S.W. Hammond's Blog, page 18

Jim Spivey - Working Vacation Studios

Jim Spivey - Working Vacation Studios

Jim’s part of the team. He has been instrumental in helping me grow as a writer and pushing me further than I’ve dared to go by myself. He is the editor of The Final Book: Gods, and likewise, he’s had to comb through my rough drafts and rambling insecurities. His bedside manner helps me keep an open mind to restructuring and changes as I know his heart is in the right place. His ability to keep the integrity of the story but also see the larger picture of what is best for the book is second to none. I can’t thank him enough.

His first job out of college was with Portland-based comics publisher Dark Horse Comics, and he continued his career in comics and graphic novels when he later moved to New York City to join the editorial staff of DC Comics. He was privileged to work with and learn from the late Archie Goodwin, one of the comic industry’s leading editor/writers. Jim later moved to Hachette Book Group where he managed the editorial department at Yen Press.

Jim left NYC behind to return to the Pacific Northwest and set up shop as Working Vacation Studios. He currently provides editorial and prepress production services for such clients as Vendome Press, Hachette Book Group/Yen Press, HarperCollins, and board game publisher Action Phase Games, as well as numerous independent creators.


Learn more about Jim and his services at his website, Working Vacation Studios.

Jim Spivey Editing The Final Book: Gods

The DC Comics, Dark Horse, and Hachette Book Group editor extraordinaire is currently editing The Final Book: Gods.

I’m very happy—excited really— to announce that Jim Spivey of Working Vacation Studios is editing my sci-fi novel! As many of you know, getting The Final Book to this point has been a long process. Years. However, I couldn’t be more happy with the man smoothing out the edges or more excited for the future.

Jim has had a long career as an editor and has worked on countless fantastic projects. His resume is truly impressive, but more importantly he seems to be the right fit for this book. He’s a nerd in all the good senses of the word and has a passion for mythology and the unconventional. He understands good sci-fi, character development, and compelling writing in a way that I don’t—and I’m so happy he is on my team to bridge that gap.

It has been a nerve-wracking and stressful process getting the book to this point. Not only was finding Jim—someone I feel comfortable turning the book over to—a challenging process, but this is my first “real” effort at a novel. I’m new, I’m making mistakes, and I’m still consumed with paralyzing self-doubt. I know there’s strengths in the book, and I love this book dearly, but I also know there are a lot of weaknesses. I was intimidated to approach Jim with this project because he has worked on so many incredible books, comics, and games—I wasn’t sure if my writing was up to his caliber. I was also afraid that in removing some of these imperfections, the book would lose its soul.

So far, Jim has been nothing but supportive and encouraging—I think of him more as a “coach” rather than an editor. He’s tough and he has really challenged me—some things I agree with and some I don’t—but I know he’s coming from a genuine place and truly wants to make the book the best version it can be. That’s all I can ask. His keen eye and taste for successful prose is a bonus.

Press Release - The Mixtape Manifesto

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Mixtape Manifesto: A Pop Culture Confessional

“A compilation of articles spanning more than a decade woven together to create the misguided anti-love story of a young man learning about the opposite sex through music, movies, and television.”

LAS VEGAS, NV, July 13- Music and sports industry professional, SW Hammond, re-releases his debut collection of real life short stories The Mixtape Manifesto: A Pop Culture Confessional as part of Surf Star Media’s ePublishing line.

Originally titled Mojo And The American Female, the new release contains additional articles, photographs, design enhancements, and editing by Susan Helene Gottfried. The eBook underwent significant changes during its conversion to hardcover, constituting an entire new publication. The Mixtape Manifesto: A Pop Culture Confessional will mirror its digital counterpart and provide a seamless experience for readers.

Hammond, while spending more than a decade working for Sony Music Entertainment, Warped Tour, and Major League Baseball, has been documenting and reflecting upon his career and life. The Mixtape Manifesto is a selection of his articles that were contributed to numerous music, athletic, pop culture, and lifestyle publications, along with personal essays and memoirs never before shared with the public.

