Christopher Rosow's Blog, page 2

One Star Betty

Just before the May 2020 simultaneous release of False Assurances and Threat Bias, I received a warning from an expert in the book trade: “Be prepared for your first one-star review.”

Right, I thought. No problem. I have a thick skin. I can handle a negative review.

Which is a lie, of course. I’m sensitive, and I waited with some trepidation for what would inevitably arrive. I realistically expected some readers to dislike my stories. After all, you can’t please everyone, all the time.

Enter: Betty...

Ted and Ben

I am absolutely not the first person to write this. But I’ll join the chorus. Ted Lasso (on Apple TV+) is an awesome television show.

I’ve watched Season One three times, and now with Season Two getting started, I thought I’d share a tiny, probably inconsequential secret that links me, perhaps, with Ted.

When I wrote False Assurances, I included six “Easter Eggs.” These were little pop culture references that amused me, and that worked themselves quietly and subtly into the text. At the end of the...

Insta-edit

One of the stories that I’ve been following in the news recently has nothing to do with research for my fourth novel but has everything to do with the process. And I’m pretty sure that authors everywhere are just as interested as I am.

That story is, of course, centers around Elin Hilderbrand and Instagram.

Hilderbrand is a best-selling author, currently published by Little, Brown and Company, one of the imprints of the Hachette Book Group. Hachette is one of the “big five” (soon to be big four, p...

Audiomagical

My production team and I submitted the audiobook version of False Assurances — Ben Porter Series Book One — to Audible just about two weeks ago, expecting about a month for approval. To our collective shock, the audiobook was approved for distribution over this past weekend. Maybe that’s because it is (and yes, I’m biased) an awesome audiobook, and that Audible couldn’t wait to get it to their listeners!

When I conducted an audition to narrate False Assurances, the response was staggering: 157 vo...

May the Force

Today is May 4, 2021. And, of course, May 4th is “Star Wars Day,” because, you know, “May the force be with you.” I can’t say I am a die-hard Star Wars fan, but I did quote the opening rolling credits of the first movie, kinda, in the Acknowledgement of False Assurances.

With that link in mind, it was coincidental that today, I was asked to tour a local cinema where renovations had been underwritten by Sacred Heart University (SHU), here in Fairfield, Connecticut. The “Community Theater” was esta...

Proof Positive.

I considered riddling this post with typos. Like, riting a sentence tat contains a bnuch of spelling errors. Then I reconsidered, figuring that in line with my track record, I would manage to include a typo or two even after proofing and rereading over and over before pressing the “post” button.

In my previous blog post, I confessed my failings as a proofreader as the first error in Subversive Addiction surfaced. Two more mistakes have come to light since then. Yikes. However, as compared to Fals...

Measure once, cut twice?

My day job is in design and construction. For over a decade, I ran a combination design/build construction company (I scaled back several years ago to focus on the design side), and I have spent a lot of time working directly in construction. The carpenter’s adage of “measure twice, cut once” was of course part and parcel of everyday construction work. Little did I know then that I should apply the same lesson of exactitude to writing — and more specifically, to proofreading.

I am a terrible proo...

How not to launch a book.

As excited as I am about the release of Subversive Addiction, Book Three in the Ben Porter Series, I could not be more dismayed about how it was launched. That’s okay; I’ll get over it. After all, it’s merely a moment in time. And now that some time has passed, it’s not only a good lesson for me, but yet another entertaining story to tell in my adventures in publishing.

You know that old adage about plans: “No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” the gist of which is attributed to the nin...

In the beginning…

Okay, so I’ve decided to start a blog.

Okay, so that makes me a blogger, along with a gazillion other people. So why do this?

I confess that I don’t “get” social media. I mean, I understand the concept, but I think that there are too many platforms, and thus it’s difficult to send out a uniform message. And, it’s far too easy for that message to be buried amongst the barrage of competing messages.Then I discovered that Squarespace, my website host, offers a nifty blog feature. And, because it’s a...