Chris Tullbane's Blog, page 15

See These Bones: Chapter 3

I’ll be counting down to the November 5th release date for See These Bones by sharing chapters from the book. Last week, we learned just a bit more about our protagonist and his not-so-stellar childhood. This week, Chapter 3 kicks off his journey with the mysterious Mr. Grey.

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CHAPTER 3

 

There aren’t a lot of cars on the roads. I’m told they were everywhere before Dr. Nowhere broke the world, but these days, most people recognize them for the rolling death traps they are. Never know when another Pyro like S...

Click Publish and You’re Done

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As you may have heard, I’m releasing a book, See These Bones, in just under three weeks. In a perfect world, that would involve a single step: click publish and you’re done.

This is not a perfect world.

For the past month, work on my other books has taken a back seat to preparing for my book launch. I’ve covered some of those details already, from the cover to the live-action book trailer. Today, I want to talk about the book itself and what it’s taken to get it ready for release. I also want to discuss the pricing, which i...

See These Bones: Chapter 2

I’ll be counting down to the November 5th release date for See These Bones by sharing chapters from the book. Last week, we kicked things off with Chapter 1 and our first glimpse into the post-Break world. This week, Chapter 2 starts to fill in some of the details.

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CHAPTER 2

 

 I bounced between foster homes for a few years after Mom died, never staying with any family more than a couple of months. Not until the Jacobsens—Norm and Sue, because apparently it’s a cosmic law that ordinary peop...

Behind the scenes of a live-action book trailer

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I hope you all enjoyed Chapter 1 of See These Bones! I’ll post Chapter 2 next Tuesday, but today, I wanted to take a quick detour and discuss the making of our live-action book trailer.

If you haven’t gotten a chance yet, you should watch that trailer… otherwise, none of this will make any sense.

Already seen it? Cool. Let’s talk about the process of getting the trailer made.

[image error] The Script (aka Distilling A 130k-Word Book Down to Two PowerPoint Slides)

The first step in filming a book trailer...

See These Bones: Chapter 1

As I mentioned last week, I’ll be counting down to the November 5th release date for See These Bones by sharing chapters from the book. Chapter 1 is a short one, but I think it gets everything started on the right foot.

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CHAPTER 1

 

My mom was murdered when I was five.

The good news is they caught her killer. The bad news? It was my dad. Any shrink will tell you that’s the sort of thing that can fuck a kid up.

By the time my sixth birthday rolled around, both parents were in the ground; Mom...

See These Bones… the book trailer?

[image error]“The trailer’s the thing, by which we’ll prick the interest of the potential readers!”
-Hamlet, sort of

Dear Marketing, You Suck

In last week’s cover reveal, I talked about a cover’s importance in attracting potential readers. That’s not a bold or divisive statement, by any means. Unfortunately, a good cover on its own is rarely enough. Thanks to modern technology and digital storefronts like Amazon, there are a lot of books being published every week. Many of them even have cool covers, beca...

See These Bones: Cover Reveal

[image error] A picture is worth a thousand words. A cover is worth way more than that.

The irony of being a first-time author is that some of the most important keys to a successful launch have nothing to do with your writing at all. It’s not enough to write a good book… you have to convince people to actually read that book too.

Worse, you have to convince them to pay for it.

Strong reviews and positive word-of-mouth certainly help. A good marketing plan does too. But study after study suggests that one...

Poetry: Morning Pep Talk

They can’t all be happy ones! This one was written almost a decade ago. Time marches on. – CT [image error]

“Morning Pep Talk”

 

I am old and fat and slow.

 

Even the breath leaving this body is stale,

leached of life by its torturous climb

from the flesh cavity of my chest,

up the worn trachea,

and into a mouth clinging to its teeth

like a shipwrecked sailor to driftwood.

 

My neck protrudes

from slumped shoulders

at an angle of forty-five degrees.

I am forever peering up and over

a wall that is not the...

Step 10: Profit

A Slightly Comedic, Wildly Inaccurate Guide to Self-Publishing

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Late August is upon us, and if there was any good and justice left in the world, I’d be unveiling the cover for See These Bones and talking about the forthcoming release.

Narrator: There was no good and justice left in the world. Both had taken an ill-timed vacation to Mars. Don’t nuke Mars, Elon!

Instead, I’m still where I was last month, which says dire things about my anticipated September FALL release. In lieu of shiny book...

Poetry: Never Catching Up

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“Never Catching Up”

 

I started with

the basic summary—

one wife, two jobs, no kids—

then added chapters to detail

the paths taken

since we last spoke,

but soon realized

I was boring even myself.

 

I tried again,

citing only the events that

might titillate.

I used evocative

phrases like “resplendent,”

“palpitation,” and

“nuclear holocaust,”

but ended up describing

someone I did not recognize.

 

I left it for a week,

let it gnaw at me

from a distance.

 

I came back with a new plan

and an orp...