Gone Girl, and Redbeacon

Wow. I just went to the Bradford Block Bistro, in the big town of Springvale, Maine, and had a Happy Goat pizza, made with goat cheese. That was incredible. I'd like to work on my new novel this afternoon but now all I feel like doing is taking a nap.

Speaking of my new novel, it's not going well. I'm not sure whether to abandon it and start something else, or keep plugging away at it. I thought Rock Star was bad, too, and it turned out great. But I don't have the same expectations for the new one. You never know, though.

In September, I sent 50 pages of Rock Star to a literary agent. Three weeks ago, she contacted me and said she wanted to see the next 50 pages. I informed her that I'd already self-published it, but she still wanted to see it. A week later, she asked to see the entire manuscript. I'm not sure if anything will come of it, but it's exciting.

I've been working as a Home Expert Writer for Redbeacon. That's right, I'm an expert. I answer questions such as, "How can I level my dishwasher?", stuff like that. I'm enjoying it, but they've cut the amount of questions in the last week, which means my pay gets cut. Oh well.

Here's my latest Sanford News column, about watching the old Batman tv show on Saturday nights with my son, Sam. Which happens to be tonight. Bam! Pow! Thwack!

I recently read Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, on the recommendation of a friend. I don't usually enjoy novels by female authors (sexist, sexist!), although I enjoyed the recent book by J.K. Rowling / Robert Galbraith. The reason is because most women cannot write male characters well, just as many men can't write female characters well. Gone Girl was very good, with one of the best twists of any book I've ever read. My only critism is that (surprise) the male characters were very clearly written by a female. But I'd still recommend the book.

Freezing; High Tech Stereo System

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but it's really cold out there. It was 10 degrees at noon and the wind chill temperature is not going to get up over 0 for the rest of the day. So I'm staying inside. I did run outside to get the mail, and I believe that gave me all the fresh air I should need today. And I am planning to go to the movies tonight, so that hundred yard walk from the truck to the building should be quite refreshing.

I've been working on my new novel, sort of. As I often do, I'll start writing a novel, then get another idea and start another novel. So I'll work on 2 novels, often one after the other, until the characters in one become very clear. Then I'll stick with that one and drop the other one. It usually takes 10-20 pages. Strange, I know.

As I've said before, I enjoy listening to music while I write. Not always; if I'm writing an article or something I really need to think about, I'd often rather not listen to anything. But usually, especially when writing short stories or novels, I like to listen to music. Here, for the first time, I reveal the hi-fi system I use:

Yes, that's seriously what I listen to music on. Turntable, cassette, receiver - all I need to do is get a cd player and I'll have updated it to the 1980's. I will admit, I have an ipod hooked up to it. But it's a fourth generation ipod.

Another great quote from Sam: We were listening to the Beach Boys - his current favorite - and he was asking about them. I told him that they are old now and probably can't sing as high anymore. He replied,  "Yeah, when people get old their voices get kind of crumbly."

Falling Star Magazine, The Deep Freeze

Already suffering from the post-holiday doldrums. January and February are always depressing in Maine, but when the temperature is consistently in the single numbers and below zero, it gets old quickly. Here is a picture of my family during the holiday season.

Cold but joyful, right? I can't post a photo of us now. We're all frozen solid. Not really, but let's just say we're not smiling as much as we were during the holidays. At least, I'm not.

I do have good news, though. I received an email today from Falling Star Magazine, telling me that they would like to publish my short story, "Date Night at the Drive-In". It's a story I wrote in July 2011, two and a half years ago, right after I finished my novel Bobby's House. It's the raunchiest short story I've ever written, and I really didn't expect it to get published. It's a good story, though, and well written, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. That's number 14. I need to write more short stories, I'd like to eventually publish a book of my published stories.

Here's my column from last week's Sanford News. It's about all the cars I've had over the years, and how most guys would buy a new car first after winning the lottery.

