Billy Ray Chitwood's Blog, page 25
August 5, 2014
'My Main Character Blog Tour - Bailey Crane'
Posted on August 5, 2014 by Billy Ray Chitwood
Meet my Main Character Blog Tour – Bailey Crane
NEWLY RELEASED
BUY SITES : http://www.goo.gl/d1fSnc US
http://www.goo.gl/U3pZtP UK
I’ve been tagged by the always effervescent lady (never knew her when she ‘effervuscent’!), Eden Baylee, http://edenbaylee.com, to partake in a blog tour involving my main character.
THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: I must answer seven (7) questions about the main character in one of my novels. Then, I nominate five (5) authors to answer the same seven (7) questions about the main character in one of their novels. Mention the person who nominated you.
Here’s the link to Eden’s main character in Stranger at Sunset – wp.me/p1cWaE-4Q8 - Kate Hampton – quite the lady! I’ve read the book and it’s a humdinger! (Okay, mark it up to aging!) I once dated women like Kate – minus certain qualities! Suffice, Kate is beautiful, amazing, and, well, Eden has already described her. BUY SITE for Stranger at Sunset: goo.gl/YhKSmz
* * * *
Here are the answers to the seven (7) questions about Bailey Crane, my main character in A Common Evil… the sixth and final book of my ‘Bailey Crane Mystery Series’.
1. Tell us a little about this main character. Is he fictional or a historic person?
He is fictional and controls the narrative in all six of the ‘Bailey Crane Mysteries’.
2. When and where is the story – A Common Evil – set?
The story is set in nostalgic old Mexico along the Sea of Cortez – 2014.
3. What should we know about him?
Bailey Crane is an ex-cop, among other things. He muses about his life, loves, mistakes, successes, and, of course, the critical criminal matters at hand. He is also married to an ex-cop, Wendy, and she is his ‘port in the storm’. AND, there are some similarities to the author.
4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his life?
Bailey’s main conflict in A Common Evil has to do with the Mexican cartel, his wife’s kidnapping, and a dubious death.
5. What is his personal goal?
Bailey’s personal goal is to find his kidnapped wife, restore sanity to his fun and sun life, and to efficiently run the HOA of the resort in which Wendy and he live.
6. What are the titles of your novels, and where can we read more about them?
You can find my twelve titles at my website – http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com (Just read the bio and scan down the ‘Home Page’.)
The titles of the ‘Bailey Crane Novels’: (1) An Arizona tragedy (Brutal murder Inspired by truth!) – (2) Satan’s Song (Inspired by some truth!) – (3) The Brutus Gate – (4) Murder in Pueblo del Mar (Inspired by a true homicide of a US wife and mother from Arizona) – (5) A Soul Defiled – (6) A Common Evil (NEW! Inspired by some truth).
Aside from the ‘Bailey Crane Books’, there are these books — (7) The Cracked Mirror – Reflections of an Appalachian Son (A memoir!) – (8) Butterflies and Jellybeans – A Love Story (A romance novel with suspense!) – (9) Mama’s Madness (Inspired by true events!) – (10) The Reluctant Savage (Mystery, suspense, romance!) – (11) Joe Public’s Political Perspective (I had to open my mouth!) – (12) What Happens Next? A Life’s True Tale (An embarrassing memoir!)
7. When can we expect your next book to be published?
Sometime late this year or early 2015 – a historically accurate and fictional novel about my grandfather who migrated to the United States from Bern, Switzerland – My grandfather was a saint, but there were some ugly things (like murders and suicides) happening around his life.
*****
Now I’ll nominate (tag) five other authors. All of them are terrific writers, so please visit them and give their books a read.
- John Dolan, author of A Poison Tree, book 3 of his ‘Time, Blood and Karma Series’ – http://johndolanwriter.blogspot.com and Twitter @JohnDolanAuthor
- Carmen Amato, author of Diablo Nights and other ‘Emilia Cruz’ detective novels – http://carmenamato.net and Twitter @CarmenConnects
- Dianne Gray, author of Soul’s Child and other most notable books – http://diannegray.wordpress.com and Twitter @Zigotide
- Jeff Joseph, author of Pursued, sequel to A Novel Obsession – http://jeffjosephauthor.wordpress.com and Twitter @author_jeff
- E. B. Sullivan, author of Different Hearts and Bloom Forevermore – http://ebsullivan.com and Twitter @EBSullivan1
* * *
My best wishes to all.
(NOTE: I’m the proud recipient of nine blog awards which I normally show on my blogs – as a requirement. With this post I’m foregoing their showing.)
