Scott Semegran's Blog, page 22
June 29, 2015
Boys by Scott Semegran
The cover was designed by Andrew Leeper and myself. The book was edited by my long-time editor Brandon Wood as well as Robyn Smith. And the photo of yours truly was taken by my beautiful wife, Lori Hoadley. Boys is published by Mutt Press. The official release date is August 1, 2015. Reserve your copy now!
The paperback is 184 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, white paper, black and white ink, full-color cover with matte finish and available here:
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Scott-Seme...
Createspace - https://www.createspace.com/5558081
The retail price for the paperback is $14.99.
You can also order a paperback from your favorite book store by giving the following info, if it is not already in stock:
Boys by Scott Semegran. ISBN 978-0692470114.
The eBook is available for pre-order at the following website locations or go into the Kindle Store, iTunes Store, Google Play Store as well as other eBook app stores and search for "Boys by Scott Semegran." The eBook will appear in your eBook apps on August 1, 2015:
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010...
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books...
Apple - https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/boys...
Kobo - https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebo...
Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/books/d...
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Scribd - Available August 1, 2015
Oyster - Available August 1, 2015
The retail price for the eBook is $2.99. It's free to read with a subscription to Scribd or Oyster.
Thanks for your support, I hope you enjoy these stories, and please share this with your friends. Salud!
Your Truly, Scott
P.S. For more info about this book as well as my other books, please go to my website at http://www.scottsemegran.com.
June 18, 2015
Dinner from the G.D.A.M.
http://www.scottsemegran.com/words/fi...
June 17, 2015
Boys
These are the stories of three boys living in Texas: one growing up, one dreaming, and one fighting to stay alive in the face of destitution and adversity. There's second-grader William, a shy yet imaginative boy who schemes about how to get back at his school-yard bully, Randy. Then there's Sam, a 15-year-old boy who dreams of getting a 1980 Mazda RX-7 for his sixteenth birthday but has to work at a Greek restaurant to fund his dream. Finally, there's Seff, a 21-year-old on the brink of manhood, trying to survive along with his roommate, working as waiters and barely making ends meet. These three stories are told with heart, humor, and an uncompromising look at what it meant to grow up in Texas during the 1980s and 1990s.
Read an excerpt here, here, and here.
Reviews for Boys:
The New Podler Review of Books
RetailereBookPaperback
Amazon
$2.99
$14.99
Barnes & Noble
$2.99
$14.99
Apple
$2.99
Kobo
$2.99
Google Play
$2.99
Smashwords
$2.99
Scribd - $8.99/month
Link
Oyster - $9.95/month
Link
CreateSpace
$14.99
Paperback Info
ISBN: 978-0692470114
Copyright: © 2015 Scott Semegran
Language: English
Edition: First Edition
Printed: 184 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, white paper, black and white ink, full-color cover with matte finish
Publisher: Mutt Press
Category: Fiction / Short Stories
Dinner from the G.D.A.M.
We sat across from each other in the small living room of my small apartment, on the floor around my beat-up coffee table, piles of coins and dollar bills on top, two tall boys of beer on ratty paper coasters from the restaurant there too, counting our tips. It was not a good night for tips but the quantity of coins and bills looked deceiving in their unorganized state, looked like we had a lot more money than we actually had. We enjoyed the optical illusion, briefly. We smiled as we pushed the piles of coins and bills around in front of us then raised our cans of beer to toast.
"To Pasta Warehouse," I said.
"To Pasta Warehouse!" my friend Alfonso said.
"Cheers!"
"No, say it the Mexican way. When you toast, say 'Salud!'"
"SALUD!"
We touched our cans together then gulped the cheap beers, crushing the cans when we were through, tossing the cans to the side on the floor, returning to organize the coins and bills, hoping to make rent. We were an odd looking pair of friends. I was lanky and short and white. Alfonso was massive and tall and Hispanic. But what we lacked in commonality of outward appearance was made up by similar character traits of kindness, empathy, and extreme loyalty. We were good young men and good friends to each other.
