Malcolm R. Campbell's Blog, page 262

Waiting for Jock Stewart

The publisher tells me Jock Stewart and the Missing Sea of Fire is now at the printer. So, the August 12th release date still appears to be realistic. It's nice to see the novel listed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for pre-order already.

The days leading up to a book release are exciting, the way Christmas was exciting when I was a kid. The anticipation is off the scale and I find myself at loose ends waiting to hold a physical copy of the book in my hands. My daughter, who's a documentary editor,

The Muse and You

I'll be appearing with author and writing coach Mark David Gerson on his internet radio program Wednesday, July 29 at 1:30 p.m. eastern time. Julie Isaac will be on the first half of the one-hour show between 1pm and 1:30.

We'll be talking about creativity and writing and books and whatever else comes up. Here's the link for the show: The Muse and You.

You can find some of my thoughts about creativity in my Writer's Notebook blog called Writing Without a Net.

You can find some of Mark David's thou

Novel focuses on Human Rights Abuse in Saudi Arabia

While reading Homa Pourasgari's recent novel, The Dawn of Saudi, I found myself stepping away from the well-plotted story of two women, one from Saudi Arabia and one from the U.S., who marry Saudi men and are trapped inside the barbaric hell of fundamentalist sharia law. I had to step away and remind myself that no, I'm not reading historical fiction, I'm reading a contemporary story.

Anger pulled me away: anger at the oppression of women based on an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam an

A Good Day for a Smile

Nora Roberts sells 21 books every minute. When you go to her website, you'll find all of her titles are available in an Excel spreadsheet. 160 of her books have been New York Times bestsellers. After all these years and all these books, I wonder if she still feels a sense of excitement and adventure on the day each new novel is listed on Amazon. On each book's official release date, does she sit back in an easy chair, smile and enjoy the experience?

My second novel, Jock Stewart and the Missing S

That's The Way It Is

"It is to explain why Cronkite's death matters today. If you came of news consumption age after the dawn of cable news and the Internet, you have not known a time when commentators did not scream at each other, when they did not express political views, when shedding a tear when the president was gunned down was actually controversial because it showed emotion. -- Al Tompkins, Poynter Online

WCTV, the lone television station in Tallahassee, Florida during the 1950s and 1960s, was a CBS affiliate,

On the Beach

When I see the words "On the Beach," I can't help but think of Nevil Shute's novel and the movie that was made from it. That nuclear war movie seems a little dated now, though perhaps it shouldn't.

I'm on the beach at the moment, actually in a Daytona condo owned by a friend of my Florida relatives. Yesterday afternoon as we spent several hours in the ocean, I thought back to some of those timeless days growing up on Florida gulf coast in the days before cell phones and the Internet. In a beach c

The Sweet Poison of Vanity

"A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange of a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that mo

What Book Shaped You?

Writers are often asked for the name of a book that they feel was in some way a life-changing read; the inference here is that the selected book also impacted the decision to become a writer.

I find this an impossible question to answer, partly because my wont to write was shaped a long time ago by the books I checked out from the junior high and high school libraries. While reading the literature prescribed in class, I also tended to check out a biographies. But I no longer remember the titles.

N

100 Years, 100 Stories

Next year, the National Park Service will publish a book called "100 years, 100 Stories" as part of its celebration of Glacier National Park's 100th anniversary.

I'm happy to say that it will include a short piece of mine about the first day of the 1964 Montana flood as viewed from the perspective of those carrying furniture out of the lake level rooms of a flooded hotel.

At the time, the flood was viewed as the worst in Montana's history--it still may be the worst. In a pre-CNN, pre-cell-phone wo

Early Reviewer Copies are Out

Last night, I e-mailed copies of an uncorrected e-book copy of JOCK STEWART AND THE MISSING SEA OF FIRE out to several people who dared to read a pre-publication copy of the novel and say something about it. Since each of them had read THE SUN SINGER, I felt duty-bound to tell them this is a very different book--night and day, I would say--from my first novel. Things are moving forward and it still looks like the novel will be released on August 12 by Vanilla Heart Publishing.

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