Meet My Main Character Blog Tour – Bailey Crane
Meet my Main Character Blog Tour – Bailey Crane
NEWLY RELEASED
BUY SITES : http://www.goo.gl/d1fSnc US
I’ve been tagged by the always effervescent lady (never knew her when she ‘effervuscent’!), Eden Baylee, http://edenbaylee.com, to partake in a blog tour involving my main character.
THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: I must answer seven (7) questions about the main character in one of my novels. Then, I nominate five (5) authors to answer the same seven (7) questions about the main character in one of their novels. Mention the person who nominated you.
Here’s the link to Eden’s main character in Stranger at Sunset – wp.me/p1cWaE-4Q8 - Kate Hampton – quite the lady! I’ve read the book and it’s a humdinger! (Okay, mark it up to aging!) I once dated women like Kate – minus certain qualities! Suffice, Kate is beautiful, amazing, and, well, Eden has already described her. BUY SITE for Stranger at Sunset: goo.gl/YhKSmz
* * * *
Here are the answers to the seven (7) questions about Bailey Crane, my main character in A Common Evil… the sixth and final book of my ‘Bailey Crane Mystery Series’.
1. Tell us a little about this main character. Is he fictional or a historic person?
He is fictional and controls the narrative in all six of the ‘Bailey Crane Mysteries’.
2. When and where is the story – A Common Evil – set?
The story is set in nostalgic old Mexico along the Sea of Cortez – 2014.
3. What should we know about him?
Bailey Crane is an ex-cop, among other things. He muses about his life, loves, mistakes, successes, and, of course, the critical criminal matters at hand. He is also married to an ex-cop, Wendy, and she is his ‘port in the storm’. AND, there are some similarities to the author.
4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his life?
Bailey’s main conflict in A Common Evil has to do with the Mexican cartel, his wife’s kidnapping, and a dubious death.
5. What is his personal goal?
Bailey’s personal goal is to find his kidnapped wife, restore sanity to his fun and sun life, and to efficiently run the HOA of the resort in which Wendy and he live.
6. What are the titles of your novels, and where can we read more about them?
You can find my twelve titles at my website – http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com (Just read the bio and scan down the ‘Home Page’.)
The titles of the ‘Bailey Crane Novels’: (1) An Arizona tragedy (Brutal murder Inspired by truth!) – (2) Satan’s Song (Inspired by some truth!) – (3) The Brutus Gate – (4) Murder in Pueblo del Mar (Inspired by a true homicide of a US wife and mother from Arizona) – (5) A Soul Defiled – (6) A Common Evil (NEW! Inspired by some truth).
Aside from the ‘Bailey Crane Books’, there are these books — (7) The Cracked Mirror – Reflections of an Appalachian Son (A memoir!) – (8) Butterflies and Jellybeans – A Love Story (A romance novel with suspense!) – (9) Mama’s Madness (Inspired by true events!) – (10) The Reluctant Savage (Mystery, suspense, romance!) – (11) Joe Public’s Political Perspective (I had to open my mouth!) – (12) What Happens Next? A Life’s True Tale (An embarrassing memoir!)
7. When can we expect your next book to be published?
Sometime late this year or early 2015 – a historically accurate and fictional novel about my grandfather who migrated to the United States from Bern, Switzerland – My grandfather was a saint, but there were some ugly things (like murders and suicides) happening around his life.
*****
Now I’ll nominate (tag) five other authors. All of them are terrific writers, so please visit them and give their books a read.
- John Dolan, author of A Poison Tree, book 3 of his ‘Time, Blood and Karma Series’ – http://johndolanwriter.blogspot.com and Twitter @JohnDolanAuthor
- Carmen Amato, author of Diablo Nights and other ‘Emilia Cruz’ detective novels – http://carmenamato.net and Twitter @CarmenConnects
- Dianne Gray, author of Soul’s Child and other most notable books – http://diannegray.wordpress.com and Twitter @Zigotide
- Jeff Joseph, author of Pursued, sequel to A Novel Obsession – http://jeffjosephauthor.wordpress.com and Twitter @author_jeff
- E. B. Sullivan, author of Different Hearts and Bloom Forevermore – http://ebsullivan.com and Twitter @EBSullivan1
* * *
My best wishes to all.
(NOTE: I’m the proud recipient of nine blog awards which I normally show on my blogs – as a requirement. With this post I’m foregoing their showing.)
