I’ve renamed the catalogs. Formerly, I had one catalog (“our catalog”) for books actually published by Mt. Sneffels Press, and another catalog (“extended catalog”) for books I don’t publish but for which I do web fulfillment. With the addition of the OCHS book, there are enough history-oriented books to re-divide the catalog, and history is proving popular. Now there are three catalogs: the History Catalog, the Fantasy Catalog (fantasy novels, including the Flying Broomstick series), and the Medley Catalog, which includes humor, poetry, essays, a children’s book, and short stories. Those books that aren’t published by Mt. Sneffels Press are so indicated. Enjoy!

Mt. Sneffels Press

Mt. Sneffels Press is proud to announce that we’ve published the Ouray County (Colorado) Historical Society’s Journal Volume 4, new for 2010. The book has 11 well-researched history articles all illustrated with multiple black and white photographs. You’ll enjoy stories such as the mining history of Ouray County, memories of Ouray’s San Juan Miners Hospital, the Sneffels Stagecoach holdup, the Marlow brothers’ Texas ordeal and their life in Ouray County. This book joins our History Catalog, bringing to you life as it was in Southwestern Colorado. You can go to our History Catalog here to see other books about life in our area as it once was.

To learn more about OCHS, click here, where you’ll find directions to the museum in Ouray. The site has many more details about the museum.

Mt. Sneffels Press, Our Authors

Well, actually, the correct spelling is Sneffels. That’s f-e-l-s. But apparently people are having trouble finding the website because Sneffels just has to be spelled Sneffles! So, I bit the bullet today. www.mtsnefflespress.com now redirects to www.mtsneffelspress.com. Hopefully that helps!

Mt. Sneffels Press

The AmericanFlyingBroomstick.com Web Pages Consolidated into MSP

As part of an ongoing “look and feel” consolidation, the web pages for www.americanflyingbroomstick.com have been placed onto the Mt. Sneffels Press server. All the information is intact, including the videos. You can go to the AFB pages directly or you can navigate by using the menu bar at the top of the page. Hover the mouse over “Projects” and you can click on “Flying Broomstick,” which has all the links. As usual, you can order any of the three books in the series via our catalog page.

The “Technology” page has been bumped up a notch to be its own “Project” page. I get questions all the time about doing this and that. You’ll find the answers on the Technology page.

And the “Weather Station” is also its own project. It took several hours of work Read more…

American Flying Broomstick, Mt. Sneffels Press

It’s overdue, but it’s here! Up until now, all the items in our catalog were intended to be ordered one item at a time. The “Buy Now” button takes you directly to PayPal’s checkout feature. If you want to buy several different books, up until now you had to pay shipping for each on an individual basis.

No more! I thrust my way through the tangled thicket on PayPal’s website and figured out how to use the shopping cart feature. So, you can add an item to the cart, continue to peruse the site and add more items, and when you’re done you just click on any “View Cart” button and you’re whisked to your shopping cart, where you can finalize your order. Of course, you can remove items or change quantities at any time, simply via the “View Cart” button. All “View Cart” buttons take you to the same place: your shopping cart.

The cool thing is that the shipping is calculated on the weight of the total order. That can represent significant savings. The starting point for shipping is $2.75, but if you order, say, the Railroad book plus Mary Ann Dismant’s memoirs, the total shipping is just $3.00. What a cool way to save money!

I’ve got the cart up for the Mt. Sneffels Press catalog and will update the extended catalog soon so that it has this feature also.

UPDATE Jan 22, 2010: The Extended Catalog has been upgraded to add the shopping cart feature.

Mt. Sneffels Press

Greetings from Geekland here. I’ve spent the last couple hours upgrading the blog software that underpins this site, WordPress. The auto upgrade feature doesn’t work for me (I must have a configuration file set wrong somewhere), so that means transferring hundreds of files to my hosting provider. They make it fairly easy, but I did run into a snag here and there. I like WordPress because 1) I’ve been able to make it work, 2) it’s pretty easy to post things and add shopping buttons and whatnot, and 3) it’s well supported. Oh, and 4) it’s free! If you want to experiment, WordPress allows you to create your own blog on their site. Mt. Sneffels Press isn’t hosted there, but rather at Digital Space.

