Scott Semegran's Blog, page 13
August 4, 2020
Austin Liti Limits Episode 15 with James Wade is Out Now
Austin Liti Limits Episode 15 with James Wade is now available! Watch my interview with James that we conducted remotely via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check it out now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:
June 3, 2020
Creating Stellar Author Websites with Award-winning Author and Webmaster Scott Semegran
An author’s website is the number one opportunity for an author to market, promote, and sell their books as well as tell the world their story about their journey as an indie author. Is your website up to snuff? Learn the ins and outs of creating a beautiful author website, even if you’re not a webmaster. If you do not have a website, or your website is sub-par, then you are missing out on the number one opportunity to shine with the one promotional tool that is 100% under your control: your website. In this interactive webinar, we’ll discuss what’s involved in procuring a domain name and setting up a website, creating great content about your books, and reaching new readers worldwide. What are you waiting for? Let’s do this!
Register for this FREE webinar here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/596106133614481164?source=ExpertSessionsPage
Sponsored by the Indie Author Project
More information about this webinar: https://indieauthorproject.com/events/scott-semegran/
May 8, 2020
To Squeeze a Prairie Dog is the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Medal Winner for Humor
To Squeeze a Prairie Dog is the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Medal Winner for Humor! Here is the video for the award announcement from IBPA:
Go here for the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Humor List of Finalists: https://www.ibpabenjaminfranklinaward.com/2020-winners-humor
For more about To Squeeze a Prairie Dog. Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audiobook.
March 27, 2020
The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island
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Add to your TBR list on Goodreads:
The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island
March 26, 2020
The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island
The summer of 1986. Central Texas. William and his friends should be having a blast. Instead, they are hounded by the Thousand Oaks Gang and their merciless leader, Bloody Billy. William found Billy’s backpack. And because of what it contains, Billy desperately wants it back, and he’ll do anything to get it. William hatches a plan for his friends to sneak away and hide in an abandoned lake house, except they become stranded on the lake’s desolate island without food or water. Will their time on the island devolve into chaos? Will the friends survive and be rescued?
The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is Lord of the Flies meets The Body by Stephen King, the inspiration for the classic movie Stand By Me.
A gripping suspense story with adventure and danger, tinged with humorous banter between the four friends, the middle schoolers face certain death without adults to protect them from the unrelenting natural elements, as well as the wild creatures that lurk in the wilderness around the lake. With a backpack filled with money and marijuana they stole from the merciless gang leader, it’s only a matter of time before the high schoolers come looking for them, too.
From award-winning writer Scott Semegran, The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is his eighth book. This novel is Semegran’s response to William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, which was Golding’s response to The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne, an adventure novel from 1858. All three novels tackle the premise of boys stranded on an island, with Semegran’s novel taking a decidedly modern view of a group of friends in Central Texas during the summer of 1986 working to survive in a situation filled with danger and desperation with only each other to rely on.
March 18, 2020
To Squeeze a Prairie Dog is a 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist for Fiction: Humor
To Squeeze a Prairie Dog is a 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist for Fiction: Humor. The Gold Medal winner will be announced at the end of April 2020. As a finalist, To Squeeze a Prairie Dog will either be a Silver or Gold Medal winner. I would like to congratulate the other finalists as well. Good luck to everyone!
Read the official press release from IBPA: https://www.ibpa-online.org/news/494443/IBPA-Announces-Finalists-in-the-32nd-Annual-IBPA-Benjamin-Franklin-Award-Program.htm
Go here for the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Fiction: Humor List of Finalists: https://www.ibpabenjaminfranklinaward.com/2020-winners-humor
For more about To Squeeze a Prairie Dog. Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audiobook.
March 3, 2020
Austin Liti Limits Episode 13 with Kate Winkler Dawson is Out Now
Austin Liti Limits Episode 13 with Kate Winkler Dawson is now available. Watch fellow writer Larry Brill interview Kate at BookPeople. Watch now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:
Kate Winkler Dawson at Austin Liti Limits from Larry Brill on Vimeo.
February 15, 2020
Austin Liti Limits Episode 12 with Owen Egerton is Out Now
Austin Liti Limits Episode 12 with Owen Egerton is now available. Watch fellow writer Larry Brill interview Owen at BookPeople. Owen's idea of happiness? A healthy level of discontent. LOL! Watch now over at the Austin Liti Limits website. Or watch right here:
In Episode 12, Owen Egerton sits down with writer Larry Brill for an interview.
