Randy Attwood's Blog, page 24

The 41st Sermon free until midnight April 8

For Kindle users, "The 41st Sermon" is free until midnight PDT April 8. Walker Percy fans should be interested in this book and in a previous post you'll see the scan of a note that Southern Writer sent me after he read the opening chapters.

http://www.amazon.com/The-41st-Sermon-ebook/dp/B005QC4XBO/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322578313&sr=1-7

Have Story, Need Letterpress Printer, Typographer, Designer, Artist, Paper Maker, Book Binder

Blogs also seem a perfect place to dream in public and perhaps find like-minded dreamers. My dream is to hook up with a printer who has a letter press and a designer who loves typogaphy and an artist who likes to do etchings, a paper maker and a book binder. A collaborative project that would be ideal for Kickstart funding.
The Saltness of Time would be a perfect novella for a limited edition, hand-printed book on fine paper and wonderfully bound. It is a perfect story for an artist to illustrate with etchings.
Check this one scene:
It was a house made for another era, another place, a set of dreams beyond my understanding. In the failing light and in the shadows of the trees, the air around the white, three-story mansion had a bluish tinge, the color of my own cold lips. The house needed painting. And what a job that would be! Wide eaves above the attic windows that were above that third floor. Fancy cut posts, gables and columns. The entire front porch of the house was screened in. It had the look of a plantation mansion and I wondered if the porch might not contain a misplaced southern gentleman in a white suit and Panama hat, frozen in mid-stride while smoking his after-dinner cigar.
So if any of the above talents happen upon this page, do get in touch.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Saltness-of-Time-ebook/dp/B006GQF2KK/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322796663&sr=1-9

I Love Being Interviewed via email for Blogs

I did two blog interviews that were posted within two days of each other. What fun. One interview focused on one novel: "Rabbletown: Life in These United Christian States of Holy America." I really enjoyed that. The most telling may be this Q and A:
5) Religion is one of the most fundamental aspects of human society, yet also one of the most divisive. Did you ever worry about the controversy that can come into delving so thoroughly into religious themes? Some Christians may read your book and become offended, for example.

The religious right has offended me for decades. I think other Christians will relate and take to RABBLETOWN just fine. The recent barbaric measures in many state legislatures requiring women seeking abortions to be raped by a sonogram probe is offensive to me, and I think to many Christians. My book shows the logical outcome of the religious right's approach. In RABBLETOWN, if you are a woman and married and fertile and not pregnant, you will be artificially inseminated--art pregged. The whole Rush Limbaugh slut-debacle shows that some Christians need to face the consequences of their extreme positions.
The entire interview can be found here:
http://riftwatcher.blogspot.com/2012/03/religious-dystopia-interview-with.html
The other interview was much more general, concerning all of the now 13 works I have live. That was great fun, too. And this questioner was interested in some personal info. Perhaps the most revealing Q and A was this:
17) What's the one thing you can't live without?

Gin.
That interview can be found here:
http://themyesterioumuslimahshaven.blogspot.ca/

New Look at Published Works

A Match Made in Heaven

When in junior high, high school, and college, I sucked down science fiction like it was soda pop. So, when I started writing fiction it seemed natural to pursue that genre. Didn't work. Why? Trying to write it didn't grab my soul. It didn't express the me that seemed to be wanting to be exposed. But I did make a few serious efforts. A Match Made in Heaven came from an idea I had for a series: space travel and the discovery of Earth-like planets meant that whole populations could emigrate from earth and populate their own worlds. Religious and political groups, so often in conflict with other such groups, could simply leave Earth and settle on a world of their own. Rule it according to each group's own dictates. There could be a Jewish world, an Islam world (separate worlds for Shiites and Sunnis?), a Hindu world, a conservative world, a libertarian world...you pick, whatever sect or religious or political following you want. There were worlds aplenty for you to go populate and create the destiny of your particular belief.
I began with Mormonism, having always been fascinated by the story of the Golden Tablets that Joseph Smith was able to translate, which became the Book of Mormon, and then, wow, those plates just got lost!


I'll confess a bit of opportunism in publishing "A Match Made in Heaven" just now. Mitt Romney may be the GOP nominee, so interest in the Mormon faith may draw people to this story.
But I do think the lesson in "A Match Made in Heaven" goes much deeper.
I'll make it free for two days starting March 16.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Randy%20Attwood#/ref=sr_pg_2?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ARandy+Attwood&page=2&sort=relevancerank&ie=UTF8&qid=1331824385
A Match Made in Heaven

Sometimes, while sipping gin, a poem arrives

Sipping Gin
Perhaps not many years hence,I'll be sitting on this bench,Under the broad eaves of this garden shed,Sipping gin.
And look up to see the ghost of my wife,Working in the garden.
Or, perhaps, it will be she,Working in the garden, who will look up,To see me, sitting on this bench,Sipping gin.
(c) 2012 Randy Attwood

Ever Lose a Novel? It's a Real Kick in the Gut.

