal illness diagnosed in 2006. Prior to 2006 I worked as an educator teaching ESL and as a computer trainer for a healthcare organization. Very soon after my diagnosis and a quick disease progression I was totally bedridden relying on a ventilator to breathe. I spent most of my time reading, watching TV and movies, when one day I discovered the therapeutic joy of writing. First I struggled through a memoir about the first 25 years of my life. This I hope to publish sometime in the future. After that I realized that I had a few other stories that I needed to write. "Dolphin's Dance" is the first and I have already begun my third manuscript titled "Sealand 1001" which is a more complex science fiction semi-sequel. I love writing and it is clearly a therapeutic endeavor for me. I happily write at least two or three hours each day, often until my dictating voice and frozen body become overly fatigued. I would love to be able to publish my writing so that it can be shared with a broad audience. It would also be wonderful if my work could somehow help pay for my rising medical costs and son's college tuition. Published or not, I will continue my writing therapy, it gives me something constructive to do each day and eventually I will be able to share my stories with my family and friends.

(By the way, I'm not looking for sympathy here. I want my manuscripts to be judged based on their merit not on my personal history. I described my current circumstances in detail because I want you, my prospective literary partner to be fully aware of my situation.)

"Dolphin's Dance" begins with an ordinary Honolulu man who has lived with ALS for 12 years and determines that it is time to gracefully leave this world. He gathers his family and friends for a final farewell. Per his wish, his ashes are spread in the ocean off of Makapuu Point. After passing his spirit is reborn as a Pacific Bottlenose dolphin off the coast of California. In an anthropomorphic style we follow the life of this dolphin as he grows up and is enigmatically drawn to the Hawaiian Islands. The story carefully blends known scientific fact about dolphin behavior and other marine mammals with fantasy. Issues that affect their existence are explored with a definite conservationist message that is achieved by looking at the world through the dolphin's eyes.

The dolphin rescues a young USC-San Diego college student after a surfing accident and begins a quest to understand and communicate with humans. The college student's life is irrevocably altered by the experience and the subsequent relationship they develop. She joins a dolphin rescue and relocation team led by her Professor at the university. One of the dolphins the team rescues from a failing marine park in Mexico was originally from the Hawaiian Islands and was captured off the coast of Asia when she was just a few years old. She is brought back to health at Sea World and released into the wild. The female dolphin is introduced to the main character at the time of her release. They form a bond and together they travel back to the Hawaiian Islands.
Readers who love the ocean and are fascinated by the mammals of the sea will enjoy this short novel. The author hopes that by sharing this story more people will become aware of the fascinating and beautiful animals of the ocean and will be moved to protect and preserve our world.

stay tuned for more information about the publication date and possible excerpts posted on my website!