ebooks, print books, Richard Russo

 Great progress on "Lettahs To Celebrities", but now I'm sort of stuck. I can't think of anyone to write to for 1999. The three previous lettahs were to Jerry Seinfeld,  Mike Myers, and Bill Clinton. I especially like the one to Clinton. Sometimes I crack myself up, I hope I crack others up as well.

Unless things change in the next week and a half, this will be the first month that I sell more copies of print books than ebooks. I like that, because I make more on the print books than the ebooks. I published Lettahs From Maine as an ebook at the end of December 2011, so it is almost a year since I began self-publishing. I think I first put my books in print in July.

I'm currently reading Richard Russo's memoir, "Elsewhere". It's okay but I didn't expect the entire book to be about his mother. Kind of strange.

Hello Again To My Legions Of Fans

As I was saying...  That was a long break. I haven't written in three months. I can't really explain why. Laziness? Probably. I've been slowly pecking away at my Lettahs To Celebrities book and it's picked up nicely over the past week or so. I'd like to have it published in January. It's going to cover the years 1967-2013, one or two letters a year. The first one is Ringo Starr. The most recent are Larry Bird, Bill Cosby, and Don Johnson. I'm around 1987 or 1988, so I'm about halfway done. It's been slow going, but my writing has picked up recently so I think I'll be able to finish within a month or so.

The Auctioneer has been put on hold, I'm planning to rewrite the entire second half of the book. That is my project for winter and spring of 2013.

I had another short story accepted for publication a couple of weeks ago, that makes a total of eleven in the past two and a half years but the first one of 2012. My goal was ten short stories published this year, but then I didn't write any because I've been busy writing other things. The story that was just accepted is called "A Lucid Moment" and was actually written last year, in 2011. It's a good story, one of the better ones I've written. I hope to write a few more short stories in the near future, I'd like to have a few more published next year.

The rest of my evening will be spent watching "Warrior" with Seth. I watched it last week and told Seth it was really good, so now he wants to watch it with me. And so I am off, but I will return soon.

Lettahs From Maine, Kennebooks, Back To School

Well, it's been a long time, a month.  My two Lettahs From Maine books and Children of Mother Earth are out in print and available on Amazon and at Kennebooks, a bookstore in Kennebunkport.   The ebooks continue to sell well, especially Lettahs From Maine.  People seem to like reading the Lettahs From Maine print books in the bathroom.  I'm not sure what that says about the books, but as long as they are being read I'm happy. My next novel, "Bobby's House", should be available for the Kindle and in print within the next two weeks.  And I've begun work on another Lettahs From Maine book.  It's either going to be called "Lettahs To Celebrities" or "Lettahs To Famous People".  Of course, that can change.  I also finished my first draft of "The Auctioneer", and on the advise of a good friend I've decided to attempt rewriting the entire second half of the story.  I'll start on that sometime soon.


So yes, I've been busy. Plus, Samuel broke his arm and his shoulder, along with losing his first tooth, so August has been a busy month. Now the kids are back in school and I can concentrate a little more on writing. Hopefully that means updating this blog more often, as well.  Below are the back to school pictures - first grade and high school freshman.  They are getting older, which consequently means that I'm getting older, too.  Funny how that happens.


 

My Books In Print, Bob Seger, Muhammad Ali

Lettahs From Maine, Mowa Lettahs From Maine, and Children of Mother Earth are finally available in print.  I'm very excited about it, the covers look really cool.  I don't know how many will sell on Amazon.  I'm hoping to get a few bookstores to carry them.  My ebooks continue to sell, especially Lettahs From Maine.  And as soon as I have the cover photo, I will be publishing my next book, Bobby's House.  It's my best so far.

I'm listening to Bob Seger right now.  His songs always remind me of summer, like something you'd listen to while heading to the drive-in.  Well, at least that's what I'd listen to.  Certain music is seasonal for me - Seger in the summer, The Doors in the fall, etc.  I can't think of anything good in the winter.  Everything sucks in the winter.  And some music is good during the day, like Oasis, and some I prefer at night, like Springsteen.  Weird, I know.

I'm reading Muhammad Ali: His Life And Times, by Thomas Hauser.  I think it is my favorite biography.  I read the book years ago when it first came out and I think it is just as good now, almost twenty years later.

Print Editions of Lettahs and Mowa Lettahs

I've decided to put Lettahs From Maine and Mowa Lettahs From Maine out in print.  They are doing pretty well as ebooks but I've had a few people ask for them in print.  So, to please my enormous fan base, I've taken the big step.  I ordered my proof copies this morning and they should arrive in a week or so.  If everything looks okay I'll put them out.  I did it via createspace, which is the least expensive way to do it, no money down and they print to order.  I won't make a lot of money, the price for each of the print editions will be only $4.99 and I only get a small percentage of that, but I'd rather just get the stories out there and hopefully a few people will read and enjoy them.

