Huston Piner's Blog - Posts Tagged "huston-piner"
The Day Before Jitters
Today will always be memorable to me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's my birthday. (Yea! Me!)
Secondly, it's the day before my first novel My Life as a Myth will be published by Prizm Books. To say that I'm more than a little nervous is like saying World War II was a minor skirmish.
Happily, I came across a lovely piece by Holly Robinson at the Huffington Post. It's titled When You Finish Your Novel, What Then? Below is a quote:
Meanwhile, you experience doom-and-gloom sentiments: "What good am I? I can't even pick up the living room!" Maybe you think, "The novel is dead. Why do I bother? Nobody reads anymore." Or, "I'm not earning money doing this. In fact, I'm costing myself money! I should quit before my family has to live out of the car!"
Check it out.
Secondly, it's the day before my first novel My Life as a Myth will be published by Prizm Books. To say that I'm more than a little nervous is like saying World War II was a minor skirmish.
Happily, I came across a lovely piece by Holly Robinson at the Huffington Post. It's titled When You Finish Your Novel, What Then? Below is a quote:
Meanwhile, you experience doom-and-gloom sentiments: "What good am I? I can't even pick up the living room!" Maybe you think, "The novel is dead. Why do I bother? Nobody reads anymore." Or, "I'm not earning money doing this. In fact, I'm costing myself money! I should quit before my family has to live out of the car!"
Check it out.
The Book, the Soundtrack, out now!
Avaiable today from Prizm Books, My Live as a Myth.
For part one of the 'soundtrack' (:p), check out http://www.youtube.com/embed/VVWNZPOU...
Also read about it here on Goodreads at My Life as a Myth
A Word about My Life as a Myth
Good morning! I’ve been asked to say a few words about the history of My Life as a Myth published today by Prizm Books.
Rummage sales are the last vestiges of the old medieval markets. Believe me; poke around and you’re likely to come across things you’ve never seen before. Last year, I found something very unusual.
I was rooting through the offerings of a couple in their late-fifties, both aging flower children still wearing tie-dye shirts and dungarees. They certainly had a weird variety of things they’d accumulated over the years: old books, records (Lawrence Welk? Guy Lombardo?), bongs awkwardly disguised as flower vases, and assorted odds and ends. Really, I wouldn’t have been surprised to find a mummy.
Sifting through the bric-a-bracs, I felt like an archeologist, pondering the culture that had brought these strange things together in one place. But what caught my eye was a cloth-covered book. My curiosity got the better of me, and I picked it up. It was fairly old, worn and coffee-stained, and filled with yellowed handwritten pages. (There were only a few dozen blank ones at the end.)
Steeply priced at ten cent, I wondered who would even consider buying such a thing. But you know how it is; once a reader, always a reader. My eyes involuntarily began deciphering the clumsy script.
What I discovered was the journal, a diary if you will, of a high school freshman named Nick Horton from way back in 1969. I was even more surprised that the kid had lived in my hometown and gone to the very high school I attended many years later. After a couple of pages, I knew I had to read the whole book, and if possible add it to my own growing collection of clutter for a future rummage sale.
I went to the man sitting next to the cash box. I was a bit afraid the book might be something that had made its way to the for sale pile by accident.
“This is marked ten cent,” I said, holding it up so he could see it.
“Okay then,” he said. “Five cent too much?”
“No, ten cent is fine,” I said. “I just wanted to make sure you intended to sell it.”
“Why not? It’s an interesting read if you’re into that kind of thing.”
“Then why are you selling it?”
“We found it when we moved in here. The Old Lady and I are getting on; we’re moving to a smaller place near the kids and won’t have the room.”
I paid him the ten cent.
When I got home I made a pot of tea and picked the book up again. Bittersweet memories of the longings and dreams of teenage life kept me reading. Because I’m from the same town as Nick, if from a somewhat later period, it was easy to get lost in his story. As I read, I remembered visiting The District with friends and the many ups and downs of high school life in Chadham, Virginia.
“Are you ever coming to bed?” my partner asked sometime after midnight.
“Just a bit longer,” I mumbled, entranced by the story of this kid who reminded me of so many people at that age, including myself.
My partner just shook his head, tousled my hair, and stumbled back off to bed – over the years he’s come to know me too well when it comes to books. I finished sometime before dawn and spent the next several days getting over the exhaustion of my marathon reading session. (Don’t believe what they tell you about people needing less sleep the older they get.)
Weeks passed and Nick’s journal continued to haunt me. I encouraged my partner to read it and often found him crying or laughing at this or that entry, just like I had. We began talking about Nick’s adventures and agreed that it was a story worth sharing with others. So after typing it out, I took it straight to Prizm Books.