Listening to Crosby, Stills & Nash's first LP, trying to get inspired to write. I just read Graham Nash's autobiography, Wild Tales. It was really good. After this album I'll listen to a Buffalo Springfield record. Who knows, I may end up writing another book about a commune.

My 7-year-old son Sam's quote of the day, after my cell phone rang: "Wow, that gave me quite a fright."

Happy New Year 2014, Rock Star on Amazon.com

Happy New Year! My novel Rock Star is finally available on Amazon.com in both ebook and print formats. It's a great book, if I do say so myself (and I do).  I hope everyone enjoys it. To check it out, just click on the picture to the right (yes, it's the one that says Rock Star). And be sure to check out my other books, as well.

So what did everybody do last night? I sat home with my son Sam. He was asleep at 7:30, so I made a hot toddy and watched Blame it on Rio, with Michael Caine. Well, I didn't watch it with Michael Caine. He starred in the movie. Then I read Wild Tales, by Graham Nash, until I fell asleep. Yes, it was a pretty wild New Years Eve. The good news is, I'm not at all hungover today.

Expecting about a foot of snow over the next couple of days, with highs in the single digits and lows down to about -20. That's cold, even for Maine.

Let's All Have a Merry Christmas!

I'm a week late, but here is my latest Sanford News column. It's about the YMCA and how I enjoyed it so much as a kid, but now it's not so fun. Read, enjoy, marvel at my descriptions of archaic workout equipment.

Rock Star is almost ready to be released. I should receive my proof copy within the next few days. If there are no errors, I'll have it for sale within a couple of weeks. I'm excited about it. I really need to get to work on a new novel, though. That's one of my New Year's resolutions.

Another resolution is to do a lot of freelance writing work. This is the year my writing career really began, at least as far as freelance work. Here's one of my articles from the ModernMom (yes, ModernMom) site.  Demand Media Studios is closed for the next 2 weeks, so that gives me time to find other places to pick up some work. Hopefully, the money will start rolling in. Any minute now...any minute...

I really need to finish my Christmas shopping this weekend and, of course, wrap the gifts. I always like Christmas, it is my favorite time of the year. Of course, then there is the frozen wasteland of January and February ahead of us, but let's not think about that just yet. Let's all have a Merry Christmas!

My novel, The Auctioneer, can be downloaded for free all weekend long at Amazon.com. Oh, please, no thanks are necessary. After all, Christmas is the season for giving, right?

We used colored Christmas lights on our tree this year for the first time. It's nice - brings me back to childhood - but I do prefer the white lights. I think we'll go back to white  next year. It was kind of nice this year, the kids did most of the work when putting up the tree.

This morning, I took Sam to the library to get the Superman II DVD and they were offering Christmas ornament decorating. We took part, it was fun. Going to the Christmast parade, putting up the tree, making ornaments - I guess I'm getting pretty crazy in my old age.

Demand Studios, Rock Star, Holly Daze

My new novel, "Rock Star", will be available as an ebook and in print in January 2014. Pretty exciting stuff. The cover is finished, although I may have to change it a little, compress it because of the size of the book.

I absolutely love this picture, it fits perfectly with the story. It was taken by a high school student, which makes it even better. I told her that she would be listed on Amazon.com and in my book for the cover photo, and she was very excited. She hopes this will make her famous. So do I.

In other writing news, I've been writing a lot for Demand Studios. It's going very well, but they are closing for three weeks at the end of December-early January. It is definitely going to hurt to lose that income for three weeks, but I'll have to manage.  Here is my first article to appear on eHow - How to Fix Pipes That Have Rust & Low Pressure. I did not write the clunky title.

I got my first fan letter for my newspaper column today. A woman read my most recent column, about facebook, and sent me a religious magazine. Not exactly the sexy pictures I was hoping fans would someday send me, but it's a start.

We are off to the Holly Daze parade tonight. After the parade, Santa lights the Christmas tree in the park. Our Christmas tradition is to put up our tree after we get home, so this should be a very fun night.