I put Children of Mother Earth as a free ebook for two days this week and about 180 copies were downloaded, it reached #40 in Action-Adventure catagory.  And now it's not selling at all.  Glad to see things are back to normal.

Sam and I began writing his next story, tentatively titled Superheroes Saving The World Green Lantern.  Quite a mouthful, but I'm sure it will be exciting to all six year old boys.

Michelle and I celebrate our wedding anniversary today.  5 years.  I think we'll go walk around and find somewhere to eat at the beach tonight, the weather will be beautiful for it.  Honestly, as long as we don't have the kids with us, I don't care if it's pouring rain and we just go eat chinese food.

Mowa Lettahs From Maine & Superheroes Are Saving The World

This morning "Mowa Lettahs From Maine" became available for the kindle and nook.  I'm very excited, I think it's really funny and I hope others will feel the same way.  I plan to have a series of Lettahs From Maine books - Lettahs To Celebraties, Lettahs To Politicians, Lettahs To The Editah.  We'll see how it goes but I have ideas.

This weekend I'll begin editing "Bobby's House", which I think is the best thing I've ever written, and hopefully I'll publish that sometime in August.  I almost wrote Awgust, I'm still in Lettahs From Maine mode.

And Samuel has finished writing his first story, "Superheroes Are Saving The World!!!!".  It is very good and someday, when he is a famous author (which he already believes he is), it will be a collectors item.  Or so I hope.  Next week, we begin work on the next one.

The Auctioneer, Mowa Lettahs From Maine, The Beach

I finally finished the first draft of "The Auctioneer" today.  It's shorter than I'd hoped, about 75,000 words, but I usually add on my subsequent drafts so by the time it is completed it should be about 90,000 words.  Most people take out words and whole sections and plotlines when they revise.  I do some of that, but I also tend to add a lot more, like doing the framework for a new house and then adding all the finish work  It's a strange way of doing things, I guess, but it works for me.

And "Mowa Lettahs From Maine" should be ready to publish within a week or two.  The stories are coming easily, the only problem is the cover.  I'm contemplating putting it out in print as well as digitally, but I'm unsure about how to do the cover.  So most likely I will just publish it as an ebook, like the first one.  "Lettahs From Maine" continues to sell, slow but steady, so I'm hoping the new one will do as well.  I have ideas for more of the Lettahs From Maine series (yes, it has somehow become a series) so stay tuned.

Thinking about going to the beach tonight.  I usually play with Sam for a little while, then go for a walk or sit in my chair and read.  Seth used to love the beach, but now  he is too cool to hang out at the beach with his parents.  I'd say I was never like that as a teenager but, of course, I was. 

Almost as exciting as finishing the first draft of my story: I have a couple of tomatoes growing in my garden.  I'm a wicked fahmah, yessah.

Batman and Kindle

The first draft of The Auctioneer will be finished this week.  I'm very excited because I plan to set it aside and immediately go to work finishing Mowa Lettahs From Maine.  My goal is to have that one published as an ebook by the end of June, so I'll really have to push.  I've been writing a lot lately, especially at night after Sam goes to bed, and I think I'll be able to do it.

Sam has been watching the 1965 Batman movie, with Adam West.  He watched it about 5 or 6 times last week and loved it.  There is nothing better than watching a 5-year-old figuring out the jokes of such a classic, campy movie and laughing his head off.  His favorite may be the name of the person who bought a submarine from the Navy - P.N. Gwin.  Sam just thinks that's so funny - "Get it? P.N. Gwin?  It's Penguin!"  He's walking around saying things are purrrfect, like Catwoman, and quoting other parts of the movie.  The kid's going to be a comedy writer (I hope).

I got a Kindle from the library last week.  It's ironic that I publish ebooks but have never used a Kindle or Nook. I love the smell and feel of books and it's hard for me to let go of that - kind of like going down with the ship, I suppose.  But now I think, why can't I have both?   On the Kindle I am reading "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and really enjoying it.   Who knows, I may end up buying myself one for Christmas.

School's Out

School's out.  Sam is already done, and Seth's last day is tomorrow.  If I happened to be unsure about that, all I'd have to do is turn the radio on the classic rock stations and listen to Alice Cooper tell me School's Out three to five times a day. 

An editor wrote to me last weekend about a short story I submitted to his magazine.  He wrote that they would consider publishing my story if I made a few revisions, but judging by the list of suggestions I may need to start over and write an entirely different story.  I'm going to try to do what he asked, though.  Maybe he's right and it will make the story better.  I doubt it, but maybe.

