Elgon Williams's Blog, page 32

Response To A Challenge: Review Of Fried Windows

From time to time I review things. Novels, music, concerts, plays and a few off the wall experiences have been fair game in the past. But I have never officially, publicly reviewed any of my own work, until now. I’m doing this on a dare, in response to a personal challenge. I will not post this review of Fried Windows anywhere like Goodreads, Amazon or anywhere else for fear of someone assuming I’m more vain than perhaps I am. I humbly submit this only because I think it might be enlightening to hear the author’s thoughts.

Of course, I’ve read Fried Windows – so many times I’ve lost count, not that I was really trying to keep track. I dare say I have read it more than anyone else ever will. I’ve read previous versions no one else has seen save for a few beta readers. I know what was deleted during the final edits and where the skeletons are hidden. What was removed and replaced in prior revisions now exists only in my memory of the original story. Also, what  triggered the creative process that resulted in the original draft is part of the story of my recent life. I’ve shared some of these insights in the past, of how I left a bad situation that was killing me and on the way produced a novel. But I have never given the work a formal, critical review.

Here goes:

Fried Windows (In A Light White Sauce) by Elgon Williams is urban fantasy meshed with various other genres including mystery and science fiction. The result is entertaining though the plot, at times, becomes complicated and twisted as the storyteller fuses the various element together and have it make some modicum of sense. Then again, does fantasy need to make sense?

Strawb is the standout supporting character. Her eccentricities are the glue that binds the amalgam, giving necessary cohesion to the storyline. Without her presence Brent, the hero, would drift aimlessly through a fantasy world he barely recalls, bouncing from one experience to the next while trying to piece together the puzzle he made of Lucy’s life.

Lucy is as an innocent child at times. After all, she is disconnected from any real world underpinnings.  This allows her to be free but she also laments what she knows is no longer within her. Brent is as attracted to her as he ever was as a child when she was his imaginary friend. But within his Carlos persona, Brent finds the desire to stay with her in the Inworld nearly irresistible. In the course of remembering things from the past Brent/Carlos realizes he was at least complicit and possibly responsible for what changed  Lucy and why she is trapped in only one world. In the process he appreciates that what he did as well as what he did not do now exposes his real world children to fates similar to Lucy’s.

Despite the seriousness underlying everything, Fried Windows was always intended to be a lot of fun. What if someone offered you a special gift of reconnecting with childhood? It’s a fantasy that perhaps we have all permitted. In a world of mortgages, car payments, bills and responsibilities, what sane person hasn’t wanted to escape for a while? In the background, as Brent experiences being a kid again it alters him. A lot of what he does seems crazy – even to himself. As readers we are left to question what is real and what is not about this curios man and his strange story. What did the mysterious organization called The Program do to him? How much responsibility do they bear for Brent’s apparently tenuous grasp on reality?

At one level we might just as well accept that Brent is bonkers and leave it at that as we go along for the ride of a lifetime. But the possibility that he is not, that what he perceives is a veiled reality that the rest of us ignore, opens endless opportunities for us to explore. And as a writer, exploring unbridled imagination is a way to find artistic expression.

I won’t give any overall star rating to my own work. I find the awarding of stars counter productive, anyway. How can one equate the works of two different authors and determine that both being excellent deserve the same rating. Also, as a reader, there are stories I like better than others but that does not diminish the effort that went into creating the story. No doubt some will find areas that could be improved in Fried Windows. Each of us might write this story differently. But I feel the book does its job, establishing the foundation for what is yet to come as the real world learns more about Brent Woods and his multiple layered fantasy universe.

There, was that so hard? At the risk of seeming self-aggrandizing, I am posting this review. If it comes off as self-promotion, so be it. I would have never written Fried Windows if I did not intend for others to read it. Certainly, I would have never gone through the extended process of publishing it if I did not believe in the story. Whether you buy it as an eBook or paperback, rent it, borrow it or whatever, I hope you enjoy the experience of reading it. I also hope you learn not to assume things about the nature around you. What we believe in is a matter perspective and perception, after all.

#FriedWindows #ElgonWilliams #author #NewReleaseBooks #MustReadBooks #Writing #BookReview

 

Reblog: Steph Post’s Interview With Christine Gabriel

For those who don’t know much about her yet, Christine Gabriel is an YA/NA fantasy author whose debut novel, Crimson Forest, will be released very soon (August 30). Steph Post’s debut novel, A Tree Born Crooked, has been receiving a lot of critical attention and is due to release at the end of September. Both are Pandamoon Publishing authors and dear friends of mine. Also FYI, Christine is my publicist and I am Steph’s publicist.

