Andrew McDowell's Blog

Middle School Book Signing

This past weekend I had the opportunity to do a book signing at my old middle school (2001-2004), which was hosting an outdoor community event, a movie night, for the kids. I got to sell some books and, for the first time, accept credit card payments. It was the first time, technically, that I was selling books as an individual vendor rather than on consignment.

I even got to talk to some kids who were aspiring writers and refer them to the MWA’s teen writing program. It is my hope that some of them will join.

The school looked a little different from my day (mainly in a front extension), but that night, and when I knew I’d be there, brought back a lot of memories. There were two major highlights from 6th grade there. One was that was when I first showed an interest in writing, though it had not yet grown to be a commitment. But my Language Arts teacher recognized it, and she wrote about it in my yearbook. She was one of the three teachers I dedicated Mystical Greenwood too (the others were teachers from high school).

The other was 9/11. The day started off at school like any other. language arts went normal, but during social studies, early dismissal calls over the intercom began, and there were abnormally high, I remember. It continued into tech ed. It was during that class when we were told school was out early. I had to rush to get to my locker before rushing to the bus. Science and math never happened that day. There were rumors on the bus, and the driver said there’d be no school the next day as we got off, but it wasn’t until I got home that I learned what had really happened.

The major highlight in 7th grade was the science project I did that year on color-blindness in dogs. I used my own dog, whom I mentioned before, and jars with different-colored paper. The conclusions were that red and green were hard for her to distinguish, but blue and yellow weren’t. It went all the way to the county level and a few other places. Funny enough, at Balticon this year I listened in on a scientific presentation that involved apes, I believe, which mentioned the same sets of colors, or at least blue and yellow.

As for 8th grade, my algebra teacher would let students stay after once a week to do homework (last class of the day), and my mother, with some effort, finally got me to do it. I didn’t want to stay after. But I did, and in the end, not only did my grades get better, but my teacher said I was the most improved student in the class. Who knows whether I would’ve felt comfortable in high school with afterschool clubs had I not done that.

It was also this weekend that I learned I’ve been approved to sell and autograph books at the Arundel Craft Fair in two months, which will take place at my old high school! I imagine more memories will resurface by then. The event is also on Facebook. In the meantime, I’ve got the Maryland Writers’ Conference this weekend, where I plan to have books on consignment with The Last Word bookstore. The event is also on Facebook. Hope to see you at either or both if you can make it!

Scary Reads

Now that it’s October, it’s time to get in the mood for all things spooky. I have some fond childhood memories of Halloween. It was always fun getting dressed up. Watching horror movies and documentaries, and seeing decorations, still gets me in a festive mood.

For many Halloweens, I dressed up as a pirate. I was Robin Hood one year. Another year I dressed up as a character from the picture book The Boy of the Three-Year Nap, the ujigami. In my last year of trick-or-treating, I was a Union soldier. But perhaps my most memorable, and my favorite, costume was the Invisible Man. It was simple. I dressed up in a suit with gloves, sunglasses, a hat, and my head was wrapped up in gauze.

If you’re looking for some reads to get you in a spooky mood this Halloween season, here are a few anthologies featuring my horror-themed work.

This anthology includes my poem inspired by a real black cat:

Amazon | Goodreads | B&N | Books2Read | IngramSpark

These two include a psychological horror story involving knives and two of my poems, one of which is in the style of “The Raven.” The former includes the latter as well as its companion volumes rolled into one book.

Amazon | Goodreads | B&N | BAM! | Books2ReadWaterstones | Foyles Amazon | Goodreads | B&N | Books2Read

Nightmare Whiskers came out last year, and the Nightmare Whispers series has been out for five years.

And for anyone who wants to get in a spooky Halloween mood with music, I highly recommend the Halloween carols of Kristen Lawrence.

Featuring «Mystical Greenwood» by Andrew McDowell

Many thanks to Barbara Leonhard for helping to promote my first novel.

Featuring “Mystical Greenwood” by Andrew McDowell

Featuring «Mystical Greenwood» by Andrew McDowell

Many thanks to Barbara Leonhard for helping to promote my first novel.

Featuring “Mystical Greenwood” by Andrew McDowell

Throwback: Baltimore’s Inner Harbor

Ten years ago, I went to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to talk about and read from my essay “Asperger Syndrome: An Affliction or a Gift?” It won second place in a contest hosted by the Maryland Writers’ Association, the first time I’d ever received a writing award.

I remember feeling like a writer and looking like one with my Tweed jacket. Though in some of these pictures and others, I admit my face wasn’t photogenic. I hadn’t created my author website yet, though my Facebook page was up.

Amazon | Goodreads | BAM!Waterstones | Foyles

Amazon Author

For anyone who wants to follow me on Amazon, I’m aware there are several versions by country, so here are links to all of the ones I’m aware of. If a link does not work, try refreshing it.

Amazon US | Amazon UKAmazon DE | Amazon FRAmazon IN | Amazon JPAmazon ES | Amazon ITAmazon BR | Amazon CAAmazon MX | Amazon AU

Reviews of my work are always appreciated. And remember, verified purchases on one version of Amazon will appear on all of them!

