Thomas W. Devine's Blog, page 22
December 20, 2014
Grabbing Publicity
All fiction writers have to create opportunities to get publicity for their published books and, of course, grab those that come long.
It’s hardest with an Indie book, they say. However, one opportunity may lead to another, as I’ve just experienced.
I worked hard to get my latest adult novel, “Hillsend”, published in time for Christmas so that, on its release, it would have topicality with the news media . [A major part of the story is set over a hot Christmas vacation in the Marlborough Sounds.
In initially approaching the printmedia I played my few advantages:
• The timing – a contemporary story released just before Christmas about a Christmas holiday
• I was born in Marlborough and could trace my ancestry there back to 1864, with a Sounds connection
• It was my 8th book – all published in the USA
• I had my own website, with a press kit
• My first novel was an ABNA semi-finalist.
I made special pitches, by email, to (among other journalists) a couple of named “Marlborough Express” reporters (copy to the Editor) and submitted a press release about the book.
Error 1 – I forgot to include a phone number. (I’m not in the phone book)
Error 2 – I didn’t check my e-mail every day and missed the opportunity to be interviewed by one of the reporters by the time of her deadline.
Despite my lapses, the Express did do a short feature (with photo) based on my press release and information on my website. For an Indie author, even that is an achievement.
Radio New Zealand (RNZ) National picked up the article from the Express and invited me to do a live interview about my book-writing experiences.
The day before the interview, I spoke off-air with a RNZ journalist who did a kind of mock interview so that she could feed question ideas to the “Afternoons” presenter.
The day of the interview (last Thursday) I had to do my usual volunteering duty at the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and be home by 3 pm for the call from RNZ. Full of anticipation, I left the CAB office at 2 pm, got in the lift and pressed the button for the ground floor.
The doors closed ... and nothing else happened. I pressed again; still no movement. “Oh God,” I thought. “I’m going to be stuck in a lift and miss my radio interview on top of missing the one for the newspaper.”
Calamity!
It was to be my first ever radio opportunity as an indie author and, after over 10 years of writing, a huge break that might not occur again. My heart was in my throat.
Luckily, I had the presence of mind to try the “open door” button, which worked. Greatly relieved, I got out and walked down the stairs.
I was home in plenty of time to sit at my desk and think about what I might say in response to possible questions from the radio presenter. It made me better prepared, but no less nervous, about the prospect of going on air live.
You can listen to the 11 minute interview (and me on anxious auto-pilot) at:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/pro...
My interview is the 5th one down on the programme for the day (go to Thursday, Decemer 18, 2014).
It’s hardest with an Indie book, they say. However, one opportunity may lead to another, as I’ve just experienced.
I worked hard to get my latest adult novel, “Hillsend”, published in time for Christmas so that, on its release, it would have topicality with the news media . [A major part of the story is set over a hot Christmas vacation in the Marlborough Sounds.
In initially approaching the printmedia I played my few advantages:
• The timing – a contemporary story released just before Christmas about a Christmas holiday
• I was born in Marlborough and could trace my ancestry there back to 1864, with a Sounds connection
• It was my 8th book – all published in the USA
• I had my own website, with a press kit
• My first novel was an ABNA semi-finalist.
I made special pitches, by email, to (among other journalists) a couple of named “Marlborough Express” reporters (copy to the Editor) and submitted a press release about the book.
Error 1 – I forgot to include a phone number. (I’m not in the phone book)
Error 2 – I didn’t check my e-mail every day and missed the opportunity to be interviewed by one of the reporters by the time of her deadline.
Despite my lapses, the Express did do a short feature (with photo) based on my press release and information on my website. For an Indie author, even that is an achievement.
Radio New Zealand (RNZ) National picked up the article from the Express and invited me to do a live interview about my book-writing experiences.
The day before the interview, I spoke off-air with a RNZ journalist who did a kind of mock interview so that she could feed question ideas to the “Afternoons” presenter.
The day of the interview (last Thursday) I had to do my usual volunteering duty at the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and be home by 3 pm for the call from RNZ. Full of anticipation, I left the CAB office at 2 pm, got in the lift and pressed the button for the ground floor.
The doors closed ... and nothing else happened. I pressed again; still no movement. “Oh God,” I thought. “I’m going to be stuck in a lift and miss my radio interview on top of missing the one for the newspaper.”
Calamity!
It was to be my first ever radio opportunity as an indie author and, after over 10 years of writing, a huge break that might not occur again. My heart was in my throat.
Luckily, I had the presence of mind to try the “open door” button, which worked. Greatly relieved, I got out and walked down the stairs.
I was home in plenty of time to sit at my desk and think about what I might say in response to possible questions from the radio presenter. It made me better prepared, but no less nervous, about the prospect of going on air live.