The following interview originally appeared at:

http://stephpostauthor.blogspot.com/2014/08/christine-gabriel-author-ninja-panda.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+StephPost+%28Steph+Post%29

Christine Gabriel: Author-Ninja-Panda-Rock-Star (An Interview)

Posted: 02 Aug 2014 06:51 AM PDT

Christine Gabriel is not only the author of the soon to be released fantasy novel Crimson Forest, she is also a high-energy ninja rock star with a heart of gold. When she’s not too busy writing, she also works as a publicist for Pandamoon Publishing and I was lucky to slow her down for a few minutes this week to catch up. Keep reading to find out more…

As the secrets begin to reveal themselves, Angelina learns that the mistakes made in the past could ultimately alter her future. She realizes she will have to risk everything, including her own soul in order to save the one man her heart can’t live without. It’s within the Crimson Forest that she’ll realize true love exists and fairy tales are real…

Steph Post: Crimson Forest’s debut is only a month away… How excited are you right about now?

Christine Gabriel: Oh man, excited is probably and understatement. I’m freaking scared to death!! I’m so darn nervous that I will probably hide under my comforter the day of its release haha.

SP: Crimson Forest is a new adult fantasy novel about an eighteen year old girl confronting the mystical inhabitants of a mysterious forest just outside of town. I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy and was struck by the imaginative characters and situations. What draws you to the fantasy genre and what is your process for creating characters that are ‘otherworldly’?

CG: I love the fantasy genre because I’m so curious about the things that are unknown and undiscovered in this great big ol’ world. I mean, why couldn’t some of these creatures exist, but they simply hide themselves from us because they fear what we would do or what they would have to do to us?

When it comes to creating my characters, I always base them on people that I know. Everything from their personality to the way they look goes into that character. I’ll even go so far as to use a similar name. I feel almost like it’s kind of an honor because once you’re put into a book, you can never die…so in some sense, they’ll get to live forever in the pages of something that many people will enjoy for years to come.

SP: Another point that struck me when reading Crimson Forest was the strength of the main character’s narration. How do you go about getting inside the head of an eighteen year old? Do you find writing from this point of view natural or challenging?

CG: It was very natural to be honest. I just put myself in her shoes and write how I believe I would’ve been back when I was 18 (man that just made me feel so old.)

SP: Crimson Forest is the first book in a fantasy series that will continue on with Crimson Moon. Do you have the entire series already planned out? When writing, are you continually looking ahead towards the scope of the series?

CG: I do! Crazy right?! Let’s just say that the future books will hopefully be just as amazing as the first one. I am presently in love with Crimson Moon. It has really turned out to be a fabulous read. When writing, I do continually look ahead towards the scope of the series. Right now, my biggest obstacle is deciding if I want to end it as a Trilogy or continue it on. Let’s just say I know how the series will end whether I continue on after book 3 or stop.

SP: In addition to being an author, you are also an author publicist. Any tips for authors on how to navigating the ever-challenging world of marketing and publicity?

CG: One thing an author must remember is that – Marketing is NOT scary and is a necessity in this ever changing market. There are millions of authors trying to get their work noticed and without marketing your work it will go nowhere. That’s why I adore my job as a Publicist because I get to help make dreams come true by getting their work noticed by thousands of people.

Also, whether you’re an Indie Author or with a Publishing House, marketing begins and ends with you. What you put out is what you will receive. This is easily forgotten in the publishing world as some authors believe it is not their responsibility to market themselves. Building your brand is crucial. You want your readers to know you, not just your books.

SP: On a personal note, I have to ask- what’s the deal with earthworms? I get strange phobias (mine are probably stranger than yours), but I’ve never heard of a fear of earthworms….

CG: Yeah, it’s a pretty dumb fear honestly but holy cow…you should see what happens when I come face to face with this fear.

When I was younger, my babysitter let me watch the movie “Squirm.” Let’s just say it tainted my entire outlook on any kind of worm that exists. All I can think about is this squiggly, slimy worm burrowing itself into my skin. Yeah…I’m totally terrified of them.

SP: To wrap this up, let’s do speed favorites (first thing that pops into your head!) Ready? Go!

Favorite…

Sports Team: Ohio State Buckeyes of course!! Go Bucks! Oooo and The Cleveland Indians!

Ice Cream Flavor: Cookie Dough

Book You Read as a Child: Where the Red Fern Grows

Celebrity: Adam Sandler

Undomesticated Animal: A Squirrel!!!

Ride at a Theme Park: Millennium Force at America’s Roller Coast – Cedar Point

Sentence to Tell Your Kids When They’re Driving You Crazy: That’s it, I’m taking away your (insert electronic of choice.)

