Michael Harling's Blog, page 6

The Big Publicity Psssss…

I’d like to apologize to my readers—all twelve of you—for banging on about The Series.

Yeah, it’s quite an accomplishment, and yeah, I’m really chuffed about having finished it, but I’m starting to feel like an overly proud grandma who keeps pulling out photos of her dear little granddaughter and shoving them under the noses of everyone at the Knit and Natter every Thursday afternoon.

I get it, and, surprisingly, I’m already starting to feel a bit chagrined about the whole thing. I’m done ...

Lessons in Marketing

What I know about marketing you can fit into a thimble with room left over for a shot of whisky. Well, maybe a half-shot; it is a thimble after all. But my point is, I know very little about marketing.

However, my experience with the covers impressed upon me that, if I didn’t have the talent to do something, there was always someone out there who I could pay to do it right. And my one advantage over many other Do-It-Yourself authors is a disposable income. And so, with hope in my heart and a ...

Afterlife

I’m pretty sure my wife thought there was nothing quite as boring as hearing me ramble on about my writing, until I started rambling on about promoting my writing.

It was a week ago today that I finished The Talisman, both the book and the series, and it is still a bit surreal. All that time working on the books, even when I started getting close to the end, the idea that I would one day finish it never occurred to me. And now, the Series Spreadsheet, that I lived by for the past decade, is c...

It’s Over

On the thirteenth of March 2013, I wrote:

“Look, boys,” said Mother. “Someone has sent you a package.”

Ten years, ten months, and twenty-five days later, I put the final fullstop (period, in the US) on the final sentence. And the tale ended.

Oddly, there was no jubilation. I did not punch the air in celebration. I took the cigar I had been saving for years to mark this event and smoked it on the balcony in a state of stunned melancholy. For the two days after that, I walked around feeli...

End Game

I am in the final half of the final step in the final book of the Talisman series. I call this step The Robot Read—the last run through the manuscript after the writing, the revisions, the line editing and the proof-reading. And it always makes me shake my head in wonder and chagrin.

Writing is agonizing, editing is hard, and editing your own stuff is impossible. I would say it’s one of the major drawbacks of self-publishing, but even on those occasions when I placed books with actual publish...

The Seven-Decade Itch

My birthday is coming up soon. Or is it? It may already have passed. Who knows? Not you.

The reason I’m being so abstruse is, I wish to avoid spending a lot of time acknowledging the tsunami of well-wishes from my myriad of fans. Or, more likely, having the reality that I do not actually have a myriad of fans impressed upon me.

Suffice it to say that, at some point during the cold and snowy January of 1955, the Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, New York, was privileged to welcome me in...

A Look Back

Happy New Year!

With 2024 upon us, it’s time to take a look back. Not over 2023, just the past 24-hours.

First and most important:

I am looking for Beta Readers

The Talisman series is nearly complete. All the books have been removed from Amazon (don’t look for them, they are gone) in preparation for the new covers and the grand release, and I realized this would be an ideal time to give them a final once-over. They have all been proofread a number of times, so I don’t expect too many...

Dear Yanks, Steal This Holiday

It’s early Wednesday morning, the 27th of December, and the Christmas Holiday has just come to an end. (Why now; what about Tuesday? Patience, I’ll get to that.)

Wind and rain sound in the darkness outside my window, but the Christmas Holiday was mild—warm at times—and dry. Even though it wasn’t officially Christmas, Saturday kicked everything off. We went to London for the day to see the festivities, go to a play, and have dinner. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both cozy, low-key days,...

Spreading Christmas Joy

As you know, I belong to two choirs, and spreading Christmas joy through the singing of festive carols is what choirs are especially good at. Which is why, this past weekend, I found myself in the local shopping mall, arguing with the Grinch, disguised as a Mall Manager.

This woman’s reputation proceeded her. She is the one (or, at the very least, one of the ones) responsible for the attempted abduction of the swan statue in Swan Walk Mall. It’s too long a story to go into, but the gist of it...

Book News

I am within striking distance of the end of The White Feather, Book VI in The Talisman Series.

I know it’s a bit early to light the victory cigar, but I’ve only got three easy chapters to go, and I could have, if I’d had time, finished it by the end of this weekend, However, I was singing on Saturday, I’m singing today, and tomorrow, and Tuesday, and Wednesday. So, yeah, maybe next weekend.

This book has been a right slog, but I sorta knew it was going to end up this way. For those of you ...