Jonas Eriksson's Blog: Jonaswrites.com - official site of author and writer Jonas Eriksson, page 15

Hollywood Ass.

Now you can read a sample of my second novel, Hollywood Ass. The cover isn’t finished yet, but the book should be out early February! Watch this space…

About Hollywood Ass.

A Hollywood superstar suffers a mental collapse, her marriage is suffering, her career is on the ropes and the only one to glue it all together is her loyal assistant and friend, Darryl.

Problem is, he’s kind of in love with her.

Soon he finds himself drawn into a story that is much like the movies his employer stars in.

But in real life the answers aren’t in the script…

Enjoy this romantic and humorous story about Hollywood, fame, friendship and love.

Read the sample of Hollywood Ass. at Scribd. The finished book will be out in February 2013.

Short story: A Killer Date

New short story out. This time it’s a thriller (or horror if you like). The story is about a romantic date gone bad.

Read, enjoy and share. A Killer Date is available for free at:

A Killer Date – Scribd



A Killer Date – Smashwords

Happy reading! Cheers / J.

New short story out – The Development Talk

As a small teaser before Hollywood ASS. hits the stores, I’ve published a little short story that you might enjoy. And if you do, please share it with your friends!

The story is about Jasper’s dreaded development talk with his psychopath manager. It turns out even worse than he could have ever imagined.

Or does it?

Download and read The Development Talk

The Development Talk on Smashwords

Thanks! / J.

 

Richard Blanco – Obama’s Inaugural poet

I found out about Richard Blanco when reading the article called Poet’s Kinship with the President in New York Times this morning.

Poets often live their lives well outside the spotlight, but President Obama’s choice of Mr. Blanco as the 2013 inaugural poet, will surely change that for the Latin-American. He shares the honor of being the inaugural poet with the likes of Robert Frost and Maya Angelou and his job will now be to compose an original poem for the president’s ceremonial swearing-in on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 21. Addie Whisenant, the inaugural committee’s spokeswoman, said Mr. Obama picked Mr. Blanco because the poet’s “deeply personal poems are rooted in the idea of what it means to be an American.

His poems really resonated with me and I quote one called “Unspoken Elegy for Tía Cucha” below.

The picture above is his collection of poems called Looking for the Gulf Motel

UNSPOKEN ELEGY FOR TÍA CUCHA – Richard Blanco

I arrive with a box of pastelitos,

a dozen red carnations, and a handful

of memories at her door: the half-moons

of her French manicures, how she spoke

blowing out cigarette smoke, her words

leaving her mouth as ghosts, the music

of her nicknames: Cucha, Cuchita, Pucha.

I kiss her hello and she slaps me hard

across my arm: ¡Cabrón! Too handsome

to visit your Tía, eh? She laughs, pulls me

inside her efficiency, a place I thought

I had forgotten, comes back to life

with wafts of Jean Naté and Pine Sol,

the same calendar from Farmacia León

with scenes of Old Havana on the wall,

the same peppermints in a crystal dish.

And her, wearing a papery housecoat,

sneakers with panty hose, like she wore

those summer mornings she’d walk me

down to the beach along First Street,

past the washed-out pinks and blues

of the Art Deco hotels like old toys.

The retirees lined across the verandas

like seagulls peering into the horizon,

the mango popsicles from the bodeguita

and the pier she told me was once

a bridge to Cuba–have all vanished.

I ask how she’s feeling, but we agree

not to talk about that today, though

we both know why I have come

to see her: in a few months, maybe

weeks, her lungs will fill up again,

her heart will stop for good. She too

will vanish, except what I remember

of her, this afternoon: sharing a pastelito,

over a café she sweetens with Equal

at her dinette table crowded with boxes

of low-salt saltines and fibery cereals.

Under the watch of Holy Jesus’ heart

burning on the wall, we gossip about

the secret crush she had on my father

once, she counts exactly how many

years and months since she left Cuba

and her mother forever. We complain

about the wars, disease, fires blazing

on the midday news as she dunks

the flowers in a tumbler–a dozen red

suns burst in the sapphire sky framed

in the window, sitting by the table.

What’s the Wake-Up Call?

So what’s The Wake-Up Call? It’s a novel about a self-centered, womanizing, workaholic and narcissistic creative director called Jack Reynolds whose life changes completely after a few romantic mistakes.

