Uvi Poznansky's Blog, page 270
July 15, 2012
Dragon My Feet
A native of Colorado, Pat Bertram is the author of Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire. She graciously invites authors to publish excerpts of their work on her blog.
Tonight she posted an excerpt of Apart From Love. I have to admit, this one it is a particular favorite of mine, please check it out. It appears on her blog, whimsically named Dragon My Feet.
Tonight she posted an excerpt of Apart From Love. I have to admit, this one it is a particular favorite of mine, please check it out. It appears on her blog, whimsically named Dragon My Feet.
A Touch between Me and You
Thank you so much, all of you who supported my recent book promotion by sharing my posts, tweeting them, taking a look at the recommendations, 'looking inside' the book, or most importantly--getting it. At the moment the promotion ended, Apart From Love hit Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#88 Free in Kindle Store
#6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction
Being a completely unknown author coming out of obscurity, these numbers are utterly amazing to me. But beyond the fireworks' display of numbers, stands the simple fact that now, you are holding my book in your hands. This, in a sense, is a handshake; a touch between me and you.
I truly hope that you will be drawn to the characters and become engaged with the story. If so, please help me spread the word: let your friends know about the book. Also, please consider creating your own review of it on Amazon. Apart From Love relies entirely on your word of mouth! You have the power to bring this book to the attention of a larger audience.
July 13, 2012
From Me to You
Let me give you the dearest gift that I canDo not refuse me, for my story began With passion at heart, guilt down at the gutAnd sentences that I weave, then turn and cutNow I give them to you. It's my very last pleaHold my book in your hand, it is yours, it is free!
Last day!Apart From Love is free on Amazon July 13th-14th, 2012
July 12, 2012
Double, double misfortune, trouble
Double, double misfortune, trouble Burning coal and blackening rubbleLet the blood in my caldron come to a boilLet me feed the flames; oh, such a toil!Don't you dare fear me, come over hereEver so gruffly, I'll whisper in your earListen, dear, no need to fretAnd I promise, no regret:Apart From Love is free at last.Get it now, and do it fast!
Apart From Love will be free on Amazon starting midnightJuly 13th-14th, 2012
The Clock is Now Ticking
The clock is now ticking, time to set the alarmBe super careful and you'll come to no harmHead over to Amazon at the stroke of midnightTo find my book free! Oh what a delight...Get Apart From Love, if you enjoy a good storyShare this link, and you'll share in the glory!
Apart From Love will be free on Amazon starting midnightJuly 13th-14th, 2012
The Three Witches
In honor of Friday the 13th, here is how Anita, the girl in my story Apart From Love, describes the three aunts, who in her eyes seems like three witches:
Then I turn my head—just a little—and take a peak over my shoulder. I glance real quick at that standalone mirror, which is facing away from me. And what do I see reflected there, if not something that’s, like, so strange to my eyes, so unusual, that it makes me want to blink, or wipe them in awe.Three squares of fuzzy wool are being held there, suspended in midair. Directly behind them hang three shadows, under which you can see three chubby old women, crinkling their noses—long, longer, longest. They’re straining their crossed, beady eyes with great focus, under three pairs of glasses, and clinking, clinking, clinking three pairs of knitting needles, like, all together now! And there, on the floor, you can see three balls of thick yarn chasing each other, and from time to time, getting tied in knots, every which way across them fat ankles. Anyway, at first glance them old women look kinda similar, like a rough, wrinkled copy of each other, what with those high arched, strange eyebrows. I pinch myself, but they’re still there—in the mirror as well as outside of it—no matter how long I try blinking and wiping my eyes. It takes me a while to tell them apart: The one sitting to the left, she’s toothless. The one in the middle has a pimple on her veined temple. And the one to the right, well, her nose isn’t only the longest, but also the knobbiest of all three.
The three witches appear in many mythologies, including the Greek one, where one spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle, another measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod, and the third was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of each person's death; and when their time was come, she cut their life-thread with her shears. Anita has a memory of the Norse version of the three fates:
He took me to some opera, Wagner I think, which was long and kinda difficult to get, but he told me to listen, and he explained it all to me, and from there I remember them, the three Norns: They spun the thread of fate, and they sang, like, the song of the future. Beware, they sang. Beware, I tell myself now, as aunt Hadassa holds up the yarn, and snips it.