Want to know more about Christine?

Christine Gabriel, a diehard Buckeye fan, grew up in the small farming community of Monroeville, Ohio where she spent much of her time writing imaginative stories. She has spent the last ten years managing a financial institution in Norwalk, Ohio in which she’s learned that compassion and love are her greatest gifts to give to others.

She has a small tribe of children who have become her biggest fans and most honest critics. She’s an avid animal lover and has been known to bring home a stray to cuddle with her while she writes. She’s also deathly afraid of earthworms and will cross the street in order to avoid one on the sidewalk. She loves vanilla coffee and can’t begin her morning without it, even knowing that doing so has consequential effects that could potentially cause a Zombie Apocalypse.

Christine’s most important view is that her readers are able to escape out of their realities and enjoy a little piece of her imagination. She holds each one of her readers close to her heart and loves them as if they were one her dearest friends. She currently resides in Norwalk, Ohio where she’s working on Crimson Moon, Book Two of The Crimson Chronicles series.

Connect with Christine at…

http://www.christinegabriel.net

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorChristineGabriel

http://www.twitter.com/ChristineGabriel

http://www.facebook.com/ChristineGabriel

http://pandamoonpublishing.com/pandamoon/christinegabriel.html

google..com/+ChristineGabriel

#ChristineGabriel #CrimsonMoon #Author #PandamoonPublishing #OhioAuthors

The Journey of a Nerd

I used to think my situation was unique. Throughout my life I was the odd ball, a misfit, the last one chosen to play dodgeball, the uncoordinated nerd in school who tried to be a jock. It was all intended to attract the attention of pretty girls but I failed miserably. I dated sometimes but pretty much I was socially inept. Even after going off to college and having a fresh start, things were not greatly improved, though I was forced to make a new set of friends and, while attending Purdue University, there were a whole lot of other nerds with whom I could associate.

For whatever reason I didn’t study engineering or anything scientific, though I definitely had a general interest and knack with those subjects.. I did some crazy things like taking basic courses in chemistry, physics, computer science and such as electives while my major was mass communication. Also I fancied myself a rocker and loved music, had a part time job in a stereo store, played bass guitar, had long hair and worked another part time job at a radio station as a DJ. Imagine that!. I was deathly afraid of public speaking, so what was I doing taking classes that required me to give speeches in class let alone working as a DJ? For that matter, what I was doing learning how to write a specific way – the way a journalist writes?

Anyone who remembers me from college (or high school) recalls that I wrote a lot of stuff. I started working on my first novel when I was 13. Some of that material survived in one form or another until I composed what was intended to be my debut novel, a book called Tarot. It was a high fantasy thing based on the characters of the major arcana of fortune telling cards. Like a lot of people in the 70’s, I had a passing fascination with the occult. And like the majority of them, it is something I eventually outgrew.

The Tarot manuscript  still exists. somewhere in my stored stuff there is a book typed, double-spaced.  Some of the concepts and characters eventually made their ways into One Over X and The Wolfcat Chronicles. So the book never died. I have kept it around all these years to remind me how awful my writing used to be back when I had no doubt I was destined to be a best selling author. The trouble was, my writing and how it affected my storytelling. When reality set in, I started working on improving that.

At some point in the early ’80’s I took a hiatus from writing. Maybe I believed I needed to live a bit to be able to write about things people could relate to. It’s a nice thought even if it is mostly BS. I switched to studying business administration, relocated to Texas and received a degree from UT Austin. Afterwards, I worked in advertising and sales for a while, also stocked grocery shelves before having one of those wild hair moments and joining the Air Force. They taught me Chinese and sent me overseas where I ended up being a unit historian (because someone found out I could write better than the average person). Technically, the unit history I put together, printed and distributed while in the service was my first actual book. It won an outstanding rating, though, due to his Top Secret contents, only a select few ever read it.

I really never completely gave up on writing or my stories. I don’t think a writer can really do that unless he or she really isn’t intended to be a writer. Writing isn’t a vocation or something you just choose to do. Somewhere there is a gene that is twisted sideways. That’s what causes some people to write.

I kept working at the crafting of words , writing drafts and feinted story starts. Eventually I bought a computer and the moment I went digital my creativity began to surge. In the late ’90’s I had a draft novel, an early version of From The Inside and it’s companion piece To The Closer. I showed them to a small publisher and he helped me get them into print.

Around that time my personal life was falling apart. My now ex-wife and I stayed together but we were’t acting much like a married couple except for the arguing over money. Our kids had no illusions that we were going to survive as a couple. When the three of them were all grown and out on their own, my ex and I divorced.

