Michael Vorhis's Blog

Fly Fishing Lore

For the last few years I've been writing articles about fly fishing--some whimsical, some experiential, a few technique-oriented or product-review related...I even got one "epic" fly fishing poem published by the site to which I contribute. It has been fun, and on it goes.

Anyone interested in reading these articles is most welcome; they're published here:

http://www.jsflyfishing.com/blog/cate...

- Mike

Hyenas

Amazon, iBooks and Kobo aren't the only outfits who recognized the gargantuan degree of pent-up demand in book authorship; there are packs of hungry services circling us every week, every day, all hoping to make a meal of writers on a regular basis.

Now, I have no issue whatever with folks honestly offering services we're actually looking for. Artists offering cover art generation to those who are consciously looking to hire that task out, or editors who offer a pair of eyes to writers who know in advance that they lack the patience to find all their own errors in grammar or style...these people are honestly offering their skills to those who come to them purposefully looking for such tasks to be done.

But there are other types. I get emails frequently from someone who claims to be able to promote books. This outfit...in fact I suspect it's really just one guy sending emails under two or three different names...implies he's gone "social," that he's got his finger on the social media pulse. He claims a distribution list that tops out above a million emails. Actually he doesn't exactly claim that; he says you can "reach" some huge number of readers through him, and how his math works on that is anyone's guess. Is he assuming that each will tell two and then each of them will tell two...and that every email address represents a household of three readers on average? If so, his distribution list isn't even 40,000 long...which is small, and more believable, considering the relatively recent timeframe he came onto the scene. The point is we don't know...and there's no accountability to his fan-out claims...we don't even know whether most of the emails he actually does have would reach people who purchase books. How many of them bounce? How many are other authors who want to sell instead of buy? A lot I think. How many speak no English? How many are welding supply companies? How many are deceased?

But after a year or two of getting and deleting his emails (which I think means a year or two after he started to cobble his distribution list together), I decided to find out what kinds of promo services he offered. I sent him an email saying I might be interested in an economical email blast, to see if it might generate a bit of a pre-Christmas sales boost, and asked whether he had a pricing structure that let me pay him a percentage of royalty instead of a lump sum. (It seemed better to me that services like what he claimed to offer would guarantee themselves in that way.)

But he said he didn't do that. Instead he asked me (in his very first reply) to point him to some of my full-length novels, so I sent him two Amazon links. He then responded almost immediately to say that only one of them was worth marketing, and that that one book needed a complete re-write of the description AND a complete re-design of the cover art...both of which services he coincidentally charged for. He asked whether I was "open to that." Again, this was his nearly-instant response to my inquiry about a promo email blast.

I pointed out to him that the novel he claimed had no worthwhile market had sold many thousands of copies across 26 countries to date, all without translation and all just by individual word-of-mouth reader-to-reader promotion. I pointed out that it's a story for which an accomplished Hollywood producer is right now awaiting my screenplay version, with a promise that we'll launch a movie project the moment we're ready to go. And the other novel, the one he claimed needed a complete re-do of the meta-data and artwork, topped the charts in its genre for a time and has earned cover-art praise from intrigued readers since the day it was published.

I told him that both of these novels have hard copy versions, making any art re-do a very large project indeed, and ridiculous unless necessary; in fact it would be ridiculous to attempt major changes of any kind before even trying a simple promotional email blast--which was all I'd inquired about to begin with. I reminded him that my own instincts about meta-data and artwork hadn't exactly rolled off the turnip truck yesterday, and asked him the basis for his personal value judgments.

His curt response: "Sure, ignore my advice. Have it your way. Good luck with that."

I thought about this. Who was this guy, really? How did his knee-jerk opinion qualify as 'advice'? On what was it based? Was he a writer? Did he even read? More to the point, did he create anything? He'd cobbled together an email list (and I can't seem to get off that list, either), and on the strength of that he'd labeled himself a book marketing expert. Yes, I guess coming up with that self-appointed title is creative, in and of itself. But that's all I knew about him. Claims are cheap; what, if anything, was behind them? He touts a money-back guarantee but I don't believe it'd ever work out that way for anyone--certainly it wouldn't apply to re-design services, which was where his "advice" went without a moment's pause. Why on earth, after inquiring about a simple email promo blast, would I leap headlong into abandoning serious (and seriously hailed) creative output, AND DECISION POWER, and place it in that guy's unproven hands, and pay him to do so? Only someone with no faith in their own instincts or abilities might do that. Whence did his hasty opinions, made without any historical data, hail? I could be completely at a loss how to promote my work (although I wasn't), but that still wouldn't mean he knew anything at all.

