Patrick Turley's Blog, page 3

Schedule and Links (*UPDATED)

Now that we’re down to a handful of days out, here’s the remaining pertinent information on the horizon:

Barnes and Noble Paperback and Nook

Amazon Paperback

Kindle

…And in bookstores everywhere Aug 14th.

Upcoming Schedule (Much more to come, but wanted to get the short term information out there for anyone interested):

Friday- Fox News Radio with Brian Kilmeade at 1006AM EST (*UPDATED)

Saturday- Jake Pentland Show, check it out at 4PM EST. This one should be really fun.

Monday- Action News tv interview at 745 AM (for local Jacksonville, FL area residents) and USA Radio interview at 3PM EST (recorded, not sure when it will air)

Tuesday- NC residents: 845 PM, EST WTKF-FM and WJNC-AM

And of course:

Twitter

Facebook

(*those amounts of followers are embarrassing so help out please!)

Time To Get The Word Out

First off, I completely forgot to write an update to share that the Welcome To Hell sub-page with quotes, reviews and excerpts is finally available (You can find it here).

With less than two weeks to go, I’m losing my mind brainstorming new ways to promote the book and get the word out.  Interviews already start this Friday and continue at a frenzied pace until the release date, so I’m trying to get all I can get in now.  If you have any ideas, definitely do them or get a hold of me with them.  Even clicking “likes” and “shares” and “tweet” makes a significantly bigger impact than you’d think!

Most importantly, thanks to everyone who’s helped up to this point. I’m still stunned by the amount of traffic this little website has managed to generate… in spite of all my corny updates.  Thank you all for helping me get this book some visibility, now please help me tear down the curtain and really get the word out for my book.  It’s a story that deserves to be told and heard, and it benefits the Children of Fallen Patriots.

Let’s go get the recognition Rocky Balboa says we deserve:

One Month To Go

I’ve gotten several emails from people asking how the book release went, so I figured what better time than Friday the 13th to write an update here… For the masses (*and by “masses”, I mean “one” – hi, Jaime) that care.

As it turns out, the studios that made Spiderman and Batman have been lobbying hard for my book to be postponed.  Apparently they were extremely concerned that the American public would be paralyzed at home, glued to the pages of my book, and their box office splashes would be reduced to a handful of un-American communists.  I told them to settle down since they’ll be crushed by Twins 2 either way, but eventually they won out and last week I learned that the release date is sliding back a ways to August 14th.  While there’s a little bit of frustration associated with preparing one way for things and then have to shift to another direction nearly last minute, I’m pretty happy about this change.  It gives me more time to promote and get the word out, and more time to take care of the other things on my plate.

You’re welcome Christian Bale . (

In other news, Olympic Gold hopeful/front-runner, Marlen Esparza has joined my legions (*and by “legions” I mean “83″) of twitter followers.  Yes, I’m expecting a dedication speech after she beats the foreign opposition mercilessly (the beating’s aftermath should look just like this).

Also, a special apology to Mr Mike Ilitch.  We apparently couldn’t find room to place his quote in the book.  To be entirely honest, I was seeing-red livid when I got that news.  If I had my way, the entire book would be nothing but billionaires (that’s actually a really good idea… interview billionaires about their methods and values to success and then let their connections handle promotion).

Anyway, there’s a month to go but a lot of promotion to do.  I’ve got a few widely syndicated radio shows lined up, and some TV appearances look promising.  Even then it still won’t be enough, so please throw the links (on the right) around your social media sites.  It’s Friday and everyone is bored at work and more inclined to click stuff, so help out please.

Hello Again

So to summarize what’s taken place in the past couple weeks:

- The subpage still isn’t up but should be soon.  I imagine all nerd-driven industries have taken a massive productivity hit with the release of Diablo 3, so I’m not too concerned.

- The BEA came and went and my book received “quite a bit” of interest.  What this means:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Otherwise I’ve just returned from a trip to Arizona where I was able to fulfill a bucket-list item by asking Ken Whisenhunt if the Bear’s are who he thought they were and if he let them off the hook or not.  He was a good sport and even smacked the podium while he laughed… much better than how that could have been received.  Also, that place is so ridiculously god-forsaken-hot…

Hopefully next week I have some much bigger news to parade around to you all, but for now the focus is still getting things ready to go.

Hope everyone has a great and safe weekend!

 

The Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation and Bookexpo America

I’m pretty thrilled to be able to announce that I’ve officially selected the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation as the charity I’ll be supporting with a percentage of proceeds from Welcome To Hell.  The Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation provides scholarships and counseling to military children whose parent has made the ultimate sacrifice for this nation.  Having had deployed to Iraq when my own daughter was about four months old, this organization and their goals are very close to my heart.  I truly can’t fathom a more noble organization and I’m extremely excited to find myself in a position where I can help.