Apart From Love will be free on Amazon starting midnightJuly 13th-14th, 2012
July 10, 2012
Be Still, Poet's Heart
Be still, poet's heart, this moment is rare Stop this hammering, why would you dare To set up a challenge, to write your own fateBe still and accept, perhaps it's too late
Unlucky the number, unlucky the day Friday the thirteenth, come what maySet yourself free, Apart From LoveChange whatever was decreed from above
Sing out a ballad of passion and hateSing it out as you drown, and ignore that dateSomeone may notice, may listen out thereSo quicken the pounding, sing out with a flair
The flood is abating, release the dovePray to find yourself a part of love
Written ahead of the free promotion of Apart From Love on Friday the Thirteenth
Unlucky the number, unlucky the day Friday the thirteenth, come what maySet yourself free, Apart From LoveChange whatever was decreed from above
Sing out a ballad of passion and hateSing it out as you drown, and ignore that dateSomeone may notice, may listen out thereSo quicken the pounding, sing out with a flair
The flood is abating, release the dovePray to find yourself a part of love
Written ahead of the free promotion of Apart From Love on Friday the Thirteenth
Let Me Read the Palm of Your Hand...
Friday the Thirteenth is fast approaching... So despite trying to remain the rational calm me, I can sense a trace, a whisper of something spooky, stirring ever-so-slightly in the air. So, reflecting my mood at this moment, here are a few quotes from Apart From Love, told in Anita's voice. She brings up some memories that haunt her, and an urge to unveil what the future holds:
"Years ago—before being hired as a cleaning lady—ma had worked in Venice Beach, down at the boardwalk, as a fortune teller.
I remember her eyes. They looked downright stunning under the false eyelashes. As part of her gig, she would read the palm of my hand and like, shake her head with great concern for my future, so the hoop earrings would tinkle, as would the beaded necklaces and the jangle bracelets. Then her fake crystal ball would light up, at which time she would take firm hold of my hand and like, raise it up inside her fist, to show the crowd gathering around us how my thumb looked, how stubby it was, and how my lifeline, there on the palm of my hand, had an unusual, split end...
But then, she didn’t explain what the trouble was, exactly, with the split end of my lifeline; which left me kinda wondering. For sure ma couldn’t tell, back then, that I would hook up with someone like Lenny: a married man who had a son a year older than me."
When Anita recalls her ma in later times, times of loneliness, when her marriage seems to fall apart, she wishes her ma was here:
"Even if she would give me a good slap, still, at least I could feel a touch, which would be better than this sorry state of being here, in the back of beyond."
And later still, Anita brings back the street wisdom of her ma, using it as a way of bracing herself against the harsh realities of life:
"Like ma used to say, when she called her customers to offer her usual special—I mean, the three dollar palm reading special—she said, No, really? No warmth left? Trust me, it just looks that way—till you touch them embers. Red hot passion like that, it can’t never die out. But see, it can change its color and blacken him inside, and like, turn to hate, or contempt, or jealousy.”
In this last quote, I had fun crafting the phrase 'her usual special.'
So, what does the future hold? Here is the answer: Friday the Thirteenth is the first of two days when the Kindle edition of Apart From Love is free on Amazon... You heard it here first!
"Years ago—before being hired as a cleaning lady—ma had worked in Venice Beach, down at the boardwalk, as a fortune teller.
I remember her eyes. They looked downright stunning under the false eyelashes. As part of her gig, she would read the palm of my hand and like, shake her head with great concern for my future, so the hoop earrings would tinkle, as would the beaded necklaces and the jangle bracelets. Then her fake crystal ball would light up, at which time she would take firm hold of my hand and like, raise it up inside her fist, to show the crowd gathering around us how my thumb looked, how stubby it was, and how my lifeline, there on the palm of my hand, had an unusual, split end...
But then, she didn’t explain what the trouble was, exactly, with the split end of my lifeline; which left me kinda wondering. For sure ma couldn’t tell, back then, that I would hook up with someone like Lenny: a married man who had a son a year older than me."
When Anita recalls her ma in later times, times of loneliness, when her marriage seems to fall apart, she wishes her ma was here:
"Even if she would give me a good slap, still, at least I could feel a touch, which would be better than this sorry state of being here, in the back of beyond."
