Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 743

.2%?

The Department of Labor surveyed American consumers to determine how they spend their annual paychecks. 

According to their fabulous pie chart, the average American consumer spends .2% of their annual income, or $118 on "reading."

I'm not sure if I'm happy about this or not.  $118 per person?  Does it seem like a lot to you?

Subconscious naming of characters

Have I told the story of Martin's name before?

Martin is the protagonist in SOMETHING MISSING, and my choice of his name has an interesting story behind it. 

As I was writing the book, I was in therapy for post traumatic stress disorder, the result of a violent robbery from about ten years prior, and in discussing the book with my therapist, he asked how I decided upon the name Martin.  I told him that "it just popped out.  No thought at all."  And that was true.  The first word of the first

Real-life burglars

I read this article on burglary and immediately thought of Martin.

In terms of the thirteen secrets that these professional burglars share, Martin follows four of them. #3, 5, 9 and 10.

A bunch of them are more appropriate for smash-and-grabbers, and so not as applicable to Martin's line of work.

Instant communication

USA Today did a piece on authors using Twitter to communicate with their readers, something I have been doing for quite some time, and while the 140-character limit can be frustrating for someone who normally tells a story in about 100,000 words, Twitter has clearly done an effective job of bringing me into contact with readers and booksellers. 

I dare say that I have even made friends through Twitter. 

This got me thinking about what a different world it must be for someone like me, who is ju

Come chat with me

I started a two week chat on Library Thing for anyone interested in participating.

A fine day

After a long day of fun and sun at Mystic Seaport on the Connecticut shoreline, including a stop in Bank Square Books, an independent book store where I was unable to purchase a copy of the New York Times (but saw their last copy of my book on the shelf), I stopped in at Borders Books just before closing, hoping that they might still have a copy or two.

Imagine being reviewed in the New York Times Sunday Book Review and failing to pick up a copy of the paper.  I was getting a little worried. 

B

Interview at RJ Julia

In case you were busy on Thursday night and couldn't attend, prior to my appearance at RJ Julia I filmed a short video interview with Karen, an RJ Julia, blogger and Twitter (@karencorvello) extraordinaire. 

Capping off a perfect day

In addition to the review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, a handful of other reviews of SOMETHING MISSING were published yesterday in a variety of locations, including:

A review by Lindsey Losnedahl, Las Vegas Review-Journal assistant features editor for the Las Vegas Review Journal

A review by John Mesjak, an independent sales rep in the publishing industry and author of the blog my3books.com

A review by Dorothy Sim-Broder, owner of Written Words Bookstore in Shelton, CT, on her Writt

New York Times Sunday Book Review!

No need to wait until Sunday!  The New York Times Sunday Book Review was published online this afternoon, and (I still cannot believe it) my book, SOMETHING MISSING, was included! 

My book.  My name.  In the Sunday Book Review. 

The review is short but very positive, and it's the third book listed. 

I still can't believe it.   

RJ Julia appearance

Last night's appearance at RJ Julia Booksellers was delightful. A warm and engaging audience, interesting questions, gracious and charming hosts, and an opportunity to speak about my book and the writing process in general, which I simply adore.

And I love that bookstore a great deal. Before publishing my book, I appreciated RJ Julia for its atmosphere, selection and location, but now that I've gotten to know the people who work there, I've come to realize that they could be selling their books