I went through some serious issues that adversely affected my health. Truth be told those issues started when I was much younger and just fallowed me around, coming ot a head in early 2012. One day I decided to make a go at writing professionally. If you really, truly intend to be a writer you have to do that at some point. You got to walk the high wire without a safety net. Otherwise writing will forever be a hobby and you will never be as successful at it as you could be.

It hasn’t been easy. It’s getting better but I’m doing other things on the side in order to survive. My expenses are minimal. I don’t drive. I don’t have a car. I live close enough to where I work that i ride a bike. I eat a lot less and what I eat is healthy. Riding the bike and the manual aspects of the work I do on the side is getting me back into shape. Foremost, I don’t drink anymore. I’ve lost nearly sixty pounds in the past year or so. I guess I don’t notice it that much, except that I can wear smaller sized clothes. The other day someone at work who is reading my latest book, Fried Windows, commented that I no longer look like the author’s picture on the back cover. Other than having shaved my mustache, I am considerably thinner. She told me I look younger too. Maybe so.

I’m pretty certain of two things, though. If I hadn’t decided to write full-time I wouldn’t be alive. In order to pursue writing I had to leave a job I hated that was at least partially responsible for my over consumption of alcohol and my serious poor eating habits. I had a self destructive life style was killing me one swallow at a time. Also I would have never written Fried Windows as it was entirely composed after I quite drinking. Even if I had written the story I am absolutely certain I would have never  gotten it to the point of submitting it for publication.

Hemingway said write drunk but edit sober. In fact he may have come up with some of his ideas while under the influence but as I understand it he wrote in the early morning before he got totally lit. Fried Windows was written revised and edited while I was completely sober. It’s funny that I’ve been asked what kind of drugs I was on to have come up with such a bizarre story. My answer: that’s the way my mind works.

#nerd #writing #publishing #Purdue #UTAustin #AirForce

Review of Skipping Stones by J. B. McGee

Skipping Stones by J.B. McGee explores the full scale of human emotions from despair to elation. For the most part it is Alexandria Hart, (Alex for short) beginning with the summer that she’s fifteen years old. She chooses to spend time with her grandparents in Graniteville, South Carolina instead of accompanying her parents on a European vacation. Tragedy strikes and her world is turned inside out. While grieving, fate delivers diversion, a seventeen-year-old named Drew Foster who promises to teach her everything he knows including how to skip stones across a tranquil pool in the creek near Alex’s grandparents house. Over the course of the ensuing month, Drew becomes the reason she can move past the harshest of times in her life.

Skipping Stones is about surviving as much as growing up. It is a well-written story both compelling and evenly paced filled with emotional peaks and valleys. As Alex matures she deal with many kinds of loss in her quest for love and purpose to her life, including a desire to save lives. The endearing characters are memorable creating a page-turner that follows Alex from teenager to young woman as she wrestles with life changing choices.

Authors Bio (From Amazon profile):

J.B. McGee was born and raised in Aiken, South Carolina. After graduating from South Aiken High School, she toured Europe as a member of the 1999 International Bands of America Tour, playing the clarinet. While attending Converse College, an all girls school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she visited Charleston often. It quickly became one of her favorite vacation spots. She met her husband, Chad, during Christmas break her freshman year, and they married in 2001. They moved back to her hometown. In 2005, the couple welcomed their first son, Noah. J.B. finished her Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of South Carolina-Aiken in 2006. During her time studying children’s literature, a professor had encouraged her to become a writer.

In 2007, she welcomed their second child, Jonah, and she became a stay at home mom/entrepreneur. In 2009, they found out their two children and J.B. have Mitochondrial Disease. In 2011, a diagnosis also was given to Chad. Please take a moment and learn more about Mitochondrial Disease. Awareness is key to this disease that has no cure or treatments.

J.B. McGee and her family now reside in Buford, Georgia, to be closer to their children’s medical team. After a passion for reading had been re-ignited, J.B. decided to finally give writing a shot. She is an Amazon Top 100 bestselling author of her debut series, the ‘This’ Series.

J.B. is represented by Stacey Donaghy with Donaghy Literary Group.

To buy Stepping Stones:

Skipping Stones

Karen Perkins’ Valkyrie Series – Pirates and Romance

Well written historical fiction should cause the reader to wonder what really happened – to ask what in the story is fact and what is not. If the story is well executed it should be told without anachronism or other annoying flaws, accurately depicting the period in question. Ultimately it should be the kind of story that leaves the reader thinking that if things didn’t happen exactly this way, perhaps they should have.