I have to report a factual error that has appeared in my author bio many times. I’d said I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome age at 14. I was wrong. My initial diagnosis was after I turned 15. My apologies for that error.

Many thanks to Sally for once again featuring one of my posts from last year on her own blog:

Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives 2025 – My Pick of two of your posts from last six months of 2024 – #Writing #Editing #Publishing – Feeling like a Fraud by Andrew McDowell

One with Nature

Two books are out, and the third is in progress.

Find both books together on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, and through Books2Read! For other purchasing locations, see Mystical Greenwood and Beneath the Deep Wave.

Many thanks to Sally Cronin for featuring one of my posts from last year as part of her Archives series, along with a nice review of Beneath the Deep Wave from Robbie Cheadle:

Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives 2025 – My Pick of two of your posts from last six months of 2024 – #Writing #Blogging – Evolution by Andrew McDowell

A Day at the Renaissance Festival

A wonderful book signing at Page After Page at the Renaissance Festival! Fellow authors Anna Bright and Daniel M. Ford were wonderful company. I sold a lot of books and had a lot of happy customers. In fact, Mystical Greenwood sold out!

I can remember attending the Maryland Renaissance Festival many times as a kid. In fact, the hat (minus the feathers) and the pendant in my costume were both souvenirs from different visits. Nice to tie this author signing back to the past. And, of course, Page After Page is a place where I was always guaranteed to look for a souvenir. I’ve certainly gotten many memorable books from the festival over the years, including a collection of Irish myths and an internet-based world history reference book. But perhaps the most memorable was when, as a little child, I got Gail Gibbons’s Knights in Shining Armor, which my parents had inscribed for me as “Sir Andrew McDowell”–it certainly made me feel like a knight.

The last time I attended the Ren Fest as a guest was with the Tolkien Society, a fantasy and sci-fi fan club at St. Mary’s College, fourteen years ago. I did buy books then, and the most memorable part was having my palm read. After that, the last two times I was there was with my Masonic brothers volunteering our time to earn money for our Lodge. The second time was when I made the connection that led to me doing this author signing.

Well, I shall definitely have to do this again (as soon as some new books come out).

Renaissance and Medieval Reads

My book signing at Page After Page at the Maryland Renaissance Festival is a week away. As I’d previously mentioned, I will have my two novels and three other anthologies featuring my poetry and fiction: Faery Footprints, Fae Dreams, and Into the Glen: Into the Light. Here are two other anthologies I won’t have at my signing but still fit the theme for anyone looking for some additional reads, poets especially.

This anthology includes a poem I wrote about crickets:

Amazon | Goodreads | BAM!Waterstones | Foyles

This anthology includes a sonnet I wrote about knights:

Amazon | Goodreads

Tickets are required for entrance to MDRF and must be bought in advance, online only. The event is on Facebook. I hope to see you at the author tent!

Adapted from, based upon, inspired by

Art often imitates life. In searching for stories and ideas, they often come from real life. Real people, events, situations, whether from the author’s life or from others’ experiences, make excellent soil to plant story seeds in. Sometimes the real story is told through the lens of fiction with fictional names for people and places (known as a roman à clef, or novel with a key; film à clef for movies), which allows for stretching of truth a little more. Yet this calls into question how close to the truth should a writer stick. What’s more, how will the people upon whom characters are based react?

If characters are not composites but primarily based upon specific individuals, there is a risk they might not like how they are portrayed, especially if it is in a negative light (such as caricatures, a technique used by a fictional writer in the mystery shows Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders who wasn’t a good person). Ernest Hemingway has been accused of antisemitism due to the character Robert Cohn, based on his contemporary Harold Loeb, in his roman à clef, The Sun Also Rises. As revealed in Ken Burns’s program, Hemingway used people’s real names in his first drafts, but he changed them so as not to be sued.

If people’s real names are used, even if it’s just the first name, the risk is even greater that they will be forever associated with the fictional versions. It was true for Peter Llewellyn Davies, Alice Liddell, and Christopher Robin Milne. Even aliases in nonfiction/memoir can be viewed negatively, as it was with Donald Sinclair and the family of Fritz Pfeffer, respectively, over “Siegfried Farnon” and “Albert Dussel” in All Creatures Great and Small and The Diary of Anne Frank, or if unflattering are used for fictional characters.

Then, of course, it’s not just themselves but those they care about, and trying to say counterparts aren’t the real people may not matter. William Randolph Hearst not only disliked that his life was the main inspiration for Citizen Kane, but he also hated how the counterparts to his mistress Marion Davies and his mother were depicted. He used his influence to sabotage the film’s box office success.

Of course, when telling a fictional narrative with fictional names, one can always claim plausible deniability. Plus, hopefully most people won’t mind, especially if the writer is on good terms with them. Nevertheless, it is always something to bear in mind when fiction is drawn from reality. There is a boundary regarding fact vs. fiction, and it should be taken into account when crossing it.