Docere day?

My dear wife flew pretty high around the turn of the century as NASA’s Chief Scientist, an experience that informed the motivationql speeches she took to giving after her tenure there.  To handle the proceeds from her efforts, she formed an LLC, Docere (doh-kaý-rah; from the Latin “to teach”).  Over the years, we’ve taking to running any gains made from education (besides our U paychecks) through the company.  6 months into my retirement, she agreed to name me co-CEO.  I commemorated that day with a brief post that remains one of my most popular (1).  Made an excuse for ginning up new business cards for the both of us.  What is our main product?  You can tell by our motto, which we stole from Faber College: “Knowledge is good”.  With both of us putting more and more time into writing these days, books have become our main output.  Although one of us (RWI) still cranks out obscure scientific papers,  what we write is mostly lighthearted, and often personal.   And both of us old, retired teachers like to slip in some education when we can.

Six of the 9 books I’ve published so far take their content from my blog, organizing by topic.   The first five of those were assembled during the COVID years (’19-‘22), and their titles ran under the theme “Musing Through a Pandemic”.   But even after the masks, lockdowns, and distancing, I kept on musing.  Hence the title of today’s release: Still musing: Reflections on Interpersonal Relationships (2).  Essays run in 3 categories’ “Friends”, “My Brilliant Career” (memories and reflections on medicine), and “This Life”.  At 388 pages, it’s my 2^nd longest book yet.  But it’s a book to pick up, read a thing or two, then put down till later.  I neglected to have Amazon make a Kindle version, but I’ll work on that.  

Here’s the cover:

Now, Kathy’s focus has been far different.  She had books out way before I did, self-publishing two children’s books under her pen name “Auntie KC”.   The main character was based on our younger nephew, Skyler.  Orion and Aislinn would have to wait, although both were already too grown up for kid’s books.  Of course the first was based in space, describing how Skyler and his stuffie pals went to the moon with the aid of a trampoline and a blow-up space shuttle model (3)   The second had those characters coming down to earth, as they all came to Ann Arbor for some kid adventures.(4).  Kathy admitted the main reason she wrote these first 2 books was to entertain Skyler, with Orion, and Aislinn on the sidelines of creeping maturity.  When Kathy retired, it had been 3 and a half years since that last book.  She decided she had enjoyed writing kid’s books and went about plugging herself into a writers’ group to learn how to do this better.  She’s hired a writing coach and a professional illustrator, with plans for a series of 10 books, each a separate destination in our solar system.  When her first new effort came out last spring (5), it looked very slick and fun, plus Kathy learned every grandmother and grandfather (our peers!) was a potential customer, and she moved some product!  Maybe she’s got something here.  In the second as well as the first, each book is full of clues for the kids to solve, both about their activities on the planet and the next destination in the series.  Parents tell her the kids just love that.

So, here’s her cover.

Yes, aliens are involved, but they’re friendly, at least so far.  The book is listed on Amazon (6).  Kathy also deals directly with customers, having some books published by another house that does not take as big a cut as Jeff Bezos does.  All are listed below in “purchasing information”. 

References

1. Ike B.  Docere.  WordPress 2/24/20.  https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/02/24/docere/

2. Ike R.  Still Musing.  Pondering Interpersonal Relationships.  Amazon (Kindle).  Published 1/15/25.  ISBN: 9798343901122.  https://a.co/d/5kegAng

3. Auntie KC.  Skycat Goes to the Moon: A Skycat Series Adventure Book.  Amazon (Kindle).  Published 5/24/24.   https://a.co/d/1hlQnnt

4. Auntie KC.  Skycat Goes to Ann Arbor.  A Skycat Series Adventure Book.  Amazon (Kindle).  Published 12/12/17.  ISBN 1981394346.  https://a.co/d/5wGeHqT

5. Auntie KC and Mellors Z.  Skyler’s Space Adventures: An Unexpected Encounter. Book 1 of 2.  Skyler’s Space Adventures.  Amazon (Kindle).  Published 5/20/24.  https://a.co/d/4ROgrqW

6. Auntie KC and Mellors Z.  Skyler’s Space Adventures: This-a-Way or That-a-Way?  Book 2 of 2.  Skyler’s Space Adventures.  Amazon (Kindle).  Pulished 1/6/25.  https://a.co/d/hHBKcSj

7. Ike B.  pair-o-docs.  WordPress 9/3/22.  https://theviewfromharbal.com/2022/09/03/paradocs/

Purchasing information

Bob’s book (Amazon entry)

Bob has an Amazon author page that describes all books and even the author a little bithttps://www.amazon.com/stores/Robert-Ike/author/B095CPDZGP?ref_=pe_1724030_132998070&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

My first book –  The Accident – describes events from a tragic time in my teen years.  It came up too short for Amazon to make a paperback, so it’s only available on Kindle there.   I have a few copies printed up from time to time, and you can write me at the Docere address (docerellc86@yahoo.com) to order one directly.

Links fill my books.  No problem if you’ve got a Kindle.  Otherwise, I stick in each book a link to the hyperlinked table of contents, so readers can read a page where they can access the link.

Kathy’s new book looks like this on Amazon

Should you wish to purchase books directly from her, contact her through her author’s e-mail (auntieKC4@gmail.com) or the Docere e-mail (docerellc86@yahoo.com).  She also has an Amazon author page which displays all her work https://www.amazon.com/stores/Auntie-KC/author/B0CTGGKL5T?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=8538f4d3-7702-4d34-ac27-38e21c99c8c7

It’s not as fleshed out as mine, tho’ it has a much prettier headshot

I used to mark each of my own book releases with a “shameless plug” blog.  Now that I’ve got a partner in crime, who’s knows what’ll happen?