Sunday, December 20, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Finally!
Hey Folks!
Just letting you know that the day is finally here! My book For What It's Worth, the paperback version, is finally on Amazon. Whoo-hoo! Yop! And all that good stuff! Just search up my name on Amazon.com or you can click on the picture link on the right of this post that has the cover with the caption BUY THE BOOK HERE.
Let me know what you think, tell your friends, write a review. Heck, make my book a Christmas gift for a friend. Spread the word.
In the meantime...I'll still be writing. Happily, I might add.
"What is worth having is worth working for." — Philip Pullman
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
American on Purpose
Craig Ferguson is a man who knows what he wants.
He wanted to be American.
He wanted to be Sober.
He wanted to make you Laugh.
With his new book, American on Purpose, he accomplished all three.
Now I should tell you that I haven't read many autobiographies. I've read Dean and Me, the popular bestseller by Jerry Lewis himself. I loved that one. Had the perfect ending to a true life story. I've also read Gene Wilder's Kiss Me Like A Stranger, which I highly recommend. Gene is so precise with his words, you'll want to reread the book right after you've completed the last page. The same could be said for his novellas My French Whore and The Woman Who Wouldn't.
I've also read a biography on Thomas Jefferson, which thoroughly analyzed his strengths as well as his eccentricities.
Seeing a pattern?
When I read about someone, I often choose the books of the people I most admire and are influenced by. My girlfriend recommended Craig Ferguson's book to me. She said she couldn't put it down. I agree.
I covered the last 165 pages in one sitting. Yes, it is that good!
But it's not an all-out laugh-a-thon as you would expect. This book shows that the American dream is not dead. As a Scottish boy living in Glasgow, Craig learned quickly that he liked experimenting with life. When that experimenting lead to punk bands, drugs and alcohol, his life took a turn for the worse. It wasn't until he almost committed suicide that Criag re-evaluated his life, enough to turn his life around and seek help. He found many friends and many loves along the way to conquering the addiction of alcohol. But one of his loves was old U.S. OF A. In Glasgow he built up a reputation as an off-the-wall personality comic under the stage name of, get this, Bing Hitler. He found out many things about himself. He was funnier sober, loved to make people laugh and shows that anyone can live a dream. But you have to love that dream. He did both. Today, he hosts the Late Late show on CBS, which my girlfriend and I watch frequently. One thing I love is how random he is. And, despite the other late night talk show hosts, Craig looks like he's genuinely enjoying himself and just full of joy. Which is infectious. It just turns the whole room around the way he can make an audience bust out laughing.
This is more than just an autobiography. It's a great guide to quitting habits, living life to the fullest and starting over.
I highly recommend that YOU. READ. THIS. BOOK!
Craig's silly side:
Craig's book Interview:
He wanted to be American.
He wanted to be Sober.
He wanted to make you Laugh.
With his new book, American on Purpose, he accomplished all three.
Now I should tell you that I haven't read many autobiographies. I've read Dean and Me, the popular bestseller by Jerry Lewis himself. I loved that one. Had the perfect ending to a true life story. I've also read Gene Wilder's Kiss Me Like A Stranger, which I highly recommend. Gene is so precise with his words, you'll want to reread the book right after you've completed the last page. The same could be said for his novellas My French Whore and The Woman Who Wouldn't.
I've also read a biography on Thomas Jefferson, which thoroughly analyzed his strengths as well as his eccentricities.
Seeing a pattern?
When I read about someone, I often choose the books of the people I most admire and are influenced by. My girlfriend recommended Craig Ferguson's book to me. She said she couldn't put it down. I agree.
I covered the last 165 pages in one sitting. Yes, it is that good!
But it's not an all-out laugh-a-thon as you would expect. This book shows that the American dream is not dead. As a Scottish boy living in Glasgow, Craig learned quickly that he liked experimenting with life. When that experimenting lead to punk bands, drugs and alcohol, his life took a turn for the worse. It wasn't until he almost committed suicide that Criag re-evaluated his life, enough to turn his life around and seek help. He found many friends and many loves along the way to conquering the addiction of alcohol. But one of his loves was old U.S. OF A. In Glasgow he built up a reputation as an off-the-wall personality comic under the stage name of, get this, Bing Hitler. He found out many things about himself. He was funnier sober, loved to make people laugh and shows that anyone can live a dream. But you have to love that dream. He did both. Today, he hosts the Late Late show on CBS, which my girlfriend and I watch frequently. One thing I love is how random he is. And, despite the other late night talk show hosts, Craig looks like he's genuinely enjoying himself and just full of joy. Which is infectious. It just turns the whole room around the way he can make an audience bust out laughing.This is more than just an autobiography. It's a great guide to quitting habits, living life to the fullest and starting over.
I highly recommend that YOU. READ. THIS. BOOK!
Craig's silly side:
Craig's book Interview:
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
BREAK THE RULES!
Some time ago, I was stocking up on how-to guides on writing. What struck me the most is that every one of these guides had different rules on approaching novel writing. My view on the topic is this: BREAK THE RULES!
There will be things you disagree with, like I have with some of these guides. I value the difference of opinion on strategies to handling novel writing. But there are some things you have to figure out entirely by yourself or are limiting yourself by one person's set of rules.
In one book I read you need to erase your inner editor and just write whatever comes to mind. Don't bother fixing grammatical errors, just wait until the novel is finished. This does not work for me. I edit as I write because there is a need to, plus I'm always adding new things. If I were to write a 50,000 word novel and hadn't been editing the entire time, I'd feel like a train wreck just having to go back and correct all that mess.