With very few emendations, everything Nick wrote is what Prizm is publishing today in My Life as a Myth. If you ever saw the original, you’d be thankful that I’ve corrected the spelling! Other than that, only two or three entries were omitted, things that ultimately had little or nothing to do with the important events that happened that year.
Nick’s journal was written in a different time, both simpler and more complicated than the one we live in today. Some things were better then; many are better now. The major difference is that Nick’s world was much more innocent than own. What hasn’t changed is that delicate first flowering of young love, the awakening of passion, and the challenge of being yourself. (There are other things that haven’t changed, but you’ll read about those in the book.)
It is my hope that you will find My Life as a Myth as important as my partner and I do. For those of you Nick’s age, I hope you celebrate his triumphs and learn from his mistakes. In the end, whatever you think, I hope you come away from it stronger than you were and that you always remember, reputations seldom deliver on promises of happiness.
Huston Piner
Rummage sales are the last vestiges of the old medieval markets. Believe me; poke around and you’re likely to come across things you’ve never seen before. Last year, I found something very unusual.
I was rooting through the offerings of a couple in their late-fifties, both aging flower children still wearing tie-dye shirts and dungarees. They certainly had a weird variety of things they’d accumulated over the years: old books, records (Lawrence Welk? Guy Lombardo?), bongs awkwardly disguised as flower vases, and assorted odds and ends. Really, I wouldn’t have been surprised to find a mummy.
Sifting through the bric-a-bracs, I felt like an archeologist, pondering the culture that had brought these strange things together in one place. But what caught my eye was a cloth-covered book. My curiosity got the better of me, and I picked it up. It was fairly old, worn and coffee-stained, and filled with yellowed handwritten pages. (There were only a few dozen blank ones at the end.)
Steeply priced at ten cent, I wondered who would even consider buying such a thing. But you know how it is; once a reader, always a reader. My eyes involuntarily began deciphering the clumsy script.
What I discovered was the journal, a diary if you will, of a high school freshman named Nick Horton from way back in 1969. I was even more surprised that the kid had lived in my hometown and gone to the very high school I attended many years later. After a couple of pages, I knew I had to read the whole book, and if possible add it to my own growing collection of clutter for a future rummage sale.
I went to the man sitting next to the cash box. I was a bit afraid the book might be something that had made its way to the for sale pile by accident.
“This is marked ten cent,” I said, holding it up so he could see it.
“Okay then,” he said. “Five cent too much?”
“No, ten cent is fine,” I said. “I just wanted to make sure you intended to sell it.”
“Why not? It’s an interesting read if you’re into that kind of thing.”
“Then why are you selling it?”
“We found it when we moved in here. The Old Lady and I are getting on; we’re moving to a smaller place near the kids and won’t have the room.”
I paid him the ten cent.
When I got home I made a pot of tea and picked the book up again. Bittersweet memories of the longings and dreams of teenage life kept me reading. Because I’m from the same town as Nick, if from a somewhat later period, it was easy to get lost in his story. As I read, I remembered visiting The District with friends and the many ups and downs of high school life in Chadham, Virginia.
“Are you ever coming to bed?” my partner asked sometime after midnight.
“Just a bit longer,” I mumbled, entranced by the story of this kid who reminded me of so many people at that age, including myself.
My partner just shook his head, tousled my hair, and stumbled back off to bed – over the years he’s come to know me too well when it comes to books. I finished sometime before dawn and spent the next several days getting over the exhaustion of my marathon reading session. (Don’t believe what they tell you about people needing less sleep the older they get.)
Weeks passed and Nick’s journal continued to haunt me. I encouraged my partner to read it and often found him crying or laughing at this or that entry, just like I had. We began talking about Nick’s adventures and agreed that it was a story worth sharing with others. So after typing it out, I took it straight to Prizm Books.
With very few emendations, everything Nick wrote is what Prizm is publishing today in My Life as a Myth. If you ever saw the original, you’d be thankful that I’ve corrected the spelling! Other than that, only two or three entries were omitted, things that ultimately had little or nothing to do with the important events that happened that year.
Nick’s journal was written in a different time, both simpler and more complicated than the one we live in today. Some things were better then; many are better now. The major difference is that Nick’s world was much more innocent than own. What hasn’t changed is that delicate first flowering of young love, the awakening of passion, and the challenge of being yourself. (There are other things that haven’t changed, but you’ll read about those in the book.)
It is my hope that you will find My Life as a Myth as important as my partner and I do. For those of you Nick’s age, I hope you celebrate his triumphs and learn from his mistakes. In the end, whatever you think, I hope you come away from it stronger than you were and that you always remember, reputations seldom deliver on promises of happiness.