The Valkyrie Series is a pirate tale with a love story of two thrown in to the mix. In the background it also points out some of the more glaring social issues of the period such as colonial exploitation, slavery and greed along with the institutionalized oppression of women and man’s inhumanity as contrasted to the desire for freedom of choice.

Karen Perkins begins her tale with Ill Wind, a novella length story that introduces us to 14-year-old Gabriella Berryngton. Set in the late 17th Century we are transported back to a time with very different rules. Although her story begins in colonial Massachusetts Bay her father arranges for her marriage of convenience to Erik the son of a wealthy Dutch businessman named Jan van Ecken. Against her will she is taken aboard a ship to the Caribbean island of Sayba. On the way she learns that van Ecken’s business associations are at least questionable and, as the story progresses, she learns that she is aboard a pirate ship. Her adventure as well as a great deal of suffering at the hand of overbearing and oppressive men is just beginning.

Gabriella begins as an innocent girl but rapidly becomes experienced in the darker aspects of the real world into which her father is forced her, a dangerous existence defined by wealth, slavery and nefarious dealings with some unsavory characters.

The second book of the series, Dead Reckoning is a true novel in length and in structure. It is told from the perspective of two character, Leo Santiago who we met briefly in Ill Wind and Gabriella van Ecken, the previous is bent on revenge against the pirates that tortured and raped his mother before killing her and the latter seeking escape and freedom from her imprisonment as the nominal wife of Erik.

Dead Reckoning has the feel of a epic journey into the world of privateers marauding the Caribbean. Again the attention to detail in the descriptions of the ships and the character’s clothing is second to none. The level of accuracy makes it easy to lose oneself in the adventure, getting so involved in the story that you continue to think about the character and wonder at the outcome of their stories long after you set the books aside. Karen Perkins is herself an accomplished competition sailor, so it comes as little surprise that the nautical terms and descriptions of the ships, their rigging and the basics of how to sail such marvels of construction is meticulously factual, leaving the reader feeling as if he or she has learned something and might even be able to survive aboard such ships.

The third installment of the Valkyre series is Look Sharpe! Having read the books in the numerical order as perhaps intended is not necessary, though. Since Karen Perkins structured the story from the perspectives of its several main characters the reader might actually start by reading Look Sharpe! and gain a different perspective on the characters and their stories. Though I found Dead Reckoning to be the most complete novel in a traditional sense, each of the three installments has its strengths as a story.

The risk of telling a story from multiple perspectives is that the story gets lost in all the background details and the reader gets bored with hearing the same bits told over and over, albeit from differing perspectives. But here Perkins takes care to avoid redundancies. Although there is some overlap in the details, having each character’s unique point of view is actually enlightening. The way Perkins presents the material is effective instead of distracting. However, there is a huge problem in structuring a story as multiple character profiles. And the Valkyrie Series story arc suffers in the process.

There is a different way of presenting the story using a mixture of character point of view and chronological order. In order to create the story in such a manner the entire story must be drafted first then arranged into a logical flow. The difficulty in this method is that it is time consuming and requires an author to extend work on an epic tale such as this over a span of years instead of the usual few months it takes to draft a novel.

My problem with giving any of the books in this series a complete endorsement is that two of the other books feel incomplete as novels and the one that merit the title, Dead Reckoning, leaves many questions unanswered. Look Sharpe! answers the questions of who is Henry Sharpe and why does he act as he does in assisting the events in Dead Reckoning. I can assume that the soon to be released Ready About and the short story Where Away also serve to fill in the backstory’s details.

Structural problems aside, the Valkyrie Series has a lot to offer for those who love historical pieces about pirates and high seas adventures. The character based story telling delivered in first person lends intimacy in the connection between the reader and the characters making for a enjoyable read. Had the story arc of the entire series been used as an overall structure for telling the series from the perspectives of Gabriella, Leo and Sharpe (and perhaps Magdalena) I believe the books could have made a stronger impact as works of epic adventure literature. Perhaps, once the story is completely told, the author might reorganize the various parts and tell the story chronologically through each character’s perspectives.

The quality of writing is first rate with only a few minor editing errors. Some of the spellings are peculiar to the period and the fact that the author is British. Single quotes are used in dialogue, which is not a big deal to American readers who have read some British authors in the past. Because of the manner of telling through the eyes of multiple characters there are jumps in time and a few instances of overlapping events seen from different points of view.

Regardless of the structural shortcomings of the series I highly recommend these books. Perkins is a gifted writer. Her characters live and breathe for the reader.