July 31, 2014
Animal Clouds
Posted on July 31, 2014 by Billy Ray Chitwood
Animal Clouds
Okay, too much time on my hands, you say! Really, do we ever have enough time? It was only yesterday I was a young man ‘courting the girls’ when my ‘young man’s fancy lightly turned to thoughts of love’. Time has taken those wonderful moments away from me, yes, but it has given me a love, comfortable and serene. Or, is it that my dotage has made it so much easier for my mind to wildly ponder the unrealities of life? Or, is it that my cleverness lives only in a return to childhood? That seems an inconsistent thought when one foot is already inside the boat that gives passage to the River Styx.
Animal Clouds, indeed!
Today, I write and find a multitude of ‘fancies’ as subjects for my pen – well, the laptop, if you must! Today, as I gaze out upon a sunny day with clouds drifting by as if on parade, I make of the shapes animals of all kinds…there’s a boar kneeling in prayer…there, a heavily plumed fowl stretched full out and zipping along with the wind…above the fowl, there’s a huge turtle creeping by the lovely blue background.
Actually, I’m procrastinating! I’m writing my thirteenth book, a saga about my saintly grandfather, his family’s turbulent emigration in 1885 from the Canton of Bern, Switzerland as his fetus lay curled in the tummy of his mother. Well, perhaps it is not to be a saga – don’t know if I have a saga in me, perhaps a mini-saga if there be such a thing. Through the genealogical channels, my wife has found a very interesting life of the man I loved very much as a child. There is of course love, two lovely sisters vying for his troth, his devotion and loyalty. There is madness, literally, as my grandfather’s mother spends much of her life in a mental institution. There is murder, suicide, and all sorts of interesting turns and twists in his life, so I shall make it into a fictional novel that will contain much factual information. After all, there is much that my novel mind must create.
So, I procrastinate, take a break from the longer form of writing to hallucinate and enjoy the circuitous routes the synapses dictate.
Should you wish to form your own animals from the scudding clouds, do not use mine…be proper and original with your laptop. If there is some other wild writing trip you wish to take, turn to any page in the dictionary and pick a word with which you’re not familiar…you can then amaze us blog lovers with the profundity of your wisdom – ahem, as I have here…
‘Tongue in cheek’ time over, I’m back to my saintly grandfather.
Oh, one last thing, I do have twelve books of mystery, suspense, romance, memoir, politics that really need to be read…consider them lonely for attention, words and phrases ‘just looking for a home’. Books have ‘feelings’, too, you know!
Might I suggest one (or, all) of my six ‘Bailey Crane Mysteries’ – some inspired by true crime?
If ‘Romance’ is your staple, my Butterflies and Jellybeans – A Love Story will answer your call, plus add a dash of suspense (don’t let the title fool you).
If you want the hard reality of evil in our world, try my Mama’s Madness (fiction from truth) OR The Reluctant Savage (romance, mayhem, murder) OR my brand NEW thriller A Common Evil.
Memoirs of my sordid and wonderful life might interest you. The Cracked Mirror – Reflections of an Appalachian Son and What Happens Next? A Life’s True Tale.
Finally, you can determine whether or not you truly hate me or like me by reading Joe Public’s Political Perspective, a ‘rant and rave’ about government – yes, I had to open my mouth, or, in this case, my laptop! Don’t know if I have it right but the thoughts come from an honest place.
All these books are on my personal website – http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com – just scan the home page after the short bio section. Really, could you just start something ‘viral’ for me? The books are entertaining and non-convoluted – I would not know how to make a book too complicated!
Now you’ve seen the begging and crass side of me after getting your attention with animals in the clouds.
Next week, I promise to behave!
http://www.about.me/brchitwood
http://twitter.com (@brchitwood)
http://goodreads.com/author/dashboard
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
http://facebook.com/billyrayscorner
http://linkedin.com (Billy Ray Chitwood)
Feel free to comment. My best wishes.
Animal Clouds
Animal Clouds
Okay, too much time on my hands, you say! Really, do we ever have enough time? It was only yesterday I was a young man ‘courting the girls’ when my ‘young man’s fancy lightly turned to thoughts of love’. Time has taken those wonderful moments away from me, yes, but it has given me a love, comfortable and serene. Or, is it that my dotage has made it so much easier for my mind to wildly ponder the unrealities of life? Or, is it that my cleverness lives only in a return to childhood? That seems an inconsistent thought when one foot is already inside the boat that gives passage to the River Styx.
Animal Clouds, indeed!
