Book Bribery

It was a cold rainy day. I had just ordered myself two chicken sandwiches inside Wendy's and went to sit down at a booth. Fortunately, I had my reading material; a big hefty hardcover of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I was halfway through it and it was getting good. One of my favorites. That and Deathly Hallows.

This was right around the time that Order of the Phoenix was coming to theaters. My girlfriend had already read Stone through Hallow. An elderly couple was watching me reading the book while hey were standing in line about to place their order, pointed at me too. I tried to ignore it, figuring that they couldn't understand why a grown man would read harry potter, let alone drag the hardcover around with him.

"Excuse me?"

I look up. "Yes?"

"Sorry, to interrupt, but my wife and I were just noticing you reading that book. Is it good?"

"Oh, very. This is my favorite of the series so far."

At this, the old man smiled. He gave a reassuring nod to his wife then turned back to me. He smiled with emanating approval.

"Well that's just great. Y'know, we have a couple of granddaughters that love reading. It's always good to see someone reading a good solid book. My wife and I read all the time and we encourage it in our family."

I put the book down. "That's great," I say. "I love reading. I get lost in it all the time."

Eventually we arrived on the topic of how a lot of people don't enjoy a lot of literature or don't have time to read. But this man and his wife had a remedy for that. When his granddaughters were young, he told me, he had promised them that if they would read 500 books each, they would each receive 500 dollars from him. I raised my eyebrows. Such an ingenious method. I asked if they ever cheated by reading magazines and he said no. They read full-length books, each one worth a dollar of the bribe.

We talked a little bit more, shook hands and then him and his wife left.

I was inspired. It was an excellent idea and one I hope to adapt to my future children. Just goes to show that reading in bulk pays off.

"A man will turn over half a library to make one book. ~Samuel Johnson"

Time to Clock Out!

Tomorrow, I dive right back into the pool of words. I figure I'll have just about enough time to shell out the "Clocks" short story. One thing I've learned is that if you are writing a short story and nothing is coming - stop. Take a week. The idea will grow branches then you can just pick and choose what goes into the story.

Also, when you write - just write. Don't think. The first draft, I've found, is the shell of the story. You don't have to get it right the first time. Build a foundation for something to stand on and you are all set.

Writing = A pain and a joy.

He makes it look so easy.

"Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum." ~Graycie Harmon

The New Year Bookolution

During this December I intentionally did not write a thing. Not one word of fiction. It wasn’t because I had writer’s block. Quite the opposite. I had writer’s bulk. Meaning, I was trying to finish as many projects as I possibly could at the same time. This made my brain cramp up and I was moody to boot.

There are writers out there, old and new, who have their own method of how they work. Some make writing out to be a nine to five job, only they are working in their night robe and monopoly pajamas rather than a suit and tie.

Hemingway wrote 500 words a day, Faulkner drank whiskey to inspire the demons, Balzac drank 10 espressos a day (might try that one), Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up. Every different method whittles itself down to a routine or an addiction. Sometimes the addiction to writing itself can be unhealthy for the mind.

Perfect example. It was a Saturday. I was over in Arlington Heights in a Barnes and Noble on Rand Rd, thumbing through some new releases. (This was on a day where I brought my laptop to break the ‘fiction silence’ but found that fate threw me a curve ball by me forgetting to bring the power chord.) Came across a book called Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King by Lisa Rogak. Now, I had already read the great On Writing by Stephen King which was part bio/ part writing lessons. As I devoured the first 20 pages, I came to find that this unauthorized biography held some interesting tidbits that were left out of Stephen King’s version.


One scene described that Stephen was so obsessed with writing that even in the process of undergoing a vasectomy, he ignored the doctor’s orders to take it easy and instead went straight home and, in a fury, was pounding out the story that would become Firestarter. His wife came home, saw that he was bleeding through the chair and screamed that he be taken to the hospital immediately. To which he turned and said,


“Just one more paragraph.”


Lord knows I don’t want to head down that road.
The whole point is to have fun with it . . . Not kill yourself over it.


So, in effort to find my own routine, I’ve decided that I will focus on one story at a time.
Hopefully that will help me concentrate on one thread and not several where you would find me tangled.


My inner voice is determined to write no less than 10 books this year, as part of my new year resolution but we’ll see how far it takes me. Not rushing it. What gets done is what gets done.


"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
-- W. Somerset Maugham


P.S. Through determination I’ve finally been able to pound out some pages. It’s a short story about Grandfather clock and so far it is coming together nicely. Got five pages into it before I took a break. I may finish it before the week is up. That’s be a hoot.

It's Begining to look a lot like. . .

Today, I woke up, checked my messages and spotted this!
Since it's release on podiobooks, itunes and mevio - Mr. Dead Eyes has generated
over 4,000 dowloads and over 500 subscribers!
Merry Christmas indeed!

The Premature Universe

Alright, I’m just going to write this because, after looking over the last entries, I’m already getting sick of the whiney piney bullshit that I‘ve been doing. So here goes the rest of my writing history - to make a long story short.

Doing mounds of research online, I decided to go with a self-publisher called Iuniverse. Booksurge, Outskirts press and various other online publishers were too high in the price range for me.

After going through the process of filing out the contract, setting up a complicated cover design which was way too crowded and finally releasing the book -- I had set myself up for the speediest premature launch of all time. Two months went by and I had only sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 books, not counting the 15 free copies that I gave away to friends and family.

It was too early for me to go launching the book like that without a marketing plan. And because no one had ever heard of the book, it sold poorly. So I went ahead and pulled the book. The royalties weren’t all that high and I felt the book needed some more revisions and a reboot before it went public again.

That was Summer of 2006.

From 2006 to now, I’ve been hard at writing.

Here is what is currently in my arsenal:

Mr. Dead Eyes (Sci-Fi) - 243 pages
W.D.T. (Supernatural Thriller) -306 pages
F.W.I.W. (First Short Story Collection) - 207 pages
W.A.S.L. (Second Short Story Collection) - 26 pages
P.F. (Coming Of Age Adventure) - 40 pages

(Titles will be revealed when I have the story 100% completed and copyrighted.)