Two things were certain: His 'recommendation' was based upon a pre-meditated scheme to get me to spring for project work, and his personal taste in novels had little to do with the tastes of the world-wide readership.

So I told him he lacked any visible credential to be putting his thumbs on my work, and to please remove me from his email lists...which he never did, and so I'm alerting other authors to the scheme because I intend that my own email address NOT be part of any plan to lure unsuspecting, well-meaning, hopeful authors into parting needlessly with their hard-earned cash.

Yes, these kinds of hyenas circle and snap and yipe all around. But stay to the trail you originally chose--you trusted your abilities and judgment when you decided to self-publish or to go with your chosen boutique publisher...you let your own instincts be your guide when you first began to develop your books. Now is not the time to relinquish control of key decisions to somebody else--some unidimensional stranger with nothing invested in your work, someone who wants to sell you descriptive writing without ever having read a work (it's difficult enough to do if you have...and if you're an insightful, almost poetic kind of person), someone whose creative output is limited to scheming how best to skim foam off a wave of your making.

Remember, you may be completely at a loss how to promote your work, but that still doesn't mean somebody else knows anything at all.

Book promotion is a long and arduous road--always has been, always will be. The ONLY thing that gains appreciative readers is Excellence. Pursue it, revere it, deliver it. Give it time to work its magic. We write in a world full of those who would take advantage of our hopes, our passion, to profit themselves. Be not fooled! *You* are the expert...or if you doubt that with respect to any task or topic, just ask the rest of us, for collectively we know how to do things and what works best. We're here for each other...and for our readers. Hyenas, by contrast, are mere parasites skulking around the outskirts of a creative world.

- Mike

Self Discovery and the Essence of Suspense

Just as there's value in noticing that we might habitually lean further forward on initiating a left ski turn than we do when veering right...which is data we can then use to improve those right turns...or that every time we eat ice cream at dinner we wake up a little more tired next morning...or that we're more patient with our child in the weeks following the sharing of some little adventure...or any of a million other bits of knowledge about ourselves that (hopefully) accumulate as the years go by, it's important for an author to recognize patterns in the sequence of steps he or she takes in the writing process. While one method isn't intrinsically better than another across the board, a given piece of the process can most definitely be "best" for any particular individual...or conversely can be a habit detrimental to the final result, a habit that's holding the author back.

The preliminary piece of the puzzle wherein an author "gets" an initial idea for a novel is no exception. There are so many different ways to alight upon a concept we deem adoptable for our next work. Which one works for us?

It has hit me recently, in casting about for a worthy idea for my next novel, that my best work in the past has always begun with...get this...not actualy "getting" a full concept at all. What I "get" is nothing but a single scene, some unexplained moment in time between two people I don't know...a scene that hypnotizes me but which is completely obscure in origin, importance, and outcome. I sense a compelling dilemma, and that is all. And if the intrigue of it is powerful enough for me to wonder what brought those people to that situation, to that brink, and the next day to keep wondering, then the muse is ignited and I take pains to get to know those characters over months...and little by little they reveal to me their backstory leading up to the moment.

But the moment itself, and only it, is always crystal clear.

When such a sliver of isolated inspiration collides with my head and heart, it's a godsend. As I jot down speculations as to its origins and possible results, I get to know the people. What they do is never invented by me; they tell me, by the trail going hot or cold, whether I'm speculating down the wrong road, or getting warm, or spot-on. They demonstrate, subtly, their obscure motivations, their foibles and fears. They correct me, scoffing, mocking, schooling me. Their actions will be true to their complex natures, and no oafish, clumsy fool of an author is going to derail that from being the case.

And invariably, as I learn their story, I share it with my readers in the same spirit of discovery. The telling quite naturally retains the original intrigue, the mystery, the uncertainty that is by degrees disrobed.

This, I believe, is the essence of Suspense. At least, I've learned that this is the process by which world class suspense will always come from my pen. I won't fight it to adopt some other author's process; I'll leverage it, like a volleyball spiker with a damaged left thumb develops his own unexpected and effective back-hand shot despite claims by others that it's unorthodox, like an orator builds a quiet timber of voice into real emphasis.

