Brian Olsen's Blog, page 10
August 6, 2013
kboards Book Discovery Day
Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom is featured in today’s Book Discovery Day post on the kboards blog! kboards is a fantastic resource if you’re an ebook reader, so click the button below and explore!
August 1, 2013
What do you do?
For years, I called myself an actor. If you asked me what I did, I would say acting. “Actor” was my identity. It had been for my entire adult life.
Then I started directing. Acting wasn’t bringing me the same happiness it once had, and directing was getting better at scratching that itch to create. At first, calling myself a director felt like a lie. I wasn’t acting anymore, but I had wanted to succeed as an actor for so long that is seemed like a betrayal of my younger self to call myself anything else. But directing satisfied me, and acting didn’t, and gradually I started calling myself a director and believing it. “Director” became my new identity.
For the past few years I’ve been working as a production manager. It’s more than a full time job, so I’ve had less and less time for directing as my work responsibilities have increased. My identity hasn’t change – production managing is just my job. But if you ask me what I do nowadays, I’m more likely to say I’m a producer. (Nobody knows what a production manager does, but everyone thinks they know what a producer does, so I simplify.) Since I only direct about once or twice a year these days, I once again feel like a fraud if I introduce myself to someone as a director. I’ll leave that revelation for the deeper end of the conversation – if we reach the point where we’re telling each other what we are instead of what we do, I may tell you I’m a director.
Years ago, I was, to most of my friends, a writer first and foremost. I wrote plays and sketches for myself and my friends to perform, in high school and college and summer stock and eventually in New York. But while that how other people viewed, it was never how I viewed myself. I only wrote to give myself something to act in.
But now…something is changing again. I spent the past year pouring all of my frustrated creative energy into a book, and I surprised myself with how happy it made me. Happy enough that I turned down the opportunity to direct two plays this summer in order to focus on writing. I’m not quite ready to say I’m a writer, yet – it hasn’t become my identity. If you introduce yourself to me at a party and ask what I do, I will, after stammering incomprehensibly for a moment (I’m bad with new people), still tell you I’m a producer. But if we get past that, “And I wrote a book” will probably leave my lips before “And I’m a director” does.
But ask me again after my second book comes out. I’m dying to know what I’ll say then.
July 24, 2013
Win “Alan Lennox” paperback at Goodreads
I’m giving away two copies of Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom in paperback on Goodreads. Click the button below for a chance to win!
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom
by Brian Olsen
Giveaway ends August 07, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
(Don’t see the button? Click here!)
July 20, 2013
Alan Lennox FREE for Kindle this weekend
July 11, 2013
Join my mailing list for updates
I’ve got a mailing list! A Facebook fan page is great, but Facebook is like one of the popular kids, only sending party invitations out to a select few. And by “party invitations” I mean status updates, and by “a select few” I mean a small, randomly selected percentage of people who like my author page. Although popular kids don’t choose their party guests randomly, because then I might have accidentally gotten an invitation and they wouldn’t want that. Also, you can pay Facebook to alert everybody on your page, but there’s no way I’m paying stupid Jeremy Haskell to let me come to the stupid house party he’s throwing while his stupid parents are in the Poconos. I don’t even want to go.
That metaphor got away from me a little. I have a mailing list! You can sign up and never miss an update on my new releases. I promise, no spam. I will email infrequently, only when I’ve got something important to announce, like new books or…probably just new books.
July 4, 2013
Alan Lennox available in paperback!
Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom is available in paperback! You can order it at CreateSpace. Get your beach read now!
July 2, 2013
Paperback coming soon!
I got the paperback proof of Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom this morning! Here’s me peeking out from behind the cover:
It’s a strange feeling, holding the result of a year’s work in my hands. Strange, but very satisfying! I need to check it and approve it, and then the paperback should be available to order through CreateSpace and Amazon. I’ll let you know!
July 1, 2013
Alan Lennox cover art
This is the cover art to my new book, Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom, unobscured by any of the titles. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s by Simon Winheld, and you can see more of his art at his website, www.simonwinheld.com.
I had seen Simon’s work on publicity for a friend’s show and commissioned him to do the cover last January. I had no ideas whatsoever, so, based on some rough plot information I gave him, he drew me a couple of sketches which ultimately led to this. He was an absolute pleasure to work with and put up with all of my requests for little tweaks (which I suspect may not have been as little as he allowed me to believe). Go to his website and check out his other work!
And of course, you can buy the book at Amazon, if you haven’t already…
June 25, 2013
Alan Lennox on Goodreads
Are you a Goodreads member? Consider writing a review for Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom on its Goodreads page. I’d be ever so grateful!
June 24, 2013
Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom is available now!
My first book, Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom, is available now for the Kindle! Click here to buy it on Amazon!
I’ve been working on this book for over a year, and it’s an amazing feeling to see that page go live and know that something I’ve created is out there in the world. No rest for me, though – this is the first in a series titled The Future Next Door, and I’m already hard at work on book two!
If you read it, please consider writing an honest review on Amazon. And spread the word!