Today, I write and find a multitude of ‘fancies’ as subjects for my pen – well, the laptop, if you must! Today, as I gaze out upon a sunny day with clouds drifting by as if on parade, I make of the shapes animals of all kinds…there’s a boar kneeling in prayer…there, a heavily plumed fowl stretched full out and zipping along with the wind…above the fowl, there’s a huge turtle creeping by the lovely blue background.
Actually, I’m procrastinating! I’m writing my thirteenth book, a saga about my saintly grandfather, his family’s turbulent emigration in 1885 from the Canton of Bern, Switzerland as his fetus lay curled in the tummy of his mother. Well, perhaps it is not to be a saga – don’t know if I have a saga in me, perhaps a mini-saga if there be such a thing. Through the genealogical channels, my wife has found a very interesting life of the man I loved very much as a child. There is of course love, two lovely sisters vying for his troth, his devotion and loyalty. There is madness, literally, as my grandfather’s mother spends much of her life in a mental institution. There is murder, suicide, and all sorts of interesting turns and twists in his life, so I shall make it into a fictional novel that will contain much factual information. After all, there is much that my novel mind must create.
So, I procrastinate, take a break from the longer form of writing to hallucinate and enjoy the circuitous routes the synapses dictate.
Should you wish to form your own animals from the scudding clouds, do not use mine…be proper and original with your laptop. If there is some other wild writing trip you wish to take, turn to any page in the dictionary and pick a word with which you’re not familiar…you can then amaze us blog lovers with the profundity of your wisdom – ahem, as I have here…
‘Tongue in cheek’ time over, I’m back to my saintly grandfather.
Oh, one last thing, I do have twelve books of mystery, suspense, romance, memoir, politics that really need to be read…consider them lonely for attention, words and phrases ‘just looking for a home’. Books have ‘feelings’, too, you know!
Might I suggest one (or, all) of my six ‘Bailey Crane Mysteries’ – some inspired by true crime?
If ‘Romance’ is your staple, my Butterflies and Jellybeans – A Love Story will answer your call, plus add a dash of suspense (don’t let the title fool you).
If you want the hard reality of evil in our world, try my Mama’s Madness (fiction from truth) OR The Reluctant Savage (romance, mayhem, murder) OR my brand NEW thriller A Common Evil.
Memoirs of my sordid and wonderful life might interest you. The Cracked Mirror – Reflections of an Appalachian Son and What Happens Next? A Life’s True Tale.
Finally, you can determine whether or not you truly hate me or like me by reading Joe Public’s Political Perspective, a ‘rant and rave’ about government – yes, I had to open my mouth, or, in this case, my laptop! Don’t know if I have it right but the thoughts come from an honest place.
All these books are on my personal website – http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com – just scan the home page after the short bio section. Really, could you just start something ‘viral’ for me? The books are entertaining and non-convoluted – I would not know how to make a book too complicated!
Now you’ve seen the begging and crass side of me after getting your attention with animals in the clouds.
Next week, I promise to behave!
http://www.about.me/brchitwood
http://twitter.com (@brchitwood)
http://goodreads.com/author/dashboard
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
http://facebook.com/billyrayscorner
http://linkedin.com (Billy Ray Chitwood)
Feel free to comment. My best wishes.
July 24, 2014
Flowers and Fate
Posted on July 24, 2014 by Billy Ray Chitwood
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Flowers and Fate
“Red or yellow roses, Sir?” the older lady in the flower shop asked.
The young man in his early thirties smiled and raised his brow. “Now, how did you know it was to be roses, Millie?” He knew her from a name tag.
“It’s the body language, young man. Your step, your face, the happy gleam in your eyes.”
“Really! I’m that obvious?”
“You’re that obvious,” she teasingly grinned, “plus I’ve had this shop too many years not to know when love walks through the door.”
He put his hands on the counter and gently asked, “And, do you know how many roses I’ll be sending FTD today?”
“You’re a two-dozen fellow, I’m betting.” She pursed her lips.
“And, does my step, my face, and the happy gleam in my eyes tell you which color I’ll pick?”
“Red, of course! You’re obviously in love and you want the red roses to convey your love for the young lady.” She tilted her head slightly in a positive gesture.
“Why would I not choose yellow roses?” the man asked, amused by the conversation.
“Yellow roses would be fine, but you wish to make a deeper statement. Red gets the point of love across rather profoundly. They say, ‘I love you’. Yellow roses convey happiness and joy in more of a friendship fashion… My goodness, listen to me, giving you information you likely already know.”
“No, you’ve actually tagged me perfectly, and I thank you. It will be two dozen red roses, and I trust you will pick out twenty-four of your very best.”