Raised on rock n’ roll, with a particularly strong affinity for women who rock, Hammond blends an unparalleled view of pop culture and philosophy that follows him from his early twenties through his early thirties. The Mixtape Manifesto is rich with photography capturing Hammond’s days as a tour manager on Warped Tour and working for Sony Music Entertainment, as well as bringing to life the music, movies, and television that has plagued his rational sense of love and relationships. From childhood viewings of Full House leading to his lifelong hatred of John Stamos, his introduction to the Riot Grrrl movement and Kathleen Hanna, and to a questionable infatuation with The OC’s Summer Roberts - each story blends a reflective Kevin Arnold-like inner monolog with Wild Turkey.

The Mixtape Manifesto is the byproduct of one too many romantic comedies. Inspiration, enlightenment, and delusion fuel Hammond’s quest as he searches for a bit of meaning to life and someone to share it with.

The Mixtape Manifesto: A Pop Culture Confessional

Download The Mixtape Manifesto Now!

Download

A compilation of articles spanning more than a decade woven together to create the misguided anti-love story of a young man learning about relationships and the opposite sex through music, movies, and television.

From music industry professional, SW Hammond, comes The Mixtape Manifesto: A Pop Culture Confessional, a collection of provocative short stories on his life as a Lost Boy in search of Winnie Cooper.

Raised on rock n’ roll, Hammond blends an unparalleled view of pop culture and philosophy that follows him from his early twenties through his early thirties. The Mixtape Manifesto is filled with rich photography that captures Hammond’s days as a tour manager on Warped Tour and working for Sony Music Entertainment, as well as bringing to life the music, movies, and television that has plagued his rational sense of love and relationships. From childhood viewings of Full House leading to his lifelong hatred of John Stamos, his introduction to the Riot Grrrl movement and Kathleen Hanna, and to a questionable infatuation with The OC’s Summer Roberts—each story blends a reflective Kevin Arnold-like inner monolog with Wild Turkey.

The Mixtape Manifesto is the byproduct of one too many romantic comedies. Inspiration, enlightenment, and delusion fuel Hammond’s quest as he searches for a bit of meaning to life and someone to share it with.

Purchase directly through swhammond.com, or available through the following major book stores:

Watch the book trailer:

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Mojo And The American Female Getting Makeover

Happy to announce that Susan Helene Gottfried is giving a proofread edit of Mojo And The American Female!

While the book went through editing and was released in digital form a while ago, I felt it was necessary to have an additional set of professional eyes to look things over before heading to print or devoting any marketing toward the project. The content, heart, and soul of the book will remain the same—Susan will help with the technical aspects and hopefully make me look like less of an idiot when it comes to foolish mistakes…

Mojo is a unique book—I’m not even sure what to think of it at this point. It’s something special to me, and I think provides a certain level of entertainment to those warped by pop culture such as myself. I never really see it being anything more than that—it’s just bleeding into a keyboard. My thoughts, feelings, and trying to understand life. Each chapter (or article) was never written with the thought or intent that it would one day be apart of a book, or even read by anyone other than myself. I think that makes it pretty pure and genuine. There’s an innocence in these pages that I’ll never get back. Somehow it all came together—the imagery and photos look great—and I’ve been blow away by the response.

With that said, I feel very fortunate that Susan accepted the project and is helping make it the best version it can be. She has a soft spot for rock n’ roll and I feel has the appropriate compassionate sensibilities mixed with piercings and 3-chord power to spiral downward through my angsty past. I have no doubt that she will make it out the other side and give this book the love that it needs.

You can visit Susan at her website West Of Mars to learn more of how she’s helping authors. You can also find her on Twitter @WestOfMars.

Taylor Swift's 1989 - Why I'm A Fangirl

Guilty Pleasure? Embarrassed??? Hardly.

As much as I love music, and devoted a significant amount of my life to it, I can still be pretty closed minded. I like what I like and over the last few years I’ve lived deeply in that bubble. Why listen to the radio when I’ve got 20k+ songs in iTunes? I also no longer care about being cool—I’m over having to be the first to hear a new rock band or searching for the meaning of life within lyrics. I think there’s two reasons for this:

One, I’m getting older. Not all music, or even the music I used to like, resonates with me like it used to. There’s nostalgia attached, but I certainly can’t get excited about the new pop punk band singing about getting kicked out of high school—nor should I. I never thought I’d see the day when I didn’t have much of an interest in Warped Tour or picking up an issue of AP—but those days are over, and I’m okay with that.

Secondly, my time at Sony forced me to listen to a lot of music I’d otherwise have no interest in. Leaving that world was like a spiritual backlash to anything Top 40—I could refocus on the music that moved me, rather than it’s commercial viability. New music doesn’t mean good music, and now being a private citizen, I only have to worry about good music.