Another book I read brought up a good point about making characters relatable by giving them phobias. Which I agree. Nothing makes a connection stronger than a character flaw that a reader can share and sympathize with. But, while the book was listing all the possible flaws your character can have, it specifically said, "Do not use Acrophobia~fear of heights or Claustrophobia~fear of closed spaces."
"Why not?" I said out loud while reading the book. Why discount those two? Especially when an estimated 5 out of every 100 people have a fear of heights. There is also a study saying that 7 percent of the world's population suffer from different forms of claustrophobia. I imagine one of the highest being premature burial.
Those numbers, to me, are too large to ignore and too ripe with ideas not to write about them.
Finally, the last topic I'd like to present to you is a situation that involved an evaluation of my first novel. In the prologue, a middle age man is searching for things to do in his vacation house until he decides to fall asleep. In that scene, becuase he is a lonely man who never married, he talks to himself. He thinks out loud, maybe two or three lines of dialogue. One editor told me that I should erase those lines. The reason being that they said "Characters don't talk to themselves."
When I first read that, almost instantly, my mind brought up several characters who do just that. Hamlet was talking to himself when he was contemplating suicide wasn't he? It's also something we do naturally. We talk to ourselves to remind ourselves of certain things. We talk to ourselves when we are lonely, scared, contemplating something, organizing our thoughts. We can even have a character talk to themselves to illustrate a mental illness.
So I say, why all these restrictions? Isn't writing an experiment itself? Shouldn't we be free to make the book how we see fit? It's our world after all, isn't it?
Have fun with it. Don't feel as if you are supposed to follow some kind of code. The rules are always changing with each debut book. Shake things up and be unconventional.
"Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing." — Melinda Haynes
There will be things you disagree with, like I have with some of these guides. I value the difference of opinion on strategies to handling novel writing. But there are some things you have to figure out entirely by yourself or are limiting yourself by one person's set of rules.
In one book I read you need to erase your inner editor and just write whatever comes to mind. Don't bother fixing grammatical errors, just wait until the novel is finished. This does not work for me. I edit as I write because there is a need to, plus I'm always adding new things. If I were to write a 50,000 word novel and hadn't been editing the entire time, I'd feel like a train wreck just having to go back and correct all that mess.
Another book I read brought up a good point about making characters relatable by giving them phobias. Which I agree. Nothing makes a connection stronger than a character flaw that a reader can share and sympathize with. But, while the book was listing all the possible flaws your character can have, it specifically said, "Do not use Acrophobia~fear of heights or Claustrophobia~fear of closed spaces."
"Why not?" I said out loud while reading the book. Why discount those two? Especially when an estimated 5 out of every 100 people have a fear of heights. There is also a study saying that 7 percent of the world's population suffer from different forms of claustrophobia. I imagine one of the highest being premature burial.
Those numbers, to me, are too large to ignore and too ripe with ideas not to write about them.
Finally, the last topic I'd like to present to you is a situation that involved an evaluation of my first novel. In the prologue, a middle age man is searching for things to do in his vacation house until he decides to fall asleep. In that scene, becuase he is a lonely man who never married, he talks to himself. He thinks out loud, maybe two or three lines of dialogue. One editor told me that I should erase those lines. The reason being that they said "Characters don't talk to themselves."
When I first read that, almost instantly, my mind brought up several characters who do just that. Hamlet was talking to himself when he was contemplating suicide wasn't he? It's also something we do naturally. We talk to ourselves to remind ourselves of certain things. We talk to ourselves when we are lonely, scared, contemplating something, organizing our thoughts. We can even have a character talk to themselves to illustrate a mental illness.
So I say, why all these restrictions? Isn't writing an experiment itself? Shouldn't we be free to make the book how we see fit? It's our world after all, isn't it?
Have fun with it. Don't feel as if you are supposed to follow some kind of code. The rules are always changing with each debut book. Shake things up and be unconventional.
"Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing." — Melinda Haynes
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Where's For What It's Worth?
Right now the book is off of the lulu site. This was a personal decision of mine. I figure too much time has passed between me actually releasing it to where we are now. I decided it was best to shift gears and go to my plan B.
I want more people to discover this book and I found that the website createspace is owned by amazon.com. Which means not only will the book go directly to the site but, since amazon owns this company, there is more of a chance of my book being accepted in actual stores since amazon controls a lot when it comes to providing copies for Borders and Barnesandnoble.
All this is to say that the book is not gone. It is just being redeveloped. It will still be print on demand and the price will remain the same. The only difference is a new distributor.
I recently transferred all of my files to the new website and ordered a proof copy. I should get the proof copy December 3rd. Sorry for making you guys wait a little longer but it's all in making this title more available. I will let you know when it's up again.
Thanks again for reading it, the ones that ordered the first copies.
"What really matters is what you do with what you have." ~ H. G. Wells
I want more people to discover this book and I found that the website createspace is owned by amazon.com. Which means not only will the book go directly to the site but, since amazon owns this company, there is more of a chance of my book being accepted in actual stores since amazon controls a lot when it comes to providing copies for Borders and Barnesandnoble.
All this is to say that the book is not gone. It is just being redeveloped. It will still be print on demand and the price will remain the same. The only difference is a new distributor.
I recently transferred all of my files to the new website and ordered a proof copy. I should get the proof copy December 3rd. Sorry for making you guys wait a little longer but it's all in making this title more available. I will let you know when it's up again.
Thanks again for reading it, the ones that ordered the first copies.
"What really matters is what you do with what you have." ~ H. G. Wells
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
My First Kindle Book
That's right. You can now get For What It's Worth on the Amazon Kindle. Even though I am not a Kindle owner myself, I wouldn't want to deprive the one million kindle owners from reading my book. It will most likely download to your Kindle in less than 60 seconds. For $1.99, the same price for a gallon of milk, you can read my book. So, what are you waiting for?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