Just to emphasize what a fantastic organization this is, the woman from the Fallen Patriots Foundation that’s been assisting me in this process was also one of the first beneficiaries of their service as her father passed away in 2004.  Her pain becomes even more unfathomable when you see that her husband also passed away in our nation’s service just eleven months later.  Every time I think about that, I’m at the same loss for words that I’m certain you’re at now.  The least we can do is offer a helping hand to those left behind by those sacrifices for our futures.  So please, whether you buy a book or not, take a minute to swing by The Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation and contribute if you can. Every penny goes directly to the children.

While that clearly overshadows every other development, there are other things going on.  Today marked the start of the BEA, Book Expo America, where Welcome To Hell will be one of only four books featured by History Publishing Co.  A big showing here could mean quite a bit for the book’s future, and also marks the start of the promotional phase… which means I have an ungodly amount of work to do and a nearly insurmountable task ahead of me, but what’s new there?  Everyone helping out can go a very long way, so please click all the like, share and tweet buttons that exist on the right hand side and help get the word out!  I’m certainly doing my part… after all, I just made this awful video a few days ago.  I’ll share it here only because I must like embarrassing myself:

Welcome To Hell Initial Vid Trailer

The sad part?  That took me all night.  If you can do better, please do it and send it to me.

I guess that’s all… I should have a more consistent stream of updates (lucky you) now that the promotional foundation is set and it’s time to get more aggressive with it.

Time to start calling in some favors, so if you owe me, you might want to shut your phone off.

Transition

This will be the first entry without any real, concrete updates to write about, so by all means, feel free to stop reading now and get something productive done.

If you’re still here, you’re probably my mother, so “Hi, mom.”  It’s been a ridiculously hectic week since my last update.  There’s a lot of things I’d love to be doing right now, including responding to feedback, expressing my appreciation to everyone getting involved and helping out, and incorporating some great advice I’ve gotten from all of you over the past few weeks.  Unfortunately, the time still isn’t there.

I just wrapped up figuring out the content for the Welcome To Hell subpage on this site.  That ended up being significantly more difficult than I had previously anticipated… first, pulling segments of the story out of context is tricky business.  Outside of their proper context, the most moving, poignant, affecting or provoking parts of the story are either massive spoilers or come across cruel or effectively weaker.  Even then, once I’d pulled some that I was satisfied with and ran them by people for their opinions, well let’s just say consensus simply wasn’t achieved…  In the end, I went with my gut, along with a disclaimer, and also tucked an attention grabbing, but very offensive moment, in the back.  So if you read it and are offended: 1. I’m impressed your attention span managed to make it that deep and 2. 1 is probably only because you saved it by avoiding repeated warnings, so I take it back.

Anyyyyyyyyyyyyyway, the content is done and off to my friend Kamil to assemble and beautify and maybe even make me a video to go a long with it.  Considering how much I’m paying him ($0), it better be done extremely well and fast!

I’m off to the Bahamas.

A few leaps forward

A few months ago, I decided to undergo a marathon by doing 15 laps (a little over 1.8m per) around my neighborhood just to see if I could.  I have some pretty significant lower body injuries, so things started to get pretty painful after mile 10 and damn near unbearable after 20, but I did it.  It took all day (This is relevant, I promise.  Hang in there), but I was able to press myself to finish… one step at a time.

I view this publication process as a parallel.  Writing an entire book is a daunting enough process… let alone the next steps where you eventually realize that the creation was possibly the least vexing of them all.  Regardless, the lessons I learned through hip, knee and foot pain during that self-imposed, just-for-me marathon apply here–and to everywhere else in life–and no matter how daunting or insurmountable a task may be, we can overcome them.  One step at a time.

Well forget the steps, because this week we’ve taken several leaps forward.

It started with a fantastic write up in Publisher’s Weekly (

PW has a reputation for tough but always fair reviews, so with that in mind, I found this to be extremely favorable and an honor.  In fact, I had to read it several times before it even sunk in.

But it gets better.  “How could this possibly get better without John Travolta and a massage table?!” you ask?  First of all, gross.  Secondly, not easily.  After months of pursuit, effort, and mostly agonizing over things beyond my control, things unbelievably fell into place right before my deadline.

“Read Sgt. Turley’s Welcome To Hell and you will never have to worry if our nation’s ’911 force’ is ready to answer the call.”

- General Charles C. Krulak, 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps

^ That just happened.  First of all, for him to have given me the day at all is nothing shy of a miracle.  I mean, let’s face it… Who am I? (24601)  A stranger and unknown who has yet to really accomplish anything in this arena.  To compound that with taking the time from a ridiculously busy schedule to not only read my book, but discuss it with me and then stick his neck out a little to participate like this… well it’s completely overwhelming and speaks volumes to the character of the man.

To make this even more miraculous, earlier in the week I received the following:

“A lot has changed since I was in the Marines, but Patrick Turley’s Welcome to Hell

vividly illustrates what hasn’t changed:  that pain, discipline and dehumanization

are the crucible in which an elite fighting force is forged.

This book took me back to my own proud days in hell.”

- Jim Beaver, star of Deadwood and Supernatural, and author of Life’s That Way.