“It will be my pleasure, plus an extra red rose to accentuate the strong statement. I shall make it a very special arrangement for you. You will wish a card sent with the roses…”
His name was Farris Stanley Ballanger. The flowers were going to Johnnie Mahannic. Stan spent some time in thought at the counter as to the words he would put on the card. Smiling, finally satisfied with his choice of words, he placed the card in the accompanying envelope, wrote ‘Dear Sweet Johnnie’ on the front, and handed it to Millie.
Stan paid for the flowers and chatted a few moments more with Millie.
As Stan was about to leave the store, he asked: “Do you mind if I hug you, Millie? You are such a great person.”
Millie obliged, and Stan left the store.
Later around midnight as Stan closed and locked his service station, he was robbed at gunpoint, marched to the ‘Men’s Room’ and shot to death at close range.
Stan’s roses arrived the next morning before news of the robbery and homicide reached Johnnie. Her heart filled with love overflowing as she read what Stan had written on the card:
Love and Time Eternal
It matters not the hours, the days, the years, the lifetime we spend together!
What matters is all the love we have gathered in our hearts
That will last eternally…
Forever, Stanley
(Flash fiction by Billy Ray Chitwood)
In Memory of my Uncle Stanley who lives forever in my heart!
*
I’ve written a novel about love called, Butterflies and Jellybeans – A Love Story
BUY SITE: Amazon Worldwide http://authl.it/1st
This book begins with two joggers fatefully brought together on a running path when a lightning strike hits… The story that follows is about love and the obstacles that get in the way: betrayal, sibling rivalry, gambling, murder, a matriarch’s secret, a desert odyssey, and redemption. It is my hope that you will read and enjoy.
*
http://www.about.me/brchitwood
http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com (for a bio sketch and all my books)
http://twitter.com (@brchitwood)
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
http://facebook.com/billyrayscorner
http://linkedin.com
*
Please feel free to leave a comment below.
Flowers and Fate
Flowers and Fate
“Red or yellow roses, Sir?” the older lady in the flower shop asked.
The young man in his early thirties smiled and raised his brow. “Now, how did you know it was to be roses, Millie?” He knew her from a name tag.
“It’s the body language, young man. Your step, your face, the happy gleam in your eyes.”
“Really! I’m that obvious?”
“You’re that obvious,” she teasingly grinned, “plus I’ve had this shop too many years not to know when love walks through the door.”
He put his hands on the counter and gently asked, “And, do you know how many roses I’ll be sending FTD today?”
“You’re a two-dozen fellow, I’m betting.” She pursed her lips.
“And, does my step, my face, and the happy gleam in my eyes tell you which color I’ll pick?”
“Red, of course! You’re obviously in love and you want the red roses to convey your love for the young lady.” She tilted her head slightly in a positive gesture.
“Why would I not choose yellow roses?” the man asked, amused by the conversation.
“Yellow roses would be fine, but you wish to make a deeper statement. Red gets the point of love across rather profoundly. They say, ‘I love you’. Yellow roses convey happiness and joy in more of a friendship fashion… My goodness, listen to me, giving you information you likely already know.”
“No, you’ve actually tagged me perfectly, and I thank you. It will be two dozen red roses, and I trust you will pick out twenty-four of your very best.”
“It will be my pleasure, plus an extra red rose to accentuate the strong statement. I shall make it a very special arrangement for you. You will wish a card sent with the roses…”
His name was Farris Stanley Ballanger. The flowers were going to Johnnie Mahannic. Stan spent some time in thought at the counter as to the words he would put on the card. Smiling, finally satisfied with his choice of words, he placed the card in the accompanying envelope, wrote ‘Dear Sweet Johnnie’ on the front, and handed it to Millie.
Stan paid for the flowers and chatted a few moments more with Millie.
As Stan was about to leave the store, he asked: “Do you mind if I hug you, Millie? You are such a great person.”
Millie obliged, and Stan left the store.
Later around midnight as Stan closed and locked his service station, he was robbed at gunpoint, marched to the ‘Men’s Room’ and shot to death at close range.
Stan’s roses arrived the next morning before news of the robbery and homicide reached Johnnie. Her heart filled with love overflowing as she read what Stan had written on the card:
Love and Time Eternal
It matters not the hours, the days, the years, the lifetime we spend together!
What matters is all the love we have gathered in our hearts
That will last eternally…
Forever, Stanley
(Flash fiction by Billy Ray Chitwood)
In Memory of my Uncle Stanley who lives forever in my heart!