Lettahs From Maine continues to sell.  I have to say that I'm very surprised and very pleased.  I wonder how Mowa Lettahs From Maine will do when I publish it this summer.  I should probably focus on finishing it before I worry about things like that.

Writing Again

I am not going to finish my Auctioneer first draft by the end of May.  Not even going to come close.  But, I do have a good reason.  I hurt my shoulder and was unable to write for two weeks.  I began to write again a few days ago, a couple hundred words a day, and put down a thousand yesterday.  I'm paying for it today - I can barely turn my head.  But it felt so good to write, I'll try to get another few hundred words down today. 

My writing was nothing out of the ordinary, but the setting was.  I write on my laptop in the same chair every day,  but I'm unable to do that right now because the chair hurts my shoulder and neck.  So I wrote on the living room couch with the seat reclined, in sort of an awkward position that only hurt a little bit.  Instead of playing the cd player that sits near the chair in my office, I used Michelle's ipod (and Hello Kitty headphones) and listened to The Beatle's White Album.  Maybe I'll do the same thing again today.  I may need to buy my own headphones.

The new goal, knowing that I will have to work slower in the forseeable future, is to finish "The Auctioneer" by the end of June and have "Mowa Lettahs From Maine" finished and available as an ebook by the end of July.  I had planned on having my next novel, "Bobby's House" available as an ebook by July but now I'm shooting for August.  So it should be a fun, busy summer.

Safety Glasses and Smores

Sam likes to put on safety glasses and pretend he is either working in a lab building robots or fighting crime.  I think he watches too much Phineas and Ferb.  The other night he fell asleep with his safety glasses on.  Maybe he felt sleep would be dangerous on that particular night.

We had our first backyard campfire tonight.  We made smores, it was great.   A little bit of thunder rumbling in the distance, but it wouldn't be Maine if the weather didn't change every 5 minutes.

I haven't written all weekend and I'm feeling both antsy and guilty about it.  So tonight I'm going to write a little, if for no other reason than to say I did.  Who knows, I may get on a roll and bang out the best 2,000 words yet. 

George Harrison, and Nook vs. Kindle

I'm wondering how many Kindles are sold compared to Nooks.  My book sales on Kindle are much higher than on the Nook, the ratio is about 20 to 1.  Can Kindle sales be that much higher than those of the Nook?  Most people I know own a Kindle but I do know a couple of Nook owners.  There must be some way I can look this up, instead of just staring into space and hoping the answer will smack me in the head.

My writing went really well today.  Only about 1,000 words but I really like what I wrote.  When I write something that makes me laugh out loud as I'm writing it, I know it's good.  I'm up over 50,000 words and I'd like it to end up at around 100,000.  As impossible as it seems, I am still shooting to have the first draft finished by the end of May. 

I watched "George Harrison: Living In The Material World" yesterday.  It is a Martin Scorcese film.  I was quite disappointed.  For a three hour film, I didn't learn much about George Harrison that I didn't already know from watching "The Beatles Anthology".  I did enjoy the interviews with people like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, and Eric Clapton, and the interviews with his wife were good, but I would have liked to learn more from and about his son.

Rejection and Bob Dylan

I received a note from an editor last week, telling me that he liked my writing style.  I was pleased, until he continued on and said the magazine would not be using my story.  He ended by again telling me that he really enjoyed my writing and hoped that I would revise my story or submit something else before the deadline for the coming issue.  It's always nice to receive a positive note from an editor, of course, and I guess it does make the rejection easier.  But it seems kind of like having a pretty girl say she finds you really nice and funny but would rather be just remain friends.  I'm assuming here, of course, because that sort of thing has definitely never happened to me.

I'm listening to Bob Dylan right now.  I'm not a fan of Dylan.  I'm a fan of many of the artists he influenced, and I'm a fan of the remakes of his songs by some of those artists.   Jimi Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" is the first one to come to mind.  I'm a huge fan of his former backing band, The Band.  But Dylan, no.  So I'm listening and trying to figure out what make him so hugely popular and influential.  So far, I'm drawing a blank.

The Avengers and The Hunger Games

  I didn't do any writing today.  This is the first day in at least 3 or 4 weeks that I don't write at all, so I probably could use a break.  My goal is to finish the first draft of "The Auctioneer" by the end of May, so I'd better get moving on it this week.  Instead of writing this morning  I went to a vinyl record fair and bought about 20 or 25 records for $45.  Only the bargain bins for me!  But I did get some really good deals, I think.  Bought  a few sealed LP's, stuff like Julian Lennon, nothing valuable. 

Tonight Seth and I saw The Avengers.  It was good, but too much action.  I know that is supposed to be the point of an action film, but I like a little story.  Not "aliens invade earth, war ensues".  I guess the reliance on special effects in movies really bothers me.  Having said that, I did like it a lot.  There was plenty of humor, too.  Normally a movie over 2 hours long will drag a little, but The Avengers was interesting the entire time. 