Huston Piner
A Mini-Celebration
Hurray! I just finished the first complete draft of Conjoined at the Soul. 1979 Sophomore Randy Clark discovers he's gay. Now all he needs is a boyfriend.
I have been remiss
I have been remiss in not thanking Annette at Zipper Rippers for
interviewing me last week and spotlighting My Life as a Myth.
Please for give me, Annette, and thanks for everything!
interviewing me last week and spotlighting My Life as a Myth.
Please for give me, Annette, and thanks for everything!
Myth now in paperback.
My Life as a Myth is now available in paperback from Amazon.
Hosting Torquere Blog Today!
Today I'm hosting the Torquere Press Romance for the Rest of Us blog. There's an interview, and later today there will be a video playlist of music from Nick and Bobby's second semester at Chadham High and maybe one or two other tidbits for fans of My Life as a Myth.
True Colorz Featured Author
Jackie Nacht has notified me that I will be the True Colorz review site featured author on July ninth. You can look forward to an interview and discussion about My Life as a Myth and writing in general. Drop by and leave a comment!
As you all know, True Colorz is one of the top Internet resources dedicated exclusively to Young Adult LGBTQ literature. It features monthly updates and information on new releases, featured author interviews, recommended reads and, most importantly, a full selection of books & resources related to bullying.
Really, I can't recommend True Colorz enough and encourage you all to check it out, especially on July 9th!
Thanks to Orion at Reviews by Jessiewave
I can't help it (okay, I probably could, but I'm new at this "author" business and this early in the game ego boosts are appreciated), complimentary reviews make my day. As it happens, they often also provide the opportunity to plug great review sites that I've visited and benefited from following.
One very good review site is Reviews by Jessiewave. Active since 2008, Reviews by Jessiewave is a huge repository of excellent, professional reviews of the M/M genre. It basically covers the definitively adult variety of M/M literature, but includes some young adult. I was honored enough to be listed on Jessiewave's site at all, but blown away when I read the review of My Life as a Myth from Orion, one of Jessie's regular contributors.
When a hopeful writer sets out to brave the world and share his/her dreams (because that's what a book is), unless he/she has the kind of ego that breaks diamonds, a negative review can be shattering. Of course, one of the first things you learn (hopefully) is that you've got to treat your book as a now-grown-up child who must stand or fall without your supervision. If someone doesn't like your book, you have to chalk it up, in the words of the old adage, to "horses for courses" and move on. Not doing so is not only rude, it's petty.
That said, that someone actually took the time to read and write positively about a book you wrote is more thrilling than being a freshman asked out by the twelfth grade man of your dreams.
So my thanks to Orion and Jessiewave for the flattering and complimentary review of My Life as a Myth. I appreciate it more than you can know.
One very good review site is Reviews by Jessiewave. Active since 2008, Reviews by Jessiewave is a huge repository of excellent, professional reviews of the M/M genre. It basically covers the definitively adult variety of M/M literature, but includes some young adult. I was honored enough to be listed on Jessiewave's site at all, but blown away when I read the review of My Life as a Myth from Orion, one of Jessie's regular contributors.
When a hopeful writer sets out to brave the world and share his/her dreams (because that's what a book is), unless he/she has the kind of ego that breaks diamonds, a negative review can be shattering. Of course, one of the first things you learn (hopefully) is that you've got to treat your book as a now-grown-up child who must stand or fall without your supervision. If someone doesn't like your book, you have to chalk it up, in the words of the old adage, to "horses for courses" and move on. Not doing so is not only rude, it's petty.
That said, that someone actually took the time to read and write positively about a book you wrote is more thrilling than being a freshman asked out by the twelfth grade man of your dreams.
So my thanks to Orion and Jessiewave for the flattering and complimentary review of My Life as a Myth. I appreciate it more than you can know.
A Fourth of July Thank You
July fourth is the day Americans (also known as "citizens of the United States" to the rest of the inhabitants of North America) celebrate their nation's founding and give thanks for the liberties we love and too seldom fully appreciate.
In that spirit, I want to thank Elisa Rolle. If you don't know who Elisa Rolle is, check out this entry from the Chicks & Dicks review site, which I might add is also well worth bookmarking.
Why am I thanking Elisa, besides her truly ground-breaking work in providing, if not the very first, an early home for gay book reviews? I'm also thanking her for including My Life as a Myth among the contenders for the 2013 Rainbow Awards.
In that spirit, I want to thank Elisa Rolle. If you don't know who Elisa Rolle is, check out this entry from the Chicks & Dicks review site, which I might add is also well worth bookmarking.
Why am I thanking Elisa, besides her truly ground-breaking work in providing, if not the very first, an early home for gay book reviews? I'm also thanking her for including My Life as a Myth among the contenders for the 2013 Rainbow Awards.