*
I’ve written a novel about love called, Butterflies and Jellybeans – A Love Story
BUY SITE:
Amazon Worldwide http://authl.it/1st
This book begins with two joggers fatefully brought together on a running path when a lightning strike hits… The story that follows is about love and the obstacles that get in the way: betrayal, sibling rivalry, gambling, murder, a matriarch’s secret, a desert odyssey, and redemption. It is my hope that you will read and enjoy.
*
http://www.about.me/brchitwood
http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com (for a bio sketch and all my books)
http://twitter.com (@brchitwood)
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
http://facebook.com/billyrayscorner
*
Please feel free to leave a comment below – after the blog awards I am proud to display.
July 17, 2014
Confused and Mystified
Confused and Mystified
Posted on July 17, 2014 by Billy Ray Chitwood
Bill Chitwood
Confused and Mystified
Participating, watching others participate, wondering what and where is the magic in this digital mind-boggling world. You are a writer. You write because of need and because you have identified writing as the talent you most likely possess more than any other, because just maybe that activity keeps you alive and in tune with the world around you. You go through the spasms of depression, frustration, and an occasional adrenaline rush of encouragement and excitement.
Then, you take a look at the marketing aspects of selling your books, the various providers of platforms, tools, and applications. Perhaps, like me, you become aware of the specialized and confusing language used in the digital market places, things like Avatar, widgets, SEOs, RSS feeds, URLs, hash marks, and all of it somehow cannot seem to make sense to you. You become angry with yourself, with the computer and its devious foreign language, and with the madness of minds making life so much more complicated than it really needs be. You wonder what you should be doing that you are not doing but most of all how to do it. Could you have been selling more books and yourself if you had joined this group, used this platform, done this, done that?
Sure, you can hire someone for a tidy sum you think you can trust to take the marketing worries away that allows you to concentrate on your writing. Yet, you either feel not quite comfortable among the so-called professional or you are too money-tight to give it a try. So, you muddle on, writing good books – books that should be selling – and attempting a one-person publishing house. Is there an answer? Is there a Nirvana out there for you?
The odds might not be great, but you figure to keep on writing – because that’s what you love to do. Hopefully, before the grim reaper comes calling, a benevolent event, a magic will come your way and finally make all those moments at the laptop pay off. A Publishing deal with a handsome sign-up bonus? An Amazon selling spree that puts your books virally in the top echelon of the Indie market? Okay, more realistically, beautifully written and sincere heartfelt reviews may lack the money and fame but they do make you soar for a few moments in those heady clouds of success. Maybe that is all we can hope – that and learning the foreign language that is the internet.
Writing mimics life and weather! Just wait a few moments with the emotion you are currently feeling…it will soon pass and be replaced by another. Time is the arbiter of all things – it is here and gone!
Just in the time it took me to write this blog post, I became a famous writer! Talk about an emotional uplift… A good caring and loving spouse can do that for you.
Keep Writing! Good things can happen!
NOTE:
My NEW BOOK, A Common Evil is set in Mexico along the Sea of Cortez – murder, mystery, suspense as good fights evil among the drug cartels. The initial reviews are 5-Stars – Hope you can enjoy it at Amazon Worldwide authl.it/B00LMHJUIS. Reviews are welcome.
Feel free to leave a comment. My best wishes.
http://www.about.me/brchitwood
http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com
http://twitter.com/brchitwood (@brchitwood)
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
http://facebook.com/billyrayscorner
http://linkedin.com (billy ray chitwood)
Confused and Mystified
Confused and Mystified
Participating, watching others participate, wondering what and where is the magic in this digital mind-boggling world. You are a writer. You write because of need and because you have identified writing as the talent you most likely possess more than any other, because just maybe that activity keeps you alive and in tune with the world around you. You go through the spasms of depression, frustration, and an occasional adrenaline rush of encouragement and excitement.
Then, you take a look at the marketing aspects of selling your books, the various providers of platforms, tools, and applications. Perhaps, like me, you become aware of the specialized and confusing language used in the digital market places, things like Avatar, widgets, SEOs, RSS feeds, URLs, hash marks, and all of it somehow cannot seem to make sense to you. You become angry with yourself, with the computer and its devious foreign language, and with the madness of minds making life so much more complicated than it really needs be. You wonder what you should be doing that you are not doing but most of all how to do it. Could you have been selling more books and yourself if you had joined this group, used this platform, done this, done that?
Sure, you can hire someone for a tidy sum you think you can trust to take the marketing worries away that allows you to concentrate on your writing. Yet, you either feel not quite comfortable among the so-called professional or you are too money-tight to give it a try. So, you muddle on, writing good books – books that should be selling – and attempting a one-person publishing house. Is there an answer? Is there a Nirvana out there for you?