You can listen to the 11 minute interview (and me on anxious auto-pilot) at:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/pro...
My interview is the 5th one down on the programme for the day (go to Thursday, Decemer 18, 2014).
December 14, 2014
December 6, 2014
Equal Human Rights
Equal rights is a sound principle that I’m sure you support. Any debate on the subject can, however, founder on the issue of what is or isn’t a “right”.
Many groups campaign for equal rights – ethnic minorities, feminists and homosexuals, for example – and more often than not, nowadays, religious groups pursue the cause of social justice.
A right to live out your allotted lifespan is, I'm sure, a right you claim. So doubtless you believe no one has the right to take that away and maybe you’re against capital punishment as well.
My parents gave me life and did not allow it to be taken from me in the womb. Since you are reading this, the same is true for you and your parents.
Some claim that a woman has a right to exercise freewill in terminating a pregnancy (and legislators, as you know, may take away legal constraints to that). I’ve read all the rhetoric that supports “pro-choice” and I have compassion for women driven to exercise an option that the law allows.
I remain convinced, nonetheless, that it is not possible to validly justify the unborn being denied the same right as you and I were entitled to at conception. The right to life is fundamental to human values. Nothing can make abortion a moral right.
I only have to see a photo of what abortionists call “tissue” to know that a murder has been committed (even if sanctioned by law). If you haven’t viewed unsanitised “termination” photos then here’s an opportunity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNfq4H...
Just don’t be silent about the shameful wrong that is being committed by legislators and abortionists.
Many groups campaign for equal rights – ethnic minorities, feminists and homosexuals, for example – and more often than not, nowadays, religious groups pursue the cause of social justice.
A right to live out your allotted lifespan is, I'm sure, a right you claim. So doubtless you believe no one has the right to take that away and maybe you’re against capital punishment as well.
My parents gave me life and did not allow it to be taken from me in the womb. Since you are reading this, the same is true for you and your parents.
Some claim that a woman has a right to exercise freewill in terminating a pregnancy (and legislators, as you know, may take away legal constraints to that). I’ve read all the rhetoric that supports “pro-choice” and I have compassion for women driven to exercise an option that the law allows.
I remain convinced, nonetheless, that it is not possible to validly justify the unborn being denied the same right as you and I were entitled to at conception. The right to life is fundamental to human values. Nothing can make abortion a moral right.
I only have to see a photo of what abortionists call “tissue” to know that a murder has been committed (even if sanctioned by law). If you haven’t viewed unsanitised “termination” photos then here’s an opportunity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNfq4H...
Just don’t be silent about the shameful wrong that is being committed by legislators and abortionists.
November 29, 2014
Book Competition
The chance to win a copy of my 8th novel, “Hillsend” – https://www.creatspace.com/4976772
Competition Instructions
1. Go to my website www.thomaswdevine.com to obtain my contact email address
2. Send me your email address – put “Entry” in the header
3. I’ll send you a chapter from the book that verbally describes the luxury holiday home at Hillsend
4. Based on that verbal description, draw a floor plan of the main floor of the home.
5. Scan the plan & email it to me as an attachment.
6. The plan that best depicts the layout of the house as I envisaged it, wins.
Deadline
Plan entries must be dated no later than 15 January 2015.
Prize
One copy of the paperback “Hillsend” by Thomas W Devine posted to the address you provide.
Competition Instructions
1. Go to my website www.thomaswdevine.com to obtain my contact email address
2. Send me your email address – put “Entry” in the header
3. I’ll send you a chapter from the book that verbally describes the luxury holiday home at Hillsend
4. Based on that verbal description, draw a floor plan of the main floor of the home.
5. Scan the plan & email it to me as an attachment.
6. The plan that best depicts the layout of the house as I envisaged it, wins.
Deadline
Plan entries must be dated no later than 15 January 2015.
Prize
One copy of the paperback “Hillsend” by Thomas W Devine posted to the address you provide.
November 25, 2014
News Release – “An emotionally charged vacation in the Marlborough Sounds”
Wellington based, New Zealand author, Thomas W Devine, has just published his eighth book in the United States.
Fellow author, Tina Shaw, describes it as a “contemporary novel” with “all the makings of a classic kind of New Zealand story, bringing together family and strangers over a hot Christmas in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds”.
Devine was born in Marlborough and has a family association with the Sounds, tracing his maternal forebears back to a settler who arrived there in 1864 from the West Indies.
Crime and misadventure are thrown into the story mix, along with a kinky American couple and an Australian yachtsman who seem determined to make their own fun at the expense of others. The story is “set against a backdrop of adventure and upheaval that Devine does so well,” says the book’s editor, Andrew Killick of Tauranga.