With that said, Taylor Swift’s 1989 is good music.

I was getting out of the music industry as Swift was skyrocketing. At that point she was considered a country artist with crossover appeal and I was a rock and pop specialist—I had no reason to listen to her and didn’t because I loath country. When I left the industry, she became my “now that I quit the hamburger stand, I never want to eat another hamburger again” artist. I always respected her from afar because she wrote her own music and seemed to have a grasp on her career, but I also wanted to vomit at the thought of teen-girl-country-pop. Each one of those words compounding my gag reflex.

New Novel Well Underway

There’s so much I should be working on regarding The Final Book—the release is within sight, but I keep getting pulled away by a new love!

I’m about 8 chapters into a new novel, and I’m consumed by it. It’s such over the top poppy romance, but then kicks you in the balls with a sickeningly beautiful heartbreak… Anything that takes me away, like spending today catching up on web updates, feels like I’m cheating on it! The realities of everyday life pales in comparison to this little universe I’ve built—I just want to get lost in it and never come back, haha. I see it so clearly… Is that how people go crazy??

One thing that I didn’t expect is how much I’ve learned about myself while writing this novel—namely that deep down I’m a 15 year girl at heart, haha. One of the main characters is a pop star and it seems I’ve discovered an obsession I never knew I had! I’ve always been a rocker through-and-through (Van Halen, not Van Hagar…).

Researching this book has been way different from digging through ancient philosophy, mythology, history, and religion—complete opposite spectrum! Now it’s all tabloids, garbage celebrity gossip sites, and reading up on the bios of The Justin’s, Miley, and Selena Gomez. I think that’s why this new project is a good follow up to The Final Book—diversity in my writing, and if nothing else but to give my brain something different to chew on than the creation of man.

I realize I’m being rather vague on the details, but I’m thinking of doing a social experiment. I’m going to start floating some things out across the net and social media, and want to keep it as organic as it can be. It’s one of those times I wish I had a ton of money to dump into a marketing campaign just to see what would happen, haha. This book is still quite a ways out, but I’m excited for it.

Anyway, The Final Book is in the editor’s hands and I have a few weeks before I’ll get it back. I have every intention of building a website for the book and starting the pre-release promotion, not to mention building all of the press materials, but I can’t seem to pull myself away from this new project! Strike while the iron is hot, right? I have a feeling things will start moving here pretty quick—as always, it will happen here first!

Editors: Bibliocrunch vs Reedsy

Editing The Final Book: Gods has been rollercoaster so far. Getting it through the Alpha Reader process was extremely helpful and lead to so many great discussions about the book. It also gave additional sets of eyes to find all of my foolish mistakes. The most important thing I discovered, or that the Alpha’s provided, is that the book is not a steaming pile of hot garbage. I don’t expect most people I know to be completely honest with me (they think I have feelings), but the feedback was positive. The encouragement was there, they were excited about it, and it felt like it was on the right track. It was good for a group of people to see the book other than myself.

After another re-write, I needed to get the book to an editor that I had lined up. Editors, as most professionals in the world, have a schedule and their months quickly fill up with projects. The editor I was going to work with is also an author and she was giving me a great deal—we were basically trying to support one another. Well, just as we were getting started, she dropped the project due to Booktrope’s sudden and unexpected closure. All of her books, 6 or 7, were handled by the online publisher and she was left scrambling trying to figure out her own future. She told me that she would eventually get back to my book, but that it could possibly be months down the line. It was a polite way of suggesting to look elsewhere.

It was like a kick in the nuts at first. I didn’t know where to go or who to turn to, I don’t have vast connections in the publishing world. I went online and started searching editors—what a shit show. Buyer beware. There are a lot of companies out there preying on the hopes and dreams of inexperienced writers, and it’s almost impossible to sift through the deceit. I have a lot of experience working with producers in the music industry, an editor is a similar widget, and good producers are worth their weight in gold (and also very hard to find).

Morro Bay - Scenery

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Plenty of beautiful sights around Morro Bay, California! Peaceful sailboats in the harbor, to the surf huts of Moonstone Beach.

Morro Bay - Wildlife

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Lots of critters hanging around Morro Bay, California! From sea otters to sea squirrels, to herons and lizards- always something to see if keep your eye out.