The Wake-Up Call has been downloaded +40 000 times and reached the semi-finals of The Kindle Book Review’s Best Indie Books of 2012. Buy it in print at The Book Depository or Amazon US and UK Or why not as an e-book? US, UK, FR, IT, DE, ES

Remember that you don’t need a Kindle to download a book from Amazon. You can read from any digital device. Read more about the Kindle apps.

About the book:

You either love him or hate him. No matter if you think he’s an asshole or just a nice guy in a heap of trouble, Jack Reynolds will stir your feelings…

On the surface he has it all: the women, the career, and the Central Park view penthouse, but behind his well-groomed and chiseled facade he has nothing.

At least this is what he’s about to realize.

At age 35, alpha-male Jack Reynolds’ workaholic, womanizing and self-centered behavior is catching up with him both physically and mentally. After a series of grave romantic mistakes, he tries to get away from it all by boarding a plane to Cancun, Mexico.

But Jack soon realizes he can’t really run away from anything…

…especially not himself.

Find out how Jack gets his life-changing wake-up call in this fast-paced, heartfelt and funny novel about soul-searching, friendship, and love.

Readers response to The Wake-Up Call…

“A contemporary Don Draper!”

“A riveting page-turner.”

“Brilliant fun for small money.”

“If you don’t smile to this book, you probably never smile anyway.”

“Like a male Bridget Jones in the voice of Marian Keyes.”

“Good style, great flow! Can’t remember that a book entertained me this much.”

Gritty, realistic and a damn good read!”

“The Wake-Up Call really has it all – you laugh, you’re moved and most of all you’re entertained.”

Writing is a magical gift

I wrote a guest blog on Curriculum Creativity, a site devoted to the noble goal of improving outcomes and experiences for children. It’s about creative writing and the beauty of storytelling. Below you’ll find the full post.

Writing is magical and we all love magic, don’t we? The famous author Stephen King said that writing to him is a kind of telepathy, because using only a piece of paper, written ages ago, you communicate with another person, sending them images, emotions, whatever you want to transmit. If you want to call it magic or telepathy is up to you, but it’s definitely something special. I like to call it a gift.

Writing is a gift we should share, but how can the written word compete with videos, movies, iPads and the abundance of everyday escape available through the Internet? Why would a generation spoiled for choice choose a book instead of a movie or writing instead of playing computer games?

Besides encouraging visits to libraries and book discussions that doesn’t deal with the usual “old and musty tomes”, but something fresh and interesting the students can relate to; I think the easiest commodity to sell and encourage right now among most school subjects is creative writing, the beauty of crafting stories and how they enrich our lives.

After all, isn’t writing a cool thing to do? And why would being an author be less sexy and marketable than for example a rock star, a rapper or an actor, who people look up to so much these days – you still use your emotions and thoughts to communicate with your audience. Although it’s in some ways more indirect, the plus-side for the writer is that the written word is timeless and can be accessed at anytime from anywhere by anyone. If that isn’t magic I don’t know what is.

So how do you sell the magic of writing and storytelling? Well, I think you need to use the tools available to us today, the ones enabling us to be seen and published without a huge publishing house or a newspaper behind us. I’m talking about social media, blogs, and independent publishing, opening up the world for aspiring writers. Because the truth about writing is that besides being remarkable self-therapy, we write because we want to be seen, heard and read and to get your story shared and appreciated, you need to make sure it’s good and for that you need the tools of writing: the grammar, the structure and the voice.

When the tools are in place, the rest is “just” hard work. You don’t need to worry about a stream of rejection letters anymore, because the dream of seeing your name on a book cover is already very achievable thanks to independent publishing and free author platforms like Smashwords, iBooks, Nook, and Amazon Kindle Publishing.

I had been writing magazine articles, journalistic news pieces, advertising copy and radio and TV scripts for some time before I published my novel The Wake-Up Call through Amazon Kindle Publishing and its print division Createspace in September 2011. I tried the traditional publishing route first, but after a couple of encouraging but at the same time deflating rejection letters I decided to try independent publishing. I had no expectations going in but was very positively surprised on how easy the process was.

It wasn’t a success over night but a few months later sales started kicking in and I started getting customer reviews, buzz on different websites and blogs and today The Wake-Up Call has been downloaded as an e-book by almost 40 000 readers – an amazing development that inspires me and makes me put in the extra hours.