I’ve been putting off this upgrade for awhile now, but it pays to be current, as the latest version has all the bug patches and security fixes. I decided to devote this evening to getting my Internet house in order, although I hope to spend a little time working on the first draft of The Unexpected Traveler!

Mt. Sneffels Press

This paragraph about Mt. Sneffels Press’s book, Narrow Gauge Railroading in the San Juan Triangle: The Rio Grande Southern, the Ouray Branch of the D&RG and Otto Mears’ Silverton RR, appears in the January 2010 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. You too can have your own copy by clicking on this link to our catalog. Click here to go to the Railroad Model Craftsman website.

Mt. Sneffels Press, Railroad

I had a blast at last year’s Mensa national convention in Denver, selling every copy of Broom 1 and Broom 2 that I had with me. And I’m looking forward to speaking by invitation at the Mensa Regional Convention in Reno on October 3rd. About flying broomsticks of course!

But I never thought I could become a member.

I told those who urged me to take the test that I didn’t see Read more…

American Flying Broomstick, Mt. Sneffels Press

The Ridgway Railroad Museum’s book, Narrow Gauge Railroading in the San Juan Triangle: The Rio Grande Southern, the Ouray Branch of the D&RG and Otto Mears’ Silverton RR, is earning plaudits from the magazines that follow narrow-gauge railroading.

From the NG&SL Gazette Review, Sept/Oct 2009:

This book describes three of the 3-foot gauge railroads that once ran in the Silverton, Ouray, and Ridgway areas of Colorado. There are stories, short histories of the area described, maps and black and white photos. These include “Ridgway Street Names,” “The Legacy of Robert M. Ridgway,” “The RGS Through Telegrams,” “Unusual Spikes on the RGS,” and an item about a runaway RGS flatcar. The book also describes the Ridgway Railroad Museum, and the narrow gauge equipment located there. Included are D&RGW Boxcar #3130, Stock Car #5574, and Drop Bottom Gondola #702. Articles also describe the restoration of Caboose #0575, Goose #4 and the re-creation of Motor #1. All great reading!

From the Colorado Railroad Journal, Sept 2009:

The 110-page volume contains 40 carefully researched short articles by seven museum members, along with 60 photographs, maps and drawings. The articles contain information available nowhere else. Some of the topics covered include history of each of the museum’s railcars, snow fighting on the narrow gauge, life working for the railroad, locations along the featured routes, the Corkscrew Gulch turntable, Ouray depot, water tanks on the narrow gauge, Ouray to Ironton by rail, the Ramona townsite affair, dispatcher’s train sheets, and many more.

Check out the book in our catalog.

Mt. Sneffels Press, Railroad, Reader Comments

At last! It’s here! The third book in the series, The Story of the Great American Flying Broomstick, Book 3: FOG at the Crossroads, is just about here. I received the proof from the printer last week. Everything is as it should be. And the print run should be here this week or next. As soon as it is, I’ll put a “Buy Now” button in the catalog.

Here’s the blurb for the new book:

Book 3 in the American Flying Broomstick series starts with a bombshell. The tiny Fraternal Order of the Grail (FOG), the group that has safeguarded the Holy Grail for two millennia, has misplaced it. The Keeper, Reggie Baker, moved the Grail to its new secret repository and then died while walking his dog—before he could tell the other brethren where he’d put it! The loss causes a rift between powerful American brother Hal Bender and the English branch centered in London, and Dave is caught in the middle. Dave makes haste to London to organize FOG’s new young novices to find the Holy Grail—by using flying broomsticks, of course. But the media is full of rumors that FOG will take back the Power that enables broomsticks to fly. And the sinister Plasma Vortex organization is after Dave’s wand so they can use its power for extortion and general mayhem. FOG at the Crossroads records Dave’s high adventure in the American West and in Southern England. Come along for the wild ride!

So watch this space for availability!

The official launch will be at the Regional Mensa Convention in Reno, NV, in early October, but unofficial availability starts as soon as I receive the print run.

American Flying Broomstick, Mt. Sneffels Press