We live, and hopefully we learn. I'm working (forever) on that right-turn forward lean. I can put the "butt-ugly backhand" on a dime when I need to. I make a point of going on jaunts of all varieties with my kid. I admire and seek to emulate quiet understatement in orators. And I wait for that moment, that unexplained, isolated scene, for my next literary project, alert to them as each one gets here from wherever in the cosmos they come, ready to share the discovery process on paper as it happens in my own heart.

The essence of Suspense will be in the telling.

- Michael Vorhis

A New Review of ARCHANGEL

Here's a review sent to me personally by a recent reader of my suspense thriller ARCHANGEL. Despite her never having posted a review publicly before, I have assured her that her insights are indeed extraordinary, and have encouraged her to post it on Amazon and elsewhere. I hope she will. She's not a member here, so I'm sharing it on Goodreads as a blog post.

This reviewer, Mary Lynn Woebkenberg, sees many strong parallels and partial parallels between ARCHANGEL and various ancient biblical fables. They are indeed there, and she's perceptive in that she caught far more possibilities than the easy surface parallels (which some few occasionally call "cliche" but which are an intentional obvious doorway to deeper interpretation on a reader-by-reader basis).

Mary Lynn's own background brings her to interpret one or two aspects of the story in a somewhat religious manner, including making references to biblical names and events unrelated to this book (such as her mention of King Herrod and of Joseph, as two examples). Her analysis is one of numerous eminently viable ways of interpreting specific facets of the story. Note that the book itself does not require that kind of interpretation, nor does it seek to promote a particular set of beliefs or values, other than of course those qualities displayed by the protagonist--honesty, empathy, courage, and the capacity to love. The biblical parallels are used because, quite frankly, they help to comprise a plot that has truly timeless qualities.

Here is Mary Lynn's remarkable review:

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“Archangel” by Michael Vorhis
When reading my comments, please know that I am a scientist and have never been known for being a stellar literature student. I tend to be far more literal. It will be interesting to see how closely my interpretation matches Michael Vorhis’s intentions.

Here are some thoughts on “Archangel”:

I found Michael Vorhis to be quite the storyteller with a rather noir telling style. His style is both engaging and riveting resulting in the proverbial page-turner. His style is neither for the illiterate nor for those looking for “dumbed-down” reading. If you failed to pay attention when studying English grammar, you will not stand the test of his command of the English language and he will send you to the dictionary to decipher “alluvial plain”, “ignoble”, and “Northern Goshawk”. He uses quite clever oxymoronic visuals like “bouquet of horrors” (my personal favorite). The book is smartly written and is compelling and gripping from the outset. I enjoyed it very much.

The book is rich in themes and metaphors. Thematically, good versus evil is present on many levels. What makes the author’s themes more compelling than the garden variety good versus evil is that his “good” is not pure good. It is flawed good….. it is good with flecks of imperfection. However, there is still a clear distinction between good and evil. For example, Mick is flawed good battling the far more evil Lucius. The townsfolk are flawed good battling the more evil mindless-minions of Lucius. There is a parallel, albeit not quite as clear, distinction between the townsfolk battling the tribe. Thematically, many characters wrestle with, and some defeat, past demons. The most notable of these is Mick, but this struggle also befalls Gabriella, and the town. I believe I will address this more when I talk about the characters. There is a loss of faith theme in the story. Certainly Mick loses faith in himself because of his perceived failure in a “previous life”. The town has lost faith in itself and cannot seem to do anything but watch itself die a slow death. There appears to be little hope on Mick’s part and virtually none on the town’s part. There does seem to be an unstated rebound from the loss of hope by story’s end.

Religious metaphors loom large in this work. Some of the religious themes and representations are more obvious than others. The more obscure ones may exist only in this reader’s mind. The very title of the book, “Archangel”, starts us off. Michael (Mick) is one of Roman Catholicism’s named archangels…..but Gabriel (Gabriella) is also a named archangel. So that brings us to who is the “Archangel”? Is there only one? Is Mick, through the hand of God, sent to be the guardian archangel of the town? Of Gabriella and Angelo? Is he sent there to find and to save himself? Is Gabriella the guardian archangel of Mick? Is it she who watches over Mick and leads him to “salvation”?

Perhaps Mick, Gabriella, and Angelo (angel) are a metaphor for the Holy Family with Mick being Joseph and a “step-father” to Angelo who, with his mother, are a wonderful modern day Madonna and child. And we cannot forget that Joseph was warned in a dream by the angel of the Lord to protect the Holy Family by fleeing into Egypt so that the Child might be spared the sword of Herod’s soldiers.

