Corey Burns's Blog: Corey Burns (Hick Lawyer)

I write because I read

I love to read. More importantly, I love books. To be honest, I learned to love books and love having books long before I loved reading them.
But, now, I love to read books. I like all kinds of books. The older I get, the less particular I am about the genre. Why? Because I like writers. I like people who write well. It is more about how the story is told for me than what the story is all about.
I have become "friends" on social media with some contemporary writers. Most of them write contemporary noir. What I write is different from what they write. But, I love their work.
I have a friend I know personally and professionally, his name is Shawn Farritor. Shawn is a lawyer with Legal Aid of Nebraska. He has written a couple of novels. They are historical fiction, about the Pawnee in Nebraska. They are very good books. They are stories close to Shawn's heart. I think Shawn wrote them because, in his mind, they needed to be written. I am glad he wrote them. I have learned a lot about Nebraska history and the Pawnee Indians who used to live here because of those books. But, what is most important to me is that Shawn wrote them well.
Again, I like writers. And I think that is why I write. I want to be like those other guys. I am reading some J. D. Salinger short stories right now. I had never read anything of his except The Catcher in The Rye before. I am astounded at how similar his short stories are to Raymond Carver's. They are like two guys writing the same stories, except Salinger's are set in upper-class late 1940s, and Carver's are set in working-class 1960s and 1970s. Other than that, both are writing stories about ordinary people in mostly ordinary situations, but writing about them in ways that make the characters and their lives seem interesting and thoughtful. I think that if I could write like these two, I could write a short story every day about any random thing that happened that day. But, short stories are hard for me. I need to practice more. I write because I read, and if this is what I am reading right now, I really need to practice writing it.

Typos corrected

I have corrected the typos and have resubmitted the documents on Amazon Publishing. I hope they will go off without a hitch and the corrections will be made in the next 24 hours. I have requested a "push" to customers. If you bought the eBook, you may be given the option of accepting the new version to replace the one with all of the errors.

I am sorry about this. It was a rookie mistake.

Spelling update

I have finished proofreading Hick Lawyer. I have made the corrections to my word document and sent it to a friend to be formatted. I hope it will be back soon and uploaded to Amazon.

Carnivals

We had our county fair here in Dawson County Nebraska last week. My kids are pretty involved in 4-H, so it was a busy week for us. Besides helping them get their projects ready, my wife and I did our volunteer work here and there to help out.
Then, we went to the carnival and enjoyed the rides and the games. I was very proud of my four-year-old who was initially denied access to a ride for being too short. She looked up at me and at the ride operator, realized what was going on and turned again to put her back up against the height requirement board and made it a point to stand on her tip-toes. She was just tall enough. She looked at us again, the ride operator looked at me and I at him. We both shrugged our shoulders and she was allowed to go on the ride.
The ride operators were very nice people, so were the guys running the games. My seven-year-old wanted to play a particular game. She went over and asked the guy how it was played. He very kindly and patiently explained the object of the game to her, and then told her that the game was for older people and she would probably not win and he did not want to take her money. He then suggested another nearby game that he thought she would be good at. I was shocked. This is not how carnies acted when I was a kid.
Around here, there used to be jokes and stories among those of us who work in the courthouse about how birth rates and paternity cases went up nine months after the carnival was in town. I remember once having to explain to a Judge that my client was not in court for her hearing because she had met someone working for the carnival in town the week before and had run off with him, joining the carnival.
I even used this in my book as part of the story line. A woman found out she was pregnant and it turned out the father was someone who had been in town with the carnival.
It looks like this is no longer the norm. I hope that is the case. I hope that carnival workers are no longer a stereotype for marginalized transients. I hope that is the case because there are fewer people in our wold who are "marginalized stereotypes." I am probably being naive. But, I hope we are becoming a society were fewer people are marginalized.

Spelling

Someone going by "MPC" just called me out on spelling in my book. MPC otherwise gave me a very good review. I appreciate both. I was in a hurry to get the book up when it was finished. I had worked on it for a very long time.

All that said, I do plan on making spelling corrections. It isn't all that hard. There are just so many things going on with work and family. I have started reading the book again with a highlighter. I hope to have the spelling and other typos all corrected by the end of the month.

I also got my first one star rating on Goodreads today. That is alright too. I gave Moby Dick a one star rating. I just didn't like it. Hell, I am sure that somewhere in the world there may be someone who doesn't like The Rolling Stones, or Chinese food, or even beer. We all have our own tastes. If you are reading this, I hope it finds you well.

Urban Dictionary

In my next Hick Lawyer book, Dexter will have given Teddy an Urban Dictionary for Christmas. If you are familiar with the Urban Dictionary, send me some of your favorite entries. I can't use all "sex" terms. If you don't know what the Urban Dictionary is, and you have delicate sensibilities, don't go looing for it.

Hello

Hello- If you are reading this, you have read my book or are considering reading it. I would love feedback. I really want to know what you think of this book. I would also appreciate reviews, either on Goodreads or Amazon. Amazon reviews will do a lot to help sales, even bad reviews. It isn't that I wrote this thing just to make money, but some success financially will justify the time I spend writing more works.
As you may gather from my book, being a lawyer is not always as glamorous as movies, t.v. shows, and other novels make it look. I have from time to time taken other jobs on the side to make a little extra income for myself and my family. Most recently, I taught ESL three nights a week to adults in my community at the local community college. That was pretty rewarding. It was nice to help people who were really trying to help themselves and really appreciate my help. Not that I don't like helping my clients, it is just that some of them have so much on their plate and so many things to deal with that most of us don't think about, sometimes saying "thank you" is the last thing on their minds. It is nice when I hear it though.
So, please give me feedback and feel free to ask questions. But, I can't answer legal questions. I can only give legal advice to clients. And, I can't comment on clients or their cases, and really wouldn't want to.
Thanks.