Louis Arata's Blog, page 25
November 9, 2013
"Dead Hungry" Giveaway
Only 16 days left!
November 5, 2013
Dead Hungry now available through iTunes Store
Dead Hungry is now available through the iTunes Store. Post-Halloween sale: 99 cents.
November 4, 2013
Dead Hungry for 99 cents at Amazon
Halloween may be over, but the horror continues. Check out Dead Hungry on Kindle at Amazon. Only 99 cents!
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Hungry-ebook/dp/B00FVZF0IQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383580545&sr=8-1&keywords=dead+hungry
November 2, 2013
October 29, 2013
Carl Hiaasen and John Green
I finished reading a New York Times bestseller: great premise, terrible writing. The kind of writing that makes me angry because, with revision, it would be serviceable. I can forgive a paint-by-numbers plot if the author spends time on the craft of writing.
The next two books I picked up were by Carl Hiaasen and John Green. They were a cool glass of water when I was parched.
Both writers have a buoyant style. They know how to keep their characters aloft with refreshing immediacy.
Hiaasen’s Basket Case starts with an obituary of a former rock star which leads to a murder investigation. No back-story. No setting the stage. Boom: you’re up-and-running. As the story unfolds, you discover why obituary writer Jack Tagger is investigating the death, how he became an obituary writer, and why he’s obsessed with the death dates of famous people.
Green’s The Fault in Our Stars takes a heavy topic: teens with cancer. He balances humor and pathos in a way that makes the characters vibrantly alive (which underscores how imminent their deaths may be). You can feel Hazel Grace struggling to breathe — not an easy thing when you have Stage 4 Thyroid cancer which has metastasized to your lungs.
Both novels have gotten me thinking about how I tell stories. Given that my characters often have heavy, internal struggles, I’m learning that I don’t need to weigh down my readers with angst-ridden ruminations. There are ways to succinctly show what your characters are going through.
I feel like Hiaasen and Green are the literary equivalent of a leaf-blower: they cleared the detritus out of my brain. Now to turn it onto my writing.
October 28, 2013
"Dead Hungry" Giveaway Contents on GoodReads
On GoodReads.com, you can enter for a chance to win a copy of my novel, Dead Hungry.
For details:
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Dead Hungry
by Louis Arata
Giveaway ends November 26, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter to win
October 17, 2013
Commodity and Rehearsal
The New York Times featured pianist Valentina Lisitsa and her use of YouTube to build her career:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/arts/music/valentina-lisitsa-jump-starts-her-career-online.html?_r=0
In the article, Ms Lisitsa describes a moment when reading “1,001 Nights” to her son she realized why Scheherazade survived when the Sultan’s other wives did not: ”They all got killed after the first night. This one did not. Why not? She came with a story. You have to invent your story … Something that stops making you a commodity.”
It’s an interesting story for an artist to consider for inspiration: a life-or-death battle (creatively-speaking) to sustain your audience’s interest. Ms Lisitsa focuses on Scheherazade’s uniqueness as setting her apart.
Later in the article, she describes how she and her husband posted video clips of her rehearsing, and how the YouTube channel helped build her fan-base. She comments about the “many brutal comments posted under [her] own videos about her wrong notes and imperfections.”
I like that her videos aren’t “perfect” pieces but rather part of the creative process. Recently I’ve been working in the Community Music Division at DePaul University. Throughout the day, I get to hear musicians practicing. One particularly tenacious vibraphonist has been untangling a 16-bar segment, breaking it apart and reassembling the pieces at varying speeds. It helps me listen to the music with fresh ears.
I don’t think writers get to see that sort of rehearsal process. When we read a book, it’s a finished piece. We don’t get to see all the necessary messiness that comes beforehand.
I wish that all aspiring writers got the chance to track a great piece of literature from its infancy (first draft) to its final form so they could see all the hiccups, bumps, and awkward constructions that pave the way. In other words, Dickens didn’t spout Great Expectations in one voluminous gasp.
If I can figure out how, I’m also tempted to repost this blog with the track-changes on so you can see how this piece meandered before reaching this stage.
October 15, 2013
Dead Hungry
Dead Hungry [Louis Arata] on Amazon.com. *FREE* super saver shipping on qualifying offers. Ghouls are overrunning Chicago. With an appetite for the dead, it doesn’t matter if it’s road-kill, bodies from the morgue
Paperback and ebook versions are now available.
October 5, 2013
I just finished reading the proof copy of Dead Hungry. After...
I just finished reading the proof copy of Dead Hungry. After going through so many revisions, I wasn’t expecting much in terms of final edits, and I’m happy to report there were only two typos and three weird formatting issues.
Seeing the text on the printed page gave me a new perspective. It gave me a better sense of the visual flow of the text. Because the eye travels across and down the page, how the text is laid out does affect the reader. Scenes that have more intensity tend to have denser text, which slows down the eye, while dialogue is quicker to read. Choosing the layout of a scene has as much to do with language as the visual design of the page.
So, hopefully trimming some sentences here and there will put the final touches on the pace.
It’s also quite a thrill to hold the physical copy of the book. I get a sense that it is nearing completion and is ready to be launched.
I’ve been using that expression a lot lately: launching the book. Given that it’ll be out of my hands, it does feel like a satellite entering orbit. Hopefully, it will have a long-lasting trajectory and not crash land in the middle of the ocean somewhere.
When it’s available, I will post the links.
September 27, 2013
housingworksbookstore:
wellesleybooks:
jubilantics:
Books...
Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. — Alfred Whitney Griswald
Banned Books Mugshots: Alaska Young (Looking for Alaska), Janie Crawford (Their Eyes Were Watching God), Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye), Harry Potter (Harry Potter), and Hester Prynne (The Scarlet Letter).
Banned Books Week is September 22 - 28! Visit Banned Books Week’s site or the American Library Association’s banned books page for more information!
A vivid reminder of what Banned Books Week is all about!
Oh man this is really cool. I want more!