Being able to reach out with your writing without having to go through the tough process of a stern publishing house and people meddling with the storyline or the characters, is surely very inspiring and I think the encouragement of people reading, analyzing and offering feedback to what you write is the secret to really developing an interest in creative writing and the wonders it brings. Writing is a lonely task and being able to share experiences, get coaching from a teacher and other aspiring writers is invaluable in developing your voice and your craft. And most of all it’s fun!

When I think back to the good old school years, the most interesting class I ever took was creative writing. It was even exciting to get the editors’ red pen! I guess it was like that because you felt you were building and learning something important, something you could actually use. And looking back it’s the skill I’ve learned in school that I’m most happy about, the skill which has given me the most and which keep on giving every time I sit down by my computer.

Writing is a gift. And it’s definitely worth sharing.

The Empty Inbox Strategy – Increase Your Productivity

I’m an ardent follower of The Empty Inbox Strategy. In a high-paced environment such as e-business (or pretty much any other business these days), where the shop is always open and you’re often involved in many different projects at the same time, I find this very important to find quality time to actually work.

The Empty Inbox Strategy is not talking about always having an empty inbox, because that’s impossible, but creating the feeling that you’re in control and not letting the number of messages stray above what is visible at a quick glance. If you’re one of those people with 423 unread e-mails, then there are definitely ways to increase your productivity.

You can start by applying the two-minute rule, meaning that anything that can be dealt with within two minutes, should be done straight away. And before you dig any further, looking for actionable items (action points), make sure you have set up your folders properly. For example, I let all e-mails where I’m CC:ed go into the CC-folder (using Outlook rules). Which I then never look at.

Just kidding. I look at it once or twice a day and if I don’t see anything I need to create into an action point from or deal with directly, I put all the e-mails in my mail archive. Out of sight, out of mind – the key of the Empty Inbox Strategy.

Do you get e-mails you never look at? Unsubscribe or put them in a folder where you quickly scan through them once a day or once a week, depending on your situation. If you’re afraid to miss something important either in CC or in some other inbox, don’t worry too much, if it’s important enough they will call you. And if you’re CC, chances are it’s more “FYI” than anything else.

When you have your folders in order and all your relevant e-mail rules set up, it’s time to clear your inboxes and put the right e-mails in the right place. If you find actionable points, put them in your to-do list, I use Any.do for that, but there are plenty of options. If you find reference information, just put it in an appropriate folder or do like me and make notes in Evernote. And if you prefer saving attachement as files, why not get a Dropbox account to make sure you always have them available?

When you have sorted out all your action points, put your meetings in your calendar and stored your reference e-mails in the correct folders and/or in Evernote, you should have an empty inbox. This will give you a fantastic feeling of accomplishment.

Make sure you do this exercise once or twice a day and your working life will be so much more productive. There are some other tips and tricks you can use to minimize your inbox stress and increase your productivity:

* Turn off notifications. Sounds, pop-ups, things that break off your attention. Bad idea.

* Why not make your dock (OS X) or start bar invisible? It does eat up your attention for no good reason.

* Train yourself NOT to check your inbox every ten minutes. This disruption is pointless and very destructive.

* Set a routine where you go through e-mails at certain times throughout the day. If you’re super busy maybe once or twice is enough? Let’s say you do it once in the morning and once in the afternoon. If you set half-an hour for replying to e-mails and organizing/emtpying your inbox, you will suddenly feel like you have all the time in the world to write that report, brainstorm new ideas or do the necessary research.

Hope this Empty Inbox Strategy helps to increase your productivity. Please comment or share if it does.

Thanks for reading. /J.

The Importance of the Action Point

I’ve just finished reading “Making Your Ideas Happen” by Scott Belsky and I really recommend it. It deals with efficiency in the creative process, an interesting topic that most creatives struggle with.

One great take-out from the book, is to always create action points. It’s a technique you can use in various ways, but the easy way to describe is that your work should revolve and evolve around action points, meaning that throughout the day and in your meetings you need to capture stuff you can do and describe them with a verb.

An action point is not a project, it’s not “build a lego car”, it’s four action points:  ”locate store, buy lego, read the instructions, put the pieces together.” It’s an atom in a project. It’s taking the task down to the actual things involved in completing it. The verbs.

We all know that office meetings are huge time-wasters and might actually lead to nothing if you don’t write down actual action points and hand them out (and make people feel responsible for them). Stuff needs to happen for us to get somewhere, right? And these things don’t happen by themselves.

