Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 728
December 6, 2009
A war of words inside my head
Another gem from Nathan Bransford in regards to responding to a manuscript critique:
"If you find yourself getting mad it's probably because your editor/critique partner is right."
Thankfully, the editorial process for my first two books was relatively simple. Both were "light edits" (my editor's words) and I adored the person with whom I was working. But it's the process that I go through with my agent (which most assuredly makes the editorial process easier) that can give rise to the...
December 5, 2009
Available for pre-order
Amazon is now listing UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO, my second novel, which will be released on August 3 of next year.
This release date was actually news to me, but I assume the good people at Amazon have it correct.
Place your pre-orders now!
Potato chips, dead people and armed barbers
CHICKEN SHACK, the working title of the book that I am currently writing, features a combination funeral home and friend chicken restaurant. The idea came to me while driving through my hometown of Blackstone, Massachusetts one day with my wife.
Blackstone, a tiny town on the border of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, had a population of about 5,000 people when I was growing up in the 1980s, and the only thing that the town was known for was their potato chips:
...December 4, 2009
Overconfidence
Last month Nathan Bransford wrote a post centering on five lessons that he has learned about writing from watching reality television. It's an amusing and insightful piece, and I thought his first lesson was the most pertinent:
"Overconfidence is your greatest adversary."
As a published author, I have received many requests from fledgling writers asking for help in the publishing world. I often find this shocking considering how much I still need to learn and how relatively...
December 3, 2009
Resolution update: November 2009
In January of this year, I established a list of twelve New Year's resolutions. At the end of each month, I report on my progress as a means of holding myself accountable.
1. Finish my second novel before my birthday in mid February.
Done since mid-February, sold in June, and revisions completed in September. I have since returned my attention to book #3, which I would like to have finished in 2009.
2. Live a healthier lifestyle. Specifically:
· At least thirty minutes of aerobic...
December 2, 2009
You can put lipstick on a pig
A couple years ago, I wrote about my distrust of flowery, ostentatious names, as well as any name that attempts to make something sound more cosmopolitan or international than it actually is. At the time, my issue was with the Chilean sea bass:
I wrote:
__________
In this spirit of distrust, I questioned the authenticity of the Chilean sea bass a couple of nights ago at dinner.
"That name sounds like total marketing to me. How can a sea bass even hail from Chili? What if it is caught...
December 1, 2009
Tuesday Teaser
Blogger Wendy Morris of Well-Mannered Frivolity recently wrote a post about SOMETHING MISSING which I thought was interesting and unique.
Wendy's politics and mine are like oil and water, but it appears that our fondness for books might allow us to nevertheless be friends. She writes:
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read Open to a random page Share two (2) "teaser"...Thats my book!
Book maven, Twitter fiend and podcaster extraordinaire Ann Kingman directed me to this photo on the website of the Northshire Bookstore in Vermont.
The subject of her email: SOMETHING MISSING "in the wild"
As dorky as this may sound, seeing my book in someone's hands is still very exciting. And Ann obviously understands this.
A glimpse into the past
Over the last few days, I find myself constantly drifting back to WikiLeaks recent release of more than half a million pager intercepts from September 11, 2001. Since text pagers are usually carried by persons operating in an official capacity, many of these messages were sent by individuals who played an instrumental role in the response to the attacks. Messages in the archive range from Pentagon, FBI, FEMA and New York Police Department exchanges, to computers reporting faults at...