The main protagonist, Andrew Moore, is an English photographer, now living in Auckland, who started his career as a wildlife photographer then changed to fashion. His growing discontent shows in a scene where he says to his live-in lover and ex fashion model, Nicole Finn “... I want to get back into taking pictures of real things – things that matter – good, bad, ugly – not just fashion and glamour.”
As an attempted escape from his career crisis, Andrew buys a holiday home, Hillsend, in Queen Charlotte Sound. “This modern and beautiful house overlooks the sea, with a climb down to a bush clad cove and small beach, making the location seem quite remote. The Christmas vacation acts as a catalyst for the book’s characters to change or to experience something different,” Tina Shaw says.
Devine’s first novel “Reversal Point” was published in 2007 and became a semi-finalist entry in the international Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
Devine hopes he will always be in the situation of having at least one more novel to write. “For me, the fun of creating popular fiction outstrips any other activity,” he says.
Have an unforgettable vacation at “Hillsend” this summer by reading the book in paperback or as a Kindle e-book.
It can be purchased online at these bookshops: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos... or Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/4976772
___________________
Website: www.thomaswdevine.com
Fellow author, Tina Shaw, describes it as a “contemporary novel” with “all the makings of a classic kind of New Zealand story, bringing together family and strangers over a hot Christmas in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds”.
Devine was born in Marlborough and has a family association with the Sounds, tracing his maternal forebears back to a settler who arrived there in 1864 from the West Indies.
Crime and misadventure are thrown into the story mix, along with a kinky American couple and an Australian yachtsman who seem determined to make their own fun at the expense of others. The story is “set against a backdrop of adventure and upheaval that Devine does so well,” says the book’s editor, Andrew Killick of Tauranga.
The main protagonist, Andrew Moore, is an English photographer, now living in Auckland, who started his career as a wildlife photographer then changed to fashion. His growing discontent shows in a scene where he says to his live-in lover and ex fashion model, Nicole Finn “... I want to get back into taking pictures of real things – things that matter – good, bad, ugly – not just fashion and glamour.”
As an attempted escape from his career crisis, Andrew buys a holiday home, Hillsend, in Queen Charlotte Sound. “This modern and beautiful house overlooks the sea, with a climb down to a bush clad cove and small beach, making the location seem quite remote. The Christmas vacation acts as a catalyst for the book’s characters to change or to experience something different,” Tina Shaw says.
Devine’s first novel “Reversal Point” was published in 2007 and became a semi-finalist entry in the international Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
Devine hopes he will always be in the situation of having at least one more novel to write. “For me, the fun of creating popular fiction outstrips any other activity,” he says.
Have an unforgettable vacation at “Hillsend” this summer by reading the book in paperback or as a Kindle e-book.
It can be purchased online at these bookshops: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos... or Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/4976772
___________________
Website: www.thomaswdevine.com
November 16, 2014
Christmas Grinch
The Wellington City Council is planning to spend NZ$550,000 on Christmas decorations and events this year (The Dominion Post, November 13, 2014).
My first reaction was that such a sum of money could have employed around 14 extra Council workers for a year, giving a few unemployed a better Christmas.
My second thought was that the decorations/events will bring a festive cheer to those that see/enjoy them, and that’s a good thing.
My third thought was that there are poor suburbanites who won’t even be able to afford a train or bus fare to take their children into the inner city to see/enjoy the fruits of the Council spending.
___________
While on the Christmas theme –
The newsmedia has given voice in the last year to agitation in New Zealand against "social discrimination" caused by the use of things Christian in public life – prayers, symbols, edifices, teaching, the Bible and even the national anthem – because, it is argued, we have a pluralistic society.
I wonder if they’ll ever agitate for the celebration of Christmas and Easter to be discontinued? Can’t beat those as Christian symbols, so why not be that purist?
Cancel Christmas & Easter? The religious mind boggles. That would be rather like saying that we should no longer speak English.
Likely, the 55.6% of the population (2M people in 2006) who were affiliated with a Christian religion believed New Zealand is a Christian country.
Has the balance changed? If it has, will our nation be worse or better for it?
My first reaction was that such a sum of money could have employed around 14 extra Council workers for a year, giving a few unemployed a better Christmas.
My second thought was that the decorations/events will bring a festive cheer to those that see/enjoy them, and that’s a good thing.
My third thought was that there are poor suburbanites who won’t even be able to afford a train or bus fare to take their children into the inner city to see/enjoy the fruits of the Council spending.
___________
While on the Christmas theme –
The newsmedia has given voice in the last year to agitation in New Zealand against "social discrimination" caused by the use of things Christian in public life – prayers, symbols, edifices, teaching, the Bible and even the national anthem – because, it is argued, we have a pluralistic society.
I wonder if they’ll ever agitate for the celebration of Christmas and Easter to be discontinued? Can’t beat those as Christian symbols, so why not be that purist?