So make sure you and everyone in your team or project capture action points. They will make your life much more productive.

But where do you collect the action points? Do you use a notepad or a an app or what?

I love traditional notepads, but for this to really work in a digitalised world you need to find something that synchronizes across your devices (nice rhyme!). I have tried lots of different apps, Wunderlist, Things, and most recently Any.Do. They’re all good and synchronize from web, to Macbook app, to iPhone (or Android platforms). Make sure you really find it easy to use and enjoy the interface, otherwise you’ll get infected by the “lazybug” and stop using it.

Your action point list after reading this post:

* Share this post with all your friends.

* Download a todo-app.

* Write down a list of shit you need to do. Use verbs.

* Congratulate yourself.

Writing is Painful – Writing a Book is Hell

It’s been a pain, I tell you, writing my second novel. I’m working on rewrite number three and I’m far from sure it will be good enough. Maybe the whole idea is flawed? Maybe I should just burn the whole thing?

But then again, I don’t want to set my Macbook on fire.

Writing is painful. Or can be painful, if you let the whole process get to you, which you will, over the period of writing a book. Characters and ideas burst into the sky like fireworks or burn down to the ground in flames. You love  yourself and you hate yourself. You think you’re the greatest writer who ever lived and suddenly you can’t get a sentence together. Doubts, doubts, doubts. Will they understand? Is it funny? Is it vital? Does it fulfil a need? Is there place for it in the market?

You see what I mean. Painful.

I launched myself into this book with excitement. I had an idea that I wanted to play with, how it would be to work as an assistant for a “Brangelina”, or a “Robsten” – a celebrity couple dealing with the constant pressure of fame AND marriage.

I would center the book around a celebrity assistant, a guy who lived inside of the LIFE, but who still could observe the craziness from outside. It would be funny, I thought. And people like reading about celebrities.

I attacked the story in a furious pace. I set off at least an hour every day for writing (mostly during lunch, but also late evenings) and I was progressing towards the finish line with gargantuan steps.

Everything was going so smoothly I was already toying with the idea of what my third book was going to be about. I thought I could be one of those authors who write 2-3 books every year. Being an author was easy-peasy!

Then it hit me like a hardcover on the head – the book sucked! My writing had gone at such a speed that I had forgot to put anything in it – an idea, a feeling, something beyond sentences. The plot was there, but still I had lost it, if you get the pun. The writing was empty and stale and, I hate to admit it, pretty fucking boring.

I was doing what I derided other people for in my day job as a Creative Director, rushing it. I had set myself an ambitious deadline and completely lost the target when it came to quality in the storytelling. It was like I just wanted to get the story over with so I could rake in the money and start writing the next bestseller.

In retrospect, this sounds silly, but I was on a speeding bus and Keanu Reeves wasn’t there to stop it. I was going to hit the wall with a BAM.

Luckily, my girlfriend Lenah woke me up. She reads my writing and I read hers, and I remember her telling me that it just wasn’t good. “What’s your idea here?” she asked me and it hurt like a migraine.

“Idea?” I said, immediately taking a defensive (passive-aggressive) position, “What do you mean?”

“What is the idea behind the book, what is it really about?”

That stopped me in my tracks. Deep down inside, I was screaming, because I knew she was right. In the haze of finishing the book in record time, I had completely lost the idea. Even the idea of an idea!

“You can do much better than this,” she said, and at first I was angry at her for telling it to me straight, but after thinking about it for a while, I couldn’t defend myself anymore. My writing was simply not up to scratch. I had to rewrite the whole thing (insert swearword).

So I did. I rewrote it.

I took quite a while, and afterwards I gave it to her like a proud little school boy, expecting only praise. The book was damn funny, I thought.

But Lenah wasn’t happy. There was still something missing. “Ahhh, not again!”, I thought. What can possibly be wrong this time?

Then I read it myself and saw the same thing again. The story was better, but it sounded automatic, mechanical – it lacked feeling.

Crap! I thought, and started rewriting it a third time. This time doing BIG changes, rethinking the whole story line, adding and subtracting scenes, changing characters – a major manuscript overhaul.

A week ago I finished “draft” three and now I’m going through it with my red pen. It’s so much better than my previous two drafts, but I’m still not sure it’s good enough. Is it really something I’m truly happy with and that I can be proud of?

But then again, are you ever?