February 9, 2020
Scott Semegran Speaks at the Texas Author Project Award Reception
Accepting my award for Adult Fiction at the award reception for the 2019 Texas Author Project, I spoke about my winning novel To Squeeze a Prairie Dog, about being an indie author, and the importance of local libraries. Filmed at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission on Feb 6, 2020. Video by James Grayson at Grace On Productions, LLC.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udyomqwySPw
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/390316999
Transcript
Good Afternoon!
I would like to thank the Indie Author Project, Library Journal, and the librarians across Texas who chose my novel, To Squeeze a Prairie Dog, as the winner of this award. I would also like to thank the Texas State Library and Archives Commission for hosting this wonderful event.
Even though I am considered an indie author, it takes a team of professionals to help me publish quality books. I would like to thank the fine folks who helped me mold and polish To Squeeze a Prairie Dog into an award-winning novel. They are: Brandon Wood and Lori Hoadley for editing. Andrew Leeper for the cover design. And David Aretha at Yellow Bird Editors for proofreading. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication to my novel.
I was initially interested in the Indie Author Project because of their commitment to connect libraries, their hardworking librarians, and their readers to the local writers in their communities, something that I immediately recognized had parallels with the Buy Local Movement. Many of you may be the beneficiaries of the Buy Local Movement, having fallen in love with your local farmers’ markets, independent bookstores, or artisan shows. If you’ve supported local businesses like Alamo Drafthouse or BookPeople or Waterloo Records, then you are part of this movement. With the Indie Author Project and community libraries, what they are telling readers, in essence, is to Read Local. There are hundreds, if not more, excellent indie writers in the State of Texas who are publishing novels, memoirs, history books, and more, that are of equal quality to what is being published by the Big 5 publishers in New York City. If you subscribe to the notion that quality books are only published by these Big 5 publishers, then you might as well say that quality food only comes from big corporations. If you have purchased excellent produce at a farmers’ market or eaten a delicious meal at a local cafe or sipped an exceptional craft beer brewed in your neck of Texas, then you know—without a doubt—that big corporations are not the only place to buy these types of products. Books of the highest quality are being published all across Texas by indie authors like me and Michelle Rene. The Indie Author Project, Library Journal, and libraries across Texas are leading the way in the discovery of these great writers through curated collections. That way, the patrons of libraries know that they are checking out books of high quality. Pretty amazing, if you ask me.
I am very pleased that my novel won this award. I am honored to represent the indie author, fiction writing community of this state which has a great tradition of storytelling. My novel, at its core, is about the friendship between a diverse cast of characters and the camaraderie they share while working in the trenches of state government. What is more appropriate to represent Texas, whose state motto just happens to be “Friendship,” than a novel about the friendship between a country bumpkin, an African-American matriarch, a middle-aged single mother, a manager with a propensity for mischief, and a gigantic young man of Mexican and Japanese descent? Their friendship is the glue that holds my novel together. I also wanted my novel to have a positive ending, and I’m pleased to see it resonate with so many people, which has sent that positivity back to me.
If you would indulge me just a little longer, I would like to talk about the two important women who inspired me to write this novel. I dedicated To Squeeze a Prairie Dog to these two amazing women.
First, there is Margaret Downs-Gamble. She was my English professor during my freshman and sophomore years at the University of Texas, right here in Austin. Before college, I was not enamored with literature. The only pages I burned through were either Marvel comic books or newspaper comic strips. But once I attended Margaret’s classes at U. T., I discovered that I loved great literature and, as it turned out, was quite good at analyzing it. To my parents’ utter surprise, I declared English as my major and never looked back. If someone ever wanted to retrace the steps I took as a writer that got me here today—standing behind a podium and accepting a book award—then those steps would lead back in time to Margaret Downs-Gamble’s classroom at U. T. That’s where my writing career began. And if any of you have had a teacher in your life that inspired you, then you will understand why I dedicated this novel to my teacher: Margaret Downs-Gamble.