Trailer:

https://www.goodreads.com/videos/66279-the-valkyrie-series

To buy on Amazon.com:

Ill Wind : http://tinyurl.com/omwgyml

Dead Reckoning: http://tinyurl.com/qbkpurv

Look Sharpe!: http://tinyurl.com/op6e88l

#pirates #HighSeas #Adventure #Caribbean #KarenPerkins #romance

 

Persona Non Grata by Stephen J. Stirling Is Refreshingly Engaging

Stephen J. Stirling had penning an exciting, fast-paced, refreshingly engaging read that is topical, blending both religious dogma and current events. Although set in a fictitious version of Crimea, not the one you’ll find on any map, the political intrigue rings true enough in a captivating, suspense-filled tale.

Paladin Smith, the story’s unlikely hero, is a high school history teacher and devout follower of the Mormon faith who starts each day teaching a seminary class to teens, just as he did many several years ago when he has Victoria (Toria) Grant in his class. After he saves her from date rape her uncle misreads his interest in her forces him to leave town. Now that adversary from his past returns as a Congressman who needs Paladin’s help to save Toria. The strength of his faith is tested as the strange mission requires Paladin to travel 6,000 miles and do something well beyond anything he has ever done – perhaps something he never dreamed was possible. In the process he relies on the inner strength of his faith and receives an opportunity to save more than one life and also change the world.

I particularly enjoyed the way Stirling casts his Paladin into the political intrigue. At first everyone assumes he is a special envoy from the US but then, as he true identity come into focus he becomes an officially unwelcome person, hence the title of the book.

There is a powerful message of hope contained in Stirling’s words and it is delivered along with page-turning action and steadily building suspense to a climax that comes as a surprise after all the underhanded chicanery going on in the background. The reading experience is enjoyable and a distinct change from recent fare.

To buy on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/nxcp8zk

#suspense #PolicticalIntrigue #novel #Mormon #StephenJStirling, #MustReadBooks

Dreams Don’t Die Unless You Let Them

 

It was an overreaction, I suppose. But first thing in the morning, a time when you might just be as optimistic as you will ever be for the entire day, I read a post on Facebook. All of it was fine, about the light of stars arriving when in fact the star died long ago. That’s the nature of the universe. But then, at the end the premise was made that like the stars I dreams die as well. I beg to differ.

Maybe dreamers die, or at least they appear to die. Their dreams live on. Dreams contain within them the means of achieving of immortality, if that’s what’s desired. You see people die. Like the universe and stars that is part of our nature. There is a brief span for each thing. Whether it is a few minutes, a few millennia or millions of years, nothing lasts except the  elemental matter from which all things are derived. Isn’t it odd that matter comes from the death of some stars? So without a star perishing somewhere in the cosmos billions of years ago all the stuff of which you and I consist would not exist. That’s science.

Me, I believe a lot of strange things but one of the enduring, beliefs is consistent with everything else regardless how strange it might seem to others. People are born to dream. Those who allow dreams to die within them make that choice. It is sad and unnecessary, but it is part of believing the illusions others set before us. We are expected at some point to cave in to the mounting pressures of practicality. We set aside our dreams promising, perhaps, to come back to them when we have the time. All too often time expires. The dream is still there, though, just unreeled. The dreamer dies but the dream never does.

Not everyone is radical in their perspective. I understand that. For thirty or more years I played the games others set before me. Participating int he practical life, enslaved to a clock, allowing others to tell me when to be somewhere and also what I needed to do in order to earn the pittance I’d agreed to work for. That is real life, right? I opted for that in lieu of chasing the dream of being a musician or a writer. And now that I’m on the backside of the adventure that has been my life, I see the error in that kind of thinking. It wasn’t an either/or choice. I should haven never set aside the dream. Look at all the time I wasted being practical when instead I could have pursued the dream.

Now, I hear you. You have obligations. You settle down, have a family and everything that goes with that. That’s what life is about – well, some of what life is about. But I propose that life is also about the adventure, learning, growing and dreaming. If that is not included in your adventure, then life becomes bankrupt as you die well before getting the chance to return to your dreams.

What prevents you from realizing your dreams is not your obligations to others or the necessity of survival. Sometimes it is as simples deciding to take a chance and just go for it.   Yes, you might fail. But you might succeed and I’ll bet the odds of success are better than the chance at winning the lottery – and it costs nothing except for making the choice and sticking to it until you reach your dream’s destination.

There is a sacred event that happens when an artist has produced a tangible artifact for posterity – in the case of a writer, something printed on pages. Holding an actual book in one’s hands, seeing one’s name on it, reading one’s own words in print that others, strangers even, will read is both sobering and humbling. It is the culmination of a process that at inception is a crazy idea that turns into a dream. And a few months or years later you can hold the evidence of the dream in your hands.