April 19, 2015
Good Night, Jerk Face
My dreams were sturdy when I was young; they became more fragile as I got older. Summer of 1986. All I thought about was the car I hoped to get for my 16th birthday the following summer. That was all I thought about when I was 15, all day, all night. I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting the car I wanted too because I lived in a pretty good neighborhood and I thought my dad made pretty good money, and the majority of my friends got good cars for their 16th birthdays. The odds looked pretty good in my favor, at least. Plus, I made good grades. It seemed like a no-brainer to me. The car I wanted was a 1980 Mazda RX7. I really, really, really wanted that car, preferably a stick shift even though I didn't know how to drive stick shift, let alone drive a car.
Every summer since I could remember, I spent a couple of weeks at my grandparents' house in Moore, Oklahoma, probably to give my parents a break. During the drive from San Antonio, Texas to Moore, I read the classifieds of the San Antonio Light newspaper, scouring the used car section, looking for Mazda RX7's for sale, particularly 1980 models or ones that were close to that year like the '78 or '79, just not an '81 cause they were different. I found a few for sale with prices ranging from $4,000 - $6,000. That seemed like a pretty good deal to me even though I had no idea really what a good deal was for a car. I was only 15. I didn't know shit.
"What are you looking for?" my mom said. She was somewhat thin with auburn, short cropped hair, kind hazel eyes, and had lightly freckled pale skin. She gripped the steering wheel of her Toyota Camry confidently and sat up straight, ready to bear the heavy burden of the long, boring drive to Oklahoma.
"The car I want for my 16th birthday," I said.
"What makes you think you'll get a car for your 16th birthday?"
"Isn't that what you get when you turn 16?"
"Sure, some kids get a car for their 16th birthday. What kind of car do you want?"
"A 1980 Mazda RX7. Stick shift. Silver."
March 31, 2015
Good Night, Jerk Face
March 23, 2015
The Great and Powerful, Brave Raideen
The little boy sat on the floor in his room surrounded by his toys--Micronauts action figures, Hot Wheels race cars, Star Wars action figures and vehicles, Evel Knievel doll and motor cycle, Shogun Warriors in various sizes, and a pile of Legos intermixed from various sets. His name was William. His mother called him Billy, just like his uncle who died ten years earlier in the Vietnam War was called, but he liked to be called William. More than anything, he liked to play in his room all by himself with all of his toys surrounding him on the floor. In his room, he was safe. He liked that.
He had a vivid imagination and enjoyed introducing the different toys to each other, intersecting their fictional worlds into one. The few times that other neighborhood children were allowed in his room, they had an issue with that, the fictional worlds colliding.
They all said to William, "Micronauts don't fight Star Wars people!"
"And why not?" William said.
"Because Micronauts aren't in the movie Star Wars, dummy!" they all said.
The other neighborhood children weren't allowed in his room after that. William spent most of his time after school in his room although he would occasionally venture into the back yard, a large grassy area with a tall oak tree in the back near the fence, a mostly completed treehouse perched up in its canopy. With two rooms to play in--one inside and one outside--his world seemed rather large; there wasn't much need to go anywhere else except for school. School, to him, was an evil place. He hated going to school.
William stood up one of his Shogun Warriors, the one called Brave Raideen (the tall one painted red and black with a bow and arrow and a crazy, silver mask that made him look like King Tut or something), and he said, "What are you going to do about that jerk Randy at school?" William made his voice as low and gravelly as possible to speak like what he thought Brave Raideen would sound like.
"I don't know," William said in his normal voice.
"You should do something to scare him real good," Brave Raideen said.
"Like what?" William said, curious.
"You should get the thing in your mommy's nightstand. That'll scare him real good!" said Brave Raideen, then laughing an evil laugh.
"Yeah!" William said, jumping to his feet. He tossed Brave Raideen to the side, opened his door, and ran down the hallway to his parents' room, his long, lanky arms swinging like those of a spider monkey. His mother heard him running and called out to him.
"Billy? What are you doing?"
"Nothing, mom!" he said, entering her bedroom and running around the queen-size bed to where her nightstand sat. He laid down on his stomach in front of the nightstand and reached under the bed. "Randy is going to be sorry he messed with me."
March 21, 2015
The Great and Powerful, Brave Raideen. A Short Story by Scott Semegran.
The Great and Powerful, Brave Raideen
February 23, 2015
February 4, 2015
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 attributed in 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 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 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. It's an American classic. People love this book. Practically every student in middle school or high school has read this book. It's still in-print and sells over a million copies a year. People wanted more back in the 60s 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.