Further, we must mention that Lucifer (Lucius) was once an archangel. There is no guarantee that being an archangel results in eternal happiness or goodness.

Also along religious lines, it is interesting to note that at no point does Mick seem to turn overtly to God for help or redemption. Mick never seems to go heavenward for assistance when he is in seemingly hopeless situations for which no mortal could provide help. Perhaps Mick has lost faith not only in himself. The good news is that God doesn’t always send us into situations for which we are prepared, but, as He did with Mick, He equips us for situations into which He sends us.

The characters in Archangel are very human and very raw. Mick Calahan is truly a tortured soul on more than one level. The most stunning is that incident which is the deepest source of Mick’s lifelong despair. We watch him work through scenario after scenario wherein he is presented with situations and circumstances that test the man Mick really is, the man he has really become. He ran from his first life, seems ill-suited for his second life, the priesthood, and the third/future life?

Recalling that Lucifer (Lucius) was once an angel, we look at another very troubled soul who is haunted by vile demons. He has gathered his evil followers. He is demonic and disturbed, but not without his wily charm.

Gabriella, like Mary, carries many sorrows in her heart. She worries much about her son. She is troubled by the disappearance and loss of her husband.

Vorhis’s writing style keeps the dialogue true to each character. Each character is consistent and credible.

The only place in the novel where I found any imbalance was in the description of Mick enjoying his hobby. Hang gliding for Mick is a complete joy and escape. The deep, detailed description of the process and experience come from the author’s parallel love affair with, and shared experiences with, the hobby. This allows the author to provide a deep, deep description of the emotional, physical, and spiritual experience this hobby provides him. Nothing else in the book is afforded this personal depth – hence the imbalance.

Since I have written this, I will now allow myself to read Vorhis’s second novel, and hope that I get equally caught up in it. Continue to write, Mr. Vorhis, it is clearly your calling as well as your passion. How fortunate you are to be able to live your dream.

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I want to thank Ms. Woebkenberg, first for reading ARCHANGEL, second for sharing her reactions, third for her accolades regarding linguistics and style, and finally for her remarkable perceptions. She's exactly the kind of reader every committed author hopes to reach!

- Michael Vorhis

Thinking Again....

Thinking a bit more on this topic, I believe I'll sumbit this to someone else for inclusion in a different thread, because it deals with such complex nuances of human interaction...so redacting it here for now.

But thanks for stopping by!

- Mike

Onward...and thanks.

Thanks all, for the summer download surge on the various sales channels! I think you'll greatly enjoy your selections. You're the crowd of appreciation, perception and taste, and we'll go forward together. I'll keep doing my part (as a Dad's time permits), and I never tire of knowing that good folks do think for themselves, even while getting a belly laugh now and then from the comedy all around.

The worldwide word-of-mouth engine continues to revv. Enjoy the summer! And watch for my next title, COLT 47, which should be released in the next couple of months.

OPEN DISTANCE Launches on Amazon, B&N, and Kobo

My latest novel, the thriller OPEN DISTANCE, launched yesterday (Sunday May 5, 2013) as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo eBooks. The Apple iBooks and paperback editions will follow shortly.

Sales links are aggregated here: www.vorhis.com/FreeFlight-Publishing/...

OPEN DISTANCE is promo-priced at under a buck for the first week, and is described below. Enjoy!

OPEN DISTANCE
Nothing is as blind as unrequited hate.

Within an intrepid world of high profile international rivalry, two men struggle for glory, survival, and their claim on a turbid past. As stakes escalate and conflict turns venomous, their destinies entwine in a lethal tangle of resentment, calamity, sacrifice...and the unacceptable risk of regret.

OPEN DISTANCE is a gritty submersion into a world of off-the-chart risk and consuming emotion. It achieves parity with known extreme pursuits, while simultaneously breaking intelligent, highly inventive new ground. Reviewers unanimously hail its unique concept as they tout the riveting tension, complex characters, and vividness for which the author has become known.

OPEN DISTANCE to Launch May 4, 2013

I'm glad to announce that my newest novel, thriller OPEN DISTANCE, finally has an official eBook edition launch date: May 4th, 2013 (on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, the Apple iBookstore, and possibly Sony).

