Indie Book Event Random Musings, Part One

A weekend in New York As you are (perhaps) aware, I spent this past Saturday in New York City attending the Indie Book Event.  It was tremendous fun, I’d met some people I had only chanced upon previously when online, there was press coverage, and I got very little sleep.  It’s this last thing that…

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Saturday is Indie Book Event Day

On the road to NYC I am packed. I am ready. I am terrified. I am on my way to NYC shortly (by bus) and will be spending all day Saturday at The New Yorker Hotel to attend the Indie Book Event as part of my continuing effort to convince all of you to read Immortal. I…

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Summertime

Brain dump A funny thing happened to me after I finished writing Hellenic Immortal: my brain stopped working. Oh, it’s not like it’s actually fully non-functional, but it’s tired.  Really, very deeply tired.  In fairness, it’s been running non-stop between the promoting of Immortal, the rewrites, and some screenwriting stuff I can’t talk too much…

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What to get the author who doesn't have everything

Birthday wishes “I don’t want everything.  Where would I put it?” —Stephen Wright As today is my birthday, I have decided to be obnoxious, which I admit is not a large step for me but here it goes. Read Immortal That’s what I want from you, on this, the occasion of my forty-third birthday.  I…

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Ringing in the New Year

It has been quite a year I have a bad habit of focusing on things that haven’t happened yet rather than stepping back and looking behind me at what has been accomplished.  This tunnel vision quality is sometimes very useful, such as when I’m writing a novel, but maybe less useful in other settings, such…

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Promoting in a social media world

Leading horses to water Promoting a novel can be extremely challenging, and in ways that are different from promoting a website or a toy or a machine that goes *ping* at regular intervals.  Novels are subjectively enjoyable, frequently disappointing, and an unavoidable commitment. Nobody wants to get stuck reading a bad one, or worse, having…

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On Writing

What is a writer? I have been known to spend some time in the occasional Twitter chat with other writers to discuss/debate one subject or another, and about half the time I come out of those chats with a mild concussion from slapping my head on my desk. Why?  Because writers are generally pretty smart…

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In defense of Amazon

Outrage You have, I am sure, heard at least a portion of the story: Amazon.com allowed an e-book that instructed pedophiles on how to be better pedophiles (I’m guessing) to go on sale through their vast retail empire.  When the book was discovered– and I’m sort of interested in figuring out what search parameters led…

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International and electronic Immortal

Death of the “local” customer As I have discussed before, the e-book revolution sort of took me by surprise.  I still like paper books, but I’m coming to realize that every day I cling to them is another day for me to look like a guy on horseback on a freeway. And I’m still trying…

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Mary Sues and assholes

On the notion of the Mary Sue and the ubiquity of fan fiction I’m a fairly non-social writer, by which I mean when I’m working on something I’m alone with it until I’m reasonably certain it’s truly and actually done.  I have not historically taken advantage of writing groups or posted partials for comment, or…

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