Resolutions and stuff

I had a very nice Christmas with family. We also car shopped and helped our daughter get a new one. She ran into a deer, on her birthday. She was driving from Bloomington Indiana with her son, where she lives, to our house in Evansville. The deer totaled her car and she has been car-less for several weeks.
My 11 year old son's best friend in school lost his 20year old brother on Christmas day. My son had just spent the night at their house four weeks ago. It was very tragic. The boy was driving his family home Christmas evening and a drunk driver, fleeing the police, plowed into him. The guy was speeding on the wrong side of the road with his lights off at night. It was on the same stretch of road we had just traveled that evening. He was killed instantly. His mother was hospitalized and had hip surgery from the accident. His other brother and sister had minor injuries. There was also a baby in the car. The drunk driver had 6 previous DUI's and, due to an error, had a valid license. The county clerk failed to file his lifetime suspension with the BMV. We had to go to the visitation last evening. The line was all the way out of the building. The mother was allowed to leave the hospital to be at the visitation and funeral. What do you say to someone who lost a son? Over the years I've been to two other similar situations and it is never easy. People take the whole drinking and driving thing way to lightly. I've seen friends over the years who drive because they think they are ok. In this situation, the guy was way over the legal limit. What would posses someone to flee the police? Things like this really make me appreciate what I have.
Here's to a wonderful new year full of happy surprises and good times!

Book Event

I had a wonderful book signing at the Blue Moon Gallery in Vincennes Indiana. The ladies who own the place are artists and very nice people. I met many interesting people and gave a reading from my book. My son took pictures and helped out. We ended up buying things there. I couldn't believe that Vincennes does not have a book store, yet they have a college. That is why the owners decided to add authors and their books to their eclectic shop. I enjoyed signing books and its always nice when someone finds your work interesting. Unlike a regular book store, this signing was more of a gathering of like minded people. It was very laid back. I must make a point to go back and visit the gallery. Its an hour away, but worth it.

Writing and traveling

I'll be in Vincennes, December 5th at the Blue Moon Gallery. I like the idea of a small art gallery for local artists. With my sister being a professional artist in New York, I know how important it is to support the arts. It's all about exposure.
Also, anyone in the New York area...the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is hosting a party for their patrons or those who want to start. The CBLDF was founded in 1986 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community. Comic books are a legitimate art form written by legitimate writers and illustrators. Sometimes they are over looked. If you can get your child to start reading, even comic books, you are contributing to keeping their minds active and away from the television. Of course TV is ok, it's what you watch that matters. Too many people are quick to categorize comic books as bad. I've enjoyed many hours reading and researching old comic such as Krazy Kat, Blondie, Pogo, Peanuts and much more. I still love Garfield, For Better Or Worse, Sally Forth, etc. I realize there are bad types of graphic novels but that's where the law comes into play. Defining what is bad, protected or restricted is an important aspect of the printed word. Let us not forget the stacks of classic novels which the Nazis burned and American Libraries banned. One of the greatest things about this country, which many countries do not enjoy, is the freedom of speech. United we can do wonderful things.

Authonomy

Authonomy is a web site from Harper Collins (UK) where authors, aspiring writers and bibliophiles can keep up with new releases and show off their own work. This is from their own site:

"Get Read. Get Noticed. Get Published.

authonomy^TM is a brand new community site for writers, readers and publishers, conceived and developed by book editors at HarperCollins. We want to flush out the brightest, freshest new literature around ...

If you’re a writer, authonomy is the place to show your face – and show off your work on the web. Whether you’re unpublished, self-published or just getting started, all you need is a few chapters to start building your profile online, and start connecting with the authonomy community.

And if you’re a reader, blogger publisher or agent, authonomy is for you too. The book world is kept alive by those who search out, digest and spread the word about the best new books – authonomy invites you to join our community, champion the best new writing and build a personal profile that really reflects your tastes, opinions and talent-spotting skills.

The publishing world is changing. One thing’s for sure: whether you’re a reader, writer, agent or publisher, this is an exciting time for books. In our corner of HarperCollins we’ve been given a chance to do something a little different.