The odds might not be great, but you figure to keep on writing – because that’s what you love to do. Hopefully, before the grim reaper comes calling, a benevolent event, a magic will come your way and finally make all those moments at the laptop pay off. A Publishing deal with a handsome sign-up bonus? An Amazon selling spree that puts your books virally in the top echelon of the Indie market? Okay, more realistically, beautifully written and sincere heartfelt reviews may lack the money and fame but they do make you soar for a few moments in those heady clouds of success. Maybe that is all we can hope – that and learning the foreign language that is the internet.
Writing mimics life and weather! Just wait a few moments with the emotion you are currently feeling…it will soon pass and be replaced by another. Time is the arbiter of all things – it is here and gone!
Just in the time it took me to write this blog post, I became a famous writer! Talk about an emotional uplift… A good caring and loving spouse can do that for you.
Keep Writing! Good things can happen!
NOTE:
My NEW BOOK, A Common Evil is set in Mexico along the Sea of Cortez – murder, mystery, suspense as good fights evil among the drug cartels. The initial reviews are 5-Stars – Hope you can enjoy it at Amazon Worldwide authl.it/B00LMHJUIS. Reviews are welcome.
Feel free to leave a comment. My best wishes.
http://www.about.me/brchitwood
http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com
http://twitter.com/brchitwood (@brchitwood)
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
http://facebook.com/billyrayscorner
http://linkedin.com (billy ray chitwood)
July 10, 2014
Why Did I Write "A Common Evil..."
Why Did I Write “A Common Evil…?”Posted on July 10, 2014 by Billy Ray Chitwood
LAUNCH BLOG
Why Did I Write A Common Evil…?
The title could just as easily be ‘Why Do I Write’? This book, however, has a rather significant place in my heart and mind. A Common Evil – A Bailey Crane Mystery is the last book (6) in ‘The Bailey Crane Mystery Series but that is not the reason it occupies that significant place in my heart and mind.
It was a marvelous pleasure for my wife and me to live full-time in Mexico on the Sea of Cortez in a small fishing village some sixty miles south of the Arizona border. We were there for several years, and I served proudly as the president of the Homeowners Association at our resort…that part of the book is accurate for the character of Bailey Crane. Another part of A Common Evil which is indeed couched in fact is the early morning raid at our resort some months back in which a cartel boss was killed, along with some other bad drug people. It must also be stated as fact that this incident occurred shortly after my wife and I left Mexico in our return to the United States. The raid, or ‘sting’, by the Federales and their allies was the true inspiration for writing the book – that, and exploring the unlikely drug solutions south of the border. There are other truths in the book taken from my experiential mind vault, but, for the most part, it is a fictional novel that has all the necessary disclaimers.
It was important for me to write the book for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, it gave me a poetic license to tell a story and relive some aspects of my life and times in Mexico, a country for which I have had a love affair for many years. The allusions to the Sea of Cortez, its incomparable beauty, and to the hospitable, nostalgic, warm people of Mexico, are all from a truly thankful mind and heart. My thoughts in the book about the people in general and the country come from a good place. It is true that Mexico has its poverty, its cartels, its corruption, and it also has a desire to become more than what some in the world perceive it to be…not so different from many countries. In the main, my full-time years spent in Mexico were enjoyable and my love for the people genuine and heartfelt.
Second, I wanted to explore a common evil shared by most if not all the nations of the world. Because Mexico gets so much media attention drawn to its drug cartels, its brutal murders, and the sometime popular opinion that the government is an awed and intimidated partner in the awful business, I wanted to explore some off-the-wall solutions to the drug wars. While living by that beautiful sea and in having a resort position that gave me perhaps more opportunities for contact with local government officials, there came to me an emerging microcosmic vision of the country as a whole…certainly, not empirical, nothing measurable or notable in scientific terms, simply a desultory and superficial mix of observations.
Another reason for writing "A Common Evil," the most crucial to me, I wanted to write an exciting novel that readers might enjoy, one with believable characters, one with a few twists and turns, some irony, perhaps even a red herring here and there.
Finally, writing is life for me. It keeps the old heart ticking and gives me clues to identifying myself, providing dimensions otherwise not known…after all, some of us need a lifetime to figure out just who we are.
Hope you will check out A Common Evil – A Bailey Crane Mystery – book 6. Incidentally, each book in ‘The Bailey Crane Mystery Series’ stands alone…while fleshing out the central character in each story. Some of the mysteries are inspired by true crimes.