And later still, Anita brings back the street wisdom of her ma, using it as a way of bracing herself against the harsh realities of life:
"Like ma used to say, when she called her customers to offer her usual special—I mean, the three dollar palm reading special—she said, No, really? No warmth left? Trust me, it just looks that way—till you touch them embers. Red hot passion like that, it can’t never die out. But see, it can change its color and blacken him inside, and like, turn to hate, or contempt, or jealousy.”
In this last quote, I had fun crafting the phrase 'her usual special.'
So, what does the future hold? Here is the answer: Friday the Thirteenth is the first of two days when the Kindle edition of Apart From Love is free on Amazon... You heard it here first!
The Voice of a Kindle Book
On Friday the thirteenth I'll be free, but be forewarnedDon't you come near me, or else you'd be scorned--Unless you delight in contemporary fictionAnd enjoy reading a book with detailed scene depiction
If you let me pull you in, deep insideUntil you find yourself there, in my characters' mindI'll make you burn in hell, ablaze in desire, I'll let you swirl like smoke, ever higher and higher
I'll bring you down here: Santa Monica, Venice BeachFor a father-son meeting, with a blame and a breachYou'll hear Lenny, Natasha, Anita and BenAnd be tortured by guilt, again and again
Find a path to forgiveness, find a way to come cleanFind the words to explain what exactly you meanTurn page after page, then fall to your knee 'Cause Apart From Love, no feeling is free
Ahead of the Free promotion on Amazon, July 13-14, 2012
July 9, 2012
Who Said You Need A Book Trailer?
Book trailers have become such commonplace in today's literary market, that no one seems to question their value as a promotional tool. I do. Nearly all the trailers I've seen are hopelessly boring, with the title of the book and some key phrases traveling across the screen this way and that, to the sound of some elevator music that can barely keep me from nodding off. There are, of course, exceptions--your trailer may well be one of them, and I would be happy to see it if you leave me a link below--here are two I enjoyed: Six Packs of Blood, which is professionally done, with an incredible ear for peaks and valleys in the music, to highlight the suspense, and The Sacred Band, which brings me back to ancient times...
But even so, is this really the way readers find books? Have you ever selected a book because you saw a trailer? In my case, the answer is a resounding No. I would rather read an excerpt, a book description, learn about the writer, recieve a recommendation, or read a highly favorable review. In short, I select a book because I read about it, not because I saw a title flashing by before my eyes.
Now, I am no stranger to creating animations; see my process for Now I Am Paper and Jess and Wiggle. So? Will I put together my own book trailer, any time soon? Don't hold your breath... I am setting my eyes on a higher aim... Waiting for the full-length movie to come out one day... Hey, a girl is allowed to entertain a secret dream--right?
Incidentally, I came across a great article, published on the pages of the New York Times, on this very issue. The article, written with delightful humor by Tim Kreider, starts with these words:
"The first time I'd ever heard that there were video previews for books was when I was told I had to made one. A few months before my own book was to be released, my publisher advised me that official book trailers were now routinely posted on YouTube as a promotional device. I was skeptical, but remembering how instrumental video was in advancing the career of Men Without Hats, I acquiesced..."
You can read the rest of it here: Like the Video? I Wrote the Book
But even so, is this really the way readers find books? Have you ever selected a book because you saw a trailer? In my case, the answer is a resounding No. I would rather read an excerpt, a book description, learn about the writer, recieve a recommendation, or read a highly favorable review. In short, I select a book because I read about it, not because I saw a title flashing by before my eyes.
Now, I am no stranger to creating animations; see my process for Now I Am Paper and Jess and Wiggle. So? Will I put together my own book trailer, any time soon? Don't hold your breath... I am setting my eyes on a higher aim... Waiting for the full-length movie to come out one day... Hey, a girl is allowed to entertain a secret dream--right?
Incidentally, I came across a great article, published on the pages of the New York Times, on this very issue. The article, written with delightful humor by Tim Kreider, starts with these words:
"The first time I'd ever heard that there were video previews for books was when I was told I had to made one. A few months before my own book was to be released, my publisher advised me that official book trailers were now routinely posted on YouTube as a promotional device. I was skeptical, but remembering how instrumental video was in advancing the career of Men Without Hats, I acquiesced..."
You can read the rest of it here: Like the Video? I Wrote the Book