I don’t know if I set too high standards or too low standards for myself and my writing. I know I’m not the kind of person to opt for the easy way out, but I also know I have a tendency to rush from one idea to the next. Because I want to hit that publish button so badly. I want to checkmark the “project”. Still I want it to be good, of course. No, good is not enough, I want it to be brilliant.

You see what I’m fighting with here?

And my “split personality” is what makes it so difficult for me to assess how good (or bad) my stories are and that’s why I need a second reader, which is my first layer of quality assurance – my shit-filter. Usually, one layer/filter isn’t enough, you ideally need a second layer too, for example a group of friends, but the first layer is the most important. And the first layer needs to be harsh and honest and give it to you straight.

That’s why I’m happy to have Lenah, who’s always honest and sometimes harshly so. She helps me keep me on my toes.

And right now I’m truly nervous to hear what she thinks of draft number 3. But if I pass and can start to think about publishing, you will be the first to know.

Otherwise I’m off to rewrite number four. Or burning the whole thing. (Not my Macbook, but I’ll print it out and do a ceremonial cremation.)

Good luck with both your writing and your reading, and thanks for staying with me.

/Jonas.

How to Write Better (Copy for Beginners)

I’m coaching a few copywriters at work and have therefore jotted down a few tips and tricks for budding writers to help them get to the gist of their writing.

Let’s start with the purpose of all good copywriting (drumroll).

To make the reader want to read the first sentence.

Then the second sentence.

Then the third sentence.

Then act. (Whatever it is you want them to do, buy, donate, read more, share.)

It’s as simple as that really, just be captivating and engaging.

Okay, being captivating and engaging isn’t easy and that’s why good copywriting is a true craft. Some people think that putting words together correctly is good writing. It’s not. You need to do more than that – you need to seduce your reader.

There are several tips and tricks to do that. Here are a few:

1. Make sure you have a benefit for the reader. Why should they read your text? What do they get for their efforts? Are you selling something unique? Are they in some way being rewarded for reading your text? Get that across already in the headline!

2. Be enthusiastic! If you’re not excited, how do you expect your reader to be? No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader, as Robert Frost wrote.

3. Be personal. Yup, government style writing doesn’t sell anything but boredom. Talk to your reader as you would to a friend.

4. Be brief. Try to keep one idea per sentence otherwise you risk losing attention. The famous “Elements of Style” (which, by the way, is a must buy for budding writers) says this well with the phrase: Omit needless words. I also like Elmore Leonard’s brilliant advice: if it sounds like writing, rewrite it.

5. Be specific. Don’t say words like “some” or “lots of prizes”. How many? How much? What do you get, exactly? Be honest and specific.

6. Tell a story. People love stories, it makes your words come alive and helps you connect with your reader.

7. Take your writing seriously. Prepare your writing, do your research, read it over two-three times, make sure you’re hundred percent happy. Sloppiness in writing is very off-putting.

8. Let your text breathe. Related to the advice above. Don’t just hit publish or send as soon as you’re reached the “end of the page”. Come back to the text later, preferably the day after, and you will surely see it in a different light.

9. Guarantee something ,but don’t disappoint. If you can promise your reader something – great! But make sure you can back it up a hundred percent!

10. Testimonials are great. There is a reason bestselling books have the first 10 pages or so jammed with positive quotes. People are always looking for fellowship and if someone else likes the book, chances are you would too.

11. AIDA has become AIDCA. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action – is now Attention, Interest, Desire, Credibility, Action. Make sure you’re honest and come off as reliable.

12. Add a deadline. Create sense of urgency. “Act now within 24 hours and get…”

13. Be convincing. Believe in what you say. This is closely related to being specific.

14. Read it out loud. This is great for detecting problems with rhythm. if you’re at work, book a meeting room.

15. Ask yourself questions/doubts your customer might have about your sales argument. They could for example be: “I don’t believe you; I don’t need it; I don’t have enough time; I don’t have enough money; It won’t work for me.” Meet them in your text!

16. Read books about copywriting. Maybe you learn something new, maybe you get a vital reminder.

17. Read and write a lot. Stephen King writes in his book “On Writing”, “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or tools to write.” Spot on.

18. Stay up-to-date with current events. This will enable you to get fresh ideas and better relating to your customer.

19. Why not read up on sales techniques, the art of persuasion, consumer psychology?

20. Show, not tell. Chekhov said it well: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”