BUY SITES:
Amazon US: goo.gl/cMutZf (Kindle)
Amazon US: goo.gl/seIxV4 (Paperback)
Amazon UK: goo.gl/W1i9si
CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/4856989
If you enjoy A Common Evil perhaps you will write a review of your reading experience on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. You, the readers, are the life-blood of writers. Without you, authors can lead a very lonely life.
Feel free to comment below. My very best wishes.
SOME LINKS TO THE AUTHOR:
http://www.about.me/brchitwood
http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com
Follow me on Twitter – @brchitwood
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
http://facebook.com/billyrayscorner
(NOTE: I’m very proud to have received nine awards for my blog and I usually display those awards at the end of my posts – as required. On this occasion, I will hold my pride in check – almost!)
Why Did I Write “A Common Evil…?”
LAUNCH BLOG
Why Did I Write A Common Evil…?
The title could just as easily be ‘Why Do I Write’? This book, however, has a rather significant place in my heart and mind. A Common Evil – A Bailey Crane Mystery is the last book (6) in ‘The Bailey Crane Mystery Series but that is not the reason it occupies that significant place in my heart and mind.
It was a marvelous pleasure for my wife and me to live full-time in Mexico on the Sea of Cortez in a small fishing village some sixty miles south of the Arizona border. We were there for several years, and I served proudly as the president of the Homeowners Association at our resort…that part of the book is accurate for the character of Bailey Crane. Another part of A Common Evil which is indeed couched in fact is the early morning raid at our resort some months back in which a cartel boss was killed, along with some other bad drug people. It must also be stated as fact that this incident occurred shortly after my wife and I left Mexico in our return to the United States. The raid, or ‘sting’, by the Federales and their allies was the true inspiration for writing the book – that, and exploring the unlikely drug solutions south of the border. There are other truths in the book taken from my experiential mind vault, but, for the most part, it is a fictional novel that has all the necessary disclaimers.
It was important for me to write the book for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, it gave me a poetic license to tell a story and relive some aspects of my life and times in Mexico, a country for which I have had a love affair for many years. The allusions to the Sea of Cortez, its incomparable beauty, and to the hospitable, nostalgic, warm people of Mexico, are all from a truly thankful mind and heart. My thoughts in the book about the people in general and the country come from a good place. It is true that Mexico has its poverty, its cartels, its corruption, and it also has a desire to become more than what some in the world perceive it to be…not so different from many countries. In the main, my full-time years spent in Mexico were enjoyable and my love for the people genuine and heartfelt.
Second, I wanted to explore a common evil shared by most if not all the nations of the world. Because Mexico gets so much media attention drawn to its drug cartels, its brutal murders, and the sometime popular opinion that the government is an awed and intimidated partner in the awful business, I wanted to explore some off-the-wall solutions to the drug wars. While living by that beautiful sea and in having a resort position that gave me perhaps more opportunities for contact with local government officials, there came to me an emerging microcosmic vision of the country as a whole…certainly, not empirical, nothing measurable or notable in scientific terms, simply a desultory and superficial mix of observations.
Another reason for writing A Common Evil, the most crucial to me, I wanted to write an exciting novel that readers might enjoy, one with believable characters, one with a few twists and turns, some irony, perhaps even a red herring here and there.
Finally, writing is life for me. It keeps the old heart ticking and gives me clues to identifying myself, providing dimensions otherwise not known…after all, some of us need a lifetime to figure out just who we are.
Hope you will check out A Common Evil – A Bailey Crane Mystery – book 6. Incidentally, each book in ‘The Bailey Crane Mystery Series’ stands alone…while fleshing out the central character in each story. Some of the mysteries are inspired by true crimes.
BUY SITES:
Amazon US: goo.gl/cMutZf (Kindle)
Amazon US: goo.gl/seIxV4 (Paperback)
Amazon UK: goo.gl/W1i9si
CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/4856989
If you enjoy A Common Evil perhaps you will write a review of your reading experience on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. You, the readers, are the life-blood of writers. Without you, authors can lead a very lonely life.
Feel free to comment below. My very best wishes.
SOME LINKS TO THE AUTHOR:
http://www.about.me/brchitwood
http://billyraychitwood.weebly.com
Follow me on Twitter – @brchitwood
http://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
http://facebook.com/billyrayscorner
(NOTE: I’m very proud to have received nine awards for my blog and I usually display those awards at the end of my posts – as required. On this occasion, I will hold my pride in check – almost!)