Not so for the Hunger Games books.  I finished reading the third one, "Mockingjay", last night.  They are difficult books to describe.  There is little to no description - she walks into an area, you have no idea if it is the size of a bedroom or a stadium.  And the characters have no depth - when somebody dies, it's difficult to care.   I know I am in the minority, because so many people love the Hunger Games books.  The books are very bleak and bare, which may be what people like about them.  They do somehow hook you, I'll say that.   And I thought Mockingjay to be the best of the series.  This isn't much of a review, is it?  Let me put it this way:  It may be the only book I've read where I liked the movie better.  And it is certainly the only book that was less descriptive than the movie.

Writing & Rocky 2 Too

I wrote almost 2,000 words of The Auctioneer today.  I came up with something unbelievable - this really weird, kind of horrifying painting went up for auction, and some wacko bid over a hundred million dollars for it!  You can make up the most ridiculous things when writing fiction.

Okay, it wasn't anything that exciting, but I did end up going in a different direction than the one I'd planned with the story.  Sometimes I wish I could plot out a story and know where it's going, but I'm the type of writer that lets the characters dictate the story.  It's kind of like walking a tightrope without a net.  Except that there is almost no chance of me falling and being splattered all over the ground.  So maybe it is nothing like walking a tightrope without a net, but it is exciting.  I imagine writers who plot, who know each step of what will happen in the story, must become quite bored after awhile.  On the other hand, they probably finish their stories much faster than I do.

My son Seth and I watched Rocky 2 tonight.  I was planning on doing a little more writing after, but instead I ended up sitting on the couch, drinking a Shipyard beer.  Seth was so pumped up from the movie that he went out and ran a mile at 9:15 at night.  The folly of youth.

Nutrition Book

Had Ramen Noodles for dinner tonight.  Then Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.  Then a Shipyard Blue Fin Stout.  I'm thinking about writing a nutrition book.  Not sure what I would title it.  "Do The Opposite of This", maybe.  Or "How To Put On That Extra Layer of Fat Before Winter".

I'm applying for a Maine Writer's Grant.  They want 20 pages of my writing.  I thought of sending the first 20 pages of "Lettahs From Maine", but I didn't think they would get it.  I decided to just send three of my published short stories.  It was difficult to chose the best three, so I just choose the ones that combined for close to twenty pages.

Fox-C

Character names are a problem for me.  Sometimes I get stuck on a certain letter - all my characters names will begin with the letter M, for instance.  I spend so much of my writing time thinking up character names.  One of my friends said that he had his daughter think up names for characters in a book he is planning to write.  He told me the names she came up with, and they are much better than my usual.  Outdone by an 8-year-old.  What I sometimes do is look on the shelf at some of my albums and combine the names of band members - Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, for instance, would become Steven Perry.  I wonder what I'd get with a U2 album, with Bono and The Edge - The Bono, maybe?  Yeah, stupid.

A dog named Foxy lives down the street from us.  As Samuel and I were walking by yesterday, he said, "You know, she does look like a fox.  But I don't know why they put the letter C at the end of her name."

Adam Sandler, The Rolling Stones, and Steve Jobs

When Sam doesn't want to go to school, I begin singing, "Back to school, back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm no fool", like Adam Sandler in Billy Madison.  Sam starts laughing and singing, and next thing you know we're on our way to school.  We parents can learn a lot from Adam Sandler.

I'm listening to the Stones tonight, and I've come to the unavoidable conclusion that they produced their best music when Mick Taylor was in the band.  Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers are the best Rolling Stones records.  Yet Mick Taylor gets little or no credit for this.  Seems strange to me.  Probably seems strange to Mick Taylor, too.

I'm going to write a little more of The Auctioneer and then continue reading the Steve Jobs biography.  So far, he seems like a difficult person to like.

The rewards of fatherhood: earlier this week, my son Sam informed me that he loves me, but not as much as he loves bologna. 

I've gotten a few words down today, but not as many as I'd like.  Maybe later.  As long as I get a minimum of 1,000 a day, I'm satisfied.  More is always better, though.  My writing music today was Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.  It's strange, I don't really love the disc, but it's good music to write to.  I think I'll kick back and read a little bit of the Steve Jobs biography.     

This afternoon, I wrote another 1,000 words of the novel I'm working on.  The working title is "The Auctioneer".  I always use working titles that never seem to make the final cut.  I'm up to 40,000 words so far, about 1/3 done, I think.  Music is very important while writing, in my opinion.  Today's playlist included The Cars first album and Guns n' Roses "Appetite For Destruction".  For those angry chapters.