Cancel Christmas & Easter? The religious mind boggles. That would be rather like saying that we should no longer speak English.
Likely, the 55.6% of the population (2M people in 2006) who were affiliated with a Christian religion believed New Zealand is a Christian country.
Has the balance changed? If it has, will our nation be worse or better for it?
November 6, 2014
Award Result
I wasn’t a winner in the 22nd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards with my entry but received this comment from the judge:
‘Thomas W. Devine's novel Green Expectations provides readers with a rich story salted with scenes that challenge the characters and the readers and then peppered with New Zealand culture. Anyone who has ever thought about the environment will enjoy this story and the conflict that arises, not only between the separate factions but internally. There are only a couple of things that I think would make this book stronger.’
Entries are evaluated against 6 factors, with a score of 5 meaning “outstanding”.
My entry got three “5’s” and three “4’s”.
The Judge also commented: “The front cover of this book is beautiful and offers a hint of the story theme”. I’m indebted to Andrew Killick for finding the photo and for the cover design.
https://www.createspace.com/4153773
‘Thomas W. Devine's novel Green Expectations provides readers with a rich story salted with scenes that challenge the characters and the readers and then peppered with New Zealand culture. Anyone who has ever thought about the environment will enjoy this story and the conflict that arises, not only between the separate factions but internally. There are only a couple of things that I think would make this book stronger.’
Entries are evaluated against 6 factors, with a score of 5 meaning “outstanding”.
My entry got three “5’s” and three “4’s”.
The Judge also commented: “The front cover of this book is beautiful and offers a hint of the story theme”. I’m indebted to Andrew Killick for finding the photo and for the cover design.
https://www.createspace.com/4153773
November 1, 2014
Dairy Farms & the Environment
“The challenge for the country [New Zealand] is that environmental improvement must come from solutions that enhance [dairy] profitability and production.”
I almost choked when I read that statement in a newspaper article by Landcorp chief executive Steven Carden (Dominion Post, October 28, 2014).
My next reaction was to ask myself: Why should something that affects everyone (the environment) have to take second place to the profits of a few (dairy farmers)?
Carden says it’s because of “the value our dairy industry brings in wealth, job creation and naturally nutritious food”.
Dairy farming is no different than any other industry in being able to assert that it benefits consumers.
The bigger question is, can the environment sustain the impacts of industries carrying on the way they have?
Had Carden (in his first statement quoted above) thought to add “where that is possible”, I would have had no arguement with him.
www.thomaswdevine.com
I almost choked when I read that statement in a newspaper article by Landcorp chief executive Steven Carden (Dominion Post, October 28, 2014).
My next reaction was to ask myself: Why should something that affects everyone (the environment) have to take second place to the profits of a few (dairy farmers)?
Carden says it’s because of “the value our dairy industry brings in wealth, job creation and naturally nutritious food”.
Dairy farming is no different than any other industry in being able to assert that it benefits consumers.
The bigger question is, can the environment sustain the impacts of industries carrying on the way they have?
Had Carden (in his first statement quoted above) thought to add “where that is possible”, I would have had no arguement with him.
www.thomaswdevine.com
October 25, 2014
Book Award Loses Sponsor
This year, New Zealand Post ended its $200,000-plus annual sponsorship of the New Zealand Book Awards as it struggles with poor financial performance.
I feel rather like Mary Ellen O’Connor (the Dominion Post, October 20, 2014) who wrote:
“Very sad to hear New Zealand Post is pulling out ... this year after we [a NZ author] won the Man Booker Prize. Perhaps if they cut CEO Brian Roache’s salary from well over a million dollars, they might have the funds” to continue the sponsorship.
What about it Brian?
www.thomaswdevine.com
I feel rather like Mary Ellen O’Connor (the Dominion Post, October 20, 2014) who wrote:
“Very sad to hear New Zealand Post is pulling out ... this year after we [a NZ author] won the Man Booker Prize. Perhaps if they cut CEO Brian Roache’s salary from well over a million dollars, they might have the funds” to continue the sponsorship.
What about it Brian?
www.thomaswdevine.com
October 18, 2014
Speaking Out
“Where we see attempts made to devalue life, we are called to speak up against such attempts when we have the opportunity.
"In speaking up like this, we are helping our society and our country.
"Each life is special and unique, and not to be disposed of as an obstacle , or pushed aside”
– “Happenings” 12 October, 2014 in response to the day set aside by the NZ Catholic Bishops as a “Day of Prayer to Respect Life”.
"In speaking up like this, we are helping our society and our country.
"Each life is special and unique, and not to be disposed of as an obstacle , or pushed aside”
– “Happenings” 12 October, 2014 in response to the day set aside by the NZ Catholic Bishops as a “Day of Prayer to Respect Life”.