No, thats not why writers write. But it is a worthwhile experience that only writers can have the moment the writer feels like he or she is an author.

I never stopped writing, by the way. Really it was more that I doubted anyone would want to read my silly stories. Still, I continued to write them because, well… as every writer will tell you, you don’t have much of a choice. If you are a writer you will write. The reason I was in my mid 40’s before publishing my first book was a matter of deciding not to listen to everyone else. I knew how hard it is to become published. I went through the rejection. But at some point I figured out that when a publisher says ‘no’ really it means ‘not yet’. Either my timing was bad or the manuscript wasn’t ready Either way it wasn’t that the dream of publishing a book was wrong. It just wasn’t the right time.

Fried Windows is about dreams and never giving up on them. It is not my first publication and I’m determined that it won;t be my last. It is different than what came before it. What comes next will continue to be unique. It is a beginning point set int he middle of the main character’s life and there are many more stories about him and in which he participates as a supporting character.

                                                           

#writing #dreams #ambitions #author #writers #publishing #FriedWindows

Buy Fried Windows here: http://tinyurl.com/o4hd2kq

 

 

Anybody Can Do It – Sort Of

 

One of my past bosses was prone to saying things like, “If it was easy anybody could do it.” Then he’d immediately add, “And it wouldn’t be fun.” Eventually he contracted all of that down to “If it was easy it wouldn’t be fun.” I never thought much about the implications of what he was saying until I moved on to working for someone else, a guy who was more prone to saying hackneyed things about his aunt not being his uncle because she lacked the balls – or something like that. Clearly, though, my old boss saw merit in the difficulty of the struggle. To him that made the work fun.

I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say work is fun but there are things that make the time seemed to pass by quickly. The effort involved in doing something makes it an adventure. It also defines us as individuals by the level of struggle we are willing to endure to succeed. To some extent it is true that the people who aren’t famous are the ones who were unwilling to put forth the effort required. Although in some instances it seems others become famous for no apparent reason, there is always a reason for it and if it didn’t take them effort to get there it certainly requires effort to remain there. Also, what is required for fame to endure will tend to piss off some people along the way. Family and some friends have the choice of being supportive or feeling neglected. At times they may believe that the famous person has changed. That’s not the usual case, though.  I’ll explain some o that later.

All this came to mind this morning while I was writing a book review. Yeah, that’s how my mind works: do one thing while thinking of several other things in the process. I’m weird like that. Anyway, last night a good friend and I were discussing fame and why it comes easy for some people and not others. I asserted that anyone can be famous, it’s just that most are not willing to follow through and take the necessary steps for whatever reason.

Why would someone set out to become famous then not complete the process? Well, there are several very good reasons. Foremost is that being famous is not what people think it is go ingot be like. I’ve never been famous but I know people who are or have been for a period. So I have some insight on how it changed them and how it did not – kind of a before and after. Let me start out by saying that when each one became famous for a while it was fun for them and their closest friends who enjoyed the moment vicariously or through close association. It didn’t really change who they were but it changed how others, particularly strangers and friends who, in truth, were hardly better than acquaintances, responded to them. True friend were still friends. There wasn’t as much time to spend together, perhaps but that was sort of understandable with all the demands of maintaining fame. Then, far more abruptly than the fame came, all of it went away.

That’s pretty much how it happens, I guess. And from having witnessed the process a few times I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone has it in them to be famous. What is required it connecting with the moment and as many people as possible. You entertain them for however long you command attention and when it is over, if you don’t have something new to give, fickle human nature takes charge. The audience move on to the next greatest thing and unless you have something to bring their focus back, of have some slick marketing behind you with a publicity campaign to keep your name out there in public view at all times, you lose the spotlight.

Andy Warhol mentioned the 15 minutes of fame everyone supposedly has. It is pretty much the same thing, expect these days, with the Internet and everything else, it is more like five seconds. Yet never before has it been more possible to be famous. Writers don’t need publishers to share their writing, musicians don’t need record labels, and clearly you don’t need to be an actor or have any real talent or skills to be on TV. You just have to do something that provokes others to take interest. Then you, or rather what you do/did, goes viral. If you know how to hang on and adapt you might be famous for more than ten seconds.

So here’s a simple five step plan for fame:

1) grab attention.

2) hold attention.

3) gain more attention.

4) extend and maintain interest.

5) repeat steps one through four.

Yeah it is overly simplified, but that is also my point. We make it too hard when it’s really not. All you need to be famous is to get everyone’s attention and keep it for a while.

