Daron D. Fraley's Blog, page 17

Valor Publishing Book Launch tonight

Hey folks, I am going to the Valor book launch party tonight. Are you? Details below!

****


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Mark L. Shurtleff, Utah State Attorney General and author, will be joined by Lynne Jackson and recording artist, Alex Boye', on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Salt Lake City's Gateway for the national launch of his new book, Am I Not a Man; The Dred Scott Story, published by Valor Publishing Group.

Candace E. Salima, president of Valor Publishing Group, has...

The Satisfaction of Creating

Mission accomplished. The book is done.

At about 1 a.m. this morning, I sent the final pages back to my editor (Tristi Pinkston at Valor Publishing) for review and inclusion in the master copy of the manuscript. Changes were accepted. I can finally say, the book is done!

Copy editing is the next step to get it ready for typesetting, but those changes are expected to be minor. During the edit, Tristi mentioned that I must really like water because of some of the imagery in my book. Yep, I do. It...

Forty Two

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, we learn that the answer to life is 42. Adams does not tell us what the question is, however.

But 42 as a meaningful answer to some question, might actually be true, in my case. At the age of 42, I will become a published author. The final product may not be out until about three weeks after my 43rd birthday, but at least the book will be available for pre-orders around January 16th. And ARC copies will go out before my birthday, I am c...

Am I Not A Man? The Dred Scott Story - by Mark Shurtleff

I begin this post with tears in my eyes--tears which have welled up as my heart has been taken on a journey of both pain and hope in the reading of this magnificent book. Let me say a few words about that journey.

First of all, in the spirit of complete disclosure, this book is being published by Valor Publishing Group, LLC, the same publishing company which is publishing my own novel in March of 2010. I received the Advanced Readers Copy free of charge. A few months ago, I was asked if I want...

"PETITIONS" by Daron D. Fraley

PETITIONS

"Get a job!"

Although he had heard the judgmental charge before, Mark winced as the shiny sports-car grumbled around the corner and sped down the street. The muggy afternoon pressed heavily on the hand-written cardboard sign—his strength waned, and he let his arm fall to his side, fingers still clutching the tattered brown square. Passing vehicles caused the flimsy sign to flap against his knee.

"I had a job," he whispered.

The traffic light above him glowed yellow, then red. A wave of ...

Will anybody actually care?

During the last few weeks I have attempted several times to get public response to my short story, "WATER".  I have submitted it to a couple magazines, blogged about it, put it on my website, sent emails to friends, etc., and have had some very favorable responses. For those of you who did take the time to read it, I thank you. Your comments truly warmed my heart.

But the other, more targeted attempts I have made in trying to get the story out there have met with even less than a sigh. Not eve...

Hate Mongers and the Apologetic Village Idiot

Just got back from having a nail pulled from my tire, and listened to AM 570 on the way. The Schnitt Show. Never heard the guy before. They were talking about Obama's speech to the U.N. today.

I am disgusted, yet again with BHO's personal apology tour.

This part of the conversation threw me for a loop: A couple of callers who were Jewish rang in. The discussion covered everything from the speech to the nuclear capabilities of Iran. Then they started to talk about "3 1/2 years" and how that co...

Short Story Fundamentals: How to grab your reader

Ever since my creative writing class in High School, I have been facinated by the written word as an art form. Masterful art touches the soul. Ms. Flowers (great name for an art teacher, no?) taught me that there are so many methods of expression with art--charcoal, watercolors, oils, acrylics, pencil, ceramics, clay, bronze, stone. This list could go on for a long time.

Ms. Bowzer (awesome teacher) did the same for me in my writing class--novel, essay, metered poem, haiku, free-form, and many...

Glenn Beck's Common Sense - YOU NEED TO READ THIS

Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine by Glenn Beck


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book GREATLY impressed me. And it made me very, very angry about the corruption in our government. So much so that I attended the Tea Party gathering at the state capital building today (9/12/09), something I have never done before. Rallies and protests are not generally in my nature. But I have had enough.

I have a word to say to every Senator and Repres...

Twitter feed from Blogger - Easy?

I looked everywhere for instructions on how to get an RSS feed FROM my blog, into a feed service to transfer and post onto twitter.

I chose to use
5. Here is the tricky part: The fie...