Malcolm R. Campbell's Blog, page 257

I miss Christmas letters

I never thought I'd say that. Christmas letters have, in many circles, been a joke. In the 1960s, we said, "how ESTABLISHMENT can you be." Later, the joke was more about the stuff that never made it into the Christmas letter. Uncle Zeke's drinking problem and Monica's unexpected baby never got in the letter. The letter was supposed to be good news, probably an over-inflated list of people's real or imagined accomplishments during the past year.

What I miss, though, is the update. A lot of folk...

What to do about Christmas

Recently, a writer said in her newsletter that as the holidays arrive, writers don't need to get tangled up in feelings of chaos and limbo. The point was, those with full time jobs (working for somebody else) usually don't take the whole Thanksgiving to New Year's Day period off. They go to work day by day and in doing that, a schedule and a sense of order are maintained.

Writers working at home are all to likely to let decorating, shopping, mailing, party preparations and other activities exp...

The Infinite Vistion Quest

The photograph displayed at the top of this weblog is Chief Mountain on the eastern edge of Montana's Glacier National Park. The land in the foreground is that of the Blackfeet Nation, specifically the Southern Piegans headquartered in nearby Browning.

In The Sun Singer, set in Glacier National Park, I refer to this mountain as the Guardian wherein lies the spirit of the range. Robert Adams climbs it on a vision quest. In my yet-to-be-published Garden of Heaven, I refer to this mountain by it...

Coming Soon: New Edition of 'The Sun Singer'

Work is moving forward on the new edition of "The Sun Singer" coming out from Vanilla Heart Publishing early next year. The 2004 novel, set in Glacier National Park, is making a new appearance during the 100 year anniversary of the park. For more information about the 2010 Centennial, click here.

Here's the new cover art for "The Sun Singer":



You can see the new book trailer here.

Acclaim for "The Sun Singer"

"The Sun Singer is gloriously convoluted, with threads that turn on themselves and lyric...

Jefferson's Christmas Parade

I enjoyed being one of seven grand marshals in Jefferson's annual Christmas parade on Saturday. Our Main Street manager--who set up the parade--picked authors to lead the parade to go along with the "storybook Christmas" theme. Each of us perched up on the back of a convertible with our name and the title of a book on the side of it, and waived and threw candy to those along the 40-minute route. We worried about the weather all week since early forecasts showed a 70% chance of rain. But the d...

Chelle Cordero at Malcolm's Round Table

Author Chelle Cordero stops by Malcolm's Round Table today with a guest post called "You're not an author, you're my mom." I can definitely identify with her humorous take on writing--except for the mom part.
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As Glacier National Park's 2010 Centennial approaches, the National Park Service released "A View Inside Glacier National Park: 100 Years, 100 Stories" on December 1. The book, which celebrates the experiences "100 people whose lives have been enriched and who have been inspired by the g...

December 1 GoodReads Giveaway

Congratulations to Katie in Canada and Kristin in the United States who won the two free copies of "Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire" in today's giveaway at GoodReads. Have fun reading the book: I'm mailing it tomorrow.

Thanks to all 456 people who entered. I wish I had a copy for each of you, though you can read the first 35% of it for free on Smashwords.
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For all of you following the Tuesday Teaser meme, my offering for December 1 is posted on Writer's Notebook.
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This Thursday, author ...

Thanksgiving one day late

Our schedule pushed Thanksgiving dinner with my wife's parents until Black Friday. The northwest Georgia day was sunny, the evening scented with wood smoke across the farm. If Georgia had a different system of roads, we could drive to their farm by going almost due west from Jackson County on the northeast side of Atlanta. As it is, we must drive down I-85 to the Atlanta perimeter and then back up I-75 to the area around Calhoun, Georgia.

En route, we drove near the Mall of Georgia, Gwinnett P...

Deadline nears for GoodReads book giveaway

Two free copies of my comedy/thriller "Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire" will be given away in a random drawing on GoodReads in December. So far, 365 people have signed up for a chance at one of the copies.

Enter by December 1 for a shot at Jock.

--Malcolm

Burma Shave's Little Red Signs

Fewer and fewer people remember the little red signs along the side of the road that once advertised Burma Shave. These popular jingles promoting everything from a clean shave to traffic safety could be found along U.S. roadways between 1925 to 1963. While Burma Shave lasted as a product for another 30 years, the little signs were gone forever except in books and websites.

Typical shaving cream jingle (told on successive white-on-red signs):

Does your husband
Misbehave
Grunt and grumble
Rant and r...