Jul 2009
Zounds!
Jul - 28 - 2009Filed in: Marketing | Promotional
I’m not sure how long this has been going on under my nose, so if you requested a bookmark and didn’t get it, I must humbly ask you to renew your request. The situation is now well in hand and I’m hopeful that disaster has been averted quickly and quietly enough that we can all simply forego the rioting in the streets, the burning of cars and effigies, and the senseless looting of downtown electronics stores.
Not an Update
While I’ve managed to keep the updates on the website coming pretty regularly, I’m afraid website maintenance is starting to eat into editing time. That’s bad.
So for the next week or two, I need to focus more on the manuscript and less on daily site updates. I know, it makes me sad too. Back to business as usual once I’ve caught up on the editing.
A Hidden Letter
Jul - 26 - 2009Filed in: Story | Letters to Peter
Research and appraisal has revealed that the desk dates to mid-19th century Savannah, Georgia. Though this is nearly a hundred years beyond the prime of Fin Button’s documented career, the letter secreted away within the desk is undoubtedly of her authorship. Why it was kept at all, and kept so secretly, we may never know, but there are clues...Read the entire post
Flawless Bookmarks
Jul - 23 - 2009Filed in: Marketing | Promotional
The crisp new ones will be included in every order from the Rabbit Room Store. Go on a shopping spree and buy a CD, or a book, or some sheet music, or a Karmen-Ghia T-Shirt. Actually, it’s more like buying a really snazzy bookmark for $15 and getting a free CD, book, or T-Shirt with it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is amazing.
The Future of the Printed Word
Jul - 22 - 2009Filed in: Publishing | Writing
“What must be a dramatic realization and spell the death of print for corporate publishers (and some in the media) is not that anyone can publish a book in this day and age, but that any unheeled upstart can publish a better-written, better-designed, and more worthwhile book better than Random House. They’re doing it all the time.
The corporate ideology has run its course in book publishing, which spells the death of print to many. But as evidenced by...Read the entire post
Why Independent?
The idea of working within a system that valued sales, marketing, and genre definition over quality became distasteful. Don’t mistake that to mean I’m averse to applying changes to my manuscript, I’m not. To the contrary, I’m anxious to change it, to make it better, more appealing. It’s the system that I dislike, a system that...Read the entire post
A Letter from the Smithsonian
Jul - 20 - 2009Filed in: Letters to Peter | Story
Working Toward Ten Thousand Hours
Jul - 16 - 2009Filed in: Writing
Meanwhile, I’m at the kitchen table with my laptop, it’s quiet, I’m alone, and I’m writing. There’s a big part of me that would much rather be upstairs. I’ve heard a lot of accusations in the last few months that I’m antisocial because I don’t go out to fellowship with the other guys very often and instead choose to spend those evening hours writing.
It’s not a matter of being antisocial, though. It’s a matter of self-discipline...Read the entire post
An Example of Editing
Jul - 15 - 2009Filed in: Editing
On Saturday and Sunday I try to get in 6-8 hours each day and it’s the only span of free time I have that’s long enough to let me really sink down into what I’m doing and think of things in big picture terms. It’s the long days when the good stuff tends to come. It’s also the long days that make me wonder how much more I could accomplish if I could get rid of the need to make money at a real job. Any patrons out there looking for an artist? Let’s talk.
For those that wonder what the editing process is like, I thought I’d provide a glimpse of what’s keeping my nights and weekends busy.
Here’s a paragraph as it appeared in the manuscript when I submitted it to my editorRead the entire post
Short Fiction: The Wander Beyond - Chapter Two
A free copy of Ellis Island and Other Stories goes to the reader that picks out the reference in this chapter to another of Mark Helprin’s short stories. Just email me your guess via the contact page or post it as a comment on the story.
Still have a few bookmarks left and they can be yours for the asking. See the Free Bookmarks link in the sidebar for details.
Another Letter Found
The first book that caught my eye was entitled Naval Knots and Them What Tied ‘Em. I’m always on the lookout for a good old fashioned knot book and saw right off that this was a keeper. It was written by Heathcliff G. Sanderson who most of you will recall was the Knottier-in-Chief of the Department of the Navy in the early 19th century and coined the famous phrase, “Knot without a fight!” during the War of 1812. Naturally, I snatched this little treasure up and added it to my library.
The second find of the day was...Read the entire post
New Short Fiction
It was marginally inspired by a short story called “The Schreuderspitze” written by Mark Helprin that didn’t go quite where I thought it was going.
“The Wander Beyond” still falls well within the bounds of a short and is in no danger of becoming anything resembling a novella, but since it is a bit longer than the other pieces, I thought I’d post it serially. So the first ‘chapter’ is up and the rest will follow in the coming weeks. Hope you enjoy it.
New Life for a Dead Letter
Jul - 04 - 2009Filed in: Writing | Letters to Peter
You can imagine my surprise then when I received a call from a rodentially-voiced clerk of the office who reported that in the process of searching for a hidden supply of doughnuts he chanced across a brittle and yellowed letter bearing the initials “FB”.
Though the clerk could not explain the existence of a letter in his file cabinet that predated the office by fifty years, he was kind enough to send it to me for further study. Upon my own inspection I was delighted to learn of its authenticity, yet somewhat saddened to know that its intended audience had never set eyes upon it.
The letter (dated Christmas Day, 1775) has been carefully transcribed and it is presented on the Letters to Peter page so that you may read that which Peter LaMee, regrettably, could not.
Getting to Work
Jul - 01 - 2009Filed in: Editing
I spent a few hours skimming through the newly edited manuscript and I like what I see. It’s marked up with scads of comments, corrections, and suggestions. I’m a happy man. I’m also a man with a lot of work in his future. I’ll spend the next couple of weeks...Read the entire post