Crazy pharmaceutical companies

Earlier this month we went to pick up one of Rebecca's prescriptions. A prescription that for the last six months, we had been paying $10 a month for. To our surprise, the prescription was $80 this time, and that's with our insurance. Apparently, the reason for this is the discount you can get from the pharmaceutical company only drops it to $10 for three months out of the year. The reason we got it for six straight months was because it was October-December of last year and January-March of this year...thus three months out of each year.  There's no way we can afford that.
According to the pharmacy tech, the price for this prescription without insurance is over $1000 a month. Sorry, that's insane. I understand that it takes a great deal of time and money to get a new medication to market, and I have no problem with a company trying to recoup what they invested in time, research, trials, and everything else that goes into creating medications, but I can't seriously believe that they need to charge that much for a medication. They would have easily regained their investment long before a generic can be made of the drug. Given that this medication helps to dramatically reduce the possibility of her disease turning into cancer, the pharmaceutical company basically has her and others like her over a barrel. There are basically only two medications that are available to Rebecca due to the fact that she does not have a mild condition, and the other medication will greatly weaken her immune system, which isn't good considering we have three kids and she works in a hospital. Unfortunately, it looks like there is probably a generic available for this med, so most likely her doctor will have to switch her over to it.
So, now she has to risk getting sick from everything that she's exposed to because we can't afford the one medication. This is one of the many things that are wrong with healthcare in America. The pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies have way too much influence in everything that goes on with us. It's almost like they have the power of the Gods to decide who lives and who dies, and like so many things in America, it's the poor who suffer the most.
That's just beyond insane!

It's In the Water for free

From the Nomadic Delirium Press blog:
We're offering five free e-copies of J Alan Erwine's "Divided States of America" story, "It's in the Water." The first five people to go to http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/its-in-the-water/ and use coupon code "dsa" at checkout get the e-story for free.
So, what are you waiting for...they'll go quick!
Richard hated being a corporate drone, but what else was there to be in Corprotopia? After losing his girlfriend to the government, Richard struggled with just surviving, but when he learns a deep secret, a secret of resistance, he suddenly finds a reason for his life…or does he?

Two week sale

For the next two weeks, you can pick up e-titles from my store and save 50% off of your entire order. Simply go to http://www.jalanerwine.com/blog/shop and start ordering titles. When you're done, use the code "sale" at checkout to get your savings.
This includes stories, magazines, novels, anthologies, collections, and more. Basically, it includes almost everything that I've written or edited over the many years of my career.
So, order today, and be sure to tell all of your friends...

Why you should buy from the publisher

I'm not sure how it works with the large publishers, but with the small press, it's always best to buy your print and e-books directly from the publisher, as opposed to buying from an online retailer like that "A" store. The simple reason for this is money. Most small press publishers are doing it out of love...the majority of them don't make enough money to keep them from needing a day job, and the retailers, especially the "A" store take a big percentage from each sale.
As an example, at Nomadic Delirium Press we're now doing a line of stories around an idea I came up with called "The Divided States of America." Most of these shorter stories are selling for 99 cents, not an amount that's going to allow us or the authors to retire, but still, we're all in this to at least make a little pocket change.  With the DSA stories, we have an agreement that we divide the profits in half. Nomadic Delirium takes half, and the author gets half. Now, if one of these stories sells through the NDP bookstore, the profit from that is usually around 66 cents. However, if one of these stories sells through a retailer, the profit is usually around 35 cents. Looking at one story, it's not a huge difference, but if 100 of these stories sell it starts to become significant, and if it's 1000 stories sold, then we're definitely talking about a big difference.
Now, if you take this up to an anthology that sells for $14.95 or a similar amount, you should suddenly be able to see the difference. Even if you just multiply 66 or 35 by 15, you can see that the publisher, and thus the author are making a lot more money when the sale goes through the publisher's store.
So, if you're thinking about buying from the small press, please think about buying directly from them...as opposed to going to one of THOSE sites...

Calivada Dreaming

From the Nomadic Delirium Press blog:
Our latest "Divided States of America" story is now available..."Calivada Dreaming" by Debby Feo.
Fred Selkerson has left the Green States of America to start his exploration of what had once been the United States. Along with his android assistant, Pat37, Fred heads south, where things are somewhat different, but still recognizable…and it’s not long before Fred finds himself Calivada Dreaming.
http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/calivada-dreaming/

What Lies in the Wastelands

From the Nomadic Delirium Press blog:
The newest title in The Divided States of America series is "What Lies In the Wastelands" by Ian Brazee-Cannon.
An exploration group from the Rocky Mountain States of America comes to the Wastelands to learn what they can, but when they’re captured by natives, they begin to wonder if their advanced technology can save them.
http://nomadicdeliriumpress.com/blog/product/what-lies-in-the-wastelands/

March recap

GM'S Day sale
E-book week at Smashwords
Read a sample of the new issue of The Fifth Di...
The Divided States are here
Good news for Kindle readers
Green in 2110
Get the April 2017 issue of Spaceports early
Back issues for just 75 cents
It's In the Water
The Divided States of America Bundle #1
Divided States RPG