We’d really love your help."

It's a win win situation for both Harper Collins and those in the industry. They can find the latest hidden talent and the gifted writer can be discovered. It's a new era in the publishing industry where, within cyberspace, like minded individuals can find each other and do what they love doing. Millions of books, millions of writers and only thousands of publishers. Anyplace that can facilitate the meeting of the two can't be bad.

National Novel Writing Month

We're well into November and if you haven't already started, get out your pens or keyboards and start writing. In their own words: "Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30....Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly."
They have a youth category too. The youth category does not have the word limit. So, tell your kids about it. They might actually find it fun and helpful. My 10 year old son (who is 11 now) tried it. He wasn't sure about it at first. Then, he approached the paper as if it were infected with some horrible disease. Cautiously, he touched it, didn't die, then wrote a sentence. Realizing that nothing remotely fatal was going to follow, he wrote another, awkward sentence. Then another, and another, until, much to his chagrin, the process began to elicit his hidden creativity. He could no longer hide his pursuance for plots, interesting characters and the ultimate provocative finale. He completed his contribution. In the process, he discovered something about himself that he had not know before. He was capable of writing for fun. He had the ability to apply pen to paper and create a tale from from the resources of his own mind. That, he had previously assumed, was something "authors" did. It wasn't something he was capable of. Since the average person couldn't perform surgery, the same held true for writing...or did it? Even the surgeon had to start somewhere. He had to have the interest in order to go to school and study his trade. Without that, nothing else would matter. And so it was, another inner writer was unleashed, if only for a few weeks. Isn't that what its all about?
My daughter, who is in her 20s with her own son, is very creative, but too busy at this stage in her life to stop and write anything for any period of time.
Since there are no expectations other than word count and time constraints, the pressure is minimal. And, who knows, you might find that next great novel hidden within the recesses of your normally confined imagination. At the very least, you'll be writing and contributing to the greater good. Maybe, just maybe, you'll find your inner Faulkner, Alcott, Bradbury or even Shakespeare.

Writing, history and promotions

Promoting a book is a bit like hitting the campaign trail. You have to forget your modesty for a moment and let people know why they should actually buy your book. It isn't always easy for someone who is not comfortable in the spotlight. Eventually, however, you learn to shift into a different mode when you're at a book signing. You must let go of your inhibitions in order to focus on your product. What does this book have to offer? Why should a person put down their hard earned money on this particular book?
One thing this presidential election can teach us is that anyone can succeed. Anyone who is brave, determined, intelligent and confident enough can persevere amidst all adversity. You must keep your eye on the prize and never pay attention to the "dream killers". Sure we can learn from constructive criticism but we have to know the difference. If we stop believing in ourselves, no one else will believe in us. So, here's to dreams in all its wonderful forms. If we follow an honest and harmonious path, the journey will truly be worth the destination.

The Second annual Tales Of Terror

I was given the link to the second Tales Of Terror by an anonymous commenter...Thanks! Take credit where credit is due. Lovely, horrifying tales by talented story tellers. Check it out and enjoy! What makes it even better is that the writer reads the tales. Sit back and listen, like before, in a dark room with nothing but the dim glow from your monitor. Better yet, cue up the audio and click off your monitor just long enough to listen.
The title reminds me of the old 1962 Vincent Price movie of the same name. The synopsis from the movie database: Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe. A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.
Halloween is riddled with fun, fear and scary stories. Now is the time to dive right into all the old horror movies. The problem I have with some of the newer horror films is that they rely too much on gore and not enough fear. A scary film or story should be able to scare you with implied doom rather than blood and guts. When I dole out good money for a Halloween haunted house, I want fear, not cheesy red paint splattered everywhere. Who doesn't scream when someone jumps unexpectedly out of the darkness and screams boo! Rubber bones with read paint are fine props but they don't scare me. I'm not much for gore but prefer good old fashioned scare tactics. A good set is fine but the plot within the set, well, that makes the scary tale.