In an earlier post I gave a tease about "A Heart to Understand," which features a half-Navajo, half-White young man who believes he is a witch and understands how to open the gates to the Holy People and receive new gifts for the Navajo.
That book is now with Stan Hattaway, who has a design company in Phoenix, and used to work here in Kansas City, where I was once one of his clients. Stan is remarkably gifted and has a sense of color that is amazing. I'm looking forward to the cover design he comes up with. This is a tough one. "A Heart to Understand" is a suspense/thriller and was one of what I hoped would be a series of books centered around the same protagonist, Philip McGuire, a burn-out foreign correspondent who after being captured by the Hezbollah and then released decides to throw in the towel and return to his college town to own and run a bar.
I had written the prequel, "Heal My Heart So I May Cry" but thought "A Heart to Understand" was the stronger of the two and with the strong Navajo presence easier to market. (In my humble opinion, I think it contains one of the best retellings in a work of fiction the Navajo creation story.)
With "Understand" wonderfully edited by Joan LeMonte, it was time to turn my attention to "Heal."
Gulp. Couldn't find it on my computer or backup systems. Not to worry. I make hard copies of everything. Gulp. Found copies of everything else, but not "Heal". Not that many places to look, and I tore through every possible storage space. Nada. There is a vast sinking of the heart when you realize something you worked on over many years is now gone. No way to reconstruct it. So much for the series. Sorry, Philip McGuire, guess you'll probably only have one existence.
Then I came across a hard drive I had forgotten about: one of those external hard drives that required its own power supply. Plugged it in, and there was "Heal". Started the printer and got words on reliable paper in my hands. Reedited it and Katy Sozaeva, who has edited works for me before, was available, and she has done a masterful job.
So I'll have the prequel ready for its cover design after we see the look that Stan comes up with for "Understand." Maybe it's time to start searching around for another title with the word "Heart" in it. I rather like ole Philip McGuire; wonder how he's been doing?

Blow Up the Roses will be free for three days starting March 2. Beware.

I unpublished Blow Up the Roses from Smashwords because that site uses Paypal to make their payments and Paypal has told them that if Smashwords has any works for "...which rape, bestiality and incest are the major theme..." that Smashwords will be banned.
I do not consider that rape, bestiality or incest is a major theme in Blow Up the Roses, but it does have a really bad character who is a pedophile serial killer so I thought it best to unpublish from Smashwords. If you want to check out the latest on this issue the Smashwords site update url is here:  https://www.smashwords.com/about/beta
Since I've unpublished from Smashwords, I've enrolled it in Kindle Select, which mean Kindle Prime subscribers can borrow for free. It also lets me offer it for free to anyone and I'll be doing that for three days starting March 2.
I like to warn people away from Blow Up the Roses because it does have a serial pedophile killer as one of the characters and I do write realistically. The goal of fiction is to create reality with words. And there is some horrible reality going on in this book.
But the story, and I hope the writing, is compelling.  Here's what one reviewer wrote:
After reading the first two paragraphs of this book I wanted to stop because I knew it would be disturbing. I continued reading because I've looked at my neighbors' homes and thought about the possibility that they're hiding terrible secrets in their basements and attics and no one will ever know. Apparently, Randy Attwood has also. Thought about it, I mean. I hope.

The plot in "Blow Up the Roses" is clear and easy to follow, the setting painted a vivid picture in my mind - as I read, I could see the characters. The subject is cringe-worthy but the author's skill in telling a story is worth the read.
http://www.amazon.com/Blow-Up-the-Roses-ebook/dp/B005J7LA0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316291897&sr=1-1

Just Because I Can Post What I Want

A ferocious wind followed, and my father spoke as if that great gust had demanded from him some kind of answer.

"Let the winds scream.
"Let the winds reflect and mirror
"The rage that man has felt
"Since first he stood upon this vast and mighty plain.
"Oh yes, let the winds scream
"And express for us
"All our torment and our pain."

I had never heard him recite poetry before.
"Shakespeare?" I asked.
"Shakespeare?" He laughed lightly as he repeated my question. "No, not Shakespeare."
"Who then?"
"Something I wrote when I was in college."
"You? You wrote poetry?"
"Some of it even publishable. Never got published. But publishable."
"Could I read 'em?"
"Scattered, literally, to the four winds. They were lost in the tornado. You don't remember that, do you."
It was not a question because I had told him before that I did not. I shook my head one more time no. But it was a lie. I couldn't tell him my very first memory was of waking up and having my room fly all around me.I never told Dad the tornado was my first memory because it seemed wrong that I could remember the storm that killed Mother, but I had no memory of her.

http://www.amazon.com/One-More-Victim-ebook/dp/B006J0C6T8/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323313928&sr=1-10

Forced Pregnancies? It happens in Rabbletown. Could it happen in Virginia?

"We've got to fornicate again tonight, Bob.""So soon?""I failed the pregnancy test again at the clinic today and they said if I failed next month, they'd have to art-preg me.""Well, tell them I can't get it up anymore.""That wouldn't matter. You know that. They'll haul you in and hook you up to the electro-ejaculator. Bob, I don't want to be one of those women who have to be art-pregged." She was starting to cry. "My Personal Pastor Counselor says God looks with disfavor on art-pregged wives. Other men perform their duty to God's Church of the Evangels. I don't know why you can't."

From Rabbletown: Life in These United Christian States of Holy America
http://www.amazon.com/Rabbletown-United-Christian-America-ebook/dp/B005DLZZTM/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311343282&sr=1-3