I'm also glad to say there will be about a week of "lowest they'll let us go" pricing (less than a buck), so that readers who may have it on their view screen can grab it for a fraction of its target price.

Cover art is now finalized:

OPEN DISTANCE
Nothing is as blind as unrequited hate.


"Within an intrepid world of high profile international rivalry, two men struggle for glory, survival, and their claim on a turbid past. As stakes escalate and conflict turns venomous, their destinies entwine in a lethal tangle of resentment, calamity, sacrifice...and the unacceptable risk of regret."










I'm looking forward to the eBook launch! (Paperback edition will lag by a month or more.)

- Mike

New Novel: OPEN DISTANCE

In March 2013 FreeFlight Publishing will launch my next major novel, OPEN DISTANCE. We're finalizing the cover art and meta-data now, and executing one more pass through the manuscript to consider a few small points offered by the final review team. Once those tasks are completed, the new novel will be released.

Although striving for the same linguistic/literary/artistic tier, OPEN DISTANCE is very different from ARCHANGEL--different genre, different voice, different style. It's based on a short story I'd published in 1996 that had enjoyed some much appreciated favour. Unlike the short story, however, the novel does full justice to the tale's unique concept, which to my knowledge has never been treated in literature up to now. (And I won't spoil it just yet!)

OPEN DISTANCE is written as a tense, emotion-packed thriller, but is really about the powerful, often destructive human relationships that drive the events. The romance within it takes a high road and serves as a catalyst for sentiment and decision, rather than sitting center-stage itself. Still, its effect on the story is as powerful as any element can be.

It may change, but as of now, the preliminary meta-data description will read something like this: "Within an intrepid world of high profile international rivalry, two men struggle for glory, survival, and their claim on a turbid past. As stakes escalate and conflict turns venomous, their destinies entwine in a lethal tangle of resentment, calamity, sacrifice...and the unacceptable risk of regret."

The cover is planned to present the following title and tag line:


OPEN DISTANCE
------------------------
Nothing is as blind as unrequited hate.


We're glad to say that early reactions have been excellent. When we're about ready to launch, I'll post another blog entry.

Thanks,

- Mike Vorhis

Reviews: Installment 1

Established professional author and author coach Emily Hill, of A.V.Harrison Publishing, noticed a few Twitter comments of mine a couple of weeks back (I was trying to tell the world that my novel ARCHANGEL existed, hoping to stumble upon some suspense and romantic suspense lovers). She contacted me twice to tell me how much she liked my self-designed cover art and "promotional style" (which means my marketing instincts were evidently passing muster in some ways, in her area of expertise). I was flattered, and happy to hear I hadn't accidentally stumbled off the trail that leads to the high glacier and onto the one that veers off to the swamp.

A.V.Harrison Publishing is a West Coast incarnation of a venerable East Coast publishing house. Emily has a world of experience in publishing, writing, and promoting. As I researched her, I learned that her own titles, and her market positioning skills, are the stuff of dreams.

Today, quite out of the blue, Emily sent me a link to a review she has just now published about my novel ARCHANGEL, to her literary world connections and readers (and as I understand it, they number in the plenties). I invite you to read that review:

http://www.avharrison-publishing.com/?p=...

And on the PRLog site:

http://goo.gl/ZbWmb


Well, it made my Wednesday afternoon, that I can tell you. There are many things we can learn from a masterful review (and this particular wonderful, magical credential comes literally on the heels of a comically pitiful exchange with some...well let's just say there are pale things out there quite antithetical to, worlds inferior to, Ms. Hill's perceptiveness, stature and wisdom). A masterful review can of course teach us surface specifics about the book, and by inference how it compares qualitatively to other books in the genre. We can learn something about the author, especially if we believe an artistic endeavor reflects the priorities of its creator.

And we can learn about grace. The compleat author-reviewer-publisher-coach, Emily Hill, can teach us that. I'll be delving further into this topic in later installments of this blog.

Any work with one's heart bound in it will meet and meld with the hearts of others, just as it will be untouchable by agendas that have none. Emily's brief message to me today, unveiling the surprise link, was followed by the simple, beautiful note, "Good luck with this title, Michael...you deserve it. Now, I think some of your fans are waiting for a sequel...."

So, dang it, just when I think I can celebrate, they pull me back in to finish another manuscript! No rest for the typed out. :)

Seriously, thank you Emily Hill, for seeing my heart in my work, and for putting your own into yours.

- Mike