The first few moments of a song or the first few sentences of a book MUST gain attention of the target audience, otherwise what follows is irrelevant. That’s the nature of the world and I think that’s is why most people fail to become famous. They don’t have a firm grip on attention grabbing. The five seconds you have to convince anyone that should be famous expires while you are still thinking of the right way to begin.

#fame #attention #famous #publicity

Advantages of Kindle Unlimited Go To Authors and Readers

Okay, so a bunch of my friends are confused about what Amazon is up to with the Unlimited program. Let’s call it what it is: competition advantage. The program offers both authors and readers several advantages, though. Really the only ones who aren’t in favor of the program are those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo in the publishing world where the major houses dominate.

This is what’s good about the program:

For Readers: The benefits come from being able to download and try any book that is on the KDP program, roughly 600,000 titles, regardless of whether he or she owns a Kindle device. If you have a Kindle application on your computer, tablet or phone you can use the Unlimited program as well as those who own Kindles. The first month of the program is a free trial. You can borrow up to 10 books at a time. Then you must return a book in order to download your next book. But, unlike the previous and still existing lending library program Amazon has with KDP, it is not limited to one title a month or restricted to only those who own a device. After the trial period, the reader can continue in the program for $9.99 a month. Also, the reader can still purchase any book they want to keep as a private library item.

For authors: Unlimited virtually eliminates the advantage to pricing an eBook lower. A reader will no longer be as sensitive to price in determining which books to download. In fact a reader may be more inclined to read higher priced books because, well, they cost the same $9.99 a month on the plan. For the reader there may be perceived additional value in books with higher retail prices but, for the author, higher retail means a larger share of the lending pie when it comes to paying out royalties. Ten percent of the book is the threshold past which royalties are paid. Ebooks already display at least 10% o the book for readers to sample. So effectively there is no change in that. Once a reader advances beyond that point sale is recorded for the author’s account and it also counts for ranking purposes. Yes, the royalty is lower than if the book had actual been sold but here you have to think in terms of it as revenue the author would not get otherwise. It is a sale made to someone who previously may have not downloaded the book al all. Again, the advantage is to the author. Unlimited expands access to the library download feature in KDP that to this point only Kindle device owners could use. Authors in the KDP program are competing with 600,000 titles for Unlimited as opposed to 1.4 million titles for the overall market. As a result, it should be somewhat easier for authors to climb in the sales rankings with this new program.

For small publishers and those who self-publis: Unlimited gives access to a range of marketing features through Amazon KDP that traditional major publishers are less inclined to use. Although eBooks must be listed exclusively with Amazon for them to be on KDP that may not be such a bad thing considering the marketshare the 800-pound gorilla has. Major publishers do not like the KDP program because it required exclusivity which they perceive restricts their distribution options while also eroding their control over the market. However, if they were to participate in the program all the advantages I’ve mentioned would work for them as well, except that their eBooks would not be available through every distributor out there.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I think this is a good thing for authors and readers alike.

#Amazon #Unlimited #Publishing #eBooks #Kindle #KDP #Authors #Readers

Surviving Heart Surgery

Everyone should have a cause or maybe a group of causes he or she supports. What we believe in defines us as individuals and as humans. You never know when an organization you support will directly impact a life close to you…or perhaps your own.

I recall as a child wondering why my parents were such easy marks for charity pitches. They seems to donate to anyone who asked. They were good, caring people ho hated to see anyone suffering. But as a kid the dollar or two they gave seemed like a lot of money I could have used for better things like candy or a new toy.

As I matured I began to understand why my parents did as they did. Their money went to support research that was finding cures to debilitating diseases or discovering treatments to enhanced the quality of life for those with afflictions. So by the time I was an adult I was accustomed to donating to charities, primarily those that helped children, fought cancer or benefitted animals. The American Heart Association is one cause I have supported for years. As it turned out, in May of 1995 I needed the research al those donations over the years had supported.

You see I had open heart surgery. The procedure used to replace my mitral valve involved a tissue graft fashioned into a new valve, thus preventing most of the negatives associated with artificial valves, like using Coumadin or some other blood thinner for the rest of my life. The surgical team worked all day and, I’m told, I was clinically dead seven times before before my heart began to heat again on its own. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that the medical research that went on years before that day with the support of The American Heart Association and others is why I had a chance. Had I been born twenty or so years before I know I would not have made it.

*This is a personal and unsolicited endorsement of  The American Heart Association. The logo belong to the organization is used here for purposes of association of the personal story with the beneficial work of the charitable organization.

#AHA #AmericanHeartAssociation #OpenHeartSurgery