Every word and adjective I applied to General Krulak applies here, as well.  These are some selfless men and I just can’t express my level of appreciation or respect in words.

Amazing week!  Time to shift the focus and continue those steps.  Next up, actually building the Welcome To Hell sub-page here and doing some good: getting a military charity selected.

One step at a time.

 

Deadlines and Updates

First of all, thanks to everyone who’s bothered to click a link or swing by this site.  The “launch” certainly exceeded any expectations I had (Now if only the rest of this process would go as smoothly!).  We still have mountains to climb and lots of word to spread to provide the general American public with the opportunity to make an INFORMED decision to financially reject my work and crush my hopes and dreams.  So please click all the “likes” and “shares” and everything else you can get your hands on.  In fact, if you share this link Bill Gates will send $1,000 to you for every like… worth a shot or do people not fall for that one anymore?

Currently my sole focus is on back cover quotes… and this is the final week to get my hands on them, and other material, before the deadline window closes… so this promises to be an extremely hectic week loaded up on caffeine and aspartame.  I had hoped to write this with some accompanying big news last week, but it just didn’t happen.  I’ve been in contact with several notable people over these little blurbs, and none more relevant to the story than a retired General and a former Commandant of the Marine Corps.  His schedule hasn’t been very forgiving and last week I was finally able to press for a latest update.  He was halfway through the unedited manuscript and enjoying it but having a hard time with maltreatment in the story.  Coming from a person who personally instituted policies aimed at stopping some of the maltreatment issues, I fully understand his perspective… but coming from my perspective, I really, really need this.  Not only would it be a huge feather in my book’s cap, but it would mean even more to me personally.  Regardless of how this situation plays out, I have to admit it’s an honor to have had him read it at all and it truly speaks volumes towards his character to have given me the time of day, let alone to cram my story into his busy schedule.

Special thanks to Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award, and Tony Award winner Mr. John Patrick Shanley along with Mr. Mike Ilitch, owner of the Detroit Tigers, Red Wings and Little Ceasar’s Pizza, for already participating.  I’ve also been in contact with and will be acquiring (hopefully) some quotes from Mr. Jim Beaver, actor/screenwriter/author, a neuropsychologist from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, a former Drill Instructor from the story itself, and a few others to hopefully provide a solid spectrum of back cover quotes that others will value to the extent that I do.

And since this update has been by and large entirely too serious:

My favorite thing from the internet today

 

 

…And We’re Off

My long awaited and eagerly anticipated website (disclaimer: only by me) has finally reached its inception (isn’t Leo dreamy?).  It wasn’t too long ago that I viewed blogs and bloggers as self-serving, and Twitter’s incessant status updates as nothing less than ridiculous, narcissistic even.  I guess what I’m trying to say is, “Follow me: @patrickturley”.

So what does this become?  Does it become a promotional machine?  Do I try to reinvent myself to become more interesting or marketable?  There’s been no shortage of things to think about throughout this process – writing a memoir is introspective enough on its own – but in the end, I decided that nothing is more interesting, disarming, or engaging than candid honesty in the human experience.  So that’s what you’re going to get.  It will be tangential, as is my nature, and spanning topics that I couldn’t even pretend to predict if I wanted to–after all, if I had something structured to write, it’d be going in a book-, but it will always be an honest, thoughtful representation of my perspective.

…unless I’m drunk.  Just kidding, mom.

So it’s early May with the release of my book, “Welcome To Hell: Three And a Half Months of Marine Corps Boot Camp”, set to release in less than two months.  To say it’s been a long road would be an understatement.  From writing honest, often unflattering representations of yourself and the subsequent half dozen re-writes, to taking something so personal and making a decision to broadcast it to the world is nerve-wracking enough.  Following that by suffering the methodical soul-crushing defeat of repeated rejection in that “if-you-didn’t-have-self-esteem-issues-before-you-do-now” process of courting an agent and/or publisher is something I’d wish on few men.

Despite all of this… somehow we’ve persevered.  Yet the prospects of this perseverance are equal parts excitement and terror… a blend of emotions that is relatable to everyone in those moments when they’ve “put themselves out there”.  It’s the scale of this that makes it seem so amplified.   A memoir is personal enough as is.  To compound that with the loss of my father and to re-read the story and find myself not always liking the face in the mirror has a way of nurturing that sense of vulnerability.  This has become much more than a story to me, much more than an era of my life.  I want this to succeed for so many reasons beyond myself.  I want this to succeed in memory of my father and his legacy, as well as my own legacy as a father.  I want this to be a representation that other Marines, and other military members by extension, can be proud of.  And maybe, just maybe, together we can achieve all of that and more.  Perhaps even foster an era where a Medal of Honor, Silver Star, and Distinguished Service Cross/Medal winners can get the time of day amid a media frenzy of celebrity rehab and inane pop culture.

Well, I promised tangential.  Thanks to… everyone.  After all, if you’re reading this, you have been and are a key cog in this process.  And, of course, a special thanks to Jaime, Eric and Kamil for investing so much of your time and yourselves into this with me.

MUCH more to come.