Second, many of you may or may not know that most writers have an initial audience of one, that single person that they are hoping to impress with their new story. My audience of one for To Squeeze a Prairie Dog was my wife, Lori Hoadley. She was the one I wanted to impress, to make laugh, and to maybe even make cry a little. When I was first working on this novel, I gave her some vague tidbits about the story. I mentioned some of the characters and what their motivations were. But for the most part, I kept the story close to me. I wanted Lori to enjoy the story without preconceptions. I wanted her to discover the lives of J. D. Wiswall, Rita Jackson, Deborah Martinez, Brent Baker, and Conchino Gonzalez with fresh eyes. When she began reading my book, I was “chomping at the bit” as they say. I wanted her to love my story and love my cast of characters. So, when she finally came to me—a little teary-eyed, a little forlorn—because of what I did to one of my characters late in the story, I knew I achieved my goal of creating a story and cast that my wife loved, that she connected with, and that she cared about. And if Lori felt this way about my cast of misfits at the fictional state agency of the Texas Department of Unemployment and Benefits, then I knew that other readers would feel the same way. Thank you, Lori, for supporting me and being my editor and number one fan.
And thank you Indie Author Project, Library Journal, and the librarians of Texas for choosing my novel as the 2019 Texas Author Project winner for Adult Fiction. I’d like to end my time up here by sharing a statistic that was released recently by a December 2019 Gallup poll. According to the Americans' Reports of Leisure and Activities, “Going to a library” was the top leisure activity for Americans, outpacing “Going to a movie at a movie theater” by almost 2 to 1. Americans go to their library 10.5 times a year, which I find amazing. But we can do better. Let’s try to make it 12 times a year or more. So, be good to each other, read more books, and support your local library.
Thank you!
January 6, 2020
To Kill a Legacy
On February 3, 2015, it was announced that Harper Lee, the author of the young adult classic To Kill a Mockingbird, approved the publication of a sequel 55 years after her much-beloved, award-winning, singular novel was published. According to a press release from Harpers (who only communicated through Lee’s lawyer and literary agent, not with Lee herself), a manuscript was “discovered” titled Go Set a Watchman attached to an original typed manuscript of To Kill a Mockingbird in storage. Then the frenzy began! “Another book by Harper Lee?!” they mostly said. “I can’t wait!” There were also dissenters who said, “Uh, this sounds fishy. Why now?” And I agree. Why now? For one reason only: Money.
You can Google the history of To Kill a Mockingbird and the behavior and quotes attributed to Harper Lee in dealing with the staggering success of her novel in the decades following the initial publication of the book. She never wanted to publish another book and was also quoted as saying that everything she wanted to say — as a writer — was in To Kill a Mockingbird. She was reticent to talk about the themes of the book, claiming everything you needed to know was also in the book. In the years following the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird the book as well the release of the award-winning and beloved movie version starring Gregory Peck, Lee certainly could have gone to her publisher and said, “I have another book! It’s about Scout and Atticus 20 years later. It’ll be a bestseller. I’ll rule the literary world!” But she didn’t, and the reasons she didn’t make complete sense to me as a writer.
It is easy for me to understand the excitement from readers who love To Kill a Mockingbird and their desire to want to read this newly “discovered” novel titled Go Set a Watchman. To Kill a Mockingbird is an American classic. People love this book. Practically every student in middle school or high school in the United States has read this book. It’s still in-print and sells over a million copies a year. People wanted more from Harper Lee back in the 1960s, and people still want more now. But as it states here, “Ms. Lee abandoned the manuscript [of Go Set a Watchman] after her editor, who was captivated by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, told her to write a new book from the young heroine’s perspective and to set it during her childhood.” Lee pulled out the best parts of this manuscript, abandoned it, and wrote another novel. Lee knew it wasn’t good enough then, and in the years after To Kill a Mockingbird was published, it still wasn’t good enough.
As a writer, I’m appalled at the idea that a few months after her sister died in the fall of 2014 (Alice Lee, a lawyer who was her companion and her protector from public scrutiny) and knowing that Harper Lee was in failing health (she had a stroke in 2007 and was nearly blind and deaf) that she would now, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, approve the publication of a novel she abandoned in the 1950s. It’s just absurd. As great as To Kill a Mockingbird is as a book, great writers don’t always “hit them out of the park.” Sometimes great writers “whiff a few.” Sometimes, they write some stuff, and they think it’s shit. If she would have wanted this novel published years ago, then she would have done it. She was in the position to do it, whether it was crap or not. This is celebrity voyeurism at its worst, and contrary to Harper Lee’s wishes for her legacy.
Read the full article on Medium.com
This blog post originally appeared on Medium.com, January 6, 2020. Written by Scott Semegran.
